Skip to main content

tv   Government Access Programming  SFGTV  July 31, 2019 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT

3:00 pm
organization. the guys that keep s me out of jail as well as making sure having money in the bank is the cfo. [ applause ]. >> even with the best-laid pl s plans, we would not be breaking ground today without an extraordinary group of organizations and people who've g come together to allow us to move this process forward quickly and they have done there through this through the new market task credit process. for those of you who don't know what those are, you're blessed. [ laughter ]. >> but just for the sake of education, basically the federal government incentivize s throug tax credits investment s and stressed communityies, programs that serve dis advertistreasurer that serve dis advertistreasur s distressed populations. our propositiject definitely f t that. it aligns credit s that organizations manage to give to
3:01 pm
projects and they're aligned with these approved projects and then at the eback end take s a ba bank credit. at the end of the day that's going to deliver about $8.1 million to this project. [ applause ]. >> i just want to really acknowledge the team that really have pushed this forward quickly on this project. first of all , david wilkin sos has been our consultant from northern california community loan fund. thank you, david. thank you for helping me understand this weave of stuff and so forth. leading the way to make sure that we anchor the new market tax credit that we needed for the project is the city of san francisco and the san francisco community investment fund, or as we call it sfif.
3:02 pm
without them jumping in and p putting their projestamp on thi project, i don't know if othes s would have joined as easily. we just wareally want to thank e sfif for supporting us. along side of the sfif, san francisco sfif was california loan fund who in vvested with u early as well. the group that put us over the top is an organization called community impact partners which is more of a national partner and they came in to push us forward as well. the irony is that two of these organizations are doing more than just giving us credits. they're actually funding our construction loan and that's community vision and community impact partners. we want to thank you for keeping us sane and giving us that option. we really appreciate it. i mentioned only the the back et a bank investor partner usually
3:03 pm
comes into a project like this, that partner is j. pvmentep. mo chase. we want to thank them to chase bank. lastly, obviously you know that in order to put together a complex transaction you have to have a good team around you and i want to thank liouise rodrige and also chris and brine and v novaradik our cpa. you're probably going like, gee, that's a lot of people, but it's not the end. we ultimately also have to bridge our pledges the jen ro generosity the people have pledged to make sure we don't have long-term debt. we need a bridge loan, we want to thank our piartner first republic bank to bridge that pledge loan and fragile for --
3:04 pm
frankly for banking our loan. we'll mention again later, they also gave quite a big gift to the campaign. thank you. it's now my pleasure to really move us into thanking the other people who really put down significant mark er s and donatn s and pledges to this campaign and invite other people who have really lifted for me so long to come up and thank people who have participated, that's russ flin and hjose allen. [ applause ]. >> thank you, ashley. good morning, everyone. i am hjose allen. i'm a member of the board of meals on wheels frisk san francisco, and along with russ flin, i co chachaired the 50th s anniversary capital campaign. us russ and i are proud to be
3:05 pm
part of this vital project and to be able to thank each of you for your support of meals on wheels. clearly to be successful in r e raising almost 41, dlr $42 needed for this project require s extensive jen rgenerosity for, many support er s. luckily we have been successful in raising the funds necessary to move forward and have secured 80% of our goal. we have 20% left to go. now, it gives me great pleasure to thank the individuals. i call them our first responder s p who helped jump-start this campaign. first, there are two familyies who have been part of the meals on wheels family for over 30 years and have led the way with their lead gifts.
