>> good morning everyone. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the november 14th, 2018 regular meeting of the public safety and neighborhood services committee.

i am chair of the committee. to my right is vice chair supervisor ronen. supervisor peskin will not be joining us today and shall be excuse -- would you like to make a motion to excuse him? all right. without objection. he is excused. our clerk is john carroll and i would like to thank my hernandez and jesse larson at san francisco government t.v. for staffing this meeting. do you have any announcements? >> thank you. and insure you silence your cell phones and electronic devices and your completed speaker cards to be included as part of the file should be submitted to me. items acted upon today will appear on the november 27th 2018 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated by motion. >> thank you. please call the first item. >> agenda item number 1 is a hearing to consider the premise to premise transfer of the onset public premises liquor licenses

doing business is asked tonic. on post street. >> great. >> good morning. i am with the san francisco police department. the alcohol liaison unit. you have before you a report for tonic. they have applied for a type 48 license and if approved, will allow them to sell, be -- fair, wind, and distilled beers. they have one letter of support and are located in plot 542 which is a high crime area. they are in census tract 122.01 which is a high saturation area. central station has no opposition to this license and a ou approves with the following conditions. no noise should be audible at any nearby residents. petitioner should actively monitor the area under their control in an effort to prevent the loitering of persons of any

property adjacent to the licensed premises as depicted on the a.b.c. 2538 form. number 3, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises is prohibited. and it should also be noted the applicant has signed the above list of conditions on august 14 th of this year. >> great. >> thank you. >> thank you. public comments? or project sponsor? >> thank you for having us here today. i will tell you a bit about the project and some of the work we've done with community outreach and our vision for it. we are asking you to approve this to relocate our flagship bar from the corner of union and spoke to the corner of hide and post. it existed at polk and union for 20 years and we owned it for ten

of those years. it was our first business where we bartend it for years. six days a week each and we built our largest businesses around it. it is very near and dear to our hearts. our first couple leases expired and the new landlords' rent expectations were way above what we could afford or operate through. so we were forced to make a decision with the old tonic. we were either going to sell it which would hurt our hearts or find a new location. luckily, we found a new location with a flexible landlord who is known for a lot of integrity and he offered us a lease terms that were very amiable to us and give us a solid shot for long-term financial stability and the ability to be a fixture in the neighborhood for years to come. best of all, the space was principally zoned for bar, which

i didn't know could happen. so though it had not been a bar before the planning authorization authorization was over-the-counter, which was a spectacular turn of events. i also want to note quickly that the previous tenant, which was a laundromat, moved out on their own accord before we got in there and they requested to be let out of their lease and there is a letter that they sent to the landlord requesting that. so the over-the-counter planning authorization was great but the process has been quite a journey for us. we signed the lease in march and we haven't been able to start any construction or work until after the pcm. and just waiting for the bureaucracy to play out. it has, i will admit it has been somewhat frustrating for us but we are not complaining. we will not complain because this time that we had gave us a chance to do some real community outreach, which i thank you will see in your packets. there was one letter of support

but since his intel came in, we have over 50, which are in the pocket. we really tried to focus on support. we could have gone out and gotten anybody to sign a letter but you will see from the packet we went out to try and find someone who live in the immediate vicinity are people who have a reputation for community engagement. and we were especially proud to get the support of a lot of local community groups immediate to that neighborhood and organizers in that neighborhood. you will see a honey mahogany around the shop, mike nolte and the lines for better district six, peter khill low tech, glide church also sent us a letter attesting to our integrity, having worked with them before. most excitingly, we got final word this morning that the supervisor for that district is offering her full support to this. so we've always prioritized our communities and we try to lift up neighboring communities with businesses and engage typically

in free time on the entertainment commission and on other boards. duncan has been the president of the polk street merchants for years and currently he is not but he was for five years and served on the same financial and book -- financial boards. we met through the big brother program 12 years ago. i was assigned to be his big brother and he has been my little brother since since then he has worked at literally every position in our establishment and he will be a co-owner of the new establishment and be the general manager. we are really proud of him. he is just starting to volunteer at a high school, as soon as he, in his words, he is working on getting a tb test to make sure he can do that. i'm sure he can pull that off. so i'm not mentioning those things to try to impress you but i think it shows our actions are there and we do care about our community.

