>> good morning everyone. you guys sound as excited as i am. i am so happy to be here today. this is a project that so many people, who came together to make it happen, the masonic street scape improvement. how about a hand for the beautiful plaza. this project is a transformational redesign of what most of our streets in san francisco will be looking like. so many beautiful amenities. you can see the plaza back the nice stonework. you will hear about that today. you can see the new cycle track which is raised for cyclists. you know, it is beautiful. the street design itself. all the landscaping. all the beautiful things that

our city is evolving into. this is a model street. we have been doing these projects all around the city. a few weeks ago we were on broadway. we have done in the mission and we have many more of these projects to come. all of the agencies involved, you will hear from them. the beautiful art behind me. how about some applause for the san francisco arts commission. all that beautiful work. we will hear from the m.t.a. and we will hear from planning, you will hear from p.u.c. at all of us. this is a way that a project should be done. all of the agencies working together, along with the community and the community, most important, on behalf of all of us, i want to say thank you for all the patients. all of those phone calls, all those concerns that we went through, you know, today all that is over and we will be enjoying this beautiful street.

i can also tell you that the leadership has always been involved. sometimes when you call me or you call one of the agency heads, when you don't get the answer you want to, you always go to the top person. and the person i am about to introduce to someone who is very familiar with this project. someone who was the supervisor of district 51 this project was active. and now our mayor, london breed. welcome her. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, mohammed. first of all, let's give it up for the sombre band which is led by public works employees. thank you so much for being here. they don't just deal with infrastructure and clean the streets, they are artist too. how cool is that optically let me just tell you. when i was supervisor for district five, and i first started in 2013, i got so many

complaints from my constituents, probably throughout my entire career, more complaints about this masonic boulevard street than any other place else. and i am so -- i am probably more happy than anyone else besides the people who live on this block that it is finally, finally done. how exciting is that? i want to be clear. this project is about safety. we no kak sadly, this was one, and probably still is, we are hoping these improvements will change that, one of the most dangerous streets in san francisco. and part of getting to vision zero, where we don't have any fatalities as a result of the conditions of our roads, is making the hard decisions to make the changes necessary to make our streets safe. this is about making sure people

who are walking the streets feel safe. this is about making sure people who are bicycling feel safe. this is about making sure people who are driving and being safer. this is about bringing the community together for the purposes of creating a road that hopefully will lead to less problems than before. the number of challenges, the number of complaints, we hope that this will lead to the kind of results that will make this a safer and better street for all to use throughout san francisco. throughout the process, i want to thank so many people who have been actively engaged and patients. especially the people who live here. the people who have businesses along masonic. those are the people who have had to endure many of the challenges that existed. i also want to apologize to many

of the drivers who consistently complained about their wheel alignments to me. this smooth road with clear direction will make it possible to avoid that on this particular street, at least. this project includes separated bike lanes along the corridor. i know there are some concerns about protected bike lanes and it is something that we will address. newly paved roads, sidewalks and curb ramps. leiter sidewalks and pedestrian lighting. which is absolutely amazing. but this project also included much-needed infrastructure improvement. a new water main. on both sides. now, sometimes it is the things we do not see that are the most exciting thing is to complete a project and make a city where it could. a new sewer line that now runs on both sides as well.

also, this new and beautiful public plaza. applause for everyone to enjoy. i want to thank so many people who made this possible, and clearly, you see that there are so many trees. more trees than we probably need. but i want to thank the public works department for the work that they did in doing this project but also the future work that they will do in maintaining those many trees along masonic. i want to thank the public utilities commission, the san francisco m.t.a., the san francisco planning department, the county transportation authority, and when i was on the board and the county transportation authority, i hope to leave the efforts to secure the additional funding we needed to get this project on. i want to thank the san francisco arts commission and so many that have made it possible. this project, overall, improves

public safety, creates new open space for our community, and strengthens our infrastructure for years to come. when i was supervisor, high, michael, one of the leaders who basically helped move this project forward, thank you so much for being here and your advocacy of getting this project done. when i was on the board of supervisors, one of the persons in my office to help deal with many of those complaints and challenges from the folks who lived here and work here was, at the time, my legislative aide, vallie brown. she is now the supervisor to represent this district. ladies and gentlemen, district five supervisor, vallie brown. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. i was told by someone, when i am riding my bike and i have photos, to put my helmet up front so everyone knows that yes, i too wear a helmet when

