Mayor Lurie announces plans to support small businesses including First Year Free program waiving fees for new businesses

SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Daniel Lurie joined District 11 (D11) Supervisor Chyanne Chen to celebrate the first anniversary of Chun Sheng Tang Herb Company in the Outer Mission neighborhood. He promised to bring in more small businesses to the city with incentives including renewing the First Year Free program and streamlining the city's permitting process.

Chun Sheng Tang Herb Company on Geneva Avenue was opened in 2024 becoming the only herb store in D11, which covers Outer Mission, Excelsior, Oceanview and Ingleside neighborhoods, providing full service of Chinese medicine to the Asian community. In addition to selling herbal medicine and products, Chun Sheng Tang also has Chinese medicine and acupuncture practitioners stationed daily to see patients.

A celebration of Chun Sheng Tang's first anniversary was held on March 22. Lurie joined the celebration with his 14-year-old daughter and purchased some herbal products to show his support for the Chinese medicine.

Chinese medicine and acupuncture practitioner Guohua Xia, who sees patients at Chun Sheng Tang two days a week, took a pulse for Lurie and found that Lurie is in good health.

"There are many empty stores in D11. Supervisor Chen has been working very hard to bring in more small businesses into the district. I will work with Supervisor Chen to make it easier to open businesses in D11 and throughout the city," Lurie said at the celebration.

Lurie further said public safety has been a concern for the merchants and residents in D11. He would keep working hard to improve public safety in order to stimulate the thriving of small businesses.

Since he took office on Jan. 8, Lurie has announced a number of reforms to help small businesses in the city.

Lurie’s latest announcement was the legislation to renew the First Year Free program. Lurie said he would introduce legislation to the Board of Supervisors to continue the First Year Free program which was passed in 2023 by waiving first year fees for new businesses including initial registration fees, initial license fees, first-year permit and other applicable fees for qualifying businesses.

Lurie also launched “PermitSF” to reform the city’s permitting process to make the permitting system customer-focused, faster, and more transparent.

By streamlining the permitting process, strengthening accountability, and deploying new technology in support of those goals, PermitSF will help drive the city’s economic recovery by helping residents and small business owners navigate the permitting process more easily, according to Lurie.

“I have heard from countless small business owners that it can feel like the government is working against them. My administration is not OK with that, and we are fixing it,” said Lurie. “The First Year Free program has helped thousands of new businesses by covering registrations, permits, and other fees in their first year. With this legislation to renew it, we are taking an important step to make it easier for businesses to start and grow in our city.”

Wayne Yu, owner of Chun Sheng Tang Herb Co., was pleased to see the support from Lurie. Yu said his business was a family tradition for four generations starting from his great grandfather who founded the herb company in Taishan, Guangdong Province.

Yu has been a longtime resident of D11 and operated Chun Sheng Tang in Sacramento for many years until 2024. He decided to close his business in Sacramento and opened a brand new herbal shop in D11 a year ago to serve the community where he resides.

Chen, who was elected in November 2024 as the first Chinese American Supervisor representing D11, thanked Yu for relocating his herbal business to D11.

D11 has become one of the supervisorial districts in San Francisco with most Asian residents. "57% of D11 residents are Asians. We have about 20,000 Chinese immigrants living in D11. There is a big demand for Chinese medicine services. We thank Mr. and Mrs. Yu for their vision to open the herb shop in D11. Many of our Chinese residents do not need to travel to Chinatown for the same services," said Chen.