Transcripts For SFGTV Small 20240704

Will today we will begin with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. Before item one is called, id like to start by thanking Media Services and sf gov tv for helping to run this meeting. Please call item one. Item one roll call commissioner benitez is present. Uh, commissioner dickerson is absent. Commissioner herbert is absent. President huey here. Commissioner ortiz cartagena here. And Vice President sessions present. President you have a quorum. The San Francisco Small Business commission and office of Small Business staff acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone, who were the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests. We recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders and relatives of the Ramaytush Ohlone community and by affirming the sovereign rights as first peoples. Please call item number two. Item two approval of legacy business registry applications and resolutions. This is a discussion and action item. Uh. The commission will discuss and possibly take action to approve legacy business registry applications. Presenting today we have Richard Carrillo Legacy Business Program manager with the office of Small Business. Thank you. Welcome, rick. Good afternoon, president huie, Vice President zunes commissioners, city staff, members of the public for any bahais who might be watching happy yamaha im Richard Carrillo, Legacy Business Program manager. I would like to acknowledge michelle reynolds, my colleague in the office of Small Business who provides beneficial assistance to the Legacy Business Program, sf tv. I have a Powerpoint Presentation. Before you today are eight applications for your consideration one for the legacy business registry. Each application includes a staff report, a draft resolution, the application itself, and documents from the planning department. The applications were submitted to planning on january 24th and heard by the Historic Preservation commission on february. 21st. Item two a is everlasting tattoo the business is a Tattoo Parlor founded in 1992 that is located at 813 divisadero street, when many other shops were still functioning as flash shops, everlasting tattoo set itself apart in the early 1990s by employing skilled artists who design pieces specifically for each customer. The parlor has been instrumental in cultivating the new School Tattoo movement. Also known as neo traditional or illustrative tattoo. This contemporary style draws inspiration from traditional american and japanese tattoo art. While incorporating bold colors, exaggerated proportions, and creative designs. Everlasting tattoo brings joy to its customers and vibrancy to the neighborhood, helping capture the imagination of people and transform it into art. The core featured tradition, the business must maintain to remain on the legacy business registry is tattoo shop. Item two b is greens restaurant. The business is the countrys first and honored and most honored restaurant for gourmet vegetarian vegetarian dining. Established in 1979, greens restaurant has offered distinct and ever changing vegetarian menus dedicated to the Seasonal Harvest of local farmers and the organic gardens of its farm, green gulch, just 14 miles away in marin county. With the panoramic view of the San Francisco bay and Golden Gate Bridge, greens restaurant features ground windows stretching floor to ceiling and a spacious warehouse at Fort Mason Center for arts and culture. The restaurant draws the public to fort mason and raises the visibility and mission of the center to engage and connect people with arts and culture. Many customers come not only for the cuisine and the unique views, but as a pilgrimage to a pioneering restaurant in california cuisine and the farm to table movement. The core featured tradition of the business must maintain is restaurant, featuring vegetarian cuisine. Item two c is jewelry collection. In the business is a Jewelry Store located in union square that was founded in 1985. Jewel tree collection sells high end jewelry that are red carpet worthy, fine, and jewelry made with Precious Metals and genuine gemstones, and custom engagement and bridal jewelry tailored to match each clients budget and style. The business is renowned for providing high end jewelry at wholesale prices. The Customer Base of jewelry collection is varied, including locals, tourists, celebrities, politicians, Business Executives and staff, and patients of the historic art deco for 50 sutter building, in which the business is located. The business also maintains a presence online. The core featured tradition in the business must maintain is Jewelry Store. Item two d is laguardia bakery. The business is a family owned and family operated bakery specializing in fresh focaccia, an italian flatbread. Liguria bakery was founded in 1911 by ambrosio sorokko, who emigrated from the liguria region of italy soon after, his two brothers immigrated to the United States to run the business with him. Over the years, numerous family members owned and or worked in the bakery, and it is still owned and operated by the sorokko family today, liguria bakery has been an essential component of north beachs cultural fabric. The business is a local favorite and one of the last remaining businesses of its kind. The dough is mixed in an antique stainless steel machine and baked in the original brick oven. From 1911, the family still uses ambrosios original recipe from liguria to bake their signature focaccia. It is truly a one of a kind business. The core feature tradition the business must maintain is bakery. Item two e is on the bridge restaurant art. The business is an iconic japanese restaurant founded in 1992, in japantown, on the bridge restaurant embraces the unique, weird vibes that one can only find in San Francisco. It was one of the first restaurants in San Francisco to specialize in yoshoku style cuisine, a fusion of japanese and european cuisines include curries, cutlets, japanese style hamburgers, and spaghettis. They also have a variety of sake and beer that share the beauty of different prefectures in japan. To take folks on an adventure with every bottle, the business is harmoniously located on the webster street bridge that crosses between two malls of the japan center malls, so it is literally on the bridge while being a bridge to Japanese Culture, it is a true cultural connector in San Francisco. The core featured tradition in the business must maintain is restaurant features, japanese cuisine. Item two f is progress cleaners. The business is a family owned and operated business that offers dry cleaning, laundry and alteration services. Progress cleaners was founded by david yip in 1975. At its present location in the western addition. He had emigrated from hong kong in 1970 with his wife susanna yip, in search of a better life. Prior to opening progress cleaners, david trained in the dry cleaning industry for a few years alongside his brother, who had his own dry cleaning business in San Francisco. In 2001, david and susannas son sammy yip took over the business. Progress cleaners serves a diverse community, mostly living within a one square mile radius of the shop. Customers are generally a mix of middle to lower income. The core featured tradition in the business must maintain is laundry services, as. Item two g is r and g lounge. The business is a Chinese Restaurant established in 1985, in chinatown, an orange lounge celebrates the chinese heritage through an iconic brand and traditional cantonese food and genuine excellence. Their reputation across the world has been built on the excellent and authentic chinese cuisine they serve. Thanks to the high Quality Ingredients they use. Orange lounge is known for their salt and pepper crab, orange, special beef, light martinis, and many other delectable offerings. Originally, the restaurant only occupied one story in the basement, but the business expanded to occupy three stories in the building, including a full bar and three vip private rooms. Orange lounge is one of the few chinese banquet places remaining in chinatown which are important for community gatherings, as well as family celebrations like birthdays and weddings. The core featured tradition in the business must maintain his restaurant featuring chinese cuisine. Item two is San Francisco camerawork. The business is a nonprofit art gallery founded in 1974 and dedicated to new ideas and directions in photography. Located in the Fort Mason Center for the arts and culture, sf camerawork provokes discovery, experiment, passion and exchange through exhibitions and experiences for all who value value, new ideas in photography. Since it was founded, the organization has offered exhibitions, workshops and lectures focused on experimentation, unconventional techniques and sociopolitical themes. Its workshops and exhibitions draw people from around the bay area and attract many visitors and tourists. Having launched the careers of several prominent photographic artists, sf camerawork is an integral contributor to San Franciscos position as one of the worlds most important centers for creative photography. The core featured tradition the business must maintain is art gallery. All of the businesses met the three criteria required for listing on the legacy business registry, and all have received a positive recommendation from the Historic Preservation commission. Legacy Business Program staff recommends adding the businesses to the registry, and has drafted a resolution for each business for your consideration. A motion in support of the businesses should be framed as a motion in favor of the resolutions. Thank you. This concludes my presentation. Im happy to answer any questions. There are business representatives present who may wish to speak on behalf of the applications during Public Comment. Thank you. Thank you very much, rick. Um, commissioners, any questions . Comments nope. Um lets open it up for Public Comment. Is anyone present for Public Comment . Please come up to the mic if you want. You can form a line to your right. If theres more speakers. Caught on my earring. Sorry hi. My name is a preston mint. Um, im a bay area visual artist, but im a professor at California College of the arts, and im the executive director of sf camerawork. Um, going through the legacy business process is especially meaningful for us right now as were turning towards our 50th year in operation. Um, in 1974, sf camerawork began as a scrappy artist run project, and we are still here, run by artists like myself and a championing and supporting emerging local talent, while also contribute to San Franciscos place as a world center of arts and culture. Coincidentally, sf camerawork was also the first place that gave me an exhibition opportunity in the bay area and experience integral to my growth and learning. The directors and curators welcomed my ideas, supported my experimentation as a young artist, and gave me an introduction to the San Francisco art community. Fast forward 20 years to now, and its a privilege to stand here and to honor the hard work of the artists and art workers who kept sf camerawork operating by promoting local artists careers, providing educational programs, and fostering meaningful conversation around art, community and social justice among the people of San Francisco. Um, as were witnessing spaces for world class photography like pier 24 and institutions that produce world class photographers like the San Francisco Art Institute shutter their doors across the city. Sf camera works mission to promote this art form has become ever more clear and vital with our recent opening in our very first ground floor, accessible space in the company of other galleries and theaters at the Fort Mason Center for arts and culture. Looking out over the bay, were planting the seeds of another 50 years of success and the benefits and opportunities provided by the Legacy Business Program will help us to reach that. I look forward to the inclusion of sf camerawork and the other businesses represented today on the legacy business register. And thanks to rick to woody labounty, our friends at fort mason, and for the and to the commission, um, for contributing to the vitality and success of Small Businesses and nonprofit arts. Thanks thank you. Any other speakers, any other Public Comment. Hi. Good afternoon everyone. So were from on the bridge restaurant. Uh, my father and my mother have owned the place since 1992. And the daughter just taking over, helping out. Um, so first of all, thank you everyone for your time and consideration today. Shout out to rick for being patient through the whole application process. And thank you to all the people watching at home. Um, we have its been a struggle being in japantown district five, but we made it this far. So shout out to all the businesses that made it this far. We see some familiar faces. Thank you. Um and just a little history about the place its been there for. Yeah. 30 since 1992. And weve seen the Community Change over time. But its an honor to still be there and to serve the community. We, um, even during the pandemic, thats when we started to get to know a lot of different communities coming over as well, pitching in and helping one another. So its been an interesting ride so far. Um okay. Thanks. Thank you very much. Uh my mission is when i opened the restaurant, i Many American people who are not familiar with Japanese Culture are misunderstood. Finding the food of what we enjoy in the home country, japan. And my style as we mentioned, yoshoku style, which is fusion cuisine, one of our regular customers. And uh, now my mission is also, uh, sake. We have more than 200 different type of sake and, uh, since japan lost the war, japanese lost confidence. We are the sake. History is 3000 years old or same as grape winery from europe. So my mission is now to spreading enjoyment of sake. We call it sake is yukinojo, which means sake is one of the best medicine among the hundred. So so i like to spread for the American People to enjoy taste of sake. Its very deep. I took the three classes at the winery class at the State University, but as far as i concerned, sake is way more complicated. There is no hot wine right . Or hot sake you can enjoy when you feel cold. Chilly so i do not charge the like another restaurant. My price is almost same as supermarket, but people keep on coming and i explain, uh, what the sake is and, uh, last october i was being invited by japanese government to see the, uh, rice field and i felt the same way when i went to izakaya in japan. They they displayed menu sake. We call it jen psaki local sake. And there is no name, just a sake. So i push them. We have to proud. What sake is . And sake is from where . What type of rice you use it from . Who is making you proudly points out on the menu as well . Your bottles. Thats our tradition. So we have to proud what the japanese is so recent im so glad japanese government changes. We use last name first and first name second. If you are noticed, if you watch tv. Yeah, before we just imitate like, uh uh uh, american way first name first. But now last name comes first. So like this, this one of my mission. To uh, proud of what the japanese is. Thats why im sitting that restaurant over there. I realized i must thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Youre going to be the 14th, right . I think youre going to be the 14th legacy business. So um, japantown is thriving