>> good afternoon. i am elaine forbes, ecective directive of the port of san francisco representing my staff and we are celebrating a major accomplishment today. it has been a long hard road of data and collaboration and work and today we realize it is very successful road, and we are very proud to stand here with the army corp of engineers. the question we had in 2018 when the leadership actually right behind me came together was, how do we protect this waterfront? we have big areas of the city that the sea wall protects from flood, big public systems, regional systems like bart that has serious risk of flood from

sea level rise and so the question came, how do we protect it? we put together a bond that went to the voters and in 2018 to say, we have risk, we have trouble, help us. the leadership behind me made that bond happen. with that bond, we began to work and advocate that same year, we amazingly got a new start from the army corp of engine and say said we will study this problem, we'll figure how to fix it and if we find federal interest we'll build with you to build the project and today we are celebrating the draft plan that has come out of that process. it involves 6 years of work, very deep analysis and investigation. this is not a easy problem to solve. but now you will see and it the public will see this work lead to key answers to the puzzle of how to protect this

waterfront. the remarkable leaders behind me took very very very bold steps with persistent commitment to the long game and to addressing sadly what we must address, to make this day possible. we mark this milestone as a great achievement and i want to acknowledge the people behind me. speaker emeritus nancy pelosi. thank you. mayor london breed. lieutenant governor kounalakis. state senator scott wiener. board president aaron peskin. u.s. army corp of engineers south pacific commander, colonel james hondora, and eventually city administrator carmen chui may join us. so, thank you.

so, i want to talk about what this plan is. what this draft plan is. it analyzed the flood risks and effects the sea level rise from aquatic park to [indiscernible] port jurisdiction. it shows where to build the flood defenses, how high to build the flood defenses, and how much space to take in order to have those flood defenses. it is up to us, the city, our partners to figure out what will go back on top, which to make a beautiful waterfront. befitting of wonderful city and county of san francisco. the waterfront of the future has to be as least as majestic as the waterfront of today. the plan is expensive. it is expenses has a price tag of $13 billion at this time. when we move forward on projects the federal government will pay for 65 cents of every

dollar it cost. 65 percent contribution. that is a big benefit to city and county of san francisco. because we know sea level rise is happening, but we don't know how it happen or how quickly this plan is adaptive and smart how to build to changing and unknown condition. it is also unique in terms of how it addresses the waterfront across. it is a major mile stone but there much ahead. much that will be ahead. this plan will be implemented over many decades. many decades and the phasing and implementation strategy as will be very important because we want to leverage other public infrastructure investments, private investment and other investments that make federal interest and city interest come together in a important way. it is time for the public to engage. that's what we are announcing

today, the public engaged to date. the public needs to please keep engaging on the plan to build an amazing waterfront , we need that engagement. we are working on things we may not see. all these projects but the future generation will see and paving the way for important works so they are prepared. the projects are prepared to implement. i mention i'm surrounded by the leadings who made this happen. both through the larger army corp study we are sharing and through proposition a, the earthquake safety bond so i like to first introduce speaker emeritus pelosi who served san francisco and county with such distinction. she is in fact a national treasure as we know. she and senator feinstein are the reason we got the new start army corp in 2018. without this new start we would not have this discussion in any

way shape or form because it began the flood study in the deep partnership with the army corp of engineers. with the passage of infrastructure investment jobs act and inflation reduction act there is no one who has worked harder to address climate change then speaker emeritus pelosi. also, in 2020 and again in 2022, the army corp looks at cost versus benefit. the san francisco cost include seismic cost which are substantial when you build anything, in particular on the utwaer front. we have terrible seismic conditions. those cost will drag down any hope of us having federal interest and it was speaker pelosi's team that saw through many technical and legislative amendments so we can compete and in fact there was a finding of federal interest. without this finding we would not have this conversation. it was with great honor that i introduce her and thank her for

sharing in this milestone. >> thank you, thank you so much very. san francisco port director elaine forbes. to you and your staff congratulation what is happening today and thank you. as you could tell from the prezen taiz of the director this is complicated initiative. when she talks about new starts, we had to fight a initiative of a previous occupant of the white house who didn't want anymore new starts and if there were new starts we had to be one of them. again, attribute to senator feinstein in the senate was such a important part of this. we are here because of a vision of the people of san francisco. i'm honored to be here with the family, mayor, senator wiener, kounalakis, aaron peskin, carmen chui and the big homa

