Their guns. Many told me they dont necessarily need tasers. And they have nowhere to place it. So i dont see the need for that. And i and, of course, they have their guns. I just want to make sure that Police Officers are following procedures and following commands of higher officers. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Omeara. Well, i definitely agree that there is there is theres a requirement for intensive Police Training and perhaps introducing some new measures or a new way to look at things. But there definitely needs to be a training thats different from the past. Ill give an example. Racial profiling, as we know, do happen in the city, it happens a lot, even in neighborhoods that use to be highly dangerous. Maybe they need to look at the current curriculum that the police has and it needs to be on a whole refresher course. Thats one instance. The second one is i want to share with everybody about two weeks ago, i was invited to a nancy pelosi town hall meeting. And i joined a womans organization there called moms demand action. Its a very powerful organization. Its larger than the National Rifle organization. And i think im learning from them. I got a call from them today. Theyre very effective in educating the public about gun laws and enforcing stricter gun laws, et cetera. Moderator thank you very much. Okay. Moderator mr. Preston. Yeah i started my legal career in the late 90s, representing victims of police misconduct, both in the east abatement and in San Francisco. And that was before most things were caught on videotape. I have been regularly out protesting Police Shootings and joining the hunger strikers, who were demanding the resignation of chief sur, back in the mission district. And let me say i think this is one where our races interact with the District Attorneys office. I think we need a District Attorney who is willing to prosecute Police Officers, that shoot and kill people. And i also want to say i support the kind of training that were hearing others support. But i want to be clear. Theres also a Harm Reduction side for the community, which is limiting the police contact. Forgive me if i dont have faith in a department thats been so deeply racist for so long, that from my perspective, the more we can have nonpolice units interacting with people of color in this city, the more likely we are to avoid Police Shootings, as we continue to train Police Officers. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] still in the speaking of in the area of crime. Were going to start with mr. Lam. What is your position on openair drug sales and how would you crack down on drug dealers. Openair. Okay. So again police i support police enforcement. I support the funding of police. But other than for that everything thats illegal in open saling of marijuana, open sale of Illegal Drugs, i want to make sure that theres a crackdown on that. Could you be more specific about your question. I just read it as its written. Okay. Sure. Sure. I want to make sure its not here in San Francisco. Moderator okay. Thank you very much. Ms. Omeara. I think having lived in the different districts, i have learned a lot about my current d5 district. And it comes with a whole history that needs to be reevaluated and understood. Having lived in the fillmore and whats now called the lower haight. Its interesting. Its interesting that of course, im concerned about open drug sales. Obviously i dont want to be exposed to it. I dont want to be around it. I dont want my children around it. Its a problem. But what we need to reevaluate in a sense is historically what went wrong postcivilcivilcivil. We know there was a war of attrition between people trying to progressively get their rights their constitutional right to be acknowledged, to have good programs, so their children could have a better education. And that movement was stifled and was repressed back in the late 60s and 70s. And we know that whether it was the Panther Movement or the different womens movement, a whole slew of organizations, particularly here in San Francisco, that came about as that. So when you start to look at the problem of drugs and drug sales, take into regard what happened before that. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Yeah. I mean, i think we cant look at this without looking at the history of what was alluded to. Were looking at decades of a failed war on drugs that resulted in mass incarceration. You know, if youre looking for appear supervisor thats going to further the mass incarceration by pushing for arrests and long sentences for streetlevel drug sales, i may not be your guy. I mean, i think that the reality is if were going to focus our prosecutorial resources on our police, we should be focusing much higher up in the food chain, of the folks that are bringing the Illegal Drugs into our streets and not punishing. A lot of folks who lack Economic Opportunity and are engaged in streetlevel dealing. At the end of the day, similar to my previous responses, we need to offer Something Better to the folks who are selling Illegal Drugs on the street. So that they optimistic opt into that, as opposed to thinking punishments and sentences will solve it. Moderator thank you very much. This next question. Well start with you, ms. Omeara. Its a changeup. Im sorry. Thats okay. Moderator oh, no, its not. Im getting ahead of myself. Thank you, audience. Ms. Brown. Yes. You know, regarding the criminal rings that come in and bring the drugs, theres a real problem. I know ive been talking to supervisor haney about it. Because the tenderloin is on fire with that. You have the criminal rings coming in. And i definitely feel Law Enforcement should step up. Absolutely. Then you have the street dealing. How this is where we need to have programs come in and take people aside and get them into programs, whether most of them have their own drug abuse issues. We need to be able to get them aside, get them into programs and then