right now. >> san francisco is headed in the right direction. that's the headline today from mayor daniel lurie. after new poll results were released on the state of the city. but what do the numbers really mean? we're getting answers. good afternoon. thanks for joining us for abc seven news at three. i'm kristen

z. the state of the city poll results were released at the annual city beach breakfast this morning, with more than 650 business leaders. abc seven news reporter lena howland takes a look at what could lead to a brighter economy for san francisco. >> and it's my job as your mayor to ensure that we create the conditions for success once again. >> the future is bright in san francisco, and not just according to mayor daniel lurie, who just stepped into office less than two months ago. >> in the past consecutive, it's been the wrong direction until this year. >> according to a new city beat poll released by the san francisco chamber of commerce, 43% of san franciscans say that things in the city are headed in the right direction. that number is up 22% compared to last year. here's supervisor matt dorsey. >> we have it levels that i haven't seen before is a general sense of agreement that we have problems with public drug use, that we have to solve our police, sheriff, fire 9-1-1

operators are understaffed. public safety is something that we have to take seriously. >> as the san francisco chamber of commerce celebrates 175 years in business at wednesday morning's city beat breakfast, many say they're looking forward to seeing more foot traffic across the city soon. this after mayor lurie issued a memo to all city staff members on tuesday, requiring most to return to the office at least four days a week, beginning at the end of april. >> it's not that we want to push you back to the office, but we want to make downtown san francisco fun, and we want to make it entertaining for you to come into san francisco and a place where you can catch that vibe. you can't catch that vibrancy anywhere else but san francisco, and we certainly have that going for us. >> and supervisor dorsey says the future seems even brighter after passing legislation only the day before, which will make it easier to convert old office buildings into housing. >> we have an opportunity to correct the urban planning mistakes of the 20th century that really saw downtown as a 9 to 5 neighborhood that was a

ghost town at night. we need to reimagine that. >> according to the poll results revealed during today's event, 87% of voters support transforming underused malls and stores in san francisco. lena howland, abc seven news. >> you heard lena mention that san francisco mayor daniel lurie is ordering all city workers back to the office four days a week. the directive applies to over 10,000 employees who are currently working hybrid schedules. abc seven news reporter luz pena is getting reaction on this, and we'll have more details on the timeline. her report is coming up at 4:00 in the east bay. alameda county firefighters are investigating the cause of a house fire in san lorenzo. the blaze broke out just before 1130 today. you can see a bit of the home siding charred by flames in some soot stained insulation. according to alameda county fire. firefighters had to climb onto the roof to get things under control. four adults were displaced due to the fire and they will be helped by the red

cross. their two cats did not survive. a power outage has forced the closure of the east county hall of justice in dublin. the backup generator failed as well. that means all court cases scheduled for today were moved to different courthouses. there is no timeline on when p-g-and-e's will have the power turn back on. >> we demand an immediate return to local control and transparent fiscal accountability. the district must stop these harmful cuts. students may go. >> jobs are on the line. oakland unified is taking up the issue of layoffs at today's school board meeting. the district is trying to find its way out of a nearly $100 million deficit. oakland is just one of many places in the bay area dealing with tough budget decisions. last night, the franklin mckinley board in san jose voted to move ahead with closing and consolidating three schools. they are los arboles,

ramblewood, and mckinley. the district is facing a budget deficit of nearly $23 million. each school closure is expected to save about $1 million. the district is also weighing additional closures along with layoffs, and the board could make a decision tonight. in san francisco, board members unanimously voted to send preliminary layoff notices to hundreds of employees. approving notices for 395 positions. the district is facing a $113 million budget deficit for next year, driven by declining enrollment. the superintendent says the district's workforce represents 80% of expenses, so layoffs are necessary. >> teachers are a backbone of sfusd. losing even just a few just means losing mentors who genuinely care about the successes of students and the lasting relationships that come with it. >> we need to show the community that we've done everything we can to keep the cuts away from our students. >> another round of preliminary layoffs is expected. the final

number of layoffs could certainly change depending on enrollment numbers and retirements. the final decision will come in may. thousands of uc health care and research employees are on strike. two unions representing uc service and patient care workers are on strike at all ten uc campuses and uc medical facilities. nearly 10,000 workers on the picket lines are on strike. at ucsf campuses, union members say they've been dealing with a staffing crisis. they're also demanding annual across the board wage increases. >> we share the same mission. we want to take care of our patients. we want to get back in the labs. we want to take care of the students. but we can't do that until they come and come back to the table. address the crisis. provide us the data that we've requested, and stop trying to put barriers on our way about letting the members and the public know about these issues. >> uc officials say they have offered each union meaningful wage increases, as well as

