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tv   Mayors Press Availability  SFGTV  July 7, 2024 11:30am-12:01pm PDT

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>> hello everyone i'm san francisco mayor alondon breed and excited to be here with members of the board of supervisor and different commune taiz to talk about the healthy, safe and vibrant san francisco bond! [applause] now, just to give you some perspective, these bonds, the way that our sit ahas been very responsible with the capital plan, we go through a process to insure that our credit rating remains in tact, so as we put out bonds, we retire old debt and are able to take on new debt without raising taxes for san franciscans. that's why these have been so popular, but at the same time, they
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require 2/3 vote, and so in putting this bond together, we wanted to make sure we are meeting some of the city most pressing needs, but after covid, we realized there are a lot more things we need to invest in to insure that our city is vibrant, that our organizations are supported, that our buildings and infrastructure are in tact, and that we are thinking about the future in our economic recovery. so, what does this mean in this particular bond? well, first of all, we should be so happy and excited that laguna honda has been completed recertified! [applause] but it still needs a lot of work. so, we have to take care of laguna honda, we have to do heabat zuckerberg general and have to make sure the clinics in chinatown and city
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clinic have the resources and support they need- [applause] -these are important healthcare assets in our city, and we are so grateful to a number of our department of public health staff and team leads who have been on the front lines doing this work in very challenging conditions. but we haven't stopped there. we have to also continue to focus our work on shelter beds, on housing, and many of the things we have done. since i have been in office since 2018, we increased shelter capacity by over 60 percent. we increased our permanent supportive housing by over 50 percent. [applause] but, we know that just because we have done such a significant investment and made significant changes, the work continues. and that's why having support
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for our families is critical as we start to see family homelessness increase. part of this bond is to help address issues around family homelessness. the other thing it does, is deal with one of the things that people are not very happy about. on a regular basis. san francisco has seen a improvement in our streets and infrastructure, but let me tell you, bikes and cars, running over these potholes, we have to constantly fix our streets. constantly. and so investments in our road and infrastructure and making our streets safer and more efficient is a important part of the bond as well. [applause] but let's be honest, we would not be able to do any of this if we don't focus our time, our attention and resources on our economic recovery. you know, before the pandemic, we didn't have to work for it. people just came here to visit, there were conventions booked out non stop.
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people loved doing business in san francisco and times have changed since the pandemic, so we got to work for it and working for it means we have to make investment in our infrastructure to change. we have to make investment in not only downtown and what downtown is to people who work there, who shop there and live there, but we also have to make changes in our destinations and make them more of a vibrant destination in addition to improving our infrastructure, which is why i'm excited about harvey milk plaza. [applause] this coalition of folks who are joining us here today are people who represent a lot of what we need to do in order to move san francisco in the right direction. we are all on board to get this work done for the city and move us towards real change in the future. it will take all of us and right now the board of supervisors committee will be hearing this bond for the
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first time and we are hopeful that all of you that are joining today will go and testify and talk about the significance. this again, is about san francisco, the economic recovery, the vibrancy and, the public health addressing the challenges san franciscans want to esoomore and moving the city towards the future and i couldn't be more excited and proud we are here today and seem to have a lot of consen census but nuthsing is taken for granted. we have to get through the finish line at the board of supervisors. we have to get it on the ballot and we to get voters to support it. this is a long road between now and november, which is why partnership is so critical to the success of this bond and at this time, i want to introduce my partner in this effort, the president of the board of supervisors, aaron peskin. [applause]
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>> thank you mayor breed. this is what consensus looks like. this is what happens when we all work together for the public good and the public interest. fundamentally, this is a public safety bond, because investing in public health, investing in homelessness is all about public safety. and if you think about what we learned four years ago where san francisco did a job of combatting the covid-19, this is the lessens that we learned. we have to invest in our public health frublth. fribltb. infrastructure. i want to thank dr. colfax and capital planning committee who came together and remember the lessens of