i'm out there. kids, where your helmets. i just want to thank everyone for coming today. this is amazing. i started working on this masonic boulevard at the issues that we were having, to safety issues we were having, in 2005. there was a group of us, michael, dug, a bunch of us who came out at night when it was rainy and cold. we had our signs up to reduce the speed to 25 miles. because if you remember before then, it was a lot faster. it was our little mini freeway. we were out here it, day and night, going across the street, up and down masonic and working on the state level to reduce it to 25 miles an hour. and then that happened. we are excited about it. we knew we needed to do more. and then we had the tragedy of a bicyclist getting killed. he was riding riding his bike in

2010 and he was killed by a car. it made everyone sad, furious, and also, gave us the power to keep moving. we needed to make sure that we needed to change masonic. needed to be changed not only for people who rode their bikes on masonic, not only for the kids that are at san francisco day school that walk around masonic, and the people who live here. they were also complaining that the noise and the pollution of the way masonic was was across a freeway. so we worked on that and we have these amazing community meetings. and michael and doug and tim and the others were at these meetings. we had 80-100 people at a planning meeting for masonic. we had m.t.a. who would lead to them. they were amazing meetings. we were there, probably, we had 6-8 meetings that we had the

community, everyone coming together to work on what will make masonic safe and what we felt good on whether we are walking, biking, driving or coming out of your home. and then back the next phase was funding it. and then mayor breed, who was supervisor breed at the time, puts the funding funding through t.a. so we could get realization that we have this beautiful boulevard. but we are not done. if you are a cyclist, we have a few blocks that need some work. as mayor breed said, we are going to do that. i was at first, a little bit where each. we will be celebrating a boulevard that we are still working on? and then i realized, and i actually called my og, michael and others, to say why kate do we support this as it is now? and we really do.

we support it because it is absolutely beautiful. when we first did -- name to the bike lanes on bell and oak, we had to change those. at first we put the bike lanes and nsa move forward we realized we have to tweak it this way and we have to tweak it this way to be safe. that is the way i look at masonic now. i want to thank everybody who has been here for the last 15 years, really working to change this. at all the departments that are involved. d.p.w., m.t.a., p.u.c., that came together and said, we will change this boulevard, not only for the people who live here, but for the people who walk, visit and bike here. thank you and i will bring up my colleague, supervisor catherine stefani because this area, we have three different districts that intersect. we cross all the time. i would like to bring up catherine stefani. supervisor stefani?

>> thank you supervisor brown. it is so great to be here today. i love that we shared this area. san francisco faces many challenges but we know that we can solve the dangers of the roadways and the city vision zero mission to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024 is a vital one to every resident. i don't think many people notice about me, but before i was appointed supervisor, i was training for a triathlon. i was training for the escape for -- from alcatraz and i biked all over the city. one of the scariest moments on my bike was on ocean avenue, or actually, on the grey highway. i was riding my bike, at the car started to come into the lane as they were turning bright and i had to pound on the side of the fan so as not to get run over. i understand how important bicycle safety is and how important it is to make sure we are implementing changes in our roadways a cyclist feel safe and

pedestrians feel safe so that our kids are safe. so to see this unravel today, to see all of this today is a very -- it is a long time coming. we have to do more of this all over the city. this project enhanced safety for pedestrians, cyclist, motorist and transit riders and it made it more beautiful. we have a newly planted -- wanted median and street trees in a public plaza which will be great to. especially for the target shoppers over there. and i think residents will also be able to walk safely down the streets and enjoy this new area. i just want to say that the collaboration of all the departments has always said we are all of the table. i want to thank public works planning, the sfmta and of course, all the residents and businesses that endured. in the end, everyone is truly proud of what has become here and we want to thank everyone for participating and creating this beautiful new space. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you. now we will hear from our m.t.a. director, director risk in. he is responsible for making sure that all the walkways and bicycle lanes and transit works around here. all right. welcome. >> that's right. thank you, mohammed to be a good morning, everyone. it is so great to be here at this point in time. i think the mayor and the supervisors said it well. this has been a long time coming. but do very well worth it. it is really a great success story from my standpoint. you heard from the mayor and supervisor brown. this really started from the community. before the city adopted vision zero on before we identified the high injury network, we had people from this community come forward and say this street is not working for us. it is not working for people who drive on it and not working for people who ride a bike and for people who walk, for people who are getting on and off transit

