Transcripts For SFGTV Mayors Press Availability 20220912 : c

San francisco. She was born and raised here and in her tenure she has been very focused on a lot of the challenges and opportunities that we are going to be discussing today in our panels and otherwise and in particular, has really made the affordability and availability of housing one of her commitments as mayor. She, i think as part of her experience growing up in San Francisco has brought from my perspective, im editorializing, a practical approach to the way she works as mayor, shes very committed to results more so than ideology and that i think serves the city of San Francisco very well. Shes of course gained National Recognition Even International remembering fission under the stewardship of San Francisco throughout the covid19 pandemic and in my experience has been a true champion and so pleased and excited to introduce mayor london breed. [applause] first of all, thank you for joining us here today and i want to start by welcoming her majesty to San Francisco. Its an honor to have you here. We were in the castro talking about the history and the culture of the movement with a number of leaders and did a walking tour of the castro and it was so, not only beautiful because the weather in San Francisco is always perfect but it was amazing because [laughter] just the people out there and the information they provided and the natural chemistry that existed between the queen and people in San Francisco. Its wonderful and so im grateful to be here to have these conversations and the one complaint i have is that there is no fun on the queens agenda, so hopefully you could at least make this panel a little interesting. [laughter] not all work. Were really honored to have you here today and were really sorry that the king was unable to join us but we are definitely wishing him a speedy recovery and make sure he knows he is truly missed. We just, as i said, while we might be far away from each other on the map, our values and our borders, share a close bond and thats why were here today. To is about bringing california and the netherlands and recognizing the values we share, the challenges we face and the opportunities that we have to learn from one another, so that we can see growth and we can see excitement in our various locations. Here in San Francisco and in california, so many of our conversations stem from our lack of housing. I know that the netherlands faces these same challenges especially in its largest city like amsterdam. Were working on our plan to meet our goal of adding 82,000 new homes over the next eight years in San Francisco. Very ambitious goal. This is a significant number of homes which we need but its going to take real change and the queen and i were talking about not only the homes that need to be built but the Transportation Network that needs to be connected to move people around efficiently and safety. We cant continue to do things the same way. We have to be aggressive because when you dont have enough housing, the impacts ripple throughout the city as we continue to see. It impacts our workforce that cant afford to live here, near near places like indiscernible , its not just the people who work and do the more hightech jobs but its also the people who are hr managers, the people who are janitors and security and all of the different layers that make a building like this works. It impacts the environment because people have to drive long distances instead of taking a short bus ride or walk to work. The lack of Housing Impact homelessness and the conditions that sadly we see on our streets. And dries away our families and they want to raise their kids in a dynamic and growing city. You create healthy cities by having housing for people, not just for those who are the wealthiest and the few to who can access our limited subsidized housing but for everyone and here in San Francisco, we have an opportunity for real change much we cant just keep talking about it. We have to do something about it. We have solutions before us now to get rid of the obstruction that gets in the way of actually building the housing we need in the city but even with that, we need to do more. Im eager to learn more about how the netherlands is approaching the same housing shortage problem especially in its largest cities and as we build housing, were creating more sustainable cities, people walking and biking and taking public transit, People Living near their friends and family where they can knock on the door and have a glass of wine or champagne or something. [laughter] cities like San Francisco are also much more climate friendly, not just because of the nature of our urban living but because of the aggressive goals we set in our Climate Action plan. We set a goal of getting to net zero emission by 2040. The netherlands have similar goals which is why were similarly aligned and thats who we are, our shared values of california and the netherlands and this isnt just about being a leader on climate but its about protecting our cities catastrophe and sea level is looming blocks from here, its not hard to imagine what could happen if we dont take action to reverse Climate Change. Its why this work is so important. Its why im honored to have our special guests, her majesty and her delegation here today to have this dialogue, so thank you to everyone who is joining us to participate in these critical conversations. All of you are doing incredible work of creating healthier urban environment and im looking forward to the discussion ahead to talk about