think it was when i got hooked on surfing after >> good afternoon, welcome to the land use and transportation committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, monday, june 29th, 2020. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor safai and supervisor dean preston, our clerk is ms. erika major. mrs. major, do you have i in announcements? >> clerk: yes, due to the covid-19 health emergency and to protect board members, to the employees and the public the board of supervisors legislative chamber room are closed. how many, members will participate in the meeting remotely. this is taken pursuant to the

state wide sta stay at home ordr and declarations of directives. committee members will attend the meeting through video conference and participate in the meeting to the same ex at the present time if they're present. public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. on channel 26 and sftvgov.org. each speaker will allowed two minutes to specific. and call the none on the screen. (408)418-9388. the meeting i.d. is (146)995-7258. again, that's (146)995-7294and you will hear the meeting discussion and you will be muted

in is lening mode only. when your item of interest comes up dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. you may submit public comment in either of the following ways. e-mail myself, the land use and transportation clerk, at erica.major at sfgov.org. if you submit public comment ve e-mail it will be supervised to the supervisors included as part of the official file. finally, items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board of supervisors agenda jule stated. >> thank you please read the first and only item on today's calender. >> an emergency ordinance to establish cleaning and disease prevention standards in tourist hotel and large commercial office buildings to help contain

covid-19. members of the public, who wish to provide public comment on this item, call (408)418-9388 and the meeting idea is 146-995-7258 and if you have not already done so, press star 3 to lineup to speak. you will be indicated that your hand will raise. >> thank you, ms. major. i want to start by thanking my co sponsors, the vice-chair of this committee, supervisor safai as well as supervisor walton and i want to recognize my chief-of-staff, sunny angulo who has been working on this legislation over a number of months as the city gets closer to reopening. i represent the district that

has long fueled the city's local economy with respect both to tourism asper wonderrance and northeast corner in san francisco and downtown and knob hill and fisherman's warf as well as office uses in the north of market area, the traditional downtown portion of san francisco. it's without question that the covid-19 pandemic has hit this city hard, not just because of the loss of visitors during this time but also to the impacts to workers and our essential workers. we all know from our daily brief beings with the department of public-health that our essential workers, particularly are low-wage workers of color and in the latin x community are at the top of the list of the most

vulnerable grapple to go the virus. tens of thousands of jobs of san francisco's ability to attract visitors and san francisco has really set the standard tornado gating the spread of covid-19 starting with the early shelter in place ordinance to an order that my office worked on with the department of public-health, which created and the mayor's office which created minimum cleaning standards for our single-resident occupancy hotels. we know that strong sanitization and cleaning protocols have been a key factor in reventing the spread of the virus and keeping

our transmission numbers down in san francisco where we have really been a leader around the country and around the world. so, as we move to reopen, we have to do so safely and to the recovery phase, today it was looking first at guidance set by the world health organization and as the culmination of months of discussion and collaboration with our department of

public-health as well as the real experts themselves. including those office buildings. this morning, the secretary treasurer of unite here in local 2, had a piece in the chronicle where they eloquently stated housekeepers, know about cleaning rooms. listen to us. and to that end, we have received over 1800 letters and e-mails into court of this emergency measure as well as a few dozen e-mails from the hotel industry and the representatives in opposition. and i want to be clear about what we are going to do during public comment. there's a multi billion dollar industry that has been cutting corners when it comes to reopening. we have seen it in las vegas, we

have seen it in other cities in as as were the health of guests and their workers has been con prom highed. compromised. they want to cut housekeeping out even though international public-health guidance recognizes the problems with letting grime and germs buildup on high touch surfaces. for the corporate c.e.o.s in this hotel industry, many of whom i have to note have gotten federal bailouts from the trump administration, actually president trump himself owns a number of hotels, let's be real, this is all about money. but today, we have an opportunity to vote on the correct side of history and pass policy that puts public-health and visitors and worker safety first and make san francisco.

i have a number of non substantive amendments that i will introduce and that have been circulated to the clerk and the members of this committee and with that, i will turn it over to my co-sponsor, supervisor safai. >> superivsor safai: thank you, mr. chair. i think you hit on a lot of the important points. one of the things that i wanted to say is that it's really important that when we're thinking about the perspective of this and you did, you did emphasize this, i just want to reemphasize this, we're looking that the through the perspective of the workforce. this really important to think about how many of these conversations have played out over the last few decades. whether we're talking about daily cleaning, guest rooms.

whether we're talking about the amount of men and women it takes to clean an office building. i have the great fortune of working on the frontlines with the janitors and as they cleaned office buildings, i've actually cleaned an office building. i've walked a day in the shoes with these members standing shoulder to shoulder with them over an eight-year period. i think it's very important to think about this through the perspective of workers. i think my co-sponsor, mr. chair, supervisor peskin, has dedicated his career to that. i know i've dedicated my career to that. i know supervisor preston cares about that. we're looking at this through the lens of the workforce and pulling on their experiences and what they have done in this industry. so when we talk about the current practice right now of leaving an option to guess whether they want their room cleaned, that's a current practice.

to remove that and say to move to another step to say that rooms don't need to be cleaned, that is something that the hotel industry has wanted for many years. and that's not something that we would support in this legislation. in fact, we say that rooms should be cleaned daily whether a guest decides not to. office buildings need a significant amount of disinfect ants and cleaning in all common years. there will be thoughtful amendments made today on the amount of times that should happen. those are reasonable. but at the end of the day, we want to elevate and ensure that the workers and the workforce are protected. as we've seen this week, if we open up too soon, there's false starts that happen. and cases begin to rise and we put people's lives in danger. whose lives are being put in languager? these essential workers that are doing this work on a daily basis. we all want the hotel and

tourist industry to open back up. we all want office buildings to open back up but we have to do it in a safe way and i believe we struck that balance with the amendments we'll make today. i also want to say that our county health officer, when he understood exactly what we were talking about, i think he engage dr. tomb as aragon he engage very wonderfully in this process and helped guide the amendments that we're talking about and some of the conversations listening to the workforce, listening to the industry and understanding the best way to proceed is. i'll save the rest of my comments for after public comment. mr. chair, but i think as you said, we have a a wonderful opportunity here to set a standard for an entire industry in this country as we have in other areas being the first, one

of the first in the country to be cognizant of shutting down and sheltering in place. many of the standards and lessons we're learning to think about, whether it's giving paid time off to get tested so they'll be free to believe that they won't have any retribution for going to get tested. and those cleaning standards and those standards will then make office workers feel comfortable to come back to the office and feel comfortable to come back and visit our hotels and our great cities. thank you mr. chair and i'm proud to be a lead co-sponsor on this really thoughtful piece of legislation to help our hotel and office workers in san francisco. >> thank you, vice-chair safai. supervisor preston. >> thank you. i'd like to be add as a co-sponsor and would like to thank you for the really excellent piece of legislation

and just wanted to associate myself with your comments and supervisors safai's comments and also add i think this strikes of balance of having specificity of making it meaningful while having the flexibility to make it workable and it just strikes me in reading it that these are more are just broad statements these are specific commitment and requirements and i'm particularly pleased to see the portions of the law that i think are absolutely essential that deal with protecting workers from retaliation if they believe there's an unsafe workplace and it either report that or refuse to work in an environment that

is unsafe and unhealthy. i think it's absolutely essential as well as the more enforcement provisions but the anti protections are essential for our essential workers who are putting themselves at risk no matter what precautions are taken in the midst of a pandemic, we know that our essential workers are putting themselves at some level of risk and this ordinance will significantly reduce that risk for workers as well as for folks who are working in these buildings or visiting these buildings. i wanted to to thank you for a thoughtful piece of legislation and thank you for those in your office who i know worked hard on this. >> thank you supervisor preston. madam clerk, let's open this up to public comment. >> clerk: operations is checking to see if there are any callers

in queue. looks like we have 37 listeners and 15 in queue. >> first speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is nick i'm with the environmental organization in california. where a state wide environmental organization based in sacramento but we have members all over the state. we submitted a letter on friday with some concerns that we noticed for the ordinance. i apologize that we did not engage earlier. it was not on the radar of the environment community until the the end of last week and there was a letter submitted in the sur rider foundation and we have a couple concerns. >> one is the requirement to use

single-use bags which seem unnecessary and goes beyond the recommendations of cdc and then similarly, the requirements to clean the rooms everyday seems to be contrary to commonsense in terms of reducing contact and reducing exposure for workers. and we would encourage the board to consider any process at the department of public-health or through another entity that could engage -- hello? >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> thank you. president of the united local 2. thank you for taking think. as you know our union started

expressing concerns about the future of the hotel industry a couple months ago. company executives were telling investors they saw opportunities it was a chance to make higher profits. of course we were worried. hotel workers are the hardest hit by covid layoffs and they face an uncertain future. those fears aren't theoretical anymore. if you want to see what happens when you leave it to the big hotel chains, to decide their own cleaning standards just look at some the place that's have reopened. tourist destinations like las vegas, new orleans, and florida. sheets are going uncleaned and corners are being cut. workers are going unprotected. hotel employees are dying as a result. there's no better case for regulating business practices than what we're seeing in those places.

this just about covid. it's bringing tourists back in the coming years. as the situation and las vegas is known, it's not just hotel workers who are scared. so too are guests. what happens? las vegas doesn't really stay in las vegas and it will shape the opinions for years to come. san francisco needs to tell the world we're not going there. we're charting a different course all together. all of our hotels should be held with the highest standards now and after covid is see limb is . the healthy building ordinance does that 6789 i hop. i hope it passes and i want to thank you for your leadership and your time today. >> next speaker, please. >> caller: hi. the lodging association.

we strongly oppose this pressure so that the health and safety of guests and employees can remain in the hands of public-health experts. as the hotel communities tries to rebound from the collapse of the demand due to the covid pandemic, ensuring the safety of guests in hotels associates is paramount. unfortunately, this ordinance before you today goes well beyond any public-health guidance and will increase covid exposure risk for our associates and our guests and create an incredible strain on the bids business operations. it includes requiring regular cleaning at least every 30 minutes of literally dozens of locations, furniture, equipment and ex creasing exposure between guests and employees. cleaning and dis inspectin disig contradicts cdc guidance.

opening non automatic doors for guests creates exposure and the daily cleaning of it not grounded and creates a exposure between guests and employees and guidance for mandated the daily guest room cleaning must be upon the request of a hotel guests and i'm importantly, consumers are telling us they don't want interaction with staff either at this time. a recent poll reveals a majority of frequent travel ters travell% are uncomfortable with housekeeping entering without advance permission. please vote no so we can remove politics from this public-health decision and safely rebuild san francisco's hotel jobs. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please.

