Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget FinanceBudget Appropriations Committee 20240713

Revised for 18 months, the airport finance staff does indeed have a threeyear economic Recovery Plan that will be part of our budget process, the revised process that will go through our Airport Commission and the board of supervisors in a couple of months. So i just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. President fewer thank you very much. Colleague, any comments or questions . We heard the report last week so lets open this up for Public Comment. Any members of the public to comment on item number 1 . Clerk operation is checking to see if theres any callers in the queue. And please let us know if there are callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, press 1, and then 0, to be added to the queue. For those already on hold, wait until you are prompted to begin to speak. Madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. President fewer thank you very much. And id like to make a motion to move this to the board with a positive recommendation, can i have a roll call vote. Clerk on that motion, supervisor walton . Aye. Walton, aye. And supervisor mandelman . Aye. Mandelman aye. Chair fewer . Aye. Three ayes. President fewer can you call item 2,. Resolution authorizing the San Francisco Airport Commission to accept and expend a grant in the amount of 2. 9 million and any additional amounts up to 15 of the original grant that may be offered from the California Air Resources Board for the carl moyer memorial air quality standards Attainment Program grant, to purchase and install Electrical Ground Service Equipment charging stations and supporting infrastructure for the proposed project period of june 2020 through june 2021. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 8882045984 and access code 3503501008 and then press 1 and then 0 to line up to speak. President fewer miss widener, youre on again. Thank you, chair fewer and members of the committee. The airport are seeking approval to accept and expend a California Air Resources Board grant to purchase and install Electrical Ground Service Equipment, charging stations, from june 2020, through june 2021. And the airport submitted this package to the board of supervisors early in the process to prevent the need for retroactivity. At the time of the agreed grant amount up to a possible 2. 9 million. And at its meeting last week, the bay air quality awarded the grant in the amount of 2,345,297. However, the airport staff continues to be in discussions with the district on this specific line item. This amount may go up, which is why we are requesting to amend the resolution to include the up to 2,746,298 amount. And this is recommended also as part of the budget analyst report. This Grant Program is implemented as a partnership between the air district and california 35 local air districts, including the bay air quality air management district. The airports proposed project is the first phase of an airportwide ground equipment and electrification strategy to equip all gates with electrical infrastructure necessary to operate the Service Equipment to reduce the fuel use and diesel emissions. Again, the airport agrees with the budget analyst recommendation to amend the proposed resolution to collectly state that the grant amount is up to 2,746,298. A revised resolution has been provided to the Clerks Office for the file. And i would be happy to answer any questions that you might have. President fewer thank you very much. Colleagues, any comments or questions. Seeing none, can we have a daily report. Good morning, chair fewer, dan gontra. Item 2 is a proposed resolution to authorize the San Francisco Airport Commission to, one, to accept and expend a grant in the amount of 2,746,298. And any additional amounts up to 15 of the original grant that may be offered from the California Air Resources Board for the carl moyer memorial air quality standards Attainment Program grant. To purchase and to install Electrical Ground Service Equipment, charging stations and supporting infrastructure for proposed project period of june 2020, through june 2021. To commit to providing an estimated 3,650,397 in matching funds and affirm the planning departments determination under the California Environmental quality act. The airports proposed project is the first phase of an airportwide Ground Service equipment, electrification strategy to have the infrastructure necessary to operate reduce the fuel and diesel emissions. Total budget is approximately 6,396,695. And the Carl Moyer Program grant will fund up to 2,746, 298 and the airport will fund 3,650,397 of the total project cost. Per the Carl Moyer Program. , the grant share is up to the total cost, and the total cost, which is is shown in table one on page 11 of our report includes items that are needed to complete the project but are considered ineligible for grant participation, including software and Police Staffing and construction contingencies. They are fully funded by the airport which is matching funds equaling more than 50 of the total project cost. According to the airport staff, the California Air Resources Board and the bay area air Quality Management district have indicated that the covid19 Health Crisis has not impacted their Carl Moyer Program grant funding. Grant timelines or the milestones. The airport does not anticipate covid19 to have an impact on the scope of work, however, a significant delay in when contractors can return to work due to the current covid19 shelterinplace order may impact the completion timeline under the Carl Moyer Program grant guidelines. All recommendations are to amend the proposed resolution to the amount of 2,746,298, and to approve the proposed resolution as amended. I can answer any questions that the committee may have. President fewer any comments or comments . Seeing none, lets open this up for Public Comment. Any members of the public that would like to comment on item number 2 . Clerk madam chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Let us know if the callers are ready. If you have not done so, press 1, and then 0 to be added to the queue. For those already on the line please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. Madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. President fewer thank you. The Public Comment on item number 2 is closed and id like to make a motion to accept the amendment that is presented. Clerk on that motion, supervisor walton . Supervisor walton aye. Clerk walton, aye. Supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman aye. Clerk mandelman aye. Chair fewer . President fewer aye. I would like to move this to the full board with a positive recommendation as amended. The roll call vote, please. Clerk on the motion, supervisor walton. Supervisor walton aye. Clerk walton, aye. And supervisor mandelman. Supervisor mandelman aye. Clerk and chair fewer . Three ayes. President fewer thank you very much. Call item 3. Clerk to approve modification number 6 to airport contract number 9254, Airport Shuttle bus services with s. F. O. Hotel shuttle inc, to increase the contract amount by 27. 9 million for a new not to exceed the amount of 123 million and to exercise the final twoyear option to extend the term from july 1, 2020, for a total term of december 1, 2012, through june 30, 202 it. And the members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call 8882045984, and access code 3501008 and press 1, and then 0 to line up to speak. President fewer thank you very much. Miss widener, this is Kathy Widener again from the San Francisco International Airport. Thank you, chair fewer, Kathy Widener with the airport. The item before you seeking your approval to modify an existing contract with s. F. O. Hotel shuttle to exercise the final twoyear option to extend the contract through june of 2022. And increase the amount to 27,900,000 and the contract is the result of the 2012 competitive request for proposals process which was approved by the board of supervisors with the initial term of three years and seven months. From december 2012, through june 2016, with three twoyear options to extend. The first two options have been exercised and this proposed modification will be the last extension of the contract. The airport contracts with s. F. O. Hotel shuttles to maintain the airport and to provide the drivers needed to support various busing operations for passengers and employees around the airport. And this includes all bus services to the longterm parking garage and various employee garages and lots. And aircraft parked remotely on the airfield and all services that are needed during an air train outage. This modification accounts for increases to driver salaries as permitted in the contract terms and the Additional Service to the oyster point Ferry Terminal which was added last year. This also includes the busing related to Construction Projects such as the airfield busing to remote aircraft parking terminals and the construction related to closures and the continued busing to the longterm parking garage until the air train station can be fully activated. This is one of the contracts that has been scaled back due to the significant decrease in passengers at the airport and the need for shuttles. Although it remains an Important Service for the employees who go to work every day and the passengers who are traveling through the airport, during normal operations s. F. O. Is a parking constrained airport, making the shuttles a critical way to access our airport terminals. Once the air train extension to the longterming parkinterm pas completed, costs can be reduced by 500,000 per month and there may be other opportunities for reducing costs. Because of these potential contract savings in the current decline in the passenger traffic, the airport agrees with the budget and legislative analyst recommendation to amend the contract, not to exceed amount by 7 million. If the air train project is significantly delayed and or passenger traffic returns to normal levels faster than projected, we may return to the committee for additional funding through the end of the contract. A copy of the revised resolution has been provided to the Committee Clerk and i would would be happy to answer any questions that you may have. President fewer thank you very much. Any comments or questions from my colleagues . Seeing none, can we please have a report. Thank you, chair fewer. Item number 3 is a proposed resolution to approve the modification number 6 between the San Francisco International Airport and s. F. O. Hotel shuttle. The airport provides Free Shuttle Service to various locations including the longterm and employee parking garages and lots, remote airfield locations, and as needed emergency buses during air train outages and oyster point Ferry Terminal. In june 2012, the airport conducted a request for proposals to select a new provider. And the existing shuttle provider was deemed the highest scoring responsive and responsible proposer and was awarded a new contract. In november 2012, the board of supervisors approved a contract with s. F. O. Shuttle bus company, now known as s. F. O. Hotel shuttle, for a term of three years and seven months from december 2012, through june 2016 for an amount not to exceed 39 million. With three twoyear options to extend through june 2022 for a total not to exceed of 105 million. And the contract has since been modified five times as shown in table one on page 14 of our report. Changes in contract scope to accommodate the airport construction have resulted in cost acceleration beyond what was anticipated in the initial contract, including additional the addition of airfield buses service and the addition of air train Replacement Bus Service due to construction, and the discontinuation of the lot b shuttle service. In february 2020, they approved modification number 6 to the contract, the subject of the proposed resolution. Because the original 2012 resolution provided for the airport to exercise contract modifications up to 105 million, the prior five mod iskses were not subject to the board of supervisors approval. The proposed mod iks number 6 increases not to exceed amount of the contract by 27,900,000, over the twoyear extension period as shown in table 2 on page 16 of our report. And according to mr. Seth morgan, the Airport Service the airport Senior Transportation planner, sufficient funding is available in the airport proposed fiscal year 20202022, twoyear budget, pending the board of supervisor approval. And due to covid19, the expenditures on the contract are likely to be lower than the 27,900,000 over the twoyear extension term. According to airport expenditure data, expected expenditures are 88,270,614. And, therefore, the budget and legislative analyst recommends to amend the proposed resolution for a contract not to exceed 116,1 on 09,116, rather than the amount in the resolution 123,181,617. The controller has estimated revenue shortfalls in the fiscal year 201920, of 190 million to 220 million due to the reduced air travel. As a result of the covid19 crisis. As noted in prior and budget legislative reports, theres funds to offset the lost operating revenues due to reduced air travel with 530 million in Passenger Facility Fund balance, and 254. 