Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Committee 20240712

A. M. I. Out of the affordable units, were going to have 39 units subsidized with a housing wl be set aside for residents at sunnydale. This is an option for households who opt to move into the new units at the upper yard site. As folks might know, the site is currently being used by our department of homelessness and Supportive Housing as a vehicular triage center. Thats going to be in place until the end of this year, and the land and jurisdiction will transfer back to mohcd for development. So well be back before the board later this year for our bond issuance and approvals. So on behalf of our office and the project sponsor, which is related california, with mission housing, i would like to thank you for your consideration. Im happy to take any questions. I do think we have representatives from related available via the Public Comment line, not via the team connection. Chair fewer thank you very much. I see that supervisor safai has joined us today. Do you have any comments that you would like to add to this . Supervisor safai yes, thank you chair. Its hot out here today. Sometimes im a little formal, but ive got a tshirt on today, so thats good. I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to say a few words. This is a project that we have spent a considerable amount of time focusing on from the minute that i came into office as was presented by mohcd. We were the first site in the city to do safe parking. I was just at the site a few minutes ago. Its working exceptionally well. Weve been able to transition people into transitional housing, so thats been working really well, and this particular this particular site is extremely important in that this will be the first affordable Family Housing development ever built in district 11. We have this one and the valenci funeral home. Ive been on the phone for the last month with the state office of finance as well as related, one of the main project sponsors, to ensure that we are given strong consideration for this bond financing allocation and then made available in the next round of tax credit allocations. When we came into office, this project was anticipated to be built maybe another year or two out, but i want to thank and acknowledge the mayor for working with our office to do a local match significantly, and i know that were going to talk about that later in the budget agenda later today, but this project and the valencia funeral home represent over 260 units of Affordable Housing for families that have never had that opportunity in our district. So i want to thank mohcd. I know that this is an application for bond financing. We support that, and weve been doing that. And i want to also state for the record very clearly that this project has never lost any money. The one at the valenci funeral home has never had any money taken away from it, but in fact has had the support of this budget chair, has had the support of the mayor, and has had the support of the community to move this forward in an accelerated fashion, particularly with the funding we got with the support of the mayor and this budget chair last year. Thank you very much, and i appreciate the presentation. I know this is a formality, but i also wanted to set the record straight because theres some confusion out there in the public in terms of the support for this project and funding for this project out there, so thank you, madam chair. Chair fewer yes. Thank you very much for joining us. Colleagues, any comments or questions . Seeing none, madam clerk, can we please take Public Comment on item number 7 . Clerk yes, madam chair. Operations is letting us know if there are any callers in the queue. If you have not already done so, please press starnine to be added to the queue. For those already in the hold, please continue to wait until the system indicates you have been admitted. With the current set up, any callers who wish to comment on item number 7 . Operator yes, i have one caller. One second, please. Chair fewer welcome, caller. Hi. My name is can you hear me okay. Chair fewer yes, we can. My name is gina, and ive lived in San Francisco my entire life. I currently live in the excelsior district, and i grew up in ingleside by balboa park. I am a disabled welfare recipient and just knowing that more affordable options are going to be happening in my neighborhood means a lot. And then, i also had a question to pose. Im sorry. I am forgetting names, but the woman who was speaking at the Housing Project at balboa mentioned sunnydale and specifically mentioned the setting aside of 39 units, and my understanding was that the sunnydale projects house a lot more than 39 units, and i just am wondering what is going to be done to address the conditions at sunnydale because its been terrible there for many decades, and yeah, i feel like many more than 39 families are going to be needing new digs. So i just wanted to see whats happening with that. Chair fewer thank you very much, caller. We will address your comments at the public yeah. Operator that completes the queue. Chair fewer yeah. No one else in the queue . Operator that is correct. Chair fewer okay. Public comment is item number 7 is now closed. Miss ealey, maybe youll answer the callers question about the 39 units set aside for sunnydale. Certainly. Happy to do so. Thank you for the question, its an excellent question. The sunny the revitalization of the sunnydale housing is part of the hope s. F. Program that will replace all of the Public Housing and units and ae units over the next 10 to 15 years. The replacement of units is already underway at sunnydale. We have already completed 55 units and have 139 under construction. The 39 units that i have pointed out today is a very small number of units that need to be replaced. What were doing is offering folks, as i said, at their option, the opportunity to move offsite if they so desire. It its going to take us so many years to repair and replace all the sunnydale units. This is a small number of Units Available foor a large number of households, but the good news is the sunnydale revitalization project is well underway and showing great progress. Chair fewer thank you, miss ealey. Supervisor safai, i have a question, if you dont mind. Supervisor safai yeah. Chair fewer so this project at 2340 san jose avenue is not going to be jeopardized by the mayors balancing plan . That is exactly right. Initially, when we found there was going to be a need to balance our sources, we found other sources within the pipeline budget and had dedicated those for this project, so theres no need for anyone to be concerned that we dont have the funds for this project. As supervisor safai pointed out, its a huge priority for the city and for our office, so rest assured, the project is unharmed by that recent rebalancing. Chair fewer thank you very much. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai yes, yeah, i just wanted to say a couple of things. So one, i started my career in this city working for the Housing Authority. Im very authoriproud to have former Housing Authority commissioner. When we were working with the Mayors Office of housing, the mayor mayor, and the stakeholders, we wanted to do our share to help and allow families in Public Housing. This wont be the only site in our district the valenci funeral home will have some Housing Residents from potrero hill and sunnydale have some units set aside for them. I think when youre thinking, sunnydale has almost 800 units 770 almost 770 units. Its the largest Public Housing site in the citys portfolio. Potrero hill, if you add the annex and m s together, its also one of the largest. So the idea of rat hundreds of families all at the same time is not really an option, but theyre doingn phases. So when Affordable Housing comes online, i think Mayors Office is giving the option of relocating. We fully embrace that and think thats a very nice way to transition families rather than have them be relocated into different places, but they have the option of moving into brandnew mixed income Affordable Housing. The other thing i wanted to say, and im glad that you asked that question, this isnt the first time that these projects and this project in the city have had to switch out some funding. Its a normal part of the process. As projects come online, sometimes, the Mayors Office of housing has to shift funding around. Back in 2018, they did that because their 88 broadway in district 3 was ready to come online and our project was still going through the planning and entitlement phases, and so but we were able to gain that and accelerate the project by one sb 30 which allows for the acceleration of entitlement and review. Thats one, and then two, as i said in my at the sastatements when you and the Mayors Office and i got together, we ensured that this 2340 would get one of the gap fundings as needed. That helped us applying for different state financing to kind of close the funding out for both of these projects. So id like to set the record straight in that regard because switching money doesnt mean youre losing money, and in fact, this project has been accelerated in a good fashion. So thank you for the opportunity to stay a few words, chair. Chair fewer and the budget director is joining us. Kelly, did you want to add anything to the presentation . Did you want to add yeah, no, i just wanted to affirm what the supervisor said and share that were all on the same page, that the rebalancing does not jeopardize the project at all and make sure that we were all on the same page. Chair fewer thats great. So hearing that assurance, i would say lets make a positive recommendation to the full board, and could i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk yes, on the motion that supervisor fewer to send this item to the full board [roll call] clerk there are three ayes. Chair fewer yes, supervisor . Supervisor safai thank you, committee. Thank you, chair fewer. Appreciate it. Chair fewer madam clerk, can you please call items 8 and 9 together. Clerk yes. Item 8, resolution retroactively authorizing the Airport Commission to accept and expend a grant in an amendment not to exceed 7 million and any additional amounts up to 15 of the oeshlg grant that may be offered from the federal Aviation Administration for the continuation and expansion of the noise insulation program, contingent on receipt by the Airport Commission of a grant offer from the federal Aviation Administration for the period of october 1, 2019 through september 30, 2024. Item 9 is a resolution retroactively authorizing the Airport Commission to accept and expend a grant in the amount of 254 million plus additional amounted up to 15 of the original grant amount that may be offered, from the federal Aviation Administration for any purpose for the period of january 20, 2020 through january 19, 2024, contingent on receipt by the Airport Commission of one or more grant offers from the federal aviation commission. Chair fewer thank you very much. We have miss widener. Good to see you, kathy. Thank you, chair fewer, members of the committee. Kathy widener with the San Francisco international airport. The two items before you for consideration are both part of the federal coronavirus aid and security act. Item number 8 is the airports noise insulation program, which is the expansion of the federal share of the existing airport improvement grants, and item number 9 is an accept and expend of s. F. O. s allocation of the airport c. A. R. E. S. Grant in the amount of 254. 7 million, which is s. F. O. S portion of the grants money that takes into account airport debt service. Item number 8 is an accept and expend for the airports noise insulation program, with a total budget of 12. 7 million. Prior to the award of the additional c. A. R. E. S. Money, the Airport Commission could award up to 7 million. With the expansion of the funds, the federal Aviation Administration will fund 5. 2 million, and the c. A. R. E. S. Will fund an additional 2. 