everybody is jumping around whenever they want to get elected for something. yeah, let's give them 1,000 more police or cut the police department by 500 or whatever. the thrust of your recommendation that would take a look at staffing, staffing patterns and the number, for years that number.

to look at how they are deployed. what i like is the collaborative effort, the spirit you put this forward in. as we move forward with every other d.o.j., i think it makes sense, i am fine with it, i think it's a great idea. i mean that, i do. >> supervisor yee: would you like to serve on the task force? >> i'm not going to say no, i'm not going to say yes. i hope that doesn't affect your vote. bias is something i'm working on.

we will see. that's my honest answer also. >> supervisor yee: at least i appreciate your honesty. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: commissioner marshall, i think your background not being an attorney but rather someone that comes as a community organizer, someone who has been out a youth mentor and the work you have done with the youth i think that's a very, very important perspective. how it has influenced your decision making on the commission and the decision making of your colleagues. >> when i was first asked to be

on the commission, i cannot represent anything as an adult that i teach my young people something different. even discourse. it's nothing like some of the things i've seen happen. i don't think anything could be accomplished that way. and so that's my own up bringing as a black man knowing all the things i know about society and the police and trying to produce as much harmony as i can between the police and community is what has driven me all along. incrementally i see us doing that. i have police officers come through and work with my young people all the time.

my work with young people has driven me to do and community violence and police violence are the things i want to do the best things to eliminate and they intersect. >> supervisor safai: what would you say your number one priority for continuing your work on the commission. i know you said some of that in your opening remarks but what would be the top priority?

>> for me personally is something, that's the next level. there's so much latitude at a particular stop, he could go this way and that way, say hello and give you a ticket. all of this latitude or her latitude at that particular point and even though people have bias, you want to get them in touch with those biass, so it doesn't affect their decision making. in those cases the biases are affecting their decision making. that's something we have to drill down on in addition to everything else we are doing. the other thing i would like to work on, we have got to do something about the number of shots officers are firing. i can't get my arms around that, the lay person like myself don't get how many shots

fired when 2-3 shots come from someone else, the number volume. if we have any other questions we will call you up. >> supervisor safai: any other members of the public would like to come up, please come on up and anyone else please line up so we could move the meeting forward. >> mr. davis, i oppose the commissioner's reappointment for pretty much the same reasons i oppose commissioner melara, so just putting it out there, i don't want to read a whole statement so don't reappointment him, thank you. >> supervisor safai: next speaker? >> i'm karen fleshman from san franciscans for police accountability and i also speak

in opposition to the reappointment of dr. marshal to the police commission. like dr. marshal i come from a background of youth development and community organizing. i am an attorney and nationally recognized expert on racism and unconscious bias. i serve on the working group with commissioner marshal. i urge you not to reappointment him because he served in his position since 2004 under his tenure sfpd has been rogue and ranked 8th nationally in per capita officer involved shootings. two unrelated investigations show the depth of bias at sfpd. where has dr. marshall been? when i asked at the work group if the officers had been disciplined he told me he didn't know.

i urge you also to learn more about bias and about the law. bias is not a disagreement or calling or demonizing someone because they have different beliefs. it's scientifically proven we have deep-seated stereotypes that drive our behaviors different from our stated beliefs. also on the meet and confer please read the case san jose, it's clear meet and confer is about working conditions. it's not about every single policy, if we go to meet and confer on 272 recommendations we will never be able to implement them. san jose states there are certain elements like the use of force policy that is purely the domain of the policy maker.

the police officer's association [buzzer] >> supervisor safai: thank you, ma'am. next speaker? >> yes, my name is gloria barry, a native san franciscans, veteran 13 years military, veteran of law enforcement, 8 years. i would like to speak against the nomination of dr. marshall, i think he does an amazing job in the program that he does with the youth. when it comes to being a police commissioner there are too many people who love the chief, love the department and officers and don't have the courage to speak against what i don't like to call bias, i call racism, i think bias is a cushion word, it makes people feel better about themselves but there's a lot of racist people in law enforcement and more stronger action needs to be taken.

