street >> 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 reallhave 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 watching 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. we grabbed every 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 experimental intersections differ from the 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 we 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]

>> >> >> my name is alex sinclair of willow on the green in san francisco. we are the only british tea shop on the west coast and focused on high quality luxury goods from the u.k. and we have teas and baked goods. we came up with the name because willow is made with baskets and the parklett, a willow green and that is a picnic in the park. i have come up with the idea because i have lived in the neighborhood for a year.

seven years ago we had a tea shop. during covid we needed to have a new flavor and rejuvenate the business. we are between two beautiful businesses. i realized with the shop opening next to the bakery, we had a beautiful tea shop in the area. we started with british teas and want to support local tea makers in the local area. and once you have cheese and biscuits need tea and jam and lemon curd and chocolate and all of these parts basically imported from the u.k. our most popular products come from wales. it's an extra cheddar and next popular product is a jam made with alpine strawberry.

so you get a taste of a nice strawberry. this is about supporting cheese makers and business in the area and women-owned businesses around the world and always want to support the community. we support concerts, we support charities and come to the aid to those in need such as the british society and the san francisco society and the -- >> if you have never had british cheese, i recommend you come in on weekend. all of our staff are highly knowledgeable of all of our products and we are really passionate about what we do here and gives you a chance to explore our culture and food and our values. i encourage you to come to the

inner sunset with a beautiful park to be young and academy of sciences here. come to the shop. we have beautiful baskets and blankets so you can enjoy this wonderful nature and you can support these wonderful businesses out here. >>(music). >> today wire he emergency operations center for england with one activation so oversight board that one of the many activations have locations which probably has between to one hundred people at this time 340r7b 25 different city

departments and hundreds of partner local partners and straight and fell partners we're in the echg a critical consultant of emergency center and surcharged with the single voice communicating with media about all issues with the apec and go a lot of preparation went into stemming up this e oc and little actuated managing things as they come up and the people in the room and making sure that everyone is in the next step and doing count work of a single set of objectives with a single idealogy in mind many is having an apec that runs smoothly. >> i basically organ the agency projects and um, whatever this is in-person, transmissions have

(unintelligible) to we're never (unintelligible) i will get a response right now and (unintelligible). >> please check in. >> my role here in the agency to help the cooperation and the way to do that is by sharing information corresponding activities and some cases requesting additional resources when the cfo steady the property of the departments working at the moment and one of the first agencies that was called the energy planning for the agency that we do streets and pipes and others involving a to point b. >> and this activation there

are parts of the city cut off limited access points and information is sometimes confusing and so the information that not necessarily always refined for their knowledge and this activation is different from the activation we're waiting for something to happen if or if we don't have the resources available we we have to piecemeal it because 6 departments we are able to make things happen and from my department is the 9-1-1 features and be able services which runs the emergency operation center where we are right now. >> by insuring the rights of people to exposure the first amendment rights our job we don't want people to think that because the federal government was coming into town that for federal government will be

cracking detain on protesters looking to demonstrate and also the law enforcement partners insures that people could do that while keeping everyone safe and something we are doing. >> the jet has responder to over two had the and advising people of the impacts and plan for delays and plan their travel of entertainment commission and wounding to do that without people. >> what is happening on event like this people love individually and because they find integrity in themselves that didn't go know was there and have to rise to occasion they didn't know they'd have to and really across the board for us and the city to make us a

better city. >> and really a good learning experience xrefrns city augment but amazing departments across the city working together or working together in the same room and part of this in a meaningful way it everyone is united truly everyone. >> what we do matters a lot of i can't take credit. >> when i'm done with that all we can tie the bow on that and send it off. >> i'm he getting an opportunity to find it exciting that's what we're here to do to serve the city we love and wanting really great learning experience. >> extremely rewarding and the great relationships with the people

>> i don't want to be involved in the process after it happens. i want to be there at the front end to help people with something in my mind from a very early age. our community is the important way to look at things, even now. george floyd was huge. it opened up wounds and a discussion on something festering for a long time.

