research or start of pondering, yeah, what does it mean to be an artist? and how do i decolonize my mind? >> good morning, good morning, good morning and welcome to the urban alchemy oasis. we are excited to be here and thank everyone for time to come

and to celebrate with us. we are here to discus the results somewhere outcomes of a study in the work of tenderloin and midmarket community, supported and launched by mayor breeds office. the work done by urban alchemy practitioner, the community safety work, the goals for the program are to provide servicess to our unhoused neighbors in san francisco to reduce crime and struggling neighborhoods and to provide an alternative community based public safety where folks from the community, folks with lived experience can do the work of restoration and healing and support for some of our most vuliable neighbors. this study was carried out by stanford university, lead by dr. stuart, the director of stanford's ethnology lab and they have studied the results of this program and are happy

today to discuss the findings and so we are really grateful you all grathered here to talk about this work, to hear about the phenomenal impact we have been able to make in these communities and as you can imagine, the results you will hear today you probably have seen them. you probably have felt them and today we are just really excited to not just have to rely on what we see and what we feel, but to have data to back up what we know we are experience igin our community. to kick off this morning i want to welcome cofounder and ceo dr. miller to greet you and bring you remarks. why don't you receive her. [applause] >> today is a really good day. today we have some good news. we have been hearing a lot of bad news about san francisco and the conditions on our

street, but today, we have some really good news. we are here to talk about the exciting initial results of stanford university study that shows presence in the tenderloin caused a significant reduction in total crime and drug crime. i think the important thing to know about urban alchemy you can't read obour website is urban alchemy was born and bred and grew right here in the cracks of this concrete in the streets of san francisco. in this grit and grime, we grew and i want to thank you mayor breed for seeing us. [applause] and allowing us to grow and not plucking us out before we really have a chance to show

our beauty and our brilliance to the world. we know what we feel on these streets. the residents of the tenderloin know what they feel on these streets. businesses, universities, they know what the difference is when urban alchemy has been on these streets. but it seems more like a political conversation then it does a reality. when dr. stuart came to me and asked for permission to study the results of urban alchemy or what was happening with urban alchemy out on these streets, i said, on the condition that you look at our impact on crime in the streets that we are,

because i know we are making a difference. i know we are changing the environment. thats why urban alchemy has grown so much and been in demand, but i don't have any data. i can't prove it, so i feel i'm out here trying to scream to the world, what is happening here? ! no one is listening. but today we got that data. crime rates are dropping throughout san francisco. in here in the tenderloin, dr. stuart's research shows that crime rates have dropped by 52 percent in the tenderloin on the streets where urban alchemy is.

we have saved the lives of a average of over 200 people a year . during the pandemic it was up to 4 or 500. through not only narcan reversals, but first aid procedures. our results show the difference between social service programs built by and for the people in our own neighborhoods and people who are looking from the outside in and making opinions and conjecture about how it should be done. we grew organically in response to the conditions that we saw. using common sense approach to the realties we were engaging with every day to create this unique model that is urban

alchemy. we talk a lot about san francisco being the heart of tech, but what a lot of people don't understand about san francisco is it is a always been a boom or bust city. this city has always been gritty and grimy. we are beautiful too and have a lot of things going on, but the grit, and grime, the wind that shaped the topography that shaped san francisco, there is something that infuses the people. we have this creativity to deal with stuff in a way that unique to this place and that is what gave birth to urban alchemy. that is the invasion that we are going to export throughout this country that we have already began exporting throughout this country. los angeles, our circle

program, response connected to the 911 system. this program has also been replicated in san francisco throughout the heart program. we are also going to be launching it in austin and portland. what we are demonstrating is this is not a fluke. there is something special happening here. my dad used to say to me and so grateful to him for instilling this in my mind and my soul, lana, dont tell me what you don't want, tell me what you do want. if we want something different, we need to start focusing on the things that are working and to start naming what it is that we want. to our practitioners, this data

is proof that what you are doing is working. i know it is heartful when people say stuff like, all you are doing is standing around. we are responding too much money. day to day you know you are out here making a difference. you are ing these miracles unfold. you are connecting with people and i know you know because you feel the love from the people. if you were not doing that work, that wouldn't allow you to be here, but the fact you are embraced and loved, you know the difference you are making. but now we got the data and it is from stanford university. you are those heroes and i see you, i thank you and next i want to introduce our alustrous

mayor, mayor london breed who allowed us to be, who allowed us to thrive, and who allowed this miracle to grow in san francisco. [applause] >> alright. thank you dr. miller and welcome to the tl everybody! let me just say, as someone who was born and raised in this city and someone who grew up in san francisco not too far from the tenderloin, we always knew that this neighborhood had challenges, but i will tell you that it is an amazing community filled with people. filled with families, filled with immigrants, filled with people from all parts of san francisco from lake view to the bayview to fillmore, all kinds of people from all walks of life live and grow and thrive in the tenderloin.

