that again? hello. overhead. overhead. >> don't make our overhead person mad. >> is probably asleep. there are 43 empty tree basins within a three block radius of washington square park. there are 19 basins that have sums on them. there is a lot of opportunity to plant new trees. our appeal asks for this. finally, we ask for districtwide massive treeplanting in this climate emergency. here is district three. all of the green dots show the empty tree basins, the orange dots show the tree stumps our

appeal asks for massive treeplanting in this era of climate emergency, and trying to figure out how to sequester carbon. finally, the ficus order fails to make up for the loss of canopy at washington square's in terms of tree species, size and proposed planting schedule. i would like to ask telegraph hill dwellers and all large-scale removals going forward, because they didn't this time around. yet, we are the largest, oldest, best known neighborhood organization in north beach. if the city wants to build a relationship of trust, and transparency, especially after what happened at the playground on the loss of our little fore forest, it makes sense to work with the neighborhood. now, we have heard all of us are the replacements of choice for

the ficus along the 600 block of columbus. we were not consulted as to the species, even though all of dusn that magnolias, i hardy evergreen street tree, which sequester ten times more carbon, and they soak up four times more stormwater. we would like to be consulted on these kinds of decisions. thank you. >> thank you. >> we will not hear from mr. carnes. >> welcome. >> would see i have my talk slides on this thing.

>> here come the marines. >> we can see it. it's on our screen. >> has my time started? good evening. my name is lance carnes, on the north beach resident representing save north beach village. we have appealed the order to remove seven ficus trees at washington square. every report shows the trees need trimming, not removal.

they are significant asset to the neighborhood, and san francisco. we ask that you nullify the d.p.w. order. here is a map of washington square showing the trees next to it. you see the green trees there. the last tree on the lower right was removed last year. these are the subject trees. the map is part of a large amount. in a few man -- minutes i will contrast these green trees with a large amount. this is the sidewalk you consider as a neighborhood asset. the sidewalk entries next to the

park are used daily by hundreds, even thousands of people. locals who move up the neighborhood, and visitors on their way to and from fisherman's wharf. without shade trees this would be a miserable possibly. they post of the trees for removal late december, 2018. they were given a removal hearing date in late february, 2019. during the eight weeks between the posting, and the hearing, we stood next to the trees and asked passersby to sign a petition supporting retaining the trees, we managed to get 503 petition signatures which we submitted in our removal hearing. the neighborhood is very engaged in these trees. there a couple of comments from

residents. the comments are by some of the elder residents in the neighborhood. i'm getting long pause when the tooth myself. -- long in the tooth myself. to establish the condition of the trees which they want us to believe are ready to fall down and kill somebody. we obtained arborist reports. this first one is from, the report found for the renovation in washington square park, if you can see, at the bottom here, the proposed action is no treatment needed for these trees. the second report we got was a citywide tree survey which was done in 2017.

the city paid $500,000 for the survey. the data came in and these were the seven trees, pointing at the screen you cannot see that. the seven trees, the recommended maintenance for all trees was large tree, routine paren -- -- preowned. when a citywide survey was done, it was released as a spreadsheet. i got a copy of that. i started analyzing some of the trends. you can all dial into in your spare time, when you get home tonight. it has articles on the trees. there broken up by supervisor district. you can look at certain types of trees, and you can lobby your supervisor to manage the trees

better. let's see -- here's how this whole thing began with an e-mail from u.s. superintendent carla short to forrester chris barker, last december she said we need to get these posted. the park is undergoing renovations in. this will be the best time for us to remove these ficus. they are trying to accommodate the renovation of the park. they did post them for removal, and then they did an inspection about a week later. i don't if you can read this

here, but the person who went to inspect, wrote on the road inspect with no reason. shouldn't you be inspecting first, and then posting removal? time remaining, one minute, oh my. this is a map of all of the trees in the neighborhood that are public safety hazards. you can remember them map i showed you before. it is surprising to me why all of these trees that need attention, why they would concentrate on these trees here that just need pruning. i would say they are barking up the wrong trees.

since there is no safety hazard mentioned, d.p.w. has a policy they don't like to remove trees unless it's absolutely necessary for public safety. in conclusion, we haven't found any factual evidence that these seven ficus trees are a danger. three arborist reports show that they are. here's a final -- -- they are not. here's a final slide. >> thank you, sir. you will have time in rebuttal. >> will now hear from the department. mr. brock. you have 14 minutes.