and i don't want to go on into my other point. that's my main point. i think we need commissioners that aren't into being friends and love the police chief and also have the courage to speak up against the police officers association. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other members of the public wish to speak on this item. please come forward. >> it seems he gets on the show and he will say very pathological things regarding people of color. many levels uphold, he came to the mario woods coalition and

he said he represents himself. he doesn't represent the community, he represents himself so how does that affect what he does? i have seen him several times actually sleeping in the police commission meetings. i find that horrid. i would like you to ask him what will he do about sweeps regarding the homeless and what is he going to do about it? mr. marshall cognitive dissidence. do something in the community that is good and then he is sleeping in meetings. he doesn't represent the community, he represents himself. and things he said from time to time regarding blacks and

people of color, it's horrible. i can't endorse this, with all the problems, the henry hotel, police, the text messages, the shootings of the black people. we had to riot in this very building so this body would hear us. the police commission isn't hearing us either. the community doesn't have any response that is legal to deal with how you treat us. >> thank you, any other members wish to comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. any additional questions or remarks from the committee?

>> i will say we in san francisco have gone through a tumultuous time as it pertains to changes in the police department. i think this commission for many years was not on many people's radars and i think that the fact that has institutional knowledge and has relationships with young people that are the victims and perpetrators of violence and the fact they have understanding of the policies and understanding and have accomplishment of working with other members of the commission as well as leadership of the police department and the department of human resources things we couldn't imagine even 2-3 years ago, body cameras, conversations about reform and alternative means of

interacting with violent or resisting individuals, there's all these things that have been very controversial and to have someone with a perspective that has relationships with the community as well as the police department that could act as a bridge and be an honest broker, i think that's a very important voice to have on this commission, so i stand here ready to support commissioner marshall and thank you for your continued willingness to put yourself up for reappointment, as well as put yourself on a commission that is very, very controversial at times and often could take a very long time to implement change. any other comments from committee members? so could we entertain a motion? supervisor yee, you want to do this one? supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: i will

make a motion to approve joseph marshall for the term ending april 30th, 2022 and send to the full board with positive recommendation. >> supervisor safai: could we do that without objection? so moved. please call the next item. >> next item on the agenda is item 3, hearing to consider appointing one member term ending july 1st, 2020 to children youth and families oversight and advisory committee. there's one seat and one applicant. >> supervisor safai: great. unless there's any initial comments from committee members could we hear from our applicant, jada curry? please come forward. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak to all of you today. >> [off mic] >> my name is jada curry and i'm excited to be considered as an applicant for seat 7. i was born and raised in san

francisco alongside two younger brothers and two older sisters by a single mother and pursuing a bachelor of science degree in physics from university of san francisco. i would like to talk about my unique experience in enterprise youth. some of you may know about this program but for those who don't, this is youth focused professional development program based in san francisco. that i've dedicated most of my extra curricular time to in high school, i was formally involved in enterprise for three years. i was involved in three semester-long programs and received two internships through their program. one was at the olympic club where i was a junior caddy which earned me my first scholarship for my education. and another help ed me acquire my current position. i was able to read about some

of the challenges that disconnected youth and the city faced. [reading] i'm highly familiar with youth homelessness as me and my mother were temporarily homeless. though i didn't drop out i was on the path of being removed and placed on an alternative school due to poor academic standing. i'm familiar with substance abuse seeing how it affects my community and family. [reading] my success is owed to the efforts of youth programs in school such as college readiness and out of school programs like enterprise for youth and jung community developers.

would love to have a direct influence making sure these programs receive the funding to make the impact. i believe my experience i have had are synonymous and sense of involvement. thank you for your time and consideration and i look forward to serving. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any initial comments or questions? supervisor yee? >> supervisor yee: hi, have you ever attended any of those meetings? >> i have not yet. i will do so monday. >> supervisor yee: hmm. in your application you said your firsthand experience in homelessness and being a member of a low-income family will allow you to understand and vouch for the youth of san

francisco you will be representing. can you tell us what is your vision that you would like to see in planning to incorporate your experience in solving some of the main challenges we see for the committee. >> as i said, i have had many successes so far throughout high school and even before then, i feel it was you due to the programs i was involved in. making sure youth across san francisco could have access to and even people who have not had access to ensure they could get that access so they could have the same benefits i was able to get myself as well. >> supervisor yee: so a lot of

