Im hopeful for the future. These months of Public Health crises and social unrest has shown us that when we come together, we can have the hard conversations and make the tough choices to do what needs to be done. Not just save lives but to address systemic racism head on and change society as we know it. I know today is about our budget and our path forward. As we step into the future, one that im hopeful for, is important we take a moment to recognize where weve come from. At the beginning of this year, we were living in a different world. Our Unemployment Rate was at a historic low. Tourism was at alltime high. Hotels were full, we had all plans to shape the future of this city we all love. I know i have plans to address homelessness and housing, to reimagine our Mental Health system, to improve transportation and make our streets safer and build a more equitable city. To lift up those who too often are left behind. Like i said, we had lot of plans. What we didnt have plans for was the coronavirus. It certainly had plans for us. Here we are today in a very different San Francisco with Small Businesses closing and schools struggling to bring kids back to the classrooms. With over 180 thousands san francisc100 180,000 sanfrancr unemployment. We have seen San Francisco come together in a way that makes me proud. Proud to be mayor, yes, but also proud to be a san franciscan. We Work Together to make sure thousands of people had access to medical support, to testing, food and housing. We move forward emergency policies to protect tenant and businesses from eviction. Give people emergency sick leave and keep workers safe. We raised millions of dollars in donations through give to sf to support Small Businesses, workers and vulnerable residents. We think people organized to check on elderly neighbors and deliver groceries for those who cant leave the house. While Nursing Homes across the country have been devastated by this virus, we havent had a single death among the over 700 residents at laguana hospital. Weve seen Community Groups rise up to support our most vulnerable residents in the bayview and mission and other hard hit areas. Weve seen the spirit of San Francisco rise to meet this challenge to flatten the curve and then rise once again when the virus came back the second time. Today, we are proposing a balanced budget that closes that 1. 5 billion deficit. While still meeting the needs of our city. Through all of this, we continue to protect our public workforce. Let be clear, when we talk about 180,000 san franciscans applying for unemployment, not one of those people is doing so because of city cut their job. Not one. As our economy plummeted, we wanted our city workers to focus on their health and the health of their families and on serving our residents during this crises. Not on whether or not they would have a paycheck. With the budget im proposing today, i i want to continue to prevent all layoffs. But to do that, we need our labor partners to work with us. We need them to agree to delay any planned wage increases for two years. So far, we are having good conversations with the firefighters and the Police Officers on delaying their raises im hopeful other unions will agree to do the same. I dont think this is too much to ask. Our entire city is suffering now. We all need to do our part to hair in that sacrifice. I want to be very clear, if the union dont agree to delay their raises, then we will be forced to lay people off. We will be forced to cut city services. We dont want to see those unemployment numbers go up because we are forced into layoffs. Thats not what i want. Its not what anyone wants. Im hopeful that our labor partners will step up and work with us in the coming weeks. Because there is a lot we have to do with this budget. Including continuing to fund our ongoing Covid Response. We all know we are living with covid for the next year. Likely longer than that. San francisco has been a National Leader in responding to this pandemic, thanks to our efforts to follow the data, build a testing system from scratch, create a robust Contact Tracing team and provide food, support and shelter for our most vulnerable residents. We will keep doing everything we can to get this city through this pandemic. Hopefully the federal government will continue to provide the necessary support. We know the federal government wont cover everything. Thats why we are putting 93 million from our general fund towards supporting our continued Covid Response. This is a significant investment but honestly, its not really a choice. Without a strong and sustained Covid Response our students wont return to school, people wont go back to work and our economy wont recover. Even as we continue to wrestle with covid, we cant lose sight of other key priorities. Our homelessness crises didnt go with covid. Covid has made it even more challenging. I know people are frustrated with what they see on our streets. We have had to reduce capacity in our existing shelters by 70 leaving more people out on the streets. Our outreach workers continue to do very difficult work all while practicing social distancing. We met this challenge by moving thousands of people into hotel rooms, trailers, safe sleeping site and new emergency shelters. This work took an amazing effort from city staff and nonprofit partners, work that normally take months and years in planning and implementation done in a matter of weeks. The tenderloin alone we moved over 500 people. We are expanding those efforts oeffort neighborhoods like selma and the mission. While we are seeing some progress, frankly its clearly not enough. We need more than shortterm hotel rooms. We more than parking lots for safe sleeping sites. We need housing. Lots of housing. Thats why this budget funds 1500 new units supportive housing. Which is part of our homeless Recovery Plan to move 4500 people from hotels, shelters and the streets into housing in the next two years. It will help us as a city meet the needs of the unsheltered and our residents who are frustrated by the conditions they see everyday in our neighborhoods. We also cant lose the progress weve made on improving our Mental Health system. Including funding Mental Health sf. That means adding more Mental Health beds, expanding our Behavioral HealthAccess Center so people can get Immediate Care when they need it and improving the system of care so that people struggling with Mental Illness and addiction. Were