Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety Neighborhood Services Committee 20240712

The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the july 9, 2020, regular meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee. Im supervisor mandelman. I chair this committee. Joined by supervisor stefani and supervisor walton. I want to thank the great folks at sfgovtv for staffing this. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Yes, thank you very much. In order to protect board members, City Employees and the public during the covid19 health emergency, the legislative Committee Room is closed. This is taken pursuant to local state, federal orders. Committee members will attend the meeting through Video Conference and participate in the meetings as if they were physically present. Public comment will be available for each item on the agenda. The number is being streamed across the screen. Public comment is available by phone, by calling 408 4189 8 408 4189388. Once connected and prompted, todays i. D. Is 146789102. Press pound and then a second time. When connected, youll hear the meeting discussions. When your item comes up, dial star, followed by 3 to be added to the speaker line. Best practices are to call from a quiet location. Speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television, radio or streaming device. Everyone must account for time delays and discrepancies that may occur between Live Streaming and of. You may email me, im john carroll. If you submit Public Comment via email i will add your comments to the file. And your written comments may also be sent to our office as city hall. Our address at city hall is 1 carlton b. Goodlett place. Thats it, mr. Chair. Supervisor mandelman thank you, mr. Clerk. Please call the first item. Agenda item number 1 is hearing to consider the issuance of type 42 on sale beer and wine public premises Liquor License to the nobody inn. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call the Public Comment number. Enter the i. D. Number, press the pound key twice. Mr. Chair, i notice that i forgot to meng that all items on todays agenda will appear on the regular board of supervisors Meeting Agenda of sorry for the delay july 21st. Supervisor mandelman great. Thank you. So first well hear from the a. L. U. Officer mackey. Are you here . Good morning, im here. Good morning. So before you guys have a report for the nobody inn, theyve applied for a type 42 license and if approved this will allow them to sell beer and wine. We have zero letters of protest. Zero letters of support. Theyre located in plot 164, which is a high crime area and theyre in census track 121. Our unit a. L. U. Recommends that the following conditions. Petitioner shall monitor the area under their control in effort to prevent the loitering of persons on any property adjacent to the licensed premises as depicted on the form. And no noise shall be audible at any nearby residence. As of june 30, they have signed and agreed to the recommended conditions. Supervisor mandelman great. We dont have questions or dont think they do, well hear from the applicant. Hi there. Thank you for having me. Okay, so the space at 620 post street has been used as a wine bar before. It was previously the battle room for many years. Its connected to the Fitzgerald Hotel which is a small independent hotel. And the nobody inn wants to be a lowkey addition to the neighborhood. And our intention is to have a menu focused on small production, locally produced beer wine and cheese. And were ready. Were here ready for when San Francisco can open. And i hope you will see fit to support this femaleowned business fort future of San Francisco. Supervisor mandelman great. Thank you very much. Lets go to Public Comment. Clerk thank you. Operations is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Let us know if we have any callers. For those connected to the meeting, press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue to speak on this item. For those on hold, wait until youre prompted to begin. You will hear a prompt saying your line has been unmuted. For those watching us, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial the phone number, enter the meeting i. D. , press the pound symbol twice and then star followed by 3 to be added to the queue to speak. Do we have any callers for agenda item 1 . Chair, there are no callers in the queue. Supervisor mandelman all right. We will close Public Comment. So, colleagues, i understand that supervisor peskin is supportive of this license. I think, therefore, we can direct our clerk to prepare a resolution finding that the license is a necessity and ill move forward to the full board with positive recommendations call the roll. On the motion offered by chair mandelman that resolution finding public convenience or necessity for the applicant be forwarded to the board of supervisors. Stefani aye. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mandelman great. The motion passes. Congratulations. [laughter]. Supervisor mandelman well move on to our next item, mr. Clerk. Clerk agenda item number 2 is resolution condemning the increase of racial profiling and discrimination harassment from private businesses for suspicion of crime or denial of Service Based on race, age, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status and national origin. Members who wish to provide Public Comment should call the Public Comment number on the screen. Enter the meeting i. D. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting. Then press the star key followed by number 3 to enter the queue to speak. Supervisor mandelman supervisor walton, this is your item. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair mandelman. Colleagues, you may remember i introduced this resolution last year on june 15, 2019, condemning the increase of racial profiling and discrimination, harassment from private businesses and individuals who profile people or color for suspicion of crime or denial of Service Based on race, age, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status and national origin. It was sent to this committee for a hearing on november 14, 2019. At the hearing it was made clear by the public weve had an increase on racial profiling and discriminatory incidents which has been recorded and posted on social media showing black people and people of color harassed by people using 911. And our Police Officers as a threat. This week i introduced the caution against racially exploitive nonemergency acts. The act is in response to the rise in incidents of people harassing and calling 911 on black people and people of color doing daily activities all over the country. We know that racial profiling has led to traumatizing black people and people of color and this has been happening in our nation since its beginning. It wasnt until the rise of smart phones and social media that these incidents are now being recorded and posted. For every incident that is publicized, there are many more that do not get captured. In San Francisco alone, in 2018, a woman subsequently permit patty called police on an 8yearold black girl she you a cued of accused of illegally selling water in front of her residence. In july, 2018, a woman harassed a latino vendor on Market Street telling her she couldnt be there if she didnt have a permit. Neighbors in the mission called police on victor stephenson, the black owner of a lemonade stand, accusing him of breaking into his own business. July, 2019, a man called the police on a black man waiting for his friend in the lobby of her building. Telling him he didnt look like he belonged there. In july, 2019, two black Youth Program leaders were racial profiled, accused of stealing and had the Police Called on them. These are people who work with our young people on a consistent basis, connecting them to use their skills and their assets in the entertainment world and artist world to be successful. And it even happened to them right here in our city. In february of this year, i had my own experience of being racially profiled by employees at the cigar bar. Our Asian American community has been there have been firsthand accounts of hate directed at Asian Americans from across the country. In San Francisco alone, there were more than 172 incidents of hate, all which occurred while sheltering in place rules were in effect. They range from verbal and physical assaults and discriminatory treatment, all dehumanizing, traumatizing and creating tremendous fear and anxiety for residents in San Francisco. Last month a couple in Pacific Heights called police on a filipino man accusing him of defacing someone elses property, despite the fact it was his home. In the same month, a couple stopped a latino man from entering the garage of his Apartment Building in south of market because he didnt look like he belonged there. And, of course, nationally, on may 25, george floyd was im sorry may 25th george floyd was killed because of a phone call accusing him of using a counterfeit bill. And there was a phone call in central park in new york where a woman called police on a black man while he was birdwatching and tried to weaponize 911. And this person has since been prosecuted. Each of these incidents, people of color were minding their business, going about their day, living as free residents in our liberal city when their activities were interrupted by those who wanted to remind them that they didnt look like they belonged. In some cases there was a threat to call 911 if the person of color did not comply. This discrimination against the black community and communities of color has to stop. This resolution reaffirms San Franciscos commitment to developing a discriminationfree community regardless of race, age, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, national origin, or religious affiliation. Time after time while urging companies to do the same, either by providing bias training, training employees with how to file a discrimination complaint and companies committing to investigate any allegations of discrimination. We want our people to act right and treat people right. We want our businesses to act right and treat people right. So we are going to do much more here in San Francisco to address these inequities. I bring this resolution forward to bring finality and get this supported at our board of supervisors as a whole and appreciate the time, chair mandelman. Supervisor mandelman thank you, supervisor walton. Mr. Clerk, i think that our sheriff may be trying to join our meeting. He needs a link. Clerk i have not heard that. But if you hang on for just a moment, i can add an invite to him. It will just take me a moment. Supervisor mandelman paul and joe engler. Okay. Cool. All right. Back to item you said paul and mr. Engler . Supervisor mandelman and joseph engler. Thank you. Okay. Supervisor walton, i would like to be added as a cosponsor. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair mandelman. Supervisor mandelman thank you for bringing this to us. I dont see any other comments, but we will open up to Public Comment. Clerk thank you, mr. Chair. Operations is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are callers ready. Please press star followed by 3 if you wish to speak on the item. You will hear a prompt informing you that your line has been unmuted. For those watching on 26 or streaming link or sfgovtv, if you wish to speak on the item, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial 408 4189388. Enter the meeting i. D. , 1467418902. Please then press the pound symbol twice and then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Could you connect us to our first caller if they are here. Mr. Chair, there are no callers in the queue. Supervisor mandelman okay. Im going to close Public Comment. Well move that we forward chair mandelman, i would like to add my name as a cosponsor. Clerk noted. Supervisor stefani thank you, thank you, supervisor walton. Supervisor mandelman i move that we move this to the full board with positive recommendations. Clerk on the motion that this be forwarded to the full board, stefani aye. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Motion passes. Okay. Clerk sorry, i may have supervisor mandelman the motion passes. Please call the next item. Clerk agenda item number 3 is ordinance amending the public works code to authorize the public works director to impose administrative penalties and fines for Illegal Dumping and to provide enforcement remedies for Illegal Dumping. Clarify that each act of Illegal Dumping constitutes a separate violation subject to abatement or enforcement action, amending the police code to provide procedures for assessment and collection of administrative penalties for Illegal Dumping and affirming the Planning Departments determination under ceqa. Members of the public who wish to comment on this, call the number. Enter the meeting i. D. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by the number 3 to enter the queue to speak. Supervisor mandelman supervisor walton, this is also your item. Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair mandelman, and thank you for the committee for obliging me this morning. This ordinance is to revise article 26 of the administrative and public works code on Illegal Dumping. Illegal dumping has been very prevalent in our many neighborhoods. Last year we had over 91,000 Service Requests for Illegal Dumping in San Francisco for public works and recology. In district 9 and 10, we have had the most cases of Illegal Dumping out of the entire city. In district 10, because of many Large Industrial and open areas, this has been a hot spot for Illegal Dumping. Annually, it cost the city 10 million each year to pay for the department of public works and recology to clean up illegally dumped items. For the last year my office has been working closely with public works, recology, San Francisco Police Department and City Attorney to come up with solutions to eliminate Illegal Dumping and stop people from putting their trash and debris out on our streets and sidewalks. We held a hearing last year in march to address some of these concerns and from that we have developed this ordinance that will redefine and expand the definition of Illegal Dumping. Including what constitutes as commercial waste, electronic waste, and prohibited materials. This ordinance will also clarify the types of violations as well as add enforcement allowing public works employees designated and the police code to use to Issue Citations. At the moment right now, only sfpd may Issue Citations to people caught in the act of Illegal Dumping. So this also takes away the opportunity for negative contact with Law Enforcement and allows the department of public works to work within the community to Issue Citations. We did receive suggestions as to not preclude any other Government Agency from investigating and bringing enforcement action for violations of californias law on Illegal Dumping. For example, the District Attorney prosecutes dumping cases under California Health and safety code 25189. 5, with minimum fines of 5,000 per day. As another example, our Office Brings Civil Enforcements actions for Hazardous Waste disposal under section 25189. 