First wave of fixes to S.F. permitting red tape would help bars and nightclubs
Speaking at the annual Nightlife and Entertainment Summit, Lurie told a room full of nightclub owners and impresarios that the reforms would make 'permitting faster, more predictable and more transparent.'
Lurie said he plans to introduce legislation next week that would eliminate the need for Planning Department approvals for two types of permits: limited live performance and fixed-place amplified sound. About 60 of these types of permits were sent to the Planning Department during the last fiscal year, which cost about $12,000.
In addition, businesses will no longer need the Department of Building Inspection approval for permits for entertainment and extended hours. The changes will shave 30 days from the approval process.
'You are the visionaries and operators who help this city shine after dark,' said Lurie.
'Our job at City Hall and in government is to create the conditions for your success. We want people off the couches, and I want them in your bars and on your dance floors.'
The modest changes are the start of an initiative Lurie is calling PermitSF, which the mayor has promised will speed up approval for housing and small businesses and improve permit tracking technology. Lurie also vowed to implement a 'shot clock' that would limit the amount of time that the city can review permits, potentially ending instances where applications languish for months or years.
'We are going to be cutting red tape by ensuring that entertainment permits only go to the departments that actually need to review them,' said Lurie. 'That means no unnecessary reviews from planning or building inspection when they are not relevant.'
In mid-February, Lurie said the reforms would be introduced within 100 days.
While the streamlining would only cut a few of the dozens of bureaucratic sign-offs bar and nightclub owners have to deal with, business owners at the entertainment summit applauded the proposed changes.
David Kiely, who owns Mars Bar in SoMa, said making it easier and faster to obtain permits 'is tantamount to our economic survival.' He said Mars Bar is currently trying to extend its hours and get special entertainment permits.
'It's what we need,' said Kiely. 'Anything we can do that is going to draw people to come in and have events is only going to help us.'
Entertainment Commission President Ben Bleiman said at the summit that the city's permitting process for bars and nightclubs is 'a hodgepodge of rules overlapped on one another.' The regulations change from neighborhood to neighborhood, often driven by complaints from residents.
'There was no vision or forward thinking on how these things were put together,' he said. 'These things are extremely frustrating for us and more importantly, frustrating for our faith in our government. If we don't believe our government works, everything falls apart.'
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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Can San Francisco avoid Trump's ire after National Guard deployments in D.C. and L.A.?
Once again, President Donald Trump has brought his campaign of retribution against liberal jurisdictions to the streets of a major American city, ordering hundreds of National Guard troops to deploy to another Democratic stronghold. And once again, the city in question is not San Francisco, a past Trump target that has so far avoided the kind of direct clash with his administration that previously played out in Los Angeles and is now unfolding in Washington. Trump announced Monday that he was temporarily placing the D.C. police department under federal control and sending 800 National Guard troops to the nation's capital. Those extraordinary steps were necessary because of 'violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals' that have overrun the city, Trump said, even though official statistics show violent crime in Washington is down. The president put other cities on notice, warning that New York, Chicago, Baltimore and Oakland could also see National Guard deployments over crime concerns. He did not mention San Francisco, a famously liberal sanctuary city that was panned by Trump last year as 'not even livable.' It's not as if San Francisco is flying under Trump's radar entirely. He has promoted the unlikely idea of reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison, and immigration agents have detained people in the city as they've sought to carry out Trump's mass deportation plans. San Francisco has also repeatedly fought Trump administration policies in court. But when it comes to Trump sending military forces to what he views as lawless cities led astray by Democratic politicians, San Francisco and its mayor, Daniel Lurie, do not appear to be top of mind for the president — at least not for now. Some political observers say that's a testament to how well Lurie and other moderate Democrats are running the city, while others warn that Trump could easily turn his ire on the city at a moment's notice. Jay Cheng, executive director of the moderate political group Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, sees political vindication in the fact that Trump didn't invoke San Francisco when he previously sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles or when he announced the actions in Washington on Monday. Cheng said San Francisco voters have shown in electing Lurie, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and a moderate Board of Supervisors majority that they're focused on improving police staffing, reducing crime, shutting down drug markets and making the city function more efficiently. 