>> good morning. the meeting will come to order. this is march 4, 2024 rules committee meeting. i'm supervisor ronan and joined by supervisor walton and safai. our clerk is victor young and like to thank jaime from sfgovtv for broadcasting this meeting. mr. clerk, do you have any

announcements? >> public comment will be taken on each item on the agenda. when your item comes up and public comment is called please line up to speak on your right. you may submit public comment in writing, e-mail to myself at victor.young at sfgov.org. if you submit public comment via e-mail it will be included as part of the file. may also send to city hall, 1 dr. carlton b goodlett place. please silence cell phones and electronic devices. documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda march 12, 2024 unless otherwise stated. that completes my announcements. >> thank you. can you please read item 1? >> hearing 1 to consider

appointing 6 members terms ending june 6, 2025 to the immigrant rights commission. >> we have several candidates here today so we'll ask you to come up one by one to make comments and if you can keep your comments around two minutes that would be fantastic. we are so grateful to have you here today and so grateful for this really important work. so, first, i'm going to call up aseel fara. and please correct me if i pronounced your name incorrectly. >> you said it perfectly. thank you so much. >> good morning. >> good morning supervisors. peace and blessings upon you all. it is privilege to stand before you. i'm a 24 year old first generation of my family. i want to san francisco state university and received a

degree in political science, and a son of immigrants and would not be who i am if not for my father. my father had to sell everything he had to bring my family and i into the country. i often asked him why take such a risk and he would say aseel, it is for your education so indebted to my father and thankful of the experiences and blessings i learned from him. regardic my qualification, i like to speak about my work in peace organizing and then my work within our beloved san francisco tenderloin neighborhood. i'm founder of urgent care for yemen, which is a organization that delivered fresh water along with aid pract packages. [indiscernible] national legislation and both of those

capacities and advocate for peace and diplomacy in u.s. foreign policies and work along with other individuals also advocating for peace in their homeland. regarding the tenderloin, people when they think tenderloin it is mostly negative thoughts but i have a lot of pride for the tl and i grew up in the tl. turk and hyde used to be the epicenter of dug dealing and drug use and looks like a better block now because of stewardship. many immigrants have to face the same story now and the words need to be elevated which is why i'm pursuing the commission. under the youth tenderloin district i was the youth-open spaces effected by covid-19 hosting community events for immigrant youth and families.

convening youth focused discussion with community and city stakeholders. advocating for inclusion of transitional age youth and high level community resource guide. as of right now, my current role lie s with san francisco planning, part of the community equity division and working on the tenderloin action plan. our mission is bring the tenderloin community voice into action and transform action into realty through investments and that requires a lot of on the ground work. so, i want to thank you again for your consideration. the last thing i'll say is, i know we are living a very polarized times which is i believe that it is important now more then ever that our commission reflects the diversity of our community, which is why i'm pursuing the commission and look forward embracing the task with courage, determination, knowing together we can build a better

future. happy to answer any questions you may have. thanks again. >> thank you so much. colleagues, are there any questions? nope. i just want to thank you so much. that was such a impressive presentation and i'm really really excited that you're willing to do this incredibly important work. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. sure, go ahead. >> i had the situation of having dinner with aseel saturday noit. a great opportunity to talk with him, so super excited about his application here today and i think the work he's doing in the tenderloin and with immigrant communities, particularly his own will really inform the work he does for the immigrant rights commission, so welcome. very happy to support you. >> thank you so much for that. next we have celine kennelly,

who is returning and done incredible work for many years for the immigrant commission so great to see you. >> thank you so much supervisor ronan. good to be with you all this morning. it is my honor and privilege and pleasure to serve on the immigrant right commission since 2012, so quite some time. currentsly serve in the role of the board of commission chair. the work of the commission in my time on the commission has grown, it has expanded, it developed and i'm delighted to have been part that work. we have a phenomenal active dedicated committed and engaged commission. the breath of issues brought to the commission by my fellow commissioner jz we have been in the position to move forward on have been quite significant. highlights from the last couple years, including, special hearings on workforce development for immigrant

workerss, the needs of the lgbtq ia plus immigrants. immigrant perspective on housing near and dear to my fellow commissioner jz working on a report out from the hearing. hearings on the language access ordinance. we had great privilege working closely with supervisor walton's office and look forward continuing that partnership moving forward in the coming weeks. and of course we have had our immigrant leadership awards for the past couple years. we are delighted to be back in person this past june and it has given a opportunity to lift up the voices within our community to highlight the work they do and to give them a platform before the public. the commission has been-is placed within the office of civic engagement and immigrant affair jz i want to thank

director rivas and all the team for commitment and dedication they have to work of the commission, but also to the immigrant community in san francisco for the guidance and leadership that they give to the commission as we aim to push barriers, aim to push boundaries and aim to push things forward. our commission-very excited to see two new applicants for the two vacancies on the commission. we are always looking for new interested engaged individuals and our first applicant was fantastic. i would also like to on behalf of my fellow commissioners who are not here today, to thank them for their service and i do look forward to having the opportunity to continue to work with them in the next. it is a honor to serve on the commission. we are always delighted to be in a position to provide feedback, guidance and advice to the board and to the mayor and i look forward to doing this in the future.

if you have any questions, i'm happy to ask. >> i don'ts think so, just a deep deep thank you for your decades long work in this important commission and during critical critical moments and we are in another one of those critical moments, so to have you there is-and have your history you know, going through the pandemic, going through the trump presidency, going through the boarder crisis that we are in, just thank you so much being there throughout it all. >> thank you very much. >> thank you celine for your tremendous work over the last decade plus. just want to say one thing we have seen in the city over the last year and a half is people trying to scapegoat immigrants,

trying to point to them for many problems in our city, and say that they are the cause or dealing with them in a very punitive manner would help solve some of the problems of san francisco. just wanted to highlight that. appreciate the work that you've done and insure that the work that you'll continue to be a strong voice protecting immigrants and shining the light on all the positive work we do in san francisco will remain a refuge for immigrant as it always has been, so thank you for being such a strong voice for that and i wanted to highlight that because we have seen that rear its uglehead in the chambers. policies, conversations by some members of the board and some other members of the public, so just wanted to underscore that because of all the phenomenal work you do. thank you. >> thank you very much supervisor. >> next three applicants lucia obregon, mario paz and sarah

souza, 3 leaders in the community that served on the immigrant right commission quite some time and done a fantastic job are not here, but my understanding is directive rivas wanted to say a few words on their behalf. >> good morning board members. chair ronan. thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. my name is [indiscernible] director of the office of civic engagement immigrant affairs and secretary to immigrant rights commission. before i read their statements that they submitted, i want to also just thank the commissioners who have partnered moving the work forward and it has been-- [audio cutting in and out] i want the support the reappointments today. i'll start with commissioner

obregon statement so it is in the record. dear members of the rules committee. please accept my sincere apologies not present in person. never the less, i'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to be heard. my name is lucia obregon. [indiscernible] serving on the commission the past 4 years have been an immensely rewarding experience and i'm humbled to give the chance to continue my service. working alongside dedicated colleagues i have the honor to [indiscernible] the privilege listening to the stories of immigrant struggle and resilience and impactful. the narratives, [indiscernible] resinate deeply with my own immigrant experience. they serve as remindser of the boundless opportunities and

power of our city. i am deeply committed to continuing my service to our community and our city. the work i have undertaken not only enriched personal and professional growth and deepen ed my commitment to social justice and equity. [indiscernible] a member of the planning department equity council, i have been able to leverage my experiences on the commission to effect positive change in the city. i will be remiss if i did not express gratitude to the staff at ocf, [indiscernible] for their invaluable support and guidance stewarding the work of the commission. the dedication and hard work are commendable and i'm honored to have the opportunity to partner with them. i also [indiscernible] appreciation to fellow commissioners for dedication and collaboration. insight and expertise have been instrumental in my growth as a

professional advocate. i express gratitude to the rules committee considering my reappointment. it is honor to serve the city and hope for the opportunity to continue this important work. thank you for your time and consideration, sincerely lucia obregon. i'll move on reading commissioner paz statement. rules committee members, supervisors, hillary ronan, shamann walton and ahsha safai. [indiscernible] requesting consideration of approval of the reappointment to immigrant right commission seat 6. please accept my support for seat 7. seat 10, seat 11 and my colleagues have been demonstrated incredible leadership and dedication and deserving of your approval.

i'm grateful and proud oof the work we are accomplished together. i have done my best to include our collective work including san francisco language access ordinance, [audio cutting in and out] also work to protect and stand behind our policies as a lack of federal immigration reform further creates a hew mareten migrant crisis. i hope to continue contributing to our commission and our city as we face a national election year that create false narrative that [indiscernible] hate towards immigrants. san francisco has always been a beacon of light, speaks the truth and recognize the many contributions immigrants provide to our city and shared society. thank you for your consideration and support. sincerely yours, mario paz.

