yeah. okay. good afternoon. this meeting will come to order. welcome to the april 2024 regular meeting of the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm supervisor mariana melgar, chair of the committee. joined by vice chair dean preston, the committee clerk today is john carroll, and i would also like to acknowledge jeanette engel from safeguard tv, mr. clark, do you have any announcements? yes. thank you. please ensure that you've silenced your cell phones and other electronic devices you brought with you to the chamber today. if you have public comment on any of today's sorry if you have public comment on today's singular agenda item, when your item of interest comes up and public comment is called, please line up to speak along the western wall of this room. you may submit your written public comment by emailing me at joanne period. crowell at sf gov. org or you may send your written public comment to our office in city hall. that is the clerk's office, room 244. city

hall's address is one. doctor carlton b goodlett place, san francisco, california 94102. items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda of april 16th, 2024, unless otherwise stated. thank you very much, mr. clerk. before we call item number one, i would like to make a motion to excuse president peskin from today's meeting on the motion offered by the chair to excuse member peskin, vice chair preston preston, i chair melgar i. melgar i madam chair, there are two eyes. thank you, mr. clerk. please call item number one. agenda. item number one is a resolution authorizing the city and county of san francisco acting by and through the mayor's office of housing and community development, to submit an application to and participate in the pro housing designation program administered by the california department of housing and community development. thank you, miss sheila nikolopoulos from the mayor's office of housing and community development is here. and i also see the director of

macd, dan adams, who is here to answer any questions, go ahead, mr. michalopoulos. good afternoon. sheila michalopoulos, director of policy and legislative affairs for macd, before you today is a resolution to support the city's application to the state department of housing and community development to their pro housing designation program. the board approved a similar resolution, filed 220826, in october of 2022. the state's approval of that application was delayed to give san francisco time to align certain policies, such as adu regulations, with the pro housing requirements. earlier this month, under their newly updated pro housing designation program guidelines, hcd resubmitted our application to the state for the pro housing designation. we have worked with hcd to revise the resolution in line with their updated guidelines, as having a pro housing designation will give san francisco additional points in applications for competitive housing and infrastructure funding, including important funding sources like the affordable housing and sustainable communities grant program, the infill

infrastructure grant program, and certain state transportation funding programs. san francisco needs state funding to build affordable housing. two thirds of funding for the construction of affordable housing in san francisco comes from state or federal government. only one third of the funding comes from the city. the competition for statewide affordable housing funds is intense, and every point towards a higher score matters. when the applicant pool is crowded, the affordable housing and sustainable communities program and the infill infrastructure grant programs have awarded. 18 san francisco projects. more than 309,000,000 in 4 funding rounds since 2018. this funding helps build thousands of new affordable units. these funding opportunities are becoming more competitive though, so having preference points via the pro housing designation is an important part of securing state funding and realizing our affordable housing production goals, specifically, there are three housing projects totaling 352 units that have pending applications to the affordable housing and sustainable communities grant program for up to 50 million each. that

includes 35 million for the housing developments and 15 million for supporting transportation improvements. so 150 million total. if awarded, these projects would start construction next year. there is also a transportation grant application for 26 million that mta for mta that will be pending later this spring. to qualify for a pro housing city, san francisco must meet threshold requirements, including a compliant housing element and submission submission of the annual progress report for housing element. comply with a variety of state housing laws, adoption of best practices in its treatment of homeless encampments, and an executed apply for resolution, which is before you today. in addition, san francisco's application includes documentation of existing pro housing policies and categories such as favorable zoning and land use, acceleration of housing production time frames, reduction of construction and development costs, and providing financial subsidies. our application to the state highlights 14 existing policies that fit into these categories, including our local density program, home sf, which exceeds