we try to make sure our businesses are very engaged community wise and try to make our businesses better places. i want to address the 26 protests we did get. we have never had to mail and a.b.c. announcement to so many people. there are over 3,000. twenty-six percentagewise isn't that bad. we did multiple community meetings. we had three community meetings. the first was for just members of the immediate building that we are in. there's a number of apartments in there peerk we felt they would have the right to come and talk to us because we are actually in their building. a bunch of people came and nobody who was against it everyone was for its. they did have some current -- concerns and we gave them our cell phone numbers. we did and another community meeting for anybody in the community. i put ten large posters on the wall with mr rogers on them. all around the bar with my cell phone on it and that was there for weeks before the meeting.

and to that meeting, we had 12- 14 people. twelve of them were supportive and two or may be three who were leery of the project. then we received actual protest and you get the names of the people who protested. there were 12 for people who lived within 100 feet of us, which we wanted to take very seriously. we try to reach out to them multiple times. we reach out to them through a handwritten note that we put in their mailslot. they never contacted us. that is their decision which we totally respect. and then the other 24 seemed to be coming from a group of people organized around one person. we did do a meeting where lieutenant gordon attended where he reached out to every single person who protested and asked them to come and we would address them. there is only one who showed up for that meeting. i just wanted to make sure it is on record we did our homework in that sense. that is its.

and one of them wrote has to tell us she thought we were a liquor store. she thought we would be a liquor store so she retracted her protest. anything else i mystically i think that is enough of your time that i've taken. but i appreciate you hearing us out here and i look forward to speaking about it. >> i don't think we have any questions. >> good. now we will take public comment. speakers will have 21 minutes. we ask that you state your first and last name clearly and speak directly into the microphone. those who have prepared written statements are encouraged to leave a copy with the committee clerk for inclusion in the additional file. no applause or billing is permitted. in the interest of time, speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements. we also ask if you can fill out a speaker card to make it easier for us to keep track of who has spoken. i do have three speaker cards here. if anyone who wants to speak would line up on your right side of the room, that would be great

first speaker. >> commissioners, good morning. my name is dave. for purposes of disclosure, i created the a.b.c. liaison unit for the san francisco police department and did licensing for the last two decades up until a year ago. i got to say, it is a shame that supervisor peskin is in here this morning. in my almost two decades of appearing before this committee, this is the first time i'm not being paid to be here. i think the supervisor would have enjoyed that. seriously, my comments are very brief. i've dealt with the tonic group. i have known duncan and ben since the beginning and all i wanted to say was i found them always to be a responsive group and always very concerned about their community and more than anything, i always got a sense that to them, this was more than

just a business. i have heard many businesses tell me that over the years. not only did they say it, they did it and it was part of their business model and time and again, i always saw them reach out to their community. really all i wanted to say was share that with you and encourage you to support this application. i do need to mention a couple things on a more technical side. i am a city commissioner and i'm here today on my own. i am off duty. i'm not being page. i'm here is a citizen. i live downtown and i raised my kids downtown. i am very familiar with the dynamics. thank you, very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm the president of the lower business collaborative edge you have our letter of support in your jacket. i'm also here as a neighbor. my wife and my child and i live a block and a half from this address and we are in full

support of this application. these people have a long history of being responsible business owners in the give a lot back to the community. we appreciate having them in our community. we hope you support this application. thank you. >> thank you. >> good morning. it's an honour to stand before you guys and wax poetic about duncan and ben and the tonic group. for us a little bit about myself i am a san francisco native and i work for a government funding agency that supports c.b.o. for children, youth, and family in san francisco. i am also the vice chair of the entertainment commission. and i have been active in the a.p.i. community since the nineties. i have been very active in the tenderloin and all the neighboring communities working and fundraising with community advocacy. i will stand here and waxed poetic a little bit about the tonic group.

during my tenure, the tonic group has been super generous and supporting all of our good work. i really believe in their presence in the community. they have always made it a core value to support their neighbors and community-based organizations. and the fact that they have generated over $1 million in their philanthropy programs has been amazing. one of my first experiences was at tonic. i think i may have over served, not intentionally. but with that said, i also fit on the entertainment commission with the president and i will say both countless hours sitting next to him, i have watched him be very dedicated in holding our operators accountable. and making sure that they are good neighbors and they are good actors in our industry. i support them 100%. i say yes to tonic and they will be great additions to the

neighborhood. thank you. >> next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is honey mahogany. i am wearing two turbines. i am here as a co-owner of the stud bar at ninth and harrison, and also here as a district manager for the transgendered cultural district. as an owner at the stud, we have definitely been -- we know what it's like to have the wool or the rug pulled out from under us as a small business. luckily, we have had positive negotiations with our current co-owner -- current owners of our building but we know many borrowers who have had to close over the last few years and bars can be more where you can go to drink and party, it is a place where people build community and get to meet their neighbors. it is often times a safe space for people.

