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Bay 2019. We have an exciting announcement. I am so glad you are here to join us on this Beautiful Day overlooking the lovely bridge. I am frank finn. I am here for the golden state warriors. It is a lot of years on that side and of course time on this side. You know i have done a lot of events for both mayors in the city. It is an honor to be here. I am a bay area guy born and raised here. We are bringing two cities together to do something positive and to make things happen in the bay area. We have the biggest champions from the neighborhoods and cities here for battle of the bay. We want to acknowledge the lovely mayor mayor london breed and from oakland to my right. It is a competition, folks. It is friendly. The smiles are great. You know we are rolling our sleeves in a few moments. Lets acknowledge from both sides. It wouldnt be a battle without or mascots. From the San Francisco giants lucille. From your oakland as give it out for stomper. [cheers. ] of course, we have Community Partners and we are going to hear from them to speak about the efforts. It is the city of San Francisco and oakland, the two cities facing off right here. It is about the greening competition to take place saturday, september 21st as part of the annual California Coastal cleanup day. There is a cool incentive that we will announce as well. Lucky folks from oakland and San Francisco will win on Alaska Airlines a trip wherever they want to go. Make sure to sign up. Get teams ready, and you might win the tickets to anywhere we fly on Alaska Airlines. It also protects the San Francisco bay. Cleaning, greening neighborhoods. Trash removal, habitat restoration, tree planting, neighborhood beautiful projects. We are going to hear more about the efforts, what the battle for the bay 2019 i is all about. We have a little coin to to see who will go first. It is a competition. This is game time. I have a coin. The mayors. Lets hear it for them. Ladies and gentlemen, from oakland to my right once again. Please welcome our mayor libby. From San Francisco your mayor london breed. Okay, mayors, we are all smiles. It is a competition San Francisco and oakland. We will do the coin toss. To my left is mayor london breed. This is heads. This is tails. Heads, you, tails you, ms. Schaaf. This is a coast guard coin. Here we go. What do you think . It is tails, lay or libby schaaf goes first for the city of oakland. That is a great beginning. We have already won. Listen, this is a battle for the bay because when the bay wins everyone wins. We are two cities, but we are sharing one incredible environmental asset, that is our beautiful bay. We really want to emphasize this year that every neighborhood has storm drains that flow into our bay so taking care of our bay is not just about cleaning up at did beach or on the coastline. We want people in our neighborhoods. We need our neighborhoods to be clean, healthy, shiny, beautiful. That is what this is about in oakland. Let me be clear with you all, we have over 2000 volunteers already signed up. [applause. ] i am happy to report oakland is in the lead as of now. However, people,na lead is narrow. Let us San Francisco has twice the population, but oakland has twice the pride. [cheers. ] there is no pride like an oakland pride, whether you are from the city or the town. I think we have to show the town shows up for its community, right . That is how we do it in oakland. I am excited after we hear from our mayor we will hear from a community leader. I want be to thank the people who dont just do picking up on earth day, they do it every day. We hope that coming out of our battle 4 bay you say i love this picking up trash. I want to do this all of the time because it makes me feel good to make my beautiful neighborhood clean, healthy, and i connect with my neighbors this way. That is what is beautiful. Now, mayor breed, we have been talking about a little wager, all right . Mayor, i dare you if you lose in the battle for who has the most volunteers, i challenge you to come volunteer with me wearing all as gear as gear. [applause. ] this is a wager. I want you volunteering with me at a charity with me wearing your as gear. Do you accept my challenge, mayor breed . Mayor breed that is hard. Wearing as gear . That is a bit much. I will accept. She accepts. I know we are going to win so she has to wear the giants gear. No, no. Nobody looks good in orange. Before i give up the microphone i have to recognize a few important supporters. The California Coastal commission facilitates this entire event all over our state. [applause. ] our oakland parks and Recreation Foundation is a fiscal agent for both cities for this challenge. Thank you. I also want to acknowledge our Council Member from oakland lauren taylor. Jason mitchell and his fabulous staff. What is your move . All right. And some of the top sponsors from oakland, Waste Management of al lameadda california, california waste solutions. Argent materials out of east oakland, andys construction, silver Gates Construction donating on behalf of the cyprus training program. I want to thank my sister across the bay, london breed. [applause. ] all right. London, show me what you got. Mayor breed let me start by saying, i have never been this excited since the Oakland Raiders and the 49ers played the last time at candlestick where we won. And we all know that in San Francisco we dont talk big, we just do big stuff. Mayor, my sister from across the bay, i accept your challenge because in San Francisco we already make cleaning up and greening and taking care of our city a regular part of what we do. In fact, every single month mr. Clean, our director of public