2 with fines up to 70,000 per day. With that said, we have a couple of amendments we want to propose. These are four minor amendments. I believe both of my colleagues have a copy. And the amendments start with page 1, lines 4 and 5, streamlining the title by removing and two and amending the public works code so it now reads as, ordinance amending the public works code to authorize the public works director to impose administrative penalties and fines for Illegal Dumping. And to provide for additional enforcement remedies for Illegal Dumping. Amending the public works code to expand the definition of Illegal Dumping to capture electronic waste and to clarify that each act of Illegal Dumping constitutes a separate violation subject to abatement or enforcement action. Amending the police code for collection of administrative penalties for Illegal Dumping. And affirming the Planning Department determination under the California Environmental quality act. Also on page 2, line 23 and 24, adding, or any other Government Agencies, as to not preclude other Government Agencies from enforcing municipal and state law. Page 3, lines 9 and 10, redefine call by adding means any expenses incurred by the city in addressing Illegal Dumping and Illegal Dumping violations. Including on page 7, line 23, adding, or Civil Enforcement action. It is time that we have the tools that equip us to help keep our communities clean, to stop some of, quite frankly, these contractors and businesses and people who either come from other areas out of town, or come from other communities and dump in our neighborhoods. We want to do everything we can to stop this behavior, to ultimately keep our streets clean, keep our folks safe from hazards and other nuisances that come as a result of this Illegal Dumping. Thank you, chair mandelman, supervisor stefani, and i look forward to moving this forward with a positive recommendation. Supervisor mandelman great. Thank you, supervisor walton. I understand larry stringer is here for questions, but doesnt have a presentation of his own, right . Or yep. Good morning. Larry had an unexpected emergency this morning, so im here if there are questions. But i would like to say we fully support this and applaud supervisor walton. Supervisor mandelman great. I dont see questions, so we will go to Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. Operations is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Let us know if we have callers. For those already connected to the Meeting Press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue if you wish to speak to the item. For those on hold, begin to wait until you hear a prompt. You will hear your line has been unmuted. Those watching on channel 26, sfgovtv, if you wish to speak on the item, you can call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial the number, enter the meeting i. D. , press pound symbol twice, and then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Could you connect us to our first caller if they are ready . Mr. Chair, there are no callers in the queue. Supervisor mandelman all right. Public comment is now closed. Supervisor stefani i want to say that i was at the hearing, i believe it was last year that supervisor walton called on. This im glad to see this proposed ordinance is the result of that very good work and i would like to add my name as cosponsor. Thank you again, supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thank you, supervisor stefani. Supervisor mandelman and i will also ask that i be added as a cosponsor. Clerk noted, thank you. Supervisor walton thank you, chair mandelman. Supervisor mandelman i will move that we accept the amendment. Clerk on the motion offered by chair mandelman to accept the amendment, vice chair stefani aye. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. There are three ayes. Supervisor mandelman the motion passes. And then i will move that we forward the legislation as amended to the full board with positive recommendations. Clerk on the motion offered by chair that it be offered as amended by chair stefani aye. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mandelman great. Motion passes. Supervisor walton thank you. Supervisor mandelman congratulations. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call our next item. Item 4 is ordinancele amending the health code to require the director of health to adopt minimum health and Safety Standards governing the operation of commercial adult sex venues, but prohibiting the director from adopting standards that require monitoring of patrons sexual activities or that regulate doors or mandate unlocked doors in areas where Sexual Activity may occur. Members of the public who wish to comment call the number on your screen. Enter the i. D. Press pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting. Then press the star key followed by the number 3 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Supervisor mandelman thank you, mr. Clerk. Colleagues, thank you for hearing this item today. The ordinance for us will require the department of Public Health to update their minimum health and Safety Standards for commercial adult sex venues and adopt standards that require monitoring. At the height of the aids epidemic in 1980s, they targeted bath houses frequented by gay men. They remain in place to this day. Decades later with the emergence of San Franciscos success in reducing new h. I. V. Diagnosis to under 200 for the First Time Since the 80s, these regulations have no remaining Public Health rationale. In the midst of the pandemic, were reminded that our best Public Policy directions are driven by facts, not by panic. The closure of the bath houses in San Francisco and the decades long policy of patron monitoring have no scientific justification today. This ordinance does not and will not require or allow the reopening of adult sex venues in San Francisco before it is safe to do so as part of our covid19 reopening. Adult sex venues have continued to operate in San Francisco since the 1980s, albeit with pat tron monitoring and no private rooms. Theyre one of the many types that our Public Health order has temporarily closed. This ordinance does nothing to change that. During the 70s and early 80s, bath houses were a focal point and Important Community meeting places where friends gathered to share stories, dance or watch a live show. Covid19 has resulted in the closure of many Small Businesses, a deadening of our commercial corridors and record unemployment in San Francisco and around the country. I hope this ordinance will make the operation of adult sex venues more feasible. The ordinance will amend the health code to require the department of Public Health to adopt new minimum standards governing the operation of adult sex venues and prohibit them from monitoring sexual activities or regulate doors or mandate unlocked doors in areas where Sexual Activity may occur. Throughout the drafting of the ordinance, we consulted with the department of Public Health. We initially hoped to hear this item in committee four months ago, but it was delayed until now so it did not interfere with the d. P. H. Covid response. They said the requirements not be adopted later than july 1, 2020. D. P. H. Has prepared an amendment which i believe has been circulated to all of you, can be found on page 4, line 16 of the amended ordinance that pushes that date to january 1, 2021. I want to thank director grant colfax and Public Health departmenter director rivera for their openness to the ordinance and all their work. Weve consulted with community and stakeholders including the San Francisco aids foundation. I want to thank laura thomas and joshua okneel for their guidance. And i want to thank tom in my office for all his work on the ordinance. Im happy to answer questions. I believe we have dr. Seuss su su san philips. I see no questions. Lets go to Public Comment. Clerk mr. Chair, operations is checking to see if there are any callers in the queue. Let us know if there are callers ready for those already connected to the meeting by phone, press star followed by 3 to be added to the queue. For those on hold in the queue, wait until youre prompted to begin. For those who are watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link or sfgovtv, if you wish to speak on this item please call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial 408 4189388, enter the i. D. Number, press the pound symbol twice, and then press star followed by 3 to enter the queue to speak. Could you connect us to our first speaker, please. Supervisor mandelman i will say just remind folks, that speakers have two minutes. We ask you that say your first and last name clearly and directly into the phone. If you have prepared a written statement, youre encouraged to stand a copy to our Committee Clerk for inclusion in the official file. In the interest of time, speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements. Lets hear our first caller. Good morning, supervisor mandelman and committee members. My name is paul, im a fifth generation san franciscan and member of the aids foundation and h. I. V. Network. The initial decision to close the bath houses was based on fear, shame, stigma and homophobia. Now we have covid19 which is teaching us the importance of basing our decisions on scientific facts and data. We also have effective prevention which is the reason why we closed the bath houses. I encourage the committee to approve the bath house legislation since its currently outdated and needs to be changed to reflect the times. Thank you for your time. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next caller. Good morning. My name is race bannon and im a long time writer, activist and organizer living in various lgbtq communities and resident of San Francisco since 1994. The legislation of today aligns with two of my areas of expertise and passion. While i do not know if new sex venues will go forward, i know if one should materialize without privacy agency, leads to Poorer Health outcomes. If someone was abiding by this legislation guidelines, i know they might be doing so because their living situations might not allow for an affordable place. I know they cater to the widest demographic possible they are able to deliver Important Health information they would often miss out on. I know that along with Good Sexual Health information, should they need to communicate with a partner personal boundaries and parameters to make it safer, they can do so better if a modicum of privacy is provided which human beings deserve. I strongly urge you to support the legislation which syncs where were at culturally in San Francisco. Thank you very much for your time. Supervisor mandelman thank you. Next speaker, please. That completes the queue. Supervisor mandelman great. Well, then i will close Public Comment. And i will move to accept the amendment. On the motion offered by chair mandelman to make the amendment, vice chair stefani aye. Member walton aye. Chair mandelman aye. You have three ayes. Supervisor mandelman great. The motion passes. I will move that we forward the ordinance as amended to the full board with positive recommendation. Clerk on the motion to recommend as amended, vice chair stefani . Aye. Member walton aye. Chair mandelman aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Supervisor mandelman great. The motion passes. Thanks, everyone. Mr. Clerk, are there any more items before us today . That concludes our business for today. Supervisor mandelman we are adjourned. Thanks, everyone. Announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is lindsey holmes. Hi, im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is founder and c. E. O. Of dispatch goods and former clinical profusionist at ucsf. She start add new initiative called project clean to provide alcoholbased cleaning products and Hand Sanitizers to atrisk bay area communities. Lindsey, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Its lovely to see you. Tell us a little about your background and how dispatched goods of San Franciscos restaurant community. Sure. We launched, in october, weve been working on this for a little over a year. And we partnered with restaurants to provide them with a free reusable container system that could replace singleuse products. We partnered with yelp headquarters in downtown San Francisco and 10 Restaurant Partners as of february before covid19 hit and employees at our Corporate Partners could request the reusable containers when they were getting their lunch for takeout or if they were getting it delivered to their office. We then handled the pickup and dish washing. So, obviously the virus pandemic has hit and now youve had to pivot your company and i understand you lunched a new initiative called project clean. Can you let us know what the program is all about . Sure. So we basically when this hit, we asked ok, what we do we have and how can we help . We also noticed there was a gap in the supply for Hand Sanitizers to Certain Community members and individuals and we talked to a distillery about making Hand Sanitizer and, in true form to our mission, we decided i bet we could collect enough containers from the community that we wouldnt have to supply more singleuse plastic containers and we launched project clean and with that, we collected over 200 containers. Theyre spray squeeze bottles and working on supplying the cleaning products. What has the response been from the community atlarge and how have peopled help . Were donationbased and selffunded right now. We are buying basically the products at cost and is not charging us much for that. Theyre also just trying to cover our expenses and we had a little bit of donations coming in. But if you go to our website, you can either donate containers that you have, well come do pickup. Were doing it twice a week now. Or if you yourself need any of the cleaning products, you can fill out the form and request those as well. And then there is also a place to make a donation. So, where are you handing out the Hand Sanitizer right now . Were doing it in the same route as the dropoff route. So, the Hand Sanitizer will be finished today. So, tomorrow well be doing our first round of dropoffs and weve been contacted by Health Care Professionals who after they come home have nothing on their hands there. We have been contacted by retirement communities and contacted by physicians in their offices that they dont have anything and a individuals that just werent able to get the supplies because they were sold out so quickly. Basically during our normal pickup routes now, we will be doing the dropoff as well. That is fantastic. You know, i think that is a Wonderful Service you are providing, lindsey. Thank you so much for coming on the show and keep up the good work. Thank you so much, chris i really appreciate it. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more stories shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus, thank you for watchinit. Shop dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help San Francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so were will you shop dine in the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in San Francisco that is color fulfill and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown welcome to jason dessert im the fifth generation of candy in San Francisco still that serves 2000 district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals thats why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art we will explain a walk and they cant walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming and they do show of. Beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is i really appreciate they love this art. From the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you dont have to go far. Small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. You dont have to go anywhere else we have pocketed of great neighborhoods haul have all have their own uniqueness. San francisco has to all the annual celebration of hardly strictly bluegrass is always a hit now completing itself 12 year of music in the incredible Golden Gate Park. This is just the best park to come to. Its safe. Its wonderful and such a fun time of the year. There is every kind of music you can imagine and can Wander Around and go from one stage to another and just have fun. 81 bands and six stages and no admission. This is hardly strictly bluegrass. I love music and peace. I think it represents what is great about the bay area. Everyone is here for the music and the experience. This is why i live here. The culture out here is amazing. Its San Francisco. This is a legacy of the old warren hel ment and receive necessary funding for ten years after his death. There is a legacy that started and its cool and hes done Something Wonderful for the city and were all grateful. Hopefully we will keep this thing going on for years and years to come. Hi. Im Chris Mathers with channel 19, and youre watching coping with covid19. Today, im going to be talking about exercising during the pandemic. First, im going to tell you what ive been doing, and then im going to be checking in with some friends and family. Ive been riding my bike. All i take is a pair of gloves and a mask if i come into contact with anyone. I try to ride my bike during the time im sheltering in place. I try to ride for at least 30 minutes. Surfing is my other regular outdoor activity. California state guidelines recommend you dont drive more than ten minutes for a spot to exercise, and although im close to ocean beach, im a bit wary to go there, so im using the time to do some maintenance. Filling in gouges and dings, and sanding it down. Im also repairing holes in my suit. Fellow sfgovtv producer chris took his first yoga lesson a couple of years ago and used to go to a class regularly before the lockdown. He and his wife set up a space in their garage for exercising. This routine is from an online class by power yoga. Deann and andy have been using the ping pong table that they bought off craigslist and set it up in their back yard. Ellie has been using this home gym to stay fit. It has everything she needed. And lastly, if the weather is bad outside, you can exercise your mind by doing a puzzle, sudoku, or just by reading a good book. Heres a quick recap. Since i started this episode, the guidelines have changed. For instance, jack may be able to go golfing with some restrictions. Go to sf. Gov to get the most uptodate valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. The first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the Mission Neighborhood extending from market to mission street. It is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. From 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. The mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m. T. A. To put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [ ] valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in San Francisco. It has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. We promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. Valencia is our mission fits our mission perfectly. Our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. Whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. I have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. During that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. We have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. One of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. The most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. We kept all the passengers the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see out here. Most people arent actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. Half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6 00 p. M. , so could be used for fiveminute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. The five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. One of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. We worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. On this lot, there are a few schools. All these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. To address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings railings that channel channeled a designated crossing plane. We had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons . I do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. We have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the rightofway so they can cross the roadway. This is probably one of the most unique features. During the planning phase, the m. T. A. Came out with three alternatives for the long term project. One is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. A twoway bikeway. The third option is a Center Running twoway bikeway, c. Would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side. Earlier, there werent any enter lane designs in San Francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for San Francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesnt exist already. With all three concepts for valencias longterm improvement , theres a number of tradeoffs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. When he think about extending this pilot or this still this design, theres a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. The pilot is great. It is a nobrainer. It is also a teaser for us. Once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. What were trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. The Pilot Project is one of our first major improvements. We will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. This fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. By spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about longterm improvements. I appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the Community Workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. We want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. Theres a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. We will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [ ] the hon. London breed good morning, everyone. Im San Francisco mayor london breed. Im joined here today with the director of the department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax, as well as the director of the department of economic and Workforce Development to talk about the citys effort around covid19, whats happening with our reopening, and what you need to know. Today as of today, we have 4,020 new cases total cases, 68 hospitalizations, and 16 transfers from other counties, and 50 people have sadly lost their lives to covid19 in San Francisco. I want to take this moment, first of all, to really thank the people of San Francisco because we know that it is because of many people in this city the fact that you have been wearing your mask, social distancing, washing your hands, and staying home in most cases, even though i know it has been challenging. Because you have done that, we have not seen San Franciscos numbers increase like some other cities that are experiencing significant challenges. But i also want to be clear that we are seeing an increase. Our numbers, along with numbers all over the country, are going up, and we are not out of the woods yet. I have said in the past, dr. Colfax has said in the past, the covid19 virus, this covid19 is with us for at least anywhere between 12 to 18 months, and what we are trying to do is adapt to our new normal, and part of adapting to our new normal is that we not only want to keep ourselves safe, we want to keep the people around us safe. I cant express enough how important it is to wear your mask whenever possible, especially when youre around other people. Its not just about protecting you, its about protecting them, as well. And we, as you all know, are still having a number of challenges, and i want to talk a little bit today about our reopening efforts because i know that thats really been at the top of everyones mind is what is happening. Last month, i made an announcement about a timeline specifically when San Francisco was planning to reopen, and we were doing well in terms of our numbers. As we said, we will look at the data, we will look at whats happening in our city as far as hospitalizations and make decisions. So we moved up our timeline once the state provided us with the variance. We were planning to allow businesses to reopen as early as june 29, and then, something changed. We saw a spike, one that we have not seen in a very long time, and as a result, we had to put a pause on the opening of those businesses, and i know that it was very detrimental, especially since its already been so challenging for so many hair salons and nahair salons d a number of other businesses that were planning to reopen. And i know this was very challenging, but this was definitely a matter of Public Health. I know it was hard to make that decision on that pause for reopening, and the original variance was scheduled to be granted july 13. So i must say that as of today, on july 13, we will not be able to allow restaurants to be able to operate indoors, as we had planned, nor will we be able to allow bars to open outdoors on july 13. And we continue to evaluate and to make the decision. If we see the numbers stablize or decline in any way, we will reevaluate the reopen. But at this point, we have no choice. We are living in covid, and i think what i want to reiterate is the fact that we are all in this together. What you do or what you dont do impacts someone else, whether you know it or not, and thats why its so important that we follow the guidelines of the city to wear our masks, to socially distance, to wash our hands, to do everything we can to stay apart from one another during this time, especially as we see the numbers increase. So i want to, at this time, introduce dr. Grant colfax, who will talk a little bit more about whats happening. And i also as i said, Joaquin Torres is here because we know that our Small Businesses in San Francisco who have already been struggling continue to struggle. We started a number of funds and a number of things to try and help support these businesses. I know its not enough, but i want to be clear that, you know, this is not a decision that we are approaching lightly. We know that in order to protect Public Health, we are creating other challenges for Small Businesses. Were creating other challenges because we know that over 153,000 san franciscans have filed for unemployment. We dont make these decisions lightly, and this is why we want to reiterate how important it is for us to listen to the guidelines and to do our part. We need these numbers to go down. We need these numbers to go down, so we need not just people in San Francisco, but the folks who are also coming from other places to San Francisco, the people who are working in San Francisco. Folks who work for our nonprofit agencies, serving our homeless population, are coming from cities all over the bay area. People who are working in our hospitals, our Public Safety officials. What impacts one impacts us all, so this is not just about San Francisco, this is about the entire bay area, and our need to take this virus seriously and to all do our part to keep one another safe. And in San Francisco, as soon as we can allow things to reopen, we will be the first to do so safely. So i thank you all for your cooperation, and at this time, i want to turn it over to dr. Grant colfax. Well, thank you, mayor. Im dr. Grant colfax, the director of Public Health for the city and county of San Francisco. I want to thank all san franciscans for their sacrifices during this unprecedented time. The psychological, physical, and economic toll wrought by the pandemic are severe and continue to have major impacts across the city and region, particularly among communities already facing socioeconomic and health inequities. The virus has further exploited these fault lines, and so far, for the most part, we have managed to avoid the worst consequences of the virus and the pandemic, but that could change at any time. Today in San Francisco, we have 4,020 diagnosed cases of covid19, and unfortunately, 50 people have died of the disease. In the bay area region, there are over 30,000 cases and just over 600 deaths. In the state, nearly 250,000 cases, and nearly 6500 people have died. And nationally, we continue to see the pandemic surge, with nearly 3 million cases and an astounding 130,000 deaths. Leading up to the holiday weekend, we did everything we could to make sure that we all knew the safest way to celebrate, and that was to stay home this year. For those who did go out, we asked that people avoid gathering wherever possible, wear face coverings, stay 6 feet apart, and wash their hands frequently. Over the weekend, the city handed out over 12,000 face masks to organizations in the Latinx Community in recognition of the disproportionate burden of disease affecting the latinx population, and we are continuing to expand low barrier testing to communities most affected by covid19. And you may have received a phone call or a text from the city encouraging you to do your part to keep your Community Healthy and safe. Unfortunately, there were still dozens of gatherings throughout the city, and many people were not wearing face coverings or masks. But i want to thank everyone who did take precautions. You are literally saving lives and keeping covid19 from spreading rapidly in the city. And i especially want to thank everyone who skipped the usual july 4 fun and made sacrifices this weekend. We are in a period, we have been in a period, and we continue to be in a period of uncertainty, and i want to acknowledge that this is a really hard place for all of us to be. And yet we know what works, and we need to continue to do what works. We flattened, and some would say we crushed the curve once, and we can do it again. If we do not, the consequences could be dire. My commitment to you is that we will continue to follow the science, data, and facts. The results of the july 4 weekend behavior wont be known for at least two or three weeks, but we must continue to do all we can to flatten that curve again. Dont let your guard down. The virus is still out there, and its out there more than ever before. It is spreading throughout our community and the bay area region. We are working with scientists, researchers who are seeing that the reproductive rate of the virus is climbing above 1. That means that for each person infected with the virus, the virus is infecting more than one person going forward. The virus is increasing in our community. At this rate, it could potentially overwhelm our Health Care System and cause many deaths if we dont get a handle on this right away. I want to make sure that san franciscans, that you understand how serious and precarious our situation is. Lets look at our health ska indicators. They are published daily on the San Francisco Health Tracker that you can reach on the San Francisco health website. I invite you all to follow along with how the virus is impacting our community. The indicators are scored by green, yellow, orange, and red to understand where we stand. Todays indicators show that, unfortunately, we have reason to be concerned. Our case indicator is red. We are currently diagnosing on average 6. 1 cases per 100,000 new cases per day. Our goal is to keep that number to 1. 8, so rather than 1. 8, were at 6. 