today on getting answers. tenderloin residents and businesses are trying an unusual tactic to rid their streets of illegal drugs. a lawsuit alleging violation of disability laws. and on this march 14th, pi day, we ask why do we eat pi? to

celebrate the mathematical constant that's used to calculate the area of a circle. the tradition that began right here in san francisco. but first, steph curry for president. well he didn't say no. so we're diving into the basketball superstars potential as a political star. you're watching getting answers i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us. in a recent interview, the record holder for the most three pointers in the nba history was asked if he would consider running for president after retiring from basketball. curry's response was a definite maybe. quote. i have an interest in leveraging every part of my influence for good in the way that i can. so if that's the way to do it, i'm not going to say the presidency. but if politics is a way that you can create meaningful change, or if there's another way outside of politics. curry's words have warriors fans buzzing and us asking, does he have what it takes to explore that question with us? new york times best selling author of the

book you never forget your first, a biography of george washington joining us live now, alexis coe, presidential historian and new america fellow. hi, alexis. thanks for your time. hello >> hello. it's great to be here. >> so how serious do you think this might be? >> it did not seem to me as if he was committed to this and being coy, i think it's a question that was asked, and certainly he has a good deal of admirers and qualities to recommend him. we'll see what happens. >> i was just going to ask you about the qualities i see jfk portrait behind you. what does it take to be presidential? does curry have? has he shown himself to have some of the qualities and traits of past successful presidents? >> absolutely. >> we have had many athletic presidents and to have been team players. gerald ford had the opportunity to play for the jets. they were just one team, actually, that he could have gone pro with. and instead he

went to law school and he went the more traditional route. we know that's not necessary anymore, but i think he would be wise. steph curry would be wise to get a little bit more experience off the court before he ascends to the highest office in the land. >> yes, yes. and you mentioned, you know, other athletes, gerald ford i can also think of, you know, entering the political arena in the olden days, i think ronald reagan, bill bradley. right. new york knicks turned new jersey senator who ran unsuccessfully for president. modern times. and thinking jesse ventura, steve garvey now. right. former dodger who's running for california senate. i guess it's not uncommon. do you have any thoughts on why? >> i think that there is a lot of attention put on these athletes, and that's a very good thing to leverage, steph curry said. i think that i can do some good in the world, so it's wonderful to see someone who is committed, who knows that he has to live in active life and wants

to contribute, wants to be successful, wants to be pushing forward. progress is something that's really important in our president. so i think that that makes sense to me. also, it's essential to be a team player. the president is a manager. he is the head. he's the head coach. he is the ultimate say. but he's got to work with congress and he's got to work with people he wouldn't necessarily choose. when someone is on a team, they have to work well with others. and steph curry is certainly proven that. >> yes, yes. i mean, i guess you're right. there's that crossover in leadership between being an oval office and being on the court like that. right. especially for him as point guard. i see all the management things happening every night on the floor. >> absolutely. >> i won't pretend to know quite as much about sports as i do presidential, but i think hard working ethic is also essential. the presidency is an endurance

challenge, much in the same way that a game is. you play injured if you lose a loved one, if you are going through some personal issue that we may not know about as far as the electorate and their understanding of what's going on for decades, if ever, it's really important that someone can work through those issues and be a professional, and that is something that we also see athletes do all the time. >> yes, yes. and look, if they were to run, i assume there's that built in fan base and supporters, right. which could be an advantage. but are there disadvantages and also how far can you take that fan base in a different area? >> absolutely. i think steph curry is 36. i might be mistaken, but he's in his mid to early, you know mid to late 30s. and the requirement for the presidency is 35 with good reason. george mason who introduced that that requirement at the constitution convention

