tonight on kqed newsroom, we speak with san francisco mayor about the state of the city and how she is tackling homelessness, housing and economic veltman in the year ahead. also, we take a look at national politics and the legacy of congress member jackie speier, who is retiring from office. we discussed her long-term in public service, what she is most proud of and what comes next. plus, it is that most wonderful time of the year and holiday lights twinkle with

cheer and tonight something beautiful coming to you from kqed headquarters in san francisco. hello and welcome to the show this is kqed newsroom. san francisco mail mayor london bridge is been in office for almost five years now. her tenure has been marked by homelessness and crime, problems that are not uncommon throughout the state but are seen very significantly here. she has called for more hard- line approach to addressing these issues while encouraging compassion. she joins me now. thank you for being here. you have been in office a úlittle more than four years now. you know the city inside and out. >> the good news is we are finally coming out of this pandemic and starting to see our city come back. we have

hosted a number of conventions that were a huge success over the past year. we're seeing tourists coming back to our hotels. we are at 60% capacity with our hotels. we were at 80% pre-pandemic, so the starting to look up and businesses are starting to look up again. i'm excited. the energy and the air feels different. of course any major city would have problems. we have real challenges around homelessness, drug use and crime but it the end of the day we are tackling those things aggressively. >> i think every city deserves to have a booster in its mayor. to that point, tourism is expected to double next year after many years of problems with tourism in san francisco. >> that is not going to only be great for our hotels. it's going to be great for our restaurants, for retail, for our neighborhoods.

san francisco is a beautiful place. people say it time and again. it is picture-perfect in terms of use, parks, open space and amenities. it is going to really make a difference when people start to come back. we have a number of conventions we are booking. oftentimes, people expand their trips to include sometime around the city, and we're looking forward to it. >> but we do still have problems in the city and that has discouraged people from coming here. conferences have said they're not going to come back because of issues with crime and homelessness. you have been a big advocate for changing some of the problems that we have had, for working on the social ills from the moment you stepped into office. just a year ago, you made a very big statement. we're going to take another look at that. you really called out the

problems we were facing. >> yes, and it was important to do so, because the fact is, unfortunately, we have a lot of problems. i understand the need for criminal justice reform and being empathetic to the fact that people struggle with addiction, but we also have to think about the victims who fall prey to many of these crimes and we also have to think about the conditions of our streets and our city. we have to balance all of that, because there are challenges that exist. >> let's listen to what you had to say last year and then come back and talk about it. >> and it is time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for that to come to an end, and it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. more aggressive with the changes in our policies, and less tolerant of all that has

destroyed our city. >> at that time, you declared a state of emergency in the tenderloin. you increase police patrols and you eventually opened the tenderloin center. that center close this week. critics are unhappy of a couple of think's. they say it did not serve as many people as it should have and closed before something new was in its place to help provide services. how do you respond to that? how do you deal with these ongoing problems because we are still seeing ongoing crime and homelessness. >> many of those same critics are the people who actually opposed what we were trying to do with the declaration of emergency in the tenderloin in the first place. the fact is, this lincoln center, because we have so many programs -- this city spent over the past two years, $1 billion to help address homelessness including housing, services and the kinds of things that are supposed to help people struggling with

addiction -- the lincoln center was supposed to be this place where we brought together a lot of the resources and programs that are helping to serve this population and provide opportunities for people to get help, to get treatment, to transition, to get services in time and time again, unfortunately from so many people who use the lincoln center is a place to look for help, i have heard numerous stories of the fact that the help was not happening. that was my frustration. and what i said from the very beginning, i don't think there's anything wrong with trying something new, seeing if it works and if it does not work , trying something new. to talk about something else in its place, this is what we find other programs to do. we have programs all over the city, treatment on demand and a number of sources that many of these people should have been referred to or taken to her that was not happening at the capacity it should have, which is why we had to make the hard decision to go in a different direction, but it does not mean we are not so providing those services in san francisco.

they are just not at this particular location. >> where is the rubber? it seems like the city for many years with a compassionate heart has been funneling money into programs and services to help people through the problems of substance abuse, through the drug dealing issues that we have. it does not seem like we're making a lot of progress. where do you think the problem is? >> it is hard to pinpoint the problem. i will say that over the past two years, we have created over 5000 new permanent places in our shelter system and in permanent supportive housing, and when you think about it, we only saw a 15% reduction in homelessness. we had a little bit of over 1000 people who were homeless in the city.