give them opportunities. You really have to work handinhand. You cant just go out and do hardcore enforcement, without giving you want toos. And this is something that the city has been looking at and been working on. , but we definitely need to go after the criminal rings, because they actually they actually are predators to our people on the streets. Moderator thank you very much. Okay. This next question. Were going to speak of something near and dear to my heart, aging. [laughter] and were going to start with ms. Omeara. How will you support those aiming and living aging and living with their disabilities here in San Francisco . You mean when im supervisor . Moderator yes. Okay. How would i support . Well, the current status of the aging, as i have observed, i worked in mental health. Dual diagnosis programs. I have a varied clientele in that population. Its a difficult one. But its critical to the city that we provide housing to our seniors. They are less able to move around. And i think interest in our elders is a connection from the past to the future. The youth being the future. The elderly being the one that park on that knowledge. Its very important for a collective kind of consciousness. So my my sorry, my take on that is its one of its not just a moral imperative to provide housing and disability to them. We owe it to our seniors. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Yeah. We have certainly have a housing crisis, affordability crisis for everyone. But we have an affordability crisis for seniors, that is really acute. We a little have a crisis in terms of longterm care in the city, where folks there are simply not enough beds for folks or places for people to stay and people end up moving to different counties, disconnected from their communities. So housing and safe shelter. Absolutely essential for us to seriously invest in that for our seniors. But i also think that there are a number of other issues that disproportionately impact seniors. Certainly Pedestrian Safety is a huge issue for our aging population, with most of our serious injuries and deaths in district 5 from folks walking on the streets. Folks or seniors near Senior Centers. I think we need to look at not just the housing issues, but the safety and stability of seniors as a top priority for any supervisor in San Francisco. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Brown. Yes. I mean, seniors are the Fastest Growing population in this city. So we really have to really look at what we need to do. We also, besides housing and on the housing bond, the 600 million housing bond that i actually worked on, there will be money for senior housing. We need appropriate housing. I talked to many seniors every day. And one of the things they say is like, look, i have rent control. But i have you know, 50 stairs up to get to my apartment. And i have a hard time managing that. So we have to build the right kind of senior housing, so people can actually have elevators with Senior Services on site. This is something that were doing with prop a. But also we have to look at transportation, because a lot of seniors give up cars or, you know, or they actually start using transportation a lot more. We have to make it safe. Unless we have safe transportation and its reliable, muni is reliable, seniors, most of us wont use this, especially seniors. So theres a lot of things that we need to do. And thats what were pushing for. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Lam. Yes. One of my priorities is safety, as i mentioned. And with my intensive Infrastructure Improvement plan, i want to make sure that streets, lights and timers are provided near Senior Centers. I live near two Senior Centers with no timers. You just sort of just talk across the street. And something bad can happen there, because a senior on their wheelchair could take more time than the average pedestrian. I want to continue the pensions and benefits that seniors receive, given by california and the city and county of San Francisco. And i want to make sure that everyday activities, seniors going to buy groceries at the market, or going to the park, i want to make sure theyre accessible. That means having senior accusations on transportation. Moderator thank you very much. Miss omeara. Theres one thing that everybody left out. It got me thinking a little while back on the senior issue. Like i would like people to hear it and know how you respond. Wellness centers is one thing i associate with seniors. I know this from personal experience, because having lived with my inlaws a little while back hold on. Ill be real quick. The Wellness Center is critical to the well being of seniors, when you have a pool. Moderator thank you. A gym, a jacuzzi. Its Critical Condition the Affordable Housing range. Thats something that needs to be implemented. Thank you. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. I went out of order. But you had answered already. But thank you for that information. Thank you. Moderator it was spoken about when dealing with seniors that traffic is an issue. Crossingthe streets can be an issue. So starting with mr. Preston, what is your plan to address traffic problems until district 5 . The question being crossing octavia by foot is dangerous. Yeah. The streets are incredibly unsafe, despite the visionzero plan, were five years in a tenyear plan to eliminate if the fatalities for pedestrians. Theyre not going down. We have a lot of work to do. Im an everyday muni rider. I have been for the last 26 years. I believe that we need to be investing in Public Transportation. I think we also need to be standing up to uber and lyft, who have privatized and congested and made our streets far less safe. Ive never ordered an uber or lyft in my life. I dont plan to. I object strongly to ubers Business Plan, which is to take people off of Public Transportation and put them into private vehicles. They have admitted that that is their Business Plan in the s. E. C. Filings. So i think these things are what are congesting the city. [applause] again if you privatize Public Transportation and if you can make a lot of money, privatizing Public Transportation, youre going to see the results, which is a congested city, thats unsafe for folks who are cyclists and pedestrians. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Brown. Well, yes. And i mean one of the things with vision zero is a lot of times we get pushback from neighbors. I mean, thats really truthful. We want to take out a parking space so people can see you on the corner. Theres a lot of things to do with vision zero and push forward. We need to really look at not having people turn right on a red light. I think thats something. And then also on if the larger streets, like visadero. Thats one of the reasons that a woman an 80yearold woman was killed on the road, someone was trying to rush through the traffic, the two lanes of traffic and hit her while turning left. So these are the things that we need to do. We need to do those fast. But i think that we are the board of supervisors has said we want to push vision zero much faster. And we need to do that. Its not only for pedestrians, because whether you ride a bike, youre a pedestrian. We really need to do this kind of work as fast as possible. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Lam. Yes. So i agree. I think for bikes and doctor bikers and pedestrians. If you put a sign or a light up, its going to stay there for over 20 years maybe. And just you have a sign there and you cant turn right. People know. Hopefully we reached vision zero some day. And if you want better more people riding Public Transportation, instead of driving, i think we need to incentivize that. I think we need better transportation and more people will flock towards Public Transportation. So that means paying muni drivers better, that means instituting the improvements that bart has been making on bart. Theyre adding new cars and making sure that the Public Transportation arrives in a timely manner, without it being completely packed with people and rush hour. So improving Public Transportation will have more people riding Public Transportation. Moderator thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Omeara. Oh, are we just attributing this transportation problem just to the octavia corridor . Moderator no. Traffic problems in general. Well, i think i talked to some of my neighbors last week about this transport situation in the city. And these are these are occasions. I understand the need for bikers. Im a biker myself, et cetera. And that there are changes. One thing i want to share with you, what my constituency said, who are these people that are hired by city hall, when the person comes from washington, d. C. And what do they know about the streets in San Francisco or how they design them. Or what kind of outreach is being done by sfmta. Some of the, theres not enough consultation or none. In fact, we need to reexamine that by asking the question, if sfmta is the one responsible together with vallies job as supervisor, then they are not doing their job. They are not theyre not connecting with the community or advising them. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Again i know or ive heard in watching, if i watch tv all the time id hear it constantly about uber and lyft in the city. The question is how can the board of supervisors influence the Planning Department and the sfmta to consider the impacts of uber, lyft and the commute buses that go through the city. And ms. Brown, its your question. Well, weve already had those studies. We know its a huge impact. We have around 30,000 uber drivers a day in this city. So what we have to do is we have to make sure transportation works. So when i first got into city hall, i called a hearing because muni wasnt working. You stand on carl and cole and people waiting for a bus and you see the time keep going up and up. All of a sudden people pill off and are taking uber and lyft. So if it doesnt work, its not going to be used. One of the things that the hearing showed was that were 400 drivers a day short. We spent millions and millions of dollars on buses and trains, but none on the drivers. So one of the things and how can we have reliable muni we dont have operators. One of the things i did was i worked to make sure that the muni operators had a fair contract, they have a fair contract. They just had the first class a few weeks ago with the new contract. And we had 80 people in this class. Before it was only like 20 people. Because muni wasnt making enough money. We were training the drivers and then they would leave after 18 months to go get a better job somewhere else. So we have to be able to have drivers to have a reliable muni. Moderator thank you very much. And mr. Lam. How about you repeat the question, so that we stay on track here. How account board of supervisors influence the Planning Department and the sfmta to consider the impacts of uber, lyft and commute buses. Well, im sure they do know the effects of uber and lyft. Theres obviously proposition going on right now, i believe its proposition d or f. I forget. We cant hear you. Okay. Okay. Im against that. Uber and lyft was not made for everyday transit. Its not made to go to work and back. Its more made for visitors and people going from point a and point before. Uber drivers make about 3,000 a month. Uber and lyft drivers make about 3,000 a month, which is not affordable. And eventually theyre just going to die out, because 3,000, if you do the math, times 12, thats about less than 30,000. Yeah. Sorry, im not a mathematician here. [laughter] me either. Okay. Okay. So yeah, again improving Public Transportation. We need more muni drivers. We need to pay them better and make sure their contracts are good. Thank you. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Omeara. I think that, first of all, i have a problem with the lack of transparency within the sfmta, as well as how supervisor deals with it. Im going to give you a case in point. In my neighborhood, right on my block, theres a proposed pilot program, which is to take place sometime in the fall, over 18 months. The problem with it is where i live its a house. A nice house. So where my neighbors, who have owned their houses for 50something years. Now part of that proposal says between 7 00 a. M. And 7 00 p. M. , they will be only muni has access to that block. But we have a corner store where an aging gentleman and his wife have run the store for over 40 years. How are they going to park . How are we going to park to drop off our kids or any of that. And it doesnt make any sense. If it aint broke, dont fix it. And so i believe that supervisor brown needs to really reassess that program. Because its going to harshly affect my neighbors. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Yeah. I mean, we have heard that 30,000 of these cars at least are on the street. And weve pretty much heard that the incumbent is not planning to do anything about that, other than investing in moony , which we can agree we need to do. I take a pretty different perspective. Maybe its from having tackled some pretty big issues over a 20year career, that folks say are impossible when we start, last year when we did prop c for homelessness, when we did prop f to tackle the right to counsel and countless other things, where people say, oh you just need to leave the corporations alone and accept what theyre doing taking over your streets. What are we electing a supervisor to do if not if we all agree theres a problem, with 30,000 vehicles, lets deal with it. The supervisor will respond you cant regulate the numbers because of state law. Ab5 just passed in the state. Uber is going to violate that. The city needs to enforce the law against uber. It reclassifies their independent contractors as employees. The city also can take aim at uber and lyft, the corporations for a business practice that violates our local traffic laws. Moderator thank you. Thank you. Lets as a city sue them, get an injunction and force them to geo fence so they dont pick up and drop off in violation of local law. Lets do something. [applause] moderator thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. Climate change. Another issue thats in the news. We have a bay will batter will probably be rising over the next year. Starting with mr. Lam, how do you plan to make San Francisco a greener and safety city, in light of Climate Change . Y , okay. My motto is a cleaner and safer San Francisco. Ill stick to that. Moderator greener. Keeping our streets clean having housing, you know, walking down the streets, i see so much litter and homelessness. And i want to make sure that organizations like downtown, street cleanup or some of these organizations, that are employing people of who havent had opportunity to clean up the street to get them jobs, clean up the streets, and keep the environment clean, when it come when it comes to Climate Change, of course, its all talked about. Transportation is the number one thing affecting Climate Change, because of the carbon dioxide. Again the Public Transportation needs to improve, so that many more people use Public Transportation. And that its not all packed. So theres more cars, less delays. And its run on a tight schedule. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Omeara. Well, i think the Carbon Emissions definitely impacts our city. And thats probably due to the increased congestion of uber and lift. But there are the ways to regulate that. And also we have Companies Like google and whatever. I believe they used to pay the city 250,000 to pick up their employees. I think that we should get more money from them than what they currently pay. I definitely think that the Carbon Emissions impacting Climate Change has been caused by this avalanche of cars, that arent even necessarily residents of the city. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Well, first off, obviously huge supporter of Green New Deal nationally. And thanks to the democratic socialists who are pushing that forward nationally, id like to do a Green New Deal for San Francisco, capturing a similar spirit. Huge props to the community activists, who for decades have been fighting for public power. And were now seeing that we may be on the verge of actually municipalizing p. G. E. , as far as electricity goes, which is very exciting. Im certainly going to support that on the board. I think, you know, regionally and locally the biggest cause of pollution is transportation. So we need to tackle that in a big way. I want to do a november 2020 ballot measure on Public Transportation. The vision for our Public Transportation has got to be you can get on anywhere in San Francisco and 30 minutes later arrive at your destination. We need 30minute trips in San Francisco. We need to reverse the decadeslong fare hikes. Every year it goes up. Its totally unfair to those who ride moony , not forced to pay more and more. We should chop fares in half, taxing the biggest corporations next year and working toward free muni in San Francisco in five years. Moderator thank you very much. [applause] ms. Brown. You know, 46 of emissions is actually from large buildings. And i actually legislated that large buildings would have to end by 2024, actually go clean. So clean energy, electric, reusable electric, reusable, solar and other things to really make sure that our buildings are clean. 