and driving the bus is. the street wasn't working well for anyone. we were having close to 20 traffic crashes a year just on masonic avenue alone. we had two fatalities and we came together as a community, with the community and city agencies and said we can do better than this. we can redesign the street to make it work better and make it safer and make it more inviting and that is what we have here today. we have taken what used to be a mini freeway as someone said that was really dividing the two neighborhoods in our city. at dividing the neighborhood in the city and replaced it with a beautiful safe, inviting street, that mixes together the community, and as the mayor said, we will make it much much less likely that anyone would be hurt or killed on the street. it is now truly a neighborhood street. that happened because we had leaders like michael and others

in the community that work with the then it supervisor aids, vallie brown, and with the support of the den supervisor breed tact to bring forward this planning process at -- it culminated in a recommendation for a project that we brought to the board of directors in 2012. i want to acknowledge the great leadership of the vice chair of the board and now chair of the board of the sfmta who has been a staunch advocate for safety improvements in the city. with their approval, in 2012, we got to work with public works and planning and with public utilities and with the arts commission. all working together to design and build and implement this project. i think it is a great transformation of a city street and as mohammed said, is one of many that we have seen and will be seeing in the coming months

and years. it is a great day for this neighborhood. for everybody who uses this street. whether they live here or travel through here, they walk or bike or take the bus or drive here. is a much better street and a great lesson for all of us on how to do things. we need to figure out how to do it a whole lot faster. i will acknowledge, we have heard from supervisor brown some concerns. this project is not perfect. we will continue as we do with every project to evaluate how it is performing at identify ways to make it even better. we will work with supervisor brown and the community to make sure that we make the street work as well as it was intended from those first days of protest back in 2005 and 2006. thank you to everybody. the leadership and support we have had from the mayor and the supervisors, pass supervisors, by particularly the leadership from the community to make this happen, in partnership with the city agencies. it brings us to where we are

today. congratulations to the community on making this happen and getting this done. >> thank you, edge. we will now hear from the public utilities commission, as the mayor said, some of the important things that go and a project that a lot of us don't see, but have to be part of a project are water, our power and our sewer. come on up. >> so, mohammed, i want to thank you for inviting us. as you say, out of site, out of mind. we actually have about 70% of our infrastructure is 70 years or older, especially the sewer and water mains. we are trying to prioritize them based on joint projects. so this was a prime project where we can come together and work with other departments to get into an area one time, dig one time so that we can invest

in our infrastructure. so this was a great opportunity to work with mohammed. we actually have watch what water mains and two sewer mains running down the street. so that is something that we want to make sure that we really invest in new infrastructure. we can provide vital service to everyone. we worked on the streetlights as well. so you can see the beautiful pedestrian lighting here, i don't other projects were looking at investing in green infrastructure. one theme i want to make sure, when mohammed asked me to participate in a project where we have aging infrastructure, we are definitely there. thank you for inviting me to say a few words about my hidden infrastructure. thank you. >> thank you. you all know it takes a village. we will talk here a little bit. i know you are not on the program, but this is so beautiful and i want you to talk

about this art. thank you. >> thank you, mohammed. it is great to be here today on this incredible community projects. the artist here that was selected through the competition is scott oliveira. he is originally from reading and what is incredible is he spent over three weeks on the plaza interviewing many of you, three questions. where are you headed right now? where were you born? and where would you like to go? i think for a transit hub like this, it makes a perfect conceptual concept to share this incredible story of the people that use and inhabit the space here and what is really exciting as all of the arrows point to the real place to. they are actually directional signage if you ever need to find yourself at the corner store. or to lands end, or the department of motor vehicles.

