Protecting Our Small Businesses

You have all heard me say it before, but small businesses are the backbone of our neighborhoods. They are where we find community and gather for celebrations. We rely on them for everyday essentials, delicious meals, special treats, local artisan products and so much more. Which is why I have been working to find ways to both protect and support our small businesses and neighborhood commercial corridors.

Last year, I cosponsored and passed conditional use authorization legislation to protect legacy businesses at risk of displacement after an entire city block in the Fillmore was purchased by a local venture capitalist threatening the closure of two long-standing beloved restaurants. This legislation created an interim control requiring the City’s Planning Commission to approve replacing a legacy business in the Fillmore. As a result, one of the restaurants was able to stay.

In an effort to make permanent protections against displacement for legacy and neighborhood anchoring businesses, particularly as we face uncertainty with the state’s imposed upzoning plan, I put forward new legislation that expanded on the previous policy city-wide and created an exemption for small businesses and Legacy Businesses, so they’re not overly burdened by unnecessary processes. Ultimately, the legislation aims to protect local businesses from large chain stores and formula retail on our neighborhood corridors. Unfortunately, this legislation met opposition at the Planning Commission and ultimately failed to pass at the full Board of Supervisors last month. We garnered a majority vote of 6-4, but we needed a supermajority to pass.

I am disappointed that we were not successful in moving this forward, but we are not done fighting. At the end of November, we were contacted by Tony at K-Elements BBQ, at 2140 Clement St., to let us know they would have to close their doors on Nov. 23. Despite the investment that Tony made and efforts to negotiate, their landlord will not renew the lease and instead plans to lease to a national restaurant conglomerate. This is exactly the situation we are trying to mitigate. K-Elements is a beloved neighborhood institution and amazing community partner. Displacing this locally owned restaurant for a chain hurts our community.

Additionally, the timing couldn’t be worse. With federal cuts to food security programs, we must rely on local money and community programs to ensure we are meeting people’s most basic needs of being fed and cared for.

For the last six years, K-Elements has been giving back to our community through an annual Thanksgiving lunch, providing nourishment for seniors, families and individuals struggling with food security. Last year they served a record 250 people. It was one of my favorite traditions to help at the event, but this year they had to shutter their doors and were not able to provide for the community.

We are now helping them to find a new location (hopefully in the Richmond or within San Francisco) where they will re-open, serving delicious food and continuing the Thanksgivingtradition. We will continue to fight to protect and support our small businesses against displacement.

Connie Chan represents District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She can be reached at 415-554-7410 or chanstaff@sfgov.org.