Transcripts For SFGTV Transportation Authority Full Board 20221018

Welcome to the meeting of the San Francisco county Transportation Authority board. Im Rafael Mandelman i chair the board vice chair is supervisor peskin the clerk issi liegea saunders we have have mendoza with sfgovtv and mr. Clerk. Call the roll. Commissioner chan. Present dorsey. Present. Chair mandelman. Present. Commissioner mar. Present. Commissioner melgar. Present. Peskin. Present. Commissioner ronen. Present. Commissioner safai. Absent. Stefani present. Commissioner walton. Absent. We have clothes requested some to be absent for portions of this meeting commissioner safai will be arriving late. Commissioner mar is here remolt but need to leave probably before 11, commissioner walton will also be about between half an hour and hour late im going to excuse those folks for the portions of this meeting that they miss. And i believe you have announce ams . Yes. Members of the public interested in participating in the meeting we welcome you in person in the chamber room 250 or watch channel 26 and 99 depending or stream it live at sfgov. Org. For you those wish to comment remotely dial 4156550001 then access code 2493 887 6145. You will be able to listen in role time. When Public Comment is called press star 3 to be added to the queue. Upon dont press it again or you will be removed. When it says you are unmuted you will be allowed 2 minutes to speak. Calls will be taken in the order they are received. Speak slowly and clear and turn down the vol um device urined. Public comment will be taken first from the public in attendance in the chamber then after, from the remote speaker queue on the phone line. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Clerk as chair i like to invoke rule from the rules of order to limit the comment to 30 minutes for todays meeting and with that, mr. Clerk. Call the next item y. Item 2 final approve the resolution to allow teleconferenced meeting under code 54593e this is an action item. I dont think this point there are comments or questions from colleagues but can we see if we have Public Comment in the chamber. Seeing none. Remote Public Comment . Checking for remote comment on item 2. I see no Public Comment, chair. Okay. Public comment on item 2 is closed. It there a motion to approve item 2. Moved by peskin. Seconded by melgar. Mr. Clerk . Commissioner chan. Aye. Commissioner dorsey. Aye. Commissioner mandelman. Aye. Commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner melgar. Aye. Commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Absent commissioner self neil. Aye. Commissioner walton. Absent motion is approved thank you, mr. Clerk. Item 3 approve the minutes of the september 20, 22 meeting an action item. All right. I dont see comments or questions. Lets open up to Public Comment. Anyone with Public Comment. Check for remote Public Comment. Chair there is no Public Comment. Public comment on item 3 is closed motion to approve item 3 . Moved by dorsey seconded by peskin. Mr. Clerk . Commissioner chan. Aye. Commissioner dorsey. Aye. Chair mandelman. Aye. Commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner melgar. Aye. Commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Excused. Commissioner stefani. Aye. Commissioner walton, absent. Motion is approved. Thank you. Mr. Clerk, call item 4. Item 4 Community Advisory Committee Report this is an informational item. And i think we have our vice chair kevin ortiz giving this presentation. Thank you very much. I will be broef on my report. So, at the september 28cac, we had an update stot by laws with commissioner chair larsons departure, we had chair cline or the earlier meetings and admitted our by laws to allow for a vice chair election at which point i was elected the vice chair. The other updates for the meeting of the september 28 meeting we unanimously supported prop 30. As well as had a report on the Planning Department southeast rail yard study and approved 3. 7 million in prop k funds and 5 different projects. We had a vision zero update and San Francisco Transportation Plan update. As well as reviewing the Transportation Authoritys cycle 3 grants. I point that the cac was updated this the changes have been made to the elevator modernization and redesign funding for this prop. Thats all for my report. All right. Thank you mr. Ortiz. Lets she if we have Public Comment on your report. Any in the chamber . Nope. Lets check for remote comment. Checking Public Comment on item number 4. I see no Public Comment, chair. Well, then again with gratitude to all the members of the cac and vice chair ortiz we will go to item 5. Item 5 appoint a member to the Community Advisory committee. This is an action item. All right. So we are going to talk a bit a cac appointment but before we do that, i would like to invite peter tannen to come up if he is here. Peter tannen, you are the out going district 8 representative you stayed on longer than i think you intended to. And patience with me approximate my office as we tried to fiejdz a replace am you are irreplaceability. You have been on the cac for 14 years providing insight a long time San Francisco resident and cyclist. And sharing your wayed dom and knowledge be be decades long career with the sfmta and its predecessor. You served vice chair and acting chair and has been there to support other members. I have a certificate of appreciation for you signed by executive director chan and myself. I and wanted to give you an opportunity you wanted say anything you like. Good morning chair mandelman and vice chair peskin and members. I thank you very much i appreciate being recognized like this. And im happy to have had the opportunity to chair on the cac for so many years. I first joined after working for the city for 14 years. I thought it would be interesting to sit on the other side of the table to ask questions and answer questions as a city staff member and wanted to stay current in transportation issues and policies in San Francisco. And hopeful low i have been able to offer my experience as a Community Member and former city Transportation Planner. And im going to miss my colleagues on the cac and the Transportation Authority staff. I have known actual and he maria for 20 years since i joined the Transportation Authority and i known ana back in her days and worked together so i no longer on the cac i will listen in to the meetings and might call in with comments so00 eye will not fade away. Thank you. All right. Thank you, peter. If my colleagues will indulgs me will i invite director chang and we did a photograph as i give you the certificate. [applause] thank you, clothes. And now i would like to invite amillia wily to present on item 5. Good morning, commissioners amillia wily Program Analyst the Transportation Authority has [inaudible] Advisory Committee with each serving a 2 year term the board appoints individuals to fill open seats. Applicanting must be resident and, peer before the board at least once to describe their interests in qualifications. There is one open seat requiring board action district 8 resulting from residence ignition of the prior representative peter tannen. Continues to work to identify candidates for the open district 4 and 11 seats. Those interested in applying see www. Sfcta. Org for information. Can i take questions and chair mandelman an applicant Richard Ortega is here to introduce herself. Thank you i will invite ms. Ortega to come up. Hello. Ja im Rachael Ortega i have been a resident of district 8 for a year but in San Francisco for 4 and a half years. In this time, i have taken every method of Public Transportation i own a car and i have a bike which means im familiar with all modes of transportation in the city. My background is in facility planning and operations. I currently now operations planner for a company in soma, shape are tools. During this iune manage budget, review upon discrepancy, cases and have done a variety of different business projects including projects work with the board of santa clara and getting items certified for build. San francisco is a wonderful city. And i want to continue to make sure that critical look at the transportation infrastructure. My goal is that i would like to have equal Transportation Options for everyone in that i want them to reflect the change think landscape of the city e involving since 50 years ago when the Transit System took off. I understand there is current Infrastructure Projects that are in consideration and want to ensure their success Going Forward whichinging cal rain and upgrading the bart and muni cars. I want to ensure we have safety for bicycles and pedestrians. [inaudible] i [inaudible] um and i want to encourage at the end of my term the use of all Public Transportation by everyone in the city the one most environmentally friend low options we have. Thank you. Thank you mrs. Ortega i sat down with you. And have been impressed by you and think you will be an excellent represent for all of san front who are grateful for the Public Transportation we dwot and wish we had more. So with that, i think we should open this up to Public Comment. You dont have to stay up there. [laughter]. Thank you. Come on up mr. Tannen. Good morning im peter tannen im the former district 8cac member. And i support the appointment of Rachael Ortega. We met and talked about the cac and i was impressed with her interests in san front transportation. And her goals that she stated for serving. And the fact this she uses so many transportation modes. And i think her professional certains in operation bunkham facilitys planning, budget management and analysis and a variety of industriless would provide good backgrounds for the service on the cac. I support her appointment. Thank you. Thank you. Is there other public ment in the chamber . See if we have Public Comment remote. Chair there is in Public Comment on line all right. Public comment on item 5 is closed. And then with that, i would like to make a motion to appoint Rachael Ortega to the cac is there a second . I think stefani got it. And we have been joined by commissioner walton. And mr. Clerk, call the roll. Commissioner chan. Air. Commissioner dorsey. Aye chair mandelman. Aye commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner melgar. Aye. Commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Excused. Commissioner stefani. Aye. Commissioner walton. Aye. There are 10 ayes the motion is approved. Great, thank you mr. Clerk. Next item. Item 6 state and federal legislation update an information item. All right. And we have mark watts remote appearing sacramento advocate. Good morning im pleased to be here today. In september, i was here to present before you to present the status update on legislation that the governor acted upon. That were on the list you taken position. Since this point in time he acted on 6 additional bills i was going to cover those and they were measures that you support. And i will start with the first measure and give you background on this one. Ab117 the e bike incentive project the governor did veto it. In talk with cal bike and other there is is a strong feeling the 10 Million Dollars that was included in the state Budget Program for transportation infrastructure, the e bike program one time basis was a great step forward. I think s it was unfortunate that the legislator had approved 117 at the moment in time when the revenue pictures got cloudy. So. The governor did address the uncertainty that may be the chair loyals for the state budget i will talk about that afternoon the bill. This