but we also know there are real challenges here as well and we also know that police alone can't just be the solution. part of what i appreciate so much about today is many of us like dr. miller and i and folks who work with urban alchemy, they understand an icdotally what is going on in the tenderloin and how much an impact that the people who work for urban alchemy who are out there putting their lives on the line when other s won't even walk through the tenderloin, they understand the significance of the impact because every single day, can you imagine confronting someone with a knife or someone who is about to overdose or someone who is in and out of the streets and they are trying to save lives and this is happening regular basis with the people of urban alchemy every single day and here we have instead of folks

criticizing urban alchemy, instead of people saying it is too much money and they ain't doing nothing and being mad and political about it, stanford came, dr. stuart came and said we want to come because we want to help and see and notice a difference and we want to work with you. we don't want to be on the outside analyzing and telling whautyou are doing and not doing, we want to work as a partner with you to really analyze the data and really understand what is happening and on the places as dr. mill er said,en othe areas where urban alchemy is located, there is 52 percent reduction in crime in the tenderloin and those particular areas. how significant is that? it is significant because the people that would have been attacked, the people who would have died from drug overdose, the people in other situations

are no longer in those situations because of urban alchemy and urban alchemy alone. that is significant in and of itself and that is why we are here today, because this is a important institution filled with people who care about community. filled with people who may have had their own challenges with the criminal justice system or with addiction or other issues they see people on the streets are facing. the empathy comes from a place of experience and understanding and a desire to see something better for those who are struggling. that's what urban alchemy represents for the tenderloin community. that is the work they do often times goes unnoticed and thankless from leaders of the city, about not from this one. [applause] so, today as you hear the data

and get a better understanding of what urban alchemy is about and what they do, it is not just about the data. it is about the people. it is about the relationships. it is about that person that says, just because that individual like louie is talking for urban alchemy they are agreeing to treatment and they are clean and sober for a year. it is about the person that did want die on the streets of san francisco from a drug overdose. we talk about how amazing and how beautiful this city is and this is a beautiful city. this is incredible city filled with opportunity. i understand and i'm the beneficiary of that opportunity, but too often people who suffer in this community are not and the fact is, without urban alchemy it will be far worse. i feel it is getting better. now, we are not where we want to be, but we are definitely in a better place then what we

used to be. in the tenderloin we have seen overall 11 percent drop in crime and again, that attributed to the relationship that exists based on the work of our police department, our ambassadors and especially urban alchemy. thank you all for being here today to report on this data, but more importantly let's report on the facts and various situations and incidents occur where no one talks about it or sees it. those are the stories of lives saved and changed that need to be told more and that is why we are here today, to talk about the data and talk about the stories and make sure people understand we will continue to do all the work necessary, all the investment necessary to continue to support urban alchemy, to continue to invest in the tenderloin community to make sure every person who lives and works here is safe.

thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you so much dr. miller. thank you so much mayor breed. the relationship to academia can never be under-stated. the importance shape our young brilliant minds. they give us benchmarks to hold us accountable and today they provide the data that makes the things we see on the streets and in our communities data, so don't want to take up a lot of time. i want to invite dr. stuart from stanford university to come and share the data that we have all gathered together to hear, so if you all welcome dr. stuart to talk about the impact report that has come from their study. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, i'm forest stuart professor of sociology

at stan ford joined by nab nob ph.d candidate spear hp heading the analysis and stats i want to share today. for the last decade or so i specialized in research across the country so cities like los angeles chicago and seattle focusing on how cities responds to issues like urban disorder violence and homelessness and last year i trained focus obtenderloin and midmarket with cilen more and patrick [indiscernible] professor at the northwestern medical school. we just finished the study where we evaluate whether or not the urban alchemy street practitioner program has indeed reduced crime in san francisco and i want to point out origins of the story. some of the origins of the study. a lots of these evaluations are typically commissioned by

cities. often commissioned contracted out by organizations. we have done ours differently. we have done differently funded and run through stanford university and wurlth noting the study came as a coincidence. i had been walking down hyde in the summer 2021 as a part of different project in the city and had time to kill and hit the corner of eddie and hyde and notice two very different scenes on both sides of the street. on the northern side unfortunately there was a active drug market, people sell ing on the sidewalk, the sidewalk was so full i had to walk in the street and when i are hit eddie i looked across the street and it was peaceful and no crime and the big difference was besides the conditions there were people wearing green vests. with this urban alchemy logo on it. i started to talk to residents and business owners over the next few weeks and they said