because of businesses like on the bridge. So very grateful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other Public Comment in the room . All right. Seeing as theres no no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Commissioners comments and questions. Oh, actually, uh, commissioner ortiz cartagena. I just want to thank all the business for coming out. I always say it, but i appreciate your hard work and sharing your house, your culture, and your hard work with us because you make San Francisco, San Francisco. So. So i appreciate everyone with you and your time, because i know right now you probably should be at the restaurant or or the business. So i appreciate it. So commissioner benitez, well, ditto to commissioner ortiz as well. Um i have a personal experience with on the bridge. Um, weve been going there, my wife and i, for over ten years, and they probably know harlow two. Harlow actually turns nine years old today. Um, and so weve been going even before we had harlow. So i appreciate everything that you do, everything that you do for the community. And i know that, um, during the covid times, it was very challenging. But you showed your resilience, which i think is really great. And one of the best memories i have of even taking harlow there. Shes been going there ever since she was a baby. Theyve always saved a special seat because she always had to bring her stroller there. So and lots of nice little toys. Every time that we went to eat. And congratulations for you. You know, and thank you for everybody for submitting your applications and, um, considering yourselves for the legacy business, i think, um, this is really great for the city. Um, and i think this round of applications that we have is absolutely amazing. So really great stuff. Thank you. Uh, Vice President ozunas. Thank you. And yes, thank you everybody for coming and representing your businesses, as i love that we have some fort mason based businesses. I think thats a area weve been lacking in this program. So, um, that part of town. So its great to see some, um, collect Art Collectives here. And um, of course love the multi generational Family Businesses. You know, i know its not easy working with your parents, but you, you help them get here. So thats a, thats something theyre going to remember. And something thats literally in the books. So thank you for being uh before us today. Thank you. Um, i just had a couple things. One is, uh, thank you very much, grace, for coming today. I really appreciate all the work that you do in japantown. I get your newsletters. I see all the hard work that youre doing, and its really made the neighborhood so vibrant and so much fun for everyone to visit. So thank you. Um, for all of our businesses today. You know, i think one of the things that, um, that was brought up right now in terms of like the pivot into saki reminded me that, you know, on the front end of things as patrons oftentimes we think of legacy businesses as like, you know, just a part of our our community, our day. We believe that theyre just so solid. Theyre just going to be there all the time. But then on the back end, youre constantly innovating and constantly doing something new and adapting and being flexible because thats whats kept you here for so many years, years. And i think thats the thats the effort and the ingenuity. I think that we see in our Small Business communities that many times we might take for granted when we just see the outcome of just a business actually surviving and being very resilient to, you know, other forces. So i really applaud all the work that im sure goes into all of your businesses. And and, um, and yeah, i hope you celebrate tonight and all the businesses who couldnt make it in today. Theyre probably at their business, hopefully watching on tv and, um, yeah. So thank you very much for all that you do. Any other comments from commissioners . No. Okay. Seeing no further comments, um, i think well have to take a motion and roll call. Oh does somebody sorry does somebody want to make a motion to accept to approve all the legacy businesses . Well do it. I moved, uh, to accept all the, uh, business offices on, uh, submitted before us on the registry. Is there a second . All right, i second. Yes, thank you. Still learning me to motion by Vice President ziziunas seconded by commissioner benitez. Ill read the roll. Commissioner benitez, you approve or not approve, i, i, uh, commissioner dickerson is absent. Commissioner herbert is absent. President huey. Uh, yes. Commissioner ortiz cartagena. Yes. And Vice President ozunas. Yes. Motion passes. Congratulations. Congratulations thank you so much. Okay i all right, next item, please. Item three. Presentation on San Francisco economy. This is a discussion item. The commission will learn about the latest economic metrics regarding the San Francisco economy and discuss current and potential impacts to Small Businesses. Presenting today we have ted egan, chief economist with the office of economic analysis. I know, thank you very much, ted, for coming in today. Its my pleasure. Commissioners ted egan from the controllers office. Im wondering if we have the slides. Great. If you just press anything, i think its okay. As, um, as many of you know, our office produced these reports that now come out every other month on the status of the citys economy. And we issued our most our most recent report in early, um, earlier this month. And im going to walk through that, um, please stop me anytime if you have questions or you want more details, ill just, uh, um, start with some of the highlights. As we saw them. Uh, we have data through december. Um, and so thats what this report is based on in december was a good month in the october to december period. The San Francisco San Mateo County area added 7700 jobs, which is certainly healthy for a two month period. It was mainly seasonal, though it was mainly in a lot of it in retail. As stores geared up for the holidays. Um, we also had a lot of growth in education and in health care in particular the citys unemployment, which has always been in our labor market in general, has been a very different story than our return to Office Downtown story. But our our labor market continues to be very strong as labor markets are across the country, our Unemployment Rate is 3. 5. Uh, thats up a percentage point from about a year ago when it was 2. 5. But its still very low. Its still around what would be normally considered full employment in most places. Um, and that hasnt moved very much in the past few months, despite the fact that weve seen some evidence of cooling until until just that last months jobs report. Uh, some of the other indicators, though, are suggestive of a slowing economy for example, the ridership on the muni metro system to downtown down is off. Where it was in the summer. The same is true of bart ridership to downtown in um, and not just transit the auto indicators. We look at, which are freeway speeds and bridge crossings, are also somewhat off of a high in um in the summer at the highest level, it kind of looks like the first half of 23 was a pretty good period for economic growth. The second half of 23 not not as much. Uh, of course, this is happening in the context where, uh, businesses are dealing with high Interest Rates and increased financing and borrowing costs. And this is tending to put some headwinds in front of an economy that had been very strong coming out of the pandemic, even in San Francisco. So, um, our Hotel Revenues, uh, that recovery still seems to be kind of stuck in neutral. Our Hotel Revenues are about 70 to 75 of normal in any given month. And that is, well below the recovery of many of our peers. Um, in housing, were also not seeing much of a recovery in housing prices, although we are in our benchmark against the state. We did recently see an uptick in housing permits, which is good news. Housing permits had been quite slow for most of 2023, so with those highlights out of the way, i will share some more of the details with you. This is the chart that shows total industry employment. You can see kind of that peak we reached in the middle of 23. All of these charts are now showing just the last year is um, and thats why these charts are a lot flatter than they were before. But thats just the way things are. We had, again, as i said, a bit of growth in the first half of the year. Things have been flat since then, a little bit of recovery towards the end of the year. Thats largely seasonal. Were also looking here at the civilian labor force, which is the number of people who reside in the area who are either employed or unemployed. Thats also been trending down slightly. Its a combination of people dropping out of the labor force and not being, uh, not being, um, uh, replaced with new entrants to the labor force. This is a chart that looks sector by sector at both the four year now change in employment in the area by industry, which is the orange bars and the last two months, which are the blue bars. So to deal with the sort of recent story as i was mentioning, we see a lot of growth in trade, transportation and utilities. Thats primarily retail. Thats primarily related to the holidays. Were also seeing growth there in education and health, which is mainly health care and also some growth in government. Were still seeing declines in tech, which is now lost about 6 or so of its employment locally. Uh from its peak in 2022. Thats in the information professional Services Sector mainly. We also saw a some job loss in financial services. When we look at the orange bars, thats where we are after four years, we still have a phenomenon which tech is much stronger in the city in terms of its total employment than it was at the start of the pandemic. And we also have a lot more jobs in education and health, particularly again in health, since the start of the pandemic. We are still recovery ing in leisure and hospitality, uh, where our jobs are 20 to 25 down based on which industry youre looking at, uh, trade, transportation, utilities is still down. Construction is still down. Id say those are the three hardest hit sectors of the economy. And we saw some growth in one of them. Um, and a little bit of recovery in leisure and hospitality. But construction is still struggling. This is just the citys jobless rate. And the number of employed residents. Um, uh, which i mentioned that the labor force is trending down. And thats also showing up in the number of, of employed residents. And the Unemployment Rate is, again, higher than it was a year ago. But its been fairly steady the last several months, and thats still quite an enviable Unemployment Rate, which is very low by the standards of california counties. One thing weve started to look at in the past, and just in this report is job listings, which can be kind of a leading indicator of where hiring is going. And the job Search Engine indeed has has, uh, very good team of economists who produce a, a regional metro wide hiring index. So you can see how your hiring is doing in your metro area and how that compares to others, where benchmarking them here to the start of the pandemic, which would be 100 and San Francisco, the red line, we were a little bit above prepandemic at the start of 23, and now were quite a bit less. So this is suggest of a cooling trend to come in employment that again, is probably just what weve been expecting in terms of higher Interest Rates starting to be a drag on hiring. Um, weve gone from over 100, uh, down to about 80, along with the san jose metro. Those are among the weakest numbers among any metros in the in the us. But you can see even the places that have been on fire, like austin and la and new york, which are also somewhat stronger than us, everything has been cooling. And again, thats a sign of rising Interest Rates, which were intended to cool the economy. Starting to have their effect. Its likely we will see not a recession in 24, but a slowdown in job growth in 24 as the these decline in listings start working their way through hirings and in total employment numbers. We also track every every week actually. But it goes in our bi monthly reports how the return to office situation is doing. And this data comes from kastle systems, which is tracking Security Card swipes at commercial Office Buildings across the country. So its an benchmarking it to 2019. So its a interesting way to again see how youre doing against other regions. Were looking at this as a four week moving average. So the fluctuations there are really about holiday or or bad weather particularly the Winter Holiday is i think the overall story both in San Francisco and across the country is 2023 was a very flat year in return to office and, and um, uh, despite the fact that some places were still adding office jobs, were not seeing more people physically in the office than we were in 2019. And we saw recovery a bit in 2021 and in 2022 and 2023. You know, San Francisco basically started the year in the low 40s and ended the year in the low 40s. And most of the other metros in the country were the same situation. So so, um, if people were counting on that return to 100 of office after four years, its probably not going to happen. And thats showing up as we know, in the Office Market, this is data from jll, which is showing just the last four quarters in terms of Office Vacancy rate, which is now north of 30. The peak, uh, prior to the pandemic Office Vacancy rate weve seen in San Francisco was after the dotcom crash in the early 2000. And the numbers there were around 20. So were looking at something that is significantly new here in terms of the level of Office Vacancy. See, um San Francisco, though, still has the third highest office rents in the country. And they came down a little bit in the last quarter, but they havent come down very much since 2020. And thats something that we do expect to happen. But its taking a fairly long time. Another thing we track, courtesy of data from the office of the treasurer and tax collector, is the number of businesses that start, particularly in restaurants and bars, retail trade and neighborhood services. And again, this is looking at the raw numbers on a three month moving average. More indication of a slowing. The first half of the year looked okay. And since august or so things have been trending down. So you know, in the january period, the three month moving average was only around, you know, 78 or so new restaurants. But, um, earlier in the spring, it was a well over 100, um, and the same thing is true in retail trade. Retail overall is a sector thats been quite flat for the last year or two in terms of employment recovery. This is a look at we track hotel weekly courtesy of data from sf travel. Um, and that spike there was i think in rates that youre seeing there is related to a convention. So conventions can make i think that was the Jp Morgan Convention which can lead periodically to very high rates. Um the overall occupancy rate, which had gotten up to 80, pretty close to normal, um, has gone back down. That is also typical of the season. And um, occupancy in this in the winter season in the 50s is not that its low, but its not incredibly unusually low. Um, when you look at rates and, and, and occupancy rate together, you get a sense of Hotel Room Revenue per night and if you benchmark that to 2019, thats what were showing in this chart against peer cities. We are the red line at the bottom. As i mentioned before, most