here today is united states army corp engineers colonel james hondura. this is the moment because i can't tell how many times in the years in congress where people all over the country come to me and say, can you influence the army corp of engineers to certify, to put-to give [indiscernible] no. they have a independent process that they use. it isn't political, it is factual and determined. for us to have--elaine, director forbes, very clearly described everything so i won't go into it so you enable us to respond time on other remarks and i appreciate that, but this from the army corp of engineers to this extent is remarkable, and we should be proud of that and this period of public

comment is really a model to the country as well, because again, we want to be factual and thoughtful and practical about what we can get done. it is really a honor to be here. the century old embarcadero sea wall provides a crucial foundation for our city protecting families, businesses, you know all that and streets from flooding. flooding. we face intensifying climate crisis and possibility of earthquake risk, the draft today, the release of the draft plans brings us a step closer to shoring up our sea wall. the climate crisis-rising sea levels is a consequence of climate crisis is a existential threat of our time and our first future depends on taking action now. this is why the draft plan is

so critical to protecting the city sea wall from earthquake and flooding risk. it has been my privilege to fight in congress along the way to help investigate how to strengthen our sea wall including in the president infrastructure law $5 million to continue these studies. it is one step at a time. when we talk about $13 billion, 2/3 will be federal. 1/3 state and local. but, in order to get that we have to demonstrate as we always do in san francisco that we are a model to the country, but we owe it to them, we owe it to them to make sure, to make sure we do this right.

that's why i'm so excited to be here with everyone here and all of you, but current handora, he is making all the difference in all this. but he couldn't do it without the foundation laid by our port, our mayor, port director, to the staff, thank you for making this day possible. thank you all so much. [applause] >> so, in this journey it is very important for leaders to be willing to invest in something that takes a long time and the benefit occurs to future generations. it takes a lot of dedication. a lot of commitment to being prepared and being safe. and mayor london breed has been that leader and steadfast champion of this work since she

became mayor and in 2018 it was her first bond, thtosesupport m forward on studying this problem and being prepared. since proposition a passed, she lead her departments to work together. i see director tumlin from the sfmta here and so glad to see him because we department heads had to work together to figure out how these projects will come into fruition in a successful way and she urged her departments public works, planning, rezil silience. brian strong, capital planning sfpuc engaged and deeply impacted by these proposed projis easy

especially for elected leaders is when there is things that they bring forward, including myself, often times we want the grat fiication. it is easy to look at something like the sea wall and say well, i won't be here so why should i care. i won't be alive potentially, so why should it matter. and the fact is, people like the ones sitting behind me today, they are not choosing easy. they are choosing hard. they are choosing to think about future generations and climate change and global

warming and sea level rise and choosing to do the hard thing and that is bring people together in order to talk about the challenges that exist, the real impacts and the next century by the end of this century, 3 to 7 percent of the waterfront will be covered in water here in san francisco if we don't act now. if we don't talk about it. if we don't accept the opportunity that we have before us to put forth a visionary plan to address sea level rise in one of the most constructive ways possible, because when we pass this bond in 2018, we were putting everyone in the city and in the country on notice that we are putting this on the top of our list as a priority. we truly appreciate the army corp of engineers for making the hard decision to choose to

work with san francisco to draft this plan, and to one of the first times ever, to use exwuty equity and talk about communities disproportionately impacted by the harms of climate in the past, by the harms and injustices of bad decisions in the past and how we need to insure that this comprehensive plan includes all communities and that it doesn't negatively impact and that's why we are talking about 7.5 miles of waterfront which goes all the way into the bayview hunters point community as well. so, i'm excited about what we are doing here. this is extraordinary. again, when you start talking about water, pipes, all these infrastructure things that you are asking people to support and pay attention, this is going to be better for future generations, folks are like,

what is better for me now, but the thing about san franciscans is they care about climate change and care what is happening in the city and this is why the voters overwhelming supported the bond in 2018, it is why so many here today who have been responsible for helping us to draft this plan are with us and we couldn't have a better fearless leader in the house of representatives then our speaker emeritus nancy pelosi. not only does she help bring home resources for our park open space, transportation. san francisco has been the beneficiaries of extraordinary federal leadership and this is exactly the type of example the work she has done and will continue to do to insure san francisco is at the for front of addressing so many issues we face and climate change with

our climate action plan and with the work we did to focus on the waterfront, we are opening up the doors to the public to provide input but more importantly open the opportunity for the funding necessary to not only talk about the plan, but to actually implement the plan and i'm looking forward to seeing the work and at least get started in my lifetime so we can get the job done and we can all feel confident that we did something to impact future generations and we have set the seed for them to also think about how we take care of the planet and leave it in better condition then we found it. thank you all so much. [applause] >> we hope to get projects in in your lifetime, mayor. we'll try hard won't we team? okay. so, in a program like this you definitely need federal state and local investment. it is too much to bare on any