3:06 pm
the first is my he esteemed co f co-chair russ flin and his wife leigh. actually they didn't stop with just making their personal gift to the campaign, but they added to their gift by challenging their family and friends to join the efforts. so for that, we're very, very thankful. [ applause ] sjts. >> the second family i would like to thank is the sanjakamo family through the yvonne and n angelo sanjakamo foundation. here today is the daughter to recognize her mom who could not be abowith us. thank you again and thanks to the sanjakamo family for their support. [ applause ]. >> next, while they could not be here today, i would like to thank our meals on wheels hon
3:07 pm
honorary board chair andy and a carrie good mman, who have led e way in this campaign not only through their financial contributions to the campaign, but through their in sigsight s un titiring deadication to meal wheels. [ applause ]. >> now, there are 42 additional individual donor s thus far, bu our program schedule today doesn't allow me to call each of them out individually, but there are a few that i would like to thank. here they are. emily and sam glick, diane pe c pelaconi and susan sanjakamo, debbie and andy rat cliff, craig and maureen sullivan.
3:08 pm
rosemary and harry wong and lisa and todd zabel. we are truly grateful for these and other individuals who have helped bring us to the threshold of a successful capital campa n campaign. i look forward to being with all of you at our dedication in the last quarter of 2020 when we will have an opportunity to memorialise all the gueift s toe campaign through naming and donor recognition. thank you sooch for your supp t support. [ applause ]. >> thank you, hjose. i'm russ flin. i would like to start off by acknowledging ashley and all of his hue mmility for having the
3:09 pm
leadership ability to drag this board, some of who left the board because they didn't feel this was a possibility that we could realize. ashley thank you sincerely for our efforts. >> now i'll get back on script. hjose, thank you for all you've done. without hjose i wouldn't begin o know how to raise money. he's done this socio mamany tis. while i've raised money for political campaigns, i've rarely raised money for floirp -- p l philantropic. i would like to thank all the organizations and foundations that have contributed to this. the urps foundation, city of san francisco office of economic and
3:10 pm
workforce development, first republic bank, kooeizer perman e permanententy, crescent port ee hail foundation, walter and a s alise habb foundation, the bob ross fowks foundation, and our only one technology contributor, usual -- uber, and that un fortunately has been a little bit of a shortcoming in our campaign. while we have the mayor here -- [ laughter ]. >> -- i'd like to challenge her to maybe open the door to a few more of these folks and give e jose and i a chance to see if we can convince them to make contributions. while we've raised 80% of our funds, we still need 20% fmore. so i'd challenge everyone here who has already given to re consider and think about just
3:11 pm
stretching just a little bit more and that can help put us over the 41.2 -- 41.5, $42 million that we need. thank you all for coming today and, ashley, it's yours. [ applause ]. >> sincerely, i think you can see it pretty easily how blessed we are to have russ and hjose ad frankly every board member and b donor associated with this. we wouldn't be here without you. we're coming to the end of the speaking program. i give you the chance to re lla but also to secelebrate a littl bit. we' now we're going to do somethi something -- i don't know how we're going to do this, but i do want to offer a few closing thanks and instructions. flawl first of all , can we jut give our staff that work every day delivering food --
3:12 pm
[ applause ]. >> -- answering the phones, i just don't think none of us who don't do this work think about what it means to walk up buil buildings and six flights of stairs with food in our your hand and buildings with he wieor s that don't work and getting in and out of a car. we have pretsocial worker s goi trying to help people who literally have nothing and people who have challenges and so forth and we have a staff that back them up that's unparalleled. again, my deep eest and most sincere appreciation to them. i specifically want to thank our development team led by jessica sweedler and we've been working together now for 12 years and we almost feel like we're kind of a
3:13 pm
dentist function ental -- di dysfunction al family, but a god one working together. frankly i think why both she and i deserve credit is we didn't staff up to run this campaign, we're just running it. we're running it on top of the $ $7 or $# 8 million that we have already. we had the heart to do it and we've been successful. thank you all. i also want to thank the team who worked hard on this event specifically, david miranda, our events manager, jim on hzwald o communications and marketing director. [ applause ]. >> and the person who has the hard eest job on earth, being m assistant, michelle fur longi longing -- fur long. and if i didn't call your name, please know how appreciative i am to you for what you do to support us in this work every
3:14 pm