[indiscernible] she has been a very active member in the immigrant right commission and spearheaded a lot of work around immigrant [indiscernible] housing and also working closely with our office on immigrant economic and workforce opportunities as well. >> thank you so much for reading the statements and all your work. >> thank you. >> thank you. last but certainly not least we have jose ng. >> good morning supervisor, chair ronan, supervisor walton and supervisor safai and everyone in the house. my name is jose ng a immigrant from hong kong and lived in san francisco nearly 7 years now. i work as the immigrant rights program manager at [indiscernible] i'm here to seek consideration for immigrant rights commission. over the years i had the

privilege to lead directly engage in the san francisco immigrant community from assisting chinese immigrants assessing [indiscernible] privilege the work and lead the city wide coalition. [indiscernible] ( and the

immigration status. with that, i'm particularly interesting in exploring the immigrant right role from meaningfully participating in our society. particularly around language access issue and voting rights issue. thank you for your time and consideration for my appointment. happy to answer any questions. >> thank you so much and thank you applying for this seat. colleagues, do you have questions or comments? no. thank you very much for taking this on and again, another very impressive presentation. we are in good hands colleagues. first, before we make any motions, can we please open this item up for public comment? >> yes, members of the public

who wish to speak should line up to speak. each speaker will be allowed two minutes. there is a soft chimet with 30 seconds left and louder chime when your time expires. >> come join us. >> good morning. thank you for the opportunity to voice my support for jose ng as commissioner to the immigrant right commission. i oversee his work and in the last 6 and a half years i attest to the fitness for the immigrant community. as a immigrant fully bilingual in cantonese and mandarin, jose is effective leader. he leads community education programming around immigrant rights issues to insure chinese immigrants have access to the information they need such as

crucial changes to the immigration system. he built strong ties to local institutions such as san francisco unified school district, city college, major clineez media outlets feechards countless time and other community based organizations. if you walk around china town with jose it is like being with the captain football team. jose is department of justice representative as mentioned and he has been able to provide naturalization service to dozens if not hundreds of china town community members and provide councilitation and guidance to hubs more. jose is not only advocate for chinese members but multilingual [indiscernible] the immigrant voting collaborative and live dispatcher on the san francisco rapid response hotline. he understands the concerns and needs of san francisco

immigrant communities all over the world would be able to well represent those concerns and needs in constructive ways. jose is forward thinking and solution oriented and would be a great asis etto the commission. thank you. >> thank you so much. good morning. >> good morning supervisors. my name is vincent pan, the coexecutive director of chinese affirmative action and as my colleague just indicated, strong support the application of jose to the immigrant rights commission. i want to say on a personal note, jose is a steadfast advocate for community clients, insightful problem solver and worked hard to address the system barriers face to access and [indiscernible] grounded in the chinese community. jose helped lead our work in coalitions that bring immigrants and others together across language, class, race,

ethnicity and immigrant status. i'm confidence jose will serve with integrity, diligence, collegeality and thoughtfulness and believe of rights on all people regardless of immigration status. i encourage you to vote in favor of jose's application to the immigrant right commission and ca has been a real privilege to work with the immigrant right commission and office of civic engagement and immigrant afears many years and look forward continuing the partnership. they think. >> thank you so much. >> there does not appear to be additional public commenters. >> public comment is now closed. supervisor walton. >> thank you chair ronan. i just wanted to say thank you to all of the candidates, both the incumbents and also new candidates willing to step up and serve. i don't think people know how much time and work goes into

working on commissions here in san francisco, so one, always excited to be people willing to serve and two, excited about the fact that this works out perfect for us today in the math so we don't have extremely tough decision to make today. >> absolutely, and i'll just say that we have a tough time coming up before us. there is a election and in addition to that, there is just a crisis right now on the border where you don't see much difference between the candidates in terms of closing down the border and really going backwards in terms of our responsibility as a global community to grant asylum to people not safe in their own countries, so the work that you

are doing is as important as ever and will be going into the future, so thank you so much for taking this on and for serving this important role in our community. and with that, i would like to make a motion to appoint aseel fara to seat 4. mario paz seat 6. and lucia obregon to seat 11. >> thank you. on the motion to make the appointments as listed, vice chair walton, aye. supervisor safai, aye. my apologies, i like to back up a little bit. would you like to add residency waver for mario paz?

>> i would, please. >> thank you. on that revised motion, vice chair walton, aye. supervisor safai, aye chair ronan, aye. the motion passes without objection. >> passesue unanimously. thank you so much. please read itedm 2? >> ordinance amending the administrative code to create the legacy business assistance program. >> thank you so much. we have director katie tang and rick who has overseen this program since inception, so thank you both for being here. i'll pass it to you director tang. >> thank you. good morning supervisors and of course i certainly want to acknowledge a important cocreator of the legacy business program supervisor ronan along with supervisor compose. before you today is legislation and really i wanted to highlight the over arching goal

behind why we are trying to make changes to this program. really what we want to accomplish is to better support legacy businesses and help them stabilize. so, there are really two key changes that pertain specifically just to the rent stabilization grant program that we are making today. while preserving the integrity and goals of the overall legacy business program so just reemphasize, we will not be changing anything around who is eligible to become a legacy business or to get on the registry. happy to share that again, thanks to rick crilo the there are nearly 400 legacy businesses on the registry. the first change is we want to be able to require that landlords who participate and benefit from the rent stabilization grant program they share at least 50 percent of the grant they receive from

the city with the legacy business tenant. right now that is not a requirement and per rick, roughly 60 percent of the landlords do voluntarily share most or some of the are grants funds with the legacy business tenants and also this applies for only new applicants moving forward, so who ever benefited and already receiving the rent stabilization grant program, those program terms will not change. the second change is that we eliminate the special contingency provision landlords are allowed to include in their rent lease agreements. currently it allows a landlord to cancel legacy business lease if the landlord does not receive the $4.50 per square foot through the rent stabilization grant program so we want to remove that from the program as well. so, again, those two changes.

everything else remains the same. the legislation before you today creates a fund that allows us to make the two changes without going-having to change the measure that was before voters in 2015 through proposition j, while preserving all the other elements. we want to make sure integrity of the program is in tact. happy to answer questions and want to thank you supervisor ronan for champions with the program while with supervisor compos office and rick. >> thank you so much. supervisor walton. >> thank you. just a quick question directser tang. why didn't we make this retroactive for legacy businesses and landlords who already benefited? >> so, one we don't want to change program rules

mid-stream, but when you do receive a rent stabilization grant from the city, tb is multiyear grant so we didn't want to change that. say you are in year 4 out of 10, we didn't want to change a the rules midway because they sign on for a program that they thought had a very specific set of rules. >> thank you. >> thank you. i just wanted to thank you for this both of you. it makes a lot of sense and i just think you are both doing such a tremendous job and really having your ear to the ground and knowing the challenges some small businesses are facing in san francisco and constantly working to make changes to make it easier, because gosh, it isn't easy to run a small business in the city, so thank you both so much for your work and for this legislation and if i could be added as a cosponsor i appreciate that.

sorry ahsha, i did not see supervisor safai. >> thank you. i have a couple questions for the director of the small business program. can you come back up, please? so, the legacy business assistance program fund, how much money is in that fund? >> so, for the rent--talking about the rent stabilization grant program? >> just reading the legislation. >> i should mention in the creation of the fund we are creating a slightly different name only because administrately we want to keep track of the two different funds accounts. each year in our budget is $1 million for the rent stabilization grant program. >> so, the funds in the rent stabilization are the same thing? >> yes. >> okay. what are it the size of the grants that you offer? >> it really does depend, but it is a calculation of $4.50

per square feet. >> is there a cap on the size of the grant? >> yes, 5,000 square feet. >> so, $4.50 times 5,000 would be the cap? and many grants have you distributed since the creation of the fund? >> you mean since inception of the entire program? >> just this rent stabilization, how many people are in lease right now? >> 53 per rick or legacy business program manager. >> and are those-how are those distributed throughout san francisco? >> what happens is first, as a first step you have to become a legacy business and you have to fill out an application and be approved. go through the historic preservation commission and routed to small business commission and once approved by the small business commission, the landlord and the legacy business tenants apply together for the rent stabilization grant program.

>> i guess what i'm trying to understand, the grants themselves are to pay for rent, correct? >> so, it is actually incentive funding that would go to the landlord to incentivize them to sign either a new 10 year lease, renew a 10 year lease or 5 year lease with a 5 year option to extend up to 5 years, so again, something to motivate the landlord to sign on to a longer term lease. i'm sure chair ronan can speak to this much more deeply, but seeing issues with landlords not wanting to sign on a longer term lease fl long standing businesses. >> i can chime in on what was the original thinking behind that. at the time, many landlords were increasing rents really really high so the long-term legacy businesses were closeing down so it was a big hit to

neighborhoods all over the city, so the idea is, if we gave them an incentive to enter into long-term lease thrz is stability that relieve a lot of stress and pressure on small businesses, and so that's part of the original ordinance, not this change. this change would allow the city to require there be sharing between of the benefits that assistance between the landlord and the business itself. >> that makes sense. i appreciate that. i'm just reading the headlines under the legislation, it says grants to businesses directly and it says financial assistance to businesses and it says grants to landlords and it says financial and business assistance to landlords and of the legacy businesses, and then marketing promotion. this fund is to cover all those things? >> yes, we want the fund to be as flexible as possible so if

we receive additional funding sources we can easily use this fund to grant out funds to legacy business. >> right. and this by the way is a lot of what community benefits districts do in their areas, so this would be in addition to what community benefit districts are doing? >> not sure what you mean in terms of cbd. >> not just legacy business, they focus on the commercial corridors they are in and do financial assistance, they do do work with landlords, they do promotion, marketing, all these things, so-- >> at this moment, the only grants really-it is directly to--at this moment it is going to lands lords to stabilize legacy businesses so the intent is give some money to the legacy small business. >> is it specified-i didn't see it specified.