particular entity. we would eclipse the go bond program if we lean on the local source. i is a wonderful leader to introduce who knows about leverage and worked very hard to see ports get investment. i want to introduce lieutenant governor of the state of california kounalakis. prior to being the first woman elected to the officer she was our port commissioner. [laughter] that was a important job because she was here when we were just getting started with resilience and she pushed, she saw what we needed to do so it was wonderful to have her there. she also oversees the state land commission which is one of the most collaborative and

transparent agencies. it is a wonderful agency and she is always assuring ports have resources and it was our lieutenant governor who got us rescue funds when we lost 40 percent of our revenue and we were in terrible terrible shape. without her leadership we would not be here today. our operations would have gone down as our tenants and we really thank you for driving economic recovery and wellbeing and with no further ado, i like to introduce lieutenant governor kounalakis. >> thank you director. thank you so much director forbes. it really is a honor to be here with all these great leaders to recognize the work that has gone on over the last 5 years to deliver this very important plan for the future of the san francisco waterfront. as director forbes mentioned, i am a former port commissioner for san francisco and we would

regularly push back against the authority of the state lands commission, so it is somewhat ironic that i head that body today, but what it is, it is the jurisdictional authority for the land about 850 miles of california coast that is held in the public trust of all the people of this state of california. and we know that our coast line from the very top of our state to the bottom is fou extremely vulnerable to the rising pacific ocean that is brought on by a warming climate. the fact that san francisco is so far ahead of the game in creating this plan is really lotable for everyone involved and i also want to recognize the presence of you commander because it was essential the

army corp be very close-closely working with the board to develop this plan and that we know that there are infrastructure tools and solutions available to protect the city of san francisco, the jewel of california and the west from the rising waters, which we know are going to happen. finally, i would just like to also recognize, because elaine forbes gave me credit for the rescue funds, yet again that was speaker pelosi who made sure it was written into the relief funds during covid that the port of san francisco would be able to access those funds so that the many businesses here that were struggling would be able to stay solvent through that time. so, the people who are here represent a team has been able to deliver a plan. what is ahead of us is the

construction of that plan and i'm very confident as the mayor said that we will see the projects come out of the ground to protect what we know is the most beautiful city in the state and the world. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much. now i have the great distinction to introduce our representative from the army corp of engineers but before i do, i want to tell how great the team has been to work with. there has been several members of leadership that have come out to san francisco to really understand this problem. this hard urban edge that provides flood protection to so many assets and resources. it really really understanding the situation. willing to add things not just cost and benefits, but comprehensive benefits for community that hits on some items the mayor spoke of

related to equity and also just to design in unknown conditions so we couldn't ask for oo better group of engineers to lead this process, and so with that, i would like to introduce the south pacific division commander, colonel james hondura. [applause] >> good morning good morning. beautiful day to be out here. i want to just thank the port director for coordinating for this beautiful weather. once again, round of applause. [applause] special day today and one on sunday. there is a little game sunday. >> go 9ers! >> right. should be a good weekend. thank you director forbes and your team at the port here for setting up today's event. i want to acknowledge and thank senator wiener board peskin, city administrator chui. great to have participation and

support. the corp of engineers is grateful to speaker pelosi. mayor breed it is honor to be here today as we announce this important milestone. our partnership with the port of san francisco and work on this study spans many years across multiple corp engineer entities. i'm excited to be here representing a well integrated team of professionals from across the corp engineers. partnered closely with port team to form a integrating task force to deliver this complex and pace-setting project. today's release signifies the next step in our partnership with the port, city and public building coastal resiliency. 2022, the corp engineers and the port released draft water strategies for public review. the draft feasibility report we are relaesing today includes a

tentatively plan or draft plan developed using elements of the alternatives. provides analysis of cost benefits and environmental social impacts and tailored to the unique conditions and different risks at the port. this draft plan considered climate rezil yans as a goal for the san francisco waterfront, establishes approximately where the corp of engineers and the city to build coastal resiliency and mitigation features structural and nature based and how much future sea level rises before they need to be adapted to higher water levels. this is not only a step forward for san francisco, it is step forward for corp of engineers and what we are doing here in the bay will be a model for other project s. the plan account for social and environmental benefit and impact and more traditional economic analysis.

this means environmental justice, social and economic equity, impact of vulnerable populations, and environmental benefits are factored into decision making and evaluation for coastal flood risk management alternatives. the studies innovative and includes alternative and plans for future actions to address uncertainty of the rate of sea level rise and includes a range of possible future sea level rise scenarios. includes monitoring and adapgz plan that enable the u.s. army corp of engineers the city and public to use best available science to understand when first actions should be taken and shoreline flood ringe mitigation will be needed to adapt to higher water levels. work on the draft plan included extensive collaboration with regional and federal agencies all which informed by more then 6 years of public feedback on the future of the waterfront.

