STANDING UP FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Small businesses are the heartbeat of San Francisco, both culturally and economically, and they are hurting. Portola small businesses have the second highest number of reported commercial burglaries in all of San Francisco, trailing only the Tenderloin. Meanwhile, crimes in D9 are 17% less likely to end in arrest or citation than in neighboring D8 despite being served by the same station. Over 77% of D9’s small business owners want increased SFPD foot and bike patrols but have instead faced an effort to defund those services in addition to the SFPD staffing crisis.
City Hall’s status quo is failing D9 small businesses. It’s unacceptable and has to change.
It’s time to start prioritizing small businesses again by getting the basics right: delivering safe and clean streets, cleaning up graffiti, and addressing quality-of-life crimes and vacant storefronts.
Trevor’s plan:
➔ Enforce graffiti and tagging laws, fully staff the graffiti team at SFPD, and increase trash cans.
➔ Increase accountability and enforcement for theft and ensure evidence is acted on by SFPD when provided by small business owners.
➔ Fine the owners of vacant storefronts for blight and graffiti – not small businesses.
➔ Shift to a community policing model and increase police foot and bike patrols.
➔ Pair SFPD funding with mental health crisis funding.
➔ Better coordinate DPW staff to have regular, consistent, and responsive street and sidewalk cleaning.
➔ Establish financial incentives, grants, and tax breaks to encourage property owners and entrepreneurs to occupy vacant storefronts.
➔ Review zoning and permit regulations and simplify the process for acquiring permits so it’s easier to reuse vacant storefronts.
Another thing small businesses deserve is clear and consistent permitting. Arbitrary rules and red tape need to be cleared away so hardworking small business owners can get up and running and get ahead.
Here’s how:
➔ Review city planning and permitting processes to expedite the timeline in which a small business can open.
➔ Change the rules so one single objection cannot hold up a small business opening for months and cost them thousands of dollars in legal fees.
➔ Move our DPW, DBI, and Planning permitting system fully online and get rid of the current system that enables corruption.
陳澤維2024年參事費用。
FPPC ID #1459563. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.