Transcripts For SFGTV Commission On The Environment 20240712

On each item. We are streaming the number at the top of the screen. Each speaker will be allowed three minutes to speak. Comments are opportunities or opportunities to speak are available by calling 4156550001 and entering access code 146047 0765. One connected, darla start three to be added to the cue. Best practices dial star three to be added to the cue. Speak slowly and clearly and turn down any other devices. Alternatively you may submit Public Comment by email to the Commission Affairs officer through email. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be forwarded to the commissioners and will be included as part of the official file. I will now call the role. Everyone [roll call] we have a quorum. Great, next agenda item, please. The next item is item number two, president s welcome. This item is for discussion. Hello, everybody. To everyone who came out tonight to this meeting on the commission on the environment, let me begin by sharing the best practices for this meeting. I will ask all of the members of the commission to you to yourself to minimize background noise. You will have to remember to unmute yourself to comment when its your turn to do so. You can also signify that you want to speak. You can raise your hand or you can use little hand raise thing in the right to signify when you want to comment. There is staff in the background who will be managing the technological functions during the meeting so we can switch from live presentation to whoever is speaking at the moment. We will ask everyone to be patient as they make this adjustment. This will be our third Virtual Commission meeting. Im excited to see we are getting more efficient and comfortable. We have returned to our regular schedule and we have an Upcoming Committee on october 21st. Our last meeting in july was memorable and we received more than 20 Public Comments. I think we can all agree the comments we received were taken to heart and we incorporated them into the letter that we signed on behalf of the commission and sent to the board of supervisors. The initial issue of natural gas could not be more timely because not only is it a second largest generator of a mission, but a huge threat to public safety. That connection to Climate Change and human health was on full display display last week. Now that the Electricity Supply is approaching zero emissions, eliminating natural gas is the next step forward for San Francisco. I am confident the board of supervisors will move this forward. We are seeing the effects of Climate Change all around us and now its time to act. Is there any Public Comment . Lets open a Public Comment for this item. Great. We will now open for Public Comment. I am going to share my screen with the comment information. If you would like to make a Public Comment please dial the phone number and follow the instructions on the screen. If you are on hold in the queue, please wait until its your turn to speak and we will just pause for a few seconds now to give everyone time to call in case anyone would like to make a comment on this item. It looks like we have one collar with their hand raised. You will need to unmute them. Great. Or you can make me host. I will unmute the collar and start my timer. Your time starts now. My name is susan with the plant society. Im a San Francisco resident and i appreciate everything the department is doing to help make us more Carbon Neutral and more resilient. The department of environment spearheaded the San Francisco biodiversity resolution and im hoping that will turn into [indiscernible] and every part of the city of San Francisco will plant only local native plants to support the biodiversity. With all the emphasis on carbon, please keep in mind we have additional disasters going on. Not just Climate Change. Not just the pandemic, but also biodiversity losses. There are hundreds of thousands of dead birds in new mexico, colorado and texas due to smoke from wildfires pushing them out of their migratory patterns. They died because they starved to death. We can see them, but we need to see them [indiscernible] please continue to push the rest of San Francisco to plant local San Francisco native plants. That concludes my comments. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. I am seeing no other collars in the queue. We will now close Public Comment on this item. Okay. Thank you. Hearing no more callers, Public Comment is closed. Next agenda item, please . The next item is item three. Approval of the minutes of the 2020 commission on the environment meeting. The explanatory document is the 2020 draft minutes and this item is for discussion and action. Commissioners, does anyone have any discussion on the draft minutes . All right. Can i please hear a motion . Public comment, sorry. Can i have a motion to approve the minutes . I move to approve. Is there a second . I second. Is there any Public Comment . We will now open for Public Comment. I will put the comment instructions back on the screen. If youd like to make a Public Comment, press star three if you want to be added to the queue. Please wait until it is your turn to speak. We will pause briefly for anyone to join the queue. It appears nobody has raised their hand. Thank you. In that case, we will close Public Comment on this item. Okay. Seeing no more Public Comment, please call the role. Yes. [roll call] the motion passes. Next item, please. The next item on our agenda is item four, general Public Comment. Members of the comment on the public may address matters which are not on the agenda. With that, we will open once again for Public Comment. I will put the instructions back on the screen. Remember to press star three if you would like to be added to the queue. If you are already on hold, please wait until its your turn to speak. We will pause once more for anyone who like to call in. Nobody has joined the queue. Thank you. Thanks. Next item, please. The next item is item five. Presentation on the citys Economic Recovery Task force and the role for the environment in recovery environment. This item is for discussion. Would you like to introduce the item . Thank you. Tonight, or this time of year marks about six months of shelter in place due to the covid19 pandemic. I think we all remember that day in midmarch when the hammer dropped and the mayor decided that we would be the first city to institute a shelter in place. I dont think any of us had any idea how long it would be and we would be here six months later still with no specific end in sight. And we wanted to paint a bit of a picture for you on the commission in terms of the reality of the state of our economy and what some of the discussions have been around how we are going to both respond to the pandemic and put in place policies and programs that would help us recover from the pandemic. Right now, 54 of our storefronts have been closed. We have about 193,000 unemployment claims. When you think about it city of 800,000, 900,000 people, that is a big number. And, of course, no one on this call or this meeting knows what the future holds, but we as a commission and we as a department want to make sure that whatever that future is is not businesses usual. It is better than ever before. So when we are back to whatever normal is, we are looking through the lens of green and true sustainability. What we want to offer tonight are three views of San Francisco today and some of the voices that are at the table and thinking about how to mark that future, and then we will open it up to questions and a discussion among the commission to get your thinking about how we weave in environment sustainability, equity, as well as a resilience into these discussions. First you will hear from ted egan. He is the chief economist and the Controllers Office and he will give us the reality check on where we are. Then we will hear from heather green who works with [indiscernible] they did a pretty phenomenal effort with the Economic Recovery Task force. That task force was called for by the mayor and mayor and the board of supervisors, but was led by four remarkable people. That San Francisco assessor recorder, the treasurer treasurer, the president and c. E. O. Of the chamber of commerce, and the executive director of the San Francisco labor council. They are at the point now where there is a final report being produced that reflects some pretty heavy lifting and thinking and heather is going to let you know what is probably in that report, as well as what other aspects of the task force. Finally we will end with more shes executive director on the Business Council and Climate Change. Her members are the largest employers of San Francisco. You will get a perspective from the business community, from the larger city family, as well as the businesses working together on the task force, as well as a Controllers Office. We hope that by the end of those three presentations that you will have an idea of where we are and where we might go and then we will open it up for questions after all three speakers are finished. With that, i am so grateful that the three of these people, these incredible professionals said yes to being with us tonight and we will kick it off with ted egan from the Controllers Office. Take it away. Thank you, debbi. Good afternoon, commissioners. Im the chief economist and the Controllers Office. If youre not familiar with my role in the city, i run the office of Economic Analysis in the Controllers Office. We do legislative review of new legislation and we write economic reports on legislation before the board. We also help with the city understanding how the economy is doing and we make number of presentations like this across the city. Im happy to have this opportunity to present to you today. What i will do is share with you the current statistics on how the city is doing and also a perspective on where we are in this particular economic moment. This is not just a Public Health crisis. We are six months into the shutdown. We are also six months into an severe economic recession that will be with us after the Public Health emergency is over. It is also no ordinary recession because of covid. Its really the interaction between those things and the issues. I think they will shape the city s recovery and one of its major priorities coming out. Katie, if you can show the first slide. In april, when the Economic Statistics came out, it became clear that the United States had lost 10 years of job growth in one month. This is the San Francisco Metro Division equivalent of that. You could see we lost 175,000 jobs between march of a march and april of this year. That was really businesses being forced to shut down, people being laid off in that time. Despite the fact that we are still in a deep recession, we have had several months of Economic Growth since then. Since i put the slide together, last friday we got the august appointment statistics and they should moderate growth, and we are now at around 62,000 jobs were covered in the San Mateo County area after losing 175,000 we are roughly a third of the way back. Clearly the recovery, while steady for months and months, is not nearly as fast in a drop and it will take us some time, even if we have no further economic interactions and no further recurrence of the virus. That requires additional shutdowns. And we are still looking at a long recovery. Next slide, please. It is not simply that we lost jobs in San Francisco and our unemployment right went quickly from around 3 to about 12 . But the nature of this recession in San Francisco is we want certain types of jobs. And in particular, jobs that affect lowwage workers in the city. This is a chart of the Economic Situation in the city before the covid crisis. It shows the employment growth right of different injury industries in San Francisco for the five years through 2019, and that is the horizontal axis. The vertical axis is the wage. You can see that the higher up industries, the higher Wage Industries, information, tech activity, financial services, this is the professional services. They were both the highest wages sectors, but also the Fastest Growing sectors. On the other hand, its investors like retail trade, combination and Food Services, because of Age Education and health. And the primary source of employment for lowwage workers. Even before the covid crisis, we had this unbalanced pattern of growth in the city in which there were far more Job Opportunities for high skilled workers and low skilled workers. If we move onto the next page, we can see the covid crisis has exacerbated this. On this chart, the horizontal axis as a percentage of jobs that was lost between february and july of this year. The vertical axis is the same. The high wage industry lost between five to 10 of their jobs. The tech sector lost up to 10 . Some of the median wages sectors are doing job are doing fine. Construction is basically where it was before. Where you really see the loss is in lowwage sectors like the accommodation and Food Services, arts and entertainment and recreation services, and other services which include a lot of neighborhood services. I would put retail trade too onto as a category. These are low Wage Industries infant San Francisco that have been hit the hardest after already having the weakest job recovery in the last five years. It has exacerbated it. Next slide, please. Here is an example of this from not efficient not official government data. It is showing the annual change of the reservations. They are showing it in San Francisco and four other west coast cities. You can see late february