places are at or around 100. Seattle is a little bit lower, la is a little bit lower, san diego and new york are both doing very well. Were around 80 of normal. And its an interesting issue in the context of our our hotel recovery. I mean, in terms of our air travel recovery, which has been pretty good, uh, in in the fall, we were almost back to 100 of 2019 levels in domestic air travel. That slipped down a little bit. Uh and international is, uh, is also doing quite well. Its 96 of normal. Um, ive been digging into this a little bit with colleagues at the airport and part of the issue appears to be that a lot of the airports, businesses, bay area residents going out as much as it is in fact more than it is tourists coming in. So one of the, you know, weve always asked this question, where are if all these tourists are coming in, where are they staying . If the Hotel Occupancy is so low and the answer is they they live here and theyre flying out and then they fly back and thats a big part of that business. Like more well, more than half. So at least thats one mystery solved. Even though its not great news. And maybe we shouldnt focus so much on just the raw airport numbers. As i mentioned, we also look at transportation metrics. And this is just the raw crossings every month across the bay bridge. And the Golden Gate Bridge all throughout 23, we hadnt quite, uh, reached 2019 levels, but the recovery in in auto traffic is quite a bit stronger than the transit recovery. Weve also seen slippage in that since. Since the middle of the year. And again, its another situation in which the first half of the year showed a lot of economic activity, and the second half not so much. This is freeway speeds, which is sort of the opposite, which is when theyre high. Thats a sign of not a lot of people driving. And when theyre back to normal, that means the usual pm congestion that that we all remember from prepandemic days. So in the first half of 23, we were pretty close to the, you know, 24 miles an hour, uh, average freeway speed we would see in the afternoons. Thats up to closer to 30 now. And again, thats just a sign of fewer cars on the road. And now to move on to transit, i mentioned that the muni metro numbers had slowed a bit since the summer. There theyre in the 50s, around 55 of normal. Um, and thats obviously doing considerably worse than the than the auto measures. But again, somewhat better than bart, which is still in slowing in the second half of the year. But peaked around 34 and is now around 30 of 2019 levels for the month of december. A bunch of things go into that weather another another things. But of course the remote work and the off week Office Recovery is, of course driving that. We also look at housing. Weve seen some weakening there. The apartment rent story has not been an exciting story in a few years. Uh, and the only thing weve really seen recently is a slight drop of about 4 since the summer. And again, its just one more data point of a little bit of slowing since the summertime. Um, and its also something that we see when we look at housing prices, Single Family and condo prices in the city. Uh, weve started to see statewide housing prices start to recover. You can see a little bit of an upward drift, um, when Interest Rates rose a lot, um, Mortgage Rates went up and that created affordability challenge and other challenges in the housing market. Um, and that seems to be writing itself at the state level. But again, not so much in San Francisco, where housing prices are still weakening relative to the state. And in absolute terms, um, and finally, as i mentioned at the outset, we are seeing some good news the last few months of the year in housing permits. Again were looking at a three month moving average year of housing permits. And for the we didnt have december out yet when we did this. But for september, october, november, we were actually above the prepandemic monthly average, which was one good news story. As you can see, for most of 2023, we did not have a lot of housing permitting. Um thats all of my slides, and im happy to take any questions from the commission at this time. Thank you very much, ted. Lets see. Um, commissioners, any questions or comments . Commissioner ortiz catania, thank you, ted, as always, awesome stuff. Exciting stuff. Sometimes you know. You know what i mean . Um i had a i had a question regarding the commercial rent ask you said it hasnt gotten to where we thought it was going to be. Right. Its still kind of high where where where do you estimate it should be landing at . Um, that is a big, big question because what Office Brokers are telling me is one of the reasons youre not seeing rents come down is youre not seeing a lot of potential tenants come in and say, if you cut the rent to this, im moving in. So the attitude is if there isnt a lot of demand, why should i cut the rent . At least thats the attitude where people is now, where people are now. Um, on the other hand, youre starting to see sales of Office Buildings in 23, which is at least a sign of motion in the market. And youve seen cases in which the purchases of these new Office Buildings, because they basically reset their cost basis, able to charge significantly lower rents than, than, you know, the rest of the market. And so that dynamic, which is going to increase as as leases expire and loans come due , um, youre likely to see more sales at a significant discount. Weve seen 50, 60, 70 discounts. The buyers of those properties all of whom have wanted to reenter the Office Market, by the way, be able to do so at lower rents. And then we will really see, you know what kind of traction the market can get with lower rents. It is absolutely the kind of i think the biggest question for kind of the medium firm future of the city, because if you think about how markets in the city can adjust the Office Market is the one market that really hasnt adjusted yet. And theres a lot riding on it. If it adjusts and people come in with the really low rents and you know, were now similar to the rents of other metros that weve been way above in the past, and there still isnt any other demand. Well, then thats then youre really going to have to put on your thinking cap and figure out downtown, uh, on the other hand, if the Office Market adjusts and rents come down and everybody says, wow, its nows my chance to be in San Francisco, you know, its job done in terms of your downtown plan. Its just now you have a different set of office tenants, new people want to use the space. Therell be more people riding trains. Therell be more people eating lunch and, and thats a tremendous source of momentum for a downtown recovery. I think the frustrating thing about downtown is really how slow this process has been. Uh, but i wouldnt rule out that it could happen. And that could be a significant contributor. Even if all the office space never gets filled. And frankly, i dont think it will all get filled. Its a source of momentum. I mean, when you get leases being signed and at lower rents, theres a new set of workers who have to say, oh, it would be nice to live near my job. And suddenly theres Housing Demand downtown, right now, theres no Housing Demand downtown. Oh, and you know, businesses. Im seeing more customers. Maybe im going to stay open a couple more hours , or maybe that vacant storefront, somebody takes a chance on it. You need positive momentum and we dont have a lot of positive momentum. Right now, but that could be a source of positive momentum. So thats why its such an important question. This is great. And then my follow up question to that is so its contingent kind of the new ownership that will reset the actual rates. So not these artificial astronomical lease per square foot. What what do we have information on. How how many loans are due downtown. Because thats it seems like thats the reset when those loans are due that people are either giving them back or thats when the deal is at 60 under. I dont have any official data on that. I have, um, good supply of anecdotes and some other data from a data vendor that i dont necessarily trust. Um, what im hearing is a lot are coming due in the next couple of years. Um, and that will lead to and also, i think the sales that weve seen are starting to establish, you know, theres some price discovery there. Uh, there had been a very wide gap between kind of supply and demand. And the sales are kind of an indication that that gap is closing. So i think with leases coming due, which really forces peoples hands because theres income. And if and if your lease is coming due and you cant replace that rent and maybe your lender doesnt want to lower the rent at clarifies peoples options. And i think thats also the market moving forward. Um, i dont know the one that the bart ridership from, from peak that 30. Thats thats scary. Is it is it i mean, i know, but even the correlation with the death of vacancy on the lease, you know, commercial leasing downtown, it still seems like it just doesnt equate to that significant. I dont think its necessarily tied to commercial leasing, but i do think its pretty closely tied to Office Attendance. So if your Office Attendance is 45 of normal and most people got to work on transit and, um, you shouldnt expect more than 45 recovery in transit. Now as its happened with fewer people driving, some transit riders have switched to driving, and thats why the bridge recovery is better than the transit recovery. But nobodys fully recovered because not as many people are going to the office. And there just arent other reason to do it. And were looking only at weekday bart ridership to, uh, to downtown weekend is a bit better, but really, the weekday downtown bart business, which is the core of barts business, hasnt recovered because people arent going to the office. And until that Office Market sorts out, dont expect that to change. Frankly, i mean, if we had thought that return to Office Mandates and ceo fist pounding was going to do it, and it still might, i mean, theyre an influential group. And that struggle is still going on. It hasnt worked yet. Right. Um, and we have our particular Office Workers are particularly powerful in the world of Office Workers like San Francisco. Tech talent is the talent. Everyone wants, right . Move to San Francisco for your ai company. The talent is here. Well if youre that talent, youre not going to get pushed around to return to the office if you dont want to. Maybe in wall street, you will be, um, so what that means is if the return to office doesnt happen, then the office adjustment has to happen and we find out really who wants to use that space. And then the last one, you kind of you did answer it actually was the enplanements at sfo versus the hotel. I had written down a question before you answered it. You answered with the local residents traveling more. Thats the employment. But does airbnb or any of these sites like, you know, siphon some of the business from our Hotel Operators . I think that i think less, less and less. We did a study of airbnb. There was a couple of years ago now, as part of the intermediate length occupancy issue in the city, and we looked we had a consultant kind of scrape their website and look at their listings. So much of their business now is 30 day plus, because there arent the same limitations, or the city doesnt enforce them in quite the same way, apparently. And theyre just not competing with hotels. Theyre basically betting on the short stay. Hey spend some time in San Francisco before you go off to spend some time somewhere else for your remote work lifestyle. And so again, i dont think and i dont want to speak about an individual companys business. I dont think theyre radically different, the home share business than the overall hospital in terms of their Business Travel. So i think that there they were never a big share of hospitality in San Francisco. I think theyre probably smaller now. Well one thing i did notice my friends in the Leisure Business told me that the average average daily rate in hotels is like high compared to like prepandemic, at least from what i remember. Uh were not seeing it there most weeks. Some weeks, if there is a convention, were seeing it. Were getting the compression. Um and but not not most weeks. Not consistent. Uh, something ill mention about the air travel, which is interesting, which is about tourists. Um, the International Inbound tourism has also done really well. And its interesting that this has happened, uh, without much recovery from china, which was a Major International market for us before the pandemic and has a lot of economic problems at the moment. And what the airport folks have said is travel from india has really made up a big piece of that difference. Um, so much so that theyre trying to figure out how to stock the Duty Free Shop at sfo with things that indian tourists want. Its such a new trend in the marketplace. Um, so thats something were going to start looking at. Whats going on. Thank you ted, like always, thank you. Appreciate you so much. Sure. My pleasure. Commissioner benitez. Hi thanks for being here. Uh, this is so interesting and very informative. Um, one comment i didnt know about the speed of the cars had an impact on how you, um, kind of format your your information, so that was completely new to me. So super interesting. Uh, secondly, i was just curious if any of this information is shared with any of the founders or ceos of companies here and see what kind of impact that they might be able to make with their workers to bring more people back into the office, which will hopefully trickle down into more business, into downtown. And i guess, how transparent is this . Also to, to companies here . Um, in San Francisco . Well, we put it out to the public every couple of months, and particularly when we started doing it, it was getting a lot of coverage. I think people know. I mean, i think, you know, frankly, the past year, i think in 2021, 2022, it was about letting people know, hey, theres something really concerning happening in San Francisco 2023 was stopping people from going way overboard the other direction, who were like writing off the city and again, one of the things were not seeing in any of this data is like downward spiral. So the last few months, i havent gotten a lot of wheres your doom loop status report . But theres no doom loop here. Theres just, you know, flatness. So i think people know it. And i think Different Companies will have different views. And frankly, we you know, again, the ceos know what works for their company. But there is a lot of Economic Research saying, hey, this work from home thing is probably pretty good for productivity. Um, it makes workers happy. You can hire workers who live further away and make less money so it can control your labor costs. Um, it can be a win win. The thing, its not a win win for is the city that was set up to sort of support the five day a week, really dense downtown. And so if what we wind up with at the end of this office adjustment is a bunch of people who are in downtown, maybe from further away less frequently, then i think that kind of changes the value of downtown. But i still think it has won. The thing i was most worried about at the start of the pandemic was everybody saying, the office is done and were going to the cloud. That just isnt going to happen. You know, that is like that probably would lead to doom. But a okay in the office half the time guess what . Guess where