i want to congratulate tonic bar for lasting 20 years in san francisco in this ever-changing landscape and for them for finding a new home that is already preapproved to be of use to a bar. that is a tremendous feat. i also want to speak on behalf of the tonic group process -- group post s. -- we have really explored different economic opportunities for the district and for our members. and one of them was the marijuana equity legislation and we were very generous. some of the ins and outs of the challenges of the nightlife industry as well as the marijuana industry. i believe them to be very heavily specifically invested in our communities and able to help and very willing to give up their time and energy. i fully support them opening

this establishment. >> next speaker. >> my name is michael and i am the executive director of district six and i am here on behalf of our organization. it is very supportive for the convenience and necessity resolution from the board of supervisors for this liquor license for tonic. the alliance for better district six is met with the honours and discuss the proposed business and received our questions which is why we fully support the tonic type 48 liquor license. we also want to point out that in dealing with various applications over the years, it is important when there is already some history that a

business owner has done, which helps us decide whether they will be good neighbors are not. i think that's one of the things we look at when we look at and review liquor licenses. i say this again for the first -- the last time i was here, i wanted to point out for the benefit of any tenders and new members on the committee that there is importance to community outreach when any licenses are brought before you that community outreach has done and the applicant has done that. and that it's done effectively. a lot of times, businesses just want to come in and do their thing and then the community it later finds that there is something there that they can't take care of because they've already received the license and it will be there until the next owner takes over. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning.

i own shambala heating centre. i am a very close neighbor of ben and duncan in mission street knowing how they operate, how much they are involved in the community and how much they care about being safe and taking care of the people around them with neighbors, i very much encourage you to support their new addition. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. i am at an extreme advantage because i have supervisors from the mission district here today. as president of the mission market association, i would like to echo what the speaker before said. as you know, we have dr chief which is part owned by mr byman

and mr lei. these people take care of business in the community. doing business on mission street is not the easiest place in the world to do business and we have high density, lots of people living around them. it is an honour having them there and wonderful members of the merchants association for a long time. whenever we do any community events, including inviting the supervisors into the fray, they are always helping. we are looking forward to having them on post street as well. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. my name is christian. i am a current bartender for tonic. a little bit about myself, i'm 23 years old. i have worked for tonic for about three years now and my time working with this company, i can say personally, and

professionally, i do love working for this company. tonic does provide a variety of opportunities for young adults such as myself, and i feel this new bar opening is just going to provide a lot more opportunity and learning experience for a lot of people in the company. thank you. >> next speaker. >> i am in the mission district. we just spoke about dr chief. i am very close they are because i live right above the place. i want to let you know, i used to have a mom living with me who passed away, and she was feeling very comfortable and very protected every time because she knows downstairs people were very safe in taking care of her. every time you succumb to their house, people were helping and asking about her. the guys have been phenomenal with me. i feel like they are always

around when i need them. they are really offering things for the community and they are great guys. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. my name is dean smith and i want to talk about my experience as a neighbor to tonic. i live one block away from their old location. may be i wasn't impacted direct -- directly because a block as far as far as noise goes. but on multiple occasions, i use my relationship with ben and duncan to address noise issues i was having with bars on my block one was late on a sunday night when i called and within 15 minutes, it was resolved. incredible neighbors and keeping their industry accountable. the second thing i briefly wanted to touch on is the community that they have been able to create. i am from australia and i have been here ten years. the reason i have been here for the last five years is because of friends, relationships and

the contacts i've made at their establishments. because of the last five years, i've started a business in san francisco. i've had a kid and i am now married. i became an american last year. a lot of this has to do with the friendships and relationships made. this liquor transfer has my full support to. >> thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. [laughter] >> good morning. my name is chris. i grew up in louisiana and came to the u.s. for a basketball scholarship. i started working in mental health. with my experience, i met duncan and been playing basketball at the bay club and when i played basketball, i can tell somebody 's character. both of those guys are both givers.

