Transcripts For SFGTV Transportation Authority Full Board 20240712

[gavel]. Chair peskin good morning and welcome to the San Francisco county Transportation Authority meeting for today, august 25, 2020. We have a new clerk today, miss brittany milton, who comes to us from the contracting industry, and we are delighted that she is on board, and someday, well work with her in the board of supervisors chambers. With that, ms. Milton, welcome, and if that, could you please call the roll. Clerk yes. [roll call] clerk we have quorum. Chair peskin thank you, ms. Milton. Do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Public comment will be available for any item on this agenda by call 8882045987, and entering access code on the screen. Once told, you will be invited to join the meeting as a participant. When prompted, dial star, three to speak. You will be prompted by the system when it is your turn to speak. Please anow for audio alf delays and a 30second lag time during the course of this meeting. That completes my announcement. Chair peskin thank you, ms. Milton, and colleagues, supervisor mandelman is going to be about 30 minutes late fore this meeting. Colleagues, is there a motion . Supervisor walton second. Chair peskin ms. Meltocan that without roll or how do i handle that . Because there is no quorum for this meeting, you dont need to have because there is no quorum for this meeting, you dont have to call roll for that item. Chair peskin thank you. I want to thank supervisor walton and supervisor yee for convening two weeks ago during our oneweek recess to consider and ultimately approve the onecent sales tax for our caltrain. This will provide much needed reforms and a path for long needed funding for this train that will connect San Francisco, san mateo, and santa clara counties. We want to thank supervisor walton serving on the ad hoc govern johnson committee, particularly supervisor send cindy chavez and david cruz, as well as our entire elected official delegation, including our mayor, mayor breed, senator wiener, and representatives chiu and tang. Now we need to educate about the measure and as a measure, it will need two thirds ballot approval to pass. The other thing was the m. T. C. To include the downtown extension or d. T. X. As we call it, strengthening the projects call on near term federal and state funds. This is just the draft reprint stage, but i want to acknowledge and appreciate the milestone and successful joint advocacy by tilly chang and our Transportation Authority staff, as well as the Transbay Joint Powers Authority with the support of our m. T. C. , commissioner ronen, and our other m. T. C. Reps on that body. I also want to thank work for the securing outcome, and youll hear a little bit more about that on our executive directors report. On a related note, im pleased to report that the executive steering committee, which, colleagues, youll remember our deliberations about reform in that agency, held its inaugural meeting in july and adopted our nominee, tilly chang, as its chair. Good luck for more work, and we look forward to the team for more great outcomes. Unfortunately, and we can schedule at our next meeting a hearing on this, but i am extremely disappointed and saddened that after five months of closure of our subway under market street, that we still have problems with splices and got off to a terrible start yesterday. It is extremely disappointing, and i would like to schedule a hearing on that. I know that the director of transportation director tumlin wanted to speak on that, but insofar as its not on the agenda, i was advised by counsel that we cannot discuss it in this meeting. Finally, congratulations are in order for cynthia fong, Deputy Director of finance and her administration, for achieving a certificate of excellence in financial recording by the governor finance officers association. For the third year in a row, ms. Fong, and to your team, congratulations for this Outstanding Award and for your stewardship of our taxpayers dollars, and with that, colleagues, i conclude my remarks. Is there any Public Comment on the chairs report . Clerk chair, let me check. Chair peskin thank you, ms. Milton. Operator you have no Public Comment. Chair peskin Public Comment is closed madam executive director, your report, please. Good morning, and thank you, chair peskin, good morning, commissioners. In addition to chair peskins congratulations, id ask for this meeting to be added to your calendar so we can discuss particularly the budget and work program. So thank you to each of you and your staff. Ill lead off with an update on the state level. State legislation is moving along, and the statutory deadline for bills to be approved is august 31. Weve been tracking these bills, and we dont have an update for your agenda today, but we will in the next meeting. Only a few of the Top Priorities are advancing. Of the bills the t. A. Has taken a position, only a few are still active. Senate bill 288 from senator wiener, from which we currently have a watch position, which has to do with ceqa reform, passed out of legislation next week. There would also be theyve added certain requirements for Public Meetings before and during construction and established a sunset date of january 2023. So those are some updates on that bill. We are also following a budget trailer bill, sb 815, which would allow for gas tax funds that are currently direct via formula to transit agencies to be used for transit operations. These are normally used for state of good repair maintenance Capital Projects, but the state is allowing through this bill to allow for transit operations to use them to avoid cuts in service. So its the regulation that allows federal funds to be used that we talked about last month. So we will provide an update on those of these as well as other bills on the september 15 meeting as well as a federal update that includes updates on representative Ayanna Pressleys freedom to move acts. Acts are due for bicycle and pedestrians projects, including a 220 million statewide program, and a 37 million Regional Program administered by d. T. C. So we will be submitting a package for the yerba buena design pathway. We talked about this at the timma Committee Last month, and other projects are the Fulton Howard streetscape project, which will include best of my knowledge and longterm improvements on those streets. Also, m. T. C. S application with the Alameda County transportation commissioner is also of interest because it included design of improvements connecting the west bay path to oakland. The Water Authority Transit Agency and the downtown transit project have created the ferry project, an upgrade to the ferry gates and a beautiful new plaza, including some overhead weather protection, as well as improving Emergency Response capabilities. The project will include future services, including service to Treasure Island and some east bay cities that are included to 2030, and we did contribute about 2. 7 million to that project. Were happy to support that project through design and construction. As you recall, weve been tracking these after the board approved funding for the l. R. B. Funding, the expansion vehicles that came in and were used recently, but also the 151 existing replacement of existing 151 l. R. V. S. I think first vehicle is expected last month. On the downtown rail extension, thank you, chair peskin, for mentioning that. Ill just mention that Deputy Director from m. T. C. Was elected [no audio] as well as early phasing studies, so that will be a monthly meeting, as well as our e. F. C. Meetings, and you can find information on the tjpas website. On a related note, the executive directors of the Water Transit Authority and Municipal Transportation Agency have announced their retirement, so i want to congratulate them. We also appreciate, of course, director mark zabanehs service at the transboy joint powers authority, managing through some tough times but always with transparency and ultimately being able to celebrate with full confidence this beautiful new facility for the region, as well as his shepherding of the d. T. X. Project through the approval stage at the federal level. So best wishes to them in their retirement and their future endeavors. The lifeline Transportation Program at the state level, we have some applications underway. These were reviewed at the t. A. Board, Transportation Authority board last month. For sfmta, these will be utilizing these funds for the lifeline Transportation Program and the folks using that, and the b. A. R. T. Transportation and redundancy project that we mentioned last month. Hopefully, your offices have seen some messages from our agency our news regarding an online game as well as other measures to folks to let them know about the studys progress. Theres an online game called unclog fog city to help understand the different tradeoffs in deciding the level of sea level in our city. We are sponsoring a telephone town hall and virtual town hall on august 26, tomorrow, in fact, and a workshop with s. P. U. R. And the Bicycle Coalition on november 1. We are also working with many, Many Organizations through Small Group Meetings as well as distributing fliers through food bampnks and other ways of getting the word out to folks in the community. I also want to thank and congratulate the sfmta for its outstanding work on the Bayview Community Transportation Plan as well as supervisor waltons office, d10 office. Theyve just received the california Planning Association award for excellence in opportunity and empowerment, so congratulations to that team. That was a fantastic project that brought together the community, including participatory budgeting, and d. T. C. Brought funds to support that, and we at sfmta have brought Forward Investments to that plan. Finally, i just want to add my congratulations to Deputy Director cynthia fong and controller carmen hui and the rest of the finance decision staff on the decision of the finance governments award. Chair peskin thank you for that. Are there any comments from members . Seeing none, is there any Public Comment on the executive directors report . Clerk okay. Were checking. Operator you have zero questions remaining. Chair peskin okay. Public comment is closed. Madam clerk, could you please read the next item . Clerk item 4, approve the minutes of the july 28, 2020 meeting. This is an action item. Chair peskin is there any Public Comment on the minutes of our july 28 meeting . Madam clerk . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Clerk there is none. Chair peskin Public Comment is closed. And is is there a motion to approve said minutes . Made by supervisor walton so moved. Chair peskin moved by commissioner walton and seconded by commissioner yee, beat commissioner fewer on that. Roll call please, miss melton. Clerk on the item approval of minutes [roll call] clerk we have ten ayes. Minutes are approved. Chair peskin all right. Next item, please. Chair peskin item 5, covidera congestion tracker and covid19 Recovery Scenario analysis. Chair peskin tilly, do you want to text joe to unmute. Sorry. Production, can you unmute joes mic, please . Chair peskin why dont we go to item 6, is that okay . Clerk sure. Chair peskin and we can circle back to item 5. Madam clerk, why dont you read item 6. Clerk item 6, preliminary fiscal year 202021 budget and pork progr work program. This is an information item. Let me take a moment to pull up my slide. Chair peskin yes, we are. So this is your first look at the fiscal year 202021 budget. Before i begin diving into the numbers, id just like to take a moment to review the t. A. S agency structure. We have 47 approved positions here across six different divisions. The t. A. Administers the prop a sales tax program, the 10 double vehicle prop d Registration Fee, the transbay prop mitigation tax, and we act as the local manager for the Transportation Fund for clean air. We have six different mandated responsibilities, and we have 47 staff approved by this board to carry all those functions out. Id also like to take a moment to recap on the sales tax revenue industry and also a moment how we did for sales tax revenues for fiscal year 1920. Here, we have a past look of fiscal year sales tax revenue. You can see here in 2012, we were collecting about 81 million of revenue each year. This was also the same time the federal department of transportation moved into a new communication system. And then, covid19 impacted all of us. We had collected revenue of 86 million, and we had originally anticipated we would collect 110. Im happy to tell you that we have collected overall 99 million. Now Going