Parking and public toilets top the list of concerns the Chinatown Economic Development Group will soon present to Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The CEDG — a city-funded task force aimed to help economic development in Chinatown after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Embarcadero Freeway — recently compiled recommendations to improve Chinatown based on feedback from local merchants, restaurant owners and citizens.
They found that the major public concern was parking, and they strongly recommend the mayor reinstate the $0.50 cents per hour parking rate at Portsmouth Square Garage and St. Mary’s Garage after 5 p.m. daily. This will also allow businesses to provide two hours of free parking for customers.
Currently, after 6 p.m., more than 50 percent of the garage parking spaces are empty, and after 7:30 p.m., that number jumps to 65 percent.
“In order to attract more people to come back into Chinatown at night, we must provide low costs of parking to visitors and give them an incentive to stay late,” CEDG Chair Pius Lee said. “The city will not be losing any money by reducing the parking fee but will be making more money in sales taxes if people stop to shop and eat.”
The group also suggests that the city promote evening entertainment shows at the Great Star Theater and Chinese Cultural Center, and continue support of the Chinatown Night Market, all of which require city funding.
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City lights, city nights?: San Francisco Chinatown is in need of revitalization.
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“Chinatown is stagnant right now and needs to be revitalized,” said CEDG member Bill Lee, who is also on the San Francisco Planning Commission. “Even though the Planning Commission recently approved the renovation of the Chinatown YMCA, we need to rezone Chinatown and add more affordable housing.”
The CEDG would like the city to increase the building height limits in the Chinatown area to achieve that goal.
The group also recommends that the Portsmouth Square Park restrooms, the only public toilets in Chinatown, remain open seven days a week and until 11 p.m. daily, including holidays. This past Thanksgiving, they were closed, to the dismay of many merchants.
In terms of public safety, the group would like an increase in police foot patrol during the daytime, evenings and holidays. It also suggests the Department of Public Works clean Chinatown streets daily, especially during public holidays, and calls for sidewalk improvements and additional street lighting for the Stockton Street Tunnel, which serves as the gateway into Chinatown from Union Square.
Pius Lee said he would also like the city to develop business programs to assist and educate small business merchants to comply with local, state and federal laws, as there have been reports that many workers are not receiving legal wages.
If the mayor supports these suggestions, the CEDG asks that Newsom have his chief of staff, Phil Ginsberg, and other department heads work with them as soon as possible to begin implementing the changes. The group has not scheduled a meeting date with the mayor, but hopes to do so in the near future.
“I strongly recommend that the mayor pays attention to our recommendations, because Chinatown really needs some help,” Pius Lee said. “Especially in the evening where it is so quiet now and not like the tourist attraction it is supposed to be.”
