gatherings of artists during one of these open meetings, and these are artists by all color, all nationalities, very inclusive and they talked about how the culture of calle 24th lives in casa lukas and lives in all the little stores and family-owned and family-run businesses that we are so lucky to have, that people from all over the world visit us to just feel what that sense of community feels like. the thing about conditional use, i just want to bring up one thing about conditional use. it's not an easy process to navigate and people with month-to-month, their livelihood may be gone and it may be very well beyond them, when there haven't real defined measures put into place. so how can we work together to make sure that there is a way that they can feel safe in their leases? >> thank you. my name is tom, anative san franciscan and live in the mission district and member of mission bernal ace. last year the san francisco board of supervisors approved a resolution to designate 24th street, a latino cultural district and mayor lee approved it as well. now real estate investment property interests want to buy up properties and merge retail spaces to make an even bigger profit. decent investment property will have high turnover rate because of high rents, while the property managers make the real profits. this will also encourage other landlords to sell out to make a profit to create more of these types of mini-space business. how can these new businesses be the foundation of a latino cultural district? if you want cultural and racial diadvertises di advertise diversity in san francisco, you must protection the cultural businesses and they are the foundation of what creates a cultural community that reflect a cultural and ethnic community. like in chinatown. chinatown has protected so far, because of past efforts by community and business leaders that created zoning laws to protect it many years ago. it is still there. the mission district and 24th street needs this as well. or it will not be there in the future. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is matthew rogers and i lived in the city over 30 years. >> into the mic, mr. rogers >> i am here to support the interim prohibition. i think this is a measured approach at this point. there needs to be more time. one only has to look at new york city to see what is going on for us in the future. currently in new york city, businesses, restaurants, mom and pops have been cleared out, and what comes in is large national chains and banks. do we want a sterile community? this is the latino cultural community. if we're going to -- we need to protect these things. otherwise it will be nothing. people won't come here. we won't have any tourists coming. the artists and the musicians are basically all gone already. we need to do everything that we can to retain these businesses, because that is all we have at this point. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is patricia and i support supervisor campos' ordinance. my husband and i have lived in the same house in the mission since 1978. we raised both our children here. and they still make their home in the mission. when they were young, we always made 24th street our destination for running errands, purchasing small items and going for an ice cream at st. francis. i still shop there every week for fresh fruit and vegetables, jewelry repair, many different items. it's a collection of small stores that serve the basic needs of the community. after reading about this ordinance, i can't help, but reflect upon the irony of the new residents' influx. these are people drawn to the mission because it's different. it has a history and art and culture and a vibrant and diverse population. kind of irresistible. that is why people want to live here. however, no sooner than moving into the district they want it changed with fancy high-end restaurants that they can work to. personally, i would suggest walk over to valencia street or hopping on the 48th, where all of the those restaurants are already over there. to accomplish this transformation, or opening up the 24th street, developers want to merge these small business spaces to make way for larger ones. these larger spaces are out of the range of affordability of the existing merchants. they would not be able to afford those kind of monthly rents and additionally, it's inevitable, if rents are raised, they will vacate businesses. [ applause ] >> come on, you know the rules, you know there is no applause going on in here. i heard you snapping. that is good. we have to move this forward to make sure that we hear everybody's voice. >> i will be fast. you i have been here for 20 years. i am a community advocate and worked in my neighborhood together with all cultures in my neighborhood to improve access to care. we have gotten squatters out of our neighborhood, but we have committed ourselves to our neighborhood for the past 20 years. i want everyone to know that we will continue to do that. we just ask, can we be allowed to sit at the table? we have not been able to join the meetings. we are a community, we are part of the community. we are 40% of the community and we just want to be part of the meeting. if we could trust us, we're not looking to say that latin is bad and other is good. not at all. what we're looking to say is trust us; we are a valid part of the community. we are not gentrification, et cetera. we are valid and we need to have our voices heard and right now they are not being heard and when i hear "community" time and again, i am concerned that my neighbors have not been heard, but it's been inferred that they are heard. if you ask us to the table and ask us to join the discussion, we'll do it in good faith and do it honestly and thinking about the community that we have devoted our lives to, including the latino part of our community. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i am brook oliver. i am in the latino cultural district. i sit on the council. i have a business there for 20 years. i have lived there for 20 years and i'm a landlord for 20 years in that neighborhood. i have a seat at the table. i am on the 24th from council and other people are welcome to have a seat on the table in our community process. we invited -- we sent 3,000 leaflets out and everybody who walked on the streets had an invitation to all of the meetings and i know we'll continue to welcome others' voices in our meetings. we don't welcome being condemned publicly for having a lack of integrity, because our integrity was outstanding and we worked very hard to make a fair and open process. recent attacks were unfair and i ask people to join us rather than foyt ight us. i'm really in favor of this prohibition, as a business owner, who looked at rents of larger spaces is much more expensive. when you are starting a small business, you can't take on a huge overhead, unless you are a substantially large business with a great deal of financial backing. so if you are just a regular small