also creating a new Crises Response Team so that when you call 911 or 311, because someone on the street is clearly having a mental breakdown, we can send a team which includes a paramedics, clinician and Behavioral Health peer. We need to shift the burden Mental Health response call away from the police its not fair to ask our officers to do the work of Mental Health professionals. Its not effective for those in crises. This is a key piece of our Police Reform efforts. In addition to doing the work to call for service, i laid out three other major areas for Police Reform. Addressing accountability and bias, getting rid of military grade weapon and equipment and redirecting Law Enforcement funding towards the Africanamerican Community. While all are important, its the last one i want to talk about today. As a black woman who grew up in poverty in this city, Police Brutality was all too common. It was something we expected and complaints were usually ignored. Two months ago, the murder of george floyd shook this country to its core. In a way that i have never seen before. People responded like i have never seen before. Seeing people not just africanamericans, rise up against Police Brutality gave me hope that real change in this country is possible. But for those who support this movement, for those who truly believe that black lives matter, its important that we listen to black voices. Its important that we allow black people to lead this movement. Im not just talking about me or any of our black elected leaders who have been fighting this fight for generations. I mean we have to listen to the people in the community. We have to listen to the people who have seen and lived the devastation resulting from decades of disinvestment. We have to listen to the people who dont come to city hall because theyve known too many broken promises, made by those in this building who believe they know what is best for black people in this city. Thats why the first thing supervisor Shamann Walton and i said, when we announced we wanted to reprioritize funding to support the black community, was that this had to be a communityled process. Earlier this week, the Human Rights Commission released an initial report that highlighted what the Community Wants us to focus on. This report is the first step in guiding not just the investments we make with this budget but the change we need to make in the years to come. Changing the inequities in our country wont happen overnight. We wont change the fact that africanamericans have the lowest Median Household Income in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that black people have the highest mortality rate for nine of the top ten causes of death in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that Graduation Rates for africanamerican students in our Public School system is just 53 . We wont change that overnight. We wont change the fact that nearly half of San FranciscoPolice Department used to force cases involve black people overnight. We will change these facts with this budget. We are listening to the community and prioritizing investments in the Africanamerican Community around housing, Mental Health and wellness, workforce development, economic justice, education, advocacy and accountability. As a first step in this effort, we will redirect 120 million from Law Enforcement to support these priorities over the next two years. Let me repeat that, this is 120 million. Its a first step. If we are going to make real change, we need to do the hard work. Its going to take all of us coming together, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I often talk about how i overcame poverty, despair and vince to become violence to become mayor. My goal with these investments and this change in how we prioritize the black community is simple. I want my story, my experience to be the norm and not the exception. I want black girls growing up today to rise not in spite of their upbringing here in the city but because of it. I want black boys growing up today to thrive because we chose how to change the city and how this country treats our young black men. Not as a statistic or an tragedy but as an important part of our citys future. If we accomplished nothing more than that during my time as mayor, i will leave this office proud. I want to end by acknowledging the leadership of a few of the people who are central to this budget process. First, i want to thank board president norman yee and budget chair supervisor sandy fewer to continuing to be strong and collaborative leaders. Over the coming weeks, we will work with both of them and the board of supervisors to finalize this budget so that we can continue to deliver for the people of San Francisco. I want to thank controller ben rosen field for the work he and his team has put in as well as all the city departments who worked to find ways for us to close this deficit. Finally, i want to thank my budget team. Led by ashley golfenburgering. San francisco is lucky to have these two strong smart women leading this challenging process. Now at this time, i want to introduce ashley whos going to give us a short presentation on our budget. Good afternoon, thank you mayor breed. Im the mayors acting budget director. I like to thank the rest of the mayors Budget Office team who worked so hard to put this budget together under mayor breeds leadership. Today im happy to walk you through the details of the mayors fiscal year 2021 and 2 2122 budget. The total size of the proposed budget is 13. 7 billion in fiscal year 2021 and 12. 6 billion in fiscal year 202122. The fiscal year 2021 proposely budget represents a 1. 4 billion increase over the fiscal year 1920 budget primarily driven by one expenditure related to the covid19 pandemic which go away in the second year of the budget. The total proposed budget is made up of 7. 5 billion or 54 Nongeneral Fund expenditures which include enterprise and selfsupporting activities. 6. 2 or 46 of general Fund Expenditures. It is important to note that selfsupporting and Enterprise Funding are restricted and not eligible to be used to balance the citys General Fund Budget. These includes things like operations that are airport, the Public Utilities commission, port and the mta. It is also important to note that the 3. 9 billion of the 6. 2 billion in general Fund Expenditures are restricted by state and federal reimbursements and voter mandated services for children, transit and seniors. The remaining 2. 