>> good evening, commissioners. chris brock, san francisco public works. thank you for staying here so late. great respect for everybody in this room, yourselves included, the last 20 years, i don't think there has been a tree situation i have not been aware of, either for fran's urban forest, or as inspector from the city, and as an urban forrester, manager of the urban forest. we will talk about it. i think when you look at the last year or so, to someone looking at trees, observing replacements patterns, it looks a little sketchy. by the end of the presentation, i want to point out that there is significant steps moving forward, and the trees are coming. let me get to that. we did evaluate these trees. we evaluated trees in an e-mail,

just to jump right to it. our superintendent e-mailed me and said we need to look at these trees. what mr. carnes didn't relay, as i replied. i would like to visit the site to check the trees myself with susan, we can confirm the recommendations before posting removals. susan, we can look at our schedules. so, would we approve a tree for removal without reviewing it? >> categorically now. going back to my brief for this evening, we did evaluate the seven trees. there has been a lot of activity out there, it's been very unfortunate. there has been a number of things, over the last three years that have occurred out there. one is a very serious injury.

the other is renovation of the park, playground, and of course i come to you yet as once city family, but saying okay, i joined us later in the game. my task was to evaluate seven ficus trees along columbus avenue. it is unfortunate how and when i come in to do that. when mr. irving said this canary island pine were amazing pine trees, some of my favorite in north beach. i love that little corner. i hear her. public works has heard loud and clear, the frustration the community has felt about things gone at the park. if i had a choice, i would say do not ask me to evaluate any ficus trees adjacent to the square park.

when i find those trees, please trees, have really good structure so we can keep them. the last thing we want to do is initiate removal in north beach, first of all. secondary not adjacent to a park that it's had a lot of activity. that is some of the background of how we got involved. at the hearing in february, our superintendent, carla short, testified that the trees do remove several removal criteria for ficus trees. the trees have poor structure, some with and without included bark present. the directors order, decree removal criteria was issued in 2014 to have public works that exhibit the structural concerns. ficus along columbus avenue and lombard streets, san francisco north beach, citywide have

experienced large stone failures. many residents are aware of these maintenance challenges. our department recognize the important roles that large trees serve within our urban forest canopy. and the value of these specific trees add to the site by creating a buffer between the street in the park. these trees also create a pleasant environment for people waiting for the bus, and for folks using the sidewalk. many of them visitors from around the world. but that said, as the manager of street trees, we need to keep public safety at the forefront of our decision-making. we need to acknowledge when trees have poor structure. our bureau was asked to evaluate the trees with any necessary maintenance to be done at the same time as the park renovations taking place. to reduce impacts to residents and businesses. during this evaluation process we determine that the structural health of the trees is poor enough to warrant the removal. my supervisor, carla short who

is our superintendent is the one involved with the community meeting, i'm not here to counter mr. irving. if we miss telegraph hill dwellers that is unfortunate. there have been community meetings, and it just seems generally like we are usually pretty quick to dial in with telegraph hill dwellers or the supervisor's office. also, our superintendent has been the one to meet with both appellants over the last few months. again, i want to be clear that there was no directive from someone related to park renovations to get out there and approve trees for removal. whenever there's a project as you know, it is important that we don't finish 90% of evaluating a site and then leave street trees unattended to. when the street gets repaved, we do not want to hear two years later that someone wants to

replace the water main. those are the conditions for us doing out there. there are concerns raised about whether or not proposed tree removals and ficus, at large meet sql requirements and we do have sql clearance through the 2014 urban forest plan which accounted for anticipated the need to remove trees at the outset of our implementation event. at this.has come going to go ahead and move on to our powerpoint, and then we will come back to this. if we could go to overhead, please? excuse me, to the computer. so, i'm not going to blow over this, i want to go through the individual trees.

this is the same powerpoint that carla short, our superintendent presented at our public works hearing. there she stated again, of course we did evaluate the trees ahead of time. over this past eight months we have had four of our six inspectors, two of them we lost two other municipalities. another one was on leave for six months, and another was on maternity leave. so, at the time the evaluations that were written up, i see it, that is not a very detailed evaluation. i evaluate these trees myself on site. i compared with our superintendent, she has been to the site. that is why she was quick to say removal in her e-mail to me, i had not been out there, so i said okay, let me evaluate. we have evaluated them. again, often we get a request when we are talking about removals, if something fails or there have been issues near that site, right. on this row of trees, there were eight ficus.