the department d.c.y.f. reviewing the budget and looking at proposals and so forth just to double check on the work but a lot is the budget issue. >> i have no necessarily formal experience in looking at budgets but there's a lot for me to learn and i'm open to the position and learning to make the best decisions alongside everyone else. >> supervisor yee: okay. >> hi, jada. you are doing a good job. you've been very involved. it's not easy to come and address a full body like this. so you are doing good. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: you are at u.s.f., you have been involved in a number of organizations in the community. so one of the things we all

just experienced as supervisors here is d.c.y.f. does a five-year budget cycle so a number of organizations that didn't fall in the beacon model have been calling our officers upset they were left out because there was a change at least in perspective how the delivery model should be. so i know you are probably familiar with some of the organizations like performing arts workshop or mission science workshop and i'm sure supervisor yee has a number in his district as well and these overlap but what do you think from the experiences you have and some of the organizations you have done, be thinking about what the next cycle would be, you would be on here for the next five-year cycle. what do you you think is important for youth and youth programming in terms of funding. and support. what kind of organizations do you think are important for youth?

>> i think career development and college readiness programs are very important. in my experience, i'm the first in my family to graduate from high school and go to college. i didn't necessarily have anyone there to tell me this is what you need to do, these are the types of things you need to fill out. i think having programs where people could gain that support is very helpful and even if there's a student for example, who just wants to get through high school and doesn't necessarily want to go to college, they could still have the ability to gain career development skills and professionalism skills which is essential. >> supervisor safai: great. i want you to be thinking about the 5-year grant process. as supervisor yee said a lot of your job will be reviewing applications and the next five-year cycle that's millions and millions part of set-aside. you should be thinking about

how you could improve that process and what focuses might impact the area of concern you have your own experience with here in san francisco. great, if we have any other questions we will call you back up. any other members of the community wish to comment on this item, please come forward. proceed. >> i'm nikki a concerned citizen. one thing i noticed about the city is that the youth that are trying to get through school don't have a dormitory to fall back on. anybody who is trying to get back into g.e.d., anybody who is trying to finish their college and expecting them to pay rent and go to school, i could already tell it's not happening.

so this is a little off topic but i don't think all of this is going to improve the housing situation. i would like to address that. thank you for your time. >> supervisor safai: just for future, we have to keep it focused on the item. >> sorry. >> supervisor safai: that's okay. next speaker? >> i would like to recommend that you consider this young woman. i think it shows a good sign when you have somebody young who wants to be a leader, she definitely has college experience in the city and i think it will be a progressive move to honor her appointment. that's all. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker? >> hi, my name is kathy verona lopez. i would like to support jada's placement on the commission. i think it's important to

remember in order to have youth be part of our san francisco community, it's important to invest in them and she wants to be invested. i think it's so wonderful and beautiful to have a youth who knows they want to get to someplace but doesn't know how to get there and you have a good opportunity to have that in our city. thank you. >> supervisor safai: great, any other members of the public wish to comment come forward. seeing none, public comment is closed. any closing remarks or additional comments? >> supervisor yee: yeah, i'm glad you applied, jada. it's brave of you. and i know in regards to bureaucracy of d.c.y.f. not as experienced as i would like somebody to be but i also

concur with some of the comments about giving you the opportunity to do this. the fact you are here today and going through this shows me a lot about your calendar. so i would like to, in the future, if you would like to, i'm very familiar with d.c.y.f. in the future, if you become a member that my office is always open to having discussions with you to exchange ideas. so i would like to go ahead and make a motion to pass this item, or recommend jada curry to seat 7 and pass it with full recommendation to the board. >> i would like to second that

motion and reiterate i'm very impressed and thank you for your service and wanting to serve. i agree with all the comments i heard today. i'm very excited for you to have this opportunity. >> supervisor safai: yes. and i think we all agree -- no clapping. remember to bring the experiences you have, that you talked about and the organizations that you have worked with, young community developers and others and bring that perspective for the next five years but congratulations and your recommendation will be forwarded to the board with full recommendation, i think we could take that without objection. >> yes. >> supervisor safai: please call the next item. >> item 4 ordinance amending administrative code for establishment of cultural districts in the city, to acknowledge and preserve neighborhoods with unique cultural heritage and report to

