>> supervisor safai: okay. good afternoon, everyone. this meeting will come to order. welcome to the january 16, 2019 meeting of the rules committee. my name is supervisor ahsha safai, chairman of the committee. to my left, supervisor kathrin stefani. and to my right, supervisor matt haney, filling in for supervisor norman yee.

mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? [agenda item read]. >> supervisor safai: thank you. and thank you, mr. young. victor young is our clerk today, as well as i want to thank michael and lawrence from sfgovtv. can we make a motion to excuse president norman yee? without objection, that is ordered. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: please call item number one. >> item one is a motion reappointing supervisor hillary ronen, term ending jufebruary , 2023 to the san francisco local agency formation commission. >> supervisor safai: any comments? any members of the public wish to comment, please come back. please state your name clearly for the record if you want to.

seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: i'll go ahead and make a motion to forward to the full board with positive recommendation reappointing supervisor hillary ronen to the san francisco local agency formation commission, term ending february 4, 2023. can we do that without objection? without objection, that item is ordered. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, please call item 2. >> clerk: item 2 is a motion reappointing supervisor sand rao lee fewer term ending february 4, 2023, to the san francisco locatum agency formation commission. >> supervisor safai: is there any member of the public that wishes to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: i'll go ahead and make a motion to forward to the full board with a positive recommendation to reappointment supervisor sandy fewer to the san francisco

local agency formation commission, term ending february 4, 2023. can we take that without objection? without objection, that motion is ordered. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, please call item three. >> clerk: item three is a motion appointing supervisor kathrin stefani, term ending january 31, 2021, to the mental health board. >> supervisor safai: supervisor haney, make a motion to excuse supervisor stefani. okay. can we take that without objection? without objection, that motion is ordered gav

[gavel]. >> supervisor safai: without objection, that item is ordered. [gavel] supervisor stefani, if you're listening, please join us. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: okay. mr. clerk, please call item number four. >> clerk: item number four is a motion reappointing supervisor sally brown to a term ending january 31, 2021, to the golden gate bridge highway and transportation district board of directors. >> supervisor safai: any members of the public wish to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: i'll go ahead and make other danother to forward to the full board with a positive recommendation a motion reappointing supervisor vallie brown, term ending january 31, 2021, to the golden gate bridge highway

and transportation district court board of directors. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, call the next item. [agenda item read]. >> supervisor safai: any comment by members of the public? seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. [gave [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, please call item number six. >> clerk: item number six is a ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the termination date of managed care contracts approved section section 21 a.3 from december 31, 2020 to december 31, 2025.

>> supervisor safai: if yotha you. if there's no public comment, i'd like to welcome stella chou, managed care from the department of public health. >> thank you. d.p. h. today, we are asking you to accept the termination code to extend the termination date of the managed care contracts from december 31, 2020, to december 31, 2025. this initially was approved by the board in 2014, when the board delegated authority to the director of health to enter into managed care contracts that the city anticipate over $1 million of reimbursements

for those services provided at d.p.h.'s facilities. this ordinance requires d.p.h. to report to the mayor's and board of supervisors annually, and through the office, d.p.h. has been submitting these reports annually, in january -february timeline. in 2016, based on the findings of d.p.h. and the controller's office, this managed care ordinance was amended to extend the termination date to december 2020. so again, d.p.h. is here to ask your permission to extend the terminati termination date to december 31, 2025. this will allow d.p.h. the flexibility to enter into managed care contracted and amend any existing ones. and we've been negotiating with

canopy health for the last 1.5 years roughly for a commercial contract, so this code needs to be extended to cover the initial three years period. with this action, we'll bring progress to -- we'll enable progress and allow more coverage for privately insured patients using services at d.p.h.'s facilities. so with that, dr. alice chin, who is the deputy director of san francisco health net work and i are happy to answer any questions you may have. thank you. >> supervisor safai: any members of the board wish to ask any questions? thank you, miss chou. thank you for living in my district. >> thank you for visiting my

home. >> supervisor safai: okay. i think this is pretty straightforward. we appreciate you coming out on a rainy day like this. we're going to move this to extend for time to give us the opportunity. i'll make a motion to forward to the full board with a positive recommendation, the ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the termination date of managed care contracts approved under section 21-a.3 -- oh, my members of the public wishing to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: thank you, deputy city attorney john give mer. always have to have public comment, otherwise it's not valid. i'll make a motion to forward to the full board with a positive recommendation, the ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the termination dais of managed

care contracts approved from december 31, 2020 to december 31, 2025. and can we do that without objection? without objection, the motion passes. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, call the next item. >> clerk: item seven is an ordinance amending the administrative code to extend the sunset date of the graffiti advisory board for three years to march 1, 2022, and to require the videoory board to submit annual rather than buy annual reports to the mayor and board of supervisors. >> larry stringer, deputy director of operations for public works, and i also chair the graffiti advisory board. just a little about the board and what it does. it was established in 2003, and

it was formed to advise the mayor's office and the board of supervisors about graffiti in san francisco and the downtown area. the advisory board advises the mayor about graffiti enforcement, prevention and cleanup strategies. there are three subcommittees of that board, which is education, enforcement, and abatement, and recommendations in all three of those areas come forward. we meet once a month, every second thursday, and i'm just going to share with you some of the things that have come out of the board over the last ten years. so we now have the blight ordinance that's used for graffiti enforcement. which we've seen a reduction for property owners abate about 95% of the time their graffiti, which was not the case prior to that. it was more like 45 or 50%. that recommendation came from the advisory board. we formed two programs where art lives, which is educational

program for students in the schools, and teaches them about graffiti, permission, and art versus vandalism, and that's been going on for approximately ten years. street smarts program, we partner with the arts commission to do murals in various community areas where we give a stipend, and they get the artists. we found that to be a deterrent for graffiti for the community. we've had four different huddles. one of the biggest was we had an international huddle in 2013. the attendance was about 125. we talk about graffiti strategies, abatement, the problem itself, and how it is across the country. and then, we also reach out to the communities and give them strategies for prevention as well as abatement. we also, under, at that time

board president london breed got legislation started and passed for civil penalties for graffiti tagging artists, which we did have one successful, which was for almost 250,000 will hav -- $250,000. >> supervisor safai: just to interrupt you for a second, mr. stringer, was that person a teenager, an adult? >> no, adult. >> supervisor safai: i knew they were. i just wanted you to say that for the record. >> the majority of the taggers, we find they're adults, not teenagers. we track the stats, and the tags has gone down over the last five to ten years. we also drafted a letter that is now read at every graffiti case. the d.a. reads the letter about the harm of graffiti and the cost to the city and to the

neighborhood, every case that goes forward. and as a result, we have -- some of the board members, we have a d.a., and we have the police that attend. they recently changed their strategy on dealing with graffiti. i don't know -- there was an article in the paper, if you haven't seen too long ago, instead of taking it case by case, they bundled a bunch of different cases together and then brought it before the grand jury, and you can see since they started that, which there's been a reduction, drastic drop. all of these things are what the advisory board has recommended or had a hand in over the last ten-plus years, so we're just asking that this committee be extended because we've run out time wise. >> supervisor safai: this is pretty straightforward, but i just wanted to ask a couple of questions for the record. that was one of them. the majority of people that are

tagging, they're adults, not teenagers. you highlighted this one case, 95% of the homeowner are responding to the blight ordinance. any areas for improvements that we could be thinking about here at the board of supervisors. >> as it relates to graffiti? thinking about it seriously, i think we're doing good. the one area that i would say, but it's not really your level, but you could champion it, i believe the vandalism in the penal code, it's not enforced here in the local level. i think reality is there should be a minimum that when you get caught tagging that there's always a minimum, and it's not just including community service. i think that would be a deterrent. that's one of the problems that

we have. there's not -- there's not really a deterrent. the civil legislation has really helped a lot. the changes recently that the d.a. made with the p.d. that would help, but that's -- one of the things that we try to tackle as a board is can we get the laws changed at the state level to put a little more emphasis on graffiti. because it does lead to other bad behavior, it's been shown. they start out as taggers, but they end up in a bunch of other things that creates problems for the community. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you, mr. stringer. any other members of the board -- okay. thank you. >> okay. >> supervisor safai: any other members of the public that wish to comment on this item? please state your name for the record if you so desire, and you will have up to two minutes to speak. >> my name's greg dillon. i've been the at-large representative on the graffiti

advisory board for the last three years. my role has been more of abateme abatement. so in your areas of improvement, the things i would note is the app has changed things incredibly. before, there was 20,000 reports coming in a year, and now there's 70. now, we can track and say you know what? d.p.w. is doing a great job. there's sort of a need to have somebody say, you know what? d.p.w. is doing good, but this other department isn't, and by having the report get up to your level, that's more of an ability to have that happen. so from the -- from the chance to do abatement better, to improve the city's response -- and i think that also gives the

citizens a chance to be involved, because while there's a lot of attention on the graffiti taggers, if you talk with people out there, there's a lot of people that think you know, the city's not doing a good job. it's taking too long, and that's on city property, and they're telling me to clean it on my property, so i -- i encourage sort of the abatement side to continue to be stressed. >> supervisor safai: thank you. any other members of the public wish to comment on this item, please come forward. seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: i'll go ahead and make a motion. [inaudible] >> supervisor safai: -- of the graffiti advisory board for three years to march 1, 2022, and to require the advisory board to submit annual rather than biannual reports to the

mayor and to the board of supervisors. can we do that without objection? without objection, that item is ordered. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: thank you. mr. clerk, please call item number eight. >> clerk: item number eight is a hearing to consider appointing two members. term ending april 20, 21 and one member, term ending march 22, 2020, to the graffiti advisory board. >> mike petricca, please come forward. you have two minutes to speak. >> mike petricca, i'm the vice president of campus safety and art services at the art university. been there 14 years in that capacity. i took over for rebecca rutman

delgado. blessed -- i've been on the board for a few months now, and we did accomplish one thing for the board, from an academy perspective, we did a radio and t.v. ad for them, which they're going to be putting on local radios and t.v.s. our students did that pro bono for the graffiti advisory board. we're also doing graffiti cleanup for their athletic department, so we're very supportive of the graffiti advisory board, and i wish i could stay on that board for the next couple three years. thank you. >> supervisor safai: thank you, mr. petricca. any questions for mr. petricca? okay. we'll call you back up if we have any. let's call up our next applicant, margaux casillas. >> hello. i'm margaux casillas with clear

channel outdoor. i'm the transit representative for the shelters. i started this position in may 2018. i am taking over for amy landgraf who was also on the graffiti advisory board? we also assisted in the previous graffiti advisory board huddle from last year. we donated advertising, where we took their p.s.a. and advertised it on 50 of our digital panels around the city. that's our premium network, and then, i've also attended meetings since june of last year? graffiti is important to clear channel because it does cost us. we spent over $300,000 in maintenance just cleaning, power washing, replacing glass, as ac acid etching. one thing i would like to stay

on this board, a complaint to 311 response time. we are working with our office staff to expedite that. and the other thing is working with officer ferreira for a better system for documenting the graffiti because currently, we take pictures of our graffiti that's on our shelters or news racks, but we don't do with them. i'd like to work with staff to facilitate a different system to provide him more evidence. great. thank you. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. if we have any other questions, we'll call you back up. the last person we're going to call up to be reappointed to seat 18, is gregory dillon. >> my name's gregory dillon, and it's about three years now i've been on, and i was attending the meetings before that. i think the things that are unique that i bring to the board is the ability to look at the data.

the city has an open data portal, and i'm using a data science quantitative techniques on there to be able to look at things like the report was submitted on such and such days, how many days is it open, when it's in the field to when it's closed or is it never closed? comparing different areas of the city, one to another, so maps where there would just be so many pinpoints on them, we instead use a heat map system. i live over in the mission area, and the graffiti -- amount of degree tee is very different through -- throughout the city. last year, the -- graffiti is very different throughout the city. last year, some of the lower districts had only 2 and 3,000, so it's multiple times more graffiti in certain areas. and the other thing is with that data, i've also been

pushing that they update the 311 app because it's including more clicks that are necessary. for the people out there, yes, if you're a graffiti, not like to spend the time, but it could be made much quicker for people to do it without spending so much of their time to get the report made. >> supervisor safai: great. that's a good thing to work on. call you back up, mr. dillon, if we have any other questions. the other applicant for seat 18, jessica cabrera, withdrew her name, so without further comment, we'll go to public comment. is there any member of the public wishing to comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: i'll go ahead and make a motion, forward to the full board with a positive recommendation the appointment of mike petricca to seat 16, margaux casillas, to

seat 17 for terms ending april 1, 2021, and gregory dillon, seat 18, to a term ending april 10, 2021. [gavel]. >> supervisor safai: mr. clerk, call the next item. [agenda item read]. >> supervisor safai: great. unless there's any questions from the speakers, we can call up -- would you like to go first? yeah, sure, supervisor ronen's office. >> yes. good afternoon, chair safai, supervisors haney and stefani. supervisor ronen sends her apologies. she was unable to be here today

and also for the item number one, and i'll find out -- >> supervisor safai: well, she's not allowed to be here, any way, so it all worked out. >> thank you. >> supervisor safai: we did, and it's all good. >> but thank you for allowing me to speak on her behalf. supervisor ronen enthusiastically authorizes sara souza to fill the seat nine on the eastern neighborhood citizens advisory committee. she brings a very impressive set of skills in community development, economic justice, all of which very well articulated in her application. she's truly dedicated to community input and advocacy and has deep ties to the mission through her work and community service. sara will be a thought partner and planning to community on implementation of the eastern neighborhood plan in particular as it applies to the mission with an emphasis on equitiable development and strategies and supervisor ronen is very

delighted to be able to put forward this nomination. thank you. >> supervisor safai: great. thank you. miss souza, would you like to come and speak on your behalf? >> good afternoon. thank you for your time? so i'm here because, you know, i'm highly interested in the appointment? i have years of experience working in housing policy and community investment? as a matter of fact, in 2015, i was a policy intern at mission economic development agency, and i worked directly with community members and tenants and, you know, artists on multiple projects, including the mission action plan 2020 and small site acquisition program to protect long-time san francisco tenants? i'm a community organizer at california reinvestment coalition, and you know, my

main goal and contributions to this advisory issue advocate for -- for affordable housing and equitiable development? and also to build a consensus around housing? and you know, i also want to share that i'm the president of the latino democratic club. and, you know, i -- i'm very involved in the community and very passionate about housing. it was one of my main focus in graduate folschool? i went to u.s.f., and as a latina community organizer, i represent the community interests and ethnicity and diversity, so i hope you consider me. thank you. >> supervisor safai: any questions for miss souza? comments? supervisor haney?

>> supervisor haney: well, i -- i've known miss souza for some time, and i'm very excited that you are stepping up to this role. great choice, supervisor ronen and her office, and just want to also -- to welcome your family and i'm sure you're very proud of your daughter, and she's just an extraordinary community leader and as someone who represents a district that is impacted by the work that you're going to be doing, i'm really grateful that you're going to be there with your experience and your close connections to the community, and i look forward to working with you, so congratulations, and thank you for stepping up and serving. >> supervisor safai: any other comments? just echo that. i think it's really important to take the opportunity when given to serve your community. there's a lot of challenges facing the eastern neighborhoods, not just the mission but eastern neighborhoods in general.

i can remember back -- i guess it was over ten years ago now, back in 2003 or '04, discussions were happening on the rezoning of the eastern neighborhoods, and particularly on mission street, and there were conversations about height and density, and i don't even think at that time in 2004, people could have anticipated the level of displacement and the conversation about affordable housing and which way it would go and what levels of conclusionary were appropriate. we hadn't even contemplated the small sites program. ellis act wasn't even -- it was somewhat on the table, but it was more a conversation about moving to tenancies in common, which is real not part of the debate anymore because of our condo conversion cap. there's a lot of things about being involved in the eastern neighborhood advisory committee that can really influence and direct policy at the board of supervisors, so i'm glad you're active, i'm glad you're involved, and i know your

family is, as supervisor haney says, very proud of you. so lcongratulations. so we can make a motion. looks like you'll be serving out an unexpired term. we'll make a motion to forward to the full board with a positive recommendation to appoint sara souza to serve on the eastern neighborhoods citizens advisory committee, to a term ending october 19, 2019. it looks like you'll be back out in the fall. congratulations. mr. clerk, do we have any other items on the agenda today? >> that completes the agenda today. >> supervisor safai: okay. great. we are adjourned. [gavel]

>> i lived in the mission neighborhood for seven years and before that the excel see your district. 20 years a resident of the city and county of san francisco. i am the executive director of a local art space nonprofit that showcases work that relate to the latino community and i have been in this building for seven years and some of my neighbors have been here 30 year. we were notified from the

landlord he was going to sell the building. when we realized it was happening it was no longer a thought for the landlord and i sort of had a moment of panic. i heard about the small sites program through my work with the mission economic agency and at met with folks from the mayor's housing program because they wanted to utilize the program. we are dealing with families with different needs and capacities. conversations were had early in the morning because that is the only time that all the tenants were in the building and finally when we realized that meda did have the resources to buy the building we went on a letter writing campaign to the landlord and said to him we understand you want to sell your building,

we understand what you are asking for and you are entitled to it, it's your land, but please work with us. what i love about ber nell height it represents the diversity that made me fall in love with san francisco. we have a lot of mom and pop shops and you can get all your resources within walking distance. my favorite air area of my homes my little small patio where i can start my morning and have my coffee an is a sweet spot for me and i as latinos we are unified in some ways and incredibly diverse

in others and this exhibit really is an exploration of nuance in how we present those ideas. ♪ our debts are not for sale. >> a piece about sanctuary and how his whole family served in the army and it's a long family tradition and these people that look at us as foreigners, we have been here and we are part of america, you know, and we had to reinforce that. i have been cure rating here for about 18 year. we started with a table top,

candle, flower es, and a picture and people reacted to that like it was the monna lisa. >> the most important tradition as it relates to the show is idea of making offering. in traditional mexican alters, you see food, candy, drinks, cigarettes, the things that the person that the offerings where being made to can take with them into the next word, the next life. >> keeps u.s us connects to the people who have passed and because family is so important to us, that community dynamic makes it stick and makes it visible and it humanizes it and makes it present again. ♪ >> when i first started doing it back in '71, i wanted to do

something with ritual, ceremony and history and you know i talked to my partner ross about the research and we opened and it hit a cord and people loved it. >> i think the line between engaging everyone with our culture and appropriating it. i think it goes back to asking people to bring their visions of what it means to honor the dead, and so for us it's not asking us to make mexican altars if they are not mexican, it's really to share and expand our vision of what it means to honor the dead. >> people are very respectful. i can show you this year alone of people who call tol ask is it okay if we come, we are hawaii

or asian or we are this. what should we wear? what do you recommend that we do? >> they say oh, you know, we want a four day of the dead and it's all hybrid in this country. what has happened are paper cuts, it's so hybrid. it has spread to mexico from the bay area. we have influence on a lot of people, and i'm proud of it. >> a lot of tim times they don't represent we represent a lot of cultures with a lot of different perspectives and beliefs. >> i can see the city changes and it's scary. >> when we first started a lot of people freaked out thinking we were a cult and things like that, but we went out of our way

to also make it educational through outreach and that is why we started doing the prosession in 1979. >> as someone who grew up attending the yearly processions and who has seen them change incrementally every year into kind of what they are now, i feel in many ways that the cat is out of the bag and there is no putting the genie back into the bottle in how the wider public accesses the day of the dead. >> i have been through three different generations of children who were brought to the procession when they were very young that are now bringing their children or grandchildren. >> in the '80s, the processions were just kind of electric. families with their homemade visuals walking down the street

in san francisco. service so much more intimate and personal and so much more rooted in kind of a family practice of a very strong cultural practice. it kind of is what it is now and it has gone off in many different directions but i will always love the early days in the '80s where it was so intimate and son sofa millial. >> our goal is to rescue a part of the culture that was a part that we could invite others to join in there there by where we invite the person to come help us rescue rescue it also. that's what makes it unique. >> you have to know how to approach this changing

situation, it's exhausting and i have seen how it has affected everybody. >> what's happening in mission and the relationship with the police, well it's relevant and it's relevant that people think about it that day of the dead is not just sugar skulls and paper flowers and candles, but it's become a nondenominational tradition that people celebrate. >> our culture is about color and family and if that is not present in your life, there is just no meaning to it you know? >> we have artists as black and brown people that are in direct danger of the direct policies of the trump a administration and i think how each of the artists has responsibilitie responded ss interesting. the common

[♪] common >> 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. [♪]

>> welcome everyone. my name is david cook. i am the president of the board of the directors of the episcopal community services. is my privilege to thank you all for being here on this wet but very important day as we

inaugurate the bryant street navigation center. i wanted to take a minute to give a special welcome to our distinguished roster of guest speakers will be hearing from in a few minutes. the mayor is here, filled tagging tag tony tried various, and rebecca from google. i would also like to welcome leaders and staff of the department of homelessness and supportive housing, here. i would also like to welcome all our other partners and friends and members of the press who are covering these issues so diligently. a special welcome to the board members and staff who showed up today. one of our senior staff members will be offering some interesting insight into this new facility a little bit later on. last but not least, i want to welcome our navigation centre residents who are here in the room. the folks who are on the front lines who are experiencing or have recently experienced homelessness first-hand.

as you probably know, conventional homeless shelters have been around for a long time , but navigation centers are pretty new. less than four years ago, in march of 2014, we were instrumental in opening and operating the very first navigation center in the united states over on mission street. since that time, five additional navigation centers have been opened, and today, a sixth. the navigation centers in this town have become a national model for removing barriers to housing for high need individuals who are dealing with complex issues and two as a result, have experienced homelessness. along the way, ecs has continued to operate two of the navigation centers, but has established itself as an innovative thought leader in the field, providing

expert consultation to sister agencies both in san francisco, and across the country, and early-stage planning, set up, and ongoing operations, which brings us to what we are doing here today. we are so excited to be starting and operating this brand-new 84 bed navigation center here in the south of market. as you will hear, opening a facility like this requires the hard work, dedication, and generosity of a lot of people and a lot of companies and agencies. but long-term success in addressing homelessness can never be achieved without committed leaders at the highest levels of local governments. that is what we have in mayer london breach. just this past october, a few months after she was elected, she set an ambitious goal of adding 1,000 new shelter beds in san francisco by the end of 2020 and of getting half of them online -- [cheers and applause] >> and of getting half of them online by this coming july. eighty-four of them are right here. under her leadership, we are on the way. ladies and gentlemen, mayer london breed. [cheers and applause]

>> thank you. i am excited to be here today and i'm also excited to welcome in the new incoming supervisor for district six, matt haney, who is joining us here today. [applause] >> please direct any of your complaints to him. [laughter] >> this is a great day. i am just excited about what we're doing here in san francisco and it does take a village to get to a place where we can address what we know is one of the biggest challenges we face in this city, and that is homelessness. so many incredible organizations groups that continue to build partnerships with each and every one of us, to focus on providing shelters, providing navigation centers, providing services, one of our great partners is here today, thank you downtown streets team for being here, it all the work that you continue to do to keep our communities clean and safe, and many of you know that this is definitely a