today's release of the draft report starts a 60 day period for public comment on the study and we want to hear from you the public. we want to hear from you so we need feedback to get this right. this will be a series of public workshops at the end of february and other outreach events to gain further insight for the community from the community. after responding to these comments received we work with the port to make changes to that draft plan based on public feedback, further technical analysis and policy review. we expect the final report and recommended plan to go before congress for consideration by 2026. again, i like to thank director forbes and the port team for their partnership and commitment to outreach in this process. we look forward talking the next step in the long but critical journey to build coastal resiliency for san francisco. building strong, [indiscernible] be all you can be. [applause]

>> alright. now i have the honor to introduce someone who is so hard working and always there to support important measures, not only to support but to get behind their approval. just recently, this wonderful leader brought a piece of legislation to the state that will allow us to build on piers 30, 32 and get up to $450 million of private investment in resilience and flood protection. senator scott wiener, has always been a supporter of climate adaptation. he is recognized in times magazine actually as one of the country's top hundred climate leaders. in 2023, he passed the climate corporate data accountability act, which requires businesses

annual revenues over $1 billion working within california to publicly disclose their carbon emissions. he's championed lots of climate initiatives through his legislative career with focus on housing and transit. he worked tirelessly in 2018 on the prop a bond and he also as i said just moved legislation through that is absolutely critical to and not only a seismically safe and earthquake safe waterfront, but an exciting vibrant waterfront and with that, senator scott wiener. [applause] >> thank you director forbes. i just want to say i am so proud of a lot of things about san francisco, but i'm so proud of the port of san francisco and it leadership. when you look at the transformation of our waterfront in san francisco, i think sometimes we get used to things and take it for granted

but you can look at photos not that long ago and this is just been a rebirth and it is very very exciting so thank you to elaine and the entire port team for your amazing work. so, we know that sea level rise is not some future theoretical problem, it is here, it could have been here today. we lucked out with the tides, but it is here and it is only going to get worse, given the larger failures and reliance on fossil fuels and the continuing heating of our planet. we cannot allow a situation where the embarcadero is flooding and muni and bart tunnels are flooded regularly. parts of downtown are being flooded regularly. this isn't just about having

some waves coming up periodically at the embarcadero this is discussion of the city transit and downtown. we cannot let that happen and that is what this is about. we know that the environmental movement was some may dispute but i'll say it, born here in san francisco and always grown here and in the bay area. just like john muir and sierra club were founded here and all the folks who created that movement, we are responding to the environmental crisis of that time, we need to respond to the environmental crisis of our time. the climate disaster and that means the bigger picture ending reliance on fossil fuels and moving towards hundred percent clean energy and making the physical changes needed so we

can keep going on and being strong even in the face of rising sea levels. i know we'll be able to do that here. we know that madam speaker is so fantastic at delivering for this community and we'll continue to have such a strong local, state, federal partnership to get the funding done here, and i'm so thrilled the army corp of engineers is so engaged and so supportive of this project and i just want to thank the corp for doing that. i also just want to acknowledge, i think anyone probably when the chronicle article came out this morning, a lot of people probably saw it for the first time. there is going to be a disruption. there will be periods of time when our waterfront when the em barcadero is closed down and that is jarring and disruptive,

but i also know people of san francisco think in the long-term and the people of san francisco understand that we have to get this done and we will make the sacrifices needed to do so. thank you. [applause] >> thank you so much senator wiener. no i have the honor to introduce a absolute champion for the waterfront. really involved in every project initiative with a hand toward insuring our historic fabric is here, insuring vibrancy and insuring we really really produce a quality public waterfront. president of the board aaron peskin is a defender of the waterfront as i said. before he was elected he was part of a broad coalition to convince the port and bcdc, to

nominate the embarcadero historic district to national register of historic places. he's been on the bay area consurivation commission many years and helped shepherd shifts on the focus on the organization effort towards sea level rise adaptation. how do we adapt these important resources for the sea level rises that is surely coming. he absolutely drove the 2018 bond. he and the mayor and senator wiener, but specifically board president aaron peskin put a lot of time and energy into seeing that bond through, and he's been helping us figure out the sea level rise challenges. we do not have answers yet for that embarcadero historic district but we will find them. with that, board presidents aaron peskin.