that urban alchemy, those folks standing out there made them feel safer and they were convinced urban alchemy was reducing crime, but it is one thing to feel safer, it is another to be safer. this is nigh job to parse out the difference to the two. we put the question to the test. all the crime stats availability from the san francisco police department and analyzed them and design we did i'm not getting too technical but called a quasi-experimental design and pretty standard in policy analysis if you want to evaluate a policy has effect and borrowed from experimental drug trials.intersection with urban alchemy is stationed and treat as the experimental group and match a intersection with one where there is no practitioner and make sure they

are matcheds a well as they can. we have a experimental group and control group and then we start the clock and look to see how the urban alchemy intersections, the pe control intersections and we watch them over proceeding 12 months and we found that in urban alchemy intersection crime went down 52 percent. there were about 320 crimes per week in those 40 intersections, this falls to about 150 crimes per week once urban alchemy comes on the scene. we found a larger graup in drug crime which fell 80 percent in the urban al scaem intersections. when you see the big results you want to double check to make sure anything else isn't pushing reductions. there are lingering things that could be responsible. what is neat by a quasi-experimental design, it is called a causal design so we can say urban alchemy caused

the changes, but we have to include other potential theories and explanations as to why crime dropped. the 1st we tested was covid. covid caused drop in crime all over the place so was the reduction attributed to urban alchemy or covid? according to the the analysis this isn't attributed to covid. was urban alchemy displacing the crime in the 40 intersections to nearby intersections. we include this in the model and determined 52 percent reduction is not attributed to displacement to other intersections, so this is pretty confidently redurkz caused by urban alchemy. so, moving forward some things we have done over the last year and a half members of the research team have been shadowing urban alchemy practitioners, sometimes up to 10 hours a day watching what they do trying to figure the

secret sauce and mechanism responsible for reducing these crimes. things like building trust, creating social debt, providing resources. these are the kinds of things we will be integrating into analysis as the next step is write up the findings and begin submitting for scientific peer review so those will be done in the next couple weeks. i want to conclude describing the study sharing gratitude and thanks to the team at urban alchemy. subjecting to these kinds of rigorous evamuations can put you in hot waters if the results don't turn up but urban alchemy approached with a confidence and transparency that allowed us to come in and hold them accountable and a model how we can do academic and organizational collaboration and accountability in the future so thank you all for being such a outstanding partner for us.

[applause] >> thank you dr. stuart. thank you and your team and thank you to stanford university. next up is mr. steve gibson from midmarket foundation. this type of work nation wide is not possible in a vacuum. it means we have to be partners with our academic partners, with civic partners and also with our business improvement partners and are so we want to invite mr. steve gibson up to talk a bit about their role in our partnership and how it contributed to our success. thank you. [applause] >> steve gibson, executive director of midmarket foundation, midmarket business association. i want to say a couple of things. one, we recognize urban alchemy in the talents quite a way back. in 2019 we teamed with urban alchemy with a pilot project on

6th and market and that is the idea of the community based safety program began. we were asked by businesses on the intersection to make change bought it was chaotic at the time. we teamed with urban alchemy and did a small pilot project and that proved the urban alchemy approach could make a difference. from this pilot project, with the blessing and financial support of the mayor and her office of economic workforce development, we were able to grow this program. we are now entering our fourth year of the community based safety program working with urban alchemy and you heard about the change, the data behind it, the statistics, it is all true. we can give you stories about businesses that were saved, about certainly saved hundreds of lives on the street and they

have made a incredible difference. the biggest thing we have is that, where they are not people begging us to extend the program and are now it is throughout all midmarket, most of the tenderloin and has grown from this one intersection to all of that area and been very successful and continuing to be successful and before i leave i want to bring up one thing that has not been mentioned here, but incredibly important to this whole program is the fact-it chokes me up a bit, but the lives of the practitioners and how their lives have changed by doing this work. the people on the street as we call them, the guests on the street, they lives have been saved and changed, but so have the practitioners and they have gone on to other jobs to

college degrees and number of things, but 2 or 300 practitioners passed through this program and really changed their lives through this and that's-urban alchemy does not get enough credit for that part of this, so i want to thank stanford for recognizing this, for validating what we knew and have seen on the street, the positive changes. thank the mayor again for supporting us and for continuing to support us and this program and thank you for caring enough to be here to record this event and to spread the good positive news about tenderloin, midmarket and about urban alchemy and their program. thank you very much. [applause] >> thanks so much steven. a perfect segue to our final speaker for this morning to represent the men and women who spend countless hours in the tenderloin and midmarket community who do this work every day and support of our

most vulnerable neighbors and all those who pass through the streets. i want to introduce our director of operations for san francisco, mr. arty gilbert who will come and talk to us on behalf of the practitioners that you see around you. come on, arty. [applause] >> thank you kp. i want to share two stories. the first story i want to share is about when we received our first office on 72 6th street and when we received our office over there, i was walking down stevenson alley and a guy approached me how he had got off drugs and stopped drinking and asked me withed it be possible for him to become a employee for urban alchemy. i said of course. he plied and begain a employee