we want to congratulate scott oliver. there will be a little celebration here on saturday night. we encourage you to come back and celebrate this great work of art. congratulations to all of our colleagues in the city and for the committee champions who made this possible. >> thank you. thank you. and it takes a lot of people to do these projects. the community, all the city agencies, all the nonprofits pick one of the nonprofits that we work with very closely, we meet regularly, we really advocate for cycling in the city. we really advocate for making the city a better place. the san francisco bicycle coalition. speaking on their behalf is brian. come and say a few words. >> thank you. i want to thank the city partners that are here. special thanks to supervisor brown and supervisor stefani for your support of this project and your support of vision zero across our city. i want to say a very special

thank you to mayor london breed for your support in securing funding for this project during your time on the board of supervisors. we wouldn't be standing here if it weren't for that leadership. this project exists for a reason. it exists because of the leadership of folks sitting up here in the hard work of our city staff. but it is also the grassroots energy of every day san franciscans who would not settle for less, that brought us here. four too many years, masonic avenue was a speedway. cutting through the heart of our city. for some of the most storied neighborhoods. for too long, it has been a place for cars and not for people. i want to thank the city and our members for their dedication over the last decade to make masonic avenue a friendlier place for people. in particular, i want to thank the folks at six masonic and some of the members who have been mentioned.

their energy under tireless advocacy and years and years of patients have made this day possible. it is also important to honor those who have been injured or worse on this street. in particular, i would also like to mention a man who was hit and killed by a drunk driver on masonic a few blocks from where we stand in 2010. he was 22 when he was killed. he would be 30 years old today if he was still with us. i think of the years of lost life that will never be given back to his family and friends and i particularly think about his mother and his sister who are in germany and who wanted to be here today, but couldn't. so there is no doubt that these improvements that we are celebrating today on masonic will make it a safer place for people biking and walking. but our work is not done here.

like many new projects of this scale there be a period of adjustment as people get used to the new street designs. these designs, let's not forget to, what they are first planned in 2007 and 2008 to, and in 2010, they were considered revolutionary. it is now 2018 and we have some other ideas about what makes a great street to bike and walk on. so we look forward to working with supervisor vallie brown and the sfmta and our members to address those problem spots, particularly as masonic approaches other streets. we know for people biking, if they are not very confident, that can be a stressful spot. let's get to work quickly to fix that. as we celebrate a decade of effort that brought us here today, we need to remember people who have died on our city streets. of san francisco and streets like masonic avenue and streets

across our city are going to be transformed, we are going to achieve vision zero and make this city i just avenue's a place for people, we don't have another decade to wait. let's finish fixing masonic and get to work on the rest of the city. thank you to everyone for your leadership. i am really excited to ride my bike on these new bike lanes when i we leave today. thank you. >> thank you, thank you. so we will cut the ribbon. before we do that, i want to thank everyone for coming and especially the team from public works. our city engineers sitting right here. the project manager, our communications department to, all the engineers who worked with the rest of the city agencies to make this project possible, and of course, the team that looks after the city every day, the street cleaner said everybody. thank you for everything that you do and thank you for coming. let's get ready and cut the ribbon of this great project. and another one down.

come on up. >> doug, come on up. come on. should we say hop on up. [laughter] >> maurice, come on in. they want you in the picture. [laughter] >> it is multiple cuts. make sure you cut on zero. come on up. >> ok. we will go. countdown. five, there you go.

all right. five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] [♪]

>> hello, everyone! good morning. my name is london breed. i tam mayor of the city and county of san francisco and i'm happy to be here today for a really important announcement. sthau -- thank you all so much for joining us. today we are announcing additional funding to fight unlawful evictions and prevent displacement of tenants in san francisco.