the first ficus have been removed, they did have multiple branch failures several years ago. we did go ahead and post removal notices on the first tree. that tree was removed, so now there are seven trees that remain. tree one did have failures. in my brief, not in this powerpoint, that is the first two images that show wide angles of attachment when you are viewing it from the street. on the backside you can see there have been multiple secondary stem failures. so, looking at the individual trees, this was the first of the remaining seven trees. it was obviously competing with the tree to the right of it, so now it has filled out since this image was taken. it has very poor structure throughout the canopy. this is the tree that was removed, and it was the eighth tree. the remaining trees all have very poor structure. we do consider alternatives for

removal, that is the first thing we consider when reevaluating any tree. that was considered, it was also reviewed and discussed with the director following the hearing in february, before the resulting decision was issued. going through the trees, these are ficus trees that show co- dominance stands, narrow angle attachments. some included bark, some without. this is where we are seeing trees fail across the city. this tree is contacting the guy wire, so these two. here's to stems that are rubbing against each other. often when we are looking at, can we prune this, can we remove that branch or that stem. it is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. sometimes we are like sure we can take that one branch often we can be good. we don't feel that way in this case. again, narrow angles and attachments with included bark.

this is where we are seeing trees fail to all the city. it is unfortunate that it is such a high profile location in san francisco. again, we don't go looking for trees to remove. it's also not an ultimatum on every ficus. there are plenty of trees that the third-party census is recommending for removal that we are saying, we think we can work with that tree. yes, there are trees that they have recommended for pruning where we said actually, no, were going to override that we'll make make our own decision. it is true that we have a bit of a mixed bag. we have done some look at the data, and looking at three of our grid maps, there are more ficus that we are downgraded from removal to pruning. it's not a narrative that we have heard and a lot of other cases, that we are just out there cutting all of the ficus down. again, showing a lot of the

stems, included bark. one thing i will show photos of, too, there are two large playing trees inside the park here behind the subject tree. they are really starting a crowd, they are pretty amazing trees. collectively they create a nice buffer for pedestrians. when we look at phasing removals for pruning only, it is really hard to get trees established. we have 22 streetlights on a bus shelter where we need to space and a replacement trees out for each other. that is not the reason we are approving trees for removal. we were into consideration when we initiated these removals. it is purely on the poor structure of the trees and where these trees are failing. again showing co- dominance stems with included bark. this is an example of a tree

that is too close to the street light come on bus shelter. i have a diagram of how we would space these out. this shows the larger trees in the background, and again co- dominance stems with narrow angle attachments. one of the things that we would do, after the trees are approved for removal. it was shift the replacement tray locations towards the curb. so we can increase the path of travel between the trees in the parks. right now the trees are almost sort of in the middle of the sidewalk. in this diagram shows you come on the left side the existing condition of the layout. on the right side is what is proposed for you to be to shift the basins toward the curb so we can create a wider path of travel. this is not the reason for removal. if approved for removal, this is what we want to do, to increase

the path of travel for pedestrian. right now, if you look at the subject trees. they are somewhat floating out in the middle of the sidewalk. this is not a removal consideration, this is a consideration regarding the layout. if we were to leave some trees, not others, we are leaving trees in the middle of the path of travel. the issue is not having a structure to work with that we can hang our head on and say, yes, i can make this recommendation, step away and expect the tree to remain there sound for a long time to come. regarding replacement species, we do have a diagram here. with the large flatness trees we need to give consideration to the fact there's no vertical growth above those trees. impacting several trees. they are very vertical, tall, fast-growing.

the idea with the olive. >> you have time in a rebuttal. i have several questions actually. the last time you were before this body, you were not before this body. there was a case where you did not provide a brief to show up department. >> that was a while ago. >> a month ago. >> want to know what happened? >> we had a continuance on this case. i would have to look at that. >> looking at the trees. first of all, roughly, how many ficus do we have here in the city? >> well, it depends on what your point of time references?