3, 4 days after that. a week after that, or two years after that he became a supervisor for urban alchemy. two years after that he became a director for urban alchemy, he is currently a director for one of our bigs program, the bar sfmta program. the second story i have to share is about 54th mcallister street. if anyone know about 54 mcallister street there fsh a lot of negative brhavior. a lot of people selling drugs, using drugs, sleeping in tent, blocking the doorway where the senior citizens couldn't go inside their homes and also they had a truck that come and drop them off irn the wheelchair to get fl to the senior citizen home. when we was called upon to go over there and see could we address the issue, one thing about urban alchemy, we are kind, so when we say we are

kind and have empathy and compassion that includes avenue over everyone. we went a week in advance to share with them is we will be here in a week and in a week that when we arrive the next week we arrive this behavior and negative selling drugs and sleeping in front of the establishment cannot go only claung. the week after that we arrived and the place in front of 54 mcallister is clean and able to walk through. the senior citizens can come in and out of the establishment in their wheelchairs. thank you for your undivided attention. back to kp. [applause] >> so, we heard from the folks doing the work, we heard from our stakeholder partners, we heard from our amazing mayor, we heard from the leader ership

of the organization. we heard the data. now we have a question to answer. when we walk out of here, do we go back and continue in the course of dispair? saying there is no hope, nothing is changing, or do we take the data that we hold so valuable, do we take the narratives we heard, do we do what our mayor said and recognize that while we are not where we want to be, that we are not where we were and take that to encourage us to move forward. to double down on interventions that have been proven by data to work. to continue to support and speak up for the men and women that do this work. or do we just go back to business as usual? do we decide that we actually want to continue pushing a message that says nothing is getting better? i think we all know the answer to that. i think we all know our intellectual responsibility.

our responsibility to the city and our responsibility to the people that we all have been tasked to serve in one way or another and we have the responsibility to push a message that says, there are options. there is opportunity. there is hope and when all pull together, when we are willing to be honest with one another, we can make changes throughout the communities that we hold so dear. thank you all for being here today. thank you for taking this time. thank you for spreading the message and are sharing the news. while we won't do question and answers, all of our speakers today are willing to be available for step asides at the conclusion of the program and so, without further ado, thank you all and have a fantastic day. [applause]

[music] hi. i'm san francisco mayor london breed i want to congratulate sfgovtv on 30 years of dedicated service as a broadcast channel for our vibrant city. you played a critical role during the pan dem and i can worked keep residents informed. adapted to changing situations that allowed our residents to engage and participate in government. thank you for 3 decades of informing and inspiring and connect the people of san francisco as the voice that

>> 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 pop-up 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. that's why we are pushing it so much because that's 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 don't 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. in fire prevention. i'm very happy at fire prevention because not only am i able to enforce the code and make changes to help the citizen of san francisco be safe in their homes or place of business, but i think my work also make sure that my fellow firefighters and first responders, when they respond to a fire, the building is also safe for them. >> you're watching san francisco rising with chris manners. today's special guest is brooke jenkins. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you are watchs san francisco rising, the show about restarting rebuilding and reimagining our city. ourguest san francisco district attorney brooke jenkins here to talk about theopeioid crisis, criminal justice and more. >> thank you so much for having me. >> thank you for being here. let's start with organized restale threft. some

jurisdictions across the country imposed most of the punishment against people shop lifting in groups but that may be applied disproportionately to epipooal and doesn't address the organization behind it all. how can we make sure both prosecute the ring leaders behind the crimes and make sure justice is handed out eveningly? >> making sure we get to the higher level of organizations in the organized retail threrft area so that is something myophilus is very much focused on working the police department on. looking at organized retail threat ringzsx but we have to make sure people are being caught who have stealing and that is a big challenge in the sit a so we have worked with retailers and small business owners to insure the necessary protocols and procedures are in place to at the very laest catch people who are stealing because they have been running out of the stores and therefore facing no consequence so we have