measure was vetoed. Ab1938 was a modification to earlier legislation on traffic speed limits. Clarified the intent of the prior bill by freedman the chair of the transportation commit eat upon governor sign today and it is law now. Ab2147, this measure authorized called the jay walking bill i dont think it does it justice. It says a peace officer shall not stop a period of time for a violation of illegal crossing unless there was a threat or danger apparent. So, it gives flexibility for pedestrians. If they are careful. Sb942, this measure allowed the Green House Gas Reduction Fund program called the low Carbon Transit Operations Program which is a transit operation support program allowed transit agencies to use the funds to help implement reduced fare transit programs. That is a door opening for that policy effort. Ab2594 another bill supported by the board, really took on a reform of the chart system made a number of changes to the administration of bridge and toll road notifications and provided for additional access for the unbanked in the system. And finally, ascertain wiener sb922, deals with expanding the ceqa exemptions he enacted for transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects that extend today to 2030 that this measure or the this Exemption Program for transit would be allowed. So that brings to a close the legislative cycle for the year and bills. Looking forward to seeing legislation introduced in early december and january and get to work with amber and your staff. One of the basic trendses emerging in sacramento or the state, is we are final low seeing a slow down in the estimated revenues that have been collected and projected to produce over 100 billion dollars in so called, surplus in the current budget fiscal year. And the governor in several of the measures that he vetoed. Cited the fact the legislator sent 20 billion dollars in total cost in measures in one time commitments and 10 billion dollars in on going commitments that were not accounted for in the state budget. With that impact he felt he had to make those adjustments and did express concern about the emerging frailty that may be motorizing before us in state revenues. I mentioned i was going to give you detail on the e Bike Incentive Program that one time funding. Is being developed in a program boy the air resource board. And they anticipate now that the Incentive Program will launch in quarter one of 2023. And open to anybody who lives in california. It is bringing that to the close, the program will support class one or 2, which are [inaudible] and some the class 3 which is a higher performance measure. But not the included. It is mated the 10 Million Dollars initial Budget Allocation will fund in the order of 7,000e bike incentives during the year. Look forward to that and i think the cal bike folks intends to come become and finds a Funding Source to extend their program. And finally, i jumped over a piece when i was talking about the state budget. Yesterday, the d. Finance announced that september receipts were 2. 8 billion below the estimate. When you add that with estimate and ends of year 2 billion dollars e range of motion we look at 7 billion dollars below the estimate. I would be happy to answer questions completed what i was going to present. And if appropriate i was going to wrap up on behalf amber approximate myself she is remote location as well. Thank you. All right. Thank you mr. Watts. I dont see comments or questions from colleagues. Do we have Public Comment in the chamber . Remote Public Comment . On item 6. There is in Public Comment. All right. Public comment on item 6 is closed. Just for female who are keeping track of our agenda, i have received a request that we continue item 9 and it is my intention to if you happen to be here for that or at home watching for item 9, it will not come up today. So mr. Clerk call item 7. Item 7 allocate 3, 701 thousand dollars in prop k funds with conditions and appropriate 8 huh thousand dollars for 5 requests, this is an action item. All right. Linda and andrew . Good morning. Linda Transportation Planner. We are pullingum our slides now. Sfgovtv we have our slides shared. The first of the 5 will be presented by andrew and for the bay vow Station Design [inaudible]. Good morning. Andrew principle planner the first request follow up to the presentation the board heard july 26 from the Planning Department on southeast rail station study to advancing a station in the bayview. Planning made a recommendation to advance oakdale based on feedback, we heard questions unanswered for the community. [inaudible] a final decision can be made. Information about project costs, ridership and potential environmental impacts. This request is 800 thoubldz for the Transportation Authority to complete design, preenvironmental work and arrivad a preferred location for a new Bayview Caltrain station. Continuing community engagement. Important the process answers the questions we heard in prior out reach and center Community Members and creating that recommendation. Seconded, in answering the questions advance the Station Designs more information on ride areship, station access and Community Know integration, costs and potential funding opportunity. And third like to be red to move in the environmental clearance process. So the scope includes preenvironmental work identifying resources, roles and respondents. Full environmental clearance is in the included and will require additional time and funds. Proposing a quick process, 12 montes to continue toward implementation of the station. Then staff will provide a report with recommendations to the Transportation Authority board for approval. Back over to linda for the remainder of this item. Thank you. The second is from Golden Gate Bridge highway and transportation the funds of San Francisco Ferry Terminal security improve am the design phase and has seen the security fencing constructing the new security fencing and installing modern Access Controls help with unauthorized entry. Completion is anticipated for fall of 23. The next 3 projects are from sfmta this is to Fund Application based traffic calming for fiscal 21, construction phase. It was group of applications received in june of 2020. There is a list of location in your board packet on page 78. This is for 102 locations 200 individual traffic calming measures. 200 is an estimate based on past cycles and assumed 2 device at each location. There is about 2. 1 million visible and to full emfund there is 663,000 to be reprogrammed. Required an amendment to the traffic calming five year Priority Program to reprogram from schools engineering, vision zero traffic calming and speed radar sign installation. With had amendment sfmta will have sufficient funds for schools engineering and speed radar installation with respect to vision zero Proactive Task calming sfmta does not plan to request funds until mid 2023 after coordinating with Public Health on the updated high injury network. This is to funds the application for fiscal 2122 for design phase a group of applications receive in the june of 2021. A list of location in your board packet on page 97. During the design phase sfmta determine what measure impelemented at each location. There san estimated 208 locations with 396 individual traffic calming measures. Of the approved locations, 208 applications were accepted and a total of 341 applications received. This requires an amendment to the traffic calming reprogram 312,000 from speed radar sign installation. And the last request, is it fund the schools Engineering Program for fiscal 2223 for Planning Design and construction. Schools engineering a Program Within san front safe routes to school will fund 5 walk audits and 30 measures recommended from those. Walk audits are assess ams involve gathering information about infrastructure issues. Motorist behavior and pedestrian, bicycling behavior around schools. They require support from school staff, principal, pirnts and sfmta staff. This is over lapping schedule, planning, Design Construction phases at different schools and schools engineering is a program and the other 2 parts have already been funded. So. Sfgovtv i finished. Im able to answer questions we have our project managers and staff from other agencies available as well as well as anna ford. Thank you, mrs. Ray. Commissioner safai. Thank you, chair mandelman i directed to the director and ms. Laford over the last year and a half2 years about 10 e mills and questions from the elementary asking for their to be traffic calming we would like the ta to study jose ortega to see about the traffic calming on sergeant that could be done. We reached out to staff to lead let you know we like that include. There are safety concern and speeding in this area and families are concern body the safety of the children. So i dont know if director chang wants to respond but i like that included as part of this process. If possible. Thank you. Thank you, commissioner safai commissioner chang . Through the chair, commissioner safai and deputy director, is this the wuk audits i want to confirm or for residential traffic calming . Traffic calming okay, thank you. Pass it on to mta. Okay just im sorry mta is, way we contacted them. I think it is another level of engagement not just about asking them to look at this. They are aware of the situation we engaged with them and like to see some action taken, please, thank you. Thank you commissioner safai. With this we will open this up to Public Comment. If there is Public Comment in the chamber . Not seeing any. Is there any remote Public Comment . Checking for Public Comment on item number 7, for those ofow the line if you wish to make Public Comment press star 3. There is no Public Comment. Okay. Public comment on item 7 is closed. Is there a motion to approve item 7 . Moved by walton. A second . Seconded boy melgar. I think well is a bunch of heavy neighborhoods as they inch close to mcgonigling the traffic calming they have been asking for years and years. With that mr. Clerk . Commissioner chan. Aye. Commissioner dorsey. Aye. Chair mandelman. Aye commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner melgar. Aye commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Aye. Commissioner stefani. Aye. Commissioner walton. Aye. Ja 11 ayes it is approved. Thank you. Call next item item 8 approve the tpgz Authority Project priorities for Senate Bill One local Partnership Program Competitive Grant Program this is an action item. Why planner Mike Pickford . Good morning. Should be able to see my slides the Partnership Program is state grant rewards jurisdictions with the voter approved taxes and fees or imposed fees dedicated to funding transportation. The Program Begin by the California Transportation Commission distributed 200 Million Dollars a year through a Competitive Program that is when we are discussing at this time prospect k and a add administrator the Transportation Authority is eligible to submit applications for projects that will be implemented by Partner Agency the funding cycle of the Program Covers fiscal 2324 through 2425 and distribute 144 Million Dollars. There is transit facilities and vehicles, roadway revukz and safety enhancements and bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Funds visible for construction only dollar for dollar match and mack grant of 25 Million Dollars. Lpp has extensive evaluation criteria more competitive projects are red to start construction. Air quality and safety benefits and community support. For this cycle we recommending submitting 2 applicationos behalf of agencies. The first is next generation fair gates project. Bart is requesting 5. 