3.13.17 March Public Meeting Minutes

LoHaMNA General Meeting March 13, 2017

Called to order at 732

  1.       Introductions
  2.       Lieutenant Mike Nelson (Northern Station)

Problem is pursuit policy and need to stay within realm of policy

Chasing all dirt bikes through city streets would create bigger danger for citizens

Get them at starting or ending points

Follow bikers on social media sites where they post their plans so try and act before or after the event

Identified several bikers and few arrests regarding different events

Solution is to get them when gassing up at beginning or when wrapping up

Citizen concern that going through stop signs/red lights and see them as a danger to me and my family so asking about the policy of not pursuing them

Response: they want to be chased so can go on faster and longer, but I agree with you 100% and frustrates me

Task force that investigating and looking at plans to address the situation, working on a better plan

We are very aware of the problem and concerned by the situation but constrained by the law

Question: what can neighbors do?

Answer: do NOT try and take photos, can be aggressive/violent, some gang members, do not try and get in their face, keep yourself and your family safe, recently surrounded Uber driver on freeway and attacked, call immediately and give us a description and direction of the location (posing imminent threat to public then 911 or if general concern than 553-0123)

Questions: are people in danger if take cell phone video

Answer: use caution, take photos from a distance, zoom, videos are helpful, but keep yourself safe

  1.       Urban Solutions

Grant ($50K) from Sup London Breed for local business to negotiate better situation, address vacancies

Urban Solutions- the non-profit closed so we were able to recoup grant funds

Now will give grant money to legacy businesses for targeted projects of tenant improvement via Sup Breed’s office

Request that Sup Breed office and Office of Workforce Development come to speak next meeting

  1.       Public Realm meeting

Wednesday, March 15 at John Muir Elementary, 6-730p, open house, food and childcare, MTA

  1.       Lower Haight Art Grant

Jessica is main planner

$45K grant, can be broken into micro grants

Temporary installations to test impact of public realm (greening, celebrating LH identity and character)

Planning will help with the permitting process (eg Public Works, MTA, etc)

Idea has to involve neighborhood outreach (community stakeholders to ensure that community aware and supportive of project)

Question: lighting on Haight?

Answer: need to take into account neighbors

Question: stairs on Waller seem sterile, can we put a kiosk

Answer: can’t be a business but need to artwork

Question: what does temporary installation?

Answer: 1-12 months, parklet could be temporary, could be easily removed 1-3 days, the idea is to test things out, if it is a big success then can apply for more permanent permit with the city

Question: can it be an activity like closing Waller Street

Answer: perfect temporary use to activate the neighborhood

Question: can you take over empty storefront and turn it into community center for month?

Answer; temporary use permit change and need to adhere to codes for safety, ADA, etc so this is tricky

Question: can you give us some examples of what worked in Dogpatch?

Answer; Dogpatch worked with CCA to build benches and open spaces to create open gathering space, Civic Center is trying to create active used in parks, Market Prototyping festival, it is art but also design, the funding is from Ground Lit

Question: how are the decision made for the grant/permitting?

Answer: involved when public community input

Robert clarified that LoHaMNA not involved in decision making process so no conflict of interest

  1.       Blue Bottle

James Freeman- creator of Blue Bottle

Excited to move into neighborhood: family, bikes, dogs, place to meet and hang out

Want to be clearer about how we plan

Question: I like Blue Bottle, I like the idea, but my concern is that your location will be “drive through” coffee

Answer: 24-28 seats in the plan, my plan is deliciousness, hospitality, and service (?) (quick cup of coffee and/or nice place to sit and enjoy coffee), will  have community tables and two tops, outside seating (pending permit), would like to pursue bike route/valet bike parking so that people are not concerned about their bike getting stolen

Question: think you have the best coffee in town but destination coffee, not neighborhood coffee and your business model results in long lines so don’t see it filling neighborhood purpose

Answer: Ferry building is tourist destination so has long lines but not all our locations are tourist locations, have a desire/wish that people will like what we do so much that they want to wait, more than ¾ of people who come to our shops are regular (excluding Ferry Building), complimentary dog treats and dog ties

Question: What drove you to want to open in our neighborhood now if you have been in the neighborhood for so long? Why you waited so long for LH?

Answer: I like cafes that not on main street so that people have to discover them, if bigger shop that has infrastructure for restaurant then seems waste of our plans. Strategic and intuitive about

Question: How many BB around the world and how is this one different? What will hours be? How will you shift the model of BB to LH?

Answer: Want to make coffee when people want to drink coffee. I would love to have a coffee/wine but I haven’t figured out how to make that work. Plan for being open 7-8 or so but will be flexible if folks want coffee. All shops have differences based on the neighborhood and block that we are located. Want the café to be a stage for the people. Planning on kids books/book exchange

Question: I am guessing that more people will come from further away/double park for the coffee

Answer: Experience from Linden street which used to be dead end street, baristas will have conversations with customer

Question: What is your plan for outlets/WiFi?

Answer: we have never had WiFi in our shops except Palo Alto since not my personal taste, used to get more complaints, future is that Wifi is unavoidable, have a round community table in plans

Question: I work at Heath which used to have Blue Bottle and people develop relationships with baristas and hope that you can develop that here

Answer: when we started in 2002, we didn’t know a lot about coffee but our business is going to improve by how people feel after drinking our coffee, goal is that baristas will know people’s name

Question: which businesses do you like in LH and what is timeframe for move in?

Answer: Maven, Alembic, not open yet since it is a process to open with planning, community, neighborhood, planning dept review, anything that more than 11 locations that business owns is called formula retail so cannot open unless have the support of the community so if the neighborhood is opposed and planning dept sees significant opposition then will not be allowed

Question: This is not the whole neighborhood- what are your plans to outreach to whole neighborhood?

Answer: we have been walking the neighborhood on Saturdays talking to neighbors and businesses and getting input, recommendation of LoHaMNA carries a lot of weight

Comment: Looking at it as a neighborhood destination

Question: looking for more community engagement- not a lot of people here at the table/at this meeting, I would rec not going just on LoHaMNA’s rec

Answer; ¾ of our employees are full time, 80% elect public sponsored health care that we pay for at Kaiser, pay family care, average hourly slightly under $17/hour, almost landfill free in our SF cafes

Question: How do you think it would change the neighborhood for other formula retails?

Answer; case by case basis so will have to go through this same process

Question: how many units do you have in planning stage?

Answer: 2 in planning in Boston, 2 in Washington DC, have almost 30 in big cities (SF, LA NY, Tokyo), 6 in SF now

Question: Any stats on other locations and the impact of more cars in neighborhood?

Answer: Don’t have actually numbers

Question: are plans available online?

Answer: can send you a PDF and all posted on storefront and will be a link to download plans, or email me at: james@bluebottlecoffee.com

Adjourned at 847p