all the offices here, theyre here. So we were going to be part of that world and, and i think, you know, our location in the center of, uh, the strongest economic region in the United States, really assures that we have an economic role to play. But i do think the adjustment is going to be somewhat painful. Vice president ozunas, thank you for coming. We always enjoy you having a, uh, being before us and giving us all this information and as you know, we try to use the data you present to us to advocate for policy friendly to Small Businesses. So as much as it has been hard to kind of differentiate what is Small Business data in the past. But, um, now that its been a little while since youve come to us, is there any are there any tools that youve been able to, um, identify that can help us understand . And, um, some of the, the trends as they apply to Small Businesses. So for example, um, downtown when, when, when i had to work down there, you know, during pandemic , i, you know, i was in an Office Building with the Small Business administration and, you know, i saw around me all the Small Businesses were the ones that had remained. And actually the corporate ones, um, were closing, you know, the specialties, the starbucks. Right. The, the chains. Um, and so, um, kind of as were incentivizing, uh, vacancy businesses to move into vacant storefronts and we want to encourage that the businesses that remain and are the ones that are maybe we should empower to open another business or something, is there a way to identify if some of these office adjustments are resulting in evictions . Um, some of the selling off of, of buildings, uh, is there any data to tell what if theres retail storefronts impacted by that and what types . That was my first kind of question. I dont know of a, uh, official source of data on commercial evictions. Um, we have sales tax data that should show when a business starts and stops paying sales tax. But having worked with it for many years now, i can tell you that. Did the business really close or did it sell . Did the business sell or did it just change its name and any time its a separate record, is it a new business or is it just the same people . All very hard to tell. Um, it is possible and i havent done it. And now i want to go back to my office and do it is really look at trends in, um, retail rents. Uh, because we do have a lot of data from the commercial rents tax, which is paid. Um, i believe nonformula retail rent is exempt, but formula retail is, but at least it would be some sense of across the city of where the rents are, the problem of defining the Small Businesses for this is so challenging because a starbucks, for example, location is going to show up as a small establishment because its a small establishment and they dont look through that and say, no, its connected to a giant corporation. Um, your point about the chains pulling out could very well be true. Its sort of instinctively seems right to me, but i wouldnt have the data to be able to break businesses in those two categories to really kind of confirm that. I think the thing that is most challenging for Small Businesses, not so much how they break down by size or business, is how they break down by size, but how they break down by sector. Um, because if you remember that chart that i showed at the beginning about retail trade, wholesale trade, leisure and hospitality, thats where most Small Businesses in San Francisco are. Those entire sectors are really slow to recover. Uh, leisure and hospitality. I was just doing this. Uh, so retail employment is still 12 down. Hotel employment is 24 down. Then uh, we a little bit better in restaurants, restaurants is around 95 of normal. Um downtown is much worse still than the rest of the city. Um, uh, but its just, you know, the way the city has changed with the Tech Companies getting a lot of investment and sort of walking away from from physical office work along with other professional service that linkage they used to have between them and the downtown ecosystem and the Small Businesses that were there, is kind of broken by this remote work phenomenon. So youre not getting the demand thats there from every new person that gets hired by a tech company, a tech company. Uh, and so again, its another thing thats going to wait until we see a restructuring and a repurposing in the Office Market, which is not to say there arent things you can do. I mean, there are always things you can do. Small businesses, San Francisco kind of labor under a Regulatory Burden and a fiscal burden, but particularly, i think, Regulatory Burden that is unusual in california. And relief there would help. Um, the other thing that i always think of about Small Businesses in San Francisco is, um, a lot of these new businesses that we track are not going to be founded by people who are from San Francisco. Uh, and a lot of them are, are chain type operations, or there are restaurants that are very high end oriented, like were not seeing a lot of people start Retail Stores in San Francisco. Um and i think that may be partly a workforce issue. I mean, we had the discussion earlier about the multigenerational Family Business and how thats rare. Well, but thats also where entrepreneur entrepreneurs of Small Businesses come from, as you learn it through the family and if you dont learn it through the family and you want to do it, we dont have really a mechanism to prepare people to do that. And its worth thinking about now because the office rent trends im talking about, im against are going to create similar opportunities in other types of space, like ground floor retail and i think vacant to vibrant, which i know you guys are uh, have been a big part of is a classic idea of taking advantage of Market Opportunities to build capacity. Um and all we need now is the customers to come back and do that. But thats something that that we could expand upon and do. I think, across the city, not just in terms of programing spaces for people, but supporting Small Business entrepreneurship and kind of renewing the class of people who run Small Businesses in San Francisco. Thank you. Okay so we i understand the sales tax data is always kind of skewed by the enterprise and bigger, um, entities. Is there any type of metric in which we can look at local serving, um, economies and , and their contribution as opposed to like traded sectors that are taking money maybe elsewhere, but local sector, meaning its being reinvested kind of locally. Um, we have data from sales tax as to the money going from customers to the business, and they dont report anything about where it goes after that. Uh, and we have a name of who the registered agent is for sales tax. We dont know what. I dont know what to do with that information. Um, we dont know if a certain business is owned by by private equity or anything like that. So, um. Got it, got it. Uh, yeah. I cant think of any city data that gives us that because again, the Tax Information businesses give us, you know, is limited in that respect. Um, okay. The ftb could do it, but the what the Franchise Tax board has that information, but theyre not in the data sharing business with local governments. I, i dont mean that disrespect, but weve asked right. Okay. Thank you. And then just kind of last question because i remember there being a ballot measure around sales of buildings that is there going to be a windfall to the city with all these big sales . Um, a certain additional tax bracket that we put in recently. I feel like i have some recollection of this. There was a doubling of the transfer tax for large properties, um, that the voters approved in 2020, i believe. And the revenue has been very light, uh, because there werent any sales and frankly, the tax didnt help because because they it widened the gap between buyers and sellers. But fundamentally, that gap was created by remote work, and nobody really being able to properly value an Office Building. So to the extent that the Office Market on the sales side kind of unlocks, we should see a recovery a little bit in that revenue. But again, if the buildings are selling for 0. 30 on the dollar compared before a prepandemic kind of velocity of deals is still only going to get you 30 of the of the tax base recovered. Uh, we did double the rate. So that will help that recover. Okay thank you for that reminder. Okay thank you. Okay um. Oh, um, i have several questions, but, um a easy one. Is that, um, looking at last years recovery, how you, you know, you had detailed like, january and february being very strong and then now weve gone through several months that have been very flat. Do you anticipate this First Quarter to come back a little bit and then for us to see anything, or is this it. This is i think, what were seeing is the sort of, uh, first waves of the storm of rising Interest Rates and, uh, all the signs are that were not going to enter a recession. But i would say the Consensus Forecast for gdp are about half of what they were nationally of a year ago. And so what that means is were just not going to have as much growth. Um probably until the end of the year, uh, things will start to pick up. So i would expect this sort of slowdown and growth or softness in the job market to continue for 2 or 3 quarters. Okay um, going back to kind of the hotel recovery, its kind of interesting. I was driving through the, um, like the marina district, like from fishermans wharf, through the marina area, and i was kind of just trying to take a tally of like, you know, if i were a tourist, like, where would i stay . Do we have any new Hotel Openings or Hotel Renovations that are, like, really exciting, that generally draw people to certain destinations . I dont know if theres you know, data on that or i mean, i think i would only know what i read in the paper about that. And i havent read very much about it. Again, its not i mean, therell be some kind of people who take a chance, i guess there were a couple on seventh street that were opened a few months ago. Um, and there are people, i think, looking at it, um, i think its really going to await a recovery in the market. Its like a lot of this other Real Estate Investment that, uh, when people see that we really hit a floor and starting to see growth again, um, i think than some of the upgrades will will recover the, the i think good news for, for the lombard street area is weve seen a big pivot. I dont know if its good news or not. Weve seen a very big pivot to Leisure Travel and maybe that means that people who were you know, hotels that were formerly catering to Business Travelers or conventions hours are now getting Leisure Travelers and, um, thats something for them. But maybe theyre taking some market share away from lombard street and fishermans wharf. I dont know the details of that, but i do know that that pivot has happened. And generally those are more cost conscious. You know, visitors, um, and people are not coming on, on, uh, on sort of Business Travel because people are doing a lot of that remotely. Um hmm. Thats interesting because its like i was also taking note here, like talking, thinking in my mind about how, um, you know, perhaps well talk about this after your presentation, but maybe how how travel looks a little bit differently. Thats probably something that we needed. Update on. Um, and lets see. Oh, um, do we do you follow metrics of, like, new businesses opening in the bay area region . Like, im wondering if that, um, gives any indication of, like, what the demand might be for the downtown area. Its a really good question. We were looking at the census pulse survey, um, which wasnt a count of new businesses , but it was a kind of Business Sentiment index. And how likely are you to hire more people . How likely were you to expand . I think they have slowed that down. We havent found a replacement source for that. Um, your question, though, about new business startups is a good one. I know thats available to state level, but ill have to see if its available for a metro level , you know, to continue the discussion we were having earlier about the Office Market adjustment. I think both new and existing businesses may view San Francisco location very differently when rents are lower. I mean, i think we all know many office uses have been priced out of San Francisco the past 2 or 3 decades, and, and, um, theres going to be intense competition because everyone has their office space in their area. Um, but San Francisco has, i think, very unique advantages. And so a more competitively priced San Francisco Office Product could, i think, draw some people back or draw a wider, different type of businesses into the offices in the city . Um, i mean, i picture it almost kind of like a vacant to vibrant program for like different types of businesses, right . Different Service Businesses that dont need to be in ground floor retail. And it would be interesting to have almost like an sf open house where people could, i mean, we do merchant walks pretty regularly, but to be able to do like a walk through office spaces, the downtown area, when things look vibrant and to be able to kind of, you know, stoke peoples imaginations a little bit about what could be there, because i feel like there are businesses that would love to kind of scale into something, but that leap doesnt feel tangible quite yet. And to be able to like actually, you know, have somebody be, um, take a risk. It requires someone else to kind of like take a risk. Right . And so, um, i think that would be kind of interesting to see what could potentially happen, like in the, you know, as you all know, the city does first year free and has been doing that since the pandemic. And that could be built upon as a business attraction tool, not just as a relief for, you know, local companies starting up again, but a pitch to doesnt even have to be a tiny company to say, hey, not only are we eliminating the rent difference between where you are in pleasanton through through the market, but were also working on the tax differences. I should mention, by the way, that although you didnt ask, ill just mention weve also been working, uh, the controllers office, the comptroller, outgoing controller, ben rosenfield, and ive been working on a business tax proposal that we hope will stabilize the citys business tax base and increase confidence for businesses to come back to downtown. The big tax difference between San Francisco and other cities in the bay area, weve gotten away with for a long time. Um were increasingly concerned. We wont be able to get away with it forever. And so were looking on ways to really stabilize that and, and really remove or minimize the penalty of growing your job base here. And signing an office lease here so that will also be helpful for this process. Were talking about. Yeah. And thank you so much for that work. I know that thats a huge task to wrap your mind around. And produce, you know, um, changes that will be really beneficial for all of us. Um, lets see. Oh, the other thing i was going to mention was , is, um, you know, i, ive, ive actually recently opened a retail ground floor retail business, so im maybe a total anomaly in this environment. Maybe i should have heard this talk first, but i opened one in the center of San Francisco chinatown. And so i have a completely fresh pair of eyes on, like what . This environment looks like right now. And i get to talk to so many different, um, you know, tourists as well as neighbors and, and things. So