let's say there's about 7,000 ficus trees. >> how many on the list for removal? >> we are going through block by block and dilating them on key maps. on our website we explain how we are essentially looking at six by six block square areas, and evaluating trees. i can't tell you right now, how many we are going to remove citywide, by the end of this year, or next year. >> is there a list? >> we have a list of trees. what happens is, we have a 3-5 year earnings cycle as established. we are systematically looking at the worst first throughout the city, the largest trees come the largest quantity. we are evaluating those in advance of the trees being maintained by either internal street crews or private

contractors. that is what i refer to when i say our key maps. >> you do not have an idea? >> it is literally key map by key map. >> 500, 1,000? >> i do want to put something on the overhead, this is important. >> i'm sorry, it's 11:00 o'clock. >> all of us have to move our cars actually. >> on this overhead, the question is about ficus. not every ficus is a removal candidate. it is case-by-case. we are upgrading a large percentage of ficus. >> are we looking at the wrong thing here? >> we need the overhead, not the computer. >> they went to bed. >> basically, what we are saying, comparing three grades. we upgraded 32% on one grade, 21% and another, 50% on the

third grade. i am here to dispel a little bit. there is this rolling thunder of ficus removals. >> am still trying to get a number, i'm sorry. you have 7,000 trees, which of the 7,000 trees -- >> this late at night i don't -- we have several hearings coming up this fall about ficus. >> my next question is, i've been on this body for seven years, i've seen a lot of ficus trees. looking at the pictures that are here, that if things i like about that particular location is the center sidewalk. the ficus that we see that are earmarked for removal have been hit by postal trucks, u-haul's, fire trucks. whereas with the exception of the tree that is initially been removed, i don't see that. if you're talking about co- dominant, that is a feature of the tree. that means every ficus tree in san francisco would be on

immediate removal is. the other thing that usually comes before this body, is that ficus tend to be one-sided, because there's usually a building and they outgrow them. where these particular ficus' are not one-sided. they are pretty good looking trees, going forward. >> the challenge, the leaves light green, and outlooks vigorous. but the structure of the trees is poor. >> the co- dominance. every ficus tree house. >> there is a lot of ficus that have wide angles of attachment and are a lot smaller. as i just stated, we are not clear cutting all of the ficus. we are just not. >> how many ficus are you living at washington square? >> of the seven that are there, we are recommending the removal of seven. >> that is 100%. so, one of the members of the public brought up that there is a big tree, i believe a monterey pine --

>> them monterey cypress. >> what is up with that? >> that is on record and park property. i heard at the end of the day today, our superintendent said you should be aware that there was a meeting last night, in which they were disclosing that they are recommend a removal of that. i can't speak to it. i really don't know. >> there is no appeal process for that or notification process for that? >> i would gently.out that i am proud to say that public works has a very robust appeal projec. arraignment to the public, the parks department does have commission meetings. if the public is asking what they can do, i typically refer them to the commission. >> very last question, i know it's late. the seven trees that were accidentally destroyed by d.p.w., was not actually a d.p.w. crew that did that?

>> no, that was not. again, i personally do not have involvement with the park renovations. the project itself is a part project. there are project managers with public works who are working on the project. >> who did those trees belong to? >> those are rec & park trees. >> just for the record, bringing up unfortunate stuff. there was a woman, very critically injured, a couple of years ago. that was a result of a tree failure, correct? >> correct. >> believes she has permanent injuries and is permanently disabled, is that correct? >> no, she was not killed, she has severe -- he is paralyzed.

what i have read about it, is just from the paper disclosed about the settlement. >> i believe the settlement cost the city $14 million. >> correct. >> therefore, in your opinion that while we are evaluating the merits of your opinions here, we should consider the liability factor at the same time we are considering other factors of the density of the forest et cetera, et cetera. >> yes. that is something that is very unnerving. anecdotally, in sherman of elementary, we recommended removal of ficus. the ones we captain maintained our little smaller. a year ago, a stem failed and it

hit a parent entering the building. >> should be something, in our evaluation, we should take that very seriously, along with the aesthetic and the environment basically? >> it is true. it's an unfortunate part of the site history. that is why i went back to the last three years because that occurred in 2016. we are talking about ficus trees within 50 feet of the site. the concern is, how do you do a major park improvement project,, walk away with some confidence. we don't have that confidence. i wish i could give that to the public. >> two more questions and they will be quick. with regard to those ficus come i understand you would rather not -- that you would like to remove them, not alter them in any of the way pruning, true? >> correct. >> all right.

