Downtown San Rafael has a special feel to it when you step foot on 4th street, especially right now with the warm summer weather we are getting. People are out in force, strolling the sidewalks on weekends and weeknights, taking in the city and what it has to offer.
And that is a lot. Right now there are several new restaurants that have opened or are in the process of opening. Downtown San Rafael is filled with salons, barber shops, coffee houses, breakfast nooks, sports shops and so much more.
In between Lootens and Lincoln streets sits Salon B at 886 4th street, a local hair salon located in San Rafael. The salon has been in San Rafael for almost 20 years, opened by husband and wife Bishlam and Amy Bullock, and is home to the Stash House, a small retail space inside of the salon. They sell various items, like hair products, clothing, candles and other little trinkets. Bishlam was born and raised in Marin County. He says the reason for opening up his salon in downtown SR was because of the centralized location. “San Rafael has always been the central hub of Marin,” he says, “so it only made sense to start a business in the centralized location of Marin.”
One of the things that Bishlam says could be beneficial to downtown is more retail and shopping places. Stacy Laumann, San Rafael’s Economic Development Program manager, says that part of the reason for the lack of retail spaces during the post pandemic era is because of how people shop. “Right now the majority of retail is online or in some malls. And downtown SR offices used to be very busy pre-pandemic, but post pandemic they became very empty,” Laumann says. Most of those office workers would come to the streets after work and shop, putting money into the small retail businesses, but with the loss of leases and workers, it’s been empty. “These people would come to get lunch during work, buy presents and their clothes after work, but with most people working from home now, we have seen a decrease in activity.” She says that the loss of the office use really impacted the downtown area. “If there’s one thing that I wish the city could control, it would be the vacancies.” Because the store fronts are private property, what happens to them are solely at the discretion of the landlords, not the city.
There are organizations that help small businesses in San Rafael though. Bishlam says that one of the main organizations that helps them is the Downtown Business Improvement District, or the BID. The BID is led by Sarah Tipple, a San Rafael local. She graduated from Terra Linda High School and used to be an event producer in downtown SR. The BID consists of Tipple as the only part time paid employee. She works with a team of volunteers to help put on events and publicize what is going on in downtown SR.
The volunteers are made up of local business owners. These volunteers go on to make up the board of directors. All of the volunteers work together to voice for the rest of the local businesses.
Each business in the BIDs area pays a yearly fee, depending on if they are in a premium or non-premium fee. The money is paid to the city, which then writes a check to the BID, which is a non profit organization. Each business is required to pay this fee. The fee is broken down into parts, the premium BID, which costs 275 dollars a year and the standard BID which costs 175 dollars a year. The premium area is parts of downtown that get the most foot traffic.
Tipple says that she has had people from outside the BIDs area asking her to promote their events and store, but she’s had to turn them down, due to the fact that they aren’t included in the area. “I have businesses reaching out to me from Terra Linda asking me to promote their events, and I have to respond back saying, ‘sorry, I can only promote your event if you’re in San Rafael’s BID,’” Tipple says.
Looking back on her days of being a business owner in San Rafael, Tipple says that one thing she wished was for more businesses to be aware of what the BID is and does. “When I was a business owner on 4th street, I wish that someone explained what the BID was. I saw a little here and there, but it’s nice to have more information on what it is and how the money is spent.”
In 2024, San Rafael’s BID raked in a little over $63,000 from fundraisers and fees. It profited a little over $23,000 from the events. The money from all of these events and the check written from the city goes to pay for putting on all of the events and supporting Tipple and her team of volunteers.
San Rafael’s Business Improvement District offers businesses unique opportunities to promote their own events and join events put on by the BID. Social media is a big part of how she advertises events and gets the community involved. “I recently hired a social media contractor who basically runs all of our social media pages,” Tipple says. “She was hired with the leftover money that we had and she really just does a great job.”
Another thing that San Rafael is putting a lot of effort into is beautifying downtown. This comes with art, murals, statues and landscaping. As the city’s Economic Development Program Manager, Laumann helps in putting this together. “Economic development is a profession where folks work with businesses, with property owners, with placemakers, with business improvement districts to improve the economic vibrancy or quality for the benefit of the community and the quality of life of the community,” Laumann says. “We try to drive economic activity so that everyone benefits in the community.”