>> caller: good afternoon, supervisors. an behalf of our hotel and cities i'm calling in opposition to the emergency health ordinance before you today. the health and safety of our employees and our guests has been and always will be our industry's number one priority. we want to bring back our workers quickly and safety to help ensure our city can begin to recover and our employees can get back to work. covid cleaning pro at the time and they are working with first responders and vulnerable populations working effectively with the city's department of public-health. this ordinance has been drafted by labor will play for employees at an increased time hell oh

again, i was muted and unmuted. i don't know what happened there. but this ordinance was drafted by labor union -- >> we can hear you. >> and will place our employees at increased at a result of day loom room cleaning. staff enter guest rooms increases a risk to staff and the guests. and limiting close contact is the best way to protect our employees and guests from covid transmission. you will hear from hotels today about how this overreaching ordinance will prevent them from actually opening and keeping them from bringing our workers back. the board of supervisors should not be legislating specific covid guidelines instead it's targeted at specific industry. the department of health should be developing these guidelines like they have for other industries as well. this legislation is all cities, state and federal buildings and why are these being added for a

specific industry and the public buildings where the legislation is. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> my name is angi and i run the san francisco merit union square and i started as a room attendant and a public space cleaning working as a former housekeeper myself, i know we put our employees first when it comes to safety. we have strict cleaning and protection protocols that have been established based on our brand, standards, industry, state and cdc guidelines. my employees will be safe to come back to work and they do not need your intervenance. this ordinance goes too far and puts them at risk and why it's so important does it not apply to government building and only targets specific industries. if passes you are delaying the return of my 175 plus employees

with their safe workplace and i owe piece thioppose this ordina. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> caller: we oppose this ordinance. pebble brooke owns 12 hotels and have invested 215 million into them. we paid $60 million in numerous taxes for san francisco's benefit. we've been big supporters of san francisco and we support our employees in the community in many ways. today 10 of our hotels are closed and the other two are operating at low occupancy. this means our 1400 employees have no jobs. currently our monthly operating loss is total close to $3 million. with our hotels closed, the city is losing out on critical revenue and taxes everyday. and our employees are not receiving paychecks. these requirements put fourth by

the supervisors would result in us losing more money reopening our motels and keeping them closed. we need 30 plus points of occupancy just to offer these new costs and a minimum of 45-person occupancy just to break even and it's depending on base holding that. the market is not expected to run an occupancy for quite a while and you should expect most of the hotels to remain closed. and we would have to close our two open hotels which we've receive open for workers even they have they're running less than 10% occupancy. with ordinances not based on science, rather with our largest national hotel union is putting in many cities across the country. were wouldn't these rules apply to government buildings? what is the union doing for city and the citizens of san francisco? the union is only interested in contribute to go supervisors reelection opportunity. hopefully the supervisors are not pushing this ordinance because of political favors. we strongly urge the committee to post this legislation forcing

us to keep our hotels closed. the only benefit is the union. san francisco has shown great leadership in this global pandemic. please don't ruin it with this ordinance. which is a job-killer. thank you. >> to the last speaker, i recent your comments. that are documentary untrue. you can go to the sf ethics.org website and look at this supervisor's contributions in the past and currently and then realize that your allegations are unfortunate and untrue. next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon supervisors and my name is amy article and i'm the general manager of the san francisco court yard and it pleases me you are listening to the workforce as i have worked in the hospitality industry for 24 years and directly in the city of san francisco for 12.

and i'm calling in with opposition to the american see healthy business ordinance. the health and safety of our guest and associates has always been our primary focus. which is why from the onset of this pandemic, we immediately partnered with the public and private entities to develop strict calm in standards. organizations have just a cdc, w.h.o., the mayo clinic, johns hopkins, perdue and cornell universities helped shape our policy limiting contact which helps stop the spread of this deadly disease. yet this ordinance mandates the opposite by increasing contact with daily housekeeping and putting the lives at great risk. it's not drafted by the health officer of san francisco and it was drafted by a local labor union who is trying to utilize it to further their own agenda. if this was true about health, why is the city, state and federal buildings are exempt from following these policies. if the health and welfare of the city ofs satisfy fran less important that are our

associates. they start to reopen plans has paused and should this ordinance pass with this burden (inaudible) i do not foresee we'll be able to reopen for many months. that's 146 people, 85% of minority and 50% female and half live in san francisco and they will try to live in this extremely expensive area without a paycheck. san francisco has been a leader to the rest of the country demonstrating there's no place for politics in this crisis. this legislation, however, if passed would negate that record. i ask you to rise above political pressure and oppose this legislation. thank you for your time. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is susan pen rose and i work at the marriott hotel. i would have been 13 years this month and i'm also a member of

united here local 2. today i asking you to vote yes on this healthy building ordinance. the ordinance will require our hotel to adopt standards for more frequent and detailed cleaning in the world health organization and (inaudible). that's important for the people we're serving and the business itself. nobody is going to want to come to a place they feel unsafe. i've been furloughed, being out of work is taxing just emotionally and mentally. it's important guests feel safe to come back so business returns and we can all have our livelihood. it would be a shame to do things in haste and cut corners and not take every precaution within our means to be able to fight the effects of pandemic and get handle on it. otherwise we're shooting ourselves in the foot. we don't want to e exacerbate a crisis. please, listen to hotel workers and vote yes on the healthy ordinance. thank you all very much for your time.

>> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you, we have 43 call and he is 243 -- 43listeners ano speak. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. dr. paul and i'm speaking on behalf of the global virus advisory council so thank you to submit testimony on the emergency ordinance. gpac helps organizations businesses recover from biological threats, bio hazard situations and real time crisis. we're a division of issa the worldwide cleaning industry association and we've been working with leading experts in prevention and control as well as professionals cleaning committee to develop comprehensive guidelines for cleaning and infectious disease prevention. we're pleased to see san francisco enhance cleaning disinfecting to the forefront of discussions regarding hoping the economy. we have two concerns about the

proposal ordinance. one is that we recommend (inaudible) in hotel rooms given the current outbreak and cleaning disinfection every 30 minutes requirement is unworkable and does not follow the best practices and could do more thundershower an good frome the spread of sars covid 2. it only increases the risk of both the staff entering the room and the guest in the event the staff member is infected. living in that close ak is the best way to protect and mandating daily service is not supportive of that effort. guidelines from the health ministry of baldwin count britid we recommend they take those source orecommendation, it's nod on scientific assessment. any decision on proper cleaning

to take into account traffic and usage is a two main criteria. the cdc and world health organization and american hospitalizations cree that it should focus on the high-touch surfaces and not general areas that are not being touched. thank you for your time. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon, supervisors. my name is cliff clark i'm the general manager at the a hotel in one of marriott's 30 brands and i'll calling in opposition to this ordinance. it goes too far and it's non state guidelines. it requires daily hotel room cleaning even if the guests don't require it. it would increase covid exposure for employees and guest as like and we have learned from the hotel that's have remained open throughout the pandemic that nearly all of the guests staying multiple nights do not want daily housekeeping service as they wish to limit

person-to-person contact in covid-19 exposure risks. the health and say tee of my employees and guests is our number one priority at palace and for mo marriott. we have a program for all 30 brands and it's developed in conjunction with the cdc guidelines, health guidelines and top medical research universities. it focuses on frequent cleaning and disinfecting, high touch areas and less contact through physical distancing and redesigning food and beverage and hygiene. this ordinance will likely force hotels to remain closed. the pandemic is the worse economic crisis on record, worse than the great depression, 9/11 and the great recession combined. nearly 50% of my 600 workers at the palace live, work and vote in san francisco and they're your constituents that are among the ranks of the unelement employed. this ordinance will force many san francisco hotels to dis

panned business operations for the remainder of the year. that's not helping with unemployment or with the tax problem that they have endured cancellations in business that equates to 6 and a half million dollars less in contributions to the city general fund than in 2019. this ordinance exempts city, state and federal office buildings and targeting specific industries are not fair. i ask for you to oppose this legislation so we can keep san francisco hotels and tourism open in san francisco. thank you for your time. >> thank you, sir. i will just correct one misunderstanding or misstatement which is that the legislation very clearly and repeatedly says that guests can opt not to have their rooms cleaned. next speaker, please. >> thank you. members just a reminder. members of the public who wish to provide public comment call

(408)418-9388 and the meeting i.d. is 146 99-75278 and press pound and pound again. if you have not done so already, press star 43 to lineup to speak and please continue to hold until you are prompted that your line is unmuted. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon, thank you for hearing all the opinions laid out today. the opinion that you have laid out does really prove that you are very much out of touch with industry. my name is mark and i'm the general manager of hotels in supervisor haney's district and i'm here to oppose the ordinance. my hotel is one of the lucky hotels to remain open. and i do not take this lightly. our policies and procedures are in line with cdc, chnla and delivered to our corporate guidelines. these are the highest standards

and what happens in vegas does not necessarily mean it happens here. please understand this, 100% of my focus everyday is to bring in a little bit more business today than we had yesterday. if i can do that we can accumulate more work and bring people back hour by hour. we have started to bring in room attendance and this week we have brought in a house man and this is meaningful. getting them to agree to come back was not simple and for my room attendant a major concern was going into rooms. based on the cdc recommendations and our brand directors we assured them they would not go into rooms until 48 hours after the gusts checked out and their relief was palpable. the regulations you are look to go put in place fly in the face of the cdc guidelines and imposed by no medical authority under no col rabbation yet you demand that my team put themselves in harm's way. let's put the cleaning of the rooms aside and turn to washing of the walls every 30 minutes.

