Transcripts For SFGTV APA Heritage Month Town Hall 20240712

You listed, correct. Yes, and also a component of that, i believe, 33,000 in that amount is for the Affordable Housing and analysis plan. Got it and by analysis plan, what are we talking about feasibility, layouts. More a study plan. Maybe sherry can speak to that program. I can speak, rich. That is twofold. One, i mentioned the work that were doing with g irinsler associates, as well as the assistance that one Treasure Island gave us in preparing our infill infrastructure grant application. Got it. So its like architectural application, that makes sense. And given its for this fiscal year up in june, sherry, of the 1. 79 million that you guys have, is there any left over in that budget . Whats the spendtodate for that . Almost all of that is spendtodate because we already did a major remediation job already. So almost all of that is a spendtodate at this point. Great, thank you. And just one other thing to clarify and yeah, i would love to have i though, sherry, youve presented to us before and apologies, but i think it would cool to do another kind of reup on covid and the work you guys are doing. When you say economically disadvantaged, can you remind me how youre defining that . Yes, economically disadvantaged and i believe this is in the jaop but its median income, and i will say that most of our folks are way below. And im going to give it back to you, rick. Perhaps, patrick is on the line now. I think were still having problem. Operator you have one question remaining. That must be patrick. So we will listen to the phone comments. Thiif this is patrick, youre free to speak. Again, because of the lag, we may need to give him a few seconds. Hi, everybody, can you hear me . Hello, patrick. Im on the line, can you hear me. Yes, we can hear you. Hello . Can anybody hear me . Im here to answer any questions you might have and were thrilled to continue to be a part of this Great Program and we love to in these times, especially tough times, we lo love to get some of these folks going. Thats the end of his comments and are there any other Public Comments . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Hearing there are no other comments on the phone line, have we got a motion is a second . So moved, linda. And a second, please. Second, sharon. And role call. role call . There are four ayes. The ayes have it. Next item. Thank you, guys. Item number 10, discussion of future agenda items by directors. Directors, does anybody have future items they want to bring up at this point . Yeah, i think just the thing that i said before, it would be good to understand one Treasure Island scope and also in a post covid word, if it is expanded right, to help all of the families on the island right now or if its not, you know, how are those gaps being filled . And, also, another agenda item, which i dont know who we would have to ro particulape on this,e federal stimulus money coming in, it would be good to understand how that is getting doled out to the city and get any thoughts from the city on how im sure some of that money will be predicated on some kind of formulas, but other will come in as block grant. So i think it would be good to get educated if there are things that Treasure Island should and could have access to, to help with our project. Thank you for the suggestions. It would be good at the june meeting to have one Treasure Island and Housing Providers give us what theyve been doing in response to the covid19 and its a great idea to look into the federal Stimulus Program and how to help us on Treasure Island. To note for Board Members and members of the public, during the Current Crisis in this format, weve been asked to restrict our agenda to action items. But if were able to meet in person in june, we will definitely include one Treasure Island update. Thats understandable. Next item, please. The meeting is adjourned. I just want to take this opportunity to thank you, directors. Its a difficult situation with this online infrastructure, a little bit slow, but we will do the best we can and for those who are out there, listening to us today, take care and keep healthy and keep safe. Director, i failed to mention in my report, but, perhaps, in closing, we could close in memory of zodell lantis, who was the kind of mistress of ceremonies for the Golden Gate International exhibition who passed away this last month at 104. I hadnt heard that news so thank you for bringing that up to us. She was feisty until the end and im sorry to hear shes passed at 104 years old. Thats quite amazing. So yes, lets close in her memory and we hope that everybody else will be well. Thank you. Thank you. Goodbye. We can adjourn now. Thank you all. 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 [roll call] great. I believe that commissioner bernal might have something to say. Yes, mark. Thank you. Before we begin, id like to address some thing, members of the public who are watching. We are made aware after the last Health Commission meeting on may 19 that there were issues accessing the Public Comment line. We apologize for those issues. We asked a representative from sfgov tv to join us today to moderate the Public Comment call line to alleviate any issues. And we will have this resolved today and moving forward. Mark, would you like to give some specific instructions to members of the public who would like to make comment . Sure. I want to remind everyone to please [inaudible] and were hearing someone make a