and early march. Things were slowing down and then by the 3rd week of march, different cities have recovered two different extents. Of these cities, San Franciscos Restaurant Industry is doing the worst, at least by the standards of having seated desks. And all of all the cities that we have a tract on this, [indiscernible] that is partly due to our continuing limitation of indoor restaurant dining. Next slide, please. Another data source that we are looking at is data from mastercard, which is tracking Small Businesses in particular that use mastercard to process transactions. They work on a business by business basis and they know who was doing transactions and who is not. This is a map showing the percentage of accounts that were not showing any transactions in the last couple of weeks of july unfortunately, we dont have updated data on this. Were trying to get this from a thirdparty source. Its showing you that when things were quite bad in the middle of july, exactly the extent of the shutdown, at least a temporary shutdown across the city. Heavily concentrated. Next slide. We would also like to talk about transportation because i think transportation and the willingness to use certain types of transportation is going to shape the recession and recovery in a way they never have. This is the information from the county. It shows the average freeway speed in San Francisco in rush hour. We have seen big changes in that since the shutdown. Before the shutdown, the average rushhour in the afternoon in San Francisco and highway speed was about 25 miles an hour. That quickly went up to about 60 after the shutdown. As econ really economy gradually reopens, the congestion comes back. By last week, it was only about 10 faster than it was the week of the shutdown. If you had the experience driving, you may sometimes ask yourself, what shutdowns do we still have . It does seem that automobiles are more of a transportation mode of choice during the recovery that we have had in the reopening that we have had then it was prior. And another way you can see that on the next slide is by looking at the bart writers. They have really shown a much more limited recovery. Bart is still down between 80 and 90 compared to last year. The way i am reading this is traffic is back in transit is not back. That has environmental implications if it continues. And we dont expect it to continue forever. Its also a consequence of the fact that this is a recession that is not just leading people to lose their jobs and taking away, you know, there need to commute in some cases, but also it affects their psychology about using public spaces like transit. And the fact that there are more people driving and fewer people taking transit, so i think a consequence of where we are in the moment and in this recession next slide, please. I mentioned that the economy and Food Services sector was the hardest hit sector and also the biggest source of job loss at about 45 to 50 of jobs lost. About half of the hotels in San Francisco are not even open. The Hotel Occupancy is about 20 of what it normally is. The big reason for that is ridership for the San Francisco airport, which is down over 80 yearoveryear for domestic and over 90 for international. If we dont have people riding, travelling by plane to San Francisco, that will put a crimp into the market for hotels and the visitor spending that support so many other industries from transportation, to retail, to restaurants. Any of these are lowWage Industries. And this is a shutdown of tourism. It helps to contribute to the difficulty of many lowwage workers and also Small Businesses. Next slide, please. Finally, the last point that i would mention, and we are tracking this carefully and i am not sure what is underneath these numbers, but i think they are quite significant, is the Housing Market. This is the Apartment List which tracks listings in the city. San francisco is seeing the biggest drop of any big city in the country in terms of its asking price. The drop is accelerating from monthtomonth, even as the job starts recovering. I think it is an open question of trying to get the answer the best i can as to whether or not this is tech folks who can work at home and deciding they no longer need to move to San Francisco or want to move away from San Francisco, or how much this is caused by lowwage murk workers who are laid off and cant afford to live in the city this is not our data. Were getting this from thirdparty sources. We need to figure out more about what is actually going on. Its a little bit of both. But it is a worrying trend, particularly because its so much more dramatic. And just lastly, im trying to summarize with what i think are pretty big challenges for the city Going Forward of going through and out of this recession. I would say go to the next slide, please. The economic this is a deep recession. People are not expecting this until the end of next year. The g. D. P. Will be back to where it was until late 2020. [indiscernible] [please stand by] i would also put in this category many Small Businesses. Larger businesses may be able to handle going into hibernation. Theyre Small Business is their job and its difficult to be without businesses and workers to be without income. In the medium term, we can talk about the virus being abated and people being more open. The severe Tourism Industry [indiscernible] there is a primary source of job loss that we have had now. We dont have any reason to think that this wont be an attractive Tourist Destination and all the rest when people are willing to travel again. Its very important. For the longerterm issue, and the greatest uncertainty, is what of the future of the people who are working from home . They are burying the least of the burden of the shutdown, but they have a great role to play in the future of the economy. If it really is true what people are saying then there is less of a role for people and businesses to work remotely. That has got implications for the future of downtown or housing. We are going to be watching that very carefully. Before we get to that point is the transit ridership is a very vital thing for us to recover. We cant really get everyone back to work. We need people to take transit. That is another thing that will need to be brought back. Those are my comments on where we currently are in the economy. Thank you. I will jump in here. I am heather green. I am the director of planning. I have also been staffing the task force. I will be offering a little perspective about what that body has been up to and the ideas there. Next slide . We have already told you who is is leading the task force. I will note that we have a membership of over 100 Community Members. A combination of the larger players and also a ton of Small Business owners, Community Leaders and representatives and a very diverse body as well as to keep city executives and a handful supervisors as well. Next slide. A little of context. This is the kind of information that we have worked with the task force. This is our hospitalization data you can see we are writing a little bit of a roller coaster here. And we have this incremental job gain since april but the disease itself is not linear. We are seeing recurring issues there. There are gaps from when the city chose to close and when the state wouldve told us to do so. Even with that being ahead of the ball, we saw cases climb to the peaks that they did over the summer. We are having to be extremely responsive and the task force has got to offer guidance and expressed challenges in realtime meanwhile, next slide. We have been trying to Pay Attention to the populations most dramatically affected people. We spent a lot of time as a body thinking who is vulnerable to the effects of the disease and also as the economic repercussions. We need to Pay Attention to which sectors need the most help and which populations, again, noticing that there are low income earners. They are taking the largest hit when it comes to their jobs. You can imagine the value can go along with that. We want to make sure we are paying attention. This is the task force that is charged with providing the body to help the city sustain vulnerable businesses and unemployment. We have never really invented something quite like this. When we set out, you know, to be a task force body, we put them together the report and there was a very clear directive from Task Force Members across those Small Group Meetings with Task Force Members. There are challenges and it is the most imperative thing that the task force can do in the short term to facilitate a reopening and help the safety to do that. The task force dug in on that in may and june and you continue to see that work and as new guidance is released in the city his everchanging, [indiscernible] we are trying to follow along. In june, we got going on thinking about our strategies in this city and time with an end date coming up on october 8th. It has been drafting the report that we referred to with august and september. The task force set out i want to highlight that they wanted to deliver concrete and actionable recommendations for the city. There are also aspirations for longterm ideas, a place that we could not get as a body until longterm for the city. [indiscernible] i dont think it is a failing of the task force by any stretch. It speaks to the amount of work and ideas that is needed in the short and medium term. There is still work ahead on the longterm vision. This is by no means the last remark on our recovery. Its really just an opening. Next slide. This is about the community engagement. There has been a ton of outreach continuing. On the next slide, sentiments that we gathered from our Public Survey which gathered over 1,000 responses in the early summer. It is important we believe as a staff and a task force that it is important to hear through engagement like this so we remember that it is important to be culturally competent. Some populations are suffering in extraordinary ways. Im thinking about the disability community. We have heard a lot from Small Businesses. There is extraordinary pressure on them and some of the efforts that they are facing and the investments that we need to make in order to make a difference. Next. The task force itself works in four policy groups. Im thinking about jobs and businesses, the vulnerable populations, economic development, arts, culture, hospitality, an entertainment. The last one speaks to the last slide from ted that i love so much. We need to make sure we Pay Attention to the needs that people have. And the others line up with the condition of the task force itself. Here are some of the things we heard in comments across them. I will just say things like supporting businesses, affording Affordable Housing, thinking about our workforce [indiscernible] we heard the multiple times. We have been thinking of staff and the task force and integrated priority areas. You can see here the priorities that will be going through each of the strategies. You dont have to commit those to memory. Here are strategies around supporting businesses and organizations, making sure that Small Business can survive. As i mentioned before, acknowledging our needs to communicate clearly so businesses know the options available to them thinking about how to stimulate economic recovery. We hear a lot of clambering in our group. It is important to get the virus under control for the economic recovery to be sustainable, with these businesses are in danger of going under now. The strategy is getting people back so people can spend money at neighborhood businesses. Need to keep our foot on the gas is much as we can. It is a delicate balance. Here at the bottom is an important one. Keep on acknowledging that we need to invest in infrastructure San Francisco has such good rules on the books. Next slide. Thinking about our workers. We need to look at strategies about our workforce and Workforce Development and making sure that we have a Clear Pathway for people. And at the backbone of that, make sure people can go to work. And we needed childcare system that meets the needs of our workforce. Protecting in meeting basic needs. There are a couple of strategies with the third and the fourth. It is on the health and wellbeing of all, and especially in low income communities. If you look on the c. D. C. Website, for example, those who arent as high risk, it is a limited number of preexisting conditions. Department the department of Public Health in San Francisco acknowledges this is a vulnerability by demography and living conditions. [indiscernible] things like that and making sure we have trusted Community Members that people will trust and help deliver the equipment and protection that people need and help the environment to succeed under number of other basic needs to accomplish. This is a San Francisco document we will talk about housing. Ted has a slide about affordability that has been a challenge for the city. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] there are a lot of strategies here that are in the spirit of what San Francisco has been endeavouring endeavouring to do to make more Affordable Housing and prevent addictions and misplacement. There is an even greater urgency and even more room to Pay Attention to these things. [indiscernible] next. Pursuing Economic Justice is another one of our goals. [indiscernible] we are thinking about fines and fees and making sure the city does not push people are key people in a cycle of poverty. This is about the Digital Divide of that and seeking the extraordinary needs of the arts, culture, and hospitality sector. And trying to identify new Revenue Services so they can survive. We want them to make sure they dont expire through their time. We need to make these things easier to deliver. And we are continuing to plan collaboratively for San Franciscos future and related investments. [indiscernible] the Housing Element is off. There are so many efforts going on at the same time. We need to make sure we Work Together as a city to think about how we can deliver asked for the future of San Francisco. Next. This shows where we are at. We have brackets to report. It has been circulated to the task force for a short comment. I think that is my last. I will be here for the questions at the end. Many cities globally are taking steps to put together plans for bold recovery that prioritize the climate goals while building more equitable economies. I think that is a lot of what the conversation has been about today. On june of this year, we launched the Climate Smart recovery recovery initiative. I will talk about that today. I want to start by bringing in some of the things that our members are doing so you have some contacts before i dive in to this. I also want to say, is absolutely i have been talking to debbie about this. Its great that the task force is opening and making it possible. It is clear to me that when is the right time for that . It has been clear just listening from all of you that the time to focus right now is getting our city safely reopened as soon as possible. Maybe some of what i will talk about today is some next steps of opportunity for when the time is right. It isnt opening. There are a lot of techs that will come after that. Next slide, please. Its a little bit about our organization. I was invited to come and give a quick talk when i came on board a couple of years ago in 2018. It was a very long time ago now. The Business Council on Climate Change was founded in 2007. The department of environment put out the first very the very first Climate Action plan. They knew they couldnt do it alone. We are now a standalone standalone and nonprofit organization. The department of the environment is a member of our organization. Our members listed here are collectively employing more than 750,000 people. The representative within our membership that come to the table with us and come to our meetings and engage across companies are mainly the leading sustainability people at their organization. They are the ones that are setting Global Climate goals for the organization and they are the ones that need to figure out how to meet those goals. Very similar to the department of the environment and the work that they do. It is also a small and mighty team of three. Its how we work and how we operate. When he defined opportunities for these companies and organizations to work across companies and to work across sectors. The goal is we want to try and incubate and share ideas that have the potential to address Climate Change. That is our main mission. Next slide. So just two concrete examples of the collective action that we do with our membership. In 2019, a few of our members came together around the project and they joined forces to Purchase Renewable Energy together. It is a virtual power purchase agreement. It is a technical solar term. Is the first time that multiple companies of moderate sizes had come together on a large deal together. They all signed the same contract. Their lawyers all worked together. It was a really heavy lift. They purchased 42 megawatts of a farm together collectively. In doing so, they created a blueprint for how other companies could join forces and make a bigger impact and offset their footprint, but also get more energy out. And another example is to create a pilot grant. They were testing out the issues the goal is overtime that there might be a carbon market. They are trying to make that happen. It is very early stages. Early days are messy. Our members got together to fund the research. They are trying to send a signal to say that if the market can figure those out, then we have funds to buy these. We are still tracking that market. Members are still interested in that question and the opportunity for this in the marketplace. Next slide. Many of our Member Companies have set ambitious climate goals many of you are engaged in the Climate Action summit that happened in 2018. If you have argues that a big goal, guess what, jury brown was trying to tell you that not everyone was big enough. They are hosting a lot of great events during that. It really did help elevate the ambition. I think it is a great example of saying, we dont know how we will do it, but the goals need to be bigger. They need to be more ambitious. That coming together will get a lot of our companies. It is. Pressure. Many of our members are already doing this. A lot of them are talking about trying to find strategies to deal with their legacy emissions they are looking backwards. Some of them are doing big efforts on that front. A handful of our companies have already instituted internal Carbon Pricing mechanisms so they can help to regulate the emissions from different business departments within the company, but also they are charging those departments. They have a budget to play with. Which is really interesting. If youre talking but a big company like google or microsoft , that carbon budget is substantial enough. What could we invest in with the funds we are generating . There is a lot of creativity involved. Google Just Announced last week that they will be investing 5. 7 billion as part of their new third decade investment. Theyre investing in technology and other solutions to invest in carbon. Next slide. This is the most interesting slide in my personal opinion. There arent that many examples right now in the corporate space there are a few inspiring and exciting. There was a huge announcement many months ago. They talking about 50 times over the next 30 years. Some companies are coming forward and making gigantic commitments that they dont know how to meet. They think it is really exciting two examples of this are these two companies that have set 2030 goals, which is less than 10 years from now. They Just Announced it again last week. They are trying to get to operating on what what they are calling 24 7 Carbon Free Energy by 2030. I barely know what that means. I couldnt tell you what that means. You could google it. You should google this term. If they figure it out in 10 years, it will be a game changer for safe companies, utilities, so that is super exciting for me they could have a roadmap of ideas. They will problemsolving over the next decade. It will be potentially transforming of the space. I want to highlight that lincoln and microsoft are going carbon negative. Lincoln is a company of microsoft now. They have committed to going carbon negative by 2030. Which means they will deal with all the legacy emissions. And all those emissions, they will be spending that Million Dollars and trying to get the markets going. I will be really excited to launch these over time. We have these numbers sharing with each other. What could they learn from each other over this. They have conversations a lot over Carbon Pricing and how to make it most effective. Members who are just launching these in the organization can talk about talk to microsoft and skip over the first five years of pain. There is no more time to work independently anymore. Next slide. I think, speaking of this, we talked about this meeting today earlier. Now is the time for bold action. Everyone here is experienced. The day the sunshine didnt fully come out [indiscernible] my sincere hope is that locally we have support for the masses but we will start doing things that we dont know how to do. We launched our Climate Smart recovery initiative. Next slide. I dont think i need to tell you all, but as a reminder, everything about the way we live and work is different. Planes are grounded. The percentage of people taking air flights, there are companies that have multibilliondollar multi milliondollar trial budgets. Those budgets are not being used for Airline Travel anymore. These companies are actually thinking like they are saying things like, find a way to not dip to air travel at 60 . They are challenging teams to plan now for when they get into recovery and how to keep emissions though. A lot of interesting conversations are happening in the company right now. This has an impact on the future of cities. Next slide. We are seeing a way of them to demonstrate this and calling for racial justice. What a moment we are living in. From my seat and the conversations we have been having, it is really interesting it is interesting that the word of systemic change, racial justice, intersectionality. I see these words every week. Everyone is grappling with the interconnectedness of it all. And the people who used to just sit in the silo of sustainability are now being asked, what is working . They are trying to figure it out they need to answer those questions and they are coming up with new ideas and proposals telling that. Conversations are happening at that level. But i think we know its his it is really hard. Dont try this at home by yourself. We cannot do it alone. Next slide. This gets into the future that we envision. We had it all sink for couple of minutes of what comes to mind. They just shared openly with popcorn words. Its really interesting what people were sharing. We cannot just start planning the way that we plan. We have to do everything differently. This is the great resizing. We need to do it in a more equitable manner. Ultimately, with our recovery initiative, our membership and the practitioners believe it is economic recovery that moves it towards our broader plan goals. We need to build a more resilient economy. In addition it will improve the health and quality of life. That is our belief. Its one of the cooler things that we are hoping as we move forward with the recovery initiative. The real question is, what is that future that we are envisioning and are we ready to start the process of designing it . For the next great disaster, its not the best time. They need to get back to that place. It is a space between this disaster is it will be another bookend. There will be a magic space for disasters where we have the ability to do the longterm envisioning and planning together. That is why starting these conversations now as we start to get our feedback on the ground, now is the time in between for the next disaster. Next slide. The good news here, and i just want to say, props. Early on this year they came out with their principles for covid19 recovery. And tonnes of mayors across the globe signed onto this. Im really proud of the mayor and excited that she planned on early on. It shows her courage to be part of this as it moves forward. These are the principles when they release them, but they can help accelerate economic recovery. It will drive wider benefits for everyone. Next slide. In terms of the Climate Smart recovery initiative, we have really launched this and these two tracks. We need to show up for our members right now. They are in crisis. They already have big jobs in their world to achieve through ambitious and bold climate goals they were struggling in their own silos. It is its our work to help them meet their climate goals. We have these added pressures of figuring out the intersectionality. The first track for the initiative is to bring members together. We need to show up for San Francisco. That is the other big part of the initiative. How can our membership work collaboratively with the city . With the Economic Task force and what will come out of that . How can these be recovered . Thats why i want to talk about this at the end here. We have hosted three forms. We held a forum on zero waste and covid. There are tonnes of questions if you are all aware. We had a big discussion with people around that. We pull together a lot of resources from the Member Companies themselves so folks can have the tools they need. Thank you to ted for participating. [indiscernible] in addition to these forums, we signed onto a letter of support for recovery pathway Feasibility Study to evaluate a temporary emergency bike lane on the bridge. We are gauging the ways to support studies being done to look at ways to get people back to work in cars. We also have a strong Employment Engagement platform. We watched it in january of this year before everyone went home to work forever for the shortterm. We have a tool and a manager who is running this with our members to reach these employees out there. We are in the middle of our campaign and looking to get those out to our Member Companies. The Campaign Encourages adoption of residential solar and battery that has opened it up. We are testing out a campaign this year to show clean energy across our members to get the word out to our employees to encourage them to ask us about clean energy right now. Maybe hopefully to offset the energy while working from home. They also trying to find ways to find ways for the companies to work from home. Can they also encourage [indiscernible] the companies create things like take your health and wellness benefits because people are not going to the gym. They say you could use that 500 this year to go towards a battery for your home or solar system or an air purifier. We are looking at trying to have them do these things in the shortterm that will make a difference for employees, but also for our grid. Those are some of the things we are working on. In general, we have the membership. The companies are committing to doing these three key things. They will