>> good morning, please welcome san francisco gay men's chorus, performing "singing for our love ." [♪] ♪ we are peaceful loving people ♪ ♪ and we are singing,, singing for our love ♪ ♪ we are young and old together ♪ ♪ and we are singing, singing for our love ♪ [♪]

[♪] [singing] ♪ [singing]

[singing] [singing]

[singing] [cheers and applause] >> please welcome, chris verdugo , executive director of the san francisco gay men's chorus. >> good morning. on behalf of the board of directors, staff, and about a tenth of our singing members that are with us, it is an honour to welcome you to our new home for the mayor's first state

of the city address. as we begin to envision this space over a year ago, our intention became clear, we wanted to create a centre where lgbtq artists and organizations could come together, a space where they could collaborate and incubate new works pack and affordable and safe space, a place to present master classes and lecture series, and to host a middle and high schools aged students with our educational programs, rhythm, reaching youth through music, and the it gets better showcase pick a venue that would house a state-of-the-art broadcast facility so we could transmit these incredible transformational and inspiring events to a global audience. a space that espouses the san francisco values of diversity, acceptance, equality, entrepreneurship, and creativity a home where art and activism come together, and it is my honor to welcome you to that space today. [applause]

our new home, and the nation's first-ever lgbtq centre for the arts is a continuation of what began over 40 years ago on the city hall steps. that moment where 99 men raised their voices in anger and sadness, but also in hope, singing the song that you just heard, singing for our lives, and thereby sparking an lgbtq arts movement that would eventually spanned five continents. that is why this isn't just our home, it is a home for all of the san francisco arts community and the nation. no one understands this better than the mayor. as executive director of the african-american arts and culture complex, and she transformed the struggling center into a vital, sustainable community resource. she understands, yes. [applause]

>> she understands that arts and culture are at the forefront of social change, and we are honored that she chose our new home for her first state of the city address. [applause] >> please join me in welcoming, mayor, london abbreviate. [cheers and applause] [applause] >> thank you. >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, everyone. thank you so much. thank you. thank you. thank you all so much for being here today. thank you to the san francisco

gay men's chorus for opening up their new home, this amazing, national, lgbtq centre for the arts. what i love about this center is that this chorus has invested their time and resources in creating something beautiful, not just for themselves, but for the entire lgbtq and arts community around the country. this is a place that celebrates what is best about san francisco , and that is what i want to talk you about today. for too long, our safety has been the subject of a drumbeat of negative media attention, national stories claiming that san francisco has lost its way. however, streets are dangerous slums, our housing is unobtainable, how temple workers battle for our city's up soul. like most narratives, their elements of truth here, we have failed to build enough housing,

we do face a homeless crisis, as we grapple with mental health and substance use on our streets of course, we acknowledge the challenges we face. the question is, what do we do next, hang our heads and give up cloth concede our problems are too great and the soul of our city is lost? anyone who thinks that, anyone who thinks that is what we will do knows nothing about this city [applause] >> this is san francisco. we don't throw up our hands, we take to our feet. we don't wait for guidance, we liked the way. this is a city that knows how. the innovation capital of the world his. [cheers and applause] >> the national leader on lgbt and immigrant rights,

environmental protections, healthcare, and so many other causes. the place where my angelou rang cable car bells -- the place where my angelou rang cable car bells and the place where a girl from public housing became mayor [cheers and applause] >> our congresswoman is speaker of the house. our former mayor just became governor. another is the california senior senator, the state's lieutenant lieutenant governor, controller and treasurer are all san franciscans. [cheers and applause] >> our former district attorney could even be the next president [cheers and applause] >> it is time that our city

holds its head up high again. it is time we believe again. yes, we have our challenges, i see them every day, just like you. i'm frustrated just like you about the issues that face our city, but i'm also motivated, because there is no problem we caps off together, no challenge we won't face together, there is , as president clinton said, nothing wrong with san francisco that can't be fixed with what is right about san francisco. [cheers and applause] >> homelessness in san francisco has, for decades, been described as a sad reality, an impossible problem, just part of our city. i don't accept that they are just a few years ago, he only had to walk a few blocks from city hall to seat tent encampments lining our sidewalks , clips covering whole