is that to help the business in any way to invest back in the business or could it be for rent? >> they can apply towards rent. but meant to help stabilize them. if there are particular needs that they have, it is really designed to be pretty flexible for them. >> got it. okay. great. i think it is a great program. i was just curious how you were envisioning it, how much money was put in it. a million dollars is just my calculation 5,000 square $5,000 square feet at $4.50 square foot is about $22 thousand a business. all that helps, particularly those that are struggling in a particular market. appreciate it. i like to be added as a cosponsor. thanks for answering those questions. >> thank you so much. and we can now open this item up for public comment. >> yes, members of the public who wish to speak should line

up to speak at this time. each speaker will be allowed two minutes. >> good morning. my name is calvin yan, representing supervisor president peskin. in support of the item. i want to say as a supervisor with high density of legacy businesses and represent a lot of legacy business in district 3 and coauthored [indiscernible] jump start the prop j administer the prop j and someone who has supported the legacy program i know rick and director tang has been working on to really highlight the legacy business in our city, and in the district we also followed the foots of kia venta quat row for the conditional use. we want to highlight that in recent cases, i think last week or two weeks ago we have a legacy business where the

planning commission has overlooked the process and actually allowed eviction of legacy business without permit permit or process to keep them in place and just remind folks a legacy business is in business 30 years. that is long time for a mom and pop to really work hard on the program and legislation before you will strengthen some of the programs to support our small business community and really keep them whole and the foundation of many diverse neighborhoods. we urge you to support and pass this with recommendation. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> any other speakers for public comment on this matter? there does not appear to be any other speakers. >> public comment is now closed. i would like to make a motion to send this item to full board with positive recommendation. >> yes, ton that motion, vice chair walton, aye. supervisor safai, aye. chair ronan, aye.

the motion passes without objection. >> passes unanimously. thankz so much. mr. clerk, dee do we have other iletms items on the agenda today? >> that completes the items for today. >> thank you very much, the meeting is adjourned. [meeting adjourned]

>> making to may grandkids a program all about pop ups, artists, non profits small business in into vacant downtown throughout the area for a three to 6 months engagement. >> i think san francisco is really bright and i wanted to be a part of it revitalization. >> i'm hillary, the owner of [indiscernible] pizza. vacant and vibrant got into safe downtown we never could have gotten into pre-pandemic. we thought about opening downtown but couldn't afford it and a landlord [indiscernible] this was a awesome opportunity for us to get our foot in

here. >> the agency is the marriage between a conventional art gallery and fine art agency. i'm victor gonzalez the founder of gcs agency. thes program is especially important for small business because it extended huge life line of resources, but also expertise from the people that have gathered around the vacant to vibrant program. it is allowed small businesses to pop up in spaces that have previously been fully unaccessible or just out of budget. vacant to vibrant was funded by a grant from the office of economic workforce development that was part of the mayor's economic recovery budget last year so we funded our non profit partners new deal who managed the process getting

folks into these spaces. >> [indiscernible] have been tireless for all of us down here and it has been incredible. certainly never seen the kind of assistance from the city that vacant to vibrant has given us, for sure. >> vacant to ibvooerant is a important program because it just has the opportunity to build excitement what downtown could be. it is change the narrative talking about ground floor vacancy and office vacancy to talking about the amazing network of small scale entrepreneur, [indiscernible] >> this is a huge opportunity that is really happy about because it has given me space to showcase all the work i have been doing over the past few years, to have a space i can call my own for a extended period of time has been, i mean, it is incredible.

>> big reason why i do this is specific to empower artist. there are a lot of people in san francisco that have really great ideas that have the work ethics, they just don't have those opportunities presented, so this has been huge lifeline i think for entrepreneurs and small businesses. >> this was a great program for us. it has [indiscernible] opening the site. we benefited from it and i think because there is diverse and different [indiscernible] able to be down here that everybody kind of benefits from it. >> so i'm linda i'm part owner and manager of the paper tree in jeopardy an town.

>> paper tree opened by my parent in 1968. so we other second oldest business in jap an town. at 55 years this year. we have beautiful papers from japan, thailand, italy, korea and the biggest selection of orgami. i do it because of my grand father and he wrote to the first english in it in the early 50s. he had an import business to import japanese goods and of course we had our line of paper. to go with the books he produced. it is something i have been doing since i was 5 and i'm happy to say i'm a designer now and of course having paper tree. it is grit. >> during the pandemic i wanted do something to make a statement to help combat the asian hate

that was prevalent at that time. and so i put a call out to have a thousand hearts. this is a spin on the tradition of holding 1,000 cranes when you have a wish. well, a thousand cranes does not make a statement enough why not change it and a call for a thousand hearts? i created a website dedicated to the project. a video and fold heart instructions. people sent them in the first mont was 1,000 hearts. they kept coming in. and the next goal was 7, 698, which was the total number of case of reported hate by the ap i website. those were the reported case of hate. there are more not reported. that became the new goal. we achieved 2 months later. the hearts were coming in it it is a big project, we have it part of our store.

anyone can come and fold an easy heart. keeping that part of the japanese tradition of this in that way here in japantown is pretty special. its great. (music). >> 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 our work together. >> handicap throwing it out there anniversary sfgovtv thank you for keeping our san francisco community informed. >> hi this is supervisor savvy

happy thirty anniversary for the access to the community and all the partners in san francisco so many people don't know had is happened on a daily process within the hassle of san francisco government if makes it accessible to everyone. >> happy anniversary sfgovtv wow. h wow. the san francisco police department likes to congratulate off the record for thirty years of ♪ [ music ] ♪ ♪ >> the two largest bridges in

the road, symbolizing pioneer and courage in the conquest of space and time. between these two great bridges, in historic san francisco bay, here's tribute to the achievements of our time. he's a dream come true, golden gate international exposition on manmade treasure island. >> the 402 acre artificial island was build by engineers from 1936 to 1937 on the neighboring buena island. 300,000 tons of rock was used to build a seawall around an existing sand ball then followed by filling the interior with dredge material from the bay which was consistent of modern sand. the federal government paid for construction ask three permanent buildings which would serve as a potential future airport. treasure island was

constructed at the same time as the bay bridge and it was a project of works progress administration to construct this island, which was initially used to host the golden gate international exposition. >> carnival gone big. it was busy. >> it was going to become an airport after the exposition but it was turned over to the navy and turned over to a military base for the next 50 years. >> 1941, the united states army moved to treasure island as america prepared for world war ii. the island was a major training and education center with 4.5 million personnel shipped overseas from triangle. after the war ended in 1945, treasure island was slalthed to be an airport -- slated to be an airport but aviation changed and the clipper were no longer in regular service, and the island was never developed as an airport. the navy continued

their presence on treasure island. during the cold war years, the island was a myth training center and for military efforts throughout the pacific and asia. personnel trained on and shipped from treasure island and supported military activities in korea, vietnam and the persian gulf. >> the base was listed for closure by the navy in 1993 and the city began a process in 1994 under the redevelopment agency, forming a citizens reuse committee to look at potentially plans for the island, island's future. after the base closed in 1997, the treasure island development authority was created to develop and implement a reuse plan. >> the navy has completed their environmental cleanup in that area and last week, the california department of public health issued a radiology

unrestricted recommendation for that portion of side 12. it's a big milestone for the project. >> the treasure island development facility was setup to implement the master plan that was adopted by the board of supervisors in 2011. >> given the importance of housing in the city, both the affordable component and the market rate housing, we felt that it was important to review what the housing plan is at treasure island. >> the development facility and (indiscernible) that oversees the implementation of the master plan to make sure that the master plan, which was adopted by the board of supervisors and adopted by the city and after meeting, that's plan that the city approved. the members of the board was appointed by the

mayor and the board of supervisors. [multiple voices] >> the (indiscernible) is very detailed plan. looking at the ecological aspects of the island, looking at the geotechnical aspects of the island, but also making sure that there is an ongoing of development that's in keeping with what the original plan was, which is that we have up to 8,000 rooms of housing and there's retail and hotels. but also that there is open space that's created so it's an overall plan that guides the whole development of treasure island and the buena island. >> materials used during the construction of treasure island severely compromises the integrity to build structures. in today's geotechnical engineers standing, treasure island soil is being readdressed for soil stabilization for

future development. a mechanical stabilization process is being used to consolidate the liquid fashion of the mud and sandy soil. >> because treasure island is a manmade island, we have to do a significant amount of soil improvement before we can build new infrastructure and new buildings on the island. in the foreground, you see here, it's a process called surcharging we we import additional topsoil to simulate the dead weight of the future buildings to be constructed at that site. so this is causing bay mud that underlies island to consolidate over time and we can monitor that and as that consolidation primarily consolidation is complete, then this soil will be removed to the intended finished floor elevation of the new structures. ♪ [ music ] ♪ ♪ >> in the 1989 loma earthquake, the ground level of this island

dropped by four inches. pretty much uniform across the island. loose sand material used to build the island, whether it gets hit by a seismic forces, the sand moves and consolidated. >> one of the processes to further stabilize the loose granular ground, a dynamic rate is used to densify the soil by high frequency mechanical vibrations. >> the rig in the background has four h-piles that goes down through the upper 50 feet of sandy material and as they vibrate, they vibrate causing that san material to consolidate and settle so as we do that process, we observe about 18 inches in settlement so the ground level around that equipment will drop by 18 inches, so this causes that same type of event to happen through mechanical means rather than

through a seismic event. >> the dynamic vibrant compaction rate vibrates the soil every four square meters and moved along to the next section. to further assure stability, tamping is followed around the site, compassion takes approximately three to four months to complete 12 acres. once the compassion and tapping is done, it's settled ask using laser alignments to assure a level service to build on. >> i think that every city when they have the opportunity to do something that is as large as treasure island because treasure island is five hundred acres and it depends on their needs at that time and in 2011 to now, the most important are thing for the city is housing. there's two aspects to that master plan.