1. That is red. That is a serious situation that requires us to pause. Hospitalizations for people diagnosed with covid19 have seen a 25 increase over the past week. Our goal is to keep that increase less than 10 . Our hospital capacity, unfortunately, remains good. 35 of acute beds are available, and 30 of i. C. U. Beds are available for covid19 and other patients, but again, that could change at any time, and we know, when this virus takes off, it takes off fast. Testing, we continue to expand testing. Were currently conducting an average of 1762 tests over a sevenday average. Our Contact Tracing, we continue to follow up with 82 reaching 82 of cases, and 88 of their contacts, and our protective personal protective equipment or p. P. E. Is at 89 supply, status yellow. Now lets look at the bay area perspective. As we all know, San Francisco is not alone. We are a part of an interdependent region where people live, work, go to school and play across many counties at once. There are cases surging in communities across the region. For examp marin, 1774 cases in the past two weeks. They were put on the state watch list. Solano, 1662 cases in the last two weeks alone. They have been put on the sate watch list, and we see similar numbering increasing across the region. This pandemic does not, the virus does not know county lines, and we must respect that it is increasing across the bay area. So where does that leave us . Our reopening is still on pause as of june 29 as we work to bring the latest surge of cases under control. We can do it. Weve done it before, and its up to us. I know that this is an unsettling situation, and there are a lot of unknowns. I know and appreciate that businesses are and need to be able to plan, and that residents need to be able to get back to work. While it is so difficult, so difficult, as the mayor alluded to, to slow down the reopening that we all want so badly, the price we pay for moving too quickly is extremely high. Remember, this virus has no timeline. Across the country, the virus is surging back in florida, arizona, and texas. In california and right across the bridge the golden gate bridge, marin is slowing down reopening, and in Imperial County to the south, the hospitals there are full and patients are being transferred to other counties. In fact here in San Francisco, we have 13 patients have other counties that we are caring for in our intensive care units. At this point, we are not dialing back any of the activities or businesses that have reopened, but we are not going to rush it further ahead, either. I know that it is confusing to keep track of all these lists and schedules, especially when they may change. Here are some of the Public Health principles that we are using. You can use them, too, to guide your decisions. Again, everyone in San Francisco and, indeed, in the bay area has a responsibility and an opportunity to protect the communitys health. When you think about the risk of exposure and transmission, keep these things in mind. How risky is the activity . First, is the activity indoors or outdoors . Outdoors is much safer. Second, does it involve gatherings with people outside of your immediate household . That is riskier and should be avoided. Three, can you hear face coverings at all times during the activity . Four, can you maintain, and i mean can you really maintain at least 6 feet of physical distancing . I think some of us have found that harder than we expect in certain situations. Fifth, can you easily wash your hands and is the environment properly cleaned. Think about any activity in terms of the following four characteristics number, frequency, duration, and distance. Number. The more people who are together, the more interactions take place. This is riskier. Frequency. The more often people interact, the higher their risk of transmission. Duration. The longer the amount of time spent together, the higher risk of virus transmission. Distance. The closer together people are, the higher risk of virus transmission. Keep these principles in mind. Use your common use common sense. Use our common sense. Facial coverings, social distancing, think about the number, frequency, duration, and distance as you make decisions about how, when, and even if to engage. When we apply these principles and examine the Health Indicators and incorporate what we are learning about the virus and its reproductive rate in San Francisco and the region, we are forced to conclude that it will not be responsible to allow Indoor Dining or outdoor bars to begin on july 13. Indoor dining is an activity where people typically gather with those outside of their households, takedown their face masks, and spend time in close proximity. The simple pleasure of going to an indoor restaurant is something that we, and certainly i, all miss, and it is certainly a vital part of our cultures economy. I know from experience what it means to wait tables and live by the service tips that are provided. But for now, unfortunately, Indoor Dining is an opportunity for the virus to spread. If we let that happen, it will further delay our chances of getting back sooner to the things we love to do. We are not alone. New york city also has put Indoor Dining on hold and, eve west virginias governor has issued an order making indoor masks mandated when social distancing isnt possible. They are taking aim at the same things that we are. As for outdoor bars, they are currently restricted for 23 counties on the watch list. And although San Francisco is not on that list today, that could change. As i said, several bay area counties are on the watch list, and if any county in the bay area is in such trouble, we are all in trouble. In keeping with our regional approach, we are going to abide by that restriction since outdoor bars are an occasion for gathering, removing a facial mask, and can be a difficult environment to maintain adequate physical distance. Meanwhile, Outdoor Dining at restaurants and bars that serve food will continue to be allowed as long as everyone follows the precautions and the virus remains under control. We are continuing to evaluate the data and reconsider the reopening of indoor museums, zoos, aquariums, gyms, real estate open houses, and personal services. We will have an update on those activities by the end of the week. I cant emphasize enough how important it is that we do our part, that each of us does our part. Remember, even if you do not have symptoms, you could be carrying the virus, or your friend could be carrying the virus. Even though this virus has greatest consequences in general for people who are older, it can also have severe consequences for younger people. We must all do our part to keep as many people as possible from contracting the virus. Do not gather if possible, and not in large groups. Continue to stay home as much as possible. If you leave the house, wear a mask or a face covering, stay 6 feet apart, and wash your hands. These actions save lives. We have time. There is a window now for course correction, but if we dont do it, and we dont do it quickly, we could be looking at a surge of illness that goes well beyond what we are prepared to handle. We saw in march that our Rapid Actions mattered. Just a few days made a huge difference. The power to make things better is indeed in our hands. We can get this right. We know what to do. We need to support each other in doing it. We can have a thriving economy in San Francisco with a healthy population and a renewed economy if, if we Work Together, remain vigilant, and hold our ground. Thank you. And it is my pleasure to introduce Joaquin Torres, the director of oewd, who will make additional comments with regard to where we stand with the pandemic and business and recovery. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your leadership, mayor breed, and thank you very much for keeping us all safe and healthy during this time, dr. Colfax. I know that so many individuals in the business community, whether the businesses or their workers are happy that were doing so much to keep them safe and their families. We all know that these practices are what are allowing the businesses to move forward. We know that this is a very difficult time for you, for your employees, and for our city, but so much appreciate what you all have done for us to keep our city strong, lively, and our Economic Activity continuing. The issue for us right now around wanting to ensure that you have clarity is a commitment that our office of economic and Workforce Development brings. You can visit our website at oewd. Org to learn more about partnerships that we are providing with the city and Public Health so that you can continue to have best practices around measures, guidances, and reopening. That is your source for information to grants and loans that we are providing here in the city and county of San Francisco for all of you. We know that all of you are deeply excited about getting back to work. Please do stay in contact with us. We look forward to working with you to making that happen. As mayor breed and dr. Colfax said, the basics are what matter right now. Please do, when businesses are asking for your support, please be patient with them. Please continue to support them. They are looking at for your interests and our entire citys interest by asking you to wear your mask, maintain social distancing, use the sanitizer that they have at the front door when you come in. Please be respectful of that. We all need your support, and they all need your support in continuing to work to move forward to benefit our economy. Thank you to our Small Businesses, and thank you to the workers who continue to come in day in and day out who make sure that we can continue to provide for ourselves and our families. Thank you for all that you do and we look forward to working with you. Please visit our website, oewd. Org so we can provide you information on reopening and answer any questions that you may have whether youre a worker, a business, or a nonprofit in San Francisco. Thank you. Director torres, if you can stay at the podium, the first question will be for you. Okay. The first question is from chris reyes, abc 7. What can you tell the restaurants about the first goal of reopening . Are you working with the restaurants for the first phase of reopening . Yes. The answer is we are working very closely with the restaurants. Our staff are talking daily, if not every other hour, with the Industry Leaders and also individual businesses to make sure that were up to date on information and needs that people have. As you heard dr. Colfax mention, the realities right now are that we are not ready to provide a timeline in terms of when these next steps can be taken. This is contingent on what the data tells us. We look forward to more and to communicating more by the end of this week, but for the Golden Gate Restaurant Association and others, we will continue to work with you and continue to provide you up to date information. Thank you, dr. Torres. The next set of questions are for dr. Grant colfax, the director of Public Health. Dr. Colfax, your first question is from marco siler gonzalez, kesq news. Do you have a total number of patients that have been taken from san quentin to hospitals . Our latest number is 70, and that number has remained stable the last couple of days. Our last question is from [inaudible] on the virus spread in hospitalizations in the bay area, including San Francisco . Well, im certainly very concerned about the outbreak at san quentin, and we are working with our state and local partners to coordinate efforts to ensure that people, both the inmates and the staff of san quentin are getting access to care and the best care possible. That is being coordinated by the state. As i said in my opening statements, hospital beds in San Francisco looks good, so at this point, we will continue to support care for inmates and staff in necessary here in the if necessary here in the city and ensure that all patients inmates and staff get the care that they need. Follow up from kathy novak. Do you think that the crisis specifically is contributing to the delay in reopening . I think that there are multiple factors contributing to the delay. I truly cant draw a cause from the san quentin outbreak to our decision here in San Francisco to delay. I do think that we are increasingly looking across the region. As i said, if one countys in trouble, we are all in trouble. Were looking at both our local indicators here in San Francisco as well as indicators from our neighboring counties to make the decision that we did make to pause, and our indicators will continue to drive those decisions, along with the context of what other counties are experiencing. The next question is from heather knight, San Francisco chronic chronicle. San francisco families with children are frustrated that zoos, aquariums, and other places arent reopening. Do you have any date on when programs will restart . Its really this unprecedented challenging time where were trying to balance the need to protect children, their families, their grandparents with with the very issues that youre raising here. We have done a number of things that we hope will mitigate some of the concerns you raise. Camps are open with certain restrictions. We have child care guidelines out, and child care can open. The slow streets closing on jfk drive so families have more ability to get outside and exercise and get those kids out, and then were looking and working with the School District and private schools, as well, to potentially issue School Guidance soon. Still uncertainty still a lot of uncertainty, but really trying to balance the fact that kids need to get out, kids need exercise, their parents need a break with the fact that were in this unprecedented pandemic situation. And the final question is from felipe from kron 4. How close is the city from having to revert back to full place shelter in place in march that ultimately resulted in the curve being flattened . So were not at that point today. We are not rolling back what we have opened at this point. We will continue to follow the indicators and see. Again, i am hopeful, and i am even optimistic that if we all do our part, follow the guidelines, that we that we wont have to get to that point. Now certainly, its possible, but im hopeful that weve done the right thing in San Francisco by following the data, science, and facts. Moving congruent with the data, well be reviewing the data and indicators and will be issuing the facts this week. Thank you, dr. Colfax. This concludes our press conference for today. Listen, your story line, it makes for incredible tv drama. Thing is, your drug use is too adult for the kids, so im going to have to block you. Oh, man. Yeah. [inhales] well, have a good one. Youre a nice lady. Terrors. We see again, across youre watching coping with covid19 with chris manners. Hi. Im chris manners, and youre watching coping with covid19. Today, my guest is an infeshttious disease specialist and leading the covid disease tracing team for the San Francisco department of Public Health. Shes here to talk about the citys Contact Tracing program and how to slow the spread of the virus. Doctor, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Can we begin by talking about when the citys Contact Tracing Program Began and what are the services . Sure. So we began Contact Tracing on the first day that we had a case here in San Francisco, so that was march 5 of this year. The purpose of our program is to provide comprehensive services to people who are close to and diagnosed with covid. This includes anyone whos newly diagnosed gets a phone call from our Trained Health professionals in which we talk more about their diagnosis, make sure that they have accurate information. We then go into understanding a little bit more about their symptoms and trying to better understand when they first may have become infectious to others. As part of that, we will then talk about anyplaces they may have visited for an extended period of time and people they were