a few months ago, i was going to louisiana for business and ben asked me how can he help me or give back to the organization. i. i said to contact the high school and give back. i came back three months later and he executed that with his little brother. so it meant so much to me that he came and asked me what i wanted to do and did it. as a property manager, which is a -- at 930 post street, it was going to bring so much support and social awareness to the community. i have been to the bars all over san francisco and i have a great time. he is always open to feedback. the more that it opens up, there will be less crime. i totally support tonic moving. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good morning. i am here as an individual neighbor. i live at the end of the block. i'm here to support the liquor

license transfer. in the short time that i've spoken to him, i have heard about what they've done as an organization and the plans of what they want to do and continue to do. i think it's a great opportunity for our small neighborhoods to have a group like this come in and be so supportive of the community. they have my full support. >> next speaker. >> good morning. i am the owner of chief plus. i've known these fellows for a long time. we have worked in a lot of community-oriented events and projects together. and what can i say. you are hearing all this great stuff because these guys know how to pay it forward. they reap what they sow. they put good stuff down and good stuff happens around them. i think that this would be a

great idea to do this and anecdotally, i don't even know if these guys know this or not, but my wife and i, when we were dating a number of years ago, tonic is where we would meet. i looked over in mill valley and i would come across the bridge and my wife would take the bus and get off at the corner. that is where we would meet for our dates and things like that. i would come across any would be such a nice and inviting atmosphere to come in. some people have images of bars, like it is the wild west and those type of things. it is nothing like that at all. now we are married and happily so. a very successful business. i turned out okay. the bars are good. they are community building spaces. i think that you should approve this 100%. >> next comment. or cap next speaker. >> hello. i am an owner of a business called bow wow meow. not in the entertainment industry and not in the bar

industry. so i am here speaking solely as a neighbor and part of the community. any area that could get these guys invested are going to be better off for it. i would say that less than one% of merchants are engaged. if you can get people like these guys to be part of the fabric of your community, you will be pretty darn lucky because we definitely need more engagement in people who speak up for the neighborhood. they don't speak just for themselves when they show up for community. they actually take a much broader picture into minds. so they will be there. not just for their own interest but for half -- behalf of the community. >> thank you. are there any other persons interested in testifying before public comment is closed we -- closed? seeing none, public comment is closed. this is back before us.

comments clearly. >> sure. i have to say, you had me at good morning. but in typical fashion, nothing is done without being incredibly thorough and really organizing and getting the community involved. i think this is one of the most compelling hearings i've ever seen for a liquor license. it is a best of san francisco. i even teared up at one point thinking that marco posta his mom felt safe because tonic was below her or dr chief was below her. but as a supervisor of the mission district, i know the reputation and the responsible way in which dr chief is run. i have had nothing but good experiences working with the owners of tonic and i am extremely proud and excited and

supportive of this transfer. and would make a motion to say that this will meets the public necessity and convenience and recommend that this move forward with recommendations. >> good. >> that meets the clerk process requirements. we will do that without objection. >> great. congratulations. >> mr. clerk, call our next item >> is a hearing to discuss updates and outcomes from year one of the bureau of urban forestry's street tree s.f. program. >> thank you. i'm very excited for this hearing. in 2016, 79% of san franciscans voted to pass proposition e. declaring, by an overwhelming majority of the maintenance of our overwhelming forest should

be the responsibility of city government and not neighbors. i want to give special recognition first to say centre -- to safe centre supervisor, scott weiner. in this regard, he was carrying a torch handed to him by his predecessor, mark leno who had long been a member of friends of the urban forest and a champion of our street trees. at any right, following passage of proposition e., we inherited almost 100,000 additional trees. with that came a dedicated $19 million a year for the hundred 25,000 street trees lining the sidewalks and public right of way. growing pains are to be expected with any transition of this magnitude and implementation of property now deb street tree s.f. is no difference. i called this hearing to provide the bureau of urban forestry and the public works the opportunity to talk about the impacts and

