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 authenticity, diversion and

cultural heritage. one of the most important parts of the legislation being introduced today is the way in which it defines the relationship between cultural districts and the city. while it is important that the work that cultural districts be performed predominantly by members of its community, this work cannot be done without the support of the city itself. many of the these districts have been excluded from these efforts and the ins and outs of city government. we must make sure that we set these communities up for success. we must support their efforts with training, mentorship, access to city staff and perhaps most importantly a steady and stable source of funding. if this diverse and passionate group much people in this room today works in tandem with city agencies, we are confident that

we can achieve our goal in making sure that san francisco remains the world class leader and city of innovation and culture that it's always been. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. peter papadopoulos with the commission economic development agency, and i want to thank you for hearing this item today, and thank you supervisor ronen and your office and all of the sponsors who have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on this lemgs lation, so it's exciting we're bringing this forward today. we think this is a critical step towards addressing the pressures that our neighborhoods are facing in terms of their unique cultural heritage with the character and the diversity of our communities under really strong threat at this point, we think it's critical to stablize our nonprofit organizations, our vulnerable residents, our arts organizations, our cultural organizations, many of which we're hearing from today, the

unique events they hold in the neighborhoods which are critical to their identity, and the small businesses that which we're talking about also who will support and are supported by these communities. we also appreciate some of the language changes we notice here and particularly in regards to the tourism element, which we think is a nice improvement, and we'd like to even suggest maybe strengthening it in the same way that i noticed some of the other elements are that really specify the cultural out come of strengthening our existing residents and existing culture, and i think that this legislation's moving very much in a strong, permanent direction there where we can all feel confident and safe, and also realizing that there is a lot of economic opportunity that arises out of this, and as we're hearing from other folks, we want to make sure that we bring that opportunity into our neighborhoods and really make this a win-win for everyone,

and we all move forward together. so time is critical. we hope that you move forward with this lemgs lation today. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> erin davis once again, and i support the cultural district's legislation. san francisco is a diverse place, but the soul of the city is being driven by techtopia. this is a step in the rite direction in preserving our neighborhoods and businesses and that developers work with, rather than against the community in an area. i have witnessed and contributed to a community benefits agreement with different organizations, many sro hotel exist in and around these cultural districts, and this would help preserve them as a vital low-income housing

source. please approve this and not only that, fund this so we can help keep the soul of this city alive. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is tony robles. i am filipino and black, and i am a resident of san francisco. i want to quote the words of my father, al robles. he said sometimes any heart is black, and sometimes my heart is brown, and sometimes my heart is black and brown at the same time. and sometimes my heart is chinese and sometimes my heart is tajapanese, and sometimes m heart is can i knees chinese a at the same time. we -- or i support the cultural

districts. one thing i do want to say is that when we lost a big part of our black community, the city lost a big part of its heart, its heart of unity, and i want to recognize that and bring that into room. i want to recognize my uncle al and russell did a lot for this city and this community. they started meal programs, started writing programs. their hearts are in the i hotel, soma filipinos, the elements of these cultural districts, the lgbt, black cultural districts, so on, and so forth. thank you. >> supervisor safai: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is maria de la mora, and i am going to make this short and sweet. i am in support of supervisor hillary ronen's legislation.

i believe it's something we need in san francisco to preserve our culture in different parts of the city and also to maintain an economic stability in each of the other cultural districts. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. eric arguello, calle 24. this is a historic moment for us here in san francisco and in the mission district. i want to share some of the things that we've done since becoming a cultural district and it's because of the designation that we're able to do these things. we're able to preserve 20,000 square feet of pdr. we've become a state culture district. we were diesignated last week.

we were able to preserve afford annual housing, looking at the p -- affordable housing, we've been able to provide technical assistance in our culture -- in a culturally competent manner to our businesses along the core co corridor and in the cultural district. and also, we've been able to create an identity for the neighborhood through signage and through marketing. so these cultural districts really allows the district to be seen in a social justice cultural lens, making sure that the cultural district is heard, seen and preserved for the future, so thank you very much. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is carlos alerta, and i'm the chamber of the hispanic

chamber of commerces for san francisco. i want to thank you for all that you've done for the mission district. i appreciate it. you work for the city, but at the same time it's really hard for us being seeing somebody who cares as much as you do. i want to say that the hispanic chambers are happy to support your legislation. we look forward to keep the good workup and anything that you need for us to work with you, more than happy to. we also looking at the expansion, a little bit of that, making it out the latino district, including latino europeans to the city. thank you very much, and as i said, come to us to keep supporting your good work. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi. my name is hannah, and i'm a staffer at justice project.