did so because one he thought he was quite irresponsive in his own youth. so that's important as far as personal experience. and he also assumed, as we know, incorrectly now, that anyone who wanted to be president would have to go through a sort of school to become president, which is known as congress. and that is a great place to start. and what we do know is, is an essential training ground for some of our best presidents, all the highest ranking presidents, with the exception of some because the government just didn't exist, like george washington. and john adams. they've all gone through congress. they've all served at some point, jfk, who you mentioned earlier, who's right behind me, he's the subject of my next book. he served for a decade, despite being so young in congress and then before that, he had served in the military and received a purple heart. >> and i think those who come up as athletes recognize and they know how to deal with losses to

which happens in politics all the time as well. so that's another thing. but this is kind of interesting because the fact that we're having this conversation, i think, does that represent a shift in terms of the thinking where, you know, athletes are like, hey, shut up and dribble, just stick to your sports, stick to your lane, and really, they're expanding beyond that now. and it's more acceptable. >> absolutely. i don't think that excelling in one thing necessarily precludes excellence in another realm, but i do think that they are different skill sets. you might have certain attributes that make you inclined or suggest you might be successful, but the reality is that, you know, if we sat down steph curry right now, could he explain how a bill becomes a law? you have to learn certain things and that comes from experience. but i do think the optics are important. and he has clearly pleased a wide variety of people, not through let's say, conspiracy theories or some

sort of grift. he's done so through hard work, through sustained work, and he also has a family that's quite admired, which is important. it's not essential, but it certainly helps. >> oh, the picture perfect family. oh yes, it helps in politics. you're right. jfk had that. and of course you're right steph curry absolutely has that. when you talk about conspiracy theories, i couldn't help but to think of another athlete that is now being discussed in the political realm, aaron rodgers, of course, robert f kennedy jr, you know, may pick the former cal quarterback and packers quarterback as his running mate. that's the scuttlebutt with his controversial views on vaccines and the sandy hook mass shooting does that still, you know, does the past his legacy as an athlete give him a buy in some of the things that he may be saying? >> well, this is an interesting contrast to steph curry, because i don't think that his, athletic accomplishments will go quite as far because he really highlights

what is required of a leader off the field. right now, no one's really looking to him for advice about vaccines. he's just sort of going and using his influence on the internet, which is a breeding ground that certainly, was not available before and has led to some interesting and sometimes terrifying, you know, candidate s, but i think that aaron rodgers is not in the same category as steph curry, although he does have quite a lot of influence. >> he does. look, can i just ask you you know, i think i heard you earlier on this conversation giving steph a little advice about kind of building up his, you know, prominence in politics through civic engagement. and so talk to us about what if he was interested, you would expect him to be doing or advise him to be doing in the next few years? >> if i were steph curry, i would first of all, learn everything i could about government and i would become a student of history because every

great president that we've had, truly great, has known quite a lot about the past. washington's studied great generals and governments, kennedy wrote profiles in courage. he was really interested. and that was his second book. he was very interested in what it took to be courageous in a political moment. so he has to learn how things work. he should also increase his civic literacy, as you suggested. he should get more involved in his community. he should make meaningful change. and also reflect on it. he should start to enter the conversation and people should like what he says. it should. it should be a moment in which one builds momentum rather than just arrives and declares, here i am. i'm going to be the most powerful person in the world, i mean, although that kind of did work for arnold schwarzenegger, didn't it? >> it did. although he was someone who, if you look back, not quite when he was weightlifting and making, you

know, really entertaining movies, he was still talking about politic and he had he had been interested and engaged in american presidential dynasties. he married a kennedy. he married maria shriver. >> and that was right. >> when you one thing we can say about the kennedys that is still very much true. they have an active and lively dinner table conversation around politics. if you don't know what you're talking about, it will be quite obvious. >> yeah, you'd be embarrassed out of the table and voted off the island for sure, alexis coe, this is fascinating. and yeah, we're all so intrigued. so we'll keep watching to see what steph curry's next move may be. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up, taking action in the tenderloin. residents and businesses team up to make a move, hoping to change the neighborhood's narrative. that story is next