Forward in fiscal year 2021, we are anticipating collecting 91 million. We are expecting to continue to shelter in place, and well continue to report back how were doing. Excuse me, cynthia. Do you see the presenting box that keeps flickering on on my . I dont know if anyone else sees it, as well. No, i dont. Okay. Chair peskin and do you want to say how you came up with that . You didnt create a crystal box, you consulted with experts based on modelling, and i think its important to state that. Sure. Lets take a moment to state that. There is no crystal ball behind the curtain here. We are working with consultants in economics in addition to working closely with the Controllers Office, as well. They have a separate economist, so its great to compare two different thirdparty sources. In addition, joes presentation would have taken a look at how we arrived at some of these numbers, along with some tourist and Hotel Occupancy rates, we are looking at other considerations such as percentage of workforce in San Francisco thats able to work from home. Also, restaurants opening sales that impact sales tax in San Francisco. And wayfair collections we started receiving that tax in december, while that was assessed back on april 1 of 2019. There are a lot of different factors that go into these revenue estimates. We try to remain conservative, trying to monitor whats happening in San Francisco, including mayor breeds current orders for San Francisco. All right. Is that good enough . Chair peskin thats great. Okay. Ill go on. We are looking at 20 more revenues as compared to last fiscal year. As you can see on the chart, the gray chart represent the 2021 budget, while the blue represents the projected budget. There is [inaudible] and bridge structure project. Mainly, the south gate realignment project. As you may remember, we had begun construction on that project in june of this year. In addition, vehicle Registration Fee represents 3 . We city a small see a small decrease due to covid19 impacts. Our transportation mitigation tax represented 5 . This is a new tax for the t. A. We began collections on january 1, 2020. We had anticipated collecting, for the first six months, 7. 5 million revenue. We had budgeted 3. 2 and actual collect ended up to 2. 5. So we were estimating with the Controllers Office and sfmta, 7. 4 million for a full 12 months for the are Traffic Congestion mitigation tax. Now interest and other revenues represent less than 1 . Majority of the cash that the t. A. Holds fits with the fits with the treasury pool office citys treasury pool. Let me move onto expenditures now. Just to highlight first, our main source of expenditures are proposition k. This is seeking the largest reimbursement request for the current year. The majority of expenditures, approximately 45 million. Will be going to sfmtas light rail vehicle procurements. Sfmta is the sponsor that receives the most funds from the t. A. S prop k program. In addition, well have large reimbursement from several places, including the San Francisco public works geary resurfacing project. Executive director tan will go more into detail in her presentation of the agencys work plan. Great. Thank you, cynthia. I have one more slide, tilly. So expenditures, this is the last slide. Expenditures, we are looking at an increase of 15. 5 . As you can see, the Capital Project costs thus far are the ones that represent 85. 6 of expenditures. In addition to the expenditures i just indicated on the last slide, we anticipate lower than usual prop k expenditures being carried forward. Our operating cost, this represents about 5 of the t. A. s budget. We are anticipating an increase in personnel costs of approximately 10 . These are related to positions that we had removed from last years budget and now anticipate hiring these positions. They are the real program manager, a senior Transportation Planner, and a Transportation Planner. In terms of operating costs, we have barely a change here. We have less operating costs than last year, and then, we have debt service costs. This represents 10 of the t. A. S budget. Now, this is for fees, principles, and interest for the sales tax revenue bond and in addition to maintaining our 140 million revolving credit loan agreement. This is a line of credit that the agency has had for the last three years. Our debt program has allowed us to be more flexible in delivery of prop k projects. Y in order to be able to fund our expenditures, well need to drawdown on that revolving Credit Agreement this year in order to pay for our expenditures. As some of you may remember, a few years ago, we had drew down from our resolving Credit Agreement. We will be coming to the board for approval before each drawdown is made, and well be able to indicate what the drawdown and what the purpose of the drawdown will be for the upcoming expenditures. With that, i am happy to take any questions for this before transitioning to director chan. Chair peskin thank you for that, as well as the personal briefing that you gave me earlier. Are there any questions from members . Let me look in the chat box. I do not see any. With that, why dont we go to our executive director . Thank you, chair peskin supervisor safai chair peskin, this is chair peskin go ahead, supervisor safai . Supervisor safai so saying were going to be drawing down on our credit. How much of that will be remaining, and how much impact does that have to our overall stability . Chair peskin ms. Fong . Let me break this question up into pieces. What is the impact . Well, the impact, since were able to pull down on this line of credit that the board has approved, well be able to Fund Upcoming expenditures for delivery of projects in San Francisco. Now, what does this to our credit supervisor safai and how much of our credit will be remaining . Well, we would be anticipating up to 100 million being drawn down for this fiscal year. That would leave us 40 million left to drawdown, and if and then, we would have a number of years based on the life of the asset that were funding to payback these funds. What weve done in the past to payback the resolving Credit Agreement were to use future tax revenues to pay the balance down in addition to erbing debt to pay to issuing debt to payback the revolving Credit Agreement. Supervisor safai so were taking debt to drawdown our credit at what Interest Rate . The Interest Rate would be the Interest Rate currently at the market for shortterm debt. Supervisor safai so were taking down interest, going into debt, and then, were going to pay it with future debt . Sales tax revenue. Supervisor safai sales tax revenue or debt. Sales tax revenue or debt, which would be in the course of a bond. And is this the usual course of the t. A. . I know were in an unusual fiscal situation, but do we normally drawdown credit and go into debt in this matter . With yyes. This is the second time weve done this to pay our share shareholders in expenditures. And on the cityside, through Deputy Director fong to commissioner safai, it is not uncommon that we take out shortterm resolving debt with longer term structural debt, like bond. So this is not an uncommon action. Supervisor safai okay. I just wanted to know if it was something that was done in the past because obviously, it costs us a lot more to cray down doctor and pay it with future drawdown credit and pay it with future debt and sales tax. Chair peskin thank you for those questions, supervisor safai. Madam executive director . Thank you. And one more question to clarify from cynthias report, our operationing expends are slightly operating expenses are slightly lower because weet off on two hires, and we have since decided to go forward and fill a couple of those position, so youll see a slight rise in the actual operating expenses, but its very small, and its for several positions that we have secured funding for, including prop k funding. Okay, so heres the work plan. I just wanted to mention some highlights of our coming work plan. Many of these will be familiar through the course of this year, and many of them are rolling over. Our congestion management work is primarily relating to supporting immediate needs at sfmta and the working group that chair peskin coleads with director tumlin as well as tools such as what youll be seeing from joe in the next ite item. Our downtown congestion pricing study continues, as well, but its a big year for finishing the planned bay work for the region and also identifying our own Transportation Plan, which is San Francisco Transportation Plan 2050, we call it s. T. P. Right now, were heading into briefings, and next year, well inform the public on some modal studies and how that will track with the update next fall. Planning, environmental work is on pause, however, we are continuing to provide planning and policy support to the region, to our partners on the 101 corridor, and we are tracking, again, caltrans efforts, as well, as they turn back on some of those lanes based on how congested theyre becoming. Next slight, now Neighborhood Transportation Improvement Program is very active. We are leading, i believe, three or four of these studies in districts 4, 5, and 9, and we are leading the efforts in other districts. We also received a School Access Planning Grant from caltrans that commissioner mar has requested, so we continue to provide support to a number of studies across the city in the district levels. Next . Forecasting and data, these are the tools that well be discussing in just a moment, but these are the types of things that you would see the tools development, the rulemaking, anything that involves big data and model enhancements. This has become such a valuable tool and really a model across the nation for things such as this. We have roles that we play, and making sure that were leveraging. These are all the things that weve been mentioning in my directors report, and youre seeing grants, applications, and rewards, inner city capital, congested corridors, and the like. Thats especially important as we head into potentially again federal reauthorization. Our Strategic Plan update is being led by ana la fort and is looking at putting that forward and sponsors needs. That will inform our debt strategy. So speaking to supervisor safai, this is something that we do quite often. We do go to our bond programs supported by line of credit revolvertype facility, and thats very typical of agencies with infrastructure delivery. Reauthorization is something that chair peskin has asked us to take a look at to go to voters for the prop k expenditure plan. We have already at this point, about 15 years into our program, delivered many of the program that were in our program in 2003. So it is a perfect time, as were updating our county wide plan in getting with all of our partners to envision what those next projects should be. New revenue measures also include a potential regional transportation measure as well as the ones that weve been discussing this year. In terms of legislative advocacy, we remain active at all levels, particularly the state but also the federal level and ensuring that we are ready for any stimulus or further federal opportunities on the funding side, and particularly for a major project such as downtown extension. Prop k Customer Support and service and efficiency improvements include the tools and particularly for our project sponsors and sister agencies to make their work more efficient, as well. Next . In terms of Capital Projects, youve seen and youll continue to see us come before you, particularly this fall, to obtain your approvals to initiate the Major Construction efforts on y. B. I. , south gate road, as we mentioned, kicked off earlier this year, in the summer, and now, we have the main bridges to replace a set of roads from bay bridge down to Treasure Island, and that is being coordinated with the bicycle and pedestrians task on those islands as well as Treasure Island mobility management program, which we will provide updates to you as the timma committees consider those next week. And then, in terms of the ocean avenue southbound on and off ramps and realignments, were working on these in conjunction with supervisor yee and safais office and working wi supporting things in that area, needs in that very, very critical area. You have the b. A. R. T. Station and the two major freeways or the freeway and the mattjor arterials in that area. Next . Transbay Transit Center is now in operation mode and now were focused, of course, on d. T. X. , and that includes the pennsylvania avenue extension as well as locations for the 22nd caltrain station. This is an important study let by planning department, and