business person, without financial investors, you can't afford $8,000, $10,000, $20,000 a month in rent. a conditional use application comes after a really long series of events, before an application is ever filed. there are real estate people that shoot for locations, who then approach landlords with heavy and hefty offers or businesses with hefty buyout offers. it creates uncertainty among investors because if we know what is not allowed -- [ inaudible ] >> good afternoon. i live in potrero hills, just a few minutes' walk from 24th street. i rely on 24th street to access locally-owned shops and restaurants of all types and varieties. i was disappointed to learn about the proposed moratorium for a couple of reasons. first off, you have heard about the vacant store fronts. you heard about how hard it is for small business owners on 24th street and i just have to ask why on earth we would put up more restrictions? second there has only been a hand ful of store front mergers. they provide fresh groceries, services and job opportunity for the community. three mergers over 34 yearss is hardly an epidemic that would seem to justify an emergency moratorium. and i feel it's until disingenuous to property portray it that way. you have before you alternative propose that allows for community review and discussion of the impacts. positive and negative of storefront mergers on a case-by-case basis. this protections -- it also protects businesses of important cultural significance. open 24's proposal supports greater flexibilities and transparency, in the decision-making process. and stands in contrast to campos' moratorium, which would exclude ongoing community involvement and dialogue. our local businesses need to be supported not stifled. please don't vote for this moratorium. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> supervisor cohen, supervisor wiener and supervisor kim, thank you for your time today. i am here to speak in support of interim prohibition of commercial mergers in the proposed calle 24 special use district. i want to like to thank supervisor campos for not pursuing a moratorium on restaurants. i feel as a city of diverse restaurants provides good jobs and neighborhood character. i would like to thank calle 24. restaurant association supports interim controls and we look forward to working with supervisor campos and calle 24 to come up with long-term solutions that support the neighborhood. we generally believe a conditional use approach will ultimately be the right one, but we respect the urgency while exploring a more comprehensive approach to the neighborhoodx thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is mary fitzgerald and i want to tell you what i love about the mission district. there were 47 people dressed like the mexican painter frieda caloand we all took selfies to honor her tradition of self-portraits. i love our outdoor public pool and the bike lanes. i am speaking today in support of david campos' ordinance. i also supported his luxury development moratorium and i was sorry to see it defeated last month after a 7-hour board of supervisors meeting. i stand with the people who spoke that night in favor of the moratorium. new, bigger restaurants not not be a priority in a neighborhood with high evictions. they should be allowed to stay and flourish. please don't let market forces determine the fate of the mission district. help preserve the existing culture of the mission. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. my name is susan marsh. two things briefly. first of all, i have to say that i am -- i am somewhat embarrassed and disturbed at the racial undertones of some and let me repeat "some" of the speakers in opposition to these interim controls. this has no place in public discourse in this town in it day and age. the second thing i'm going to say that i'm even less impressed with the arguments of the opposition to these intel interim controls that attempt to juxtapose conditional use permit to the interim controls. we have a situation that planning department is coming here and asking for time to craft conditional use -- a conditional use process and requirements and other controls that will actually make the cultural use -- the special use district an effective tool for preserving latino culture in the mission district and particularly on 24th street. there is no opposition. i would ask that you reject it and ask that you pass these controls on to the full board and that you protect the latino culture of the mission. thank you. >> hi everybody. i'm gladys soto. hi. i am a latina immigrant, who came here 27 years ago. from day 1, when i came to san francisco, the only thing i always wanted was to be part of the community. when i came, i was not part of this community, because i was a latina, i was an immigrant and people who know me know it's true -- to develop what we have right now -- and the way i was raised is to respect your elders. that is how i see -- no offense to anybody -- all of the people that i always looked up to, the way i was raised is when you go to a place, you learn. you learn and then you try to help them. i have worked in the substance-abuse mental health field for 22 years. and i hear somebody who is younger that i know has a big heart, but to say that those drug-dealers -- [speaker not understood] i have dedicated my entire life to make a difference. if you are really concerned, do something about it and don't just come and complain and say they are stinkly people and get rid of them and we immediate to get new people. that hurts my feelings. imagine all of the other people's feelings too. i know people had a have good hearts and want a clean city. we all do. the last thing i want to say, if you want to be part of it, you can call me. thank you. i wasn't planning to speak, but i had to say something about the community. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisor. my name is fernando martin and i'm in support of the interim controls on restaurant mergers. i walk and bike 24th street, practically every day with my kid on his way either to leonard flynn elementary or right now to the security garden on harrison street. i want to say it's true. change happens. businesses change. neighborhoods change. but sometimes change is happens onto you. sometimes there are real estate agents who call each landlord to find how much in rent those businesses are paying? and will they accept a bigger offer? sometimes there are landlords, who keep their storefronts vacant, waiting for the next big development to come in, where they can then sell that space to the next big restaurant that might serve them. sometimes there are restaurants, bigger restaurants, who want to move into spaces, where smaller places have been for a long time. i think one of the things about change happening is that sometimes communities come together, the businesses come together, people who know those businesses intimately, organize with them for over 20 years and present solutions for