challenges and to share early successes. since i joined this board in july, my office has received thousands of calls and e-mails from constituents with requests for help and information with all sorts of topics. tree maintenance is actually second after homelessness. some constituents have raised concerns about trees they believed to be dangerous and requiring immediate removal. some are frustrated with overgrown trees that are not being trimmed or pruned quickly enough. others have been concerned to see crews show up to prune a tree that does not seem to need pruning. others have been horrified to see beloved trees removed without explanation. they believe or an error, they may believe. our street trees are a process -- precious resource that provides san francisco with clean air and can transform otherwise barren and blighted neighborhoods. some of these trees have very special meaning for neighbors that planted and cared for them lovingly for years. many of these trees, as we will

learn during the hearing are suffering after years or decades of preferred maintenance by neighbors in the city. i want us to recognize that in spite of the many challenges, they have gone above and beyond in a number of cases since the program began. i'm familiar with at least two such stories. one involves the beautiful and gorgeous ficus trees around everett middle school. they needed to be -- there are potentially dangerous and needed to be removed. they worked closely with my office and the neighbors to come up with a plan that involved not just replacement of the trees that were removed, that a significant expansion of the trees in that area. i am very grateful for that. then along market street, i'm particularly pleased we have managed to get the palm trees trimmed after, what was five years, but it was more like a decade since there is a complete full pruning.

thank you for that. again, i want to thank beth and superintendent short from friends of the urban forestry for their commitment in implementing this in a way that fulfils it while hearing and responding to concerns. i look forward to building on the successes of street tree s.f. and to begin a conversation of how to further grow our street canopy in the years to come. i want to give thanks to my aid for all the work that she has done in pulling this hearing together. and the way this will run is first, i will give the floor to michael mcdonald from senator weiner process office to read on behalf of senator weiner. and then we will hear from carla shirt -- published short. and finally we will hear from dan flanagan on behalf of the friends of the urban forest. mr mcdonald?

>> honourable chair, good morning. my name is michael mcdonald. on behalf of senator scott weiner, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read a brief statement. as proposition e.'s author, senator weiner would like to thank supervisor mandelman and would like to thank the other supervisors for the continued interest in the street tree s.f. program. after years of collaboration, among my office, city departments and advocates, san francisco voters approved proposition 80 by 79%. they made clear that protecting and caring for her san francisco 's urban forest was a high priority. for too long, had our cities trees been neglected or healthy trees removed because homeowners did not want to bear the cost of maintenance. with the implementation of street tree s.f., we can make sure that san francisco's trees are well cared for and this will

benefit the city for decades to come. the incentive to remove trees is gone. in fact, more and more trees are being planted each year. our friends a public works and friends of the urban forest continue to do amazing work in making sure that the urban forest is in every neighborhood. senator weiner has great confidence that this body will work diligently to ensure the best possible outcome for street tree s.f. with just over a year since the program was adopted, senator weiner is optimistic that these reports will show the success and future potential of street tree s.f. supervisor mandelman, the senator would like to thank you for your attention in this matter and allowing me to read the statement. thank you. >> thank you. message -- ms. miss short? i got to know her a decade ago pick one of the most frustrating experiences of being on the board of appeals was at that

time, trees were all the responsibility of the neighboring property owner and there was a tremendous incentive for neighbors to get those removed. a someone who did not want to see those trees removed, it put us on the board of appeals in a pretty hard spot of trying to balance those. she is doing a great job now and was doing a great job than. i'm looking forward to hearing your presentation. >> thank you. thank you for convening this hearing and giving us the opportunity to highlight the work we've done over the last year with street tree s.f. if we could have our presentation on the screen. just a quick note before i get started, we are currently planting several of the replacement trees that everett middle school while this hearing is happening today. and large 48 box replacement trees. i just want to give a little bit of background before launching

into what we've done over the last year. as you've noted, prior to street tree s.f., property owners were responsible for maintenance of the majority of street trees and prior to 2017, public works was responsible for only approximately 30,000 street trees and property property owners were responsible for the remaining 85,000. as noted, there has been deferred maintenance across the board. even when the city was only responsible for 30,000 street trees, we were operating on a 10 -12 your pruning cycle rather than the recommended 3-5 years. as a result of the decline in resources over a ten-year period , we began to transfer even more street trees to adjacent property owners for maintenance. the transfer of maintenance resulted in property owners who were unable or unwilling to care

for trees. certain property owners who faced because they had never born before our anticipated. and the lack of consistent care and confusion over who was responsible for maintaining what , along with property owners unwillingness to care for trees resulted in poor or no tree care for many of the street trees. one of my favourite quotes from your predecessor, state senator weiner, was if you got the smartest people you could find and put them in a room and asked them to come up with the worst possible tree care program, they would not even imagine this one off mark. >> all of these factors together created the deferred maintenance that street tree s.f. is challenged with today. >> that came from your district. [laughter] >> again, part of the history, in 2015, the master plan was unanimously adopted by the board it was comprised of three main