in contact with. We then seek to better understand the individuals that they were in touch with by collecting names and phone numbers so that then we can reach out to these individuals and make sure that they have the information that they need in order to quarantine and get access to immediate testing for covid. How does the program work . How many people are actually acting as contact tracers, and what do they do . So we had over 100 people activated with the city to provide active Contact Tracing actions for san franciscans. So this team is highly trained in being able to provide everyone diagnosed with covid with information about what this means to them and make sure that they know the resources that are available to them so that they can safely isolate. This team then also has worked with several social workers as well as other city departments to make sure that this individual has Wraparound Services in order to complete their isolation in quarantine. In general, we have staff that represents all diverse backgrounds in San Francisco, and they are also able to provide linguistically appropriate services to make sure we are able to meet the needs of the people being diagnosed. Thats great. When we run a huge program in the mission district, what role did Contact Tracing play in that effort. Was there anything notable . So previous to this pandemic, San Francisco Public Health has been tracking communities disproportionately affected by covid19. We provided a large communitybased Testing Campaign in the mission. As part of this campaign, we found that while latinos made up 44 of the people who were tested, they made up 95 of people who ended up being diagnosed. We also found that 90 of the people who were diagnosed with covid19 could not work from home, suggesting that this disease is impacting communities that may be unable to work from home or have the resources to stay at home during their shelter in place order. So as part of these activities, its really a reflection of what were seeing citywide in that we need to make sure that people who are at the greatest risk for covid have the resources needed in order to take time off of work as necessary, as theyre diagnosed with covid. I think as weve seen in new york, density is a huge factor, so it makes sense that there would be quite a few cases in the mission district. Yeah. We did find that the median size of the household was greater than three, and the majority of people who had been diagnosed with covid, so this does go back to the fact that covid is really likely to transmit within households, and we need to make sure that households have the information that they need if somebody is diagnosed with covid, and that they can appropriately cleanup, clean their spaces, and they can selfisolate, and as necessary, they have access to city funded hotel rooms where they can safely isolate or quarantine for the required period of time and reduce their risk of spreading covid to others. Just to confirm, these tests are completely free, right . What kind of turnaround do we have . So fortunately, San Francisco offers free testing to san franciscans who have even one symptom consistent with covid19. What you need to know about this testing is that you have to schedule it online, but that you dont need any medical insurance, and you dont need a doctors note. In addition, testing is available to all san franciscans regardless of immigration status. Youll be able to get your test results in just one to five days after getting a test, and youll get follow up through the Health Department if youre found to have covid19, including access to all of our tracing activities that ive talked about today. So if you have an opportunity to test for covid, i recommend that you go for it because its important that we all really understand that testing is part of our new normal and a really Important Pillar for our fight against covid transmission here in San Francisco. Now, some communities have been responding differently to the virus. Some have been asking their citizens to keep a diary so they can remember who theyve seen, while others are encouraged to download an app to their phone so they can keep track of tracing. Have we considered any of these steps. So a major part of tracing is to talk to someone about where theyve been and who theyve been in contact with prior to developing symptoms or on the date of their test. This requires jogging somebodys memory, and as we all know, it can be hard to recall all of the things that one has participated in days in the past several days. So we recommend that everyone Pay Attention to what theyre doing as we lift our shelter in place orders, and we are carefully looking at the possibility of being able to support and being able to understand where someone may have been and who else may have been exposed to covid. But as part of that, were keeping careful caution and doing our Due Diligence to ensure that peoples privacy and confidentiality is maintained. This is the number one priority for us in the department of Public Health. We want anything that we offer through an app to be supplementing instead of replacing our currently Contact Tracing efforts. So it seems like any appbased program the city might offer would be on a strictly optin basis . Absolutely. We would want people to choose whether or not they want to participate in any of these appbased programs, and it would strictly be voluntarily if they were diagnosed with covid and they wanted to share information with the department of Public Health and others. We really want to make sure that any app that we recommend as a department is completely confidential and maintains the highest levels of privacy, and also is able to supplement our current offering of Contact Tracing and not become a distraction whereby people are getting notified that dont have contacts or information that they need in order to take the appropriate next steps. Yeah. I think it would address peoples concerns if its strictly voluntarily whether you use the app or not. So finally, what would you say to our residents is the best way to stay safe during this pandemic . Well, i like to boil is down to a short little phrase. Cover your face, test early, and trace. And what i mean by that, as well as our shelter in place restrictions, we really want people to continue into their new normal life wearing a mask. We know that this is a very protective way of preventing the spread of covid, and we want everyone to adopt this practice in their life as they move forward. We also want people to pay a lot of attention to their bodies as we begin to get back into the world as well as any symptoms that may be consistent with covid19. Fortunately, we have the tests here in San Francisco to make sure that every san franciscan can access a test if they have symptoms. So if somebody is experiencing any symptoms, we want them to seek out those Testing Services immediately and isolate and note their results. And finally, if somebody is diagnosed with covid19, we want to make sure that they have been paying attention to who theyve been spending time with in the days prior to their symptoms or the days prior to their tests. So that includes an element of tracing your foot steps, as i like to say, and being mindful of your actions, particularly any interactions where you may not have been masked or may have been spending time with people over ten minutes and less than 6 feet apart. By keeping track of people you may have been in contact with, itll be much easier to work with the Health Department and reach out to those individuals to make sure that they know that they were exposed to somebody with covid19 and they can get the appropriate testing and quarantine so we can ongoingly reduce the risk of transmission to others. Thats really fantastic information, doctor. I really appreciate the time youve given us today. I know youre really busy. Yeah, i appreciate the conversation. Thanks again. Thats it for this episode of coping with covid19. For sfgtv, im chris manners. Thanks for watching. My name is alan schumer. I am a fourth generation san franciscan. In december, this building will be 103 years of age. It is an incredibly rich, rich history. [ ] my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building alive. I am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. I have two ways of looking at my life. I want it to be i wanted to be a Fashion Designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. I ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. The work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the Garment Industry. I had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. It is almost like an extended family. I have formed incredible relationships with them, and also some of the people that come to take a tour. She was a dressmaker of the first order. I would go visit her, and it was a special treat. I was a tiny little girl. I would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. The Garment Industry had the at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly favourable to women. You will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. Women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a difficult to survive and survive financially. There was a woman by the name of diana. She was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. She classified it as a third i. Will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of San Francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. I believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. The board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. Jeffrey heller, the city and county of San Francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. To impart to the history of this building is remarkable. To see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you Start Talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. With children, and i do mainly all of the childrens tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can Start Talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of San Francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. At times, my clothes make me feel powerful. Powerful in a different sense. I am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. Usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. I have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit . Retirement to me is a very strange words. I dont really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the peoples palace. You want a longterm career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something youre then yourself. Follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along the way. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Friendly reminder, this line is only for members of the press. If you are a member of the public, please join us on the sfg youtube channel. Please type your name, news outlet, and question exactly as you would like it to be read. Please indicate if you would like a translation in spanish. Please ask only two questions. If you ask more than two questions, we will ask you to prioritize the questions that you would like us to ask. Order of speakers today is dr. Jeannie lee followed by dr. Kathr catherine jane, and with that, id like to turn it over to dr. Jeannie lee. Thank you. Hi. Im dr. Jeannie lee. Im with the School District department of Public Health working on School Guidance. Just to give some background, schools are still closed, according to the San Francisco health order. We are sharing this preliminary guidance because we know that schools need to plan ahead for safely resuming inschool attendance if and when San Francisco Health Officers allow schools to open. The good news is that we have learned a tremendous amount in the last few months about covid19, mostly about how it affects children and teens and about how its transmitted in effective spread of covid19. We know that the risk of illness from covid19 is very low for children, and we know that those, especially those under ten, are less likely to get covid19 as well as less likely to transmit it. In addition, we know whats been working well to prevent covid19 spread in our child cares and summer camps, both locally and nationally, and so the principles in the School Guidance are similar to what weve been using in the best setting. The guidelines were drawn from the best science available to us at this time. It will continue to evolve as we learn more about covid19 and about how it affects children and adolecents. It was developed by the San Francisco department of Public Health with extensive help from sfusd, the catholic schools, and the independent private schools in San Francisco. Its formed by guidelines from a variety of sources, including the centers for disease control, California Department of Public Health, we also referred to guidance from Harvard School of Public Health and the American Association of pediatrics. We say the guidelines will be used as a tool to help schools layout their operational guidelines for opening. They can use them as age appropriate interventions to protect staff, students, and their families. We emphasize preventing transmission of covid19 via respiratory droplets, especially transmissions between adults which we know is at greater risk, using universal distancing, face coverings, and general intervention, and we feel this is better than frequent cleaning and disinfection. That is because coronavirus is easy to kill. Common cleansers are effective, and hand washing breaks the chain of transmission. We recommend that cohorts be of a smaller size in elementary schools. Cohorts can be a larger size in middle school and high school. Finally, these guidelines are about how to keep teachers, staff, and students as safe as possible in schools, but safely reopening schools needs to be a community effort. Even the childrens risks are lower than adults. Children do get covid19, and they do give it to others, so families have a big part to play in keeping children safe at home and in keeping the community safe, because the most common way that a person gets covid19 is from an individual in their home. We all have a duty to wear face coverings, wash our hands frequently, as well as practicing physical distancing and staying away from other people when were ill. Students can do the same, but if covid19 spreads too rapidly in our city, that may not be enough for them to be able to be open safely. We all have a huge debt of gratitude to all of the teachers and school staff for serving on the frontlines, and we owe it to them to do everything we can to keep students, teachers, and staff as safe as possible in the school. So i think this is where i open it up for questions. Thank you, dr. Lee. So at this point, we will start receiving questions via our zoom chat. Please submit all your questions to geaqanda ho geaqandahost sf. Gov. Were just in the process of receiving questions now, dr. Lee. Our first question is from the s. F. Examiner. How will the citys overall response aid schools with hygienic supplies and nurses needed according to the guidelines . Should they bring students back . Im sorry. Can you repeat that question . Yes. How will the citys overall response aid schools with supplies and nurses needed according to the guidelines should they bring students back . Okay. So again, we are relying on the schools to communicate what they need to open, and the persons and resources that they need, so its hard for us to speak to the school in terms of the support that they need, but certainly, we are committed to supporting our schools. Thank you. Our next question, dr. Feng, if you could please respond to this next