sorry, more like three, but is turning possible in this case, in anyway, shape, or form? what is the risk factor of pruning and set a removal? >> the idea here is to really have large trees. pruning the trees, and keeping them just sort of unnaturally small, at a site where there has been a high-profile injury, with a species that again, like i said, prune 4, keep 4, walk away. >> can you prune them, yes or no? >> it is not often a month, the director and our department is not recommending that at this.vice. it was, however, carefully consider. >> now i'm going to go for your throat a little bit. there are 41 empty tree squares,

placements, that are left with stump only in north beach. my fear is that there will then be 48. it is my fear based on, and i'm not blaming you, it's just a way it is, d.p.w. doesn't get aroung of trees does not come very quickly it seems in the city. is there an advocacy position here, and i compromise, we may continue this, i don't know, where you can come up with a plan that we will give you this permit to do what you need to do, but you have to replace the 41 trees first.

also, you can bring those ficus know you are going to eliminate them ultimately. not that i don't trust y'all, it's just the track record shows bad. it there a possibility, and what would be your thoughts on getting those 41 replanted fir first, and then dealing with the removal and replacement of the ficus and in the meantime earning them? >> thank you. i did not get around to it. a big factor here is we receive that list of empty tree basins. we have talked a lot about, it is public record, that you know, we have not had the funding for treeplanting, and watering. i don't want to go through the big arc of arab forestry. basically, you know, we have an urban forest plan. they secure funding.

we have secured funding for the planting of 2900 replacement trees, and 500 new planting sites this coming year. what we have done, since our public works hearing in february, we did take that list and evaluate all of those sites. we planted approximately 18 of those trees, we have about ten more to go. one of the challenges obviously there are storms, we need to remove the stumps first. some sites need to be shifted. we basically planted ten trees right away, there was no conflict. the next eight to be had to do a little bit of work to get them ready. the remaining ten, or so, we still have work to do meaning a stop, or it has to be shifted. there are that can't be replanted because of conflicts. >> these are specifically the ones in north beach. >> correct. this has been a while, but i am glad that we can come back, say

we are actively working on these. one of the things i want to talk about is the timing. there is interest, among the community to have sort of this project be done, in terms of late october is the date i have heard. if approved for removal, the goal would not be six months, it would not be three months, we would look at replacing the immediate trees, in columbus, essentially asap. we would like to do that by the end of october. one thing is -- we could replant those basins that have been identified by the community. we will not be able to do it before, because we would not deadline. we can do it in parallel. we have already shown we have 18 planted. that would be a suggestion that i put before the commission. >> what is the immediacy, and who is driving the october date?

why is october date so i -- so important? why could it be shifted to a later time and postponed so you can fulfill your commitment to the public by replanting the remainder of the 41 trees? >> as been explained to me by our superintendent, there is a lot of interest among community members to have the project wrapped up. that is not something i control, but in terms of moving it out and extending things on and on, public right-of-way, there is a desire. there is probably many layers of people who are desiring of that. it is out there. it has been in community meetings, that is always a goal, to see a project, just not have a go on and on forever. we have been planting trees since may. we are actively doing it. we have the funding to replant these trees.

we have providing spreadsheets to supervisor peskin's office. the funding so we can start planting the trees. in terms of who is driving, you know, the planting we are highly motivated to plant replacement trees. we are. we are doing that now. we would need, at least until the end of october, to plant those replacement trees. >> let's move on to public comment. >> how many people here for public comment? please approach. each member has two minutes each. please approach the microphone. >> first speaker, please come up. >> in fact, if you want to move forward that would help expedite the process. thank you. >> i don't know if somebody can

make that show up. hi. i am patsy ferguson, i lived three blocks from the park. i believe there is no legitimate reason for the wholesale removal of seven ficus trees. it is true of the of public works has had some limb failures with ficus trees, but that does not mean they should just be cutting them down all over town. this is not a legitimate reason to say they have branches that don't attach the way we want tree branches to attach. as mr. carnes pointed out, to, arborist reports from just the last two years identify those trees as healthy and fine. mature trees, like these, are estimated to be worth about $200,000 each. what would your decision be if

d.p.w. asked if they could just throw $1.5 million out the window? boast north beach residence do not want these trees taken down. mr. carnes showed you petitions, 500 names on it. why there is not a big crowd tonight, i'm not sure. i did see two people i knew were here to talk about the trees leave, because they cannot stay up this late. listening, i just noticed a couple of things, he had his e-mail interchange with his boss, she said she wanted to remove those trees and he said let me evaluate them before we post the removal notice. if your boss has already indicated her preference, a kind of influences you to come up with a certain decision. he also said that 7,000 trees, ficus trees, they are evaluating block to block and there up grading several from cut to prune.