the establishment of the comptons transgender cultural district has been a necessary step in ensuring safety for trans folks and in particular, black trans women. this lejts latigislation is an important way for san francisco to show support for cultural districts that makeup the city and are being pushed out at an alarming rate. it solidifies the city's commitment to the cultural districts. for these reasons as well as all the others that have been spoken by others before me, i would ask you to support the legislation. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is woods irvin, and i work with transgender interjustice project.

i'm here to support this legislation. my community appreciates the existence of the compton's transgender cultural district. it gives transgender people a stronger stake in san francisco. this is particularly important given the housing crisis that is underway. black transgender women have specific vulnerability to displacement and economic instability. bypassing this legislation, you support transwomen and those who have come from a long legacy that helped launch the will go about the righ lgbt rights to which san francisco owes much. it builds a foundation for varying cultural districts to work together to maintain the vibrant communities that make san francisco what it is. thank you, supervisor ronen for introducing this legislation, and thank you, supervisors, for listening to us today.

>> good afternoon. my name is kyle. i work at tgi justice project, as well. tgi justice project was one of the founding organizations for the comptons transgender cultural district. one of the reasons we actually had to be founded is because we were actually having to challenge gentrification from a developer within our district, so i think that's one of the really important key pieces in remembering why we as cultural districts need to come together and solidify our relationships with the city of san francisco so that we can have our community members stay within this district and within the city rather than having them gentrified and displaced. this creates job opportunities and looking into housing opportunities for our community members, so the passage of this legislation will help solidify this relationship and ensure that we have continued support for these relationships. thank you.

>> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is mary claire amable. i'm the transgender justice organizer. my family emigrated here from the philippines to the tenderloin in the 70's. i grew up fully immersed in the filipino community that is in the south of market. i've seen my family and friends leave the city because the city has not been prioritizing its most vulnerable populations and i am here today to ask that you approve the cultural district legislation to support the preservation of the cultural heritage neighborhoods and the people who live in them. because it's really been our neighborhoods like soma, chinatown, calle 24, that bear the brunt of gentrification, to

make spaces for the office companies, for the tech companies and office housing. san francisco has a rich history of people that live in these cultural districts. you cannot have a filipino cultural district without filipinos. when soma filipinos was passed in 2016, i was finally thrilled because the city acknowledged my people's contributions to san francisco. i didn't learn about the his of filipinos in the south of market until i got to college? i didn't learn about compton's cafeteria until i got to college and i lived a block away from it? and for me, it's really about preserving the people that live in these communities and also giving young people who live in knees community -- these communities, they're proud to live there. i have a seven-year-old niece that goes to bessie carmichael

in the south of market. and she's telling people oh, e you don't know what soma -- oh, you don't know what soma filipinos is? you need to know -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a soma filipino artist and worker. i'm here to ask you to pos the legislation to support the cultural neighborhood and recognize the people who live, work and create in these neighborhoods. the city would be supporting the distinct diversity that san francisco is known for in the areas of affordable housing, community facilities, resident services, open spaces, cultural preservation, pedestrian safety health and living wage jobs. historically, the filipino community like other working class immigrant communities in

san francisco has been severely under served and under resources. at somcan, we see clients daily who have lived in their homes decades who are now being pressured or priced out. securing this funding will be critical in helping us materialize the action steps outlined in the soma filipino progress report presented to the board back in october 2016. we cannot have cultural districts without the people who have cultivated the culture in these districts, so please support. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you so much for this hearing, and i want to thank supervisor ronen and her staff, carolina, and the whole team, actually for all their work on this legislation, also want to acknowledge cosponsors, supervisor yee and also stefani for your support of this legislation. i also want to thank the departments that's been part of

