Supervisor Hillary Ronen today introduced legislation aimed at keeping nearly 100 independent business from getting booted from a sprawling multi-use building on 18th and Treat.
The building, known as ActivSpace, is home to some 300 owner-operated business. Many of them experienced a major jolt two weeks ago when 54 massage therapists and other bodyworkers faced displacement after the Department of Public Health informed them the building was not zoned to accommodate them.
At that time, however, it also became clear that other businesses operating in the space — Ronen’s office conservatively estimates around 100 total — could be in peril as well.
Many of the businesses are health and personal services, including acupuncturists, massage practitioners, hairstylists, tattoo artists, and even psychotherapists. The building is currently zoned for “production, distribution and repair” (PDR), which is meant for businesses like auto mechanics, light manufacturers, and artist spaces.
During the initial scare, Ronen said the potential mass exodus would be an “economic crisis” for the neighborhood. She echoed those statements at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
“Closing nearly 100 small businesses on the same block, all at once, would be an economic crisis for the Mission, a neighborhood already suffering from the displacement of hundreds of small businesses and thousands of working-class residents due to gentrification,” she said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
Ronen introduced an ordinance that would give these businesses “amnesty” in the city’s planning code. It would allow all the businesses operating in the space to be considered “legal non-conforming uses” and allow them to remain so long as the owners file for the appropriate permits within 30 days.
The supervisor made sure to note that she supports preserving PDR space in the neighborhood, which typically enables working class industries as well as creative endeavors. Both are scarce in San Francisco.
But seeing that many independently run businesses become displaced would be simply too disastrous.
“The solution I am introducing today strikes the right balance between protecting current small businesses in the shorter term, while ensuring arts and manufacturing space for the long term,” Ronen said.
I’ve had a massage in ActivSpace. It was a little weird as I could smell paint / chemicals coming from another unit, heat was provided by a space heater, and the bathrooms weren’t set up for the general public. That said, I don’t think it’s very well setup for PDR either as the spaces are very small and don’t have easy loading / unloading access. I hope they can work it out. As always, too many regulations in SF.
I’m delighted to see the Supervisor taking decisive action to protect small businesses in our neighborhood. Go Hillary!
Aren’t these the types of businesses that cater to the gentrifiers? Aren’t we supposed to resist the conversion of commercial spaces like this which shift the local economy towards the upper classes? What do any of these businesses have to do with serving the low income and Latinx populations in the Mission? Wasn’t it a mistake to allow ActivSpace to develop this property on the false promise of PDR space? What penalty will the landlord pay the city and the community for their transgressions?
Sorry, but if one has been following SF politics for any length of time – having a psychotherapist nearby is a handy asset to help you get off the stuff.
Same for national politics I suppose.
Funny how one mirrors the other from opposite ends of the insanity spectrum.
Actually, Active Space USED TO BE promoted as an affordable work space for artists! THAT is not even mentioned by Ronen, and apparently unknown by Julian Mark! It’s just the mechanism of the cancer-like disease known as CAPITALISM at work. Efforts like the proposal Ronen is drawing are nothing more than wrapping gauze around an infected wound without removing the pus first.