many agencies are working together on what that should look like as far as serving the southeast part of the city with caltrain and also supporting caltrain through its Electrification Program and beyond with high speed rail, central subway, overseeing that, geary, and market street, and better market street, we should add, as well. Transparency, youre seeing that with the really nice recognition from dsoa, we also have active programs to support sponsors and ensure that we have efficient grants management and contracting. Were proud of our d. B. E. And l. B. E. Policies and appreciate this boards guidances in that, particularly this year, and also support all of our work with sound and thorough communications with bidders, with contractors, and with Overall Community stakeholders. So with that, i believe we are, yep, down to our last slide, which would be about our process. This is our first round with presenting this information item to you all, well be back after we present to our Citizens Advisory Committee next week, and well be back with your input for the final budget in september, and that way, well stay consistent with the city as we adopt the budget by october 1. That concludes my presentation. Chair peskin thank you for that presentation. Are there any members who have any questions or comments for director chang or miss fong . Seeing none, why dont we open this up to Public Comment. Operator you have one question remaining. Clerk welcome, caller. Your two minutes begins now. Thank you, chair peskin and sfcta members. Alita dupree. For the record, my pronouns are she and her. You made a mention of 22nd street and caltrain. I ask that you, in this study, you ensure that you have funding to make sure that this particular station is a. D. A. Accessible because at this time, it is not. I happen to believe that all railroad stations should be fully accessible snanationwideo we dont want to forget about that. I did hear about your discussion about borrowing, and we have to be very careful. I have a bit of heartburn about shortterm borrowing and possibly replacing that with longer term debt. It brings about an issue called Interest Rate risk, so we have to be mindful of that. I dont like to be overleveraged here. And just we need to do a deep dive on spending and taxable items. I think im spending about the same on items i get from the groceries, like toothpaste and toilet paper. Lets make sure that this plan keeps equity and accessibility in mind. Thank you. Chair peskin thank you. Are there any other members of the public for this item . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Chair peskin okay. Public comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair peskin and this was an information item. Why dont we circle back to item number 5 that has already been called. Joe yes. Can you hear me now . Chair peskin we can hear you. Great. Thank you so much. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, chair peskin. Let me just pull up my slide show, and are you able to see this now . Chair peskin yes, and if you could perfect. Good morning, again. Im the Deputy Director for Technology Data and analysis at the San Francisco county Transportation Authority, and im here to talk to you today about the covid era congestion tracker staff have developed. As we know, the shelter in place orders really quite rapidly changed traffic patterns and congestion in San Francisco, and, of course, as we now, transportation patterns and ridership continue to change as we see changes in the Public Health Decision Making and economy. In order to help Decision Makers and planners understand and respond to these changes, Transportation Authority staff have developed this covid era congestion tracker, which is an interactive map which we update weekly. It shows information on the average speeds in the a. M. And p. M. Peaks. This is the same as we report every other year as part of our congestion management program, and in fact, what this tool does is take a process that we used to go through every other year and do it every single week. Provides information at a city level as well as changes and speeds over time, and this can be used for all sorts of different applications, including being able to help identify emerging hot spots where appropriate electric management strat Traffic Management strategies might be needed. You can see the web link at the bottom. This is where you can interact with the tool. You can see some of the images on the righthand side of your screen. On the top, you see the average a. M. Speeds, and on the bottom, you see the average p. M. Speeds. Ive circled in green the amount speeds increases. Average speed increases from 22 Miles Per Hour before the shelter in place to over 60 Miles Per Hour, and you can see these illustrated in these maps. These are screen shots of the interactive tools, so if you go to the website that i just showed the link for, youll be able to see that. On the left is the typical congestion map during the shelter in place. The red lines indicate that speeds are actually quite low. We use the Traffic Engineering level of Service Standard to indicate those, and these are e. R. Average, not good. But just two weeks later, after the shelter in place order had been in place, you can see that that whole segment of the city had now turned to a much cooler shades of green and yellow, and this indicates that those speeds had rapidly increased during just that twoweek period. However, we expect that more activity will return, and we are ready to see that. You will see immediately after the shelter in place was instituted relatively cooler colors. And then a screen shot on the right from just a couple of weeks ago. We can see that the bridge has gone from a free flowing green to an orange color, indicating that speeds have dropped significantly, and the main segment through the soma district of 80 is also returning to red, indicating levels of higher congestion. The tools, in addition to being able to, with those nice colors, be able to show you where speeds are faster or slower, it also includes a capability or a feature to allow you to compare speeds so what they were prior to the imposition of the shelter in place orders. So here, on the lefthand side, you can see this is during or immediately after the shelter in place, and the pale yellow color indicates that speeds were 30 higher, and that represents much of what you see here at the core. The orange indicates that speeds have begun to return to their preshelter in place congestion or even gotten worse than their preshelter in place congestion, and you can see that in many locations populating the market and south of market district. Chair peskin and is that an a. M. Or p. M. Mark peak market right . I should have noted that. I believe this was a p. M. Peak when i took those screen shots. Chair peskin maybe we should drill down a little bit into the data source . But as tilly knows, i live and walk and traverse the columbus avenue of the Northeast Corner of the city daily, often at the a. M. And almost every day at the a. M. Peak and often at the p. M. Peak, and i have just never encountered anything that would look like a level of service that he reflected in either one of these maps. And i understand its based on cell phone data, but i just its i mean, if you go out there with boots on the ground, it just doesnt look like this. Well, so maybe ill respond in a couple ways. One, i would love to dig into that and be able to provide you a more complete answer, and so ill do that after this presentation. But perhaps some information on the source of the data and how we process the data and how we visualize the data might address some of the questions that you may have. So the data, this data source is not just cell phone data. Cell phone data is part of the data source that flows into this, but also, they pull in a whole bunch of other data, particularly from large fleets you know, the fedex, the u. P. S. , the large fleets and other vehicles that are driving around, as well, and inra estimates that 25 of all the vehicles that are driving in the country are feeding data in there. So thats what it is. Its a number of sources. One thing that ill demonstrate on the next slide, and perhaps if we have time, we can dig into this specifically, we can represent the data. So the colors here are a relative change to what they were prepandemic, but if i slide back to look at these colors, these colors are assigned by the institute of the Transportation Association of engineers standards. So those standards are based on the type of road way and its you know, its location in the kind of urban context, and its really not perhaps as reflective of some of the San Francisco conditions as we might like. It does represent a direct representation of speed, and in fact, if i can just advance a little bit more, is that thats also information that the tool provides you. So for example, for any of those colored segments, we can go in and select an individual segment and see what the actual seeds are. And i think this would be the best test of validation, or perhaps not, of what youre seeing on the street because we can go in and look at the segments that youre most familiar with and see if the average speeds shown here are representative of what your own experience is. At the end of this presentation, i can pull up the congestion tracker tool, and we can look at it on screen, if youd like to do that. Chair peskin no, ive pulled up the tool and played with it myself, but no, we can take that question later and just proceed analysis colleagues, you have any other questions . Go ahead, joe. Okay. Hearing no questions, the purpose of this slide is to illustrate for any individual segment, folks can go in and look at the actual data. What you see here, then, in the charts on the right is the presentation not of the citywide average speeds but the average speeds for this individual segment. At the top is the a. M. Speeds and at the bottom is the p. M. Speeds. So what we can see here, for this segment, is the speeds that are experienced on octavia northbound are slightly worse than they were in the first weekend of march. All of this information that ive just presented to you, and the tool, is really retrospective. We update it weekly, but it tells us what happened. Its important that we pivot and look forward, and this is really critical, especially given all of the uncertainty around the nature of the recovery, and again, that is obviously the intersection of many different factors, including, but not limited to how the economy and how the epidemiological facts are playing out. To do this, we use the sfchamp model, and it allows us to develop estimates of Transportation System performance, including congestion, ridership, and this is really based on changes in Key Assumptions about the economy, including unemployment levels and workforce participation, all of which we track by an industrial sector level. Its influenced by what transportation segments are available, the frequency of routes, capacities, the fares and fare collection policies as well as things like bus lanes, bike lanes, and bridge toll collections. Theres a lot of uncertainty about this, as well, but its influenced by peoples traveling behaviors. To what degree are they able to do Remote Working based on what the nature of their job is, and how many folks are doing that . To what agree are people willing to jump back into transit due to concerns about the Public Health and safety . To what degree are people traveling for nonmandatory purposes such as work and school . You know, the amount of nonessential travel. These are all things that we can test out in our scenario testing tool, and they can give us indications about what we can expect to see and when we can expect to see and under what conditions we can expect to see congestion return and ridersh ridership return, as well. Weve structured these tests with some principles and guidance derived from both the state and the city. You can see theres quite a bit of coherance from the maps supplied by the state of california as well as the maps issued by the city. Each one of these stages will be represented by the scenario tasks. Currently, were at stage two or phase two, and thats the set of scenario tests were working on right now, and as we complete that, well certainly be reporting back to this body about some of our findings and also developing some capabilities to allow folks to take that information and interact with it so they can explore the outcomes in different scenarios. And with that, im happy to take any questions. Chair peskin thank you so much, joe. Are there any questions from members . And i encourage everybody to go to covidcongestion. Sfcta. Org and play with this very helpful tool, and i look forward to future presentations. Seeing no questions from members, why dont we open this up for Public Comment . Operator you have one question remaining. Chair peskin first speaker, please. Chair peskin and members, alita dupree, she and her. Theres a feeling when youre sitting on a muni bus in traffic, and theres nothing that the driver can do about it because were surrounded by cars that have stopped. And ive driven, not in San Francisco, but in manhattan, in new york city. Things get very interesting and difficult. I dont want to go there again. And so i think in our analysis of data, i think we need to look at it in a broader regional perspective of seeing where are all of these cars coming from . How far do they come from . I would conjecture that many of them are single occupancy vehicles, so the real elephant in the room here, and its been this way for decades, is the preponderance of single occupancy cars and the new normal, except that people are choosing not to purchase cars when in the past, people would not have elected to do that, so lets look at this more deeply and broadly. Thank you. Chair peskin thank you, miss dupree. Are there any other members of the public for Public Comment . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Chair peskin seeing none, Public Comment is closed, and this was an information item. Colleagues, is there any introduction of new items . Seeing no names on the roster, is there any general Public Comment . Operator you have zero questions remaining. Chair peskin general Public Comment is closed. Ms. Milton, congratulations on surviving and doing very well at your first meeting at clerk of the sfcta, and with that, colleagues, we are adjourned. [gavel] 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 youre watching coping with covid19 with chris manners. Todays special guest is michelle jeffers. Hi. Im chris manners, and youre watching coping with covid19. Todays guest is michelle jeffers. Shes the chief of programs and partnerships with the San Francisco public library, and shes here to talk with us about some exciting new developments at the sfpl and how the library has been managing during this pandemic. Michelle, thank you for being on the show. Thank you, chris, for having me. Likewise. Lets talk about the program the librarys just rolled out, the Curbside Pickup program called sfpl to go. Can you tell us how it works for those that arent familiar with the process . Sure. Its a three step program. You would request an item like you normally do. You would go into your library account, and say, i want to read becoming, by michelle obama. So you would click on request this item. Now the one trick this time is you need to click on the one that shows its available right now at the mainor excelsior branch. Once we get main or excelsior branch. Once we get going bigger and bigger, well be available to everybody. But you pick out a magazine, a movie, or a c. D. , you click on request it. If you dont have the internet, or you dont have an Online Library account, you can call us and say, i want to select this book, or you can say, help me with a book. You can say, what are some scandinavian mysteries, and well find you something right now. We go and pull it off the shelf. Well call you, well send you a piece of mail, or well email you and tell you its ready to pick up. And then, youll lineup outside the library. We have little dots on the ground to tell you where to lineup. Youll come up, tell us your name and the last fewour digit of your library card number, and we give you your package, and you go on your way. How do you return items . A lot of people have been holding onto items since march. You can return your items at the main, for example, we have three doors, and we have a separate door where its the return door, you put it into a bin there. We dont touch the items for 96 hours. Thats the quarantine period for the items. So we will wait four days and then touch them or check them back in for you. As you know, San Francisco Public Libraries did away with late fines last year, so there will be no fines on what you returned, no matter how late it is. Thats fantastic. You mentioned that you can call in, and that actually leads right into my next question, which is now the library has been focused on addressing the digital divide. Can residents still access the librarys wifi, and whats the Tech Tuesday Program . Yes. The wifi is on at all of our 27 branches and our main location, and you have gone to those locations and seen people using the wifi or, you know, on the perimeter around the building. Separate from requesting a book, you can also call us to ask reference questions, and weve answered a lot of questions. Ive asked them for some examples of some of the questions that theyre getting, because theyre trying to be helpful and be a friendly voice on the phone for everybody who calls. I thought some of the really funny ones were someone asked, is it shorter to raft from San Francisco to alcatraz or San Francisco to Treasure Island . And after that, they said, whats the phone number for the coast guard because i think they should come with me. Or another favorite was they didnt have internet, but they asked, can you look me up on google earth and see if it looks like im growing weed at my house. But we get those types of questions, but also the normal things, like when is this book coming out . Many of them were, when are you going to open for Curbside Service . We answer those questions, and have been there since march, trying to answer questions from the outside world. Next, were trying to do meetings on zoom, teaching people how to use resources. Many people had never checked out an ebook through the Library System or downloaded music through the Library System, so were trying to show them those tools, as well as other tools that they might need. Weve shown people on zoom how to use zoom, how to join a conversation and a chat group on zoom. Those have been really popular as people have really taken to asking for help with technology through technology to get more technology savvy. I urnnderstand as the libra is still closed, youve still been able to give away childrens book. How is that working and how many books have you given away so far. Theres been a request from sher sheryl davis on the library commission. She had a list of books that she wanted to give out to San Francisco students, k12, so she made a request, and we gave out almost 10,000 books to be distributed to kids in San Francisco. Weve also worked with the Human Services agency in the city to make sure that people are living in shelters, including family shelters have books because they cant use the library, so weve given out just thousands of books that way, too, and were continuing to get in more books. These are not Library Books that you have to return, these are to fill a home library for people, knowing that the library isnt as accessible as it used to be. Were waiting for a delivery right now, 47,000 books to distribute to students that might be coming in through the Community Learning hub and some other communitybased organizations to keep kids reading when theyre at home. Thats an impressive number of books. Finally, i understand all city workers are also Disaster Service workers, and that they made a significant effort to the citys response during this pandemic. Im proud of the Library Staff because theyve really staffed up. And at times, sfpl Library Staff have made up nearly hat of the deployed disaster workers in the city. Weve been doing contact work, so theyve been using those Library Skills to help track down people who might have been exposed to the virus through other exposures, moving through that process, which is really important to helping stem the spread of it. We have a huge staff working through the San Francisco marin bank who work at the top of the city, distributing food, making sure our city has nourishment and food, especially in areas where food is not as accessible in certain areas of the city. We have people working at testing site. We have people translating, doing outreach work, designing some of the signage you know, we have some graphic designers on the Library Staff that are doing that kind of work. We just really try to fill in and use our staff to the fullest extent possible anywhere the city needs us. I know that everyone in the city appreciates the work that sfpl has done to help out during this pandemic. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming onto the show, and thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, sure. Any time. Come back to the library. Ill be sure to. And thats it for us today. Well be back with more covid related information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. For were in the midst of cn San Francisco and in the country. Right now were dealing with balancing our budget. We have over two hundred thousand people unemployed in San Francisco. Were trying to produce housing faster and kids going to school. We know what were up against. The good news is we have really strong leaders who are in addition to battling covid doing the work necessary to moving the city forward. Today theres an announcement that we have around a project that many of us have worked so hard on. Thats the final closure of the county jail. The fact is, it was a long journey. Last year in october we announced the plan closure. We expected to do it in 2021. The good news is through the administrator and former sheriff and our new sheriff who picked up the mantle and moved this project forward, were in a position to close that particular facility sooner rather than later. Today is an announcement that we will do exactly that. When i talk about my lived experiences of growing up in public housing. I talk about it because of the challenges that i and other people through those experiences face. The sad reality is, it wasnt uncommon for so many of us so visit 85 850bryant street. That hallway, the concrete, pay phone, the benches we had to sit onto waitthat experience still haunts me. Im sure many people know what im talking about because of their experiences of visiting. The thing that has always stuck with me the most. When you grow up in these communities, you know a lot of people dont deserve to be there. Yes, we have people that have committed crime where they need to be held accountable. When i had been visiting and on objection for the most part you know everybody who is sitting there waiting. You know a lot of the folks you see behind those windows. And sadly, there are people in there who had nothing to do with the crimes they are in there for in the first place. Our criminal Justice System is broken. We have real problems with how sadly disproportionately, you talk about San Francisco one of the most progressive cities in the country with a less than six percent African American population. We know disproportionately that we still have challenges. We still have issues with this criminal Justice System. Now, here in this city, were doing something about it. Were closing the seventh floor and were closing it because no human being should have to be there. I remember visiting that facility years ago and growing up i only visited the visitors room. I had never been behind the scene. As a supervisor going behind the scene and seeing the work conditions that the deputies had to endure. Seeing people that i know, that i care about, from my community and their children in these jail cells that are small and tiny, two to three people in a cell. We want them to have a better life. We want them to not lose it in a facility like this. We have to think differently about what it meep means to noty people who are incarcerated but what it it means to reepter reer society. How do we have the facility to change the hearts and minds of people that we want to support. 