health care premium reductions. ucsf health says it intends to continue regular operations, including emergency care, during the strike. new developments in the push to fire the embattled san mateo county sheriff. a judge will allow a special election to move forward. that could give county supervisors the power to remove the elected sheriff. that election happens on tuesday. voters should already have received their ballots. sheriff christina corpus has faced allegations of corruption, nepotism and retaliation within the department. she has denied those allegations and has called the special election a political attack. corpus is suing the county, accusing it of discrimination and harassment. up next. aviation safety. in the wake of a string of commercial airline incidents. east bay congressman mark desaulnier, who sits on a representation subcommittee in the house, will join us live for a conversation about the work they're doing to improve safety for all of us. and later, rolling out the red carpet as we count down to oscar sunday. a look behind the scenes

at one of the most nominated

after yet another commercial aviation incident this year. yesterday, a southwest airlines plane was seconds away from landing at chicago's midway airport when it had to suddenly pull up to avoid a business jet that had somehow taxied across the runway into its path. the two aircraft were only 250ft apart. this follows three other noteworthy incidents involving flights that originated or ended in the u.s. the january 29th deadly crash between an army helicopter and an american airlines plane near reagan national, killing 67 people. the

february 18th fiery flip over landing of a delta plane at toronto's airport that caused 21 injuries. and this past sunday, the averted disaster at sfo when an asiana airlines flight was coming in for landing way too low. do these incidents suggest something is fundamentally wrong with aviation regulations right now? joining us live is east bay congressman and member of the house transportation committee, as well as the aviation subcommittee, mark desaulnier. congressman desaulnier, nice to have you on. >> my pleasure. thanks for asking. >> so we don't want to connect any dots prematurely or create a false picture, but people are pretty scared right now. i hear a lot of that. so what is going on? are these incidents isolated or do you see something systemic? >> no, the system is under strain, is my view. it has been for some time. we did really good work that i was very involved with, with my republican colleagues last year. at the end of last year, at the end of the biden administration, we signed the reauthorization of the federal aviation administration policy, and that

recognized that the system was out of out of whack. so on a bipartisan level, we came together. we listened to the experts. we put millions of dollars back in, but we're ramping up. so this is an indication of the continued stress on the system, and then the confusion and dysfunction of the president putting this hiring freeze on. and people don't know where they are. so we're trying to hire more air traffic controllers. we were on a really good path to fill the 1800 vacancies we had nationwide, and we still are, but this is all difficult. we've really got to just implement what we've already passed and get it out there to make the public safe. >> right. and it's been very confusing because the trump administration has been on a slimmed down the government firing spree. right. and so at first we're hearing, oh, the faa is impacted. and but we do know, as you said, that air traffic controllers staffing levels are so low right now not meeting targets. so is that being pushed back. and are there guarantees that there won't be cuts. and in

fact, you know, more money and more staffing and all that will go into it? >> well, we're working with our republican colleagues to make sure that's the case. but the confusion created by the first six weeks of this administration across the federal government and everybody who deals with the federal government, which is everyone at every level of government and every citizen has created this uncertainty. and in the case of aviation, it comes on top of a system that was stressed. so we're trying to get these improvements in place. and then this haphazard, thoughtless action by the president and elon musk has made it harder. >> speaking of elon musk, the faa is now testing out elon musk's starlink system to improve weather forecasting. any thoughts on that? >> well, i think there's a very clear conflict of interest in the millions of dollars, billions of dollars potentially. so i don't agree with the privatization of a lot of these. the public sector did a good a

good strategy for decades, incentivizing private public partnerships are fine, but the concentration of the power right now in the hands of someone like elon musk in many areas and how we get our information. but in this instance, how we get our weather and our safety information is problematic, to say the least, and a very clear conflict of interest. his interest is returning investment. the public interest is making sure that he makes a reasonable rate of return. but the public's interest are the most the highest priority, which is safety and reliability. >> all right. so of course you've, you know, introduced bills. you've had bills passed before to introduce to improve aviation safety. and of course there was that near-miss again at sfo. what was it, 2017 i think, when one plane almost landed on top of another that prompted it. so let me ask you if you could do something legislatively now to make it safer for all of us to fly. what would that one thing be?

