people, and the bristol hotel, i would say half of these rooms are bigger than any of our 21 other hotels that we lease. it's big rooms, quality hotels. right where you're going to take a picture, there's going to be a kitchen installed. it's in the building department now. i want to give some background how we got to this point. i think it's important to realize that when we met with the owner to do the hotel, we agreed on a certain price, but then, there was a private donor who was willing to pay more. i contacted mayor breed the day after she was elected. it took a while, because she was busy and i was out of town. i got together to see what we

could do with the property. a lot of people would say hey, we don't have that money in the budget. we can't get into a bidding war with private developers. but that's not what mayor breed said. jeff buckley was with me. she said, do whatever it takes to get that hotel. i said okay, mayor. i called bill, the owner of the hotel. i called bill, and i said bill, look. we can offer to pay a little more. mayor breed said she really wants the hotel. i'll tell the private people we don't want to use them, this is the key thing where we get mr. bennioff involved. we had an agreement, but we had no funding source for the hotel. so time was passing, and i'll let the mayor pick up the story, but i got a text one

friday at 6:00 from mayor breed, saying i got the money for your hotel. and i'll let her tell you -- i'll have her tell you how she accomplished it because it was no small feat. with no further adieu, mayor london breed. >> the hon. london breed: thank you, randy. it's really exciting to be here today. when we have an opportunity to provide housing like this to so many people who we know are living on the streets, we have to do whatever it takes to get access to this housing. and so when randy and i talked about this in my office, and he told me this was a newly renovated hotel that could provide 58 units of step-up housing, i just got super excited because this doesn't come along every single day. so i started making the phone

calls. and not everyone said yes, but mark benioff said yes as soon as i asked him about this project. as soon as he said yes, i immediately called randy and said tell bill to hold off because we have a generous supporter helping us address homelessness here in san francisco. mark and lynn benioff have been absolutely instrumental for addressing these issues. thank you, mark, for being here today. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: well, we are here to celebrate this along with a number of other things i know we will be able to accomplish in san francisco to address what we know is a real crisis. we have 58 units of step-up housing which creates exits for people who are living in

permanently supportive housing who are now able to live independently, and it will also create 58 vacancies in our existing supportive housing that can go to people who are in our navigation centers and who are in our shelters. because of the activism of people like randy shaw in the tenderloin housing clinic and the generous support of mark and lynn bennioff, we are able to turn this into housing for formerly homeless adults. we all know there's not a one-size-fits-all. we all have a story of our own of challenges of people we have tried to personally hope. i work alongside jeff kozinski who manages the department of

homelessness, and there's not a day we don't talk about people we are trying to help. we know that this is no small task. it's been an issue in san francisco for decades, but through bold and innovative solutions, we know that we can make a difference in people's lives. it's not sometimes just housing, it will be supportive services, it will be shelter beds, it will be all that we need in order to address those issues because sadly, we do know that so many people who are struggling with homelessness are struggling with mental illness and substance abuse disorder, and those are challenges that we have to address in addition to providing a place, a safe, affordable place for people to call home. we know the voters recently

approved additional funding to homeless programs, and i'm committed to clearing any additional hurdles that this funding may face. but we can't stop. since july, we have helped 500 people overcome homelessness, and i am working to open 1,000 new shelter beds, this will clear the shelter wait list so that everyone has a place indoors. and our new one system, a central database tracking individual case management and responses is ahead of schedule in signing people up. we had a goal to reach about 2,000 individuals by the end of october. we are almost at 4,000 people in our one system, which is our coordinated system to try and track and help people out of w

introduce the man that's stepped up to the plate and made it happen for us, mark benioff. [applause] >> okay. well, make a little adjustment here. well, good morning, everybody. good morning. and to mayor breed and to jeff and everyone from the city, to randy shaw, and everyone from the tenderloin housing clinic, to all of our friends who are

here, and our partners from these amazing n.g.o.s, like our good friend, tamika, larkin street, glide, catholic charities, so many of you who are doing god's work, working on homelessness every single day. thank you for your work. we are ending the crisis of homelessness in san francisco. and we have a very serious crisis of homelessness in san francisco. everyone knows this is my number one priority. we have over 7500 homeless individuals on our streets, we have over 1200 homeless families, many with two kids each, and it is time to bring this to a close. that is why lynn and i are excited about this announcement, and we are thrilled to be making it today here with the mayor.

