New restaurants have helped Union Street businesses rebound.
With the opening of a number of new restaurants, Union Street is showing signs of recovery from the economic doldrums that led to a spate of shuttered shops on the street. But a new group of young residents and business owners says more aggressive change is needed in the neighborhood, and has formed the Union Street Enrichment Association to do the job.
“Save Union Street” is the battle cry and the name of a new Facebook page, which proclaims: “Union Street in Cow Hollow has gone from a busy street with lots of businesses to a ghost town filled with boarded-up remnants of days gone by.”
“The Union Street Enrichment Association was sparked out of a need to save Union Street from a long stretch of vacancies and failed business driven by archaic local association practices, real-estate profiteers and shortsighted residents,” said Phil Boissiere, one of the leaders of the new group. “The goal of the new youthful association is to transform Union Street into a vibrant, economically healthy community center.”
The group was spurred by growing frustration among younger merchants and residents, who say old-timers have sapped the life from Union Street and opposed new businesses that could bring fresh energy to the street. They were prompted to action when Giordano Brothers, a North Beach eatery, was denied a permit for outdoor seating on Union Street earlier this year after nearby residents complained.
Their frustration grew when one of Union Street’s new bar-restaurants, the Brick Yard, was halted by the city from creating an outdoor patio fronting Union Street because it did not have proper permits. The patio was formerly enclosed. Boissiere promised “all hell’s gonna break loose” when the issue comes before the Planning Commission this fall.
Complainers “are now trying to prevent outdoor seating and other creative means to bring business to Union Street,” Boissiere said. “All of this is culminating on the heels of the apparent war on fun that the Alcoholic Beverage Control has been waging on San Francisco nightlife.”
The Brick Yard hosted the group’s public launch party on August 30. A full house of young enthusiasts showed up for $2 beers and exhortations from group leaders and local politicians to become more involved in civic affairs. City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Bevan Dufty — both mayoral aspirants — and several candidates for the board of supervisors were also there, along with a representative from the League of Women Voters offering to register people to vote.
Boissiere called the insurgent organization a “resistance movement against the established merchants and their failing association.”
Leslie Leonhardt, executive director of the Union Street Association, a longstanding coalition of local merchants, said business on Union Street is finally improving, and credits new restaurants — especially the upscale Cafe Des Amis — with driving the recovery.
“We don’t have a dispute with them,” she said of the new association. “We want them to thrive. We want to all work together.” Leaders of the Union Street Association were not invited to the Brick Yard party, and the head of a local residents association was turned away.
Filed under: Civics, Food, Drink & Lodging