one of the things that im noticing in the neighborhood is something that you had mentioned , um, you know, i think when we were doing our survey, i one of the things i wanted to know about was kind of like the age of Business Owners and, um, you know, in chinatown and totally i dont know, the data, but, you know, the population of Small Business owners there is aging and theyre probably going to just, you know, work for the rest of their lives, which is, you know, very commendable. Um, and i want to definitely support people being able to, you know, um, continue on with their business as long as they want to. So one of the concerns i have, though, is that if we dont have the metrics of like kind of the age of, of businesses sometimes, like were going to fall into a place where we might become very reactive, live to vacant storefronts if there isnt succession planning in place, if there isnt, like a proactive approach and that, uh, vacant storefront kind of thing, then, um, creates pressure, i think, for people to, like, put something in there and, and so my, my concern is that if were not kind of like being proactive about how to support businesses as they continue to, you know, you know, with their business. And we arent creating mentorship programs for people to, um, run mom and pop businesses. What does that future look like for our ground floor retail . Um, its troubling. And its this is a trend that the city has seen for 25 years before the pandemic. Um, and i think its behind that kind of generational issue that i spoke about a few minutes ago. Um, i can share a piece of data that i ran based on census data a year or two ago that looked at the average age of basically bosses or business is in the city by industry and, and retail trade had the oldest bosses, ceos. It was a job title and the in the city the average age was over 50. And not just in chinatown. Citywide tech workers or the tech industry. The average age is like 36. So so young people are looking where theres opportunity. So first of all, i would say the number one thing to focus on is create the opportunity city, make sure that it actually is profitable. Its not going to happen if its not profitable. You know, relying on peoples habits to do it for the rest of their life is great. But you really want people to say, no, no, im doing this for my job because its a good job. And if you dont have that, you cant. Oh well look around for Something Else. What is the something Something Else given the spaces we have, is always some Small Business that isnt that different from what was there before. You know, youre not going to turn it all into ground floor housing. Even if you wanted the city to look that way. Theyre not all going to be yoga studios, yoga studios is a business. Um, so it almost doesnt matter what the business is, but it has to be able to be profitable in that space and preferably if its not competing head to head against it. You know, online retail, thats great. And if it is, figure out that kind of local niche. San francisco has done this before. Thats why i think its worth trying again. I mean, if you had said anywhere in the United States in sort of 1975, you were going to go all in to neighborhood commercial districts, people would have laughed at you. But that was San Franciscos general plan. And frankly, it worked until just a few years ago or weve held on for just a few years ago. We dont have the Small Businesses that we had in the 1990s. Um, but it worked for a long time, and i think it can work again. But i think we have to be very realistic about the business models, and we have to look at the barriers that were putting in the way. Um, i mean, for example, people talking at the state level about relaxing rules downtown for entertainment sounds like exactly the right thing to do. One thing you can do, no matter where our downtown goes, more nightlife is going to be good, right . I mean, no ones going to dislike that. Um and in every business, there are other ways to do it, to sort of bring our regulations into more what is typical in other places is i do think that, um, you know, San Franciscos density is always going to create an advantage for Small Businesses who want to serve their neighborhoods. But you really have to understand that connection. Um, so best of luck to you in chinatown. Thank you very much. Um, oh, commissioner ortiz. I had more about just a broad question asked, not based on the presentation. Last year, we had two quarters that contracted. So its not a recession. You said you dont foresee a recession in 20 for some of the businesses, especially in my area, the mission feel like were in a recession, especially with inflation and whatnot. Even though some of the data that you have publicly actually helped to see, were not doing that bad, actually, in the mission, like the data shows, it. But if were not going to be in a recession, 24 if last year, even though we were contracted with two consecutive quarters, is it like an unsaid recession . Is it like a new thing, like is it going to get worse . Like, thats what im saying, because if it feels like a recession now, and if its not going to ever be called a recession, then, um, i think the it wasnt, it wasnt i dont think two consecutive quarters there was one drop in quarter that was i think, inventory related. But um, people have to call recessions. So the National Bureau of Economic Research looks through a bunch of data, including gdp growth for two consecutive quarters and sort of calls it and the, the, the, the main economic story of 2023 at the us level is incredibly resilient labor market in the face of really rapidly rising Interest Rates in late 2022, everybody says were doomed in 23 because theres no way the fed was reluctant to raise Interest Rates for like six years. Coming out of the Global Financial crisis. They finally raised them to like 1. And there was this big concern are we going to tip the country back into recession and then they go from 0 to 5 in about two and a half months. And since when can this rickety economy take that shock to capital costs . Well, it didnt happen in 23. Hiring is really strong. Job listings are really theyre a little bit cooler. Uh, but there was no jobs recession at and, uh, i think i can just tell you what they think this year is a consensus. Theyre thinking slower growth. Theyre thinking one, 1. 5 growth. The first three quarters of the year. And then some sort of recovery to that. San francisco is not on the strong end of that spec. Um, if you look across the United States, you know, were at the week end of that spectrum. So it could be a little worse than us as the last four years have been worse for us. And frankly, along with downtown, the mission has not been one of the booming areas of the city. So it might be worse than the mission as well. But i dont think were going to have in the same way, we dont have our little local doom loop spiral. I dont think were going to go into the kind of recession spiral where people, tons of people get laid off. So tons of people stop spending. So businesses have to lay more people off. That doesnt look like the cycles people have spent and spent and spent. You know, they they burn through their pandemic money and they kept on spending. And, you know, thats 70 of the economy. And it has the ability to keep the economy afloat. And it did. Thats thats very interesting. Um you know, one of the things that i was i keep starting every sentence with this, i have apparently, one of the things that im thinking about, um, you know, looking at the economic of the city and looking at the economics of any situation. Right. I feel like that relies heavily on, like this intellectual kind of like you know, data mining and the data and rising, um, on the flip side of that, what im seeing is, is, um, a lot of growth, like in the arts and culture kind of sectors. And i guess when i think about San Francisco as a whole, you know, in its arc of history, theres always been the two, right . Like this, these identities. And im wondering, i guess at this point, like when we start to look at recovery, economic mix, including, you know, our cultural recovery, um, like, what does that picture look like for you . Um i mean, the first thing i would say is that the cultural sector has always been part of the economy. Um artists make a living, writers make a living, performers make a living. Um the challenge and interesting kind of Inflection Point were at now is that group was hit the most hard of any group by the pandemic at the core of kind of leisure and hospitality, the shutdowns, um, performing arts, um, visitor industries, uh, that sector as a whole has had a pretty good recovery. In 23 was a good year. And one of the things that i think has been i dont have any real evidence of this, but i suspect its made a difference and will continue to make a difference is actually the cost of housing in San Francisco before the pandemic in 2017, 2018. Not that everybodys. Buying condos, but just by way of example, a condo in San Francisco is six times the national average, and its now below four times the national average, which is still a lot, but that is a very big shift in four years. And that is not leveling off those charts that i showed you of the divergence. Thats what a more affordable San Francisco looks like. Um, were not yet, i think, to a place where the market is delivering lots of housing opportunities to folks who work in, like the restaurant industry. It looks like the restaurant recovery that weve seen involves more people working here and people commuting in from concord or richmond or other parts of the bay area. So far. But we also havent seen a lot of influx of anyone else to sort of prop up the housing market. And its not done falling. Um we may be entering a period in which there isnt a ferocious Housing Demand in San Francisco, because the folks who had been propping it up for a long time just dont feel the need to be that near to their offices anymore. And theyll be in San Francisco if they like it. Just like everybody else. But maybe thats not everyone. And so that can create an opportunity for people who may have said San Franciscos like, got everything i want as a cultural center, except i cant afford to live there, which we all know has been the major part and narrative about culture in the city for a long time. So i dont want to oversell this, but this is a trend. Something has tipped and the real question is how far down does it tip and who can take advantage of it . Um, you know, i look every time the census data comes out, like the first day, who moved into San Francisco this year and in 2022, the most recent data we have, and this is a 1 sample. So it might not be the most accurate thing in the world. There is no clear sign that there is any kind of pivot in San Francisco. In other words, the people who moved to San Francisco in 2022 looked in every dimension. You can analyze them like the people who lived in San Francisco before. There hasnt been any sort of major, major change in the citys population. But as i say, i dont think this dynamic is done adjusting and, um, you know, one of the things people have assumed, i think, incorrectly about the folks who, uh, work in jobs that are not highly paid in San Francisco is. Oh, they all must have lived here since the 1980s, and theyre in rent controlled apartments. And when they move, thats not true. A lot of people move to San Francisco. Even during the 20 tens, to not make a lot of money. They overcrowded , frankly, and they spend a ridiculous amount of their money on housing. And it was really important to them. And its a lot to ask to sort of get that group to make those sacrifices every time we have a housing boom. But i just think its easier for people to be in San Francisco now than it has been in the past. And i think thats a little bit of hopefully wind, you know, in the sails of that cultural part of the economy that youre talking about. So theres not a lot to report except, yes, weve seen some recovery in that industry, which is good. Um, its better than the rest of leisure and hospitality for the most part. Um and, and there are signs that some of these trends will continue. Great thank you very much. Um, any other questions from dies . No um, thank you very much, ted. This is incredibly educational for us. So um. Yeah, we cant wait to see you back with new, more. And, i dont know, hope more hopeful. This was still hopeful. Theres so many opportunities for people. I think thats kind of what i got out of this presentation. Is that right now is your time to think on what you want to do, how you want to be creative, and how you want to invest into your city, you know, into your community. So i think you know, this is from someone who just risked it all. And opened a business. But you know, i feel like this data is incredibly hopeful in itself. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you. Oh actually, i think we have to take Public Comment. No. Did we . Yes oh, you you dont have to answer. Okay um, any Public Comment in the room . No seeing, no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Thank you so much for your time. All right. Next item please. Item for board of supervisors, file 240088 legacy Business Assistance program. This is a discussion and action item. The commission will discuss and may take action on an ordinance amending the administrate code to create a legacy Business Assistance program. Presenting today, Richard Carrillo Legacy Business Program manager. Welcome again, rick. Good evening, commissioners, city staff attendees Richard Carrillo, Legacy Business Program manager with the office of Small Business, sf govtv. I have a Powerpoint Presentation today. Im going to present a proposal that originated from the office of Small Business. The proposal is an ordinance amending the administrative code to create the legacy Business Assistance program. It was developed by the office of Small Business with input and guidance from the City Attorneys office. It was jointly sponsored by mayor london breed and board of supervisors president aaron peskin. They introduced the legislation on january 30th. The ordinance was referred to the Small Business commission on february 6th for comment and recommendation. On. Following as a legislative digest, after which i will go through the legislation. The proposed ordinance would create a new program in the administrative code in a new section two, a two, four, six. Presently, the Legacy Business Program has two sections in the administrative code 28242 for the legacy business registry and 28243 for the legacy business Historic Preservation fund. Section 28243 was added to the administrative code by voters in november 2015. At the same time, voters made changes to section 28242. Consequently changes cannot be made to either section without going back to the voters. The proposed ordinance would create a new program, the legacy Business Assistance program and administrative code section 28246 with. In that program would be the legacy Business Assistance program fund, which would be used for grants and financial and Business Assistance to legacy businesses and landlords of legacy businesses, as well as Marketing Promotions and branding and programmatic expenses to support legacy businesses. The sbc would oversee the program. Osb would manage the program and report annually to the sbc on activities and expenditures of the program for any grants under the program, osb would present rules