you have to know that this will stop hotels and opening up and close hotels down which are open. this is of course astounding that these rules will not apply to your office. so let's be real. this is not about money. the reason of this of course is for the labor unions to legislate out green party and crazy ideas out there and negotiate them away leaving this green program in the legislation and victory is theirs and it's amazing you are willing to pry on people during their most difficult times. our quest of coming to work everyday to create jobs is beginning to bear and you are on our team's in harm way or my livelihood. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon, supervisors. my name is emily gregson and i'm the general manager for the buchanan hotel in japan town under the ihg family of brands. it was a pleasure to meet you supervisor preston and thank you

supervisors for hearing us today. many points have been made. i couldn't agree more strongly with my colleagues from the hotel and i would caution that this supervisors look to the hotels that are operating in any capacity and ask them their experience of calling employees back to work. as we offer that work, few members of our furloughs they are scared to return to work and they fear and entering rooms and really being at work is look out for these employees and ensure the safety protocols are in place for them and the guests and i just want to urge the exercises to where there are other under represented employees and citizens groups across this great city. we have in san francisco very strong union representation as we know and this is legislation that reflects that. so instead of getting involved in something that should be best handled by a investigation

between the hotels and the unions themselves, i would urge the supervisors to look elsewhere to people who are more truly under represented and in need of an advocate. i will also like to say that brands and ownership groups are motivated to keep their hotels clean. cleanliness is the number one concern, even above friendliness or the normal stands ar of service so we are motivated and do not need additional motivation to prioritize cleanliness. lastly, i do urge us to think about what will happen in the media and unfortunately and political form so i will turn to president trump and say that we know he has a field day talking about san francisco and the conditions of our streets. so imagine if he can then in the future say, oh my goodness, san francisco, they're going to have you in their hotels going into their room. your room will be invaded by housekeepers. >> next speaker, please.

>> hi, your honor and thank you for giving these opportunities. my name is (inaudible) and i'm available at the san francisco for eight years and the local 2. i am one of the people who welcome the guest to my hotel and my working years --

>> thank you, next speaker, please. >> caller: my name is and i

housekeeping supervisor and please put yes on this ordinance so the hotel can be safe and strong. in my family working in the hotels. right now, we have no work so it's very hard for us to pay the bills. i don't want to go back to work until it's safe for everyone. i know the hotel are saying we need to rise to reopen but i don't think so. we should not open the hotel until it's safe for everyone. for me, my co-workers, for all my familiar will he members who work in different hotels and for the guests, it's not the right way instead we make a plan so that the san francisco hotels have the safest and cleanest in the world. that way the guests can feel comfortable to come back to our city and check in into our

hotels. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello caller, you have two minutes. >> caller: hello. my name is nicolas and i'm a server at the oak room at marriott. and i'm a proud member of the united local 2. when i was laid off as a server in march i couldn't afford to keep paying rent. it's hard to put into words the level of fear and anxiety that comes from knowing that you might not have enough money for rent next month and so i have to give up my place. i was able to move in with my partner and manage with the extra $600 with the cares act but it's going to expire soon and i feel like i'm living on borrowed time. i want to go back to work. i'm worried that business won't return unless the guests are

fully able to trust the hotels and restaurants are clean and safe and that the workers themselves are returning to a better, safer workplace. trust and the business itself, from our guests will only be rebuilt by emphasize the highest safety standards and sufficient staffing levels to do the job. so believe me, as a tip employee, i need people to come back to the city soon for my income and we must do it the right way. i'm asking you to vote yes because we need the strongest safety and cleaning standards to bring our guests back to our hotels. one of the companies wants to go the extra mile so while the guest with our service, we must also now wow the public with our commitment to health and safety first before profit. my livelihood depends on it. thank you, very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

are. >> my name is maria. good afternoon. and i am a housekeeper at the marriott w hotel in san francisco for eight years. i'm proud to be a member of unite here local 2. today, i ask you to vote yes on this law so we can have a strong standard for safety and cleaning in the hotel. please listen to the hotel workers because we know the right way to reopen. for me, it's very important because now we need to have a high standard in the hotels. we need to sanitize the hotels because the covid-19 is everywhere. we need to disinfect to the public areas, the elevators and cleaning as frequently as possible. this is important for our guests. the guests need to make sure

that the material has a strong standard so they can feel safe to check in. if the guest don't feel safe, they won't come back. if if they want come back, they then have no work, we don't have no work. we need to adjust to pay the rent and we need to buy food, we need to help our children to go to school. as a housekeeping and cleaning, we know how to reopen the right way. please, listen to the hotel workers and vote yes on this. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. thank you. good afternoon. my name is mandy leiu and i'm at

marriott marque for more than 10 years -- (inaudible). so we can have strong force. we need to show the guests and the cleaning and safety. if the guest come to the hotel and everything is clean, they will not worry too much and come back and the hotel and they have san francisco state is a safe place to be. it's good for everyone. it's good for the guests, for us and the hotels. and it's not only for us, it's also good for the community. >> thank you, thank you.

>> next speaker, please. >> caller: any name is laura and i'm a hotel housekeeper at marriott marque for more than eight years and i'm a proud member of united local 2. after the housekeeper like me on how to clean a hotel room. and it's especially important to me. it's much harder to sanitize a room that no one has cleaned in days but now with covid-19, we have to be more careful because the coronavirus can stay for two to seven days or the high touch surfaces like door knobs, facets, plastic light switches and the tv remote, the wood head boards, staff and chairs and tables and if they touch it. the coronavirus can even lead on the trash and we should follow the highest standard of cleaning and safety. it doesn't make sense to let any

part of the hotel go days without being disinfected. as a housekeeper, we are the experts. we are the ones who enter the room to clean. we know that the right way to reopen our hotel is to clean more and not less. please leave them to vote yes on this ordinance and thank you very much, supervisors. >> thank you next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon, supervisors. my name is lisa lam i am a cook at a restaurant for 38 years. i am a member of united local 2. please vote yes on this law so we can take care of the business and reopen with a strong safety

standard. this law has strong standards to the open and the right way and this is standard is from the work of (inaudible). we want this standard in the san francisco to respect our jobs and our families. we want to have each other and put safety first. please reset us and vote yes. thank you, supervisors. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a room service server at the marriott for 15 years. covid-19 has hurt me and my co-workers very much.

in the union local 2 they are close to 9,000 hotel workers and almost all of us have no work because of the pandemic. i'm asking you to vote yes on this ordinance because i think hotels need to open a safety to bring the business back. i want to go back to work but it's not my business and it's not work for me to go back to. i am a single mom and the head of my household. my kids suffer from asthma so for me it's really important to work and get my healthcare for myself and my daughter. it's important for me to earn a paycheck. it is helpful but it's not enough to cover our rent and food. this ordinance is important for our city because it will set a

standard that guests can trust. that's how we're going to bring back the bids. we need this strongest standards for cleaning and safety and question not take any short cuts. please vote yes. thank you, so much. thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, supervisors, my name is joanne and i'm a housekeeper at marriott san francisco for 13 years. i am a member of local 2. lease vote yes on this law. in my family of four, we have no work because of covid-19. my husband's job is also connected to the hotel. so if it's very important to me that our hotel can reopen safe and strong. the hotels are should rush and

reopen as soon as possible. but i'm worried that the guests won't come back unless they trust that our hotel is safe, clean, placest to sleep. if there's no business, i have no work and my husband has no work. instead of rushing to reopen they should make sure that our hotels are safe for everyone. it's to all the guests that the hotel in san francisco are the cleaningest in the world. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is todd and i'm the general manager of the harvard court hotel and i'm calling in strong opposition of this emergency healthy business ordinance. cleanliness and safety of our guests and employees has always been a top priority in our industry. we're very few industries that are not as quite to the level of our guests and our own brand and

standards. as hotel area it was the blow with covid-19 route break. i saw a lot of our industry leaders combined together with brands, state and local association and even competitor hotel to create strict but clean, fair guidelines for cleaning protocols for every nook and cranny in departments of hotels. all in alignment with cbc and state guidelines. this is a genius and specifically targets totals by government buildings aren't seen dealing with that and mower outrageously it contradicts the cdc guidelines having them enter rooms which increases the likelihood of airborn transmission which we know is the biggest cause. ultimately if you feel we are endangering the lives of our staff and guests it will delay openings, guests can't come to open hotel and i ask you oppose this and help our industry get

on the road to recovery faster. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> caller: good afternoon, supervisors. my name is ashley and i'm the general manager of hotels at fourth and market. i live and work in san francisco and i'm calling to oppose this legislation. 70% of our employees are san francisco residents. we actively give back through volunteering to help marginalized groups within our community. it will increase exposure to our employees and guests so it's from the mandated daily room cleaning which goes against industry experts recommendations as well as state and cdc guidelines and this ordinance would disproportionately effect minority groups who occupy the positions who would be at the highest risk of exposure. i would also like to call attention to the mandate of single-use plastics which the

cost divides sustainability efforts. in california we have been at forefront of green initiatives such as banning plastic straws and reducing water waste. this would mandate waste rather than giving the hotel community the opportunity to come up with creative alternatives. passing this ordinance will make it cost prohibitive for hotels to reopen and not financially substantial. this ordinance exempts city, state and federal office buildings and targeting specific industries is inconsistent and suggests and i know i speak for many of nur industry. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is terry louis and i'm the complex general manager for the hilton union square and hotel properties leading employer and tourism embassador for our city for decades. i'm here today on behalf of my

team members and the to express strong opposition and healthy building ordinance and which regards personal safety of guest who's may not wish to be in such close proximity and it's ant for me and to it's always been our top priority. protocols exists high standards well before the pandemic and we acted quick three adapt our protocols and procedures based on the changing needs of both our team members and guests and the wake of covid-19. this is exemplified by out newest collaboration with rb the maker of lie sol in consultation with the mayo clinic to develop elevated practices and team-member training. upon our reopening this industry-leading program will be the center piece of our operations and the owner is mandates this emergency

ordinance presents not only complicate these product caleches and procedures under the guiding hand of these prom nant health experts, it would also inflect serious financial harm and a business working responsibly towards the goal of reopening our doors and to welcome back guests and our signature hilton and bringing as many of our 1400 currently furloughed team members back to work as soon as possible and the total industry has long partnered and organizations to establish brand and industry wide and employees and the covid-19 pandemic is not different and we'll continue to work together in order to put our people first. health guidelines and expertise in the field not by the -- thank you and i urge the -- we have 44 listeners and next speaker, please. >> hello.

my name is laura and i work as a housekeeper and two hotels in san francisco for 12 years. i run my own cleaning business. i didn't have asthma before i began working as a housekeeper, i developed it due to the chemicals i was exposed to. then i changed to work for a hotel in the san francisco green business program which required all the products that we use to not have asthma-causing chemicals. my asthma became much less severe. this ordinance will expos hotel housekeeper, other employees and check in staff and and this a at a time when covid-19 more and respiratory requirements. this ordinance should require all hotels to use safer cleaning and disinfecting products that do not contain asthma-causing ingredients. it amazes me that the union i used to belong to is not asking

for safer products and practical opportunities for our hotel staff. i encourage you to amend this ordinance to ensure that workers are not exposed unnecessarily to these chemicals, thank you. >> good afternoon, i am the hotel manager for hotel and advisory hotel group property. where i take very serious and want to be able to call in opposition to the emergency healthy business ordinance. our priority and dedicated commitment to our team members and guests have not changed since the initial stage of the global pandemic. safety continues to be at forefront of our decision and we have taken there is nothing more

important health and safety for our colleagues and future guests, san francisco community, where i am a resident. our advisory team has been working on property specific guidelines following updated standards and strategic planning including cdc and safe guidelines by building a task force for covid-19 and creating cleaning rolling new trying to prepare and place things in motion yeting ready to reassure and provide a protected experience. we are eager and looking forward to opening our doors and to welcome to our city. however, our team members continue to express and share same concerns they had in march, how to be enterse interactive wr guests lately. are we safe to clean the rooms

with guests inside? we know all these questions and we are asking them to enter hotspot areas without knowing and this ordinance is not providing the guidelines to protect our team members this creates hurdles and targeted to our hotel industry only and while exposing our team members to greater risk and forcing them to enter smaller confined areas without knowing. >> your time is concluded. >> next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon. my name is john and my family owns and managing the union square hotel. we're not a big hotel company. although we are california's oldest family-opened and manages hotel. in april of this year, i had the

suspend all hotel operations and # because outhis was the first e 112 yesterday and i am strongly against and i need towards the top and and to accept these new rules and and to help get the and women who are at and and the

employees i work with will stand on the unemployment line. thank you for your time. >> thank you, mayor. think should call the number (408)418-9388. the meeting i.d. is 146-995-7258 and press pound and pound again. if you have not already, press star 3 to lineup to speak. for those who are on hold ready to speak, you will be unmuted when we get to you in line.

>> next speaker, please. >> caller: good afternoon. my name is olga and i am the president of sciu local 87 and i represent the janitors in san francisco. i'd like to thank you supervisor peskin for caring our legislation and supervisor safai for being a response o this is crucial to protect all workers in san francisco and the opening up stronger means that workers safety is essential. rushing to reopen is not the answer if we do not have strong cleaning standards for our janitors and hotel workers. today, you are hearing from janitors and hotel workers on the frontlines and they are both unemployed and have faced being able to test covid-19 positive.

it's making sure that our members coming back to work is that been owners, contractors and hotel owners right now have consisted on mentioning and citing scientific research as to why the legislation is not good and --

>> next speaker, please. >> hello supervisors. my name is kirk and i've been a server and a bartender for local 2 for about 26 years. today, i am asking you to vote yes on the ordinance so that we have strong safety standards when the time is right to reop reopen. this we need to protect jobs in the hotel industry. i have lived in san francisco and worked for hotels for 26 years. i've been fortunate to hang on because i have a good job and a

hotel. i'm worried my job won't come back, unless travelers, and i hear it from my regulars that used to come to my bars, they don't feel comfortable about coming to the bar unless we have strong safety standards. you know this crisis -- it wouldn't be so bad if donald trump were the national leader on this whole thing. wear a mask, don't wear a mask and the confusion so we're asking for the strong safety standards and this ordinance will require safety standards recommended by the world organization, california los angeles public-health department. so we have all have a dog in fight. we want to go back safe so that customers feel safe, we feel

safe, so i'm asking you to vote yes on this measure. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> thank you, supervisors for your listening here as well as for being with us during this transformational time. i'm a proud member of united here local 2 and a member of the lgbtq community and i consider myself an embassador to the countless tourists and convention attend's that they're over 15 years at the marriott marque. i am the frontlines as a service workers. i know that my trust is my guest's worse concern and my first priority is their safety. usually pride month is when i get to serve a global community coming here to celebrate and experience just how safe our city is and i'm very proud to be an advocate for our safety and

theirs. and in helping with our communities and our guests is not negotiable, we need to show them they can trust san francisco hotels so please vote yes to rebuild that trust so i can get back to showing guests the best of who we are as a city. legislate for our safety. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> you have two minutes. >> caller: next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is volume con and i'm regional manager for a hotel. i managed hotels in this great

city. i'm calling for opposition of emergency health and business ordinance. because the health and safety of employees and guests and our lenders and visitors in our industry all are the number one priority. that's why they chose our hotels. that's why they keep coming back. our hotels, as you heard, all other hotelier have have strict cleaning protocols by california, american, hotel association, state guidelines, and multiple guidelines with a job to try to make sure that the safety is priorities not just the work. this ordinance also exempt city, state and federal office buildings and arguing a specific industry doesn't sound fair. [please stand by]

>> agenda. show us the signs. if you do care, would you all industries in the city. if you care about local business and the economy, at all, you will start looking at how clean the streets instead of playing politics. because that will decide the future of the success of the city of san francisco. and i appreciate your time. >> next speaker. >> caller: good afternoon, this is paul the regional vice president for fairmont and the core hotel this is northern california. everyone on this phone call knows that this ordinance so-called ordinance is really about to my local 2, loyal and loving colleagues, we have

always been about you, we have always been about the colleague first, and you know that in your heart. we miss you, we want you back to work but most importantly we want you back to work as safely so you can provide for your family and your friends as you always have done. you know that this industry loves you and always wants you back and i am so, so sorry that you are being put in the middle of this political football. to the supervisors, one word, shame. you have a full-time job to do, which is keeping the tax-paying residents of the city of san francisco safe from cleanliness, crime, the disgrace that you have allowed to happen to this beautiful part of the planet by the level of homelessness and poverty in this city is one word, shamefulness. thank you to my members of local 2, and all hotel workers, we look forward to get you being back to work as soon as as possible. thank you, very much.

>> next speaker. >> caller: hello, supervisors, my name is tony and i'm the general manager of the kimton. in a multi-generational revenue in san francisco. i don't necessarily think there's any reason to rehash all the pointed reasons my colleague made as to why this is bad legislation. one thing i would like to bring up, supervisor peskin, and your opening remarks, you said that you consulted with many different industries that this legislation is clearly unlaterally with only the union writing in mind mind. there was multiple letters saying that they were for this legislation but if you go to sf.gov and see what letters were

written, all i raid is opposition letters. i think something else very important to me is others have mentioned that city and government buildings are exempt. it really is up to me you would think that your employees are less important than ours. and lastly and the restaurants, there's no particular legislation for restaurants yet you've shoved it into this ordinance for a hotel relates please reconsider this and give us back to work because to make sure it's longer. next speaker and the 1850 letters that i referenced will be a part of this file, they were delivered to each member of this committee earlier today.

