tv Government Access Programming SFGTV August 8, 2019 5:00pm-6:01pm PDT
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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 -- frankly for banking our loan.
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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 part of this vital project and to be able to thank each of you for your support of meals on
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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. the first is my he esteemed co f co-chair russ flin and his wife leigh.
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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 honorary board chair andy and a carrie good mman, who have led e
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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. rosemary and harry wong and lisa and todd zabel.
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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 leadership ability to drag this
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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 workforce development, first republic bank, kooeizer perman e
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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 stretching just a little bit more and that can help put us over the 41.2 -- 41.5, $42
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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 -- [ applause ]. >> -- answering the phones, i
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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 dentist function ental -- di dysfunction al family, but a god one working together.
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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 single day. it's not possible to do. what we're going to try to do --
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>> i'm maggie. >> i'm nick. >> we're coe-chairs of the national led organization. what food recovery does is recover and redistribute food that would go wasted and redistributing to people in the community. >> the moment that i became really engaged in the cause of fighting food waste was when i had just taken the food from the usf cafeteria and i saw four pans full size full of food perfectly fine to be eaten and made the day before and that would have gone into the trash that night if we didn't recover it the next day. i want to fight food waste
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because it hurts the economy, it's one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. if it was a nation, it would be the third largest nation behind china and the united states. america wastes about 40% of the food we create every year, $160 billion worth and that's made up in the higher cost of food for consumers. no matter where you view the line, you should be engaged with the issue of food waste. ♪ ♪ >> access edible food that we have throughout our lunch program in our center, i go ahead and collect it and i'll cool it down and every night i prep it up and the next day i'll heat it and ready for delivery.
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it's really natural for me, i love it, i'm passionate about it and it's just been great. i believe it's such a blessing to have the opportunity to actually feed people every day. no food should go wasted. there's someone who wants to eat, we have food, it's definitely hand in hand and it shouldn't be looked at as work or a task, we're feeding people and it really means so much to me. i come to work and they're like nora do you want this, do you want that? and it's so great and everyone is truly involved. every day, every night after every period of food, breakfast, lunch, dinner, i mean, people just throw it away. they don't even think twice about it and i think as a whole,
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as a community, as any community, if people just put a little effort, we could really help each other out. that's how it should be. that's what food is about basically. >> an organization that meets is the san francisco knight ministry we work with tuesday and thursday's. ♪ ♪ by the power ♪ of your name >> i have faith to move mountains because i believe in jesus. >> i believe it's helpful to offer food to people because as
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you know, there's so much homelessness in san francisco and california and the united states. i really believe that food is important as well as our faith. >> the san francisco knight ministry has been around for 54 years. the core of the ministry, a group of ordain ministers, we go out in the middle of the night every single night of the year, so for 54 years we have never missed a night. i know it's difficult to believe maybe in the united states but a lot of our people will say this is the first meal they've had in two days. i really believe it is a time between life or death because i mean, we could be here and have
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church, but, you know, i don't know how much we could feed or how many we could feed and this way over 100 people get fed every single thursday out here. it's not solely the food, i tell you, believe me. they're extremely grateful. >> it's super awesome how welcoming they are. after one or two times they're like i recognize you. how are you doing, how is school? i have never been in the city, it's overwhelming. you get to know people and through the music and the food, you get to know people. >> we never know what impact we're going to have on folks. if you just practice love and kindness, it's a labor of love and that's what the food recovery network is and this is
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a huge -- i believe they salvage our mission. >> to me the most important part is it's about food waste and feeding people. the food recovery network national slogan is finding ways to feed people. it's property to bring the scientific and human element into the situation.. >> shop and dine the 49 promotes loophole businesses and changes residents to do thirds shopping and diane within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services we help san francisco remain unique and successful where will you shop and dine shop and dine the 49. >> my name is neil the general manager for the book shop here
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on west portal avenue if san francisco this is a neighborhood bookstore and it is a wonderful neighborhood but it is an interesting community because the residents the neighborhood muni loves the neighborhood it is community and we as a book sincerely we see the same people here the shop all the time and you know to a certain degree this is part of their this is created the neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both national chains and neighborhoods by the neighborhood stores where coming you don't want to - one of the great things of san francisco it
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is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their own- that's >> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪] >> we really wanted to find a way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety
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support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here. she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be up-to-date and redone totally.