3 billion represents Discretionary Fund budget available to pay for the Public Services san franciscans rely on. The mayors proposed budget achieved four key objectives. It balances the budget responsibly, avoiding layoffs for City Employees and Major Service cuts, it makes progress on shared priorities of homelessness and Behavioral Health. It reinvest significant resources toward initiatives that support Racial Equity and identifying alternatives to policing and it maintains a robust importance to the covid19 pandemic. The mayors required by the charter to submit a balance twoyear budget. The proposed budget utilizes variety of one time and ongoing revenue and expenditures solutions to balance this projected shortfall while also investing in shared priority areas. The may 2020 joint report projected a 1. 5 billion twoyear General Fund Budget shortfall. Driven by stark revenue losses resulting from the Economic Impact of the covid19 emergency. In july, worsening Economic Conditions resulted in a further downgrade of revenue projections for the upcoming budget period. To overcome the shortfall, the mayors proposed budget utilizes reserves, new revenue and other savings. The mayors proposed budget utilizes 340 million from the citys main economic reserves during the budget period ensuring reserve balances remain in tact to hedge against future risk. The budget assumes ongoing excess reserve from the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund or eraf to balance the shortfall. The proposed budget assumes 300 million that will become available with the passage of Business Tax Reform measure. In order to avoid layoffs and maintain critical city services, the mayor has asked the citys labor unions to defer scheduled wage increases over the period of the twoyear budget. The savings associated with that are reflected this proposed budget. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget assumed many citywide and departmental saving. It includes underfunding the citys Capital Equipment and i. T. Programs, only funding critical projects while deferring other new costs. This also includes savings offered by city departments that keep positions vacant and achieve other efficiencies all while avoiding layoffs and Major Service impacts. Taken together, these solutions equal 1. 9 billion over the two years. Despite the economic challenges we face, the mayors propose the budget is able to make over 300 million in targeted investments in priority areas. The mayors proposed budget invest general fund dollars in Behavioral Health and homelessness, maintaining the investments weve made in shelter, Navigation Centers and Behavioral Health beds while also feeding new general fund support such as the homeless rory plan and Mental Health sf which will be implemented through the passage of the november business tax measure. The proposed budget also reinvest 120 million in Law Enforcement funding over the next two years to support programs and services that benefit the Africanamerican Community and advance Racial Equity in our city. The proposed budget also seeks to prioritize youth investing 15 million in onetime support to the San FranciscoUnified School District to provide needed Financial Relief and support for vulnerable students. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget maintains robust response to the ongoing covid19 pandemic. Allocated 100 million in new general fund support. The mayors proposed budget is able to close the projected shortfall without layoffs and Minimal Service impacts. However, we are just beginning to see the effects of this recession and must remain vigilant of the risks that uncertainties that lie ahead. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had approximately 1 billion in reserves. The proposed budget will utilize about half of those reserves over the coming three years, leaving the remainder to hedge against significant risk that far exceed the remaining reserves. These risks include the failure of the november 2020 Business Tax Reform measure, which should not prevail could create 300 million shortfall. The proposed budget assumes that the city continues to receive fema reimbursements for eligible covid expenditures through the end of the fiscal year. Should the federal government declare the emergency over, the city would face a significant financial burden to continue to respond to covid. A prolonged worsening of the pandemic would negatively impact the citys finances both in the form of ongoing expenditures not planned for in this budget and in worsening conditions that can further slow economic recovery. While we believe the assumptions around access eraf and other state revenues are sounds, theres risk that worsening conditions that the state level can result in further losses of state revenue. Lastly, while this budget proposed ongoing solutions, the city still faces a structural deficit and must maintain reserves. To conclude, while the proposed budget balanced it is balance end on a number of asunshines that could fail to materialize which under underscores the importance maintain reserves to guard against these future risks. Thank you. Thank you ashley. Thank you again. Nothing about this pandemic is easy. Nothing is certain. I believe that the more transparent we are with the facts and the more honest we are with the challenges we face, the better off we will all be. I know we will get this budget passed. We will continue to keep people healthy and safe and we will get through this challenging time together. Shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. By supporting local Services Within our neighborhoods, we help San Francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. So where will you shop and dine in the 49 . My name is ray behr. I am the owner of chief plus. Its a destination Specialty Foods store, and its also a Corner Grocery store, as well. We call it cheese plus because theres a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. From fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. You can have a casual meeting if you want to. Its a Real Community gathering place. What makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, its a great pedestrian street. Theres people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. The businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned Small Businesses. It harkens back to supporting local. Polk