city proud [gavel] >> good amonger, the meeting will come to order. this is the january 29, 2024, rules of committee mooting. i'm supervisor ronen chair of the committee. our clerk is victor and. and i would like to thank sf gov. tv for your. mr. clerk do you have any announcements? >> clerk: when public comment is called, please line up to the right. you may submit comment in

writing, email them to myself at bitc. if submit public comment via email, it will be forwarded to the supervisor and included as part of the file. you may also send written comment to city hall. please make sure to silence all cell phones and other electronic devices. items acted upon today are expected to appear on board of supervisors agenda on february 26, 2024, unless otherwise stated. that completes mia nouns 789s. >> thank you, can you please read item number 1. >> clerk: yes, item number 1 is the site of new library branch of ocean view merced heights

ingle had noted side and plan instruction of a new library branch serving the neighborhoods at any alternate location except as required bit review process, or other applicable laws. just to note that there is a request that this matter be sent out to the bos meeting of january 30, 2024. >> and i'm going to turn this over to supervisor safai. >> thank you, chair. thank you for getting this on the agenda so quickly because, a lot of time has been wasted on this particular issue, i'm sorry. about my voice, but lost my voice yesterday at the game, watching the niners. so let's just say, go niners to begin the game, that's what i'm

calling this the game. okay, so as you may recall, i asked mayor breed in question time on december the 129ing, if she would support the library in 100 yasaba in district 11 which the administration had identified five years as the best option in the neighborhood and to be honest i was not sure how she would respond and i was taken a back when i heard her response, the mayor said, she wouldn't commit to any new site and made reference to funds available to renovate the existing library. she claimed we don't have the budget for a new library and that the site had traffic and pedestrian safety issues and there was no consensus in district 11, community. all of which is not true. so colleagues if you will indulge me for a moment since we don't have a long

presentation and commentators, i want to set something straight. the current library at 343 was spear headed by mayor willie brown. they came together with mayor brown and his administration ask for help to add positive investment to the corridor and lakeview. the community was dealing with a rash of shootings and young people were dying in the streets in the ocean view neighborhood and i see people in the audience nodding their head and they identified this site as one that was particular concern, where the library actually stands today, the current library. the community wanted replace something negative with something positive and what is more positive than a library in a neighborhood that is under served. mayor brown listened and help

sphere head the instruction of the library. that's what mayors do, they find a way to get things done for them. the ocean view library branch did its branch and help bring traffic to the area and helped serve as a catalyst for a safer community. but the library is the smallest neighborhood library in the entire city and county in san francisco and it's past time that we get a new one for the community. fast forward to 2018, the library had set aside money. but the community made it clear, they wanted a real fully functioning larger library branch. so the renovation money that the mayor mentioned was for that particular effort. but that six years past time and we've moved on and we've

had extensive community input and community meeting along with multiple departments put ining dig effort to come up with selection of the site that the community stands behind. so they did an analysis of multiple location that's could be the future home of the future library. parcel d, or 100 arasaba was the best that met the criteria for the site. we will hear from public works today. at the time, there were concerns raised by some community members about traffic and pedestrian safety, we worked to conduct traffic studies at the location in order to identify way to see make the site more pedestrian friendly and to install traffic

common changes to alter traffic behavior along brotherhood way. i have a letter from director tumlin, that states funding planning and implementation can be fully independent of any adjacent land use changes including sighting of the san francisco branch at this location. those studies are still under way and i have spoken with director of the who said she is ready to fund short-term improvement for pedestrian safety. we're waiting for the mta to submit their application for funding and i'm in conversation with director tumlin for that. the cost of library was 47 million dollars. according to then library cfo heather greene.

identified at 25.5 million dollars gap for the ocean view library. there was and 35 million dollars there in the library fund and we went to work. colleagues as you may recall, we all worked tirelessly past review of the renovation, in april 18, 2022 a letter to the library commission he identified that the budgeeter for the new library branch would be funded by the renewal of the library preservation fund. that's why i was the lead sponsor at the renew of the supervisors. so the 47 million dollars price tag in 2020, has undoubtedly gone up a bit. but we have the money a year ago to start the library, it was fully funlded according to estimate that's were provided and as every one knows including

colleagues here and others, we never start projects in the city. and and we never wait to start projects in the city until we have full funding. if we have 75 more funding we begin the work, the soft cost, the architecture and all the other work putting a bid package together for constructions. and so i have a correspondence from director, and of course, prior to this budget cycle we were working with city liberian and public works director as well as the city attorney's office to discover the transfer of land as of september 2022, and i ofk responded for michael lambert that states he recently met with director short to discuss the property transfer, public works is researching what they've done in the past for effectuating transfers and city owned property.