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and drug dealing and use. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has a new article on its website, tenderloin residents and businesses to sue san francisco over containment zone policy. joining us live now is the standard's express desk reporter, george kelly. hey, george. hey. so read your article. who are these tenderloin residents and businesses that are filing suit? >> the suit mentions five businesses, five residents who are listed, and three businesses. the phoenix hotel uh, a restaurant inside the hotel called chambers, and the best western hotel. >> so, george, what are they

alleging? >> they're alleging that the city treats the tenderloin neighborhood as a containment zone for the worst of the public safety and health issues that come with the fentanyl drug crisis, i guess. >> how did they make that connection? what did they mean, containment zone? are they saying clean up everywhere else in the city and just dump all this here and leave it be? >> they're saying that the city's policies, its choices for enforcement and its choices for lack of enforcement wind up centering the worst of these crises in the neighborhood and to an extent that would not be tolerated in any other neighborhood. not telegraph hill, not nob hill, not anywhere else in the city. >> what did they provide in the lawsuit as evidence? >> they provide pictures. they provide links to local news coverage describing uh- public scenes of drug use, drug sales and associated crimes, robberies, stabbings, uh-

overdoses. >> can i just ask you, have they tried other things before? you know, taking this legal step, are they feeling as though that conditions are such that it warns this action? >> residents talked about trying to limit their children's access to the scenes on the streets. they walk them to school and back. uh, an elderly resident who regularly tries to attend events at his senior center, is walking in the streets to avoid blocked off sidewalks and people in crisis. right. businesses talked about hosing down uh- parking lots and sidewalks regularly, only to find them littered, refilled and reblocked. >> and they're saying, look, you know, those tents that are blocking the street that violates, you know, disability access. so city attorney david chiu, spokesperson, issued a statement, and we'll just put that up. so people can see. part of it says the city is making

progress in reducing crime, disrupting open air drug markets and addressing homelessness, all while complying with the preliminary injunction issued in the coalition on homelessness case. what is that case? refresh our memories and how has it affected the city's ability to take action? >> the coalition on homelessness sought to get the city to make sure that they were providing services to people in that, making sure that they were asking people in homeless encampments for services. this is an outgrowth of concern for encampments and not wanting to move people during the pandemic. >> so you see law sf, that's a premier law school located right there in the tenderloin, is also planning to file in relation to that lawsuit. according to your article, what will it ask for? what is its standing? >> yoseloff filed a suit against the city in 2020, and in the course of that, lawsuits uh- progress. they managed to obtain an injunction against the city,

urging them to remove do everything it could to remove to limit uh- encampments down to zero. and the city made apparently significant progress at one point. but a different judge, donna ryu uh, managed to push back against that or insist that the city needed to make sure that they were reaching out to people and offering, you know, services, and that people, you know, that there needed to be shelter beds open for them to go to. yeah. >> and that's always a challenge, right, in terms of keeping up. and then whether you can do anything if you don't have the numbers. so what is next? i mean, i assume if they file suit as well, you got a couple suits going on. what are you know, what are the next steps. >> well, the city attorney's spokesperson made the point that the us supreme court is expected to address a case called grants pass after the oregon city that could, set a specific tone

cities abilities to respond to encampments. that's expected to come later this spring. all right. >> so please keep us posted on what happens there. george. really appreciate the conversation. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> and you can check out george's story and more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting on their website, sf standard .com. up next, it's a great day for math and science lovers. today is pi day, but did you know the tradition of 3.14 started right here in the bay area? i mean, not the number, please. that's been around for a long time, but i mean eating pi because of 3.14159. more on that

eat pie, right? such as this lovely pumpkin thing right here. and to ponder the mathematical constant that begins with the value 3.14159 and then never ends. but did you know this