works, mr. Clean himself, organizations incredible groups like united players and other folks out there taking care of the streets. Here is the thing. We have amazing volunteers. We have amazing people who work for the department of public works and the rec and parks department. Phil ginsburg is here, amazing people who cleanup the bay. We have to do more. Mayor, i have seen you on more than one occasion wearing your love oak land tshirt and i love San Francisco. When people go around loving the city. Proof that you love your city. Roll up your sleeves, take care of your community, and you grew up in San Francisco, born and raised just like may or schaaf. Born and raised in oakland. One of the things my grandmother used to do is make us cleanup in front of where we lived. I did i kicking and screaming. It is paying attention to making sure my actions reflect how i feel about my city, that i am not just throwing garbage on the ground or putting Water Bottles in recycle and doing things to keep the city clean but to protect our environment. In San Francisco we have bee han doing an incredible job leading the way in a number of environmental policies. Our director of the department of environment is here. Thank you so much. The toughest band in the country, pushing for aggressive drug take off, continuing to work with the Coastal Commission to save our bay. Yes, this is a competition and San Francisco will win, but ultimately, Climate Change is real, and we have to start with young people. We have to start implementing the kinds of policies in San Francisco and throughout the world to make this planet the best place for generations to come. Just think about it. In San Francisco we never needed an airconditioner before. We have had record temperatures in the 90s that are unprecise departmented. We have to start taking care of the bay, the communities, taking care of each other, and also winning the bet, more importantly. San franciscans, it is time to step up to show your love. Step up to make sure you sign up and volunteer because you dont want to see your mayor wearing as gear, do you . You do not want to see that site. Make sure we step up on the 21st. We will come out, clean, green, do painting of murals and do other things which not only take care of our city and planet, it also brings our communities together. I want to thank each and every one of you for being here. Thanks to all of the folks who are here from the department as well as some of our major sponsors who have consistently supported projects like this on a regular basis. Thank you to recology, emerald fund and Alaska Airlines because, you know, we have to feed volunteers. You know how that works. We have to have supplies and equipment. Ultimately, getting out there, doing the hard work, making it part of your lives and what you do every day to take care of the city and bay is critical to the success of protecting our planet for generations to come. Thank you so much. Lets win, San Francisco. Well said, mayors. That was excellent. That is a rally. Oakland and San Francisco if i havent heard one like that. This is all about the pride, but we are doing this for the bay. We love the bay. No matter what side it is. We want to thank folks here and we will have a photo at the end with the mayors. We wouldnt be here if it werent for the California Coastal commission. Lets hear it for them. The battle for the 35th anniversary of California Coastal cleanup day. It is the largest volunteer day in california. On this day tens of thousands of volunteers remove litter from waterways and shorelines and a thousand locations across california. How fitting on september 21st to do this coming together. California stands as one if not the largest contributor that takes place in the bay area. Thank you to the Coastal Commission. We have folks behind me. Thanks to the mayors, oakland parks and recreational foundation. Jason mitchell, they are ready they are pumped. Joe ginsburg is here. Elaine thorn, tommy from california train, Golden Gate National park. California state parks as well. Give them a big hand. I might have mentioned there are more players involved in this effort. Right now we will hear from Community Folks to start with the oakland side. We have a leader with faith in action. Representing the east Oakland Congress of neighborhoods. Put your hands together. applause . All right. I am excited to be here. It feels awesome to be here. It is such a an on honor to represent our mayor. Good morning, everyone. I am lydia. This wonderful guy says i am a leader with action east bay. I am proud to be here representing the east Oakland Congress of neighborhoods. [applause. ] i would like to thank everyone who made this event possible, and a special thanks to the work group for all of their hard wo work. [applause. ] so as representative of the east Oakland Congress of neighborhoods including fadein action and the residents we are excited about this campaign and to clean our cities. Of course, oakland will fill up our streets, why not, right . This is going to happen on september 21st. We are going to fill up our streets. Sorry, San Francisco. Sorry. Residents who are part of the congress have been organizing for years to bring resources to increase capacity for the Public Works Department in oakland. We are proud of this work and what we have accomplished so far. Thanks to this effort oakland has new street cleaning cruise and equipment to address the illinois leg gal dumping issue. We need each one of us in the city. It is not only oaklands responsibility. It is also our responsibility, right . Our city and our families and our streets they are affected with this garbage. We must all come together as a community and show