Have in Environmental Health. In addition to that, i wanted to say that we are trying to streamline our inspection process so its more riskbased following the center for disease controls five major issues that cause foodborne illness. And supervisor peskin has sponsored that. Its been before you, so we will become more in line with the counties around us using red, yellow, green. So its consistent as you move from county to county, and also Restaurant Owners are not seemingly punished because they have a broken tile in the back. Or a broken tile in their bathroom. Or they just dont seem at that time to have paper towels or soap in the bathroom. So its really punishing them in that way where they lose points, this is more riskbased. Its based on food temperatures, food storage. Hand washing, if they dont wash their hands and finally where the source of their food comes from. So were making changes to the way that Environmental Health has operated in the past. And were moving forward with that. Any questions . Supervisor fewer any questions . Colleagues . Seeing none. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. So lets open up the Public Comment and hear from you. Im going to call names out. Everyone has two minutes. [reading of names] trying to earn a living where the two are at odds. Fortunately, some of the lawmakers in the city and voters as well, have made decisions in the last five years, at least since ive been in business that have affected us and makes it hard to stay afloat. The first is minimum wage. Since we opened its gone up from 12. 25 to 15. 59, which is 24 increase. And there looming threat each year. So there is this constant dark cloud hanging over wages. One of the hardest things about the minimum wage increase is that all of our employees are still working 23 jobs in San Francisco. So i wish i could pay my employees more actually. They work really hard, but all of them have multiple jobs, you know, we like to hire people that live in San Francisco, because it means theyre more likely to be on time and come to their job. Ill send my statement to supervisor fewer. I appreciate your time. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im one of the coowners of a restaurant in di viz dar oe advis dario. We opened our restaurant 18 months ago after nearly three years of working to open it. We have a secondfloor restaurant as well as a ground space. My partner and i have started to consider projects in other parts of the city, including north beach, dog patch, mid market and soma. As of late, weve started to consider San Francisco a nonviable market. Because the giga economy undermining fulltime employment, no housing for current employees to live in sf, no transport for those employees to get back and forth to other parts of the bay area, especially after midnight, a completely inefficient and painful planning process, including the d. R. , discretionary review, which gives opportunity for future neighbors to extort you before actually opening your restaurant. Ada compliance which often can take a business from being viable to unviable. Pg e schedules and monopoly pricing. Prop 13, property tax, most people are unaware that they can negotiate a clause into their lease, prop 13 and the idea of triple net leases doubling or tripling in a single year if youre a landlord decides to sell the building. Profit margins going to less than single digits. The rising costs of labor. On a yearly basis, in addition to opening costs not including i mean, including a 250,000 cost [bell ringing] liquor license, so. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, im andy chun. Press club, 125yearold beer hall in the financial district. Former owner of a cafe on fillmore street which we had to sell because it didnt work. The city is amazing, its wonderful. Its increasingly difficult to be financially viable unless you have deep pockets and a lot of resources that most of us dont have. I am currently going through a process to open up a new cocktail bar. The reason were focusing on the cocktail bar segment, it only has 10 employees. Our restaurants have 30, 40, 50. And the cost of labor is the number one driver of the business. When looking at 5 profit margin and the cost of labor increases, 10 , 15 year over year, its not hard to do the math. Im very appreciative of the effort in the hearing and the willingness of the city to look at the issues. A lot of them are beyond the scope of what any of us can do, but having that single point of contact, going through the process and understanding your probability of opening before you commit capital to the project would be hugely useful. I am solution oriented and i applaud the effort. I think we should continue down that path. As we look through other places, i decided were only going to be do bars. If we do a restaurant again, it cant be done in San Francisco at this time. Thank you. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us. We really appreciate it and i think its a very necessary thing that needs to happen. My name is angel davis, i have two tiny wine bars in San Francisco, both of them had to go through cu. One of the reasons we have the model is because its easy to pay for the employees and maintain a somewhat profitable business at that level. But for both businesses for me, it took 13 months for the First Business and the second one took 16. Luckily, on the second one, we were in a space where we were selling wine in retail, but the profit margin is little, so it was me working all the time and then supporting the second business until we had an ability to open the bottle and serve it to customers. A lot of things i want to say, have been said. Just, please, do whatever it takes and well work with you. Its really sad to see what is happening with the city. Third generation. I want to stay here. We need you to listen to us, our hardships and whatever you can do to help us get through this. Supervisor fewer next speaker, please. Hi, im charlotte. I own a restaurant in the mission. Im focused on fine dining, personally, but the speakers before me and after me are big people in the Restaurant Industry worldwide. Were not talking just small wine bars. Angels wine bar is voted one of the best in the u. S. So were all proud to be part of this community, but were suffering to consider San Francisco as a viable market for our future spaces. Ive had a lot of time to think about what is my largest challenge of owning a restaurant here. I started my restaurant 26 years, selffunded, no help. So when something hits me economically, it hits me personally very hard. Its a shame that our employees cant get home with dignity. The bar is severely outdated. As we know, not safe. It is psychological trauma to my employees to worry about if theyre going to, as an adult, make the train home to the east bay, because of the severe housing crisis we have. Not to mention payroll taxes and Everything Else that feels like such a struggle to stay above water. I cant get my employees home. So i think for me, my number one problem is, having Reliable Transportation that is safe and effective. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Michael dellar, one market restaurant. Its great that all the City Departments are here and health and everything, because it shows there is a lot of stuff happening. I think thats great. I love the idea about the outdoor seating fee renewal every year. That would be a terrific thing to address. And there are more fees like that that everybody can take on. San francisco has an image of one of the great cities in the world. Places that people want to travel to. And a big portion of that is because of our restaurants. If i could implore the supervisors, not only in this room, but in the rest of the board that isnt here, to really look at the situation in San Francisco with a sense of urgency, i think we can accomplish something and do it in a way that the reputation of San Francisco will not be degraded, decreased, because its happening. The numbers, you can ask any restauranteur in the room, the numbers are down. Look at fishermens wharf. I want to tell you one story. He lives in napa valley. He invited so friends from germany to visit. Go to San Francisco, the city, spend a couple of days there, and they said i dont think so. We hear its not what it used to be. Thank you. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Marian cotello. Skullers had the privilege of being inducted as a legacy restaurant, nominated by supervisor peskin. In order for us to be a legacy, i think a great part of what made us legacy were the longterm employees. Ive been there for 35 years. I was born in petrillo hill, i live there, but only by the grace that my greatgrandfather built there in 1907. I wouldnt be able to afford to live there. I will be losing three senior managers in the next few months to texas, arizona, and way up north, mainly because there is opportunity, but there is opportunity for housing. And we had the benefit of very low retention for many, many years, but that is not happening anymore. People are leaving the industry. People are living so far out that they cant take bart. We have to adjust schedules simply so they can take it in the morning. Let alone if you do work the later shifts. My employees that do live in the city, are more fearful. Theyre not going to walk home to north beach anymore. Theyre going to take a cap, take uber or lyft, because they no longer feel safe. And they are no longer willing to deal with what they feel they need to deal with, just what is going on in the streets. Thank you for your time. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. Matt, bistro and wine bar. Weve been open for eight years, in the castro. Bordering on dubose triangle. My partner and i have lived around the neighborhood since 2000. Im with several groups, on the board, castro merchants and retail strategy committee. Im very invested in my community. A couple of ideas. Weve talked about employee dormitories, so for folks who just need a room, shared kitchen, reduced rent. You can fit more people in there. Housing is the number one thing we deal with on a daily basis. 75 of the folks come from east bay or further. My chef, many times she sleeps in her car. Maybe if somebody has an extra room. We need more day time activation spaces. People who have shared spaces in neighborhoods and not downtown, they tend to stay to go for happy hour, go for dinner, dry cleaning, et cetera. So lets loosen up the shared spaces in neighborhoods. In castro, retail strategy committee, we are doing trying to do landlord rent surveys. We would like to know that single landlords who dont live in San Francisco have unrealistic visions of what rents are supposed to be. So we would like some transparency on folks for what everybody is paying a little more. Lets continue the conversation. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is kim. I apologize, i missed the beginning of this because i wasnt made aware of the hearing until yesterday through an email of a friend, and i was at a photo shoot i couldnt get out. I apologize, but just focused on permitting. I have a small restaurant a few blocks. Weve been open three years. It took me two years to open. I dont want to blame it on permit,ing, but it was eight months because of permitting. I am very lucky that i have a landlord who chose to turn my payment in investment. I applied to expand my space in september of 2018. My space is 700 square feet next door to me and i am still in permitting. A lot of this is because it stopped when the Historical Society decided to im trying to think of the correct words here flag my gates, which my landlord put up, to protect myself and my business due to the homeless situation. We werent made aware of the pause on the permitting for a few months. We still have permitting through january. It is a change of use. But if i didnt have a landlord who found out a popup tenant who would rent monthtomonth, there is no way i would be considered. I love San Francisco, but i dont really even want to expand anymore. Even though it will help my business, it will double my revenue, i dont know if i want to. I just got approved for a loan to buy property, a bar, and im looking outside of the city, its disheartening, the efforts we have to make. I dont want to crap on the system. I want to help. If there is anything that i can do that any of us can do, because were San Francisco, we want to help. If its making people aware [bell ringing] supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good good afternoon. Ive spoken to you previously, but happy to reintroduce myself. We opened five restaurants in five years and employ 200 women and men, building a brand that is quickly become part of the cultural fabric of San Francisco. As the person who does all the developmental work, i can say while its easier for us to open them internally, its exponentially more difficult to open them externally. Due to the citys conflicting directives. This should not be the case. We do the same thing each time. The brand is the same, the menu, the equipment. Were not reinventing the wheel. We know the process, i know the key people and yet we get tripped up. We manage to find a new land mine not previously encountered. One story, our location that was broken into, cash stolen and ipads and weve had other locations broke into, including our main office. On the design plans was the inclusion of the security gate to protect the windows. These plans underwent review and were permitted. We were in the process of having it installed when members of the Preservation Department drove up and said it be removed. They withheld our permit to operate until it was taken down. Were fortunate to have your office of workforce development, she is a god send, even for seasoned operators myself. This city well, every week i get requests about opening in their neighborhood and i [bell ringing]. [applause] supervisor fewer next speaker, please. Hello. While weve given a lot of voice to the challenges we face in the cost of running a business, we need to take a look at the cleanliness of the streets and the homelessness issue. I know its a focus, we havent talked about homelessness and i know that you here probably arent in a capacity to talk about length, but i ask that each of you go back to your fellow members and to give us an opportunity to further talk about how we can Work Together to clean up our streets. Ive had my restaurant in the Downtown Market broken into by a homeless person who tried to break into our liquor room. Hire security for two weeks to be in the restaurant because i didnt feel it was safe. I filed my payroll taxes. And the restaurant wage theft was one of two areas of focus. The other being construction. I felt like i was doing what i could to represent an industry that was trying to respond well to an issue which is really ironic. And bums me out. At the very same time, businesses that sell food to our customers through Online Platforms were setting up business in San Francisco those very same years. And they were setting up their businesses on a framework that was beyond wage theft that was fundamentally exploitive of the labor pool by classifying workers. So the commission that the businesses take in our Free Market Society are well beyond the range of margin that a restaurant has, which is anywhere from 0 to 6 , so a 20 commission is well beyond that. Im post to ask you what your priorities are and who your customers are . In the way that we regulate [bell ringing]. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Next speaker, please. [applause] good afternoon. My name is brian, owner of kitchen out of the mission, im also a board member of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. I want to reiterate. First of all, the Service Industry is the life blood of the city. Were the reason why San Francisco has held up as a gem historically as a city to visit across the world and we provide unique cultural experiences. We also provide Employment Opportunities or blue collar, immigrants, students. And so i encourage you and im thankful that your inviting us to speak here today, to be courageous about the type of change and not just think about having change around the margin. Think about the Business Models that we need to operate within in order to succeed and try to prioritize the actions that can be taken by everyone in this room that can have the biggest impact possible. Not just new restaurants, but existing restaurants, businesses, many of which have been in business for decades and are now closing at rapid rate because its difficult to operate within the confines of the current environment, given the real constraints of our Business Models. Lets also realize were all on the same team. We want vibrant i want to remind the audience, youre not allowed to eat or drink in the chamber. So please refrain or youll be removed from the chamber. Come visit our restaurants. [laughter] were all on the same team. We want to get back and Work Together. Lets take the south line as mentioned. Were all willing have the conversations. Next speaker, please. One of the current operators at cafe floor. A 46yearold restaurant in the castro. Thank you, supervisor fewer, for holding the hearing. I would like to speak directly about the question on the sidewalk permit. In 2013, cafe floor paid 2365 for its sidewalk permit. In 2018, it paid 4338 for its sidewalk permit. During those years, there have been no visits. There has been one person, i think stopped by, and i dont know what services or time and material were generated in my going online and paying those bills, but thats a lot of money to increase almost over 2,000 in those handful of years. Thats one example. Cafe floor needed to split its operation and receive a permit for the kitchen across the from its restaurants because the restaurant is too small. When scott wiener passed the legislation and enabled the restaurant to continue to be open and now were paying for not one restaurant not one restaurant fee, not one registration, not one health, we pay for two. So our 40seat sidewalk cafe pays for not one, but two restaurants. It pays almost [bell ringing] twice the amount in sidewalk fees in half a dozen years. These are concrete real things happening in the community that as the last speaker said, we need to do something about and do something about them right now. Or we will be gone like everyone else. Supervisor fewer thank you. Next n. Next n. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im luke. I really have fallen in love with the industry and i may request an additional minute, what hasnt been touched on is the issue of the tech platform, which is very much in the news. We call them grub hub or tablets. Theyre gaining 5 billion a year in market share. Theyre up to 25 . They charge user rates 2530 fees. Its been in all sorts of news in the districts because im sure all of us read the articles about restaurants all the time. About how many places are closing because of that. Or they dont realize theyre losing money for several months, several landmark restaurants in San Francisco have closed and they lose money while they do that. Theyre subsidizing, running ads. Dont ruin your night by going out. Thats 100 million advertising against the heart of the city. And these are small momandpop businesses, with local artists that meet and try to make ends meet. Theyre virtually integrating. Theyre opening kitchens. 16 kitchens that are owned. Its like cropsharing, but for a kitchen, and you have to use their platform. Its really what it is. Its userrisk to people. And the virtual restaurants dont exist. Theyre taking the tips away from people. And then there is new technology, starbucks in the castro permit was to sell 2000 sandwiches. Now theyre selling 2000 sandwiches from a turbo chef, so why get bacon and eggs. So the permitting system hasnt kept up with the technology. The big digitals, theyre buying restaurants as part of it. [bell ringing] supervisor fewer thank you, sir. Any other public speakers. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Supervisor haney thank you, chair fewer, for calling this hearing and thank you to everybody who came out. You know, i think we all agree that our Restaurant Industry is the life blood of the city, one of the Public Commenters said that. And that it is having a very difficult time right now. I think that was reflected in all of the comments i heard today. There is a couple of things i wanted to say. One, it sounded like everybody wants to be a part of the solution and has a lot to share. And that we need to figure out what the right ongoing venues are for that. We heard presentations that show were trying and there has been changes around process, that are intended to address the issues, but it also sounds like that wasnt reflective of the experiences that a lot of people are having. And that actually we can do more and better. So one of the things i would hope would come out of this. Showing the commitment based on what theyre telling us. I think thats something that is clearly needed when we have this commitment to doing better, but thats not experience, at least at the level its needed. I also think there is a lot of different departments that folks need to deal with. And so i was interested in the beginning from oewds perspective, where is that single entry point to make sure that you have the full support of this building and the city government, as you have to navigate these multiple departments. And really making sure that were having the efficiencies. So what does