crafting this, oewd, mohcd and decide planning. last but not least this journey of crafting this legislation has been with all the different cultural districts and it's been a great process for really building solidarity with all the different cultural directs. i want to recognize everyone who's come out here to support it. we also want to take this opportunity to just share some background and update to the committee on our work in the last year where we've been able to do as a community but also in partnership with the city, and we know with the pass age of this legislation it would only strengthen the partnership between the city and these communities. are we able to project? [inaudible] >> oh . so this -- for those

who are not familiar, soma filipina actually comprises all of the south of market. it's one you have the census tract with the highest income, median income, and the census track with the lowest median income right for each other. it's also the epi center for all the apps on your phone. we trace unfortunately the history of filipinos in san francisco is a history of displacement. tony talked about i-hotel, in the 80's, when our community moved to soma, we also had the redevelopment 700 -- 700 housing units -- [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: great. i was going to say that you could have another minute or you can have of the rest of the team kind of keep doing the presentation. >> yeah, got it. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is rachel asimosa. i'm the cultural arts director

with soma filipinas. gran oriente is one of the historical assets, it shows the resourcefulness of banding together to provide for the common good, and almost 100 years later it serves as an example of how community and city can work together to preserve historical and cultural assets. this is the mural that was created in the 80's, and it's located in a cul-de-sac that's housing for hundreds of seniors with low a.m. i. that are continually faring displacement. this park is named after a two time gold medal diver located

in soma and it's located near bessie carmichael where one in four children are homeless, and that's not even including children that are doubled up. as you see, we have a slew of network and neighborhood services that are resources based off of the needs of community. they reflect pedestrian safety, senior services, youth services, tenant's rights, and that's just a few of them. tagalog is the third most common language spoken in california. this is an opportunity for the city and community to work together and make impactful contributions to our vulnerable neighborhoods. i urge you to support the cultural district legislation.

thanks. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is mario dimera. in the cultural district, we also throw a lot of events, like the annual pistahan festival. now, our challenges. so we all know that displacement is a major issue throughout the city but it really takes issue to the forefront in soma. we have had a 50% decrease in our filipino community since the 2010 census. we had over 5,000 filipinos in the district, now it's down to 2500. highest rates of eviction, highest rent in the city, and that huge disparity between the poor and the rich. we're challenged against hyperdevelopment, affordable housing issues, and many of our small businesses have been displaced, and we're fighting to keep those and bring them

back to the neighborhood. other issues and challenges, as you know, we have a large homeless population, we have some of the fewest open spaces and parks that are truly accessible to the community. many of our immigrant and seniors don't have language access and mental health is also a big issue. one in three middle school students have had suicidal ideation and we want to address those issues, as well. we've done a community needs assessment with all of these organizations, community based organizations with this coalition, and some of them were around space use. many of the nonprofits don't have spaces, their organize organizational, staff are double up in positions, and overall sustainability for these nonprofit organizations. our mission is to really project, promote our culture, our stories, our struggles, but through -- but we also want to

do community development and ensure community development through affordable housing and land use practices but also work for economic justice. thank you. >> supervisor safai: okay. next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors for hosting this this afternoon. i am paul guerra. i'm here to talk about some of the strategies that my colleague mario went over. we have an ongoing project that's gathering all of our photographic documentation of our life in the south of market, and building a narrative and continue to promote our history throughout the city. we're also working on a community mapping process that's centered around a commercial corridor development, and that is kind of coalescing around or commercial district and along mission, 6th and 7th streets. place making is also a big part

of our push this year and in the coming years. public art, street furniture, crosswalk design and murals. and that's part of a branding effort that includes banners that are going up, and a mural, the first mural was actually just completed. and then, this is a map of where the pole banners will be going up this july. i believe the light gray is where they'll be going up initially, and the darker black is where -- where we're planning to put the rest of them. we're also, like mario mentioned, heavily involved in economically developing our community and helping us grow into opportunities for ploichlt that includes defending our legacy businesses, and we have a cannabis workforce that's

growing right now to help us address the growing cannabis industry that's centered in the south of market. one more. hit it. all right. we'll just go to that. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> good evening. my name is desi, and i am with soma filipinos. i'd like to share with you our vision for central soma park. it's centered between bryant and brannan in a kind of hidden alley space, and when you start to look at this map, you'll see that there are a lot of cultural anchors in our community: bessie carmichael, the filipino educational center, and the gran oriente. some of the things we would like to see in the central soma cluster is a new performing arts center in our community.

