This is truly one of our signature events of the year. Certainly one of my personal favourites. And if you see all the incredible stuff happening here down j. F. K. , if you havent walked down the street, there are rides and food and games and you get a goat of conservatory of flowers from night bloom or the outside of the building and the inside of the building are all lit up. It is super cool. The start of our show tonight is right next to me. Our mayor, london breed. Mayor, thank you for joining. We will have you wait just a second. The mayor is a magician and she will make the magic happen tonight with this tree. Before we make that happen, we need to acknowledge some other special guests who are here that make this happen tonight. They have joined me on stage. Present tonight we have state Assembly Member phil taking who is right there. [applause] i think our assessor recorder carmen to is here or on her way, and then we have our recreation and park commission, our president , mar buell mar you will and all of the commissioners. We have a number of other folks from the parks and Recreation Advisory Committee who are here who helped guide park policy. We are grateful for their support. And i see a few special Department Heads starting with our police chief bill scott who is here. I saw deputy chief david lazar, the head of the department of the environment is here. And many other special guests. If i have missed anybody on this stage, i apologize. I saw a project level in the house. Thank you very much. We do events like this four times a year. Our Family Friendly free events would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors or partners including kaiser permanente, Byward Market , the San Francisco parks allianz, i saw the president of the Parks Alliance in the house, and recology. And of course, none of this would be possible without the hard work of the best staff. The best and hardest working staff in city government. The recreation and Park Department staff. Lets give them a big round of applause. [cheers and applause] so let me talk for a quick second about the tree itself. This is San Franciscos official holiday tree. This tree was planted by john mclaren. It is a Monterey Cypress that is over 130 years old. It has aged a little bit. It might have lost a limb or two over the years, but it is Still Standing tall. Tonight it is sporting over 550 lights. And what makes this Tree Lighting special is that this is the last Tree Lighting, this is 100 the 149th year of golden gate park. So next year we will celebrate the hundred and 50th birthday of our entire park system in San Francisco. Lets give that around of applause. [ ] i mentioned our partners and i want to bring up one special partner. We have many, that help us provide programs and provide services for kids and help us to special events tonight. One of those partners is kaiser permanente. Tonight, the chief operating officer of kaiser his here to join us in celebrating the start of the holiday season. Help me welcome miss miller who will come up and say a few words [applause] good evening, everybody. Happy holidays. Welcome to tonights festival on behalf of kaiser permanente. We are a proud sponsor of recreation and parks annual Tree Lighting ceremony. Can you believe it is 130 years old . What we would like to do is celebrate tonight and also welcome you to the theme for this next year which is making friends one data time. The 150th anniversary or celebration of golden gate park. 150 years. Give that a hand. [applause] in honor of that, we come together across this beautiful city to this world renowned park to meet with friends and family and to make new friends as well. Reminds me of the campfire song, make new friends, but keep the old. That is how this city grow stronger and strengthens through his relationships. We will continue to support these beautiful events and we hope that you, too, will take advantage of tonights festivities. Thank you again on behalf of kaiser permanente. Thank you. All right. So she is truly our park champion and chief. Lets get it lit, she says. She really likes to party and she is not particularly patient, but let me bring her up. Ladies and gentlemen, our mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] thank you. All right. I love the theme music. First of all, thank you all so much for coming out today and braving the rain to be here with us tonight to celebrate 90 years of a time honored tradition here in San Francisco right in front of mclaren lodge. This is an amazing, fun event. Fun for the whole family. I love the idea that we have so many incredible officials here, but i will need some kids to help me light this tree. [applause] so i see these patient young people raising their hand right down in the front row. Have your parent bring you on up to the side of the stage so you can help me like this tree. [ ] i need some help here with this switch. [ ] all right. Come on up. I think we might be almost at capacity. Hold on. Come on over. Come on, you guys. Are you going to help . Do you want to help . Yes, i love it. You are brave. Okay. This is what we are going to do. Gather around the podium. Gather around the podium, kids. Stop trying to crash, parents. All right. Because we know how to count, we will do the count down starting from 10, and then we will hit the switch. I will ask you, what is your name . Jr. I will ask you and what is your name . Sia. I will ask you to put your hands here because when i say to move it and to liked it, then you have to switch it real fast. Okay . Everybody in this place is going to help us count, but not until we say we will start with 10. Are you already . Are you ready . Okay. Lets start. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] good job. Thank you so much for helping us here today. Have a wonderful december celebrating joy with your Family Friends and community. Happy holidays, everybody. [ ] the new friday farmer his market is in the u. N. Plaza. It features the best of San Francisco. Grab fresh foods and veggies from the heart of the farmers market. Shop from marker local vendors. Engage in free diy craft sessions and grab lunch representing cuisine from around the world. [ ] we offer 60 varieties of organic fruit and 30 varieties of conventional. One of our best sellers so sellers is our manager in. It is super sweet. We sell 600 pounds a week. One of the things they like about the market as i get to see my regulars on a weekly basis. I get to meet their families and kids and it is really good to be here. San francisco won my heart. One of our vegetables that is very popular is kale. A lot of people go for dino kale our mission is to make sure we have access for everybody to get organic foods, no matter your financial status. We make greeting cards, invitations, enamel pins, and we do workshops. I am participating in this market because it is a great opportunity for local makers to sell to a really Diverse Community of people in San Francisco. They partnered with the market here and invited us to come out and reach out to the public. We are going to do a full event of workshops where you get to arrange your own bouquet. We will teach you all the tricks and techniques and you will be able to take home a bouquet of your own. You. [ ] we really are wanting to bring opportunities to the community to introduce these local makers to a larger audience. This is my own pakistani recipe. It goes with rice, chicken, lamb we have a very delicious drink. We have a lots of variety of foods. [ ] we do lots of different curries. We do three different types of wontons. Spring rolls, too. Thats right. It is really great they are bringing out local artists from around the city to participate and really help us making our business more successful. Its great to see everyone kind of get together and prove, that you know, building our culture is something that can be reckoned with. I am desi, chair of Economic Development for soma filipinos. So that [ inaudible ] know that soma filipino exists, and its also our economic platform, so we can start to build filipino businesses so we can start to build the cultural district. I studied the bok chase choy her achbl heritage, and i discovered this awesome bok choy. Working at imarket is amazing. Youve got all these amazing people coming out here to share one culture. When i heard that there was a market with, like, a lot of Filipino Food, it was like oh, wow, thats the closest thing ive got to home, so, like, im going to try everything. Fried rice, and wings, and three different cliefz sliders. I havent tried the adobe yet, but just smelling it yet brings back home and a ton of memories. The binca is made out of different ingredients, including cheese. But here, we put a twist on it. Why not have nutella, rocky road, we have blue berry. Were not just limiting it to just the classic with salted egg and cheese. We try to cook food that you dont normally find from Filipino Food vendors, like the lichon, for example. Its something that it took years to come up with, to perfect, to get the skin just right, the flavor, and its one of our most popular dishes, and people love it. This, its kind of me trying to chase a dream that i had for a long time. When i got tired of the corporate world, i decided that i wanted to give it a try and see if people would actually like our food. I think its a wonderful opportunity for the filipino culture to shine. Everybody keeps saying Filipino Food is the next big thing. I think its already big, and to have all of us here together, its just it just blows my mind sometimes that theres so many of us bringing bringing Filipino Food to the city finally. Im alex, the owner of the lumpia company. The food that i create is basically the filipinoamerican experience. I wasnt a chef to start with, but i literally love lumpia, but my food is my Favorite Foods i like to eat, put into my favorite Filipino Foods, put together. Its not based off of recipes i learned from my mom. Maybe i learned the rolling technique from my mom, but the Different Things that i put in are just the Different Things that i like, and i like to think that i have good taste. Well, the very first lumpia that i came out with that really build the lumpia it wasnt the poerk and shrimp shanghai, but my favorite thing after partying is that bakon cheese burger lumpia. There was a time in our generation where we didnt have our own place, our own feed to eat. Before, i used to promote filipino gatherings to share the love. Now, im taking the most exciting filipino appetizer and sharing it with other filipinos. It can happen in the San Francisco mint, it can happen in a park, it can happen in a street park, it can happen in a tech campus. Its basically where we bring the hardware, the culture, the operating system. So right now, im eating something that brings me back to every Filipino Party from my childhood. Its really cool to be part of the community and reconnect with the neighborhood. One of our largest challenges in creating this cultural district when we compare ourselves to chinatown, japantown or little saigon, theres little communities there that act as place makers. When you enter into little philippines, youre like where are the businesses, and thats one of the challenges were trying to solve. Undercover love wouldnt be possible without the help of the mayor and all of our Community Partnerships out there. It costs approximately 60,000 for every event. Undiscovered is a great tool for the cultural district to bring awareness by bringing the best parts of our culture which is food, music, the arts and being ativism all under one roof, and by seeing it