Bren chair ronen good morning, everyone. I hope you all do your best to stay inside today and keep your loved ones safe inside, and our thoughts and solidarity and love are going out to the people of Northern California and Sonoma County who are suffering tremendously, and we will continue to fight to keep each other safe and very grateful to the mayor whos setting up a shelter as we speak to do our part in keeping our neighbors to the north safe. So our thoughts are with the people of our region. And the meeting will come tord on. Welcome to the october 28, 2019 meeting of the rules committee. Im chair hillary ronen. Seated to my right is rules Committee Supervisor shamann walton, and to my left is gordon mar. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Items acted upon today will appear on the november 5 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. Chair ronen thank you. Can you please read item number one. Clerk item number one is an ordinance dissolving the Workforce Advisory Committee and a statement on the workforce alignment. Good morning, supervisors. Im angela calvillo. Im simply before you because of the housekeeping language in the ordinance which actually sunsets these two bodies and sunsets these in july. I understand that there is a desire for the bodies to be reauthorized, and if that is the case, we are happy to work with the committee and the supervisors to reach that organization. This is just a housekeeping step to remove them from the administrative code. If there is to be reauthorizing legislation, it would just be put back into the code. Im available for any questions. Chair ronen okay. No questions . Okay. I also see joshua arce and lisa pagan from oewd, if you wanted to make any comments. Thank you, supervisors. Joshua arce, director of office of economic and Workforce Development. As clerk calvillo mentioned, the committee has sunseted, but we just wanted to answer any questions that you might have. Were here joined by if not now, then in moments, the cochair of the committee, the esteem esteemed chair, sheryl davis. Were also here joined by one of the members of the Workforce CommitteeAdvisory Committee and thats annie chung, the executive director of selfhelp for the elderly, as well. Just to give you some highlevel components its just this one, lisa . Thank you. Thank you, lisa. Weve also got members of our Workforce Team to make sure we can answer any questions that you have. The committees were going to talk about today were established in 2014 under an ordinance 842014 establishes what we called the workforce lines committee, and workforce c. A. C. , and those committees were scheduled to run through july 2017. In 2019, there was a second ordinance there which extended the sunset dates of those committees to june 30, 2019. Theres weve referred to this period as kind of the first period of extension. Throughout this entire time, weve continued to meet and continued to work to perform the duties of these bodies as weve discussed because the work is just too important not to continue as we seek direction here from the board. And in the current year, the plan is to convene, and weve convened these committees twice. Well convene them again in the next several weeks pending the direction of the board because our opinion, the work is too important not to. We report back to the mayor, the workforce, and city departments and as of last week, you should have the latest report out from the body. Through the ordinance, it is made up of agencies listed on the slide. Director davis and i chair these committees. Director Joaquin Torres joins us at the meetings, as well. Human services agency, department of public works, department of children, youth, and families, San FranciscoPublic Utilities commission, and the department of Human Resources participate in these committees. And in the next slide is the question that i think is appropriate. What do the committees do . Were charged under chapter 30, the admin code, to increase access to job seekers, to stable sufficient employment with sufficient wages and benefits to support families and advance the needs of vulnerable populations, improve Business Engagement strategies to engage those workers and also to have a better system across the different agencies about how we track and report out comes across the city and city. We talked about the members. Theres two additional agencies that have joined as of 2017. Thats when we sought director of Human Resources and Workforce Advisory Committee. I think in conversation, had a question from supervisor walton, had vacancies in the committees. We would wait for the direction from the board, and in the case of the c. A. C. Are board appointees or the mayor appointees on the community Advisory Committee. And if we can hold on just for one second, i want to make sure we identify our community developers. Selfhelp for the elderly, bayviewhunters point center for arts and technology, and Episcopal Community services, among others. Lastly is just a quick rundown of the policy recommendations that have been developed and reported out by the committee over the past several years. Weve talked about the need for the work to continue both at the Alignment Committee and the workforce c. A. C. Because its just now in the report that weve finalized to the board a set of recommendations and in some ways now is when the real work begins. And so the five areas that have been identified as weve seen here, breaking the cycle of poverty for San Francisco through better workforce delivery, support and services. A what is called in the report, a workforce map, how they engage different agencies, how they end up being served and coordinate through the different departments. A datasharing infrastructure so that were all looking and getting apples to apple comparisons about the number of clients served, placements, longterm retention, objectives. And then fourth is what the workforce policy called demand side, which is looking at the industries where theres growth and opportunity for goodpaying jobs and to help guide the programming. So