Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Cultural Districts topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
SoMa Filipinas progress report filed after wide community backing at committee hearing
Summary
Planning staff and community leaders reported progress on SoMa Filipinas, a proposed Filipino cultural heritage district in South of Market; the working group outlined draft goals, extensive outreach, and next steps and the committee voted to file the progress report.
The committee received a progress report on SoMa Filipinas, the planning effort to form a Filipino cultural heritage district in the South of Market area, and filed the item after extensive community testimony.
Supervisor Kim opened the item, describing the district as a multi-faceted effort to recognize and sustain Filipino cultural assets — restaurants, theaters, markets, festivals and service organizations — in an area the planning department mapped from Second Street through Eleventh Street and Market to Brannan/Streeter (transcript uses Bridal Street). Shelly of the Planning Department said the working group, convened in April, produced a draft vision and three community goals: cultural affirmation and celebration; community building and preservation; and economic opportunity and equity.
Shelly summarized the engagement effort: working-group meetings, four large community meetings, several hundred surveys, focus groups and mapping exercises to locate cultural assets and frequent travel paths. Planning staff reported appendices with potential strategies and an initial implementation list that will be reviewed with city partners including the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
Ada Chan (SoMa Filipinas project manager) and Bernadette (project sponsor and executive director of the Filipino American Development Foundation) described local events, partnerships and objectives such as digitizing home movies, photo-day work with the city archivist, community markets and a business-accelerator concept. Several community speakers — veterans, merchants, youth organizers and arts leaders — testified in support and asked for concrete departmental investments to keep the district “living” rather than purely symbolic.
After the presentations and public testimony, the committee voted to file the progress report as heard. Planning staff said next steps include finalizing goals, prioritizing strategies with public and private partners, developing implementation measures and an implementation timeline for adoption hearings.