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>> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six. it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. >> he has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there
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are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago, and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month before she came through. she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her
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teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing. we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break
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that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre,
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and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what? >> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate. having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know when it's okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the
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kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors. [♪] [♪] >> i just wanted to say a few words. one is to the parents and to all of the kids. thank you for supporting this program and for trusting us to create a soccer program in the bayview. >> soccer is the world's game, and everybody plays, but in the united states, this is a sport that struggles with access for certain communities. >> i coached basketball in a coached football for years, it is the same thing. it is about motivating kids and keeping them together, and giving them new opportunities. >> when the kids came out, they had no idea really what the game
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was. only one or two of them had played soccer before. we gave the kids very simple lessons every day and made sure that they had fun while they were doing it, and you really could see them evolve into a team over the course of the season. >> i think this is a great opportunity to be part of the community and be part of programs like this. >> i get to run around with my other teammates and pass the ball. >> this is new to me. i've always played basketball or football. i am adjusting to be a soccer mom. >> the bayview is like my favorite team. even though we lose it is still fine. >> right on. >> i have lots of favorite memories, but i think one of them is just watching the kids enjoy themselves. >> my favorite memory was just having fun and playing. >> bayview united will be in soccer camp all summer long. they are going to be at civic centre for two different weeklong sessions with america
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scores, then they will will have their own soccer camp later in the summer right here, and then they will be back on the pitch next fall. >> now we know a little bit more about soccer, we are learning more, and the kids are really enjoying the program. >> we want to be united in the bayview. that is why this was appropriate >> this guy is the limit. the kids are already athletic, you know, they just need to learn the game. we have some potential college-bound kids, definitely. >> today was the last practice of the season, and the sweetest moment was coming out here while , you know, we were setting up the barbecue and folding their uniforms, and looking out onto the field, and seven or eight of the kids were playing. >> this year we have first and second grade. we are going to expand to third, forth, and fifth grade next year bring them out and if you have middle school kids, we are starting a team for middle school. >> you know why? >> why? because we are? >> bayview united. >> that's right.
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>> hi, everyone. i'm the executive director of the richmond neighborhood center , and i want to welcome you all today. thank you for coming. [cheers and applause] we are so excited to be hosting this budget signing today. i want to tell you a little bit about the richmond neighborhood center for those of you who might not know. then neighborhood center offers a number of programs for families, children, seniors, and adults in the richmond. we strive to be a hub of resources, providing services directly and working with our partner nonprofits at this location. whether through our afterschool program, our food pantries, or our community festivals, like our upcoming autumn the moon, we are a center for building community and a sense of belonging for everyone. these are the values that our
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mayor is committed to and has prioritized in her budget, which she will be signing here today. we are excited to continue partnering and working with the city to create opportunities and strengthen our support for all of our diverse communities all over san francisco. thank you all for being here today. [applause] >> thank you, michelle, and thank you for letting us use this amazing facility which serves so many young people and families across the richmond district. welcome to the richmond, but i know supervisor fewer is also anxious to welcome you here. this is an incredible community and i think that sometimes, when we are doing a lot of work in city hall, we forget about so many neighborhoods because we are right there in the middle and we are downtown, and of course, we are in d5 and other areas, and d6, but we don't make it to the west side of the city sometimes.
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we don't make it to the southeast sector of the city, so michael as mayor is to make sure that we not only spend more time and provide more resources to various parts of our communities in san francisco that sometimes have been neglected, that we make that right kinds of investments in those communities , and so that's why we're here in the richmond today yes, we work with supervisor fewer as the budget chair. this year was absolutely amazing and yes, she fought for this district, but she also fought to prioritize equity and the things that are important to all san franciscans. it was truly a pleasure to work with her and to get this budget done. [applause] when i think back to why i got involved in politics in the first place, i think back to the first time that i advocated for resources for the western
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addition to the board of supervisors. that advocacy, carol was actually on the board at that time, many, many years ago, and a big supporter of the communities and equity, and really fighting for resources both here and in sacramento. we would show up, we would advocate, we would talk about the importance of our issues, and members of the board would answer the call to make the right investment. yes, we still have a number of challenges in this city, a number of important investments that we know we need to make, in this board of supervisors spend countless hours listening to the public, listening to me, sometimes, but ultimately, putting together what i believe is a very comprehensive budget that is fair, that is equitable,