board of supervisors and the mayor. >> supervisor safai: i think we were going to have supervisor ronen say some remarks. here she is. come on down! is it set up over there for her? >> yes. >> supervisor safai: i will hand it over to supervisor ronen. this is her item. and save some opening remarks. >> thank you so much. sorry i was a little late. i'm so excited to finally be bringing this cultural district legislation before the rules committee today. i introduced this legislation bacterial infection dge is -- back in october and worked from

different departments, districts, community leaders and my colleagues on the board. thank you to the many people who have been part of the development of this legislation. it creates official recognition of cultural districts in san francisco and clear formal eyesed process for creating and operating them. it provides a framework to invest resources and preserving cultural relevant businesses, arts and festivals through creation of cultural districts and any accompanying stabilization funds. here is how i would explain it, it's an area in the city where certain communities established themselves historically in san francisco and brought a rich diversity of cultural aesthetic traditions and life to those neighborhoods. we have the latino cultural district around 24th street and the mission.

japan town cultural district in japan time we have south of market and the tenderloin. these are areas often communities that have been marginal eyesed or oppressed have gone to seek refuge. they are also neighborhood that's make our city in san francisco make ourselves an international travel destination. they prevent san francisco from becoming a cookie cutter neighborhood. cultural districts are critical part of our efforts to preserve san francisco's diverse communities and combat the displacement that's lead to shrinking cultural neighborhoods.

quite frankly we are missing that place making that's made us the envy of the world. [please stand by for captioner switch...]

>> supervisor ronen: number three, the legislation clarifies rules for city departments in providing support to cultural district via data analysis, programming and guidance in historic preservation, economic development, arts, public infrastructure, plaining and zoning protections. fourth, it provides structure for financial support and financial over sight where funds are provided to districts through public grants or private donations, and it ensures community voice by giving the board discretion to establish advisory committees

to each districts. i have passed this out to each member. just to summarize, these amendments stream lines the legislation by removing the list of departments to provide feedback to the chess report, and that is the report that describes what is existing that should be preserved in cultural districts and opportunities to grow the cultural districts. it names the author -- that the author of the lemgislation is the person who should choose what departments should provide input in the chess instead of mandating which departments to do so. it extends the time for departments to provide reports and includes a limit peryear for the reports. it clarifies that there can be only one district pergeographic areas. it eliminates commission reviews at the time of introduction, and it explicitly

mentions the community engagement requirement for the creation of cultural districts, and it clarifies that vulnerable communities or protected classes are the focus of cultural districts. finally, i just have to take a moment to do my thank yous. i want to thank both brian chu of the mayor's office of housing and community development, de-anna ponce dejesus for her cultural input, and the many districts that have been involved, and the leaders we have worked with in

the various districts. rachel ryan with the lgbtq leather district. i also wanted to give a special thanks to supervisor cohen who is my principal cosponsor on this legislation, and a special thanks to both caroline morales for working to make this the amazing legislation that it is. so with that, i wanted to see if my colleagues had any questions or comments. >> supervisor safai: i think we'll hold questions for after public comment. >> supervisor ronen: sounds good, so i think we should open it for public comment. >> supervisor safai: any member of the public wishing to comment, please lineup on the right. so some people, it looks like they filled out cards.

please come forward and begin. >> hello. my name is romeo youngquist. coming from an african american -- african immigrant artist's mother, come prosecuting the bayview, it was very difficult to find a program that could empower us in the midst, and i was exposed to the unthinkable which almost destroyed my life in the neighborhood. there is a big problem we have today and that is a disconnection between our society and our mother land, africa. for example, have you ever heard of stereo types that african people live in trees like monkeys but are less smart, but did in fact did you know that africa has contributed a lot in modern society. for example the drum set was

created by african american men, picasso's arts were inspired by african arts, and the list goes on and on. if i told you that you could help change violence in our communities, would you, today i'm here to advocate for african arts academy which is a nonprofit organization founded by my mother which specializes in the doctrine of arts and crafts originating from africa. the mission is to retain one of our most important cultural heritages for generations to come. we need these programs and we need all your money and support to change the narrative through your programming that will empower our youth and help them get off the street and stop the violence. this is what african arts academy has done so far. both the african arts academy

