Mayor Breed,

This Petition is submitted by concerned citizens in response to your decision to not allow our salons/barbershops to open indoors. As San Francisco residents and business owners, we demand you rescind your edict.

The following points illustrate just some of the problems and adverse consequences of your decision:

• Health safety protocols to open indoors have already been established by OSHA, Dept. of Public Health, and the State Board of California Barbering and Cosmetology Board.  The City should fall in line with those protocols.
• To comply with your outside only opening, salons/barbershops will have to create a parklet, move heavy furniture back and forth daily, invest in heaters and a security guard, and only perform 33% of their services.
• Businesses are either closing for good and/or leaving the Cty in droves. Continuing to prohibit indoor operations will only increase those numbers.  The economic fallout will negatively impact our budget and human services for decades.
• Salons/barbershops employ the sectors of our population who need this work and might have difficulty finding employment elsewhere.
• Commercial retail space is already inundated with supply. The salons/barbershops that will never open again will add to this market glut.
• Residential real estate is already negatively impacted which also affects San Francisco’s economic present and future.
• Residents and hair professionals risk their health by going into homes to perform the services they could do, with proper health protocols, in their place of business.
• Residents will continue to spend their dollars in other cities that have opened salons/barbershops, further diminishing SF's revenues.
• A task force of business representatives from each sector that can assist in problem-solving and best practices has not been created.

Your decision also appears to be arbitrary and discriminatory.  You have allowed residents to participate in other businesses that are questionable in social distancing and mask-wearing while continuing to prohibit salon/barbershops openings.  Aside from this disparate treatment, your decision reveals a complete misunderstanding of the fact that protocols of a salon/barbershop are far more in line with health safety than most other business operations.
 
In summary, your decision to continue to restrict salon/barbershops from operating indoors is an error in judgment that hurts the City, its business owners, and citizens.  Reverse that decision now and allow the affected business owners to fully serve the City that they love.