>> it should help. and all of those beds are now full. it's being used. so does that mean more homeless people are coming to san francisco? >> i think it is complicated and not we have people coming to san francisco for various reasons. i'm meeting some of those people in there telling me they've been here for six months or two months from all parts of the country and i don't think that is the only problem. i think that is definitely part of the problem because again, he goes back to the challenges and the ease at which people are able to access drugs in our streets and that is what we need to focus our time and attention on, is addressing the open-air drug dealing that has been problematic and has led to skyrocketing numbers of people who were homeless in san francisco. >> we also have the other side

of that coin which is the lack of housing, and you have advocated for a program recently called cars to classes, which would allow developers to build high density housing on parking lots, former gas stationsder so housing. talk to us about housing need in san francisco. >> the need is great. we have just over the years, we have not built housing, and we wonder why, especially me and my friends, we grew up in san francisco and things get more and more expensive and people have to leave san francisco, the place that they love and folks who are trying to come here for an opportunity cannot necessarily live here. we have failed in producing enough housing. our policies have made it virtually impossible to even build will we committed to, which was 5000 units per year but i am hopeful because just recently, the governor and the state have required us to pass legislation arou the housing

eement. we are required to build 82 and the state have required us to pass legislation around the housing element. we are required to build 82,000 housing units in the next two years and the only way we are going to be able to get there is changes to our policies. >> you recently drew the ire of the world's wealthiest man and san francisco's most recent and notorious business owner, elon musk. he took aim at you in a tweet recently after the city investigated whether beds are being placed illegally inside twitter headquarters. he wrote city of san francisco attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are saferom fentanyl. where are your priorities, london breed? what do you think of this tweet? is the man right? are your priorities in the wrong place or is this the right thing to be happening right now? >> the fact is there was a report made and an investigation done, and it is unfortunate the time is even being spent on talking about this. i don't think there's anything wrong with working with his company to try and provide the

appropriate regulations around how we deal with buildings and what is and is not appropriate to do in buildings, and necessary permits if it is something he wants to do. we have worked with previous owners of twitter in the past. they have gotten a lot of tax breaks, a lot of support from the city, so we are not opposed to working with customers, companies, but i don't think it's a good idea to try and make demands and try to push an agenda via twitter. that is a way to not get anywhere. we're th adults and it's important we come together to try and figure out solutions but when people make complaints, unfortunately we have the responsibility whether we agree with them or not to respond and that is what we did. >> last, this week you spent some time at the transamerica building. it has been 50 years now since that first opened.

>> what is interesting about the transamerica building, it is so iconic and really is a symbol of san francisco. the fact that not only is there going to be a significant investment in the building itself, and making it a different kind of place for people to work in, also the surrounding area. the redwood park, the plaza, and other areas that are not typically visited by anyone because it is not that kind of area, and i think that with the restaurants and all the great things that are going to happen, it's going to make it a fun place to be on not just the weekdays, but the weekends, and so i am really excited about what this is going to do for san francisco. it is going to make downtown more attractive during the weekends, and so i can't well

wait. it was really a great event celebrating this historic building, but more importantly, the investments being made to make it a san francisco treasure. we're looking forward to that and it will be available for the entire public to enjoy. san francisco's mayor, london breed, thank you for being here. california congress member jackie speier was born in san francisco. she entered the limelight when she survived being shot five times at joe's town when she was just 28 years old. she later served on the board of supervisors in san mateo county, and in the california state assembly and senate. in 2008, jackie speier was elected to the u.s. house of elecepresentatives. house of last year she announced she would not seek re-election, so what is next for the congress member and just what is her political legacy? joining me now is jackie speier. thank you for being here. so, are you still going back to d.c.? is there still work to be done before your term ends? >> yes, we will be in session

