As San Francisco tries to party its way out of the lack of foot traffic and the office vacancy problem downtown, Supervisor Aaron Peskin has introduced a measure that would streamline the permitting process to create more outdoor parties.
It’s no secret that downtown San Francisco has absolutely not recovered from the pandemic, as foot traffic remains way lower than pre-2020 levels. Small businesses in the downtown area are suffering, so Mayor Breed and SF City Hall have tried a mix of strategies like the Vacant to Vibrant pop-ups, night markets, and downtown “entertainment zones” where restaurants and bars can sell to-go alcohol when there are street events happening.
Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose District 3 covers much of downtown, wants more of these outdoor events downtown and a simpler permitting process to throw them. The Chronicle reports that Peskin is introducing legislation to streamline the outdoor event permitting process downtown, so that downtown community benefit districts (CBDs) can more easily host recurring outdoor street parties.
“This legislation came directly from the community of Downtown stakeholders who have worked so hard to be a part of the City’s economic recovery, but still struggle with the slow pace and confusing duplicative nature of our permitting systems,” Peskin said in a statement. “It shouldn’t be this hard to have a First Thursday art walk or regular block party, especially in neighborhoods that don’t have the same residential density that might necessitate more review. These downtown community benefit districts are already doing the work to program these events, we just have to make it easier, bigger and bolder if we want Downtown to come alive more than once a month.”
His legislation is called the Greater Downtown Master Permit program, and it would create about a dozen more of those boozy “entertainment zones.” Each would be required to throw 30 events a year, but in return, they would get so-called “master permits” that would be good for five years.
That’s a real change for the current process where each individual event requires permits from a number of city agencies. And the supervisors have already approved $2.75 million to help the CBDs throw these events.
“Imagine what we can accomplish for San Francisco just by creatively streamlining clunky government processes,” president and CEO of the Downtown SF Partnership Robbie Silver said in the announcement (Downtown SF is the organization behind those holiday season projection mapping displays on buildings). “Supervisor Peskin’s first-in-the-nation legislation does just that, by prioritizing downtown recovery through regular programming and activation in under-utilized alleys and side streets. It goes beyond temporary pop-ups to expand Entertainment Zones, cut red tape for small businesses, and anchor arts and culture through real investments.”
This is still just a proposal, and the Board of Supervisors won’t take up the legislation until the return from their summer recess in September
But in the meanwhile, there’s one of these events this week as Downtown First Thursdays returns to Second Street (between Market and Howard streets) on Thursday, August 1 from 5-10 pm. This month’s party features a DJ set from Vandelux, who’s playing next weekend’s Outside Lands, and this month’s event is being billed as a sort of Outside Lands pre-party. It’s free to attend, though an RSVP is required.
Related: Wiener Proposes New Downtown Booze Zones Where You Can Walk Around With To-Go Drinks [SFist]
Image: @miyagawa via Twitter
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