that look like . Also seems to me like, there is opportunities for really more specific and substantial changes to be made to support this industry. Whether that is in process, whether that is in zoning. But i think the level of crisis that we heard about from the industry, there is a clear feeling that we arent responding with a level of urgency and the breadth that really is being experienced on the ground. You know, i just heard yesterday, was mentioned around pedros and petes. For me, that street, king street, you would think that would be an area that would be doing very well. And yet those businesses are struggling and closing. So imagine how hard it is for the businesses not in that position, that dont even have the benefit of those tens of thousands of people coming. I had on my list and glad the last speaker brought this up, really looking at the impact of the Delivery Services. I think thats totally transforming the landscape of restaurants in a way that the city is maybe behind the ball in how we can be supporting restaurants. And Small Businesses. We also have a situation where many of those businesses are here. So our opportunity in terms of the Tech Companies and platforms, how to regulate them, how to actually, if possible make them part of the solution, or at least make sure that were working and protecting the store fronts in this context, affordable space and housing came up. Transportation. I mean so many things that if were going to have a wholistic solution, we need to be working together. I dont know what your thought was in terms of what would come out of this, but im interested in how this can be an ongoing conversation and how we can benefit from these ideas to come up with responses that really meet thes crisis that were facing. Clearly have a need to turn this into action. Supervisor fewer absolutely. Commissioner safai. Supervisor safai thank you, supervisor fewer. Thank you, supervisor haney for the comments. I think its right on. One of the things that i have heard over the years in office now is that there is a lot of good intentions going on between the planning department, oewd, building, but there doesnt seem to be as much as weve strived to do that, there still needs to be more work to coordinate and streamline. We hear great stories, but then we also hear horror stories. There needs to be a general understanding. I like the presentation to have a point person. But not everyone knows to go there first. If im a restaurant owner, im going to figure out the type of lease im going to get. I might not even know if the space is permitted for that when im signing my lease. Sometimes that happens. I go over to building and planning and im working through that and then all of a sudden, i find out that Public Health wants a whole different set of materials that building was not aware of, because they dont know the certain types of tiles or other things that might prohibit a business from opening. Im not making that story up. That was from a Small Business owner in my district that spent 100,000 to open up a new business downtown and literally, just walked way after spending months and months to open up that business. So this hearing is exceedingly important, but there needs to be a way to figure out how were not just operating in silos. When i go to building and talk about the permitting and the layout, there should be a way to relate back to the agencies. Planning is not worried about the type of tiles. Thats not their job. But it is a crucial step in getting your final signoff to open up your business. If you dont have that, your entire business wont be able to operate. So i just think that i think one of the outcomes of this is to have a report back at some point to get an understanding how were getting some of these different city agencies that begin to cooperate and work Better Together and function better on behalf of. I would think that the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and those industries that are entities that set up to work with restaurants, also can be a point of contact and say, this is step one. This is where you start. So i want to thank supervisor fewer and all the different city agencies that came out. I know everyone is well intentioned and wants to help open these businesses. As you saw from planning, we did everything we could. We removed the notification process. Changed our zoning table and are ready and open for business. Anyone that wants to open a restaurant in mission, were ready to go. Were here to help. Supervisor peskin my apologies, we were having a conversation with the mayor relative to the impacts of the central subway on Small Businesses in chinatown, which as we all heard, unfortunately, last week, is going to be delayed by some time. Supervisor mandelman i want to one more time thank you, supervisor fewer, for your commitment and diligence on this issue. And for holding this hearing. I want to thank all of the folks in the Restaurant Industry who came out to tell your stories and it was saddening and frustrating, not inconsistent with things ive heard from folks trying to operate restaurants in my district. It is i know particularly galling to be nickelanddimed and delayed and fined by a government that seems unable to deliver the very basic Public Services that residents and Small Businesses might expect as the preconof their ability to precondition of their ability to