>> next speaker, please. >> caller: hello. thank you for giving us this afternoon to speak. my name is michael bear and i'm the general manager of the stanford court hotel and the huntington hotel both located on knob hill. supervisor peskin in your district. and i've also worked at other hotels in supervisor haney's district. and i had prepared remarks but i'm not going to read them because frankly everything has been said. i just like you to know a couple things burin does tree that you may not know. we're a very tight-knit community. most of the general managers here have worked in the city for decades or at least a decade if not longer. and you know, our workers are like family to us and so we would, you know, frankly never do anything to put them in harm's way. we worked exhaustively with the hotel council, the brands and with smaller hotels to develop standards that meet every guideline imaginable and as was said prior, my focus through

this pandemic has been centered around when we can bring our workers back to work as quickly as possible and safely as possible. and frankly this legislation will do nothing but delay that and all i've heard from the local two call inns was how people want to come back to work, granted safely, but that's already been covered to my knowledge and local 2 or the board of supervisors have not come to us to ask us what we have done about it and read our plans and what we have done to ensure safe working environment thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, next speaker. mr. chair, ma completes the cue. >> public comment is closed. and then if there are no -- let me just look here. supervisor preston, that was you from earlier, right, in the queue? >> correct. colleagues, i have a number of

amendments to offer. all of which are before you. that let me walk through those. this was done in collaboration with the dem of public-health evepublic-health,even though sos located in the district that i represent would have you think otherwise. if you look at the legislative digest, this is a very straight forward piece of law. it mirrors something that we did for single-resident occupancy hotels and will be done for other industries as we move towards reopening and i would quote from that legislative digest the proposed ordinance will require tourist hotels and large commercial buildings to establish intimate and implement and maintain specific, written, regular cleaning, disinfecting and disease prevention standards

consistent with those established by the california department of public-health and industrial relations issued covid-19 industry guidance for lodging. in other words, it won't be guidance it will be a law that will be enforced by the department of public-health and the sky is not falling. it will make hotels safer and generate confidence from tourists when the industry reopens but i understand that it's the brands and so be it. with that, there are a number of amendments. some of which the industry might even like. on page 5, line 23, you will see disinfectant as section 4 of the legislation insert the word cleaning and insert the word established so the sentence reads the cleaning standards established understand section 4 shall provide for disinfection of poris and non poris services using appropriate disinfectants

and then we actually create more latitude, which the individual talked about environmentally sensitive disinfect apartments l appreciate the sentence that says bleach and alcohol solutions must meet standards approved by the department for effective use and next two sentences i proposed for lex i is -- same words under section 4 the word cleaning and established and in subsection d at line 16, the following high contact areas items and fixtures shall are cleaned and disinfected and we heard you about the 30 minutes to multiple times daily and the department of public-health will by

regulation establish that and on page 6 at line 20, we inserted the word employees so that the title of that subsection is public and employee areas and at the bottom of that page, there's a deleted sentence, use of shared beverage and food equipment microwaves and refrigerations shall be discontinued and that section is moved to another part of the legislation which i'll get to further down. on the next page, page 7, at line 19 in subsection 6, that language is reinserted and references and doors that cannot be automatically or propped open

and the operator shall assign a gloved employee to open them. on page 8 at line 10 the insertion of a new sentence that mirrors the sro hotel legislation that says all operators shall maintain a log of cleaning and sanitation in compliance with section 4 of this ordinance and shall make it available to the department upon request that of course is the department of public-health and on page 9, subsection 5 is deleted. the rest of the subsections are renumbered at line 16. if there is insert a reasonable basis to believe that a specific guest room was occupied by an individual infected with a public-health threat, insert

operator must remove the guest room from use until the department confirms that it is safe for reuse. if the department confirms the room was exposed to a positive case of contagious public threat, public-health threat, the guest must undergo sanitation. the guest room must undergo more stringent sanitation. on the next page, page 10, insertion of a paragraph. thank you to the department of public-health and our chief health officer for suggesting this. if the department recommends that employees undergo testing for a con stage us public-health threat, operators shall ensure that such employees may receive testing as recommended by the department. such testing will be at no cost to the employee and occur on pay

time including time to travel to and from testing sites. and then, on page 11, at line 9, insert in the event that such guidance recommends providing employees with a notice related to any con stage us public-health threat, for example, a general exposure advisory or recommendation of quarantine each operator shall ensure that all applicable employees and the bargaining representatives, if any, receives such notice as expeditiously as possible. on the bottom of page 12, insert a new subsection a under section 7. which says violations of the standards set fourth in section 4 shall be a nuisance under health code section 581 and row number the balance of those subsections. finally, based on testimony that we heard today, at page 8, line

25, i would like to also move that the sentence with regards to single-use public bags be removed so that sentence all dirty linen shall be removed and replaced in single-use bags within the guest room before being transported. delete that sentence. so, those are the -- >> where is that? >> bottom of page 8, line 25. top of page 9, line 1. it is the last sentence there supervisor safai that saturdays with alstartswith all dirty lin. >> my numbering is off. so delete that whole line? >> that whole sentence. >> all dirty linen shall be

removed before being transported? >> ok. >> that is the tote tal tee of my amendment and i look forward working with you colleagues as we move forward with similar pieces of legislation for other industries as they reopen. with that, madam clerk -- >> one point of clarification, and i think this is a friendly amendment to the amendment you put fourth. just on page 7, it talks about use of shared beverages and food equipment, for example, coffee machines, microwave ovens and refrigerators in public areas and employee break rooms, we did also speak with one of the representatives from the industry representing the workforce, folks were concerned about lactating mothers and where lactating mothers would be able to put breast milk.

so, i don't know how we would word that but i feel like there should be something there. for every other reason, should be discontinued but i don't know where lactating mothers would put their breast milk? >> supervisor safai, i would suggest that in that case, the -- >> except for lactation purposes. >> we could certainly do that. alternatively i would ask given the number of refrigerators that exist, they would not be shared in those instances. >> right. >> so maybe they have a accept in the instances where there's a designated refrigerator for lactating.

it seems to be friendly but there should be some recognition recognition. >> i have no objection. >> >> what you are describing does not sound like a substantive amendment but i would like to understand the language you are should proposing. >> supervisor peskin made a good suggestion maybe there's a designated location and obviously it would be a refridge or and an employee break room or a refrigerator on the floor. it would be something that would be designated for lactating mothers and so, between now and tuesday we can work on language and we can have that for the board meeting. >> absolutely. we can work on that and have it introduced when it goes to the full board. >> ok. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chair. >> thank you. so, madam clerk, on those

amendments, a roll call, please. >> clerk: on the amendment that stated by supervisor peskin -- [roll call] >> clerk: you have three ayes. >> on supervisor safai's amendment, a roll call, please. [roll call] >> clerk: on the motion stated by supervisor safai -- [roll call] you have three ayes. >> i like to make a motion to send this item as amended to the full board with positive recommendations. >> mr. chair, before you do that, i can just say a couple of words. >> of course you may. >> so, i just, you know, i listened to the testimony today

and i think there was a significant amount of misinformation. i also think there was a significant amount of misunderstanding. i think there was quite a bit of focus on the idea of multiple cleaning on a daily basis -- particularly every 30 minutes. i think we addressed that in a very straight forward way. i know that i had conversations with the county health officer as well as the industry representatives and workforce. i feel like that was a very fair amendment to change it from every 30 minutes to 30 times to multiple times a day. and the other thing i wanted to highlight, because it was said over and over again, i know currently, in hotel rooms, and in the hotel industry, it is a standard that the hotels would be cleaned on a daily basis. except when the resident -- excuse me, the tourist does not chose to have ha.

that is the current practice. all we have articulated in this legislation is the current industry standards and so, to diminish that standard in the name of public-health crisis, i want to be very clear, we had multiple conversations with experts in the industry and so to restate very clearly that rooms should be cleaned ex otherwise reinforcement in the current industry practice and we went to and in our county health officer and i wanted to over emphasize that and there were other concerns at the end we and this and ultimately we'll put the quiet on the on the front lines of being that work and in the end protecting the tourists

and the guests that are out there and ultimately the industry will see that we've made some very meaningful amendments today that will help everyone in the entire industry along with office workers as well. thank you, mr. chair. >> the language for breast milk storage, are we taking that now and or is the city attorney's office drafting that language for when it gets to board for committee? >> we approved it and deputy city attorney pearson will finalize that language between now and when it a arrives at the board of supervisors a week from tomorrow. >> understand. ok. thank you. >> is that correct? >> i understood that the process would be that we come up with that language and the amendment would be produce introduced at l board but i have written some language so if you would like to consider it now, in the section

where it sa shared of coffee machines, microwave offense ex refrigerators in public areas shall be discontinued and i would add, notwithstanding the for going designated refrigerators may be used for the purpose of storing breast milk. >> sounds good to me. >> ok. so why don't we take that vote again and that is a motion by supervisor safai and on that a roll call, please. >> clerk: on the motion stated by city attorney anne pearson -- [roll call] >> clerk: you have three ayes. >> thank you. and i will remake my motion to send the item as amended by the chief sponsor, myself and by

supervisor safai to the full board with a positive recommendation. i would like to thank supervisor preston as well as supervisor walton and of course my primary co-sponsor supervisor safai and on that item a roll call, please. >> clerk: on the motion to recommend as amended twice over -- [roll call] >> clerk: you have three ayes. so for clarity, i don't have supervisor walton noted here on ledgeistar shall i add him. >> you should because his name is at the bottom of that piece of legislation and has been for quite some time. >> clerk: let me update is in the system. sounds good. >> all right, thank you colleagues, thank you madam clerk. thank you deputy city attorney

pearson. the land use committee is adjourned. thank you.

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>> announcer: you're watching coping with covid-19. >> hi. i'm chris manus and you're watching "coping with covid-19." today my guest is anastasia klaste and we're going talk about how the pandemic has affected our school community. welcome to the show. >> hi! thank you. >> i understand that our students and teachers have adopted video conference as distance learning tools to be able to continue studying remotely and this is clearly new for everyone. do you have some suggestions to students and perhaps their parents that could help them manage this new approach? >> i think the best advice i can give students and parents is to really be gentle on yourselves during this time. the thing we don't really want to do is increase stress and anxiety amongst our students

because they know it is a scary, uncertain time aside from the work. so, we are engaging in distance learning and providing work for students to engage in. the mental health of students and their well-being and safety is really at the forefront of our minds and so we're asking parents to keep an eye on their kids and also asking kids to speak up and let us know if they're having trouble f they need to talk to someone, if they need to take a break or they need more time to do work. because that is really what's most important for us. >> right. and what would you say to teachers having a hard time adjusting as well? >> i think our faculty is really lucky in that we were already utilizing google classroom in all of our classes. so the switch from in-person to online is not as extreme as it may have been to some other faculties in other schools. that said, most of us had never