pursue these strategies. We want to share out is much as we can with businesses of all sizes and what is working. We also commit to collaborating and identify Climate Smart recovery opportunities when the time is right. When the time is right, we would invite any and all ideas to bring this to the table. And finally, members are working closely with the city to address the impact and the opportunity of this changing workplace. There will be economic impacts, but huge emissions impacts of all of these decisions a company has made over the next six to 12 , to 24 months. And how many people will go back to work. Workforce shifts and impacts on the local economy so our members are interested and concerned in the transportation issue as i am sure you all can imagine. They are curious and want to be part of the experience. [indiscernible] there might be away locally. Many of these companies are headquartered in San Francisco. Theres a lot of interesting conversation to have as we move forward. In addition, i will wrap up by saying that we have been in touch. Thank you for your generous time we are also in touch with the Governors Task force. They have a committee on climate as part of the task force. Were looking for opportunities to convene when the time is right. In closing, we are all ears. If anyone is a commissioner [indiscernible] we want to have small conversations about opportunities to collaborate. We can help with that. [indiscernible] we are all ears for any ideas. Next slide. This is my contact information. I want to thank everyone. Thank you so much for that. It was really informative and fantastic. Every time i get to hear the smart folks in our public bodies and in our partners and the work that they are doing, im constantly proud to live in the city and be part of these organizations and the different people who are thinking about these important questions. I am sure the question commissioners probably have questions. I will take a look over at the hand raising list. Lets take advantage of the time that we have while these people are here for questions. Go ahead. Commissioner sullivan . I need to unmute myself. A couple of observations. One is that i have been pleasantly surprised at some of the changes that cobit has forced on us from this perspective and how it relates to the environment. With the shared spaces, it has been a big success. I find myself walking to my local restaurants as opposed to driving to other places. There is a new bike lane along the street next to the panhandle that happened with very little fanfare and very little process. And the old days, most of these things would have taken years of process and a few meetings. They happened quickly because of emergency powers. Maybe we can learn from that and we can make some of these things permanent. And the Second Thought i had is we have all been talking about how on a global level, emissions are down this year. Is a little bit of a silver lining. Emissions are down. And curious to see if the city can calculate the impact of the pandemic on San Francisco to see how we are doing. Those are my thoughts. This is my very myopic worldview. Do we see it in a largescale, or are we seeing a trend in that direction . Its a great question. The information that we are getting at this point largely is anecdotal. There is a lot of concern from cities like new york and others. You are seeing a temporary outflow. The Housing Market in the bay area is showing a great deal of weakness in the city. The brokers i am hearing from is that people are looking at who would ordinarily bought. People are looking at the suburbs. The marketing of real estate is showing the advantage of low density [indiscernible] whether or not this is real or worth focusing on [indiscernible] i think it is an open question. Im not worried about the people moving to the suburbs as i am with people moving to they are not going to come back. It has always been true that companies and jobs and people have effectively priced out of San Francisco and have moved to lower cost locations. If we see that supercharged, because this moment in technology, and the virus, and peoples psychology means it is a longerterm shot for the city s economy. The only piece of information comes from [indiscernible] they are tracking people who are searching for apartments, which they summed up on the website. They are suggesting that what we are seeing is nobody is moving to San Francisco as opposed to everyone is moving out of San Francisco. That also makes sense because as recently as 2019, for example, the Tech Industry and employment in San Francisco went down 10 . If that flow stops, it will look like a big slowdown in the rental market. It is slightly better than anecdotal. I am eager to learn more about this. You read stories from the work at home people who are casting off the shackles of living in San Francisco. And year or two ago, you are seeing people who are living in San Francisco. I frankly worry more about so low income workers. They dont have the access to draw on this to pay rent. [indiscernible] thank you. How are they inserting themselves into these conversations . This is part of the reason i want to get this topic to you because i would like it to be a collective brain form on all of these parts in the various ways we insert ourselves. The department is involved in two levels. One is in the work we do and making sure that our that we are thinking about economic recovery in our work. So whether it is focusing Energy Efficiency work and a Small Grant Program 20 waste, to Small Businesses and focusing our energy laser on the Small Businesses that are hurt the most and supporting the nail salon so that one so when they are ready to open, we make it easier for them to reopen. The other area we are participating in is a larger discussion area. That falls to me mostly. I was appointed to the Economic Recovery Task force. I was one of the executives that heather talked about and was on working groups. It has been a phenomenally useful experience for me because i got to be on working groups with people who i never would interact with and others that i didnt know that doing so now i do know. The president of the Small Business commission and i were on a working group together and now we are working together. Heather and i have had long talks about and same with professor chiu and i, about how we what is the right way that was fascinating. Sorry. We have had long discussions about the difference between the medium and short term that is happening now and the longrange of how we insert the green. What came out of it for me was what heather was saying to all of you that it isnt a shortcoming of the Economic Recovery Task force. It is a sign of what the members and where their heads are at. So the question then becomes, how do we make sure that sustainability is part of those longrange discussions . Where are those happening now . Theyre happening there happening in a number of places. There is the Housing Element of the general plan. Its an interesting moment for this commission to be thinking about how we dont do land use as a commission. There is a bright line there. Yet there is a big discussion in the Housing Element on resiliency and sustainability, as well as affordability and types of housing and the amount of housing. Our ears are open. We are looking for ways to insert and be part of the conversation. I would say, honestly, i havent found a good entry point yet. I wanted tonight to be with you and it be a launching of that. I ask is all of you commissioners [indiscernible]. [please stand by]. In a way, its a covid specific task force and so on, but, like, the challenge or the question on the floor is how best actually compel action, and talk about this sometimes, and i think theres a couple ways, but to me, like, you never get an argument in a San Francisco body that we should do whats good for the environment. So they have, like, such consensus in that way that perhaps its understated. But that doesnt mean that people disagree with the importance of the measure. I think to me, far more powerful than any individual strategy like, the c40 sign on, for example. Its a pledge, like, a pledge of ambitious desire, but the teeth comes in the local legislation, so all the work that debbie and the team do and that you do here to set the rules about what San Francisco can build, like, thats the leverage, and so and to be clear, you know, theres a lot of concern about how hard it is and how extensive it is to build in San Francisco. And in my Capital Planning, like, this is something we run up against all the time. Like, you want to build the best and greenest project that you can, but if it seems like its going to cost more, it might even pencil in savings over time. Daytoday, theres always limited resources, certainly, from a local level. But the rules are the rules, and to the extent that the rules can, you know, still facilitate the building that we need to deliver now, especially for stimulus, with that building being green, its going to get you so much farther, i believe, that, you know, articulating the call for this or that project which were all having political battles about it. So i just want to hope to instill im sure you already have it, but the call to the legislation that guides what we do, is really helpful, i think, for our collective priorities here. Yeah, thank you. I have been i just came out of a big planning process for the company that i work for, and we sat down for days, looking at, like, what do we want to do. These Companies Come up with these, like, plans for, like, this big, hairy, audicious goal. And you dont have the money and the resources to get there, and then, you have the money and the resources right now, and its a boat of a process to say, heres what we need to do, and what were supposed to be doing right now, always with the goal of working toward. Thats what im hoping we can do through this process is say, this is a brave new world were doing, for good and bad, and commissioner made reference to ways that our world is changing. I left town to visit a sick relative, and when i came back, the city is covered with parklets, and things that we would not ever have been able to get rid of. But now, theres outside dining and things that have changed the fabric of a piece of our city, like, you know, across town. I think that we can do both. I think that we can say this is our big, big goal of how we want to transform our recovery, and we can build the city back better, at the same time while we can say we can help the people at the same time that need help with those things, and i hope my fellow commissioners can help me come up with the big thing that we can tack on the board and say, this is what the city looks like in ten more years because thats what we have, is climate concerns that have to happen now. So any way. Commissioners, any other thoughts or questions . Debbie . Thanks. Sorry. I saw commissioner ahn had his hand up. This is a question to heather. So in terms of next steps, this the report, which i have read the draft of, which is really well written and easy to follow and such a wonderful reflection of all this brainstorming and good work on these hundreds of people has behind it just a whole list of suggestions, where, i dont know, just 100 ideas. And its how do we make this report not stay on the shelf . I mean, thats my question. How do we how do we pick things off, or what will it take to take some of these ideas and make them real . Thats the thing that worries me right now. Heather, youre on mute. Sorry. Hi. A little bit, well look to leadership, right . The mayor and the board president convened this body, and i think its reasonable to expect to hear from them for next steps. Like, when i said this report and this body is an opening, its also important to note that its not comprehensive, so ted shared the mobility data and the transit data with our group, but our group really didnt tackle transportation, for example. Theres another group thats working in the city on transportation and response and the m. T. A. Is already thinking about recovery. We had jeff tumlin present to us, but this body didnt tackle that, like, the downtown cant recover and our city as a whole cant recover unless people feel safe using transit. So i just wanted to give something on youth and families and the Community Hubs that youve probably read about. Like, theres a whole weve heard and read about that information, but there is a whole effort there on homelessness and essential government function. Like, theres a lot of groups. I love the report, too, but i think its a piece of the pie, and i think its really important that our city stakeholders, you know, Pay Attention in the months ahead and look to see how the mayor and our board weave together those various facets of recovery planning, of which this is one component. There are so many, and to see how to look that balls like that dont get dropped. I wouldnt expect that they would. Thats one piece of it to see on which exactly pieces get picked up as priority from that leadership perspective. And then, you know, i think it happens often in government and augments things and that last thing, i was trying to hurry through, and still spent way too long. The one that we acknowledge the various processes that exist, including the climate plan, the budget plan, those are places where decisions get made. And ill just say, the legislation that goes along with them are so important. For the public space reuse is such a visible part of what were doing, continuing to communicate with your electives and so forth about how you like