The Excelsior Action Group is accepting contracting proposals for the Excelsior Facade Improvement Program.  We will be splitting the work into two master contracts: one for signage & awnings, and the other for cleaning, painting, & general repairs.  Qualified bidders may submit proposals for both contracts.  Note that there will be a walk-through featuring 10 facades that have already signed on to the program to give ideas about existing conditions.  

The walk- through will be Friday, December 9, at 10 AM, starting at the EAG Office 4702 Mission Street at Persia Avenue.  It is not mandatory, but bidders are encouraged to attend.  Please confirm your attendance with me.

Awning & Signage RFP
Cleaning, Painting, & General Repairs RFP

On October 27, 2011, the Wall Street Journal published "San Francisco Tries Again to Upgrade Excelsior District," an article by Vauhini Vara outlining efforts to improve the neighborhood and commercial corridor over the years.  Excelsior Action Group submitted the following response in a Letter to the Editor:

We at the Excelsior Action Group (EAG) were pleased to see the article in the Wall Street Journal shedding some attention on this underserved district of San Francisco.  The issues of blight and lack of safety and cleanliness described in the article are what necessitate groups like EAG and the work we do here.  As the article described, the terrible economic climate has hit the Excelsior very hard, making EAG’s efforts to revitalize the Excelsior’s commercial corridor more difficult, but also much more needed.

Of the $393,400 of city funding cited in the article, only $184,000 has gone directly to capital improvement projects, while the rest has helped to keep our organization’s doors open for almost a decade now.  Beyond the ad-hoc cleanings referred to in the article, EAG also engages in campaigns year after year for safety, beautification, business attraction, and community engagement.  Last year alone, over 350 community members dedicated over 1200 volunteer hours to work with EAG on community improvement projects, such as painting 10 murals along the corridor, planting greenery, and cleaning the corridor monthly.  EAG also organizes the Annual Excelsior Art and Music Festival, which draws over 3,000 participants from around the Bay Area to experience the culture and local flavor of our corridor. 

We are hopeful that the most recent $50,000 investment the city has made in the Excelsior will help to make a visible and inspiring impact on the commercial corridor through our façade improvement program, Excelsior Extreme Makeover.  To this end, we have garnered a significant amount of volunteer support to supplement these funds and stretch the impact of this program beyond just $50,000. 

Buy-in from local merchants is essential to the success of this program and the work that we do in general.  As an example, Paulo Acosta Cabezas, owner of Mama Art Café, has been integral in our effort to construct a parklet in front of his business as part of this program.  Established in 2004, Mama Art Café is a strong and active advocate for youth development and the arts in the Excelsior.  Ultimately, partnerships with businesses like this one are what will move our neighborhood forward.

As Amy Cohen, the city’s Director of Neighborhood Business Development, reflected, the goal of this facade improvement program is to make a visible impact that inspires Excelsior businesses and individuals to take further action.  We think Zhong Luo, owner of the Dragon House in the Excelsior, exemplifies the success of this philosophy in saying, “When I see people stopping by my front door and picking up garbage, it motivates me to pick up my garbage too.” 

Nicole Agbayani, Excelsior Action Group Corridor Manager

_Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative Launches Storefront Beautification Program in Excelsior District

10/14/11—Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced a new storefront beautification program that will provide 20 small businesses in the Excelsior District with storefront “facelifts” to beautify the commercial corridor and attract more visitors and shoppers. The program also includes a mobile parklet.

“Small businesses in San Francisco are the backbone of our economy and we need to support them in these tough economic times,” said Mayor Lee. “These improvements will beautify a substantial number of storefronts along Mission Street and improve the entire neighborhood experience. This is a great example of how the City can partner with the private sector to target resources, boost business and help support the economic recovery in the Excelsior and in other neighborhood commercial corridors in our City.”

In the new program, businesses will receive paint, replacement of signs and awnings, graffiti removal and protection, bird protection equipment, and branding. The parklet will be created in front of Mama Art Café through a partnership with Out of Site, a youth-focused community organization that has partnered with the Excelsior Action Group on many beautification projects.

The beautification initiative, funded through Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD)’s SF  Shines façade improvement program, builds on a number of recent physical improvements the OEWD has helped to facilitate in the neighborhood with the Excelsior Action Group, including sidewalk planting projects at Mission and Geneva and Mission and Persia, the newly painted tower above the Goodwill at Mission and Ocean, the mural on the 280 overpass, and a unique program that created murals on the roll-down gates of 10 businesses. The Goodwill tower project, in particular, is the culmination of years of community advocacy focused on ending the graffiti problem plaguing this icon of the neighborhood.

“We at the Excelsior Action Group look forward to working hand in hand with the merchants to upgrade their storefronts, ultimately attracting new customers to these establishments and improving the attractiveness of the corridor as a whole,” said Excelsior Action Group Corridor Manager Nicole Agbayani.

Mission Street in the Excelsior is the flagship site of the Neighborhood Marketplace Initiative (NMI), a unique public-private partnership of OEWD and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) that helps local stakeholders to revitalize struggling commercial corridors in San Francisco.  In the Excelsior, NMI has helped direct and coordinate a range of City and private resources toward projects including art walks, mural projects, business recruitment, and a signature street fair which had its 9th anniversary last weekend. 

The new beautification program and the Goodwill tower beautification project are funded through the SF Shines Façade Improvement Program. Other City programs that have been targeted to this neighborhood through NMI include funds from Grants for the Arts and the Community Challenge Grant.

For more information on the storefront beautification program and other services for businesses in the Excelsior district, businesses may contact the Excelsior Action Group at www.eagsf.org.