Transportation authority to conduct a study, bringing back bus service on 3rd street. Bring back the 15 and potentially routing it to connect with exsettlor and the bart rain to station to the south. Chair all right. Noted. With that is there any general Public Comment . A call for the calvary to come. [laughter] to your rescue. Sounded like that. So im asking the supervisors. When we have our projects that do the asphalting, somehow we should keep in mind our children, school children, our youth and our elders when they cross from one side to the other. We kind of have those things the asphalt. And you dont have the crossing lines in place. Three months now. On san bruno. And i have spoken here four times. You know, i have to stand there and see that our kids are safe. I have to ask like a policeman. Why isnt m. T. A. Doing their job . Why isnt m. T. A. Talking to somebody. Do you all have a check list when you do the asphalting, the contractor did this, the work, asphalting, whatever. But did he put in new crosswalks, you know, after you asphalt over them. You talk about zero vision. And all of this grade grandiose type of concepts. The basic things you dont do. Go to san bruno. I want it fix within 24 hours. Otherwise im going to paint the crosswalk. [bell dings] its disgusting. Four times i came here to the board of supervisors and i brought this to your attention. Does anybody have the power in the city hall to make one call and get that work done within 24 hours . Otherwise im going to paint it. [laughter] i really will paint it. Thank you very much. Chair next speaker. Hi, im here to talk about a new item. I dont know if its number 11 or number 10. Am i allowed to speak on chair yes, this is general Public Comment. Its number 11 then. Im talking about im from the Citywide Council for the senior around disabled. Youve seen me before here. My name is mary woo. I am the secretary. We have we have a problem with house rules that dictate our behavior. And we ought to have the right to participate in the making of the amendments. We dont have a grievance process. We dont have an oversight board, which is required by the city. Chair so, maam, i dont want to cut you off. This is the transportation authority. Thats why i was asking whether its number 10 or number 11. Chair well, this is this is a body that disperses the sales tax and has other oh, sigh. Chair i did hear your Public Comment last week and brought you to my office with regard. Im happy to continue that conversation. Okay. Am i employed to speak during number 11 on the agenda items . Chair thats what this is. This is number 11. Chair this is general Public Comment. I want to inform you youre at the transportation authority. This afternoon we meet at the board of supervisors. If you want to talk about the rad program and house rules, its probably we should probably go back to my office and work on that together. Okay. Chair i did ask my staff to work with you, as a number of rad projects. I wanted to keep all of the supervisors aware that we would like you to get involved and help us to halt the process, that has been going on, where we have been excluded as a tenant body. We are here for tenant advocacy. And we were not informed of any of the meetings that were being held two months at a time. Every two months. And thats been happening since 2015. Thank you. Chair thank you. And i have been trying to arrange and maybe youve had contact with the Mayors Office of housing, this seems to have originate. Youre welcome to come to my office after this meeting. We will. Thank you. Chair thank you. Next speaker, please. Id like to provide a corporate commuter bus update. Records request indicates that there are now 100 authorized buses at 24th and church in the morning. That means theres over 200 buses all day on 24th street. That does not include the buses that are deadheading to begin a run in millie valley. M. T. A. Never placed a limit on the number of buses. The caltrain presentation today collides with the s. F. Champ hub study that we did about two years ago, where 45 of the potential commuters, on the commuter buses, indicated that they would optimistic opt to drive if they traveled to a hub location. Caltrain is a hub location. Its not out the front door. So unfortunately it doesnt seem that thats going to relieve any of the pressure off the 24th and church. The buses continue to idle in stage, awaiting for a time point departure, especially on castro and 25th street. And that entire area. We even have one us about that goes up to castro and Caesar Chavez and does a threepoint uturn, because you cant navigate the intersection and does that in the morning. Theres over 1,000 issued stickers on the buses. And about 720 or so buses that operate in the city. [bell dings] but that number is really reflecting a low number, because buses for facebook and genetey make multiple trips back to the city. 700 plus trips in the morning and the afternoon. So needless to say, with over 200 buses in noe valley, you know, i think were exasperated and getting very, very concerned about it. Thank you. Chair thank you for that comment and thank you for constantly tracking that and giving us that information. Seeing no other members of the public for general Public Comment, Public Comment is closed. And this meeting is adjourned. [gavel] 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 FranciscoPublic 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 FranciscoPublic 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