question in chinese. If you could tell us what kinds of Extracurricular Activities at this point. Interpreter actually, if dr. Feng can explain it, i can support in chinese, too. Oh, dr. Feng, please unmute. Dr. Feng, please unmute. Okay. Thank you. So yes, im dr. Richard feng, and one of the physicians on the department of Public Health, and the question is related to Extracurricular Activities. So so this is an important question, and this is something that all schools are trying to figure out right now. Were having were trying to rely on the science available, and were trying to figure out which Extracurricular Activities are safe, and which ones are not as safe at the moment. We are able to draw upon our experience from summer camps and child cares to to form this decision. Its difficult to try to categorize specific activities, but i think in general i can speak to general principals that weve been applying to consider extracurriculars as something that is safe or not. So in general, activities that can be performed outdoors are for example, like, outdoor exercising, for example, would be considered safer than activities that are performed indoors. In addition, all activities would be safer if they can maintain social distancing. So in general, activities that involve close contact, touching, are less safe. And so it is very possible that what we do would have to be modified to adhere to social distancing. They would have to be performed outdoors as much as possible, and if possible, they should be performed by within the cohort so as to prevent large gatherings of people. Great, dr. Feng. I will translate into cantonese. [speaking cantonese language] [end of translation] interpreter let me repeat. [speaking cantonese languag [end of translation] and dr. Lee would also like to respond to that question, so dr. Lee, if youd like to provide additional information. Yes. So to echo what dr. Feng said, we have certainly principles that we use in our guidance on Extracurricular Activities, and the ones that the specifics we can say is that [inaudible] is a very high activity because weve seen that a large group of adults infected with covid19 while singing, so we are recommending against chorus, and same for wood winds and brass. Other instruments, like string instruments that dont involve the reproduction of respiratory droplets are okay. A lot of people have questions about competitive sports, and i think its safe to say that at this point in time, we are not recommending sports that involve being within 6 feet of each other. [inaudible] interpreter sorry. And because of the emphasis on keeping people in cohorts and keeping people in stable groups and keeping people from mixing, we are probably not going to recommend interscholastic competitions in the future. Interpreter great. Let me provide an interpretation in cantonese, and leo will provide a translation in spanish. [speaking cantonese language] [end of translation] interpreter and ill pass it on to leo. [speaking spanish language] [end of translation] thank you, leo. And dr. Lee, we also have a request to repeat the portion where you spoke about competitive sports as the audio got interrupted. Im sorry . The audio got interrupted on the competitive sports . Yes, so if you could repeat the part where you discussed repetitive sports. Yes. So repetitive sports have certain risk factors, and the main one is that youre allowing cohorts of different students to mix, and that permits the spread of infection. So our rules are that people shouldnt be doing active exercise within 6 feet of each other because, again, the deep inhalation and deep exhalation may be detrimental to students, and we dont want mixed cohorts of students, so thats why we wont be recommending interscholastic sports in the near future for students needing to be in close contact with each other. Thank you very much, doctor, and leo will be translating that into spanish. [speaking spanish language] jeannie l jeanne l [end of translation] thank you, leo. An additional question for dr. Lee from the s. F. Examiner. How many hours of the school day are these ongoing precautions anticipated to take up . That depends on how the schools implement them. So its very hard to say because how much depends on how the schools are going to operationalize them. Thank you, dr. Lee. Thats all the questions that we have received in english. Dr. Catherine james will be joining us be ja will be joining us at 2 00 p. M. For a press conference in spanish. If not, thank you so much for joining us today. If you have any more questions for dr. Lee, please submit them via chat or you can submit them to dr. Feng and i will translate. And doctor, we just received one more question. The question is if a student lives with highrisk people, will the student be required to attend school . Again, that is going to be a decision for the schools to make, and and how they operationalize this guidance. The only thing we say about students and medical conditions is that the school should not automatically exclude a student because they have diabetes, asthma, or another medical condition; that they should allow the students medical care team and family to decide whether inperson attendance would be indicated. Beyond that, we leave it to the schools. Thank you, dr. Lee, and it looks like we have a couple more questions coming in. So norm bigger, the s. F. Public press. Is there a time that sfusd will decide that its safe to reopen based on the number of cases and which the department of Public Health will make a final decision on the case of schools reopening . We dont have a timeline, and a lot will depend on what we see with Community Transmission in the coming weeks. And again, the decision that the decision d. P. H. Will make is whether it is safe for schools to reopen with these recommended interventions in place. The decisions for specific schools or specific School Systems to reopen to inperson attendance is going to probably be based on other factors like do they have these resources to implement these interventions, when will these resources be available, but its two separate sets of decisions. I hope that makes sense. Thank you, dr. Lee. Our next question is from kathy novak at kcbs, and the question is what preparations should teachers be making, and will those preparations differ on the ages of students theyre teaching . So i just want to say that we we put a lot on our teachers, and its not really on individual teachers to make preparation for the schools to be safe. I think that is on the School System or the School Administrations themselves because it really has to be a coordinated layered set of interventions at the school level, and that is beyond the power of a single teacher to make it safe because of the multiple interventions that need to be implemented. So thats that would be my my main message. Thank you, dr. Lee. We have a request for a translation to chinese, so victor will be translating your response for us. Interpreter can you reread the question . Yes. The question is, what preparations should the teachers be making, and will those preparations differ based on the ages of students theyre teaching . [speaking cantonese language] [end of translation] and dr. Lee, i understand that you have further information youd like to provide. If youd like to do that, and then, victor can provide the translation. Thank you. So in terms of different interventions of the schools at Different Levels and age groups, they will differ. For example, we know for our very youngest children, physical distancing is very difficult, not practical for socioemotional learning and just very difficult to enforce for an entire school day. We also know that our youngest students are probably the lowest risk for a covid19 infection and at the lowest risk to spread it. So for that group, our guidance says that we want to prioritize stable cohorts as well as universal masking at this stage, so universal face coverings. For our older students who are more able to physically distance, and brokendown to a more realistic expectation, then we would emphasize that. Well emphasize, and then, by emphasizing that, that allows for a little more overlap in cohorts safely, and again, at this age, we want to continue to emphasize the universal face coverings for everybody as much as possible. We do recognize that the risks to staff and teachers are going to vary a bit by age, and probably the teachers of our youngest students are going to be at the lowest risk of being infected by their students versus our high school teachers. But we also know that the risk of adults and adult transmission probably trumps all of that; that based on what we see locally and nationally in other settings with children, that staff are more or adults are more likely to be the confirmed covid19 case, and adulttoadult transmission, stafftostaff transmission has been more likely than childtostaff transmission. So at all of these ages, were really trying to prevent stafftostaff transmission and spread at any school, and thats emphasized in our guidance. Interpreter thank you, dr. Lee. [speaking cantonese language] [end of translation] interpreter and then, at this point, i will let leo also say it in spanish. [speaking spanish language] [end of translation] next question is from crystal lee ann from sftv. So request for a translation, so either dr. Lee or dr. Feng can take it. We consider city workers to be essential workers and because they work for the city and county of San Francisco. The get tested website can tell people where they get tested. So we are not currently requiring teachers and students to be tested and that is because testing only tells you whether a person is infected at a certain point in time. They could have a negative test and the next day be infected. So unless a School System is willing to do something similar to what weve done in our Nursing Homes and longterm care facilities where were going in and testing everybody every several weeks, that its not thought to be as useful an intervention. That said, we absolutely want to make sure that our school staff and teachers have access to testing and can get tested if they would like to, whether or not they have symptoms. Interpreter thank you, dr. Lee. [speaking cantonese language] [end of translation] [speaking spanish language] [end of translation] well, at this point, i think dr. James might be wrapping up her meeting. Are there any words that dr. Lee or dr. Feng would like to chime in oh, dr. James just joined. We will turnoff the mute. Dr. James, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Sure, thanks for helping me. Actually, weve answered a lot of questions already, but is there anything in particular that you would like to present to our Spanish Speaking community, cantonese speaking community that we havent talked about before . I think we were just talking about schools reopening and where we are right now, the current state of infections in the city. Do you want me to go ahead in spanish, then . Interpreter yes, please go ahead in spanish. [speaking spanish language] [speaking spanish language]. Well, if we have no other questions for our press, we want to thank our press partners, and we want to thank all the doctors from d. P. H. For being here today. Thank you very much, and i hope you had an opportunity to record. Well be sending out the link shortly. Ill translate it into chinese. [speaking cantonese language] [speaking spanish language] thank you, what were trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. Its not just the old european style food. We are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. All we ask is make it flavorful. [ ] we are the first twoyear Culinary Hospitality School in the United States. The first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. Im a graduate of this program, and very proud of that. So students can expect to learn under the three degrees. Culinary Arts Management degree, Food Service Management degree, and Hotel Management degree. Were not a cooking school. Even though were not teaching you how to cook, were teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus youre getting an associate of science degree. My name is vince, and im a faculty member of the hospitality arts and Culinary School here in San Francisco. This is my 11th year. The policemrogram is very, ver in what this industry demands. Cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. Its quite a complete program to prepare them for whats happening out in the real world. The first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. He was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. This program, its awesome. Its another world when youre here. Its another world. You get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. You get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. Ive been in the program for about a year. Twoyear program, and im about halfway through. Before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance. I had few injuries, and i couldnt pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. When i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. The good thing is we have students everywhere from places like the ritz to we have kids from every area. Facebook and google. Kids from everywhere. They are all over the bay area, and theyre thriving. My name is jeff, and im a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in San Francisco. I attended city college of San Francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then in the early 90s. Nopalito on broderick street, its based on no specific region in mexico. All our masa is hand made. We cook our own corn in house. Everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, were making hand made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. A lot of love put into this. [ ] used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. Now, its shades of gray, and were trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. Fine dining calls into white table cloths. The cafeteria is Large Production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those kitypes of kitchens. And the ideas that change every year, again, its the notion and the venue. One of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. Its been a pizzeria, a taco bar. Its been a mediterranean bar, its been a noodle bar. People choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic. We, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. Were open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. The menus always interesting. They change it every semester, maybe more. Theres always a good variety of foods. The preparation is always beautiful. The students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and theyre so proud of their work. Ive had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so its more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. When i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90 of the students get hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. We do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of San Francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living. We hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. My partner is also a graduate of city college. So my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. I actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. Im thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. Yeah, i want to go back to china. I want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. So we want them to have a full toolkit. Were trying to make them ready for the world out there. Hi today we have a special edition