many of you know i've been a renter all my life and i personally know what it feels like to face housing insecurity. in fact, a couple of years ago, when i was on the board of supervisors, my building was sold and i didn't know what would happen to me and the other folks who lived in the building. we know that one of the best ways to prevent homelessness is to make sure that we keep people housed in the first place. some of us may be familiar with the fact that almost 70% of the people who sadly live on our streets that are homeless were actually housed in san francisco. before they became homeless. that's why as president of the board of supervisors, i pushed hard to establish the right to council so that people don't have to face eviction alone. and we did not go through the process of that particular legislation since we know that

proposition f was put on the ballot and overwhelmingly passed by voter and we know that proposition f did not have a funding source attached to it, i as mayor have made a commitment -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] and people would not have to face eviction. [chanting] the reality is our housing shortage is driving up the prices of citizens across the city. which can incentivize evictions. you know what's really unfortunate about this situation is we're all fighting for the same thing. and today what i want to announce is that we're providing $5.8 million here in the city and county of san francisco for the right to council for residents facing eviction. in the vast majority of these

proceedings, land lords have legal reasons and representation antenanlts do not. we know sadly that most tenants can't afford a lawyer and don't know where to go in the first place when they are served with an eviction notice from their landlord. as a result, too many san franciscans face eviction without knowing what their full rights are. it's not a housing policy that we want to advance in the city and currently the mayor's office of community development spends over $7.5 million annually on eviction protection tenant outreach and education and short-term rental assistance. but these programs do not provide the full level of scope that so many people need stay in their homes. as i said earlier today, assignment proud to announce

that we're investing $5.8 million to fund this program over the next two years to support legal representation for tenants facing eviction. [applause] one of the first things i did as mayor was to work to rebalance our budget to include funding for this very important program. starting in june of 2019, tenants will now have access to full scope legal representation and be better able to prevent evictions and stay in their home. we are the first city in california and the second in the nation to institute a right to civil council for tenants. and as we work to create more housing and increase affordability for all of our residents and invest in critical tools to prevent displacement, we have to make

sure that we're paying attention to everything that's going on and making the right investments. i want to thank the board of supervisors for their collaboration in securing this funding and even though he is not able to attend today, i wanted to recognize asommably member david chu who created the pilot program for legal counsel for san franciscans for civil proceedings in 2011 when he was a member of the board of supervise source and i appreciate his advocate siz on this i believer ewe over the years. i want to thank the legal service organizations who are here with us today and will assist us in developmenting and implementing this very important program. so now with that, i'd like to turn it over to the district five supervisor, someone who has been on the front lines and an advocate for residents of district five for so many years , ladies and gentlemen,

district valley supervisor brown. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. i'm valley brown, supervisor of district five. today is a good day for renters and the city. in june, of this year, the voters of san francisco asked and received right to legal council when fighting evictions. assembly member chu introduced the idea when he was on the board of supervise source. today we celebrate this work put into place and the funding which is an absolutely important tool. thank you to the hard work and strong partnership between the mayor and board of supervisors, we were able to fund this in less than two months. [shouting] funding is very important. [shouting] it is naornlts we have a great stride to protect renters facing eviction. with the recent passed budge, we now have the necessary

resources to fund eviction defense for the residents of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for working with the board of supervisors to ensure this critical first step in its funding. going forward, i would -- i am planning on working with my colleagues on the board of supervisors and mayor breed to invest in programs that will help people stay in their homes. and create more opportunities for affordable homeownership so the need for eviction defense becomes a last resort. when we look at funding for rental subsidy programs that help working families and low-income residents, keeping roof over their heads, existing programs and partnerships are helping folks, but we must explore expansion funding and strengthening of existing rental subsidy programs. while also looking for new opportunities to help san

francisco -- san franciscans stailz in their homes. so >> so, the next speaker we have here today, the executive director from eviction defense collaborative, martina -- are you here? >> yes. >> thank you. come on up. [applause] >> good morning. my name is martina and i'm the executive director of eviction defense collaborative. on behalf of san franciscan tenants, we thank mayor for prioritizing keeping people in their homes. we also thank the collective advocacy of the homeless emergency services providers for their tireless efforts in securing these funds. we also thank san francisco tenants union antenanlzes togethers for their work surrounding prop f and the voters of san francisco who ensured that prop f became the law of the land. we are pleased the mayor is acting diligently to provide an immediate influx of $1.9 million to help keep san

francisco tenants in their homes. we haven't seen the devastating impact the housing crisis is having in our communities for years. and we as a community have been failing to keep people in their homes. we know that evictions have been rising at a dramatic rate over the past five years. we know that land lords have been represented by attorneys at a rate of 6-to-1 compared to tenants. we know that having an attorney increases a family's chance of being evicted by over 70%. we know that being evicted from your home in san francisco means being evicted from san francisco. our family, friends and our neighbors are being pushed out of this city. we also know that protecting tenants preserves affordable housing. unfortunately, the united states of today is a place where is how much money you have dictates your access to basic human rights, including your rights to a home. san francisco residents are saying no more. they are saying this is our city. these are our homes.