this is an example of the difference that we are going to make with public-private partnerships, the city, business, philanthropy, and n.g.o.s. this is the path, this is the formula to bring homelessness to a close in our city. when mayor breed, a champion of the homeless, knew that the bristol hotel needed funding for housing units, she swung into action. she contacted me, and i agreed that this is something we want to do. i glagreed to give $6 million towards improvement of the bristol hotel working to get out of homelessness. bras the because the experts tell us, and the medical research shows that when a homeless person finally gets a home, which is what it's all about, when a homeless person

finally gets a home of their own, it's transformative. it's a catalyst for change. it's a reduction of all symptoms and all issues in their life. and i'm told that these units are going to go to people who are living in lodgings where they have to share bathrooms. these people are on our mind, especially at this season of the year. that's part of what having a home is all about, the basic dignity that every person deserves, and that is why it is my number one priority for our city. randy said getting the call was lik like a miracle, but i'll tell you, when it comes to ending homelessness in our city, it doesn't take miracles, it

doesn't take miracles, it takes money, and it takes a lot of money. so this is a solvable problem. there are programs that work. we have many great examples of programs that are working, like randy's program, like tamikay's program. but we need a scale of these programs, and that is going to take a lot of money. that is why with the passage now of proposition c, the city will start collecting that money january 1. that is the miracle. that is the miracle that i'm so excited about. and a result of the campaign, we identified so many new ideas and so many new opportunities, like the partnership that brings us here today, and many others that we plan to announce in the coming weeks. bristol hotel is a preview, and this announcement here today, is a preview of what is to come because the city will finally have the money to do it. not just to do this, but to do so many other things that are

on our list. it's the beginning of a whole parade of new investments to end homelessness in our city. and i want to make one final point. starting january 1, starting january 1, the biggest, the wealthiest, the most important companies in our city, like mine, salesforce, the city's largest employer, will pay more, about one half of 1% of our revenue to help homelessness. that is very exciting. a lot more buildings like this are going to open up, a lot more shelters, a lot more services, a lot more capablities. that is very exciting. that is the miracle of this season, but that doesn't let anyone off the hook. it doesn't, in any way, absolve the rest of us. it doesn't absolve me, it doesn't absolve you from giving what we can and embracing our

responsibilities as citizens and as neighbors. prop c doesn't replace philanthropy as today is evidence of. it complements it. that's why jeff tullio has given $1 million to homelessness. that's why the chair of airbnb has given $5 million to homelessness. i challenge every c.e.o. in our city to join us, to join sales force, to join the city, to join all of our n.g.o.s as we work to get everyone in a home. join us in the wisdom of st. francis. st. francis, who is the name sake of our city, who said, it is in giving that we receive. that is why we are here, that is what we are doing, that is what we are committed to doing, so we all must be committed to

restoring the greatness of our city. this is a san francisco that takes care of its people. it always has. this is a san francisco that is a fabric of tolerance and diversity and inclusion, but it is a city that is a fabric of compassion and love, especially at this time of the year and especially when we look at our city's most neediest, when we walk down the streets and see our homeless and say wow, there through the grace of god goes i. thank you all for being here today, thank you, mayor breed, for your wisdom and your incredible work, and we can't wait to have this opened it up and getting it used for great order. >> thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i do want to say, if you look at the actual practical effect, if mark benioff and his wife

had not stepped up, they would have been renting these units out for $2,000 a month, as compare today the 50 -- compared to the 500 to $600 a month. coming up, our next speaker, gail, who is a tenant in one of our other s.r.o.s, who has to share a bathroom. >> my name is gail seagraves, and i'm a collaborator at the s.r.o. and i'm a tour guide for the tenderloin museum, and i'm also very active in the community. but today, i'm here because i am so excited that the bristol will be opening soon as a much

needed step-up hotel. i've been living at the elk hotel which is a supportive s.r.o. for over ten years now, where i have to share a bathroom, and i have to share a shower, and i've woken up many times in the middle of the night because tenants have issues. and this is why this is so important for people like myself. when i came here to san francisco 12 years ago, i came here for a job. and then, life hit me hard, and the job fell through. and then, when i went through my savings, i had to stay in a shelter, and then an s.r.o. so after working on certain areas of my life, i became ready to move onto a more independent life, you know, where you can have your own rest room and a community kitchen and laundry, those simple yet very, very needed things for a person. not only that, but when people

like me that are independent and can live independent when we leave, that will open up so many s.r.o. rooms for those on the streets, for those in shelters. it's just going to be amazing. i have talked to anybody that would listen, i mean, anybody, that we need step-up hotels and it would just go right around and help everybody. so i am grateful to see this happening with the bristol, and this is a win-win situation with the homeless, and thank you for this opportunity, everybody. [applause] >> so the mayor and mr. benioff will be available to answer any questions, so we're concluding this event. and there will be a tour after you've talked to the mayor and

mr. benioff, i'm happy to take people to some of the rooms. i want to give you that. [applause] [♪]