engaged in video conferencing or done any sort of daily online lesson planning. so, i think the same thing i say to parents and students i say to teachers is to just be gentle and give yourself space and know it's ok to make mistakes and it's ok if you're not perfect and we're all sort of learning and doing at the same time. so, that can also be anxiety provoking and that can be hard for taoefers that are used to being really good at what they do and knowing what exactly to say and how to do it every day are grappling with new technology and they're finding that students [inaudible] what they do in person. >> are there concerns about college admissions for high school seniors and juniors? >> i think at first there was a lot of sort of confusion and anxiety for juniors and seniors about colleges. and now that the system has come out with some guidance and

we understand that, you know, the s.a.t. and a.c.t. tests won't be required for the next year, we know that universities have only agreed to accept credit or no credit or pass-no pass grades and looking at students across the country knowing that we're in unprecedented situation now that we've got guidance of clarity around that. students are feeling a lot more comfort. -- comfortable. for our current seniors, most of them got their college acceptances in february and march so those things shouldn't be changing that much. for juniors, you know, now that they know that they have to step it up for the next year because the grades that they're getting this semester may not be letter grades, it might be a pass-no pass, credit-no credit. but it seems from everything that i read or hear, they're working really closely with school districts to make sure

that no student is, you know, adversely affected by the pandemic because of this sort of universal experience for all students. >> indeed. i heard that some kids are worried that they may have to make up the work or retake the whole year? how likely are those scenarios and how will grades be assigned for this semester? >> well, san francisco unified has made a decision through the board of ed that there will be a signing. credit-no credit for 6 through 12th graders and that means that basically they will either full credit for the glass or won't receive credit for class, based on the work that they do and that goes into a gaap of neutral so it shouldn't raise or lower any specific student's g.p.a., but just give them credit toward graduation. from what i can tell, california has been pretty clear that no student will have to retake this year.

as educators, we do acknowledge that thereby a little bit of catchup happening in the fall. >> right. have your students had a variety of different experiences during this pandemic? >> yes. i would say definitely. our school serves a big at-risk group of kids. we have students from every zip code and city, basically. and students from all sorts of backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses so on one hand they have their high speed wi-fi and it's no problem for them to hop on a zoom call or get their google docs turned in and then we have a lot of situations where they may not have wi-fi so they're delivering hotspots or they have a device but it is shared among several siblings or the parents are using it during the day and the kids have only a certain amount of time that they can engage. so, you know, something that

the teachers have talked about being mindful of and i'm definitely being mindful, as a principal, is that our students are in various situations and we can't assume anything about their access in their ability to [inaudible] right now. for some of them, they're caring for siblings or grandma, living at home. many of them have family members affected by covid and so they're in a space where they're really just trying to take care of those around them. and academics are sort of on the backburner and for right now that's ok. you know, we sort of support them in whatever way they need. >> i understand. have you been able to provide any technical assistance to your students or faculty? >> yes. the school district had hotspots so i personally delivered about 50 chrome books to students and now we're

getting hotspots, which are wi-fi devices that utilize cell phone coverage in an area so homes that don't have wi-fi or homes that have spotty wi-fi can use these hotspots and the kids are saying that they work really well and now the district just got a bunch of them so we're able to list them. so any family that needs them right now, which is really great. now all of our faculties have access to high speed wi-fi and technology at home. we are providing them with the technology that they need to be engaged in this. >> i see. and finally s there any news about summer school? >> there is. sort of. it's happening. in some way, shape or form. but we don't really know how or where. i'm assuming it will be online

and, as usual, seniors or kids about to graduate will be prioritized so there'll definitely be some summer school, i'm just not sure where or what at this point. but they're going to share information about that pretty soon. unfortunately all the fun summer programs and jobs, the arts programs and language programs, the acceleration programs are probably not happening. but there will be some sort of credit recovery option for kids who need it. >> right. well, thank you for coming ton show. i really appreciate the time you've given us today. >> yeah. great talking with you. thank you so much for having me. >> that is it for this episode. we'll be back with more covid-19 related information shortly. you've been watching "coping with covid-19." i'm chris manus.

>> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female

firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting. a woman recruited me at the gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position.

i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt

responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need.

i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15. i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed

there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure.

we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of

the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying. you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't. you really don't. [cheers and

welcome home, man.

>> president bleiman: i am the commission president. to protect the members, the city employees and the public, the city hall meeting rooms are closed, however, the members and employees will be participating in the meeting remotely. and the precaution is taken pursuant to the various local state and federal orders, declarations and directives, the commission members and employees attend through a video conference and participate in the meeting to the same extent as if physically present. public comment is available on each agenda item on this agenda. both channel 26 and sfgov-tv.org are streaming the number across the screen. each speaker will be allowed two

minutes to speak. comments are opportunities to speak during the public comment period are via phone. by calling 1-(408)-418-9388. again, 1-(408)-418-9388. and then the ak says code is 146 069 9630. again, 146 069 9630. you will be in listening mode only. when your time of interest comes up, dial star, 3, to be added to the speaker line. please call from a quiet location and speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television and radio. alternatively, wile we recommend that you use the call-in number for public comment you may submit a written public comment through the chat function on the webx meeting platform when it's time to make public comment on the agenda item.

thank you, sfgov-tv and media services for sharing this meeting with the public. we'll start with a roll call. >> clerk: commissioner perez. here. vice president caminong. here. commissioner thomas. here. commissioner lee. here. commissioner falzon. here. president bleiman. here. and welcome commissioner wayne. >> thank you, here. >> president bleiman: okay, roll call is finished and the first order of business is the general public comment. these are for any agenda items -- i'm sorry -- any items not on the agenda and we will look now to see if there's any public comment on this item.

>> i'm looking right now to see if we have any. give me a little bit of time. okay. we have no one lined up for public comment in the queue. >> president bleiman: okay. hearing no public comment on this item, public comment is closed. and now agenda (indiscernible) for june 30th, and the next item is item number 2, the approval of our minutes from march 3, 2020. do we have a motion on the approval of the minutes of march 3, 2020? >> so moved. >> second. >> president bleiman: all right, the motion is moved and seconded. any public comment on this agenda item?

>> clerk: i'm checking to see and there's nobody with their hand raised in the call-in que queue. >> president bleiman: so seeing no public comment, public comment is closed. and the minutes have been approved, virtual gavel down. the next. >> the agenda item sell from our executive director. >> thank you, president bleiman and good evening, commissioners. it's been such a long time since i have seen you in person, however, it's really nice to see all of your faces in this box tonight. i have missed you all very much. and i want to thank you all for continuing to do the good work in your own communities to support the nightlife and the entertainment industry during covid-19. and i wanted to briefly welcome commissioner cyn wang to the

commission this evening. cyn, we're happy to have you with us tonight and we're all looking forward to work with you. since mid-march the commission has been in emergency response mode due to the covid crisis. our bars, nightclubs and live music venues and event organizers and musicians have been some of the hardest hit in the industry. many of whom were already financially yo vulnerable pre-covid. it's a rolling target, as well as the response to it. so just like our city departments, our offices have to stay nimble and informed as to the situation evolving. wile recognizing that we have been keeping up, i hope during the shelter-in-place, i want to spend time this evening discussing the staff work because it has been weeks since we last met. which is pretty wild. so when covid happened, the e.c.

began to shift gears away (indiscernible) when when permitting for amplified sound no longer being an option, we amplified the efforts and the communications coming into other local government agencies around the economic recovery and reopening processes. since the shelter-in-place began, our office has been pulling together and sharing the latest resources in order to educate the industry, working on leveraging our relationships with other city departments, and our online channels to get the word out as quickly as possible. some of the things that we have been communicating about are the rules, obviously, so the health orders and the directives are ever changing and the most recent communication that came out this past friday was about outdoor bar service without food. and so we had to let everyone know that this had been delayed and this news came three days before bars were going to be

allowed to have outdoor service without the bona fide meal requirement. so i know some of you on the commission may have felt the disappointment in that update more acutely than others. and some of the other things that we have been amplifying are the relief matters which i know that ben van hooten will get into more on later, and resources and just touching on the fact that he's communicating the work of the shared spaces program, and any updates around the abc, when they've been relaxing rules and the moratorium on the commercial evictions. also just sharing resources on financial assistance. during covid, he's worked to have a centralized online hub on sf.gov which is a big push for him and with support from ben van hooten. so i encourage you to visit at

sfgov-tv/nightliferelief. it's for the latest rules in our industry. we have also been focusing on (indiscernible) so both myself and the deputy director have presented in several educational webinars with the department of public health, city attorney and others. so any opportunity that we can to help to inform our industry and small businesses in general about the roles that we take advantage of. and ben van hooten and i are holding virtual office hours and consultations with the industry and so if anyone is watching right now that needs one-on-one assistance we can schedule some time with you. and we did a needs assessment and dylan worked really hard on this too with ben. we surveyed 170 plus industry workers, including venues, bars, restaurants and other creatives, to understand the financial and social impacts of covid-19.

some of the key findings i'll share with you and i'm happy to share the larger report as well. among the industry sectors and nightclubs had the highest number of respondents say they could only stay afloat for the next one to two months under the current conditions. and nearly half of respondents said they had a high amount of concern, a rating of eight to 10, but that their business will need to close permanently due to the financial impact of covid-19. the majority of those are bars, latin music venues and night nightclubs. that is some staggering news so i'm going to just take a breath. we are also working on convening the industry to share challenges and goals. and so thank you all for joining us for our virtual summit on may 18th. we had 500 plus attendees with our first ever virtual happy hour which was very interesting one indeed.