4 Million Dollars to replace gates. The new fare gates improve reliability and access abilitiability the second sdpt transbay hour street scape project. [speak fast] create a new 2 way cycle track and signal modifications with bold outs, curb respects and make the streets safer for pedestrians. A comp lirmentary project will implement similar improvements to howard between fourth and 11th street. Should the board approve we will work with the experiences to get applications submitted by the november 29th deadline. Since they reserve the right to review one per applicant will cord nit with the city eligible to submit the same applications to ensure about this projects are reviewed. We will not hear results until next june. With that i can take questions. Thank you mr. Pickford i dont think we have questions for you. I will open up to Public Comment in the chamber and i dont see any. So can we check for remote Public Comment on item 8. Checking for Public Comment, one moment. Caller your 2 minutes begins now. Um again, chair mandelman, for the record pronouns are she and her i will talk about the park fare gate this is is important to me because i use bart. And fare gates are getting over due. I think it is important to ask as we all take them to the fare gate project and how many are built. Is to consider the current status that bart has not yet sunseted the paper ticketing. They do not sell the paper tickets anymore with they temporary exception for San Francisco airport. But eventual low paper tickets will go away. We have to ask that when the new fare gates are put in, how much is the incremental cost to add a paper ticket reader and the cost to remove that paper ticket reader and perhaps we will be better off in not converting all quick gates in the fare rates but may be 80 of them and we wanted to paper ticket compatible fare gates for until the fare gate program sunseted. Dont want to spends money when we dont need to which paper tickets will eventual low go away. We want to look at fer gates that are going to last for several decades that are not going to take the paper tickets to use the money instead to buy more and better fare gates i deally that run on electric and not air. Thank you. Thank you, caller. There is no a additional Public Comment. Why Public Comment on item 8 is closed is there a motion to approve. Moved by dorse and he melgar. Call the roll. Commissioner chan. Aye. Commissioner dorsey. Aye. Chair mandelman. Aye. Commissioner mar. Aye. Commissioner melgar. Aye commissioner peskin. Aye. Commissioner preston. Aye. Commissioner ronen. Aye. Commissioner safai. Aye. Commissioner steph stefani. Aye. Walton. Aye the motion is approved. I indicated earlier, commissioner mar requested we continue item 9 to a date we will be able to attends which will be october 25th. We have a meeting that week to make up for a meeting we did not have earlier in the month. And so i dont think we need to vote im just doing temperature yep. And so mr. Clerk. Item 10. Introduction of new items an information item. I dont see any new items. So call item 11. Item 11 Public Comment. If there is anyone in the chamber withhold like to address us during general Public Comment. I dont see anyone. Check our remote lines. We have Public Comment, hello caller 2 minutes begins now. Good morning, [inaudible] i would like to summarize the new packet i express concerns about a comment by caltrains executive director that she was planning a co so called world class term not of the [inaudible] location. The first point in the letter is under existing legislation that established location of such a terminal as a Transit Center. Not fourth and king. Second point is that there is also a [inaudible] team [inaudible] concerning the location of the terminal new Transit Center and i quote. Not stop 1. 3 miles short [echo] final point is that it would be helpful if the [inaudible] could provide guidance to caltrain to relocate the [inaudible] we should ultimately result in hundreds of millions of dollars in local funding for the dtx. Thank you. Thank you, caller there is no additional Public Comment. Thank you. Public comment on item 11 is closed call item 12. Item 12 adjournment. We are adjourned. For us, we wish we had our queue and we created spaces that are active. Food and drinks. There is a lot for a lot of folks and community. For us, it started back in 1966 and it was a diner and where our ancestors gathered to connect. I think coffee and food is the very fabric of our community as well as we take care of each other. To have a popup in the tenderloin gives it so much meaning. We are always creating impactful meaning of the lives of the people, and once we create a space and focus on the most marginalized, you really include a space for everyone. Coffee is so cultural for many communities and we have coffee of maria inspired by my grandmother from mexico. I have many many memories of sharing coffee with her late at night. So we carry that into everything we do. Currently we are on a journey that is going to open up the first brick and mortar in San Francisco specifically in the tenderloin. We want to stay true to our ancestors in the tenderloin. So we are getting ready for that and getting ready for celebrating our anniversary. It has been well supported and well talked about in our community. Thats why we are pushing it so much because thats how we started. Very active Community Members. They give back to the community. Support trends and give back and give a safe space for all. We also want to let folks know that if they want to be in a safe space, we have a pay it Forward Program that allows 20 to get some funds for someone in need can come and get a cup of coffee, pastry and feel welcomed in our community. To be among our community, you are always welcome here. You dont have to buy anything or get anything, just be here and express yourself and be your authentic self and we will always take care of you. Youre watching San Francisco rising with chris manors. Todays special guest is mary chu. Hi. Im chris manors, and youre rising on San Francisco rising. The show thats focused on rebuilding, reimagining, and restarting our city. Our guest today is mary chu, and shes here to talk with us about art and the San Francisco art commission. Well come, miss chu. Thanks for having me. Its great to have you. Lets talk about art in the city and how art installations are funded. The Arts Committee was funded in 1932 and support civic review, design investments and art galleries. Projects we have are funded by the citys art enrichment ordinance which provides 2 of Construction Costs for public art. So art is tied to construction. Theres been a great deal in the southwest of the city. Can you talk about some of the projects there . Sure. Our city has some exciting projected in the bayviewhunters point coming up. One artist created a photo collage. In the picture pavilion, one artist formed a collage of her oneyear residency coming together with residents, and anchoring the new center is a landmark bronze sculpture, inspired by traditional ivory coast currency which the artists significantly enlarges to mark that its a predominantly African American community in bayview hunters point. Are there any art installations around town that uses light as a medium . Yes. The first is on van ness between ofarrell and geary. Its funded with the m. T. A. S van ness geary street project. Another project is for the central subway. It is one of ten artworks commissioned for the new line. Its over 650 feet long, consists of 550 l. E. D. Panels between the powell street station and the union street station. Its called lucy in the sky, and the lights are patterned with unique sequences so that commuters can experience a unique pattern each time they pass through. Perfect. What about the early day sculpture that was removed from the civic center . This is a question that cities have been grappling with nationwide. Following the removal of early days in 2018, there was a toppling of statues in Golden Gate Park as well as the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue. We are partnering with the Parks Department as well as the community to engage with the public to develop guidelines to evaluate the existing monuments and memorials in the civic arts collection and evaluate the removal of a monument or statue but also installing new ones. Finally, it seems like the weather might be nice this weekend. If i fancy taking a walk and seeing some outdoor art, where would you suggest i go . Well, i would suggest the embarcadero. This work was commissioned with funds from the fire station 35. This suggests the bow of a boat and the glass panel surrounding the structure depict the history of fireboats in the bay area. And where can i go from there . Then, i would walk up to the Justin Herman plaza to check out the work of the art vendors. Then check out the monuments like the mechanics monument. Also, be sure to check out the poster series, installed in bus kiosks along Market Street, which features four artists each year. Well, thank you. I appreciate you coming on the show, miss chu. Thank you for your time today. Thank you, chris. Thats it for this episode. Well be back with another show shortly. For San Francisco t. V. , im chris manors. Thanks for watching. Theres a new Holiday Shopping tradition, and shop and dine in the 49 is inviting everyone to join and buy black friday. Now more than ever, ever dollar that you spend locally supports Small Businesses and helps entrepreneurs and the community to thrive. This Holiday Season and yearround, make your dollar matter and buy black. My name is dave, and i play defense. My name is mustafa, and i am a midfielder, but right now, i am trying to play as a goalkeeper, because they need a goalkeeper. Soccer u. S. A. Is a nonprofessional organization. We use sports, soccer in particular to engage communities that can benefit from quality programs in order to lift people up, helping to regain a sense of control in ones life. The San Francisco recreation and Park Department and street soccer u. S. A. Have been partners now for nearly a decade. Street soccer shares our mission in using sport as a vehicle for Youth Development and for reaching people of all ages. Rec and park has a team. Im been playing soccer all my life. Soccer is my life. I played in the streets when i was a kid. And i loved soccer back home. I joined street soccer here. It was the best club to join. It helps me out. The tenderloin soccer club started in the summer of 2016. We put one of our mini soccer pitches in one of our facilities there. The kids who kpriez the club team came out to utilize that space, and it was beautiful because they used it as an opportunity to express themselves in a place where they were free to do so, and it was a safe space, in a neighborhood that really isnt the most hospitalable to youth hospitable to youth playing in the streets. One day, i saw the coach and my friends because they went there to join the team before me. So i went up to the coach and asked, and they said oh, ive got a soccer team, and i joined, and they said yeah, it was he for everybody, and i joined, and it was the best experience ever. A lot of our programs, the kids are in the process of achieving citizenship. Its a pretty lengthy process. Here, i am the only one with my dad. We were in the housing program, and we are trying to find housing. My sister, shes in my country, so i realize that i have a lot of opportunities