>> good afternoon. everybody. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm so excited to be swearing in janet tarlov to the mta board with her family, her friends, people from the merchant's association and so many folks that she's had an opportunity to develop relationships with to the council of district merchants and so many of our communities. the glenn park community. food is a unify but your

establishes in glenn park was something of an institution. it still is, the grand canyon -- did i not say that right? i think it's the grand canyon. the canyon market. which i loved going in there and talking to the people because many of the people that work for you and still work there, you know, they handle food and the community with such love and care. and that is a special thing to have especially in a big major city like san francisco. but more importantly, this body -- the mta, it's important that we have people who are on boards and commissions that have an understanding of what it feels like to run a small business in sphrbltion. that understands what it feels like when decisions get made and

small businesses prosper because of those decisions. it's important that when those decisions get made that you have a voice of understanding, offer reason of experience as a small business owner at the forefront of the decisions whether it's to move from where it was, where it's to tear up the streets like we're doing now in a couple of neighborhoods and businesses are impacted because people are not happy maybe about parking and we have no we haven't made alternative plans and how it impacts their family. i know, mayor, i know. but just having that diverse voice of reason on the mta body is so critical to the success of the organization. so that we don't encounter some of the hiccups that we run into

in some of these neighborhoods. construction is challenging, change is challenging, the decisions have have to be made with our huge transportation network to ensure that buses and bikes and different modes of transportation are able to move around the city safely and efficiently is an important component of what the sfmta does especially around its construction projects and having a bigger understanding of how it impacts people's lives is critical to the success of this organization and changes necessary to move san francisco forward. i'm excited to have you serve on this body. we appreciate your willingness because it's a lot of work, a lot of hard decisions and there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions but more importantly, there are people that care. they care about the city and the

changes that we are implementing and they want to ensure that these situations that occur are a win-win for everyone. and that's what i think you bring to this body is the possibility of a win-win solution oriented decision making in order to ensure that small businesses are at the forefront of the conversation. with that, i will turn it over to jeff tumlin. all right. jeff tumlin, the director of the sfmta board. [applause] >> j. tumlin: thank you, mayor breed. the success of muny and small businesses are inextra bli linked. they're there because there is a muni line there. small businesses depend on

mobility to get their customers and goods delivered to the districts and muni depends on the riders that we generate. here in san francisco, we're challenged by some of the greatest amount of work from home. our downtown stations are only at 35% of their pre-covid ridership. in our neighborhood commercial districts, almost all of our lines are back at pre-covid ridership and some are as high as 130% of pre-covid ridership in part because of the creativity and importance of our neighborhoods. we understand that our future is dependent upon small business success and we're eager to learn from janet and the community in which janet knows through the city in order to help us be better, how do we make the mobility system work safer.

how do we make it easier for people to get around by all modes of transportation and how do we foster commercial success in san francisco particularly among our small and locally-owned businesses which is one of the most important reasons why all of us love living here in san francisco. i'm honored to have you be my boss and i look forward to many years of working together. thank you. [applause] >> mayor breed: okay, for the moment we all waited for. i'll do it this way so your family can hear. all right. please raise your right hand and repeat after me. i state your name. >> i janet swear do solemnly

swear. >> mayor breed: to support and defend. >> j. tarlov: to support and with defend. >> the constitution of the u.s. government. >> to support and defend the city of san francisco to support and defend and i take this freely without any mental reservation brd or purpose. >> or purpose of evasion and i will dwell and faithfully discharge. >> mayor breed: the duties. >> j. tarlov: the duties upon which i am about to enter and during this time as i serve as

member of the san francisco municipal transportation agency >> mayor breed: board of directors. >> j. tarlov: board of directors. >> mayor breed: and the parking authority commission. >> j. tarlov: and the parking authority commission. >> mayor breed: for the city and county of san francisco. >> j. tarlov: for the city and county of san francisco. >> mayor breed: thank you very much. [applause] i'll continue right now. there you go. >> j. tarlov: thank you. >> mayor breed: congratulations and thank you for serving.

>> j. tarlov: i would like to say a few words. i'm not as practiced as the director and the mayor, but i prepared some remarks. thank you -- thank you very much, mayor breed and the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm truly humbled and honored to be trusted with this responsibility. it was a great pleasure to work with the mayor's office through the nomination process, in particular jean eld berg, gelsy and alex were generous with their time and insight as i prepared. i'm also grateful for the time chair eaken spent with me and director tumlin and the many other mta staff members who took the time to bring me up to speed with their important work. i would also like to thank my

family and friends here to support me. richard, max, elliot and nancy, i love you all. i'm so grateful for my colleagues on the board of the glen park merchants association to tony and the best vice president ever marianne delarry. thank you for all you do and i can't miss carolyn from the glen park association who braved the rain to be here. i would not be here without the rules committee, [indiscernible] sharkey and paul terry and sam who was not able to be here today. i would definitely not be here today without the encouragement of the board of the san francisco council district mer tants association. there are many other people i would thank, but instead, i'm