8 million in the cares pact funds. Our recommendations are to amend the proposed resolution to provide for the nottoexceed amount of 111 million, and rather than the amount in the resolution, of 123,181,167 and we recommend to approve the resolution as amended. Im available for any questions. President fewer thank you very much. I see no colleagues on the queue. So lets open this up for Public Comment to any members of the public that would like to comment on item number 3, please join the queue. Clerk madam chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Mr. Coop, let us know if there are callers ready. If you have not already done so, please press 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin to speak. Madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. President fewer thank you. Colleagues, any comments or questions . Seeing none, id like to make a motion to approve amendments offered by the b. L. A. A roll call vote. Clerk supervisor walton. Walton, aye. And supervisor mandelman, mandelman, aye. Chair fewer . Your ayes are three ayes. President fewer thank you. And to move this to the board with a positive recommendation as amended. Roll call vote please. Clerk and on that motion, supervisor walton . Walton, aye. Supervisor mandelman. Mandelman, aye. And chair fewer. Fewer, aye. There are three ayes. President fewer thank you. Can you call item number 4. Clerk yes. Item number 4, resolution retroactively authorizing the department of elections to accept and expend funds allocated by the california secretary of state in an amount not to exceed 1. 9 million to fund Voting System and election Management System replacement, for the period of february 1, 2019, through june 30, 2022. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call 888204 8882045984 and the access code 35 on 01008, and then press 1 and 0 to line up to speak. President fewer we have the director of the department of elections with us. Good morning, supervisors. The purpose of this proposed resolution is to amend an existing agreement with the state to allow the city to use grant funds 1. 9 million total. 1. 5 million is allocated to replace the voting related equipment and approximately 400,000 to replace or upgrade the Management Systems. The agreement, which is administered by the secretary of the state office, provides a 75 reimbursement for purchases that the city makes through june 30, 2022. The city entered a contract last year with the state to use these grant funds totaling 3 million for similar purposes. They are to reimbur reimburse t. 4. 5 million of the total cost of 8. 5 million which is more than half of the cost from the lease. Potentially the funds could also be applied for purchases of ondemand systems, votebymail drop boxes and the telecommunication technologies such as Voter Registration and by mail sorting and processing equipment. Last year the board approved a similar resolution which allowed the department to execute an agreement with the secretary of States Office to utilize the initial grant fund of 3 million. Upon the boards approval the secretary of state will amend the agreement to include the additional 1. 9 million. The amended agreement will modify the reimbursement ratio to 3 1 or 75 that i referenced earlier. And now i can take any questions that the supervisors have. President fewer thank you. Any questions or comments from colleagues . Seeing none, can we have the report. Yes, thank you, chair fewer. The proposed resolutions with amend to the existing grant and to authorize the department of elections to accept and expend funds a allocated by the secretary of state to not exceed 1,949,85859. 50 to fund the votg system and election Management System replacement for the period of february 1, 2019, through june 30, 202. It allocates funding for the secretary of state to reimburse the counties for the cost of Voting System replacement activities. Counties are required to certify by resolution the approval of applications for funding before submission to the secretary of state. Under the terms of the grant, a county can only be reimbursed for the cost of developing a new system if the system is then certified by the california secretary of state by july 1, 2023. On march 12, 2019, the board of supervisors retroactively approved a Voting System contract between the department of elections and the dominion Voting Systems incorporated for a term of four years and three months from january 2019, through march 2023. And the amount not to exceed 8,460,000 with two oneyear options to extend through march 2025, for a total to not exceed 12,660,000. Under the contract, dominion provides the lease of a new Voting System, a license to use the Voting System software, maintenance and support services. Dominion is one of three firms that offer complete Voting Systems that meet the california secretary of states Voting System requirements. In april 2019, the board of supervisors approved a resolution to retroactively to authorize the department of elections to apply for, accept, and to expend grant fund allocated by the secretary of state in an amount not to exceed 3,110,50 for the period from july 20218 through june 2021. And the grant authorized by proposed resolution provides 1. 5 million for activities to partially fund the contract between the city and dominion to lease the Voting System through march 2023. And the grant requires a 3 1 or 75 to 25 match of funds by the city. Which the city meets through its allocation of general fund money of 3 million to fully fund the contract with dominion. And the grant would reimburse a total of 53. 4 , or 4,517,260 of the 8,460,000 cost of the initial fouryear and three month term of the dominion contract. The remaining cost of 3,949,2a 0 is funded by the fund on table 1 on page 12 of our report. Including to the department director, the grant fund can only be used for the purposes specified in the grant and cannot be used to extend the mailin ballots to all San Francisco voters as required by ordinance 200400. Pending before the board of supervisors. However, according to the department director, because the total grant funds of 4. 5 million offset the citys existing costs for the dominion Voting Systems, the general fund moneys can be made available for ordinance that requires that all San Francisco registered voters to be provided with a mailin ballot. We recommend to approve the resolution and im available for any questions. President fewer thank you very much. Colleagues, any comments or questions . And lets open this up for Public Comment. Any members of the public that would like to comment on item number 4 . Clerk madam chair, operation is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press 1, and then 0, to be added to the queue. For those already on hold, please continue to wait until youre prompted to speak at the beep. Madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. President fewer thank you very much. I have a question. Public comment is now closed on item number 4. I have a question about the mailin ballots. You mentioned the general funds could be used for this. And is there sufficient funds in your current budget to do the mailin ballots . Right now we still have to move forward for the next fiscal years budget so, no, right now we dont. But for the budget that we put forward to the Mayors Office in february, we did not contemplate sending everyone a ballot, so that number of ballots have to be included into our budget for the next fiscal year. President fewer okay. Okay. Any comments or questions from our colleagues . Seeing none, i would like to move this to the board with a positive recommendation. Could i please have a roll call vote, madam chair. Clerk yes on the motion, supervisor walton. Walton, aye. Supervisor mandelman. Mandelman, aye. And chair fewer . Fewer, aye. There are three ayes. President fewer thank you very much. Madam clerk, call item number 5. Clerk yes, item 5, resolution authorizing the city and county officials to execute and to file on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco any actions necessary for the purpose of obtaining state and federal Financial Assistance under various Grant Programs. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item should call the 8882045984, access code 3501008 and then press 1 and then 0, to line up to speak. President fewer thank you very much. And we have with us mary langan from the department. Chair fewer and members of the committee, marylanders from the department of Emergency Management. The less that you have before you is the annual governing body resolution for Emergency Preparedness grantses that are applied for by our department. This year there are five grants in the list. The urban Area Security initiative and the state Homeland Security program. And the Emergency Management performance grant, and the local Government Oil spill contingency plan grant, and a Hazard Mitigation grant. The California Office of Emergency Services requires that the date of the grant year and naming applicant agents appears annually and so this is our annual request for board approval. And funds are ongoing and usually submitted through the budget process and im happy to try to answer any questions that you may have. President fewer thank you very much. Any questions or comments from colleagues . Madam clerk, lets open this up to Public Comment. Clerk yes, madam chair. Operation is checking to see if there are callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are callers that are ready. If you have not already done so, please press 1 and then 0 to be added to the queue. For those on hold, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. Madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. President fewer thank you very much. Any comments or questions from our colleagues . Seeing no one in the queue and id like to make a motion to move this to the board with a positive recommendation. Could i have a roll call vote please. Clerk yes, supervisor walton. Walton, aye. Supervisor mandelman . Mandelman, aye. Chair fewer. Fewer, aye. There arely ayes. President fewer thank you very much. And clerk, is there any more business before us today . Clerk theres no further business. President fewer thank you very much. Were adjourned. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked all of these amazing organizations that exist in San Francisco, its great to be here and great to talk about the incredible work that all of you are doing despite what our very challenging times for our city and our country, so lets get started and lets get to hear your questions and, also, i just want to make sure that you put in a plug for your organizations and the work that you are all doing and people dont have to sit at home by themselves. They can sit at home and maybe watch a great film thats going to be aired online by the Film Festival. Lets make sure we get the word out. Thank you, mayor breed. I want to thank the panelists and welcome to all of the viewers at home. As Asian Pacific americans are facing extraordinary challenges at this time, not only because of the pandemic, but also because the rising tide of antiasian violence. This reminds us about history when Asian Americans became scapegoats. The immigration station and the japanese americans during world war 2, the asian communities have been through it all and thats why the communities are coming together to continue to navigate through the crisis and to track the future and thats why this afternoons conversation with you, mayor breed, is so important as we continue on this journey. To that end, we have selected two special topics to talk about this afternoon and one is the impact of the pandemic and antiasian violence on youth and children. We are very concerned about how students will be treating each other when they get to go back to school. And the other one is the other topic is the impact on culture. This is what we normally would look to to bring communities, to bring comfort during times of crisis. However, we all know that the arts and culture communities are being hit very hard and theyre going to have an even harder Time Next Year when we may or may not get a tax refund. We are all in this together. So i hope this conversation is going to help us focus our thinking a little bit more about some of the topics so close to our hearts and close to the community. Without further ado, i would like to introduce the moderator, thomas lee, of this conversation. He iwere lucky to have thomas s one of our celebration cochairs and the master of our website. Everything to do with communication and all things social media and so thomas. Thank you, cla claudine. Thank you. We are bringing this celebration online virtually, like many organizations, were finding new ways to celebrate and were doing it all online. At this time, i would like to welcome our distinguished panel presenters, the mayor of San Francisco, mayor london breed, and all of the viewers on facebook live. So i hope youre watching. Tell a friend and we are on facebook live, at facebook. Com sf. You can text that to a friend. For this afternoons program, we have Six Community leaders representing civil righters, children and youth services, as well as arts. Each presenter will have two minutes to share their perspectives and have the opportunity to ask mayor breed a question. We have a lot of ground to cover and lets get right to it. Our first presenter is vincent penn, for affirmative action. For over 50 years, he has been at the forefront of events introducing civil rights and justice and providing equal opportunities for chinese and Asian Americans, caa colaunched a program to collect data of antiasian incidents in the country encouraging Asian Pacific americans to report these incidents. Please welcome vincent penn who will provide us an update on asian violence incidents. Thank you. At the outset of the pandemic, San Francisco state universities and the Asian Pacific studys gunpoint anplanning in los anget Community Members could report incidents that were happening against Asian Americans and pacific islanders. In the past month and a half, we have received 1700 reports for both harassment, bullying, physical assaults and racerelated property vandalism from across the country, including 117 incidents here in San Francisco. The data shows that women have been proportionately harassed and all asian communities are being harmed. Most is happening under shelterinplace orders, so we expect the situation to get worse as orders are lifted. In some ways, this is not a new problem, just an escalated problem, made worse by the covid19, as well as the Trump Administration to blame everything on china. We all appreciate, mayor breed, the strong, strong stance you have made towards hate towards Asian Americans and all communities, but given the difficult economic and budget situation facing the city and the community, are you able to have resources to build in the capacity to address these antiasian situations . Well, i will say that as many of you all know, its going to be a real challenge for our city financially. But, from the very beginning, before people were really paying attention to this pandemic, to the coronavirus, our Asian Community in San Francisco was already being impacted. The level was zenophobia, the attacks and other violence against ederly seniors and we were experiencing that before the pandemic hit hard and so, this is something weve paid close attention to, working with Law Enforcement, working with our Small Business community and trying to provide resources, but its knot goin not going to be h the situation were in. Ill start with, specifically, with whats happening around a lot of the attacks and the violence and the robberies. I want to just express how important it is that people report these things to the police, because this is going to help inform a lot of the decisions that we make. And we heard about a lot of incidents that have not been reported and we know there might be fear or people who are uncomfortable with that. Ill be looking to so many of your organizations to be that vehicle. Weve provided access to a bilingual act thats available, so some of our officers can call and get a translators on the phone to communicate and report crime. We need to do this now more than ever, because thats going to be important so that we can make sure people understand that not only this is happening but the work we have to do has to be started on supporting where we know the challenges are. Recently, i a nancy tong has reported on the board of supervisors and theres rumblings of not supporting her. As much as i believe in criminal Justice Reform and as much as i dont want to put people in jail, if you commit an act of crime, you should be held accountable, and there should not be a negotiation there. Having someone who believes that on the police commission, on the Law Enforcement community is important to making sure that people dont feel comfortable coming to San Francisco, committing crimes or attacking other people. So thats part of one of the challenges we will continue to face and im definitely planning to do everything i can to make sure that the investments are there to support this community. The businesses, its really been tough. Its been tough because, again, it hit our asian businesses before it even touched anyone else and already, with the millions of dollars that we allocated to support our Small Businesses, whether its a 10,000 grant or up to 50 50,00 nointerest loan, we know we need to do more. So im raising money, as well as redirecting resources to support our businesses. And again, your help and your support to get people to apply for the funding is really necessary. We have an equity team thats embedded in our Emergency Operations centre, where their sole goal is to work with communities that are usually disenfranchise. So, for example, from day one, there were a number of businesses who were supposed to shut down but they didnt shut down because they didnt understand, they didnt speak english and there had to be another level of communication to make sure that they understood and they were connected to resources. And so were going to have to continue that. Because this is going to be really hard for us because some of these businesses are not going to be able to reopen. So the question is, how do we make sure that we outreach to the community . How do we make sure that we provide them with the records and the support that they need to maybe even transition into doing something other than what they were already doing . Its going to be a partnership with all of you because we cannot do this alone. We need trusted Community Representatives who people support and respect and who will help to identify where there are holes, what we may not be doing right and how we can make that connection to support our communities. Weve made a lot of gains over the years because weve had really good budget times, but we are really in trouble. And it will require all of us to Work Together and its going to require a big sacrifice. We want to make sure were not leaving anyone behind, especially our Asian Community, which has been impacted over this virus more than any other community. Thank you, mayor breed. And you have a great bunch of allies on this call in addition to people on facebook who are tuning in right now. So are next presenter is sarah wong, the executive director of the Community Center of San Francisco. She started as an organization that focuses on addressing issues for atrisk in chinatown. And over the years, she gets involved in the citywide agency serves over 8,000 multi cultural youths, and please welcome sarah wong. Thank you, thomas, thank you, mayor. Thomas is doing the best job so ill jump right into the topic. To the pandemic has really become another reason to target asian communities a communitiese country. Its our hope to turn the table around in education. Ethnic studys courses have been instituted in all of San Francisco School District high schools to give students an introduction to the experience of the ethnic communities that are rarely represented in textbooks. We need to work with projectbased learning on Racial Justice in crosscultural relationship buildings, such as by educational documentaries, and also chinese exclusion acts. What most of our youth programming have moved to virtual settings, most of our youth are still dealing with fear, isolation and this triggers depression and other Mental Health symptoms. And many of our youth couldnt even talk on the phone with our staff to share their feelings due to the lack of privacy and space. It is crucial to prioritize the offering of cultural competent Mental Health services to students at the schools and Community Settings in this current crisis. And as the incidents of violence will continue to increase, especially after the school reopens, i would like to ask mayor breed to not only send a strong message to our young people in response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia, but to create a task force where our Community Members track incidents of antihate violence in communities and schools that target our young people. Kind of similar to the current hate campaign at the national level, and also the policy in action plans to ensure all of our young people will be able to be in a violencefree community. Some thank you, sarah, and thank you for providing that perspective. I think thats an incredible idea. I think that im happy to do whatever i can and i love the idea of as i was hearing you speak, i was thinking we needed to launch some sort of Campaign Around this, to really highlight how this is not the way. And i will touch bases with the superintendent to figure out whether or not this can be incorporated into their distancelearning strategy. In fact, as you know, as a recipient of some of the resources where youre able to help support your youth through opportunities for all and other programs, i love the idea making sure that the opportunities for all kids who are participating in paid internships, working with them to come up with strategies and ideas and outreach in order to be the ambassadors. When i was in Elementary School here in the city, my teacher, because i talked a lot and drove my teacher crazy, if someone was sitting in the corner by themselves, i would try to solve their issue and i think thats the level that we got to get back to. We have to get back to caring about whats happening with each other and we want to make sure that, especially kids who, unfortunately, may not even know better because of their upbringing or what have you, we have to make sure that they are educated about how harmful, what they do is when they attack anyone with a racial slur or anything else for that matter. I think the time is now for bridge building and for a campaign and something that could be inspired through our young people. And i know you, along with john osaki, jcyc would be two incredible resources for all programs to look at a way to incorporate that into the work we do and well touch bases with our superintendent, dr. Vincent matthews and then the director of the Human Rights Commission, cheryl davis, who oversees the opportunities for all programs and maybe theres something we can get started with now to really turn the tide on this. A lot of discussion about opportunities for all. In facebook, weve been operatinparticipating for oppors for all and this year, were looking at new ways toengage with cheryl. I dont know all of the answers and so im looking to many of you for strategies or even these kids, because kids can come up with some of the best ideas. Absolutely. And i know there are young people. Just given the opportunity, they can kind of push these campaigns over. Theyre the ones who know how to use this technology and social media and stuff like that to do stuff, right . So lets tap into that in a way that could spread like wildflowers and bring our city closer together. Speaking of opportunities for all, let me bring on our next speaker to discuss the impacts on youth and children, its john osaki, the Japanese Community Youth Council and this year jcyc is celebrating 50 years focusing on japan youth and a broad range of programs from preschool to college prep to opportunities for all and jcyc is leading many youth initiatives is please welcome john osaki. Thank you, mayor breed and thank you for being a part of this town hall. Ill focus on some of the things you were just talking about regarding building bridges. They talked about safety and education and i think that the area that i really want to emphasize is that i think its so important that we find ways to build and promote understanding between communities