oth other -- we're also starting to hear from our cannabis industry that they're frustrated with the lack of space. we're also looking at ways to incubate new policies, like a pop up retail program, which we will be piloting along with sf mta on fifth and mission, and we also want to tie everything with filipino foods and bringing in more filipino restaurants into the district. other things want to do is really -- we want to do is really develop a third space with an amphitheater and develop that with youth opportunities to get them

engaged in the running of this new youth park cluster. >> okay. hello. my name is gina rosales, i'm a small business here in the soma and also a found you are of the undiscovered sf -- founder of the undiscovered sf. our goal for our night market was 30,000 people, and we had 35,000 people. we doubled our investment at that event. and now we're working -- we'd love to partner with oewd on future programs and desi just talked about, and for me just personally, the san francisco resident who also used to work at google for seven years and just quit two months ago so that i could focus on my work with soma philippifilipinos, i

there's a huge opportunity to keep us here in this district. thank you. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you very much for the coordination. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is carlos bocanegra and i am an attorney for cultural district centers. right now, we find ourselves in a crisis of inequity. inequity in development, in transportation policies, in gentrification displacement, and nowhere -- there's nothing more at risk of losing during this crisis than these cultural districts because how can we expect our cultural districts to continue to exist if the very communities who are responsible for their existence are displaced and gentrified

out of this community? that said, i'd like to thank supervisor cothen, supervisor cohen and all the other supervisors sponsoring this legislation because that is critically important to make sure they continue to thrive. that being said, i'd just like to take a moment to express my concerns around the founding of the cultural districts. they come from the residents and businesses, artists, community serving organizations and various councils that serve to protect these interests. an advisory committee that does not include members of the community toen share that funds will be distributed to areas of property or enable each community to tlav. there should be a process of community engagement added to the legislation to ensure that a system of believability and legislation to ensure that the list of members are a holistic

representation of the communities they're serving. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> yes. my name is gloria berry. i feel this legislation is very important. i was born in the fillmore in 1969, and when it started being referred to as the western addition, i knew gentrification had started. when i grew up in the fillmore, it was full of culture, jazz, music, and i feel the people that are new to san francisco have no clue about history. even down to the barbecue place on divisadero, i grew up there, and there's no sign of that

place with the african american flavors that we enjoy. that sounds petty, but we need diversity even when it comes to food in this city. other than that, i now live in the bayview, where i feel comfortable seeing other people that have hair similar to mine and enjoy the same type of foods and culture and art, and i feel with this label as a district, newcomers will know that this is the type of culture that exists here and hopefully future programs can cater to that. i have nothing against the tech industry, but a lot of the new comes that come here, like i said before, have no history, no knowledge of the history of these districts and that naming them of a culture would be beneficial. thank you. >> supervisor safai: next speaker. >> hi. good afternoon. thank you, again, supervisor

ronen, for introducing this legislation. i'm in support of it. i i'm bernadette si. so back in 1975, my father who was a physician immigrant physician, both my parents purchased the delta hotel located at the corner of sixth and mission street. and it was his vision that back then to create a filipino community center, and fast forward to 19 -- 200 -- 1999, my father had created the filipino american foundation, as a foundation to support communities in the south of market. what's really important about this legislation as it is historic is it actually values

community. when we were trying to establish the byaen community center back in 1999, we saw the important of valuing communities, and this legislation provides an opportunity to not only value communities but provides that opportunity as a tool to help generations to pass the baton, like a relay race, as my father had this dream to create this filipino district, to create a filipino center, and to create eventually a district that the history and the knowledge of that community passes onto the next generation through this legislation. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. next speaker. >> talk about history of neighborhoods? not any nationality in this city has been ethically clae cleansed by the city and county