of building San Francisco, stay safe, what we are going to be talking about San Franciscos earth quakes, what you can do before an earthquake in your home, to be ready and after an earthquake to make sure that you are comfortable staying at home, while the city recovers. The next episode of stay safe, we have Alicia Johnson from San Franciscos department of emergency management. Hi, alicia thanks to coming it is a pleasure to be here with you. I wonder if you could tell us what you think people can do to get ready for what we know is a coming earthquake in San Francisco. Well, one of the most things that people can do is to make sure that you have a plan to communicate with people who live both in and out of state. Having an out of state contact, to call, text or post on your social network is really important and being able to know how you are going to communicate with your friends, and family who live near you, where you might meet them if your home is uninhab hitable. How long do you think that it will be before things are restored to normal in San Francisco. It depends on the severity of the earthquake, we say to provide for 72 hours tha, is three days, and it helps to know that you might be without services for up to a week or more, depending on how heavy the shaking is and how many after shocks we have. What kind of neighborhood and Community Involvement might you want to have before an earthquake to make sure that you are going to able to have the support that you need. It is important to have a Good Relationship with your neighbors and your community. Go to those community events, shop at local businesses, have a reciprocal relationship with them so that you know how to take care of yourself and who you can rely on and who can take care of you. It is important to have a batteryoperated radio in your home so that you can keep track of what is happening in the Community Around and how you can communicate with other people. One of the things that seems important is to have access to your important documents. Yes, it is important to have copies of those and also stored them remotely. So a title to a home, a passport, a drivers license, any type of medical records that you need need, back those up or put them on a remote drive or store them on the cloud, the same is true with any Vital Information on your computer. Back that up and have that on a cloud in case your hard drive does not work any more. In your home you should be prepared as well. Absolutely. Lets take a look at the kinds of things that you might want to have in your home. We have no water, what are we going to do about water . It is important for have extra water in your house, you want to have bottled water or a five gallon container of water able to use on a regular basis, both for bathing and cooking as well as for drinking. We have this big container and also in peoples homes they have a hot water heater. Absolutely, if you clean your hot water heater out regularly you can use that for showering, drinking and bathing as well what other things do people need to have arent their home. It is important to have extra every day items buy a couple extra cans of can food that you can eat without any preparation. Here is a giant can of green giant canned corn. And this, a manual can opener, your electric can opener will not be working not only to have one but to know where to find it in your kitchen. Yes. So in addition to canned goods, we are going to have fresh food and you have to preserve that and i know that we have an ice chest. Having an ice chest on hand is really important because your refrigerator will not be working right away. It is important to have somebody else that can store cold foods so something that you might be able to take with you if you have to leave your home. And here, this is my very own personal emergency supply box for my house. I hope that you have an alternative one at home. Oh, i forgot. And in this is really important, you should have flashlights that have batteries, fresh batteries or hand crank flashlight. I have them right here. Good. Excellent. That is great. Additionally, you are going to want to have candles a whistle, possibly a compass as well. Markers if you want to label things if you need to, to people that you are safe in your home or that you have left your home. I am okay and i will meet you at. Exactly. Exactly. Water proof matches are a great thing to have as well. We have matches here. And my spare glasses. And your spare glasses. If you have medication, you should keep it with you or have access to it. If it needs to be refrigerated make sure that it is in your ice box. Inside, just to point out for you, we have spare batteries. Very important. We have a little first aid kit. And lots of different kinds of batteries. And another spare flashlight. So, alicia what else can we do to prepare our homes for an earthquake so we dont have damage . One of the most important things that you can do is to secure your valuable and breakable items. Make sure that your tv is strapped down to your entertainment cabinet or wall so it does not move. Also important is to make sure that your book case is secure to the wall so that it does not fall over and your valuable and breakables do not break on the ground. Becoming prepared is not that difficult. Taking care of your home, making sure that you have a few extra everyday items on hand helps to make the difference. That contributes dramatically to the way that the city as a whole can recover. Absolutely. If you are able to control your own environment and house and recovery and your neighbors are doing the same the city as a whole will be a more resilient city. We are all proud of living in San Francisco and being prepared helps us stay here. So, thank you so much for joining us today, alicia, i appreciate it. Absolutely, it is my pleasure. And thank you for joining us shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of San Francisco. We help San Francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . Im one of three owners here in San Francisco and we provide mostly live Music Entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and its not a big menu, but we did it with love. Like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. For latinos, it brings Families Together and if we can bring that family to your business, youre gold. Tonight we have russelling for e community. We have a tenperson limb elimination match. We have a fullsize ring with barside food and drink. We ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. Were hope og get families to join us. Weve done a drag queen bingo and were trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. This is a great part of town and theres a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. Theres a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. We have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. Some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and its exciting. We even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. Its in the San Francisco Garden District and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. Its important to shop local because its kind of like a circle of life, if you will. We hire local people. Local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well. I hope people shop locally. [ ] hi. My name is carmen chiu, San Franciscos elected assessor. Buying your first home is a big deal. For many of us, its the single largest asset that well own. Thats why its really important to plan ahead for property taxes so that there are no surprises. A typical question new homeowners ask is what is a supplemental tax. So understand supplemental tax, we need to start with proposition 13. Under californias prop 13 law, the value we use to calculate your property tax is limited to a 2 growth peryear, but when ownership changes, prop 13 requires that we set a properties assessed value to market value. The difference in value between the previous owners value and the new value is the supplemental assessment. How does the supplemental assessment translate to the tax you need to pay . Supplemental tax is calculated by applying the tax rate to the value and then prorating it for the amount of time that you owned it in that tax year. In generale, the tax rate is roughly 1 . Lets walkthrough an example together. Here dan is the original owner of a home with a prop 13 protected value of 400,000. With a tax rate of 1 , he pays 4,000. Dan sells his home to jennie at a market rate of 700,000. In this case, jennies home will be reassessed to 700,000, and jennie is responsible for paying property taxes at that level from the time she first owns it. Many times, people might have already paid their property taxes in full by the time they sell their home. In that case, dan has paid 4,000 in taxes already for the full year. Jennie would likely payback dan through escrow for her share of the 4,000, depending on the proportion of the tax year she owns the home. However, shes also responsible for paying taxes at the higher market value from when she begins to own the home. How does that work . Lets say jennie owns the property for nine months of the first tax year, which is approximately 75 of the year. During the escrow process, shed pay dan back 75 of the 4,000 he already paid, which is 3,000. On top of that, she would owe taxes at the higher rate for the proportion of the year she owned the house. In this case, she owes the amount not already billed through dan or 700,000 minus 400,000, multiplied by a tax rate of 1 , and multiplied again by 75 to reflect the time she owned the home in that tax year. Here, jennies supplemental tax is roughly 2,250. Going forward, jennie will be billed at her new reset prop 13 value. Are you still with us . If this isnt complicated enough, some new owners might receive two supplemental tax bills, and this has to do with the date that you transfer property. But before we get to that, you first need to understand two concepts. First, what is a fiscal year . In california, local government runs on a fiscal year. Unlike the calendar year, where the year begins on january 1, a fiscal year begins in the middle of the year, on july 1. Property tax follows the fiscal year cycle. Second, state law requires property be valued as of january 1 every year, in other words, new years day. The value as of january 1 is used to calculate property taxes for the upcoming fiscal year. This means Property Value as of january 1, 2018 will be usedtor fiscal year 18 used for fiscal year 1819 covering july 2018 through june 2019. Similarly, the value of january 1, 2019 will be used for the fiscal year covering july 2019 through june 2020. Now back to whether you should expect to receive one or two supplemental tax bills. The rule of thumb is that if the property transfers happens in the first half of the fiscal year, in other words between july and december, then you should expect only one supplemental tax fill. If the transfer happens in the second half of the fiscal year or between january and june, you should expect two supplemental tax bills. Heres the reason why. Using dan and jennies example again, dans 400,000 value as of january 1 is used to set the tax bill for the following fiscal year beginning july through june of the next year. Jennie buys the property from dan in october. The taxable value is reset to 700,000 as of october, but the bill issued still reflects dans lower value. In this case, jennie would expect to receive one supplemental or catchup bill to capture the difference between her assessed value and begans fr begans dans from october through june. Because of january 1 we already know of the sale, we would have used the following year to set jennies property taxes and no other supplemental bill should be received. However, if dan sells the property to jennie in march, instead, jennie should expect two supplemental bills. Like before, jennie would receive one supplemental bill to cover the time in which she owned the home in the current tax year from march to june. But because as of the next january used to set the tax base for the following tax year, dan still owned the home, the following years entire bill still reflects the values not updated for jennie. In this instance, jennie receives a second supplemental for the following year covering july through june. After the supplemental tax bills, new owners should receive only one regular tax bill peryear going forward. Remember our office values the properties, but billing and collections are handled by another Organization Called the treasurer and tax collectors office. If youd like to learn more, please visit our website at sfassessor. Org. Thank you for watching. 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 we spoke with people regardless of what they are. That is when you see change. That is a lead vannin advantage. So Law Enforcement assistance diversion to work with individuals with nonviolent related of offenses to offer an alternative to an arrest and the county jail. We are seeing reduction in drugrelated crimes in the pilot area. They have done the program for quite a while. They are successful in reducing the going to the county jail. This was a state grant that we applied for. The department is the main administrator. It requires we work with multiple agencies. We have a community that includes the da, Rapid Transit police and San Francisco Sheriffs Department and Law Enforcement agencies, Public Defenders Office and adult probation to Work Together to look at the population that ends up in criminal justice and how they will not end up in jail. Having partners in the nonprofit world and the public defender are critical to the success. We are beginning to succeed because we have that cooperation. Agencies with very little connection are brought together at the same table. Collaboration is good for the department. It gets us all working in the same direction. These are complex issues we are dealing with. When you have systems as complicated as police and health and proation and jails and nonprofits it requires people to come to Work Together so everybody has to put their egos at the door. We have done it very, very well. The model of care where police, District Attorney, public defenders are communitybased organizations are all involved to worked towards the common goal. Nobody wants to see drug users in jail. They want them to get the correct treatment they need. We are piloting lead in San Francisco. Close to civic center along Market Street, union plaza, powell street and in the mission, 16th and mission. Our goal in San Francisco and in seattle is to work with individuals who are cycling in and out of criminal justice and are falling through the cracks and using this as intervention to address that population and the Racial Disparity we see. We want to focus on the mission in tender loan district. It goes to the partners that hired case managers to deal directly with the clients. Case managers with referrals from the police or city agencies connect with the person to determine what their needs are and how we can best meet those needs. I have nobody, no friends, no resources, i am flatout on my own. I witnessed women getting beat, men getting beat. Transgenders getting beat up. I saw people shot, stabbed. These are people that have had many visits to the county jail in San Francisco or other institutions. We are trying to connect them with the resources they need in the community to break out of that cycle. All of the referrals are coming from the Law Enforcement agency. Officers observe an offense. Say you are using. It is found out you are in possession of drugs, that constituted a lead eligible defense. The officer would talk