A group of South of Market business leaders told the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday that federal authorities have erected a heavy-duty metal fence and severely restricted access to the convention center where world leaders from 21 countries will be attending. , APEC said it cost tens of thousands of dollars. Thousands of CEOs, senior officials, and journalists gathered in mid-November.
City officials estimate that APEC will attract more than 20,000 participants and generate about $53 million in economic activity, including spending at local hotels and restaurants. However, representatives of various companies close to the convention center told regulators that the conference had had a negative impact on their businesses, using $10 million previously set aside for APEC-related expenses to help the companies. asked the city to do so.
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“In fact, even though we had close to 20,000 people attending this event, we were able to accommodate everyone within the premises of Moscone Center,” said Manuel Ramirez, owner of the Metreon branch of Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon. speaks. “That’s the important information that was hidden from us.”
Ramirez said Bonchon restocked its kitchen ahead of APEC because Bonchon’s suppliers were not willing to jump through the safety hurdles necessary to get to Metreon during the conference. . He decided to continue his operation, hoping that his business would continue to be patronized by people attending conferences. But in most cases, that’s not the case, he said, and his business has lost more than $50,000.
If Bonchon had closed, the loss would likely have been closer to $10,000, but “it’s manageable,” Ramirez said.
He described the companies hurt by the convention’s safety measures as “the sacrificial lambs that put San Francisco on the world stage.”
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Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents SoMa and convened Wednesday’s hearing, acknowledged that APEC was successful in at least one respect: enhancing San Francisco’s image to the world, but said the idea of compensating businesses in some way seemed positive.
Dorsey said he’s not worried about setting a precedent where the city has to pay companies every time a major event is held in the city, noting that APEC has been held in the city since 1945. It was by far the most important meeting of world leaders ever to meet, and was particularly disruptive.
“This was an extraordinary and unique event that posed extraordinary and unique challenges,” Dorsey said.
Mayor London Breed’s administration was responsible for preparing APEC in San Francisco, and she was a key promoter of the conference. She said APEC was a pivotal moment in elevating the city’s standing on the world stage, as the city’s reputation had taken repeated hits in recent years due to open-air drug markets, an epidemic of homelessness, retail closures and brazen property crimes. I thought there was.
Breed previously told the Chronicle that he was open to compensating businesses harmed by APEC, but could not commit to it until he fully understood the impact of the meeting. Budget Director Anna Dunning told supervisors Wednesday that the mayor’s administration is “happy to listen to feedback” from community members and that officials are working with the board to “understand how to proceed.” “I will.”
The Breed Office of Economic and Workforce Development and its Small Business Administration are in talks with APEC-affected businesses and are “working on next steps” to present to Breed and regulators, said Mayor Spokeswoman Parisa. Safarzadeh said in a statement. .
“APEC has given San Francisco an opportunity to promote the city to the world and create a lasting positive economic impact,” said Safarzadeh. “We are fully committed to this momentum.”
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Director Ayesha Safai, who is running for next year’s Breed mayoral election, was highly critical of Breed’s office for not properly preparing companies for APEC. He also questioned what the clean and safe streets around APEC events suggested about how the city would operate on other days.
“Everywhere I went, people said, ‘If San Francisco can do well at this summit, why can’t we do it consistently?'” he said at the hearing.
APEC did not affect all companies equally, even within the Moscone Center security zone.
During the week from November 13th to 19th, when the conference was held, pedestrian traffic throughout the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (whose boundaries overlapped with the security district) was at a rate that was higher than the average visitor trend of the previous two months. By comparison, it was down 33.8%, Scott Lowitz said. , Executive Director of the Business District. Companies also reported to his organization that revenue was down an average of 64.3% compared to September and October.
But the conference was a boon for area hotels, which would normally have had a quiet week as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. Instead, “every hotel was at capacity,” Lowitz told regulators.
“Depending on where you were, it was either feast or famine,” he said. “There was definitely a yin and a yang to this event.”
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Contact JD Morris: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @thejdmorris