Rebuilding our small businesses
Rebuilding the heart of our community businesses requires new policies, data, and a new vision for San Francisco
The stroke of midnight on March 17 re-started the clock on daily life as we know it. The coronavirus pandemic is not only a global public health crisis –it is the starting point of a series of challenges that will affect our families, our communities, and, without doubt, our economy. In San Francisco, small businesses were already under immense pressure, and now the protracted loss of customers for the foreseeable future actively threatens the existence of our small businesses. Moving forward requires a new approach, with a vision to rebuild the heart of our small business community for the twenty-first century.
Even before the arrival of the Coronavirus, walking around our neighborhoods, we are all struck by too many closed businesses and shuttered storefronts. The challenges facing our local businesses are exacerbated by the Coronavirus, and it’s heart wrenching. Our family’s favorite Friday night cafe after pre-school ends. Your favorite bar. The restaurants we all love. All closed. And hundreds more local, independent businesses will suffer in the coming weeks. Without decisive action, it is easy to imagine that almost half of them will be gone forever.
Time is of the essence. We need to help small business and community leaders to not only cope with the now, but start developing a new vision, new policies, and new tools that can save our small businesses that make San Francisco unique going forward. Lawmakers must take decisive actions to rethink how civic government supports the small business community. To do this, we need to transition to a data-driven approach. An approach that pushes City Hall to identify which small businesses need help, the type of help they need, and then to drive resources to those small businesses.
Using data to inform policy is better than reactive policymaking
Public policy reflects the beating heart of civic life. But good public policy requires the lifeblood of real-time, informed use of data to be effective. To demonstrate what Supervisors could do, I pulled business data from Data SF, the City’s Open Data portal, which publishes a list of every business registered in San Francisco. Using this public data, I was able to identify 2,349 businesses –approximately 20% of all businesses in District 3 — that are vulnerable as a result of the economic upcoming recession.
We don’t have to wait: What SF can do NOW
While this approach isn’t refined, it’s an example how the Board of Supervisors could use data to help their district. It’s naive to assume that information posted on a government website means a struggling small businesses owner will find it in time.
Elected leaders should be asking –What does it mean to use data now?
- Supervisor District Dashboards. Data about small business is published on Data SF, but under current practices that data isn’t analyzed unless there is a request for a formal report from a Board member for a specific issue. A better approach would be to create public dashboards for each District that displays up-to-date information and trends of economic vitality. This data would provide valuable information in normal, everyday circumstances. Data can tell us what mixes of office space, retail storefronts, and restaurants help a commercial corridor thrive, while others stagnate.
- Supervisors pass legislation requiring city agencies to share more data. Data is a means to help our communities. None of this matters if we’re not helping people. Elected officials should be pushing for more robust data collection by City agencies and the sharing of data between government departments. Supervisors created the Open Data legislation, the next step should be to update the law to require City agencies to share data by a deadline. This would increase the amount of data, increase the pace of data publication, and improve department practices required to operate a more effective City government. At the moment, the process is driven by the Chief Data Scientist asking for data. This should be an imperative.
San Francisco lacks a vision to support small businesses
Compare the above to the most recent approach taken by San Francisco lawmakers to help small businesses. These policies lack clear goals or metrics to evaluate whether a policy is a success or not. So there’s lack accountability from lawmakers.
The first set of laws proposed by the Board of Supervisors seeks to provide small businesses with loans and to increase the City’s marketing budget for tourism. For most small businesses, however, this approach will be too late. Loans require time and resources to apply for. And increasing the City’s marketing budget doesn’t move the needle when global travel will be down for at least a year. But more importantly, this legislation seems to be measured by irrelevant factors: The number of small businesses that are approved for a loan and the number of visitors that come to San Francisco. Neither of which measures whether we are helping small businesses survive, let alone grow.
The second proposal is from the Office of Workforce and Economic Development (OWED). OWED is proposing $10,000 grants. But there’s a catch: A small business must have less than five employees, demonstrate a loss of 25% or more, and have less than $2.5M in gross receipts. Put another way, a small business that employs 6 people (like a restaurant) and generates $600k in revenues can’t apply.* Here, the metric of success is the number of failing companies that can apply for a grant. Again, the metrics don’t actually tell us whether small businesses are surviving or growing.
Let’s hold Supervisors accountable for their policies
Data should be used to allocate resources where they are most needed. And at the end of the day, data-driven policy makes elected officials accountable.
Together, we can preserve what makes San Francisco unique. We can create healthy livable neighborhoods that support families and local businesses. We can improve transit and protect the environment. We can find ways to help our most vulnerable.
Take care of yourself and be safe.
///C
- Assuming 40 tables served per day, customers $50 per visit, 6 days per week, open 50 weeks a year*