it, and that its a good idea, but that you may have seen the article of being able to, like, for a single commenter like, the ceqa problem, where a single commenter can obstruct a whole project on the street. M. T. A. Has a whole slate of closed streets that they want to open, but its held up. And so keeping your eye on those on those movements through the board and expressing your support for things that you want to see, i think, remains, you know it is in some ways business as usual, but, you know, its no less important but then, those processes. And then, for the part about articulating like, in the 40 goals, we cant return to business as usual. I ju like, all of our documents already say that and, like, all of our legislation already pushing us there, and that will be the work of the c. A. P. And i dont mean to diminish it but its, like, youre doing youre doing the work, and i dont know exactly what the future holds in terms of how the mayor will, like, articulate a recovery task. I know the task force that im staffing will be a part of it, but i wouldnt expect it to be the whole picture, and so, you know, just a little bit of a waitandsee how she activates it. I think that all city processes are going to be a part of this for the foreseeable future until were where we want to be, and yes, demanding that vision is going to be the whole thing to do. I think its hard to start from such a high peak. Like, the full employment numbers i dont know if you think youll get back to where we were. Those are spheric low unemployment numbers, and so its something we have to Pay Attention to [inaudible] theres a lot of questions ahead. Thank you. Commissioner ahn, i know you had a question. I wanted to make sure that we got to you. Sure. I just had a question for [inaudible] really appreciate you taking the time to present today. The question is i heard mention that a lot of the stories, for instance, are anecdotal. Were waiting on new trends or data reports. Could you clarify which data reports or trends we could look forward to for future followup . Specifically to the migration. The 2000 census was going on at the start of the shutdown period, and thats a question where you ask people where you live now and sent to your address where you lived a year ago, so that will start to show migration behavior, and were not going to get that until 2021 or 2022. Another source of information that we get is the i. R. S. The i. R. S. Looks at the zip code which you filed your taxes and the zip code that you filed your taxes last year and creates countytocounty migration charts that way. Realistically, the migration is still happening, at least thats what the housing data is telling us, and so we wont really know until next years census and maybe next years i. R. S. Input which will lead to data a year or two after that. So i think from the point of view from official statistics, were going to get a picture of this that gets clearer and clearer over the next few years. The things that will get more timely are things that reflect population. So for example, when b. A. R. T. Starts up and how many people are riding b. A. R. T. , thats going to be a good indication of how many people are working in San Francisco. Its better than doing a survey, whereas b. A. R. T. Is counting everyone. So i think its going to be good to see what we can do creatively with anecdotal lore because well be waiting a year or two for the whole story. Thank you. Commissioner wald . Thank you. I just wanted to tie together what laura was saying, and you, chair stephenson about sort of the big, Ambitious Goals, and what heather was saying about the importance of San Franciscos legislative goals and fundamental rules that we have. And it seems to me that this might be an appropriate question at an appropriate point in time to question whether or not our goals, our environmental goals are, impact, actually bold enough. Is this, in other words, a time in which we ought to push forward some of our transit and other goals because we have because we have the opportunity, number one, because were doing this kind of planning, but because the consequences of pushing forward those goals in some cases will be increased jobs, increased benefits, helping those people who need it the most. So i would encourage you, debbie, to at least spend a little while figuring out whether or not we really ought to say, you know i, of course, cannot think at this moment of an appropriate example, but whether or not we want to have even boulder, even more Ambitious Goals that would help us move forward from from this particular moment in time to a future that is more in line with the one that i [inaudible] believe in and want to see. Ill second that. I like that. Anyone else have any questions or comments on the commission . All right. Lets open it up for Public Comment. I want to thank everyone for your presentation. I appreciate your attention to detail and patience as we wait till the end to ask questions. I think well probably have more as time goes on, and i think at this time we should open it up for Public Comment. Yes. So we can open it up for Public Comment regarding this agenda item. Im going to put the instructions back up on the screen. That didnt work, did it . Okay. So the instructions are now up on the screen. If you would like to call in to make a Public Comment, please make sure to press star, three to be added to the queue. If you make a Public Comment, you will have three minutes, and please wait until it is your turn to speak. Give me one second, and ill check the queue. I do see we have one caller in the queue, so i will start your time, and i will unmute you now. Hi. This is susan from the California Native Plants Society and im a San Francisco resident. The United States faces simultaneous threats exacerbated by a pandemic related economic crisis. Unfortunately, we must address all of these crises at the same time to survive. Please include biodiversity in the conversation so the climate and the city can build back better. This pandemic has exposed how important our green spaces are to our Mental Health as well as our physical health. 68 of San Francisco is paved and built on. Every bit of green space and every bit of tree we plant matters. Every plant the city installs should be 100 local native plants. Consider replacing some of our carbon emitting golf courses with childrens playgrounds, dog parks, bike trails, and running trails to offer a wider variety of ways to be outside for San Francisco residents. Thinking larger, companies to invest in home solar and batteries is a wonderful idea. Would companies consider consider some of this wellness funding for employees to plant green spaces at home . Seeing a reduction in numbers in varieties of butterflies and birds here in San Francisco is evidence that we are losing the biodiversity that is the foundation of our health, our air quality, our water quality, and our food web. Please include biodiversity in our city and corporate plans to allow us to build back better together. That concludes my comments. Thank you f comments. [inaudible] under the environment code, the department maintains a reduced list pesti cried list that may be used on city property, with restriction. The support is dr. Debra raphael, direct raphael, the sponsor is dr. Deborah raphael, director, and the speaker is dr. Chris gieger, integrated Pest Management program manager. Pandemic, fires, recessions, these are things that are holding our attention right now in a riveting way, but the citys work goes on, and the commissions work goes on, and every year, the city takes a look at at the use of pes pesticides on those areas. The report that the Committee Looked at was in 2019 and ended at the end of 2019, but of course everyone on the policy committee was interested in how covid impacted our Pesticide Use. At this point, you will be hearing from chris a summary a very quick summary of what has happened in 2019 because the policy Committee Heard a very detailed presentation about not only the [inaudible] of 2019 but also what was happening as opposed to covid, what some of the challenges are, what some of resilient requirements were for our land managers. And so with that, i will have chris present his abbreviated version of the presentation he gave at policy committee, and then, we will ask you to weighin. Chris . Thank you, director, and thank you, commissioners. This makes me proud to be working for local government at this critical time. Im going to be abbreviating as much as i can. This is an annual ritual, an annual function that we do. This reduced list pesticide list. The background, i think you guys have all heard this before. We will discuss activities that debbie mentioned through the present, not just through 2019, give you a brief summary of the trends of 2019 and then our recommendations. Integrated Pest Management is a Decision Making process. It is one that values nonchemical and nondisruptive techniques most highly and saved pesticides and disruptive techniques as a last resort. We like to live at the base of this pyramid with emphasis on prevention. The ordinance itself, as you may remember, requires an approach on all City Properties. The pesticides have to be on this list to be used on City Properties unless there is an exemption granted by our department. It includes posting and Record Keeping requirements, requires compliance of contractors and also includes an annual public hearing requirement which we had beginning of august, and that is a chance for us to talk to members of the community about what city staff do in their Landscape Management and structural Pest Management activities and also to hear about community concerns. The very briefest of background, we do screen every pesticide that goes onto this list. We have a three tier hazard screening system. Tier one is what we consider to be the most hazardous, tier three, the least hazardous. We rely extensively on training. That is really one of the hearts of, i think the heart of the program is extensive training, and we have meetings every month with speakers, almost every month, as well as spring trainings where 300, 400 people are typically trained in those events. Those were cut a little bit short by covid this year. We got most of them in before the curtain fell. Some of the activities from this past year, we continued with our Pilot Testing of safer herbicides. Its been a high priority since round up became categorized as a probable carcinogen. Theyre one that were looking at based clove oil and takes that matter into the plant tissue, ways to tikill plants the roots, so there is a lot of progress with that. Weve been looking at a rat contraceptive as opposed to baits. We are continuing these activities at rec park and also at pier 96. Weve continued our work with pest prevention in Affordable Housing. We won a grant last year with department of pesticide regulation to follow up on our previous work in Affordable Housing, and we did get a fair weve got all of our external designs and interview forums and lined up our partners just at the point where covid happened. So part of that is on hold. Were going to proceed with some of the interviews that are involved in that study and then wait for the chance to get into these lowincome Housing Units to check on the success of pest preventative design measures that were installed there. We also began to roll out we completed a new product that ive spoken about before. Our pest prevention and landscape guidelines. These were the product of a very dedicated working group, multiagency working group, including a couple of people out of state, and it is Available Online as a downloadable document, also as a database that can be searched. Were very proud of that. Right exactly at the time when we were going to do a formal rollout, thats when covid happened, and so we are now going through other avenues to get the word out about this and keep the Public Document about reducing the needs for herbicides and creating a healthier environment. We also completed another big project this year, a brandnew pesticide reporting database. This is where we record all pesticides used on City Properties. The old one has been troublesome for many years. This one promises to be a lot more streamlined and trouble free, and it was rolled out september 1. Rolling over to pesticide trends. The news is mostly good for 2019, and i based on what we heard at the Commission Policy Committee Meeting, i will expect some increase in herbicide use in 2020. Dont know exactly how much yet, but based on staff reductions, and based on the changing patterns of use and actually, a lack of volunteer labor to do some of the weeding that typically happens in the parks, there are thousands of people that help with that. So nevertheless, we actually had an improvement in our main metric, which is tier one, or highest hazard pesticides within the city limits. Last year, it was about a 96 reduction since 2010. For this year, its 97. 9 reduction, so that is a good indicator. Mind you, were already at pretty low levels, so we expect that to dump around. Its been an 83 reduction since 2015, which is when the roundup determination was made, and a 22. 