here for getting good education to help her, you know . Yeah. Thats the one of the most important things that challenge me. My dad was over here, making some money because there was not a lot of jobs back home. I came here, finish elementary in San Francisco. After that, i used to go back to my country, go to yemen, my country, and then back here. Last time i went back was a couple years ago. I came here six months, i know nobody. Now i have the team has a family, the coaches. Amazing. Im hoping for lifelong friendships, and im super inspired by what theyve been able to achieve and want to continue to grow alongside them. I love my family, i love my team. Theyre just like a family. Its really nice. Street soccer just received a five year grant from the department of children, youth and family, and this is an important inreflection point for street soccer u. S. A. Because their work in our most important communities is now known beyond just San Francisco recreation and Park Department, and together, were going to continue to work with our citys most vulnerable kids and teach them to love the beautiful game. I want to tell everybody back home, i hope you all make it over here and join teams like this like street soccer u. S. A. , and live your life. Get a better life. Right away, just be patient, and then, everything will be [music] good morning. Im San Francisco mayor london breed and im joined today with our police chief bill scott. Our sdreshth tournament jenkins and our member of district 6 board of supervisors matt dorsey. Today we are here to talk about hahas been really frustrating for all of us. Especially the people who live in the tenderloin and so many community. The open air drug dealing that destroying our city. I have been out a lot and talked to so many people especially a lot of people who live in the tenderloin and people who i grew up with. People are angry with when they see and experience. The brazen drug use and sales during broad daylight. We know what is at stake. The sale of drugs on our streets they are killing people. And open air drug markets disrupting neighborhoods and residents. In fact we had moreover dose deaths since the start of a Global Pandemic then and there covid deaths. Kids are wuk by things they should not see on the way to school. No one should see or experience that. This does not include the violence which we know has been extremely problematic. I know there are so many who are struggling with addiction. And this is a city of compassion. Of course, we want to help. We have been balancing our work around expansion of services and treatment for them. And we need to firm low establish what is acceptable conduct on our streets and in our public spaces. San francisco has to draw a firm line at behaviors that harm that injury and cost neighborhoods peace of mind every day safety and quality of life. And part of this means we must be more aggressive with arrests and prosecution for the organized criminal operations that are flooding our streets with drugs and violence. That in some cases have lead to people losing their lives. The driving of drugs especially fentanyl in our city is going to require all levels of government Work Together including enforce am against those dealing drugs. Tell require Police Working with the da and board of supervisors working with the city agencies. Us soliciting support and help from the federal governments, which we are doing this is a hard issue. I want to be clear, that the leaders of the city are final low working together the way they should in order to address it. Police chief scott will provide details on the data and the department strategies. Da jenkins will talk about haher office has been working on and supervisor dorsey a strong advocate for Public Safety not just in the district he represents but other neighborhoods in the city. He has been supportive of Law Enforcement and addressing the issue. And this does require a Public Health approach as well. Over the last year we connected 4500 people to services for Substance Use in stan San Francisco across our health system. We are 2 thirds of the way toddaing 400 treatment beds adding make it 2,000 and adding that to 2, 200 that already exist. The Health Department is setting goals to increase people medically assisted treatment. Help them get off opioids. Housing and other places we are createingly for people struggling on our streets. The investments are designed to create solutions that can get people off the streets in safe settings and ultimate low stability. We will snot stop until we get to the goal where no neighborhood should be responsible for living in the conditions like the ones we see sad low in the tenderloin. Residentses and merchants deserve a clean and safe neighborhood. Be clear using drugs in the open is unacceptable. We have to move together and thats why it is important we have our police chief and District Attorney. Board of supervisors here working together. Police department making arrests and seeding the fentanyl. Interrupting the open air drug deal and confiindicating deadly substance as we build strong case against criminals profiting from drug sales and they have a partner in our District Attorney. Who is sending a strong message around accountability and who is working with our offices to build strong case. That is not about them it is about what they are doing together to help the people who are struggling in our city especially again the folks in the tenderloin. When our Police Officers make an arrest there needs to be consequence for the seniors, immigrants, kids who are trying to live their lives. And do the basic things we take for granted. We are working on every option to get people the help they need and hold those who bring warm to our streets account act. For what they are causing the significant damage. Standing with everyone today im confident our Public Safety agencies will work more closely together will make a difference for residentses and workers and visitors and with that i want to take an opportunity to introduce police chief bill scott and everyone in the department to make sure our foot beats and patrols and officers are responding to calls we have a lot to work to do it is important that we support Law Enforcement in this city because ultimate low we have to make significant change and that means we have to make sure they are consequence when is people break law in San Francisco. And thats what we will do to make our streets safer. With that police chief bill scott. Thank you mayor and good morning. First, thank you to the mayor our District Attorney and matt dorsey this is a mall fraction of the city team working hard to address this issue. We want to make sure that everybody understandses unity and the commitment of city leaders to make situation better this. Is about saving lives and protecting the people who work with and play in the city. And this is about producting our great city. I want to talk about the balance that we are trying to achieve here. The Police Departments role is enforcement and guess way beyond that. This city is known for compassion and known for reaching out and helping people who need help this city is known for balance what needs to be done on the enforce am scale and to get people who want and need help to a better place. Our role the San Francisco Police Department and the officers out in the streets starts with had we are hear for this is enforce am. We are also here to treat people with dignity and he respect and make connections with all the resources in the city family to get people to a better place. And we are doing both. This is about working more effectively, working efficiently and always evaluating hawe are doing and can we do it better. This is something this mayor breed stresses on a daily basis. And we are responding to that direction to work efficient low and effectively. I want to talk about how we plan to do that. We made 600 narcotic related rests and for sales. Possession for sales met low. The Police Department and our officers have to give the District Attorney the evidence she and her team need to prosecute cases. And if we do our jobs we can have the accountability that we are looking for. There has to be consequences. There has to be accountability we cannot be the city people think they come in San Francisco or live in San Francisco and do when they please and nobody will say anything or do anything. And i guarantee you we are not that city. We are committed to accountability and consequence. In addition to the 600 rests, a part of readjustment we realize we had to do more to address the people who need help the people most addicted. I have been doing this for a long time and every wagz where we have groups of drug dealers on the streets, what closely follow this is are people who are addicted, have a Substance Abuse disorders and they are operating in tandem. We have to address both sides we cant arrest the deal and then leave the people buying the drugs alone to do as they please and think this will get better. It is tough balance to do that. The same time, we respect Harm Reduction and make sure that people who are addicted are not using dirty needles and pipes and spreading hiv and things to make a Public Health issue even more complicated. However, that does not mean people addicted get a free pass. The criminal Justice System as tools to get to that issue. This city leads with service. We lead with services. Our officers and come in contact with people who need help they are directed to get them to help. Not everybodiments help. Not everybody is red for help. And when they are still addicted than i are going to buy drug and use drug and when we have seen and have to put a stop top is that is happen nothing broad daylight in the street. Kids and families see it that harms our communities as much as violent and property crime and we have to do more that is our commitment to do more. Our officers storied in june of addressing that issue. Over 350 citations for people using in open space in public spaces. Many of those people have warrants and orders from the courts than i were not sfoezed to be there in the first place. The District Attorney talk about policyos how to dlaesz when we need to do is do our jobs and make sure the people understand that is not okay. And i have talked to many people in the city i dont care what sifted e wagz you are on i have not heard anybody say it is okay to smoke fentanyl in the street with kids walking by and families. I have not heard anybody say that is okay. We should be in agreement to do something about it. And this is when we are committed to doing. The operations and this enforce am will condition and it has increased. We know the affects of harms to our community that drug dealing the tenderloin is one community they have more deaths than any part of the city for drug over dose. Our officers are saving lives. The reversals are a daily occasion. Whoaness what the over dose would be if we were not doing that and the other per ins trying to stave lives. We have to dig deep are. We cannot allow this to continue and we will not allow this to continue on our streets. I will close with a person story. This past friday, myself and a couple officers and sergeant were at eighth and mission. It is known for drug sales and addicted people hanging out. Supervisor dorsey was a half block, way conducting a Community Clean up. Officers makes arrests while i was there for drug sales. Needles spread out on the sidewalk. It had been cleaned up a couple hours before public works had just cleand that corner up and you