they have erroneously identified many trees to cut down, and now they are changing their minds. that could be the case here. >> thank you very much. rm-1 -- -- next speaker, please. >> sorry, i am groggy right now. my name is kellan, and i do live in the neighborhood. i don't have any professional expertise about these trees, or, except i have read that they are healthy and viable, and they can be trimmed. when i first came to san francisco from southern california, i love san francisco, but as i explored it, i was surprised, and stunned by the fact that there didn't seem to be very many trees. i think the data bears that out, that san francisco is fairly treeless compared to many, many other cities. washington square, when i discovered it was one of the exceptions to that. it was this beautiful place with

these wide spreading trees that gave the neighborhood so much character and so much time. when i think about destroying them, obviously, it seems insane to me. that you would want to a park that has already lost so many beautiful trees already. i would just really encourage you to look for alternatives like the pruning to save these trees for us, and perhaps for another generation. one thing i was going to say about olive trees, i think you need a forest of olive trees to create the kind of green effect that you get from the tall trees. >> thank you. >> i don't think the overhead is on. there he goes.

>> i have a petition online, as of yesterday, i have 43,000 people just on the ficus trees citywide. the issue here is, and some of those signatures are in here -- in your brief. the issue i see here, citywide, they have no plan really, and i've heard of two over 2,000, told in the city council. [inaudible] also, because of the mass moving's in different neighborhoods, they decided to trim, because the different

neighborhoods complaining about why they are taking down the trees? we have another problem with the part, rec & park currently has, because we have all of this bond money, 100 parts right now under renovation. if you look at those parks, i've already dealt with a couple of them, they destroy all of the trees. that is part of the renovation process. that is happening to a park in caroline, and it's part of the process. there like piggybacking it by taking out the trees on the sidewalks. i have a problem moving the trees to the curb, because you will be dealing with closer to the buses, and the trucks, whatever else comes on the street. because then the trees will not be big enough -- they have to be

pruned not for the clearance next to the curb. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is michael nolte. right here, within the circle, is the seven trees that are going to be eliminated on columbus. all of the other map she saw, did not show the part, to show the graphics of the neighborho neighborhood. you know, the reality is trees provide shade, and if you move the shade, remove the trees further into the side toward the street level, not the sidewalk, you're not protecting the people that are walking up and down the sidewalk. i mean, i think, a lot of times

when you have people coming into the community, and is siding with the community needs. they are not asking the community, they're just going to do it. here's another example.

>> you have earned the right to be the very first case. i think you are right. >> due member -- members of the public have cars in the garage? the garage closes at 12. if you add up all of the time, we are not going to be able to finish this. >> september 25 -- well, let me see.

september 18th? >> i cannot do it september 18. i'm out of town on a film shoot. later in september i could. >> falls on the case of suspension, do we pick up at this point, after public comment and finish the hearing? >> we would take public comment again because it's a new meeting. >> why don't we have time to take the public? >> o, it's over. >> that's gonna be a long, just saying. >> i could look into the issue further. >> we have gone until 2:00 a.m.

we have taken a break to get our cars and come back. >> are going to lose me, and i'm not going to be much of a commissioner at that point. >> how about september 18? >> i will be out of town. >> i'm sorry. otherwise, we have a very busy agendas in october. we can put it at the beginning, hopefully cases move. >> we are going to get overloaded. >> otherwise november 13. >> that works for me. >> the trees will not get cut down which is just fine for me. >> okay, we will need a motion. >> i will make the motion. >> i will not be at that meeting, fyi. >> make a motion to move to november 13. the garage is closed in 1520 minutes. >> on the motion to move this item to november 13,. [role call]

that motion carries not for a zero. thank you for your patience. >> i apologize to the public that we were not able to get this done. [please stand by]