statutory requirements by 35. local adu programs that increase density in single family residential areas and expedite permitting for adus. our policy of no parking requirements for residential development. zoning that allows for mixed uses, and commercial districts. establishment of a one stop permit center to expedite permit processing. priority permit processing for 100% affordable projects and projects with increased affordability impact fee waivers for 100% affordable projects with city subsidy and local capital funding sources such as the housing trust fund and the affordable housing production and preservation fund, and local operating subsidies such as losp and sos. the application identifies existing policies and programs only. it does not commit the city to any policy changes. a successful application for the pro housing program is expected to enhance san francisco's ability to access critical state funds for housing and infrastructure. these funds are especially important in these times of increased statewide competition for limited

resources. we expect the state to complete the review of our application by may 17th. with the governor's budget announcement gutting the non ahsc housing capital programs for the next two fiscal years, it's all the more important that we put our most competitive feet forward this year and next year for the affordable housing, sustainable communities, because this is cap and trade funded and it's not a risk of pullback like some of the other programs we are available to answer. any questions. thank you. thank you so much, miss nikolopoulos, supervisor preston, thank you, chair melgar. and thank you, miss nikolopoulos, for the presentation. and also just, will say that, fully concur around the need and whatever we can do to make ourselves more competitive, for these funds. so in that respect, the resolution before us is welcome. and i also want to say, i want to thank you for what i understand, and

director adams was some work behind the scenes with the department, city state attorney and others to strike that balance that you referred to of, of, making sure we meet the criteria that's been set up, but also without pre deciding or undermining, further efforts that are, you know, will be before the board and the administration. so i appreciate the care that went into creating the resolution. i do want to comment, a bit on this. some of this is just the nature of this resolution. sort of no one's no one hears fault on this front. but but, but some things i do just want to put on the record while we're talking about this, because i think it's important. and i've spoken to this before. when it came through committee the first time we had this so-called pro housing designation, i just want to note and not normalize what i view as the absurdity of the state, calling this an aid having baked

into now the state, codes the idea of pro housing versus non pro housing. nobody can actually explain what pro housing is. it appears to be a firm that one set of lobbyists uses for certain policies. and then we're supposed to accept that anyone who doesn't see things their way is somehow anti housing. so i think it's an unfortunate terme. it is apparently really the state's i think euphemism for state housing policies that, at least as applied in san francisco, operate primarily to increase land values and incentivize the building of luxury housing that working class people cannot afford in our city. and then i think, to make the irony even greater, the state has developed a program where failure to immediately pass laws or to increase property values and incentivize luxury housing locally result in the state blocking funding for affordable housing. so couldn't

make this up. if i were trying to state actually conditions affordable housing money for the poor and working class folks of our city, not on the city ramping up our investments in affordable housing for poor and working class people, but instead on whether we are sufficiently incentivizing housing that in our market is unaffordable by design. so it is no wonder that in the last rina cycle, we over produced market rate housing and underproduced affordable housing. so i understand this resolution statutorily required for us to have a competitive edge, for state affordable housing money. so i understand why it's before us, and i look forward to passing it today and hopefully at the full board as well. despite this really absurdity of how the state law requirements are structured, i think we all want to be competitive for these

funds, i do note and i have resisted the urge to, to start proposing amendments, to this resolution because i don't want to complicate this, but i, i do feel the need to note this on the record, a dynamic that i think is missing from this resolution. it's probably not needed in the resolution, but i think it's important and that and that is the many efforts to increase our affordable housing stock that have been approved by this board of supervisors and have been obstructed, defunded or delayed by the mayor, and these are ongoing disputes. there are policy differences. there are budget differences, and i think they should be noted on the record, even if not formerly included in the resolution. so consistent with san francisco's duty to affirmatively further fair housing, this board of supervisors has authorized and

urged additional affordable housing investments and developments above and beyond those undertaken by the mayor's office, including, but not limited to, urging the use of proposition i revenue from 2020, and each year for affordable housing, which the mayor has refused to budget each year, appropriating funds. the board has appropriated funds into san francisco's housing stability fund for preservation, acquisition, which last year the mayor defunded by $20 million and, leaving what is currently, basically a zeroed out budget precluding many worthy projects from being acquired for housing permanent, affordable housing preservation, the board has urged development of affordable housing on city owned land at parcel k in hayes valley. it's. the mayor has now delayed