these industries that can help the problems that we seek to breakdown. And streamlining the contacting process, which is making it easier for Service Providers and contractors, whatever we can do to make things easier and better is the goal in that regard. As i mentioned, weve med informally. Well continue to do again. At oewd, everyone seeks to contribute something individual thats maybe core to our agencies as we coordinate across the different departments. At oewd, one of the things that we always talk about especially when we look at these industries, that we partner with organized labor because i think for a lot of us that come into this work from a Community Labor perspective, Community Labor is one of the most effective means of advancing workforce objectives. Im happy to answer any questions and happy to explain any recommendations. We respectfully would love your support to continue this important work. Chair ronen thank you so much. Any questions or comments . No. Thank you so much for all your work. Appreciate it. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you. If theres no more speakers, then well open this up for Public Comment. Is there any member of the public who would like to speak on this item . Please come forward. Good morning, supervisors. Im an executive Committee Member of the San Francisco labor council. First, i want to start by thanking you, supervisor ronen, for all your work. Also, i did not have an opportunity to speak you with about this particular item, but i did speak with supervisor walton. Supervisor mar, thank you, also for all of your work to help us find a little bit more information about transparency and accountability mechanisms in this space which we highly value. I think director arce did mention that one of the most critical components of success in this space is that labor piece. Were all friends with labor, but it does jump out with me that labor is not a part of this committee and has not been. We are enthusiastic about the continuation of these efforts, but primarily for the following reasons. We believe that theres a lack of transparency in this space. While we want people to get paid and we want to expedite those processes, on the back end, we do believe there should be an enforcement mechanism in connection with transparency and accountability measures. Weve seen too much fragmented approaches to Workforce Development especially with the lowest paid workers. What happens as a result of lack of coordination is we undermine the minimum labor standards for people that have already been provided a real career opportunity, instead, cannibalizing these strong wage positions, we need to be thoughtful how we expand that through preapprenticeship and apprenticeship and a real pathway together. Thank you so much. Chair ronen thank you. Any other Public Comment . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair ronen supervisor walton . Supervisor walton thank you, chair ronen. Thank you to everyone for bringing this farther and making sure we do our Due Diligence and act in accordance with our duty with the city. I just want to start off and im not going to go deep into history, but these committees were started to make sure that opportuniti opportunities were provided for folks in community to be able to work here in San Francisco and also to make sure that our c. B. O. Community that was providing Workforce Services could Work Together with the cities to figure outweighs to stream line resources because we have so many different pots of workforce money from several different departments and we wanted to put together something that was going to provide a space, an opportunity, for all of our city departments that provide Workforce Services to figure outweighs to stream Line Services so that it makes it easier for the Workforce Community to provide services to our most vulnerable populations. I do want to say that even though unemployment is down here in San Francisco, we have a very low Unemployment Rate, certain subsections of folks here in the city are still unemployed at disproportionate rates. Lgbtq, folks of color, people that are living in lowincome housing, so we need to continue to work to stream line resources is very important. I want to definitely work very closely with the City Attorney and the Clerks Office to bring this body back as soon as possible, and we will make sure we look at the recommendations, what has been presented, and that these bodies are very active, and that they will continue to actually do the work that is necessary for us to keep folks employed here in San Francisco and address the wealth gap and disparities that are here in the city. So i will be working closely to make sure that does happen. I know we have to deal with the formalities with the city here today, but rest assured that were going to move forward. Thank you all for being here this earning month. I ju this morning. I just wanted to make sure i put that on record. Chair ronen any other comments . Supervisor mar yes. I have some questions, but im glad to hear that supervisor walton is intending to to to introduce legislation to continue these these important bodies, that both the Alignment Committee and community Advisory Committee, but i think were taking action today just to dissolve them. I do have some questions about the work of the committees and the outcomes, so mr. Arce, im wondering well, i was just curious i guess for the Alignment Committee and the community Advisory Committee, how functional have they been since theyve been created, how many meetings have been held, and what are the significant outcomes of the two bodies . Absolutely. Theres been 14 meetings of the workforce Alignment Committee, meaning therell be 15 here on november 13. Therell be our our sixth meeting of the workforce c. A. C. Will be on the 19, shortly thereafter. I have to apologize, one of the hardest working members, we lost because he was elected to district ten, but he was responsible for driving a lot of the work that came out of the workforce c. A. C. I think one of the big picture achievements of the Work Together was that there was a time i think when the city was prepared to otherwise look at a record low Unemployment Rate and take a step back and say the notion of full employment has been achieved. And i think the workforce c. A. C. Really weighed in to push our agencies and the city departments to really go deeper in some ways at 1. 