San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
F. considers cash infusion for Chinatown restaurants
One week after Chinatown leaders called on San Francisco for targeted financial aid, officials are talking about a potential $ 1.9 million relief plan for the historic neighborhood’s restaurants.
San Francisco Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Sandra Lee Fewer introduced legislation during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that would pay Chinatown restaurants to cook meals for older adults and families living in single room occupancy hotels through Chinatown Community Development Center’s Feed and Fuel program.
“We’re witnessing the potential loss of one of the last intact Chinatowns in the United States ... not only to the debilitating economic impacts of COVID, but to what I call the triple threat: COVID, the Central Subway delays that have been going on for years, as well as the fact that Chinatown was actuS.
ally impacted earlier by COVID than the rest of the city,” Peskin said at the meeting.
Called the Chinatown Restaurant Support & Food Security program, the plan would work with the 34 restaurants that took part in Feed and Fuel — which ran out of funding earlier in the pandemic — and ideally expand it to include as many as 80 small Chinatown restaurants, bakeries and cafes.
These meal programs have already proved successful at keeping restaurants in business and employees on the payroll, while also providing nutritious and culturally appropriate meals to those in need. Similar meal programs have kept Chinatown’s Sam Wo alive, and if this $ 1.9 million plan can be enacted quickly, it’s also possible Far East Cafe, Chinatown’s 100yearold banquet restaurant that previously took part in Feed and Fuel, could reverse its decision to permanently close this month — at least, that’s what Peskin and Chinatown leaders are hoping for.
“I beseech you and your investors and your landlord to hang in there a little bit longer,” Peskin told Far East Cafe owner Bill Lee at a news conference Wednesday. “It’s not only for your staff, it is for the people you feed, it is for the community and the future — and help is truly on the way.”
Angulo said Peskin’s office has requested that the Board of Supervisors waive its usual 30day waiting period after legislation is introduced.
Chinatown leaders asked for $ 4.2 million for restaurants to participate in a program such as Feed and Fuel, so the
$ 1.9 million plan is considerably less. Peskin described it as “a severalmonth BandAid” as the city recovers from the pandemic.
Several Chinatown community figures spoke at the supervisors meeting, urging officials to help the neighborhood and citing Far East Cafe’s closure announcement as one of many losses.
“Some of our businesses will never return,” said Betty Louie, adviser to the Chinatown Merchants Association. “If we are to survive culturally, financial assistance is a must.”