850 is not that facility. Its nasty and dirty. I wouldnt want to see my worst enemy in that place. Its time to close it it. Thats exactly what were doing. Were closing the door on the past and mass incarceration at its absolute worst. Were opening the door to a real change. To a new way of reforming criminal justice in San Francisco. Were doing it because there are people who work in this building who actually care. Who actually care about changing it for the better. Todays announcement is a significant step towards real reform in our criminal Justice System. Im truly grateful to our city administrator, when we worked on this together. A community activist, our current sheriff who moved up the time line in getting this done. The supervisor from district one who cares deeply about this issue. Also, the work around the fees and a number of other things ive worked on with the board of supervisorrorsupervisors. Her work has been absolutely incredible around criminal justice reform. Our public defender and our district attorney. Working collaboratively. Because i want to be clear, you know, its very personal, its other family members, its other friends and people that i love and care about. Just imagine knowing someone had the potential who is now incarcerated to be mayor, to be president , to be a rock star, to be a musician. To be anything he wanted to be. But because he was accused of something he never did, he is behind bars at a place like 850. That happened to more black people in my community than i can count. Thats why this is so important today. Its about reforming the system and making a chaifng. Change. The future of how we adjust criminal justice and remove the disparities depends on the actions we take through policy, through investments, through complete reform of the system. I am excited about this announcement today and grateful to the leadership of this city to make it happen sooner rather than later. At this time i would like to introduce our sheriff who has been absolutely an incredible particle ner to worpartner to w. He moved it forward to get the job done. Thank you, madam mayor. In your remarks you painted a very vivid picture of your experience. Through San Franciscos history there have been 19 jails. Since 1962 the San Francisco fall of justice has been the center of the criminal Justice Center for our community. Built in the hall of justice for two of these jails. Located on the seventh floor of the hall of justice the maximum facility for the sheriffs department. The facility consists of single multiple occupancy cells dormitories all with large concrete wall fronts. Its a linear facility. The rated capacity for the jail is 406 people, to give you some context, the jail used al c atraz functioning. The San Francisco Sheriffs Office has grown and moved away from management of these types of i facilities with more humane infrastructure without the use of bars. County jail four represents the last vestages of a buy gone era. It represents the old way of doing things. An old way of doing things that our Sheriffs Office and city have moved away as a simple of t which we move away from. Our other linear jails in our system have been closed over the years respectively in 2006 and 2013. This remains the last linear jail facility for us to close. I personally was assigned to county jail four. My nephews one of the last times i saw him was on the seventh floor. When i became sheriff i committed to closing the facility. It out lived its usefulness. It puts not only the incarcerated in danger, but the staff and all the community that came to visit. Plumbing and sewage issues. For years weve been working collectively to safely relocate our population and close the jail. Original plans to remove justice involved out of the building have been challenged with funding issues. Thanks to the leadership of everyone mentioned weve been able to finally move out of the building. Were in a position to close early due t to the efforts of or staff and the department of Public Health. Theyve been able to work with us even meeting the cha challens of covid 19. Focusing on a reduced living and working space while responding to advocate concerns and the concerns of our partners. Our deaftie deafim happy to mt well be moving ahead. When we say early, well be closing the facility the up coming labor day weekend. Two months ahead of schedule. San francisco county jails have not been immune from the virus. Weve been a rare Success Story to limit exposure and out break nz ousin our system. Intercept, control the virus and keep everybody safe. Finally, i wish to dedicate my staff and commend all of our City Partners im thrilled to be joining you and mayor with this announcement. Last spring my Office Brought forth legislation to close county jail number four with legislation. At times we thought we couldnt do it. It it was very controversial. They thought you couldnt close the jail, its too soon. Here we are to say that county jail number four will be closed by labor day. We thought we could do it, we knew we would have to win people over to have some belief that is deemed dangerous, hazardous and deemed unfit for people to live. That we could close it so quickly. I want to mention that it was never considered to be impossible by our mayor. It is rare and unusual that we have a city leader like our mayorshe thoroughly understood it had to be closed and as soon as possible. This legislation that we passed was passed by the board ten to one vote. It was hard to get some supervisors on board. Because of the belief we could do it so soon. Closing it two months before we mandated it in our legislation. It is absolutely outstanding, incredible. Its great to see what can happen working what we can do. Today, i want to say thank you to mayor, sheriff sif city, administrator who said this place is dangerous and hazardous and no one should be living there. Thank you to all the advocates who work so closely with us to ensure that we never lost faith in this legislation. Today were thrilled. Again, i have to say were over the moon were able to close this jail which nobody should live in. No one should have to stay there. No one should have to work there. Its hars adde hars adder hazars health. Thank you. The covid 19 crisis and black lives Matter Movement ignited in this moment shined a light on how important it is for us in this moment to be looking at all of our system systems includingr Public Safety systems through a Public Health lens as well as a Racial Justice lens. Closing this jail is not just about shutting down a delap dated jail. Were not opening a new jail to replace this one. Rather were looking to reinvest in communities that have been harmed bile by this system. Particularly black and brown communities. When you look at the people who sit inside San Francisco county jails. We are jailing the most vulnerable among us sm th. The fact is jails are only one way to deal with Public Safety. There are other options to protect the community in the moment but take a much broader and effective and long term view of what safety is and what is needed to achieve it. We have such a big opportunity today in San Francisco to lead the way on reimagining Public Health and Community Safety by reinvesting in Community Based programs and Mental Health services and supports. Weve made Great Strides in the right direction with the board of supervisors ab supervisors ao are aligned with us in this moment. As we close county jail four lets also make a statement about our values as san franciscans. Moving towards a model of human potential, redemption, and heal willing. Thanhealing. Thank you. Thank you. It thank you all for your remarks. We will now begin the q and a portion. Sheriff. Your question comes from the San Francisco chronicle. What are the citys plans to keep San Franciscos jail population low. How to change and reform our system better. We have a plan in place right now which allows for under covid conditions separating out individuals in our system to be healthy and safe. Were at fifty eight percent capacity in one facility and fifty seven capacity downtown. We have a lot of room for growth is there is a spike in any of our populations. What is good and reassuring is that we are on a path of reform to begin with. The das office and Public Defenders Office to address the koafcovid 19 issue. There are no further questions and that concludes todays press conference. Thank you for everyones time. Coping with covid19. Todays special guest. I am chris manners, you are watching coping with covid19. My guest is the director of economic and Work Force Development here to talk about the programs the city has in place during this crisis to help Small Businesses and vulnerable and disconnected residents. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It is a pleasure to be here, chris. Start by talking about gift to sf. It provides many of the resources we are talking about. Could you tell us a little bit about the focus of gift to us. Then we will talk about specific programs. I very much appreciate the question. For anyone who is watching right now, so much of the work that has been accomplished to serve most vulnerable is because of very generous donations to the give to sf covid19 response and recovery fund. Over 28 million has been fund raised to support areas as important as Housing Stabilization for vulnerable communities, Food Security programs which has been a big issue not only in San Francisco but up and down california and of course across the nation. Very much thinking about workers and family members who may not have been access to state and federal programs the same way that others who are impacted have and do. That was to make sure families and workers were supported with woulrelief. Small Business Community to make sure they have access to loan was and grants. We are excited how diverse we have been able to do this. We have been able to roll these out to ensure that our communities are supported by our city together with all of us with city funds and philanthropic dollars to help realize them on behalf of the communitys needs. That is great. Now, many of our Small Businesses dont have large payrolls. They are unable to qualify for the federal ppp loans. Does the city have active programs available for Small Businesses to help with ongoing expenses such as rent while they are still closed . Certainly. One of the programs we launched in partnership and because of the ability of the give to sf loan fund presented us with was for loans and grants to do that. We knew in the beginning that it was not easy for smaller businesses not connected or those who were to get an answer around relief provided through ppp. We have seen success of the program. We knew it was important at the time to also have the San Francisco hardship mcwas Emergency Loan Program be launched and designed to support businesses who needed resources the most. We have committed 15. 5 million in ongoing covid19 Small Business Financial Relief. We have awarded grants and loans to over 400 Small Businesses thus far. We wanted to make sure that we were equitable about that approach always guidings work through Racial Equity lens. One of the most important pieces is ensuring every district would be represented and also more equitable work and places where we were doing that work would be supported through these efforts. In the first phase 1 million to 128 Small Businesses and 29 different neighborhoods with up to 10,000 in funds to support those who were experiencing loss. We set aside a minimum of 2 million for low and moderate income owners to ensure they were supported with relief efforts. Neighborhood goes like lower filmore, bayview, castro and excelsior. Longterm businesses have given to the city and we want to give bamto them as well. Then because we were looking for additional funding sources, we took dollars that we had with existing partners already with our partners to do Small Business work and help convert to support Women Entrepreneurs around San Francisco and very specific neighborhoods for mini grants to serve immediate needs. Every little dollar helped. One of the programs that just become available. Right to recover. I am glad you are asking about right to recover. We know that it is extremely valuable right now as we look to incentivize Community Members disproportionately impacted by covid19 by economic hardship, spaces to work in because they need to provide for families, having access to the Economic Relief or wages that you count on to protect yourself, stabilize your families, support your families and children or parents or extended family. That is a huge disincentive if you believe you may not have access to quarantine to do what we want you to do. If you are sick to get tested. If you test positive to quarantine and stay home. So that you can get better and not infect anyone else. That comes at a cost. You are not going to work, not making wages. For so many low income workers that is not acceptable. This is to provide relief based on the individual to give minimum wage for that period of time. When they walked into the testing site they knew if i test positive is there a program to help me, we could say yes . That was important to mayor breed, extremely important to supervisor ronen and they worked together to make 2 million available to support these individuals. Together