Picture Page Street, one of San Francisco’s first permanent slow streets, on a sunny afternoon: families strolling, kids chasing each other, cyclists cruising, and then the sound of live music rising above the hum of nearby traffic. Bass notes come thrumming along the sidewalk, followed by the reedy wheeze of an accordion, interspersed by the clink of beer glasses. For a moment everything starts to feel uncannily Belgian.
This is what it’s like to hang out in the parklet at The Page, which, remarkably, has live music every evening. It’s one of many San Francisco bars taking advantage of the Just Add Music (JAM) program to host outdoor entertainment during the pandemic.
JAM permits, which are part of the larger Shared Spaces program, allow businesses to have bands, DJs, amplified music, and more in their outdoor spaces. The city has issued 331 so far, which you can see as flower icons on this interactive map.
Merchants like Bob Wait, who owns The Page, say outdoor music has attracted new customers, and musicians like Dan Fabricant, who plays stand-up bass in the parklet every Wednesday, say these al fresco gigs have been a lifeline. Although the JAM permits, which don’t cost a thing, are set to expire at the end of the year, recent legislation provides a future path for much more outdoor music and perhaps one more pandemic silver lining that allows San Francisco to reimagine its public spaces.
‘Our identities were shaken’
When the city locked down last March, gigging musicians got hit hard. Noah Frank, a trumpeter who leads the band Sueños Jazz, had been supporting himself solely through performing since 2012, but during lockdown he had to move back in with his family because he couldn’t pay rent. Bassist Shawn Wyman saw his stream of performing revenue disappear, and had just begun gigging again when we spoke in September. Jazz singer and bandleader Rhonda Sauce had recorded an album and was poised to quit her day job in early 2020, but decided to hold off when the pandemic struck.
Fabricant, for his part, relied on giving lessons, first over Zoom and then outdoors, to weather the storm. “Our identities were shaken,” he said. “What is a working musician with no gigs?”
Those without side hustles were forced to get creative. Starting in May, Frank and his band busked in Golden Gate Park five days a week for seven months straight, but on New Year’s Day park rangers told him they couldn’t perform without a permit. (Recreation and Park Department spokesperson Tamara Aparton said musicians can busk without a permit as long as they don’t play with a band or amplify their sound.)
Meanwhile, the city announced the JAM program last September, and Wait got his permit the same month. “The city was great during the heat of the shutdown,” he said. “They were pretty quick about turning around the permit.”
‘If you don’t want to be in a city, don’t move to a city. I opened my bar to be a gathering place so people could hear music. That’s the whole point.’ — Debi Cohn, owner of Asiento
Fabricant and accordionist Rob Reich have been playing Wednesday happy hours at The Page for more than a decade, so it made sense that they were the first musicians Wait invited to play in the new parklet. Despite some complaints from neighbors, the outdoor tunes were an immediate hit.
“It became real clear that these guys playing was an awesome thing, particularly on the slow street,” noted Wait. “We have a whole new demographic coming here that I think maybe wouldn’t have been inclined to come inside just because [the bar looks] dark, maybe a little foreboding, but as soon as we’re outside you’re happy to sit out there and have a drink.”
Soon a whole cast of performers was filling out the schedule. Since July 1 of this year, The Page has hosted live music seven evenings a week.
Outdoors in Outer Richmond
One of those performers was Rhonda Sauce, who moved to the city from Oakland in July. In addition to The Page, Sauce has performed in parklets at Word A Café in the Bayview, Hawker Fare in the Mission, and Ocean Ale House. Her band, Sauce and the Sound, even kicked off an informal outdoor concert series at the Balboa Theater last summer.
With their two screening rooms closed, the owners of the Balboa built a parklet, where locals could congregate for beer and popcorn and watch performers in the ample space under the marquee. Given the dearth of gigs, Sauce discovered that plenty other musicians wanted to join even though it wasn’t lucrative. “If it’s a good hang, why not?” she said.