here in San Francisco. As im sure you know, San Francisco is the birthplace of antiasian sentiment in this country. And so i think its so important that San Francisco be a leader in this area and really think about how it can promote strategies that really build understanding. I think the thing thats been so alarming to me is to see how quickly and easily asians could become a target again in this country. And so, i think one of the things that we would be very interested this is a systemic approach to putting together a planning effort thats going to address this at many Different Levels because, unfortunately, this virus is not going away any time soon. It could easily pop back up. And i think many of us are very interested in figuring out how do we come up with recommendations and ideas, such as some of the work that sarah has been pioneering in the bayview, where shes really been promoting understanding between the Chinese Community and the africanamerican community. And i think efforts like that are so critical to promote making sure we understand each others experience and can appreciate all of oppression the communities have experienced so that we can ban together push back against the tide of hate and the type of targeting thats going on right now. So i would like to know if you would support an effort to bring together a systemic approach and recommendation for house San Francisco can be a leader in pushing back against some of hate were seeing today. Thank you, john, for putting that in perspective and i think its overdue and we need to get started on something of that nature now which incorporates all of the different layers. Because again, when kids were in school, we know there were kids who were picked on about this virus before it hit. Businesses were suffering and being discriminated against and people were attacked and robbed and a number of other very violent incidents have occurred. And we know that its important to develop solutions and to start to really change the tone of folks who are a part of our city who represent the Asian Community, how they are treated. And i think that we can put this together in a way that proposes solutions that we can work towards. And i do think its important and i go back to the schools, because that Learned Behaviour that starts when youre a kid continues to develop into adulthood. So its so important that we really work with and use our kids in a way as an opportunity to bridge that gap because that is going to help to fill out, i think, the rest of the city. So im definitely open to the idea of developing a campaign, developing a system, putting together a committee, a diverse committee of folks who care about this issue. I know that folks from the nacp of San Francisco and other organizations would be happy to participate and we can work as partners in developing solutions. But i also want to say that its going to take a level of consistency unlike evacuee seen in the past. Weve seen tensions, in particular, and im using this as an example because i know that our Asian Community is being discriminated against by all races. But in particular, in this city, weve had tensions in the past, you know, sometimes between the africanamericans and our Asian Community and to our Chinese Community, in particular. And when those things happen, what we would do, woe come we we together, have these forums, try to Work Together and they would die down. So i think the difference here is that we have to maintain this effort of a coalition of people who are really consistently active in making sure that we spread a different message, that we combat this and that we not allow xenophobia to be tolerated against people in our Asian Community or any community, for that matter. And soy think there so i thinkn opportunity to Work Together to be consistent and to try to make sure that we get over this hump and that even after this pandemic is over, we have to hold steady on the work we need to do to address these challenge. Challenges. Thank you, mayor breed and thank you, john. Well shift gears a minute and well talk about the arts and culture sector and how that pandemic has impacted it. So next, i would like to bring on jay xi, the director of the asian art museum, which is home to one of the worlds finest and collection of asian art over the 50 plus years. The museum has been successful in achieving the mission of inspiring new ways of connecting Diverse Communities to both traditional and contrary art. Please welcome jay xi. Thank you, thomas, for the introduction and hello, mayor breed. I would like to thank you for your leadership and thank you for making the video statement, the owner of the ap heritage month in speaking strongly against the antiasian racism that is going on right now. We at the museum have turned our museum into a virtual museum. And we are featuring a wide range of artists, not only visual artists but performing artists and particularly Asian American artists and our programs are diverse, too. Not only offering the thoughtful meditation. At this time in the crisis, Everybody Needs time to meditate and take stock of what happened and what the future lies for all of us, but also programs speak strongly in action and in Group Discussions about the common efforts, fighting against antiasian racism. In addition to very widerange of programs which i encourage all of you and the audiences to check out our website. Follow us on our social media. And asian museums is itself a diverse workforce, having strong representation for Asian American community. And in addition to giving back artistically, our staff has been also donating hundreds of masks and spending of hundreds of hours to helping service work. So we are there as an element, a very Strong Community to navigate together through this crisis. Today is poignant because today, may 8th, was supposed to be the day we would open the transform expanded asian museum for our public. Mayor, you were supposed to do the Ribbon Cutting for all of us and sorry for me getting a little caught up here, because this is ver a very emotional dar us. We will stay on course and transform the museum to the public, hopefully in the fall. Just behind me, theres a new rorendering of our facade, turng the Museum Inside and out. You can also enjoy the museum from outside. Were also turning the asian museum into a National Leading platform promoting Asian American artists. The artists that you see are my backdrop are all featuring Asian American artists. I think the more artists amplified, the more theyre empowered. I want to echo the theme about community and how were playing an Important Role. I think the more artists can speak up, the better chance we will have in winning the war against the entire asian race. Racism. My question to you is that you have implemented measures to support local artists. What are the further measures that you can develop, plans you can develop in supporting Asian American artists and measures to enhance or efforts in the fight against antiasian race . Thank you for that question. First of all, one of the things that we did was to provide grants for artists, because we know, for example, those filmmakers, those musicians, performers, people who paint and do other artsrelated things, this is their livelihood and especially now during this pandemic, i think people are realizing the importance of art, because every time you hear about something, you hear about someone singing. You hear about someone showcasing some level of art and how that is what is getting people through this. And i do think its important that we pull together resources, financial resources. I think it was around 2 million or so dollars for immediate grants to artists with the goal to increase that even more, but the arts are going to take a big hit and as we lose revenue for hotel tax and other things, its going to be very challenging. And my commitment is to really focus on making sure that we are supporting San Francisco Arts Organization, that we are supporting San Francisco artists, as much as we possibly can. My goal is to make sure that and lets be honest, there will be cuts and then usually, arts is first on the chopping block and that wont be the case with me. Ill be looking for waste and places where money things that are not necessarily as valuable as making sure our kids are participating in paid summer internships or arts related functions. I mean, all of those things are important, but its going to be difficult or well continue to do what we can. I think when were talking about what john and sarah brought up in terms of coming together and developing the plan and possibly even developing a campaign of sorts, and maybe using the arts as a vehicle to support and promote that, you know, that is something that i think is important and its something that should be prioritized and so, because it does matter. It does matter in terms of whats happening in our city and if thats a vehicle by which we can supportive, we will. So it doesnt give you, maybe, reassurance that things will be great. Theyre not. And so, fortunately, as a museum, you have the ability to encourage many of your Board Members to possibly even contribute more. But there are shawler smaller institutions and other organizations that will have a much more difficult time. And so we want to be mindful of that and we also want to live within our means and i remember when i was the director of the africanamerican art and culture complex and we had a number of challenges in the western edition with violence, we could have fought for funding for our organization, but all of the organizations got together and because the Community Center and john, you remember this they were on the verge of closing. So we basically put aside what we needed to make sure that organization had its support and i think thats where we are as a city now. Because we have to remember that it cant just be us pushing for more funding for our organizations. Lets be realistic. Were going to suffer. There will be budget cuts and lets try to be mindful of the fact there will be other organizations that will need something more than others. And so, i see thomas giving me the signal. Madam mayor, i just got pinged by your staff that we are running late on time and we wanted to get through two more speakers about the arts before you have to go. Iwell make sure you get in and out on time. So next we have irene almario, the studio that was founded in 1969, dedicated to showcasing emerging philippino artists and providing access to a broad range of performing arts programs. Please welcome irene. Thank you for having me. First of all, thank you, mayor breed, for your action and early shelterinplace order. Were grateful for the people in the cities who adjusted to this crisis, the bcyf, which allowed us to utilize our arts grants for direct covid relief services. Now and so primarily, this is a expect organization and space that is dedicated to philippino american arts. We have a thriving Artist Community providing cedar workshops to seniors and youth in our local neighborhoods. All of our. Eventevents have come to ahalt. Artists who rely on contract work are finding it difficult to meet basic needs, dealing with isolation and digital accessibility. We have had to completely pivot our operations to directly address the covid crisis in our community. We are now aiding Service Organizations like up, west bay, Equity Center and comcan. However, we want to continue to create and put on productions. We are trying to shift into alternative means to engage with our community, but we actually need more support. So madam mayor, my question is, small performing arts benefits will find it nearly impossible to implement social distancing measures in a viable way. Will the city able to offer any support to small venues searching for alternative ways to present work, such as Technical Resources to move to the virtual platform . Or when we can gather once again, creating a program that allows venues to stage performances in large Public Places like parks, gymnasiums, et cetera, while still making it affordable for a Small Organization . Thank you. Well, thank you for your question. First of all, i am anxious for the day when our artists can get back to performing and playing and that is really what we so desperately need even now. And i think that im not familiar with all of the resources that will be specifically available for Arts Organizations. , bubut i do know that our plans to try to make sure that were supporting Arts Organization and make sure i mean, you have your space, but there are also expenses associated with that. We want to make sure that youre still getting your grant support