blocks on division street. today, those encampments are gone. that is partly because we have been working to build more shelters, more housing, and help more people. in the last six months, since i have been in office, we have built three navigation centers, with 338 beds, the fastest expansion of shelter beds our city has seen in decades. [cheers and applause] >> and we've helped nearly 1,000 people exit homelessness. 1,000 people in six months. [applause] >> yes, we have a long way to go and so much work to do, but we are making a difference in people's lives. when we open up to the bryant street navigation centre earlier this month, i met a woman who had just moved in.

she is battling addiction and breast cancer. on the streets, her medication kept getting stolen, she couldn't get healthy, now she is inside, and she is working on getting housing. at bryant street, she gave me a hug, and she said she is hopeful , and so am i. if she has hope, others can too. that is the difference. she is excited about the future, and i'm excited for her. if she can have a hope, and others can too. i've already announced my plan to add 1,000 shelter beds by 2020, enough to clear the shelter bed waitlist. [applause] >> we also are declaring a shelter crisis so we can get these shelter beds builds now, and i want to thank supervisor supervisors brown, haney, mandelman, supervisor stefani and walton, for joining me in

recognizing our bureaucracy shouldn't stand in the way of one single thousand beds. this is a huge step, we know, but it is not enough. we know we have around 4,000 unsheltered people in our city, sleeping in our streets, in our parks, in the doorway is, or in vehicles. we know that it's a travesty, but it's one we can take on. in the next four years, i want to create enough shelter beds, step up housing units, homeless housing units, and housing subsidies for every person who is currently unsheltered. that is 4,000 more placements for people. no more excuses, no more status quo and let's be clear, every part of our city, every neighborhood must be open to being part of the solution. [cheers and applause]

>> to get there, we must move forward with my proposal for our windfall funding. $185 million for homelessness, behavioural health, and affordable housing. [cheers and applause] >> with this investment, we can add 310 new shelter beds, 300 units of housing by master leasing units, freeing up hundreds of beds in the shelter system. complete funding for a 255 unit building for homeless seniors and adults, and get started on hundreds more. now i know there are other budget priorities, and they are important. let's be clear. every dollar we take away from what i propose is one bed, one lost home, one more person on the streets.

i will continue to work with a board president, norman he -- norman he -- yee and the board of supervisors. working together, we can tackle any impossible problem. the crisis on our street is not just about homelessness. people suffering from mental illness, they need more than just housing. often they are actually housed. these people need help, since i took office, we have added 50 mental health stabilization beds , and i'm committed to opening up 100 more this year. [cheers and applause] >> our healthy streets operation centre is out there every day helping those suffering from substance use disorder, getting them connected to treatment and shelter, to help those who are truly suffering get real

treatment. i've partnered with supervisor raphael mandelman on conservatorship legislation because when people can't care for themselves, we have to do better, and we have to care for them. [applause] >> we have to revamp our entire approach to mental health. to bring together all of our mental health programs under one focus, i am creating a director of mental health reform. [applause] >> this person will be responsible for better coordination of mental health care for those suffering in our city, this person will strengthen the program we have that are working, nts, cut cut the ineffective program because clearly there are things in this

city that just aren't working, and shouldn't continue to be funded. [applause] >> we need to build people's lives, not shuffle them from emergency room to emergency room , from jail cell, to jail cell. our criminal justice system is not a mental health solution. [applause] >> to do all this, we need a vision and leadership, so today, i am announcing that i have hired a new director of the department of public health, dr grant kovacs. [applause] >> the doctor is one of our own, trained at ucsf, you were to the

department of public health as a director of h.i.v. prevention and research, before leaving to join the obama white house as a director of national aids policy he knows our city and its challenges, and he is ready to get to work, and he knows that we need to get zero h.i.v. infections in san francisco. [applause] >> we need to reach our most vulnerable populations, particularly are african-american and latino communities who are not seeing their h.i.v. infections drop as others do, this means getting everyone, and i mean everyone access to services, treatment, and preventative medications like prep. [applause] >> and i'm confident that dr kovacs will get us to our goal.

