— By Jack Morse (@jmorse_) |
The Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 yesterday in favor of placing temporary restrictions on development along the Mission’s 24th Street Corridor. The new restrictions, which prohibit “commercial storefront mergers of greater than 799 gross square feet,” are specifically designed to prevent investors from buying up adjacent units, knocking down the connecting walls, and then leasing out the newly-formed larger spaces at high rates.
The 45-day interim restrictions are a win for Calle 24, who lobbied the Board of Supervisors on behalf of the measure. Calle 24, having succeeded in getting 24th Street between Potrero and Mission Street designated as a Latino Cultural District, is actively working to “prevent another Valencia” on 24th Street.
In a July 7th email to supporters, Calle 24th detailed what they believe to be the start of a problematic trend—one that the organization hopes will be forestalled by the passage of yesterday’s measure:
We are seeing a trend by investor type restaurants that wish to combine retail space for restaurant use. We lost two retails spaces to a restaurant (near 24th and Hampshire), we fought and saved GGTukay and St. Peters book store, when a restaurant offered the Archdiocese 100k to evict them and combine the spaces. Usulatan Restaurant after 25 years and the Church of Worship were also evicted and are in the process to combine (@ 24th and Harrison St.) Near 24th and Bryant (Arkay Workshop left when they raised the rent from $2900 to $4500) both retail spaces are now being considered to combine for restaurant.
$10,0000,$11,000 and $8,000 a month are being asked for the rents. El Riconcito Nicaraguense had a rent increase from $3,150 to $8,150 and will probably need to close. This will increase rents further for all businesses in the area. Small family mom and pop business can not compete with these investors and will eventually price everyone out and change the culture of 24th.
Supervisor Scott Wiener was the sole dissenting vote against the measure, which was sponsored by both Supervisor Campos and Mayor Lee.
[Photo: CTG/SF]
Comments (13)
“mom and pop” is such a bullshit term that means nothing now.
it is like the words “progressive” and “san francisco mayor.” useless, and hiding a form of racism that is special to SF. hope an ikea opens on fucking “Calle 24’ and that Campos and his band of criminals are driven from the mission in a tesla minivan
Ha, while I don’t agree with you, reminds me of the classic late 90s Raza image
http://foundsf.org/images/5/5c/Mission$dot-con-billboard.jpg
Your link is broken.
Nothing “criminal” going on. Except, perhaps, your ignorance.
I wanna pee on you and your Tesla.
Truth!
I’m surprised a Harvard Law grad can’t come up with more interesting policy ideas than stomping his feet and shouting, “no!” So long as much of the the real estate along every street in SF (Mission and beyond) is owned by old-line landlords paying a few hundred a year in property taxes, those landlords will sit tight until they can get max rents. They’ve got nothing to lose. Here’s a couple free ideas for the Campos machine. First, try what an article in the New Yorker mentioned recently - fines for landlords who let property lay fallow. When did Adobe leave 16th Street? What’s happened in that space since? Second, when a lease is up, require a landlord to continue renting at the present rate - on a month-to-month basis - until the property is rented to another lessee. If this runs up against CA’s ban on commercial rent control, simply make it a way for the landlord to get out from under the fine s/he would pay for leaving the space vacant. Instead of a punitive approach, the city could offer incentives to landlords who continue renting to existing tenants, at least on a temporary holdover basis (though it’s hard to know how that might work/how much it might cost). The city could also create incentives to rent to new businesses on a short-term basis pending other tenants. I believe Oakland’s Old Town filled a bunch of empty spaces with arts organizations. The landlords can be free to rent other people, but if they don’t, someone else can use the space on an interim basis. Again, there would be logistical issues, but a HLS grad oughta be able to think through them. The “no!” approach, like the one pursued by the Valencia Corridor Merchants in its fight against chains, won’t lead to lower rents. It just leads to long-term vacancies.
Law school lasts for three years, Doctor Campos is also deeply connected with the shared experience of hundred of years of marginalization of the native peoples of the Americas.
Usulatan stayed in business for 25 years?
I love that preservation of a culture gets people so up in arms, even resulting in being called ‘racist’. Ahhhhh, the ‘New’ Mission. So out of touch with your surroundings. Get back to work on that food delivery app!
I miss the days of an mostly Irish Mission.
Arkay Workshop is a great funky shop, which, btw, the owner re-opened on 24th near Treat, but it’s a hipster clothing store. And, it’s still on 24th Street. And the old storefront is still vacant a year later, as are many other places. I love how they don’t say what 2 storefronts near Hampshire were lost to what restaurant. There are probably dozens (or maybe a dozen) empty storefronts and the real estate at that end had been pretty empty. And I loved the pupusas at Usulutan, but it wasn’t exactly hard to get a table there. Also, which places are we supposed to save? Places where the owner works in the store, like Arkay? How about Local Mission Eatery? How old does a restaurant be before we can save it? What if the owners have all moved out of SF and only visit once in a blue moon, like La Palma? Is that the American dream or not?
Can’t wait for the Latino themed, vegas style strip that will inevitably emerge as they try to freeze evrything in amber.