8 million. Additionally, the airport required matching fund was reduced by 500,000. Due to the increased funding by the c. A. R. E. S. Grant, after the original item was introduced, the airport is requesting that the resolution be amended to reflect the updated amount as well as to include c. A. R. E. S. Grant language and conditions. A copy of the amended resolution has been provided to the clerk, and the budget analysts report has a recommendation to approve and reflect the higher grant totals. The airports excuse me. A copy of the amended resolution has been provided to the clerk, but i would be happy to send that to the committee, as well. The second item is item number 9, its a grant accept and expend s. F. O. S portion of the c. A. R. E. S. Act. As stated in the airports Financial Recovery plan which was shared with the Committee Last month. S. F. O. Will use the grant funds to pay for debt service on general airport revenue bonds. A budget analysts report is not required since there is no matching requirement with these moneys. The airports finance team is currently projecting a 364 million shortfall through fiscal year 21, request a conservative estimated recovery by fiscal year 2223. The 254 million in c. A. R. E. S. Grant funding will apply to this shortfall. The rest will be covered through identified contract reductions from projects that have been deferred and potentially through p. S. C. Revenues. The Budget Analysts Office does recommend approval on the a. I. P. Grant, and i would be happy to answer any questions you have on either of the grant items at the airport. Chair fewer i see there is an amendment mentioned that will be presented. [inaudible] yes. The budget and legislative Analysts Office report does include the higher grant amount. Basically, we have substituted the higher amount in the funding that has become available through the expanded a. I. P. , so we took the original not to exceed amount of 7 million and increased it to 7,077,0 7,077,039, which is available. Chair fewer so im seeing that this amount is not substantive. Ill let the City Attorney answer, but its the amount thats being increased. Correct. Chair fewer and may we hear from b. L. A. , please. Residence. Severin campbell, b. L. A. It commits the airport to 5 million in matching funds, so this project would be 12. 8 million. We summarized the sources and uses in our table on page 22 of our report. As you see here, of this amount, 5. 2 million is from an f. A. A. Grant. Another additional nearly 2. 6 million is from the c. A. R. E. S. Act, and 5 million is from airport revenue bonds. And as i understand, i just want to make sher, the 2. 6 million in c. A. R. E. S. Act funds is separate from whats being requested in the subsequent legislation. Miss widener is correct, we commented on the resolution being introduced to this committee, and we recommend approval. Chair fewer thank you very much. Any comments or questions from my colleagues on items number 8 or 9 . Seeing none, lets open this up for Public Comment. Clerk yes, madam chair, operations is checking to see if there are callers in the queue. If you have not already done so, press starnine to be added to the queue. For those already on hold, please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted. Mr. Chu, let us know if there are any callers who wish to comment on items 8 or 9 . Operator madam chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. Chair fewer thank you very much. Public comment on items 8 and 9 is now closed. So we need to approve an amendment, is that correct, madam clerk . Clerk yes, on item number 8. Chair fewer so i make a motion to approve the amendment presen presented on item number8. Could i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk on the amendment [roll call] clerk there are three ayes. Chair fewer now, id like to make a motion to move number 8 and number 9 to the full board, and could i have a vote on that, please. Clerk yes. On the motion [roll call] clerk there are three ayes. Chair fewer thank you, madam clerk. Madam clerk, is there any further business before us today . Clerk theres no further business. Chair fewer okay. This meeting of the budget and finance committee is now adjourned, and i will see everybody in the budget and finance Appropriations Committee meeting at 1 00, and thank you, madam clerk. The goal is simple. Its to raise womens voices. Learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. We had own over 300 over 300 people who signed up for the oneonone counseling today. I think in the world of leading, people sometimes discount the ability to lead quietly and effectively. The Assessors Office is a big one. There are 58 counties in the state of california and every single county has one elected assessor in the county. Our job is to look at property taxes and make sure that we are fairly taxing every single property in San Francisco. One of the big things that we do is as a result of our work, we bring in a lot of revenue, about 2. 6 billion worth of revenue to the city. Often, people will say, what do you do with that money, and i like to share what we do with property taxes. For every dollar we collect in property taxes, about 68 cents of it goes to support public sstss, our police officers, our fire departments, our streets, our cleaning that happens in the city. But i think what most people dont know is 34 cents of the dollar goes to public education. So it goes to the state of california and in turn gets allocated back to our local school districts. So this is an incredibly important part of what we do in this office. Its an interesting place to be, i have to say. My colleagues across the state have been wonderful and have been very welcoming and share their knowledge with me. In my daytoday life, i dont think about that role, being the only Asian American assessor in the state, i just focus on being the best i can be, representing my city very well, representing the county of San Francisco well. By being the only Asian American assessor, i think you