8 reduction since last year. Now some departments have a little more, and some a little less, so the story varies. We are continue to listen to public concerns, and these are some of the typical ones. We didnt have a lot of Public Comment this year during the public hearing or during the Commission Meeting. What we have been hearing all along are these sort of varying comments. Some people who are very interested in preserving biodiversity and want more Pesticide Use, some people who believe that biodiversity does not warrant the use of herbicides and feel that herbicides should never be used on City Properties. Our goal was to strike a balance on these feelings and issues and also to follow our commitments to reduce the use of chemicals. So im going to summarize the proposed product changes for this years reduced risk product list pesticide list. Its very, very few changes this time, and i consider that a good sign. I think the herbicide restrictions that we spent to much time on in the previous four years, i think have settled into a workable document that people are using. So there are no recommendations for changes to our herbicides restrictions document. And for the products themselves, we have added one product, which is that rat contraceptive that i mentioned, the contra pest, and then, we have added a tier one product, t the tier three product. The contra pest is a tier one product. We did updates on 18 products. Those are mostly administrative changes. I think we did increase the restrictions on a smoke bomb that is sometimes used for rodent burrows, but that is administrative changes. That is what youd see in your packet. I did go through that fast, but we do have a related item to this following on a rat control product a dry ice rat control product. Were going to treat that separately, and i am happy to answer any questions you might have about this years list. Thanks, chris. Commissioners, any questions . I know that the policy committee is already deeply aware of everything on the list. Eddie, is there anything that you want to say about the policies, experience, or anything that you want to say as we go into the vote . No, not for this particular item. I do think that the rat ice item will be interesting to discuss, though. Commissioner stephenson, i have one question. I dont know why i didnt think about this during committee. The question is about weed slayer, i think even though were adding a substance to the list, were doing it for good reason, and hopefully, it will work to replace [inaudible]. Are other places using this around the country and is there the possibility of getting data from those other places . Good question. The answer is yes. Other jurisdictions for example, Presidio Trust did some informal Pilot Testing. Marin county, and also, rec and park, and some promising results. Its difficult to tell what it can replace in what situation at this point, and i discussed that im very skeptical at this product. Its not a registered f. D. A. Product, its an exempt product, but cant argue with results, so were hopeful on this one. Thank you, chris. Commissioner wald . Thank you. I just want to make the following observation in light of the fact that this is my umptyumpth time to vote on this list. What were looking at here is not just data that documents how the use of pesticides has declined so very dramatically in the city and county of San Francisco, but that what that reflects is something thats sort of implicit in what chris talks about, but it represents real and dramatic change in the culture of city agencies in how they think about using pesti sides and what they do to not use them. Esticides and what they do to not use them. I think its something that everyone, including chris geiger, should be incredibly proud of. Its great what the department has managed to accomplish [inaudible] we started this. We should all feel a real sense of accomplishments about what has happened and how it has happened and think about, you know, really how hard it is to change agency cultures and what an incredibly promising and meaningful change has occurred here. Thank you. Any other questions or comments by commissioners . All right. Lets go to Public Comment, katie. Okay. Ill open it up for Public Comment. Ill put the instructions back up on the screen. So if you would like to make Public Comment on this agenda item, please follow the directions on the screen and press star, three to be added to the queue. If you are already in the queue, please wait until it is your turn to speak, and you will have three minutes to make comment. I do see that we have one call in the queue, and i will unmute you now. Can you hear me now . Yes. Its david pillpow. Good evening, greetings. Sorry. Ive been busy with other projects. I still care very much about the commission and the department. I support the continued efforts to reduce Pesticide Use and transition to less toxic alternatives. Commissioner wall commissioner wald already talked about the long road to changing culture over time in the city. Were really talking about dry ice as an alternative and rat contraception . Okay. Its well, its 2020, so i guess anythings possible, and hopefully, the Supreme Court over time will not ban rat contraception as being a problem. So i want to conclude by saying i support chris geigers efforts, and i support your anticipated action to approve the reduced risk pesticide list for this year. Thanks very much. Thank you for your comment. And president stephenson, im seeing no other callers in the queue. Okay. Seeing none, lets move to a vote or actually, do i hear a motion to hold on. Im just going to hear a motion to pass resolution 2020003coe adopting the 2020 reduced risk pes pesticide list for City Properties . I have a motion, and a second. Lets move to the roll call, please. [roll call] motion passes. And i just want to always thank the policy committee for the work that they do, and chris and your team for the hard, hard work that you do almost every single year. All right. The next item, please, katie. All right. The next item is item 7, discussion and vote on whether the commission should send letters to bell laboratories to support distribution of its rat control alternative practiced and to the e. P. A. To support a variance to allow dry ice to be used as a pesti cried. The sponsor is deborah raphael, director, and the speaker is chris geiger, integrated Pest Management program manager. So i guess all i can say, how many commissions are jealous that they dont have an item called rat ice. Its an exciting project for us here. Its an interesting story that chris will share a little bit with you that the policy found quite ironic and compelling and a need to weighin. So while it sounds odd, i think its indicative of the plight that we have to get alternatives onto the marketplace, especially when it comes to dealing with the e. P. A. And the very restrictive pesticide requirements. So with that, i will let chris describe the details. Thank you, debbie. Can i share the screen, katie . So while im getting the screen up oh, here we go. Slowly Getting Better at this. So the the the brief, brief, brief story the brief version of the story, for many decades, actually, many decades ago, people used to use dry ice to control rodents. You basically put it in their burrows, and it kills it by asphyxiation. It has no secondary impacts as long as theres no other animals living in the burrows. You use gloves to apply it. Did you want the slide is on Public Comment. Did you want to sorry. Oh, dear. There we go. So there was a lot of Movement Towards finding a way to use dry ice and to use it legally because it was already known to be fairly effective for this particular kind of control if the e. P. A. Made a statement saying no, its not legal. You cant use it, and we found a way to use it legally by creating a what you call an exempt product that uses the dry ice, and we had that approved by department of pesticide regulation. We were able to, during the twomonth period when it was legal for us, to do some Pilot Testing and confirm, yes, its pretty effective. We tried it at portsmouth square with some promising results, and that, as you know, is rat capital. And the e. P. A. Said no, you cant use that. The usual way that e. P. A. Operates is registering a product and there by, creating and reviewing a label, and they registered a product called rat ice, and this is from bell labs. So we were sad, but then suddenly, we were happy again because we had a product that we could potentially used that was a replacement for rodenticide for certain situations, and we waited and waited for it to be distributed on the west coast, and we bugged them, and were not alone in this. We and other agencies with i. P. M. Programs, and that was three years ago, and it is not happening. The distribution out here is simply not happening, and yet, we still cant use a product that we know to be a safer alternative. So this started out as kind of a failure story for the program activities. We failed to find a way to use this, but wed love to turn it into a Success Story and do what we can at least to find a way to do so. So what we recommend is that staff work with the commission to draft two letters to try to push this along. One to bell labs, making it clear to them that there are a lot of agencies and institutional i. V. M. Programs who would love to have this item available; is there any way they can make it available on the west coast . And the second letter to the e. P. A. To explore some kind of variance for carbon dioxide, dry ice for use in rodents because it is a clear wildlife threat to use some of these rodenticides that are around today. So that is the story and the recommendation for the commission to consider. Thank you, chris. Any questions, commissioners, or comments . This is eddie ahn, if i may, president stephenson . Go ahead, commissioner. So the policy committee did support also putting forward these letters positive reasons these letters for positive reasons. Its been beset by a number of failures, but pushing it through any way, and then, the commissioners can join in the authoring of these letters promoting the usage of these comments . Commissionera wan . I just want to commend you on this. Thank you. All right. Commissioner wald . Yes. Chris, can you explain how it works . Are we freezing the rats or are we suffocating the rats . It doesnt seem that they flee from it as quickly as some other things that you might use on them, like smoke. Its not a pleasant thing to talk about, but it is a health issue. We have a lot of them right now, and we dont need anymore. Its a suffocation issue, and there are several ways to block the hole so that its effective. All right. Do i hear a motion . Were voting on this, right . Doing the letter . Do i hear a motion to write the letter to bell labs . So moved. Second. So moved and seconded by commissioner ahn. Sorry, carol. Just forget Public Comment, just as a reminder. Well do Public Comment. So we have a motion and a second. Are there any comments by members of the public. President stephenson, is there a letter to bell labs or is it a letter to the e. P. A. . I cant remember. Its both. Okay. Great. Unless you want to split it up and for some reason not send it to one [inaudible]. Get it all done. Okay. Great. Well open it up for Public Comment on this item. Instructions for making Public Comment back up on the screen. If you would like to make a Public Comment, please remember to press star, three to be added to the queue, and you will have three minutes to make your comment. And i am seeing that we have one caller in the queue, so i will unmute you now, and your three minutes will begin. Can you hear me now . Yes. Its david pillpow again. I walked away from the computer because i couldnt figure out how to mute it again. Ive got it on webex and sfgovtv. By the way, sfgtv isnt having closed captions right now. I wanted to speak on the item. Lets write a letter to bell labs, and lets get dry ice to suffocate the rodents. Thank you. Okay. I am seeing one additional hand raised in the queue, but not seeing a way to unmute them. Oh it disappeared. So with that, im seeing no more callers in the queue. All right. No more callers in the queue, lets close Public Comment and move to the roll call vote, please. All right. [roll call] all right. The motion passes. Next item, please, katie. Next item is item 8, the directors report. Updates on department of the environment, administrative and programatic operations related to budget planning, strategic planning, clean care and transportation, climate, energy, Public Outreach and education, environmental justice, habitat restoration, green building, zero waste, toxics reduction, and urban forestry, the speaker is deborah raphael, director, and the document is the explanatory document, directors report. I just wanted to highlight a few things that im particularly excited about that i want to bring to your attention. First, and this is something that president stephenson talked about that, yesterday, we went before the land use and Transportation Committee to for the First Committee hearing of the all electric new construction ordinance. We knew that it was likely to be continued there because there are further discussions that need to happen before we finalize the legislation, and supervisor mandelman has been actively leading conversations with various stakeholders. It was a spirited discussion, and it was also very supportive, absolutely supportive of the concept. Just some more stakeholders that need to come to the table. So you have been hearing a lot about how we have been pivoting our messaging in times of covid, everything from the bay run program, which is on Energy Efficiency. They have been doing webinars on training, running ads linking Covid Response and Public Health to moderating the climate in their homes, especially in light of the increased temperature, so weve been trying to promote people to be all electric and look at electric cook tops and thermostats all in the air of