never would have known it. I saw a girl walking down the street with her mom, stepping over needle another girl and her mom wanted to get on the bus. The bus shelter was peculiared with litter with people using and people passed out at the bus shelter. Thats not okay. Folks. It is not okay. We gotta clone it up within an hour. Officers came and cleaned it up. Arrests were made as i was out there arrests were being made for sales. Couple hours later. Back to the same. Here is the point to this story. This mayor this da and board of supervisor and many others in this chief are committed to try to resolve this issue. The spitzes the mayor talked about are vital. And one way we plan to work it more efficiently is take away excuses. We had trouble with getting people transperked from street corners to accomplices where they get help we did not have transportation that is no longer an issue. Working with Public Health is no longer an issue. Our job is to take away the excuses of why people cant and will not seek help. And then when they dont, thats when enforce am come in to play and the criminal Justice System leverages them to help to a better place. So, expect more. Expect more efficiency. Expect the partnership to continue to grow. And expect our city to be the great city that it is and should be. And with that, i will turn it over to our District Attorney. Good morning, sxefrn thank you to mayor breed to chief scott and supervisor dorsey for their leadership on this issue and partnership with my office. We had over 1700 over dose death in San Francisco since 2020. I promised the public the day i was sworn in i was committed to doing something in the open air drug architect and making sure we restored accountability in the xhinl Justice System. When we know is that the san pran das office the last 21 2 years decriminalized the sale of drugs and we seat result of that out on the streets every day. A part of my commitment in demonstrating my commitment to solve thanksgiving issue was to immediately come in and to survey the situation with respect what offers extended to those dealing drugs in our office and immediately revoke 30 plea offers i believed were lenient for those selling fentanyl. My approach to dealing with the drug market has been we have to have consequences. We have to make sure our rehab courts are not abused and misused bide those dealers and not those who have Substance Abuse problems. I announced the last 21 2 monthses, many policies with respect to the kay we handle drug cases Going Forward. We are now prohibiting those who have more than 5 grams of a controlled substance from entering in our rehad been courts. Should be reserved for those who need treatment. I put enhancement on the table for those who sell drugs untiling a thousand feet of schools. I made sure that we are no longer giving lenient plea and dismissals to those selling the most loathal drug on the market. We filing pretrial detention motions for those who have sales case. Those who have picked up numerous fentanyl sales cases and in possessions of kwuntss that could kill neighborhoods in San Francisco. In one shot. I have announced a new policy we move forward with admonishing fentanyl sellers at time of arraignment about the lethality of fent until and helping them understandship they be connected to someones death through the sale of that deadly drug they could be charged with murder. We are now in a crisis. As we know. And that crisis does not stop with the adults. I have a 6 year old daughter i had to give a lesson to about candy fentanyl on the markets. We are seeing over doses in the School Systems in california. This crisis has reached a point as heard this morning, we enough as leaders do something and thats why i have taken this aggressive approach. Since july first, we have filed 183 narcotics sale case in my office. Which is almost double what the Previous Administration filed in the same period of time. Arraigned 157 individuals from july first to september 25th. Representing 100 increase in the initial arain ams for dug dealers in San Francisco during that time last year. The charges dont tell the story we know that. They do hymn illustrate the fact we are taking an aggressive prop and taking this issue seriously. And what the public will see is this on the back ends of these cases you will see accountability. Written to the motion to detain filed 9 of those motions. 2 being filed yesterday. And we are continuing to advance new legal tloeries and arguments to make surety judges understands the dangers the fentanyl dealers present to the public. As i said, in every single arraignment with respect to the safely fent until we are giving that admonishment regarding the potential for filing of murder charges should somebody sale connected to a death. I have also gone on or abouted to many of the police stations to speak with the rank and file officers. Those out on foot patrol making these arrests. I met with the foot Patrol Officer in thes tenderloin at southern station in soma. To let them know that when they do their jobs at the highest level. When they make rests the das office is willing to make sure well is accountability. Their work is value in the the criminal system and essential and what the public wants i was out yesterday on Market Street and had a gentlemen tell me that just a few months ago his wife died of a fentanyl over dose she was in roefsh trying to stay clone with the amount drug dealers it was impossible for this to continue. That is what ultmitt low lead to her death. He implored mow to do something about that is going on and yes, based on haeveryone is saying around this industry, as chief scott pointed out we have a job to do and we are willing to do it. With respect to the open air drug use. As i said over and over again we cant be a city that accepts People Public low using drugs on our street. As a driveway down ve around with my children how i do explain that is going on and they should not engage in drug use when it appears to something that happens normly and regular low in the open create a policy regarding bundling. At the time someone reaches a fifth citation we will file a complaint and forward to the Justice Centers designed to require them and help them engage in treatment. As chief scott city we are a city of compassion but this is not leaving people on the streets potential to die. It is using the tools we have to propel people to change their lives. What i know is that for all the people i met in recovery many said of the criminal Justice System that got them on the road to staying clean and im committed to using this system to help those do so. The reckless decisions made by the Previous Administration have cost San Francisco far too many lives. And those are not 3 away lives they are peoples family members. It is impacted both families and the Business Community here in San Francisco and continues to impact families who live in the neighborhoods most plagued by this behavior. I pledge as i have before, that i will do everything in my power to help this city move forward to e readicate this problem and make sure that all communities can live in peace and safety. And at this point i will pass it over to supervisor dorsey. Thank you. Thank you mayor breed for leadership and thank you chief scott for your leadership and friendship and mentorship during the 2 years i worked in this building. It was an experience for me i started as a civilian command staff member a couple weeks before the covid emergency. And one of the meetings that i took part in, for many months was with the office of chief medical examiner and d. Public health to prevow the month low report on how many died of drug over dose the previous mont. Im a person who is in recovery. I have been open about this. I identify as an addict and alcoholic and spends most of my adult life in recovery and had set backs including recently. With one day at a time and goods grace friday i may celebrate 2 years. It is personal to me. And it was personal it me to watch a mont after mont a number of people in San Francisco who died of drug over doses knowing that im also one bad decision away from being among that number. And knowing hawe are seeing a Public Health crisis play out that was twoois twice as deadly as covid19. That collective toll med me think about the importance of having a voice and perspective in City Government from the Substance Use recovery community. If there was a moment that changed my thinking on why i wanted to ask for a job i never thought i wouldment or have when mayor breed took on the important work of the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative and inspired me. It was a rankerous 10 hour debate the death of 1300 people in San Francisco and whether that was emergency to give the purse the city needed to move expeditiously. Who knew. When i shared with the chief i wanted say, want you to know and hear from me im not looking for a job i like this one there is a personal reason i want to ask the mir to consider me i said, im honest, i put the ads at 5 . Didnt think it would work out but it does d im grateful tell did. Right after i was appointed a went to work with supervisor mandelman and stephanie and reached out to National Experts in drug policy. Keith humphrey. Mike marshall from oregon recoveries bill kilner from the Ram Corporation did work with supervisor haneys street level Drug Task Force and david ken doe from the National Network for safe Community Known from the bottoma administration for strategies around drug narcotic interventions and identified cities doing successful jobs at addressing Public Health and Public Safety challenges many of them are in europeful amsterdam and frankfurt and vienna. Looked at what other cities do. Including some in the united states. Put it together in a resolution. It is San Francisco recovers. Any we identified all the City Department this is would have a role to play if we were to implement the things we wanted to do. Our think burglar this what we want to do is really flip the script a bit on how wont governor in San Francisco. Up to now i think too often and too much the board of sprierdzs can function as the board of complainers we will propose thing and see with we can codo to complain why this would not work the board of supervisors also charged with governing the city. And one of the lessons of every city that has done a good job is get past the political ranker first. Get to a place of consensus even photocopy it is not universal we will get rowing in the same direction. Thats when im committed to do with stan San Francisco recovers asking departments and commissions that have a role in making sure we solve this in the way we know we can. And it was interesting im encouraged by the feedback i got from department heads. I said this is something i have been spent most of my career on the other side of the board supervisors i hahn is is like when a member of the board who knowledge thinks they know how to run a Department Better and here is more responsibilities and in the funding for it and they will set you up for failure and make a production about blaming you for failing public low. I promised i will never be this supervisor. Im going to ask for the resources you need. And i will fight for the resources you need. One of the things i asked for wassor city control and criminalist to feel proust a report thap will give us a clear view of how much money we are spending on untreated drug addiction. When we go in budget next year i want to make an effective case for when we need to solve the problem, i want to know what the problem can have theses that will shift our thinking where we will put resource as a board of sproirzs the other thing i want to enabling use of is the Opioid Settlement litigation machine that he City Attorney and formy City Attorney successful at getting. Once in a lifetime opportunity of 100 Million Dollars over the next severaliers we can spends the wessest way to spend it is have a strategy. All get on the same page on an approach. We will be working with commune organizations from across the political sprekt rum. We can do this. I refuse to accept that San Francisco that was known a generation ago for the work it did to work oft aids crisis. That heroic work was an prop that became known the San Francisco model. It was so successful. I refouz to accept that a city that is national low recognized for leadership in how it handled covid19. We cant do better on the drug deaths and over doses we are facing. Butt one thing i want to close with, to understands what we are up against. The Tenderloin Police district keeps data on how much fence nal they take from drug dealers inform 2020 the first year tenderloin cops arrested 5 and a half kilos of drugs off the dealers. 