and regulations to the sbc for adoption. Subject to disapproval by the board of supervisors. I will briefly review the proposed ordinance. It begins with definitions, legacy businesses. The definition taken from section 28242 Program Means this proposed legacy Business Assistance program fund means the legacy Business Assistance program fund that we would set up in the financial system. Next is the creation of a legacy Business Assistance program fund , into which any funds would be deposited. The fund would be a category four fund, and it is not automatically appropriated every budget year, which i believe means it just needs to be budgeted every year. It does accumulate interest for amounts over 50,000 and unspent funds do Carry Forward every year. Osb staff agrees that this is the appropriate category oversight and management. The Small Business Commission Shall provide oversight of osb management of the program. Osb shall report annually to the Small Business commission and osb shall manage the program. Operation of the program. There are five categories of projects for which funds could be used. These are very general categories that covers everything that the Legacy Business Program has done since it was established in 2015, or conceivably could do in the future. Three of the categories are on this page. Number one, grants to legacy businesses. Number two, for financial and Business Assistance to legacy businesses is number three. Grants to landlords of legacy businesses. Number four, financial and Business Assistance to landlords of legacy businesses. And five marketing promotion, branding and programmatic expenses that support legacy businesses. Its not to say that we will necessarily do all of these things or have the funding to do all of these things with the proposed ordinance does is create a framework in the administrative code that can accommodate any source of funding for any purpose that supports legacy businesses. Rules and regulations for any grants or Financial Assistance provided to legacy businesses or landlords of legacy businesses, the office of Small Business would create rules and regulations that would be presented to the Small Business commission. Any rules or regulations would be subject to disapproval of the board of supervisors, meaning they would be presented to the board of supervisors and would pass if the supervisor did not take any action. The rules and regulation section concludes on page four. The last page of the proposed ordinance. Back ground issues and considerations. Two types of grants have been administered through the legacy business Historic Preservation fund. Business assistance grants. Eligible businesses received funds based on the number of full time equivalent employees and rent stabilization grants. Property owners receive funds as an incentive for entering into long tum leases with legacy businesses in 2021, because of limited funding, the Business Assistance grant was discontinued and only rent stabilization grants to Property Owners have been awarded. Many, but not all, Property Owners share a portion or all of the rent stabilization grants directly with legacy businesses. The proposed ordinance would give osb flexibility to create grant rules that otherwise would not be possible. Osb would replicate the rent stabilization grant as a new grant. The business stabilization grant, with slight changes to the rules. This would only be for new applicants. Existing rent stabilization grants would be honored and phased out as grants expire. The new grant rules would come before the sbc at a later date. As an action item. The proposed business stabilization grant would require that landlords share at least 50 of the grant, with legacy businesses. In addition, it would eliminate the special contingency provision that landlords are allowed to put in lease, which allows a landlord to cancel a legacy businesss lease if the land landlord does not receive for dollars and 0. 50 per square foot through the rent stabilization grant, which is the maximum amount that we pay. That all said office of Small Business staff recommends approval of the ordinance amending the administrative code to create the legacy Business Assistance program. Thank you for your time and consideration. Any questions . Thank you very much for that. Uh, for the presentation and for all the work in creating this program for. Well, its not a program. Its a fund for the program. Um, lets see any commission, any commissioner questions. Um oh, Vice President tazunas just want to say thank you. I know that, um, since the start of this, this program, youve been really iterative with what what works for the Small Businesses, what makes sense for the city and, um, as much as we can, you know, how to shape it. And so i know this is a long coming step to bring it to the board and just want to give you, um, credit where its due. So thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, comments. Um, seeing. Well, i dont actually have any questions, but again, i just wanted to thank you for your time. Um, before we bring it to Public Comment, but is there any Public Comment at no. Oh actually. Sorry. So did the City Attorney like signed off on that and everything . Thats cool huh . Thats great because i remember that was like the holdup at one point, the legal piece of it. So its just on the record as rick stated, this legislation has already been introduced at the board of supervisors. So that means the City Attorneys office has signed off on it. Um, and in case it didnt come off, uh, through the presentation, but i think it did, um, we are creating a new fund so that we are not in violation of the voter approved funds that are in existence, but we would essentially create a the exact same program with the requirement that landlords must give at least 50 of the funds to the legacy business tenant. Okay. So the owner provision is still in there. So right now under the existing, uh, assistance, the rent stabilization grant program, the owners are not required to give any of the money that they receive from the city to the legacy business tenant. Um and again, this is upon signing either a new long tum lease or or extending and so this would create this new this ordinance would create a new fund with the same programmatic elements, with the key change being that landlords would be required to give at least 50 of the money received by the city to the legacy business way to make it work. Good job everybody. Okay um, any Public Comment . No seeing, no Public Comment. Uh, Public Comment is closed. And does anyone want to make a motion to approve the, um. I liked your slide. Where did the slide go that said exactly what the motion would be . Oh, yeah. Um to recommend with support. Yes to recommend the support of the, um, of the legacy Business Assistance program. Is that what it was . Go ahead. Business stabilization. There we go. A second. Oh should i can i make motions . Oh, i thought you were sorry. Oh, sure. Well, i make a motion to approve the legacy Business Assistance program. Ill second. Okay motion by president huey. Seconded by Vice President setsunas commissioner benitez. Yes i, uh, commissioner dickerson is absent, and commissioner herbert is absent. President huey. Yes, commissioner ortiz cartagena. Yes and Vice President sessions. Yes yes. Motion passes. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Rick all right. Next item, item five. Officer elections for commission. President. This is a discussion and action item. The commission will nominate and vote on the new 2024 Commission President for each office in this case, president. I will call for nominations as nominations require a second to be considered. Nominees will then have an opportunity to make a statement after the, uh, nominee statements. Other commissioners can provide comment, follow. Seeing everybodys comments, well have Public Comment and then a roll call on each nomination on the first nominee to receive four votes shall be deemed elected. So with that, are there any nominations for president . Um, commissioner ortiz cartagena, i move to reelect president huey. All right. I second. Awesome. Um do you want a nominee . Does the nominee want to make a statement . Um is this where i. I state my case . Why . I think i would like to, um. Why i think i would be a good candidate to serve. Um. Well, i im so grateful to have this opportunity to be able to serve with you all. And um, all the past commissioners who havent, who arent here right now. But, um, this has been, i think, being on this commission, being able to serve with you all is really one of the highlights of, like any day. And ive enjoyed advocating for Small Businesses so much. Um, last time i think i might have written something down this time i thought id just wing it because i really now i feel like after, um, four years of being on this commission and last this last year, serving as, um, leadership, i, i just really, you know, i just really enjoy it. I dont know how to express that beyond like, it fits completely into all the things that i, um, i think are really important for the city to move forward. Like, i love Small Businesses, i love commercial city building. I love, like, even legislation i do love. I actually love, you know, hearing and like learning about all the legislative give ideas that people have. And, um, and i love connecting all these dots and its just incredibly rewarding. Um, if i were to be voted or elected again, you know, some of the things that id like to see for the future for this next year are, are, um, you know, building leadership within our Small Business, um, communities and our Small Business owners. I know time is always such a limited resource for many of us, but i think, you know, being here with you, you all like, i feel like we have a special voice in this city that nobody else has. We are out in our communities all the time talking to so many different people, hearing so many different stories every single day. I mean , i dont think anybody sitting behind a computer and, you know, like, gets that opportunity every day to just be able to talk to people about all their different concerns. And i think its such a special thing that we get to do. And i would love to see more Small Business owners and Small Business, you know, um, advocates not only on our commission but on every commission. I think, you know, as we listen to more and more presentations and educate ourselves about the city and how it runs and how it operates, you know, i think it gives me more insight into the fact that we need to be on around every table. You know, like we need to be talking about transportation, an we need to be talking about, you know, travel and hospitality. Like there are there really isnt a table in city hall that we wouldnt have, you know, a welleducated and well lived. You know, voice. Um to bring. So i, um, all that to say, i hope, you know, we can kind of find that Ripple Effect amongst what we do and encourage our Small Business, um, networks to really consider how they can, um, share their voice. You know, i mean, really is just all were doing is really sharing our experiences, right . And its i think thats enough. So, um, yes. So that is my that is my statement. Thank you very much. And thank you for your nominations. So do any Commission Want to comment before we vote Vice President nunez. President huey, i, uh, its an honor to serve on this commission with you. I ive really appreciated your leadership over your last terme, and i. Im ready to support you as we move forward into another terme. And im excited that, um, you know, all of the questions and big ideas that weve thrown out in the last just past couple years during the economic recovery are now starting to formulate into legislation our, our, our Office Leadership is taking forward and our, you know, friendly agencies are working with us on. And i think thats only, um, you know, a testament of whats to come and i, i really do see that not just the ethos of this space has, has become more proactive, but i see it being able, you know, youve given us the fabric to, to mesh with other areas of our, of our city really well. And i think that the commission had a hard time for that with that for a while. And we were kind of, you know, in our own bubble. And i really see us, um, becoming a, a , a, you know, collaborative force more than we ever have. So im, im excited for whats to come. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner ortiz. Cartagena. Yeah. I just want to echo what Vice President sassone said. You you siloed us so were were like, were moving like, as true San Francisco should be right. We should we go in every neighborhood and we should know everybody in every neighborhood. We shouldnt just be in the mission or chinatown or soma or wherever. So youve really been pushing that either with effort or its just your flavor. But i really see weve done a lot of stuff that we havent done in the past. So i appreciate it and just keep being you. Thank you. I appreciate you, commissioner benitez. Yeah. Well, i know im very new to the committee still, but im looking forward to working more with you. And i share the sentiments with my fellow commissioners here as well. Thank you all right. Well, i guess, um, well have to open it up to Public Comment. Any Public Comment . Um. Lets see. Seeing no further Public Comment. Public comment is closed. And i guess ill take the role. Yeah uh, commissioner benitez, so, uh, motion to nominate cynthia huey for president for 2024. Uh uh, commissioner benitez. Yes, commissioner dickerson is absent. Commissioner herbert is absent. Uh, president huey. Yes commissioner ortiz. Cartagena. Yes yes, and Vice President ozunas. Yes. Congratulations motion. Motion passes. Thank you. Um item six. Officer elections commission. Vice president. This is a discussion and action item nominating the 2024 commission. Vice president. Uh, this is the same process, so i will ask for any nominations for Vice President. Oh, commissioner ortiz cartagena, can i make a motion to reelect Vice President cisneros . Yes. Is there a second . Um, ill second. Seconded by by president huey, would you like to say anything . Vice president sessions, thank you. Thank you to all my fellow commissioners and president huey. I also really love my time on this commission. And have started as a rookie. And now i feel like im you know, one of the more senior members. And i echoing the some of the looking forward themes that president huey mentioned, i think Leadership Development is something that we are both interested in and empowering our newer members to maybe rise in the ranks and learn, you know, help, help bring in the nexus of what you see in your own Small Business communities is help elevate our our base, in addition to our own leadership within our ranks. And i, i, um, i still feel like its relevant to be here. Its still useful for my own Small Business community. I i am hoping that were going to see some legislation of moves to. Ive gotten word from some supervisors offices that some recommendations that our, our body made before covid are now being looked at as, hey, these are easy laws. We can, you know, these are wins. The Small Business commission did all the hard work already, you know, so i think we can position ourselves to follow through on some some, um, really, you know, passionate items that, that our members have brought before. Im looking forward to, to, you know , honoring the legacy of our, our past