parts. the policy documents and vision, a financing study, and a comprehensive street tree census after researching the best practices from around the state and country, that plan recommended 100% municipally managed street tree program. public works should be responsible for maintaining all trees in the public right-of-way the financing study that was done as part of the urban forest master plan developed a really robust time model so we would know what will actually take us to care for these trees? they recommended establishing long-term funding for maintenance in particular and maintenance funding is usually the hardest funding to get. it is certainly the hardest funding to get that is consistent and stable. they determined that our program cost would be $90 million annually. working with senator weiner, we also facilitated a working group to look at those recommendations one of the clear items of feedback from the group is that

property owners should not bear the cost of tree maintenance. and that contribution was essential. for anyone to be willing to support a measure on the ballot. knowing that sustainable urban forest maintenance we need that contribution, we worked with the senator and friends of the urban forest to get proposition e. on the ballot. as several people have noted this morning, it passed with almost 80% of the vote, which does demonstrate that san francisco residents want to have a healthy urban forest and want to invest in it. so proposition a. became -- proposition e. became street tree s.f. because there would be, and there already has been additional propositions, we have named our street tree maintenance program street tree s.f. public works is now responsible to maintain 100% of the roughly

125,000 street trees, which includes pruning, tree related sidewalk repairs, regular and routine inspections of trees, something we have never been able to do consistently over the years, and anticipates the maintenance of an additional 50,000 trees. getting into implementation over the past year, this is a map showing all the street trees in the city. >> and that is 50,000 trees beyond what we currently have? >> beyond what we currently have so our new maintenance practices , we are trying to be proactive. driven by plant maintenance, scheduled out and pruning corridors of trees. we are using data-driven infrastructure asset management principles. the tree inventory it was based

a point in time. they took a census of all of the street trees but it is constantly being updated by the urban forestry inspectors as well as the arborists who work on our trees. our maintenance decisions are guided by many factors. the constant analysis of the tree asset inventory and information from external stakeholders, the resources that we currently have available, the urban forest planning and other emergency response as needed. so we are trying to make this program as efficient and data-driven as possible. some of our accomplishments to date, even before property was put on the ballot, there were concerns expressed by owners who cared for and nurture their trees over the years. so the legislation actually allows a clause for property owners who would like to opt out of the tree maintenance program. we are very close to having a

final agreements that the city attorney post s. office on board with and it will be posted on our website, possibly even by the end of this week. in the meantime, we have been keeping a list of property owners who would wish to opt out of the program. anyone who is interested should contact our main office. it is also very prominent on our website. they can also e-mail us. the formal agreement will be posted on the website very soon. since street tree s.f. went into effect on july 1st, 2017, 19% of needs have been addressed. what that means is essentially trees that need to be removed or need to be pruned or are currently in the process of being pruned. there is an active process going

through those trees. we want to note that 1900 are unhealthy or structurally unsound trees have been removed. we are really focusing on what we call the worst first. we recognize that the only way to gain the efficiencies needed to make the program cost-effective is to prune in a grid system. we used the key maps to create -- create a weighted system by which the census which identifies the condition and the needs of the trees were given priority. priority one and two are the highest priorities for pruning and removal. we created a weighted map that allows us to concentrate on the worst first, will pruning and an efficient way. it makes much more sense to go and prune the trees on the block then it does to prune one bad tree here and one bad tree here. we are systematically working our way through the grid map and we are focusing on the worst

first. and key maps that have a higher density of trees will be the areas that we go into. >> here is the map. it is also available interactively on our website. if property owners are curious about when we are projected to be on the blocker in the neighborhood, they can enter their address into the key map and it will tell them their projected pruning. >> in addition, we have addressed over 262,000 square feet of tree related sidewalk repairs in our first year. and over 4600 tripping hazards have been removed by concrete slicing. it is a cost-effective way to reduce tripping hazards and away -- it does not require water usage to reduce dust. there is a vacuum attached to

