Latest news with #Peskin
San Francisco Chronicle
13 hours ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. supervisor has a plan to protect the city's small businesses from displacement
Many in San Francisco's small business communit y have been watching with a wary eye the city's efforts to increase its housing supply by allowing taller development along its neighborhood commercial corridors. Their concern is that the sweeping mandate offers little protection to neighborhood businesses that, according to the city's Planning Department's own estimates, could face displacement at a pace of roughly 53 businesses per year as a result of the proposed rezoning, which is expected to be finalized in the coming months. Supervisor Connie Chan announced a pair of measures on Tuesday that she hopes will help address the issue by supporting employees wishing to take over a business at risk of closure and by subjecting building owners who wish to fill storefronts that most recently housed some of San Francisco's oldest establishments to a public review process. The legislative package is not a 'silver bullet,' but offers 'mechanisms and tools that allow people to be empowered and in the conversation about their futures,' she said. One of the measures proposed by Chan would create the Workers Opportunity to Purchase Act, or WOPA, which mimics an existing law — the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA — which provides housing nonprofits with the first right to purchase a residential building listed for sale in San Francisco. If approved, WOPA would require business owners and nonprofits wishing to sell their establishments to notify the city, as well as their existing employees, and provide the parties with financial disclosures. Employees would then be given a period of time — likely 30 days, according to Chan — to consider forming a co-operative, which would be provided with the right to make a first offer in the sales process. Chan said that she's heard from constituents that one of the big issues driving business closures are generational transitions — roughly half of the Bay Area's small business owners are approaching retirement age, per the city's Planning Department. 'Businesses that have been long-standing treasures in San Francisco, we want to keep them going. But oftentimes, the workers feel very helpless, as they can just stand by and watch the transition happening,' Chan said. 'This is going to empower the workers to be part of the conversation, to have the opportunity to have the conversations with business owners when they make decisions.' The other measure floated by Chan would make permanent temporary controls put in place by former Supervisor Aaron Peskin last fall that, for 18 months, require owners of properties in select areas of the city to obtain a conditional use authorization by way of a public hearing in order to redevelop or lease out spaces where legacy businesses were displaced. The city — and Peskin's emergency controls — defines legacy business as those who have had at least a 30-year tenure in their spaces. Peskin pitched the protections after a tech investor purchased more than half a dozen buildings in the Upper Fillmore neighborhood with plans to revitalize them. The effort resulted in the displacement of a restaurant with a nearly 50-year tenancy on Fillmore Street, and nearly displaced another. Chan's legislation offers an extension of Peskin's measure, which is due to expire next year. It would ensure that, businesses planning to take over commercial spaces in the city's main commercial districts where a registered legacy business operated within the last three years would need to obtain a conditional use authorization by the Planning Commission. The same could apply to property owners seeking to demolish buildings where legacy businesses operated, should a new commercial space be constructed, though that requirement is still being contemplated. Chan said that the measures are still a work in progress: Her office is currently exploring extending the legacy business displacement protections to younger businesses that have operated in neighborhood commercial districts for 15 years or more. She also acknowledged that providing a funding mechanism for employees wishing to purchase an existing business remains a challenge. 'We're exploring whether there are ways to provide any type of tax or fee exemptions for such transactions … to make it a bit more feasible for the workers,' she said. Small business owners and advocates described Chan's proposal as a step in the right direction, but said that the plight of small businesses in San Francisco needs more attention from the city. 'It's a great start — it's definitely a long way away from where we need to be,' said Christin Evans, a small business owner in the city's Haight neighborhood and an advocate with Small Business Forward. Evans said that, right now, businesses 'don't have protections beyond their leases.' 'If we don't want to lose our valued small businesses, we really need to have robust protections and strategies in place,' she said. Benjy Caplan, of Green Apple Books, a legacy business in the Richmond District, said that there is 'so much power given to landlords' when it comes to the fate of the city's small businesses. 'It doesn't matter how much businesses are cared about or integral to a community. It really just comes down to how much does the landlord think they can get out of the business and out of the community,' Caplan said. Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, said 'moving a restaurant costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.' 'What we're hearing from folks on my board who have recently had build outs is that, even for a warm shell, if it's a nonunion build out, it's at least $500 a square foot, and if it's a union build out, it can be as much as $1,000 per square foot,' she said, adding that one 'critical' protection for restaurants that would go a long way would be 'as much notice as possible to the tenant' of an owner's redevelopment plans. 'As soon as the owner files for the first step in the redevelopment process, I want to be noticed,' she said.