single day. it's not possible to do. what we're going to try to do -- >> okay. everybody let's count down from five. >> five, four, three, two, one. yay. [ cheering and applause ] - >> tenderloin is unique neighborhood where geographically place in downtown san francisco and on every street corner have liquor store in the corner it stores pretty much every single block has a liquor store but there are impoverishes grocery stores i'm the co-coordinated of the
3:15 pm
healthy corner store collaboration close to 35 hundred residents 4 thousand are children the medium is about $23,000 a year so a low income neighborhood many new immigrants and many people on fixed incomes residents have it travel outside of their neighborhood to assess fruits and vegetables it can be come senator for seniors and hard to travel get on a bus to get an apple or a pear or like tomatoes to fit into their meals my my name is ryan the co-coordinate for the tenderloin healthy store he coalition we work in the neighborhood trying
3:16 pm
to support small businesses and improving access to healthy produce in the tenderloin that is one of the most neighborhoods that didn't have access to a full service grocery store and we california together out of the meeting held in 2012 through the major development center the survey with the corners stores many stores do have access and some are bad quality and an overwhelming support from community members wanting to utilities the service spas we decided to work with the small businesses as their role within the community and bringing more fresh produce produce cerebrothe neighborhood their compassionate about creating a healthy environment when we get into the work they rise up to leadership. >> the different stores and
3:17 pm
assessment and trying to get them to understand the value of having healthy foods at a reasonable price you can offer people fruits and vegetables and healthy produce they can't afford it not going to be able to allow it so that's why i want to get involved and we just make sure that there are alternatives to people can come into a store and not just see cookies and candies and potting chips and that kind of thing hi, i'm cindy the director of the a preif you believe program it is so important about healthy retail in the low income community is how it brings that health and hope to the communities i worked in the tenderloin for 20 years the difference you walk
3:18 pm
out the door and there is a bright new list of fresh fruits and vegetables some place you know is safe and welcoming it makes. >> huge difference to the whole environment of the community what so important about retail environments in those neighborhoods it that sense of dignity and community safe way. >> this is why it is important for the neighborhood we have families that needs healthy have a lot of families that live up here most of them fruits and vegetables so that's good as far been doing good. >> now that i had this this is really great for me, i, go and
3:19 pm
get fresh fruits and vegetables it is healthy being a diabetic you're not supposed to get carbons but getting extra food a all carbons not eating a lot of vegetables was bringing up my whether or not pressure once i got on the program everybody o everything i lost weight and my blood pressure came down helped in so many different ways the most important piece to me when we start seeing the business owners engagement and their participation in the program but how proud to speak that is the most moving piece of
3:20 pm
this program yes economic and social benefits and so forth but the personal pride business owners talk about in the program is interesting and regarding starting to understand how they're part of the larger fabric of the community and this is just not the corner store they have influence over their community. >> it is an owner of this in the department of interior i see the great impact usually that is like people having especially with a small family think liquor store sells alcohol traditional alcohol but when they see this their vision is changed it is a small grocery store for them so they more options not just
3:21 pm
beer and wine but healthy options good for the business and good for the community i wish to have more . >> the hon. london breed: almost. good morning, everyone. i'm london breed, mayor of san francisco, and i'm so excited to be here today with so many amazing people to talk about something that's so important. just this past week, we had a big event celebrating a $600 million affordable housing bond that will go on the ballot this
3:22 pm
november. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and i want to thank the board of supervisors for passing that unanimously, and i want to say that there's something in there for everyone, for our low-income families and seniors, to our middle-income residents, to our teachers. we know that housing affordability is critical to the success of our city, and i'm grateful to the board of supervisors for passing that ballot measure, and i am hopeful with fingers crossed that the voters will support that, and we are putting forward that housing bond without raising property taxes again, so i just want to say that over and over and over again. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: so today, we have another opportunity. today, we are signing the legislation to put a $628 million bond on the ballot to help with our emergency
3:23 pm
