City’s Open Space not Busy Enough?

City’s Plazas Program wants to “activate” quiet plazas and open spaces

The Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development has drafted legislation to target San Francisco’s public plazas for business-focused activities. According to the OEWD, City property generally over 2,000 square feet and outside the Recreation and Parks Department jurisdiction would be eligible for participation in the “Plazas Program”. Each proposed plaza would have a “demonstrable need for a long-term activation” and/or maintenance solution. Selected public spaces would need to be “adopted” by the Board of Supervisors on a plaza-by-plaza basis as part of the Plazas Program.

The program’s description available on the OEWD website uses words like “energize”, “activate”, “revitalize”, “support economic vitality”, and “strengthen and empower neighborhoods” to describe what basically amounts to renting public places to anyone who can fill out an RFP. The idea is that the City’s coffers would benefit from increased economic activity; the program would help businesses that need affordable space and don’t want to go through standard business permitting processes.

According to the OEWD, the City would select a vendor to ‘steward’ or run the plaza (and presumably include its own commercial activities). A selection process would determine the steward’s suitability for a selected plaza. Each plaza would engage a single steward. Some time and space at each plaza will be reserved for non-commercial uses, presumably when no businesses want to use the space. If the public or an organization wished to host events at that plaza, the decision and adminis-tration of those events would be in the hands of the steward (the business that has rented the plaza).

It sounds as though the public uses of a public plaza would be outsourced to a vendor. There is no indication whether there are limits to the vendor’s ability to sublease, charge fees or otherwise restrict activities in the plaza. The OEWD is partnering with the City’s Real Estate Division and the Department of Public Works to launch the SF Plaza Program.

San Francisco’s plazas are vital to the livability of the City because they create a sense of place and community for residents and visitors to enjoy the local neighborhoods. But does every unused public space really need to be filled with vendors and commercial activities in order to become “activated”?

Part of the discussion here is whether “we” need the money from renting public spaces, or whether the spaces are better off left alone. The purpose of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development is to attract and retain businesses to San Francisco, revitalize commercial corridors and create a business climate where companies can grow and prosper. The OEWD’s rationale is that plaza stewards would “take care of” the public space so the city won’t have to. Is the extra money going into the General Fund or being earmarked for Recreation and Park or OEWD bureaucracy?

Information and answers about the fate of SF’s public plazas for anyone who would like to form an educated opinion is simply not available from the documents and website. What about a list or map of the plazas? Rules governing the public/private use of the plazas? Any restrictions to types of enterprises to be installedin the plazas?

Why do the descriptions of the City’s process for the plazas stop with “Select a Steward”? Who is going to oversee the steward and how? Who is accountable? Who pays for the infrastructure to support the plaza business? What is the the emphasis or percentage share the plazas are intended to accommodate for community supported activities such as art and music events? How much space will be dedicated to retail v. non-commercial functions?

The project manager for the Plaza Program, Robin Havens, stated that there is no list of proposed plazas because each plaza would need to be reviewed and approved by the Board of Supervisors on a plaza-by-plaza basis. It seems as if every plaza and open space owned by the City could be a candidate for the program but Ms. Havens mentioned only McCoppin Hub Plaza (McCoppin and Valencia Streets), Jane Warner (Market and Castro Streets) and Daggett Plaza (16th Street at 7th Street), as possibilities.

The Mayor’s Office is soliciting public input. The Plazas Program will be heard before the Planning Commission on Thursday, May 1. Contact robin.havens@sfgov.org.