commissioners to who were advocating for things like, you know, increased lbe, um, local Business Enterprise and contracting opportunities and equity as well as how Small Business can participate in social impact and food access work. I think thats something thats become such a theme through covid and i think we can materialize some of that mutual aid that we saw with the Small Business community. So im im excited to kind of operationalize some of the real grassroots stuff. Our Small Business community has been involved with in the last past, um, years. And i would be honored to, to serve again as Vice President. And i appreciate the nomination. Commissioner ortiz cartagena, i appreciate you, Vice President. Susan, as weve been in the trenches, weve done a lot of work in community, especially for like very underserved businesses that dont necessarily get enough recognition or attention. So i love your your hustle. I love your fight, and i love your advocacy. So i appreciate you being Vice President of this commission. Yes, i would be honored to serve again with you. Um, its i know this year, this year kind of went by so fast already or i mean, 2023. I guess its over now, but this upcoming year, you know, were im really hoping that we can, um, you know, set some goals together and, like, really do a lot of the things that and continue to do the things that youve always advocated for. And, you know, you always teach me so much about legislation and how the sba and all, all the different Business Assistance entities work. Um, its been a real learning process for me. And youve really helped with, um, with educating me as well as, you know, much of our Small Business community. So thank you very much for your voice on those, um, and yeah, i think theres still plenty more for us to do together. I think, uh, i guess now. Oh now well open it up for Public Comment, seeing no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Ill read the role for nominating commissioners for Vice President in 2024. Uh, commissioner benitez. Yes, commissioner dickerson is absent. Commissioner herbert is absent. Commissioner huey. Yes uh. Sorry. President huey. Um, commissioner ortiz cartagena. Yes. And Vice President duenas. Yes. Motion passes. Congratulate us. Thank you. All right. Item seven, approval of draft Meeting Minutes. This is a discussion and action item. Um commissioners, any comments on the minutes . No questions. Um, any Public Comment on our draft Meeting Minutes . No Public Comment. Um, seeing no further commenters. Public comment is closed. Uh, a motion to approve the minutes. Is there a motion . Ill make a motion to approve the minutes. A motion by president huey, seconded by Vice President ziziunas commissioner benitez. Yes uh, president huey. Yes. Commissioner cartagena. Yes and Vice President osunas. Yes motion passes. Minutes approved. Great. Next item please. Item eight. General Public Comment. This is a discussion item allowing members of the public to comment on matters that are within the Small Business commissions jurisdiction and not on todays calendar. Any members of the public who would like to make comments on items not on the agenda today, seeing no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. Next item please. Item nine directors report. This is a discussion item, an update and report on the office of Small Business programs policy and legislative matters. All right. Good evening, commissioners. Uh, first of all, i want to extend my congratulations also to commissioner zunes and commissioner ortiz cartagena as you were both recently reappointed by the board of supervisors. So congratulations. And soon well also be joined by new commissioner. Um, once hes sworn in, dimitri, uh, terry cornett. So were excited to welcome someone new to the body as well as a new industry. Uh, that would be represented here amongst the Small Business community. So with that, then, in terms of legislative updates, uh, i just wanted to share that recently, uh, mayor breed along with supervisor ronen, uh, introduced, uh, legislation to extend the first year free program by one additional fiscal year. So thats really exciting. Its been an Incredible Program that has, uh, we see a benefit day to day where people are, you know, as theyre starting a new business or expanding, literally saving over even 10,000. Um just from this program alone. So really appreciate that ordinance. Uh, that program and the ordinance. So since the program started in 2021, over 6000 businesses have enrolled in the program, which is managed by the treasurer and tax collectors office. So also thank them for administering and managing this program. And also since the beginning, the city has waived nearly 2. 6 million in fees. So again, incredible investment in our Small Businesses through first year free. Uh secondly, you heard about the Legacy Business Program. Um, uh, revision to the admin code, which our staff, our Legacy Business Program manager, rick carrillo, just presented on. So i wont go into those details. Uh, third wanted to share that, um, we had, as you heard about, uh, recently, uh, mayor breeds legislation regarding Small Business permitting, uh, that had actually taken effect in january. However there was a duplicated version of that file, uh, to put through a couple more changes. One thing i wanted to point out is that this legislation, the duplicated file, would principally permit nighttime entertainment on the ground floor in the polk street ncd, the neighborhood commercial district, as well as allow nighttime entertainment use as conditionally with a conditional use authorization on the second floor within the polk street neighborhood. Commercial district, and this was brought to our attention by the Lower Polk Community benefit district. So were excited to see that change. Uh, to help fill some vacancies and revitalize that corridor. So that duplicated file was heard by the planning Commission Last week. Uh, it was actually approved and supported by the Planning Commission as well. Uh, and so the next stop will be at land use committee, uh, sometime in march. Uh, also just wanted to bring to your attention that there was a resolution introduced at the board of supervisors recently in support of Assembly Bill 2359. This would increase the number of liquor licenses, uh, in San Francisco. That would be allowable. These are the type 87 for the neighborhoods and in particular for the excelsior and Outer Mission would increase the type 87 licenses from a total 5 to 10. So essentially doubling, um, that number and all five that were allocated to the Excelsior Outer Mission have actually been utilized already. So as a way to help support full service restaurants, um, this uh, Assembly Bill, again, its two, three, five nine, uh, would assist with that. Lastly on the legislative update, uh, there was a supplement appropriation ordinance introduced at the board of supervisors, uh, to allocate 2 million for businesses in soma impacted by apc, 1 million for businesses impacted by transit projects. And this is the intent was for taraval street and 500,000 to sfmta for supporting the two hour parking in portsmouth square garage and ambassadors uh, during the Lunar New Year festivities in chinatown. So that is up for a full, uh, a vote at the full board of supervisors for first reading. Uh, tomorrow on february 27th. So thats the legislative front. And then also, uh, you might have heard me talk about this before the awning Amnesty Program. Uh, this was a program that the Mayors Office created in conjunction with the different permitting offices last year when. Approximately 200 businesses received either a notice of violation or complaints for having awnings installed without a permit on file. Uh, this is actually, uh, pretty common. And so this, uh, awning Amnesty Program was designed to make the permitting process easier, uh, and to also waive the permit fees if you have an existing awning. Uh, so, so in order to do, um, additional outreach, were going to be our team. And really, thanks to my staff, theyre going to do door to door outreach to those who receive complaints or notice of violations. This would be the second round outreach. And also, uh, we will be holding a workshop in chinatown on wednesday, march 6th at 11 a. M. At the city college campus. Uh, and this is really, uh, were really focusing on the neighborhoods that receive the bulk of the complaints. So, um, just want to remind people about that as the Program Expires june 1st, 2024. And lastly, on behalf of rick and the Legacy Business Program, i wanted to share, uh, the upcoming heritage happy hours on march 14th, uh, there will be a heritage happy hour at docs clock in the mission, and on april 11th at the plow and stars on clement street. Um, so those are the two heritage happy hours coming up. And thats all for my updates and happy to answer any questions. Vice president zumas thank you, director, for all youre doing so much. Um, i know that that author or that whats coming before the board for the mitigation mission kind of came out of nowhere because we thought they werent going to issue those funds. So do we have any more information about what thats going to . Um, you know, if theres any programmatic language with with that, because Small Businesses are now like scrambling, thinking that they missed the boat. You know, because they werent at some preliminary meeting. So i dont know how to respond to them. So thank you for the question. There are a lot of steps involved. Its not very easy for the city to get money out the door. So first the board has to actually approve the supplemental appropriation ordinance. Takes two reads. So the first read is tomorrow. After that. So we cant just give money directly to businesses unless youre all city suppliers. So so, uh, we actually needs to bring forth to the board of supervisors a contract amendment for an entity that would partner with the city to cut checks, right, to issue the checks. So that takes, um, anywhere for a month to three months, potentially, because we have to work with the City Attorneys office to amend the contracts to, um, allow that to happen in the board. Again, the board process is just what it is, right . So theres that. And in the meanwhile, our office along with cdd is crafting the programmatic elements of the program. So no one has missed anything yet of course, when that is all set and done, we will reach out to those businesses that were impacted within all of those zones. So whether its apac or or within the transit Improvement Project along taraval, and as cdd director Sarah Dennis Phillips explained at the budget committee, um, really, our goals are we want to make sure that we are allocating these funds efficiently, effectively, that theres equity involved, and really we want to make it easy for the businesses and, uh, processing for the city as well so that we can be efficient, um, with these funds. So all again, all of the programmatic elements are being developed. So no one has missed anything yet. Thank you. Very helpful. Commissioner ortiz. Cartagena. I just wanted to commend rick. Hes not here. But if youre watching, um, those heritage nights, those those are fun. And like, the one, the first one i attended, um, we went to that house, i think, on, um, franklin. I had never been there my whole life and got a tour, got some history. It was pretty cool. Um, went to pops, but i think i missed everybody. By the time i left. But, um, that was thrilled. I had some drinks. Even met people with pops tattoos. So, like, its cool. Theyre theyre really exciting. And they really promote the businesses. Um, lets see, are any other comments questions . No. Um, any members of the public who would like to make comments . Yes. Seeing no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. And next item please. Item ten. Commissioner discussion and new business. This is a discussion item allowing the president , Vice President and commissioners to report on recent Small Business activities. Make announcements that are of interest to the Small Business community, and make inquiries of staff. Allows commissioners to introduce new agenda items for future consideration by the commission commissioners. Any new business commissioner ortiz catania. I just have a. I just have a comment regarding the closures of the off and on ramps in the Mission District for the potential 40 niner super bowl win, which we dont talk about the game because were never going to talk about the game. Its like 2002 world series giants. Were not going to ever talk about that. We just forget it like it never happened. But i think and i want to prefix this, um, i am in support with what mta and the Police Department is trying to do. Theyre trying to not have chaos to not have unruly celebrations. And i totally get that. And weve seen whats happened in the past during the warriors celebration. So i totally understand what theyre getting from. But i think for Small Businesses in our neighborhood, were missing a golden opportunity for what i call those home run days when everything gets sold out in your business, whether youre a taqueria, you know, a gift shop. These are the days when you have so much regional traffic that its one of those days that makes the year for you. Sometimes in Small Businesses. And i just would like to, like, put on record that i think we have a game plan because when we do carnival, when we do the other las americas, when we do the selena lowriding, when we do king of the streets, which are all Northern California regional events which attract the same amount of people, the Police Department, sfmta, they coordinate with Community Groups with the lowrider council, with all the various organizations in the mission. And these events are successful event free in the sense with with no chaos and its a boom for our Small Businesses. So i would like them to consider any potential celebration. I see it as an opportunity for our Small Businesses in our community, as opposed to like just hitting the hammer. Lets close it down. Let nobody in because it actually becomes worse for our businesses. Ill give you an example. My nonprofit has a, um, eating where weve placed the Street Vendors in that day. They shut down all the parking on mission on 24th until several cars. They killed businesses, even in the day because nobody could park on Mission Street and nobody could park on 24th. And culturally, sunday is huge for us. People go to church and its Regional Church because people still come all the way from where theyre at to saint peters or mission dolores, and they killed it for us. Nobody could park on all mission from 16 to like cesar chavez and all the 24th street, as opposed to be a boom day. It became one of the worst days of the year for our businesses. And then the niners didnt win, which were not going to talk about. But seriously, this is these are missed opportunities for our Small Businesses in our community. So i just wanted to highlight that. Thank you. Um a couple a couple of things from earlier. I like to id like to see if our commission can consider bringing in either sf travel or, um, im not sure if there are any other entities that focus on more Leisure Travel because sf travel, i think, does a lot of the conventions and, um, and other types of relationships, but there are some smaller entities i know in north beach theres like a new business that came up where theyre really working on like local neighborhood travel. They also have a little storefront