So many families, and i know that, you know, when you say, you know, you have a family of four making 200,000 a year, people think, oh, my god, 200,000 a year is a lot, but just think about it. With kids, with the expense of living in the city, it is even hard to save money to put a down payment on a home in the first place. So having an option like this can be absolutely incredible. So we in San Francisco have made a lot of changes. We have put 600 dollar 40 will housing bond, the largest Affordable Housing bond without raising property taxes, that will provide Additional Support for programs like this so that we can really get to a lot of our middle income residents and get to our educators and or Public Safety officials, and the people that are really struggling to afford to live here to making sure they there are easy ways to get access to resources. It is critical to making sure our city remains diverse. It is important. Lets talk a little bit about , and the Practical Application of what the mayor set out. You have been a firefighter in San Francisco for three years. Four new four years. And you were able to navigate this lottery process. Tell us more about that and what ultimately transpired and why you are sitting with us and why you think it is so damn important. Im happy to be sitting here on the other end of this program i am a firefighter of San Francisco. I had friends who came who went to the program and i know that that would be my only way to stay in the city. My mom and dad live here and i grew up here, i was born and raised, i have had so many friends and coworkers leave San Francisco to as far as idaho to find Affordable Housing. And my own fire academy, i would say about half wherefrom here and a quarter are still with here. It is still unfortunate that folks who want to stay cant, but i lucked out, and some of my classmates lucked out where we got this program through the city. I havent even got a chance to personally thank you so thank you. I have a wonderful home in silver terrace, i love it. I love it to death. A great view, it is my dream home. I cant wait to go home every night every morning after work. This program is a help for a down payment and there is no way i would have been able to pay them for the down payment. The amount that you need to compete in this market is astronomical and even with the program, as im sure other people no, the only thing that really helped me was my program. If i didnt have the money from the city, i have been eyeing it for years. It is at it it is competitive. It is competitive. We put additional money in a couple of years back for First Responders, you know, basically trying to get more First Responders to live in the city and theres additional money for that and so the money goes fast. Yeah,. Even with that, use it still has to be a lottery because theres not enough money to go around. Mine wasnt as large as some of the other lotteries that i saw on their, and some of you guys the odds were a little stacked against you guys a little more than i was, but still, it was still really tough i was doing it i knew about this program for a while and i think i had about three years trying to go for it and do it. Even with this program, you still need enough down payment on your own and help from all corners of your own community. I scrounged and i saved. A lot of trips i didnt go on, a lot of nights out i didnt go on , and i lucked out. There is not no other way about it. You lucked out for whatever reason and you decided that you had had enough of the winters in chicago and you came out west. I did. But you didnt expect to be out here this many years. No. I moved from six from chicago about five years ago and i thought, it will totally be a temporary thing, so did my family, and eight years later, im still here in San Francisco as a teacher. I am teaching second grade. My name is cheryl and i closed on a condo in Outer Mission around the 4th of july weekend just recently. It is very close to your school. It is very close to the school and the children that i serve. It is a 16 minute drive every morning in rush hour traffic. It is amazing. Thank you to the Mayors Office of housing. It has been an amazing learning experience similar it is a Lottery Program and it was a good three years that i was trying, but you just keep pushing forward and you keep trying and one day you get lucky and i did. After that, it was a whirlwind process with the down Payment Assistance Loan Program, and also i was a beneficiary of the Teacher Next Door Program so that was another good lumpsum. Both programs you were able to connect with. Yeah,. And then with a down payment of my own, as well, i was able to get my home, and a home that i live in, that i can go home to every night, and not have to worry about paying rent or be pushed out of the city to go move into moved to the suburbs or something more affordable. I just read an article two days ago saying that your income needs to be about three and 43,000 343,000. [laughter] yeah, and i was thinking, that is not me, but because of the Mayors Office of housing in the down Payment Assistance Loan Program and the teacher nextdoor program, all of these resources, i was able to get a home and have me stay in the city and serve in the community that i have worked in and lived in and breathed in for the past eight years. So you want to be sitting in her seat. I have a lot of questions for her. [laughter]. Tell us about your background , what are your aspirations to stay in the city and struggles with rent and housing . My name is yolanda, i teach second grade at San Francisco elementary. I was born and raised in the city and went through the