Dan. Native from San Francisco. Charter legacy Business Owner in our 72nd year and president of the north beach business association. I rise in support of caffe sapore. I cant be go beyond the personal testimony that has come forward by those who use the cafe. I implore all of you to give them legacy business status to send a message to bad actor landlords. The majority of landlords and commercial landlords are good actors, but we have a handful and some are centered in north beach who fail to put their storefronts up on the market, who throw out businesses that are vital and used by the community and long standing. We need you to send a message. I have a business next to mine vacant for over 35 years. We have made a comebacklation in north beach. We have 20 new businesses in the last 20 years. 17 in the last few months since they introduced the idea of putting on the ballot the storefront vacancy issue. All of these signs started going up. We had people come in to rent the storefronts. I implore you to prevent another business from being vacated because of a landlords misconduct. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am ben golden. I moved to north beach about 10 years ago, and started going to the cafe. He described it as the third place. What is a third place . It is another place after your home and your work where you can come and relax and meet people and feel at ease. Then i had a kid. She started waking up 5 00 a. M. And screaming. We would rush out of the house and go to the cafe. He would be opening up and making coffee and letting the son roll around on the floor. Eventually, he started playing with the toys there and we would donate our toys. Then he started playing chess. The pieces are all dirty like this. He is now 8 years old this year and he finally beat me. He has grown up in that cafe. We appreciate it. Thanks. Next speaker, please. I am marla knight. I have lived three blocks east of the cafe sapore. It is not just a cafe. It is really an institution. It is a Gathering Place for locals and for people from out of town who enjoy going there. San francisco, especially north beach, has been in crisis for several years. We lost many residents to no fault evictions and businesses for many reason was including rising rents. Throughout caffe sapore has been thriving. It is like a beacon of hope, actually. It has been thriving for more than two decades. It is loved by locals. Yelp says it is a hidden gem. Caffe sapore deserves legacy business status for the major contributions, not just to north beach but to all of San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am gloria rokin. I lived four blocks from the cafe for 45 year. When you got to my age you have experienced loss, your parents, friends, pets, jobs, health, a lot of things go by the wayside. I didnt know you could have a broken heart over losing a cafe. It is really hard for me to come to grips with this. Caffe sapore, i didnt realize how important it was. I can call and say i am on the way to dog training at 7 00 in the morning or i have an appointment. I am a realtor. I go there with clients to show them how wonderful San Francisco is. To realize this is going to be gone is devastating to me personally, and i know to all people sitting here they feel the same way. Iit is not easy to come down hee on friday afternoon. We really appreciate you taking the time. I can speak for everyone to have this meeting. Thank you. Please give caffe sapore the business status they so deserve. Thank you again. Next speaker, please. Hello. I am dick. I make pot terry for my living. Pottery. In japan there is a program to recognize crafts people. They are known as Living National treasures. There are only 15 such people in the nation of over 150 Million People. What is interesting about this reward is the translation. Such people are considered holders of an important intangible Cultural Property. This is a nice definition of caffe sapore. It holds a Cultural Property that is labeled mediterranean. The United States navy afforded me the opportunity to visit beirut in the early 1960s before it fell into warfare. It was the paris of the middle east, a center of deep culture the, a place where people of the three worlds, major religions lived in peace and respect. That has roots in the attitude towards the stranger. From greek times forward it was believed one of the gods would take human form and come as a stranger and we would be judged as to how that stranger was treat the. You didnt try to kill him or instantly regret you hadnt built a wall to keep him out, you fed him. This became a primary civic stir virtue and continues in the way caffe sapore has worked for two decades. It would be a good idea for it to be recognized with the professional and tenacious work. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am susie siegel. I am a San Francisco teacher. I met elias a year after he opened. I taught two of his children. I feel like the caffe sapore is crossroads elementary, public middle school, college of the arts, childrens center. I want to talk about kids, family and community. Isnt that what you strife for as a teacher and family to have a place that feels safe, a place that is like second nature. I will meet you at caffe sapore. I will do my homework at caffe sapore. If you are a teacher on 30 minute lunch breaks that is where we as teachers would meet. I also want to tell you my little friend here, this is mr. Bear, mr. Bear has been going there longer than i have because he goes home every night with a different kid. Most days you would hear a story mr. Bear was having coffee or hot chocolate in caffe sapore. If he could talk he would tell you this is the fabric of a neighborhood sadly closing so many places. I am in deep support of community of caffe sapore, a place that is a place for everyone to gather. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am amy and this is my sonar like. Son eric. I am a working parent. We watch friends and neighbors with children move away to the suburbs and their big living rooms and kitchens. We stay. For us as you have heard mentioned in our small little north beach apartments our living room and sometimes our kitchen is caffe sapore. What does that look like . When eric, now a fifth grader, was in first grade one block up the ill aupthe hill his brothern prek two blocks behind two blocks behind caffe sapore. His School Started an hour later than his brothers school. I have an hour to kill after i drop off his brother. It is not time to go home. At 8 30 a. M. What does the parent do with a first grader who at the time is 6 years old. Where do you take him . Library, pool not open. You dont was presiden want to o the grocery store. Where do you go that is safe at 8 30 a. M. We went to caffe sapore a year just about every morning. We could eat off the dollar menu of day old pac pastries. There was elias and his children. It was safe and a wonderful place to bring my son. I asked you to help save the cafe. Eric do you want to add anything. It has a homey feeling and the food is good. Please save caffe sapore. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am bethany golden, a nurse and mother and Community Activist in the neighborhood. This is my son. He wants to first say something. I was the kid who screamed and rolled on the floor for like every single day. I didnt know what i was doing. , but i think that is the best cafe i have ever been to and i would like you to save it. I am going to add to that. If anyone gets to be at the crossing of lombard and columbus we have about a Million People dropped off by tour buses. We are on the pedestrian walkway up to the crooked street. The other side of russian hill has the traffic. When you come down the human street there is a human wall that forces you to go right or left and you dont come down lombard. If you say you were taking down the greats on grant street with no portal to chinatown, there would be an out range. This is the port alto lombard. It is not only for our kids but the Million People at lombard need to use the bathroom. Guess where they go . Caffe sapore. It is critical to understand elias generosity extends to everybody who comes to San Francisco. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I would say our neighbors have spoken. I am theresa flanders, cofounder of north beach tenants. I have lived on lombard for three and a half decades. For me, caffe sapore is the cornerstone of the community. It is our community and it is the community that many envy bus we are close knit. We have lost many, many of our members. A lot of our shops, a lot of services in this community. What i want to say is caffe sapore is a place when i say to tenants where would you like to meet to talk about this landlord who is harassing you right now frying to get you to take a buyout or threatening you, where would you feel most comfortable . They will say can we meet at caffe sapore. It is a place where i have gone to meet with tenants to organize to fight for places like places to remain part of our whole community. This is a place where people feel at home, they feel safer, they feel safe in revealing what is going on in a very scary time for them. Please, please, legacy is so important for this particular place and for our particular community. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I am anita walter, a teacher at city college. Our son has grown up going to caffe sapore. We would bring him as a baby because elias got him ice cream and calmed him down. It was a safe plays with toys. As he grew up, we would let him walk from our garden because caffe sapore is around the corner and it was a big milestone. We knew it was safe, a home for him and he recognized it and we knew elias would greet him. As our our child grows how he recognizes the space in the neighborhood as an important place for him. My husband works there a lot. We have a cozy apartment and we need a third space. He and i walk a lot in the morning. We are there early and guess who is there with a smile, with bob dillon, my husbands favorite musician. It is a place everyone goes to. I know so many people because of caffe sapore. I dont know their names but i know their faces and they know mine. Next speaker, please. I am lee carter. I want to say a few things. I didnt prepare anything. I met elias at the art institute. He gave me a parttime job. I was amazed and surprised to the love and attention he gave to everybody that came through the door. All the years i have been there i have been trying to do what he does on well. I have been there 18 years. A lot of times i dont know how that time passed. I am blessed that i can go to work and feel good. It is a good place. That is important to me. I appreciate the cafe and the customers. They have given us love and support. I hate to see this end like something bad. It used to go further. I hope you can grow and be a major part in the neighborhood and community. That is all i want to say. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My family owns the building at 790 lombard and i am a long time resident in north beach. We understand this is a difficult situation for everyone involved, my family included. A lot of the narrative presented iis untrue, specifically that he just found out 90 days ago. Over 2 the years we communicated our intent for the space. Three years ago he did not exercise his option to extend the lease. We thought he no longer wanted to continue the lease. He responded angry and asked for more time. We tried our best to help him and gave him more time. Additionally there are items in his application that are erroneous that he is always current on rent. December 2019 rent this month has not been paid. He has been late on rent five times this past year, delinquent in garbage bills and we have been sent 20 lien warning. This is a difficult position for our family. We are still in negotiations. Due to this we asked for a continuance so find a solution to help all parties involved. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. I am sarah hoffman. Our firm has been retained to represent the family who own the property who you have just heard from. They are surprised to discover with absolutely no official notice this application had been submitted and that there would be hearings on wednesday december 18th and special hearing today. It is impossible to prepare for or seek adviser participate in todays hearing with so little notice. This is our request. If the commission will continue the hearing by one month, the owner will extend the lease termination date for one month so the parties can negotiate to reach a resolution that works for everyone involved. This can only happen if the hearing is continued without a decision. More over, we believe that this application does not meet the criteria for registration as a legacy business. The applicants business has not been in existence for 30 years. The ad ministrative code provides an exception if it would present a risk of displacement. We have a termination notice served, owners have plans for the space and are not willing to extend the lesion. They believe the business didnt want to be they when he chose not to extend the lease to 2022. As stated in the historic presser vision they preservation they identified a business nearby. This would not be in compliance with the code. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Howard wong architect and nowtive of north beach. The legacy business should be evaluated on the merit of the business that has been there for decades and what it has contributed andment to do, the neighborhood to the community. When all of us travel to other cities around the world we often zero in on famous coffeehouses, small cafes and restaurants that there there for decades. Those types of restaurants which are rare in San Francisco and also rare in other cities, some of which have been around for 50 or 100 years. They attract social cultural interaction of the comment and the people who visit the city. They are markers what the city has been and will be over time. We are losing gradually many, many of those institutions. This business has to be given a chance to become the 50 year or 100 Year Community and cultural magnet we need that gives our city character, or neighborhoods a sense of place and as too many people a place of gathering and participation in the community. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I am karen mazoon. I have lived in north beach since 1995. We had a place in lake county for a while. Really, i see this as my home for all of that time. I love going out to coffee in local coffee places everywhere. It is fun, it gives you a chance to get to know the community, it gives you a chance to associator with the locals. Caffe sapore represents the highest standards of exactly this. A Meeting Place where they also have events. I have seen magicians and comic acts and poetry evening. When i come to caffe sapore i write about the birds and the tourists and the people talking because that is something i like to do is comment on the community. Caffe sapore is one of the greatest emblems of our community, a place where everybody will go. The tourists love to go by there because it is close to the crooked street in the area between north beach and fishermans wharf. I think it should be continued. I would very much miss my neighbored. Any other members of the public. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Commissioners, comments or motions . Commissioner artez. Thank you all for coming out. I want everybody on tv, policymakers, landlord, this is community. This is what Small Business is to the community. It is our fabric, it is what makes San FranciscoSan Francisco. Thank you for supporting your local business. Commissioner dwight. I own a Small Business. I would be dealing at pride with a meeting and so many people supported my business and myself. I think it is fantastic. I have been on the commission now for 8 years. This is the best part of the Commission Meeting is the legacy business proceeding. This is the biggest turnout we have ever had for legacy business. Irishiate yoi i appreciate you. I know my landlord is very proud of the fact i am in his building as a small manufacturer, a dying breed in the city and he takes great pride in helping me to stay business and to continue the tradition of selling in the city which is rare. I would think that any landlord would be proud to have a business like this in their building. It shocks me to even think that if there have been i dont know the whole story and all stories have two sides. We know how hard being a small owner is. You miss a payment. Maybe you are just overwhelmed with the daytoday activities of running a business. I have been threatened to have my power turned off not because i couldnt pay but bu because i forgot to pay the bill. The outpouring of emotion you expressed towards the owner and his business. The landlord would have the same level of empaty, dont worry, lets fix it and move forward. I would think this would serve as a wakeup call even if you were living under a rock the last 23 years. The neighbors love it and i am part of the legacy. I am the home to this legacy building. Perhaps the proceedings here will shake lose empathy and help resolve this issue at this particular location. If not, so be it. Hopefully he will find another location. This is my last Commission Meeting and most gratifying legacy business consideration i have been to in the history of the this program. Thank you all for being here to make my last day a great one. [applause] commissioner duly. These are what makes the city. It is not the big companies, it is the Small Companies that provide for their communities, who provide very special place for neighbors to meet other neighbors, to meet new people, and i fail to understand why a successful business like this should be forced to leave for some unknown business they have never communicated what business they are going to put in. We need to stand up for Small Businesses. That is the bottom line. We are working hard to say the buck is going to stop here when it comes to getting rid of our longtermness neighborhood businesses. Commissioner riley. [applause] i also want to thank all of you for coming out