and able to provide some Additional Resources to your office. And we have not im not familiar with the technical aspect of online and whats going on there, but i will check with our equity team. The director of the Human Rights Commission, she is managing the equity team out of the Emergency Operations center and i think that if you if there is something youre specifically in need of, i think that there is a way to connect you to access to the technology or resources that are necessary to get you online. I will say that, unfortunately, artists can perform on their own. But they cant necessarily come together and perform at this time because of the six feet of requirement. So i know whatever it is that you choose to do, i want to make sure that you do it within the help order and i will make sure that we follow up to figure out ways to help support you and the artists that you help. Represent. On the topic of artists, lets turn to our friends at cam. Our last presenter is steven gong, the executive director for center of the Asian American immediatmedia. Theyre celebrating 40 years this year and the leein leading present of american asian television. The camfest is right here and around the world. So welcome steven gong. Thank you thomas and claudine and mayor breed. It was a year ago when you joined us at the castro theater for opening night. And like so many others, we were ready to present a fabulous festival again and had to cancel. But we have pivoted and next week, as you can see from the information behind me on may 13th, we will kick off our camfest online and, again, thank you for doing a welcome for us and so, youve answered one of my questions already and youve shown your leadership here in support of the arts and cultural community. And i would also just want to mention that we have a National Broadcast of a fivehour series of the on history of Asian Americans broadcasts from kdtv on monday and tuesday nights. The bay figure area, so prominently in the asian area. This is a time when the asian america is coming together in a way that we have waited generations for and at a time, we know were facing such hardship. I wanted to make my turn, because i know i can count on your leadership for us. My question now from after what i have heard from all of my fellow speakers is to ask you to task us and that is to say what role can we play to help support the kind of vision that you want and that we share your vision for a more unified community and Diverse Community . And even though it is a time of tremendous risk and challenges and hardship, we also know in this is time to shift and make new things happen. Because you might as well start over and bill it th bill build. So please elaborate and give us a task. Thank you for your leadership and the work you continue to do and thank you for your work on the series. I put it out on social media and ive announced it and asked people to tune in with a message, exactly of what were talking about here. Sadly, in liberal San Francisco, we have seen xenophobia play out from our hurrican children to os in a message and to learn more about the rich history of our Asian Community in San Francisco, you know, tune into this series. I like the idea of really starting to shine a light only things that give people a perspective and part of that and what you do and as jay mentioned, the arts is a vehicle for that. Filmmaking is a vehicle for that. Performance on stage, all of those things can be used as messages and i know i remember there was a play because in the western community, we grew up and it was predominantly african and japanese and there was this relationship that existed with our communities of just respect and trust and that relationship has carried over the years and someone did a performance, a play about i think you might remember this one, john. When the japanese americans were placed in internment camp and how there were africanamericans who occupied their housing. When they were released, they turned their Housing Units back over. There was this very informal relationship. And i think a lot of it had everything to do with the fact that there were two communities living next to each other that were both treated poorly and were discriminated against and they, in some ways, we talk together. And we supported and respected each other. I mean, john osaki and his organization has helped more africanamerican kids than any other organization in the city. And i think part of what will be important is how our we using the vehicle we have to bridge that gap . Whether its in the cam Film Festival and providing, of course, films featuredpy Asian Americans, but how do we begin to broaden that and make sure that they are maybe an africanamerican filmmaker who has asian people playing various roles in those films and featuring those films . I think the charge is, how do we begin to be together more in what we do . How do we start to Work Together to really make sure and again, it starts with the schools. It starts with the kids because i learned about the various asian cultures because of my school, because of the different festivals that highlighted the different times of year that were significant to all of us. Thats how i learn. And so part of this is really going to be a learning experience. How are we going do a better job around our communication strategy of promoting and supporting and helping people to understand and learn about the asian experience, not just in this city, but in this country and in this world and the value that is not only placed on your community because what makes us an incredible place is because we all have values. We all have values because of our own cultures but also our shared experiences. And so i think the call is really to remind people of that, how much alike we are and now more than ever, with this pandemic, what we see, it does not matter what color you are or matter about your socioeconomic status. It doesnt matter. This virus does not discriminate against anyone. Anyone could be affected at any given time and it shows that we are all on the same playing field. So how do we emerge out of this crisis stronger and better than ever . I think is really how we communicate, a consistent, positive message around the Asian Community and how we come together, whether its a task force or a group. Weve put together people who care about these issues with various races and we put out the right messaging and an implementation strategy to support our communities and our kids. And either consistent iand wer. I would like to continue working with you all on just that because its so important, especially now, because it just makes me crazy that people are targeted because of their race. And as you know, as an africanamerican woman, as someone who gets targeted myself, like the last thing i want to see is this happen to anybody. It is the worst feeling in the world to be treated a certain way because of your race, to be discriminated against or attacked. It is the worst. Lets turn the tide with our positive energy, our positive reinforcement, our positive solutions of coming together and really focusing on the things that we know our organizations can do and collectively what we can do to really turn the tide. Thats what i would like to see us do. This is the beginning, i think, of it, because i know this is apa heritage month in San Francisco and im glad that we are celebrating in this way, but it gives us also an opportunity to have this very important conversation and shine a light on this. And i think the next step is, lets put a Team Together and lets start to move forward on some real solutions, especially with our young people. Thank you, mayor breed. Thumbs up. On that note of togetherness, lets turn it over to claudine for closing remarks, the person who brought us together in the first place. Thank you. I feel very uplifted from your message, sharing your thoughts from us and i feel there is hope seeing all of us together and i think that many more out there that we need to expand this circle of discussion and im very happy to hear about the campaign. This is a positive energy. In fact, i know that many of educators are listening to us and hearing us, this program online. And i think we can view that alliance and network and have a multicultural solution to all of this and bringing people together and thank you so much, mayor, and we are here to roll our sleeves up and Work Together. I think this conversation is started in this month, but i hope we will regularly have our other conversations and keep doing on and engage all together. Thank you so much. Thank you, claudine. Thank you to everyone. To everyone in the public, go to apa sf. Org. Thank you. The director of the department of Human Services, trent roer, the director of homelessness and housing, Abigail Stuart khan. Our police chief bill scott. Thank you so much for joining us here today. Were here to provide an update and answer questions during our Virtual Press conference. As of today, we have 1,954 reported covid19 cases diagnosed in San Francisco. And sadly with 35 people who have lost their lives. 71 people are currently hospitalized, and dr. Colfax will continue to provide an update of where we are and why the need to continue the work weve done around sheltering in place is so important to continuing to maintain the curve. As a reminder, data sf. Org covid19 is our website so that you can access data or information that you may need regarding the numbers that we know exist around those who have been diagnosed, but also information by zip code as well as the number of tests and other valuable information that weve done. Now last week we announced the next steps for gradually reopening San Francisco, and i know that people are anxious to see our city reopen. Im anxious to see our city reopen. And this has been a very tough and challenging time for all of us. When you think about what weve all sacrificed, kids who are graduating from high school and will not be able to have a traditional graduation or attend prom, those parents who cannot go back to work because they have no child care access for their children, the people who are elderly who actually really need comfort through family and friends, who are not able to visit with those folks that they love and care about the most, especially during this past mothers day. It continues to be a challenge, but especially with regards to our economy. Our economy is suffering not just in San Francisco but throughout the united states, and what weve tried to do here in San Francisco is redirect resources and raise private dollars in order to get support in the hands of those who need it the most, and oftentimes people who may not qualify for any assistance whatsoever. The people who have been impacted the most include our Small Businesses, our Small Businesses that are really the backbone of our city, employing hundreds of thousands of people who, sadly, were laid off as the result of this crisis. When these businesses are not open, they are not generating any money. They were already having a tough enough time as it was before the coronavirus pandemic with the high cost of commercial rents, with the laundry list of fees that are charged by the city that need to change, with a number of other taxes and other expenses, it oftentimes made it difficult for many of these Small Businesses to not only stay open in their existing storefront locations but also to maintain their staff. And its gotten even worse as a result of this pandemic. And this is why i was so excited to announce just a step forward in reopening our economy, and that includes specific Small Businesses that in some cases, for example, our florist. They were allowed to deliver this mothers day, but when you think about their capacity even to do just that, to prepare the arrangements, to take in the payments, to also arrange for delivery so that everyone is getting what they want when they want it, many florists were reached out to had to decline because they had so many orders and so they had a limited number of people who were able to assist them in delivering those orders. And this is why im also very excited that florists and bookstores, folks will be able to do both delivery and Pickup Services. Music and record stores, hobby, toy and game stores, Home Furnishing and home goods, cosmetic and beauty supplies. Lord knows i need a new fresh supply of cosmetics. Art supplies and Musical Instruments and supply stores, sewing, needlework and goods stores, pieced good stores okay, i dont know what that is, but nevertheless, we are opening a number of businesses for pickup and delivery, and were doing so gradually, and i want to