All across San Francisco this summer, restaurants and shops were moving onto the sidewalks and into the streets. After months of uneasy quiet, the city was slowly coming back to life. On the recommendation of the Economic Recovery Task Force, city leaders had fast-tracked the Shared Spaces program. Beginning in June, businesses could apply to set up parklets and sidewalk cafes.
Officials had made it relatively easy for businesses to opt in, offering free, temporary permits in the hope of helping them get back to some semblance of normalcy. Many businesses — hundreds of them — were glad to take advantage. Some set up boutique dining spaces with laser-cut plywood walls and manicured planters; others were more utilitarian, just lumber and nails. Most were in the densest parts of the city.
Shirley Tan, the owner of Bottoms Up Bar and Lounge. wasn’t so sure. The run of shops along Mission Street in the Excelsior sat mostly dark. This wasn’t downtown or Valencia Street or Hayes Valley. Tan didn’t think hers was the sort of neighborhood where people would want to eat outside. She wondered whether the investment she’d need to make was worth it. “There are a lot of problems in Excelsior,” she says. “That’s why I’m scared in the beginning.”
So, she passed on the parklet program.
Tan’s experience exemplifies one of the significant, if unintentional, limitations of San Francisco’s Shared Spaces initiative. While it has offered lifelines to hundreds of businesses, it’s now clear that certain parts of San Francisco, often in the most underserved neighborhoods, have been slower to see the benefits.
Now, with the task force calling to extend the program through 2023, the city is working to correct the inequity and to make sure this avenue to economic recovery works for more than just certain commercial corridors.
In a city known for its red tape, the quick work to enact the Shared Spaces program was a near-miracle. Multiple city departments came together to remove or adjust various barriers, like insurance requirements and blueprint regulations.
“These were things that may not sound so problematic to folks who just hear it, but for a business trying to figure out all of these different pieces and having to hire someone to draw a functional map that meets the city’s requirements — it adds up,” says Carmen Chu, the city’s assessor and co-chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force. “It’s been much faster than you’ve seen from any other city process. It went out the door quickly, aiming to be as flexible as possible.”
Speed was crucial. Hundreds of small businesses around the Bay Area were closing for good. Those that were left needed a lifeline.
By and large, the program has been successful. Since June, the city has received more than 2,300 applications and approved 1,835 of them. About 350 were deemed ineligible or diverted and the remainder are under review. In many neighborhoods, the effects are obvious. On several major commercial corridors, restaurants and cafes and clothing shops and bookstores have moved outdoors. It’s not unusual, for instance, to find the sidewalks of Valencia Street full of diners and musicians singing in the street. According to the city’s own data, half the participating businesses are female
-owned, 30% identify as minority-owned and 80% say the program has helped them avoid permanent closure.
Still, other neighborhoods lag. Even as the task force praised the program in its most recent report, it noted some obvious inequities. The city, the report said, “should also promote the program’s uptake in neighborhoods that have seen modest participation, such as the Excelsior, Bayview and Visitacion Valley.”
The numbers paint a starker picture: supervisorial District Three, a dense area that covers North Beach, Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf, has nearly 300 shared spaces. Meanwhile, District 11, which includes the Excelsior and Tan’s Bottoms Up, has just 12.
The question is how to close this gap, and there’s no simple answer.
“Even before this global pandemic hit us ... we know that certain communities, certain neighborhoods, historically did not have as robust economic prospects and activity as other places,” says Robin Abad Ocubillo, the Shared Spaces program director. “I think the global pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis has really called that into high relief and really exacerbated that in a way.”
As it happens, Bottoms Up was one of the first shared spaces in District 11. Even as other parts of the city saw a measure of economic relief from to the program, Tan remained skeptical. Then the city came knocking: She heard from her supervisor, Ahsha Safaí, and from the neighborhood association. “They made me feel comfortable. They said, ‘Shirley, do it.’”
So on Aug. 20, she opened for outdoor dining. Now a bright orange-and-yellow awning hangs over the tables in her parklet, along with strings of lights and potted plants. She’s set out heaters, too, for the cold nights.
Tan’s situation is an example of some of the complications at play. As accessible as the city has made the program, neighborhood outreach was as essential and money, if not a barrier, a challenge.
City leaders are trying to minimize these issues. The program has always been free, Abad Ocubillo says, and the city plans to announce a grant program in November to help some business owners pay for movable furniture. Permits have been extended through the middle of next year, but Chu and the task force are proposing an extension through 2023, in part to give businesses some reassurance that their investment into outdoor spaces has long-term value.
There are other issues, too. Supervisor Norman Yee represents District Seven, an area that includes Twin Peaks and Lake Merced, which has just 11 shared spaces. He points to the fact that many of the district’s businesses that would be most likely to take advantage are located in places like the Stonestown Galleria mall.
“For our district, there aren’t concentrated businesses,” he says. “When you consider how few of the streets have that type of concentration, we actually did OK.”
Weather and geography are issues, too, Yee says. And so is language. The Shared Spaces program has always offered informational materials in English, Spanish, Chinese and Tagalog, but even so, language barriers are hard to overcome — and money is an issue for many immigrant business owners.
To the east is District 10 with about 60 shared spaces. Certain parts of the district — Dogpatch and Potrero Hill — are fairly well represented. However, Hunters Point and, to a lesser extent, Bayview fall behind. Supervisor Shamann Walton isn’t exactly bothered. He points to places like Cafe Envy and the Jazz Room as successes for the program. “I haven’t had anyone who has a shared space complain about them.” But he’s also aware that relief in a pandemic isn’t one-size-fits-all.
“The good part about it is our constituents and residents are vocal, and they tell you the things they do and don’t like,” he says. “The things that work in one neighborhood may not work in the other. So my goal as supervisor is to make sure that our businesses actually get the opportunities that they seek.”
For Tan, the first month out on the street was slow, but since then she says business has improved.
The new space allowed her to hire back some staff. “I can’t say it’s business like before, but it’s still better,” she says, “it’s still helping me.” Customers seem to like it, too. They tell her she should keep it. “Oh, I want to sit outside like Paris,” she says someone told her.
“I spent a lot of money,” Tan says. “It’s not easy, but ... right now, I’m happy.”
Tan’s also hoping that her being open might encourage other businesses along Mission Street to move outdoors. “I want to be the example for them,” she says, “because I love my neighborhood.”
That’s already happened to an extent. Five other restaurants along the same stretch of Mission Street have been approved for Shared Spaces.
Still not much compared with many other neighborhoods. But it’s a start.
Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RyanKost
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