before rodney king. you can look at all the instances where there are calls for change. i think we are involved in change right now in this moment that is going to be long lasting. it is very challenging. i was the victim of a crime when i was in middle school. some kids at recess came around at pe class and came to the locker room and tried to steal my watch and physically assaulted me. the officer that helped afterwards went out of his way to check the time to see how i was. that is the kind of work, the kind of perspective i like to have in our sheriff's office regardless of circumstance. that influenced me a lot. some of the storefronts have changed. what is mys is that i still see some things that trigger memories. the barbershop and the shoe store is another one that i

remember buying shoestrings and getting my dad's old army boots fixed. we would see movies after the first run. my brother and i would go there. it is nice. if you keep walking down sacramento. the nice think about the city it takes you to japan town. that is where my grandparents were brought up. that is the traditional foods or movies. they were able to celebrate the culture in that community. my family also had a dry-cleaning business. very hard work. the family grew up with apartments above the business. we have a built-in work force. 19 had 1 as -- 1941 as soon as that happened the entire community was fixed.

>> determined to do the job as democracy should with real consideration for the people involved. >> the decision to take every one of japan niece american o japanese from their homes. my family went to the mountains and experienced winter and summer and springs. they tried to make their home a home. the community came together to share. they tried to infuse each home are little things. they created things. i remember my grand mother saying they were very scared. they were worried. they also felt the great sense of pride. >> japanese americans.

>> my granduncle joined the 442nd. when the opportunity came when the time that was not right. they were in the campaign in italy. they were there every step of the way. >> president truman pays tribute. >> that was the most decorated unit in the history of the united states army. commitment and loyal to to the country despite that their families were in the camp at that time. they chose to come back to san francisco even after all of that. my father was a civil servant as well and served the state of california workers' compensation attorney and judge and appellate board. my parents influenced me to look at civil service s.i applied to

police, and sheriff's department at the same time. the sheriff's department grabbed me first. it was unique. it was not just me in that moment it was everyone. it wasn't me looking at the crowd. it was all of us being together. i was standing there alone. i felt everyone standing next to me. the only way to describe it. it is not about me. it is from my father. my father couldn't be there. he was sick. the first person i saw was him. i still sometimes am surprised by the fact i see my name as the sheriff. i am happy to be in the position i am in to honor their memory doing what i am doing now to

help the larger comment. when i say that we want to be especially focused on marginalized communities that have been wronged. coming from my background and my family experienced what they did. that didn't happen in a vacuum. it was a decision made by the government. nobody raised their voice. now, i think we are in a better place as country and community. when we see something wrong we have change agents step up to help the community affected. that is a important thing to continue to do. you talk about change and being a leader in change and not knowing whether you have successes or results. the fact of the matter is by choosing to push for change you have already changed things. through inspiration for others, take up the matter or whether it is through actual functional

change as a result of your voice being heard. i think you have already started on a path to change by choosing that path. in doing that in april of itself creates change. i continue in that type of service for my family. something i hope to see in my children. i have a pretty good chance with five children one will go into some sort of civil service. i hope that happens to continue that legacy. >> i am paul, sheriff of san francisco. [ music ]

>> you are watching san francisco rising. a special guest today. >> i am chris and you are watching san francisco rising. focused on rebuilding and reimagining our city. our guest is the director of financial justice in the san francisco office of treasure to

talk about how the city has taken a national lead in this effort and how the program is comlishing the goals. welcome to the show. >> thanks so much for having me. >> thank you for being here. can we start by talking about the financial justice project in a broad sense. when did the initiative start and what is the intent? >> sure. it launched in 2016. since then we take a hard look at fines, fees, tickets, financial penalties hitting people with low incomes and especially people of color really hard. it is our job to assess and reform these fines and fees. >> do you have any comments for people financially stressed? >> yes. the financial justice project was started in response pop community outcry about the heavy

toll of fines and fees. when people struggling face an unexpected penalty beyond ability to pay they face a bigger punishment than originally intended. a spiral of consequences set in. a small problem grows bigger. for example the traffic ticket this is california are hundreds of dollars, most expensive in the nation. a few years back we heard tens of thousands in san francisco had driver's licenses suspended not for dangerous driving but because they couldn't afford to pay traffic tickets or miss traffic court date. if they lose the license they have a hard time keeping their job and lose it. that is confirmed by research. we make it much harder for people to pay or meet financial obligations. it is way too extreme of penalty for the crime of not being able to pay. we were also hearing about