explain, because many have asked, well, whats the difference between what the governor, our Governor Newsom is proposing, which was that businesses would be opened this past friday, versus what San Francisco is doing. And again, everything has and ive said this from the very beginning. We follow the advice of the Public Health officials here in our city and in our region as it relates to the data that were seeing. As it relates to the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations, the number of deaths, and because of all of you who have followed these orders, San Francisco is in a better place than most cities. But were still not in a place where we are seeing a decline, and i think thats important to remember. The more access we provide people with where there is a contact with another human being, the more the possibility that infections can spread. So the fact that we are offering a delivery and a Pickup Service is a big step, and it is definitely a big risk, and we hope that the types of systems that we put into place in order to protect you as youre able to support and use these places as a resource that we will continue to see the curve not only flatten, but decline, and again its up to the people in this city to continue to follow these orders, and i want to say again how much i appreciate what folks have continued to do, whether its standing in line at Grocery Stores or pharmacies, at a safe distance. I noticed people are wearing their mask in those lines. I noticed that folks were just following the social distancing order, for the most part, in most parts of our city. And this is gonna be the reason why we are able to lower the curve, but we also know that a number of challenges still exist. So as we allow Small Businesses to begin work around pickup and delivery, we have to keep in mind that we know that the more people are in contact with the public, theres a higher probability that they could contract the virus. Weve seen that in a more recent study done by ucsf, with the department of Public Health and a Latino Task Force when they conducted in one of the seconddensist census blocks in the mission community. They conducted an ongoing testing where they allowed anyone to test and discovered that although of the few thousand people that they tested, less than 2 were diagnosed with covid19, and many of those folks were in the workforce. They were still working at various locations. So we know that the probability that the more youre out there, the more youre in contact with other people, thats how the virus could spread, and this is why its necessary for us to continue down this path. Whats great about our city, again, is weve come a long way, and testing is so critical to our ability to allow more places to open. The more access people have to testing and also contact tracing, the better our ability to identify someone as quickly as possible, make sure that they are quarantined, but also track the other folks as they have been in contact with in order to just really stop things in their tracks. I want to say that here in the city whats great is, number one, we will provide testing for anyone who is an essential worker, whether you have a symptom or not. I think its important that we continue to get the word out regarding testing, and we will provide a test to any san franciscan who exhibits one of the symptoms, and if you have the need to be tested, please call 311. Insurance is not a barrier to testing. We will test anyone, and secondly, your immigration status is not a should not be a barrier to testing. So you should not feel afraid to get tested, especially if you feel like youre exhibiting symptoms. Our testing statistics over the past month have steadily grown. We have seen an increase in the number of tests, and as of today, over 36,000 covid19 tests have been reported to dph, department of Public Health. And in the last week weve averaged over 1,000 tests per day. And i just want to remind everyone that we were not always able to get that information from some of the private hospitals that are testing, and so this is a big, big thing. People wanted to know how many tests were being conducted, and this is really, really going to be helpful to helping us understand whats actually happening in San Francisco based on the percentage of those who test positive and the number of tests weve been able to administer. And i really want to thank Elaine Forbes from the port. I also want to thank my policy director, andres powers, as well as the department of Public Health, for the work that you all are continuing to do in coordinating with the community to make sure that we have this very, very important information. The Real Progress is when we get to at least the ability to conduct 200 covid19 tests per 100,000 residents. And again, this will help us get to a place where we can begin to understand whats happening in our city, a way to address it and a way to gradually move San Francisco in a direction of reopening. Testing capacity is critical, and as a reminder, just because you are tested and you are negative does not mean that you are immune from contracting covid19 after you discover that you are negative. Or even in any other event. So i want to just reiterate how important it is to continue to wear your mask when appropriate and maintain social distancing. We also know that, you know, equity is important. Making sure that communities that may not watch the news, that may not read the paper every day, that may not be in touch with whats happening with city government, that we do a better job of making sure that we outreach to those communities with a number of trusted communitybased organizations, as well as an Incredible Group of community volunteers, and i really want to thank the equity team and the team under cheryl davis. They have been incredible. These are people we have the office of racial equity, shackra smiley is the director there. We have had her and cheryl davis working hand in hand developing strategies from day one to make sure that as we have information were communicating to folks in these communities, to the seniors in the bayview to many of our sadly homeless residents in the tenderloin to folks in various parts of the city that may not have access to what is actually going on. They have been able to distribute the work from chinatown and other communities, they have outreached to these communities on a regular basis, not just distributing almost a million flyers with information and answering a number of questions from so many of these folks, again, who are not necessarily connected to the internet or connected to resources, but you know, providing masks, providing access to support for food or connecting them to other resources. The work that they have done around education on the coronavirus and education on around resources to help people weather this storm has been incredible, and i am grateful that they are also continuing to outreach as Testing Capacity continues the work continues. Because we showed up in one Community One day does not mean that we should not be going back to that community the next day and the next day and the next day. It includes not only individuals, but we have businesses where we have people who have limited english and may not be completely familiar with the policies of the city. So its the responsibility of this equity team to really reach out to many folks who are not always connected and who may not always have the resources to make sure they have the resources and that we provide them with clear direction around testing. Because as we saw in the study in the mission, many of the people who are part of our workforce are the ones who are testing positive. So we want to make sure that many of those essential businesses that are open, as well as the delivery thats gonna start on may 18 for those other businesses, the delivery and the pickup, that they know that their workers can get tested. So i want to appreciate the equity team and the work that theyre doing, as well as appreciate the Human Rights Commission here in San Francisco. Thank you for the work that youve done on outreach, and i also just want to finally wrap it up with talking a little bit about the hotel rooms because were preparing for a significant surge. We were also preparing for the opportunity to make sure that people who are our essential Health Care Workers and our Public Safety officials who were concerned about the impacts on their families, that they had places to go where they were able to isolate themselves. Because of how well the city has been doing in terms of maintaining the curve, we have not used as many of those hotel rooms as we anticipated, and the good news is we are able to repurpose those hotels. Weve negotiated. Trent roer and the department of Human Services and his team were able to renegotiate those contracts. So now those extra few hundred rooms that were supposed to be used for our frontline workers, and to be clear, we still have access to rooms for our frontline Health Care Workers and Public Safety officials. Those rooms will be used for people who need to isolate if they are covid positive. And were talking about people who live in our singleroom occupancy hotels who, if they contract the virus, they cant necessarily social distance themself in an sro if they are living there with their family, or someone whos homeless, or someone who lives in a congregate living setting, or anyone who lives with family where theres not the ability for them to selfquarantine. We have the opportunity to extend our Hotel Capacity to provide this as a resource to the people of San Francisco. So this is really great, and i think weve come a long way. The challenges around covid19 still remain as real today as they have been since we announced the first case, and i just want to, again, thank the public for doing everything you can to follow the social distancing orders as well as the masks. Your commitment to this has been tremendous, and im sure continues to be very challenging. Its challenging for me. Its challenging for the team thats working every single day to keep all of us safe. Those who are putting themselves on the line to make sure that the city continues to run in some capacity, they are the reasons why were able to provide essential services, and so i just want to really continue to appreciate the team here at the Emergency Operations center, the people who are showing up every single day. The folks who are driving muni, the people, the Police Officers who are working their shifts, the paramedics and others who are out there doing their jobs every single day, and they dont have always the luxury to socially distance themselves when they are trying to save someones life. So so many people the Grocery Store clerks, the nurses, the doctors, the folks who are on the front lines. So many people who want to continue to make sure that they are there to support this city, to support you and to keep everyone safe, i want to, again, express my appreciation to each and every one of you and thank you to the people of San Francisco for continuing to lead us down a path of safety and getting to a better point. One day im going to stand up here and hopefully make a great announcement about the fact that because of all of you weve been able to lower the curve. That day is not today, but just keep that in mind. That day is coming and we will be so grateful when it does. And with that, id like to truce the director of the department of Public Health, dr. Greg colfax. Dr. Grant colfax good afternoon, im dr. Grant colfax, director of the department of Public Health for the city and county of San Francisco, and thank you, mayor breed, for your leadership during these very difficult and challenging times. Its been a week since the new health order took effect across San Francisco and the bay area region. As of today, there are 1954 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of covid19, and, as the mayor mentioned, sadly a total of 35 san franciscans have died. I send my condolences to their loved ones, their friends and their community. Of the people with confirmed covid19 in San Francisco, 156 are experienced homelessness, and one of those persons has unfortunately died. This is why we continue to prioritize vulnerable populations in our ongoing response, including people over 60 and those with Underlying Health conditions. These groups include people experiencing homelessness and those who live in congregate settings, such as shelters and Skilled Nursing facilities and incarcerated settings. I point this out because even as we continue to move forward with plans to reopen, we must keep in mind that we are still that we are