one, was the new district for san francisco. 8,000 units of housing, which is all levels of stability. the other (indiscernible) is 300 acres of open space and parks. and actually, it's the largest addition to the park system in san francisco since (indiscernible) 300 acres and this is a tremendous gift to the public, both the housing, which we desperately need in san francisco as well as an open space and park system which really is going to be worm class and it will attract people in san francisco but attract people locally as well as internationally. >> cmg architecture was brought to the project once they award

the agreement between the city of san francisco and the united states navy. cmg has earned national recognition and numerous awards for merits and design, social impact and environmental stewardship. >> we were a part of the project in the beginning when the developer initially was awarded the exclusive negotiation agreement or the ena with the city and they partnered with the planning and architecture group and we joined that team to work with the developer around the city and community to come up with a plan for treasure island. >> so there's quite a lot of open space in the master plan and there's a couple of reasons for that that's pragmatic. one is that the amount of area that could be converted for private use on treasure island was very limited, actually it wasn't allowed at all because treasure island was previously public open waters and protected by the tidal and trust act to be redevelop for public use. but there was a land swap that was

allowed and approved by the governor of california, governor schwarzenegger to be put on a public trust for a one to one swap to be taken out of the trust to be developed for private use such as residential and that amount of land was 89 acres which leaves a bunch more space that can't have housing on it and the question was, what to do with all of that space? there could be other public uses that allowed such as conference centers or museums or universities or things of that nature but what made the most sense for this location was to have more parks in a really robust parks and open space plan and that's what led us to the plan we have now. >> planting strategies for treasure island and buena island are to maximize habitat value in the park areas wherever appropriate and where we can to create comfortable at the pedestrian scale. there are

these diagonal lines that go across the plan that you'll see. those are wind row trees like you see in agricultural landscapes where they are tall tree that's buffer the winds to create a more calm areas down at the pedestrian scale. so of course, we do have some areas where we have play fields and surfaces where kids need to run around on and those will be either lawns or like you see in norm at sports field. >> related to where the housing is on the island and its convenience to the walk to the transit hub, i mentioned we're trying to create high-quality pedestrian -- and the innovations of treasure island is called the shared public way and it's a road that runs down the middle of the neighborhoods. it's a curbless street, cars are allowed to drive on it but pedestrian can walk down the middle of the street and the cars are to yield the right-of-way for pedestrian and it's intended for streets where there's a low traffic volumes

and the traffic speeds are low so while car was allowed, there's not a lot of reasons for cars to go on that street but it's to create a social street that's much more pedestrian-friendly and prioritizes pedestrians and bikes. one of the interesting things is working with all architects that have been designing buildings in the first phase to encourage them, to create architecture that welcomes people to sit on it. it's wlm like sticking its toe out and asking someone to sit on its toe so buildings integrate public seating and places for people to hang out at their base, which is really, the opposite of what you see often times in this city where there's defensive architecture that's trying to keep people off it. this is architecture that's trying to invite people to come and inhabit it at its base. >> incorporated in the landscape architect of treasure island are wetlands, which are designed to factor in coastal erosion

control from incoming sea level rise and natural animal habitation and stormwater runoff treatment. >> there's different kinds ever wetlands planned for treasure island and they have different purposes. they are stormwater wetlands that's treating the runoff from the island and filtering that water before it's released to the bay to improve the water quality in the bay and the ocean and the first phase of the large wetland infrastructure is built on buena island to treat the storm water from buena island. we might see that when we go out there. there are tidal wetlands plan for the northern side of the island where the sea level rise adaptation and flood protect for future sea level rise is held back away from the edge of the island to allow sea level rise to come onto the island to create future tidal wetland which is helpful for the bay in the future as we see sea level wise flood out existing wetlands and there are some

natural vernal pool in the wetland that's captured rainwater and capturing certain habitat so there's three purposes of the wetland primarily around water filtration and habitat creation. >> consumable sustainability was incorporated in the redesigning of treasure island. innovative urban farming is included in the plans to foster economic viability, conservation of water, and to promote ecological sustainability. >> the urban farm is 20 island. and it's a commercial farm to produce food. it's not community where the volunteers and neighbors grow their own, it's commercially run to maximize the food production and that food will be distributed on the island. and interestingly, the urban farm is tied into the on island wastewater treatment plan which creates recycle use for water on the island so water used to grow the island will be

a sustainable force and we're trying to close the loop of water, food, and create a new model for sustainability. >> part of the design for sustainable landscape was incorporate natural form water garden filtering systems, the first of three natural stormwater gardens is here on buena island. and a total of ten will be on treasure island. water from storms, street runoffs from neighborhoods has the possibility to collect toxic materials as it makes its way back into the surrounding bay. this garden has been a model for future, natural filtering systems through out the bay area. >> whenever a storm comes through, all of the water, you know, it lands on the streets, it lands on the top of the buildings, and at times it often collects a lot of heavy metals and greases and it needs to be cleaned and before sent back

into the back. it goes into the pipes and stormwater drainage and put into our stormwater basin and then all of the plants and soil you're seeing in there, they are acting as a filter for all those oils and heavy metals and greases and all things that's coming off the roadways, coming off the development and so it's treated here in the storm water basin and then it's sent out into the bay as a clearer product and cleaner water which increases our water quality here and throughout the bay area. so the structure in the center of each basin is what we call the for bay. that's the point at which the stormwater exits out of the storm drainage system and into the stormwater basin itself. so the for bay is shaped as almost a gate to kind of push all water out through the pipes, all of those rocks help to disburse it before it's sent into the stormwater basin itself. the storm water basin was designed to fill up to the

height of the berm of the side you're seeing here. so this is juncus and these are well-known fresh water grasses found in any place around the bay area that you find standing water or in a drainage channel, you're going to find a lot of these junket species. this is a leave a lifter in the bio treatment. it soaks up a lot of water, to soak up the contaminants and heavy metals, so it's kind of our backbone species. this one is called douglas siana and the common name is mug war. it's a beautiful plant but doing the heavy lift and pulling, those contaminants out of the storm water and pulling oil to help treat the water before its sent back into the system and back into the bay. this plant is known as salvia or hummingbird sage. it has a lot of habitat

value in that it's a strong pollinator plant. obviously, you can see the pink and purple flowers which come up in the springtime and attracts a lot of hummingbirds, a lot of bees which help to pollinate the other species within the garden and throughout the rest of the island and all of those native plants. all of these plants are designed to be able to take a heavily inundation of water over a several day per like standing water for a long time. all of the plants can withstand that and honestly, thrive in that condition. so all of these were selected based on the ecological and habitat value but also their treatment and functional value for stormwater. >> this is super tiny. >> it's very much a big part of our design and master plan for the development of the island. it was a navy base and a lot of navy housing on this island specifically for around 80 years and during that time, a lot of innovative species were

introduced on the island, eucalyptus, a lot of different european and algerians plants were on the island. we wanted to bring in the native eye college here on the island before the navy started to redevelop it and introduce some of those invasive species so the species you're seeing in this stormwater garden in the basin and the upland area was a part of those types of ecology s that's trying to be returned to this side of the island but different other spaces through out the islands development. so whenever we started this process, we identified a number of species of native plants that seem applicable to the ecology that we're trying to grow. there's 45 species, so a -- there's 15

species so they are hard to find in the nursery trade so we needed to grow it ourselves to achieve the biodiversity that's in the design here. as a part that have process, we brought on a nonprofit group called ledge, l-e-g- which is literacy for environmental justice. they grew those plants and put together the plant palates you see. >> most of landscape was inundated with invasive plant species eradicating species and having the plan on buena island and treasure island. literacy for environmental justice, a community volunteer educational program involved with restoring local habitats and preserving san francisco's unique bio tie varsity, teamed up with the redevelopment group to grow the

50,000 native plants to -- to repopulate treasure island. >> the city of san francisco set up meetings between leg and they came in with high expertise and urban design, and architecture, and green infrastructure, but they really hadn't worked with flytive plants -- worked with native plants at scale and they were also kind of scratching their heads, like how are we going to grow 50,000 native plants from remnant native plant populations. it was a unique partnership of figuring out what plants can grow, what plants will function in stormwater gardens. not all native plants are ascetically pleasing to landscape architect, so we kind of worked around what plants are going to be pleasant for people, what plants are going to provide habitat, what plants are going to actually be able to sequester

carbon, deal with erosion, preserve the island biodiversity as well as be able to manage all of these stormwater treatment on the island. >> there's about 33 naturally occurring native plant species that survived the last one hundred years on yorba buena island. we were able to go in and get the seed and salvage plants in some cases, some of the development work that occurred was actually going to destroy native plant habitat and we went in before the bulldozers and before the roads were build and the new water tanks were installed and dig them up, divide them, hold them, of the 50,000 plants we grew 40,000 of them in-house and the other ten, we had to rely on our partners to do it. with the 50,000 plants

we did, we did 100 species and 95 of them are from the county of san francisco. about the other five are from the state of california. but the other 95 species really are the native plants that have been here for thousands of years. we used collection sites such as angel island, the presidio had genetics for the projects in san francisco. we used remnant plant habitats at hunters point and we used a lot of genetics from san bruno mountain. just to collect and process all of the genetics was a two-year process. and then it was about a two or three year process to grow all the species. >> this is the infamous -- it's a low, growing sprawling native

herb and it's in the mint family and i'm rubbing my hands on this and it's extremely aromatic. it feels like a flush of peppermint just came across my face. it's edible. you can make tea out of it. it's a great digestive plant for settling your stomach. it has been cool to introduce yerba buena to yerba buena. this plant is called dutchman's pipe. when in bloom, the flower looks like a dutchman's pipe. and another thing that's unique about this plant is, it's the whole specific plant for the pipeline swallow tail butterfly. so some butterflies are able to adapt to other species and can use larva

and food from different species. in the county of san francisco, there's only about three or four healthy populations of this plant. these particular plants were going to be destroyed because of the green infrastructure project needed to put pipes in and needed to demolish all water tanks and build new water tanks for the island, so we were able to go in, dig them up, cultivate them, extrapolate dozens of plants into hund hundreds of plants and restore it through the restoration process. one day one of my nursery managers was down here and she found the pipeline butterfly have flown over from yerba buena island and came to our nursery on treasure island and was breeding on this plant. and successfully did its life cycle inside of our nursery. so,