indefinitely. and in addition, for what can only be described as purely political reasons, the mayor intervened to block affordable housing development at 400 divisadero, which could provide over 160 affordable homes for working class san franciscans and formerly homeless san franciscans. so i raise all this, and that's just a partial list, to urge the administration to do better on affordable housing. i welcome the new leadership at mcrd and look forward to continuing to work with director adams and his team, but i will continue to use every opportunity to urge the mayor to stop blocking this board and the voters of san francisco when it comes to the development of affordable housing in our city, and i also want to warn that if the mayor continues on this path, path of blocking these critical affordable housing investments, that i fear that the mayor's ongoing obstruction and

defunding of affordable housing could well compromise our so-called pro housing designation and make it even harder for our city to secure scarce state affordable housing funds. so thank you, madam chair, for the time. just wanted to put that on the record, fully prepared to support the resolution and interest in the public comment. thank you. thank you so much, supervisor preston. so, i am also prepared to support this resolution, i want to add a couple of things. since we're putting things on the record, i wholeheartedly agree with you in your comments about the city's lack of investment in affordable housing, our systems, our capacity, our coordination with other departments, and more importantly than anything else, our funding towards affordable housing, needs to be more robust and keep up with our talk for sure, i have spent most of my

career in affordable housing and, you know, it is where i think our pain point is, as a city, where i will disagree with you is because i, represent district seven, it's the west side of the city, my district is the largest district geographically because it is so low density, i have west portal avenue, one of our very successful commercial corridors, which is zoned for 27ft height, and could support a lot of housing, as well, and i think that, you know, we have in the past made decisions that have concentrated both development pressures and, you know, just incentivize development in some areas of our city and not in others, i was around working for the mayor's office of housing when we, negotiated the eastern neighborhoods plan, which, of

course, incentivized and concentrated development in mission soma bayview. the eastern side of the city. while no building happened in district seven. and while some folks, you know, in my district do like it that way, i fear that for the next generation, it makes living on the west side undoable, and i, you know, doing this job because i want my kids to stay here. i want the next generation to have a sustainable, environmentally, responsible city that is connected, that is affordable, that includes both market rate and affordable housing on the west side, neither of which we have built, thus far for the past, you know, 40 years. so i, i look forward to making sure that our housing element is operational in a way that makes sense for all districts. and for future

generations, and that we continue working together, working with advocates and pressuring, you know, folks, so that we can have as much affordable housing investment as possible all over the city. yes. supervisor preston, thank thank you, chair, and i appreciate the comments. i think the one thing, though, that i want to push back on, because i think you framed it as a disagreement and i'm not sure there is one, i'm not arguing or taking issue with efforts to deal and incentivize development on the west side. and i just want to be clear like that or or elsewhere in san francisco. my point in my remarks was, what makes no sense is to tell, like the residents of the fillmore district, there's not going to be state affordable housing money for you because some change to incentivize market rate housing out on 40th avenue didn't happen

fast enough for the state. that's the dynamic that i'm getting at and really object to so strongly. there is a conversation to be had, and we've had this conversation in committee and at the board around the right levels of incentivizing development, the right height, the density. and i think we all welcome i mean, i'll speak for myself. i welcome that conversation. i just don't want to pretend ever, that that's a conversation around creation of affordable housing and what the state has done by this dumbing down of housing policy into this pro housing or not, pro housing is they've they've really conflated the issue of creating affordable housing in our city, with creating market rate housing in our city. and i understand there's a more of a trickle down analysis that says if you just create enough market rate housing, somehow, it's all going to become affordable. i've been in dealing with affordable housing for over two decades. that hasn't worked and doesn't