still in the midst of a pandemic. These are not normal times, and normal times will not return for some time. Our recovery as a community will depend on our ability to protect the most vulnerable and to maintain a Health System that can respond to continues outbreaks. And recovery is foremost on all our minds. So lets talk about the gradual path to the new normal. In the past week, we have begun to enjoy some loosening of restrictions with the reopening of construction and increased Outdoor Activities and jobs. We have also announced, as the mayor announced, that if all goes well, some additional businesses can begin to offer Curbside Pickup and Takeout Services as soon as a week from today. May 18. This includes bookstores, florists, art supply stores, toy stores and sewing stores. The last is particularly important for all those home mask makers out there. We will also be easing restrictions on medical care, such as nonessential surgeries and nonurgent ambulatory care visits. In all of these hopeful steps, we continue to put Community Health first. That means that we will keep a close eye, as we have throughout this pandemic, a close eye on the data so that we can move forward or pause or even increase restrictions depending on the spread of the virus in the community. It also means that we must support businesses and other entities with clear guidelines so that they can operate as safely as possible for their workers and customers and our community as a whole. In that effort, the department of Public Health has issued new directives to businesses that are allowed to operate now, such as restaurants, Delivery Services and Grocery Stores. These directives will also apply to the expanding group of businesses that we anticipate will be able to reopen to a limited capacity next week. And just to be very clear, the restaurants are operating under very limited capacity now. We are working with the Mayors Office of economic and Workforce Development and Economic Recovery Task force to reach out to businesses and make sure that they are informed about the guidelines and can prepare. Here are five highlights of what businesses need to do to be safe in the current coronavirus environment. One, create a health and safety plan. Two, ensure social distancing and Face Covering at work. Three, provide the proper equipment and cleaning materials, including hand sanitizing and handwashing. Four, protect customers by marking off sixfeet areas and cleaning hightouch surfaces and, five, ending selfservice of food items and the handling of produce without purchasing it. Some of these rules will change the way we currently shop and interact at work, or at least the way we used to shop and interact at work. This will take some adjustment, but believe me, they are worth it to keep everyone safe and allow for the economy to start to reopen. All of the new Health Directives are posted on the department of Public Health website, on our coronavirus page. And as we look forward to next monday, may 18, and the potential for some businesses to reopen safely for curbedside pickup, we will also be keeping a close eye on the data. Specifically we will be looking at hospitalizations of covidpositive patients as our metric of whether to move forward with expanded Curbside Pickup and takeout next week. This is a key metric. Since april 6, our hospitalization numbers have ranged from 70 to 94 patients. The curve is indeed flat. And as the mayor mentioned, it is not decreasing substantially. We have not yet seen a substantial downward trend. Today there are 71 people hospitalized in San Francisco with covid19. If we can keep within the range for the next week, we anticipate allowing the next group of businesses to reopen. If we have a sustained increase in hospitalizations, we will evaluate where the new cases are coming from and shift our focus there. The reason is an increase in hospitalizati hospitalizations will tell us that the virus started gaining strength in our community about two weeks ago and that more people are starting to get very sick and require hospital care. And there are data to show when our behavior allows the virus to spread, we see spikes in infections. We are seeing spikes in infections in Southern California commensurate with when the beaches became crowded. We have seen spikes of infections when people have gone to large gatherings at churches or birthday parties. We must be vigilant and we must continue our social distancing, our wearing mask and our emphasis on testing. If indeed our rate of hospitalizations start to climb substantially, it may not be safe to continue to reopen. Of course i hope i very much hope that that does not happen. And i am looking forward to picking up some books and gifts for myself. But we must proceed cautiously and maintain our gains. We will be giving more information this week about what the path to recovery will look like for San Francisco. The community, our community, your community, has been so vigilant and so effective in slowing down the spread of the virus. But you may well be asking where is this all headed . What will the new normal be like . This is a complex question, and we are in uncharted territory. We are in discussions with other counties and municipalities, as well as the state, about that very topic. We are working hard at all levels of San Francisco government and with community and Business Partners to develop our local road map. Again, following the science, the data and the facts. For now i can emphasize that we will all have an Important Role to play. You can think of these roles in groups of three. As Community Members, there are three key things you, your family, your friends can do. Physical distancing, Face Covering and testing. Testing if you are working outside your home. You should get tested, even if you do not have symptoms. As city and Public Health leaders, there are three critical things that we pledge to do. Testing. We will continue to expand testing toward our goal of universal access. Number two, outbreak detection. We will continue to build our Public Health reporting and Monitoring Systems to improve our ability to predict and respond to the virus more quickly. And three, contact tracing, which includes case detection and contact investigation and support for isolation and quarantine to reduce exposure and spread of the virus. If we all do these things, the three things you can do, the three things that government and the Health Department will do, we can accomplish the following three things. Decreased transmission. We have the power to reduce disease and death. We have that power. Number two, increased safety and confidence. We will see more opening up of society and people knowing how to act in the safest ways possible. And number three, that will lead to economic recovery, a goal we all share. Together we can do this, and we must do this together for it to be successful. San francisco, i cant thank you enough for your perseverance, dedication and ongoing commitment to each other, your neighbors and the community. This city has always been a very special place, and it is even more so now. This pandemic, as difficult as it is, has truly brought out the best of us, and i thank you for that and the ongoing commitment to that as we move forward together. Thank you. Scott will make some remarks, and i want to thank him for his incredible work and his teams efforts on the front lines in helping us manage this pandemic. Chief scott . Good afternoon. Everyone, im chief bill scott of the San Francisco Police Department, and as always, i want to first start off by expressing my immense gratitude to our mayor, london breed, and our director of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax for their outstanding leadership during this public Health Crisis. Im gonna start my remarks by piggybacking on what dr. Colfax just stated with my thanks to the residents of our city in San Francisco. I want to expand on the fact that without the cooperation and voluntary compliance of the people of our city, we probably wouldnt be doing as well as we are, so thank you again for our support and your voluntary compliance. And thats not to say we dont have challenges, because we do, and ill go into that in a minute, but i want to begin my remarks, again, with thanking those people that are, number one, following the Public Health orders. And number two, abiding by the law. And oftentimes its my job as your chief of police to get up and in front of you and report statistics on people who are breaking the law, but its also very important to say thank you to the people who abide by the law, because without that, our society would be in chaos, and we do understand that and thank you for abiding by the law. On that note, you know, this weekend we anticipated that it would be a busy weekend as far as more people out, and we had a team of officers, along with our cadets and volunteers, and we werent the only City Department out, but i want to speak of what we did this weekend in that regard. We worked and focused on 25 parks, one of which was dolores park, and i know the mayor has made comments about dolores park, and weve had some challenges there with the number of people wanting to enjoy that beautiful park and enjoy the beautiful weather. And i want to again thank the people who enjoyed our parks across the city over the weekend. What we are seeing is people are getting out to get fresh air, to get exercise, to enact or interact with another human being, and thats a good thing, but i want to go back and remind everybody of just the basics. We still need to have people keep that six feet of social distance if you are not with people who live in your household. We still need you to wear Face Coverings when youre out and youre doing your business. If youre not exercising or in the act of exercising, walking, jogging, bicycling, wear your Face Coverings. And we still need you all when you get home to wash your hands frequently to prevent the spread of this virus. Now our team of volunteers and officers and cadets were out this weekend in the parks. We issued we gave out 68 or 58, im sorry, 58 Face Coverings or masks. There were over 100 informal admonishments or warnings to people who were enjoying the park, and i will say almost by and large everybody who was warned informally came into compliance. So we want to thank you for that, and i want to thank you personally for that, because that is what makes this work. Well continue to focus on those efforts. We know as this goes along and the further that we get into this were now at nine weeks and going into our tenth week, people are anxious. People have anxiety. People want to get out and interact with other people. People want to do their business. Businesses have sacrificed immensely, and we want to thank all those Business Owners that have sacrificed to make this work. I know as the Health Orders evolve and as we continue to go into different phases of this pandemic and attempt to reopen to get things back as much as we can to normal, there are a lot of questions. And with some, there is a lot of confusion, and thats why we follow the compliance model that we follow of starting with education, and we will continue to do that. There were a lot of questions about how many cites we write or how many people were arrested. Fortunately we have not had to arrested anybody, but we have issued some citations, but we start with education first, and thats really important now as we begin to go into additional phases and attempts to reopen. Things change almost weekly, and its really important that we do our part, your Police Department and your Police Officers, to educate the community for those, as the mayor mentioned and as dr. Colfax mentioned, who may not be watching the news, who may not have access to internet or who may just not have heard that things have evolved. So thats why we start with education, and i must say by and large we have been very successful with this model, and we will continue to use this model of education, then warnings or admonishment, and for those folks that still refuse to abide by the Health Orders, we do have the citation as a last resort. So thats been successful, and ill get to kind of where we are on those numbers in a second. But again, thank you all for the cooperation and for making our city a model, as the mayor said. We are far better off than many other cities, and thats a good thing, and thats because of you all. So now ill get to the statistics of those who have not followed the Public Health directives, and then ill get into a little bit of our Crime Statistics for the week and for the year. As far as citations, we have issued a total of 23 citations since the initial Public Health order went into effect, and the breakdown is 13 businesses and 10 individuals. That 23 is an increase of one. The last time i reported we had 22, so thats an increase of one, and that additional citation was for a business. We have had a total of 105 formal admonishments, and the formal admonishment, what i mean by that, the formal warnings are those warnings thats your last warning before we have to come back and issue a citation. And that breakdown is 58 businesses and 47 individuals. Thats two higher than my last report of 103 in my last report. And i would like to say in addition to that, just like this weekend when our volunteers and our officers and our cadets were out in the park, they issued or had engagement with over 100 i think the number was about 138 individuals where those were informal warnings, where people were asked to either wear Face Covering or create some social distance, and they complied on the spot. So thats what were seeing by and large, and for those individuals where we do have to go back after youve been warned, particularly formally warned, we have issued citations, and we will continue to do that if we have to, but we hope we dont have to. As far as our Crime Statistics, i want to go into our weektoweek, which i have reported on consistently, and also our yearoveryear Crime Statistics. Overall the news is good, a 22. 