operate successfully. I share that frustration. I think my colleagues do as well. And we need to continue to work on the larger issues. I think weve heard some more specific areas where we might be able to make progress. Im happy that supervisor peskin and supervisor fewer have both expressed interest in looking at where there may be fees. I think there is a conversation about the tax reform and that may be an opportunity. We provided enough tax incentives for large operators in the city to grow and thrive and maybe this time around, we can provide some Additional Support for the smaller businesses. [applause] but, also looking at these particular fees, one that didnt come up that ive heard about, is this fire alarm fee. Every time there is a false alarm that goes off, particularly for a new business trying to figure out how to operate, its very easy to quickly run up a bunch of false alarms and you end up in the first year owing a ton of money. Maybe thats something we could look at, but i think there is a long list of fees that make sense. One of the city agencies not here is the fire marshal. Each business, each time, as the owners pointed out, its never the same story. There is a different problem each time that slows you down. But certainly the fire marshal has contributed their share. Know everybody is trying, but again, i think there is how to make it so when six different agencies, or six different departments are looking at these projects that this potential for endless delay doesnt continue and everyone keeps in mind that the goal is to get the business open as quickly as possible, except we can do that consistent with safety and our other needs. So anyway, i think this is just the start of the conversation. Im looking forward to participating, Going Forward with all of you. With that, thank you, again, supervisor fewer. Supervisor peskin thank you, supervisor mandelman. Before i recognize and thank supervisor fewer for holding this hearing, i want to apologize for my absence. As i said earlier on to ms. Thomas not to ms. Thomas, but really everybody. I want to focus on things we can do. Which is the area of fees. Secondary units, inlaws as people used to call them in San Francisco and to that end we passed legislation eliminate those fees and most, if not all circumstances. So i think we should start looking at that in the realm of restaurants where i actually had my staff look at it. There are 22 different fees that apply to restaurants that are starting out. Not all of those apply when youre in an established restaurant. I also think that as a matter of policy, we should start with hanging onto the restaurants that weve got. I think that is where we should put our immediate attention. I know the barriers to interest, you have to get conditional use, insofar as were at the Tipping Point and that number of, yeah, i remember 30 years ago, the stat, or at least in the Popular Culture was every day, there is a restaurant that goes in and out of business in San Francisco. But when you say that there is now a 9 Tipping Point, lets do everything we can for the restaurants weve got. The 22 different fees, many of which apply to the restaurants that want to come, i want to get to. But there is a bunch of those that we touched on today as it relates to public works and sidewalk and table permits. So lets start having that conversation. Lets have it quickly. And lets rationalize those different permit fees. That is probable the lowhanging fruit. I want to say as a supervisor with historical perspective, in the old days every increase and every fee came to the board of supervisors. And we would wrestle with it. Later on, after the down turn in the economy in 2001, we actually gave the controller and the departments the ability to actually raise those fees automatically based on various formula having to do with the cost to the city and Consumer Price index and what have you. Im sure Ben Rosenfeld is saying it wasnt cpi, it was cost recover, but it may be time to bring all of those things back to the board one by one, so we have to evaluate them one by one. Those are my perspectives and with that, i sincerely want to thank supervisor fewer for holding the hearing. Supervisor fewer well thank you very much. I really sincerely want to thank everyone for coming out and educating us on the challenges of our Restaurant Industry. I dont think anyone here disputes the fact that, the restaurant in San Francisco, kind of put us on the map. Were a culinary destination. When you come to San Francisco, you expect to be eating very, very well. Whether its high end or on the lower end spectrum. And we are slowly losing, i think, that legacy that we had. A lot of restaurants, which actually are memorialized in movies and books and literature, have all shut down because of this crisis, which is happening. It is heartbreaking when i see one of my favorite restaurants going under. Just thinking about, going to miss those meals so much. So i think everyone in my neighborhood feels that way. I think everyone in my colleagues neighborhoods feel that way, that our restaurants are not only gathering places, but theyre places not only feed us and our families but add to the vibrancy of our neighborhood. Having said that, i think that we are the city the city could be doing more and i want to say that, you know, we have been doing today we heard about the streamlining. We heard about