work, but but but they've taken it one step further here with not just conflating it in theory, but now actually setting up a system whereby by the measures of our success on the market rate housing, which again, it is fine for us to revisit and look at, but using that to decide whether or not to award grants to our city for affordable housing is completely upside down. it only benefits developers, and it only hurts low income and working class san franciscans. okay, let's take public comment on this item, please, mr. clerk, thank you, madam chair. if you have public comment on agenda item number one, please come forward to the lectern now. good afternoon, supervisors. john avalos from

the council of community housing organizations, we are here to urge you to support this resolution on, i do believe that there are certain contradictions that, have been elucidated by the by the committee here today, the fact that we have a housing element, the city is in compliance with it. we have done a lot of work as a city to actually approve that, to look at how we, upzone the west side of the city and build a framework for that. it also be able to protect a lot of communities on the eastern side that are dealing with anti-displacement issues. this is something that this committee has been grappling with all this time, i do look at, kind of an absurdity about that. san francisco does such a great job in affordable housing, production and planning. we do that actually really well, despite the lack of resources more than other, jurisdictions around the state of california. and yet we do have to apply for a pro housing designation on top so we can still be competitive,

even though we're probably more competitive already. it's this, housing designations that gives us, the same advantage we probably had before. so it's necessary that we apply for it. there are a number of community housing organizations that are subject to the this pro housing designation that would benefit from it. so it's vital that we do approve of it. however, there's a clause in one of the resolve clauses here that that basically says that, you know, you're not supposed to do any more additional legislation that could help us to, you know, could make sure that san francisco lose its housing designation. you're not supposed to do that. and that's what your, your you're approving here today that does tie the hands of the city and county of san francisco to look at how we might, you know, be innovative. right now. we're not beating our our progress goals that we have for, housing construction. and there might need to be some adjustments that are being made, we also need to look at how we protect certain neighborhoods against displacement. and that

could be our hands could be tied. so please support this resolution. but i understand there are definite contradictions here. thank you. thank you for sharing your comments. do we have anyone else who has public comment on agenda item number one? madam chair, thank you so much. public comment on this item is now closed, we are, on break next week, so this cannot go as a committee report. it will have to wait until after we get back. so i would like to make a motion that we, send this out to the full board with positive recommendation on the motion that this resolution be sent to the board of supervisors with the recommendation of land use and transportation vice chair preston preston. i member peskin is excused. chair. melgar i melgar i, madam chair, there are two eyes. okay. that, motion passes. thank you. are there any more items before us today? there is no further business. we are adjourned. thank you.

>> in august 2019 construction began on the new facility at 1995 evans avenue in bayview. it will house motorcycle police and department of forensic services division. both sfpd groups are in two

buildings that need to be vacated. they will join the new $183 million facility in late 2021. >> elements of the cfi and the traffic company are housed at the hall of justice, which has been determined to be seismically unfit. it is slated for demolition. in addition to that the forensic services crime lab is also slated for demolition. it was time and made sense to put these elements currently spread in different parts of the city together into a new facility. >> the project is located in the bayview area, in the area near estes creek. when san francisco was first formed and the streetcars were built back it was part of the bay. we had to move the building as close to the edge as possible on bedrock and solid elements piles

down to make sure it was secure. >> it will be approximately 100,000 square feet, that includes 8,000 square feet for traffic company parking garage. >> the reason we needed too new building, this is inadequate for the current staffing needs and also our motor department. the officers need more room, secured parking. so the csi unit location is at the hall of justice, and the crime laboratory is located at building 60 sixty old hunters point shipyard. >> not co-located doesn't allow for easy exchange of information to occur. >> traffic division was started in 1909. they were motor officers. they used sidecars. officers who road by themselves without the sidecar were called

solo. that is a common term for the motorcycle officers. we have 45 officers assigned to the motorcycles. all parking at the new facility will be in one location. the current locker room with shared with other officers. it is not assigned to just traffic companies. there are two showers downstairs and up. both are gym and shop weres are old. it needs constant maintenance. >> forensic services provides five major types of testing. we develop fingerprints on substances and comparisons. there are firearms identification to deal with projectiles, bullets or cartridge casings from shootings. dna is looking at a whole an rare of evidence from -- array