to start there and trying to do more with intervention with the youth who are some of the population doing some of the threfts. many stores have turned to not detaining employees stealing oertrying to stop them and that change in procedure lead to making it very difficult for the police department to capture these people stealing. we have been working with them on a change in their protocol going back to the way it used to be done so we can actually have the opportunity to have people face consequences. >> right. so, let's move to the opioid crisis which had a devastating impact across the community and across the country, including san francisco. how can your office help address the issue? >> the main thing is going back to where people feel there is a consequence dealing drugs in the city. we can't treat drug steel dealing as a victimless crime. we have ooverage 2 people dying a day from overdose. there

are victims of this offense so quha what is did is say no longer the case we decriminalizing drug sales in san francisco as the da office. we have to put consequence on the table and insure the most agregiouss sellers so massive quantityties of fentanyl, some enough to kill all most half the city. sometimes with people with wep ens and guns are multiple of cases with fentanyl are treated differently then thoges with small contties so i ask those people detain in custody. we can't have them on the street hours later, but also trying to work with the police department and our city making sure our laws are enforced. it is the only people people suffering from addiction will have a opportunity at recovry. imagine if you are trying to get clean and every 10 steps doin the block you are offered the drug you have been addicted

to. it is impossible. that is one way we are dealing with the supply side and we are taking a different approach on the demand side, which is to say, if people are publicly using drugs over and over again, that we believe we need to intervene in those situations and so the police are citing them and when somebody reaches 3 of the citations, we then file a complaint, but route them into a treatment court to try to help them get help. >> they have a option take treatment or face charges? >> correct. essentially. we of course encourage treatment because that is what these folks need. >> absolutely, absolutely. san francisco is known for being forfront of criminal justice reform with initiatives such as community justice center and restoreative justice, how do you plan to build on the efforts and push for aggressive policies insuring we have a fair system that holds people accountable? >> i have been clear accountability comes in many

different forms. historically, da office used one form and that is incarceration. the way i functioned as a prosecutor over the years is make sure we are finding the appropriate form of accountability for each and every person for their specific circumstance, and so for some people it may be incarceration, others it is treatment and going through behavioral health to stabilize mental health issue. some it is say ing we toopt see you get a job so we require that you go through a trade program so you can get a skill that allows you to take care of yourself in a different way. for me it is investing in those opportunities which requires us to be partnering with community based organizations to identify what programs we can send people to, but i'm very much invested in seeing our collaborative courts, which is what community justice center, drug court, young

adult court seeing those courts thrive and encouraging the lawyers to explore those opportunities. >> right. what role do you think the da office can play addressing the issue of police misconduct and promoting accountability? >> our job is to prosecute police officers when they commit such misconduct and use excessive force in a way that is illegal so we'll continue to maintain that is our job and our position. we prosecute all crime in san francisco, it is not about what your statue is, what your position is or what office you hold. the law will always be our standard. we can't treat differently where they come from, whether they wear a uniform or not, our standard is the law. for me, as a black latino woman it is issue very personal to me. we had a death in police custody in my family that i heard about my entire life. i'm raising two black children

including a black son who you know, i will have to talk about these type of issues as he grows up. i was out raged long before george floyd. the list goes on and on, but as a prosecutor i have to maintain one standard and it is whether somebody according to the law has committed a crime and so that's what we always look at. >> absolutely. finally, what message do you have for the people of san francisco and what you hope to accomplish during your tenure? >> i want the people of san francisco to know i'm committed serving the function the da office was designed to serve which is make sure we promote public safety across san francisco. like i said, we have to have accountability in our city. what we see going on in our streets is the result of people feeling as though there was none. they didn't fear even the police walking by as they were committing a crime because there was a

belief that even if you arrest me, the da office isn't going to do anything that i'm afraid of experiencing, and so we want people to have a healthy fear of what a consequence will be, but i also want san francisco to know we are a da office that stands by the val aoos we have here in san francisco which is second chances, compassion, responsible alternative to incourseeration bought the end of the day accountability has to be what people said back on the street or community in a fashion where they can succeed. every time somebody cycles into the system we are thoughtful what the person needs to get back on their feet and not create another victim in the future. >> quite right. thank you. thank you so much for coming on the show. i really appreciate the time you have given us today. >> thank you. >> that's it for this episode. we'll back for another

shortly. for sfgovtv, i'm please stand by for the san francisco health commission meeting of january 16, 2024. >> i have the privilege of reading the land acknowledgment. the san francisco health commission acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the ramaytush (rah-my-toosh) ohlone (o-lon-ee) who are the original inhabitants of the san francisco peninsula. as the indigenous stewards of this land, and in accordance with their traditions, the ramaytush ohlone have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. as guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the ramaytush ohlone community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples.