second grade until the fifth, i was a designated field trip parent, if you can imagine that. everyone entrusted their kids with me, and i did grab a little boy by the neck one day and thought i was ready to get prosecuted but i'm old school. anyway, let me just do this real quick. when we did a summer program for london, we were supposed to have 35 children and we ended up with 150. that meant me and reverend davis had to be there every day. that was not how he planned to spend our summer. when they would asked me what i was teaching in the program, i would say, i teach boy, girl, sit down and hash 101. [laughter] >> let me say this. if you can't do it, find somebody who can, because children are children and they still need to be taught that. there is a time for them to sit down and hush, and learn something. you are not being mean, you are loving them. you love them enough to care,

whether they don't like you are not for the moment. anyway, i am at the chinatown dinner with my good friend, it is a dinner with my good friend norman fong and his boys, and i'm at the dinner and i walking across the floor and going to the washroom, because when you are my age you go a lot, and gail gilman, who i enjoy as a human being, they are just amazing. i called them to see if somebody could give a tour. they did not build it like they were building housing for the chronically homeless, they built it like they were building for human beings to live in, thrive, prosper and grow. [cheers and applause] >> just because people are poor when you do something for them, you don't have to make them feel like it. just do it. and so i'm walking across the floor and dale grabs my hand.

she says, reverent, can we talk for a minute? i want to ask you something. we just fifth -- finished 1750, and we want to name it for somebody in the community in the fillmore, not thinking about what gentrification means, it is still the fillmore. and she said, we want to name it after and we thought you could help us figure it out. i said sure. let's get together and next week and i will talk to a few other folks and we will come up with something no problem. >> she said really, we would like to know, if we can name it after your daughter. and i did then what i'm doing now. i was so honored, and so touched that it was hard for me to respond. i said that is wonderful, but i do, i will make the call.

i said i have to talk to her mom and the rest of the folks. i called mark and james. one of her nephews, another grandson, if you are ever in fresno, eat lunch or dinner at khakis, is a wonderful place. i have to put the plug-in or else he might have to borrow some money from me to help them out. help all of them out. help all of them out. and so everybody thought it was a great idea and we did it. and that someone would be so carrying and so concerned, and believe so much in understanding the community they are working in, they don't just come plan a building and now they're gone and they get the rents off of it and build their company, but

they stay with you once the construction is over. they are as involved, if not more involved day today as they were when they were building it. and those are the kinds of people that we need, and i will just tell this real quick, when they came to us, i was the president of this c.a.c. during the redevelopment process at that time. when they were going to build that, we kind of went back and forth a little bit. we said no because we didn't -- the director of the time brought it to us and we liked it, but they didn't bring it back to us for final approval before she put it on the agenda. the names will go unmentioned, but if you count back, those of you in the city can figure out who it was. so we went off and mare breed was on the commission at the time. we went off, and you can see that the commission was already leaning in our direction, but the director kept fighting to try and get it through.

and jeff who was there at the time said, mr rosen, thank you for supporting us, but we are not that kind of organization. we don't impose ourselves and people's communities. if the community doesn't want us and they aren't ready for us, we don't want to go forward until they're comfortable. people don't do that when they are looking at multimillion dollar opportunity. but they said no, we will wait. put it back out to bid. and then he turned around and said, reverend, we will be added again. i just want you to know that. he and i went to lunch and we talked, and then when they got ready to go again, they brought in their staff, much of their staff, and their staff had to be seven or 70 or 80% black folk -- folk. there son worked on the project. and a couple of other people

that we knew from the neighborhoods. i told jeff or you, i don't know who, why are you doing this -- why didn't you do this in the first place and we didn't have to go through all of this? we didn't know. we knew exactly what kind of organization they were. we built it. they did a magnificent job. c.h.p., community housing partnership, not the highway patrol. [laughter] >> remember them. get a load of jeff buckley. one of the mirror's persons who does housing. doctor brown who has already been mentioned, who is a friend, a brother, and mentor, my president. he is president of the naacp. i have a privilege of serving as his vice president. which was probably not the smartest decision i ever made. [laughter] >> if you work with amos, the

operative -- uppity word is work amen. and one of the most insightful human beings i have ever known in my life. we will be in a meeting, you know i'm telling the truth, the meeting is going well, we finish the meeting, everybody is in agreement, we are ready to go, and dr brown says, weighed a minute. everyone says oh, no,. and amos says very simply, and this is mississippi stuff, reverent davis, you might know about this, if everybody in the room agrees, somebody ain't thinking. we have to sit down and go over it again, and by the time to get through it, he was right. there was some things left undone. so it has been a privilege and the fact that he is here shows the kind of support that he gives.

the greens who run the african-american art and culture complex do such a wonderful job. i see you all. you all do such a good job. i was always amazed at how many of my friends that rachel was friends with that i didn't know. they did not meet through me but they became friends on their own so we are grateful. our family thanks you so much and c.h.p., since you are in this for the duration, i just want you to know that this family is in this thing for the duration. our human rights head, cheryl davis, i just saw her, she is here somewhere. so many of you that i know and love so dearly, you are once again expressing your love for me and my family, and i cannot thank you enough for the

kindness that has been shown to us through this process. i love you all so much. thank you. danielle, thank you so much. they worked together, ran together, and did all kinds of stuff together. i thank you all so much. god bless you. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> community housing partnership wants to present this. this is what we will be hanging here at the property. this is for you reverend townsend. i don't know anything, my staff knows absolutely everything. >> how wonderful. thank you so much. [applause] >> do you want to come up while okay. in memory of rachel townsend to herb -- for devotion and to provide a voice to the voiceless , we dedicate the rachel townsend apartments in her honor on december 19th,

2018. [cheers and applause] >> let me say one other thing. i did not quite say enough, and somebody just said really? [laughter] >> i want to do another real quick thank you to susan, rachel 's mother. not only did we share in this wonderful and amazing daughter, i was always amazed at the kind of stuff that she could do, and a lot of it was absolutely must be from her mother's side or my parents because it skipped me. one of the most organized individuals i've ever known. rachel used to work with us in the naacp gala every year, and we had 600 people there, and somebody could walk up, if it is somebody you know and that she knew, that was different. but somebody she didn't know walked up and gave them her name they wanted to know where they were sitting in the other people would look on the thing. and they would walk up and look at their name and they was a

kate hartley, at your table 26. somebody said, how did she do that? >> how the hell am i supposed to know, i can't do it. she could do it. not only did she help put a major part in raising a wonderful daughter, but she also shared her entire large family with me. to all of her kids, i am pops back to all of the grandkids, i am pops or grandpa, and it has been absolutely fulfilling, and has helped create so much purpose in our lives, and i just want to thank you again, and make sure that it is said publicly again, thank you so much, susan, i love you. [cheers and applause]

. >> i love that i was in four plus years a a rent control tenant, and it might be normal because the tenant will -- for the longest, i was applying for b.m.r. rental, but i would be in the lottery and never be like 307 or 310. i pretty much had kind of given up on that, and had to leave san francisco. i found out about the san francisco mayor's office of housing about two or three years ago, and i originally did home counseling with someone, but then, my certificate

expired, and one of my friends jamie, she was actually interested in purchasing a unit. i told her about the housing program, the mayor's office, and i told her hey, you've got to do the six hour counseling and the 12 hour training. she said no, i want you to go with me. and then, the very next day that i went to the session, i notice this unit at 616 harrison became available, b.m.i. i was like wow, this could potentially work. housing purchases through the b.m.r. program with the sf mayor's office of housing, they are all lotteries, and for this one, i did win the lottery. there were three people that applied, and they pulled my number first. i won, despite the luck i'd had with the program in the last couple years. things are finally breaking my way. when i first saw the unit, even though i knew it was less than

ideal conditions, and it was very junky, i could see what this place could be. it's slowly beginning to feel like home. i can definitely -- you know, once i got it painted and slowly getting my custom furniture to fit this unit because it's a specialized unit, and all the units are microinterms of being very small. this unit in terms of adaptive, in terms of having a murphy bed, using the walls and ceiling, getting as much space as i can. it's slowly becoming home for me. it is great that san francisco has this program to address, let's say, the housing crisis that exists here in the bay area. it will slowly become home, and i am appreciative that it is a bright spot in an otherwise

candlelig . >> i am mohamed nuru, director of public works, city and county of san francisco. i want to thank everyone for coming out today. today is a very special day. we are going to celebrate the ground breaking of our ambulance deployment facility. how about a big hand for just a new facility. [applause] >> i want to start by saying thank you to the voters because in 2016, the bond was passed, the public health and safety bond in the range of $350 million, and as part of that bond, $50 million was dedicated to build this new facility. and this new facility will

replace the old facility, and many of you know what the old facility look like. but the new facility will be four stories, will house the city's fleet, will be able to provide training, will be able to provide a place where the paramedics and firefighters can really use to respond to the people of san francisco. you know, the people of san francisco have been passing these bonds because they have faith in us being able to deliver these projects, and we will deliver these projects on time and on budget as we have done in many of our projects. but today's very, very special because this facility is very, very important in the infrastructure to support our city. and with that said, there are quite a number of people. we will thank them as we go through the various speakers, but i will begin by thanking our mayor, london breed, for all the leadership that she has brought to the city and especially just making sure

that every day people can enjoy beautiful san francisco. welcome, mayor london breed. >> the hon. london breed: thank you. good morning, everybody. i am so excited to be here today because this project is a long time coming, and i want to thank especially many of our paramedics who have waited so patiently for a facility that adequately meets the needs and the challenges that they deal with every single day, and i know that many of them are here today and they are excited and looking forward to this project, which we know will be completed in hopefully 24 months, on time, and on budget because we understand how important it is. the ability to respond quickly in an emergency situation in san francisco is one of our primary functions. and i'm proud to say that 90% of the calls that we get are

being responded to in ten minutes or less, which is the national standard. the fire department has put a lot of work into getting us here as just a few years ago, many of us know, we were struggling with meeting that standard. back in 2014, we learned that due to a steep increase in the number of 911 calls, we were not meeting our ambulance goals in a timely manner. as supervisor at the time, i worked with our late mayor, ed lee, and we secured more than $47 million to invest in the fire department, which i was really proud of and thankful to mayor ed lee for his commitment. that money was invested in not only hiring more e.m.t.s and paramedics, but hiring more firefighters and t911 dispatchers. i also made sure that went towards investing in new ambulances and fire trucks,

investing in new infrastructures and facilities. and in the past four years, we have definitely seen an improvement in our response time. the new facility will have the room to restock more than one ambulance at a time. i know the folks that do this job are really excited about that. it will also include a kitchen, training room, dining rooms, and lockers so our first responders are rested and ready for any emergency. and of course, most importantly, it will be seismically sound. all of these qualities will improve our emergency response time and help us with our first responders, help them do their very best job for the residents of our city. and i want to really thank so many people who brought us here today. tom o'connor and local 798, as

well as the patient of our paramedics who serve our city all over san francisco with patients and treatment of the people they serve. i want to thank our fire chief for all the work that she's done in helping to lead this department and really focus on the necessary improvements and things that we need to do in order to make public safety or top priority. and i am just really excited because this was a promise made years ago, and now, this is a promise as a city that we're keeping, and it will definitely allow us to respond to emergencies in a more timely manner so that we can keep all residents of our city safe. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] >> chair nuru: thank you, mayor. and now we'll hear from our district supervisor.

this part of san francisco, we have standing right behind fire station number 9, but many of the city projects that have been coming to this neighborhood really improving the quality of life. just down on gerald, we have the new crime lab, we have the new shops there. p.u.c.'s building a facility down on evans. and the change is really good. so malia, welcome. >> president cohen: thank you. good morning. first of all, i want to take a moment on a somber note to say thank you to the first responders who are putting their lives on the lineup and down california. i know our own san francisco fire department often goes on the road to offer stance to neighboring counties, and i just want to say thank you. i also want to recognize the e.m.t. drivers that are driving the ambulances and responding to emergencies and unfortunately sometimes non-emergencies, but that's

another conversation. i just want to say thank you. i feel like you can never say thank you enough, and i know that this department is very near and dear to the mayor's heart, mayor breed, as a former fire commissioner, is that right? so i also want to recognize all the people that volunteer their time to serve san francisco, the fire commissioners that are here, thank you very much. and of course, the department of public works, where would we be without the department of public works? my heart is just overflowing, as i stand before you, winding out my ten years on the san francisco board of supervisors, i am excited, and i'd like to formerly introduce you to supervisor-elect shamann walton, who's here. you should rest assured that he's thoughtful in his approach to policy as well as many social justice issues.

i want to, again, recognize that in july of 2014, we learned that only 76% of ambulances were on-scene within ten minutes of life threatening emergency medical calls. and since learning this, i can tell you that i've personally had to call on an ambulance for one of my family members that became ill. and i mentioned this to the chief at the time, but i will mention it publicly, the service was impeccable. kindness, generosity, and thoughtfulness, professionalism all the way through. i'm grateful. yeah, shout out to the fire department. and as the mayor mentioned, there is a ten-minute national standard. as san franciscans, we can say that we can be doing better, don't you agree? san francisco's seven square miles. we can get this in a little bit faster fashion, and i think that community and city leaders came together to establish a working group to assist us with

troubleshooting and most importantly to discover ways that we could improve. and since the establishment of this group, the ambulance response time has improved more than 25%, and i am so happy to hear this -- excuse me, more than 26%. and what we have done is we've been able to maintain a high average of about 90% since 2017, and you know, i think we're going to only increase our response time from this as we move forward. and the new ambulance deployment facility comes as a fulfilled promise that i believe we as electeds have made to the overall san francisco community when ed lee was still with us. and he committed to funding more e.m.t.s, more paramedics, firefighters and of course the important 911 dispatchers, in addition to the equipment, in addition to the vehicles. these people are needed to

carrie ocare carry out the heroic effort. we're putting out $47 million -- as the chair of the budget committee, that's a lot. mohamed is also reminding me, it's plus interest. it is close to 50 million, but we won't quibble about that. i'm proud we are hosting this in this part of san francisco, a community that's shareholdering a lot of the responsibilities. it's important that we build in the fabric of our city the infrastructure that we need so that we can continue to be successful. and i will leave on this note, and i just want to again say thank you to all of the men and the women that dedicated their life to assisting us and being a first responder. i'm forever grateful. thank you. [applause]

>> chair nuru: and now we'll hear from the president of the fire commission, mr. ken cleaveland. >> president cleaveland: thank you, mohamed, and thank you to our next member of the board of equalization, so congratulations, malia, on that. good morning. everyone, it's a pleasure to be representing the fire commissions. i have a couple of commissioners i'd like to recognize. michael hardeman and commissioner francee covington. it's been a long time coming to get this from planning to where we are today. i know some of my fellow commissioners have been on the commission up to 24 years, and it's been a discussion all that time. how can we improve our e.m.s. because that's obviously one of the biggest facility -- one of the biggest services that we provide to the city's residents and visitors, so it's a really

proud moment for us today on the commission, for the fire department, and certainly for the department of public works to get this launched, and so i'm very proud to say congratulations on getting it done. congratulations again as mohamed said earlier to the voters. thank you for passing the bond that made this possible, and we're going to need another bond down the road so we can have another new training facility, so let's get that word out. so thank you very much, and i'm pleased the rain has held out. >> chair nuru: thank you. thank you. and now, a good friend of mine, good partner with public works, not just today's event, but many of the improvements to many of the fire stations and police facilities all over the city, welcome our chief, joanne hayes-white. >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you, mohamed. good morning, everyone. thanks for being here.

as president cleaveland said, we're blessed with good weather. i don't know for longer, so my remarks will be brief. we're all very excited to be here today to envision what will be a state-of-the-art ambulance deployment facility. i'm very proud to mayor breed for her vision and leadership. as was alluded before, mayor lee, who was a champion of this facility. certainly president malia cohen, also keeping us on our toes in terms of response times, and making sure the whole city is served, especially her district, and congratulate is the supervisor elect shamann walton. i would say thank you to all the commissioners, the two that aren't here, in addition to president cleaveland and commissioners hardeman and

covington are commissioner joe alioto veronese, as well as commissioner steven nakajo. thank you to the commission. certainly my commission is here, mark gonzalez, jean nicholson lieutenant t nicholson, lieutenant tom murphy in the back. section chief tony malloy, thank you very much for all the hard work. this is a facility that's very unique, nearly one of its kind in the state of california. we're building without a whole lot of blueprint or other facilities to look at. so that's why it took a lot of time and attention to detail to make this facility the great facility that it will be and that our members so deserve. public works, i will say i do consider director nuru a partner of mine.

we come together. we have two other projects hopefully looking forward to being delivered soon, hopefully, before i retire. i know it's a top of your priority list as it is yours. thanks, mohamed. brian dahl also helped with this today. we brought good weather. also we look forward to holding accountable the contractors. i heard they're going to be off to a good start, s.j.amoroso. we also look forward to -- we had to work with the stararts commission, and that was an interesting process, but also a very educational process for us. i think we're most grateful, and i say we're grateful to the public that in 2016, envision

saw the need for this facility, so it goes without saying it's the city voters that got it to where we're at. and before i save the best part for last, and that's our members, i do want to acknowledge we have p.d. presence, mike redmon, thanks for being here. under mayor breed's leadership, there's an expectation that we don't just work and fulfill our responsibility, but that it's it's cross collaboration. mostly, i'm thrilled to be here because of our members. the hard working men and women of the san francisco fire department. when i became chief in 2004, there was much needed reconfiguration. the fire department left d.p.h.

there was a lot of stops and rt starts, we learned a lot, we reconfigured over and over. the facility you're currently in at 1415 evans has done a good job for us, but it's not nearly what you need, and we really appreciate as mayor breed said, your patience, your dedication, your hard work. every day, you put your uniform on. the workplace isn't great. i will look forward in retirement coming back when we cut the ribbon on this facility. i want to know that we placed a high emphasis on your health, your well-being, and your safety. not to mention the public is going to be better served. it's going to be a much more efficient model. so thank you for being here celebrating with us. i believe we have our department chapman lalain, ande

we break ground, we'll ask the father to give a blessing. >> chair nuru: thank you. so if the commissioners, mayor, board president, if we would come over to where the shovels are, i will hand the mic to the chaplain, and in two years, we will be back here enjoying the new facility. >> i'd just like to ask a great favor of you if we could have a moment of silence for one of our paramedics, mike kirk, who died the day before yesterday, and hopefully we can remember him and his family. thank you. we're very proud of our e.m.s. division and of our fire rescue division, and we know those men and women constantly give of themselves, especially those who are in need of medical attention. so we ask for a blessing on all

of them, a blessing on all those who are in need, and we ask that this new facility would help them in the performance of their duties. amen. >> amen. >> chair nuru: thank you very much. and we're going to count from five to zero and then just a little thing right there. all right. five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

>> all right. good afternoon, everyone. i am paul yepp. i am the kmonding officer of the central police station. and i want to thank you for being here today. irts to thank o

. i want to thank our supervisors for being here today, first of all, mayor london breed, supervisor aaron peskin, and on cue, the chief of police, bill scott. executive director of sf safe, kyra worthy. park and rec commissioner allen low. park and rec area manager zach taylor. chief of the park rangers, mike celeste. president of self-help for the elderly, annie chung. from the chinese benevolent association, charles chow. and from the san francisco police department command staff, deputy chief ann mannix, commander dan perea, commander

david lozar. oh, and -- i'm sorry -- oh, and i'm sorry. reverend malcolm fong -- the latest commander for the san francisco police department, darryl fong. congratulations, darryl. this is about you. [applause] >> and of course the executive director for the ccdc, malcom yo. i am proud to share with you the grand opening of the san francisco police department public information drop-in center, and it was quite a collaboration between city partners and our community leaders. and i can't be more proud to have got this done with everyone in this room, so thank you for that.

and let me go ahead and introduce our first speaker, the honorable mayor london breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, captain. i'm really excited to be here because this is a really incredible opportunity for the chinatown community. what we ultimately want to do is make sure that people are safe, and part of making sure that people are safe is not only a police presence but it's also people feeling comfortable with reporting crimes. when i first became mayor, one of the first thing that i did was to add additional beat officers here in chinatown, and we're continuing to add more beat officers in civic center and other parts of the city as those new academy classes continue to graduate. thank you supervisor peskin and members of the board of supervisors for supporting the additional academy classes which will ensure that we are able to get more officers on the streets. but we know that police

presence alone can't address some of the challenges that exist, and in particular, in communities where people speak different languages, there are often times, you know, just really a disconnect between the crime that happens and their ability to report those crimes. and so this drop-in center will be used as an opportunity for people who are a part of this community to basically come in to develop relationships with the officers here and to report crimes if they occur. and so i'm excited about that because i know that captain yepp has done an outstanding job in this community with building good relationships with the people in this community and also commander lozar who was the former captain of this station has also been instrumental in continuing to bridge that gap. this is just the next step in ensuring that people feel safe, that people feel secure in

their community. that they have a comfortable place to come and to meet with police officers. and i want to thank annie chung and the work of the self-help for the elderly and all that you do to also work with so many of our seniors in this particular community. we definitely have a lot of work to do, and this is just one of the first steps in trying to meet people where they are and come out into the community so that people are comfortable with having conversations and building relationships with our police department. it's something that is really important to me as someone bho grew up in the western addition and worked really hard to bridge the gap between law enforcement and one another. it's a way to stop crime from occurring, but once they occur, we have an obligation to work hard to address those particular issues, and this is just one step closer in getting us to a place where people can

feel that their voices matter, that they will be supported and protected in their community, so i am grateful to the san francisco police department for providing the bilingual officers who will work with this community. i want to thank chief scott for his leadership. will i i also, i know that supervisor peskin will be hosting office hours in this location. who knows, maybe one day, i'll join you. it's just another way to bring law enforcement, to bring all of these things directly into the community, to make the community not only a better community but a safer community who every who lives and works and spends time in this neighborhood. so thank you all so much for being here today, and i'm excite thad this space is opening to provide this opportunity for the folks in

this neighborhood. >> thank you, mayor, for your leadership and your support. the next speaker is my favorite district three supervisor, supervisor aaron peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, captain nepp. to our mayor, london breed, chief scott, to all of the dignitiaries gathered herein, it takes a village, and what you see in this place are many different agencies and nonprofit partners coming together. so we are here at portsmouth square which is the living room for this very, very dense community. everything that happens in this community happens in this treasured park, and we are on rec and parkland, which is leased to an organization that has been taking care of this community, particularly the seniors, since 1966, self-help for the elderly. and we have company a. why is it called company a?

it is the first police station in san francisco. i like to say all of our districts are created equal, but district three has central station, and we are more equal. why do i say that? because i know the working men and women of central station company a, and they're not just police officers. they do wellness checks, they know the people in the community. a long time ago at the board of supervisors, some 15 years ago, there was a big conversation about community policing. and when it was explained to me, i realized that i had community policing. all of my beat cops, they know the folks, whether they're in the pings or in north beach, and it really is the essence of what makes a safe community. and they're culturally competent. as a matter of fact, there are 460 officers in the sfpd who speak a multitude of languages, some 30 languages. the beat officers in chinatown

speak fluent cantonese. they engage with the seniors, they engage with the children, and this is an unparalleled opportunity for the people to have direct access twice a week in this treasured spot. as you all know, we come here for press conferences, for celebrations. this is a community that has under reported crime. i get to read about it in the journal and sing tao. this is an opportunity for people to come in and speak in cantonnese to report what's happening on the street. i'm incredibly grateful to the police department. chief scott, you have a great

worker in paul yepp. captain yepp, thank you for making it happen, and -- [speaking cantonnese language] >> thank you. and our next speaker is chief of police bill scott. >> thank you, everyone. and i won't go over the points that supervisor peskin and mayor breed said, but i want to reiterate a couple of things. first of all, thank you mayor breed for her outstanding leadership. you know, part of what makes this work for us is the executive leadership of the city. the budget that we received this year was very supportive, and it will enable us to continue the path of increasing our foot beat officers and that really speaks to our goal to engage better with the city of san francisco, the residents of the city of san francisco. the other part of that is, you

know, this community center will allow us to get to the root of policing, and that's getting people comfortable to report crimes when they occur, because that impacts how we deploy, that impacts how our resources are distributed throughout the city. so this is a great step in that direction. before i go any further, though, all this doesn't work without the people standing in the back of the room, and those are the officers that are assigned to this district, the central foot beat officers and supervision, captain yepp and his team. they make it work in conjunction with the community. i know they're behind the cameras, but i just want to thank the officers for what they do in this community, because we do have great relationships in this community. we do have some really good things happening in this community.

we are a police department that wants to be responsive to the community that we serve, and that all starts with the officers. the command staff, we do what we do. we lead the department, we set the course and the chart and all that, but the work gets done at the field level, and i can't say i'm so proud to have the officers in this room as the team that's doing this work. so thank you for what you do. as supervisor peskin said, we have over 460 -- i think the number is up to 490 officers that speak 30 different languages. we want to engage with our city. we want to get better at that. we want to be better at policing. we want to be the best police department in this nation, and i think with the leadership of this city, we're well on our way to do that. this is just another step, so thank you for kwbticontributin our city, what we know is a great thank you. thank you so much. >> thank you, chief. as i said earlier, this project

doesn't happen without our community partners, and one of our great community partners is the president of the self-help for the elderly, miss annie chung. >> thank you very much, captain yepp, and thank you mayor breed, thank you, supervisor peskin, who knows our place very well because you hold a lot of office appointments here. welcome, everybody to our portsmouth square clubhouse. as mayor breed and supervisor peskin and chief scott said, we know that partnership with the sfpd is very important to our community. we are the second most dense part to san francisco, probably second only to manhattan, new york, because as you see, a lot of our residents lived in very crowded housing in s.r.o.s. you see a lot of seniors walking on the street, talking

on their phone, not a very safe thing to do. because we heard that crimes usually get underreported in this community. no matter how hard, commander lozar, when you was our captain, and captain yepp come around to our senior centers and keep reporting the crimes, no matter how big or small the crimes are. when paul came to me and said, annie, you think you could rearrange a little bit of your schedule to accommodate our drop-in center, i said yes without the blinking of an eye. i know it will be a welcome sight. our merchants, our residents, our seniors who live around here, our children, you are welcome to see our police officers, especially those who speak the language. they feel comfortable of coming in to ask questions, and i think that through our work, we could also arrange for small groups of residents to come in

to get some public safety education with our officers. so thank you, mayor. community policing is all about the community. and if we build our rapport with our police officers, i know that i am krcrimes reportl increase, and i thank you very much for all of your leadership. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, annie. and then, our final speaker from the community is executive director of the chinatown community development center, malcolm yao. >> well, paul, thank you for the promotion. i'm not the executive director, i'm the deputy director of chinatown community center, but i'll ask for a raise. thank you very much. you know, this drop-in center is really all about community policing. i think we've thrown that term around quite a bit, but captain yepp personified that.

community policing is taking leadership and pulling the threads together necessary to make this happen. it wasn't easy, it wasn't from command on high. it came out of paul's head. he knew that reporting needed to go up, he knew that it needed to come back to the community, and this was captain yepp's brain child, and he took the lead in pulling all the threats for doing this. so i really want to thank you for this, captain yepp, for your leadership in the community. i don't say this lightly, when i say that auntie rose would be proud of you. she absolutely hated the koban, but she's going to love this. thank you. >> okay. that concludes the speaking portion of this press conference, but i did want to take the opportunity to introduce our officers new to the station but well known in the police department is

lieutenant doug farmer, sergeant paul rogers, sergeant klobuchu, officer bob duffield, officer pauli tang, officer jennie mau, officer reggie pena, officer matt fambrini, and officer alex anton. [applause] >> thank you very much.

i pledge a llegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. . would you like to call role? >> president mazzucco: please do. (roll call). >> yoyou have a quorum. also with us is the director of