San Rafael recently approved a downtown art program, aimed at enhancing Downtown vitality and celebrating the city’s cultural identity. Through a grant from the California Arts council of $250,000, the city will be putting up five new public art spaces throughout downtown in highly visible areas. The five locations will be at Court Plaza – 1000 4th Street, C Street @ 3rd Street Garage, 2nd Street @ Ida Street Retaining Wall, 2nd & 4th Street Project Lane Divider, Outside City Hall. All of the art locations are owned by the city.
The art pieces will be coming forward during the months of April through June. The art pieces are being created by artists and approved by the city. The selection for the five artists took place last year through a selection process hosted by the city. It included multiple stages of review by a committee.
Laumann says that she works with these artists to make sure they have what they need. “We are probably the smallest department of just one (herself) and we work to connect people when they have problems or help them find the solution.” The work done by economic development managers varies. “Sometimes I’m working with building contractors and the next day I’m working with a renter trying to deal with the dumpster left behind his house.”
With the addition of new art, there is also the addition of new construction taking place. California 2019 Senate Bill 330 is aimed at encouraging cities to add more housing units to help alleviate California’s housing problem. The construction consists of hundreds of new multi-family housing units downtown. Construction has begun at 930 Irwin, which is expected to add 210 new residences over eight stories. There are another three new project locations that have also been approved by the city, but that have not yet begun breaking ground. Combined, they include over 500 housing units, with about 50 of those units going to low income households.
There are a few more planned or proposed housing projects that the city is reviewing right now which are under consideration. “California has been in a housing crisis for many many years now, and I think that with the addition of new housing units, the city will be able to increase its residential population, potentially bringing more residents and feet downtown,” Laumann says. “With the addition of more feet comes more businesses and with more businesses becomes more economic activity, with more economic activity, becomes more vitality.”
A new theme for the upcoming restaurants seems to be Italian food and pizzeria. Fratm Pizzeria, Hot Italian, and Sapori Ristorante have all opened up within the past year. With the addition of all these new pizza spots, tipple has come up with a new event, pizza month.
This upcoming July will be San Rafael’s first pizza month. ¨We are opening our seventh pizzeria this month, so I started pizza month.¨ Pizza month will take place for the whole month and will include a number of local pizzerias. Restaurant goers will be able to pick up a punch card from any of the participating pizzerias. When you spend 20 dollars or more, you get your ticket punched and once you visit four spots, you turn your card in for a chance to win a gift card to a local pizza restaurant.
There are many different types of events planned throughout the year. Pizza Month is just one example, especially of a new event. During May, there is the annual May Madness Car Show and Parade, put on by Tipple and other volunteers. It is in its 36th year, and still going strong. “May Madness Car Show is our biggest fundraiser,” Tipple says. The event brought in a little over $13,000 for San Rafael’s BID in 2024, according to the BID’s annual report. With that money San Rafael’s BID is able to support their own beautification programs, amongst other things. The event also brings more people downtown, which helps with everyone’s goal of getting more economic activity downtown.
Xclusive Club Barber Shop has been in downtown SR for over seven years. They recently underwent a major renovation, creating a more open and modern space for clients to sit. This ended up creating a more personal, exclusive experience. Barber Jay B opened the shop in 2019, a little bit before the pandemic hit in 2020. He said that because his shop didn’t get any PPP loans from the government, they really struggled. “We ended up creating a speakeasy type of thing, running hair cuts out of the back of the shop just to stay afloat,” Jay says. Before this, they made house calls, visiting clients at their home.
He says that ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, and especially since the recent renovations, the community has been coming out in big waves of support. “We’re getting a lot of new faces, friends of friends, different schools.” Jay says that word is getting out about the shop, “the community is coming together now.”
With the addition of all these new projects aiming to put downtown SR back on the map, Bullock says that he has seen more people coming out. “Especially on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. With the nice weather people are definitely coming out onto the streets.” But he says that more could be done. “[San Rafael] just needs leadership that’s willing to take it to the next level. We need young leaders with innovative thoughts and innovative ideas to really turn downtown San Rafael into something that makes people wanna come and hang out.”
