Thinking ab how the city of SF made me pay over $1500 in permits and to have a fire inspector person to oversee a holiday party the Austrian Foreign Ministry wanted to host at my 2810 sq/ft non-profit museum (bc the party had ab 60 people and we’re in a temporarily donated space of a former retail shop that had a default 49 person capacity). As a result, I couldn’t afford to throw a second fundraiser Christmas party.
All the inspector at the party did was make me turn off the Christmas lights on our tree bc the tag that showed the tree was fire treated fell off (even though I had proof that it was fire treated). Then the city permit people kept telling me I wouldn’t have to pay these fees if I moved my museum to one of the downtown SF spaces in their initiative to revitalize stinky dangerous druggie zombieland by getting artists to open in vacant properties.

Meanwhile when I was in my previous Mission location and called 911 bc a crazy man was screaming and bashing the glass to try to get in the dispatcher told me they wouldn’t send anyone bc the door was locked and hung up on me. I got a tickets for holding my phone while driving. My car got stolen and the police told them they don’t pursue car theft anymore bc it happens so much.

I’m perplexed by the extreme policing of things like Christmas lights, tags on trees, looking at Google map directions on phone while driving…in juxtaposition to absolute negligence of things like car theft, break ins and violent threats

I would absolutely have considered moving to downtown sf if I wasn’t terrified for my safety every time I am there. I think if the city sorted out the safety and cleanliness issue, businesses would pay to be there…I don’t think not having art spaces there is the problem lol

Also I feel like the city does what I sometimes do when I have a big deadline for some project and instead of working on the important thing I’m like “I really need to reorganize my nail polish and toothpaste drawer”

Another thought—businesses & art spaces like mine would be more likely to grow into financial sustainability/be able to afford to expand & fill downtown spaces if our efforts to fundraise/generate revenue wasn’t throttled by fees and requirements we can’t afford at this stage