it? how that butterfly knows it's out there and find it, this is one of those unique things that we can't explain why butterflies can find this species but if we grow it and put it in the right location, they will return. so the plants we're looking at here is faranosa known as just dedlia or live forever. the construction is it work happen nothing that area, it's likely to be destroyed. a unique thing about this plant and the unique succulents we have in california and the live forever plant can live to be 150 years old. recently, the state of california just did special legislation to protect this plant. i think in its intact population on the island, there's less than 50 of them, so to be able to grow several

hundred of them and have them be a part of the plant palate of the stormwater gardens that was installed recently is an increase of biodiversity and a step forward towards protecting the natural legacy of the island. >> i moved to treasure island in 1999. i believe i was one of the first residents on the island. i have seen how the island has been destroyed and reconstruct since its beginning to restore the island to its native form is extremely important to me because that will help all the animals come back to the island and make this place even a better place to live. >> i want to be here because these are people i know, so that was my first thing is just, like, i wanted to come here to

help out and be with (indiscernible) and to actually put my hands in dirt. i feel like we as people don't work in army -- we don't see the benefits of plants, like, but i just learned about a plant that if you rub it enough, it turns into soap. that's cool. and we need those things. we need to know about those things. >> one really unique thing about this project is the scale. to use 50,000 native plants over 7 acres is a scale we have never seen. it really is trailblazing when we think about the 350 or 400 acres of open space that is planned for treasure island, it sets the stage for what is possible. there's a way to use nature-based solutions at scale to meet the needs of climate change, sea level rise, the

crisis of local extinction and create natural environment. the first phase of the project sets a stage for what is possible and i just feel really blessed to have been a part of it. >> one of the main focus on triangle is keeping vehicle traffic to a minimum. for residents and visitors, public transportation is highly encouraged and will be the center point of keeping the island pedestrian-friendly, retaining an open space sent and providing an eco system that reducing carbon emission >> we need the transit to be successful because if we had 8,000 homes here and everybody was trying to use their car to access the bay bridge every month, it will overwhelm the system. new on and off-ramp are

being constructed but all over the focus of the development is to be very transit oriented. triangle itself is very flat and very bikeable and walkable as a result and so there's a focus on using both bus and ferry service to get from the island to san francisco in the east bay. there will be a number of transit demand management tools that will be employed of the two new ramps to and from the -- to the island and allowing a limited number of cars to access the bridge and there will be a management toll to encourage the use of transit. >> all the market rate housing on the island, the price for residential unit whether that's a rental apartment or a for sale condo, the price of the unit is decoupled from the price of the parking spot. so people can buy a condominium without paying for a parking spot. they choose to have a parking spot, they would pay an additional price. market

rate residents are required to purchase take transit pass each month through their hoa fees or through their rent so the residents will begin the decision of driving or taking transit with a transit pass in hand each month. that transit pass will function as a muni fast pass allowing people to take muni and transfer within the muni network and function as an ac transit allowing people to take ac transit to the east bay and transfer within the ac transit system and it will also provide unlimited access to the treasure island ferry. >> treasure island is going to take decades to be fully build out. it's going to take some time for it to reach the envelope that was passed by the board of supervisors and maybe there will be changes to it as

well. we don't know what is going to happen in 50 years but i'm confident by the fact that the plan that was adopted was fully, fully thinking even for its time and the building the island to a way it's sustainable, it addresses sea level rise, but also gives the public the open space and parts that are so necessary to fill treasure island. there's economic, certainly, challenges and whether we're going to be able to build out all of what was desired in the master plan, it will -- time will tell, but i think that the last ten years, we've been coming to this point. we are seeing incredible progress and the infrastructure is being finished by the island.

market rate housing is being finished. affordable housing is being finished. and so, we feel within the next five years, substantial part of what we had envisioned is going to come to fruition.

(gavel) >> welcome to the san francisco county transportation authority meeting this morning at 10:00 am., tuesday, february 27, 2024. i'm chair mandelman i chair this board and

commissioner melgar thank you, jeanette is from sfgov and madam clerk please call the roll. >> chair mandelman present. >> commissioner melgar? madam clerk can you speak into mic please. turn the mic on it helps. >> commissioner stefani absent. >> commissioner walton

present. >> we have quorum. >> thank you, madam clerk i think you have a couple of comments for >> location: legislative chamber, room 250, city hall watch sf cable channel 26 or 99(depending on your provider) watch www.sfgovtv.org. or watch cable channel cable channel >> location: legislative chamber, room 250, city hall watch sf cable channel 26 or 99(depending on your provider) watch www.sfgovtv.org. may watch them on demand. >> phone number: +1 (415) 655-0001 access code: 2664 215 8026 # # to raise your hand, press *3 when public comment is called press star three and do not press it again or you'll be removed from the queue the live

operator will allow you to speak. >> channel 26 or 99 (depending on your provider) or may visit the sfgovtv website(www.sfgovtv.org) to stream the live meeting or may watch them on demand. may watch them on demand. may watch them on demand. public comment periods in person or remotely. in-person public comment will be taken first; remote public comment will be taken after.. thank you. >> thank you. madam clerk before calling the next item as characterize i want to revictory when the public comment for today is meeting my attention to give 2 minutes for speakers otherwise madam clerk will you call the next item. >> 2. chair's report — information* >> all right. colleagues this month i have news to share on the portal projects we received the federal

administration project earned a medium high rating under the fair to say decimal investment program this is the reflection of the position of the project well, for the potential for over $4 million in federal fund from the capital c i g now we wait for engineering that will set the maximum grant amount for the project and many congratulations on the news to t gpa team as well as our own project manager jessie and agency partners that collaborated over the years to get to this stage and pleased to congratulate the transportation

authority $8 million fell safe streets for the traffic assault improvements and congratulations and thank you's are due to the speaker and to commissioner peskin and the tenderloin task force advocated for the grant and the grant will fund the speaker projects in the tenderloin where every street is on the network and projects are signal improvements and other intersection upgrades on market street and the reconfiguration for and the intersections on turk street and prop l makes this grant an excellent example how we leverage ourselves for safe streets investments and finally riders appear to be responding to the bart's effort

for the service and focus on the safe experience. and agencies lately safer bart's customer satisfaction is 81 percent congratulations the bart board by the chair and past warehouse chair to tackle this with support and transportation authority has priority bart with all objectives from our state transit assistant fund for the elevator attendance and helped to modernize the stations and fix the elevators. um, we look forward to a continued effectiveness of our plans and our improvements to support the

economic recovery and that's what i got so thank you, folks. there are any questions or comments from colleagues happy to take if not open up for public comment anyone in the chambers like to comment on item 2 please come forward and ask for remote public comment on item 2. >> checking for remote public comment on item 2. >> there is no public comment public comment is closed. and madam clerk, call item three. >> 3. executive director's report — information* >> good morning, chair and commissioners today let me echo kudos to bart great results and support of bart that chair mentioned and note in late december bart kept

the new product types successful and an january 11th to receive the san francisco civic center and 24 street station we're excited to see that heaping this year and again, funded by the sales tax grant fund and the news are taller and stronger with modern equipment has the ability to deand improving the consumer experience with the restoration of clipper thanks to the programs and policies that provided 12 and a half million dollars for the station. >> turning to some local studies a quick update that are

eco system and led by the group local businesses and merchants and shipperers and receiveers and neighborhood and other community groups this is a fund by the cash granted to reduce the emissions the climate change found that transportation account for half the greenhouse gas emissions and so it centered on what can be done collaboratively with the local businesses and shippers together with the stockholders if delivery programs and pilot by the environment and with digital management mta working on delivery app to increase the efficiency and ways we believe to incentivize to promote zero

carbon modes in the late spring and summer appreciate the work. >> next, we'll be seeing a presentation later on today i'll leave that for later but ipa outreach in that um, upcoming multimodal transportation study and openhouse will be a town hall for march that's it at golden gate park and we have been seen great project delivery the 19 avenue update the safety projects are are substantially complete a following on prior phases along 19 avenue to improve the signals for

infrastructure with pole recognition and upgrades sea new traffic signal installations. >> (calling names.) >> were completed in january of 2024 so thank you to state of florida for that great work and little project is funded by the tax as well. on the quick front this is work mta is doing roundabout to the boulevard in january and mta will complete that working by spring and 245i6 been um, hosting a virtual openhouse for third street project and there are proposed a

two-way protected bike ways between townsend street we appreciate that work and this set of projects the quick built is furnished by the staishths and the vehicle registration with the tax fund. on the planning side we've been able to apply for grants kalts /* caltrain will be collaborating with the community and other community-based transportation work that is already initiated by sf mta and for the carpool

lanes in the southeast on one 00 one and recommendations from the freeway study and our plan. >> finally wanted to acknowledge we have a new member of the team stephen has joined us, please say hello. >> we've been free to snag him an active chief spokesperson i met stephen with eric on the one 01 replacement project served as the public information officer for caltrain and those two organizations as well as serving as a traffic reporter with the radio station and experience

working with media relations and go very active in the nonprofit world and the community-based nonprofits and chinatown. >> grace under pressure. >> (laughter.) >> i think you did (multiple voices). >> every aspect of our disability was the paired. >> nice job thank you, chair. >> thank you everyone. >> good job stephen glad to have you. >> open up for public comment to public comment. >> good morning, commissioners a quick comment on the battering fair gate before we saw them in san francisco we should first of all, western edition was a mess

for the providers and basic took the station down to a central fair gate and two gates have been a rider hostile i'll explain they closed very quickly and try to get through to kids good luck on bike it is difficult the times need to be fixed on the gate and three they crash with windows upgrades that is still like they shounld be crashing our gates should be fixed. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> any more public comment in the chambers any remote public comment on item three? >> checking for remote public comment on item 3. >> there is notice public

comment. >> public comment is closed. kind of i what is the mechanism to communicate with with members of the public for bart. >> we're funding the (bell ringing) >> pardon me? >> we're funding the projects we've follow-up i do think that the west oakland to make sure (unintelligible). >> okay. thank you. >> madam clerk, call item 4. >> 4. approve the minutes of the february 13, 2024, meeting—- action* >> all right. i don't see comments or questions from colleagues any public comment on item 4? >> i don't see monotony remote public comment on item 4. >> checking for remote public comment on item 4? there is no