with the department of Public Health we have a holistic system to fill the gaps that may exist to encourage people to get tested to do the right thing. Wear a mask, social distancing, not going places when they are sick and doing our part to make sure they were incentivized. Not having sick pay with the virus would be really stressful. Iit is important for undocumented. We know the lat inx is more than 50 of the positive cases and may not have access to sick leave or Financial Hardship to do the right thing and to quarantine with financial reli relief. As we start another new releaf program. Africanamerican Small Business Revolving Loan fund. How will that fund work . Well, i am very, very proud. This fund. I do have to give a shout out to our invest in Neighborhoods Team who worked day and night with the africanamerican chamber of commerce and main street launch to support the zero percent interest loan up to 50 thousand dollars. We have been striving to be specific and target communities of color and africanamerican Small Business Entrepreneur Community. It is so much more difficult for this community to access resources and it was important to do something in this moment that is reflective of a movement we know has been emotion for such a long time. For us to do something real, provide Financial Relief for the community in this ka this way ar them specifically. We are very proud to get this up and running. We look forward to applications being live so people from the africanamerican and black business communities to get relief. Flexible terms. Forgiveness up to 50,000 for those loans which can make a huge difference fought only for relief when you think about rent for a Small Business but also in terms of longterm recovery and being smart about the moment. There are businesses with the ability to be open, even a little bit. It is a stress on them. There are others that dont have the ability to do this at all. Where is their relief . They wait for us to do our collective part to ensure we can reopen. These dollars, very specifically for the black Entrepreneur Community are important for longterm viability success. That is good for them, the diversity of the city we hold dear and we need to be proud of. Do we have active programs for disconnected or underserved communities . Absolutely. As i was mentioning just simply about the right to recover program. When people go to the mission hub at 701 alabama within the Mission District to serve the community, they are providing Food Security, access to resources. What they have done is extraordinary in terms of partnering with the city with relief efforts to help pay and maintain Food Distribution for families. Thing are important like the latin x to do so many dishes with one item masa. Access to rise, cereals, milk, butter, fresh foods and vegetables. That is across the city in the entirety in those areas of need. To ensure those programs are made available for our most vulnerable communities. Seniors or families who desperately need that help. Finally, is there a website specifically designed to provide access and information about these resources . One of the easiest things to do, people have a general question and to want dont have access to the internet call 311. Reach out. We have been working closely to ensure the members and staff have the information they need to get what you need. As you call in. Most specifically for workers, employers, nonprofits to go to our website oewd. Org and click on covid19 which is a large button on the site. You will find a full list of information specifically designed for you as employer, as worker and nonprofit so that you know where to go for resources. Also, our phone number 5546134 for the small acciden small bus. The incredible staff are administering those lines. If they dont answer they will get back to you so you can talk to a real person in multiple languages. Also email sfosbasfgov. Org. Again, visit the website oewd. Org and you can find that. In terms of workforce 415 7014817. Someone will get back to you if they dont pick up immediately to answer your questions if you are a worker. Then to donate. Give to sf. Org. All of that information is to find to the website if you need resources or you need an understanding how we are phasing reopening or updated information, please visit us. We will get back to you. We look forward to serving you and the community to get through this very, very challenging time. That is great information. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate the time you have given us today. It is a pleasure, chris. Thank you for helping get information out to our communities. People are aware your government is hard at work on your behalf to get you what you need during a dynamic and challenging time. That is it for this episode. We will be back with more information shortly. This is coping with covid19. I am chris manners, thanks for watching on sfgovtv. 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. 7 and a half million renovation is part of the clean and safe Neighbors Park Fund which was on the ballot four years ago and look at how that Public Investment has transformed our neighborhood. The playground is unique in that it serves a number of age groups, unlike many of the other properties, it serves small children with the childrens play grounds and clubhouses that has basketball courts, it has an outdoor soccer field and so there were a lot of people that came to the table that had their wish list and we did our best to make sure that we kind of divided up spaces and made sure that we kept the old features of the playground but we were able to enhance all of those features. The playground and the soccer field and the tennis fields and it is such a key part of this neighborhood. We want kids to be here. We want families to be here and we want people to have athletic opportunities. We are given a real responsibility to insure that the publics money is used appropriately and that something really special comes of these projects. We generally have about an opportunity every 50 years to redo these spaces. And it is really, really rewarding to see children and families benefit, you know, from the change of culture, at each one of these properties and as a result of, what you see behind us, more kids are playing on our soccer fields than ever before. We have more girls playing sports than we have ever had before. [ applause ] fp and we are sending a strong message that San Francisco families are welcome and we want you to stay. This park is open. Today we have madame mayor london breed, Health Director grant colfax. Director of the department of Emergency Management Mary Ellen Carroll and abigail here do you to the bad air quality due to the wildfires. You can submit up to two questions by chat only. Submit them as clearly as possible and include your name and outlet. Well do our best to take your questions in the order received until the q a begins. Well be happy to take your emails. Welcome, madame mayor. Thank you, very much and good afternoon, everyone. Fire season unfortunately has begun in the state of california. And with that here in San Francisco comes challenges with our air quality. In a normal year wed be able to focus entirely on the air quality challenges but as you know we are not in normal years. Were living in covid. Even as we have been focussed on responding to the covid Public Health emergency, we havent lost sight of the need to respond to other emergencies. Whether thats an earthquake or air quality event due to wildfire smoke. In San Francisco we know we have to be prepared. Now, i want to start first by recognizing that while our air quality here in the city is a challenge, we have to focus first on those communities that are being impacted by the fire. When peoples lives are at risk and their homes are at risk, that has to be the top priority. We all have friends and family all over the bay area in california. Our communities are connected and we are there to support each other during these very difficult times. As weve provided hospital beds for counties overwhelmed by covid, San Francisco is proud to offer mutual aid for other jurisdictions battling fires. Recently we sent the San Francisco Fire Department to assist with the river fire and we will send the personnel wherever we can in the weeks ahead. We do this because we care for our neighbors and we know that when the San Francisco in the eye of the storm, theyll there be for us. With that being said, we are still 100 focussed on keeping the people of San Francisco safe and healthy. Unfortunately, weve been through this before. In 2018, following the camp fire when our air quality was severely impacted for days, i issued an executive director to strengthen San Franciscos response to future air quality emergencies and other weatherrelated events. As a result, we revised and improved our air quality emergency plan. This plan includes specific strategies to reach out to our most vulnerable residents especially our seniors, including working with existing Community Networks to get the word out and make sure people have the information they need. We all need to look out for one another and make sure our residents know what to do to stay safe. Right now, our air quality is red, which means the air is unhealthy. Que know this can we know this can shift and we will continue to update the public as things change. The best thing you can do is avoid smartphone to outdoor air by staying indoors with the windows and doors closed. And for those unfortunate enough to be able to work from home, please continue to stay home as much as possible. It is important both for the slowing of the spread of covid19 and minimizing your exposure to poor air quality. We know not everyone can stay home and we need to take steps to protect our unhoused residents. The department of homelessness and Supportive Housing will provide an update on what we are doing for our homeless residents but we are prepared to do everything we can to keep people safe. As with covid, our ultimate goal was to keep the public informed. When we have information to share, we will share it. The affects of Climate Change are already being felt and sadly we know events like these are only going to become more common with dryer weather and hotter temperatures. But we will do everything that we can in this city to keep people safe and healthy. Well be providing updates throughout the day online and will continue to notify the public in the coming days and weeks with more information. If you have questions and concerns and dont have access to the internet call 311 and id like to thank the people of San Francisco for continuing to listen to our Public Health guidance. To be clear, were still on the state watch list around covid. We anticipate hopefully tomorrow we may no longer be on the state watch list but in the midst of these wildfires and everything were dealing with, we have got to use common sense and Good Behavior if we want to beat the virus and make sure we make it through this challenging time with this poor air quality. Please, dont forget, wear your masks, keep your distance, cut back on your social engagement, make sure you are taking care of yourself, your family and your community. We all play a role in ending covid in our city. And now id like to take this opportunity to introduce dr. Koufax who will talk talk more specifically about the facts of covid as well as air quality. Dr. Grant koufax is having technology difficulties. We can take another update for now. If someone wants to start the video im ready to go. Thank you so much and thank you madame mayor. Today, as weve already stated were experiencing poor air quality with smoke and ash visual throughout the city. We have faced hazard after hazard in this year in 2020 and the city has been prepared to respond to the incident we faced during this time of covid. In the past seven days weve dealt with a heatwave, rolling power outages, rain, thunderstorms and now poor air quality as a result of the wildfire. We have been and will remain prepared to tackle multiple hazards while continuing to respond to the global covid19 Public Comment is closed. San franciscos Covid Command Center will lead response to the multiple simultaneous hazards. The air quality will vary depending on the amount and impact of smoke particles in the air. If the situation gets worse our response will increase. Weve been fluctuating between earning and red air quality levels index just today. Red is considered unhealthy. That means we already initiated city wide coordination for widespread Public Information and messaging through our social traditional media and