our love to our city and our community. So i am here today to challenge one of our City Residents to come out on saturday, september 21st. Invite family members, friends, neighborhoods, students, educators and Community Members to clean our streets, parks, Community Centers and sewers in every corner of our city. [applause. ] so we deserve to live in a clean city. Our children and seniors deserve to stay healthy and walk along a safe street. Lets put our action in oakland and our community. We love our city. We must be part of the city. Thank you. God bless all of you. Lets hear it for lydia leone. I love it. Our other community side. This is a Community Organizer who has been involved with more than 100 neighborhood cleanups in San Francisco. He has worked extensively with young people to clean up neighborhoods. He believes a Clean Community is healthy and it takes all of us to make that happen. Please happen for the San Francisco side the reverend. Please come on up. San francisco, are you ready . Lets do this. We want oakland to know we won it all right. A men. Dont forget i am a preacher. I need folks to talk back to me. Are you ready, San Francisco . Clean it up . Thank you, thank you. It is a great day to be in the midst of two great women doing a wonderful job in San Francisco and in oakland. Lets give them a hand. First time, first time. I am part of the trash trackers in San Francisco. What i do. I track down trash. Somebody auto say yeah. I track it down. I locate it, find it and clean it up. I have been doing that for 30 years. We have been doing this a long time. We are glad to have oakland come to be a part of this. Guess what . We are going to win we already won it. Mayor breed, we got this. We accept the challenge and we are going to do it. I am reminded of a homeless friend of mine. He has been sleeping in tents three years. He is a sad looking guy but a happy looking guy. Every morning at 8 30 a. M. He gets up and cleans up around his tent. Then he goes to the other block and cleans other homeless men and womens tents. That is a good example of a community. We are going to have the homeless folks get out and cleanup, too. Understand this. Our homeless folks arent the only ones that are making the city dirty. That is not the truth. It is construction workers, churches, ymca, it is all of us. It takes the whole community to clean up the community. Wouldnt you agree with me . That is what we come to do today. I am proud to tell mr. Smith on september 21st right here in San Francisco you can come out and help us cleanup the city. applause . You should be happy about that. I want to say that our lovely mayor. We really appreciate you. laughter . You are our friend and oakland is our friend. We love you also much. What we are going to do. Once we win, we are going to come back over to oakland and help you all. We will help you out. We might go with you to all get together and cleanup. Am i right . This is our city, this is our california. Lets do it, San Francisco and oakland, lets do it. I have a new thing to look at. I wish i had music. We pick it up and bag it up. You have to get rhythm. Anybody have rhythm. Here we go. Pick it up, bag it up. Pick it up, bag it up. Pick it up, bag it up lets go San Francisco that is catchy. Bag it up, pick it up lets hear it for the communities in San Francisco and oakland everybody. This is fun. In conclusion before the photos, give a big thanks to our community sponsors, ricology. They are bringing out hundreds of volunteers to serve lunch. Thank you. A round of applause. Waste management of Alameda County and the Solid Waste Service providers, give them a big hand. Argent materials hosting the cleanup. Alaska airlines for the round trip tickets. There will be four lucky winners, two on each side of the bay. Go to the battle for the bay 2019. Org. Sign up. We are still signing up for september 21st. We want to thank andys construction in oakland. A round of applause as well. [applause. ] clear channel, emerald fund, warriors and black and veatch and for hosting us here today. Treasure Island Development authority. Yes, thank you so much. What a beautiful sight to see the bridge, the bay, both mayors here. The city is coming together. Battle for the bay for this friendly competition. I will close with this. Encourage everyone to go on the website. Battle for the bay 2019. Org let the competition begin. Good afternoon. Welcome to the land, use and Transportation Committee for monday, september 16, 2019. Im the chair of this committee, aaron peskin, joined by vice chair supervisor safai and to my left, supervisor haney. And were joined by supervisors fewer and mandelman. Our clerk is erica major. Any announcements . Yes. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Completed speakers cards to be included as part of the file be given to the clerk. Supervisor peskin could you please read the first item . Item number 1 is ordinance amending the plumbing code to delete the local amendment to the california code referring to the San Francisco Public Utilities rules and regulations and Cross Connection control, affirming appropriate findings. Supervisor peskin thank you. Are there any representatives from the department of building inspection or the San Francisco Public Utilities commission who want to speak to the fact that we are going to continue this, because apparently, those two organizations have not yet come into agreement on this. Are you coming up on behalf of either one of those organizations, or just no, youre just walking around. Okay. Is there any Public Comment on item number 1 . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. And, colleagues, this actually was one portion of the Building Code that came to us wherein there was agreement between two departments. And i was told last week that they had come to agreement, but apparently they have not. So id like to continue this item to the call of the chair. Is there a motion to do so . Made by supervisor safai and well take that without objection. Item continued to the call of the chair. Please read the next item . Item number 2 is hearing on state of the Restaurant Industry, including but not limited to strategies city departments are utilizing to support Restaurant Operators through the permitting and inspection process. Supervisor peskin thank you. I would like to associate myself with it. Insofar as the culture of convenience, the culture of expensive rents and many other things, some of them imposed by an array of fees and Public Policy positions that this supervisor and this government have voted on have had, i think, a deleterious collective impact on the Restaurant Industry. I want to thank supervisor fewer for calling the hearing and turn it over to her. Supervisor fewer thank you for allowing me to hold the hearing today on the state of the Restaurant Industry. Restaurants are a vital part of the backbone of neighborhoods. In my conversations, many have shared what they love about doing businessed in neighborhood, but also have talked about the challenges of opening food establishments on our corridors. Many of our departments have implemented a number of strategies to streamline and improve their support of our Small Businesses, but we know there is still work to be done. The goal of todays hearing is to look at how departments are improving their systems, and also to look at how departments can Work Together to provide clarity in the overall process to provide a road map. Im hoping today we can take a wholistic look at the climate of the Restaurant Industry in the San Francisco and zone in on the permitting processes. Restaurants and the variety of a restaurants and different cuisines help to make us a worldclass city. And a Culinary Destination for people all over the world, but this industry is suffering now. And these challenges actually threaten their very existence. It is the hope of the hearing that we can examine how we as a city and county of San Francisco legislators can support this industry. Today well be hearing from the golden gate restaurant oh, the workforce develop, the department of Public Health, Planning Department and tax collector. Anybody else with comments . I see supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman thank you. I wanted to just thank supervisor fewer for calling for this hearing. In my district, there has been a very steady and troubling drum beat of restaurant closures. And vacant store front, especially in the upper market castro area that i am very concerned about. And then we have also heard troubling stories from a number of folks trying to open new restaurants, about how hard it is to get through the various processes and permitting requirements. We made a mozest change to eliminate the modest change to eliminate the requirements, but there is a lot more the city can do to facilitate entrepreneurs to get a business established. Im interesting in hearing more from departments and folks in the industry about what is going on out there. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Lets start with the hearing. Id like to call up lori thomas, the policy chair of the golden gate restaurant association. Thank you. First of all, i wanted to good afternoon and thank you, all, for taking the time. Many have you have known me over the years. Ive been in the industry for a long time. What id like to do is speak on behalf and give an expert summary overview of the golden gate restaurant association. I still own and manage two restaurants in San Francisco. And we really appreciate your time. I know there is a lot of people who wanted to be here today, but have to run their restaurant, so were going to give them feedback. Im going to read the overview here. So what we wanted to do today was address concerns were having with hard issues our industry is facing. Were going to start with facts to bring everybody to the same page. This is taking the number of sales tax permits in 2018 and from the bureau of labor statistics, we have 2500 eating establishments and generating 4. 7 million in taxable sales to the city. Our industry provides approximately 65,000 working class jobs in San Francisco alone. And we represent 52 of the citys entire retail sector. We help keep neighborhood corridors vibrant. We bring business to the retail shops, many of whom are struggling in the online economy and help provide tourists with San Franciscos unique experiences. But were seeing a troubling trend. Up until about two years ago the number of restaurants opening and closing was approximately equal, but based on numbers from ye yelp, weve seen the closings outnumber the openings by 9 . This is causing a lot of worry and were not even seeing what were going to count in 2019. 