and we're also working on the economic recovery task force of which both ben and i are members and i'm also the policy lead and i have support from dylan on staff and ben van houten as a co-lead in providing support for the entertainment policy working group within the economic recovery task force. i have much more to tell you. so strap in, i'm sorry, a lot has happened. but we've also been working with the industry and fostered goodwill during the pandemic. so we worked on this dear s.x. campaign and a lot of you took part in. so thank you for that. and then, finally, we have been exploring legal pathways to safely allow outdoor entertainment activities to start again under the health order. so i will keep you apprised of that effort. but we're essentially proposing possible entertainment pathways within the shared spaces

program. essentially activating outdoor property potentially suspending certain portions of police code within this emergency to allow for an expansion of what your premises would be considered as to include outdoor. so i just want to kind of shift gears. i have one more kind of major update that i want to cover. and this is around staffing. so as a shelter-in-place began, the city quickly realized a need to support and to educate businesses that were deemed essential. in order to ensure the compliance with the order while operating. so very similar work to what we do already as a staff to ensure compliance with entertainment conditions, and so in response and under direction from the city, the city formed a group with our office called "community, education and

response team or cert" as we call it. so cert is responsible for responding to 311 complaints about san francisco businesses that may not be operating in compliance with the shelter-in-place order. this is really where no one in the agency is already actively investigating and educating around compliance. so we were informed and we were staffed by the whole team in various ways, and we're serving the roles of management, triage coordination and investigation. kaitlyn has taken on a huge leadership role in managing the day-to-day operations of this new group. and dylan provides the most up-to-date messaging and collateral. and crystal provides administrative support. beyond that we have 14 active disaster workers working in the field, including our two (indiscernible) mike and tony.

and we have three triage coordinators who work remotely. so it came from many city departments including d.b.i., s.f.o., treasurer and tax collector, and the office of labor standards and enforcement. we even have someone from the library working in triage. i think, you know, i just want to say that i think that it is a great thing that the city recognized that our group would be well suited for this work because of our history and because of that balance that we need to strike between the businesses and neighbors. we really take that strong educational approach with this group as well. and ensuring that these businesses just know, you know, if they aren't operating correctly, here's how we can bring them into compliance, as opposed to taking that heavy-handed enforcement, especially when the businesses are already struggling. so, you know, i can give you many more cert statistics on the

cert program, but i won't continue to bore you with that. i want to get going with the hearing. so just let me know if you have any questions about everything that i just covered. >> president bleiman: it looks like commissioner perez has a question. >> commissioner perez: hi, thank you so much for the report. can you guys hear me? if the virtual summit was recorded and available for viewing? >> yes, it is. and we have shared that link in the newsletter and dylan will go ahead and reshare it directly with you. >> commissioner perez: thank you. >> president bleiman: any other questions, commissioners? not seeing any. so director wylan, we just appreciate all of the work that you have done. we have been communicating fairly regularly since this went down, also with ben van houten,

which i have never seen him part his hair in that way. i kind of like it. i would say that you should do that more. so, yes, the amount of effort that you have put in and the team has put in is just staggering. what a crisis that we're dealing with here and so i appreciate everything, i speak for all of the commissioners. i think that it's a good testament to the good work that we have done here. that the city entrusted, you know, the entertainment commission department to -- to handle compliance for the new -- kind of the new normal for now. it is a really sticky topic. i mean, you have literally have business owners who are asked to shut down by the city. and then they maybe don't behave by the same rules that the city gives them and there's definitely room for tension there. i think that it's really important that we handle it in a

responsive way and in an emphit itic way and the -- empathetic way. and the fact that they entrust us with that, and kaitlyn and everybody else, it is really impressive and i'm kind of proud of us for all of that. so thank you for that. is there any public comment on this agenda item? >> clerk: so i'm going to just read again the instructions so members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 1-(408)-418-9388. and then access code 146 069 9630. and then dial star, 3. again, it's star, 3 to line up to speak. so that will raise your hand so i can allow you in. so let's just wait a moment. see if there's anybody.

i do not see any callers in the queue. >> president bleiman: so public comment is closed on this agenda item. gavel down. the next agenda item is number 4, which is an update on nightlife business assistance in response to covid-19. and this is from ben van houten, the business development manager with night the nightlife and entertainment sector with the office of economic and workforce development. >> thank you, president bleiman, and good morning goodand good e. it's nice to see you all virtually. i will recap what we have been doing in nightlife business assistance since the start of the pandemic and touching on and elaborating on a few of the pieces that director wylan identified in her report and then open to any questions on any of this. you know, really we've been doing just a high -- really high volume, high and steady volume

of one-on-one business assistance with nightlife businesses since the start of the pandemic. and it continues at that strong and steady pace today. i think that part of that is due to the ever evolving nature of the resources, rules and requirements that are out there. programs are -- are being watched and changing over time. there's federal, state and local activity. so there's a real -- there continues to be a real robust need to connect with our nightlife businesses and help direct them to resource, answer questions, and to try to support them as best as we can during this challenging time. you know, since the pandemic started, our office, the office of economic and workforce development, has deployed and supported a number of relief programs, including financial resources like small business grants and loan products. you know, i'm proud of the work

that those resources have been able to provide, but we really do know that there's just such substantial need, especially within the nightlife sector where, you know, we have heard loud and clear that nightlife and the entertainment businesses are very concerned about being among the first to close and the last to reopen. and that is a very real challenge that we are continuing to try to address through policy work and in supporting the businesses really in every which way that we can. our office has supported implementation of the moratorium and the food delivery camp. and also educated businesses around business tax deferrals and other emergency programs that have been launched during this period. the mayor announced the san francisco safe reopening plan at the end of may. and, you know, throughout the reopening process director wylan and i and others have really

worked to continue to better inform businesses about the reopening timeline and about the reopening guidelines with an eye towards clear communication about the rules and also timely information so that the businesses are not surprised at the last minute by new rule changes or new announcements. i think that the feedback from nightlife business owners has been really been helpful in informing the guidelines that have been put out to date. although i think that in some of our one-on-one conversations with businesses we're still learning, the businesses are having challenging fitting their operations into some of the existing boxes on what is permissible and pwhat is not permissible. a lot of creative businesses do four or five different things at figuring out which stages different parts of their operations can be happening right now, you know, is continuing to be one of the challenges that i think we're working on. hoour office has been participating in the shared

services program since it launched and subsequent to its launch, it was a departmental collaborative effort to really increase the access to outdoor space for businesses, including food and beverage and retail and all sorts of other business activities. access to sidewalks, curb space, street closures and as director wylan has noted we're continuing to explore the role that entertainment plays in shared spaces and i'm looking forward to continuing that work as well. we are involved in the economic recovery task force. and as director wylan mentioned we are working as policy staff alongside arts commission staff in the arts culture, hospitality and entertainment policy group. the goal is really over the next few months to drill down on key themes for stakeholders in these sectors and then to identify some really concrete policy proposals to move forward in advance to the whole economic

recovery task force. we had a meeting of our policy group earlier today and the theme that we're currently working on i don't think will be a surprise to anybody here in terms of access to outdoor space, access to indoor space, supporting job growth in these sectors. and embedding arts and hospitality within the city policymaking and also supporting tourism. and doing all of this in both a near term but also a look at a long-term sustainability, because we know that nightlife and entertainment is challenging to operate in, and challenging to be in before the pandemic, so we want to not just go back to pre-pandemic standards, but really to support the growth of these sectors moving forward. finally, i just want to note that the mayor submitted the "save our small business" initiative on the ballot. if there's more information in

the commission discussing that, i suggest inviting someone from the planning department to talk about that ballot initiative in more detail. and then, finally, just for what it's worth, you know, this -- and director wylan continue to talk weekly even, this is a crisis that is challenging nightlife and entertainment across the country and around the world. and people are looking to san francisco to see what creative ideas we can come up with, how we are supporting nightlife, to use us as models. so we have a lot of work to continue to do moving forward, but looking forward to continuing to do that partnership. i'm happy to take any questions. >> president bleiman: thank you, does anybody have any

questions? commissioner lee? >> commissioner lee: hey, ben, and maggie, i want to say thank you for the zoom meeting or the webx meeting. the one that you had monday recently -- no, i think that it was thursday or something -- but anyway, i was working at the same time. but it would be great and i'm sure that you'll have another one coming up. can you guys give us a few more days notice, because, you know, a lot of the nightclub people that i'm in connection with, they didn't even know. and i tried to get them on at the last minute and everybody is working. and you guys were in the 2:30 in the afternoon so it was a the le bit -- but it's great information and i just wish more people were online. >> thank you, commissioner lee. that's a -- absolutely, getting people information in a timely manner so they can participate

in those webinars is really important. and director wylan can speak to it as well. as i understand it, that was one of the most engaged webinars to date. and i know that we've had a lot of good feedback from the folks that were there and there were questions from some stakeholders whether there's a recording of that webinar, which i need to follow up on. but, certainly -- certainly, more advanced notice and more of these webinars, i think, absolutely. there's so many complicated to the state and local rules and abc and people want to do business the right way. it can be a challenge for all of those layers to be put together so we're happy to do that. >> be >> may i just add a comment to that. and i encourage commissioner lee and all commissioners to send all of your contacts our newsletter sign-up and so there's a link in all of the staff signatures to sign up for

our newsletter because it's the best way to get info. and also following up on facebook or instagram is a good option for that. and oftentimes with those webinars they are planned last minute because the rules are coming out last minute. so we do the best that we can. >> commissioner lee: thank you. >> president bleiman: commissioner thomas. >> commissioner thomas: thank you, ben, for that update. can you -- obviously, one of the groups that has been deeply affected by this are also the employees of all of the nightlife businesses and venues. can you say a little bit about what the city and oewd is doing for the individuals working in the industry? >> absolutely. and i realized i ended my remarks without a shameless plug for our web resources which i have done at the offset and the conclusion. but just click on the covid-19 banner right there. there's a dedicated page for workers and we know that

absolutely employees and independent contractors have been deeply affected by this. and, you know, there are workforce support programs to help people to identify job opportunities in industries that are hiring right now. which should industries are. and also access to information about if you have questions about employment or any other assistance programs, you know, truly there are new assistance programs or assistance providers that employees and workers in this industry can access on a regular basis. so i would defer to the website. but i'm happy to circle back also at a future meeting with you with more detail -- you're entirely right, it's the industry workforce that is, you know, really been verievery sevy impacted here. >> president bleiman: commissioner perez, did you have something? >> commissioner perez: yes, thank you, ben, for your report as well.