it and then to finally make it happen, so that we see a Better Future for california and the netherlands, thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] thank you so much, mayor breed. I would love to welcome our first panel. You are already here. Perfect. Go ahead. And ill do some, i was going to do a full bio but then i realized that was going to take the entire time so im going to introduce folks by your current role, so first we have yana gonzalez who is the secretary for the California Department of environmental or the Environmental Protection agency. Sorry about that. And just recently if im correct, right. One of our first public appearances is here with you all. [applause] next we have ann capers. I feel as though im not saying this in the proper pronunciation but im trying. Minister of Health Welfare and sports from the netherlands and vifsh january hanna vivian hanna, minister for the environment for the netherlands and pleased to be with you today and mayor breed touched on part of what i had been thinking about which is, we share so many similarities between the bay area and the netherlands and really anywhere you go in the world, people have some basic requirements that they need in order to live healthy, full lives. I would love to know, given that we have this incredible array of people, youre going to be speaking with so many different groups while youre here, what it is that you are hoping to gain from this exchange . And how that relates to the policy areas in which you work and secretary gonzalez maybe we can start with you. Sure. First of all, thank you so much for having me. This is my second full day oh, apologies. Thank you so much for having me. This is my second full day on the job. Laufr laugh i took my seat early. I didnt want to take the panel late. Thank you to the majesty and the pin sters here and the mayor is in the audience, mayor breed, thank you for having us and its an honor to be here on a momentous occasion. Mayor breed touched upon the importance of equity and i think you know, some of the issues that transcend both california and the netherlands and in many of my former roles, this is my primary focus to embed equity into the framework of all it is we do and i think there is, theres no more urgent of a time to do that right now. We are in the mist of an unprecedented heat wave this late in the summer for us here and yes, the weather is nice and it is also very hot for the season, so the relevance of being here together to build this type of a partnership through the execution of this mou, its extraordinarily timeline and im excited to move forward in the work plan, the joint research that i think were going to effectuate but to take action here. I think it will, it is known that Governor Newsom and our Administration Takes Climate Change and the threats of our new climate reality very seriously. We are committed to investing in the resilience of our state, the resilience of each Community Across our state, just last week, the Legislature Passed an an ambitious legislative package really led by Governor Newsoms administration and this package does many, many things. One of which is to codify our goal to be climate neutral by 2045 at the very latest. It also a fek yates the largest Climate Change. 50 billion for Climate Investment and thats across the economy, thats across our state as a whole so excited just to be here today, to be able to discuss some of the shared priorities with our partners and really ultimately to roll up our sleeves and get to work in what our communities are asking of us and what we really need to meet this moment. Thank you. Thank you so much, secretary. Mr. Capers. Yeah, thank you, alicia. When looking out of the window of my hotel room this morning, i thought that it has been more than 30 years since i first visited your beautiful city and at that time, i came with my girlfriend, now my wife and two friends and we were using a very typical dutch way of transport. We arrived the golden gate by bike. After having been on the road for more than three weeks, it was a beautiful trip and after a few years, we found ourselves working in the United States closely collaborating with colleagues from Kaiser Permanente from usf and in my area was cancer prevention. If you look at the 30 years since then, we have made a cost indiscernible very significant progress in health care and im understanding disease and diagnosis and treatments and et cetera and if you look at the situation where we are now, then the challenges are far longer than they were 30 years ago. This has to do with health and equity and equality. It also has to do with limitations and access in your and ours health care system. It has to do with limitations and shortage in staff and staff attrition and on top of that, it has to do with the quality of our environment, our urban environment, living conditions, what people do not work quickly under estimate as a Significant Impact this has on the health, the daily health of many, many people. So what i hope we will learn here at this focus of knowledge is a lot about these issues which we both here and im proud to bring with me, a very launched delegation of representatives from dutch cities, universities, hospitals, and also from a whole ranch of companies and i hope this will increase collaborations and bring new solutions. Thank you so much, minister. Clause ms. Hannan. Im excited to be here to be honest and that sustainability mobility is a nice addition to also making the environment and the health of people benefit a lot. One