of san francisco like black people in the fillmore area. you have effectively taken away the fillmore western addition area, 60 square blocks. 45% of that was owned by chinese and japanese people. you deliberately moved my people out of area and moved every people into that area but black people. now you want to set funds and preserve historical areas. i move for you to replace that 60 square blocks that was taken away by justin hermann and the administration of the city and redevelopment to rebuild and get our population of black people like it was before racist white skinned colored people took it away from us. justin herman plaza got his

name put on the embarcadero center and the most that we can get from the administration is you take his name off that location at the embarcadero. that's an insult on our intelligence. you got our population down to less than 3%. a combination of legal immigration, and illegal immigration has got our numbers diminished. so if you want to do something historical and receitroactive preserve the history of san francisco, i move you give us 60 square blocks that was taken away by that racist justin hermann, and i'm holding all you business administrations of city hall from 1964 to present as accessory after the fact 'cause none of you have done a thing about it, understand me? you deliberately aid and abet and do everything for every nationality except black people, except black people. we got two black females on

there that don't do anything, either. and one of them want to be the mayor, and she's from the fillmore. got white people talking to her about buildings being in the divise add divise -- divisadero -- >> supervisor safai: thank you. thank you. your time is up. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: you actually got to speak longer because your timer wasn't started on time. contain your remarks. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is loose i can'ucia, a speaking in my own capacity as a community member, and someone who finds the district like calle 24 is pivotal to her survival. in the mission, we are surrounded by many colorful and

powerful murals, adorning buildings and neighborhood. these beloved murals comprise of one of the largest open air museums in this country. there isn't a single political philosophy, culture or aesthetic. what they offer is a sense of shared history and tradition, a perspective that speaks as much about the country as large as it does san francisco. similarly, dancers, poets, musicians and community members all help to tell the story of a resilient community so that traditions can continue, so that we are able to pass down our rich culture to skbrenrations to come. creating cultural districts for mine and other neighborhoods means to empower communities so that they don't have to live in fa fear so that they can leave a mark in a place they call their home, a cultural district for various communities means that

san francisco can continue to be a place of inclusion and diversity for all. >> good afternoon, commissioners. [inaudible] >> i came almost 19 years ago from columbia almost no english at all, and i came to the mission because i knew i had my culture, my people, and my connections, and this is what all san francisco is about, receiving immigrants and people that they are able to prosper here. i want to say thank you to supervisor ronen and all the supervisors that proposing this, supporting the cultural district. the cultural district is a way to protect what has made san francisco special. i would like also to make sure that those cultural designations of cultural districts have resources and funding to work for affordable housing, support legacy

businesses, working with the youth to keep this destination. it's not just the destination that we need, but the resources and the willingness of this administration and future administrations multicultural and embracing everyone. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other members of the public wishing to address us now please come forward. before i hand seeing none, public comment is closed. did you want to say anything else, before i hand it over to everyone else? >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i think it's so great to watch so many communities fighting hard to continue to thrive and live in san francisco, standing together collectively in solidarity, a tool that will help these communities stay here. it's not often that we see the

african, american, transgender, lgbtq, leather, filipino united around something they all see helping them struggle to stay here. that's just really beautifully, and that just hit me very powerfully as i listened to your testimony. i also wanted to mention that so often, because owe pressppr communities are fighting against things that are toppling communities, and this piece of legislation is so unique in that we're creating something to fight for, we're creating a tool that will help what is so amazing and beautiful about our different cultural communities in san

francisco, and i think that's something to take note of. i know that often times, communities in protest because of their very existence and racism and and homophobia, and the war against poor people in this country makes it so the need for protest and standing up and saying no is so important. but often times those same communities are criticized not of showing a vision for what we're for. well, here's a vision, a tool of what we're for in order to keep these communities strong and thriving in san francisco, and that just again hit me really hard when everyone was speaking in favor of this legislation. so i wanted -- i wanted to thank you all so much for coming out, for fighting so hard and so beautifully for your communities, and your place, your rightful place here

in san francisco and for fighting for those places. i just wanted to thank my former colleague in supervisor campos's avenuoffice, nate albo has not just been a part of this legislation, but others. i know that saving -- that fighting for saving and regaining space in san francisco is so important to him and to all of us, and so i just want to thank him for his years of hard work on this legislation. and with that, i am happy to answer any questions. i both brian chu from ohcd and de-ana ponce delyon from the