>> i am the supervisor of district one. i am sandra lee fewer. [♪] >> i moved to the richmond district in 1950 mine. i was two years old. i moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [♪] >> when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. it seems so far away. for a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. the stress was storage of the birthplace of that. my father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. it just started to grow very

organically. it is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the richmond district. as russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. so parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the russian community and immigrant russian community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [♪] >> i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. they are beautiful barriers. the presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the pacific ocean. we also also have a national park service. we boarded the golden gate national recreation area so there is a lot of activity to do

in the summer time you see people with bonfires. but really families enjoying the beach and the pacific ocean during the rest of the time of year. [♪] >> and golden gate park where we have so many of our treasures here. we have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. this is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. the theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. it has been around for a very long time. is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. i moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. we would always go here. i love these neighborhood theatres. it is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the richmond district, but also in san francisco. small theatres showing one or

two films. a unique -- they are unique also to the neighborhood and san francisco. >> where we are today is the heart of the richmond district. with what is unique is that it is also small businesses. there is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. and providing for the neighborhood. this is what we love about the streets. the cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see small businesses even towards 32nd. at the core of it is right here between here and 20 -- tenth avenue. when we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the -- any other part of san francisco. there is traditional irish music which you don't get hardly

anywhere in san francisco. some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. and then also, we see grocery stores. and also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [♪] >> we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. that is a really great thing to see. i don't know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. i like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. the market is the place i like to come to once a year. once i like about the market as it is very affordable. it has fresh produce and fresh meat. also, seafood. but they also offer a large

selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. a variety of rice that they have is tremendous. i don't thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. >> hi. i am kevin wong. i am the manager. in 1989 we move from chinatown to richmond district. we have opened for a bit, over 29 years. we carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. we try to keep everything fresh daily. so a customer can get the best out a bit. >> normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. because they have really just really fresh crab. this is something my family really likes for me to make. also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup.

they cut it to the size they really want. i am probably here once a week. i'm very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier -- cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. we don't speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. i do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. the staff here is very helpful. i speak very little chinese here myself. thinks that i'm not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need? is this what i should be making? and they actually really helped me. they will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. they are very knowledgeable. very friendly. i think they are here to serve not only the asian community but

to serve all communities in the richmond district and in san francisco. [♪] >> what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [♪] >> hello, my name is jamie harper.

in this episode, we are featuring the park locations in your very own backyard. this is your chance to find your heart in san francisco with someone special. golden gate park's largest body of water is this lake, a popular spot for strolling and paddling around in boats, which can be rented. created in 1893, it was designed foreboding and -- for boating. it is named for the wild strawberries that once flores. a pleasant trail follows the perimeter past huntington falls, 110 foot waterfall. two bridges connect the trail to the island. the climb to the hills summit,

the highest point in golden gate park at more than four hundred feet. you can get quinces of the western side of the city through -- glimpes of the western side of city through a thick trees. the lake is ada accessible. it has a peaceful atmosphere where you can enjoy a warm day. walk along the lake and watched many ducks, and swans, and seagulls. it is a tranquil spot to stroll, enjoy each other's company, and sail away. many couples come here to take a ride around the lake, floating under the bridges, past the pavilion and waterfall. for a quiet getaway, it makes for a memorable and magical experience.

located on 19th avenue, this grove is the place to wear your hiking boots, bring your family, and bring the dog because it has so much to offer you and your loved ones. it is a truly hidden gem in the city. the part is rich with eucalyptus trees. long paths allow you to meander, perfect for dog walking in a wooded environment. >> i enjoy this base and the history behind it. the diversity that exists in such an urban city, the concrete, the streets, cars, we have this oasis of a natural environment. it reminds us of what san francisco initially was. >> this is a section for dogs and plenty of parking. transit is available to get you

there easily. and the part is ada -- park is ada accessible. there is also a natural lake. this is your chance to stroll and let the kids run free. it also has many birds to watch. it is the place to find some solitude from the city and appreciate what you share with a wonderful breath of fresh air. , an experienced this park and enjoy the peoples, picnics, and sunshine. this is a lovely place to take a stroll with your loved one hand in hand. located in the middle of pacific heights on top of a hill, lafayette park offers a great square a of a peaceful beauty.