Public School system. You know, this is home. A lot of people i know have moved out of the city because they cant afford to live here. I know some friends and colleagues of mine that have moved out to the pacific northwest, nevada, other places where it is more affordable, and theyre constantly telling me that i need to get out there because it is a lot cheaper, costofliving, houses, it is easier out there to own a home and, you know, every time i am checking listings out here and i see my salary, im just thinking , oh, my goodness, maybe i do need to research this a little bit more because it gets harder and harder each time. But i love where i work, i love San Francisco, so right now it is a struggle for me to own a home, but im constantly trying to save money, you know, and hope that one day that will happen. Without getting too personal, what percentage of your income do you spend on housing . Right now im living at home because im trying to save. You are still with mom and dad . Ive tried to save them money for a house in the bay area. I have realized that i might not live in San Francisco, but hoping i can stay in the bay area because i still want to work where i work. What do your parents say . They talk about do they talk about the good old days when they could afford to raise a family, and now here you are, you cant even afford the home you grew up in . Even my mom, she sees how hard it is for me to eventually own my own home. When she and my dad moved here 30 plus years ago, it was hard for them, they were still able to manage to buy a home, and pay mortgage. They worked at hotels and sales. I am a teacher, i cant i dont even know if i can afford to live here. Right. My mom wants me to save money and hopefully one day by something in the area, but realistically, i dont know if i can anymore. We have relatives up in washington who constantly tell us to go up there. It is very cold in the winter i know. It is terrible. The other thing is, this is also why, in addition to programs like this, we need to deal with the process. For example, the old campus, where it is slated to be 100 educator housing, the additional two year delay through the process and rezoning of the property is just ridiculous. And thats really presenting an opportunity to make sure that we are building more educator housing, and we need to address bureaucracy. You dealt with that when you were mayor here. You want a project done, then it takes up to seven years before you can even get a 100 Affordable Housing project done. It is ridiculous. I wanted to talk about that a little bit more. But first, you spent 22 years, Deputy Sheriff, he retired and you are working. Did you grow up in the city . Yes, in the city. And struggled with housing despite a pretty decent salary. We negotiated a couple of those contracts, but not good enough. Tell us a little bit about where you have been bouncing around, and your family background. Okay. My name is elaine and i am a native san franciscan. I went to elementary through high school here, and i just retired as a Deputy Sheriff up sheriff about three years ago im still working. As far as housing, i was a homeowner, but i got into an upside down loan and lost it. Im sorry. God bless. It has been hard for me to get home, and probably about four years ago, i lost my home. I had a short sale, i had been looking at this program for a long time, and i was able to put my application in, they picked my name, and i call it a blessing. Im sorry, i dont want to be in here crying. [laughter] anyway, so my family grew up here and all of my family members moved out. They are in other cities, and my grandmother to this school. Thats great. In the sixties and seventies. So just being able to have a down payment assistance, and being able we need the programs, we need a 100 affordable because it is even hard to save enough money. We have to make a lot of sacrifices to even save to get into the down payment assistance program. Another thing that i believe is important is the Housing DevelopmentHousing DevelopmentCorporation Council because half of them probably would not have even gotten into that program. I could have gotten into something affordable, and that wasnt down payment assistance, that was just regular. So that is very important. And just the education on what to do and what not to do, i was the first person on my moms side of the family to purchase a home. I grew up in subsidized housing in fillmore. So it is great to be able to have a home and to also have other people native of San Francisco to be able to stay here. I will never leave. I have something to leave my daughter now. It is very important. And they see me with a home, and now they believe they can buy a home because i never believed that i could even own a home. It is about your kids, this is real, i appreciate i love that you are in bayview. Yes. That is great. I am able to give back as a retiree. I do still work, but i can give back to my community because i do make my own schedule. That is one thing i love to do, and they love to share in the program and being a testimony that people think, you cant even get it, and then, well, i got it, so let me show you how to get in, and then once they pull your name, i believe that god did not take up this part to leave us. Once they pull your name, theres all of this red tape you have to go through. They ask you for something, they ask you for something else. Just do it. I remember one time i was called up and she said i know this is nerveracking and i said no, it is not nerveracking. Whatever you need, i look at it because you were getting are getting me down payment assistance. [laughter] so i would say, some