facilities all over san francisco, and we are also doing that without raising property taxes. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: the goal is to put this on the march ballot, and so we're going to have to work hard to get voters to approve this one, as well. i just want to start by that i thinking naomi kelly, and the work of the capital planning committee. because of the work of the capital planning committee over the years, we've been able to have a very well-thought-out plan for investing dollars in facilities that the city owns, especially our public safety facilities. and in 2010 and in 2014, voters passed these bonds without raising property taxes but with almost 80% of the vote to support rehabilitating facilities all over san
3:24 pm
francisco. and just this year, i was really excited about cutting the ribbon on station 5, which is my home station, where i used to get my toys as a firefighter. our firefighters and our police officers, fixing our buildings and making sure that they can sustain an earthquake is so critical to protecting the lives of our citizens. in fact we are all reminded from last week, the major earthquake that happened in southern california and the devastating impact it had on that community, we are reminded that we have to be prepared. it's not about if, it's about when a disaster strikes. so what are we going to do to make sure that our public safety personnel can focus on the work that they need to do to save lives and not
3:25 pm
necessarily the challenge that exist with the buildings that house them and what could happen to people that we need to shelter in a disaster. kezar pavilion is not seismically safe. it is one of the facilities that could qualify for additional revenues so that if necessary, we can use that as a shelter facility in case a disaster hits. we have to be thinking ahead in not only repairing the buildings that we know need to be repaired, like park station, which is currently undergoing some renovations like police and fire stations and public safety buildings, and 911 buildings where we send our dispatchers, all of these places matter, so when a disaster hits, their only focus
3:26 pm
is on saving lives of the citizens of san francisco and not worrying about the condition of their buildings and whether or not they're in a bad place themselves. so today, we are announcing a $628 million public safety beyond for earthquake safety and emergency response for the march ballot, as i said. and i am just so excited and so proud of the work that we did collaborating with the board, collaborating with the capital planning committee to do this in such an incredibly responsible way. and i just want to thank all of you for being here, joining us, because this is exciting for the future of san francisco. we know that there are challenges in our city, and we have to make the right kind of investments, not only the issues that we face today but
3:27 pm
for the issues we'll face tomorrow. this is just taking one step further to doing just that, and so i'm really excited to be here with so many incredible people, including the supervisor who represents district 5 -- [applause] >> the hon. london breed: many of you all know vallie brown. she's been a community advocate in this district for so many years. not only does she spend time cleaning it up, i mean, personally, literally in the morning, picking up track with her own picker, but she also spends a lot of time fighting for resources in this community. whether it's our public safety locations or our community locations, she's been a real advocate, and some of you know the work that was done here, also, the track that was repurposed. and commissioner buell, what
3:28 pm
was the location over here by the triangle? what is that called? yeah, with public and private dollars, we're transforming this area. and when i served as supervisor, the person who was really actively engaged in working with the community and helping to bring together public and private resources to get these projects done for this community was no other than your current supervisor for district 5, vallie brown. [applause] >> supervisor brown: thank you, mayor breed. i'm really happy to be standing here today and to be talking about this. just a few months ago, we were at fire station 5, brand-new opened. not only is it absolutely state-of-the-art and beautiful, but it is going to be a hub if anything happens in this city. and when i think about we have so many other stations and
3:29 pm
buildings that we need to have this kind of bond money to be able to fix them up so if we do have earthquakes, if we have things that happen in this city, that we're prepared. when we look at -- i know that mayor breed was talking about kezar and other places, but when we have a major earthquake, and if we think about the earthquake that just happened in southern california, and how strong it was, but it was in the desert. but think about what if it was here, and what it could have done to our city. i think about that every day, and what i would do if my place was flattened in the city. i probably would be camping in the park unless i had someplace to go that was safe, right? i would. i know the no-tent rule, but i think they have a cot there for
3:30 pm