public comment. >> public comment is closed. motion to approve item 4? >> moved by commissioner dorsey and madam clerk, call the roll. >> commissioner chan, aye. >> commissioner dorsey, aye. >> commissioner engardio, aye. >> chair mandelman, aye. >> commissioner melgar, aye. >> commissioner peskin, aye. >> xherd commissioner ronen, aye. >> supervisor walton, aye. >> commissioner stefani, aye. >> commissioner walton. >> we have 11 i say motion is approved. thank you. madam clerk if you please call the consent calendar. >> 5 through the staff is not

planning to a present but available for questions. >> i don't see any questions or comments is there a motion to approve the consent calendar moved by xherd and seconded by commissioner stefani. >> same house, same call. without objection motion passes. and madam clerk and madam clerk can you please call item call item kat siegal and venecia margarita as the district 5 and district9 representatives, respectively, to the community advisory committee — action* >> thank you, madam clerk and normally i think on the consent calendar but give margaret the chance and have amelia here to present. >> yes. good morning. thank you, chair mandelman and good

morning, commissioners as you can see approved the appointment for cat and margaret as the district 9 repetitive and a couple of weeks ago and cat appeared at the last meeting and mary congregated is here to speak to her qualifications and this is an action for final approval for the appointment. >> thank you so do we have margarita. >> yes. buenos dias good morning chair mandelman and commissioner melgar and commissioner ronen i'm humbled by the opportunity for the advisory advisory committee for the transportation authority and a lifelong resident of san

francisco and had the honor of working in the community as a social working and community organizer and volunteer wearing many years for over 36 years and an honor to be appointed by commissioner ronen and i'll do any very best to voice for all community members and the represent the transportation needs. thank you very much. >> thank you commissioner ronen. >> colleagues just like i said last week heard if margarita she's a long time resident and as a social working and community organizer my office worked with her and i constantly speak to her integrity and

dedication and bilingual and well verse on the issues especially the protecting and immigrants and have fortunate to have her and happy to vote on her appointment today and to join me in confirming her appointment. >> thank you commissioner chan open up for public comment anyone in the chamber like to take to us about item number ten? >> any remote public comment on item number ten. >> checking for remote public comment on item 10. >> no public comment all all right. public comment is closed. commissioner ronen would you like to move approval thank you and i think we can take that.

>> same house, same call. without objection motion passes. and congratulations and thank you, ms. margarita and madam clerk, call item 11. >> 11. major capital project update: caltrain modernization program — information*. >> we are joined by caltrain michelle. >> thank you chair mandelman and commissioner melgar great to present this item to you i think this may be one of the few remaining upgrades to this body will be provided only the electrification program before we introduce the clearing i want to thank you for the collaboration and partnership of this board especially commissioner walton sits on this committee and mfa staff great

support for the railroad and this project. i'm going to be a little bit of a defender will give you an update where we were late reporting to this body we essentially finished the infrastructure construction and the flyers and we are currently working through the power system we do have half roughly half of the power system up and coming and in need to doal the testing for 8 of the electrical multi unit trends 4 are fully tested that is going extremely well of the product and the customers are going to love them we had a purview we think two of them we hosted the other day in san francisco and proud to see many of you at the events. i think we

had in seizing of 20 though people i can't wait to the service in september of 2024 we're really coming down to the wire so to thank you, for your support we have a few more events that casey will talk about so appreciate taking the time today. >> hello, everyone katie chief of staff thank you for being here. and the electrification thank you for those in this long journey it is mind on purpose but about the caltrain anniversary really the next phase of caltrain future. i

reminder all of people trained we have thirty-year-old trains and santa fe will be electric and lots of infrastructure to support this new electrical train and as michelle mentioned we have completed 3000 poles and i'm sorry three times foundation for the poles and now into an old right away and overhead wires and upgraded the personnel system and energized 15 millions to santa fe and san francisco and that's where we're testing the train have to have 1,000 miles testing before they are put into service. and as they come on the property and with the first responders to make sure they understand what a new

electrical environment looks like and work with us for the upcoming items need to be preng for the winter storm damage we working closely on our right-of-way to minimum news those risks we have experiences over the last couple of years is significant and redoubling the efforts and addressing the storm damage about a month ago and energize the whole corridor and bring trains up and down the corridor and have a soft lounge and reaching out to i to make sure you're aware of it in the summer and start to have the public ride it and fully turned over with a brand new schedule i'll talk about in september of this year and like to be transparent with the partners so

for the projects contractor quality and bond cables that incarcerating over hid for transaction power and finally plex the top items and full team dedicated to this to launch it and roadway on budget and expect to be so but details for anyone that is interested where we are with the contingency with the dollar amount in the bottom right hand corner this is a healthy amount but have some complicated challenging projects left to make sure that everything is up and working with the trains and the infrastructure and so while we are happy we are not counting our eggs yet.

>> we have some updated service we put forward what we believe will be a robust and useful service plan for riders up and down the cord because of capacity of the electrical trains they're able to get to places faster even though the same speed we expect to have an express service in san francisco to santa fe and can't beat it driving prepandemic and the local services the trains are accelerated at stations even the local service that touches every single one of the stations you'll save 25 minutes not and down in santa clara county we're not electrical we will have a transfer to santa fe as they go

north spots electrified areas so even in the area we're not electrical first degree support for those how they connect and well-timed system will benefit them and in the future have plans to have a vision zero train running and instead of during the off-season a train once an hour that is difficult for people on the weekends with electrified service at a minimum will be every an hour and a half and that is a really meaningful change we think know which we're talking about this we are the most robust for that change and feel like 20 percent more service for everyone and 26 by

electrification and at the other side of the coin wifi own board and digital information and then, of course, we're to have a much cleaner environment for everyone. >> i passed out a fact sheet we wanted to put it in real terms for riders what it looks like and as you can see san francisco is a busiest station but some of the other station like 22 station an increase in service and we appreciate your help with our consults is this is an exciting time and for - for social events or for work or school or family events as michelle mentioned 8 thousand people wanted to see the now

trains last one in santa fe and thank you for the many members that came to if we have posters from the local arts was there and we have some with that it a great way for people to touch and feel when the future of caltrain will look like we will have one more in san mateo and as we get closure we welcome our opinions this is an exciting time you - what we can do to promote and share the exciting news but caltrain and finally electrification one other facial piece of information about caltrain every all we know this it body is paying attention and for caltrain we are having

challenges on the forgivable side not on the level of prepandemic that is important because prepandemic 75 percent of the fairs we're not at the same level on the right-hand side that we have fiscal challenges working with the regional partners we expect to reduce that by $8 million but as you can see on the outer years have a $50 million deficit figure out how to deal with that and working with this both sides and other creative solutions to help us continue to be as a system can serve all the folks up and down the corridor today, we have revised schedules are

more convenient and free passes to low income and community riders based on program that sf passed with the business partners and right now have a dollars youth fair that is popular and other ones to make sure we get people on the train and once they're on there have a - had high positive feedback about the caltrain prepandemic and throughout the pandemic and finally cost complaint certainly things we need to tighten our belt from small train sets and efficiency and reduced over time and the electrification we have a marketing team in place and working with many partners up and down the corridor and promote what a transformation and that will see more riders in the future with that, i'm available for any questions

that you may have. >> thank you, commissioner walton. >> thank you chair mandelman and thank you. the director for all the hard work an electrical indication and doing everything we can to make sure that we are going to be up and running by little september date and we hear negative things around transportation this is one certainly will be exciting so thank you all for your hard work and commitment. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner and open up for public comment anyone in the chambers wish to speak on item 11 please come forward. >> good morning commissioners. um, this is an incredibly exciting project we're heard around this and not it stop hearing it those trains are

exciting and i've the in the free - sorry the precursor our this is an amazing train and looking forward to it i thank you to caltrain staff for presenting i want to bring you were a small issue not covered in the presentation staff report in the risk sections mention the release of seiu ferry and the good news this is not dangers to humans but a power greenhouse gas and the report is unclear if those unclear how big the releases and unclear if in any remediation have are happening the release are a risk because

this is improperly dissolved and unfortunately, the transaction so that would be great to get a better finding what the mediation is happening it is very unfortunate in the newly electrified better rail system had or that will be in general (bell ringing) releasing sulfur. thank you very much. >> let's see - if we have in the remote public comment on this item. >> checking for remote public comment on this item. >> hi caller minutes start now. >> good morning (bell ringing) thank you for the opportunity to speak. >> the biggest i'd like to

bring to your attention the train reconfiguration is impossible. the end result is a way is costing tens of thousand dollars a year for wear and tear. which eventually we are (unintelligible) by coming here has been vocal about this issue this past november and announced the savings is tens of thousands of dollars a year. the solution is very simple transition to cool trains are before caltrain and special events and not every single operator. in closing i

would respectfully urge 0 you to reach out to the caltrain board and get caltrain staff to (unintelligible) once and for all. >> thank you caller. >> moving on to the next caller. hi caller two minutes begins now. >> thanks so much and thanks to the board and thank you, caltrain for this wonderful project i live in the county and once commuting to the city for 20 plus year commuters have a choice for 0 modes when i made the decision to take caltrain that was certainly not (unintelligible) but more comfortable and willing to put up for the extra time for the

viriles but not that much extra time and improve on caltrain but again, this is a competition been the caltrain and the 101 free i hope $2.5 million around aon a project we don't shoot ourselves in the foot and try to make driving more competitive in san francisco. i fear that is something we've already done san mateo wide and making it easier to make it to drive that's one of the reasons eve seen caltrain have the lowest post pandemic ride in the city doesn't make sense. we're spending all this

money (bell ringing) to make this more competitive and save money to encourage people to leave the train and get into their cars and we're just going to have to more greatly subsidies i look forward to using the train (bell ringing) making it easier to take the train as opposed to taking a car. thank you. caller. >> hi caller you're too minutes begins now. >> thank you is caltrain a attempting to market the new service to the south bay tech companies that provide the tech shovels and encourage the employees to use this any

service it is counterintuitive and duplicated by the tech companies utilizing they're enormous buses in san francisco. >> thank you no more public comment. >> all right. public comment is closed on item 11 is closed and thank you, director and thank you, um, to um, casey as well and let's call our next item madam clerk. >> >> 12. district 1 multimodal transportation study [ntp] update — information* we have received public comment for this item posted on the website.

