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 members were here. We had the opportunity to recover from a week of silence and a service of appreciation from my wife in the last months of her life that could only happen in such a place. I think the neighborhood dies without places of this nature. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am susan wisebering, i second everything everyone said about the importance of businesses like this to the community. I want to tell you a story how that affects me personally. I first went to caffe sapore in the early 2000s when a man i was dating brought me there and introduced me to elias. That relationship didnt last but my relationship with the cafe did. I saw the regulars and attended the neighborhood meetings. Seven years ago i joined the Meditation Group harvey referred to that meets at the Telegraph Hill neighborhood center. We go regularly to caffe sapore on fridays after sitting for what we call pie in honor of the many types of pie that we choose. I have been at caffe sapore for tea and crescent every friday morning for the past seven years. I have gotten to know him and his taste for early bob dillon. He has gotten to know me and my taste for jasmine tea. I watched his kids getting bigger as they sat at the table doing homework before School Started. If this doesnt describe a legacy neighborhood serving business i dont know what would. I hope you make it official. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am john woods. I have been in north beach for about 55 years. I am one block from caf caffe se on taylor street. There are some days i dont go out at all. This is very important. He is a wonderful member of the community, and to watch him raise his children there makes it even more. I hope you will do everything you can to keep him there, to make him a permanent legacy. It is unclear why the landlord is so standoffish about this. This man and his coffee shop are a real addition to the neighborhood. I wish every one of you had a coffee shop like that a block away. He goes out of his way to support the neighborhood issues. He has been down here supporting or not supporting various projects of north beach. I used to be here a lot of time. I have a lot of trouble walking. I made a special effort today. I hope the large turnout will convince