that slicing mechanism. but any minor concrete uplift can be removed by slicing which greatly reduces the risk and improves pedestrian safety. as we did with pruning needs, we mapped our notes on tree related sidewalk damage throughout the city and we overlaid those repair locations with high pedestrian corridors, senior centers, hospitals, and bus stop locations. the good news is, we found there were a few hotspots with the greatest number of vulnerable populations and sidewalk repair. we were able to go in to those areas and reduce the risk to the greatest number of people and vulnerable populations in the first year. one of the things that is close to my heart, is a portion of the program that allows pruning and

care for trees in our schools. we included funding for school trees because there was a recognition that tree maintenance funding would never compete in the school district's budget. we are reluctant to plant new trees around the district for fear that they will not be able to maintain them. so this year, the school district coordinated to address their highest priorities, which included pruning 93 trees and removing 20 hazardous trees at that rooftop elementary. there is ever growing evidence that trees actually help students learn. by allowing sfusd to care for their trees, they will be able to improve student access to trees and be willing to plant more trees increasing student concentration in learning. proper street tree pruning can sometimes look dramatic.

and chair mandelman, you referred to some of the calls and people are concerned. i wanted to address the common concerns we have. we do prune trees for clearance over roadways. it can look dramatic, particularly if a tree has never been pruned for trip clearance or if it is after years of deferred maintenance. but it's much, much better to prune a lamp -- limb off a tree than to have it get struck by a vehicle or a piece of equipment as everyone in san francisco is aware, there is construction all around us. with the 2011 road bond, many more blocks were paved than in previous years. we have construction projects occurring everywhere. when that happens, traffic gets routed right next to the curb. we have a catchphrase that we have been using in the bureau which is don't let a truck prune your tree. the reason for that is here in this slide, when he limb gets torn off by a piece of equipment

, in some cases, it can damage the tree catastrophically and that tree must be removed. while trees do need to get pruned for clearance, and it may get removed initially, that tree will certainly recover and we will prevent serious damage to the tree. i want to note, that we have been working with many contractors and we have quite a few contracts with local companies. we have certain contracts that are set aside for local business enterprises. we also have contracts set aside for smaller contractors who can compete against each other rather than competing against big companies. part of the goal of this program was we didn't want to put any of the wonderful tree companies that were working in san francisco out of work, but we are rather bringing them into work with us to prune the trees in san francisco. i have had some residents who initially wanted to opt out of

the program, and then when they learned that my artist is one of your contractors, you are hiring people we know -- you know and love and they will let us pay for the pruning. we currently have 36 million in contracting capacity. we are ahead of our 19 million but we are gearing up so we can flow easily and the second year, as we have just started, we kept the contracts going and moving. we had seven plus million in the general contracting capacity and 49% of our inventory is either completed in active construction or in a pending contract. we've already got this pending contracts ready for an additional 30% of the trees in the city. >> earlier this year, we launched a public information campaign promoting street trieste asked. what it is is it is benefits and reminding property owners that now they can leave the pruning to us.

prior to crews conducting tree work, in house or a contractor, the neighbor -- the residents receive door hangers informing them of the program. when the work should be expected in their neighborhood and has contact information. the hangar has our website url when residents can learn more about the program and review our faq and reviewed the interactive pruning map. in addition, when we are actively pruning in the neighborhood, neighborhoods -- residents will see our signage next to the crews conducting work. our members have street tree s.f. brochures in their tracks. if any residents come out and have questions for the crews themselves, they can provide them with where to find more information. our street tree s.f. materials are available in multiple languages including english and spanish and chinese. we have worked closely with 311 as well to update information on the web and mobile apps and we

have given briefings 2311 supervisors and customer service reps about the programs that they are better able to answer questions from the public. we also have a presence at community events on twitter and when working with partners. >> we do have a don't prune campaign. asking residents to be patient and give us time to systematically work through the grid map. but not to prune the trees themselves unless they are opting out and working with qualified arborists. if residents don't want us to maintain their tree, they have the option to opt out and we will work with them. we want to ensure the quality of care that the program envisions. part of this program is to ensure that all street trees receive a standard of care.