we are also confronting san francisco's other allegedly impossible problem, housing. housing. we have to produce and preserve housing, and keep people in their homes. i will continue to support the rights to civil council which we funded it last year's budget with $5.8 million so every tenant who needs a lawyer can get one, and through our small sight -- his most -- small site acquisition program, will fight to preserve rent-controlled buildings to keep people in neighborhoods secure. [applause] >> people like ms. miss wu, and 99-year-old woman who has been living in the same building in the richmond district for the past 30 years. or building was going up for sale, threatening her home, and that of every senior who lived

there. i met her with supervisor -- supervisor fewer when i visited her home, the building that we helped purchase and make permanently affordable. ensuring that she and her neighbors wouldn't have to worry about where they were going to live. [applause] >> as we keep people in their homes, we have to build more new housing. lots more. [cheers and applause] >> in 2018, we built around 3,000 homes. that's not nearly enough. we have to get better, and that's why i've already hired a housing delivery director to deliver projects faster, and implement policy reforms that cut the times to get permits in half. i've directed the department to end the backlog of hundreds of

in law units, and make it easier for people to build them going forward, and passed legislation to prevent the loss of thousands of units in the pipeline. if we are going to be in san francisco for all, we need to be a san francisco that builds housing for all. that's why i'm moving forward with the 300 million-dollar affordable housing bond so we can continue to invest in badly needed affordable housing. [cheers and applause] >> across our city, we have projects like the balboa upper yard that are ready to build. that is 131 units that just need funding, but it's not just about investing, we have to break the barriers to building housing so our dollars go further and we get housing built faster.

so today, i'm announcing a charter amendment for this november's election, to make all affordable housing and teacher housing as upright in san francisco. [cheers and applause] >> if an affordable housing or teacher housing project as proposed within zoning, then build it, and build it now. no more bureaucracy. [applause] >> no more bureaucracy, no more costly appeals, number not in my neighborhood. it is simple, affordable housing as of right because housing affordability is a right. [applause] >> this is how we create housing

for all san franciscans, and i will continue to work with our state legislators, our regional partners, our new governor, because housing affordability isn't just a san francisco issue , it is a crisis throughout the state of california. we won't always see the results of these efforts immediately, it may take some years to his see some changes, but then we have started to build more aggressively 20 years ago, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in today. [applause] >> we might have inherited a problem decades in the making, but we cannot be the ones who pass it on to the next generation. [applause] >> as we grow, we must make our streets clean and our communities safe. since my first day in office, i have been out walking our neighboured neighborhood.

this is not okay. it is not healthy. and while there is much more to do, we are working every day to stop it. it is no secret i have put in a lot of focus in the tenderloin and the south of market. i am committed to improving these neighborhoods. so far, we have doubled the number of beat officers in midmarket. we have added pitstops, big belly trash cans and street cleaners. we have increased enforcement against drug dealing, and expanded outreach by our healthy outreach operation centre. i know we have more to do, but people are starting to see a difference. families are coming to the new playgrounds at civic centre. i met a young family with two small children who came from sunset. they told me a year ago that they never would have gone to the playground there. too dirty, too run down, to many needles. now the new café on the playgrounds are now part of their saturday. this is a start.

a first step towards making our public spaces clean and safe. we have also seen our investments in community policing yield results. last year, we had a 18% drop in homicide, which coincides with a major reduction in gun violence for the second year in a row. in fact, we had a 25% increase in firearm fees, and a 30 5% decrease in gun violence. [applause] to put it simply, more guns off the streets, fewer crimes in homicides involving guns. we also had a nine% reduction in property crimes, including an 18 % drop in car break-ins, and a 13% drop in car thefts.