going to express my gratitude by working as hard as i can to successfully fulfill my responsibilities as a director of -- of the sfmta board and work for the work for san francisco, residents, students, workers and visitors. providing safe, reliable, clean and well-maintained modes much transportation, motorists, pedestrians, bicycle riders, disabled folks and seniors is the awesome tax that the sfmta staff, maintenance borkers and operators dedicate themselves to every day. i'm honored to join you. although i will always strife to serve all of san francisco's many and varied constituents, i will bring my own 16 years of

lyft experience owning and running canyon market and natural goods grocery in glen park. businesses on the commercial corridors whether they realize it or not are independenceable partners with the sfmta in managing the flow of people, goods and services throughout the city. i hope my business will bring students for collaboration with the small business community to the work of the sfmta. thank you all very much for being here. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, janet, for your work on this body. i hope you're strapped in and ready for the ride. it will be something else but rewarding had you see the great work that you're able to do

while serving on this body. we appreciate you and everyone for being here today. thank you all so much and let's get back to work.

my name is doctor ellen moffett, i am an assistant medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco. i perform autopsy, review medical records and write reports. also integrate other sorts of testing data to determine cause and manner of death. i have been here at this facility since i moved here in november, and previous to that at the old facility. i was worried when we moved here that because this building is so much larger that i wouldn't see

people every day. i would miss my personal interactions with the other employees, but that hasn't been the case. this building is very nice. we have lovely autopsy tables and i do get to go upstairs and down stairs several times a day to see everyone else i work with. we have a bond like any other group of employees that work for a specific agency in san francisco. we work closely on each case to determine the best cause of death, and we also interact with family members of the diseased. that brings us closer together also. >> i am an investigator two at the office of the chief until examiner in san francisco. as an investigator here i investigate all manners of death that come through our jurisdiction. i go to the field interview police officers, detectives, family members, physicians,

anyone who might be involved with the death. additionally i take any property with the deceased individual and take care and custody of that. i maintain the chain and custody for court purposes if that becomes an issue later and notify next of kin and make any additional follow up phone callsness with that particular death. i am dealing with people at the worst possible time in their lives delivering the worst news they could get. i work with the family to help them through the grieving process. >> i am ricky moore, a clerk at the san francisco medical examiner's office. i assist the pathology and toxicology and investigative team around work close with the families, loved ones and funeral establishment. >> i started at the old facility. the building was old, vintage.

we had issues with plumbing and things like that. i had a tiny desk. i feet very happy to be here in the new digs where i actually have room to do my work. >> i am sue pairing, the toxicologist supervisor. we test for alcohol, drugs and poisons and biological substances. i oversee all of the lab operations. the forensic operation here we perform the toxicology testing for the human performance and the case in the city of san francisco. we collect evidence at the scene. a woman was killed after a robbery homicide, and the dna collected from the zip ties she was bound with ended up being a cold hit to the suspect. that was the only investigative link collecting the scene to the

suspect. it is nice to get the feedback. we do a lot of work and you don't hear the result. once in a while you heard it had an impact on somebody. you can bring justice to what happened. we are able to take what we due to the next level. many of our counterparts in other states, cities or countries don't have the resources and don't have the beautiful building and the equipmentness to really advance what we are doing. >> sometimes we go to court. whoever is on call may be called out of the office to go to various portions of the city to investigate suspicious deaths. we do whatever we can to get our job done. >> when we think that a case has a natural cause of death and it turns out to be another natural cause of death.

unexpected findings are fun. >> i have a prior background in law enforcement. i was a police officer for 8 years. i handled homicides and suicides. i had been around death investigation type scenes. as a police officer we only handled minimal components then it was turned over to the coroner or the detective division. i am intrigued with those types of calls. i wondered why someone died. i have an extremely supportive family. older children say, mom, how was your day. i can give minor details and i have an amazing spouse always willing to listen to any and all details of my day. without that it would be really hard to deal with the negative components of this job. >> being i am a native of san

francisco and grew up in the community. i come across that a lot where i may know a loved one coming from the back way or a loved one seeking answers for their deceased. there are a lot of cases where i may feel affected by it. if from is a child involved or things like that. i try to not bring it home and not let it affect me. when i tell people i work at the medical examiners office. what do you do? the autopsy? i deal with the enough and -- with the administrative and the families. >> most of the time work here is very enjoyable. >> after i started working with dead people, i had just gotten married and one night i woke up in a cold sweat. i thought there was somebody