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that makes new investments, and that is really focused on accountability, as well. and it was under the leadership of president of the board who had the vision to appoint sandy fewer as the budget chair because he knew that she would not take any mess from her colleagues and they all put forth their ideas, but ultimately, she wanted to make sure that this was a consensus budget, and everyone had something to be proud of. thank you to both supervisor fewer and president yee for your leadership. thank you to rafael mandel and who is here today. incredible advocates and supporters for the communities and incredible advocates and supporters for residents of the city. i also would like to thank our budget team and kelly kirkpatrick who is the director of the budget. [applause]
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kelly, stand up, we can't see you. [cheers and applause]. >> her countless hours and worker work to get this budget done. harvey rose and his team from the budget and legislative analyst. usually the mayor doesn't think them, but as someone who served on the board of supervisors and has a lot of love for the work that they do to really analyse the budget within a short time period, i just want to thank them for their hard work to get this job done was pause -- [applause]. >> thank you to brendan rosenfield for crunching the numbers, him and his team. all the department heads, the ones that were grilled hard-core and were able to fight for their resources and get what we needed for the public. i mean, the budget was a battle, but it was a good battle. it was one of the best budget processes i've seen in a really long time, and i'm not just saying that because this is my first budget as mayor, i am
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saying it because everyone had an opportunity to make a request and have their voices heard. and so i'm just proud of how comprehensive this budget is. yes, it is the highest budget in our city's history, $12.3 billion, and i don't want people to think we have control over the spending of all these dollars, because we do have enterprise departments like the airport, the port of san francisco, the public utilities commission, but ultimately, we made some new investments because not only did i spend time having a number of budget town hall meetings all over san francisco, i know the supervisors spent time with their various constituents, and we took that feedback to incorporate it into our budget, and i just wanted to highlight a few of the things that i know are some of the most pressing issues that we face in san
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francisco. since i've taken office, about a year ago, we have been able to make over a billion dollars of investments in affordable housing throughout the city and county of san francisco. [applause] we have been able to do that because our unexpected windfall of the funding, because of our investments in our current budget, and because you all are going to pass the 600 billion-dollar affordable housing bond this fall without raising property taxes. [applause] part of that budget includes not only building new affordable housing and providing support for low and middle income families, it also provides preservation of existing affordable housing, and so i know that preservation around a small sight acquisition was really important to supervisor fewer because of so many seniors in the richmond district living in some of these buildings that are up for sale and have the
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ability to purchase those buildings and protect them for those low income seniors and it is so critical to the long-term stability of affordable housing in san francisco. i am excited about funding for rent subsidies and trying to keep people housed, our rights to civil council, and making sure that people who are facing eviction are not doing it alone. so many amazing investments in housing, and now we've just got to get rid of some of the bureaucracy that gets in the way of housing. homelessness, which we know as a number 1 issue that we face in tenth -- in san francisco. we have additional support for more navigation centers, for more shelter beds, because we know we need them and we need them yesterday. providing 100% affordable housing with wraparound services for formerly homeless individuals is something that is critical to addressing the number 1 crisis in our city, and
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we made those investments. $53 million to expand our behavioral health program and other health services in san francisco. [applause] thank you supervisor mandelman for your support and leadership around mental health reform in our city. we have already opened 100 new mental health stabilization beds on top of what we already have, and with this additional funding , we will be able to open another 100 new beds by the end of this year. we also have a need for people to use the bathroom, so we are adding more pitstops, we are adding more big belly trash cans , we are adding more targeted street cleaning, and we are using our 311 data to really make those investments strategically in the right places. we're deploying another 250 officers, hopefully, as we get them across the finish line of the academy, so that they can walk the beat in various
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neighborhoods, talk to merchants , get to know the communities, and help with preventing crime from happening in the first place. we know that our commercial corridor and so many neighborhoods need so much help and support, so we have made investments to support for sought improvement, tenant improvements, pay various fines and fees, and other things that we know small business communities face, including seven businesses right here in the richmond district you will benefit from some of the new small business investment our city proposes to make. it is the beginning. there's more that we need to do to protect and support are small businesses, and i have been fighting with my director of small business because i want us to cut even more fees for small businesses in san francisco so that it's not a burden to them staying open in the city. [applause] through hard work, the minimum compensation ordinance was done. it was brutal, but we got
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through it, and so many very low income wage earners in san francisco are going to get a well-deserved raise and have already, in some cases. we have expanded our cal fresh program and our county assistance program, and we know that equity was at the forefront of this budget. and thanks to the leadership of supervisor vallie brown and supervisor fewer, they helped create an office of equity where we are making investments to really try and shine a light on what we know are real challenges around access, education, affordability, and the things that continue to show really racial disparity that needs to -- that we need to take a look at, provide the data, and really make the right investments to turn it around. opportunities for all, as you will know, is a program that is near and dear to my heart. making sure that every high school student in san francisco has access to a paid internship,
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and i want to thank all of the city departments for stepping up and providing internships, and now it is time to halt -- holds the private sector accountable, to not only contribute, because a deafening contributed to opportunities for all, but they need to have more placement for our young people, and that is what i'm committed to moving forward. thank you to supervisor mar who is not here with us today. we worked together to fully fund free city college for san francisco. [applause] so i just want to say, to all of our senior folks who are here today, you don't have to be a young person to go to city college, you don't have to be a kid living at home with your parents to go to city college. city college is for all san franciscans. so let's take advantage of the amazing classes that they have. in one of the things i want to mention before i turn this over to supervisor fewer, as i know
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that, as mayor, i don't necessarily have complete control over our board of education, but i went to public schools here, and we know that supervisor yee and supervisor fewer also went to public schools here in san francisco, and the challenges that sometimes exist as certain schools versus other schools is something we need to address when we talk about equity. so for the first time ever, this city is making significant investment in addressing what we know are the biggest challenges at those schools. and includes teacher retention at certain schools in the southeast sector and other parts of the city, we are making a 10 million-dollar investment to provide additional bonuses to teachers in those particular schools to make sure that we try and hold onto them to work with so many kids that have, what we know sometimes are real challenges, but we are also making investments and wellness
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centers in our public schools. to make sure that kids have the support that they need when going through what we know can be a very challenging time in their lives. so many great things. again, 12.3 million. i could be here all day talking about all of the things that we are doing to make the right kinds of investments, but i just wanted to highlight those few to let you know that in addition to these investments, as i have said from the very beginning, it is important that we understand the value of a dollar. the value of how this city makes investments, and what it means to people's lives. it can be the difference between a young person ending up dead or in prison or in some terrible situation, and someone ending up mayor of san francisco.
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and that's how i see our investments, as an opportunity to make sure that good things happen for people here in san francisco, and we create a better future with these incredible investments. so make sure, all the departments, you spend this money wisely. you don't take pen and paper home that you don't need. [laughter] and you do your very best to show folks in this city that we are the greatest city in the world because we put our money where our mouth is, and because of that, we are able to create a more thriving, equitable, safe, and secure city for all san franciscans. thank you all so much for being here. [cheers and applause] with that, i would like to turn it over to our budget chair, supervisor sandy fewer. [applause] >> thank you, madame mayor.
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good morning, everyone. wow. on behalf of my 80,000 residents in the richmond district, i would like to welcome you to this part of town where our summers look like this every day off mac. >> but where we are doing good work to strengthen and grow communities. the richmond district neighborhood center is leading that effort with the work on the one richmond initiative, the home delivered grocery program, and is the main provider of active school programming in the richmond. i would like to thank the executive director and her staff for hosting us today. thank you all for coming out. i am glad that the budget is being officially finalized today as together to witness the signing of the budget by the mayor, i'm also appreciative that i was given the opportunity to serve the city in the capacity as budget chair this year. this, is most of you know, is a
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process that involves the expertise, commitment, and hard work of many, so i would like to take a moment now to recognize and thank them. chelsea, i know she is here somewhere. my legislative aide who worked tirelessly meeting with community groups, playing and -- planning and designing the entire budget process and was the go to person with all things budget related. our interns for the summer helped us tremendously on the budget, working behind the scenes. so many things to jack, melissa, and janine. i must also acknowledge my other legislative aide, angelina, and ian, "kept the office running at the knees of my district addressed while we were deeply busy with the city budget. i would like to thank the members of the budget committee, president yee, supervisors mandelman, stefani, and ronen. after many long hours, shared anxiety, and a lot of learning.
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it is with a sigh of relief and pride that we are at this point in the process. many thanks and recognition to the wonderful budget legislative analyst. with whom we work closely with and depended on heavily for guidance and recommendations. i want to thank our controller and his office for all the support, advice, and expertise, and many thanks to the mayor's budget office and to mayor breed for working so closely with us to ensure a smooth and collaborative process. my deepest appreciation for the clerk's office and linda wong for keeping me on track. thank you to john for keeping this legit. of course, this process would not be complete without the voices behind the 400 million-dollar in community asks. so thank you to community advocates who took the time to educate us on how this budget can help supply the need and support for safety net for the most formable in the city. and lastly, i would like to thank the city workers.