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covid. i want to thank mayor breed and today i want to go to budget appropriation committee and add $10 million specifically for public health to this bond and that is the result of working together. [applause] it is 132 days until the election and guess many up here have our differences, but we are all together on this bond, and we have made a promise that this will not raise anybody's property taxes, nor will it raise your rent if you are a tenant and we pass laws to insure that that were passed unanimously by the board of supervisors, but we still need to get to 2/3 of the electorate. that is a big hill to climb. when we put aside our commitment and have shared commitment and enthusiasm the voters vote as they did for the affordable housing bond in march by
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well over the 2/3 majority required. we will set aside our differences and all work together to get the bond passed. the very smart good people of san francisco want to invest in public safety and public seft and over the next 132 days we are going to get that message out. thank you mayor breed. [applause] >> i'm supervisor dorsey and express gatitude to mayor breed and president bond measure that that well do important things. this is smort capital investment for our city that speed san francisco comcome back and delivering long-term value for downtown neighborhoods that president peskin and i represent. as a district 6 supervisors, i know very much from the businesses employers i hear from, how important it is that we invest in downtown
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neighborhood, as this bond will do because it powers or econe amand come back. it is essential and wise prudent investment for city vibrancy and unlike some speakers today, my name isn't on a ballot. i can promise you this, i will be out there campaigning just as hard as if my name were on a ballot, because what this bond does is that important. now, i represent district 6, but as the gay supervisor, i am going to assert gay privilege here and also speak for district 8 and the important memorial of harvey milk plaza. there is a important investment there that is incredibly important to the lgbtq pl community not just in this city, but actually that is something important for the lgbtq community nation wide and world wide. we are a city that elevated a leader that people around the world looked up to and it is incredibly important what
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we are doing for harvey milk plaza and part of the reason this is so close to my heart and why i fight so hard for the. let's continue to fight for this. i have not mentioned the important things that this is going to do for public health, because there is somebody much more qualified then i to address that, so welcome dr.--from zuckerberg general hospital. [applause] >> thank you so much. hello and good morning. my name is--i'm a proud emergency physician at zuckerberg san francisco general hospital. grateful to be up here with many city leaders and a number of my colleagues from the department of public health. on this beautiful day on the steps of our beautiful city hall. proud to work for a city committed to accessible high quality healthcare. our network of clinics and hospitals are truly unparalleled.
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each year we serve over 150 thousand people in dph facilities. that is a incredible number. this care includes receiving life saving emergency services, having your baby delivered. it includes recovering and rehabbing from a hip replacement surgery or living with dementia in a long-term care unit at laguna honda hospital. it includes hiv screening and prep prescriptions at city clinic and include seeing your primary care doctor to get back to school immunization, substance use recover aservice or eye exam. but, our infrastructure is aging and many of our facilities are over a hundred years old. we must fix the aging and deteriorating infrastructure to continue to deliver high quality care. moreover, many of the improvements addressed in the bond will help
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meet basic regulatory requirements. imagine laguna honda without air conditions on a hundred degree day where we need to move hundreds of patients or san francisco general losing the trauma 1 certification because the fire alarms don't work or the sewage leaking from old pipes, or imagine city clinic, a leader in sexual health service out of operation because the heating system fails. that actually already happened this past winter. or imagining visiting your local health center like the chinatown health center which looks more and more like a run down shed then a place to go and heal. we have an amazing system and honored to part part of and model for the nation but critical part must be addressed for san franciscans to continue to receive the highest
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quality care. the bond rill renovate and expand services of the chinatown public health center, the most seismically unsafe. intrest $28 million to require a new facility. bond will support key repairs adding 65 thousand square feet of seismically safe space and doubling our capacity in our psychiatric emergency service. insure certifyation and meeting regulatory mandate saidism public health has been here before and thanks to san franciscans we delivered. we built our renovated 4 community clinics, maxine hall, the southeast family south centerx castro mission health center and maria x. we created state of the art
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facility so our community can continue to thrive. i want to thank the leadership of mayper breed, san francisco board of supervisor and all dph colleagues committed to making san francisco a healthier, safer and more vibrant community for generations to come. thank you so much. [applause] >> my name is brian springfield, ecective director of friends of harvey milk plaza. the evening of november 27, 1978, on these very steps, harry brit made a promise to the people that marched from castro and market street by candleloathe and told them some day there will be something special in the city and it will have haerfby milk's name oen it. 46 years later and about this close to see the promise fulfilled. at last, the coalition of communities that harvey loved and fought