people may want to quit once they are chosen because of all of the paperwork, but if they pull your name, you are getting a home. Dont quit. Dont quit. I can go on thank you. [laughter] i need to talk about it. Have you started the application process . No. I know about it, but i havent. Do a lot of your colleagues know about it . I believe so. Is there a buzz about this . [laughter] the resources that the city gives you a lot of people are just unaware. My phone blew up once when i find out when i found out i got the program. That is how i found out i got it you become an expert as you walk through the process. You are happy to give it to them because you want a home, and a lot of people are in the same position to own a home. They would do anything. Yeah. Thank you, guys, for putting a human face. Thank you for sharing your story , and thank you, mayor for everything you are trying to do at a local level and what is not surprising about this conversation is we could be having this conversation in any other part of the state of california. When you look at the 50 most expensive cities for rent in the united states, 33 of them happen happened to be in the state of california. Not surprisingly, not just from a rental perspective, but even more broadly, does finding housing that is accessible in your price range, the costs are astronomical, but for one fundamental reason. We are not building enough housing. We are 49th out of 50 in per capita housing. It is only utah on a per capita basis that develops less than the state of california. It has been decades in the making. It manifests in every conceivable way, but fundamentally, the expression of frustration relates to the time and value of money and the patients one has to develop a project, even at 100 affordable , taking up to seven years, foundational he is one of the greatest impediments to this states future, to your future, to our collective future because i posit that the california dream is in real peril if we do not address the housing crisis. It is a world i went to Great Lengths over the last 20 years not to say because i think we are often using the word over using the word crisis and it dilutes its meaning. But when it comes the cost of housing in this state, it is a crisis. You dont need any more evidence of that beyond this conversation than to see its ultimate form in manifestation and that is homelessness, which is skyrocketing. It is not just growing. I consistently make this point. I said for all of the focus on San Franciscos homelessness, you have one of the most modest increases compared to other parts of the state. This is serious stuff, and it requires a much more serious and intentional response. It is significant, it is important. The challenge is the scale and scope, and the amount of resources that are needed at a local level that can never meet your demand, a collective demand and aggregate demand. Weve got to do a lot more. The state of california needs to lead that effort. I wanted to just briefly talk about some of the things that the state is advancing and please feel free to leave or answer any questions. I dont want to keep you away from your skills a great on science, as we were talking your skills upgrade on science, as we were talking. This is almost 3 billion of new investment in housing and homelessness. 2. 75 billion dollars to be exact 1. 75 of that was to help support local efforts on housing, go through my financing and tax credit perspective as well as loan perspective. 1 billion in new tax credits and loans that were set aside. That is all about leverage. Leveraging what is happening at the local level, leveraging what is happening in the private sector, and being able to pull down more federal dollars. We believe our Tax Credit Program can leverage one and a half to 2 billion of Additional Resources beyond the half a billion that we put into that program. We have put up 250 million to help cities, large and small with their predevelopment work, with their planning work. They update their master plans to get the experts and consultants so that we have mitigated one of the principal complaint i hear, and that is we simply cant afford the staff. There other priorities in the state, so we have offered that as resources. Half a billion dollars just in infrastructure financing. A lot of cities cannot afford the sidewalks, the lighting, the sewer hookups, so we have an unprecedented amount of money in that space to draw down. That was something that came out of a dozen plus conversations that we had with smaller, rural cities, in particular that are struggling, just to, quite literally, do basic things, let alone help invest in jumpstarting housing construction. A billion dollars and homelessness, it is substantially more than we have ever put in the past. Much of that is directly to cities and counties for flexible purposes. Rapid rehousing, conversions of old motels, to preserve and not just expand s. R. O. S in San Francisco and other preservation efforts but all that is not enough. I will close with this. There are three additional things that we are working on in the legislature over the course of the next few weeks. We have to deal with the rent gouging in this state. Some cities of rent control, some dont. Some are more aggressive as it relates to those issues. I dont think any city is more aggressive than you are, mayor. It is still challenging. We are working with the legislature to get rent gouging ordinance to my desk, and this is one of our Top Priorities over the next few weeks before our legislative session ends. We also are trying to get 331 million set aside to help tenants that are on the verge of eviction, to