Two political heavyweights in San Francisco are calling for a legislation that will give small business owners more time to comply with city standards when it comes to awnings.
“It means a lot. Someone is supporting us,” said Fred Lo.
He is grateful Mayor London Breed and board of supervisors president Aaron Peskin are throwing a lifeline to many business owners suddenly facing code violations because of their awnings.
“Immigrant, small businesses in Chinatown that got particularly hard hit and have been slow to recover and right now, asking all those people to come up to code and to standards is just a bridge too far,” said Peskin.
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Lo has operated the Only in Chinatown gift shop at Grant and Washington streets since 1992 and had never heard a word about his awning, until earlier this month.
That’s when an anonymous whistleblower reported him, and almost 200 other businesses all over the city, for code violations.
“I don’t know, after 30 years, I don’t know,” he said when asked why you need a permit for an awning.
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It turns out there are regulations for them so that firefighters can get their ladders up to second stories, and so they don’t fall on people. But complying with the long-ignored code could cost up to thousands of dollars for permits and repairs.
Breed and Peskin would like to see, “a longer period to correct these things, will come along with some technical assistance from the appropriate departments. So, people can rest easy right now of all of the things weighing on people's minds, we just want people to have peace of mind right now,” said Peskin.
One of those city departments is the Office of Small Business, which now offers permitting support.
“If anyone has any questions, they're trying to start a new storefront, they want to do construction, we can help these business owners understand what the permitting requirements are and shepherd them through the entire journey,” said Katy Tang, executive director of the Office of Small Business.
It’s too early to say if any city money will be available for these businesses, but information is on the way.
The community is invited to a meeting with city department reps scheduled for Monday at one in the afternoon at Willie Woo Woo Wong playground in Chinatown.