thousands of people who were getting cars towed. they couldn't pay $500 to get them back and were losing their cars. at the time we hand people a bill when they got out of jail to pay thousands in fees we charged up to $35 per day to rent electronic ankle monitor, $1,800 upfront to pay for three years of monthly $50 probation fees. people getting out of jail can't pay these. they need to get back on their feet. we weren't collecting much on them. it wasn't clear what we were accomplishing other than a world of pain on people. we were charging mothers and grandmothers hundreds of dollars in phone call fee to accept calls from the san francisco jail. we heard from black and brown women struggling to make

terrible choices do. i pay rent or accept this call from my incarcerated son. the list goes on and on. so much of this looked like lose-lose for government and people. these penalties were high pain, hitting people hard, low gain. not bringing in much revenue. there had to be a better way. >> it is important not to punish people financially there. are issues to address. >> sure. there are three core principles that drive our work. first, we believe we should be able to hold people accountable without putting them in financial distress. second you should not pay a bigger penalty because your wallet is thinner. $300 hits doctors and daycare workers differently.

they can get in a tailspin, they lose the license. we dig them in a hole they can't get out of. these need to be proportioned to people's incomes. third. we should not balance the budget on the backs of the poorest people in the city. >> financial justice project was launched in 2016. can you talk about the accomplishments? >> sure sometimes it is to base a fine on the ability to pay. consequences proportional to the offense and the person. other times if the fee's job is to recoupe costs primarily on low-income people. we recommend elimination. other times we recommend a different accountability that does not require a money payment. here are a few examples. we have implemented many sliding

scale discounts for low-income people who get towed or have parking tickets they cannot afford. you pay a penalty according to income. people with low incomes pay less. we also became the first city in the nation to stop suspending people's licenses when they could not pay traffic tickets. we focused on ways to make it easier for people to pay through payment plans, sliding discounts and eliminating add on fees to jack up prices of tickets. this reform is the law of the land in california. it has spread to 23 other states. we also stopped handing people a bill when they get out of jail and eliminated fees charged to people in criminal justice system. they have been punished in a lot of ways. gone to jail, under supervision, the collection rate on the fees was so low we weren't bringing in much revenue.

the probation fee collection rate was 9%. this reform has become law from california and is spreading to other states. we made all calls from jail free. the more incarcerated people are in touch with families the better they do when they get out. it was penny wise and pound foolish. now phone calls are free. incarcerated people spend 80% more time in touch where families. that means they will do better when they get out. we eliminated fines for overdue library books. research shows were locking low income and people of color out of libraries. there are better ways to get people to return books, e-mail reminders or automatically renew if there is no one in line for it. this has spread to other cities

that eliminated overdue library fines. these hold people accountable but not in financial distress can work better for government. local government can spend more to collect the fees than they bring in. when you proportion the fine with income they pay more readily. this impact can go down and revenues can go up. >> i know there is an initial group that joined the project. they had a boot camp to introduce the program to large audience. is this gaining traction across the country? >> yes 10 cities were selected to launch the fines for fee justice. they adopted various reforms like we did in san francisco. as you mentioned we just hosted a boot camp in phoenix, arizona.

teams of judges and mayors came from 50 cities to learn how to implement reforms like we have in san francisco. there is a growing realization the penalties are blunt instruments with all kinds of unintended consequences. it is the job of every public servant to find a better way. governance should equalize opportunity not drive inequality. >> quite right. thank you so much. i really appreciate you coming on the show. thank you for your time today. >> thank you, chris. >> that is it for this episode. we will be back shortly. you are watching san francisco rising. thanks for watching.

>> good morning everyone. the meeting will come to order. this is january 29, 2024 rules committee meeting and supervisor hillary ronan chair of the committee joined by committee member supervisor safai our clerk is victor young and i like to thank james from sfgovtv for broadcasting the meeting. mr. clerk doia have announcements? >> yes, public comment will be taken on each item. when your item comes up and public comment is called line up to speak. you may submit public comment in writing. e-mail