San Francisco Chronicle
17-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. supervisor recall campaign stirs up animosity among city's political factions
San Francisco moderates say the campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio is about far more than anger among Sunset District residents over the Great Highway being permanently closed to cars. At stake is the political power balance on the Board of Supervisors, moderate leaders say — and they're accusing former Supervisor Aaron Peskin of pulling the strings in the hopes of tilting the legislative body in a more progressive direction. State Sen. Scott Wiener wrote in a social media post Thursday that Peskin has 'quietly pushed the recall for months' and has now 'formally taken it over & installed his own lieutenants.' Wiener isn't the only one leveling such a claim: The moderate political group Grow SF wrote on its website that 'close allies of Aaron Peskin have reportedly taken over the campaign,' pointing to the involvement of three people who supported Peskin's failed mayoral bid last year. Peskin and the recall organizers deny that he is playing a role in the effort to oust Engardio, which has until Thursday to submit the approximately 10,000 signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot. But moderates still think Peskin is privately trying to remove Engardio so his seat can more easily be filled in a future election with a progressive who will oppose market-rate housing development and resist moderate Mayor Daniel Lurie's law-and-order agenda. Wiener told the Chronicle on Friday that Peskin 'saw an opportunity to try to reassert his and his allies' power at City Hall and so he's now intervened.' 'We have a mayor and Board of Supervisors that are working very well together right now. They don't agree on everything, but there is a real spirit of collaboration to address some of our biggest issues like housing and transit and public safety,' Wiener said. 'Peskin wants to upend that and reinsert the toxicity that he's injected into City Hall for decades now.' Peskin bluntly rejected the claims. 'Scott Wiener is full of sh–,' he told the Chronicle. 'The reality is, if I was running this campaign, it would have qualified (for the ballot) a month ago.' Peskin pointed out that if Engardio is recalled, Lurie will be responsible for appointing someone to hold the supervisor seat until the next election. He called the question of Engardio's potential removal 'a matter for the people of District 4 to decide' but acknowledged that many of them are angry over Proposition K, last year's successful ballot measure that permanently closed the Great Highway to car traffic to create Sunset Dunes park. Most Sunset voters opposed the measure. Peskin said his former campaign aides who are now working on the recall campaign have been doing so for months. 'If I wanted credit for this, I'd be singing from the rooftops,' Peskin said. 'These guys are just trying to create some kind of boogeyman because they can't face the fact that Engardio f—d up with his constituents and now is having to deal with it. It ain't my problem.' The contention over Peskin's alleged involvement in the recall effort comes after one of the campaign's lead organizers, Vin Budhai, stepped down, citing 'ongoing creative and strategic differences.' Wiener called Peskin's denial 'not accurate.' 'I have good, reliable information that Peskin has taken over complete control of the recall campaign and that's why we saw the recent staffing changes,' he said. Asked to be more specific about what he was referring to, Wiener said simply that he was 'referring to a number of things that I know' and 'I'll leave it at that.' Jamie Hughes, a Peskin ally who is running the signature-gathering program for the Engardio recall campaign, told the Chronicle there is 'no truth' to the notion that Peskin is secretly steering the effort. 'I have worked for different campaigns over the years and I was brought on the recall by the local committee in D4. Not anyone else,' Hughes said in a text message. 'This is just a last minute effort from big politicians and special interest groups to try to distract the voters. We are 100% focused on getting the signatures. This issue is about Joel Engardio betraying his constituents.' Engardio did not immediately return a request for comment. Lian Chang, campaign manager for Stand With Joel, the anti-recall campaign backing Engardio, said she does not have an opinion about Weiner's allegations. "From the campaign side, we're just focused on knocking on doors telling voters about Joel's good work (and) that the recall is not going to reverse Prop K anyway,' Chang said.
San Francisco Chronicle
22-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. billionaire says he won't take back comments that Aaron Peskin calls ‘untrue and defamatory'
Former San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin is demanding that the billionaire venture capitalist linked to the purchase of several buildings along a historic Pacific Heights retail strip retract public comments he recently made about Peskin. Neil Mehta, managing partner at Greenoaks Capital, mentioned Peskin during a recent appearance on the 'Invest like the Best' podcast in which he spoke about his controversial plans to revitalize the Upper Fillmore area. Mehta's purchase of buildings along the popular commercial strip drew blowback from Peskin and other city leaders last year amid concerns about small businesses being displaced from the neighborhood. In his remarks on the podcast, Mehta said Peskin 'had picket signs with my face on them, marching down the street, 'billionaire taking over city'.' But Peskin said that didn't happen, though he has spoken critically of Mehta's dealings on Upper Fillmore and he did author successful legislation to create new eviction protections for the city's oldest businesses. 'I have never possessed, carried nor marched down any street with any picket sign with your face on it nor for that matter any sign saying 'billionaire taking over city',' Peskin wrote. 'I hereby request that you issue a public statement acknowledging that your statement was untruthful and incorrect and that you retract it.' Mehta declined to walk his comments back in a statement Monday issued by his spokesperson Sam Singer. 'We respect Mr. Peskin, but what was said on the record reflects the spirit of the situation,' Singer said. 'We do not intend to apologize or issue a retraction.' Peskin told the Chronicle that he suspected that Mehta was 'exaggerating what happened' at a news conference Peskin held last year about the eviction legislation. Peskin spoke to reporters about the legislation while standing in front of the longstanding restaurant La Mediterranee. At the time, the restaurant's owner was worried about the business's future after Mehta bought the Fillmore Street building where it is located. La Mediterranee and Mehta later announced that the restaurant would stay at its current location through 2028. 'There was no march. There was a press conference in front of La Mediterranee,' Peskin said. 'It was a very normal formal political announcement of a piece of legislation by a legislator.' Peskin, who was termed out of office in January, has been critical of Mehta's real estate deals on Upper Fillmore. 'We will not let venture capitalists engage in hostile takeovers of our neighborhoods,' he said last year when talking about his legacy business legislation. 'The fight to save legacy and neighborhood-serving businesses like Cafe La Mediterranee is a fight for the soul of our city.' In the same podcast appearance where he mentioned Peskin, Mehta also spoke more broadly about his motivations for buying property on Upper Fillmore, saying he plans to restore the former Clay Theater and open an all-day diner. Mehta said San Francisco is 'a really important city' and 'important for America' because 'it's ground zero for a lot of the most interesting people all over the world to come and build their version of the future.' But he said 'we've tried really hard to kill it' through anti-business policies and 'a lot of things are going in the wrong direction' in the city. 'Losing San Francisco to some of the progressive causes that have plagued the city would be pretty bad,' he said. 'This was one part of my little corner of the world, starting to invest and make it better. It came from a place of wanting to make that street beautiful.'