that focuses on local , locally made goods. And, um, im looking at you like, you know, you know, every new business is director day. Um, but i do have their contact information, but, um, but, you know, id like to kind of figure out who we can talk to really think more about, um, Leisure Travel because there are certain things that like, for me, talking to tourists, theyre theyre in chinatown. Right . And theyre always asking me, well, where should i go . And so i give them a little, you know, what to see, what to do in chinatown. And then i always send them to the tunnel tops, like, im sure everybody who comes into my shop has heard me talking about the tunnel tops park like in the presidio. And im like, go check out the tunnel tops. Its like a fantastic view of golden gate of the Golden Gate Bridge. Have you guys all been to the tunnel tops . Its like. Its like amazing thing. And then, um, the other thing is the crosstown trail. The crosstown trail is like a walking trail that takes you from one, um, corner by, like in this valley, like from candlestick. Itll take you all the way to ocean beach and i know we have some people in our lives who are crazy, fanatical walkers, and they will walk that trail, and theyre going to be launching a double cross, which goes like in the other kind of direction. And so there are a lot of and these are all like, like not the, not the tunnel tops park. But i mean, these are this is like a grassroots movement. I think bob siegel created the crosstown trail. He came into the shop the other day and, and talked to me about the double cross. These are opportunities for our merchant corridors to have activities around, you know, how do we get people to do the trail and stop at our our shops, stop, have some coffee along the way and for us to, um, you know, promote our city in a way that is very grassroots and real. And i think thats what most travelers want, right . Like they want to know the hidden gems. They want to know where they can say hi to people, know people. Um, and thats what we want for them to have a very positive experience here. Whats your address on Waverly Place . Um, my address is 162 waverly. There you go. You could be the new Tourist Center for San Francisco. What a go to see president huey. Come see me. Ill tell you where to go. Where to eat. Yeah, i mean, i think it would be wonderful for us to have. I think there was some momentum towards that with sf travel prior to pandemic. You know, knowing that second, third time travelers to San Francisco and want to see our neighborhoods. But i think thats true. It seems like for all travelers right now that they want to see our neighborhoods. So if theyre, you know, if we can kind of just give thought to how we can help propel that movement. But, um, the other piece is i recently had to start up all my utilities because its a new business. And i realized that, um, you know, recology is quite an investment for any business. Um, and recently ive been hearing some, um, talk with some of the merchants that i know, um, about how, you know, its a challenge when you have so much, um, car cardboard. Right . Like, after hours and cardboard. Now is something that is not necessarily part of your regular pickup. So there are additional fees added to things when youre putting out cardboard. I think we all know appear, you know, at and i think there are some efforts in some neighborhoods to almost do Something Like where you have like a cardboard coop, right . Like theres like one, like one merchant whos like, hey, im going down to the recycling place. Hes like, i borrowed my friends truck. Does anybody want me to take some stuff . I mean, these are like, amazing people who are just doing these things for one another like this is crazy. But i feel like for us as merchants, that is that is a part of doing business, right. Were going to have shipments of things coming through that we need to then account for the cardboard like its just gotten very expensive. I think sometimes additional bundles have cost some of my, um, businesses like over 150. Um a pickup. And then most recently, like when i got my, um, new trash cans, i decided to go for locked ones because i didnt want them to be tampered with. So per like time, they open and close or whatever it is. You know, those are all, like, added up and so my trash, i mean, i dont generate that much trash. Im not a food business, but its like the amount that i pay for recology is actually one of my highest utilities. So i just wanted to kind of like put that out there. That that, um, that for Small Businesses, even the utilities that we use, you know, those add up. So its not just about rents, but its about all of our monthly costs that those things, um, can, can get quite high. So id like to kind of like, see if we can have a better relationship, perhaps with recology to understand the Small Business environment. Right now. Um and then, oh, somebody stole my trash cans. But, you know, it was somebody stole my trash cans. Like the second time i put them out, they were, like, brand new. But, you know, i do want to give props to recology. They did replace those trash cans for me. So i do appreciate that. But um, but yeah, id like for us to have a conversation so that they can kind of, you know, maybe hear from us and we can kind of spend some time just gathering some information for them, which might be helpful for them to be able to hear and a more like holistic level versus just getting complaints or calls one off in their call center. So, um , i think those are pretty much what i have any. Oh director tang, yes. Thank you for bringing up all those issues. I just want to respond really quickly and, uh, to your question about s. F. Travel and Leisure Travel. So um, our office has been engaging with s. F. Travel to figure out more creative ways to draw more of visitors to our local Small Businesses. Um, but also just keep in mind that they are a membership based association. So we are again, trying to do what we can, um, uh, aside from that, that structure, uh, and also just to remind everyone that shop in sf, which is the campaign that our office runs, is really the way that we are trying to promote, um, uh, people, visitors getting more deeply into the neighborhoods because what we have noticed is that all those other travel sites, they dont curate lists as, as you know. Well, um, and so all of the guided walks and tours that are on shop in sf for each neighborhood, they came from, the community. They came from the local. Whether its a Merchants Association or other association in the community, we ask them to give us like what are your top like 9 to 12 stops in your corridor . So those are we really encourage people to go to shop in sf and check out those pages and, and um, you know, if we need to do a better job of promoting that, we certainly will try to, but we also have, um, uh, social media for shop in sf that was launched, uh, about what i would say maybe almost, gosh, over a year ago. And so those publicized constantly be, uh, events that are happening in corridors that will, again, incentivize people to go out, um, not just to your typical, you know, like fishermans wharf, pier 39, but really throughout the entire city, one of my maybe pie in the sky wishes would be that, like what if like all of several of our sites were all kind of linked together, like if shopped in sf itineraries also linked with like sfmtas, like travel routes and like, you know, like if we were able to do kind of like i think we are already have on the shop dine like a one day itinerary or like you know what to do in an afternoon for most neighborhoods and things. I think if our transit you know, our public facing kind of transit, um, is information kind of helped link certain things. Maybe not formally, but on more like ad space or other types of like marketing, like things that might be more attractive for a traveler to realize how interconnected our neighborhoods actually are. Or, um, because maybe, you know, just seeing the stops sometimes you dont realize what whats around the stops. So, um, but yeah, it would be cool if things were if our city agencies could kind of like, Work Together on certain, um, initiative moves. Um, oh, and in terms of membership structure for sf travel, is there still a membership tier for um associations . Uh, i am not as familiar with the membership structure. What we can certainly find out. Okay. Because that might make the cost like, um, you know, accessible for small, smaller size businesses. Oh, um. Anything else . Director tang . Okay. Um, commissioner benitez, you know, i just realized it probably, um, um, i think my question was already answered, or my comment was already answered just in regards to, um, one of the things i always love to do is go into different corridors and getting an actual merchant map, and then scaling that, but it sounds like shop dine sf already does something similar to that. So, um, i dont know. I think itd be something, you know, you know, very cool to promote. I know that, you know, it all starts here. Got such a lot of great publicity, um, to that campaign. Um, so, you know, whether its a qr code or something similar to that or something to put in the window, like, id love to find a way to support that to, you know, help drive traffic and just help promote that from a collaborative perspective. So i think itd be super interesting. Um any other new business Vice President zumas thank you. I wanted to see if cal recycle has reached. Im sorry, not cal recycle. Department of environment has reached back out to us about about that presentation. They postponed because i feel like theres some. Theres definitely state funding starting to be issued from from the cal recycle agency. Um and theres more crv taxes that have been added recently on on items for redemption. So im just what wanted to touch base, see if anythings heating up. If its not its not. But i just saw that the state is starting to have movement on that. So we should know if moneys coming into sf or i havent heard anything yet, but we can certainly check in. Okay cool. Thank you. All right. Any any Public Comment . No seeing, no Public Comment. Public comment is closed. And next item, item 11. Item 11. Adjournment as of govtv. Please show the office of Small Business slide. We will end with a reminder that the Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. If you need assistance with Small Business matters, continue to reach out to the office of Small Business. Meeting adjourned. Thank you for the. music . Hi, im emmy the owner of emmys spaghetti i offers working that with some kind of fine dining and apron and feeling stuffy and in the 90s in San Francisco it was pretty pretense in a restaurant in the restaurant scene i want to it have a place to have a place for my friends to guess i started the restaurant a no better place the Outer Mission spaces were available thats when i opt in two 10 he start with all people and work with them and the events they create one of the events we do every year and backpack give away and give piaget away and a christmas part with a santa and bring 5 hundred meatballs and pa get and were like in the mission not about them knowing where the food comes from but a part of the community. And my restaurant emmys spaghetti and fun banquet and San Francisco not the thing that Everybody Knows about we stay under the radar we show the showcase i take it food and we started to eat we wanted to have comfort food and that a claims friend from i take it and helped me create meatballs and dealing evolved over the years in the beginning one plate of spaghetti and a meatball we tried to make the portions as big as they could be. And now we have quite a few types pasta dishes with a la begin and meat sauce or have a partition to a lot of food we are at a point with all the favorites i dont change the menu often 0 i eat here so much but everything is fresh your cocktail menu is the best its ever been one thing on the menu our magazine ghetto we change the flavor one of the fun things it is served in the historically were known emmys spaghetti as a friendly place and when i opened i wanted my friend to be welcome and other parents to be welcomed and it is very for this is a place for families especially in San Francisco and this is where though hold their celebration important i mean youre coming to a Family Restaurant and youre coming for o to a fun place i love being the owner and pretty sure my life i enjoy running the psta spaghetti place i hope to be here a while well see how it goes we everyone is a friend were hoping youll be a 5 oclock. music . Cofounder. We started in 2008 and with the intent of making the ice cream with grown up flavors and with like and with tons of accessible freshens and so we this is many people will like it and other people will like you my name is alice my husband were the owners of you wont see ice cream in San Francisco and really makes fishing that we are always going together and we we provide the job opportunity for High School Students and i hired them every year and. Fun community hubble in San Francisco is my district i hope we can keep that going for many years. And im alexander the owner of ice cream and in San Francisco and in the outer sunset in since 1955 we have a vast of flavors liar choke oclock but the flavors more than three hundred flavors available and i am the owner of the ice cream. And my aunt used to take us out to eat ice cream all the time and what can i do why not bring this ice cream shop and unintelligible joy a banana split or a great environment for people to come and enjoy. Were the ordinances of the hometown and our new locations in pink valley when i finished law school we should open up a store and, and, and made everybody from scrap the first ice cream shop any ice cream we do our own culture background and a lot of interaction and were fortunate we can get feedback and serve to the king of ending and also government television. My name is kevin roger tang one live owners and at a 2 owe 50 thats it avenue in the sunset so the bayview original hip hop store we have music so every purchase counts for either the charts and the tri work chart that is acquired by 3 best friends we love k pop and why not share that and would the community here in the bay. And originally supposed to open up an eco but unfortunately, the covid hit by the we got creative with the social media and engaged and bring in people within the being sure like pop and the Instagram Live or hip hope to bring that connection with the bayview k Pop Community and we grow. And hello were a collective store so the cc around us within us has the cards people like to collect and try to collect limited edition mr. Sincroy manufacturers like a State University or memorial and we have which is a venue for people to kind of make new friends and open up theyre a goods and invite people to stay and oftentimes see the context were very, very fortunate and everyone is super sweet and loveable to sum up i guess two words is a second home background noise and a lot of people visit. And connect this place even if it is really cool. San francisco is a city known for music and art and we at the pop store we to go show the k love and added to the diversity of music and the way of the community. It is safe place it is a great way to dmrofr new things and any friends and it is saying hello 2050 carville from 1 00 p. M. To 6 00 p. M. 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