founder and its secretary general are part of artists incubator at the african arts and cultural complex, but this program has -- ends in a month -- >> supervisor safai: sorry. next speaker, thank you. >> hello. my name isly an laria, and i'm -- leeann laria, and i'm in the south of market community action network, and i'm speaking of the importance and the approval of the cultural district legislation. in my daily experience at work, i have met and encountered filipino youth members, immigrant mothers, workers, and familiar artists, activists musicians and poets who congregate for this community

we now know at south -- as south soma. last year, i did some research and organized an exhibition about the formation of history of the artists in the south soma community. i was able to piece together an important story, a story of activism that rose out, struggled and came together to create better lives in california. i saw footages of fill pony activists on natoma street, i saw that the soma community leader like al robles was at the center of the struggle for the asian hotel. i saw that one of the first asian migrants were filipino bachelors.

i saw how art and cultural fuelled the art and cultural literary movement of san francisco with countless others. i saw the combination of art, music and activism in the daily lives, serving the immigrant community population of soma, as well as the families and homes concentrated between -- >> supervisor safai: thank you, ma'am. next speaker. >> hi. good afternoon. members of the rules committee, my name is tyra finnell. i want to put on the record that i'm in support of the culture district legislation and a proud representative of the bayview-hunters point

contingent. the bayview-hunters point is an african american neighborhood that's often overlooked but has a vibrant arts scene and being designated as a cultural district will help that art scene to grow and strengthen it, but will also help grow our economic development by pay of channelling -- way of channelling our tourism, giving residents a reason to come out and spend money, which also supports our merchants. this legislation is one piece of the puzzle to continue this narrative? and that will give us the tools to continue to grow the bayview and continue to retain its heritage through arts and culture. thank you for your sponsor of this legislation, thank you to hillary cohen, and all of the bayview-hunters point representatives that will be speaking after me. >> supervisor ronen: tyra, i didn't thank you earlier but thank you for all of your

input. >> thank you. thank you so much. >> supervisor safai: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm sandy morey, and i chair the board of directors for the japantown task force. this nonprofit's mission is to preserve one of the three remaining japantowns in america. the other two are in los angeles and in san jose. our mission is really -- has been enhanced by support from oewd for the last three years to do our work, and we're very much in support of this legislation introduced by supervisor ronen. i think it's a long time coming. japantown is over 110-year-old cultural district, and we've been fighting for this issue for many, many years to try to maintain our identity. so this particular legislation will be a huge boost to promote this in the whole city, and we thank the supervisor for doing

this. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is shawn haynes. i'm a native of san francisco, and i came to speak in support of this legislation. thank you to supervisor hillary ronen and to malia cohen for putting this forth for our community. as a native of san francisco, i have lived in a majority of our districts, so i have seen a majority of our different communities, and i had an opportunity to change about the changing face of our san francisco, and i've had an opportunity to write about the displacement, gentrification and an inability for people to maintain a foothold in our society. it's very important for a city like san francisco who has a lot of different representatives from a lot of different cultures to maintain our place here. all of the different cultures that are represented here today are what make san francisco great, and i have had the fortunate, you know, pleasure to serve in support of the

transgender cultural district, the leather cultural district, and other cultural districts that are forming in san francisco because they're communitying that i come from and that i fight for just as diligently as everyone who stands behind me and every who comes before me. i come today to ask for your support because this is incredibly important because we know our city is going into on economic downturn as the rest of this country is and this is vitally important as to create the safety dignity and opportunity for everybody who's already experiencing hardship, but just to provide as everybody's here for, the access to create more job opportunities, to create for housing and to create more resources that are supportive of most of the communities that need it. i ask you all to support this, and i will continue to work with you to make sure that these resources are provided to the communities that are here today. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is katie, and i