of evidence from dna to sexual assault to homicide. we are also in the business of doing breath allyzer analysis for dui cases. we are resurrecting the gunshot residue testing to look for the presence of gunshot residue. lifespan is 50 years. >> it has been raised up high enough that if the bay starts to rise that building will operate. the facility is versus sustainable. if the lead gold highest. the lighting is led. gives them good lights and reduces energy use way down. water throughout the project we have low water use facilities. gardens outside, same thing, low

water use for that. other things we have are green roofs on the project. we have studies to make sure we have maximum daylight to bring it into the building. >> the new facility will not be open to the public. there will be a lobby. there will be a deconstruction motorcycle and have parts around. >> the dna labs will have a vestibule before you go to the space you are making sure the air is clean, people are coming in and you are not contaminating anything in the labs. >> test firing in the building you are generating lead and chemicals. we want to quickly remove that from the individuals who are working in that environment and ensure what we put in the air is not toxic. there are scrubbers in the air to ensure any air coming out is also at the cleanest standards.

>> you will see that kind of at the site. it has three buildings on the site. one is for the motorcycle parking, main building and back behind is a smaller building for evidence vehicles. there is a crime, crime scene. they are put into the secure facility that locks the cars down while they are examined. >> they could be vehicles involved in the shooting. there might be projectiles lodged in the vehicle, cartridge casings inside the vehicle, it could be a vehicle where a aggravated sexual occurred and there might be biological evidence, fingerprints, recovered merchandise from a potential robbery or other things. >> the greatest challenge on the project is meeting the scope requirements of the project given the superheated construction market we have been facing. i am proud to say we are

delivering a project where we are on budget. >> the front plaza on the corner will be inviting to the public. something that gives back to the public. the building sits off the edge. it helps it be protected. >> what we are looking for is an updated building, with facilities to meet our unit's needs. >> working with the san francisco police department is an honor and privilege. i am looking forward to seeing their faces as the police officers move to the new facility. >> it is a welcome change, a new surrounding that is free from all of the challenges that we face with being remote, and then the ability to offer new expanded services to the city and police department investigations unit. i can't wait until fall of 2021 when the building is finally

ready to go and be occupied and the people can get into the facility to serve them and serve the community. government television. >> my name is kevin roger tang one live owners and at a 2 owe 50 that's it avenue in the sunset so the bayview original hip hop store we have music so every purchase counts for either the charts and the tri work chart that is acquired by 3 best

friends we love k pop and why not share that and would the community here in the bay. and originally supposed to open up an eco but unfortunately, the covid hit by the we got creative with the social media and engaged and bring in people within the being sure like pop and the instagram live or hip hope to bring that connection with the bayview k pop community and we grow. and hello we're a collective store so the cc around us within us has the cards people like to collect and try to collect limited edition mr. sincroy manufacturers like a state university or memorial and

we have which is a venue for people to kind of make new friends and open up they're a goods and invite people to stay and oftentimes see the context we're very, very fortunate and everyone is super sweet and loveable to sum up i guess two words is a second home (background noise) and a lot of people visit. >> and connect this place even if it is really cool. >> san francisco is a city known for music and art and we at the pop store we to go show the k love and added to the diversity of music and the way of the community. >> it is safe place it is a great way to dmrofr new things

and any friends and it is saying hello 2050 carville from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and followup on the >> [music] you are watching golden gate inventions with michael. this is episode exploring the excelsior. >> hi i'm michael you are watching golden gate inventions highlighting urban out doors we are in the excelsior. pickleball. let's play pickleball! pickleball is an incredited low

popular sport growing nationwide. pickleball combines tennis, bad mitton and ping pong. playod a bad mitton sized court with paddle and i plasticic ball. starting out is easy. you can pick up paddle and balls for 20 buck and it is suitable for everyone in all skill levels you see here. the gim is played by 2 or 4 players. the ball must be served diagnoty and other rules theory easy to pick up. the game ends when i player or team reaches a set score 11 or 21 point bunkham win bright 2 pickleball courts are available across the city some are and others require booking ahead and a fee. information about the courts found at sf recpark. org if you