2020, we expect an even greater number of closings, due to many factors were going to cover, that cover housing, permitting, economic pressures and vacant store fronts. Were going to provide proposed solutions and hope we can go further from here. Lets start with the shortage of affordable housing. We all know this. Its directly impacting our employees. With median rents for a onebedroom in San Francisco around 3600 per months and limited availability of anything that costs less, housing in the bay area is way short of our needs. Even ownership in the city is out of reach for the Leadership Teams which causes them to think about moving out of state. Those facing the greatest challenge are in the sweet spot of the earnings, 5070,000 a year. These are managers, chefs. Theyre the most disadvantaged. Were wondering what can we do . We may look at money allocated to Small Businesses, maybe there is a voucher system or something that could help to offset the rent issues. Maybe we can i know this is a tough one but expand transit hours so our employees can make it back and forth from the east and north bays and know they dont have to pay for uber or lyft to get home after everything is closed. Permitting. I know a lot of members will give examples theyve been experiencing. This can vary a lot, but if your a restaurant, it could take up to 12 months. It can be costly with the additional hearings. The rent you have to pay if you didnt negotiate it with your new owner. And also, too, you could risk being denied, which is troubling. The Building Permit progress, i know were trying to make progress, but its still confusing. And everybody that has done it successfully has been using an expediter, with i significantly increases which significantly increases the cost of opening a business. Is there a likely way that success could be delineated. Is there a way to streamline . Is there a way to overlap approval . I know there is a lot of progress, but were giving an overview. So a lot of the restaurants are on the ground floor of buildings. And so were the eyes and ears of what is happening on the streets. We hear from restaurant members of the daily challenges they face with both the cleanliness and the safety, whether its the wellbeing of the patrons or the staff leaving at the end of their shift, restaurants continue to see a rise and lack of safety surrounding their businesses. Neighborhoods with the most challenge, we know theyre the most densely populated from locals and visitors, downtown, market street, the had mission, but were also hearing from sunset and problems theyre starting to see in neighborhoods as well. Additionally, unfortunately, this summer a lot of us have seen a business slowdown, particularly in the month of july, from leisure travel. And restaurants are seeing reduced foot traffic due to conditions on the streets. And members are feeling like its not Getting Better and they shouldnt bother reporting these issues as often no issue is taken. Where is the accountability to address our Mental Health and Substance Abuse issues . This comes from an industry where were intimately aware of these issues. Solutions. So lets Work Together to clean up your streets. Ask the restaurants to participate and brainstorm what we can do and design programs that improve the Emotional Wellbeing of these communities. Now were going to get to my favorite subject. Economic pressure. So i pulled numbers, because i feel thats the right thing to do. I first want to say there has been a lot of great policy i believe in and i know a lot of our members believe in. Im just going to quote some of the statistics, because, unfortunately, some of the policies now have been in place to the point theyre breaking the business models. Wages. Since 2012, the wages have gone up 52 due to the minimum wage and the Ripple Effect on the payroll. This is a huge number for the industry, if you look at the national statistics, only keeps 35 cents on the dollar. So we can go through numbers later, but this has a huge effect. Health care. The spending requirements have caused the business costs, the spend to go up 37 in just since 2012. And combined, these two costs are making it much harder to stay in the red, particularly if you have a large amount of employees like i did at rose for example. So taxes and permit fees. We know we try to fix the gross receipts and payroll tax a couple of years ago and it didnt turn out. I know there is more reform planned. These taxes for smaller restaurants add up to thousands of dollars a year. Its a huge amount of money, you guys. And additionally, there is yearly increases in permitting fees. I wont tell you the cost of the table and chairs permits on union street, it will blow your mind. The other thing, too, i want to mention and youve heard this before from me, we need utilities, but theyre monopolies and theyre going to assign whatever rate increases they want. Pg e, water. We have no say and no way to combat. All these costs put together are breaking the business models. Fast casual and smaller bars and restaurants with little employees on their payroll are going to make it and theyre still continuing to grow, but fullservice restaurants, in particular ones with larger number of employees on the payroll are seeing unsustainable costing. What are solutions . I hate to say this, but im going to, i think we should take a look again at the hcso and see if there is way to modify and adjust this ordinance to make the policy work, but make it for affordable for the Restaurant Business and look at what resources do we have that work that gavin is doing, with kaiser holding their rates and things like that. We would offer to participate, and i would really like, the gross receipts and payroll tax reform. You can have as many representatives from our industry. If there is different ways to do it, i would like it not tied to the payroll. Vacant store fronts. This is a huge, huge thing and were all seeing in the neighborhoods. Were painfully ware of increased rents and vacant store fronts and inflexible landlords. And increasing rents make these vacancies more and more likely. On king street in the press today, two are closing. Tony is closing one of his slice shops. Not only are existing restaurants looking not to renew leases, but new businesses are going to have to come up with huge cash or be large chains to make this work. What is the solution here . I