street doesnt look like anywhere u. S. A. It has its own businesses and personality. We have Clothing Stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. Theres a music studio across the street. Its raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. I think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. Again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, its this is a huge catalyst for change. It will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. Now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to Work Together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. One of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for permit center. Special events. We are a one stop shop for those three things. This has many different uses throughout if years. In 1940s it was cocacola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. The permit center is little working closely with the Digital Services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. The Digital Services team was created in 2017. It is 2. 5 years. Our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. One of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. We have 58 Different Department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. We are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. It is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. Our goal is you dont have to know the department. You are dealing with the city. Now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. Here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to Work Together to make it easy to comply with the rules. There are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. There is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. The first project is allowing people to apply online for the a. D. U. It is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. It is a very complicated permit. You have to speak to Different Departments to get it approved. We are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. Some of the next ones are windows and roofing. Those are high volume permits. They are simple to issue. Another one is restaurant permitting. While the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. People struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. The city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. When people arrive they canshay what they are here to. It helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. If they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. We say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. We want it allinone location across the many departments involved. It is clear where customers go to play. On june 5, 2019 the ceremony was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. Six months later construction is complete. We will be moving next summer. The flu building the new building will be building. It was designed with light in mind. Employees will appreciate these amenities. Solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. When you are on the higher floors of thing yo of the buildt catch the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. It is so exciting for the team. It is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. It is allowing the Different Departments to come together to issue permits to the residents. We hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. We are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a highquality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling iin forms. They will have good conversations with our staff. Hi, youre watching coping with covid19. Today im going to the grocery store. Now, im not an authority about the virus. Im just showing you what im personally doing. To find out the most definitive and uptodate information about the pandemic, i highly recommend the f. A. Q. Available at sf. Gov. Im taking a list and before i leave i put a sanitizing wind and pair of gloves into a plastic bag. Im wearing a mask and taking the smallest number of items with me. Just my car key, credit card, i. D. And the batching im not taking my phone with me. Even if i use it to pay, i either have to touch the p. I. N. Pad or sign the screen anyway. Im concerned about crosscontamination. I dont want to transfer the virus from my gloves to the phone and then to my face. Whin i get out of the car, i put on my gloves and get a grocery cart. The essential workers at my store are doing a great job. Theyre sanitizing every cart and limiting the number of shoppers. Having a cart can help you protect your space. In this store, there are two new science on the floor. Ones directional to encourage everyone to take the same route around the store. The second is to remind shoppers to maintain a safe distance from each other. When im done shopping and ready to pay, i stand in line at least six feet from the shopper in front of me. After unloading my car at check out, i go past the cashier and pack my own bags. That is one less person touching my groceries and less of a burden on the stores employees. I thank the cashier and leave the store. On my drive home, im careful not to touch my face. I leave my outside shoes on the porch and as soon as i get through the door, i wash my hands for at least 20 seconds. Next, i wipe down my debit card, i. D. And car key. And then i wipe down the front doorknob, clean the sink taps and wash my hands again. I wash my vegetables in cold water and remove the package aing from my proteins and other items. I leave the nonperishables in my garage for a few days unless i need them immediately. My refrigerated items get a quick winddown to be on the safe side and, of course, i wacker my hands again. Heres a quick recap of my visit to the grocery store. That is it for this episode. The Bicycle Coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. I was happy to receive one of them. The Community Bike build program is the San Francisco coalitions way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. The city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the San Francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. The partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. We ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. We make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. Bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. It is not only a form of recreation. It