are interested in playing. now i know why people are playing pickleball. it is so much fun you play all ages. all skill levels and pop on a court and you are red to g. a lot of fun i'm glad i did it. all right. let's go! time for a hike! there is i ton of hike nothing excelsior. 312 acres mc clarin the second largest p in san francisco. there are 7 miles of tris including the there was fer's way this spreads over foresxeft field and prosecute voids hill side views of the city. and well is a meditative quiet place in mc clarin p you will siendz labyrinth made of rock:now we are at glen eagle

golf course special try out disk golf >> now disk golf! so disk golf is like traditional golf but with noticing disks. credit as the sport's pioneer establishing the disk ballsorption and the first standardized target the disk ball hole. the game involves throwing from key areas toward i metal basket. players use different disks for long distances driver, immediateerate. mid range and precise shot, putters. players begin at the t area. throw disks toward the basket and prosecute seed down the fare way. player with the lowest number of throws the end wins the game.

disk golf at glen eagle cost 14 dollars if you pay at the clubhouse. there is an 18 hole course this is free. du see that shot? i won! am i was not very good now i have a huge respect for disk ball player its is difficult but fun. thank you for joining me in the excelsior this is goldenate adventures.

>> i'm connie chan district one supervisor and welcome to the richmond.

>> i'm an immigrant and came to san francisco china town when i was 13 years old with my mom and brother. my first job is at the community organizer for public safety with san francisco state. and land in the city hall and became a legislative aid to sophie maxwell. went through city departments when kamala harris was our district attorney i'm proud to represent the richmondad district supervisor. [music] we have great neighborhood commercial corridors that need to be protected. the reason why we launched the neighborhood business for

supporting the [inaudible] for 15 years special more. we have the legacy business program the business around for 30 years or more and thought, you know, we gotta make sure the next generation contains for generations to come. am i'm ruth the owner of hamburger haven we came back on july 11. we were opened in 1968 at that time i believe one of the owners of mestart today went through a guy named andy in the early 70s and my father took it mid 70s. >> originally was just a burger joint. open late nights. then it changed over the years and became the breakfast staple. we specialize in breakfast, brunch come lunch now. i love this neighborhood. i grew up here. and it feels like home. i walk down the block and recognize people of people say

hello. you say hello you talk and joke. has that familiar environment that is enjoyable and i have not experienced anywhere else. there are many things i would like to see improve ams the things we might see are making sure that our tenants stay housed our small business in tact and those are the solutions that will contain to push to make sure that you know our communities can take root, stay and thrive. >> i'm proud of you know, welcoming folks to the richmond. everyone loch its we got farmer's market every sunday there. the you see really business at the noaa. ice cream at toy folks and going to chop for book like green

apple. and that's when you like the deal is pizza place haall families love. you will see a lot of great chinese shops that is readily available for everyone. >> and that is just thein are richmond there is more to do in the richmond. what is love is the theatre. >> i mean adam and with my wife jamie, own little company called cinema sf we operate the balboa theatre. the vocabularying theatre on sacramento and soon the 4 star on clement. >> balboa theatre opened in 1926 and servicing this outer richmond neighborhood since then. and close on the heels the 4 star opens since 1913. >> when you come in to a movie theatre, the rest of the world has to be left behind. but you get e mersed in the

world that is film makers made for you. that is a special experience to very much we can all think of the movies that we saw in the big screen of with everybody screaming or laughing or crying. it is a shared human experience that you get when you go in to places that are gatherings and artist presented to you. >> a shared experience is the most precious. and the popcorn. [laughter]. at the balboa especially, we stroif to have movies for people of every generation from the pop corn palace movies on the weekend mornings, for families and kids. this is for everybody of all ages. >> what is great about the richmond is it is a neighborhood of the immigrants. belongs to immigrants not ap i