dont know, maybe there is a couple here. One im thinking, is is there a way to incent the landlords to lease spaces . Or a way to give tax breaks to restaurants to help them locate in areas where were seeing the highest vacancy rates. There was an enterprise tax zone in california, that doesnt exist anymore. Is there a way to do that . That helps when you have concrete numbers to put on the table. In closing, we want to ask that you consider restaurants cannot just raise their prices to offset the costs. Customers will either stop dining out, order less and god forbid we see an economic down turn from international or national issues, were going to see more close. Were concerned about the viability of our industry and were willing to be at the table. Thank you so much for your time. Supervisor peskin thank you, ms. Thomas. Before i hand it back over to supervisor fewer, i think as your presentation elucidated, this is an intertwined very complicated web. I think in order for im going to say this to the departments for this hearing to be successful and while all 11 of us and the mayor focus on homelessness and larger societal problems, i think weve got to boil this down to things that we can do. So, for instance, i agree with you that as a matter of fact the board has taken steps in other policy areas to deal with the issue of fees, which are paramount in particularly when youre starting a restaurant when there are over 20 fees. Some of them, you dont have to avail yourselves of if you dont want the entertainment permit, if you dont want sidewalk table and chairs permit, you dont have to get it, but you have to get a dbi permit for the place. You may or may not if youre moving into a previous restaurant space, depending on the zone, have to get a cu. Mr. Star will speak to the fact there are provisions for expedited cancel uses and they conditional uses and there is the department of Public Health as to food handling, which is an ongoing fee. That is something that this board can focus on beyond issues i mean, yes, it is true that San Francisco is at the forefront of health care and minimum wage, but we have been surplanted now by state and even to a limited extent federal behavior. And were seeing that throughout many, many states. I would like in order for this to be productive, because i totally agree we want this industry, at a minimum, survive and at a maximum thrive, as was the case of many years. Which is still an empty space that is causing me grief in the middle of north beach. Sorry about that. Supervisor peskin it is what it is. Youre not the only one. Supervisor haney reminded me that when the giants lose, less people come to south park. For sure. Supervisor peskin i would like to leave the hearing im not saying this to you, but to the other speakers and supervisors and my colleagues on this panel, with ideas of concrete, real things that we can do in the shortterm. That was not to you, that was just kind of to make this a productive. I want to add thank you, one thing, i know there are things that arent directly to this hearing and i hear you, and we all understand that, but if there subsequent meetings and other commissions or areas we could participate, i would be very willing to do that, as would my colleagues. Supervisor peskin and to that end, there is an evolving discussion between the board and the Mayors Office and the Controllers Office. We know that 2020 is the year where a long thought about adjustment to the payroll gross receipts tax that has been plaguing us since the infamous lawsuit brought by General Motors and 51 other multinational corporations has been bugging us for 20 years. Were trying to figure that out. You should all be a part of the conversation. Thank you for that. Supervisor peskin supervisor fewer, thank you. Supervisor safai ill be bri brief. Some of the things that we worked on in the past year have been about reducing buffer zones for permitting and some of the things weve worked on is expanding the use of commissary kitchens and restaurants. That hasnt panneded to full expanded to fullservice restaurants. The idea of second floor, i know in many cases zoning doesnt allow for a secondfloor space to be utilized as a kitchen. Those are the things we hear a lot from Small Businesses and restaurants that can be helpful. So any of the ideas, at least as it pertains to this body. We are the land use committee. I wanted to add that. Supervisor peskin and thank you for leading obviously you see an engaged panel, but before i turn it over to supervisor fewer, as a high level you have changing Consumer Behavior through what we love to call the amazon effect. And then you also have a situation where individuals who do not own or control their buildings or have longterm leases are facing massive rent. I read the article about brown where their rent went to 14,000 a month. That is crushing. There are policy things we have been talking about relative to those. And its not every property owner, but those Property Owners who hold out for egregiously high rent and chase their places out. They remain vacant, which is a nuisance and blight to all of us. So there are things we can do, like a vacancy tax, where landlords who do not reduce their rents are going to be incentivized to do so. With that, supervisor fewer. Supervisor fewer thank you for the opening overview of the challenges of the Restaurant Industry. I want to concur with the colleagues, some of the problems are bigger issues than others. But im looking and i think there are some things and ideas we can come together as city departments to help you actually and bring relief. Having said that, i would like to bring up katie skipper . The Program Manager of open sf. Shes