for at least the next two weeks. >> and will they throw a big party for you? >> no, they don't throw parties for you. the kind of kick you to the curb ever so gently. i had to move out of my office on the 28th of november, and so now i kind of couch surfing from office to office in 15 minutes after i was moved out of my office they came with my nameplate saying do you want this? do you know what? everything does have its time. everything does have its season. this is your time to be stepping down, making way for new lawmakers. tell me about the challenges you see the new crop of lawmakers facing in d.c. and how it differs from what the political climate was like when you entered in 2008. >> when i entered, we were in the majority for two years and then the minority for eight years and then we got back into

the majority. the new members are going to have to deal with what is a pretty toxic environment, i'm afraid to say. there is a real interest by the republicans to investigate issues that are really unrelated to the operion of government. hunter biden is not someone doing business with the government and yet they want to investigate his relationship into the foreign governments and the like and i think it is úis going to prevent us from moving forward. now, i will say in the last two years it has probably been the most productive congress in recent times. certainly in the time i have been in congress. when you look at all the legislation that has been passed around infrastructure, around semiconductors and the chip industry, around marriage equality, around the covid recovery. when you think of all

we have done, it's been pretty profound. >> just recently, the respect for marriage act was passed. does that point to the possibility of more bipartisanship for both parties coming together and working to pass legislation that is helpful for america? >> i would hope so, but i think the agenda of my colleagues who would be in the majority, the republicans, is a different agenda. they want to probably cut taxes again, and they may want to up military spending even though we actually put $45 billion more into the national defense authorization act just yesterday, then the president had requested, so it's going to be different. their priorities are different. they want to out trans members in the military. i had a hearing on that issue and we saw how profound their contributions are, and why would we want to do that? >> cutting taxes, raising more funding for the military, those have long been republican areas

but i'm curious of the culture you're talking about right now. you were there at the capital when the january 6th riots happened just about a year ago. have we stepped back from the brink of that sort of bitter partisan divide, or do you think that could happen again? >> let's hope to god that does not happen again. there has to be a concerted effort by my colleagues in congress in both houses of both parties to tamp down the rhetoric. but, it is really difficult when you go on twitter and when you st something positive you get no likes. when you post something outrageous you get many likes and then members, some members actually fundraiser off of that. when you have someone radicalized enough on social media to go into the policy house and bludgeon the speaker's husband, that should

cause all of us to stand back and realize that words matter, and i am hopeful that they are going to take that lesson. >> when it comes to social media we certainly don't think the discourse is getting any better on there. in fact, with elon musk taking over twitter, there are even more concerns now. do you share those concerns? have you done work around these issues? >> i do have concerns about it. i have seen a reduction in the number of followers by 10,000 just since he became the owner of twitter. >> for your own social media account? >> that is right, and i'm sure it has happened to others as well, but what is the alternative and i'm sure that will be a challenge to members as they move forward. i think he needs to recognize that his platform is like a utility now. we have got to regulate them like utilities so that there is not the kind of toxic rhetoric

and there are not falsehoods continuing to be promoted. >> i want to go back and talk about the beginning of your career, which was pretty explosive. he started in the late 70s, and in 1979 he went down to south america with the congress member you were working for at the time, and you were investigating the people's temple and jim jones, which was a cult and subsequently 900 people died by murder-suicide down there, but while you were down there, members of jim jones' militia shot you five times. he lay there for 22 hours without medical help, and you somehow emerged from that saying i'm going to devote my life to public service. instead of deciding to run away from it, you ran towards it. why was that? >> i did not want to spend the rest of my life being dubbed a jonestown survivor. i had worked in public service. i had worked for the

congressman, and so i literally came home after two months of hospitalization and 10 surgeries, and over that last weekend decided i'm going to run for his seat, and i ran for a seat and lost, and then pursued a career in public service first in the board of supervisors and then the state legislature. >> you did lose that seat. yoeventually won a seat, obviously, but you have also faed other losses in your life and you write about these in your book, undaunted. you talk about the loss of your first husband. you talk about how you had complications with the pregnancy that led to an abortion. tell us about how those losses have made you the human being who is sitting here today. >> well, when you endure those kinds of losses or that kind of trauma, it does shape you, and certainly the trauma of jonestown made me somewhat fearless because once you have

