Supervisors hold wide hearing on COVID economic pain; restaurants, venues and small businesses press for grants and outdoor dining

San Francisco supervisors convened a marathon hearing Tuesday focused on the economic pain of the pandemic, drawing presentations from city analysts and agencies and more than two dozen public commenters who described mounting debt, lost customers and closures in restaurants, entertainment venues, personal‑care and neighborhood retail.

The hearing combined staff briefings and a broad public comment period on items 6 through 8 on the agenda: the local impacts of the recent regional stay‑at‑home order, a resolution urging Congress to pass dedicated restaurant relief, and a call for the California government to allow outdoor dining as soon as public health data permit.

City analysts outlined steep declines in taxable sales, the disproportionate effect on leisure and hospitality employment and preliminary estimates of unpaid commercial rent. Fred Brusseau of the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s office said the federal Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans had steered billions to Bay Area businesses but left gaps. Brusseau presented a Census pulse estimate that as many as several thousand San Francisco small businesses reported temporary closures in early December, and he estimated unpaid retail rent in the city could be in the low tens of millions per month.

Controller Ted Egan said San Francisco’s economy is split: "We have two economies," he said. Office‑based, high‑wage sectors have generally…