me. i asked them, can you put a cot? so i just feel that it's so important that not only is this city ready for anything that could happen, unfortunately -- and we know it will someday, but we have to be ready individually. we have a responsibility. i actually just went to a fire in my district a few weeks ago. everybody ran out of the building. there were, like, 12 people. the things they forgot when they ran out -- they forgot their i.d., they forgot their medicine, all of those things, and it keeps going into my mind, am i ready? am i ready for an earthquake? am i ready for a fire or anything -- any other kind of emergency? so i went home, and i remembered an emergency kit that i had put together probably 12, 15 years ago, when i did nert, and nert was first starting. my water was expired, the
3:31 pm
batteries expired, the food expired. i'm like, i'm not ready, and i didn't have the emergency little pack that you're supposed to have by your door to grab and run if something happens. i wasn't ready, and i think about that because i think about what about my neighbor that's elderly, and she has a hard time getting down the stairs? we should be going out, talking to our neighbors. we should be going out, training with nert. please sign up. if you're not a member, it's kind of fun. we need to start thinking about our neighbors and what we can do individually. are you signed up for the alert, emergency alert, everyone on your phone? your neighbor? this is the kind of thing that we need to do because it really takes us as an individual and our neighbors to really protect each other if this happens. and believe me if we have an earthquake, i'm heading down to cafe revelry, and if his coffee
3:32 pm
machine is working because these are the places we're going to have to go to see, are they left behind? do they need help? i say that because i appreciate all the work in this city that everyone does. our police chief, fire chief, naomi kelly, and especially our mayor to say we need to look at this, we need to do this now, and being so creative for doing this. i want to thank everyone for coming to district 5. it's nice and foggy here, but cool you down a little bit before you go back to your job. so thank you, everyone. and the next speaker -- are you going to bring him up? all right. thank you. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, supervisor brown. and just a reminder, anyone can
3:33 pm
go to sf72.org if you want to get prepared for any emergency situation in san francisco. a lot of great information from emergency management. sf72.org. now i want to introduce someone who's ae be who's been a 25-year veteran of the san francisco fire department and has a very thorough knowledge of how to deal with emergency situations and is why she is currently serving as the chief of the department. please welcome jeanine nicholson. >> good morning, everyone. i love our san francisco summer weather. speaking of nert, as supervisor brown just mentioned, i want to recognize, we do have some nert volunteers right here, and nert is going to be critical in the
3:34 pm
event -- [applaus [applause] >> in the event >> -- in the event of a disaster. we know it's not if, it's when. i want to recognize mohamed nuru. he's been a great ally for us and working with us. in the event of a disaster, our fire department needs to respond immediately. our firefighters and e.m.s. workers work 24-7, 365, and we need to be able to respond immediately. and this bill will provide the funding that we need to invest in our public safety infrastructure so we can continue to bring the city and the citizens the best service that we possibly can, but
3:35 pm
especially during a disaster. so thank you all for being here today. good day. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: all right. our last speaker for this program before we finally sign this legislation is the chief of the police department, bill scott. [applaus [applause] >> thank you, mayor. i'll be brief. i just want to reiterate what the mayor said. we have 13 san francisco police departments and 14 other buildings. many of our stations are over 25 years old. these stations, from the day that the doors open, they are open 24-7. they have always been in use, and many of them are in need of seismic improvements, significant seismic improvements. and we don't want -- in the time of an emergency, we don't want to have to worry about
3:36 pm
whether or not the station is going to be standing, even though we plan for that if it happens. that's the last thing we want to worry about, so i, too, want to thank you all for being here. the vision of the mayor, city administrator kelly, and the vision of our city for looking forward so our city has the proper infrastructure to respond properly, so thank you for the leadership, and thank you, mayor. >> the hon. london breed: thank you. and again, i want to thank all of you for being here. again, this is only the beginning. the real work beginning when we have to -- begins when we have to campaign to get this ballot measure passed. we have been successful in 2010 and 2014 in getting almost 80% of the support of the voters for a previous eser bond, and i want to make sure that we top that, so i'm going to need your help. it's incredibly important that
3:37 pm
we shrine a light on the measure that will be going on the march 2020 ballot for voters to support. i appreciate you all being here, and also don't forget to vote for the housing bond on the ballot this november. all right. let's get this signed. [applause]
3:38 pm
>> the hon. london breed: 7, 11, 19, done. [applause] welcome to the epic did you know that many buildings in san francisco are not bolted to the foundation on today's episode we'll learn how the option to bolt our foundation in an earthquake.