>> you're watching quick bite, the show that has san francisco. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> we're here at one of the many food centric districts of san francisco, the 18th street corridor which locals have affectionately dubbed the castro. a cross between castro and gastronomic. the bakery, pizza, and dolores park cafe, there is no end in sight for the mouth watering food options here. adding to the culinary delights is the family of business he which includes skylight creamery, skylight and the 18

raisin. >> skylight market has been here since 1940. it's been in the family since 1964. his father and uncle bought the market and ran it through sam taking it over in 1998. at that point sam revamped the market. he installed a kitchen in the center of the market and really made it a place where chefs look forward to come. he created community through food. so, we designed our community as having three parts we like to draw as a triangle where it's comprised of our producers that make the food, our staff, those who sell it, and our guests who come and buy and eat the food. and we really feel that we wouldn't exist if it weren't for all three of those components who really support each other. and that's kind of what we work

towards every day. >> valley creamery was opened in 2006. the two pastry chefs who started it, chris hoover and walker who is sam's wife, supplied all the pastries and bakeries for the market. they found a space on the block to do that and the ice cream kind of came as an afterthought. they realized the desire for ice cream and we now have lines around the corner. so, that's been a huge success. in 2008, sam started 18 reasons, which is our community and event space where we do five events a week all around the idea of bringling people closer to where the food comes from and closer to each other in that process. >> 18 reasons was started almost four years ago as an educational arm of their work. and we would have dinners and a few classes and we understood there what momentum that people wanted this type of engagement and education in a way that

allowed for a more in-depth conversation. we grew and now we offer -- i think we had nine, we have a series where adults learned home cooking and we did a teacher training workshop where san francisco unified public school teachers came and learned to use cooking for the core standards. we range all over the place. we really want everyone to feel like they can be included in the conversation. a lot of organizations i think which say we're going to teach cooking or we're going to teach gardening, or we're going to get in the policy side of the food from conversation. we say all of that is connected and we want to provide a place that feels really community oriented where you can be interested in multiple of those things or one of those things and have an entree point to meet people. we want to build community and we're using food as a means to that end. >> we have a wonderful organization to be involved with obviously coming from buy

right where really everyone is treated very much like family. coming into 18 reasons which even more community focused is such a treat. we have these events in the evening and we really try and bring people together. people come in in groups, meet friends that they didn't even know they had before. our whole set up is focused on communal table. you can sit across from someone and start a conversation. we're excited about that. >> i never worked in catering or food service before. it's been really fun learning about where things are coming from, where things are served from. >> it is getting really popular. she's a wonderful teacher and i think it is a perfect match for us. it is not about home cooking. it's really about how to facilitate your ease in the kitchen so you can just cook. >> i have always loved eating food. for me, i love that it brings me into contact with so many wonderful people. ultimately all of my work that i do intersects at the place where food and community is.

classes or cooking dinner for someone or writing about food. it always come down to empowering people and giving them a wonderful experience. empower their want to be around people and all the values and reasons the commitment, community and places, we're offering a whole spectrum of offerings and other really wide range of places to show that good food is not only for wealthy people and they are super committed to accessibility and to giving people a glimpse of the beauty that really is available to all of us that sometimes we forget in our day to day running around. >> we have such a philosophical mission around bringing people together around food. it's so natural for me to come here. >> we want them to walk away

feeling like they have the tools to make change in their lives. whether that change is voting on an issue in a way that they will really confident about, or that change is how to understand why it is important to support our small farmers. each class has a different purpose, but what we hope is that when people leave here they understand how to achieve that goal and feel that they have the resources necessary to do that. >> are you inspired? maybe you want to learn how to have a patch in your backyard or cook better with fresh ingredients . or grab a quick bite with organic goodies. find out more about 18 reasons by going to 18 reasons.org and learn about buy right market and creamery by going to buy right market.com. and don't forget to check out our blog for more info on many of our episodes at sf quick bites.com. until next time, may the fork be with you.

♪ ♪ >> so chocolaty. mm. ♪ >> oh, this is awesome. oh, sorry. i thought we were done rolling. ♪ this is a regular meeting of the small business commission held on september 9, 2019. the meeting is being called to order at 5:30 p.m. the small business commission thanks s.f. gov tv for televising the meeting. member