office of workforce development are here to answer any questions. thank you for your support. >> supervisor safai: commissioner yee? >> supervisor yee: you know, thank you to everyone for coming out, and making statements against this legislation. i don't know if i can support. just joking, folks. thanks for coming out. i have to say that i'm cosponsoring this not because i don't want to see change. i see change all the time. i've probably been in san francisco longer than anybody in this room, so i've seen a lot of changes, and some of it positive, actually, and some of it is negative. the changes i saw over the years from the 50's to the 60's to the 70's to the 80's,

they're a little different from the changes that i'm seeing currently. changes then were slower. they were done mainly because people were actually moving out of certain neighborhoods to -- as a way of mobility and the existing places were still intact where other people could come in similar background and replace them. what i'm seeing now is basically not a natural mobility of migreation, but people getting shoved out, and that's really something why i want to say thank you to supervisor ronen for putting this forth, because really, we need, too, to say basically

these -- these situations where people are getting pushed out, communities are getting pushed out, we need something to fight back with. and maybe eventually some of these things will change any ways, but under our terms, not somebody else's terms. so thank you very much. i'm going to be supporting this, and we'll move forward with it. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: okay. i just -- so for me, i just -- i think this is a wonderful outpouring of the diversity of san francisco. i think this is a really nice piece of legislation to really honor the work that's been done in our city over the years from the communities and looking at the respective history of those communities and how they have been impacted by the change of san francisco. this is a strong step in the right direction to preserve

that culture and celebrate it, as well as enhance it and strengthen it. so i want to say i really appreciate the work supervisor ronen, her staff, carolina, and others in the community that have spoken here today have really advanced this conversation. i just want to shift the conversation slightly over to some of the mechanics of how this will work so that we're really talking about the implementation because i think that's really important. so i think maybe if brian chu's here, he can come forward -- you're one of the directors at the mayor's office of community development, so it's good that you have that continuity and perspective. i wanted to hear you speak about the current staff that you have working on some of the cultural districts in terms of what additional staff you might need to implement this, and then, what your perspective is on how it will be itch

willmented, working with the other departments. >> certainly. brian chu, director at the mayor's office of housing and community development. as it stands, our office along with the office of economic and workforce development, the arts commission, these departments have been working together to support this legislation. as supervisor ronen mentioned, many of these districts have already been created. so for example, in our department, our role has been primarily focused on integrating the limited general funds that have been given to our department to distribute them to the community through our rfp process. i think the -- a couple of the primary shifts in this legislation is to expand the vision of the program to go beyond just administering add-back dollars to the community, but to really be

able to create a comprehensive report that intentionally integrates all of the departments and community input into the strategy, to have that strategy be approved by the board of supervisors and have that serve as a road map for all of the investment that moves forward to create that kind of infrastructure. in terms of our office at our current level of staffing, we're able to maintain what we're doing now which is to distribute funds through grants. at the budget hearing last week, i did say that for the expanded scope within this legislation, we do anticipate that we would need additional staffing, as i described. >> supervisor safai: at what level? not clear yet? >> what we feel is that for -- for the existing legislation, which -- which -- and we've -- although it's not mentioned in this legislation, we've anticipated perhaps the existing number of cultural

districts, and each year, our ability to perhaps support, like, let's say two additional peryear, that we would need at least one additional staff person to be the program manager. if as mentioned in this legislation, a supervisor does choose to create an actual board appointed body because that does require an additional level of staffing -- >> supervisor safai: and that's specifically like the citizens advisory committee for the -- when you say board appointed body, is that what you're referring to? >> yes, so that if there was -- for example, with the soma citizens advisory committee, that does have additional requirements, so that would perhaps require an additional level of support. there are no -- there are no social bodies attached to any of the existing five committees, so we can't anticipate what that would look like, but as it stands right

now, we would say one person to actually design and create this program for our department. having talked to our colleagues, i think that our -- simil similarly, the office of economic and workforce development would appreciate having an additional person to incitigate this. >> supervisor safai: one of the questions that i wanted to ask you was in terms of the reports that will be generated and the work that will be done and the outreach and conferring with different departments, will the person that's the manager for the cultural district or whatever the title that's referred to is, will they be participating in working with your department on creating those reports? is it collaborative? >> yes, yes. the way that we anticipate it