and we will defend our rights. and with these funds -- [applause] >> whew! that ok right! and with these funds, mayor breed is pushing this agenda forward. she is stepping up as a leader for this movement. she is acknowledging that housing is a human right and she is commited to leveling the playing field for this city's tenants. this combined $5.8 million is a start. while we have a ways to go, i know that i speak on behalf of all the tenant services providers when i say that we're excited to work with the mayor and city staff. we are ready and up for the task of bringing tenant right to council to san francisco. thank you. [applause] i'd like to now introduce tom drohand, supervising attorney for legal assistance to the

elderly. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i work at legal assistance to the elderly. one of the many community organizations that provide direct boots on the ground, full scope legal representation for tenants in san francisco. we've been providing free legal services for seniors for nearly 40 years. we help seniors who are victims of elder abuse. we help seniors with their social security benefits. we help seniors preserve their health care. we help seniors with debt relief. but san francisco's current severe housing crisis now over 60% of our calls, are seniors calling for help because they're in distress because they received eviction notices. each year we receive hundreds of calls from desperate seniors threatened wtih eviction. many are low-income, long-term tenants paying low below market

rents and they're falsely accused of minor lease infractions or wholly made up alleged nuisances. for them, having an opportunity represent the scouter a difference between keeping their home or being on the street. i worked in l.a. for over 25 years. for a long time i was the only housing attorney there and the hardest part of my job was telling a desperate senior that i couldn't take their case because i was already overloaded with too many cases. with this increased funding from the city, the number of cases we are able to take has increased greatly. but there's stille a need. no one, and especially not our city's most vulnerable citizens, should lose their home because they can't afford a lawyer. [applause] when we take a case of legal assistance to the elderly, we take it to win. we aggressively litigate eviction case on behalf of our

klienltzes. we take cases to trial and we win. this year we won at trial where the landlord was trying to evict our client because other members of the family were involved in an act of domestic abuse. a major land nrords san francisco was alleging that the rent ordinance that we have to protect our tenants did not alie to them. we won the case for that te nanls and also for all the other long-term seniors in that housing. we have a long history of fighting for our clients and keeping them in our homes. this additional funding means legal assistances to the elderly and all the other tenant organizations here can help many more seniors and others keep their homes in san francisco. i'd like the introduce to you a senior who rerecently helped fight her wrongful eviction and has kept her home and is here to tell you about it. ms. wong? [applause]

>> thank you. and good morning to everybody. my name is virginia wong. i came from the fill leans in 1983 and i have lived in a place -- in an apartment where i am now. my husband has been there living since 1974. i have always paid my rents. and all of a sudden there was a problem. i didn't understand why the landlord said i owed money. i was afraid i was going to lose the small place that i am staying.

so, um, -- and that means i would be leaving my small place. i would be leaving my friends. i would be leaving my church and my doctors and my friends. in the community. then i met tony at the legal assistance for the elderly. he said he would help me. i felt my darkness became lighter. in the end, it turned out the landlord was wrong in the calculation and my attorney got the case dismissed. i also [inaudible] when i heard this and at that point it meant that i was going to be able to stay at home, which is my place. and i'm thankful for the legal assistance. that helped me.

and why do we have to choose people who will live in san francisco who, after all, this is san francisco the name of the saint who was so poor but helped -- who was so rich and became poor to help everybody. thank you. [applause] >> again, thank you and san francisco. only in san francisco. gotta love san francisco. nonl san francisco can you do something like provide $5.8 million for right to counsel to tenants facing eviction and have protesters. thank you, guys, for being here today. [applause]

