A new bill introduced in San Francisco’s city council could give a total of $2 million to small businesses negatively impacted by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.
According to The San Francisco Chronicle, the bill was introduced by Supervisor Connie Chan. It would specifically provide relief funds to small businesses in the SoMa neighborhood.
In November, the city blocked off streets and created a secure zone near the Moscone Convention Center to protect the leaders attending the summit and control crowds.
Many downtown businesses were glad when APEC was over.
“I’m so happy it’s over. We fully stocked the store for three weeks and we’re still sitting on a lot of stuff so I hope after they leave we can get some business back in the city,” Celine Nasser-Elddin told CBS News shortly after the summit ended.
LATEST STORIES
Lawmakers hope the bill will undo some of the damage.
“We spent $40 million, both private and public money on APEC,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who is a co-sponsor of the proposal, told The San Francisco Standard. “It seems like this is the least we could do.”
Peskin represents the Chinatown neighborhood. According to The San Francisco Standard, the bill also proposed $250,000 to fund free public transportation with the goal of encouraging more people to visit Chinatown during Lunar New Year.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc. Follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our efforts to produce diverse content about the AAPI communities. We are supported in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