however, by june of 23, all the conversation of transfer halted and public hearings in june, 16, 2023, and june 22, 2023, the library refused to commit to the brother waste site as they had put money funding for. and then, with regard to putting money in reserve, we did not want allow waste of resources and put the balance of funding on reserve until there was more clarity. so i'm just going to end folks with saying, that what changed between september 22, and 2023 was that the mayor, unfortunately stepped in and pushed the liberian to look for alternative sites. going against the will of the community and the work that we had done to lay the groundwork

for an extensive and neighborhood reasonable serving library. that would go from the smallest to the largest library. so rather than wasting anymore time, city resources and confusing the community, that's why i introduced this piece of legislation today. we wasted enough time, i know that there is members of the community that have said that this is one of the things that they want to see get done as, as a centerpiece of the work that they've done and dedicate today san francisco before, before they move on to the next world and i don't want to die, i think that's a negative way to look at it. but i know people have said in meetings, i know i want to see this get done before i die. so the vision for a larger replacement branch aligns well with san francisco's declared emphasis on racial equity that this brand would serve a

historic under served community, under resources community and it has strong political senses, fund sufficient and enough to advance the construction of this library. and that was a quote from the cfo of the library at the time, so i could not have said it better myself. thank you for sponsoring this and thank you super ronen for sponsoring this and set the record straight. and as this legislation moves forward, i know that we have strong consensus in the community for this library. and when i say community, i say those that have been working and fighting in district 11. i know that there may be some concern from neighbors that are not part of the district 11 community and i respect that. but at the same time, this has to be a conversation driven by those fighting in the community for years. so, that's about it.

i don't want to waste anymore taxpayer money on looking for alternative locations. and i think this is the time that we pass this legislation and move forward. and we continue and i look forward to working with the mayor and the community on this and seeing this project move forward. i think we're going to go now real quickly to dbw, so that they can just give us a short presentation on how the site selection was done. do you guys have a presentation? or here just to answer questions. maybe i'll just ask you a couple of questions before we go to public comment. can you talk us through about a little bit about the concept design and how the site was actually chosen and what process you went through? i know you looked at 5 locations along brotherhood way. >> good morning, supervisors,

i'm andy i'm from san francisco public works, i'm an architect, this is julia she is our bureau manager. we've been working with the community and with the library since 2018 on looking at a new branch for ocean view. it started out with the feasibility study of the three branch libraries that were not part of the improvement bond and that was oceanview, china town and mission libraries. they originally budgeted 8 million dollars to renovate the oceanview library which was built in the--the bond program was around 2000 and that library was a new brlg. building, once we got into the process, we heard from the community many of which are here that were at this meeting

that they wanted a larger branch that renovating the larger branch would not be sufficient. the library took that heart and ramped up their fund anding committed to a new library. at the time, we we wanted to do the project on city owned land. and public open space is city owned land that through a permit would work for a library. supervisor safai you were part of that, as well as our director of public works at the time in looking at the sites. and then we did a feasibility study in 2019 that evaluated the sites on way that would

have--and we established criteria, this is that report. we established the cry tier for option 2, and that is the history of the proter hood waste site. one of the drivers was that it was city owned land. >> i'm going to have the clerk put that on the screen. you can look, the two out of the five options but maybe you can talk about the decision making. it was closer to randall street than other sites that we looked at. it was a less sleep sites, there were numerous sites back on that open space that would

require walking up steeper hill, so this was seen as closer, the m train makes a turn down near by. >> yes, it's a block and a half from the train. and >> and there is a bus right there and it's a gateway to the location of the neighborhood. >> i just want to add, out of all the other green space, cross the street, you have dog park, you have an area where a lot of seniors use the flat area, south of wherewith it says brotherhood and north where it says alameda, they use that for ti chi and you say synergy. >> there is a sisterhood

garden, a dog park, there is a potential for synergy with other future partnerships that may happen in the same location. but during that, that study, concerns were raised. and the library reached out to mt a to address the concerns to look at one of the initiaters for that. >> great, i think you've covered everything. if there is any questions, i'll call you back up. chair, i'll just end with saying, i think we public works put significant time and effort ta and mta put in effort and we do have the ability to make some short-term and long term

improvement and i do think that is important. but it is also important to note that it's a block from the m-line, it's a block from the bus line and we do have the ability to engage and inter account and have some cok tiffity with some of the uses. so if it's okay with you, can we go to public comment? unless you have anything to say. >> mr. clerk, can we open this up to public comment? >> clerk: yes, anybody wishing to speak, line up at this time and approach the podium.

