On Friday, Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin announced that $50,000 in grants, will be available to help BIPOC small businesses open venues, on San Francisco Port property. These grants will be offered through the Office of Economic and Workforce Development's small business support program.
Peskin explained that the purpose of these funds is to give BIPOC small businesses a fair chance in the application process, which can often be too expensive.
Blake Kutner, director of entrepreneur business development at La Cocina, said: "For many of our BIPOC and immigrant entrepreneurs, they are struggling just to pay the price of admission to apply for some of these public sites." La Cocina is a commercial kitchen and business incubator that aims to provide resources to women from communities of color and immigrant communities.
The project started as a post-COVID-19 business incentive. In 2021, Peskin allocated the funding, and the Port matched it for BIPOC commercial tenant improvements, bringing the total assistance to around $1 million.
Peskin mentioned that there are also master tenants, like those at Pier 70 or Pier 39, who could use the subsidized rent to support smaller tenants, such as the entrepreneurs represented by La Cocina.