have a job to try to lift up and bring as many people on board, as well. I hope by doing the best that you can as an individual, people will start to see that your assessor is your elected leaders, the people that are making important decisions can look like you, can be like you, can be from your background. I grew up with a family where most of my relatives, my aunties, my uncles, my parents, were immigrants to the united states. When my parents first came here, they came without any relatives or friends in the united states. They had very little money, and they didnt know how to speak english very well. They came to a place that was completely foreign, a place where they had absolutely nobody here to help them, and i cant imagine what that must have been like, how brave it was for them to take that step because they were doing this in order to create an opportunity for their family. So my parents had odd jobs, my dad worked in the kitchens, my mom worked as a seamstress sewing. As we grew up, we eventually had a small business. I very much grew up in a family of immigrants, where we helped to translate. We went to the restaurant every weekend helping out, rolling egg rolls, eating egg rolls, and doing whatever we need to do to help the family out. It really was an experience growing up that helped me be the person that i am and viewing Public Service the way that i do. One of the events that really stuck with me when i was growing up was actually the rodney king riots. We lived in Southern California at the time, and my parents had a restaurant in inglewood, california. I can remember smelling smoke, seeing ashes where we lived. It was incredibly scary because we didnt know if we were going to lose that restaurant, if it was going to be burned down, if it was going to be damaged, and it was our entire livelihood. And i remember there were a lot of conversations at that time around what it was that government to do to create more opportunities or help people be more successful, and that stuck with me. It stuck with me because i remain believe government has a role, government has a responsibility to change the outcomes for communities, to create opportunities, to help people go to school, to help people open businesses and be successful. Make sure to be safe, and of course to have fun. And then, i think as you continue to serve in government, you realize that those convictions and the persons that you are really help to inform you, and so long as you go back to your core, and you remember why youre doing what youre doing, you know, i think you cant go wrong. Its funny, because, you know, i never had thought i would do this. I became a supervisor first for the city under very unusual circumstances, and i can remember one day, im shopping with friends and really not having a care in the world about politics or running for office or being in a public position, and the next day, im sworn in and serving on the board of supervisors. For many of us who are going through our Public Service, its very interesting, i think, what people view as a leader. Sometimes people say, well, maybe the person who is most outspoken, the person who yells the loudest or who speaks the loudest is going to be the best leader. And i think how i was raised, i like to listen first, and i like to try to figure outweighs to work with out ways to work with people to get things done. I hope that time goes on, you can see that you can have all sorts of different leaders whether at the top of City Government or leading organizations or leading teams, that there are really different kinds of leadership styles that we should really foster because it makes us stronger as organizations. Take advantage of all the wonderful information that you have here, at the vendor booth, at our seminars and also the oneonone counseling. I wouldnt be where i was if i didnt have very strong people who believed in me. And even at times when i didnt believe in my own abilities or my own skills, i had a lot of people who trusted and believed i either had the passion or skills to accomplish and do what i did. If there was one thing that i can tell young women, girls, who are thinking about and dreaming about the things they want to be, whether its being a doctor or being in politics, running an organization, being in business, whatever it is, i think its really to just trust yourself and believe that who you are is enough, that you are enough to make it work and to the Bicycle Coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. I was happy to receive one of them. The Community Bike build program is the San Francisco coalitions way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who mayo have access to affordable transportation. The city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the San Francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. The partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. We ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. We make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. Bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. It is not only a form of recreation. It is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. I really appreciate it. I am very thankful. We teach a class. They have to attend a one hour class. Things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. After that class, then we would give everyone a test chance chance to test ride. We are giving them as a way to get around the city. Just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. I guess enjoyable is a word i could use. That doesnt describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they havent ridden a bike in years. These folks are older than the normal crowd of peoplee give bicycles away to. Take my picture on my bike. That was a great experience. There were smiles all around. The recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. At the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. If someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike. Org