quirky celebration began here in san francisco, where lots of quirky traditions begin? and don't you want to know more about why this number is important to our everyday lives? joining us live now is soumya karlamangla, a new york times reporter based in san francisco. soumya, thank you so much for coming on the show. of course you have a great article in the new york times today. fascinating. so you tell us who discovered the value of pi and how long ago was that? >> yeah, scientists have been fascinated by pi for a long time. i think it's hard to say exactly who discovered it. it's kind of a number that exists, exists in nature. so mathematicians have been thinking about it for a really long time. but archimedes was the first person who put a rough value on it, roughly 22 over 22 divided by seven, and that was 250 bc. so a long, long time ago. >> why is this so fascinating? and really so important? >> yeah, i think it's

fascinating because people like thinking about infinity. the digits of pi extend endlessly. they've calculated out 22 trillion digits of pi, and we're still counting, and it's important because it appears in all sorts of things in our everyday life. so if you take the circumference of a circle and divide it by its diameter, you get pi. and that's any circle. you know, big or small. so it can really it reveals a lot about sort of the shapes in our world and just calculations that we need for all sorts of things. >> right? i mean, you can discover the area of a circle and, you know, all sorts of building requires that kind of math. so it is interesting. oh, by the way, now that you mentioned infinity, i just want to know how many digits can you carry? it out to, because i can only go to 3.14159. that's it. that's where i am. but i know there are competitions. i know people recite them right. so i don't mean to put you on the spot, but do you know, like past tense?

>> okay, let me see. yeah. 3.1415926535. i might have messed up the last two, but that should be ten digits. >> okay, but you know what? in a head to head, you beat me. that's all there is to know. so congratulations, i honor you, but i want to ask you right in honoring the importance of this concept, we've really devised all sorts of fun things and fun celebrations. and really, it started all right here in san francisco at the exploratorium, which is now across the street from us. tell us about that. >> yeah, i thought this was fascinating. i remember pi day from school, and so to find out that it just started in san francisco is pretty incredible, it came out of a brainstorming session in 1988 of exploratorium staff who were trying to think of ways to get kids excited about science. and someone had a bright idea that march 14th matched up with the digits of the first three digits of pi. and what a perfect number to celebrate it. >> so they came up with all these fun activities, right?

there's like the parade, like i think they walked 3.14 times around a pi shrine. uh- and, you know, sing happy birthday to einstein. but this was fascinating, which i learned through your article as well, that there's a connection between the exploratorium, the founding museum for pi, and uh, an oscar winning film, and its subject, oppenheimer. >> yeah, this kind of blew my mind. so the exploratorium was started by frank oppenheimer, who is the little brother of j. robert oppenheimer, who, as you might have guessed, is the subject of the movie oppenheimer, and he too, was the physicist who was also involved in the manhattan project. and he wanted to start a hands on science museum for kids in san francisco. and he did. he started the exploratorium in 19 1969. >> that is fascinating. just adds to the intrigue of the whole thing. okay, but then in 2009, right after the exploratorium has been doing pi

day for a little bit, congress decided to get in on the fun. and what did they do? and why do we start eating pi after they did what they did? >> yeah, congress officially recognized it as a national holiday, and yeah, the eating of the pi is just a convenient. i mean, it's really convenient that pi sounds like pi, and that that's a great way to get people excited about math, but also that pi is all about circles, and pi is a circular food. so the pi connections really go in strong. yeah >> that's amazing. i mean, i my math is so bad i can't remember another concept, but i'm pretty sure there's no food associated with any other. that sounds the same as any other math concept out there, so they don't get the glory, and then it even became an international thing, right? with unesco. >> yeah, in 2019, unesco declared march 14th international day of math, which is actually pretty interesting because in other countries they, you know, daetz or the other way around, you say the day, the day

and then the month. and so really for 14 doesn't really work in other countries. but, you know, pi day had been a 314 is sticking, i guess it sounds good to me. >> well, thank you so much. it is, time to dive into this little pumpkin pie that our director brought in. so, salma, thank you so much for coming on and sharing the fascinating history of pi day behind this with us. appreciate it. >> of course, i want some pie. you got you got some of your own there. >> okay. >> all right. i wish. >> thank you. remember to abc seven news is streaming 24 seven. you can get the abc seven ba

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