help them with legal support. Were trying to create an endowment, instead of it is something that with surplus dollars to potentially look at one time investments, forget ongoing because those are stressful for mayors, but an annuity of sorts. Were setting aside 331 million regardless of recessionary pressures that will be set aside for rental protections and legal aid. Those dollars will be made available to San Francisco and all across the state. That is a legislative effort. And finally, weve got a bill that goes directly to your frustration about permitting. Nancy skinner has a bill, i dont want to bore you, but it is a streamlining and permitting bill to address the abuses and address some of the abuses of local government that our down zoning that are down zoning in a time of crisis as opposed to up zoning. It is a really important legislative effort that we are hoping comes to my desk in the next few weeks. That is the message we want to send. Were getting more serious about this than ever. We have half a billion additional dollars. I know you got all of this up, i have lost two, but there is no place like home. It is a bond that we are able to put out for supportive housing, for people with Behavioral Health issues. A lot more resources than there has been in the past, but never have we had a challenge this big in our states history. We have to meet it head on. You are doing it at the local level and we need to help you more at a state level. And yes, the federal government needs to help support cities, large and small, that are the economic engine of this country, and increasingly, not just this administration, that Previous Administrations, government has gotten out of the housing business. It is a skeleton of what it once was. I think it is incumbent upon governors and local leaders to call that out, as well. We cant do this, even at the state level alone. We need the federal government to get back in the housing business because urban and Metro America is struggling with these issues, even chicago, not just here in San Francisco, and this is incumbent upon us to call that out, as well. That is the Broad Strokes message. It is a big issue, an important issue and a complex issue. We are grateful for your leadership and all of you for being with us today. Im happy to take any questions. Do you have any for them . I dont want to burden all of you. They are just here for you. [laughter] if that is what the mayor is saying, then i need to get out of here. [laughter] that is great. Im happy to take any questions. [indiscernible] what is your position on the new ballot measure . They have refiled, but i want to complement not only those that have refiled, but others for their willingness to engage and to pursue a compromise, pursue an alternative, pursue a strategy to avoid a historically costly ballot fight. I dont know what will come of those conversations, but those conversations are ongoing. They have been for some time. They have been renewed with a deeper sense of urgency over the next number of weeks, but my position is to see if we can process those conversations along and try to build a monochrome of consensus because at the end of the day, there are winners and losers in a property tax debate, and not everybody will be left happy. I dont want to overstate these efforts, but those are ongoing negotiations. As it pertains to housing, obviously homelessness comes up so much because the problem is so acute. We see the effects on our street everywhere we go. But when you sit down at a roundtable have a conversation like this and you hear from teachers, firefighters, and people make up the Service Fabric of the communities, and they are being displaced. Does that represent an existential crisis . I dont thank you do overstate. I love the way you framed it from a moral perspective in terms of who we are as a society and what we represent, how to define community and a commonwealth when so many people that appear to be doing well are actually struggling, and so many people that clearly are struggling are also struggling in historic numbers. So this issue it has been with us for decades. I was a former supervisor here 20 plus years ago. This was the issue. It hasnt gone away. It is just more acute than ever. And the nature of the change has now been fasttrack. I am even feeling it as a fifthgeneration san franciscan with family here and businesses here. I am acting like that old san franciscan, i remember the days, and this place im starting to act like that. I know where those impulses come from because they are warning. Im also concerned about that. I am concerned broadly about the state. Rather than complain about it and lament about it, we are trying to do something about it. Im doing something no Previous Administration is doing, in a holding folks accountable. I talked about the carrots, not the sticks, but we are suing i sued Huntington Beach because they didnt want to get in the housing business. They werent doing enough. Fortysix other cities were being threatened with lawsuits. Tomorrow we will announce seven of them now that are in compliance. Another one across the bay just came into compliance. Were working with the others to get them in compliance. I just passed a trailer bill in the state that will allow courts to actually take over as conservators for some of the cities and the resources that they receive from the state if they dont produce housing. We are going to get much tougher because at the end of the day, the state of california cant develop the housing. At the end of the day, california cant solve the issues of homelessness for local government pick localism is determinative. It has to happen