>> would be to as quickly as possible. phil, what we've already done we've passed legislation. it was signed by president biden. it was overwhelmingly bipartisan. we focused on analysis of what the safety risks were to the system. and we've got to get that all implemented. we've got to get it. we have to get these people hired, trained and working. that's what i would do is just get what we've already passed implemented. >> okay. i mean, you know, i wonder if that's become tougher because last night, house republicans pushed through a budget bill that reflects president trump's agenda right now. right. it's up to the senate now. but the bill does include expanding tax cuts, funding cuts to so many agencies and raising the debt ceiling. you and all other democrats voted no. explain to the american people what this means for them. like, what will we see and feel if this goes through? >> well, if this goes through, people will die. the cuts in healthcare is somebody who has. chronic cancer. i'm here because

of public investments in research and the deployment of that those research. so this is just awful. i know people get frustrated with government. it takes too long, but it has to be thoughtful and it has to go through the process. or you have irrational decisions by a few people. and people who haven't looked at depth and sometimes complicated issues that require people with subject area expertise to tell you. oh, by the way, did you think about this? so this is not the way to govern the largest economy in the world. and it's not the way to govern, period. in a democracy, we have to ask for people's opinions. and i will say a model of this is what we do in the transportation committee, and we do it in a nonpartisan, bipartisan way. it's about safety and protecting the american public when they travel. >> i want to give you a chance to talk about something you worked on this week. you sent a letter to the administration opposing the reopening of a federal prison in dublin and your district as an ice detention facility. is there a concrete plan for this to

happen, and what is your take on that? >> we don't know. i mean, one of the things we're living in right now, we're not dealing with a functional presidency. it's not traditional. maybe that's what people want, but there has to be some communication from just a physical stewardship. this facility, the judge hired a special master to go in and look at all operations problems that led to the arrest of the warden and the chaplain for rape and other things. and then they also looked at the physical plant. what they came back with was it's filled with asbestos. but even worse than that toxic mold. so it's basically uninhabitable for either detainees inmates or for the staff. so i think from pretty clear financial perspective, it's just a bad investment to put any more money in there. and it creates a lot of liability for the federal government. >> i'm just going to ask you, 30s. democrats have been criticized for not having a strategy for being divided, for not communicating more clearly

to the people. i'm seeing this on social media. do you agree with this? any of it? >> no, actually there's always it's always easy to criticize. we're in the minority. we lost the election. we respect that. i think we have to express ourselves with more passion about what's at risk for american workers. we've got the largest inequality level since the gilded age that historically gave us the great depression and two world wars. this is not going to end well if we don't start really fighting for average american workers in a very passionate way. >> congressman mark desaulnier, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> up next, christopher reeve's son tries to finish what his father started 30 years later. we have a look at tonight's new abc special. and it's a fling with spring weather today. enjoy the warmth, because, ooh, is rain comin

and enjoy this gorgeous weather

we're having. certainly spring like so. let's bring in our very harbinger of spring. abc seven weather anchor spencer christian. hey, spencer. >> hey, christian. it's pretty special out there. it's hard not to like the kind of weather we're having today. here's a look at the satellite radar image. you can see high pressure is the controlling factor in our weather. don't let those thin clouds sweeping our way bother you. that's a very weak system that will have little effect on our weather. it's a more vigorous system, farther out to sea. that may bring some significant changes to us by the weekend, but right now, we're enjoying a very spring like weather. winds are very calm. most wind speeds at the moment under ten miles per hour. under sunny skies. and look at the 24 hour temperature change we talked about. this warming trend is certainly a lot warmer in virtually all locations around the bay area than at this time yesterday, so let's take a closer look as we gaze across the bay from emeryville, 70 degrees here in the city right now. oakland 67, low 70 at hayward and redwood city, san jose 74 degrees and half moon bay 64. blue sky, bright blue and breezy at the golden gate

73. up north at santa rosa, petaluma stands at 68 degrees. currently 71 in napa, 70 at fairfield and livermore, concord 69. and looking across the embarcadero right now, a blue sky in every direction. these are our forecast headlines. it will be warm again tomorrow as this spring fling continues. weekend outlook. well, it's going to be cloudy or cooler and we can expect unsettled weather, which means the return of rain. it will start to push in late saturday, but sunday is when we expect to get our first actual measurable rain with a light level one storm on the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale. now for tonight. mainly clear skies, low temperatures will be generally in the mid to upper 40s and then highs tomorrow. just about as high as today in some spots. look at san jose tomorrow. may top out at about 81 degrees. we'll see mid to upper 70 around the bay shoreline. certainly mid to upper mid 70s inland, maybe a few upper 70s. san francisco will top out at 72 tomorrow. half moon bay on the coast, 70 degrees tomorrow. now here comes the change. the futurecast starting at 7:00 on friday,