3:39 pm
>> hi, everybody welcome to another episode of stay safe i'm the director of earthquake safety in the city and county of san francisco i'm joined by a friend matt. >> thank you thanks for being with us we're in a garage but at the el cap center south of market in san francisco what we've done a simulated the garage to show you what it is like to make the improvements and reduce the reflexes of earthquake we're looking at foundation bolts what do they do. >> the foundation bolts are one of the strengthening system they hold the lowest piece of wood onto the foundation that prevents the allows from sliding
3:40 pm
during an earthquake that is a bolt over the original construction and these are typically put in along the foundation to secure the house to the foundation one of the things we'll show you many types of bolts let's go outside and show the vufrdz we're outside the epic center in downtown san francisco we'll show 3 different types of bolts we have a e poxy anchor. >> it is a type of anchor that is adhesive and this is a rod we'll embed both the awe hey that embeds it into the foundation that will flip over a big square washer so it secured the mud sell to the foundation we'll need to big drill luckily
3:41 pm
we have peter from the company that will help us drill the first hole. >> so, now we have the hole drilled i'll stick the bolt in and e post-office box it. >> that wouldn't be a bad idea but the dust will prevent the e post-office box from bonding we need to clean the hole out first. >> so, now we have properly cleaned hole what's the next step. >> the next step to use e post-office box 2 consultants that mixes this together and get them into tubes and put a notice he will into the hole and put the e post-office box slowly and have a hole with e post-office
3:42 pm
box. >> now it is important to worm or remember when you bolt our own foundation you have to go to 9 department of building inspection and get a permit before you start what should we look at next what i did next bolt. >> a couple of anchors that expand and we can try to next that will take a hole that hole is drilled slightly larger marathon the anchor size for the e post-office box to flow around the anchor and at expansion is going into the hole the same dinning room we'll switch tamet
3:43 pm
so, now we have the second hole drilled what next. >> this is the anchor and this one has hard and steel threads that cuts their way into the concrete it is a ti ton anchor with the same large square so similar this didn't require e post-office box. >> that's correct you don't needed for the e post-office box to adhere overnight it will stick more easily. >> and so, now it is good to go is that it. >> that's it. >> the third anchor is a
3:44 pm
universal foundation plate when you don't have room above our foundation to drill from the top. >> so, now we have our foundation plate and the tightened screw a couple of ways to take care of a foundation what's the best. >> the best one depends on what your house is like and our
3:45 pm
contractors experience they're sometimes considered the cadillac anchor and triplely instead of not witting for the e post-office box this is essentially to use when you don't have the overhead for the foundation it really depends on the contractor and engineering what they prefer. >> talking to a qualified professional and see what >> everybody, i think we're going to get started. our honorable mayor is here, and i know that we have a huge crowd and some big celebrating to do, so i want to welcome you to the groundbreaking for 88
3:46 pm
broadway and 75 david street. so i'm cynthia parker, and i'm the president and c.e.o. of bridge housing, and i am the cohost today with our partner, john stewart, but what i want to do is acknowledge all of the people here in the audience who have helped us get here today. so with us, we have mayor london breed, our honorable and esteemed mayor, welcome. [applause] >> we have supervisor aaron peskin, who's been a big supporter, and thank you, supervisor peskin. we have elaine forbes who's executive director of the port of san francisco. thank you for coming and your help. [applause] >> we have many reps from bank
3:47 pm
of america. liz, thanks for coming. [applause] >> we have bruce cantor who's a member of the northeast waterfront advisory group. [applause] >> and we have bob carrier who's a member of the barbary coast neighborhood association. so thank you for coming. [applause] >> this group that's sitting here today sort of does represent a neighborhood inside of a village, the village of san francisco. and two neighborhood associations, a waterfront advisory group, and partners with the city, with the mayor's office of housing and jayesco have really made this happen during the development period. i know that john stewart is going to comment on some of this, but i know there are 26 neighborhood meet -- there were 26 neighborhood meetings that made this happen, and i want to
3:48 pm