Sauce plays more indoor shows now, but hopes the outdoor gigs stick around too. According to Sauce, they’ve had a positive effect on SF’s jazz scene and made the music more accessible. Anyone can stumble upon these performances, she said, which opens up jazz to people who don’t want to pay to get into a club or stay out late. “In the informal setting of a little parklet with a diverse audience group, no one wants to see you showing off the headiest of jazz songs,” she pointed out. “Feel-good music was back.”
Across the street from the Balboa is the Hockey Haven, a neighborhood joint where bassist Wyman tends bar. Hockey Haven has not hosted live music during the pandemic, but Wyman has played outdoor gigs at Zeitgeist and in North Beach’s Jack Kerouac Alley. He said he hopes the trend extends beyond the pandemic: “People’s eyes are open to a different way of doing things and being creative about space.”
Business owners agree. Tim Hayman, who owns the Scopo Divino wine bar at Divisadero and California Streets, said he started hosting live music “the minute the JAM permit became available.” Scopo Divino is right next to a bus stop, so Hayman can’t put up a parklet, but the bar shares a recessed area with the café next door, where he hosts live jazz and funk five nights a week.
“Being able to do music outside was such a unique thing,” Hayman noted. “I saw windows opening. I saw people coming out on their decks and their roof decks and enjoying the music. It was like a bastion of light.”
Every bar owner The Frisc spoke with has fielded noise complaints from neighbors. Debi Cohn, owner of the Mission bar Asiento — where DJs spin outside then move indoors at 9 or 10 p.m. — had some blunt advice: “If you don’t want to be in a city, don’t move to a city,” she said. “I opened my bar to be a gathering place so people could hear music. That’s the whole point.”
Murio’s Trophy Room on Haight Street, where DJ Liam Sutro spins retro party tracks monthly, made concessions by fine-tuning its sound system after a noise citation. “We should take this lesson about how to best use our outdoor space, and when the virus is gone, we shouldn’t abandon all of it,” Sutro said. “I think people feel that way about the parklets, and hopefully they feel that way about the music.”
A cultural refresh
City officials have moved expeditiously to turn Shared Spaces (as in parklets) and Slow Streets, which began as emergency pandemic measures, into permanent aspects of city life. They have started to do the same with outdoor music permits, although it’s a bit complicated.
This summer’s Small Business Recovery Act provides one way for JAM permit holders to more easily obtain a brick-and-mortar permit from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission, the body that regulates indoor and outdoor performance spaces. The permanent Shared Spaces law treats the sidewalk and parking spots in front of a business as part of the merchant’s property, which means they don’t need a unique permit for every performance.
“There are all these pathways now for what we’ve been doing in the emergency to carry over into this new world we’re going to be living in,” said Maggie Weiland, executive director of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission.
Here’s how it will work: Businesses that already hold indoor entertainment permits can amend them to include outdoor use. Businesses that only started hosting live entertainment during the pandemic can apply for the brick-and-mortar permits and get their indoor and outdoor spaces permitted in one fell swoop. (Noise-averse neighbors take heart: These applications will still require public notices and hearings.)
When they can start is yet to be determined, according to Weiland, and the Entertainment Commission also needs to coordinate efforts with the Shared Spaces team. She added that business owners could expect the deadline to get a permanent permit to come in late winter or early spring.
Confused? The Entertainment Commission will launch an education campaign for business owners in October. “We’ll be sure to be advertising any deadlines,” Weiland said.
Whatever the complications, the changes at least appear to be a big first step toward a new era of entertainment al fresco in San Francisco.
“I’m hoping it leads to a little bit of a renaissance,” Bob Wait of The Page said. “Instead of all the stories about musicians moving to Oakland or moving away, we’ll have the story of some musicians that can make a living here in San Francisco, because of the new tolerance for where they can play.”
Max Harrison-Caldwell covers local news and culture for The Frisc.