immigrants you will see that there are also a huge population of rush wrans and ukrainian immigrants they stay united you am see that the support they lend to each other as a community. and cinderella bakery is another legacy business. if you go on the website it is known as a russian bakery. the first thing you see their pledge to support the ukrainian community. you will see the unity in the richmond i'm so proud of our immigrant community in the rich monthed. >> my dad immigrate friday iran the reason he stayed was because of the restaurant. has more centamential value it is the reasonable we are in this country. when he had an opportunity to take over the instruct he stayed that is why we are here part of our legacy and san francisco

history and like to keep it going for years to come. >> another moment i'm proud to be supporting the richmond and the only asian american woman elect in the office and as an immigrant that is not happen nothing 3 decades. you see it is my ability to represent especially the asian-american community. in my case the chinese speaking elders in our community that really can allow me to communicate with them directly. i'm program director of adult day centers. i have been here for 7 years i love to help the communities and help and the people with disability. i foal a connection with them. i am anim grant i love helping our community and new immigrants

and improvements. >> if you want nature, richmond is the neighborhood to go we are between ocean beach heights and golden gate park. >> i love the outer richmond. for me this is the single best neighborhood in san francisco. everybody knows each other. people have been living here forever. it is young and old. the ocean is really near by. and so there is that out doors ocean vibe to it. there are places to seat golden gate bridge it is amazing. businesses are all small mom and pop businesses. houses get passed down generation to generation. it has a small town feel but you know you are in a big city at the same time.

it's got a unique flavor i don't see in other neighborhoods j. it is about being inclusive we are inclusive and welcome the communities, anybody should feel welcome and belong here and shop local, eat local. we believe that with that support and that network it come in full circle. it is passing on kinds knows. that's when richmond is about that we are together at once. welcome to the richmond. [music]

>> you are watching san francisco rising with chris manner. today's special guest is carla short.

>> hi, i'm chris manner and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting rebuilding and reimagining the city. our guest is carla short the intric director of public works and here to talk about the storms we had and much more. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> great to have you. let's start by talking about the storms that started beginning of the year. there fsh a lot of clean up recovery and remediation. can you talk about what your team did? >> sure. the 17 inches of rain we got starting on new year's eve through the first 2 and a half weeks of january made it one of the wettest periods in recorded history for san francisco, so as you imagine we had a lot of work to do. we gave out more then 31 thousand sand bags, we were operating all most non stop from new year's eve to san francisco residents and businesses out of our operation yard and

frequently working thin rain so it was a beautiful dance to watch. we had a corio graphed where people drive in the stop and load with san dags and get on it way so thats was the most visible thij weez had to do. responded to all most a thousand calls for localized flooding for the corner of the street with catch basin. our team trying to address that. we clear and pick up anything to block and it hopefully get the flooding to go down. if we are able to respond we call in the san francisco pub utility system and are responsible for the sewer system under so they bring ing vack trucks that vacuum out debris inside the catch basin. we also dealt with lots and lots of calls about trees and tree limbs down. i think we actually faired better then some other places in terms of loss of full

trees. we did have whole tree failures and that is not that uncumin with super satch waited soil conditions. we had over 950 calls about trees or tree limbs down. a lot of calls were about loss of a limb and we could save the tree. we are still assessing the data to figure how many were full tree failures versus limb failure. >> also had land movement too. the great highway comes to mind. what is your approach to managing rock mud and land slides? >> that is a great question. we had 28 different slides over the course of that period. it is kind of a interesting process, so the first step is we have our geotechnical or structural engineers take a look to see is the hillside safe, do we need to stabilize it in some way or just need to do some cleanup? once they made their assessment they will recommend the next steps. often times to protect public

safety we will place k rails the giant concrete rails at the base omthe slide area to make sure that any debris doesn't get on the edroway and bring ing the heavy equipment to scoop up on the ground and move off the roadway and try to open the roadway. some cases, we will actually inject some rocks or other stabilizing forces either into the slide area or sometimes below the roadway. right now there is nothing that's unstable out there but be are keeping a close eye on the areas including the gray highway area. >> right, right. well, so talking about the storms in the city response, brings us to southeast community scepter when there is rain remediation projects going on. can you talk about the inconstruction project kblrks that is a favorite project. a beautiful new community facility. we