>> good morning, commissioners my name is alessia planner with the transportation authority and giving an update on district one multimodal transportation study. this project was. thank you. >> the project was requested by commissioner chan and funded by the transportation authority neighborhood program and focusing on the development for the concept for improvement of connection it and support mode chip and greenhouse gas emissions within district one and did the first outreach in the spring of 2023 and got nearly 6 hundred responses at it event throughout the district

and noticed under representation and responses from the asian and youth community and we're working to address um, that lower you turn out in the upcoming process. first round of outreach helped us to understand the transportation priority and challenges and guided the concept development we're bringing to the public in the upcoming round and 7 expects for the neighborhood and three district wide i'll go through each of those. the first concept on geary this is the full corridor of geary the concept was to improve the transportation rider amenities and seating and this also will be closely coordinated around

security commerce waiting for transit in the late night hours this is again, the full corridor and it includes bike improvements as well as pedestrian safety for bike improvements upgrading the bike lanes to green bike lane and including marketing and pedestrian improvements are and all intersections and the crosswalks and bold out and the center lines as you can see in the top right those helped see the turning vehicles and light the areas for vehicles turning and more visible. >> the next expect on the inner richmond of balboa includes the same pedestrian treatments at intersection and platform on 6 and balboa with

the commercial hub on balboa for all pedestrian activity and will be paired with the riders amenities. the next expect on fulton if 2 it out to 48 there is multiple elements of this concept to improve safety for people crossing and across the avenues where they're not in place and this helps slow the vehicles speeds and provides crossing for folks to make it across fulton and unsignalized locations will recommend installing the flashing beacons

more than warning to drivers pedestrian activity and daytime again to make the intersections (clearing throat) more visible and a.d. adding platforms and relocating from 22 to 23 and provide the direct connection to golden gate park and pedestrian safety improvements and bike improvements and for way finding and clear marketing and working with rec and park to expand the entrance in a golden gate park to accommodate all traffic. >> and shifted into our district wide mode shift concept the first is north-south express service heard the peninsula the

popular designation outside of san francisco it elevates the express visible study recommendation for express service on the west side to the peninsula. and recommending for management studies for dr. colfax corridors for those two on clement and balboa and this restraining order would help make spaces for the people and removal the conflicts on the commercial corridors. the last concept is for mobility department of housing and community services mobile department of housing and community services where the options come together and with different amenities making transfers more easy will identify the locations for district one that are not identified and develop guidance on design and amenities and as i

mentioned the second round the outreach in march have a survey on the website and doing events throughout the month of march and more information on the website. and sfgov do the study and then next steps refining the concept based on what we hear in the public comment and the outreach and have a final plan in the summer we'll be bringing back to the board for approval. and that concludes my slides. >> thank you commissioner chan and want to thank alicia and others from the ta and working with shout out to my team

working together like for the entire year and i am so grateful a layperson when it comes to especially traffic light finding and what are the option to make richmond more walking, biking, and on the short-term to get a fair to be less reliant open our cars and more really transit and how do we get around so, so but thanks to our expertise and really patience and trying to hear me out and hear out like our community and thinking how we can do that i'm so grateful plan that into considering what we can do on an interim term to make the richmond safer and to traffic on corridors and fulton and the boulevard and grateful that also to be thinking about,

you know, meltdown from north and south connections to out of the district. >> what really people need for the people who live in the district but working outside the district and also really, really grateful to think about very invite ideas like the mobility hub and those locations bringing us to a safe where we can think about transit and traffic in a way that is an option and the future is that we have those options on the table and being able to make that work for people with with all different needs and ages and including those with seniors with disabilities so i'm so grateful

but also i'm also grateful for the fact you heard us that you look at the responses and you say there are so many needs for those young people that are our future transit riders how to help them hear them out and plan for the future and for at the same time finding the population of that currently living in the richmond population that is would be reflective in the survey to go the extra mile to make sure we get the response and feedback i'm 0 pleased and thank you so much for hearing us out as a community and work with us so patricia and more importantly willing to bridge the gap what people need and - but also bringing our expertise to the table to help with that and tweak the design and the independence day around how we can make that work and i just

want to also say the thought that the commercial corridor of loading zone something to again think about the richmond not just people one population but all the small businesses that our communities are not pitted against each other in a comprehensive study and planning i'm excited and that clearly look through the design to make that a future and hope to have your support and potentially lombard street funding in the near future we can consider to see that helping the richmond to become a model of a neighborhood to make that more walkable and bicycle so thank you, chair. >> thank you colleagues to allocate this funding for the

study thank you for your support. >> thank you commissioner chan and open up for public comment. >> good morning, commissioners and promise i'll not make a habit of this a lot of great stuff in the study. >> thank you staff for creating it i want to encourage you to be more aggressive the long distance bus service the mta had a studies huge number of commuters were underserved and the last part to the closure of highways and that will be massive two bulk out great to have them everywhere assesses center lines are important for

public safety i love to see the treatment go had a pedestrian fatal and there is not a good reason to stop at a corridor but lower the speed to 25 it is safer for pedestrians and let's consider a travel lane and two are where are the bike lanes i couldn't help but note one of the bike projects on turk was removed between the first presentation why was that lane removed i'm curious if sf mta is having 1 sufficient lane the only bike lane (bell ringing) makes the lane green but no protections and finally, i really like the idea of the

multi multimodal how we balance that not creating lots of and lots of parking in the city and any remote public comment on item 12. >> checking for remote public comment on item 12? >> hi caller you're too minutes begins now. >> good morning, commissioners i'm a mom. thank you to the comment today um, i read the presentation and just the um, first thing the long distance north-south starting in the west side and will be a game-changer

commuting daily and glad to see the lighting was called out in a number of places in our presentation we hope (unintelligible) will be (microphone distorted) on caltrain i was glad to see some of the public safety improvements and glad to see the code (microphone distorted) want to see them all the way down to our fall out and only been involved for the advocacy for a few years ago (unintelligible) including few weeks ago and on the high injury

network (bell ringing) and think of fulton and, you know, bringing how you all those improvements and on the d one multimodal study i was giving feedback by serving (unintelligible) but at the same time up and coming sad to see timeline on this being so long i'm wondering, you know, just been making improvements and. >> thank you caller that's your time. >> thank you caller. >> there is no more public comment. >> all right. public comment is closed. commissioner chan. >> thank you i just want to be on the record and say, you know, the staff has been great and also respond to the public comment and some of the feedback i see that the mobility study is

city hall smart in a way that is really understanding what is going on currently with sfmta and particularly to really should have been done a while ago it is unfortunate we had a project pedestrian death in fulton and know with the completed and that is sfmta is on it but with that finding grateful for the (inaudible) in the last meeting with the ta about the camera and will be three at the coming to the richmond and had a meeting with sfmta and our captain in the richmond to really talk about enforcement and thinking about more statistical how to get the speed camera corresponding with the traffic enforcement that um, specifically on speed traffic

enforcement to also initially will be camera strategizing placed on fulton and geary definitely thinking about the bike lanes clearly had there is also a traffic death with a cyclist last year and thank you. the assembly member with cooperation with supervisor walton received over one million dollars for the bike lanes on from the entrance of providing all the way out to fulton that is in the works and so that is also the one reason to think about what we can in the more comprehensive way to to think about the bike lanes in the third street with the triangle and also just a quick reminder

we have 23 the lake is the most controversial we za gabriel and from the reason why we're replacing the entrance became enhance on the 22 at golden gate park wanted to rainbow those up for the mobility study that you actually see today that sfmta and staff with work together and aim very thankful for the coordination. thank you. >> thank you. commissioner chan and thanks to the cta and madam clerk please call madam clerk please call the next item.

item. >> 13. internal account report, investment report, and debt expenditure report for the 6 months ending december 31, 2023, — information* >> thank you for introduction. good morning, everybody. cynthia. >> this is the second quarterly update for 2024 a as of ending december 31, 2023, had total assets of one hundred and $55 million and total liabilities of three hundred the 307.8 millions is the 2017 take revenue bond the total revenues is 19 are 200 and $75 million that is part of sales tax close to the target for the mid part of year and expenditures are 78.8 millions and the investment we hold approximately three 2 percent and this is in compliance with the ta policy and have traditional liquidities

everywhere drawing on for the first thing and in terms of this item this item was presented to cac and no questions or comments related to this item. with that, i'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> why see any but take public comment on this item. >> i don't see anyone in the chamber any remote public comment? >> checking for remote public comment on item 13. there is no public comment. >> all right. public comment is closed. >> thank you, deputy director. >> madam clerk, call the next item. >> 14. introduction of new items — information. >> i don't see anyone in the queue

madam clerk, call the next item. >> 15. public comment. >> anybody in the chamber like to come up and talk to us about anything. >> commissioners you're almost done with me i want to call your attention between 18 and 5 in november the public outreach was held and two potential ways to add lanes to add a new lane with buffer space and two converting existing lanes and staff suggested the like option at the presentation. the streets the new lane are all right. paukdz and shows second third and fourth are congested and as you know third and fourth and king

are behind the network that is - the off-ramp where it dumps goes into the congestion and we do not needing another lane can't expand the amount of capacity on the city streets and adding a lane takes cars out of this lane and still adding for tire emissions and other things that is not what we need as a city 2012 ed lee turned this down and 2016, i 2080 included knocking down this stub and senator scott wiener asked for alternatives time to set this away from cars and rather than bring increasing this build the favorite rail

connections. and please oppose any plans so more lanes in the city thank you, way. >> any remote public comment on item 15 and. >> checking for remote public comment on item 15. >> hi caller your two minutes begins now that. >> in general public comment? >> yes. >> thank my name is david hooper calling on behalf of the association and calling in particular to thank the people at cta stephen chung and joel and brian and sfmta for the work they've done in how increasing the pedestrian safety particularly thank you for the activation of the traffic signals on teresa last thursday