8 unemployment which is what we saw as of september. The work really begins because black and brown communities, two to three times higher. The Public Housing community, those with housing challenges, its really to take the jobs that are on the table to address the racial, genders, socioeconomic and all the problems that we see. So in some way, having opportunities for all, which has been a topic of all the last couple of meetings ensuring that all 22,000 High School Students should have access to a paid internship last summer, it speaks to how all the departments Work Together to partner this that. A partnership between our offices and the Office Agency but Civil Service required that they have a College Degree to go make the next step up in city employment. So our office put resources in in collaboration with Human Services agency for those men and women to do their College Education in the evenings online when theyre not doing their work at the at their host agency. Another example is the city drive program, which is when city the Chariot Company went out of business and our office offered those men and women who are losing their jobs to come and drive for muni as muni drivers. So i think the Alignment Committee, which especially you have this report, kind of recommendations what were able to achieve, especially now that youre looking at the ordinance provides stability to look at some of these outcomes and im happy to go deeper on some of the examples that you might have, supervisor, but to take on certain initiatives and projects. The last meeting we had, we said we all want to express to the idea to continue the work, and one of the ideas was to look at Public Sector workers, particularly where they need to do better and have a strategy with our office to engage private sector and have a coordinated strategy to do that. But i want to introduce the cochair of our strategic Alignment Committee, sheryl davis. Number one, with the workforce alignment, we got to a place where we to be honest, not a lot of alignment. I think Building Trust was the most important piece, and i think we got to a place with the departments around the table to say we know we can do a better job specifically with the groups that have already been mentioned, People Living in Public Housing, understanding the reality of racism and the way that it impacts your ability to move through society. I so i think being able to have those honest conversations and getting to a place where were saying, not to talk in the he greggahe in the agreggate and thats where we are, and to be real and to start measuring impact. Supervisor mar thank you so much director davis, carr ardi arce, sharing some of the results of this amazing work. I had another question. Could you point to the points of organized labors not being represented in this committee actually, i guess there are some seats on the workforce investment board. Yes. And supervisor, your question, i dont see anything in the ordinance that would preclude participation and partnership with organized labor in those conversations, the meetings, and maybe in a certain sense. So i think were open to that that kind of conversation because whether its a part of this committee or whether its part of the workforce c. A. C. Or otherwise, from our perspective, you heard from Building Trades that apprenticeship and preapprenticeship is something in the industry. You all unanimously approved for the cannabis industry. Were all in conversation, city drive utilizing a apprenticeship. Were in discussion with other labor unions, other industries, because the idea pay training and the ability to partner with our office, city college, Educational Partners and the Service Providers to be able to earn while you learn is critical to the men or women not included in the 1. 8 . There are tens of thousands who have been shut out, who might have a barrier, past justice involvement, might have other reasons that theyre not looking for work. So the idea of labor, apprenticeship work, is a real key to the puzzle. Not just with respect to those men and women who are at risk of being left behind, but certainly, the economy is not always going to be like this. But to be able to address the inequities that we see, are key. But to the composition, i know that were open to whatever structure we have going forward, i think from our perspective is we want to make sure the work continues. Supervisor mar thank you so much. And i just want to thank everybody here today thats been a part of all this work. Yeah, it is so critically important to ensure that we maximize Job Opportunities for San Francisco residents, particularly disadvantaged residents as our economy continues to grow. So look forward to supporting the the the the continued work of these bodies, and thank you so much. Chair ronen is there a motion to move this item forward with positive recommendation . And without objection, that motion passes. [gavel]. Chair ronen thank you, everyone for coming. Clerk would you like me to read two and three together . Chair ronen please. [agenda item read] [agenda item read]. Chair ronen thank you so much. Is aimee brown here . Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Im aimee brown, and im pleased to have already served one term on the treasurers Oversight Committee, so im here today as a candidate for reappointment. In reviewing the ordinance when i was reapplying, it set forth a number of the duties or skills that you need to have in order to be on this committee and to review it for you, its expertise in public finance, experiences with audits, investments, and Regulatory Oversight and understanding the duties of boards and Oversight Committees. And in fact my background matches all three of these areas. First, my career was in financing state and local governments for almost 30 years, and im proud to say i served as Financial Advisor on many San Francisco projects and with some of your departments. I worked for a major Investment Banking firm for 15 years, but im most proud of the time that i was owner of a nationally recognized s. F. Owned and women employees. My firm caused me to have experience in the second area because my firm was subject to regular and quarterly audit from oversight bodies, and i served on a number of their boards for a couple of years. And also as part of my career, i also helped many of my clients invest their bond proceeds, which is one of the roles that the Treasurers Office takes on in this committee or oversees. Ive also had experience in my retirement serving on and advising some small corporations and nonprofit boards, and, you know, in this role, i can effectively communicate and collaborate with other board members. So as i said, ive served on these boards actually throughout my career, not only on some of those regulatory boards but sort of wide ranging public financetype nonprofits and securities city related boards. In San Francisco, before my term on the treasury Oversight Committee, i was a member of the revenue bond Oversight Committee, and i was chair for five years of my term. Currently, im chair of core of Northern California, and ive served on the bay ecotarium, and the angel island conservancy, and been involved with them in a lot of financial oversight and governance issues. Im interested in continuing my membership on the Oversight Committee because i can use my skills to contribute to my committee and im happy to answer any questions you might have. Chair ronen thank you so much for your willingness to serve. Okay. Thank you. Chair ronen and next, we have Brenda Kwee Mcnulty. Good morning. Good morning, supervisors. My name is Brenda Kwee Mcnulty and thank you for considering my application to sit on the treasury Oversight Committee. First, let me share with you my professional experience. Ive been retired for a while, but i have over 40 Years Experience in the Financial Services industry. I have experience in the fixed interest instruments, which is basically what the treasury Oversight Committee invests in. I have past experience in Product Development and fixed interest instruments, in sales of fixed interest instruments and in the actual Portfolio Management of fixed interest instruments. So i feel very qualified and attracted to be part of this Oversight Committee. In addition, i want to share with you that i have some experience in serving as a commissioner. I served in the cgoboc, the citizens general Obligation BondsOversight Committee for four years, and in the last two years, as co in the last two years, as cochair and chair. And in that opportunity, it gave me the opportunity to learn to work with staff, with Committee Members, and also with Running Committee meeting with the public. So i feel very public that i can take up this next commission with that service behind my belt. In this particular committee, a lot of discussion is over interest rates. Because im a former banker, i also serve as the director of the association of Asian American bankers, so thats one of the various areas that i keep myself updated to Market Trends and and continually supplement what im reading following the markets with a with an association. As i have pledged when i served on goboc, is i am selected to serve on this committee, i pledge to you and the taxpayers of the city and county of San Francisco that i will do my utmost ability to live up to all my obligations, and without further adieu, im happy to answer any questions. Chair ronen thank you so much for your willingness to serve. Any questions from my colleagues . Thank you so much. Thank you so much, supervisors. Chair ronen now open this item up for any comment. If any member of the public wishes to speak, please come forward. Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Supervisor walton were taking two and three together, right . I move that we amend items two and three to say the treasurers nomination of aimee brown, and number three, the treasurers nomination of Brenda Kwee Mcnulty. Chair ronen and which will take those nominations without objection. Thank you. [gavel]. Chair ronen mr. Clerk, can you please read item number four. Clerk item number four is a Charter Amendment to amend the charter of the city and county of San Francisco to provide Retiree Health care benefits to the employees of the Housing Authority of the city and county of San Francisco who started working for the city and county of attorney on march 7, 2019 and before march 1, 2021 without a break in service with the Housing Authority of the city and county of San Francisco. Chair ronen thank you. And andrea bruce is here. Hello, supervisors. Andrea bruce with the Mayors Office. This would allow the city to recognize the years of service worked by certain Housing Authority employees for purposes of determining their eligibility for city Retiree Medical benefits. So i know as you are aware, the city is currently working with the Housing Authority on an overall restructuring in order to come into compliance with various requests from the federal department of housing and urban development . As part of this restructuring, we do anticipate there will be Housing Authority who transition to city employment . And actually as of october this year, weve had 25 Housing Authority employees that have transitioned to city employment. And this Charter Amendment we expect will be a direct impact on them. Unlike the citys retirement system which has reciprocity with calpers, without a change to the city charter, the city has no ability to provide that sort of comparable reciprocity for determining medical benefits. As part of this reenvisioning of the Housing Authority the mayor has made it a priority to the extent we can the personal impacts on Housing Authority employees, so by allowing their years at the Housing Authority to count towards what they would be