is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. I really appreciate it. I am very thankful. We teach a class. They have to attend a one hour class. Things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. After that class, then we would give everyone a test chance chance to test ride. We are giving them as a way to get around the city. Just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. I guess enjoyable is a word i could use. That doesnt describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they havent ridden a bike in years. These folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. Take my picture on my bike. That was a great experience. There were smiles all around. The recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. At the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. If someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike. Org volunteer you can sign up for both events. We have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. We are growing each and every year. I hope to top that 376 this year. We frequently do events in bayview. The spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. For me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. Most of the time the kids will be in the house. This is a fun way to do something. You get fresh air and you dont just stay in the house all day. Iit is a good way to exercise. The Bicycle Coalition has a Bicycle Program for every community in San Francisco. It is connecting the young, older community. It is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. It has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. I have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. Hi. Ogram. 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 we are definitely pioneers in airport concession world a world of nationally if not entirely or internationally everybody is cop us right now. The people that were in charge of the retail this is where that began. I didnt think we would have a location at the airport. Weve set the bar higher with the customer commerce. Telling me about the operator and how you go about finding them and they get from being in the city to being in the airport. So first, we actually find a table and once we know what we want a sitdown we go to the neighborhoods in San Francisco and other people seminary of the retail let us know about the rain water and are excited to have the local operators in the airport. We have to go going through the conceive selective process and they award a lease to the restaurant. They are planning on extending. We that you could out the china and the length evens and the travel serve and fourth your minds and its all good. How long for a vendor to move through the process. I would say it could take 80 up to a year from the time we go out to bid until they actually open a restaurant. I dont know what we signed up for but the airport is happy to have us here. And, you know, even taking out the track simple things theres a learning curve with once were here they are helpful. Its an awardwinning program. Were prude of your awards we have won 11 awards the latest for the best overall food address Beverage Program and. Like the oscars laughter . The professional world. Tell me about the future food. All the sb national leases are xooirz and were hoping to bring newer concepts out in San Francisco and what your passengers want. Well, i look forward to the future laughter air are we look fo youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is assessor carmen chu. Hi, im chris mannis and youre watching coping with covid19. And today my guest is carmen chu, the assessor for the city of San Francisco and was cochairing the Economic Recovery Task force. Shes here to talk how about how the task force is guiding the city through the Covid Recovery and reopening. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much, chris, for having me. We begin by talking about the creation of the economic recovery tack force and its purpose and role. Absolutely. So i think about our cities with that very first month of covid and the truth is that everything moved so quickly. And i can still remember when i was at the press conference that announced our state of emergency and not only that but very soon after we were in a shelterinplace scenario where many of us had never imagined that wed ever see in our lifetime, much less having to deal with a global pandemic. During that time there was a lot going on in peoples minds about how concerned and worried that meant for themselves and their families, but almost immediately i think that the city also began to feel what the Economic Impacts were of shelterinplace and business closure. Remember at the time that all but essential businesses were open so very quickly we saw a lot of businesses who were, frankly, worried about whether they could even come back and open at some point in time or how theyd make it through and we saw quickly a sharp amount of job loss that happened in the city as well. So we knew pretty soon thereafter that we needed to start doing a lot of work to plan ahead for what economic recovery would look like. So there, alongside with the president of the board, norman yee, had a task force to try to get a number of people together to be thinking about what is it that the city can be doing now to start planning for our economic recovery, to have it successful for the midterm but also for the long term going forward. So we have a group of people who are just amazing, people who are contributing to our communities. So weve had large and Small Businesses. Businesses from a crosssection of Different Industries and services, from different neighborhoods. We had academia who are part of this task force as well as different foundations and Profit Service providers who are all part of the ecosystem that makes San Francisco special. So the task force is really meaning to pull together the thinking about how the city could help us to facilitate going back to a reopening scenario, but how to have different scenarios and policies to ensure that we can be successful during an interim period as long for the long term. Great. Now weve all heard about the Economic Impacts of the covid19 had across the country. Can you tell us about the experiences in San Francisco . I mean, i would say that just listening to the businesses and to the individuals and residents. Its been very dire. You can imagine for a