(clearing throat) unfortunately, in sunday evening was a fatal pedestrian fatality at allen where is a traffic signal is being i'd like to say the sfmta itself is dragging its feet on improving public safety on our portion of santa fe after their response is inadequate so thank you to the people at the sf cta. >> thank you caller. >> hi caller your two minutes begins now. >> hi, good morning thank you for your service to the transportation for those who live and work in san francisco i

want to alert the last week media coverage this includes the abc 7 news getting answers in the bay area and two articles in the chronology and across the city the widening of lanes by diverting transportation funds and filling potholes and making our streets safer for those who walk in the face of rising fatality numbers and the routes that are opposed between embarcadero such as is dog patch and the. >> (calling names.) >> positions for social region

and transportation like the san francisco bike coalition and friends of caltrain and streets for people and several elected officers spoken out with the supervisor dave and james kohlman and: >> (calling names). >> (bell ringing) also congressional former santa fe mayor spoke out again highway widening i hope you oppose the proposed widening of highway 2 in san francisco. >> thank you. >> thank you, caller. >> important public comment. >> public comment is closed. call the next item. >> 16. adjournment. >> we're adjourned

(gavel) [meeting adjourned] you are watching san francisco rising with chris manor. today's special guest is sarah phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing the city. the guest today is sarah phillips the executive director of economic workforce development. welcome to the show.

>> thank you for having me. let's talk about the city economic plan and specifically the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview and update on progress? >> absolute e. in february 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there was structural and lang lasting changing by the covid impact. 134 were shorter term impacts how people using transit downtown and coming out and are using small businesses, some of them remember long-term structural impacts. the way we work. how often we are in an office and how much office space companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. some of those were structural impacts how we stop. there has been a long-term change as online shopping takes up a greater share how we

performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably take 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern the timeframe to 2 years so saw structural impacts how people shop. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we have seen is efforts creating permitinant services and homes for people experiencing homelessness is dramatic. we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more work to do. on the safety side there are exciting things that happened. we increased our police pay among the highest in the bay area which is a important thing for recruitment. police recruitment across the country is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a high pay set.

august the highsh return in graduates. we see 75 decrease in retail theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which is quality of life crime san francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thing important in the mayor roadmap we are not trying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed having a downtown with people sitting at offices isn't the best downtown it can be. i think it is a opportunity to bring 24 hour life use downtown. >> music and concerts is a great way to bring people to a specific location. golden gate park we had lots of events in plazas throughout the

city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you touched on something key to the mayor road map. for san francisco and particularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing people together because they want to be together not because they center to be together and music is a strong part that. the planet concert sear ries coming up and happening throughout the city not just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great example. there are smaller examples as well. the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor roadmap where two streets come together akwraisant to a couple restaurants closed to cars in daytime, chairs and seating and throughout the week they have lunch time and evening music to bring people together after

work. they participate in that. something we are working on setting up for next year which is really exciting is our sf live program and that will bring a full 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and partnership to useian square, music center plaza and embark cadero. we will be able to announce concert series through the sf- >> you mentioned vacant to vibrant, that program has a lot of attention lately. can you talk generally what exactly that program is? >> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords willing to offer groundfloor space for free for 3 to 6 month jz small business or

storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for 3 to 6 months. it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting the number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a place where commercial real estate understands they need to come to the table to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting in a transition where the groundfloor is seen less as a money making operation, but more as a leader to lease upper floors. if you have a active ground floor yields better on the other 80 percent of the building you are trying to lease. that was great, a lot of cooperation scr over 700 small business or operators responded to that call. it is pop up. there is no intention this would result in forever small businesses, but there is certainly a hope and i think what we are hearing, i don't have the final data, but there

are 17 activators in 9 different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9 spaces that are being leased for free, now 7 of them are in discussions for long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the program. we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to pilot in other neighborhoods with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of capital that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are seen is they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to support this activation so hopeful to expand it. >> that's great. can you talk a bit about why piloting programs and testing things is so important? >> absolutely. you know, i would say not only the important generally but important in san francisco specifically. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really

important here is, it allows us to try something and say, there may be consequence but let's understand those in real time rather then waiting to start a strategy while we think about them on paper and if they are too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whether a bike lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is this working? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd to our office particularly because we tend to have the ability and the mayor's support through the budget process to pilot things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public

plaza, see if it works and i think the benefit there is, if it doesn't work we tried it and had the benefit of seeing real time and when it does work, we are able to uplift that and move into a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city operating procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term whether it is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows them to vote for what they like. >> lastly, in lith light of the current ai boom, do you think there is a way to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of san francisco's status as a tech hub? >> i do, i think they work together.

san francisco right now has a strong vacancy problem in our office space. and there is a back-story to that. our zoning downtown has not prevented other uses, in terms of permitting uses of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other barriers, cost and code barriers et cetera and what happened also during the height of our preevious boom is that, the amount that tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything out so we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we de facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the opportunity you are pointing out. now because downtown was so convertible from work from home, particularly as tech based downtown was and how much companies put at the market in the office spaces we are seeing

high vacancy now, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lot of opportunity. we have the ability to absorb expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. we have seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased just in 2023 alone and there is still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a growth spot absorbing some of the vac ancy. the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also dropped and that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies that were priced out in 2018, 2019, 2020. san francisco has always been great at starting companies and allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevents that growth so now we are a super fertile ground for more start ups and invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter

our market and we have the space to offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of really great university and educational institutions. we are between uc berkeley and stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone stay in the bay area and want to rise up and work here, provide a real opportunity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to grow here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with ai tech. with that, we are interested in increasing our human capital growing graduates. downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we are in conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a partner in our downtown and then residential conversions are a great partner to that. as we build back the office space, people will want to live downtown again and we have a number buildings that can be

converted to residential. the costs are high. mayor breed and her partners on the board made significant changes to reduce the costs. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown area. there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a ballot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs for those as well. it is ongoing process and none of those changes we talked about absent ai growth downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts growth downtown and residential conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity per your question, but we also need to be patient because what we are talking about is is a real shift to the make-up of the downtown since from the growth it has been starting at since the turn of the century so that isn't a 2 year change, that is a 10 year change and we center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you

spending the time here today and your creative vision and positivity, so thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown and shop. >> that is it for this episode. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks book. thank you. >> (music). >> my name is orlando i'm the owner and operator of sf pizza. >> pizza is my expansion growing up i loved pizza and loved to cook and been in

corporate banking jobs my that whole life wanted to own a pizza or and moved to san francisco 45 years ago and couldn't find pizza i like so one day of saving and trying to figure out what i would like to do to fulfill my dream and to literally must be that i went out on my own toes an interesting things skills i again have to working on the slight changes to find the right product and came up with something i enjoy and continue it. so the positive important thing in years and years and years of trying to get it where i like it is for the sauce i use a unique sauce to bring out the flavors have to mats and capital

improvement plan any and using use a high quality of cheese the products work together more important to me have a high quality of pizza and made with love and what i try to keep it to be a comfortable foods or food and that's what i try to over and offers so having a really bus illegal day in the community and rile appeal to me and that's what i was trying to accomplish i have thought when i got into pizza the main thing if i can, make a great cheese pizza he can do anything like growing up that's what i brought to to and now called san francisco

>> item 50 is resolution calling on department of public health to provide medically necessary transition related care for transgender related people and remove restrictions. >> in 2012 gender health sf was born out of advocacy from community stakeholders and local leaders. really as response to providing quality, accessible jnder aaffirming care for the most under-served. (indiscernible) the way i see it, there is two ways of folks we serve at our program. the first wave of folks who never imagined surgery access was accessible to them. many folks who had to save money or par ticipate in underground economy to access the surgery outside the country. (indiscernible) really to make

something real in terms of being able to connect with the gender identity and external (indiscernible) and so transform so many lives of many of trans folks who never imagined it was accessible to them. now we are in the different era and time where transrights is in the social political and general (indiscernible) and now we are serving young folks to support them and making sure their gender identity is connected to who they are, so providing a space to support transfolks to live authentically and that is the goal to provide the level of care trans folks deserve. >> when it comes to access to healthcare, while we all believe in cost control and make sure we deliver healthcare in a cost effective manner, i dont think that cost is a reason or legitinate

rational to exclude people from healthcare (indiscernible) colleagues i ask for your support. >> thank you supervisor wiener. colleagues on this item can we do this without role call? same house same call, without objection the resolution is adopted. [applause] city. >> hi other supervisor joel representing the great district and want to say congratulations on thirty years of sfgovtv. you know. if when i was a kid mtv revolutions my tv now we want my sfgovtv and revolutions. >> join the center in

celebrating thirty years of sfgovtv. thank you for promotin

>> (bell tolling). >> wow. >> (clapping) welcome, everyone. here we are high on a hill. little morning fog, no rain are we lurking or not we're san franciscans. we're here to celebrate a beautiful man in our beautiful cable car cars what better day to do it in valentine's day can you bring our hearts all right. >> my name is rick i'm the president of the market street railway an independent advocate for the history cable car and