helping with the navigation of this really complicated system to open up a restaurant. We talked about expedited permitting, license consolidation, business tax reforms. I think there are things that we could be doing. And we also talked about elimination of fees. And i mention also the condoizing of retail space, that could be a possibility as we have no control over the rent control of retail spaces, which i know is hitting all of you hard. I wanted to mention that i passed Vacant Store Front legislation last year, looking at loopholes on how to keep one city block, why an owner can have five empty store fronts on the block, across the street, legacy business, not allowing the businesses on the other side of the street to thrive because of these five empty store fronts that she continues to leave empty. We wanted to close the loophole and we did. You can no longer put a for rent sign, but you must register and there is a fee and every year that you own that empty store front, you must have an engineer or architect actually write, do an inspection and deem that it is safe and not a fire hazard. As supervisor peskin is now looking at vacancy, also we didnt know how many Vacant Store Fronts we had. I was told in 2016, i had zero. So i had my neighbors crowd source and we had 156. And now when we can get an accurate accounting of how big the problem is, we can tackle it. Im writing legislation about construction mitigation fees, because i know, when i say that helmands palace had closed down luckily, only for renovation, but when i thought it was permanently closed along the van ness corridor, my heart fell ali little bit a little bill. Luckily, theyre just remodelling. We did not have a mitigation fee for any of the Small Businesses. During these Long Construction projects you have in front of your stores, so now were writing legislation that we must add in a budgetary item that talks about mitigation for Small Businesses. As they lose revenue through the Long Construction projects. Another thing i think that we need to look at restaurants im so glad that is brought up today, as a lay person, i dont know the difference between cocktail bars and a restaurant. I dont know the nuances and the expenses of it. And now i am realizing that actually we should be separating these smaller venues and larger venues that have many more employees and many more Health Restrictions on them, all those things, looking at them in separate venues. I want to say, i dont think a lot of them are represented here, but in my district and supervisor peskins, many of my Restaurant Owners, english is their second language. You are having a difficult time and english is your first and only language, youre having a hard time navigating the system, hiring employees, you can imagine people with english is not their first language and all the legal ease that goes with this and the permitting of that. I would like to see attention put toward when we talk about all the things were doing, navigation, streamlining, that we make sure were offering these in different languages so that other and you know, i just want to say, the cool thing about San Francisco, you can eat food here that is food from someone who has been cooking in thailand for how many years and theyre bringing it right to us. This is the wonderful part of San Francisco. We want it make sure those Small Businesses also are viable and are not going under. And then i just wanted to say about the Delivery Platform thing. Yeah, super upsetting. And the fact that many times you must offer delivery in order to stay competitive. So i have been talking to my staff about maybe some out of the box tt ideas about pooling delivery efforts together. Not depending on the platforms, but how can we create even through a City Department maybe, a Delivery Service platform that youre not paying 20 or whatever for this Delivery Service. I think we can do more with streamlining and i think we should keep track of that to see if were really reaching the potential with the strategy. Also, i think the idea of condoizing retail spaces, we should explore that more. Homelessness, the cleanliness of our city, yeah. So, yeah. I think that it is an issue. So im just not going to say its not an issue. Its a huge issue. In fact, im going to a Homeless Community meeting in my district tonight that i know is not going to be a pleasant one. These are huge problems. I want to say that San Francisco is experiencing the largest wealth gap it has ever experienced before. It is not just happening in San Francisco, it is all over the place. If you go to l. A. , its a nightmare. If you go to fresno, you will see it, the west coast. This is an issue were trying to get a handle on. I know supervisor haney, 60 of Homeless Population lives in his district. Calling for more services, pit stops, 24 hours a day, those type of things, but we hear you. I think this is an issue that, youre right, we all need to work on it together, it affects you, us, it affects all the residents in San Francisco. I think that should be on the list when we come together and talk again about issues. Also, i think we didnt hear from the Small Business commission. And i want to know about the program and whether or not how effective they are. Because were putting invest in neighborhoods. Ive seen some of this in my neighborhood that didnt do anything. So wondering how theyre working to bring out