at the local level. My job is to amplify good behavior, support these local efforts in every way i can with support but also accountability and we have to see it on the back and the accountability. We have to see results. You cant just keep throwing money at this. I want to know what they will do with this billion dollars. I want to see real results. We gave them flexibility, deep urgency, new rules, new regulations, we will help you with the nimby is an that exists , and i will push back against that, as well, but i want to see real results. Forgive me if that isnt a soundbite, but it is a mouthful because this is just so profoundly complex and get so simple. More housing, deeper prevention dollars, key people in their homes, and lets preserve existing housing stock. [indiscernible] significant. You have seen a number of announcements which are examples of those conversations now being made public with some of the Largest Tech Companies in the state of california that have committed funds for housing, not just for low income housing, but for workforce housing, as well. I can assure you there are a number of others that will be making public announcements very soon that also will be a point for those conversations. Absolutely we believe in accountability. We think it is a twoway frame and i can assure you this, talking to the c. E. O. S, they get it because their number one problem is housing for their employees. It drives up the costs for them as it relates to recruiting talent, salaries, and it drives most principal complaint that they get in terms of retaining their key talent, because their families are earning a great deal of money and cant afford to stay in the bay area. Developers say they are being distance that devised [indiscernible] let me just say this. Theres more money in this your s budget than the amount of money that was set aside when we had the redevelopment. I could go through the list on the atkins transaction bill, the no place like home money that we put up, the money we put up for tax credits and loans, we created a new Tax Increment Program called an enhanced infrastructure financing. I dont know why this doesnt get more attention. It doesnt because what the hell does that mean . We have to change the names of all this stuff so people understand it. But it is a variant on redevelopment where we eliminated the voter approval to do tax increments. That was a big deal. In and of itself that was a big deal but it got lost with the larger housing package, but the impact fees are great. We have to call that out. The reason why is exactly to your frame of the question. It goes to carlas question because the way our property tax allocations work. And prop 13 is the principal source. If you want to go to the y. , you go back and you have prop 13. You have to connect that. What im trying to do in these conversations is to connect the impact fee conversation to the larger negotiations. That is a bank shot of sorts because it makes it particularly more complex, but i think it is so fundamental and foundational in terms of addressing the affordability issue in the state you cant build an 800,000dollar Affordable Housing unit. That is what you are doing here. It is laughable. Someplace his and i said you have to be kidding. They were half a Million Dollars , not in a big urban center like this. That will never happen. We are incentivizing new styles, forgive me, but in that list of things, we are encouraging and we are prioritizing new modular and prefab strategies. We are doing a lot with excess Surplus Property in the state. We have 45,000 parcels. We reviewed state property that we could set aside for development and we are prioritizing those methods for those parcels, and we already have six cities that are partnering with us to fast track the development of those units in order to get those costs down and waving all of those state related fees and fast tracking our permitting process. In order to be able to afford housing, you have to be making enough money. One of the problems is theres a bigger and bigger part of the gig economy. Would essentially make it harder to make people independent contractors and actual employees with benefits. How do you stand on that . We are negotiating on it. We have been negotiating on it for nine months. Can you say, wait a second, you have been governor only seven, right after i think a week before the election we started having very robust conversations it was continued for about two hours yesterday and six for the day before. My chief of staff is consumed most of her days to see if we can accommodate different points of view. As you know, many folks have been accommodated with amendments to the bill. There have been a number of industries that have been carved out, and i know this impacts all of you, as well. So many others would like carveouts or accommodations would like to be considered differently, and im open to argument. We are pursuing that and i am not naive about where the prevailing wind is on any of these issues. [indiscernible] i had just walked in and i try to avoid my thread on twitter because i have enough emotional issues from my early a Early Childhood trauma, but i was just made aware of this. It was a very serious issue. It goes to the core of people wanting to live in a city as spectacular as this and that foundation is safety. I hear it all the time. These qualityoflife crimes, these crimes that were stopped, and it appears, in this case, she was very fortunate. It could have been a terrible incident. It was just a traumatic one, and how often they are dealt with. Sometimes people flippantly deal with it and not seriously deal with it. People