our Emergency Alert notifications, alert s. F. Through the incident well continue to push out messaging to the public so everyone stays up to date on the risk level in the city and knows how to protect themselves. If the air quality in San Francisco remains unhealthy or gets worse, were prepared to respond by protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring the public gets the information they need to stay safe and will issue personal protective equipment as the air quality continues to be healthy were distributing n95 respirators to the unhoused and those in shelters. Well evaluate our officering outdoor operation our existing outdoor operations. If we reach the high range we may pull back some of our outdoor operations such as Neighborhood Outreach and distribution of door hangers and sliders. Well activate respite sites. If we reach an air quality level of purple, which is considered very unthe, well activate unhealthy well activate centers. The locations will be based on a neighborhood approach that focuses on the areas of highest need and promoted through community use. We will keep the public informs. Multiple times a day well issue updates on the current status of air quality in San Francisco and the actions the public should take to protect themselves. This professional will be conveyed through our Emergency Notification system and alert sf and our traditional social media outlets. We prepared due to planning and we have learned lessons from previous heat waves and power outages. After back to back years of devastating wildfires and resulting poor air quality, we embarked on a regional effort to make sure each area, city and county were coordinated in our response for air quality. The resulting effort ensured we are all communicating with the same health and safety guidance to our residents. Im proud of our regional efforts as they have laid the groundwork for successful response in San Francisco. Were also better coordinated because city departments and our partners have been united in our fight against covid19. Here at the Covid Command Center we overcome the challenges of the global Public Comment is closed. This helped us in times of additional challenges like air quality and extreme weather. Finally, please remember whenever smoke is unpredictable as weve seen today were going back and forth between air quality index levels and residents should be aware. If you smell smoke, keep windows and doors closed, if possible. Stay up to date by signing up for for instance emergency text alert by texting the zip code where you live or work to 888777. The department of Emergency Management will continue to share information via these alerts and alerts to sf72 dot important we all know people from San Francisco are resill interand have taken care of each other during the Public Comment is closed and i know no matter what emergency is layered on top of this one, well get through this together. Thank you. Thank you, dr. Mary ellen carroll. I present to you dr. Grant koufax. Director of Public Health. Im director of health for the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you, director carroll for your cooperation and collaboration and leadership during covid19 and now during the speak events. Theres smoke events. Theres multiple fires burning throughout california including in Northern California and santa cruz county. Today, for instance is experiencing unusually hazy and smoky air as a result. The air quality index is currently at level red which means unhealthy. In other words, everyone may begin to experience Adverse Health effects and members of sensitive groups may experience more serious affects. That includes people with lung disease including those who have asthma and copd and asthma and children. These groups are particularly susceptible to elevated air pollution levels and should take extra precautions to avoid exposure. These individuals should avoid prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion and people should limit Prolonged Health guides. If you have an respiratory illness, chronic or acute make sure you have an adequate supply of meds and contact your health care provider. People should be cautious when they choose to go outside and wear a mask and always be aware of whether youre having an challenges breathing. The air quality in our area changes daily and throughout the day as it is dependent on wind speed and direction. Air quality may improve at times or worsen very quickly and weve seen that even today where weve varied between levels of red and orange. Now we must manage both air quality in the context of the covid19 pandemic and as we said with regard to covid19 for many months now the best thing you and your family can do, if youre able to, is to stay at home. Even during days of poor quality conditions we must protect our community from covid19. During poor air quality condition and covid19 the intersection of these concerns, the healthiest thing for everyone to do now is avoid exposure to outdoor air and the virus by staying indoors as much as possible. If you must leave your home and go outside for essential activity, remember to bring your face coverings and socially distance from people outside your household to protect yourself and your community from covid19. We continue to live in unprecedented times and air quality is another challenge to address as a city. Please, again, stay at home if you can. And through social media please check on your friends, family and neighbors and,0 those pregnt or have respiratory illnesses these are people at risk and should take precautions to avoid exposure. The reality is that as we enter whenever season and changing wind patterns well be living with both the intersections of covid19, poor air quality and likely heat events for some time. We must stay vigilant and resilient as we take all actions to protect ourselves and our community from the elements. We continue to find ways to protect each other and our community and we will continue to rise to the occasion as we continue together to work to slow the of covid19. Thank you. Now the director of homelessness Abigail Stewart kahn. Thank you for your partnership and leadership through these complex, multi faceted events. We have learned for instance has heart. Weve always known this and we as a city need to continue to pull together to be nimble, compassionate and responsive. Civil servants and many are rising to the occasion today and for that we are grateful. As you heard covid is still the number one priority for all of us in Public Health. We need to ensure were caring for those most vulnerable due to covid, heat, air quality and other in clement weather events. During our heat emergency our Homeless Outreach team who were heroes even before the pandemic have been activated for their lower level extreme heat response. At this level that activation included increased wellness checks, providing appropriate resources and guidance on how to stay safe during covid and the heat. We continue that support. Our department is working closely with the command center to monitor air quality and as director carroll shared we strongly encourage everyone, housed and unhoused to activate your alerts because it is changing by the moment. As you heard from the experts, we are partner at red level of air quality. Based on this and pos policy decisions distribute nonmedical grade n95 masks and water and other resources. This is in addition to look for those most vulnerable to covid and bring them indoors and continues to partner with hsoc and well didnt distribution of n95 masks so have access though theyre such a scarce resource. San francisco is living its values by dedicating these resources to unhoused neighbors where we all know every Civil Servant at mayor breeds leadership wishes everyone to be inside the shelter in place. I want to pause and particularly this many the members of the Homeless Team and hsh and providers for adding work on top of work to take care of those most vulnerable in our community. The city is exploring what to do and the next stages should air quality deteriorate further. The Services Agency is responsible for mask care and shelter and evaluating alternative sites where people may come inside if we reach higher levels of air quality challenges. As you can see, many departments, many Civil Servants, many leaders and many citizens are coming to the aid of our unhoused neighbors. While you should stay inside if you are housed, if you are outside and encounter somebody who is sheltered, encourage them to mask and ask them how their day is, say good morning and good afternoon. The Homeless Outreach team we hope will be there soon to provide mask. Well continue to provide updates through our boards, governance authorities and website and encourage all of you to stay connected through the various ways to get up to date information. Thank you to mayor breed and the city for continuing to find another year in which to keep san franciscans safe and cared for. Thank you. Thank you, director stewartkahn. Well now begin our q a portion. The first set of questions are for dr. Colfax. We are not currently planning to close any covid19 testing sites at this time. Were assessing the situation and obviously testing and identifying those infected is and remains a top priority. We will continue to assess the air quality as things go forward with regard to changes in our testing sites but at this points our Testing Centers will remain open and we will provide updated information if that changes. A followup question is what is the threshold for making such a decision and how close is s. F. Air quality to that point now . Again, we are assessing the situation, testing sites remain open and if there are any changes well certainly make sure people know that. Thank you. The following question is for maryellen carroll. If the city opens respite sites how will they mitigate the risk of covid at those sites . We will follow all the social distancing guidelines that already exist. We will see an Additional Health screen for anyone coming in many other jurisdictions having high levels of temperatures have been doing this and we have a plan and feel we can do it safely should we need to. Thank you very much. It seems there are no further questions at this time and this will conclude todays press conference. Thank you, everybody, for your time and please stay safe. 7 and a half million renovation is part of the clean and safe Neighbors Park Fund which was on the ballot four years ago and look at how that Public Investment has transformed our neighborhood. The playground is unique in that it serves a number of age groups, unlike many of the other properties, it serves small children with the childrens play grounds and clubhouses that has basketball courts, it has an outdoor soccer field and so there were a lot of people that came to the table that had their wish list and we did our best to make sure that we kind of divided up spaces and made sure that we kept the old features of the playground but we were able to enhance all of those features. The playground and the soccer field and the tennis fields and it is such a key part of this neighborhood. We want kids to be here. We want families to be here and we want people to have athletic opportunities. We are given a real responsibility to insure that the publics money is used appropriately and that something really special comes of these projects. We generally have about an opportunity every 50 years to redo these spaces. And it is really, really rewarding to see children and families benefit, you know, from the change of culture, at each one of these properties and as a result of, what you see behind us, more kids are playing on our soccer fields than ever before. We have more girls playing sports than we have ever had before. [ applause ] fp and we are sending a strong message that San Francisco families are welcome and we want you to stay. This park is open. Were in the midst of covidn San Francisco and in the country. Right now were dealing with balancing our budget. We have over two hundred thousand people unemployed in San Francisco. Were trying to produce housing faster and kids going to school. We know what were up against. The good news is we have really strong leaders who are in addition to battling covid doing the work necessary to moving the city forward. Today theres an announcement that we have around a project that many of us have worked so hard on. Thats the final closure of the county jail. The fact is, it was a long journey. Last year in october we announced the plan closure. We expected to do it in 2021. The good news is through the administrator and former sheriff and our new sheriff who picked up the mantle and moved this project forward, were in a position to close that particular facility sooner rather than later. Today is an announcement that we will do exactly that. When i talk about my lived experiences of growing up in public housing. I talk about it because of the challenges that i and other people through those experiences face. The sad reality is, it wasnt uncommon for so many of us so visit 85 850bryant street. That hallway, the concrete, pay phone, the benches we had to sit onto waitthat experience still haunts me. Im sure many people know what im talking about because of their experiences of visiting. The thing that has always stuck with me the most. When you grow up in these communities, you know a lot of people dont deserve to be there. Yes, we have people that have committed crime where they need to be held accountable. When i had been visiting and on objection for the most part you know everybody who is sitting there waiting. You know a lot of the folks you see behind those windows. And sadly, there are people in there who had nothing to do with the crimes they are in there for in the first place. Our criminal Justice System is broken. We have real problems with how sadly disproportionately, you talk about San Francisco one of the most progressive cities in the country with a less than six percent African American population. We know disproportionately that we still have challenges. We still have issues with this criminal Justice System. Now, here in this city, were doing something about it. Were closing the seventh floor and were closing it because no human being should have to be there. I remember visiting that facility years ago and growing up i only visited the visitors room. I had never been behind the scene. As a supervisor going behind the scene and seeing the work conditions that the deputies had to endure. Seeing people that i know, that i care about, from my community and their children in these jail cells that are small and tiny, two to three people in a cell. We want them to have a better life. We want them to not lose it in a facility like this. We have to think differently about what it meep means to noty people who are incarcerated but what it it means to reepter reer society. How do we have the facility to change the hearts and minds of people that we want to support. 850 is not that facility. Its nasty and dirty. I wouldnt want to see my worst enemy in that place. Its time to close it it. Thats exactly what were doing. Were closing the door on the past and mass incarceration at its absolute worst. Were opening the door to a real change. To a new way of reforming criminal justice in San Francisco. Were doing it because there are people who work in this building who actually care. Who actually care about changing it for the better. Todays announcement is a significant step towards real reform in our criminal Justice System. Im truly grateful to our city administrator, when we worked on this together. A community activist, our current sheriff who moved up the time line in getting this done. The supervisor from district one who cares deeply about this issue. Also, the work around the fees and a number of other things ive worked on with the board of supervisorrorsupervisors. Her work has been absolutely incredible around criminal justice reform. Our public defender and our district attorney. Working collaboratively. Because i want to be clear, you know, its very personal, its other family members, its other friends and people that i love and care about. Just imagine knowing someone had the potential who is now incarcerated to be mayor, to be president , to be a rock star, to be a musician. To be anything he wanted to be. But because he was accused of something he never did, he is behind bars at a place like 850. That happened to more black people in my community than i can count. Thats why this is so important today. Its about reforming the system and making a chaifng. Change. The future of how we adjust criminal justice and remove the disparities depends on the actions we take through policy, through investments, through complete reform of the system. I am excited about this announcement today and grateful to the leadership of this city to make it happen sooner rather than later. At this time i would like to introduce our sheriff who has been absolutely an incredible particle ner to worpartner to w. He moved it forward to get the job done. Thank you, madam mayor. In your remarks you painted a very vivid picture of your experience. Through San Franciscos history there have been 19 jails. Since 1962 the San Francisco fall of justice has been the center of the criminal Justice Center for our community. Built in the hall of justice for two of these jails. Located on the seventh floor of the hall of justice the maximum facility for the sheriffs department. The facility consists of single multiple occupancy cells dormitories all with large concrete wall fronts. Its a linear facility. The rated capacity for the jail is 406 people, to give you some context, the jail used al c atraz functioning. The San Francisco Sheriffs Office has grown and moved away from management of these types of i facilities with more humane infrastructure without the use of bars. County jail four represents the last vestages of a buy gone era. It represents the old way of doing things. An old way of doing things that our Sheriffs Office and city have moved away from. It stands as a simple of that which we move away from. Our other linear jails in our system have been closed over the years respectively in 2006 and 2013. This remains the last linear jail facility for us to close. I personally was assigned to county jail four. My nephews one of the last times i saw him was on the seventh floor. When i became sheriff i committed to closing the facility. It out lived its usefulness. It puts not only the incarcerated in danger, but the staff and all the community that came to visit. Plumbing and sewage issues. For years weve been working collectively to safely relocate our population and close the jail. Original plans to remove justice involved out of the building have been challenged with funding issues. Thanks to the leadership of everyone mentioned weve been able to finally move out of the building. Were in a position to close early due t to the efforts of or staff and the department of Public Health. Theyve been able to work with us even meeting the cha challens of covid 19. Focusing on a reduced living and working space while responding to advocate concerns and the concerns of our partners. Our deaftie deafim happy to mt well be moving ahead. When we say early, well be closing the facility the up coming labor day weekend. Two months ahead of schedule. San francisco county jails have not been immune from the virus. Weve been a rare Success Story to limit exposure and out break nz ousin our system. Intercept, control the virus and keep everybody safe. Finally, i wish to dedicate my staff and commend all of our City Partners im thrilled to be joining you and mayor with this announcement. Last spring my Office Brought forth legislation to close county jail number four with legislation. At times we thought we couldnt do it. It it was very controversial. They thought you couldnt close the jail, its too soon. Here we are to say that county jail number four will be closed by labor day. We thought we could do it, we knew we would have to win people over to have some belief that is deemed dangerous, hazardous and deemed unfit for people to live. That we could close it so quickly. I want to mention that it was never considered to be impossible by our mayor. It is rare and unusual that we have a city leader like our mayorshe thoroughly understood it had to be closed and as soon as possible. This legislation that we passed was passed by the board ten to one vote. It was hard to get some supervisors on board. Because of the belief we could do it so soon. Closing it two months before we mandated it in our legislation. It is absolutely outstanding, incredible. Its great to see what can happen working what we can do. Today, i want to say thank you to mayor, sheriff sif city, administrator who said this place is dangerous and hazardous and no one should be living there. Thank you to all the advocates who work so closely with us to ensure that we never lost faith in this legislation. Today were thrilled. Again, i have to say were over the moon were able to close this jail which nobody should live in. No one should have to stay there. No one should have to work there. Its hars adde hars adder hazars health. Thank you. The covid 19 crisis and black lives Matter Movement ignited in this moment shined a light on how important it is for us in this moment to be looking at all of our system systems includingr Public Safety systems through a Public Health lens as well as a Racial Justice lens. Closing this jail is not just about shutting down a delap dated jail. Were not opening a new jail to replace this one. Rather were looking to reinvest in communities that have been harmed bile by this system. Particularly black and brown communities. When you look at the people who sit inside San Francisco county jails. We are jailing the most vulnerable among us sm th. The fact is jails are only one way to deal with Public Safety. There are other options to protect the community in the moment but take a much broader and effective and long term view of what safety is and what is needed to achieve it. We have such a big opportunity today in San Francisco to lead the way on reimagining Public Health and Community Safety by reinvesting in Community Based programs and Mental Health services and supports. Weve made Great Strides in the right direction with the board of supervisors ab supervisors ao are aligned with us in this moment. As we close county jail four lets also make a statement about our values as san franciscans. Moving towards a model of human potential, redemption, and heal willing. Thanhealing. Thank you. Thank you. It thank you all for your remarks. We will now begin the q and a portion. Sheriff. Your question comes from the San Francisco chronicle. What are the citys plans to keep San Franciscos jail population low. How to change and reform our system better. We have a plan in place right now which allows for under covid conditions separating out individuals in our system to be healthy and safe. Were at fifty eight percent capacity in one facility and fifty seven capacity downtown. We have a lot of room for growth is there is a spike in any of our populations. What is good and reassuring is that we are on a path of reform to begin with. The das office and Public Defenders Office to address the koafcovid 19 issue. There are no further questions and that concludes todays press conference. Thank you for everyones time. Growing up in San Francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and its still that bubble that its okay to be whatever you want to. You can let your free flag fry he fly here. As an adult with autism, im here to challenge peoples idea of what autism is. My journey is not everyones journey because every autistic child is different, but theres hope. My background has heavy roots in the bay area. I was born in san diego and adopted out to San Francisco when i was about 17 years old. I bounced around a little bit here in high school, but ive always been here in the bay. We are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. We dont turn anyone away. We take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. The most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you dont seem like you have autism. You seem so normal. Yeah. Thats 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. I was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. They split up when i was about four. One of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. Very queer family. Growing up in the 90s with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. I was bullied relatively infrequently. But i never really felt isolated or alone. I have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. The school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. One of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what its about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. When i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. I was a weird kid. I had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. When we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when im looking away from the camera, its for my own comfort. Faces are confusing. Its a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to al