'In San Francisco, we're showing that Democratic leaders can successfully govern a city,' Cheng said. 'He's not mentioning us because we're not a good example for his narrative, because we have Democrats that are doing a great job around public safety.' State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, had a more blunt assessment of Trump's treatment of New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland and Washington. All of those cities have Black mayors and large Black populations, Wiener noted, calling it 'straight up Donald Trump's alley and straight out of his racist playbook.' Wiener doubted that Trump was taking note of any specific political changes in San Francisco when thinking about where he wanted to send the National Guard. 'Donald Trump has taken many swings at San Francisco over the years — just ask Nancy Pelosi,' Wiener said. 'The other thing is, when it comes to Trump, the eye of Sauron is going to look wherever it's going to look,' Wiener said. 'If he's going after Oakland, Baltimore, Chicago, New York and L.A. today, he's going to go after other cities tomorrow.' Since he became San Francisco mayor in January, Lurie has carefully avoided even uttering Trump's name in public in an attempt to avoid drawing too much attention from a vengeful president with a reputation for being unpredictable. He's seen little evidence that his approach is unpopular: In fact, 50% of respondents in a recent Chronicle poll said the mayor was right to prioritize local issues. Lurie's office had no comment Monday. Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Monday that she has 'great compassion for the mayors who are struggling with the right thing to do in Trump's second term,' pointing to the decisive conservative control of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. Schaff had a widely-publicized clash with Trump during his first term in 2018, when she as Oakland mayor issued a public warning about an imminent immigration sweep. Trump called her action a 'disgrace' and urged his attorney general to consider prosecuting Schaaf. In direct response to Schaaf, a Republican Congressman introduced unsuccessful legislation that would have imposed criminal penalties — and possible jailtime — against local officials who made similar disclosures. Schaaf said she thinks it's 'wise' for mayors to focus on what they were elected to do, unless they find themselves directly in the crosshairs of the White House, which is the situation that she thinks she faced in Oakland seven years ago. 'I really did not want to be sucked into a national debate when I was elected to run the city, to keep people safe,' Schaaf said. 'It doesn't surprise me that Mayor Lurie is focused on what he was elected to do and not allowing himself to be distracted, because Trump hasn't called out San Francisco in this way.' Barbara Lee, Oakland's current mayor, responded Monday to Trump's comments about her city by calling them inaccurate and 'an attempt to score cheap political points by tearing down communities he doesn't understand.' Schaaf told the Chronicle that she has 'a lot of respect and faith' that Lee will 'do what is right for her values and the values of Oakland.' And while Trump isn't talking much about San Francisco now, that could change under the wrong circumstances, said Jeff Cretan, who was a spokesperson for former Mayor London Breed. A high-profile violent incident during an immigration action or protest in San Francisco could quickly result in Trump setting his sights on the city, Cretan said. 'I don't want to see something horrible happen, but that could change things,' he said. 'Sometimes those moments are what galvanize people … Those bigger, symbolic things that resonate with people more often are what draw a lot of the attention.' Lurie has clearly indicated his desire to avoid such a scenario. In June, after Trump first sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles, a reporter asked Lurie if he anticipated something similar happening in San Francisco, where protests had already erupted. Lurie said he was focused on 'keeping San Franciscans safe.' 'We have this under control,' he said.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
A new gold rush? How AI is transforming San Francisco
On a sunny day in San Francisco, along the city's waterfront, families dived into the wacky world of artificial intelligence inside the Exploratorium museum. Visitors made shadow puppets for AI to identify, used AI to generate songs, asked chatbots questions and faced off with AI in a game in which players tried to draw images that only humans would recognize. A giant robot hand moved around and people peered into a video game chip. They jotted down their hopes and worries about AI on cards displayed in the museum. Hope: AI will cure cancer. Worry: People will rely on AI to the point they can't think for themselves. 