volunteer you can sign up for both events. We have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. We are growing each and every year. I hope to top that 376 this year. We frequently do events in bayview. The spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. For me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. Most of the time the kids will be in the house. This is a fun way to do something. You get fresh air and you dont just stay in the house all day. Iit is a good way to exercise. The Bicycle Coalition has a Bicycle Program for every community in San Francisco. It is connecting the young, older community. It is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. It has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. I have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. After my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the belowmarket rate program. I got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [ ] the current Lottery Program began in 2016. But there have been lot rows that have happened for Affordable Housing in the city for much longer than that. It was there was no standard practice. For nonprofit organizations that were providing Affordable Housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. Private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city weve been monitoring for some time since 1992. We did it with Something Like this. Where people were given circus tickets. We game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. At the same time, we started electronic applications systems. Called dalia. The lottery is completely free. You can apply two ways. You can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. If you a plo apply online, it wl take five minutes. You can make it easier creating an account. To get to dalia, you log on to housing. Sfgov. Org. I have lived in San Francisco for almost 42 years. I was born here in the hayes valley. I applied for the San Francisco Affordable Housing lottery three times. Since 2016, weve had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. If you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. For some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. There is a Digital Divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. So we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. Along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and theres also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a firsttime home buyer workshop and a oneonone counseling session with the housing councilor. Sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldnt be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. They still might get a value for an available, Affordable Housing unit. We have a viety of Lottery Programs. The four that you will most often see are what we call c. O. P. , the certificate of Preference Program, the dthp which is the displaced penance Housing Preference program. The neighborhood resident Housing Program and the live worth preference. I moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. The neighborhood Preference Program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in San Francisco. The next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. You have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. All city sponsored Affordable Housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. Every week theres a listing on dalia. Something that people can apply for. Its a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. Lets say the lottery has happened. Several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. And how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. This particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. In my mind, i was like how am i going to win this . I did and when you get that notice that you won, its like at first, its surreal and you dont believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. Some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. They have key less entry now. They have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. Mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. We will Start Construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. We also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. And life happens to people. People move. So we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. Best thing about working for the Affordable Housing program is that we know that were making a difference and we actually see that difference on a daytoday basis. Being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, its a wonderful experience. Its a long process to get through. Well worth it when you get to the other side. I could not be happier. [ ] [ ] [ ] so i grew up in cambridge, massachusetts and i was very fortunate to meet my future wife, now my wife while we were both attending graduate school at m. I. T. , studying urban planning. So this is her hometown. So, we fell in love and moved to her city. [ ] [ ] i was introduced to this part of town while working on a campaign for gavin, who is running for mayor. I was one of the organizers out here and i met the people and i fell in love with them in the neighborhood. So it also was a place in the city that at the time that i could afford to buy a home and i wanted to own my own home. This is where we laid down our roots like many people in this neighborhood and we started our family and this is where we are going to be. I mean we are the part of San Francisco. Its the two neighborhoods with the most children under the age of 18. Everybody likes to talk about how San Francisco is not familyfriendly, there are not a lot of children and families. We have predominately Single Family homes. As i said, people move here to buy their first home, maybe with multiple family members or multiple families in the same home and they laid down their roots. [ ] its different because again, we have little small storefronts. We dont have Light Industrial space