>> good morning, do you want me to start? >> i'm liz, and we are part of the omi collaborative. we have 6 aging, i work for the aging division, we have four programs within that neighborhood. we would love to see a larger library to be able to host events, presentations and activities for inter generational activities, part of our, our client, the goal for our clients is to prevent isolation. so it's getting them out to our programs, we have a senior center and i think that would be, it's always wonderful fit when you plan and zoo how beneficial inter generational activities can be. and we're part of the, like i said, we're part of the i'm here representing part of the omi community collaborative.

we all work together, we all do different services and we're happy to be part of it. >> speaker: hello there, two months ago, i was fired up because i went to a meeting about increased funding and services. and now two months later, we were told that there is no money for both but yet, we have money for projects and being locked into a certain plan. putting a library in a green belt by people who game they're an environmentalist. so i think, we should reconsider the whole idea. but you're going to put a new library, you build on a community that is already there. there is no reason for this library possible built in a new

area, chopping down trees and creating a traffic more of a nightmare, spending two million dollars on altering traffic restructure. while we have people scrounging for food in the city and fentanyl crisis, this is what we're spending millions on. thanks. >> speaker: my name is anne marie noic, i'm not important except that i vote and i pay taxed and born avenue avenuians. soif a lot of personal investment in making you're communities drive. i'm part of a community center that has book club.

during covid the community center got flooded the and oceanview library said, come and meet here. and we were able to continue that book club for senior citizens, a mixed group that was able to have conversations, it's become from 3 people who hesitated with showing up with covid to 12 people. but the room was full. there was a person that came for another event and came to our room because she thought it must be up here because that's where everybody here. the library branch was already crowded. we need a new place, we have the property, we have the site identified, we have the plans in place, we have the funding, we need to make sure to provide impotus to build this library

now, because the community is growing, there are more families in it and there is diverse community that can be served and as a result we can make san francisco a better place, starting with a forgotten neighborhood like ours. thank you. >> speaker: hello, thank you foreseeing us today. my name is renard, i'm the founder of youth first and the president of invest blafjt i'm also a community resident in district 11. so i was a part of along with somebody else said it in the gallery, a part of the first library that was built, by willy brown who supported us. and everything that was said was true, we built that library because we needed something to bring positivity to our neighborhood.

so we've out grown that library. i run youth programs, we use the library every wednesday, we have to go in shifts with our children, because the library is not big enough. so we go in wednesday because one day the daycare that is across the street, went on a tuesday, we go on a tuesday. the field trip was canceled because it could not hold us all. we should not have to take shifts for our children to learn and grow. our neighborhood is under served, everywhere you look. we don't have a lot of place to see put a library but people were talking about this and that and we get all that as community members. we built a whole new neighborhood, homes that are not affordable hoer san franciscans, but we build a whole neighborhood. but we cannot build a labor refor our kids to learn where

one day they can sit in the seats that you're sitting in. we have to find finances to keep our society going and we learn at libraries, we have to have access and opportunity for all. we need equity in our district, we need a library. thank you. >> speaker: supervisor, david oskin from the east side. people realize what a ridiculous site this is for a library, most what i heard is we need a library, right. but i have not heard about this terrible location. it's not central located, it's on an expressway, for god's sakes, what are you thinking? and you want to cut trees, are we still in the 1950s here.

and you look at 5 sites. and it sounds like you've already decided, right, all three of you have decided, so so much for public input. is that what you're really about? one message for all supervisors looking at the bigger picture, quit paving over open space. quit cutting trees in parks, quit building buildings in green belts. this, this is so 1950s. and as has been pointed out, to

get the library. by the way, are you listening or looking on your ipad? to cross, it uses five different cross walks. this library would be an attractive nuisance, people coming from the crossroads living center, would be in danger. >> clerk: thank you. are there any additional speakers on this matter? if there are any additional speakers, if you can line up at this time, it would be appreciated. >> speaker: good morning, supervisors i'm president of all my neighborhoods in action,