we are, at last, reversing the carved reagan epidemic through the great work of our police department, we are working a dip -- making a difference on violent crimes and property crimes. more officers in our neighborhoods, and investments in cleaner, safer streets are all important. as we address these issues today , we also have to think about how to prevent them from happening in the future. we have to confront the root causes of crime and addiction, which means addressing inequity and poverty. [applause] last year, working with our public defender, we made san francisco the first city in the country to eliminate punitive wasteful court fines and fees. [cheers and applause] >> these fees did nothing more

than drive people into poverty, or worse, back into prison. we will continue our work to give the next generation opportunities back and prevent them from ending up in the criminal justice system in the first place. we are working our city build program to address the shortage of construction workers and give people good paying jobs. we are launching new jobs and helping to train new munimobile drivers to get more people on the street so we can get san franciscans where they need to go faster. we have tech s.f., healthcare academy, and hospitality initiatives, all of which train people to work in our city, and as a former city in turn, who at 14 proudly worked at a nonprofit , answering phones and helping young family is, and doing paperwork, i am particularly proud to have launched opportunities for all so that we can get every high

school students -- [applause] scene -- >> so we can get every high school student in san francisco a paid internship, because unlike the president in this town we pay people when they go to work. [laughter] [applause] >> this program will help our kids now to earn money, to learn new skills, to keep them from going down the wrong path. these young people will be exposed to opportunities they never knew existed. they could see a future in an industry they never had access to. they could see themselves making a difference in a world in a way that they never thought possible . they will flourish, and we will grow our workforce right here in san francisco. [applause]

>> will continue to lead the way on so many other important issues. we will protect the environment, and fight climate change. yesterday, we all know pg and tee declared bankruptcy, and there's a lot of talk about what this could mean, but let's talk about what we know. san francisco knows how to run a clean power system, and we are going to get to 100% renewable energy by 2030. [applause] >> if this bankruptcy provides an opportunity for public power, supervisor peskin, we will take it. [applause] [laughter] >> i will be working with the city attorney, dennis herrera, and supervisor peskin to make sure that whatever happens to pg and e., we are prepared to.

i'm also working with city attorney herrera to address questions around the testing of the hunter at's pointe. [applause] >> we need to be clear and transparent with the public about this project. along with supervisor walton, we have requested that ucsf, and u.c. berkeley put together an independent team to review the procedures for the retesting of parcel a and g. [cheers and applause] >> these are trusted institutions. they will provide an independent analysis so the public can feel confident in the results. we also have to break the gridlock that is on our streets and create a more functioning transportation system. people may continue to choose to drive in san francisco, but that

can't be their only choice. i will work with supervisor peskin on a measure that will charge our ride hail companies to relieve congestion on our streets. [applause] >> we have to keep pushing forward street facing invasion zero projects, including building protected bike lanes on high injury corridors, like the one we are building by upside on valencia street that made it so hard for you to get here. [applause] >> we will also continue investing in helping our transgender residents with housing and services, and to those in washington, d.c. who continue to try and erase transgender people, it won't work back not here in san francisco. [cheers and applause]

>> now more than ever, as the president continues to fear mongering about walls and slander our immigrant communities, san francisco is proud to stand as a sanctuary city. [applause] >> we are a city that is surrounded by bridges, not divided by walls, and we will stay that way. [applause] >> when i took the oath of office six months ago, i never pretended i could solve all of our problems. i believed we could solve them working together. i believed in a government for all of us, and i still believe that we are working to turn the tides, and i hope every san franciscan can feel the difference when you see our public works crews, our -- out

power washing the sidewalks and picking up trash, i hope you feel the difference. when you see our police officers walking the beats in the neighborhood, and talking to the merchants and the residence, i hope that you feel the difference. when you see our homeless outreach team and public health workers helping people suffering on our streets, i hope you feel the difference. when you see a new shelter open, a new affordable housing project go up, or a new bike lane that gets finished, i hope you smile and feel the difference. i hope you believe with me that you hold your head high and take pride in our city, and what we can do together, because we are san francisco. we will meet these challenges, and we will continue to light a better way for the future of our city. thank you all so much for being here today. [cheers and applause]

>> good morning and thank you for being here. today has been a long time coming and it is certainly a cause for celebration. i'm glad to see so much support for our animals. we are joined today by some of our adoption partners, including sonoma reptile rescue, wonder dog, mutts ville, pause, as well as our largest partner, the san francisco spca. [applause] >> it takes a village to care for the 10,000 animals we taken every year, so we all worked closely together to save as many as we can, also joining us are our coworkers from across the city who help the shelter function. we are animal experts, so we are very dependent on our counterparts at city hall who keep us on the straight and

narrow and pitch in from everything from accounting, to human resources, to legal advice , building management, everything else that keeps the shelter afloat. nearly all of the walks and cuddles our animals receive every day come courtesy of our volunteers, who last year, devoted 27,000 hours of time to our shelter. [cheers and applause] >> we couldn't survive without them. we also have a very special group of volunteers, the board of friends of acc works tirelessly to develop partnerships between the shelters, the community, the business community, and helps raise funds to help support our efforts. last but not least, there is the a.c.c. staff, you every day take

in stray pets, injured wildlife abused animals, and heal them as best they can. [applause] >> in addition to animals, our team helps many people in the city, often on the saddest days of their lives as they look for a lost pet or grieve for a companion who has just died. today, we are breaking ground on a new home for all of the city's animals and the people who love them. we will no longer have a building that works against quality care. each animal will have some place to stretch. we will have forever outdoor play stations which means that bunnies will no longer have to share with the dogs. [laughter]. >> which is no fun for anyone, especially the bunnies.

we will have ventilation systems that help fight the spread of disease, we will have isolation rooms so we no longer have to house nervous birds with sick cats. as we approach the department's 40 it -- 30th anniversary, we can anticipate moving into a shelter worthy of the city of st. francis. the building would not have big -- become a reality without the efforts of many, including the board of supervisors, city administrator naomi kelly, the architects, engineers, and project managers at the department of public works who probably redesigned this building three times, sfmta, who agreed to trade buildings with us, and first and foremost, our mayor, please welcome, maryland and breed -- please welcome mayor london breed. [applause]. >> thank you, virginia, and thank you all for being here. believe it or not, i owned a lot

of cats a long time ago. kitty one, kitty two, kitty three, kitty four, kitty five, and jojo. it is something special about animals, and this is why we are all here today. we definitely get really attached to our pets, and honestly, i cry when my grandmother -- i cried when my grandmother wouldn't take -- wouldn't let me take kitty five to college. i think about our shared experiences of how animals make us feel, the love, the comfort, the excitement, and especially when you teach them new tricks, but we also know there are a number of challenges in our city sometimes, if an owner passes away, they have a pet, and there is no place for that pet to go. sometimes when we see animals that are stray and out on our streets, and they are injured, we have to make sure that they have a place to go, and animal care and control has been that place for over 30 years here in

the city and county of san francisco, and in fact, because of the work and the support, and the fundraising from the friends of the animal care and control, the ability to have so many incredible volunteers, and additional resources is why people care about making sure that we have a better facility so that we can accommodate so many animals, so many requests, and do what we know we can do better, and that is take care of animals here in san francisco when they can't take care of themselves. [applause] >> part of building a resilient city is making sure that our assets are seismically safe, and we know that the current building at 15th and harrison is efficient. it is cramped, and it may not

survive the next earthquake, and we know it is not a matter of if there will be an earthquake in san francisco, it is a matter of when. when you look all around the country at the number of disasters that occur, and how pets have been separated from owners, and what happens during that time, it is important that we are not concerned about the structure, that we are able to do the work, that people know that there animal, if found, will be brought to animal care and control, because we will have a seismically sound facility so the employees, the amazing staff of animal care and control can focus on doing their job and not necessarily on whether or not the rueful cave in. that is what this is about, and i want to thank everyone for being here today, but i also want to think the person who spearheaded this entire project and was really aggressive on the board of supervisors with