2021 this went up to 25 kilos. Today by the end of thissier we close in 55 kilos of fentanyl to to give you a perspective on this. 2 milligrams is a fatal over dose for most people. It is enough to worst abraham lincolns beard on a copper penny. 55 kilos off the street the ends of the year is enough to wipe out the San Francisco bay area twice over. The scale of drug in this city is what the problem s. We have to take a strategy as we try to do with san fran recovers. It brings everything we got to bear on Public Health, criminal justice strategies. Arrive to recovery problems sober new deal programs that keep them thereupon and give them purpose to stay in recovery and get the longterm pornography and enhanced trans transparency we need ton where we are doing better and worse so we do better moving forward im grateful to be a partner with the mayor, da and chief of police and everybody we can do better exit am optimistic where we will go. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor dorsey. Im really excite body when i know wing together we accomplish. The problems that exist in our city were not created over night. We know the solutions will not happen over night. But what you have here are people who understand the challenges and are prepared make the hard decisions about the solutions to move our city forward. We finally have someone who is a prosecutor serving as our da. We have a commitment from our Police Department with our police chief. A member of the board of supervisors who understandses the challenges is that people who are suffering from addiction face and the need to make sure we balance the accountability component with services and treatment. We are not losing touch with the fact that San Francisco is a compassionate and caring city. Addiction is hard for anyone. Upon it can happen to anyone at any time. It is happening to many, many people who are struggling on the streets. Im optimistic because of the fact that all of us are working together. Because of the solutions we are proposing. Because of the thicks that are important to solving the issue. In 2020. Over 700 people died. 2021, we saw over 600 people die. This will year so far a bit over 300 and unfortunately we are anticipating there will be more. But those number are declining they are declining because the w that we are doing. To ensure that we support people we help people and also factor in accountability in the solution. Tell take a lot of work but i know this we will get there. We will get there if we stay consistent. And we say persistent in the process of doing what needs to be diagonal everyone here had a story to tell. I have a story to tell. I lost a cysttory a drug over dose it was in the fentanyl but i did lose a cyst in this city the day before she turned 26 to a drug over dose. She was my younger sister. And when these people here talk about the families and the people and the folks we are lose thering is somebodys sister, too. Somebodys mother, father, daughter. They have a story to tell. What story are we going to tell in our pursuit to ensure that if they need a Second Chance well is an opportunity for them to have one. That if than i get a Second Chance they can become a member of the board of supervisors in the city. Thats when this is about. This is about changing and saving lives. Ful and this is about dealing with the destruction in a way that will make people uncomfortable but necessary. We can have criminal Justice Reforms. But we also need to add to that accountability. Im looking forward to see when we are doing collectively take shape in a way that will change our city for the better. And with that we will open up to questions. You made comments [inaudible] dug deals and drug use [inaudible] and you mentioned Police Staffing why that did not help [inaudible] what will be different this time . Well, i actually think hayou are saying is inaccurate there have been more rests made. Since then. And there is more accountability as the da talked about in terms of a number of changes around those who are dealing drugs. We know this problem is significant it is in the though we are not moving forward. There are changes we want to see. We are not going to see them aggressively at the levels we want to see them. It will take time. And yes Police Staffing can playing a role we are making the rest and seeing more arrests and more accountsability and seeing a difference and well keep at it and in the past we anticipate hiring 200 Police Officers. 540 Police Officers short. We need more. Thats we are balancing of our ambas dovers and programs we have. Treatment and services our Street Crisis Response Team its is a combination of things not just Law Enforcement. We are making more rests than we have before around this issue this is making a difference. How are you burglar to get message this is the series [inaudible]. That messaging is important. We follow had through with consistency. Follow through with the arrests we have been talking b. We have a job to do in terms of arresting people that are out there dealing drugs. Well take away [inaudible]. People are warned that we are serious about this. We will make arrests that day our units were making arrests this District Attorney is committed. The things take time to catch root. But they will catch rot and i am confident with consistency and persistence things will get bfrment it is not just the local drug dealers. We have to get at the net works. Supply and money there is a lot that guess this this we are working this at every angle. When we need to see is a deference on the street f. We make 10 arrests and the people that are live nothing this community are walking through and driving by dont see a difference on the street t. Is important we make the rests but goes with cleanups and the things we do and sustin that work. Irrelevant the eye test is what people judge us by. 600 arrests could be a thousand but if they are not see the difference on the street we are doing half the work. Combient arrest and convictions with a noticeable difference on the street. Thats where this plays in to what we need to do. It is Public Health and public works home will and Supportive Housing Human Service agency. The bottom line is we are talking about human beings caution the problems. There needs to be personal accountability you dont get a pass because you have a substance disorder. The persistence will matter. How do you work with those with a different upon view of issue. Many that seen the war on drugs is [inaudible] people try to avoid [inaudible]. How do you have an argument on having creating [inaudible] with somebody who has a different view of this and perhaps a healing issue. Going forward. How do you reach that Common Ground . [inaudible] upon the way i frame is we seen what doing nothing does. When my office decided it was not doing anything about the prp problem we see how the problem got worse and now a crisis point that is what i coni have we have to go something doing nothing has not got us anywhere and it cost us lives. You know people want to talk about the war on dug its is a war when i have to give a lesson to my 6 year old not eating something that looks like candy because it can kill her. This is absolutely a war on the most lethal drug our street has ever seen and something we have to take seriously because our children are dying. Not just those chose to use but people who dont know they are taking it. Nought dealers are disguise thanksgiving drug this is attractive to children. We have to do something you know there may be disagreements on the how and the what that we do. But i think this account acted come first we have to function in this system to create deterrents or people will cycle in San Francisco to keep selling. [inaudible]. On the political consensus issue, that is something i will work on. What i think is important to say is that what is happen nothing San Francisco is not the war on drug when is is happen nothing San Francisco now is a war on drug addicts. We have last month surpassed 1700 San Franciscos whoa lost lives to drug over doses. I challenge people who are committed to complaining about solutions to then bring forward solutions. But there are ecstasy very progressive ecstasy amsterdam and vienna whos budget they are wealthy but budget is low are then and there San Francisco we can solve this problem and do better with you a return to mass incarceration or the drug war. We are a city that our creed the city that knows how. I think we can be that again. That is something that i think nought moral imperative of the loss of life we see worse than a Public Health calamity since the aids crisis calls us to respond to rise to the moment. I will Say Something else the most terrifying thing that is out there. There are opioids on the east coast that are narcondition resistant more potent then and there fentanyl god forbid if this come to San Francisco we will see a loss of life that is worse than the aids crisis. I think that we have to rise to the moment. And i think it is lazy to just criticize solutions an a return to the drug wor when it is not. [inaudible]. [inaudible] i think it depends on whether or not they have committed a crime. People come to my jurisdiction if they committed a crime. Another crime that is crime or what have you. And so general low our prop is to say, we dont believe jill is the solution for you. You have the option of going in drug court and the option of individualized Treatment Program we can give you in lieu of what is the normal punitive prop. And i think met often in my time upon being a prosecutor most of the People Choose the treatment and does in the money they are successful out of the gateings we have people fall off the wagon all the time. Some needs a different center you hold their hundred through this process. But i have found that oftentimes the choice of the punitive or the treatment People Choose treatment. Hadoes this have to do with [inaudible] outside tension. [inaudible] mou does that fit in the over all press . Do you feel like the tenderloin [inaudible] how will opening up other types of centers like that connect with the Law Enforcement activity and the disconnect with the activities i think i do, first of all u if it were that simple to get off drugs people would. We continue is challenges. Sometime its takes multiple times and sometimes takes force when they go tlurt criminal Justice System. But we also have to be realistic about the fact that there are people who use drug in our city and they will use drugs. How do we provide the environment like you know that make its possible if people are struggling with addiction to get help or treatment to not be judged. This is why i support safe consumption cites i support having them in sudden front, unfortunately, we have not been able to do that and there are complicated reasons why. But ultmitt low we have to make sure we have locations for people to go and that we no longer allow the open air drug using that happens on our streets. It will take a balance. It seems as though they are inconsistent with when we are talking about here. But the fact is that we have so many people who are public low using drugs without any consequences. And thats when we have to stop. Having Wellness Centers and places for people to go will be critical. Center we opened was a bit overwhelmed with the number of people. And there werefect when is got support and got treatment and transition in housing and other things. Not as many as we hoped for but a few. However, they can serve so many at a time. There are a lot struggling for addiction and having more locations spread out. That could provide services and support to those struggling is why we make the change. Follow up with this question. 