potrero view
Photo by Emmanuel Schnetzler

Photo by Emmanuel Schnetzler

Shop Local: Wine House employees Anya Balistreri, David Netzer, Chris Anthony, and Tom Faust. To see more Shop Local photos by Emmanuel Schnetzler, go to the Photo Gallery at the top of the page.

October 2009

20th Street Businesses Look For Better Times

By Lisa Tehrani

The 20th Street corridor, stretching between Missouri and Arkansas streets, serves as a virtual meridian between the Hill’s north and south slopes.  Compared to 18th Street, with its concentration of restaurants and bars, it’s the neighborhood’s quieter commercial strip.  Both of the Hill’s business districts are small compared to other neighborhoods, particularly Noe Valley’s 24th Street.  Twentieth Street has more residences than it does storefronts, though it features three grocery stores, two cafes, three hair and nail salons and several offices.

The three commercial blocks on 20th Street are zoned “NC-2;” the area is supposed to consist of neighborhood-serving businesses occupying up to 3,999 square feet of space and 40 feet building heights.  In addition to the library, the temporary closure of which has punched a hole in the street’s fabric, The Good Life Grocery is the block’s main anchor.  The store moved to 20th from 18th in 1985. “This is a great, tight, little community and we are very fortunate to have some great customers,” said Lester Zeidman, the grocery’s co-owner.  The Good Life rents its location, so there’s little room for expansion.  “We have no intention of moving and closing and we are happy with the space,” continued Zeidman.  “We have never been one for the short-term. We’ve got loyal customers and we learned a long time ago everybody shops everywhere, but there is a need for a store like this in this community.”

Several 20th Street outlets are similarly dedicated to the community.  Linda Williams, who leads the street’s State Farm Insurance office, is another mainstay; she’s operated from the same space for more than two decades.  Flo’s Hair Styling opened in 1952, and owner Florindo Cimino has lived on Potrero Hill his entire life.  “It’s the prime place to be, in the thick of everything,” said Christine Doud of Zephyr Real Estate of her 20th Street location.  As the only real estate office on Potrero Hill, Zephyr’s glossy photographs of their latest real estate listings often attract passersby.  According to Zeidman, the street’s easy parking and convenient location for families and people walking their dogs is a plus.

To many Hill residents 20th Street has seemed even quieter than usual in recent months, in part due to the Great Recession.  “Five years ago there were a lot of people working down at the bottom of the hill and coming up here for lunch, but that sort of traffic has leveled off.” Allan Ransley, co-owner of Jay’s Deli, noted, “People are not spending money. They are saving more and brown-bagging it.  Everything is down.”  Billy’s Dry Cleaners, Dave’s Food Store and All States Best Food have also experienced fewer customers over the past year.

Not everyone on the block is feeling the pinch, though.  Zephyr Real Estate and San Francisco Natural Medicine have both seen growth this year, in part driven by non-Hill residents.  “I have noticed more people that are not from the neighborhood,” said Doud.  And Connie Kullberg, co-owner of Pinkies Nail Salon, is optimistic about the future.  She believes a pedicure represents good value even in an era of tighter budgets.

Although demand for mani-pedis may be steady, competition for the community’s hands and feet has become fierce.  In addition to Pinkies and La Fleur, the new hair and nail salon located down the street, there are five other nail salons in the neighborhood.  According to Kullberg competition exists in all neighborhoods, which compels Pinkies to “be better.”

The Good Life Grocery has also had to face down a sizable competitor:  Whole Foods.  “We are pretty tenacious. We are not going to go away and we look forward to staying here for a long time,” Zeidman said.  Other merchants, like Ling Chu, of Billy’s Dry Cleaners and Sal Saleh, from Dave’s Food Store, have also been affected in the wake of Whole Foods’ opening, which has sparked a partial revitalization of the 17th Street corridor.  Dave’s has experienced a 25 percent drop in business since 2007 – when Whole Food’s opened – and Saleh is struggling to pay his operating expenses.  “I am doing very badly and I think we need more support from the neighborhood,” he said.  The temporary closure of Jay’s Deli last month has added to the anxiety about the shopping district’s economic vitality.

Keith Goldstein, Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses (PHAMB) president, thinks that 20th Street is quiet because of the strip’s small number of enterprises. He also believes that the street changed after Klein’s Deli closed, with a number of Hill residents continuing to hold a grudge against its replacement, Jay’s Deli, which Goldstein feels is a shame.  “In the last year with the library and Michael Gary’s closing, it has been difficult,” said Zeidman.  “It has slowed down.  We don’t have the foot traffic during the daytime that we used to. I am counting on the library reopening helping.”  Michele Hangee-Bauer, who serves as San Francisco Natural Medicine’s office manager, agrees that pedestrian traffic is down due to the library’s reconstruction. According to Hangee-Bauer, youngsters and their parents and guardians used to flock there for story time and special events.  Along the way they’d often grabbed a cup of coffee, sandwich or gallon of milk.

Recent street construction may also have played a role in dampening economic activity.  “I think last summer, when they dug up the entire hill for three months, people stopped driving up the hill,” Ransley said.  Kal Ghanma of All States agreed that the construction decreased parking, which he thinks deterred customers.

Both Goldstein and Zeidman noted that they’d like to see the empty storefronts on the street opened for new businesses, but said that the longstanding property owners are reticent to do so. “It has always bothered me,” Zeidman said, adding, “I think about what taxes our company generates for the City and I don’t know why they allow these empty storefronts to exist given the budget shortfall. There is no incentive for them to do anything. They can sit on it because they don’t have significant property taxes.”  Pinkies clients would like to see more banks and drugstores in the area, according to Kullberg.  Hangee-Bauer thinks that the corridor could benefit from more transit.

Other San Francisco main streets are often operated under business improvement districts, with a current push to create such a zone along the Central Waterfront and Showplace Square.  Such districts raise money through additional fees on property owners to provide improvement and maintenance services, like street cleaning and security, or to help with marketing.  But there’s little interest in establishing one along 20th Street, according to Goldstein.  

Despite the challenges most 20th Street businesses are optimistic about the future.  They keep an eye out for one another when crime escalates, and keep tabs on each other’s bottom line. Most are PHAMB members, and look to the association for help with marketing and networking.  PHAMB co-hosts the annual Potrero Hill Festival with the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (Nabe), which will be held on 20th Street this year rather than in front of the Nabe.  “We moved it down to 20th Street to bring more attention to the street and to make people aware that there is life beyond 18th Street,” Goldstein explained.  

For his part Cimino, who has lived through more than one economic downturn, remains steady in his view from the top of the hill.  “I love it.  Everything is fine,” he said.

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