ensuring that we invested the dollars necessary to get this project done sooner rather than later. supervisor, former supervisor katy tang. [cheers and applause] >> who went on -- during her time on the board of supervisors , she would always, especially during the holidays, bring in a lot of cats, and i would go in there and be tempted to adopt, and then i would think , okay, i have to be able to feed the cat every day, can i feed the cat every day, but helps with adoption, helps with advocacy for animals in san francisco, and thank you for your really steadfast commitment on supporting this project, and now in two and a half years when you come back to cut the ribbon, you will see the fruits of your labor with all of the incredible people here today. thank you supervisor tang. and thank you to naomi kelly --

kelly, thank you to mohammed knew rue, and all the people who have played a critical role in making this project happen, but a special thanks to the community, to the volunteers who have spent over 30,000 hours taking care of over 10,000 animals year after year after year, and the friends who continue to raise money, and raise awareness for this amazing project. this will be an absolute incredible facility, and i just wanted to acknowledge our new fire chief, janine nicholson, thank you so much for being here as well. [applause] >> please know that we are increasing the capacities of the fire marshal does not have to shut down the new space. we will have plenty of room and places for people to be. thank you everyone for being here today and your support for this amazing project. [applause]

>> i almost forgot, also i forgot to thank the leader of animal care and control, thank you so much, virginia, for your hard work and your commitment. [cheers and applause] >> and your steadfast leadership [applause]. >> and at this time, i want to bring forth our city administrator naomi kelly. [applause]. >> good morning. our mayor and director of a.c.c. , virginia don who basically said it all. this project is so important. it was one of the first projects i worked on when i became city administrator in 2012. i instantly realized when i went on a right along with one of the animal care control officers that a.c.c., the staff, the volunteers, they are all of the unsung heroes of the city. is the mayor mentioned, as virginia mentioned, animal care and control is truly first responders when it comes to

getting animals off the streets, and then they have communicable -- communicable diseases, you don't hear about these diseases going from pets to humans, because they do great work. when there is an emergency, they're the ones making sure folks are evacuating in a safe way, especially if you have many people who are pet lovers, and they don't want to leave without their pets. they have emergency plans around that. when their incidents with police and fire, and their people and buildings you don't want to leave because animals are there, or they are -- that are homeless encampments, and folks want to leave without their animals. animal care and control is there as the mayor mentioned, they are moving from just down the street , so they will still be in proximity with other animal agencies, and they're moving right here to build a building that is seismically safe. this is important to our capital plan because we are looking at all of our seismic safety of all of the building and as a reminder, the capital plan is a fiscally constrained document

that looks at all of our infrastructure in a way that we prioritize what is seismically safe, what is sustainable, what will help with our city to make it vibrant and resilient. i want to thank, as the mayor did katy tang, and your leadership on this. public works director, virginia donohue, and ed risk in from the sfmta. i also want to give a special thanks to our friends at a.c.c. who are doing so much and making sure we raise funds for behavior and training, foster program support, medical emergency fund, rabies and microchip supplies, marketing and outreach, food supplies, rescue partner grants, senior cat, baby cat supplements , and much more, and also the furniture fixtures and equipment center going into this building. i want to thank the board treasurer, volunteer dianne

davis and christopher davis, a board member christina -- christina kizer, and dr. sue wong. your generosity extends past the groundbreaking in this official opening. with that, i would also -- one last thing, i need to give a special thank you to park construction. they are the contractors working with public works on this. and in phase one, they have awarded -- contracted 24 business enterprises in the amount of $12.5 million, that is 33% of the contracting cost. [applause] >> of those who are working on this project, 149 workers are from san francisco, so thank you with that, i would like to introduce the former supervisor, animal care and control champion , katy tang. [applause]