information to Small Businesses on site, on the corridors specifically and how often they actually keep track. And what is the relationship between those merchants associations, also, and between oewd, Small Business commission and the Merchant Commission and are they hearing from them and what strategies are they bringing fort . And i want to say, the housing thing is a nightmare. I get it. That there is nowhere for your workers to live. The working class folks of San Francisco. Oh, my god. God bless them. But, yet, they keep city hall running. They keep our city and county of San Francisco running. The people that clean our streets. The people that serve our food. The people that drive our buses, the people that educate our children, the people who diaper our children, all of these workers cannot find housing. It is a horrible situation. I think one thing we can all do, and i just want to give a plug for housing bond for affordable housing, were behind. We cannot let developers depend on developer to build affordable housing. We have to put skin in the game and build affordable housing. Too. I like the idea of dormitories. Although, not everyone is going to want to live in a dormitory, but for some of the workforce, that trends younger, a younger workforce, or ones that dont have families, whatever, i actually think the idea of employee dormitories is one that should be explored. And we should be looking more in San Francisco about workforce housing. When we talk about middle income, your employees are not middle income. Your employees are low to moderate income earners. Theyre mainly low earners. If youre making the minimum wage in San Francisco, youre not making a living wage and this is why your workers are working two or three jobs. Thank you for bringing that up. We know we have minimum wage because we want to hope to raise the viability, the economic stability for the people of San Francisco when we know that is just ridiculous when theyre making 16, 17 an hour. However, i do think that as we have, as a city somehow created this huge gap and this shortage, and i think that what we should do is make a commitment, not only to be building bringing these Big Companies to San Francisco, but also that we have people that can serve the workers of San Francisco. I am a fourth generation san franciscan. And there was a time you know, you could work a living wage job and you could find a place to rent. You didnt have to share a onebedroom with four people. You could actually find a place. I think were working toward strategies to identify how many vacant units there intereare in francisco that we dont know about. But workforce housing, in the form of employee dormitories, which sounds dismal, but im sure we can make it better is a possibility. I want to thank you for bringing that forward. I want to keep the current restaurants afloat. I know we talked about opening new restaurants, but we have some that our residents depend on and they would be sick to see them close. Lets Work Together on this. I think our next steps should be a working group that actually brings the City Departments together and that we can actually have different people in the industry. And people in the industry, would also reach out to our other members of the industry that where english is not their first language and lets hear from them also about some of the struggles theyre having to keep afloat. Im sure the same ones you have, but how well are we communicating with them . I want to thank the City Departments for coming out today and trying to tackle the problem of the things that are challenging our Restaurant Industry. I want to thank all the City Departments for putting their of doing this good work of streamlining and trying to navigate. I think you also, your hands are tied where we have this large wealth gap and lack of affordable housing, i dont know what you can do about it. Mr. Star, from planning, not to put you on the hot seat, but i think it does stem from planning. I want to thank everyone for being here. I wonder if this is an item we should continue. If so, i would like to make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair. Actually, youre not a voting member. Supervisor peskin supervisor fewer, thank you for the amazing recitation of everything big and small that has been uttered inside and outside of this hearing. And i want to stay focused. I want to say, look, i dont want to overpromise. Were not going to, in the context of this discussion, solve the homelessness crisis, housing crisis, but there are things we should do. And im saying this to my friend and colleague, supervisor fewer, we have to set our sights on things that we can do. I think there is widespread agreement on the panel around fees which is, i think, low hanging fruit. That we can pursue. Im happy to continue the larger conversations that were having in many different venues around other remarkably vexing issues. There are things we did not talk about that are actually in the purview of this committee that were written about on sf gate a few months ago as it relates to ghost kitchens, that i dont think we touched on, unless it happened when supervisors safai and i were out of here. To supervisor fewer request that she made, yes, we will continue this to the call of the chair. And let us drill down on some things that we can do. I would like to end this, because i get to do that as chair, by