represent the delores street community resources as well as the collaborative. i'm here to speak in support of the cultural districts. thank you to the supervisors for listening? so san francisco has a beautiful and unique culture that draws people here, both tourists and new residents, and it's a source of pride for so many people who love this city. and at the same time, aspects of this city are under threat from gentrification. it's a systemic process that involves government, corporations, banks, and other institutional factors much there's a way to change and be with himmum couldi with him -- be welcoming but also maintain things that are valuable. it's our job to guard against that. it's our responsibility. i work in the mission and in that district of over one square mile, over 8,000 latinos

have been forceablely displaced. gentrification is inherent in displacement. we need to address that. the first people to pay that cost are working class people of culture, and that's sad because latino culture is something that draws people of all races to the mission. our job as people is to shape change well. ad stewards of this city, you have an additional responsibility to shape change in the direction of racial just -- of racial justice. approve the cultural districts. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, supervisors. i am here in support of the cultural district. my name is la wanda richardson, and i'm one of the merchants. i'm here to support this because i know my contribution as a health and wellness life

coach and also trainer and nutrition fitness specialist, the bayview is the highest statistics as far as diabetes and high blood pressure and metabolic syndromes that are causing a lot of people to d e deteriorate with health. i believe the opportunities to come would be with merchants that are wanting to also increase the health and wellness. i know a lot of the restaurants there as well are also contributing to that. so for the cultural district, i think it's going to be important. also for this community to identify with people to be able to see the change. it's not enough to talk about it, but it's now time to see people doing what we're wanting to see, and i believe that i'm here to represent what that's going to look like as an african american women living a good life, taking care of herself. and people need to see that and implement that so we can make the bayview healthy, and

that'll be a representation of what this culture can really be, the african american community in the bayview. thank you. >> i've been waiting for a moment like this. my name is yuki. i'm a concerned citizen. i party hard with culture. i am the v.i.p. party host of pride fest. culture brings tourism. it brings money to the bank. it pays our bills, and it makes us happy, and it bonds us. i don't know if some of you are students of hanmen lu's wellness institute. he is a big mentor of economic development and wellness. what happens when crime goes up? your eu goes up, and you don't

know your neighbors. thank you for this culture district, but i want to see one more culture district, which is the ohlone cultural district. there is no history without them. we heal because we bond. we bond with a dog, we bond with the sunset. the biggest bond is with nature, and they know how to do this. they've been doing this here for generations, and we don't inherit their wisdom. i don't know if the transgender community would agree to this, but i would like to see about four buildings purchased by our community and given over free just title over to the ohlone people so that they can do something there and preserve their culture and history. thank you for your ears. how you guys doing? i'm jamele paterson, and i

represent the city. not city government, but the people of the city. the people of this fabric. i also represent the black community. i operate in three black communities, as well, so i'm just here to advocate that we use the cultural district as a platform to create a neighborhood alliance. if we're going to put some teeth into gentrification, if you want the dots to connect, i think when we have -- [inaudible] >> -- that should be a citywide event. that's cultural, right? the dots don't connect. also. supervisor safai, i would like your district, lake view, which is a special district to be added to the cultural district, as well, and i would like the western addition to be added to the cultural district. so these are the things that

i'm advocating for with this cultural district so that we can really make some real change and not just band-aids, getting people on the ground involve involved. i want to be a part of the process because i feel like i'm an advocate in my community and in my city, and i care about the mission, and japantown, chinatown, and the black community, as well. so unite the city. please. >> good evening, everybody. my name is jeanetta johnson, and i'm the executive director of tgijp we stands for transgender interjustice

project. we are here to emphatically support the district and acknowledge all the culture districts that are here, and the trans people and the working class poor are being pushed out of san francisco at alarming rates, and we want to keep san francisco as a sanctuary city, where people feel welcome. we believe that cultural districts are incredible important and keeping san francisco and many communities and cultures alive for generations to come. i am so happy and excited that here in san francisco, we get an opportunity to really be who we say we are and be creative and innovative. we are so lucky and blessed to have the first ever transgender cultural district. it means a lot to the transgender community. we get to create and develop and decorate and create