of the good things is that in the netherlands, we have a lot of knowledge when it comes to sustainability mobility and we have a lot of companies thats investing a lot in the infrastructure for the charging systems, for cars for example. But cycling is also something that is very important in the netherlands and we have more bikes than people over there and i think that we can also learn from the system youre using here if San Francisco and in other places in the u. S. Because ill be visiting los angeles later on this week and its very i am policive to see what is its impressive to see whats happening here. I had an opportunity to walk around on sunday and i visited some of the areas and what you see is that this particular area is very much focused on improving the environment but focusing on sustainable transport and sustainable ways of transport and here are enormous opportunities and i had the opportunity this morning to speak some Companies Share speak to some companies sharing their knowledge on sustainable charging system but sustainable transport systems and vice versa because theres also a lot of knowledge hereof course. And in order to reach all these ambitious climate goals but also the health goals, we have to be able to innovate and invest and here we can really learn from each other and im really hoping that all the companies that are present here today will share experiences, share knowledge, share in that work in order to make sure we are all Getting Better in a faster pace even than we already want to reach. Thank you so much. [applause] i really appreciate all of the elements that each of you have highlighted from what were hoping to get from this experience and i will say, im often accused of being very ambitious in the policy work that my organization does but you have given us a lot to go over in the next few days and next panel. I appreciate your time this morning and im going to let you return to where youre going and bring up our next panel. Thank you so much. [applause] so, if the panelist want to join me. Im going to do introductions while getting settled. All right. So my direct right is eric shaw and eric is the director of the San Francisco Mayors Office of housing and community development. He oversees the development of Affordable House and ensures local communities have access to essential resources. He has a broad range of experience in government leading planning, community and Economic Development and worked in Emergency Services which seems to be very appropriate for the current times. And worked in many jurisdictions as well including salt lake city, utah, washington, d. C. And here in San Francisco San Francisco and for the state of california. Next, we have lauren. Shes the sustainable officer for the city of los angeles where shes driving the implementation of las Green New Deal which is a policy for local action to confront the Climate Crisis and build an inclue sifsh Green Economy that prioritizes equity. And lauren works on Environmental Issues from the defense fund which is the major ngo and working as a senior policy advisor at the British Embassy and secretary for Climate Change programs at the california Environment Protection agency. Next we have sharon. Shes the 332nd mayor [laughter]. We thought we were getting up there with 45 in San Francisco. 332nd. Not getting up in there age but numbers. [laughter] so, prior to this, she has held a number of important government roles including as Member Parliament and state secretary for education, cultural and science, states secretary for Economic Affairs and state secretary of infrastructure and the environment. She served as deputy mayor for traffic and transport, water and air quality for the municipality of amsterdam. Our panel; josha is the direct of urban plan and sustainability at the city of amsterdam and she focused on Major Housing Development ask connectivity and she was active at the director of facilities cam tuesday organization at the friday university for ten years. Focusing on sfashl spatial planning and back ground in urban geographer and aerial developer, welcome each of you. Again, im excited to be in conversation with all four of you this morning. You could cover a lot of topics and we have heard rays, i made a note for myself in the prior comments, housing, equity and inequity, health, climate and sustainability mobility. As i referenced in the opening panel, theres, every time the spirit of the study, we do study trips all over the world to learn from other cities and how we can incorporate solutions from elsewhere, what im struck by is how similar we are across the planet because people are people. And we may address our challenges differently because we work in different context and different cultures but weve generally face the same challenges in cities and as humans, we need things like safe and Affordable Housing, clean environments and the ability to belong in a community so theres different components that make up a healthy urban environment and each of you is working at a municipal scale to bring that into being. Im hoping that you can talk just a little bit about what you see as one of the sort of primarily issues facing your current or your city where you work and what youre doing to address it. Eric, why dont we start with you. Hello, thank you very much and your majesty. I have the fortune for working for mayor breed. What we have learned, to address a challenge requires leadership and she and i grew up in the bay area and we have left in the space of sustainability of equity and of in