2 more ever that that will be it. From our perspective we asked the mayor to provide places where our officers can help people get to those place where is they can be supported. It hen a difficult road. There are folks out there who dont want Police Officers to have a part of that. When i will say here and now and moving forward is people need to get over that. Our receives are out there, we invested a ton of resources and money reform and deal with people in crisis better. Our officers know had they are doing. They do. They have relationships with the people we are talking about who need help. And we need to take those excuses away. We are begging for the support when we come in contact with people who need help, let us help them get there. Some people say in we dont want the please involved. We need to be involved thats where the disconnect is. You have a Police Department 2,000 receives that can help. We have to aluthe receives to do when they have been trained to. We are not psychologist or doctors we are trained to deal with people who are hurt and pep in need and crisis and do that well. It does in the make sense. When is wrong with an officer saying, i can be this one hand to get people to the beds. We gotta get over that. The department is here to help. We work with many, men of the activists and advocacy groups and see things eye to eye often guess off the rail is we dont want the Police Department to be a part of that. The debate with the Lincoln Center was that. We everdoes not make sense. Does not make sense. We are out there. Dealing with people every day who are hurting and we cant tick them . Does in the make sense we gotta get over that. We have to Work Together. Thats what she is committed to doing and driving us to do thats what im committed to do and the District Attorney is working together. Thats the disconnect i hope people lynch to when we are saying we gotta get over the fast and let the officers do when they can do. Because than i can help. Next. Thank you. Why what you are doing [inaudible] you want to talk about it. So the question is about the big are issue, right . We are good partnerships with the federal partners we talk about this problem guess beyond san front when we see is the tip of the iceberg. We have to deal with that. Have to see an upon difference special go out and be consistent in making arrests when we gift team it goes so for beyond this we then and there is the cases the language term cases the rings up described. There are people them this is when they do. We know this to be the case. Our federal partners the drug enforce am agency. U. S. Attorneys office we are working together on that issue. Those case take time. Tame ~age an investment of time and we have to dot local enforcement. Dot local enforcement while cases are making their way through the system and being investigated this. Is happening. Thats as much i can say. It is happening. We have seen results and will see more. We have good partnerships and those per inships involve everybody assistanting here and more. You have spoken about the impact of drug dealing on children in the city when is your Department Strategy for addressing drug dole nothing schools . There are actually laws on the bok about drug dealing near schools and im confidence with direct attorney and her teach everyone of those where it is applicable, of course we have to rest and wroit the good reports and enhancements for drug dealing near schools we discourage that as much as the law allows us to do. I dont think any of us want our children step over drug dealers. We have safe passengers on the tenderloin Police Officers are on the street so kids wuk home from School Without walking throughout drug dealers. We do had we have to do to make sure our children are not exposed. There is more we must do it is unacceptable. Law allows for enhancements but we gotta give her when she needs to get it filed. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming out. As a woman of color who grew up in San Francisco i understand how institutions can have an impact on communities of color. I think having my voice was important. That is where my passion lies when the opportunity to lead an office in such a new space came up. I couldnt turn it down. I was with the District Attorneys office for a little over nine years, if you include the time as an intern as well as volunteer da, all most 13 years. During the time with the das office i had an opportunity to serve the community not only as the assistant District Attorney but as director of community relations. That afforded the opportunity to have impact on the community in an immediate way. It is one thing to work to serve the rights of those without rights, victims. It is really rewarding to work to to further the goals of our office and the commitment we have as City Employees and advocates for people who dont have a voice. I dont know of anyone surprised to see me in this role. Maybe people have an impression what the director of the office of cannabis should be like, what their beliefs should be. I smash all of that. You grew up in the inner city of San Francisco. My career path is not traditional. I dont think a person should limit themselves to reach full potential. I say that to young women and girls. That is important. You want to see leadership that looks diverse because your path is not predetermined. I didnt wake up thinking i was going to be a prosecutor in my life. The city administrator reached out and wanted to have a conversation and gave me interest in the new role. I thought you must not know what i do for a living. It was the opposite. She had foresight in realizing it would be helpful for somebody not only a former prosecutor but interested in shaping criminal Justice Reform for the city would be the right person for the space. I appreciate the foresight of the mayor to be open how we can be leaders in San Francisco. I was able to transition to the policy space. Here i was able to work on legislation, community relations, communication and start to shape the ways our office was going to reform the criminal Justice System. It is fulfilling for me. I could create programs and see those impact peoples lives. I am the change. It took truants youth to meet with Civil Rights Movement leaders who fought to have access to education. Being a young person to understand that helped the young people realize this was an important thing to give up. What we find is that young people who are truanted have a really high homicide rate in our city, which is a sad statistic. We want to change that. Coming from a community we are black and brown. I dont reach out to other people. I dont think they feel the same way. I had the great opportunity to work on Prison Reform issues and criminal Justice Reform issues. We created a program at san quentin where we brought district opportunities to lifers and talk about how we are all impacted by the criminal Justice System. We brought over 40 elected das to san quentin for the situation. Now we are inviting the Police Department. Our formerly incarcerated group born out of this programming asked for the opportunity to work on a project where we could bring the men in blue on the outside to come speak to the men on blue inside to start the healing dialogue around how the criminal Justice System specifically in San Francisco impacts the community. I was attracted to the role. There was a component of equity that was part of this process. The Equity Community here in San Francisco is a community that i had already worked with. Before i took steps to visit cannabis businesses i thought it was important my team have a chance to go inside and speak to men who had been impacted. That conversation needed to happen so we know how we are making an impact with the work that we are doing. The das office as we were leading up to the legalization of marijuana in the state we started having conversations on the policy team what that could look like. The District Attorney was really focused on the right side of history for this. We realized it would be quite a heavy lift for individuals who have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs to expunge the record. It was important to figure out the framework to make it seamless and easy. They put their minds to it after some time and many conversations the data analysts and other policy walk throughs on the team came up with the idea to engage the Tech Community in this process. Code for america helped us developed the rhythm to be used for any jurisdiction across the state that was important to create a solution to be used to assist all jurisdictions dealing with this matter. The office of cannabis is the first office to have a completely digital application process. We worked with the digital team to develop the online application. There are going to be hiccups. We are first to do it. It is one of the most rewarding parts to offer a seamless to offer a seamless approach. That is how they can find solutions to solve many of the community challenges. The best way to respond to prop 64 was to retroactively expunge 9,000 cannabis related records for San Francisco. It feels like justice full circle for my personal experience. In the past i was furthering the war on drugs just as my directive. Really coming from a place of Public Safety. That was the mandate and understanding. It is nice to see that pass a society we are able to look at some of our laws and say, you know what . We got it wrong. Lets get this right. I had the privilege of being in the existing framework. My predecessor Nicole Elliott did an incredible job bringing together the individuals superpassionate about cannabis. The office was created in july of 2017. I came in early 2018. I have been able to see the Offices Development over time which is nice. It is exciting to be in the space, stickily in thinking about her leadership. Looking for the office it is always we might be before my time when i was working for the forboard of supervisors. I learn new things every day it is challenging and rewarding for me. We get the privilege to work in an office that is innovating. We get to spearhead the robust exprogram. I am excited she came on board to leverage experience as a