or space where you can build highrises or large office buildings. So the tech boom will never hit our neighborhood in that way when it comes to jobs. Turkey, cheddar, avocado, lettuce and mayo, and little bit of mustard. Thats my usual. Mike is the owner, born and bred in the neighborhood. He worked in the drugstore forever. He saved his money and opened up his own spot. Were always going to support home grown businesses and he spent generations living in this part of town, focusing on the family, and the vibe is great and people feel at home. Its like a Little Community gathering spot. This is the part of the city with a small town feel. A lot of mom and pop businesses, a lot of family run businesses. There is a conversation on whether starbucks would come in. I think there are some people that would embrace that. I think there are others that would prefer that not to be. I think we moved beyond that conversation. I think where we are now, we really want to enhance and embrace and encourage the businesses and Small Businesses that we have here. In fact, its more of a mom and pop style business. I think at the end of the day, what were really trying to do is encourage and embrace the diversity and enhance that diversity of businesses we already have. Were the only supervis in the city that has a permanent district office. A lot of folks use cafes or use offices or different places, but i want out and was able to raise money and open up a spot that we could pay for. Im very fortunate to have that. Hi, good to see you. Just wanted to say hi, hi to the owner, see how hes doing. Everything okay . Yeah. Good. We spend the entire day in the diso we talk to constituents and talk to Small Businesses. We put money in the budget so you guys could be out here. This is like a commercial corridor, so they focus on cleaning the streets and it made a Significant Impact as you can see. What an improvement it has made to have you guys out here. For sure. We have a significantly diverse neighborhood and population. So i think thats the richness of the mission and it always has been. Its what made me fall in love with this neighborhood and why i love it so much. Hello, i am with the San Francisco Parks Department serious we are featuring some wonderful locations in your and very own backyard. This is your chance to find your heart in San Francisco with someone special. We are here at the lovely and historic palace of fine arts, located in the bustling marina district. Originally built for the 1950s exposition, the palace is waterfront. It is ada accessible and is reached by the 28, 30, and 91 bus lines. With its rotunda, columns, uncut the reflecting waters against the eucalyptus trees, it is one of the most romantic settings for special dates, and memorable proposals. It is also a perfect spot where you can relax with that special someone while listening to the water and fountain in the lagoon. Beautiful to view from many locations, and inside is an ideal place to walk around with your loved ones. The palace is the most popular wedding location in the city park system. Reservations for weddings and other events are available at strecpark. Org. Shakespeares guard and refers has plants referred to in shakespeares plays and poems. Located near the museum and the California Academy of sciences, shakespeares garden was designed in 1928 by the California Spring blossom association. Flowers and plants played an important part in shakespeares literary masterpieces. Here is an enchanting and tranquil garden tucked away along a path behind a charming gate. This garden is the spot to woo your date. Appreciate the beauty of its unique setting. The cherry tree, the brick walkways, the enchanting stones, the rustic sundial. Chaired the bardsw ro share the bards words. The garden is a gem to share with someone special. Pack a picnic, find a bench, enjoy the sunshine and let the whimsical words of William Shakespeare float you and your loved one away. This is one of the most popular wedding locations and is available for reservations. Shakespeares garden is 8ada accessible. This park is located at the boit is infinite and captivating appeal. Carefully tucked away, one block from the bottom of lombard street, it makes the top of our list for the most intimate picnic settings. Avoid all tourist cars and parking hassles by hopping on the cable car. Or the 30, 45, 41, or 91 bus. This garden was designed by a the Landscape Architect Thomas Church in 19 to 1957. Grow old with me, the best is yet to be is inscribed at this gem of a park. A lush oasis anchored by gazebosanchoreddekcs, gazebos, anchored by decks. This is the place to tell your family the love you share. Reservations are available for this hidden gem. I am jamie hopper. Until next time, dont forget to get out and play. For more information about reserving one of these romantic locations, or any other location, call 8315500. This number is best for special events, weddings, picnics, and the county fair building. For any athletic fields and neighborhood parks, 8315510. You can also write us. 501 San Francisco, calif. 94117. Or just walk in and say hello. And of course you can find more information and reach us at sfrecpark. Org. We have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys Office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities t to lifs and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the police department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who ha had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of public safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are abl to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came i early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the board oforboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office tha that is innova. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she camen board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities a as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. You find your passion, the sky