dead? my bed. i rolled over and poked the body. sure enough, it was my husband who grumbled and went back to sleep. this job does have lingering effects. in terms of why did you want to go into this? i loved science growing up but i didn't want to be a doctor and didn't want to be a pharmacist. the more i learned about forensics how interested i was of the perfect combination between applied science and criminal justice. if you are interested in finding out the facts and truth seeking to find out what happened, anybody interested in that has a place in this field. >> being a woman we just need to go for it and don't let anyone fail you, you can't be. >> with regard to this position in comparison to crime dramas out there, i would say there

might be some minor correlations. let's face it, we aren't hollywood, we are real world. yes we collect evidence. we want to preserve that. we are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a hollywood television show. >> families say thank you for what you do, for me that is extremely fulfilling. somebody has to do my job. if i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of san francisco. >> # ity of san francisco. >> >> >> >> you are watching san francisco rising.

>> hi, you are watching san francisco rising. reimagining our city. he's with us to talk about how our library's economic recover. mr. lambert, welcome to the show. >> thank you. i'm glad to be here. >> i know it's been difficult to have books going virtual. have we recovered? >> yes, we are on our way. our staff stepped up big time during the pandemic to respond to the health emergency. since last may, we have been able to steadily increase in person access to library facilities. currently we are at 95% of our precovid hours of operation. in the coming weeks we are going to fully restore all of our

hours. we have four branches that we are going to bring back to seven day service. they are currently operating at 5 days a week and we are going to go to every tag line and i know all the foot traffic has not returned to san francisco, but our library is seeing a resurgence coming back. >> can we talk about programs after covid? >> absolutely, that is part and parcel of our mission. we were doing that work precovid and certainly the library stepped up during the pandemic. we doubled our level of programming for personal finance, small business help, jobs and careers. we have a dedicated small business center here at the library. there is a wide suite of programs that our librarian led.

we have a financial planning day coming up in october and we have financial coaches that members of the community can come to the main library and take advantage of their expertise. >> i understand the mission is in the middle of a renovation. how is that going and are there other construction projects in the horizon? >> yes, we have major projects in the pipeline. the historic mission branch library, carnegie library over 100 years old and we are investing $25 million to restore that facility. we are going to restore the original entrance on 24th street, the staircase from the lower level up to the grand reading room. we are going to push out on the orange alley side of the library and expand space for teens and children, we are going to create a robust community room, a

multipurpose space. we are also investing $30 million in the chinatown branch, we are going to upgrade the mechanical systems to the highest level of filtration as we increasingly respond as cooling centers and air respite centers and open access to the roof. it has some unique views of chinatown to create the inspiring space it is. >> i believe you have programs for families that have free and low cost entries for museum and zoos, is that correct? >> yes. it's a fabulous resource. go to our website. with your library cart, patrons, our residents can go to the public library and get passes to the museums, all of the incredible cultural institutions

that we have in san francisco all for free with your library card. >> how are these great free services paid for? how is the library system funded? >> we are so fortunate in san francisco. we are funded for by the library fund and those that taxed themselves just for library services. we also get a dedicated portion of the general fund. that together allows us to be one of the most well supported libraries in the nation. we have the third most library outlets per square mile of any municipality. all of our branch libraries have professionally trained librarians on-site. service that we are able to provide, the collection, we are a leading library in our

country. >> that lead know ask about your biggest annual event in the city. how does the event work and what's happening this year? >> we are excited for this year's one city one book. this is our signature annual literature event. we have everybody in the community reading the same book. this year's title is "this is your hustle" named after the pulitzer prize nominated and pod taste. this is about the population. one nice thing about this selection is that they are both local. we are going to have several weeks of programming, kicking off next month. it will culminate here in the auditorium november 3rd.

so our library patrons will get to meet the authors, hear from them directly, and one other important aspect about this year's selection, we have our own jail and reentry services department. recently the foundation awarded the san francisco public library $2 million to work with the american library association to shine a light on our best practices here in san francisco, and really help our peers in the industry learn how they can replicate the service model that we are doing here in san francisco. >> that's great. well, thank you so much. i really appreciate you coming on the show, mr. lambert. thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, chris. that's it for this episode, we will be back shortly. you are watching san francisco rising. thanks for watching.

okay. good evening and welcome to the february 28th, 2024 meeting of the san francisco board of appeals. president lopez will be the presiding officer tonight, and he is joined by vice president alex lundberg, commissioner rick swig, commissioner john trasvina , and commissioner j.r. epler. also present is deputy city attorney jen huber, who will provide the board with any needed legal advice at the controls of the board's legal assistant, alex. and i'm julie rosenberg, the board's executive director. we will also be joined by representatives from the city departments that will be presenting before the board this evening. corey teague, the zoning administrator representing the planning department, matthew green, deputy director of inspection services for the department of building inspection and james zon, housing