native san franciscan and 50 years homeowner in lakeview omi. i am here to ask for your support for supervisor's ordinance to support the library at the brotherhood site, it would help keep costs down and allow for community events and outdoor space for classroom and family activities. as you know, we have this small library and smallest school age children with two elementary schools at that site. the library is a valuable resource and hopefully also, will be a cooling center during a heat wave. the longer we wait, the more this library is going to cost. we have looked at multiple locations, but this is the best site for children's terrance, outdoor children's activity, a

modern library connected to outdoor space and community does not want a church nonprofit library combination that does not work for us. please vote for the brotherhood with traffic and safety improvements. we tried to do our part by voting for prop f for libraries. this saturday, my husband and i had a chance to go to the open spouse at the oceanview library, there is a couple of dozen people and it was packed, it was, this was no room. there is no room for a whole classrooms to come, you have to come, it has to come in stages. and i hope you support this ordinance for our community and our children. we don't even have a bookstore.

>> next speaker. >> my name is eric, i live near by the library frequently. i'm with merced triangle neighborhood association, i'm on the executive board. and i think my main concern is traffic. i have many concerns, and i agree with the need for the new library, it's very restricted right now. this is one of the toughest intersection sxz one of the most highly trafficked. it seems like we're putting the library right in a hotspot and it does not make sense to me. especially when we have possibilities that would be

right there at the m-line. there is a street, that has a long history that is zoned commercial and has easy access for the m-line. so, that seems like a pedestrian friendly site where as putting it on this major expressway, to me is at least very concerning. >> hello i'm len rogers and of course you've already made up your mind regarding this project, could you keep quiet. anyway, what i would like to say regarding this project is that, the church, pilgrim

community search and their leity support the search site. the idea of have thing earthquake fall organic soils and on a green belt, you know, is, to say easily a bad idea. sagmore street, 45 miles the traffic comes down that particular street, different times of the year. the sun blinds the drivers and they cannot see. and this is where the children are going to be crossing the street. however the site has two wonderful handicap ramps 20 feet away from where the library and the it book and the

church would be located. transportation food. and music for their residents. and they need to, a shot in the arm in order to have that become a better place for the community. and, that, you know, a dog park is not synergy okay. we have to have other numerous places that do have coffee shops. >> clerk: speaker time has elapsed. >> speaker: hi, my name is andy rice i'm a resident of oceanview. i agree with the last couple of speakers what they said, but i

would like to add that, the site at the on the green belt, there is two reasons that i'm against this site. one is i really don't want to see the green belt disappear. and the other is that, the it's not accessible to a lot of us who live in the neighborhood. it's, it's not a steep hill but it's a hill down to the area, it's a hill back to the area to where we all live. i would like to see it where people can have it for sk sesable. --accessible. thank you. >> clerk: thank you, are there any other speakers? i believe there are no additional speakers on this matter. >> seeing none, public comment is now closed. supervisor walton. >> thank you so much chair

ronen. i just have a few comments, the first thing i want to say s libraries are extremely important to communities and particularly to families and communities without means. this is how a lot of people receive access to knowledge, a lot of people receive access to technology. this is a space where people get to meet, and community building, education for young people, spaces for seniors to meet. and the good thing about public libraries is they belong to every one. and the resource that's they provide and opportunities that they provide, if there is ever a cost, most certainly is fordable. --affordable. and to have a site identified in this city where land is

scarce for opportunities like this. this is something that important and something that i cannot ignore because there has been resourced already committed. and for my stand point, i would never tell a community that their opinion is not important. that their opinion about where something should go particularly isolated communities, communities that have not received certain level of equity over the years, and that's part of the problem when people don't listen to our communities of color, isolated communities that speak up for themselves, there is always somebody telling them what it is. and there is a first time for everything. so many people suffer from

digital divide, and in some cases, the only place where people can receive the technological opportunities that some people have and the privilege of their own home, a lot of communities don't have that. and again, hearing from dpw, knowing that there was a process of input, of having conversation wz members of the community, we can't say that they don't deserve that they want something that is so precious to the community. i didn't plan on anything saying to thed, because i thought this hearing from the communities, listening to the input from the department, having conversations i thought this was something that, really made sense to push forward on. but i did want to let everybody know where i stand and why i stand in this space. so thank you chair ronen and

thank you supervisor safai for bringing this to rules today. >> thank you, supervisor walton, i'm going to end with a few words, is that okay? >> absolutely, go ahead. >> so i want to say for the record, for this particular phase of the library, there is been five years of community process, okay. multiple community input, by some of the architects have been deeply involved in the process. i think that's a important concern. i literally i was just texting with the head of the director of mta and head of transportation authority, they literally have money right now, they're waiting for the application to put to do some