are back out on the streets, potentially to commit the crime again. I am very sensitive to what was presented to me, but i dont have the benefit of the details and fax to address a tweet, but i deeply respect the emotional tenor of not only that example and that incident, but more broadly, what i hear when i come back in the city about car breakins, about qualityoflife , about what is happening on the streets and sidewalks, and as a former mayor , im deeply sensitive to that. Your mayor is doing an extraordinary job, but she is going to need, as we all do, more support and that is one of the reasons we are here in the city. [indiscernible] yeah. He was up in our office two days ago. I asked him about it and we are really looking forward to his exploration. He was very pragmatic about it. He says we are pursuing it, but it continues to be a pursuit. So we are monitoring that closely and i am intrigued by the concept, but i want to see where he takes it and i know that there are a number of people, including the conversation i had with our leadership three days ago in the capital, that are also looking at that and thats all i can say right now. There is no pending legislation, but there is intrigue around that frame. [indiscernible] 2020, that is the most important thing we can do because our current h. U. D. Leadership is well, 2020 is important. It is not just 2020. I will be candid with you, it has been a point of frustration going back to when i was a parking and traffic commissioner in San Francisco. And you look at the trendlines of h. U. D. In terms of their housing support, and it has been declining for three or four decades, and i just think, you know, you meet with mayors, you meet with governor his. I was just with the governor association. The issue of affordability is not unique to california. It is just extreme here. But this persists in large metros all across the country and it is a growing issue in america. The reality is, at the end of the day, we need the government to help support some of these regional and local efforts, and i thank you will start hearing a united chorus around this that hopefully can fundamentally answer that question, not just with administration change and leadership change, but he foundational understanding of whats at stake in terms of affordability in america at large. Hello, everybody. I am london breed, mayor of the city and county of San Francisco , and im really excited to join you here today, but i tell you that no one is more excited than the parents of the kids who will be returning to school on monday. And today is an opportunity to us to really get the word out to people all over San Francisco that we have thousands of kids who are returning to school on monday. We will see kids walking, we will see them by king, we will see them on buses and yes, some of them will get dropped off by parents in their car. But ultimately, we want everyone will get around this city safely because there will be more people out on the streets now than ever before as a school began on monday. So a part of today is really about highlighting the awareness that we need people to slow down we need people to be aware. We need people to do better. We have had sadly a number of tragedies that have occurred on our city streets and we know, unfortunately, that has a lot to do sometimes with speed. We need to slow down. Yes, i have asked the chief to increase citations, and to be aware in this high injury corridors, the need to make sure that there are consequences for people who are speeding, which sadly can cause tragedy. If a pedestrian is hit by a driver at 20 Miles Per Hour, their risk of fatality is 5 , but if that is 30 Miles Per Hour , their risk jumps to 45 . What we dont want to continue is sadly what we see happening on our streets where we are losing far too many lives, and our most precious assets are our children, so we want to make sure that when they are moving around San Francisco, going back to school, that they are safe. When i was a kid, i went to School Across the street from where i lived. It used to be called but the name is now rosa parks elementary school. What was so cool about that is we would all just walk to school someone would walk up to my window, yell my name, there would already be three or four kids. We would get to the corner on eddie and buchanan, and then there was a crossing guard right there to make sure that all cars stopped so we could safely get across the streets and move on our way to get to school. I never realized how valuable that was until i became an adult and i see so many kids that are out there trying to get to school. We were also taught to look both ways before crossing the street. We also have to get back to some basics. This year we have hired more crossing guards and we want to thank the folks who are joining us here today for your service and for your commitment to making sure that people get around our streets safely. We also, as i said, we have the chief here. We will be placing additional enforcement in certain areas, and so i just want to also ask drivers to do better to stop texting, to stop making phone calls, to stop making looking at your phones when youre driving on our streets, to slow down, and to look both ways and to be very careful when you are navigating the streets of San Francisco to follow the laws. The stop signs, the crosswalks, and all of those things are there for a reason. It is to keep all of us safe. The protected bike lanes are there to make sure that by his bicyclists are safe, the people walking across the streets are safe, that people are moving. This is all about safety. This is all about highlighting the need for