'It sort of breaks down those guardrails, those big walls that people have put up around AI, and allows them to have a conversation with somebody else,' said Doug Thistlewolf, who manages exhibit development at the Exploratorium. Art. Office Space. Billboards. Protests. The AI craze has intensified in San Francisco, spreading through work and social life in what some have described as a new gold rush. The AI boom, coupled with the election of new Mayor Daniel Lurie, has also infused the city with optimism — tinged with anxiety. Some worry about the city's high cost of living, and whether AI will replace workers as tech layoffs continue. For years, Silicon Valley has been at the center of innovation with some of the world's valuable tech companies such as Meta, Google, Apple and Nvidia locating their massive headquarters south of San Francisco. AI's rise, though, has shone a bright spotlight on San Francisco, home to multibillion-dollar companies such as OpenAI, Scale AI, Anthropic, Perplexity and Databricks. AI has long played a big role in consumer technology, helping to recommend social media posts, translate languages and power virtual assistants. But the popularity of OpenAI's ChatGPT — a chatbot that can generate text, images and code — set off a fierce race to propel technology that touches industries from media to healthcare. Companies are battling it out for talent, offering lucrative compensation to recruit top researchers and leaders, while investments in AI companies have surged. In the first half of 2025, venture capital funding for AI companies in the San Francisco Metro area surpassed $29 billion — more than double the amount during the same period in 2022, data from PitchBook shows. As of Aug. 5, VC deals for AI startups in the area, which includes San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont, made up 46.6% of funding for U.S. AI companies this year. Exactly how this frenzy will shape the future of San Francisco, home to cable cars and robotaxis, remains to be seen. Ask ChatGPT what SF will look like in 10 years and it generates an image of the city's skyline with futuristic architecture and flying saucers next to the Golden Gate Bridge. AI has been a 'bright spot' in the city's economy, helping San Francisco to recover after retailers, office workers and some companies such as X (formerly Twitter) left the downtown area during and after the pandemic as remote work picked up. 'The economic impact is [AI companies] take more office space, they pay more taxes, they hire more people,' said Ted Egan, chief economist of the city and county of San Francisco. Over the past five years, AI-related companies have leased more than 5 million square feet of San Francisco office space and the amount is projected to grow, according to CBRE, a real estate service and investment firm. The city's office vacancy rate of 35.8% in the first quarter would be cut in half if these companies take up 16 million square feet of office space by 2030. San Francisco resident Vijay Karunamurthy has seen the city's boom and bust cycles unfold over the last 25 years while working at startups and tech giants such as Google and Apple. In 2000, when he moved from Chicago to San Francisco for an engineering job at a data startup, he saw major business such as collapse during the dot-com crash. Fueled by social media's popularity, the city's tech sector came roaring back only to take a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the city is ascending yet again. Ambitious entrepreneurs, old and new, are advancing powerful artificial intelligence tools that could transform lives. 'That amount of energy being concentrated in San Francisco has just been huge for the city,' said Karunamurthy, 46, the former field chief technology officer at Scale AI, a data-labeling startup. 'It means every single night there's AI events, and if you go to a coffee shop, you'll run into people working on AI.' Still, there are plenty of AI skeptics. In late July, outside of OpenAI's headquarters in Mission Bay, a small group of protesters including a person dressed up as a robot held up signs that said 'AI will kill us all' and 'AI steals your work to steal your jobs.' Generative AI's ubiquity has forced educators to rethink what and how they teach students in the classrooms. Arno Puder, professor and chair of San Francisco State University's computer science department, said generative AI represents a historic 'paradigm shift.' The longtime San Francisco resident is equally excited, but also a little scared, about how it will affect labor. Over the last two years, he's seen student enrollment in computer science at the university drop amid tech layoffs and generative AI's rise. As coding assistants reshape computer science jobs, the university launched a new undergraduate certificate in generative AI for the fall of 2026. 'Generative AI is a different beast,' Puder said. 'That does make me worry a little bit, but if you ask me for a prediction on what services or what the world's going to look like in a few years from now, I don't know.' AI's rise has inspired the creation of new spaces throughout San Francisco where people can discuss technology's benefits and risks. Thistlewolf said creating the AI exhibit at the Exploratorium involved talking to workers and researchers from tech companies and universities. The exhibit, which runs through mid-September, took roughly a year and half to develop. Backed by Anthropic, the San Francisco company that developed the AI chatbot Claude, the exhibit aims to educate people about AI but doesn't shy away from the debate surrounding technology. San Francisco resident Martha Chesley, 77, came to the exhibit with her grandchildren. Living in San Francisco for 50 years, Chesley sees potential benefits from AI companies coming to the city. 'If it brings people and money, it's good for the city because right now we have a lot of closed storefronts,' she said. 