prosecutor 10 years as we contemplate enforcements but approaching it without replicating the war on drugs. I was hired by cam laharris. I havent seen a District Attorney that looked kind of like me. That could be a path in my life. I might not have considered it. It is important that women and certainly women of color and spaces of leadership really do their part to bring on and mentor as many young people as they can. It is superimportant to take advantage of as many opportunities as they can when they can intern because the doors are wide open. Plans change and that is okay. The way this was shaped because i took a risk to try something new and explore something and show that i was capable. You are capable, right . It was about leaning in and being at the table to say my voice matters. Voice matters. There is a lot of unique characteristics about visitation valley. It is a unique part of the city. We are off in a corner of the city against the San Francisco county line 101 on one side. Vis station valley is still one of the last blue color neighborhoods in San Francisco. A lot of working class families out here. It is unusual. Not a lot of apartment buildings. A lot of Single Family homes. Great business corridor. So much traffic coming through here and stopping off to grab coffee or sandwich or pick up food before going home. A lot of customers are from the neighborhood. They are painters or mechanics. They are like blue color workers, a lot of them. The community is lovely. Multiracial and hopefully we can look out for each other. There is a variety of businesses on the block. You think of buffalo kitchen, chinese food, pork buns, sandwich. Library, bank of america with a parking lot. The market where you can grab anything. Amazing food choices, nail salons. Basically everything you need is here. A lot of these businesses up and down leland are family owned. People running them are family. When you come here and you have an uncle and nephew and go across the street and have the guy and his dad. Lisa and her daughter in the dog parlor and pam. It is very cool. Is Small Businesses make the neighborhood unique. New businesses coming. In mission blue, gourmet chocolate manufacturing. The corridor has changed and is continuing to change. We hope to see more businesses coming in the near future. This is what is needed. First, stay home. Unless it is absoluteliness scary. Social distancing is the most important step right now to limit spread of virus. Cancel all nonessential gather everythings. When the pandemic litly land avenue suffered like other corridors. A few nail salons couldnt operate. They shut down. Restaurants that had to adapt to more of a take out model. They havent totally brought back indoor seating. It is heartbreaking to see the businesses that have closed down and shut because of the pandemic. When the pandemic first hit it got really slow. We had to change our hours. We never had to close, which is a blessing. Thank god. We stayed open the whole time. We were kind of nervous and anxious to see what was going to come next hoping we will not have to close down. During covid we would go outside and look on both sides of the street. It looked like old western town. Nobody on the street. No cars. It was a hard eight or nine months. When they opened up half the people couldnt afford a haircut. During that time we kept saying the coffee shop was the living room of the valley. People would come to make sure they were okay. We checked on each other and patronized each other. I would get a cup of coffee, shirt, they would get a haircut. This is a generous and kind community. People would be like i am getting the toffee for the guy behind me and some days it went on and on. It was amazing to watch. We saw a perfect picture of community. We are all in this together. Since we began to reopen one year later, we will emerge stronger. We will emerge better as a city because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one another. When we opened up august 1st. I will not say it was all good. We are still struggling due to covid. It affected a lot of people. We are still in the pandemic right now. Things are opening up a little bit. It is great to have space to come together. I did a three painting series of visitation valley and the businesses on leland. It felt good to drop off the paintings and hung them. My business is picking up. The city is opening up. We have mask requirements. I check temperatures. I ask for vaccination card and or recent test. The older folks they want to feel safe here. I feel like there is a sense of unity happening. What got us through the pandemic was our customers. Their dogs needed groomed, we have to cut their nails so they dont over grow. This is only going to push us forward. I sense a spirit of community and just belief in one another. We are trying to see if we can help all Small Businesses around here. There is a Cannabis Club lounge next to the dog parlor to bring foot traffic. My business is not going to work if the business across the street is not getting help. In hit us hard. I see a Bright Future to get the storefronts full. Once people come here i think they really like it. If you are from San Francisco visit visitation valley to see how this side of the city is the same but different. In the bay area as a whole, thinking about environmental sustainability. We have been a leader in the country across industries in terms of what you can do and we have a learn approach. That is what allows us to be successful. Whats wonderful is you have so many people who come here and they are what i call policy innovators and whether its banning plastic bags, recycling, composting, all the Different Things that we can do to improve the environment. We really champion. We are at recycle central, a large recycle fail on San Francisco pier 96. Every day the neighborhood trucks that pick up recycling from the blue bins bring 50 o tons of bottles, cans and paper here to this facility and unload it. And inside recology, San Franciscos recycling company, they sort that into aluminum cans, glass cans, and different type of plastic. San francisco is making efforts to send Less Materials to the landfill and give more materials for recycling. Other cities are observing this and are envious of San Franciscos robust recycling program. It is good for the environment. But there is a lot of low Quality Plastics and junk plastics and candy wrappers and is difficult to recycle that. It is low quality material. In most cities that goes to landfill. Looking at the plastics industry, the oil industry is the main producer of blastics. And as we have been trying to phase out fossil fuels and the transfer stream, this is the fossil fuels and that plastic isnt recycled and goes into the waste stream and the landfill and unfortunately in the ocean. With the stairry step there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. We can recycle again and again and again. But plastic, maybe you can recycle it once, maybe. And that, even that process it downgrades into a lower quality material. It is cheaper for the oil industry to create new plastics and so they have been producing more and more plastics so with our ab793, we have a bill that really has a goal of getting our beverage bottles to be made of more Recycled Content so by the time 2030 rolls around t recycle content in a coke bottle, pepsi bottle, water bottle, will be up to 50 which is higher thatten the percentage in the European Union and the highest percentage in the world. And that way you can actually feel confident that what youre drinking will actually become recycled. Now, our recommendation is dont use to plastic bottle to begin w but if you do, they are committing to 50 Recycled Content. The test thing we can do is vote with our consumer dollars when were shopping. If you can die something with no packaging and find loose fruits and vegetables, that is the best. Find in packaging and glass, metal and pap rer all easily recycled. We dont want plastic. We want less plastic. Awe what you we do locally is we have the program to think disposable and work one on one to provide Technical Assistance to swap out the disposable food service to reusables and we have funding available to support businesses to do that so that is a way to get them off there. And i believe now is the time we will see a lot of the Solutions Come on the market and come on the scene. And is really Logistics Company and what we offer to restaurants is reasonable containers that they can order just like they would so we came from about a pain point that a lot of customers feel which wills a lot of waste with takeout and deliver, even transitioning from styrofoam to plastic, it is still wasteful. And to dream about reusing this one to be reimplemented and cost delivery and food takeout. We didnt have throwaway culture always. Most people used to get delivered to peoples homes and then the empty milk containers were put back out when fresh milk came. Customers are so excited that we have this available in our restaurant and came back and asked and were so excited about it and rolled it out as customers gain awareness understanding what it is and how it works and how they can integrate it into their life. And they have always done it and usually that is a way of being sustainable and longterm change to what makes good Financial Sense especially as there are shipping issues and material issues and we see that will potentially be a way that we can save money as well. And so i think making that case to other restaurateurs will really help people adopt this. One restaurant we converted 2,000 packages and the impact and impact they have in the community with one switch. And we have been really encouraged to see more and more restaurants cooperate this. We are big fans of what reecology does in terms of adopting new systems and understanding why the Current System is broken. When people come to the facility, they are shocked by how much waste they see and the volume of the operations and how Much Technology we have dedicated to sort correctly and we led 25 tours and for students to reach about 1100 students. And they wanted to make change and this is sorting in the waste stream they do every single day and they can take ownership of and make a difference with. An i feel very, very fortunate that i get to represent San Francisco in the legislature and allows me to push the envelope and it is because of the people the city attracts and is because of the eco system of policy thinking that goes on in San Francisco that we are constantly seeing San Francisco leading the way. Kids know theres a lot of Environmental Issues that they are facing. And that they will be impacted by the impact of climate change. They will have the opportunity to be in charge and make change and make the decisions in the future. We are reinventing the way the planet does garbage founded in the environmental ethic and hunger to send less to landfills. This is so many wonderful things happening in San Francisco. I feel very fortunate and very humble to live here and to be part of this wonderful place. Thank you very much everybody for being here. We are so happy to do fleet week this year last year we were on the edge off of our seats whether we have should v a program. We pull today off. Sailors and marines Walking Around town meeting people in San Francisco and feeling the hospitality ve the city this it is a fabulous city and so welcoming. Fleet week is a community event. It is an event with a plan and all of the operations are volunteers from neighborhoods. City hall the