>> good morning, everyone. as i was telling some people here today, the only thing that will take me out of retirement from attending press conferences is something to do with animals. i am so excited to be here and explain a little bit about how i got involved with animal care and control, and really wanting to see this facility rebuilt. aside from the fact that i grew up with a mother who was a vegetarian, at one point in our life, my dad said, i want a dog, and we were shocked that he all of a sudden in his life, in his early fifties or so wanted a dog , and so we went to animal care and control every weekend for four months straight to search for the perfect dog for him. in that process, i saw the facility first-hand at a.c.c., and it was heartbreaking to me, and then of course, working in the city took additional tours and learned that there's not enough space for animals being quarantined when some of them have diseases or illnesses.

i mean i saw that animals had to be strapped to some of the banisters as they are doing intake, the elevator, i mean, don't even talk about that. just the conditions that the employees had to work in where animals need to get x-rays as well, and there was improper shielding of the radiation in those rooms, so it is not just about the animals, but all the people who work at animal care and control and those conditions i think the conditions are really sad, and i'm so excited that we are standing here today to hopefully, and a very short amount of time, you will have a new building. but also the other thing, even to this day, a lot of people when i talk to them, they actually don't know that we, as a city, have an animal shelter. they are familiar with the different organizations and nonprofits that help with animals, but a lot of them -- you all know because you were all here, many of you don't know i think it is really important that in a city where we have an estimated more dogs and cats and

other animals than we do children, that we really do have a world-class facility for them and their families. lastly, i will say that a.c.c. and the staff there, you do all that work, and you take in the animals that other organizations , or whatnot, might not be able to take in. you take exotic animals, you take the wild strays, you also, yourself have to handle those that get killed on our streets, so you handle so much, and you are really deserving of a world-class facility. i'm excited to be here today, and thank you to every single person and department that made this happen. i'm looking forward to the ribbon-cutting. [applause] >> and of course, i have to introduce the next person who doesn't really need introduction , mohammed nuru. [applause]. >> thank you. it is always great to see you. i hope you are enjoying your

life outside of city hall. i know that is how important this project is to you, and i'm so glad you're able to be here with us today. good morning, everyone. i serve as your public works director, and just like everyone else, i'm very happy to be here today, even with the wet weather , seeing how many people are out here shows as how important this project is to so many people and of course, the animals. today is an exciting day for our city, and an exciting day for san francisco animal care and control. we are celebrating the start of unique project, and it brings me great pleasure and joy that public works will be overseeing the design and construction of the project. it is not every day in san francisco that a modern structure more then a century ago. that is what is happening right here. the new animal care and control

facility. the new shelter will be built with the original brick warehouse behind me, the building was constructed in 1893 and served as the original market street railway corporation. it is eligible for listings on the state national registry and historic basins. it served as a maintenance facility for the sfmta overhead lines. the reuse of the building will be an elegant nod to the city's pass that serves the needs of the 21st century san francisco that historic brick face and wooden frame windows will remain intact, while the interior will be transformed into a state-of-the-art, multilevel facility billed to serve the needs of san francisco for many years to come. as mayor breeden said, we must think about the future of san francisco today, and there's no

better way to do so by investing in capital improvements to our infrastructure. public works is proud to be working with clark construction and the many people who will be working on the projects. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. we are going to do the ceremonial gravel shovel thing, and then we are done. there is tons of delicious food that clark brought that is right outside, food and drinks, and we hope you all stay around for a bit and enjoy each other. >> five, four, three, two, one! [cheers and applause] >> there we go.

>> good morning, everyone. welcome to the may 20th, 2019 meeting of the rules committee. i am chair of the committee. seated to my right is our vice chair, supervisor walton. seated to my left is rules committee members supervisor gordon moore, and we are joined by supervisor rafael nadal him and today -- supervisor mandelman today. i would like to thank san francisco government t.v. for staffing this meeting. mr. clark, do you have any announcements? >> sans all cell phones and electronic devices. copies of any documents to be included as part of the files are be s