going to give us an overview also of what open sf is helping with. Thank you, supervisors. Good afternoon. Im with the office of economic and workforce development. Thank you for the time to speak with you today about the Restaurant Industry and oewds strategy to support restaurants. We have a number of programs that support the restaurants. They strengthen commercial corridors and provides support directly to Small Businesses, including Financial Support and technical assistance. We have Employer Services that connect job seekers to job opportunities. Our Hospitality Services help train residents to enter the workforce in culinary food services, facility and building maintenance. Our night life Sector Development works strengthens the Restaurant Industry, working to connect businesses with city resources and advance policy initiatives to support the sector. And today, given the specific request regarding permitting, im going to focus on the open in sf that assists the permitting process. I wanted to give background about the program so you know where it came from. This program was in response to analysis the Controllers Office did back in 2015, that mapped the permitting process. One of the recommendations that came out of the report was that restaurants could really benefit from having one primary point of contact, someone to own their experience and work with them across all permits and agencies. So we moved forward to create the Program Based on that recommendation. It began with high level of research, including collaborating with our interdepartmental partners, business holders and stakeholders to make sure we understood the process and the challenges and could position the program to provide the assistance needed. So we determined the number of the objectives for the program. The first is to provide a primary point of contact with improve the experience. Thats really the heart of the program. So client manager works with a restaurant across the entirety of the permitting process through all permits across all departments. Another really key objective was to have a wholistic and proactive perspective. As was mentioned, it is knowing what to expect up front, being able to negotiate time lines into our lease. Those help Restaurant Owners have the tools to optimize the process. The program relies on a really high level of interdepartmental collaboration, so we can identify the needs of each individual business and support them through the process. And it also ill speak to this later, provides rich information as we go through the process over and over again to help us identify opportunities to improve the process. So since the launch of the program, at the end of 2016, 269 businesses have received assistance. This includes new restaurants as well as restaurants seeking to expand or add a license or per met to strengthen their permit to strengthen their business. Businesses across the city have received support, and businesses are finding the program directly from supervisors offices, from Partner Agencies such as planning, building and health, from oewd programs, office of Small Business, and merchant organizations and through word of mouth from prior businesses who have been clients of the program. As i mentioned, this work provides us a really good window into what some of the challenges are, what the points are that the businesses are facing over and over as they go through the process. It helps this program work as a feedback loop where we can identify some of these challenges and work to smooth them. So a couple of successes in that work recently have been at the beginning of this year, oewd worked with dbi on administrative reforms that expanded the number of businesses who can receive their Building Permits over the counter. That is a huge savings for those businesses in time. Additionally, recently, a Small Business permit streamlining legislation that was supported unanimously by the board and signed by the mayor last week. It included a number of code changes that will have real em packets for the food and beverage impacts for the food and beverage business. A lot of them came directly from the one of on one work with restaurants. There remains opportunities for improvement, which well discuss today and this program will be a good lens to watch that. Finally, looking ahead, we want to continue to expand our outreach. Were serving a large number of businesses but want to make sure that every restaurant knows its available to them. Were also thinking about how to increase capacity. The budget and legislative Analyst Report prepared at the request of supervisor mandelman on the castro areas, looking at store front vacancies, is a tool. Im thinking about the larger conversation around reducing vacancies. There is interest in how to increase capacity for the program to serve more restaurants and potentially in the future business sectors. We also, as we think about inclusiveness and equity, we know the permitting process can be inaccessible to many and we want to make sure the service can meet the needs of our perspective entrepreneurs. Of course, we will continue our interdepartmental collaboration on this work, which helps us to identify areas to keep improving the process. Smooth the permitting process for the restaurants. As a final note, i want to mention, we recognize as a dimension that permitting is just one issue a much larger and complex environment for the restaurants. This program is just one way we can help our businesses, our restaurants, put their best food forward as they launch and be in strong a position as possible as they launch. And also grow and adapt to meet the changing demand

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