business so we can sustain ourselves and not keep having to come to bodies like this and asking for money. we're asking for opportunities to be invested in in a way. we're so excited about the tourism that the transgender cultural district will bring. we're so excited, like trans people having ownership in this city and in this district. so please, really, really consider to support the cultural districts. we are so lucky and so blessed. i feel so empowered and inspired by the fact that we have our own district, we have ownership, we have stake in this city. please continue to support this work. we greatly appreciate you, appreciate jane kim, and if you mention jane kim, you've got to mention bobbie lopez. >> supervisor safai: thank you. thank you very much. thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is christopher statin. i'm here to speak in support of the cultural districts. i currently serve as the

codirector of cleary allen cultural project. that project grew out of the neighborhood. it was never meant to be a tourist attraction, but six residents in the neighborhood came together and started painting murals. it's so great because the identity of the neighborhood gets identified when it's community based. to have that type of support from the cultural districts would make a huge difference, in what we can produce and how we can sustain ourselves, and i know that also it's hard to protect yourself against commodifying against city hall. we need that so much.

>> -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. as a queer person who found my community in the leather and drag bars of soma, i felt incredibly distressed about the teeneous ties -- tenuous ties that the people have this -- [inaudible] >> -- that has made its home in soma for 52 years. faced with a major rent hike, this cornerstone of san francisco's queer legacy was faced with closure, and while i'm incredible proud of the progress that they've made to stablize and protect one queer space, we all need to be looking at the bigger picture. the cultural legislation does just that. we can better support our businesses, focus on culturally appropriate health services and celebrate our unique cultures through unique spaces and

events. this legislation is the most promising strategy we have to keep our vibrant cultures from disappearing. supervisor ronen, thank you so much for all of your work on this and thank you for listening to us today. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is david hyman. i'm on the board of the san francisco bay area leather alliance, and i also have been working to create the leather and lgbtq cultural district. i'm very pleased to support the ordinance that supervisor ronen has created which will give needed recognition and support to these districts which in turn will give stability and vibrancy to these neighborhoods. the result will be making san francisco a more attractive destination to visit and a more affordable place to live. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. i'm bob goldfarb. i'm the chair of the leather and lgbtq cultural district,

and i'm also the chair of the young leatherman's discussion group as well as a former president of the folsom street fair. i have lived here for more than 20 years, and sf's diversity and unique cultural neighborhoods are a key feature in making this city a place that we all love to live. it is -- this legislation will help strengthen sf's unique cultural neighborhoods and protect them from the rampant changes we are currently seeing, and i urge you all to vote for this valuable legislation, and thank you, supervisor ronen. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is elouise patton. i'm also a resident of bayview.

member of the merchants and of the san francisco african american chamber of commerce. i told you all that so that you understand my understanding of the depth of the need for this lemgs lation. san francisco's third street has been bleeding in terms of merchants and in terms of economic development. when we got muni going down, we were told 98,000 riders is going to provide much more walking and much more folks that are going to be able to go and provide support for the businesses. well, that didn't happen. we need to become a destination spot. this legislation will allow us to, number one, get our culture and be able to expose it to other people in the city. everybody doesn't understand the contributions african americans have made to the city over the years. the second is to give a boost to the african american community that it so

desperately needs. we can address some housing, be able to talk about teacher housing, which is sorely needed, housing for firemen, which is sorely needed. i am so grateful to supervisor cohen and supervisor ronen for creating this legislation, and i strongly encourage you to support it. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you. supervisor ronen for introducing th introduci introducing this legislation. my name is claire farley, and i'm the senior advisor to the mar i don't remember. cultural districts protect and bolster the culture, community and pride and safe spaces and economic opportunities for some of terrific's most vulnerable communities. this is increliable important at a time when communities are being displaced more than ever with our housing crisis and wealth and inequality. our office has had the opportunity to support the transgender district, and we look forward to continuing our

efforts to support additional districts. at our office we believe that it's important for the city to support cultural districts to support cultural heritage and protect the culture of our districts so we can continue to be a city that we love. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is honey mahogany. i want to thank you for holding this important hearing on this lengths lation that was introduced by supervisor hillary ronen with so many amazing cosponsors that will have an indelible impact on the future of san francisco. many other people in this room have worked tirelessly to make sure as san francisco moves forward into the future it does not lose its heart and soul. we cannot stop time and we do not want to get in the way of progress but progress does not have to happen at the expense of