us as a safety to do much more than we have in the past so that we can truly realize the goals of vision zero , and that is no fatalities of any kind in this city because of traffic or cars or what have you. At this time, i would like to introduce the supervisor that represents this district, represents marine at middle school where there will be a lot of kids here first thing monday. Supervisor catherine stefani. Thank you. I love the middle school. It is so beautiful. I want to thank everyone, especially mayor breed and the students, parents, and city leadership who were able to make it out today as well as crossing guards. The most important people in the morning when were dropping our kids off at school who really did the important work of making sure our students are safe in our communities. My son just started high school on wednesday and my daughter is starting fifthgrade next week and i dropped dominic off at high school on his first day. I insisted i did it. And besides saying to me, mom, dont say anything weird when you dropped me off, this people around, i said to him, look both ways. It is on a busy street. He is still 14 years old and still telling my child, be careful when his crossing the street considering how dangerous our streets can be. As we kick off the new school year, as we all know, hit and runs and collisions between pedestrians and bicyclists and be at vehicles are way too common in San Francisco. Nearly every Community Meeting i have been to recently, neighbors have voiced support force crating safer streets and sidewalks and i definitely share this goal. It is our collective responsibility to make sure our streets and sidewalks are safe and secure for families who are walking, for those who are driving, and for those who are riding their bikes to school. We know we all have work to do when it comes to making sure our kids are safe. I know i can always do better out there when you get to a stop sign, count to three, dont open a door before looking before for a bicycle and always be aware, dont take calls when you were driving, just like mayor breed said. We can all do much better. I am so proud to join chief scott and his department who performed a Traffic Safety enforcement list earlier this month. I am grat glad i didnt get a ticket. Interim director mcguire who continues to work with their communities and crating safe and Sustainable Transportation options, and marine, who has been an advocate for students and pedestrians across our city. And of course, again, mayor breed was continue to shine a light on transit safety and has worked towards creating a safer San Francisco for all of our students. As we begin our school year, lets all recommit ourselves to making our commute to and from school safer. I look forward to working with mayor breed and my colleagues on the board of supervisors, our department heads, and families and all of our School Communities to further our shared vision for a safer San Francisco. Thank you so much. [applause]. Thank you, supervisor. At this time, i would like to introduce our police chief, bill scott. [applause]. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. First of all, let me say thank you to the mayor and supervisor stefani for their leadership on traffic and pedestrian safety. Backtoschool is an exciting time. It is exciting, it is a lot of work and we want to start with this. Slow down a little bit. Slow down. The mayor mentioned it earlier. Speed kills. In terms of the focus of the violations that we concentrate on the most, we are trying to get people to slow down. As the mayor stated and supervisor stefani stated, we are going to be out doing enforcement. I want to also think the mayor and the supervisor because what allows us to get better at this is the generous support of our budget this year. Last year the mayor signed a budget, and this year she signed a budget that included continuing our hiring plan. What that has allowed us to do is increase the size of our Traffic Company and our motorcycle officers. We have at least ten more motorcycle officers then we do this time last year thanks to the mayors leadership on the budget and the supervisor stefanis leadership on the budget. What that means is we are able to do more enforcement and get people to slow down and save lives. What that looks like in the First Six Months of 2019, we have had 19 light armed forces operations, we have head sting and decoy operations, pedestrian sting and decoy operations, we have had a bike lane enforcement operation, we have initiated over 2301 vehicle traffic stops through the office of Traffic Safety grant operations, we have issued almost 100 citations just for holding a cell phone in your hand. I mentioned this at last years press conference, that is a big issue for us. People driving in our city while theyre talking on the cell phone or texting or distracted otherwise, and that is a big issue. Will be focusing on that as well we sighted almost 75 of these operations just for citations for texting while driving, which is very dangerous. The bottom line on this is enforcement is only one part of the puzzle. We have tom maguire up here with this with us, we have crossing guards, this is really a Community Effort and a community event. We really need the communitys support and your support to get the message out. Slow down, pay attention, be careful because our kids mean so much to us. Save lives. Thank you very much, mayor and supervisor stefani for your leadership, and thank you all for being here. [applause] thank you, chief. Another important part of making our streets safer is improving our infrastructure. Now i know that sometimes this can be a bit of a tugofwar because we have protected bike lanes that we need to install, and sometimes that would require the removal of parking, and we have changes to the way that we need to develop our city moving forward to because because when you think about it, you know, 20 years ago, you didnt see as many people cycling, and now you have people using that as a primary mode of transportation. That is not only protecting our environment, but it is also keeping people healthy and it is also making sure that the buses are less crowded and less people are driving. So as we make these improvements to our infrastructure, the goal is safety. It is about making sure that everyone knows where they should be when theyre on the road in order to keep people safe. So the m. T. A. Is charged with the responsibility of helping us to reconfigure San Francisco as a place that used to focus mostly on developing our streets for cars, and now it is time to develop the streets for the future and that includes cars, walking, busing, and biking in all of those things in between, his the person who is leading the m. T. A. At this time is the acting director, tom mcguire. [applause] thank you for drawing the connection between the changes we see on our streets and the choices that all of us make every day about how we get around San Francisco. Our goal is to make everyone feel like it is safe for kids to be able to walk to school or bike to school or get to school on the bus. The 190 crossing guards will be out on the street this week. They are here with one thing in mind, that is the safety of the children of San Francisco. We have been doing a lot of work this summer to prepare the city for a safe start to the school year. We read striped 90 of the crosswalks around schools around the city. Weve got troopers, we got transit assistance staff who ride the bus with her high school and medicals middle School Students to make sure they are safe as they navigate the city, and we are ready for a safe start to the school year however you get around. The m. T. A. Has got something for you to keep you safe. We are grateful for the support of the mayor and supervisor stefani. All the citys elected officials for the goal of vision zero to end traffic fatalities in the city. Thank you. [applause]. Thank you. We have a very special guest. The ladies of the westside waves are here today and speaking on behalf of the team is maureen. [applause] hi. My name is maureen and i am here today because five months ago on march 15th, my friend was struck by a car and died ten days later, so i have normal memories of eighth grade. I remember my eighth grade play, spending iron hours on my science fair project and studding from a big math test, but i also remember coming in late to my homeroom when i saw my teacher crying. I remember my team and i knew madeline was in the hospital because she was 14 and of course, she was going to wake up i clearly remember spending my eighth grade graduation holding in my tears after her memorial because i didnt want to ruin my mascara. When someone dies, especially such a bright light like mandelman, a community suffers. And knowing she died in a way that is utterly human and utterly preventable makes it so much more heartbreaking. Our city has a problem and it is killing people. With all the statistics and initiatives going around, this is easily the site of the real impact madelyns parents, or siblings, your parents and her teammates were left behind, trying and failing to move on. I am so grateful we have the support of so many of our city leaders. We got some of the change we asked for, but it is not enough. It will not be enough until this stops happening. We cannot lose sight of what happens of what matters. We have to remember what we as a city lose. We can end this. We will end this. Thank you. [applause] thank you for really putting it into perspective of why we need to do better. So thank you to everyone who is here today. Please keep in mind this is a changing city, it is a growing city. We have a lot more people who are out there on the streets, on the roads walking, so please be careful. So we also will be out there and enforcing the rules of the road, and just keep in mind that there are a lot of people out there on the streets and your kids are out there, your mother is out there, your family members are out there, so just think about that when you are out there driving around and you get distracted by a phone call. That phone call can wait. What is so what is so pressing that you have to reach for your phone, which could risk the possibility of an accident, and the importance of today is really to shine a light on our need to be back here in San Francisco, to make sure that not one more tragedy happens on the streets of our city. Thank you all for getting the word out, thank you for being here, lets do better so that kids that are going to school on monday can have a great day and they can enjoy themselves and laugh, and play, and smile, and make it home safely to tell their parents about what an amazing first day of school they had. Thank you so much for being here [applause] ladies and gentlemen, were going to order the sfmta board of directors. Please call the. [roll call] you have a quorum. Item three, announcement of prohibition sound producing devices during the meeting. The bringing of sound producing Electronic Devices are prohibited at the meeting. Any person responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room. Also, directors, please be advised we do have an overflow room for todays meeting. Due to fire codes, if youre sitting or standing in the aisles, you must step outside, and fanned a find a chair