business that has been open for quite some time, you know, and they are still continuing to have to other things but meanwhile they had absolutely no income for most businesses that are closed to help to offset that. Many of these businesses have taken loans out that they have actually secured with their own assets, like their home. They have secured it, you know, they cant repay loans, they have to potentially sell or do something with the other personal guarantees they have. Locally here in San Francisco we have also i tried to respond with the local programs that we thank would be helpful. Everything from the deferral of business taxes and business licenses, and the grants to support businesses and different Community Groups to support workers and so on, to try to help to transition. But that being said, its been significant hardships for individuals, as well as the business side or those unemployed or people who are not seeing that wealth in the sector. The particular areas that the task force are focusing on, can you talk about them specifically . Yeah, yeah. At some point we think about the larger economy. And its a wide and a big economy. We have so much entrepreneurship and different types of activities and things that we do. And also its really important parts of our economy that make San Francisco special, our arts and our culture, all of these things help to contribute to the vibrancy that i think is San Francisco. When we think of economic recovery, its broad and its also something that is going to be very different from sector to sector. So i think this is truly something that we keep in mind is that ultimately the ones that we are able to open, with the Economic Activity that is really tied to how we individually take responsibility to be sure that we keep safe. And so the way that were thinking about economic recovery is about, you know, how to make an interim period short of having a vaccine or a Health Breakthrough for an economy that is resilient. Theres a strong recognition that even before covid19 hit that the economy wasnt doing great for everyone, right . A lot of people were left behind, frankly, from the last economic cycle. We were not just faring very well. And so one of the things that were thinking about is how do we think about San Francisco with the emergency sectors and how to create more equity, how do we create more opportunities for all of our communities to be able to thrive going forward. So we really are intentional about wanting to think about policies that help to develop San Francisco better actually than the way that things were before. Some of the areas that we think that we want to put our efforts around are a few areas. So we want to see for jobs and businesses. We definitely to want to think about Economic Development and how it is that we allow for the right kind of growth in our economy. We want to make sure that were focusing on our vulnerable communities. So truly thinking about, you know, who has been most impacted, who you do we make sure that when we think about the investments for the future that that economy includes those individuals and communities as well. And finally we also want to think very intentionally about how we support the arts, hospitality, culture and entertainment. This is a big part of San Francisco. People come from all around the world to visit our beautiful city because they recognize not only the natural landscape is beautiful but also the vibrance and the warmth of our communities and the culture that were able to share here and the food that we can provide and the festivals and concerts, all of these things that makes San Francisco so special. And at the same time these are exactly the types of things that are probably not going to come back very quickly. And as we begin to reopen, what is the Task Force Helping for local businesses and employment . We really want to make sure that the ontheground experiences that businesses have and the common sense kind of things that they may be able to do, are able to be incorporated with our Public Health officials. Aside from that were working very hard to try to find just the solutions that allows the businesses to be able to populate more flexibly. So you have probably heard that the city is opening up outside dining and not only that but we have created and launched the shared spaces program. This really allows for the businesses to be able to utilize either the curbside space, the street space potentially and the sidewalk space, and allow a path of travel for their businesses. Yeah. And letting businesses use outside spaces is a great idea, especially since we learned that being outdoors is safer. So what is next after reopening . What are the lessons that we have learned and how can we create a better economic environment in the city . Yeah, i think is such a huge question because i think that all of us are very much thinking about social equity and i think that theres a lot of opportunity for us to be thinking about doing it better and more inclusive and create more opportunities for our communities who have been left behind. In particular for our black community in San Francisco. We know that this is something that we want to focus on and we want to make sure that were actually creating a better system going forward. Oh, i totally agree. So, finally, if somebody or a Small Business is interested in learning more about the Economic Recovery Task force, where would they be able to find Additional Information . Well, im glad that you said that. We definitely have heard from we have heard from so many people across the city. So first off i want to thank all of those toke folks who have reo us. But the place you want to go is our website at onesanfrancisco onesanfrancisco covid19recover y, that is a website with our information, including our meeting agendas and our minutes, a video reporting as well so they can keep uptodate. And theres an email and a survey that you can fill out there and you can see it. Thats great information and i really appreciate you coming on the show. And thank you for the time you have given me today. Thank you, chris. I really appreciate it. Stay safe. You too. Thats it for this episode and well be back with more pandemicrelated information shortly. You can been watching can the coping with ko covid19 for sfgovtv. Education of the sang. Francisco Unified School District for july 28th, 2020 is now called to order. Roll call, please. [roll call]