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for has come together and coalesed support around a vision for lifting harvey milk and civil rights movement in san francisco. i'm incredibly proud of the commitment made to engage the grassroots of the community and process of developing what we refer to as the memorial at harvey melic plaza because there is already a harvey milk plaza but it doesn't represent who he was and what he stood for and community to gather and all the hard work to be done to insure lgbtq civil rights and all civil right for all marginalized communities. it is because of all this good faith engagement with the community that the project now enjoys broad support from a raisk of organizations in the neighborhood and in the city. so, i commend mayor breed for her long standing support and vision for
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the harvey milk plaza project and including funding for this important city project in the healthy safe and vibrant san francisco bond. [applause] also, i'm overjoyed by the resemgz the project rvled as we met with the offices of each supervisors over the past several weeks. two supervisors aaron peskin and supervisor safai came out to walk the site and talk about improvements to castro muni station and ada compliance upgrades funded by the bond measure and this is the investment and infrastructure improves to make possible the features. finally, there will be a space that lifts harvey's message of hope and action and tell the story of other contributors to lgbtq civil rights movement. so, i look forward to the
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november when the voters have a chance to support the project and see there is something special with harvey milk's name on it. thank you. [applause] >> good morning everybody. i love the san francisco weather. when i got here, it was phrasing and now freezing and now sunny. my name is tri gump, a organizing with kid san francisco and also a mom of two teenagers who grew up riding bikes and take transit to get to school and move around the city. the independence was vital for wellbeing and mental health so i volunteer for organizations such as kids safe to advocate for safe streets for all children and all people in san francisco. everyone should be free to move around the city safely using their transportation mode of choice.
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i strongly support mayor breed's healthy vibrant bond measure that invest in our street infrastructure. over 1 million people travel around san francisco every day. too many lose their lives or severely injured on our streets. this bond will improve our roads prioritizing the safety of people, pedestrians, cyclists, people with mobility challenges and motorists by investing in safer sidewalks, crosswalks and street and reducing driving speeds. importantly, the healthy vibrant bond aligns with city policies such as transit first, vision zero, climate action and safe streets initiatives all focus reducing traffic crashes, promoting equity and protecting our city and future generations.
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thank you mayor breed and board of supervisors for supporting this bond measure. san franciscans deserve safer streets now. thank you. [applause] >> good morning. my name is lauren ellithe very proud owner of ck contemp rear a art gallery on powell street. i moved to san francisco at 21 and took my firs job on geary street. this year i celebrated 20 years of working in the heart of union square, including the last 11 years of the small business owner. [applause] in late 2019, i signed a lease to move my gallery from geary street to powell. i made the decision because at that time, powell was the gold standard. it was the bustling vibrant heart of the city economic core and the best place in san francisco for a
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business like mine to expand and thrive. unfortunately in the devastating after effect of covid-19 we never had the chance to experience the reality. instead rkts i opened my doors in august of 2020 and spent the last four years grappling with a very different version of my beloved powell. one where it long standing businesses around us shuttered, cable car empty and office workers disappeared. at present, we are one of the few businesses that held on, but the surrounding vacancies caused foot traffic to plummet along with sales and our ability to fully support our staff and our incredibly talented artists. i see glimmer of home for restored powell around me in the beautiful blooms that grace our hotels and cable cars. in local gathering to enjoy tyler florence cafe in the square. new nin tendo store coming soon
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and international language spoken in the square. but there is so much more i know with we can and really need to achieve. this is why i'm here today to voice my support to yor london breed's bond measure. serve as a much needing lifeline to insure powell street and union square become hubs for tourist and locals alike. i believe strongly the mayor comprehensive strategy to create lively public space, invigorate store funt and enhance downtown safety attract visor its to support our beautiful neighborhood and provide the asmus fear mall businesses like my deeply depend on. vacant to vibrant to initiative and increased security are crucial for foster community and safety and encouraging people to secure and engage with the city most iconic destination whether they live here, work here or visiting for the first time. these initiatives are not only