5 decrease in part one Violent Crimes over this past week, that means 16 fewer Violent Crimes. In terms of property crime, we had a 33. 6 decrease in property crimes which equates to 186 fewer crimes for a total, part one, or serious crimes, that decrease was 32 . This is the week over the prior week. And that equates to 202 fewer crimes than the prior week. As far as our yeartodate Crime Statistics, we are at an 8. 6 crime decrease in part one Violent Crime which is 166 crimes fewer than this time last year. Property crime were at a 13 decrease in property crime which equates to 2,125 fewer property crimes over this time last year. And our total part one crime decrease is at 12. 4 , which equates to 2,291 fewer crimes than this time 2019. I will say, though, although we are pleased to have a decrease in crime, we do understand that part of the reason is that there are just fewer people out on the streets, fewer victims, fewer opportunities. And we want to remain vigilant when we do reopen to make sure that we can reopen without people being victimized. So we will have a presence, as we always have during this pandemic. We will continue that, and well make adjustments as we have to. I want to encourage everyone to continue to report crime, because thats part of this analysis, is you have to report it for us to know about it and to respond to it. So call 911 for Violent Crimes. If its a crime in progress, also call 911. If its a nonviolent property crime thats already occurred, you can call our nonemergency number at 4155530123. Thats 4155530123. Also you can call 311 or use our San Francisco Police Department website at sanfranciscopolice. Org to either request crime reports or report crimes that qualify for online reporting. We still have a report callin center that we stood up during this pandemic thats been very effective, so makes us more efficient in allowing our public to report crimes, and that will be ongoing. Lastly, i want to close with just the basics. As dr. Colfax has said, as our mayor has said, we need everybody if you must go out to conduct essential business or to just get exercise, please wear your Face Covering. Maintain a distance of six feet between you and anybody who is not living in your household, and when you return home, or even if you dont return home, whenever you can, wash your hands frequently. These prevention efforts, although basic, will help prevent the spread of covid19 and get us back to normal quicker. So please continue to cooperate and well continue to ask for your voluntary compliance, and we need to flatten the curve and beat this covid19 virus. So i will thank you and, again, we appreciate everybodys support. And with that, i think i have a few questions and then we will open it up to the questions for everybody else. We will begin questions for questions for chief scott. Chief scott, this question is from dan kerman. Have any businesses defied the current order and reopened on friday and over the weekend . If so, will this be allowed to continue . Over the weekend we did not have any we had one additional citation, as i stated. We didnt look, by and large, we are seeing really good compliance with our business community. We have thousands of businesses in this city, so its not to say that every single business has been checked, but we said from day one, on march 17, when we started this, that we would be proactive in going out to ensure that businesses were doing what was asked of them, and by and large that has happened. On those occasions where we had to go back and we had 13 examples of such, we have cited. After the warning has been given, and some of those 13 were cited on the first attempt after an inordinate amount of education was out in the public realm. So the answer to the question, though, is by and large we are seeing compliance, and we hope to continue that, and thats why i get up here and ask for voluntary compliance, and thats why we give warnings. Thats why we educate, and thats why we have this progressive pathway, to make sure we do this in a fair and just manner, but we need to get it done, and we need to make sure that people are compliant. The next question is from kathy novak. During the shelterinplace order, are any exceptions being made to the law requiring stores in San Francisco to accept cash . The ordnance about accepting cash is still active. It has not been suspended. I want to remind everybody what the spirit of this is. Its about equity. Not everybody has a credit card or an atm card, and people need essential services, and this is about equity, making sure that everybody in our city has access to what they need. So that is the spirit of this. So if there are people who are not abiding by that, the proper venue is to call our nonemergency line if you need a Police Officer to help you resolve that. Thats 4155530123. Okay, the next questions are for dr. Grant colfax, San Francisco department of Public Health. Dr. Colfax, the first question is from abc 7 news. Should san franciscans be concerned about people traveling to the city or the bay area from other counties and states that are less restrictive . Dr. Grant colfax so i think right now travel, its best for people to limit their travel to essential travel. This is not the time to go on a trip for recreation, a vacation, even to visit family and friends. I think its very important per my prior comments that we focus on focusing on the stayathome order, wearing Face Coverings, and social distancing. I think that with regard to people coming in to San Francisco from other areas, its also very important that we as a community create norms where the facial covering, the social distancing is encouraged and enforced. So i would really ensure that we do this, whether people are in San Francisco as part of their residency, whether theyre coming in to work in San Francisco, or if people are coming to travel here, that again, the social distancing, the facial mask are very important. And again, to limit travel to all but the most essential travel. Is the department of Public Health monitoring people from coming outside the area . So what we are monitoring is looking at the overall activity of the area, how Much Movement there is in terms of cellphone activity, cars and so forth. And whats really quite important about this is that it clearly shows that before we put more of these restrictions in place, the more people moved around, the more the virus was transmitted, and we see basically a clear correlation between activity in the public realms with transmission of the virus, which is why its so important as we gradually consider and put in guidelines around reopening that we are doing it in a very safe way, again with social distancing, with facial coverings, and really following the data and monitoring the activity in the city, as well as, of course, the very important metrics around the number of cases and the number of cases hospitalized in the city. The next question is from ctvu. The Trump Administration is calling for testing of people residing and working in Nursing Homes. How are San Franciscos efforts progressing . Well, were way ahead of the Trump Administration. We require are now requiring that Nursing Homes test staff and residents in Nursing Homes on a routine basis. That health order was issued last week, and we last week started testing staff and residents at laguna honda hospital, and this will be extended to Nursing Homes across the city. Very important, this is routine testing, testing people regardless of symptoms on a regular basis. Testing in the case of people having symptoms, whether staff or residents will also of course continue. Will the department of Public Health test private facilities to monitor covid19 for infection . The nursing home facilities . Yes. So the nursing home facilities in the city, with the exception of laguna honda, which is under direct auspices of the Health Department, the Nursing Homes are regulated and overseen by the state. Right now our focus is on doing conducting good Public Health interventions, and we are supporting those facilities Going Forward in scaling up their Testing Capacity. So the Health Department will be working very closely with those private homes and with the state to ensure that there are testing protocols made available, that in certain instances that materials and Technical Assistance is provided. And the intent is that over time these facilities will be able to conduct testing either on their own or through a third party or with ongoing assistance by the Health Department in a way that is sustainable and reinforceable. Last question is from mission local. Julie and mark. How much has homeless cases risen since last week . How many are severe or requiring hospitalization . So on the number of people diagnosed with covid19, of the 1,954 positive cases in the city, and this is with the thousands of tests that have been done, 8 or 156 people report experience homelessness. This was defined as this is defined as selfreporting homelessness, being included in a shelter outbreak or indicating homelessness or a shelter location as matched by Health Department records. And as i said, unfortunately one person who experienced homelessness has died of covid19related causes. Thank you. This concludes our questions for todays press conference. Francisco. My name is fwlend hope i would say on at largescale what all passionate about is peace in the world. It never outdoor 0 me that note everyone will think that is a good i know to be a paefrt. One man said ill upsetting the order of universe i want to do since a good idea not the order of universe but his offered of the universe but the ministry sgan in the room chairing sha harry and grew to be 5 we wanted to preach and teach and act gods love 40 years later i retired having been in the tenderloin most of that 7, 8, 9 some have god drew us into the someplace we became the Network Ministries for homeless women escaping prostitution if the months period before i performed Memorial Services store produced women that were murdered on the streets of San Francisco so i went back to the board and said we say to do something the number one be a safe place for them to live while he worked on changing 4 months later we were given the building in january of 1998 we opened it as a safe house for women escaping prostitution ive seen those counselors women find their strength and their beauty and their wisdom and come to be able to affirmative as the daughters of god and they accepted me and made me, be a part of the their lives. Special things to the women that offered me a chance safe house will forever be a part of the who ive become and you made that possible life didnt get any better than that. Whove would know this look of this girl grown up in atlanta will be working with produced women in San Francisco part of the system that has abused and expedited and obtain identified and degraded women for century around the world and still do at the embody the spirits of women that just know they deserve respect and intend to get it. I dont want to just so women younger women become a part of the the Current System we need to change the system we dont need to go up the ladder we need to change the corporations we need more women like that and theyre out there. We get have to get to help them