[applause] >> thank you. i'll bring the micro down further from scott wiener to elaine forbes to myself. i was go ing to say, you were saving the best for last, but actually we are saving the best for last with our city administrator carmen chui next. director forbes chose this moment i think because a hour and 23 minutes ago we had our maximize high tide for the day at 5.99 feet, which you can see has already been spilling on to the embarcadero, and if you think about that relative to conservative midcentury sea rise projections of about 2 feet, that means the embarcadero in 25 years is under water. this is nothing short of the imperative of our time, and i

think speaker pelosi got it just right, this is a seed we are planting for future generations for ribbons that none of us will cut, but that future generations will celebrate. very much like senator wiener said about the bay area being the home of the birth of the environmental movement. it was here that three women in the mid-1960's, a half century ago fought back against the filling in of the bay. the bay that now is going to expand because of global warming. it was those three women sylvia mclaughlin, [indiscernible] that lead to the passage of the mack tear petrous act for the conservation of the shoreline of the 9 bay area counties.

we are continuing their legacy under bcdc state jurisdiction. under the jurisdiction of the army corp of engineers who have become a incredible 2/3 financial partner in solving this imperative. with a state of california and their money and the people of the city and county of san francisco who put their money where their mouth is, who got it to the tune of all most a half a billion dollars up front. it is the people of san francisco who are able to show the state and the federal government that we mean business, and to them i want to say, this is your plan and this is your opportunity to comment on that plan. our plans become better because the people of this city are smart, they are involved and

they help us perfect our plans, so use the next 60 days, comment on this plan, help the very very smart people who i met with who are under the jurisdiction of colonel hondura. meet with the planners who spent the last 6 years, yes i am looking at you brad benson who have brought us to this moment and help us make that plan better. thank you director forbes. thank you mayor breed. thank you to lieutenant governor and thank you most of all to speaker nancy pelosi. [applause] >> thank you president peskin. yes, it was the voters who first put the money on the down payment. without that move, we wouldn't be here and it was a amazing investment. so, i think the best is saved for last. i am going to introduce a wonderful leader who has the incredible responsibility of balancing all of these capital

planning needs across the city and figuring out how to phase and implement these needed improvements. she has been on the capital planning committee for some time. she has a incredible financial background and great mind and is an amazing thought leader and pushing us forward and also helping with the interdepartmental coordination which is complex now and only will become more complex. it is great distinction i introduce to you city administrator carmen chui. >> hello,b good afternoon. my name is carmen chui san francisco city administrator. i think you must be very happy and excited i'm the last speaker. but i got to bring your expectations down because i will talk about the numbers, which is really important here. i really just want to underscore how important this effort is. san francisco is no stranger to preparing and thinking ahead. we were the home to the 1906

earthquake to the loma earthquake and understand how important it to make sure we are build ing a resilient city that withstand natural disaster. all the climate change we see happening in the world also able to deal with sea level rise. to give you a perspective of what this means and why this is such a important day to be able to announce the federal interest and this partnership going forered with, this represent $13 billion in federal interest and billions dollars that come to san francisco from the federal government. to give perspective how much we have been able to fund locally in the last decade, we spent about $4 billion in our local bond funding to be able to deal with all of the infrastructure needs in the city, not just what is here in the waterfront. that means all our roads, all our different buildings with seismic needs, hospitals systems, fire houses, water systems. but, our upcoming 10 years we only have $3 billion so take a

look at the math. over the last 10 years and future 10 years we plan about $7 billion oof investment in local funding. there is no possible way we can match what the federal government is going to give us and so i want to say thank you to not only our state partners and to our federal partners here. we couldn't make this investment this seismic investment this huge huge investment without your support. our local dollars only go so far. we mean business by putting our dollars into it, but we couldn't accomplish all we are doing here without your help, so i want to thank our federal partners again for the federal interest and working collaboratively with us on this plan, but also ask our state partners to work with us as we make the plans to fill the gap so thank you so much for being here and excited to get going on the next phase of this plan. [applause] >> excellent. before i conclude i want to recognize carla short, the

director of public works who is here and also commissioner gilman. a commissioner leading us through the effort. alright. thank you so much. we are going to take media questions over here and we appreciate everyone for coming. thank you. >> come shop dine and play. taraval street is open for business. >> my name is mark recollect the owner of fe on

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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 ring that someone special. welcome to corona height located in the height of the cast strow district the eye kong bay bridge and on towards the east bay. cone oi shakes park is one the city's best kept secrets on lake twin peaks it's hardly crowded on a day any day you will run into a new lolls and hop on a bus to get there without any parking worries and lolls bring their four-legged fronds run freely with other dogs and a small touch of grass for the small dogs and wild flowers carpet the grasslands keep on the look out nor hawks and ot