all in this way, what it allows san franciscans to see is the dynamics of the filipinoamerican culture. I think in San Francisco, weve kind of lost track of one of our values that makes San Francisco unique with just empathy, love, of being acceptable of different people, the out liers, the crazy ones. Weve become so focused onic maing money that we forgot about those that make our city and community unique. When people come to discover, i want them to rediscover the magic of what diversity and empathy can create. When youre positive and committed to using that ener , adjourned. Shop dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shop dine in the 49 with within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local Services Within the neighborhood we help San Francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop dine in the 49 my name is jim woods im the founder of Woods Beer Company and the proprietor of woods copy k open 2 henry adams what makes us unique is that were reintegrated brooeg the beer and serving that cross the table people are sitting next to the xurpz drinking alongside were having a lot of ingredient that get theres a lot to do the district of retail shop having that really close connection with the consumer allows us to do exciting things we decided to come to Treasure Island because we saw it as an amazing opportunity cant be beat the views and real estate that great county starting to develop on Treasure Island like minded Business Owners with last week products and want to get on the ground floor a nobrainer for us when you you, you buying local goods made locally our supporting Small Business those are not created an, an sprinkle scale with all the machines and one person procreating them people are making them by hand as a result more interesting and cant get that of minor or anywhere else and San Francisco a hot bed for local manufacturing in support that is what keeps your city vibrant well make a compelling place to live and visit i think that local business is the lifeblood of San Francisco and a vibrant sfgovtv Small Business commission sfgovtv. We will get started in just a moment. This is a special meeting of the Small Business meeting on friday, december 20, 2019. The Small Business commission thanks sfgovtv for tele vicing the meeting on sfgovtv. Please silence your phones and electronic devices. Public comment during the meeting is limited to two minutes per speaker unless established by the presiding officer. Speakers are requested to state names, completion of speaker card will help ensure proper spelling of the written record of the meeting. Please place those in the basket. When Public Comment is called if you could please line up on the right side of the room for crowd control that would be much appreciated. There is a sign in sheet on the front table. Sfgovtv please show the office of Small Business slide. Welcome. It is our custom to begin and end with the reminder the office of Small Business is the only place to start your new business in San Francisco, and the best place to get answers about doing business in San Francisco. It should be your first stop with a question about what to do next. You can find us online or in person here at city hall, best of all, all services are free of charge. The Small Business commission is the official public forum to voice your opinions and concerns about policies that affect the Economic Vitality of Small Businesses in San Francisco. If you need assistance with Small Business matters start here at the office of Small Business. Item one. Call to order and roll call. roll call . Mr. President , you have a quorum. Item two. General Public Comment. Members of the public can comment on matters within the Small Business jurisdiction and to suggest new agenda items for future consideration, discussion item. Any members of the public to make a comment on any item that is not on the agenda today . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Next item. 3. Approval of legacy business registry application and resolution. The presenter is the Legacy Office of Small Business. Good afternoon. Richard, Legacy Program manager. I have a power point presentation. Before you today is one application for consideration for the legacy business registry. The application was reviewed by me, submitted to Department Planning staff on december 4th. Heard by the commission on december 18th. The sbc has been provided a staff report, draft resolution, application, case report from Planning Department staff and resolution from the h. P. C. There is a copy on the table in the public binder. Caffe sapore reopened on marc march 23 in north beach and immediately became a neighborhood gathering space. It is a european stealing cafe with fresh stand witches, bagels, sandwiches ag sandwie and tea and beer and wine. The cafe submitted jobs for entry level workers including one who has worked there for 18 years. Earlier the business received a landlord allowing 90 day notice for lease termination. This was in spite of the fact caffe sapore was current on payments. They attempted to reach out to negotiate terms to allow the cafe to stay open. They have not succeeded. The business must vacate by december 31st, 2019. Several news articles are published highlighting the importance that the cafe has within the community. Caffe sapore received a positive recommendation from the Historic Preservation commission. Staff finds the business qualifies for list on the legacy business registry. I have listed those here and i am going to read them today. 1. The business has operated in San Francisco for 30 or more years with no break exceeding two years. The business may have operated in more than one location. If the business has operated in San Francisco for 20 years but less than 30 years it may satisfy this if it has contributed to the history or identity of the neighborhood or community and if not included in the registry the business would face risk of displacement. It has contributed to the neighborhood or community. 