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about economic recovery, also about restoring the soul of the city. powell is always more then a shopping destination, it is a gateway to union square and often provides the first impression of our city to tourist and business travellers. revitaling the area gives a chance to change the negative narrative those who are there day to day are constantly forced to push back gaens. i'm proud of my city and it is time to share the very best version of ourselves again. let's greet nay sayers with a corridor that is safe, flourishing and filled with local business like mine synonymous can san francisco as a cultural hub where people come together to appreciate art, enjoy dining, and connect with one another. i have invested in powell street with my time, with my own dollars, and my commitment to what i know in my heart it has the potential to be again and i am thrilled and thankful mayor breed is committed to doing the same. with her vision and these funds
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i'm confident we can transform powell street back into the thriving dynamic place i once knew it to be and very much need it to be again. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you lauren and thank you to all of our speakers that joined us here today. i also like to acknowledge some of our various department heads and folks who have been actively engaged in the process with the capital planning committee and starting with our city administrator, thank you carmen chui for all your work. >> [applause] >> thank you dr. grant colfax, department of public health. thank you to serene mcfadden, director of the department of homelessness and supportive housing. [applause] and thank you to zuckerberg general ceo dr. susan-- [applause] and to all of our speakers and
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all of the folks joining us here today, this is going to take all the different people, the friends groups, the community. there is something in this bond for not just everyone, but this is really about the health and safety in our economic recovery in san francisco, so we need all hands on deck to get it over the finish line and get the job done. it starts with the board of supervisors, so again, i urge many of you who are here today to go up to the committee room, which starts at 10:30 and give public comment to insure that your colleagues, supervisor dorsey, luckily we got supervisor dorsey as well as 7 members total from the board of supervisors who are already committed, but i do think it is extremely important that we send this to voters with an 11-0 vote from the board of supervisors to demonstrate the strength of what this entails. thank you all so much for coming here
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today. [applause] - >> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their showing up and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant
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so where will you shop & dine in the 49 san francisco owes must of the charm to the unique characterization of each corridor has a distinction permanent our neighbors are the economic engine of the city. >> if we could a afford the lot by these we'll not to have the kind of store in the future the kids will eat from some restaurants chinatown has phobia one of the best the most unique neighborhood shopping areas of san francisco. >> chinatown is one of the oldest chinatown in the state we need to be able allergies the people and that's the reason
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chinatown is showing more of the people will the traditional >> north beach is i know one of the last little italian community. >> one of the last neighborhood that hadn't changed a whole lot and san francisco community so strong and the sense of partnership with businesses as well and i just love north beach community old school italian comfort and love that is what italians are all about we need people to come here and shop here so we can keep this going not only us but, of course, everything else in the community i think local businesses thend unique in their own way that is
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the characteristic of the neighborhood i peace officer prefer it is local character you have to support them. >> really notice the port this community we really need to kind of really shop locally and support the communityly live in it is more economic for people to survive here. >> i came down to treasure island to look for a we've got a long ways to go. ring i just got married and didn't want something on line i've met artists and local business owners they need money to go out and shop this is important to short them i think you get better things. >> definitely supporting the
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local community always good is it interesting to find things i never knew existed or see that that way. >> i think that is really great that san francisco seize the vails of small business and creates the shop & dine in the 49 to support businesses make people all the residents and visitors realize had cool things are made and produced in san [music] hi. i'm san francisco mayor london breed i want to congratulate sfgovtv on 30 years of dedicated service as a broadcast channel for our vibrant city. you played a critical role during the pan dem and i can worked keep residents informed.
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adapted to changing situations that allowed our residents to engage and participate in government. thank you for 3 decades of informing and inspiring and connect the people of san francisco as the voice that, tes, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , t ready., test, >> okay. good morning, everyone. i am wearing shades nobecause it is july because i forgot my other glasses. bear with me. [laughter]. okay. unless i could not read this at all. good morning. i call the san francisco department of disability and