working is that we will be working with each of the departments to rely on their expertise. so for example, economic and workforce development has a robust commercial corridor program and small business assistance program. we anticipate that their expertise will be put together in that section of the report. our role will be to facilitate that report and to integrate it all into one comprehensive strategy. >> supervisor safai: so maybe this is for both you and supervisor ronen --- >> supervisor ronen: yes, i can answer a lot of these questions, as well. >> supervisor safai: but in this, it talks about three or more specified city departments to provide input to the mayor's office of community development about the areas of expertise related to the cultural district within six months of the date of effectively establishing the district. i just wanted to hear from you about what was the timing around six months and was that the right amount of time to get the input from those

departments and then working on kind of the goal for that particular -- this particular section? i mean, if it is, i'm cool with it. either to you or to brian, or director chu? >> i think from our perspective, the discussion had been what's the -- what's the required amount of time. so the way that i interpret this is that six months after an ordinance is established, those departments would give us all of their input. we would also, at the same time, be working with the community to get their input integrated also. >> supervisor safai: right. >> and then, we would anticipate that it might take up to a year after that full year, that's when the full report would be given to the board for their full approval. so it's kind of like a midyear milestone to say six months, give all your work to us. an additional six months, we integrate it. we make sure it's vetted by the community, then, we present it

to you for your approval. >> supervisor safai: right, but then on lines 10 to 15, so then, it's talking about these additional reports from these additional departments. >> supervisor ronen: so i can specify. so in the original legislation, we had originally required feedback from all of those departments, but after talking to my colleagues, they felt that that could be burdensome or perhaps maybe the mta doesn't have anything to add about a particular cultural district or the entertainment commission doesn't really, you know, host any festivals related to that particular cultural district, so that really it's the author of the district itself that should choose which departments should weigh in with their area of expertise. so the timing changed? we wanted to -- >> supervisor safai: right. it say may, may require, so that doesn't require them -- >> supervisor ronen: that's right. these are just -- we wanted to provide examples of different departments that an author

might choose to gather input from. but we wanted at least three departments because, you know, including mohc being one of them, so at least two other departments because we want city -- the city's brain on this. we want different departments to take the different area of expertise and say how can we help to continue to preserve what's there and continue to make this cultural community more robust. so we wanted to put some prescription in there be very minimally. >> supervisor safai: and then back to the original question. it says you have six months, but i just know from my own experience working with different departments, when you're trying to produce reports and otherwise, i just wanted to make sure that you felt like that was sufficient amount of time. and if you do, fine. i'm okay with that. i just wanted to zero in on realistic expectations in terms of the workload that you have. but it sounds like the person that is -- you have, what, one

or two staff already working on cultural districts? >> currently, we have allocated -- well, i wouldn't say we've allocated, but we have existing grant managers who have that geographic area already within that portfolio. they manage the grants portion. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: so this'll be new work, so that's my point. so this will not be a sole duty of your staff person, the particular grant manager, or you are creating a sole -- >> we anticipate that position that i just described which will be the program manager, that is going to be their prime responsibility. >> supervisor safai: okay. okay. okay. got it. >> supervisor ronen: and supervisor sheehy, if i had add through the chair. >> supervisor safai: safai. >> supervisor ronen: safai. sorry. >> supervisor safai: that's okay. >> supervisor ronen: so i did come to the budget committee last week. >> supervisor safai: for me, this is not a budget question. this is really about timing,

but maybe it is part of the budget committee. >> supervisor ronen: i do think it is a budget committee. both brian chu and i were there last week. if we're going to enact this legislation and make existing

nonprofits that they're working with, and now would the mechanics of transition work because it says must issue an rfp, and then they'll go through the process of designating a district manager. >> supervisor ronen: sure. again, there's never been a process before delineated, so they would all look a little different. so we want -- we want there to be a point person, whether it's an executive director or administrator for every different cultural district because often without a staffer whose full-time job in the community is concentrating, then things aren't able to thrive in the same way? and so that is prescribed in the legislation. but the way in which the decision making bodies work around funding and around, you know, prioritization of projects