'Maybe there would be more money also for housing being built.' Throughout the city, AI startups are broadcasting their mission loudly on billboards and ads displayed at bus stops and train stations. Messages include 'Stop Hiring Humans. To Write Cold Emails' and 'Droids ship software while you touch grass.' AI ads could also be spotted in the Mission district, a neighborhood deeply rooted in Latino culture and history. The area, filled with popular taquerias, colorful murals and a park with a view of the downtown skyline, has struggled with homelessness like other parts of the city. At a bus stop on 16th Street, an ad from AI startup Outset struck a positive tone: 'Listen to humans. Don't replace them.' Founded in downtown San Francisco in 2022, Outset created an AI interviewer so researchers could quickly gather feedback from more people to better understand customer needs and improve products. The company's 36-year-old chief executive, Aaron Cannon, said before the rise of ChatGPT, he and his co-founder experimented with AI systems that can generate and understand human language and saw its potential. 'I don't think either of us could have told you it was going to absolutely take over the world,' he said. The San Francisco resident said the city's talent pool also makes it an attractive location for startups. He declined to disclose its finances but said the company, which employs 15 and counts Microsoft among its clients, is 'growing fast.' Throughout San Francisco, founders and real estate companies have dubbed certain areas as AI hubs. Hayes Valley, a neighborhood with Victorian houses, boutique shops and trendy restaurants, bears the nickname 'Cerebral Valley,' a nod to the hacker houses and AI communities that popped up in the area. Jamestown, a real estate and investment company, markets the Northern Waterfront an emerging AI hub after leasing more than 43,000 square feet of office space to AI companies. Some of the startups work on AI loan servicing or AI-powered lip syncing technology. Located near public transportation, water and greenery, the fresh air and serene nature of the area has attracted AI entrepreneurs that want to collaborate in person, said Michael Phillips, principal and chairman of Jamestown. 'If you're working on these fast to market, highly competitive products,' he said, 'you really need to be together.'
San Francisco Chronicle
06-08-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Why S.F. residents say the city is finally undergoing a major vibe shift
Fewer homeless encampments and trash-strewn sidewalks. Busier restaurants and retail shops. A new mayor who hits the streets almost daily to chat with residents and business owners. These are just some of the reasons why San Franciscans say they now feel optimistic about the city's future despite years of negative news about empty downtown offices, widespread public drug use, rampant stolen-goods sales and other serious concerns. Residents' bullish attitudes about the city and Mayor Daniel Lurie were captured in a Chronicle poll last month. The survey found that public sentiment had improved dramatically: 57% of respondents viewed the quality of life in San Francisco favorably in July compared to 39% who felt the same one year earlier. And 48% said they expect conditions to get better in the coming years, a nine-point improvement from last year. The Chronicle interviewed more than a dozen people who participated in the poll, as well as other experts and community leaders who did not. The picture that emerged was a hopeful one: Across San Francisco, there's a sense that the city's recovery from the pandemic is finally gaining momentum. Crime is down, tourism is up and voters are feeling good about their decision to replace former Mayor London Breed with Lurie, a political novice. North Beach resident Miki Pryor said she believes Lurie is 'out on the street a whole lot more' than his predecessor. Pryor, who took the Chronicle poll, said she has spotted Lurie several times at places like Yerba Buena Gardens and the Ferry Building. Lurie's frequent social media posts have also reached Pryor, 81, who cited a video the mayor shared on Instagram in which he provided updates about how he was trying to improve chaos-ridden Sixth Street. Not everyone is feeling the positive shift. In troubled parts of the Tenderloin, South of Market and Mission districts, residents are fed up with persistent drug scenes, homelessness and illegal vending. Downtown San Francisco, the city's economic engine, remains far from its pre-pandemic vibrancy. Still, most voters think the city is in a better place than it was last summer. Daniel Matsumoto, another poll respondent, is among them. He lives near the border between the Tenderloin and Union Square, and he said cleanliness in the area has 'definitely improved' over the past six months. Matsumoto, 51, said he still sees traces of the city's open-air drug markets or people experiencing mental health issues and homelessness every day when he walks to his job at the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Some hotspots — including the intersection of Howard and Sixth streets — that were previously overrun with encampments and trash are much more walkable, Matsumoto added. It's not hard to find data to bolster the case that San Francisco has improved from the lows of the pandemic. Reported crimes have fallen in every category, with property crime down 25% over the first half of the year. Car break-ins hit a 22-year low in 2024 and have continued to fall. The crime drop began when Breed was mayor, a fact she campaigned on unsuccessfully in the race she lost to Lurie. Moscone Center will host 34 events this year — nine more than last year — and is expected to see a nearly 70% year-over-year uptick in hotel room nights linked to conventions, but it's still below pre-pandemic levels. Rents in June surged more than anywhere else in the country as job growth in the artificial intelligence industry bolsters the apartment market. The Ferry Building reported its best first quarter on record for foot traffic this year. At Oracle Park, the San Francisco Giants are seeing their highest average attendance since 2018. Union Square recently welcomed the country's second Nintendo store, and Pop Mart, the Chinese toy company behind the viral Labubu doll craze, is expected to open on a struggling stretch of Powell Street. 