San Francisco Rules Committee Meeting (July 6, 2026): Chestnut Street Entertainment Zone and Commission Appointments
San Francisco Rules Committee Meeting (July 6, 2026): Chestnut Street Entertainment Zone and Commission Appointments
The Rules Committee, chaired by Supervisor Shimon Walton, met on July 6, 2026, to consider an ordinance creating the Chestnut Street Entertainment Zone and several mayoral appointments to city commissions. The committee unanimously approved the entertainment zone ordinance with minor amendments and advanced two port commission nominations while continuing a third.
Public Comments & Testimony
- One speaker, the general manager of Rich Lee’s company SPRO, expressed wholehearted support for Lee’s appointment to the Port Commission, citing his integrity, fairness, and ability to communicate with diverse perspectives. No other public comments were made on any agenda items.
Discussion Items
- Item 1: Chestnut Street Entertainment Zone Ordinance – Supervisor Sherrill presented the ordinance to create an entertainment zone on Chestnut Street from Divisadero to Fillmore, and on Steiner, Pierce, and Scott streets between Chestnut and Lombard. She noted the success of prior entertainment zones, mentioning the Fillmore Jazz Festival which drew an estimated 30,000 attendees. She introduced minor cleanup amendments to update cross-references to the transportation code following a recent street closure streamlining ordinance. Deputy City Attorney Brad Rusty confirmed the amendments apply to previously approved zones and those pending. The committee unanimously adopted the amendments and forwarded the ordinance to the full board with a positive recommendation.
- Item 2: Reappointment of Azelina Usoppi to Sanitation and Streets Commission – Usoppi, a 25-year San Francisco resident, small business owner in the Tenderloin, and Bayview resident, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to continue serving. She emphasized the importance of clean, safe, welcoming streets and the collective effort required. The committee unanimously voted to approve the reappointment.
- Items 3, 4, 5: Port Commission Nominations – Three nominations were considered together:
- Rich Lee (Item 3) – Lee, a small business owner operating five cafes with a sixth opening soon, shared his personal story of returning to San Francisco after commuting from San Jose. He expressed a desire to help small businesses and bring attention to the southern waterfront. Supervisor Mandelman voiced support, noting Lee’s perseverance through business challenges.
- Vanessa Harding (Item 4) – Not present; the item was continued to the call of the chair.
- William Adams (Item 5) – Adams, a former International President of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union who has served on the Port Commission since 2012, described the port’s historical and operational context, emphasizing the need for seawall upgrades, support for the southern waterfront, and the port’s unique “boutique” character. He stated he has no conflicts of interest.
- Supervisor Cheryl thanked both candidates for their clarity on the southern waterfront and seawall issues. A single public comment supported Rich Lee. The committee voted to approve items 3 and 5 and continue item 4.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1: Motion to amend and forward to full board with positive recommendation passed unanimously (3-0).
- Item 2: Motion to strike “rejecting” and replace with “approving” and send to full board passed unanimously.
- Items 3 & 5: Motion to amend both (strike “rejecting”) and forward to full board with positive recommendation passed unanimously. Item 4 was continued to the call of the chair.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the July 2026 rules committee meeting. I am your chair, Supervisor Shimon Walton. I'm joined by Vice Chair Steven Sherrow and soon to be joined by President Rafael Mandelman. Today's clerk is Victor Young, and I want to thank Jamie Eshevery with SFGov TV for making sure that this meeting is televised and available to the public. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements this morning? Yes, public comment will be taken on each item on this agenda when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called. Please line them speak. Alternatively, you may submit public comment in writing in either of the following ways. Email them to myself, the rules committee clerk at B I C T O R dot Y O U N G at SFgov.org. If you submit public comment by email, it will be included as part of the file. Please make sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of July 13th unless otherwise stated. That completes my initial announcements. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. Would you please call item number one? Yes. Before I do that, I just uh items past today will appear not on July 13th, but July 14th, which is a Tuesday. My apologies. Uh first item on the agenda. Item number one is ordinance amending the administrative code to create the Chestnut Street Entertainment Zone on Chestnut Street from Divisadero Street to Fillmore Street, Steiner Street from Chestnut Street to Lombard, Pierce Street from Chestnut Street to Lumbart Street, and Scott Street from Chestnut Street to Lumbart Street, and affirming the planning department's determination under the California Environmental Quality Act. Thank you so much. And we will of course pass this item on to Supervisor Cheryl. Thank you, Chair Walton, for scheduling this item today. Um, you know, I think we've seen the success of entertainment zones around the city. Um just this past weekend, uh, the Fillmore Jazz Festival, which had estimated 30,000 people on Saturday, which is pretty amazing and was great yesterday. Um uh it was the first entertainment zone event on Fillmore, which is really exciting. Um Union Street, we've also seen some smaller entertainment zone events, and I think what stands out to me about this is about the flexibility for merchants, about giving optionality to our small businesses and and helping you know boost our neighborhood corridors. So I think it's important to keep building on these successes, keep uh the momentum going to boost our local economy, and that's why I'm moving forward this new entertainment zone on Chestnut Street uh to help them organize more activations uh in the near future. Um today I've got some minor cleanup amendments at the request of the city attorney. Um, as you may remember, colleagues recently we passed uh street closure streamlining ordinance to better enable street permitting. Um so now we need to update our entertainment zones to properly reflect um the updated cross-references to the transportation code. So um the amendments that uh were circulated to your offices earlier this morning that I just handed out uh on paper, um, they go through each entertainment zone subsection in administrative code 94B and changes the transportation code division one reference from section 6.6 or 6.16 to Article 6. Um, do you have any questions on those amendments, colleagues? Thank you so much, Russia. And I don't have a question on your amendment, but I do have a question for the city attorney. Uh, just in terms of previous entertainment zones. How does this amendment play out for those? Deputy City Attorney Brad Rusty. The amendments that Supervisor Sherrill is proposing would correct the citations to all the previously approved entertainment zones and the ordinances that are still there are some I think still pending and on their way here. We'll fix those in committee when they come. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh, great. Um, don't thank me. Thank my staff Lorenzo Rosas and the city attorney who uh did a lot of the hard work, Brad. Thank you and your team for that. Um so I'd like to move to amend the file as I circulated and described, um, and then move to send the amended file to the full board of supervisors with a positive recommendation as a committee report. And we will take that motion, of course, after we go to public comment.
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