immediate pedestrian safety issues, some of the longer term ideas would be configuration of ways there that would slow the traffic down further. that would be more input. but i cannot emphasize enough and you heard from a youth servicing program, and seniors that are book club, people have to wait outside to get into the library right now. we can't serve our community with this library. if we could, we would have gone for the renovation, but we're talking about 9,000 square feet. it's going to be over 20,000

square feet, 25,000, it will literally serve an area. but some of the southeast part of san francisco. and, by the way, for those of you afraid of having people come into the neighborhood, that's okay, we will accommodate. we will use the trains, we will use pedestrians, we will use alternative forms of transportation, there will be a little bit of parking onsite, there will be a drop off area. and supervisor walton and i joke about this a lot, we have planted about 3000 trees since 2011, i'm okay with giving up a couple of trees for a neighborhood library, in this instance.

and i think green space should be shaken, i'm one of those people. that's what i think is important to note. and the last thing saying, the idea of colocating, that sounds like years and years down the road. that's more waiting for more funding. the library preservation fund can only be used for libraries. that money can't be taken and used for any of the other ills that we have in san francisco that were identified. this money by voter mandate and renewed by voter mandate with only be used to build and serve libraries. so we have 35 million dollars there that we will identify new and if they sell the location of the current library that will go towards this library

so. we have a lot of things in motion to build this neighborhood library, so colleagues i ask for your support today. thank you chair ronen on this agenda and i think it's a committee report. >> i would like to make a motion to forward this to the full body as a recommendation. >> thank you and before i ask for a vote, i just wanted to add my two cents which is, when there is a five-year long community process, to move the ball after that process has gone through, just does not make sense to me. and as it is, it takes so long to accomplish these major neighborhood infrastructure needs and i see libraries as infrastructure to start all over again, would just be so disappointing in every way shape or form. with that, can we have a roll

call vote on the item. >> clerk: yes on the motion to recommend the matter to the board as committee report, vice chair walton. >> aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> clerk: chair ronen. >> aye. >> clerk: the motion passes without objection. >> that passes unanimously. mr. clerk, do you have any additional items on the agenda? >> clerk: there are no additional items on the agenda. >> the meeting is adjourned.

>> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area.

i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family.

growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we

characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people

really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of

need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to

care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the prospective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early

childhood credits before i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand

into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary.

>> i started the o was with a financing and had a business partner all ended up wanting to start the business and retire and i did was very important to me so i bought them oust and two weeks later the pandemic h-4 one of the moments i thought to myself we have to have the worse business in a lifetime or the

best. >> we created the oasis out of a need basically so other people bars and turning them into a space and when the last place we were performing wasn't used turned those buildings into condos so we decided to have a space. >> what the pandemic did for us is made us on of that we felt we had to do this immediately and created this. >> (unintelligible). >> where we would offer food delivery services with a curbside professionalism live music to bring spectacular to

lives we are going through and as well as employ on the caterers and the performers and drivers very for that i think also for everyone to do something. we had ordinary on the roof and life performances and with a restaurant to support the system where we are and even with that had terribly initiative and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt had to pay our rent we decided to have an old-fashioned one we created club hours where you can watch to online and or be on the phone and raised over one quarter of a million dollar that of incredible and something that

northbound thought we could do. >> we got ourselves back and made me realize how for that people will show up if i was blown away but also had the courage but the commitment now i can't let anyone down i have to make the space serviceable so while this is a full process business it became much more about a space that was used by the community. and it became less about starting up a business and more about the heart of what we're doing. this building used to be a- and one of the first one we started working on had we came out what a mural to wrap the building and took a while but able to raise

the money and pay 5 artists to make a design around many this to represent what is happening on the side and also important this is who we are this is us putting it out there because satisfies other people we don't realize how much we affect the community around there when he i want to put that out there and show up and show ourselves outside of those walls more fabulous. and inspires other people to be more fabulous and everyone want to be more fabulous and less hatred and hostility and that is how we change the

>> good morning the meeting will come to order. welcome to the january 31, 2024 meeting of the budget and finance committedee i'm connie chan, chair. and joined by mandelman and supervisor melgar. our clerk is brent jalipa and like to thank sfgov.org james. do you have announcements. >>. yes. to those here silence devices