looked death in the eye, you're not as afraid anymore. when i lost my husband and i was pregnant with our second child, it was the lowest point in my life. i did not want to move on, but i had a very strong-willed, germanic father who said jackie, it is been three months since steve died, get over it i realized you know, we all have a certain amount of trauma and disappointment in life, and the test is whether or not we can put it behind us and move forward, and so it has just been a guiding principle for me, and it has allowed me to take on issues that maybe i would not have taken on but for the fact that i have this fearless element in my being now that allows me to go where he might not have gone before. >> it sorta stiffened your core.

we have seen that over the years. you have been a strong advocate for women and an advocate for survivors of sexual assault in the military, and you were the first member of congress to step up and say that president trump should be removed from office. at this point, when you look back on your career, are there moments that you say this is the thing am the most proud of? >> that's a hard question to answer. i am most proud of the fact my constituents. able to serve i think taking on the military, taking on the pentagon, and having cases of sexual assault and sexual harassment taken out of the chain of command was a big step. making congress more responsive so that if in fact there is sexual harassment going on by members of congress, that the survivors, the staff members, the interns would be protected that was another issue i took on. making sure that pediatric cancer was being researched that more levels than it had

historically been. tere was only about 1% of the budget being spent on pediatric cancer. we have now raised it to 8%, so many of those issues, i think, have seen the light of day because we put a spotlight on them. >> what about regrets? >> regrets. i think my biggest regret, as i am leaving office, is realizing that this power is kind of seeping out of me now, and i'm not going to be able to call up an agency and say give me a briefing on this or ask the general accountability office to do a study on a certain issue, and so i feel that maybe i could've used that power even more effectively than i did, and so that is probably my biggest regret. i guess finally, the equal rights amendment, trying to get that passed when we are the only industrialized country in the world that does not have an equal rights amendment in our constitution, and we came close

to striking the deadline. we got it out of the house. it has never been taken up in the senate. that is probably another disappointment. >> something for the next generation to move forward with. >> exactly. and i'm hopeful that they will. >> tell us what is next for you. >> i am doing what john lewis said. i'm making good trouble and what i am starting as a foundation first for san mateo county, but hopefully we will see it replicated around the bay area. we have -- we are the fourth richest county in the country and yet we have 43 sheldon children living below the poverty level. we have 23,000 kids that are homeless or nearly homeless. our domestic violence has jumped 20%. we have had the highest increase in food stamps in the state and yet, those who can

and do give, the 20 billionaires who live in san mateo county, the 5000 millionaires, most of their giving is national or international, but hiding in plain sight are those among us that need our help. >> so you're helping to funnel that money to local needs. >> correct. >> all right, congress member jackie speier, thank you for being here with us today and best of luck in your next steps. as holiday lights begin to pop up across our bay area neighborhoods, the city of san francisco joined the festivities this week. tonight something beautiful is the civic center tree lighting event complete with dancing carols, a christmas tree, a toy drive and even a few snowflakes.

that is the end of our show for tonight. join us next friday when we talk to open mayor libby shaft. she is stepping down from the office she has held since 2015. if you would like to suggest questions for her you can buy

emailing us at kqed.org. you can also find kqed online or on twitter. thank you so much for joining us. we will see you right back here next friday night. have a great weekend.

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. tonight on “pbs news weekend,” splashdown -- nasa's orion spacecraft returns to earth, and we look at what's next for space exploration. then, after four sailors on the same base died by suicide within a month, a conversation about the mental health crisis within the military. kayla: hopelessness and exhaustion and the sense of purposelessness was just, you know, rampant throughout the sailors at that command. geoff: and, saving school picture day -- how a celebrity photographer found a new focus and new subjects at an elementary school. those stories and the day's headlines on tonight's "pbs news weekend."