do a special shoutout to john stewart who lives in this neighborhood and wanted to make sure that these two developments reflect the values of this community, and i think they do. so thank you, john, for all of your hard work, and forever, your partnership with that. when this r.f.p. came out from the city of san francisco, i ran into jack gardner who's the other principle at jay-esco. you know, he said, we did north beach together. do you think it's time to get the band back together and respond to this r.f.p.? i said yes, and we did it, and we were selected. frankly, i think we were the right team to pull this project together. it has made a big difference to this neighborhood for all the reasons i just said. 26 meetings, resident developer, and a commitment to make this happen.
3:49 pm
i want to also acknowledge some special shoutouts to both the city and the mayor, to your commitment to affordable housing and to these kinds of developments. this project is really special because it is one of the few that's really said we're going to how's both seniors and a senior development and families and have an income mix that represents both formerly homeless people as well as people up to median income, up to 80% of median income, the missing middle. and that doesn't happen very often. i and believe it will completely -- and i believe it will completely be a success because it we've all -- because we've all worked so hard, and it represents this community. and i believe we will get more housing in the ground because we need nor housing in the city. [applause] >> so with that, i'm not going
3:50 pm
to steal the thunder. we have a lot of speakers here today, and with that, what i do want to do is invite our lovely mayor to come up. she has the values and tgumptin to make affordable housing in the city. i invite you to come up to say a few words. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, cynthia. it's so great to be here with you because john, we know this project was a long time coming. we work hard in this city to try to repurpose this whole waterfront. some of you were around during this '89 earthquake. i certainly was. i remember when this used to be a water way, and look at how beautiful our waterfront has become with a lot of
3:51 pm
businesses, a lot of housing, and here is an opportunity to provide 178 units of affordable housing for families and seniors. this is absolutely amazing. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and let me just also say that last year, it was brought to my attention that for the senior development that were being placed here at 735 davis street, there were still so many seniors who didn't meet the minimum income qualifications because we know that there are a lot of different challenges with affordability in san francisco. people who are low, extremely low, people who are just exiting homelessness, people who just barely meet the minimum qualifications, and sometimes those who exceed it by just a little bit. it's why we have to change access to affordable housing in san francisco. and we along with the mayor's
3:52 pm
office of housing and kate hartley identified revenues in order to buydown the availability so that more residents who are in this community can actually qualify for housing in the communities in which they live. so i want to thank you, kate, for your leadership on that effort. we are going to have diverse homes of mixed incomes living in these developments. so supervisor peskin, former president of the board, but representative of this district, you know i'm going to need your help to make sure that as we break ground on this project, we don't want any delays, we don't want any challenges, we don't want any issues because we need this housing, and a one-day delay is
3:53 pm
a one-day delay of housing for those who need it the most. we had a press conference for $600 million affordable housing bond, the largest bond in the history of this city that the board of supervisors is going to be voting on unanimously to put on the ballot, and we're going to do so without raising property taxes in a very responsible way, which is how we should be handling the city's and the taxpayers' money in our city. but it means a lot because we know that there are challenges with affordability in our city. and we know that we have to work harder and faster to get this much needed affordable housing units built. people are counting on us to make good decisions and to not allow bureaucracy to get in the way of much needed affordable housing. thank you to everyone who's joining us today because those
3:54 pm
178 seniors and families, when they move into those units, when they're looking out those new windows, when they're cooking dinner on their new stove, can you think about how it might feel especially if you didn't have housing in the first place, if you lived in an s.r.o. and you didn't have a kitchen, can you imagine what it's going to mean to people to live right here in this beautiful, amazing community, which once consisted of darkness and a friday and is now open with all of the light and incredible views, a place where everyone want to live in in san francisco, and they will be a part of the future of this great city. no one will be left behind as a result of this great project, so thank you to john stewart and john stewart company. thank you so much to bridge housing and cynthia, to kate, to supervisor peskin, and all the community members and the people who helped make this possible. this is truly san francisco at its best, and there is more to come. thank you all so much.
3:55 pm
[applause] >> the hon. london breed: sorry. i want to introduce john stewart, but i want to just say that i met john stewart over 20 years ago. and i used to work at treasure island, and some of you remember when that housing was empty, and it was vacated by the navy, and we have the task of rehabilitating those units and moving formerly homeless veterans, formerly homeless families and other people of all incomes into treasure island. the partnership with john stewart company was not just a partnership that helped to rehabilitate those units, they also helped to make sure that those formerly homeless families and veterans had working utilities, and that they had coffee makers and dishes and beds and sheets and all the things that so many people may take for granted.
3:56 pm
but these were people who were starting their lives over. and the person who led that effort without being asked to do so was john stewart himself, and so ladies and gentlemen, john stewart of john stewart company. [applause] >> the mayor has been drinking early. we'll talk later. thank you so much. ed lee was once to say, i'll keep it short because i am short. that was his big one-liner. a few comments that i really wanted to speak about, i think two or three things. first, i get a lot of questions on the piles that we're sinking into the ground at 90 feet and 60 feet. they're not impact piles as the way that have occurred at many sites. these are augering, they're very sensitive to the neighbors
3:57 pm
because they're not impact piles. there's going to be 170 of them, and they're very sensitive to the neighbors. and also, we don't want to repeat -- we got the memo on the millennium towers, and we're going to bedrock. it seemed like a good idea. also, people asked me about those cobblestones. when we dug down 8 feet, we found shoes, elixir bottles, and we also found a whole series of red caps which said make america great again, and we're going to be selling them later to enhance our financial balance sheet on this deal. on the subject of process, i think we're particularly proud
3:58 pm
of the fact that over 4-plus, almost 5 years, we had a record number of meeting involving a myriad of local involvement, various people -- you can see authorities and housing entities that all had a stake in this thing, and they all came out, and they all spoke their piece, which i will in closing do a few shoutouts. there is something that i would call district 3 deja vu, and i'm looking at aaron now because 17 years ago, a young supervisor along with a young mayor at the time, willie brown, started working on a project called north beach place. it's out of the -- it's off the cliff side. it's a project that has great
3:59 pm
similarity to what you see today. for those of you that are a little long in the tooth, you might remember that project. it also was affordable. it had mixed income, mixed use, and mixed age. we have, too, so there. and one of the things that strikes me about it, aaron peskin, i think really made a statement because he was boots on the ground, went to every meeting, very supportive of that project as he was then and he is now. it's my pleasure to introduce the supervisor. [applause] >> supervisor peskin: mayor breed, ms. parker, mr. stewart, to your respective organization, but most importantly to the community
4:00 pm
and amongst those and first and foremost amongst those, the barbary coast neighbors. it is true almost 20 years ago that i attended all of those meetings at north beach place, but thankfully, i attended few if any in this particular project. but mr. cantor did, miss taylor did, and i want to say they made it a better project. this neighborhood involvement made this a better project. let me say a few words about what my mayor said, and it is the history of the embarcadero freeway which was, by all accounts, a terrible urban planning mistake. and then, in 1989, after the loma prieta earthquake, we had a mayor who had the coura