responding to Climate Change. The Silver Linings have been for us are the partnerships that we forged with what used to the Emergency Operations center. Now its changed its name to the covid command center, the c. C. C. Out of moscone center. Its truly been a fruitful partnership. We have a lot of staff that work there, and we have found ways to align our mission. For example, theres a big push to get information and personal protective equipment out to lowincome communities. We provide the bags, the reuseable bags, 8,000 of them. And in those bags are materials about zero waste and materials about low toxic cleaning products as well as the personal protective gear and information about protecting yourself against covid. So the Covid Response becomes a partner with us in getting our messages out. As you know, we worked very closely with the department of Public Health to make sure Reusable Bags would be allowed back into grocery stores. At the same time, remember the charge for bags is going up to 25 cents, and there were new requirements on precheck out bags, for example, the produce bags needing to be compostable. So our team has reached out to almost 700 businesses to let them know about the fact that the Reusable Bags are allowed and about these new challenges. Its been very challenging for environment now to get the word out and to make sure that everyones aware, but theyve been doing yeomans effort. You remember we talked about last time our Emergency Ride Home Program and we pivoted that to employee ride home. Our team is continuing to work with the c. C. C. Also to get the word out about to essential workers. So its been an amazing opportunity to insert ourselves and partner with city agencies who we arent normally partnering with, and i think thats the blessing of a pandemic. In terms of transportation, theres an interesting thing thats happening, just to let you know. Jeff tumlin, the director of m. T. A. , realized that there were many people interested in what was going on and concerned about transit. He created a roundtable and if any of you are interested in participating in it, let me know, and its held every other week. At the last one he held, he shared something that was interesting. As you can imagine, theres a huge concern around the messaging of the safety of transit, and this was something that ted egan talked about. This is a psychology problem that needs to be talked about thats not unique to m. T. A. So the m. T. C. Is putting together a Blue Ribbon Task force to tackle this and think about how we get this messaging out on a regional scale. So im im very interested in what theyre going to be doing and thinking about how the department of environment can support that messaging with our great social Media Channels and the other ways we do a behavior change. A couple of milestones. Sunday was the 100year anniversary of recology, and i it made me realize that in 2019, the end of 2019, i put a handout together of all the milestones that 2020 would have, to the 50th anniversary of earth day, the 100 anniversary of golden gate park, 100th anniversary of womens suffrage, and including recology. Every one of those milestones had a huge event planned, and every one of those milestones has passed quietly. So we can give a cheer to recology that they continue to be thriving and a wonderful partner after 100 years on the job. This is new york climate week. Its also had to, you know, very much shift, but there are 350 events online if anyones interested in spending some more time in front of your computer. And a thing thats captivating many of our staff is our future move to 1155 market. Were in the process of budgeting for carpet and paint and thinking about what we can do on a shoe string and thinking about how we pack up our boxes now, keep them in storage or a year or keep them in place for six months, and then, they move to another place for another six months before we actually show up to unpack them. So its quite a process, so in a way, theres a blessing with the fact this we dont have to unplug our computers on friday and plug them back in on monday. It gives us some time to be creative in a new space. That is whats keeping us busy. Lots keeping up active as we go on this journey, so thank you. Thanks, debbie. Commissioners, any discussions . All right. Lets open it up to Public Comment, please. Okay. I will pull up the directions. If youd like to make a Public Comment on this agenda item, please follow the instructions i just pulled up on the screen, and be sure to press star, three to be added to the queue, and you will have two minutes to make your Public Comment. And i am seeing one caller in the queue, so i will start the timer, and i will unmute you now. Can you hear me now . Yes. Its david pillpow again. Hopefully, the last time tonight. Although not directly on point to the directors report, i did want to note among the various passings of people in the past few months was denise deann, a long time member of San Francisco tomorrow, a long time city employee. When denise worked at the thendepartment of social services, now part of the Home Services agency, she absolutely gathered up paper clips in an effort to conserve our resources and was just a longtime great supporter. I see commissioner wald nodding, and, you know, there have been so money people lost in the world due to covid, so many people for other reasons, so many great city people and retired city people, but i i absolutely wanted to call out denise as being a great loss to all of us, and with that, i say thank you to everyone listening and participating for all of your good continuing efforts. Thanks again, take care. Thank you for your comments. Okay. And i am seeing no additional callers in the queue. Okay. Next item, please. The next item on our agenda is item 9, committee reports, and this item is for discussion. Great. Commissioner ahn, would you please give us your update on policy meeting. Yes. On september 17, policy committee had their first meeting since the shelter in place. We had several presentations, and of course as Commission Approved the list today, so i think it gets us off on the right track. That concludes my report. Okay. Commissioners, any discussion . Okay. Lets open up Public Comment on the policy committee report. Okay. If you would like to make a Public Comment regarding this agenda item, please follow the instructions on the screen and be sure to press star, three, and you will have three minutes to make your Public Comment. And im not seeing any callers currently, but maybe well just take a brief pause for anyone who would like to call in at this time. Okay. Im still seeing no additional callers in the queue. All right. Next item, please. Okay. Our next item is item 10, announcements, and this item is for discussion. Commissioners, does anyone have any announcements youd like to make . All right. Seeing no announcements, is there any Public Comment on this item . Okay, and once again, if you would like to make a Public Comment on this agenda item, please be sure to press star, three to be added to the queue, and you will have three minutes to make your comment. Okay. And im not currently seeing any Public Comment, but maybe well just take another brief pause. Okay. Im seeing no callers in the queue. All right. Public comments now closed. Next item, please. Okay. The next item is item 11, new business and future agenda items. The speaker is charles sheehan, chief policy and public Affairs Officer, and this item is for discussion go ahead, charles. Thank you, commissioner. Charles sheehan, policy and public Affairs Officer for the department. The next Commission Meeting is slated to be october 21. The next policy Committee Meeting is slated to be october 26, and the next slated Commission Meeting is scheduled to be november 24. Coming up at your next Commission Meeting, were looking at a number of agenda items, which may include the second plan of our Racial Equity plan presentation. Some of that might be contingent upon directions and guidance from the office of Racial Equity, which they are issuing to all departments. Were also looking at a larger Energy Efficiency update and whats going on with the Energy Efficiency team at the department, and other policy profits, potentially for the full commission or the policy subcommittee. Theres sfcta congested management congestion management report that well want to hear from sfcta on, and theres a sustainable consumption report that we will also want to present on. Thank you. I wanted to confirm the Operations Committee date. Is that a monday . I will have to quickly look that up, but if you is that october 26 . No. The operations Committee Meeting is october 21. And then, november 24 is that thanksgiving break week, not that anyones going to have much of a break. It may not be an issue, but i still would like to explore changing the bylaws so that we move it a week earlier or a week later as a standard so were not trying to fit it in on the tuesday before thanksgiving. And maybe well have a quorum this time because where else are whee all going to be, but maybe that wont be the case. Okay. Well look at changing that. Meeting discussion, questions, commissioners comments . All right. Seeing none, lets move to Public Comment, please. All right. If you would like to make a Public Comment on this agenda item, please follow the instructions on the screen and be sure to press star, three to be added to the queue, and you will then have three minutes to make your Public Comment, and im not currently seeing any callers in the queue, but we can take another brief pause in case anyone would like to call in. Okay. Im seeing no callers in the queue. Great. Next item, please. Okay. The next item on the agenda is item 12, adjournment, and this meeting is adjourned, and the time is 7 37 p. M. Thank you for joining us. Thanks, everybody, for your diligence and your attention. San francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for San Francisco, but for all of the bay area. [sirens] fire station 35 was built in 1915. So it is over 100 years old. And helped it, were going to build fire boat station 35. So the finished Capital Planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on Sea Level Rise. The station 35, Construction Cost is approximately 30 million. And the schedule was complicated because of what you call a float. It is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for installation. Were looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float. The historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. This totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of Sea Level Rise over the next 100 years. Thats what the citys guidance is requiring. It is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises, and sits on four fixed guide piles. So if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. It does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. So that allows for current tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. The fire boat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. The access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. In that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for a slight few inches of lateral motion of the float. Both the access ramps, which there is two, and the utilitys only flexible connection connecting from the float to the back of the building. So electrical power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connection to the boat. High boat station number 35 will provide mooring for three fire boats and one rescue boat. Currently were staffed with Seven Members per day, but the Fire Department would like to establish a new dedicated marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidences. Looking into the future, we have not only at t park, where we have a lot of kayakers, but we have a lot of developments in the southeast side, including the stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incident along these new developments. There are very few designs for people sleeping on the water. Were looking at cruiseships, which are larger structures, several times the size of harbor station 35, but theyre the only good reference point. We look to the cruiseship industry who has kind of an index for how much acceleration they were accommodate. It is very unique. I dont know that any other fire station built on the water is in the United States. The fire boat is a regionalesset tharegional assete used for water rescue, but we also do environmental cleanup. We have special rigging that we carry that will contain oil spills until an environmental unit can come out. This is a job for us, but it is also a way of life and a lifestyle. Were proud to serve our community. And were willing to help people in any way we can. Mayor breed good morning, everyone. Im San Francisco mayor, london breed, and i want to thank you for being with us today, to provide an update on covid and the election and halloween in San Francisco. We have 12,320 cases of covid total since this crisis began. 37 hospitalizations, 147 people have sadly lost their lives. San francisco has really stepped up its pace around its testing. We have been doing around 5,000 tests a day, which is absolutely incredible. Right now our Positivity Rate is 0. 