to the individual about participating in the program instead of being booked into the county jail. Are you ever heard of the leads program. Yes. Are you part of the leads program . Do you have a case worker . Yes, i have a case manager. When they have a contact with a possible lead referral, they give us a call. Ideally we can meet them at the scene where the ticket is being issued. Primarily what you are talking to are people under the influence of drugs but they will all be nonviolent. If they were violent they wouldnt qualify for lead. You think i am going to get arrested or maybe i will go to jail for something i just did because of the Substance Abuse issues i am dealing with. They would contact with the outreach worker. Then glide shows up, you are not going to jail. We can take you. Lets meet you where you are without telling you exactly what that is going to look like, let us help you and help you help yourself. Bring them to the Community Assessment and Services Center run by adult probation to have assessment with the department of Public Health staff to assess the treatment needs. It provides meals, groups, there are things happening that make it an open space they can access. They go through detailed assessment about their needs and how we can meet those needs. Someone who would have entered the jail system or would have been arrested and book order the charge is diverted to social services. Then from there instead of them going through that system, which hasnt shown itself to be an effective way to deal with people suffering from suable stance abuse issues they can be connected with case management. They can offer Services Based on their needs as individuals. One of the key things is our approach is client centered. Hall reduction is based around helping the client and meeting them where they are at in terms of what steps are you ready to take . We are not asking individuals to do anything specific at any point in time. It is a Program Based on whatever it takes and wherever it takes. We are going to them and working with them where they feel most comfortable in the community. It opens doors and they get access they wouldnt have had otherwise. Supports them on their goals. We are not assigning goals working to come up with a plan what success looks like to them. Because i have been in the field a lot i can offer different choices and let them decide which one they want to go down and help them on that path. It is all on you. We are here to guide you. We are not trying to force you to do what you want to do or change your mind. It is you telling us how you want us to help you. It means a lot to the clients to know there is someone creative in the way we can assist them. They pick up the phone. It was a blessing to have them when i was on the streets. No matter what situation, what pay phone, cell phone, somebody elses phone by calling them they always answered. In officebased setting somebody at the reception desk and the clinician will not work for this population of drug users on the street. This has been helpful to see the outcome. We will pick you up, take you to the appointment, get you food on the way and make sure your needs are taken care of so you are not out in the cold. First to push me so i will not be afraid to ask for help with the lead team. Can we get you to use less and less so you can function and have a normal life, job, place to stay, be a functioning part of the community. It is all part of the home reduction model. You are using less and you are allowed to be a viable member of the society. This is an important question where lead will go from here. Looking at the data so far and seeing the successes and we can build on that and as the department based on that where the investments need to go. If it is for five months. Hopefully as final we will come up with a model that may help with all of the communities in the california. I want to go back to school to start my ged and go to community clean. It can be somebody scaled out. That is the hope anyway. Is a huge need in the city. Depending on the need and the data we are getting we can definitely see an expansion. We all hope, obviously, the program is successful and we can implement it city wide. I think it will save the county millions of dollars in emergency services, police services, prosecuting services. More importantly, it will save lives. I just feel like this is what i was born to do when i was a little kid i would make up performances and daydream it was always performing and doing something i feel if i cant do that than i cant be e me. I just get excited and my nickname is x usher my mom calls me i stuck out like a sore thumb for sure hey everybody im susan kitten on the keys from there, i working in vintage clothing and chris in the 30s and fosz and aesthetic. I think part of the what i did i could have put on my poa he focus on a lot of different musical eras. Shirley temple is created as ahsha safai the nation with happens and light heartenness Shirley Temple my biggest influence i love david boo and el john and may i west coast their flamboyant and show people singing cant be unhappy as a dr. Murase and it is so fun it is a joyful instrument i learned more about music by playing the piano it was interesting the way i was brought up the youth taught me about music he picked up the a correspond that was so hard my first performing experience happened as 3yearold an age i did executive services and also thanks to the lord and sank in youth groups people will be powering grave over their turk ill be playing better and better back la i worked as places where men make more money than me i was in bands i was treated as other the next thing i know im in grants performing for a huge protection with a few of my friends berry elect and new berry elect and can be ray was then and we kept getting invited back you are shows got better we made it to paris in 2005 a famous arc we ended up getting a months residencey other than an island and he came to our show and started writing a script based on our troop of 6 american burr elect performs in france we were woman of all this angels and shapes and sizes and it was very exciting to be part of the a few lettering elect scene at the time he here he was bay area born and breed braces and with glossaries all of a sudden walking 9 red carpet in i walgreens pedestrian care. Land for best director that was backpack in 2010 the french love this music i come back here and because of film was not released in the United States nobody gave a rats ass lets say the music and berry elect and performing doesnt pay very much i definitely feel into a huge depression especially, when it ended i didnt feel kemgd to france anymore he definitely didnt feel connected to the scene i almost feel like i have to beg for tips i hey im from the bay area and an artist you dont make a living it changed my represent tar to appeal and the folks that are coming into the wars these days people are not listening they love the idea of having a live musician but dont really nurture it like having a potted plant if you dont warrant it it dizzy sort of feel like a potted plant laughter im going to give San Francisco one more year ive been here since 1981 born and raised in the bay area i know that is not for me ill keep on trying and if the struggle becomes too hard ill have to move on i dont know where that will be but i love here so so much i used to dab he will in substances i dont do that im sober and part of the being is an and sober and happy to be able to play music and perform and express myself if i make. Few people happy of all ages ive gone my job so i have so stay is an i feel like the piano and music in general with my voice together i feel really powerful and strong announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is lindsey holmes. Hi, im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is founder and c. E. O. Of dispatch goods and former clinical profusionist at ucsf. She start add new initiative called project clean to provide alcoholbased cleaning products and Hand Sanitizers to atrisk bay area communities. Lindsey, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Its lovely to see you. Tell us a little about your background and how dispatched goods of San Franciscos restaurant community. Sure. We launched, in october, weve been working on this for a little over a year. And we partnered with restaurants to provide them with a free reusable container system that could replace singleuse products. We partnered with yelp headquarters in downtown San Francisco and 10 Restaurant Partners as of february before covid19 hit and employees at our Corporate Partners could request the reusable containers when they were getting their lunch for takeout or if they were getting it delivered to their office. We then handled the pickup and dish washing. So, obviously the virus pandemic has hit and now youve had to pivot your company and i understand you lunched a new initiative called project clean. Can you let us know what the program is all about . Sure. So we basically when this hit, we asked ok, what we do we have and how can we help . We also noticed there was a gap in the supply for Hand Sanitizers to Certain Community members and individuals and we talked to a distillery about making Hand Sanitizer and, in true form to our mission, we decided i bet we could collect enough containers from the community that we wouldnt have to supply more singleuse plastic containers and we launched project clean and with that, we collected over 200 containers. Theyre spray squeeze bottles and working on supplying the cleaning products. What has the response been from the community atlarge and how have peopled help . Were donationbased and selffunded right now. We are buying basically the products at cost and is not charging us much for that. Theyre also just trying to cover our expenses and we had a little bit of donations coming in. But if you go to our website, you can either donate containers that you have, well come do pickup. Were doing it twice a week now. Or if you yourself need any of the cleaning products, you can fill out the form and request those as well. And then there is also a place to make a donation. So, where are you handing out the Hand Sanitizer right now . Were doing it in the same route as the dropoff route. So, the Hand Sanitizer will be finished today. So, tomorrow well be doing our first round of dropoffs and weve been contacted by Health Care Professionals who after they come home have nothing on their hands there. We have been contacted by retirement communities and contacted by physicians in their offices that they dont have anything and a individuals that just werent able to get the supplies because they were sold out so quickly. Basically during our normal pickup routes now, we will be doing the dropoff as well. That is fantastic. You know, i think that is a Wonderful Service you are providing, lindsey. Thank you so much for coming on the show and keep up the good work. Thank you so much, chris i really appreciate it. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more stories shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus, thank you for watching. [ ] i am the supervisor of district one. I am sandra lee fewer. [ ] i moved to the Richmond District in 1950 mine. I was two years old. I moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [ ] when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. It seems so far away. For a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. The stress was storage of the birthplace of that. My father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. It just started to grow very organically. It is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the Richmond District. As russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. So parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the Russian Community and immigrant Russian Community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [ ] i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. They are beautiful barriers. The presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the Pacific Ocean. We also also have a National Park service. We boarded the Golden Gate National Recreation Area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. But really families enjoying the beach and the Pacific Ocean during the rest of the time of year. [ ] and Golden Gate Park where we have so many of our treasures here. We have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. Not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. This is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. The theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. It has been around for a very long time. Is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. I moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. We would always go here. I love these neighborhood theatres. It is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the Richmond District, but also in San Francisco. Small theatres showing one or two films. A unique they are unique also to the neighborhood and San Francisco. Where we are today is the heart of the Richmond District. With what is unique is that it is also Small Businesses. There is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. And providing for the neighborhood. This is what we love about the streets. The cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see Small Businesses even towards 32nd. At the core of it is right here between here and 20 tenth avenue. When we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the any other part of San Francisco. There is traditional irish music which you dont get hardly anywhere in San Francisco. Some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. And then also, we see grocery stores. And also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [ ] we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. That is a really great thing to see. I dont know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. I like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. The market is the place i like to come to once a year. Once i like about the market as it is very affordable. It has Fresh Produce and fresh meat. Also, seafood. But they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. A variety of rice that they have is tremendous. I dont thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. Hi. I am kevin wong. I am the manager. In 1989 we move from chinatown to Richmond District. We have opened for a bit, over 29 years. We carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. We try to keep Everything Fresh daily. So a customer can get the best out a bit. Normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. Because they have really just really fresh crab. This is something my family really likes for me to make. Also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. They cut it to the size they really want. I am probably here once a week. Im very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. We dont speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. I do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. The staff here is very helpful. I speak very little chinese here myself. Thinks that im not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need . Is this what i should be making . And they actually really helped me. They will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. They are very knowledgeable. Very friendly. I think they are here to serve not only the Asian Community but to serve all communities in the Richmond District and in San Francisco. [ ] what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [ ]