to our public art in san francisco. thank you for joining us. it was nice to meet you. and thank you for telling us about your beautiful mural. thanks for watching "culturewire." much. >> thank you thank you so much for your patience first of all, i know everyone is waiting partially i'm laura garcia the morning anchor with the bay area news from 4:30 to 7 before the today's show i betty bet most of you up ear here to talk about comcast and joined by special guests california regional

president and as well as supervisor wiener from san francisco and executive director for san francisco sticking aging and adult services as well aaron leo program manager of sf connected and camtc the director of network and the executive directors community living campaign and jerold board member yes, a big rounds ever applause for everyone taking their special time for oozing our special celebration we're collins avenue e kicking off the fifth year of internet an internet seekers is one of the low-cost broadband that is happening in the entire country as a journalist reporting from this community in the san francisco bay area we're 14 are 15 and a half years of getting up early in the middle of the

night i've seen the role of extension the internet how to comes to play in our day to day work i remember people used to get their news from the newspaper i know in the bay area although we're the technology center of the world's we have many that are not connected introduce the internet that is hard to minimum i'm also the mother the triplets 3 the babies yeah, that's something i celebrity every single day that's lucky a lot i consider myself lucky i binge bring that up their 6 years old and those kids with they're homework and how to connect the teachers to the medical officers and it shows the needs and evolution what their grouping with naturally my son can teach about

google and whatnot it is hard to believe this so many not connected because mayor the cost of service or the cost of devices you know get on the interjects or lack of training so they have some adult literacy training programs as well but i really 7, 8, 9 to highlight one individual that made such an important mission to insure that comcast does it part to incur the families not connected hard to believe to the power the forget it is my pleasure to introduce the president of the comcast corporation tom. >> (clapping). >> so thanks virtual laura for the record i was up roughly the same time you were and watched you this

morning i check out our nbc faucets but thank you for joining us here this morning and it is great to be back in san francisco to talk about the internet essentials over the past 4 years i've been here many times to talk about this program this is my third time with a laurie appreciate our continued dedication to this program so i'm delighted today to give you a status update and talk about a few exciting announcements to like the san francisco giants winning the world series title bay area i should be an honory citizen i'm a riechlt lifetime giants fan i inherited through any fathered that as a san francisco giants fan for the first time in the history of the program the state of california has edged out there under to be the number one state in the

country for internet essential sign united parcel service (clapping.) so more than 70 thousand families or more than 2 hazmat and 80 low income californians are connected to the internet as a result of internet essentials in the green bay area we have more 23 thousand families or $90,000 low income residents who have been connected introduce this program so congratulations to all of you who help to make that happen and if i can i'll not introduce everybody that was introduced but a special thanks to hanging who drives this program from the prospective of comcast and hanging perceptive to our leadership not only of that bringing but it is a pleasure to come out and see you

today so thank you hanging and the team (clapping.) nationally in just four years we've connected more than 5 hundred thousand families within 2 hundred low income americans many for the first time in their lives that put prospective around that 2 million people is larger than the population of 96 of the hundred largest cities in america and in fact, the double the size of the entire population of city government and larger in an the population of 14 difference states in america we're clearly beginning to make an impact in closing the digital defied i've talked about 3 announcements i want to reference them first of all, we have begun doubted the internet serves so we started this program at 1 and a half meg to 3

to 5 and now to 10 and we're doing that at no additional charge to existing and new customers of internet essentials second we also have announced that effective males we're providing a free wifi routerer to all internet essential customers you'll have the ability to assess your internet service at home (clapping.) there wifi. >> for existing customers all have to you do all the toll-free number we're send you a routerer and new customersblast will get the modem no charge for the routerer no mobile charging no contract a service charge if you need help there are a few things in life that are really free,

free wifi as part of your service (clapping.) and so third and this is a little bit complicated let me take a minute one of the goals to make it easy for people to sign up for the service most families that have children eligible for the lunch program is that we choose that we have to verify that eligibility and that's a bit of a cumbersome so a while going ago we constituted a rule if your child gos to a school where 80 percent of the kids are eligible to participate in a low income we'll say they're eligible for our program last year, we reduced it to 70 percent so if you're at a city

hall 80 percent of the kids are eligible for the free lunch program your eligible for the essentially of not eligible for the lunch program we've lowered it to 50 percent 20 thousand schools in the comcast footprint in this country where ever we can student in that school a eligible to participated in the program regardless of them themselves are eligible for that the national school almost program instead of a clumsy third party verification all you have to do is proof give us a copy of a report card a class schedule a letter from the principle inviting you back to school we'll take anything that says you go to that school we'll count that as a qualification for eligibility under the program so that's this is all part of

commitment to maintain the momentum and a continue to sign people up i'm proud personally and everyone in the company this would not have happened without the support of literally thousands of nonprofits governmental, library, faith based on community partners who have joined arm and arm with us to make that program such a success one the commitments to our partners has been we want their input both this program what is working not working, how do we make it better and easier once 24 program got traction the number one thing a everywhere heard from the nonprofit partners would you be willing to expand the eligibility of the program beyond the families with school age children for those

you have by way of thank you to all the consumers of this center for joining us today but those who wonder why we're standing in a senior center to talk about a program connecting children and low income families with school aged children to the internet our patience is about to the awarded the number one population is whether we consider expanding the guilty to low income seniors that is a complicate population what we've decided to do and what we've decided to side launch a handful of programs to standing extends those to a low income population and the city of san francisco is one of the pilots that's what

we're announcing today (clapping.) over the last decade senior citizens or low income have adapted broadband at a particular low rate carbon dioxide to research only thirty thousand seniors have broadband assess at home 82 percent of seniors with incomes above 70 thousand there's is where in the wooektd but have access to the internet at home 60 percentage point digital divides we're step up to the plate that to low income senior citizens i'll remind everyone all around the cry that is still to the a complete understanding the number one barrier to broadband option is not the cost

of the internet service it is not even the cost of the equipment or the lack of the equipment those are factors but the number one barrier to broadband adaptation is a bufshlth of digital literary and relevancy people without the internet don't understand the importance or or relevant they are afraid of it don't know how to use a computer those issues are acute among senior citizens other pew research concluded 18 percent of seniors surveyed will feel comfortable using the internet on their own while 77 perris said they'll need anyone's hope to assess the internet so what we know from your 4 years of experience is that having a press conference and issuing a press release and

making high-speed available is not going to close the digital divide among the seniors we need to create a digital training program which we're going to side in in conjunction with a new web of nonprofit partners and governmental partners so your model quite frankly is in san francisco question partnered about self-help for the elderly to ether training close for seniors that work together in our comcast workers program in florida the other pilot program we've announced for a lot of seniors in palm beach there are a lot of low income seniors in the county we had a meeting with the faucets i recently met with the president of that local urban league and with a number of seniors that participated in

a digital literacy training program we put together with that urban league the president's said teaching the seniors to use the internet is like teaching a new language in twauk the seniors i learned something in a powerful way through providing digital literacy training and computer assess and computers to those seniors we've opened a new window in your world and enabled them to connect to their friends and service provides and families in. >> way they never imagined would be possible and it is it's different than children who quite frankly know the internet better than their parents do and understand the power of the intersected in low income senior population is a population that we are literally

opening a new visit to the number one issue to elderly is isolation of seniors our ability to use the internet to reduce that isolation and maintain connectivity it going to do more in my view to impact the quality of life for low income seniors citizens then imagine we can provide as a solution to the problems of seminar isolation so because i do work for a video company we have produced a short video staring some of our local partners in palm beach county i'd like to show you to get a first hand sense from the seniors about the power of the internet for a low income senior

population. >> keyword. >> come on. >> for seniors to have access to the internet is essential without that their left behind and this community in west florida many people are haitian and jamaicans it costs them nothing you are to have internet. >> i use my digital connect for friends and families and i have a friend in jamaica i think it is great you, you hear about the internet because most computation is done by internet now i remember when i used to write letters or send cards we don't do that anywhere. >> when it comes to seniors and the internet there their r all afraid like a giant monster it

is really not. >> i'm leon to go on the internet i was totally grntd i'm learning to lose the fair market price i'll get all around to use it if i had the internet i could side lots of things to keep me win my home and even pay my bills and lots of things if i had the internet that is more than i ever thought it means so much to me. >> it changes everyone not just seniors and kids it can change all lives comcast brings that is where he can't two their home at a minimal cost it is about chief financial officer their lives.

>> so (clapping.) i have to tell you talking to this group of seniors po who literally 6 months before i met them never touched a computer and have hearing what we were doing with the computer and with internet service in their homes as impactful a personal experience as any thoughts incredible experiences i've had talking to parents and their children about access to the internet one of the greatest enemies i was talking to the structure how are those women doing he said mr. cohen they're

doing great in fact i've asking them to be trainers for any neck class of seniors and the look the smile on those women's faces the happiness and the realization they actually had progressed far enough they'll be able to teach their friends and colleagues how to use is internet was priceless this is part you talk about an unintended consequence of digital literacy training the sense ever work those women could help to bring the same opening of the world to their friends and anothers in the community that had been brought to them was amazing we're incredibly excited to work with our friends and partners in san francisco on this pilot i want to thank all the elected

officials your nonprofit partners especially want to thank the mayor katie and please appreciated our being here your acting in ac an acting mayor capacity the mayor and i have known each other for a long time we choose san francisco because of the marries dedication to closing the digital divide one of the few marries in the country focusing on the low income seniors working with the mayor and supervisors, with the department of angling and the robust nonprofits that focus on the senior community i have no dough san francisco will be the ultimate pilot project for us it will show how we can make that work and better and how we can role it out to the rest of the country over time so thank you

all thanks for joining us i looked forward as i threaten i'll look forward to reporting on the success of this program the bay area is a spectacular place to roll out the program and many more years of success thank you. >> (clapping) >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. coning i think we've heard that before what happens in san francisco so goes the rest of the country so today, we're joined by that and leader of the beautiful city and county of san francisco david mention her worked on a number of issues for this quality of life please please join me in welcoming district 4 supervisor katie tang. >> thank you, thank you very much everyone and of course i want to on behalf of mayor ed lee that couldn't be here he would have loved to thank

comcast in rolling out our second pilot not united states in san francisco but i know sitting at the table many of the nonprofit leaders and community leaders as well ann he's son her phone the department of the aging and adult services and self-help for the elderly they've been trying to allow companies to be able to come in and better serve our senior community and the populations that do not have access to internet so i know how important that is having growing up in a household where my family gjtd to america i went yesterday to my parents' house my fabricates showed me a game he download i can't believe that all the things the wealth of the

information and the services available for the seniors and how important that all of us learn again, i want to thank comcast and you've bench working hard and we can close the digital divide.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> thank you. >> (clapping). >> thank you acting supervisor tang for being us to mark that special occasion i'm delighted to announce the supervisor that advocates for the seniors on behalf of providing did digital literacy to seniors supervisor christensen (clapping.) hi julie overwhelm to put you to work. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> good morning. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> good morning. i'm happy to be at lady shaw's and thank you,

annie for hosting us here today, i'm very happy to see the former assembly me that man david chiu good morning david it was when david was supervisor i first became familiar with some of the programs to open up technology to the seniors i'm glad to have him here and welcome to the acting mayor and supervisor wiener. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> and a special thanks this morning to comcast for making

those programs and service available to our seniors and city hall the government can't do it all i'm very, very graph to comcast the last time i did an announcement like this we were standing in a school yard with young children i'm happy to be here at lady shaw with the seniors i love everyone in district 3 but a special spot for the seniors so i'm grateful to comcast for making those services available those to members of our community. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> so thanks too to the community technology network and

to the community living campaign and to self-help thank you to ann and our folks at the aging and adult services it takes a lot of people that make a program available to the community so we know we rely on the nonprofits for help and grateful to them in this case. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i know when we built the new north beach library we were asking people what accident we want to the new library one the new things more computers and we went from 3 to 15 computers in the new north beach library every time i go in i see

somebody sitting at every single one i'm anxious for the san francisco retirement board to be able to take advantage of this tool to community communicate and explore. >> (speaking foreign language.)>> >> soy know we have our smoke deterrents snuffed at lady shaw and the city has lines to make our sidewalks save and better

internet it is a great times forelady shaw thank you to comcast (clapping.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> (clapping.) thank you very much supervisor christensen now our next guest represented district 3 serving as the first asian president from patterns he understands the importance of incurring all communities with the resources

they need my sincere pleasure to introduce pro tem for the assembly david chiu. >> (clapping.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> good morning it's great to be back i am usually in sacramento if the middle of the week fortunately, i didn't have committee and this was such an important announcement we or are center the technology and innovation san francisco has been leading 21st century economy but we know we have a real visible divide we know if you're a senior less likely to be on the internet and low income less likely a chinese or latino guilt less likely to be online and it is obvious if you're a chinese senior who is

of fixed income less likely to on the internet. >> and thank you to comcast acting mayor skaing i've been trying for years to get my parents on and twenty-four hours my father sent a facebook request to my district director and my mother texted me the second time if her life she's received a consumer scam to me that's a really, really big step what comcast in partnership with the city and project sponsor with lady shaw about change how the seniors that able to joy their lives and get for health care information and connect with our children and grandchildren to find a cheaper place to invest our friends and

visit your friends in china and hong kong those are some of the benefits i'm delighted to work with great barns go solar to be here with my succession and supervisor wiener and supervisor christensen like all of us we're a thousand percent dedicated to making sure we have a hundred percent hundred percent of our san franciscans who get online i'll close with one last thing i'll give all my e-mail address once our o'ly want to here how the guidance will win their next world series and want to be connected here with you david dot chiu and thank you comcast we look forward to hearing from you. >> all right. it is time to fill up his e-mail address 24

project will take place in the bayview to thank you to comcast great to see a great program i know someone that is extremely proud to be part of the internet the champion of low income seniors and families you name it in the bay area since 1981, in fact, annie has managed self-help for the elderly a vital program for the range of serves for over 35 thousand seniors in the bay area that excludes heartache and education social, recreation programs and even serving meals over 15 hundred bay area seniors what a pleasure annie the president and ceo of self-help for the

elderly. >> thank you (clapping.) thank you so much laura and welcome to the lady shaw and the self-help for the elderly center center in june scott adams tenant the graduation this is the new program the sf ran for the parts 9 years and every year we train 14 will 15 to 21 and teach them computer skills and internet skills but more important community skills and leadership scott was in my year annie your dream of standing the internet may come true i can't say too much by wait for my good news. >> i'm sorry david but, yeah really within don't short months upcoming here comes lorraine

calling us to prepare for to announcement she's been working day and night thank you, laura i can't and scott for being ore partners for the last 10 years the program was not only wonderful to the children but every graduation the parents of those kids would walk up to scott and me and that is correct us from the daughter to the young 15-year-old that didn't touch the computer because their recent immigrants but they bloom and mature scott and a were amazed at the videos at the past graduation when scott present the computer the laptop you know and all united states wonderful gifts to the kids it almost

seemed to send them off with such a wonderful career boosters so on behalf of the digital connectioners and on behalf of the communities thank you to comcast thank you to scott and lauren in a. (clapping.) >> i was tauths many, many years ago by a wise member that if you have a dream and you want your dream to come true share that with as many people as you can while launder in a taught the families with the school children and lunch program children we were happy to do that every time i have a chance i say lauren in a what about the seniors i think i'm going a thank aaron and polio that left hand to the knew so we have been talking about how to get the

last 20, 30 thousand low income seniors contending to this internet and get information an heartache and go to dmv for appointment and look at the customer kind of reports but more important to connect with their families and friends that makes a different to the quality of life i think david everything starts and begins in san francisco so you choose the right city to have our pilot i'm almost certain that with anything that the community agencies partner with comcast that will not only meet our expectation but steady exceed that i hope you'll not put the cap an whatever number you have (laughter). >> no cap so 40 thousand seniors with the program you'll welcome them with open arms so

thank you david for a wonderful staff and thank you to all of our seniors they've been supporting the sf connected classes we started out center about 15 years ago and the secretary of chamber of commerce felt the challenges of a nonenglish and gnlt seniors learning the internet but gordon and emily students to learn almost thing you know that is relevant to making his life and now coming back to teach the class as a volunteer and he lives in the east bay (clapping.) so i want to thank jarpd jordan's and teach the seniors they have the by itself students they care, they really learn and listen and david we have

patience so we know that we waited for a long time but finally our dreams are coming true thanks gun for again for the 999 is like a gift i know that our senior population will really embrace it thanks again. >> (speaking foreign language.) >>

(clapping.) okay. >> so my job is ask one of the consumers it speak directly to you ms. tracey lee so tracey will speak in english a immigrant from vietnam and coming to learn about the internet and computer classes. >> good morning, everybody. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i have been attending computer classes this center for more than two years i've learned how to get on the internet for

to meanwhile to connect with any friends and family and learned how to get on the internet to catch a movie and crochet pattern for knitting and he almost do anything that i want to do on the internet i want to have the internet at home to get on the internet at my convenience but right now not connected with the internet at home i'm thankful in cardiac arrest can over the low-cost not only to the san francisco retirement board but i sdashthd like me future (clapping.) thank you so much for that sharing your story don't start shopping on the internet that gets you in trouble

then a beg bill and annie you keep giving us those dreams they keep on coming true it is so exist to be part of the internet essentials programs to seniors and the pilot program take place in our belook forward san francisco connecting low income seniors to the power of the sgrekt into our homes to get everyone on line it is important and vital we thank comcast for playing such a major role thank you for being here it was simple a pleasure being here

>> hi. i am cory with san francisco and we're doing stay safe and we're going to talk about what shelter in place or safe enough to stay in your home means. we're here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco and joined by carla, the deputy director of spur and one of the persons who pushed this shelter in place and safe enough to stay concept and we want to talk about what it

means and why it's important to san francisco. >> as you know the bay area as 63% chance of having a major earthquake and it's serious and going to impact a lot of people and particularly people in san francisco because we live on a major fault so what does this mean for us? part of what it means is that potentially 25% of san francisco's building stock will be uninhibit tabl and people can't stay in their homes after an earthquake. they may have to go to shelters or leave entirely and we don't want that to happen. >> we want a building stock to encourage them to stay in the homes and encourage them to stay and not relocate to other locations and shelters.

>> that's right so that means the housing needs to be safe enough to stay and we have been focused in trying to define what that means and you as a former building official knows better than anybody the code says if an earthquake happens it won't kill you but doesn't necessarily say that can you stay in your home and we set out to define what that might mean and you know because you built this house we're in now and this shows what it's like to be in a place safe enough to stay. it's not going to be perfect. there maybe cracks in the walls and not have gas or electricity within a while but can you essentially camp out within your unit. what's it going to take to get the housing stock up to this standard? we spent time talking about this and one of the building types we talk about

was soft story buildings and the ground floor is vulnerable because there are openings for garages or windows and during the earthquake we saw in the marina they went right over and those are -- >> very vulnerable buildings. >> very and there are a lot of apartment buildings in san that that are like that. >> and time to. >> >> retrofit the buildings so people can stay in them after the earthquake. >> what do they need? do they need information? do they need incentives? mandates? >> that's a good question. i think it starts with information. people think that new buildings are earthquake proof and don't understand the

performance the building will have so we want a transparent of letting people know is my building going to be safe in it after an earthquake? is my building so dangers i should be afraid of being injured? so developing a ranking system for buildings would be very important and i think for some of the larger apartment buildings that are soft story we need a mandatory program to fix the buildings, not over night and not without financial help or incentive, but a phased program over time that is reasonable so we can fix those buildings, and for the smaller soft story buildings and especially in san francisco and the houses over garages we need information and incentives and coaxing the people along and each of the owners want their house to be safe enough.

>> we want the system and not just mandate everybody. >> that's right. >> i hear about people talking about this concept of resiliency. as you're fixing your knowledge you're adding to the city wide resiliency. >> >> what does that mean? >> that's a great question. what spur has done is look at that in terms of recovery and in new orleans with katrina and lost many of the people, hasn't recovered the building stock. it's not a good situation. i think we can agree and in san we want to rebuild well and quickly after a major disaster so we have defined what that means for our life lines. how do we need the gasolines to perform and water perform after an earthquake and the building stock as well, so we have the

goal of 95% of our homes to be ready for shelter in place after a major earthquake, and that way people can stay within the city. we don't lose our work force. we don't lose the people that make san francisco so special. we keep everybody here and that allow us to recover our economy, and everything because it's so interdependent. >> so that is a difficult goal but i think we can achieve it over the long time so thank you very much for hosting us and hosting this great exhibit, and hank you very much for joining >> we broke ground in december of last year. we broke ground the day after sandy hook

connecticut and had a moment of silence here. it's really great to see the silence that we experienced then and we've experienced over the years in this playground is now filled with these voices. >> 321, okay. [ applause ] >> the park was kind of bleak. it was scary and over grown. we started to help maclaren park when we found there wasn't any money in the bond for this park maclaren. we spent time for funding. it was expensive to raise money for this and there were a lot of delays. a lot of it was just the mural, the sprinklers and we didn't have any grass. it was that bad. we worked on sprinkler heads and grass and we fixed everything. we

worked hard collecting everything. we had about 400 group members. every a little bit helped and now the park is busy all week. there is people with kids using the park and using strollers and now it's safer by utilizing it. >> maclaren park being the largest second park one of the best kept secrets. what's exciting about this activation in particular is that it's the first of many. it's also representation of our city coming together but not only on the bureaucratic side of things. but also our neighbors, neighbors helped this happen. we are thrill that today we are seeing the fruition of all that work in this city's open space. >> when we got involved with this park there was a broken

swing set and half of -- for me, one thing i really like to point out to other groups is that when you are competing for funding in a hole on the ground, you need to articulate what you need for your park. i always point as this sight as a model for other communities. >> i hope we continue to work on the other empty pits that are here. there are still a lot of areas that need help at maclaren park. we hope grants and money will be available to continue to improve this park to make it shine. it's a really hidden jewel. a lot of really hidden jewel. a lot of people don't know it's here. i was just driving around minding my own business...

when it came out of nowhere. suddenly, there were lights all around me. i'm like, "they're coming for me!" yeah, it was crazy. i just never thought they'd find me. not out here. it doesn't matter where you drive. if you don't buckle up, you will get caught. cops are cracking down all across the country. click it or ticket. >> good evening and welcome to the wednesday, august 26, 2015, board of appeals the presiding officer is board president commissioner president ann lazarus and joined by vice president dearly honda and commissioner fung will join us in a moment and