S.F. Vacant to Vibrant program boosts small business and downtown recovery

The city's Vacant to Vibrant program is an effort to boost small businesses, while also boosting foot traffic in an area that's struggled to rebound since the pandemic. Jose Martinez spoke with one business owner who's making the most of the opportunity. I'm here at the Embarcadero Center and this is Taranga, one of several small businesses benefiting from the city's Vacant to Vibrant program. It's a dream come true for Chef Nafi Flatley. I'm really grateful to be part of the program just because this is another opportunity for me to showcase my culture instead of just doing catering, but people can actually walk in. She owns Taranga, an African restaurant located at Fort Embarcadero Center, one of several small businesses benefiting from the city's Vacant to Vibrant program. People are starting to warm up to us because this place was closed for a very, very long time and so now that they see that there is life in here, they see music and then they hear music or they see lights in here, so they are very curious to see what's in here. Chef Nafi tells me that once the program was launched last year in April, she decided to apply right after having to close her restaurant located at La Cocina Municipal Market in the Tenerloin. The city, the program has paid utilities and then to the property owners, so we don't even have to pay that. So we're not paying rent, we're not paying utilities. All we need to do is just reactivate the place, see what suits our business plan and make those different items work for us. Like there was no oven, there was no stove, there was a lot of things that weren't here at the beginning, so we have to make those things, activate them, make them work. So she's excited to see that the city is already receiving applications for a second round of businesses. The goal is to reactivate the downtown area through these three-month pop-ups that can be extended for three more months. I wanted to see how it's going to work in the early spring, because we can see people are going to be coming, it's going to be less cold, less rain, and you know people will be wanting to go out a little bit more to go eat. Like I did, and it was delicious and fun, and that's what she says she wants out of this experience. One meal at a time, one Senegalese meal at a time to introduce the Teranga way of life. And the chef tells me she's planning on extending her time here for at least three more months, so you still have time to come visit her.