eligible for city Retiree Medical benefits, this charter is an important component of that benefit. This was developed in consultation with the employees of the Housing Authority and the respective unions that represent them. We have had the required meet and confer sessions with them. We have carol eisen, myself, and Eric Rappaport from the City Attorneys office here. Thank you, supervisors, for your support, and we respectfully ask to move this forward to the full board with a positive recommendation. Chair ronen thank you. Supervisor walton . Supervisor walton thank you. This is one of the things that we have to do to ensure that employees receive the benefits they are entitled to through your previous service. Its important that we make sure that they have the appropriate health care and benefits as they move forward. So im 100 in support of this, and just wanted to make sure that that was noted and thank the mayor and all of my colleagues for bringing this forward. Chair ronen thank you supervisor mar . Supervisor mar yeah. I just wanted to thank the Mayors Office and d. H. R. For all your work on this ordinance, and the overall work in supporting the Housing Authority employees to to be able to transition and hopefully to to mostly to city jobs. So and i would like to be added as a cosponsor on this. Thank you. Chair ronen and miss bruce, i just had one question. You said 25 of how many employees are currently City Employees . Sure. So we anticipate the restructuring to take place over multiple phases, so the first phase that were impacted, there were 90 employees that were impacted in the first round of restructuring, those primarily working in the hud house program. And the Housing Authority provided a pretty throughout a number of months, skills assessments, job fairs, job matches. We made over 60 city positions available to those 90 impacted Housing Authority employees, as well as the Housing Authority completed their negotiations with their labor entities which also provided a pretty robust severance package. So what we saw in that first group of 90 employees, we had a number of retirees, we had a number of employees that chose to take severance, and we had 25 employees that opted to take city positions. Every housing employee who expressed interest in receiving one of those designated positions had the opportunity to get them. So we saw as of october 1, 25 people who are now working in various city departments and city agencies. So one of the reasons why the outside date of this Charter Amendment is several years from now is we expect there will be another phased restructuring when we get to the Public Housing piece. So we dont know the number of employees that will opt to transition to the city, which is why we kept it broad in that respect. Chair ronen the number of transition employees is so low. I dont know why that is . You know, i dont know why they made that decision. We made every option available to them, and it was a very personal decision for each and every one of them, but we remain committed to helping the next round of employees to transition. And we will continue to make city employment and benefits available to them. Chair ronen thank you so much. Well now open this up for Public Comment. Good morning. Good morning, supervisors. My name is kristina fong, and im the Deputy Director of the municipal executives association. Today, were here i just wanted to say and express our appreciation of your support for the amendment of the charter as well as to thank the mayor for all the work that theyve done to move this forward so all those employees who transition into city employment to not to be able to continue to have Retiree Health benefits. We have had many longterm employees at the Housing Authority and theyre there for 20 to 30 years. Unfortunately, many of them may not have the at their they dont have the age to retire, so they would not be able to take advantage of the calpers Retiree Health that would be coming to them if they were able to continue employment. So we do want to express our appreciation and thank you so much for everything people have done to help support the Housing Authority people and the employees that transitioned to the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you. Chair ronen thank you so much. Any other member of the public wish to speak . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair ronen anyone like to make a motion . Supervisor mar sure. Yeah, i would move we move this forward to the full board with a positive recommendation. Chair ronen great. Without objection, that motion passes. [gavel]. Chair ronen thank you so much. Mr. Clerk, can you please read item number five. Clerk my apologies. Just the motion was to recommend . Chair ronen yes. Clerk thank you. Item number five is an ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the sunset date for the Pedestrian SafetyAdvisory Committee and requiring the committee to recommend changes to its structure and duties. Chair ronen hi. We have a representative from president yees office here to speak on this item. Good morning. Good morning, chair ronen, and supervisors mar and walton. The legislation before you today would extend the Pedestrian SafetyAdvisory Committee for a year, and by may of 2020, the committee would have the opportunity to make recommendations for any changes theyd like to see in terms of structure, duty, members, etc. Im happy to give more background or answer any questions you may have. Representatives from sfmta Janet Martinson and Michael Jacobs are here to answer any questions. Chair ronen thank you. Any questions . Seeing none, thank you for being here and thank you for this work. Any member of the public wish to speak . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair ronen anyone make a motion . [inaudible] chair rone chair ronen and that motion passes. [gavel]. Chair ronen mr. Clerk, is there any other items on the agenda today . Clerk that completes the agenda. Chair ronen thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned. I didnt o sound familiar do you keep on getting up theres an easier way. Of course theres easier way get rid of of mosquito they breed whatever this is water no water no mosquito mosquito feed on good blood the eggs hatch and stay near the waters San Francisco to breathe and the adult underlying mosquito waits on the as many until its sexuality hardens water pools in any areas and creates places youll not normally think of budget and any container that holds water and hidden in bushes or else were dump the water and do it over soil not into a drain the larva can continue growing in the pooled water is sewage disthe first of its kind the area if the sewage is two extreme have a licensed plumber assist water pools in rain gutters and snaking and cleaning out the water when keep the water from pooling and keep in mind that mosquito breed in other waters like catch balgsz and construction barriers interest crawl spaces with clmg is an issue you may have is week to cause the water to collect this is an sour of mosquito so for buildings just fix the Clean Air Act drains and catch basins can be mosquito ground it will eliminate it as a possible location keep shrubbery and growths estimated any water to can be seen and eliminated birdbath and fountains and uncovered hot tubs mosquito breed but it is difficult to dump the water out of a hot top cant dump the water adding mosquito finish rids the source of mosquito there are also traditionally methods to protect you installing screens on windows and doors and using a mosquito net and politically aau planet take the time to do the things weve mentioned to eliminate standing water and make sure that mosquito are not a problem on your property remember no water no mosquito [ ] i really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world, you shouldnt just be something in museums, and i love that the people can just go there and it is there for everyone. [ ] i would say i am a multidimensional artist. I came out of painting, but have also really enjoyed tactile properties of artwork and tile work. I always have an interest in public art. I really believe that art should be available to people for free, and it should be part of our world. You shouldnt just be something in museums. I love that people can just go there, and it is there for everyone. Public art is art with a job to do. It is a place where the architecture meets the public. Where the artist takes the meaning of the site, and gives a voice to its. We commission culture, murals, mosaics, black pieces, cut to mental, different types of material. It is not just downtown, or the big sculptures you see, we are in the neighborhood. Those are some of the most beloved kinds of projects that really give our libraries and Recreation Centers a sense of uniqueness, and being specific to that neighborhood. Colette test on a number of those projects for its. One of my favorites is the oceanview library, as well as several parks, and the steps. Mosaics are created with tile that is either broken or cut in some way, and rearranged to make a pattern. You need to use a tool, nippers, as they are called, to actually shape the tiles of it so you can get them to fit incorrectly. I glued them to mash, and then they are taken, now usually installed by someone who is not to me, and they put cement on the wall, and they pick up the mash with the tiles attached to it, and they stick it to the wall, and then they groped it afterwards. [ ] we had never really seen artwork done on a stairway of the kinds that we were thinking of because our idea was very just barely pictorial, and to have a picture broken up like that, we were not sure if it would visually work. So we just took paper that size and drew what our idea was, and cut it into strips, and took it down there and taped it to the steps, and stepped back and looked around, and walked up and down and figured out how it would really work visually. [ ] my theme was chinese heights because i find them very beautiful. And also because mosaic is such a heavy, dens, static medium, and i always like to try and incorporate movement into its, and i work with the theme of water a lot, with wind, with clouds, just because i like movements and lightness, so i liked the contrast of making kites out of very heavy, hard material. So one side is a dragon kite, and then there are several different kites in the sky with the clouds, and a little girl below flying it. [ ] there are pieces that are particularly meaningful to me. During the time that we were working on it, my son was a disaffected, unhappy high school student. There was a day where i was on the way to take them to school, and he was looking glum, as usual, and so halfway to school, i turned around and said, how about if i tell the school you are sick and you come make tiles with us, so there is a tile that he made to. It is a little bird. The relationship with a work of art is something that develops over time, and if you have memories connected with a place from when you are a child, and you come back and you see it again with the eyes of an adult, it is a different thing, and is just part of what makes the city an exciting place. [ ]. Shop and dine the 49 promotes loophole businesses and changes residents to do thirds shopping and diane within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local services we help San Francisco remain unique and successful where will you shop and dine shop and dine the 49. My name is neil the general manager for the book shop here on west portal avenue if San Francisco this is a neighborhood bookstore and it is a wonderful neighborhood but it is an interesting community because the residents the neighborhood muni loves the neighborhood it is community and we as a book sincerely we see the same people here the shop all the time and you know to a certain degree this is part of their this is created the neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both National Chains and neighborhoods by the Neighborhood Stores where coming you dont want to one of the great things of San Francisco it is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their own thats