large trees border greenery. it features tables and benches, a playground, restaurants, and tennis courts. there are plenty of areas for football, frisbee, and picnics. it is very much a couple's part and there are a multitude of experiences you can have together. bring your dog and watch the mean go with the community or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all of the park has to offer. many couples find this is the perfect place to put down a blanket and soak up the sun. it is a majestic place you can share with someone you cherish. it is located along the 1 and 10 buses and is accessed from the 47 and 90 buses. it is ada accessible. for more information about reserving one of these locations, call 831-5500.

this number is best for special events, weddings, picnics, and the county fair building. for any athletic fields and neighborhood parks, 831-5510. you can also write us. or walking in and say hello at old lock cabin, golden gate park. and of course you can find more information and reach us at sfrecpark.org.

>> i view san francisco almost as a sibling or a parent or something. i just love the city. i love everything about it. when i'm away from it, i miss it like a person. i grew up in san francisco kind of all over the city. we had pretty much the run of the city 'cause we lived pretty close to polk street, and so we would -- in the summer, we'd all all the way down to aquatic park, and we'd walk down to the library, to the kids' center. in those days, the city was safe and nobody worried about us running around. i went to high school in spring valley. it was over the hill from chinatown. it was kind of fun to experience being in a minority, which most white people don't get to experience that often. everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun.

when i was a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. we could go to sam wong's and get super -- soup for $1. my parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. they wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at the time, but my mother had some serious mental illness issues, and i don't think my father were really aware of that, and those didn't really become evident until i was about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up, and my mother took me all over the world. most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. when i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan, and that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a

boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. i remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. mostly i remember the smells very intensely, but i loved japan. it was wonderful. toward the end. my mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. we would go somewhere, stay for a certain amount of months, a year, period of time, and she would inevitably have a breakdown. we always came back to san francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and that was what kept me sort of stable. my mother hated to fly, so she would always make us take ships places, so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal, and she had a breakdown on the ship. so she was put in the brig, and i was left to wander the ship until we got to fluorfluora few days later, where we had a

distant -- florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. i think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. i used to write short stories, and i thought someday i'm going to write a book about all these ad ventures that my mother took me on. when i became a cop, i found i turned off parts of my brain. i found i had to learn to conform, which was not anything i'd really been taught but felt very safe to me. i think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable environment. and even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt

very safe to me. my girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvio's bar, and i looked out the window and i saw a police car, and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. for a moment, i thought i was me. and i turned to my friend and i said, i think i'm supposed to do this. i saw myself driving in this car. as a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there weren't any until the mid70's, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job. when i saw here, it seemed like this is what i was meant to do. one of my bosses as ben johnson's had been a cop, and he -- i said, i have this weird idea that i should do this. he said, i think you'd be good. the department was forced to hire us, and because of all of the posters, and the big

recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us, but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. so the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. finally took an inspector's test and passed that and then went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career, which was fun. i just felt sort of buried alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that there were just so many of them, and some of them, i didn't know if we'd ever be able to solve, so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. he transferred me out, and a couple of weeks later, i found out i had breast cancer. my intuition that the job was killing me. i ended up leaving, and by then, i had 28 years or the

years in, i think. the writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didn't know. they didn't know my story, they didn't know why i had a relationship with my mother, why we had no family to speak of. it just poured out of me. i gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this. i am so lucky to live here. i am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the city. i am so grateful they did. that it never

>> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. but i think it is also important

to try to pull at the strings inside people. >> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here? the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes.

this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very important message and it is

about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a. victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms

of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building. it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in

the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines. we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to

communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars,

the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes.

>> this is a commission for tuesday, december 4th. can you please read the role? [roll call] >> please be advised that certain directors will be absent today. you do have a quorum. enhancement assessment three is the ringing of and the use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting character any person responsible for one going off in the room may be asked to leave the room. cell phone set on vibrate do because microphone interference to the board so we request they be placed in the off position. item four his approval of the minutes from november 6th, 2018 regular meeting. >> do i have