'We really turned a corner in the last year or beginning of this year, maybe coinciding with our new mayor, who's bringing excellent energy and ideas and focus on downtown,' said Karin Flood, owner of the historic Flood Building next to the cable car turnaround on Powell Street. 'He's on Instagram all the time with positive messages about what's happening downtown and the steps he's taking to address the safety and quality of life downtown.' That optimism is less pronounced just west of Union Square. In the Tenderloin, residents and business owners noticed a 'slight improvement' in street homelessness and drug scenes after Lurie took office in January, said Randy Shaw, executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic. But conditions have deteriorated since then, Shaw said. 'I've never heard more pessimism from business owners in the Tenderloin than I've heard in recent weeks, because people just feel like there's nothing positive moving forward,' Shaw said. 'There's a feeling that the Tenderloin is being left behind in the San Francisco comeback.' Merchants and residents around 16th and Mission streets share those sentiments since the area has been grappling with an influx of drug users and unpermitted vending. Lurie responded by surging police enforcement and community ambassadors to the area, but progress has been inconsistent. Though the city overall has seen some encouraging signs, plenty of challenges remain. Office vacancies have fallen but are still historically high. Market street has more abandoned storefronts than occupied ones between Fifth and the Embarcadero, a path heavily traveled by tourists. The city's largest mall, the San Francisco Centre at Market and Fifth streets, is mostly empty. BART and Muni ridership is trending upward, but both transit agencies are staring down giant budget shortfalls. City Hall is also expected to face a large deficit next year. Yet for now a majority of voters are happy about where the city is headed — and satisfied that Lurie is in charge. He had a remarkable 73% approval rating in the Chronicle poll, a high mark that University of San Francisco public affairs professor Patrick Murphy said is linked to residents' views of the city in general. The public attitudes about San Francisco and Lurie are likely being shaped just as much by residents' daily experiences as they are by the information they receive from other sources such as media reports, social media posts and commentary from other people, Murphy said. 'Part of it might be a little bit of (personal) experience,' he said. 'A lot more of it has to do with perception.' Another factor in Lurie's favor is that voters clearly grew weary of Breed, who residents blamed for the downturn during the pandemic and its worsening drug crisis. 'If Mother Theresa was in charge during the pandemic in San Francisco, she would have lost that election,' Murphy said. Poll respondent Leslie Carol Roberts of Pacific Heights described feeling 'very optimistic about the city' because of what she feels is its reemerging restaurant and shopping scene, including along Valencia Street, which struggled in recent years. 'People are at brunch. People are in the shops,' said Roberts, who's lived in the city since 1989. 'An indicator of the health of the city is whether you can touch down in any of its neighborhoods and find that it is fluid and active.' San Francisco restaurants seem to be doing better than last summer, said Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. 'Are we raking in money? No. But I do think it's heading in the right financial direction,' Thomas said. 'There is a perception that things are getting better from a safety perspective, which has been our members' No. 1 concern in our poll we do every year.' Lurie has pushed the narrative that San Francisco is bouncing back on his watch. An heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, he has spent heavily to promote the city's public image — and his own — since taking office. By the end of June, his self-funded campaign account paid $350,000 to political advisers and public relations firms who advised him on messaging, according to recent disclosures. Lurie has said his 'entire team shares an unwavering commitment to San Francisco's success.' One of his advisers previously told the Chronicle he was honored to help 'share the story of San Francisco's comeback.' When he signed his first city budget in July, Lurie ticked off a list of bright spots that put the city in a flattering light. 'There's a shift in how people are feeling,' Lurie said. 'More San Franciscans today believe the city is headed in the right direction. More believe their quality of life is improving. This is what we are all working for, and it's why I know our best days aren't just ahead of us — they're starting right now.'