whether that standard is met by our cruiser property owners who want to maintain their own tree, we want to maintain the integrity of the tree. this is a well-intentioned property owner. this is the same tree on the left and the rights. that tree ended up dying because of the excessive pruning and had to be removed. one part of the program was we were required to give an annual report to the urban forestry council, which we did in august, and a copy of which is now located on our website. so that's a summary of our achievements from last year. just a few notes on how we are hoping to move forward, in the first year, we focused on priority one pruning and removal and priority one sidewalk repair around bus stops, schools, and

senior centers. in your two, we will continue priority one and two tree and sidewalk repair, and in years three and four, will be moving into priority one and priority two pruning. until we get all of the trees. our goal is to have pruned every tree in the city by the end of year four of the program. which is a very ambitious goal given the deferred maintenance that we are dealing with, but we brought on a lot of contractors and we are stepping up in house as well. i do really want to emphasize that we cannot meet the schedule if we continue to divert resources to address individual trees that are not emergencies. while it is frustrating for property owners who now the city is responsible for trees, to wait sometimes months and sometimes even a couple of years to prune that tree. we will only get through everything and get to a consistent and regular

maintenance cycle if we can stick with the efficient grid pruning that we are trying to stick with. if people have what they think is an emergency, they should absolutely call 311 and the urban forestry inspectors go out and inspect trees. they will assess it and we will absolutely divert crews if there is an emergency situation. i also want to note that the account in the projections is higher towards the end of the program. at these maps tend to be in less dense areas of the city which are easier to prune and easier to access. many of those trees are not priority one and two. the pruning, the work that is needed is also less severe and will take less time. we think we'll be able to achieve those efficiencies. >> how much diversion is going on? >> we get a lot of requests from the public, from supervisors, and we will always go out and look at the tree and then we will assess and do our best.

if we don't feel there is really a safety concern before they are scheduled to be pruned, we try to stick to the grid pruning. we do get a lot of requests. understandably. >> and you are basically still sticking to know if you still have been able to withstand -- >> in many cases. in some cases, if the tree is really severe -- severely overgrown but we don't think there is a safety hazard but it's clearly very overgrown, we might agree to prune it. but we are trying to stick to our guidance. >> if you continue with the same -- are you on track for four years? >> we are. as long as we can toe that hard-line, we will be able to -- we should be able to. i've mentioned quite a bit about the contracts but i also want to note that we will be stuffing up internally, as well.

our plan is to have 28 arborist technicians, which is more than double what we currently have. we would have six supervisors and an arborist apprenticeship program which provides opportunities for local people to learn the skills,, which we desperately need. it has been very challenging to find qualified arborists to hire and we are behind schedule in our hiring. we only were able to hire three qualified arborists in the first round. we are about to have another citywide exam. it has been more challenging than we expected to get the right people on board. we are also going to be hiring some support staffs like labourers and truck drivers. i just want to note, prior to street tree s.f., we were down to eight dedicated arborists and we only had a budget of $1.2 million for street care and now we are projecting to be well over 30 dedicated employees as

well as contracts and a $90 million budget. as i've mentioned to, we have worked with a lot of contractors we currently have eight active companies. with 1-4 field crews each. some of our contractors have multiple crews working in different parts of the city and we have 30 contracts that are pending. even though it's taking up a little bit longer to staff up in house, we are making up for that by bringing on additional contractors and contracts. some of the opportunities of this program. as i mentioned, we have an apprenticeship program. this is an opportunity for green jobs and highlighting the industry and getting people trained. all of our contracts also require an apprenticeship portion of the contract. we have an in-house arborist program as well. in addition, their opportunities for local businesses through our contracts and we have had a really great result working with

local contractors. >> what are the requirements to be part of the program? >> to be part of the program? is only about six months of experience doing something related to trees or landscaping in order to apply for the apprenticeship program through the city. and then contractors work with organizations like city built to work with apprentices and to get apprentices if they don't have their own apprenticeship program but a couple of the contractors have their own in-house apprenticeship program as well. people can apply to them directly. >> over the course of the program, we are confident that communities can actually appreciate the benefits of greener and healthier trees. it will take us a few years to get us to the baseline. those requests for trees to be removed should drop dramatically

we will have increased safety as we are inspecting trees more regularly and pruning the more regularly. we expect emergencies to drop dramatically as well. we really have the opportunity to create a model program for tree maintenance and tree management. in san francisco, we also have a diversity of species. we have over 500 species of trees in san francisco which helps us be resilient in the face of climate, climate change, past and other diseases that could affect a tree. but there are also challenges with this program. one of our biggest challenges is because the focus was on stable maintenance funding, the program does not have any funding for planting trees. and our annual budget for planting trees is relatively small. as we arere