47 are cars. As we said, you know, uber and lyft, this is regulated by the state. Do you think that my colleagues, including aaron peskin, would not go after uber if we could. I mean, this is ridiculous to think that with somebody gets on there, theyre going to tackle this. This is actually run by the state p. U. C. I really wish we could really educate people to know what we have to do. We have to make sure muni is reliable. Can it be free . Look, we already have seniors, disabled, youth that are free. Weve also studied that can we make muni free . Gavin newsome did it and then mayor lee. And we found out that muni would collapse if it was free. So this is the kind of things that were dealing with right now. [applause] moderator thank you very much. Ms. Omeara, this next question. How will you reach out to and work with lowincome communities, here in the city . Well, there seems to be a deficit in our outreach towards lowincome communities. Primarily black, brown, lgbtq, youth populations. Therefore, that means that there needs to be some aggressive outreach towards those communities. I am around or surrounded by some of those communities. And i see part of the problem is also, like i said, lowperforming schools. And i spoke to the principal of the school close to my house. She said there had been an improvement, in fact, in the schools performance. But we need more of it, because we have a generation of people who were caught up in the 80s and 90s with a lot of the aftermath of the civil rights movement, got caught up in that whole drug culture. And basically it was a kind of a holocaust of black people. Moderator thank you. That were either incarcerated or they were deprived of opportunities to succeed in life. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. Thats a historical fact. Moderator okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Well, ive been working directly with lowincome individuals, clients and communities for over the last 20 years, as a housing advocate, working with folks who are struggling in the city and across the state. I think you start by working with lowincome communities in a way that this city doesnt do often enough, which is actually listening to lowincome communities, holding Real Community meetings, not meetings that are just designed to roll out your latest plan, to do things to communities. And i want to point to s. B. 50, thats different between me and the appointed incumbent. You know, to me s. B. 50 is a state law that basically takes away neighborhood voices. They oppose this kind of upzoning of their neighborhoods, that doesnt increase Affordable Housing and takes away their voice. And i believe we need to be fighting against things like s. B. 50 at the state level and defend the neighbors voices, especially in the lowincome communities and communities of color. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Brown. Well, regarding sb50, i think you mischaracterized my position on that. My position was that we should be working with our state representatives to make sure that we get what we need in amendments for it. Because once something passes at the state, we cannot change it. We have to follow that law. So we have to be able to work with our state representatives, whether we like them or not. We have to be able to sit down with them and work out amendments to say this is what we need in the city. I did that with senator wiener and one of it was Community Outreach and community input. He was fine with that. He actually we did eight different amendments that he was fine with. It was regarding outreach for communities of color. You really have to be boots on the ground. If you dont know the community, you are not going to do very good outreach. Ive always been boots on the ground. [applause] people know me in the community. And you have to walk the community, you have to talk to everybody. You have to go into public housing. You have to go into all kinds of housing and talk to people. Go into businesses. This is what we expect in district 5, boots on the ground. Thats the only kind of outreach you can do effectively. Moderator thank you very much. [applause] and mr. Lam. Or is it my turn . Moderator mr. Lam. Oh, sorry. Its okay. One thing about sb50 is somebody once told me, or i quote, you dont amend that bill, you kill it. But thats that. So i think giving lowincome families and citizens a second chance, an opportunity is very important. I see it with civic center commons. I see it with many other organizations. And i think that the creation of jobs, that we need in San Francisco, is critical. We can create more jobs to focus on keeping our city safe and clean. And give it to people who need a second chance, who have been incarcerated and want to completely restart their life and start living start being lawabiding citizens. And i want to make sure that we keep kids in school from lowincome families. Making sure that they at least finish high school. It they have the chance, they go on to free city college. Thank you. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Preston, this question is for you. How would you protect the Lgbtq Community from discrimination and housing and other city services, especially in light of whats going on in the country. Yeah. Thank you. And im proud to be the soleendorsed candidate of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club and appreciate their strong support. Ive been fighting to protect lgbtq residents from eviction, displacement and from housing discrimination. And that is really its essential to understand that even in San Francisco, that the Lgbtq Community is regularly subject to discrimination in housing and in the workplaces. One of the reasons we did prop f was to provide a right to counsel to fight back against that. Its also very exciting to see our state has finally passed a ban on section 8 discrimination. So were actually seeing some movement on preventing discrimination in housing. But from the lgbtq renters in particular, that i talk with regularly, the threat of real estate speculation, of evictions and of displacement remains the biggest threat. And i believe, as the soleendorsed candidate, that im in the best position to prevent that displacement. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Brown. Well, im the soleendorsed candidate of alice b. Tuck. There you go, huh. [laughter] well, you know, housing is always really important. When i was a neighborhood activist and a legislative aide, i fought with my neighbors to actually bring lgbt housing into district 5. And at the time it was district 5, it was 55 laguna. We worked to do that and also worked to pass neighborhood preference, so people in the neighborhood from our Lgbtq Community could have Affordable Housing. This is so important. Especially for seniors lgbt. We have to continue this kind of model. We also have to make sure that we have funding for aides. A lot of times people say havent we cured that . No. There are still issues that we have to be able to fund. And a lot of it is health care. A lot of it is health care because of the drugs that they have been using for years and years. A lot of them are having side effects and they need our funding and protection. Moderator thank you very much. Mr. Lam. [applause] one group ive been working with over the last three, four months is the log cabin republicans. They are lgbtq group. We meet in the castro every month. And theyre voting on my endorsement this month. I am for the equal rights of all under the law. And heres where my rights counsel for all comes in. Its a defensive rights counsel for all. And right now proposition f is for people facing evictions. But when youre discriminated and you are being oppressed or some sort of offensive action and legal action is taken upon you, you get a free attorney to help you get the housing that you need. Moderator thank you very much. Ms. Omeara. I think everyone here on this panel has touched on the issues and concerns of the lgbt community. Lgbtq community. I share their sentiments. And i think that there has to be perhaps even a special counsel created specifically for lgbtq communities, who experience discrimination when it comes to housing, whether its seniors or youth. And its its something that must be addressed. Its also our moral imperative to be sensitive to those that are different than us. Were going to talk about identity politics. Moderator okay. Thank you very much. In San Francisco, one of the driving forces for our economy are the Small Businesses we have here. So starting with ms. Brown, how do you think we can speed up the permitting processes for Small Businesses . Well, i actually legislated to do just that. It was about a year, year and a half for a lot of businesses to even open. So i just did pretty much a big major streamlining business streamlining for all businesses throughout the city, not only district 5, to help them get open faster. To help give them more choices if they wanted to have two businesses in one space they can. I cleaned up a lot of codes to make it easier for businesses. I mean, you know, we have to look at all kinds of ways to help Small Businesses. Because the corridors are our corridors are really the vital heartbeat of our neighborhoods. And if we dont have a corridor of a coffee shop or somewhere we can go to meet friends, its going to really change our neighborhood. And so we really have to look at ways to support business. We have the legacy business that we support businesses that are over 20 years old. If youre nominated, we help them the city helps them in all kinds of ways. We also have to stop buying from amazon all of us. You know, brick and mortar. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Lam. So i was a businessman. I started my business in affiliate marketing here in San Francisco. But im doing this now. And i continue to work with small and local businesses. In fact, i work with over 50 plus to help find solutions to their issues that theyre facing here in district 5. One thing that was really hard that i have to say is the increase in minimum wage is very, very, very tough for Small Businesses. If it increases to 20 or Something Like that, a small coffee shop cant sell that many coffees to pay two coffee workers. And taxes. So taxes inadvertently harm Small Businesses. One time i bought a water bottles, i was taxed three different times for that lunch. You know, c. P. V. , San Francisco health initiative. I could just go on and on with the taxes. But those are the two issues that small and local businesses are really struggling with today. And i hope so solve them. Moderator ms. Omeara. Could you just reiterate the question again. Moderator sure. How can we speed up the permitting process for Small Businesses . The permitting. Moderator the permitting. Oh. Well okay. Acceleration. Okay. By that mean i mean first of all, when we talk about Small Business, we need to be sensitive. Its very easy to look at the status quo and think its normal for things to be as they are. But as we know, as a woman, as a black woman, as a heres the thing, we dont have equitable representation of a diverse Business Ownership in this city. That needs to be addressed. I think when i was going around district 5 in the western aand district and parts of the fillmore, one of the things that my constituents said to me, do you know what, i feel i would like to have a business, as a black man, and i feel like there isnt an opportunity or it isnt coming fast enough. Theres also a dearth of businesses owned by women. They certainly arent as plentiful there arent enough women that own businesses. I would like to see a change in that. Moderator thank you. Mr. Preston. [applause] thanks. So, you know, i am a former Small Business owner myself. I was coowner of the historic music venue on market street, cafe deny. Im familiar with permitting, zoning and other issues. But i do need to observe both the question and some of the responses from the supervisor. If theres a tendency to focus on the thing, in a way thats often the easiest to deal with. You know, the commercial landlords love the streamlining and rezoning proposals. What they dont love is a vacancy tax, a storefront vacancy tax. If you keep your storefront vacant for nine months or more, the city will tax you. Thats what the merchants i hear are talking about. The vacancies on their block. Thats what communities are hearing, are demanding. But youve got to stand up to the Real Estate Industry to get that. Other things we can do a public bank, where theres momentum for public bank, which could do loans to Small Businesses, which would be very meaningful. And also we should do a mentorship and training program, similar to what the Small Business administration does with the score program. That pairs up experienced entrepreneurs and Small Business owners. Moderator thank you. With focuses struggling for training and technical assistance. Moderator thank you very much. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, this will be our last question. Excuse me, maam. One last thing i wanted to add to Small Business. Moderator thank you. But weve got a timing issue. All right. Moderator but i appreciate it. Thats okay. Moderator our last question. And im going to combine two. How do you and mr. Lam is going to start. Sure. Moderator no. You get one minute. They pretty much go together. Okay. How will you be held accountable to what standard do you want to be held accountable as a candidate about your Campaign Promises . And how do you plan to ensure that the residents and fox of district 5 have as much say as powerful donors and corporations on what goes on in district 5 and in the city. And were going to start with mr. Lam. Okay. So first question. I take responsibility and integrity very seriously. In my term, i do promise a decrease in homelessness and make sure that happens. But i always the part in responsibility is you have to know your policies and know the effects it has on the economy and take responsibility for that. You can promise free everything and people will vote for you. And then the economy collapses and somebody you could just be gone to another city in minutes. So for me i have Research Team who does very, very hard work. And they make sure that my policies are reliable, theyre reachable. And theyre attainable. So thats how im going to make sure my promises will be kept. Moderator thank you very much. And if you wish, because i believe you have about ten seconds, do you want to speak to how youll ensure that the folks in district 5 have as much sway with you as any donor you may have . Oh, sure. Yeah. One of my things is i really want a completely resident campaign. On my website, i have all of the Contact Information that you need. You can reach me directly and to my team. You can come and speak with me right after this, if youre willing to. Thank you, mr. Lam. Ms. Omeara. Well, firstly, i think on the question of integrity that ryan just raised, is crucial to having i dont necessarily believe the process is as fair or as resident as its led to be, at least in my experience and my disenchantment with the department of elections or the ethics commission. That being said, i i have concerns about its not up to me how somebody gets their money. But gordon mar wrote an interesting article, one of the supervisors. Sunlight and dark money. To me there seems to be a correspondence between the people you get money from and what contracts they get and what you will vote for. Okay. So anything ill give you one example. Our mayor did not vote for prop c. Well, thats a bit of a problem. Its questionable is what im saying. Moderator okay. Thank you very much. Mr. Preston. Well, i think it starts with what kind of money youre taking in the campaign. So we made a pledge early on in our campaign to run a clean money campaign. Were not taking money from big real estate. Were not taking money from Law Enforcement interests, fossil fuel industry, Charter School movement thats trying to divert money from Public Schools to Charter Schools, increasingly. So were not taking any of that money in the campaign. Its a real problem how much money the dark money that nomvula refers to pours into the race. An independent expenditure pact that was set up to go after me and our campaign. And its no mystery that thats going to be real estate interests. And thats going to be mr. Ron conway and others. And what happens is they put all of that money in and under current law, nobody knows about it until months after the election. Thats what happened in district 4 so gordon mar, district 6 to matt haney. The good news just like our campaign, those folks ran a doortodoor campaign and all of the money against them did not win the day. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] ms. Brown. Yes. Well, i have to say 80 of my donations are from San Francisco, unlike dean preston. And the majority of them are from district 5. So i am running and i have a Community Campaign and donors. So im not going to people that live in district 5, im not going to pit one person against another because of what you do. I feel like i need to bring people together. I dont divide people. And so thats my floss by. I philosophy. I came as a neighborhood activist, i worked with the community as a neighborhood activist. And i will do so always. I will never mislead you, like some people saying, when i get into office, ill do this. Im not going to do that. Because you hold me accountable. Im the supervisor now. And i am going to say what im going to do, im going to do. If i cant do it, i will tell you why and we will look for a way around it to make it work. But this is always been my policy, because i come from the community. Moderator thank you. [applause] thank you very much. Okay. Now we come to the candidates closing statements. But let me first remind you that if you arent registered to vote, please do so right away. And urge others you know to register. If youve changed your name or you changed your address, be sure to reregister to vote. Okay. We will do the closing statements in reversal if betcal alphabetical order. Remember, candidates, you have one minute for closing statements and starting with mr. Preston. Thanks. I wish i had time to rebutt all of the false statements made about our campaign