>> in 201,755.7 million passengers traveled through san francisco international airport. we have on average 150,000 people traveling through the airport every day. flying can be stressful so we have introduced therapy dogs to make flying more enjoyable. the wag brigade is a partnership between the airport and the san francisco therapy animal assistant program to bring therapy animals into the airport, into the terminals to make passenger travel more enjoyable. i amgen fer casarian and i work

here at san francisco international airport. the idea for therapy dogs got started the day after 9/11. an employee brought his therapy dog to work after 9/11 and he was able to see how his dog was able to relieve passenger's jitter. when we first launched the program back in 2013, our main goal was to destress our passengers however what we quickly found is that our animals were helping us find a way to connect with our pang. passengers. we find there are a lot of people traveling through the airport who are missing their pets and who are on their road a lot and can't have pets and we have come in contact with a lot of people recently who have lost pet. >> i love the wag brigade.

>> one of my favorite parts is walking into the terminals and seeing everybody look up from their device, today everybody is interacting on their cell phone or laptop and we can walk into the terminal with a dog or a pig and people start to interact with each other again and it's on a different level. more of an emotional level. >> i just got off an 11.5 hour flight and nice to have this distraction in the middle of it. >> we look for wag brigade handlers who are comfortable in stressful situations. >> i like coming to airport it's a lot of fun and the people you talk to are generally people who are missing their dogs. >> they are required to compete

a certification process. and they are also required to complete a k9 good citizen test and we look for animals who have experienced working with other orgorganizations such as hospits and pediatric units and we want to be sure that the animals we are bringing into the airport are good with children and also good with some of our senior travelers. i think toby really likes meeting kids. that is his favorite thing. he likes to have them pet him and come up to him and he really loves the kids. >> our wag brigade animals can be spotted wearing custom vets and they have custom patches. >> there is never a day that repeats itself and there is never and encounter that repeats itself. we get to do maximum good in a

small stretch of time and i have met amazing people who have been thrilled to have the interaction. >> the dogs are here seven days a week, we have 20 dogs and they each come for a two hour shift. >> there is a lot of stress when people have traveling so to from these animals around to ease the stress and help people relax a little bit. i think it's great. >> one of our dogs has special need and that is tristine. he wears a wheel around. >> he has special shoes and a harness and we get it together in the parking lot and then we get on the air train. he loves it. little kids love him because he

is a little lower to the ground so easy to reach and he has this big furry head they get to pet and he loves that. >> he doesn't seem to mind at all. probably one of the happiest dogs in the world. >> many people are nervous when they travel but seeing the dogs is just a wonderful relief. >> what i absolutely love most about it is the look on people's faces, so whenever they are stressed and flying is stressful these days you get these wonderful smile. >> i am the mom of lilo the pig and she is san francisco's first therapy pig. >> lilo joined the wag brigade as our firs first pig.

>> wag brigade invited us to join the program here and we have done it about a year-and-a-half ago. our visits last 1.5 to 2 hours and it does take a little bit longer to get out of the terminal because we still get a lot of attention and a lot of people that want to interact with lilo. >> i feel honored to be part of the wag brigade. it's very special to meet so many people and make so many feel happy and people that work here. it's been a great experience for me and a great experience for to totoby. >> it's been an extremely successful program, so the next time you are here, stop by and say hi.

>> the annual celebration of hardly strictly bluegrass is always a hit now completing itself 12 year of music in the incredible golden gate park. >> this is just the best park to come to. it's safe. it's wonderful and such a fun time of the year. there is every kind of music you can imagine and can wander around and go from one stage to another and just have fun. >> 81 bands and six stages and no admission. this is hardly strictly bluegrass. >> i love music and peace. >> i think it represents what is great about the bay area. >> everyone is here for the music and the experience. this is why i live here. >> the culture out here is

amazing. it's san francisco. >> this is a legacy of the old warren hel ment and receive necessary funding for ten years after his death. >> there is a legacy that started and it's cool and he's done something wonderful for the city and we're all grateful. hopefully we will keep this thing going on for years and years to come.

>> good evening, everyone, and welcome to our first meeting back for the new school year. it's our regular board meeting of the san francisco unified school district board of education. today is august 14, and this meeting is now called to order. roll call, miss casco. >> clerk: thank you. [roll call] >> clerk: thank you. >> thank you. if you would, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. [pledge of allegiance] >> thank you for leading us, dr. merase. section a