FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Wednesday, August 3, 2011 

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, 415-554-6131

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MAYOR LEE ANNOUNCES COMMUNITY CORRIDORS PRE-APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM & CONTINUED FUNDING FOR THE SF SHINES STOREFRONT IMPROVEMENT GRANT PROGRAM 

City’s Busiest Commercial Corridors Receive Funding to Keep Clean & Shine

San Francisco, CA— Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced the launch of the Community Corridors Pre-Apprenticeship Program. Through the Department of Public Works (DPW), the program will employ 35 local residents and preserve vital cleaning services along San Francisco’s busiest commercial corridors. Mayor Lee also announced continued funding for the SF Shines Storefront Improvement Grant Program to assist small businesses in improving storefront conditions on San Francisco commercial corridors.

“The Community Corridors Pre-Apprenticeship Program creates an opportunity for local residents of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods to learn basic job training skills, while preserving programs that improve and enhance the safety, beauty and economic vitality of our communities,” said Mayor Lee. “The SF Shines Grant Program paired with Community Corridors Partnership is an example of providing collective resources to revitalize a community.”

As part of the Community Corridors Partnership, the Pre-Apprenticeship Program provides basic skills for individuals for nine months so that they can apply to enter into the two- year Apprenticeship Program where they will learn a variety of trade skills. These pre-apprentices, also known as Ambassadors, will sweep sidewalks, remove graffiti, identify, report, and coordinate problems, and landscape public spaces and tree basins. The program also teaches participants about City codes and provides outreach and education to diverse communities. Job placement assistance will also be offered to participants.

The Community Corridors Partnership began in 2006 to address cleaning and greening needs along key blocks to improve the quality of life on busy San Francisco merchant corridors. Altogether, 175 blocks will be cleaned by the Ambassadors along the following corridors: 3rd Street, Leland Avenue, Bayshore Boulevard, San Bruno Avenue, Potrero Avenue, Polk Street, Larkin Street, Geary Street, Grant Avenue, Stockton Street, 16th Street, Mission Street, Geneva Avenue, Haight Street, Bosworth Street, Chenery Street, Diamond Street, 24th Street, Clement Street, Irving Street, 9th Avenue, West Portal Avenue and Chestnut Street.  

“This partnership allows Public Works to continue to provide essential cleaning services in neighborhoods where they are needed most,” said DPW Director Ed Reiskin. “These dedicated Ambassadors, through their hard work to keep important thoroughfares clean and beautiful for residents and visitors, are the key to the well being of our communities.”

The Community Corridors Pre-Apprenticeship Program is funded by DPW, the Department of the Environment, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the SF Municipal Transportation Agency, in conjunction with the Mission Neighborhood Centers and the San Francisco’s Laborer’s Union Local 261. More information and a schedule, please visit www.sfdpw.org

“The Corridors Program allowed me to learn how to use several different tools, develop new skills and most of all it taught me how be disciplined,” said Darryll Stepp, a participant of the DPW Apprenticeship Program. “Once you start picking up litter as a job, you become conscious of it and change your behavior. I started recycling at home, started sorting my trash, and became more organized.”

Mayor Lee also unveiled the continuation of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development’s (OEWD) SF Shines Storefront and Tenant Improvement Grant Program. The Bayview SF Shines Program, funded by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, transforms and modernizes storefronts of local establishments. The goals of SF Shines coupled with the Community Corridors Partnership program, is to create a more vibrant, safer and attractive environment for patrons to visit 3rd Street and other merchant corridors that are vital to the economy and vitality of the City.

“The SF Shines Facade and Tenant Improvement Program is truly a model public-private partnership,” said District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen. “In an economic recession it is important that we have an all hands on deck approach to community revitalization. The SF Shines Program has allowed for these partnerships to grow and flourish for the ultimate gain – a safer and more vibrant merchant corridor.”

In the Bayview, the SF Shines Program to date has assisted 17 small businesses, created 22 jobs, and supported six City Certified Small Business Enterprises. The success of the SF Shines Bayview Program has led the OEWD to restructure the citywide SF Shines Program to allow for both facade and tenant improvements.  This restructuring will create a far more robust program which will serve as a business attraction tool in the most economically challenged commercial corridors.

The Bayview SF Shines Program will have over $800,000 in grants of up to $75,000 to small business owners along Third Street. Additionally, the Citywide SF Shines Program will have over $250,000 in grants of up to $50,000 to assist small businesses with storefront and tenant improvements throughout.  Businesses that meet the criteria and are interested in expanding operations in San Francisco should contact OEWD Project Manager, Crezia Tano at 415-554-4984 or visit www.oewd.org/Neighborhood-Revitalization.aspx

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