3. The business is committed to maintaining the traditions that define it including craft culinary or artforms. There is a draft resolution for consideration. Be mindful a motion should be in favor of the resolution. In the resolution please pay close attention to the core tradition that defines the business. Once approved the business must maintain the tradition to remain on the legacy business registry. For caffe sapore, it is restaurants. The office of Small Business received letters and signatures of support for the business. 29 letters were included in the registry application. One additional letter of support from sf heritage was received on december 19, yesterday. In addition 2000 signatures of support were provided on december 18th. Neither of those items had enough time to get in the packet. This afternoon at 145 p. M. We received a letter of opposition from the attorneys zack, friedman and patterson representing the Property Owners. We have the deputy City Attorney here to answer questions you have. Right now i am presenting to the secretary the letter from sf heritage, 2000 signatures and the letter and packet from the lawyers. This concludes my presentation. I am happy to answer any questions. There are representatives in attendance who would like to speak on behalf of the application. Thank you, rick. Do you want to go right to Public Comment . Okay. We are going to start. We have lee hepner here from Aaron Peskins office. Thank you. I am just rushing over here from supervisor peskins bedside. He is recovering from surgery. He thanks you for scheduling this special meeting on the eve of a holiday. It means a lot to the supervisor. He would be her personally if it were not for his recovery. Thank you for helping schedule. We are proud to have the highest number of leg bass see businesses on the registry. This is a special business and this is a real treasure in the neighborhood. It is in business 23 years and facing displacement. Our entire office from supervisor peskin to every member of the staff has been working to pry to prevent displacement of this business. Frankly, this is not a case where a business is struggling. This is an immensely popular business to the community. To get out to have the rally in support of caffe sapore and to have the support from the chamber to over 100 neighbors, many are here in support of caffe sapore. This is a Community Living room. When you displace a business like this, it leaves a tear in the fabric of the community. That is why we are here today. The three forms of relief legacy status will confer upon the business. One is that should the Property Owner decide to come back to the table and try to allow them to stay, there is the rent stabilization grant for an incentive for the business to negotiate for a 10 yearlong term stable lease. Two. If the business is in fact displaced, of course, the north beach neighborhood commercial district there is an obligation for the next use to get conditional use authorization. That has been the subject of some back and forthwith the Property Owner, but from our perspective that should not be cumbersome. In this instance it requires the Property Owner to work with the community to identify appropriate use to succeed is Longterm Service in this part of the neighborhood. Lastly, if caffe sapore is to relocate, that rent grant gives them leverage for a long term stable lease. There is a tangible benefit to this program. I know you have heard so many where that is not at the forefront why the application is heard, but it is really important today. This is what the voters asked for in 2015 when prop j spas passed and a tremendous opportunity to honor that and to help caff kaffray caffe sapore. How many in the audience are in support of this application. We hardly put the word out. This Community Organized itself to benefit this business. It is profoundly cool this is happening today. Thank you for your support. Thank you, mr. Hefner and thank supervisor peskin for everything he has done with the Legacy Program it means a lot to us. It is awesome. We are going to start with Public Comment. Dominica. Everyone here for Public Comment if you could line up on the right side of the floor, that would be great. Much appreciated. If standing is tough for you, feel free to remain seated until the end. Time . Everyone has two minutes for Public Comment. Come on up. Members of the commission. Thank you so very much for being here today. As you can see, there is a lot of Community Support for the application. My background. I am janette crane belong to the northeast neighbors. I run a nonprofit to keep seniors in homes in north beach. I retired from architecture. Community building is my life. We collected 2000 signatures in support of caffe sapore to remain in the neighborhood recognizing the 23 year history and many contributions to this community. It is a Community Living room. I am going to leave the comments about the specifics what it does to you good people here. A legacy business designation helps resources to keep businesses in neighborhoods that need quality of life. There are 26 vacant storefronts adjacent to columbus, 26 vacant storefronts. A lot of this is not because there are no tenants, the rents are too high and many reasons. It is chilling north beach, basically. Keeping businesses like this, successful businesses alive is crucial. There is overwhelming subject port. It is part of the soul of north beach. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. I am the owner of caffe sapore. Thank you for being here today. I started the business 23 years ago, and when i was in north beach at that time. In my area there was nobody there except me, and i really struggled first to bring the community. I worked really hard for that. That is what i have today. I have all of the people here to support me. This is my family. Each one of these people have been coming to the cafe for all of these years. I have raised their kids. Some of the kids i raised are working for me now. Look is in the back. It is hard time, you know. But if i have to move, i will move. It is very important to recognize that we are here to stay no matter what caffe sapore will stay and these are my supporters behind me. It is hard to speak about Small Businesses, what they are suffering lately around the city. Especially in north beach we have vacant places and we need to do something about it. This legacy business will help me protect me and my family and supporters. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, i am jerry helmick. This is a short story. I just found out about this meeting this morning when i went for coffee. My father was in the military. When we grew up we moved every two or three years. I joined the u. S. Department of state and moved every two or three years. Getting to feel at home has been something that i have not really experienced until i moved to San Francisco. My daughter lived next to the white tower. My soninlaw used to go there are for coffee and we started going there. We have been going there seven years. This is the one place in San Francisco where we feel at home. Elias and his staff are part of that. I have been to different Small Businesses around the world. This one i will travel for coffee, and we lived near caltrain station. It is quite a jog for us. It is a great business. I hope that you can grant their request. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Commissioners, i am richard silver. Before i was a customer of caffe sapore. He was a customer of mine. I was in the wholesale baking business in San Francisco, and i supplied elias with baked goods on his cafe on pier 39. I resided in the neighborhood at 590 lombard from 1978 to 2015. I have been a customer, friend, part of the family. He introduced me to the harry man escapaids where men go and dont shave. When my children were growing up, i was divorced. When they got off the school bus the only place i felt comfortable for them to go until i got back was caffe sapore. They preferred it to homework. It was a safe place, they were known by everybody on the staff, they were fed, they were nurtured. Like all of us here, they were loved by eluas. Thank you for your time. Next speaker, please. I am andy gillis. I am a long time friend of elias and his family. They are some of my oldest and dearest friends in San Francisco. I have visited this many times. I can tell you it is the living room of this particular neighborhood of north beach. I was very upset when i found out a few months ago that caffe sapore was threatened with eviction. Part of the reason it is upsets is the decision by one landlord can disregard the needs and desires of hundreds of people for whom this cafe is the core of their community. I am familiar with this whole sad story because i was the manager of a coffee shop in the mission which i was the manager there for about 17years, and after 20 years of business, it was abruptly closed by a greedy landlord. Our lease expired and we were evicted from the premises. When this closes it creates a hole in the neighborhood. It is not just a business, a cafe, bar, local restaurant. These are often the places where neighbors get to see one another sometimes on a daily basis. I would just i see the aftermath of this in my community. I hear how people miss my old cafe almost every day. Please keep this in mind and protect this valuable institution. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, henry. I am the president of San Francisco merchant council. We represent 34 businesses in the city. Small business is in crisis today with online sales and then situations like this where some landlords want to get more money for whatever reason and they evictor the tenants. We dont have rent protection so we are stuck there. The legacy business is great. It is helping some businesses but still very, very hot. The whole thing that happens at the end of the day, what does Small Business create . It creates community. By having a Small Business close down you are turning the fabric of the community. We cannot allow this to continue on. I look forward to supervisor peskins ballot issue to come through next year regarding vacant storefronts. We were going to do something about it. Like i said, community is the big thing. It is a place to go to meet, to buy stuff and walk up and down the street to go window shopping. You drive up on 24th street, the whole street is lit up. It is gorgeous and so nice. Are we going to close all of that down . I really appreciate your support with this legacy business. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I am jane wins slow. I lived in the neighborhood 50 years. As a senior i dont need to tell you how important meeting places are for people to get out of their homes and see friends every day and get out in the world. We lost caferoma a couple years ago on columbus. We dont want to use this one. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am harvey hacker. I live up the street from caffe sapore. I was there when they moved in when the business replaced air former glass shop, and it has become a neighborhood institution treasured to me. A brilliant contrast from suburban los angeles where i grew up where no such things existed. My experience there included visiting one weekday morning each week when i was silting with a Meditation Group in the neighborhood, several other membeer
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