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the backbone of our city that makes the whole machine work to serve our residents. i want to especially thank our department heads who fight not only for their budget, but for their ability to serve the people of san francisco well. honorable work beyond measure, and most of the time, without recognition or appreciation. being devoted, dedicated, public servants. [applause] this budget prioritizes the issues of affordable housing development, the expansion of beds for homeless residents, and rental subsidies for some of our most vulnerable tenants. it focuses on services and support marginalized communities , including children, seniors, and people with disabilities, immigrants, communities of color, lgbtq communities, low income workers. with an ever growing wealth gap, and inequitable opportunities by
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race, language, gender, sexuality and more, it is critical we invest in assurance that every san franciscan can thrive. i think this is a budget that reflects those values. this is a budget that says, to those of you who are struggling to stay here, for those of you who are struggling to provide here, we see you. thank you again to mayor breed, and to president norman you for entrusting me with this responsibility. and now that it is all over, i am not sure, actually, that my colleagues or my staff would agree, but i think i'm willing to do this for another five years. [laughter]. [applause] i want to thank all of my colleagues at the board, especially board, especially our budget committee members for your confidence and collaboration. thank you to the people of san francisco who entrust us with the money earned off the hardbacks of hard-working san
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franciscans. and now let's -- let's get this thing signed. i like to present the president of the board, norman e. -- norman g. -- president norman yee. [applause] [laughter] >> i'm sorry, i can't hide the fact that i'm freezing. [laughter] welcome, everybody. this district is the most important district in the northwest sector of san francisco. [laughter] i really want to think them air, your staff, and i know i will be repeating what has been said, but it is worth repeating when people work so hard to put the most important document together for san franciscans.
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so once again, mayor, your director over there, kelly, thank you very much. thank you very much to ben rosenfield and your team. and the budget legislative analyst. thank you for putting this budget together. but more importantly, when i became president in january, one of the first things i said was that i'm going to make this board of supervisors, this set of 11 people, the best that we can ever have in san francisco. to serve our community, to serve our residents, to serve the most vulnerable, and the most important committee to help serve these people is the budget committee.
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and i knew i had to make the strongest budget committee that i could think of, so as mentioned, it was really an honor for me to ask supervisor fewer to be chair of the budget committee, and i was so happy. she just kept on saying, oh, no, no, i don't know, i don't know. for christ sake, sandy! you were chair in the budget committee on the board of education, yes, you know how to do a budget. you are as good as anybody on the board of supervisors. so thank you for accepting it. you did a marvellous job. give her a hand. [applause] but like all of us, one person can't do it all. she needed a team. she needed four other supervisors to help her. that includes supervisor
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mandelman right here, thank you. [applause] and supervisor ronen and supervisor stefani who were also part of that team. and to really make it special, to make it the best team, i put myself on it. [laughter] in all seriousness, i'm really glad that this budget was put together the way it was, and it was as transparent as i've seen it over the last 70 -- seven years. people were engaged, people had a voice. everybody felt like they had a voice, and that was because of the openness of everybody, not only the budget committee, but also the mayor's office. advocates came, we went out into the community, and we put a budget together that has, to me,
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one of the best budgets i've seen because we are beginning to look at the issues and see what we need to do to solve it. we needed to do things. we needed to be creative and putting the money where it could be effective, and i think people really looked at it carefully with that lens. you know, how do we get equity on this? how do we serve the people? how do we make sure people can be successful whether they are regular people working, whether they are people on the streets that can't work right now, whether it's the children that we are talking about that could be great adults, and also, our seniors. i can't say enough that we are the fastest growing population in san francisco is seniors. we need to make investments because, as many of you know, right now over 50% of the people
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entering homelessness for the first time our seniors. we need to make investments. i think this budget reflects that need. thank you very much for that. the other thing that i want to say that hasn't been mentioned in this budget is, you know, when families are struggling already, you can barely pay the rent, and all of a sudden they are strapped with childcare, maybe for one child, $25,000 a year, or two children, of the $50,000 a year. a teacher couldn't afford that. nobody could afford that. so once again, this budget reflects that need. we are really trying to support the low to middle income families so they can raise her children in san francisco. this is what this budget does. on top of all that, we didn't forget about our infrastructure. we did not forget about our
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parks, our fire department, our police department, and our department of public works to have more staff to clean up the streets and so forth, so this is what this budget does. it supports the infrastructure, and it also is created to find solutions where we need to find solutions. let's get it on and signed this budget. thank you very much! [applause] >> all right, folks. it is time. let's do this. supervisors, please join me.
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