donations. But i wont. So thank you for being here this evening. And lets remember what this is all about. Its about real people and their struggles that folks face today in San Francisco. Seniors who are facing evictions, students burdened by massive educational debt, transit riders that cant even get on their bus because its too crowded. And families unable to afford Affordable Housing to stay in San Francisco. So im running for supervisor so that city hall starts working for the people who are struggling, not just the big corporations and corporate landlords. And thats the real difference in this race. And its whats earned me the sole endorsement from so many trusted grassroots organizations, like the sierra club, the united educators of San Francisco, the Affordable Housing alliance, San Francisco young democrats, latino democratic club, San Francisco tenants union, a majority of the current board of supervisors and former elected officials like mark leno, jane kim, tom and art. I look forward to working with you all to take the big steps we need to take here in San Francisco. Moderator thank you. Thank you. Moderator thank you very much. [applause] moderator ms. Omeara. [cheers and applause] moderator could you hold your applause. Youll get an opportunity. [laughter] ms. Omeara. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for initiating this whole meeting today. Its an honor to stand here amongst you and to hear what a lot of us had to say. I think a lot of us have more in common than what divides us. And ill say ill tell you why. I got a very interesting quote from former president barack obama. He said the greatest sum of us unites us far better than the lesser of us thats polarized. Something to that effect. You think you understand what im saying. When we polarize and divisive, theres fewer of that. When were bigger and united, we have the ability to make a lot of amends and changes. So my priority, if and when i get the job, is i really think the housing issue is critical, not just because i have children. I can actually identify with millennials and what theyre going through. As well as the Lgbtq Community. Moderator thank you. Because there is discrimination. Moderator thank you. In terms of housing. I think its critical in our city and the represent situation. Moderator thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] mr. Lam. So again ryan lam. I hope my points resonated with you. I want to bring back responsibility and integrity to city hall, with reliable and actually attainable policies. If youre not satisfied with your life and city hall right now, im the only candidate thats significantly different from the candidates up here, in terms of policy and physically. So i hope you [laughter] thank you. [applause] moderator thank you very much. Ms. Brown. Yes. You know, as supervisor, i bring a perspective and Life Experience thats really unique. I became an orphan at 14. Ive been without health care. Ive been evicted. And ive had to live in a van as a child, because my mother could not put money together for the next apartment. So when i work on homelessness and housing, its personal to me. Ive achieved real results on the issues on the issues that matter. Im not just talking about the Green New Deal, i worked to create our Clean Energy Provider and one of the First Nations plastic bag ban. Im not just talking about housesing. No one else on the panel has done that. And as an activist, you learn not to take no for an answer. But you also learn to work with everyone to get the job done. And im fighting for what i believe in by listening and bringing people together, rather than dividing. I truly appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. [cheers and applause] moderator thank you. On behalf of [applause] moderator on behalf of myself, the league of women voters of San Francisco, and our partner organization, our thanks to the candidates for participating. And if all have been to the forums before, this is not a hard job. Were not easy here in San Francisco. And thanks to each of you for taking the time to inform yourself about your choices on november 5th. Vote like your life depended on it. And good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Lets give them a big round of applause. [applause] mayor breed thank you all so much for joining us at ward 86 at San Francisco general. Sorry to keep you all waiting, but there are always so many exciting things happening in San Francisco. Today we are really here for an important milestone, the release of our annual numbers of new hiv h. I. V. Infections. While it is still challenging in terms of talking about some of the issues that so many people in our community face, we know that the work thats being done by so many amazing people right here in ward 86 in San Francisco general and other incredible organizations which ill mention shortly will truly help us to reach what we know is a goal that we all have, and that is getting to zero h. I. V. Infections in San Francisco. I am just really delighted that we in San Francisco, since the 1980s, have been at the forefront of pushing for innovative ways to change policies, new sciences and technologies to help us get to this milestone that we are so excited about today. We are showing progress, real progress, in fact. In 2018 for the first time ever, not only have we dropped diagnosis by 13 , but we have finally seen this number go below 200 for the first time ever. That is significant. [ applause ]. Mayor breed its progress that we should all be so proud of. This shows that when we Work Together with the community, with our policy makers, with our Public Health experts, our nonprofits, we can truly make a difference and save peoples lives. Im particularly proud of the department of Public Health. They continue to show their commitment to innovative and groundbreaking health solutions. I also want to thank ucsf and getting the goal coalition and all of those with us who