those businesses to hopefully consider and pass. thank you >> thank you. next speaker please. >> yes, my name is jonathan ute with the cultural action network and thank you for hearing the public. i stand here in support of the the interim controls. we're talking about a process that was approved for latino cultural district, and that process has not fully unfolded. we have a 45-day, a month -and-a-half sort of interim control for the planning department, which came and spoke in support of this 45-day window to craft and not be distracted by conditional use permit while they craft a new condition. so i just wanted to put that into perspective and it seems like having the mayor's office here, the planning department here, having nearly 100 speakers in support and only 3-4 in opposition, it seems like a very simple decision to make. it's just making time for the cultural district to fully present the options and to work through the process that it needs and that is clearly identified to you today. so that is why i am here. thank you very much. thank you. take care. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is steven, and i live off of 24th street. my partner and i moved to the mission district three years ago, speck specifically we love 24th street and the latino culture. this is where we want to live. i think you can tell there is a lot of passion in the room and in the community about the street. and i think it's important to help find effective tools to retain the character of this neighborhood, and make it an integrated neighborhood. the fact it's changing. but we don't have to lose the heart and soul of the neighborhood. supervisor cohen thanks so much for bringing up the idea of a citizen committee. i think it's extremely important. in my previous neighborhoods i participated with eureka neighborhood association and i have been finding it hard and i know that calle 24 has very important work, but i'm dismayed to find out even this morning to find out that business owners don't even know this law is being proposed. so i really urged that a citizens advisory committee be formed and that calle 24th post their meeting times on their website, including council meetings. it's not just me, but a lot of people have asked and been met with silence when the meeting times are. so i am in favor of the conditional use permit. i say this not because i think that small businesses are important -- i think they are so important, in fact, that we need to use a tool that has been proven to be successful. conditional use permits, in my experience with other neighborhood groups have kept out formula retail and businesses that don't conform with the character of the neighborhood. one speaker mentioned this moratorium -- [ inaudible ] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is marie sorenson and i'm part of calle 24th -- i hope everybody can hear me, because a lot of people don't talk very loud. i would like to invite the previous speaker and some of the open 24 people to come to our meetings. we went through -- we have been around for years. and we have have had meetings for years, and now all of a sudden people are saying oh, well, they are not inviting us. okay. i'm beyond that. one of the things that i would like to talk about is the fact that we have 33% bars and restaurants on our street. i think that is enough. i don't think we really need anymore. we're lucky enough to have a hardware store, health food stores, vegetable stores, meat stores. we have a nice variety of stores on our street. i don't want big spaces with more expensive restaurants coming in, and for those people that do, just walk up to valencia street and take the 48, take the 22, take the 9. you can find a lot there and part of what i really do love is the sidewalks roll up at night. i like the fact that it is a real neighborhood. i walk home on the last bart train at 24th and very often i'm the only person walking up the street. i don't know why -- and that doesn't make me feel endangered. i kind of want to call on the carpet people that say it's dangerous to walk -- excuse me -- dangerous to walk around. my god, i am handicapped. i have 12 artificial body parts, and yeah, i don't get cat-called any more because i'm old. but the fact of the matter is i don't ever feel unsafe walking around the neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> it's going to be hard to keep a straight face. i am from mission collaborative -- >> i'm sorry, you always say your name so fast. what is your name? >> chita. >> good to see you again. >> you, too. dolores street services and born and raised in the city, tenderloin to be specific -- shout-out to the supervisor. and i'm going briefly read a statement. calle 24 is home to carnival san francisco and host the cesar chavez festival d frieda kahlo festival and we're the first place of latin rock are carlos santana and other latin bands and we're the birthplace of the mural movement in san francisco. we have the highest concentration of murals on 12 blocks in san francisco. we have the highest concentration of legacy businesses on 12 blocks. these are businesses that are the anchors of 24th and have been around for more than 30 years with some goes back to the 1920s. we hold classic car shows and monthly rides to 24th and host mural tourists with international artists et cetera. mayor lee and all of the members of the board of supervisors have acknowledged the contributions and history of calle 24, dedicating it officially as a latino cultural district and to end the statement and add my two cents, if you want to keep families in the mission, if you want to be serious about putting forth commonsense policies and if you don't want 24th street to look like valencia street, just pass this -- move this item to the board of supervisors, with your recommendations. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker >> good afternoon, supervisors. i would like to thank supervisor campos for putting this legislation forward even though we have been on an uphill battle. i'm john mendoza with calle 24. as was said almost 30 of us are nonstop working on improving and to those here who oppose us, it's like where were you 20 years ago? i have been doing this for 20 years. this is kind of my life's work. sometimes i gets passionate about it and sometimes i'm wrong and sometimes i'm disrespectful, but this is no nonsense legislation. thank you. >> it's sue hester. i'm in support of this ordinance. this is really a simple ordinance. it says time out for 40 days; no mergers. it doesn't say no rents; no vacant storefronts can be rented. it only says no mergers. mergers are not controlled by the planning code. they are over-the-counter. there are zero standards for conditional uses on 24th street in the planning code. when other conditional uses have been formed it has been after a planning period. there is a 40-day period here to get standards together. the planning department doesn't do very well by conditional uses without standards.