shows rain beginning to push towards the bay area late saturday into saturday night, but it won't really arrive, or we don't expect it to arrive in full force until sunday into monday. and that also means some snow over in the sierra. we might get a little break after monday, but it looks like a lot more unsettled weather coming our way, so it won't end with just monday's rainfall. so here's the accuweather seven day forecast friday. a little bit cooler than tomorrow, but still above average. then on saturday, cloudier, cooler. march 1st comes in with some more february like weather. then on sunday rain arrives. rain. sunday is also oscar sunday and you can watch the oscars right here on abc seven. and it looks like chances of rain going into the middle of next week, beginning on the weekend. >> kristen spencer thanks. in 1995, superman actor christopher reeve was in the middle of making a documentary about the migration of gray whales. but that work, and eventually his life, was cut short by a tragic horse riding accident. now, 30 years later, reeve's son wants

to finish what his father started. the quest to finish that documentary is the focus of a new abc news special, will reeve finding my father. it airs tonight at ten on abc seven and will stream tomorrow on hulu. disney is the parent company of hulu and abc ♪ ♪

a few days to go until hollywood's big night on sunday, right here on abc seven. the brutalist is up for ten academy awards. that includes best actor nominee adrien brody. he's one of the actors who worked with an acclaimed dialect coach from chicago for his role as a hungarian jewish immigrant. reporter josie sanders from our

chicago sister station sat down with the dialect coach, who talks about moonlighting to make movies sound just right. >> tell me, why is an accomplished foreign architect shoveling coal here in philadelphia? >> i'm afraid it is not so simple. >> a gifted holocaust survivor comes to america for a fresh start. tamara marshall helps the words echo through. >> i was so pleased, though, that these accents, many of the accents in this in the brutalist, are very, very bold. >> the people here, they do not want us here. >> how was it to work with adrien brody? >> wonderful. a gentleman, a scholar and a deep soul. do it with me in shoe. >> in. >> yes. >> marshall came to chicago for graduate work at depaul's theater school. she developed a talent for accents, and it's been a vibrant part of her career. >> i like baseball movies, good

clothes, fast cars. and you. >> one of the first really, really big movies i did was public enemies, which shot here with marion cotillard and johnny depp. >> what happened in there fueled with the terror of becoming prey? >> and then before that, i shot the hunger games the ballad of songbirds and snakes, another movie with big, bold accents. yeah. >> my buildings were devised to endure such erosion. >> shoreline accents tell a person's life, and so we must honor the culture from which that accent comes. we hope the actor makes the accent their own, and finds a way to incorporate that into the inner life they're creating for the character. >> controversy sparked when it was discovered that i was used to refine some words in the dialog, but marshall worked with the actors for months to develop their pronunciation and is proud of the results. >> you know what matters the most? more than the accent. the performance. i think the story matters more than the particular accent or the any other of the things that an actor acquires to

play a role. >> i can sense the sarcasm. >> no, no, no. not sarcasm. snark. >> is there a chicago accent? >> there are many chicago accents based on when you were born, how old you are? where? even down to the neighborhood. >> can you tell something about me? >> i hear some southern sounds, but not super strong. >> it is sad that i grew up in arkansas. arkansas to texas to california to here. >> you are, what i lovingly call a mutt. >> i am proud mutt. i love that linguistic mutt. >> your english is impressive. perhaps you can help your husband sound less like he shined shoes for a wage. >> i do love words. and i love sounds. i love most of all. i guess the way that those sounds. tell us about a life. i like to say that our our lives are in our mouths. our stories are in our accents. and by helping to tell the stories, i connect to the world. >> i promise. >> josie sands, abc seven news. >> and you can watch the oscars

this sunday right here on abc seven. live coverage begins at 4 p.m, and for the first time, the oscars will stream live on hulu as well. disney is the parent company of hulu and abc seven. so yeah, this year it starts one hour earlier. i like that, you know, because then you can finish the whole thing and then have dinner. that's going to do it for now. thank you for joining us for abc seven news at three. world news tonight with david muir starts now. and i'll see you back here at four tonight. tonight, several breaking stories as we come on the air. the well-known actress found dead in her new york city apartment by her mother. what we've learned. president trump's first meeting with his cabinet, calling on elon musk first. the measles outbreak in the u.s. turning deadly now. the first child to die from measles in a decade. first tonight, president trump meeting with his cabinet for the first time.