89 and i know that so many san franciscans have been hearing the stories about how great San Francisco has been doing in fighting the virus, but the fact is were still in the midst of a pandemic. So today is just a reminder that not only are we doing well, we are starting to see a slight uptick in the number of hospitalizations, which puts us in a situation where things could possibly get worse than what they are. Its just a reminder. In places like france and germany, theyve had to make adjustments. France is in lockdown again. And germany, which has been a model in the rest of the world, is looking at restrictions. Its not just what is happening here in the United States, its still challenging all over the world. It is just a reminder that we are in the midst of this pandemic. As a result of some changes that weve seen in the numbers, what we will have to do as a result is put a pause on some of our reopening efforts we have for next week. Let me just say that San Francisco is in a good place. We are in the yellow tier. As a result of being in the yellow tier, we made some very conservative choices around our reopening efforts. Our reopening and the decisions that have been made focused on when we were in the orange tier because we know that the more we open, the more people are moving around, the more possibility there could be of spread. And the last thing we want to do is go backwards or tell a business or a school or someplace that they can open and then tell them they have to close. So we are proceeding with caution and what that means is that some of the decisions we made will still move forward, the ones that are already in place and a few more, but others will need to take a pause until we see improvement in the numbers. What will remain closed, indoor pools, bowling alleys, locker rooms and showers at fitness centers. The capacity will stay at 25 . We initially talked about increasing capacity in restaurants from 25 indoors to 50 indoors. We unfortunately are going to need to put a pause on that, but we will leave 25 intact. Nonessential offices will be able to open at 25 , which theyve already done and we will keep it at that. So capacity staying at 25 includes restaurants or indoor worshiping places, churches, religious facilities, indoor museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theatres which continue without concessions unfortunately. Whats coming some places that will still be able to reopen include Indoor Dining at museums at 25 capacity, expanding indoor Film Production and additionally Live Performances with up to six performers with a drivein setting. I know these are nuanced and complicated in some ways, but if you have any questions and you want to know how the policies relate to your particular industry, please visit the department of Public Health website. It not only provides a list of what is opening and what can and cant open, but also guidelines that will allow people to make a decision of what makes the most sense to move forward. Remember, we are still in a pandemic. We are tired of covid19, but covid19 is not tired of us just because we are tired of it. So it is still here and present. We see it in the increased number of cases every day and in the number of people who are sadly hospitalized. And we definitely feel it when someone loses their life. Its important for us to keep that in mind. What im so proud of is what i see in the streets of San Francisco, people who are wearing their masks and social distancing, and those spraying their down tables to keep their visitors safe, its because of you. Its because of your because you are following our Public Health experts and their guidelines. Its why San Francisco is in the yellow tier in the first place. When you think about that, its remarkab remarkable. We are the seconddensest city in the country and we are still in the better place than most large, urban cities. We should be proud. But we also know there is still more work to do. We also know that tomorrow is halloween. Halloween is my favorite time of year. There are those making plans. Im going to wear a costume, but i also know that i cant participate in any parties or large events or anything of that nature. So we know that this is also important to families. Family families have children who want to trickortreat and people have parties and want to get together. What weve seen during holidays, sadly, is an uptick in the number of cases because people have chosen to come together. These parties and events and gatherings could become superspreaders. It takes one person to infect all people who attend a party. Thats where weve seen numbers increase and in the past. I just want you to be mindful because even though this year will be a sacrifice, the sacrifice is worth it because it means that we can get our kids back in school sooner and we can get our economy going faster. The more that we sacrifice now presents a better opportunity for us in the future. This is going to be a tough halloween, i know, but i know that we can do it and there are creative ways that you can participate in a number of programs. There is a virtual halloween contest that im going to be attending and its supporting larkin Street Youth Services and cindy lauper is performing and its going to be online. There are so many creative ways in which you can celebrate. Restaurants are still open. The shared Spaces Program and peoples ability to dine outdoors social distancing from one another has been a huge success in our city, supporting our restaurants and Small Businesses, while continuing to follow the Health Guidelines to keep people safe is critical. So lets be creative, lets be safe. Look on the department of Public Healths website for some guidance for some things you can do with your children, with your families, with your communities. But more importantly, lets not take this as an opportunity to celebrate and to go out and to party because it could end up putting us in a worse situation than we are today. So the other thing i wanted to talk a little bit about also was election day. Election day is on tuesday. And i want to thank all the voters who have already voted and who have encouraged those who have not cast their ballots yet to make sure that you vote. And we know that were not sure whats going to happen with this election, but we want to encourage people to watch from home or with friends based on your groups of folks that you interact with on a regular basis in your families. We know that people like to go out and a lot of the bars are closed still, but make sure that you keep that in mind, that were still in the midst of this pandemic. Were not sure which way this election might go, but our city plans to be ready for any situation. Ultimately, when you have large gatherings, when people come together for any reason, that puts us at risk. Please keep that in mind on election day and operate under precaution and safety. I also want to talk a little bit about our schools. This has been at the top of so many peoples mind. Its been not only frustrating, but very sad that so many children in this city are still not back in school. Weve had over a hundred applications from private schools, and were still having some challenges with getting our Public Schools to a place where they are planning to open. Dr. Matthews and i and my office have been in close contact because we are here to help. We are here to help the Unified School District and get schools open sooner rather than later. Im so grateful theyre willing to work with us. Theyve reached out to evaluate the various facilities to make sure that they meet Public Health guidelines. Were also looking at how were going to implement the testing that they want to set up to ensure safety within their various locations. So we think that working closely with the school districts, using all the resources from the city that are at our disposal is going to support them and get us moving our city a lot faster. We sadly see the achievement gap grow. Even though there are some incredible fathers out there trying to do their part, we know that this burden of going to work and trying to socially distance and also take care of your kids while theyre doing this Distance Learning is having a tremendous impact on mostly women in this city, which is further creating a challenge around inequities that continue to exist. There is so much at stake here and that we continue to do. I want folks over the weekend and on election day to keep that in mind. You might not want kids going to our schools right now, but think about them and their experiences. Lets try to do our part, whether we have children or not, whether we have elderly parents or not, whether we lost our jobs or businesses or not, because what we do by making sure were wearing our mask and washing our hands and keeping our distance and avoiding large gatherings and parties and all the other things that we enjoy, what were doing is were setting our city up for a Better Future sooner rather than later. Thats what this is all about. Thank you all so much for your cooperation. Well get it done. I know this weekend is nice, but again, please do everything you can to stay safe and follow our guidelines. With that, i want to introduce dr. Grant colfax who will provide an update around the challenges that exist in the department of Public Health. Again, if you have any questions about halloween, any questions about elections or election day, if you have any questions, please visit sfgov. Org or the department of health website. Thank you so much and have a great day. With that, i want to introduce dr. Grant colfax. Good afternoon. Im grant colfax, director of Public Health for the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you, mayor breed, for your leadership during this pandemic. I want to reiterate mayor breeds thanks to the citizens, the community of San Francisco, for everything youre doing to slow the spread of covid19. You know, my office across the street here is right next to the Polling Center where people are going to vote right now. On my way over, i saw san franciscans exercising their right to vote and doing it in a safe way, wearing masks, social distancing, using good hygiene. Thank you. Today is not unexpected with regard to our pause in reopening. Since weve been removed from the state watch list on september 1, we have had a consistent path of increased activities. We have employees returning to offices at limited capacity. Students returning to inlearning classrooms. Indoor dining and playgrounds being used. This is, indeed, good news and this is progress. But, as our activity increased, we realized we new and expected an increase in the infection is likely. We have been and are prepared for this. Overall, San Francisco continues to do well, but we have seen an increase in case positivity. We want to pause on riskier activities because we do not want the virus to get ahead of us. Because, as we have seen in other countries around the world, when the virus gets on top of ahead, you cant catch up. And we, all of us together, have done a great job of not letting the virus get too far ahead. From the onset of this pandemic, we have closely monitored our local data. We have monitored the spread of the virus so we can slow the spread of the virus and sustain the progress weve made. San francisco, we have avoided massive surges and crushed two curves, the first one in the spring and the second one in the summer. And the data are once again, as i told you this summer, the data are telling us it is time to pause. We are working to extend the time before we reopen the next phase of indoor activities. The reason for this is because in the last two weeks our case rate has gone from three per 100,000 of population to four. Thats a 25 increase. That might not sound like a lot, but when this virus takes off, it takes off quickly, unless again we take efforts to slow the spread. In addition, our hospital numbers are increasing. Theyve increased in the last two weeks from 23 to 37. Low numbers, the good news is our Hospital Capacity remains good to take care of people, but that rate of increase is concerning. As a result, we have a shift in our key local indicators in keeping the Healthcare System stable and managing the current rate of infection. That hospital rate of increase is in the red and our case rate has shifted at the local level from yellow to orange. We have also seen a 38 increase in cases in california and a 41 increase in cases in the United States over the past two weeks. Until we understand the magnitude and the potential duration of increases, it makes sense for us to pause, to make sure we are mitigating the virus, so we can continue to move forward and not backwards. We remain in relatively good shape compared to other major cities. We still continue to have lower infection rates compared to places like new york, philadelph philadelphia, denver, and los angeles. We continue to have the lowest death rate among major cities and the highest testing rate, as the mayor said, currently testing over 5,000 people a day. I am confident that working together we will again beat back the virus, as we have done two times before. But i wouldnt be me unless i reminded you, keep wearing those masks, so important, saving lives by wearing those masks, continue to physically distance, wash your hands, avoid large groups. The holidays are upon us and now is not the time to throw caution to the wind. Lets be here next year when, hopefully, this pandemic will be behind us and we can get together with our loved ones, in close contact, hugging, sharing food, giving toast, but we need to use caution this year. We got do this without the help and cooperation of all of you. So celebrate, but celebrate safely. Virtual election parties, small outdoor Gatherings Limited to three households, and again, please wear those masks. Thank you. This concludes todays press conference. Thank you, mayor breed, and dr. Colfax for your time. [ ]