were involved in pretty much every aspect of developing that project for the public utility commission. they were a client. we design project management and construction management and the landscape design for that project. and one thing that we included was storm water management throughout the entire project site. so, that project encapturealize the rain water that lands on the roof and flows into the landscape where we have rain gardens so intent is slow the water down to and give areas to collect to percolate into the ground rather then the sewer system. when we have sewers that are overloaded, because our rain water mixes with the sewer treatment storm sewer system, we actually can end up dist charging into the bay which we dont want to do. anything we can do to just prevent those combined sewers from

overpm loaded is a good thing and in this case allows the water to collect onsite and percolate to the ground which is the best way to manage the storm water and it is beautiful and provides habitat. i encourage everybody to see it. it is special place. >> that's great. there was recently news about how city (indiscernible) powered by steam, which is super unusual i think. i understand public works ablgtually does the maintenance on the system. can you just talk about that a bit? >> sure. that is a unusual situation. that steam loop was actually built when the city was recovering from the 1906 earthquake. it only provides to steam about 4 buildings in civic center but that is how we keep buildings like city hall warm. the steam goes

into the radiators and provides the heat. it is a old system and if you see steam billowing out of the man holes or other spaces, that is indication of a leak actually. we spend a lot of time trying to fix the leaks because it's a old system. it is managed by the real estate department and at one point they were looking trying to replace the whole thing but think that is a massive undertaking so now they focus on making as needed repair said. we did a big repair on growth street where we spent a month and a half working on the known leaks s in the area. it is a very tight spot and have to use blow torches to seal up the leak so a intense operation and seeing more leaks on polk street so we will be out there once it warms up to fix the leaks. >> excellent. let's discuss what is the reunifiquation of public works. there

fsh a proposal or plan to split off the division, called the street and sanitation. now that has been shelved and public works is going to just retain being a single entity. can you talk through the process? >> sure. yeah. the original proposal was a ballot measure voted on to split the department into 2. it basically create the department of sanitation and streets that was really going to incompass all our operation divisions so it was a street cleaning department but encompass everything we refer to as operations. when we worked preparing for that split with the city administrator office, we found there were actually 91 what we call touch points between the operations work and our engineering and architecture side, so we really felt like it could be very difficult to split into two departments. we have so many areas of overlap.

there was a new ballot measure last november to reunit the department. technically we split october one and did split in some ways. we did put on hold some of the behind the scenes things like rebranding all the vehicle jz giving everyone a new e-mail address in the sanitation and streets department, but on january 1 of 2023 we came back together so we are reunited i want sing the peaches and purb song and think it is a good thing for the 91 areas of overlap. we making #2c3w50d use of the research. preparing for the split. looking at all the touch points and trying to strengthen the department so we are more streamlined and efficient. one of the most important component from the original ballot measure is commission oversight. we retained two commissions, the public works

commission which oversee the over-all department and approve the budget and contracts. and sanitation and street commission and their mandate focus on policy and deliverable for street cleaning and basically the operation division. reporting to them regularly how we are doing, we think will help make sure we are as efficient and effective as we can be as a department. >> that sounds great. thank you so much for coming and talking to me today and appreciate the time you have given. >> thank you so much for having me. it was a pleasure. >> that is it for this episode. you are watching san francisco rising.

>> can we have roll call, please? >> president paulson, here. rivera, here. ajami, here. maxwell, here. stacy, here. you have a quorum. >> thank you. i like to announce the san francisco public utility commission acknowledges if owns and stewards of the land located within the territory of the oholone tribe and other familiar desidants mission san jose band of alameda county. every citizen residing within the greater bay area, has and continues to benefit from the use and occupation of the oholone tribe aboriginal lands since before and after the san francisco public utilities commission founding in 1932.