and i was wondering a question for you or for director wylan. another group deeply affected by covid are the non-profit organizations who organize outdoor events. do you also have other resources, support, and assistance that you can report to us? >> yeah, i mean, i would start with -- we have a dedicated page for non-profits on our site as well. i didn't mention that our partners at the arts commission deployed the non-profit arts funding at the start of the pandemic as well. but i would say that in terms of where we're thinking from an arts, culture and hospitality, that many worded policy group that director wylan and i working on. it's non-profit arts organization and for-profit businesses and every facet of the social and hospitality

space. so we really are deeply interested in recommendations, feedback, ideas of folks from every facet of this sector. >> thank you, ben. >> thank you. >> president bleiman: all right. it looks like the commissioners are done with questions. ben, again, i have to echo what i said with director wylan, but it's been a pleasure to work with you. i know how dedicated you are. and what a crazy time it is. so thank you for everything that you have done and thank you for the update. i think that the takeaway is that san francisco is going to try to do as much as they can to help us but we need to figure out partnerships with the city to make it work. i would also just echo they think that we should -- you know, i still think that our outdoor aim is really weak. i think that other cities are

taking much more drastic action to improve the ability of businesses to utilize outdoor spaces. shutting down streets and letting traffic just figure it out. and i hope that we can work together to kind of make that happen going forward and i had a conversation with manny last night and he echoed the same sentiment. but this has nothing to do with your work. i'm just putting it out there that i'm looking forward to working with your office to try to make that happen. and to try to get across to the powers that be how desperate things are. thank you again. and we appreciate it. is there any public comment on this agenda item? >> clerk: i'm checking to see if there's anybody in the queue calling in and there is nobody waiting to speak. >> president bleiman: all right, then we'll close public

comment for this agenda item. all right. okay. the next agenda item is number 5, hearing and possible action regarding applications for permits under the jurisdiction of the entertainment commission. and i will ask them to introduce the items on the consent agenda. >> president bleiman, good evening, commissioners. so we only have one permit on tonight's consent agenda. it's for a permit for 26 nix. this was to be on a hearing back in march but due to things they were unable to make that hearing. so here we are. they have two pool tables. they've had the pool tables for quite some time and they're just

coming into compliance with this permit. so they have noticed the public twice now and there's been zero opposition. it is an accessory use permit and i'm happy to answer any questions if there are any. >> president bleiman: not seeing any questions. so let's move right into public comment. is there any public comment on this consent agenda with this item? >> clerk: let me read the instructions again just -- >> president bleiman: why not. >> clerk: okay. so the members of the public if you wish to provide public comment on this item please call 1-(408)-418-9388. and then the access code, 146 069 9630. and then dial, star, 3, to be added to the queue to speak. so it will prompt you and then it will tell you when you've been unmuted. let's give it a few seconds in case. >> president bleiman: give it about a minute just in case.

>> clerk: okay. >> president bleiman: not sure that there's any members of the public who wish to chime on this (indiscernible). >> president bleiman: give it another 30 seconds. >> clerk: okay. >> president bleiman: okay, i'm going to close public comment on this. so it is closed. do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> i move to approve it.

>> second. >> president bleiman: you can vote. crystal, you're on mute, just in case. >> you see me now? commissioner perez. aye. president bleiman. aye. commissioner falzon. aye. commissioner wang. aye. vice president caminong. aye. commissioner lee. aye. commissioner thomas. aye. i think that is everyone. >> president bleiman: all right, it is so moved. congratulations 26 mix. and you can continue having (indiscernible). all right. let me move on to the next agenda item.

all right, the next item in our regular agenda is under number 6, discussion and possible action to adopt written comments and/or recommendations to be submitted by the executive director to the planning department and/or department of building inspection regarding noise issues for proposed residential and/or hotel/motel projects per chapter 116 of the administrative code. and i will ask director wylan to introduce what we call r.d.r. >> thank you, president bleiman. and just a reminder to everyone to please mute yourself unless you are talking. so the item tonight is for folsom street and it has a couple addresses, 1526 15261540d 135 kissling. this is a project within 300 feet of several of our

places of entertainment. if you can envision the space, i think that you may see a photo of it from a project sponsor, but they include oasis and calle 11, and the holy cow and halycon and audio nightclub. and marked out the actual feet between the project and the spaces of entertainment for your reference. and so here to tell you more about the project and the outreach that they did around this are daniel belnath and eric toul. >> thank you very much. can i get the screen, chair control? >> yes. i'll do it right now. >> excellent. >> hello, commissioners, eri

eric... (indiscernible) and a.g.i.s, and i work with [broken audio] and we are a multifamily residential developer in san francisco. and we appreciate the time made for us to talk about our project. and what we have learned and what we're going to (indiscernible) in the entertainment division. and this is the san francisco bay area. it's also -- we're the most (indiscernible) found in the united states. >> we are having a hard time hearing you. could you possibly get closer to

-- >> let me try. >> is that better? >> still sounds really far away. >> daniel, why don't you take over for now. >> sure. so we just very, very briefly, we wanted to give you a kind of a snapshot as to who we are and some of the projects that we have been involved in in the city. and so these are just two of our past residential apartment developments in san francisco that we're pretty proud of. this is a 264 units in dog patch and it was named avaca and it was recently acquired by another entity that renameed it to the windsor. but this actually won design

awards, and this is a project at 1880 mission, so not too far from the project that we're working on today. this is a large project with 222 rental units that we did back in 2013. but our portfolio is not just, you know, residential work. so these are examples of two buildings that we did some value-add renovations to and actually still hold and operate today. so the office building -- so we don't actually operate the theatre, but, you know, we work in close coordination with them and have a bunch of, you know, three different retail tenants operating on the ground floor, in addition to the office tenants in the tower as well as 1301 folsome street that is right in this neighborhood.

and some of the stuff that we're working on in addition to 1560folsom street. this is a new ground-up project at 1270 mission that was titled back in 2017 to put 319 units. and then 950 market street which is right in mid-market at sixth and market street, is under construction. you can see that we're probably going to hopefully top out in the next few days. this is just a shot from the construction camera. and this has -- >> real quick, can you hear me better now? >> a little bit better. >> okay, all right, keep going, daniel. >> so now we can dive into 1560folsom street, which is why we're here today. i am sure that everyone on the call is familiar with the site but just to kind of orient everybody to the extent of our project, the site that we're

working with is an odd-shaped one that has three different frontages on folsom street and extends to 11th street and all the way up to kissling street. so this odd geometry was kind of difficult to negotiate, and resolve architecturally. but we worked with a good local architect as well as with the feed back from the planning department to have a stepped massing where most of the density of the building is focused on folsom street and then as you go towards kissling street which is, you know, a part of the enclave, presents to the enclave district, it sort of steps down. but we are proposing 244 units, over 265,000-square-feet. there's going to be ground floor retail facing on to folsom street. and the primary vehicle access

for the main building comes through bbyrnes place that is ol of those buildings on the interior of the block. and just to give you an overview of our process to date, kind of just staying high level, we have been working with the planning department on this since 2018 when we called the p.p.a. we had our community meeting towards the end -- in december 2018, prior to submitting our application. and our product description was in june of last year where they just kind of determined that the project meets code and sort of set the target for our planning commission hearing date. and then as of february of this year, we were referred to the entertainment commission from our -- from the planning

department. and we work with maggie and some other staff who we've been working in close accordination with to do outreach to the nightlife establishment that are in the district. so we'll go into more detail on the outreach. we completed -- what we learned from those conversations but we actually wound up scheduling our noise environment evaluation which is where our acoustics had a noise study. that was in early march. which just barely squeezed in before shelter-in-place was issued so we got good data, luckily. because i think a couple weeks later most of the clubs were not operating anymore. in may of this year, our environmental review was actually completed. so they published the community plan evaluation. and then today is where we're talking to the entertainment commission.

and we were targeting july 2020 for our planning commission hearing, though it will depend on, you know, calendar availability and things like that. so here you can see the kind of overall program blocks and in context with the various places of entertainment. you can see we're kind of right in the thick of it which is really cool. we're very excited to be in this neighborhood. so, maggie mentioned the establishments before, but oasis is right on the corner here, just 30 feet -- basically just across the street from where our -- some of our apartments start over here. and you can see calle 11, and holy cow and halycon and audio all clustered around here, right on this corner.

so we reached out to the contact person provided by the entertainment commission of all of the different nightclubs starting in february of this year. and we don't need to go into every call, but some of the kind of big picture items that we learned -- we were mainly trying to just sort of provide general information about our project as well as make sure that the dates that we were scheduling the noise study was going to capture kind of a typical or a peak, you know, busy night for them to make sure that we were going to capture the sort of worst-case scenario. but in addition to that, you know, a few of the operators shared experiences, you know, of past noise complaints and how that can be quite a burden and how certain members of the community can be very sensitive.

so that's something that we're trying to be responsive to. and the other thing was just making sure that any future tenant of this project are aware of the district that they're moving into. so in addition to the -- the disclosure forms that are provided to us that will be with the leases for these tenants that was provided by the entertainment commission, we also have another lease addendum that we're working with the lgbtq, the cultural district, that we're also going to be incorporating. so new tenants will be well aware of the, you know, the nature of this district. and as i'm sure that won't be a surprise, all of the -- all of the people that we spoke with at these nigh nightclubs basicallyd that any typical weekend, and

anything friday and saturday night would capture the peak sound levels. so here you can see our typical residential floor plan. in context with the nightclubs. so the noise study was schedul scheduled -- i believe that they started it on noon on a thursday. all the way through the following monday -- so from march 5th to march ninth, they had a continuously operating sound measuring device that is supposed to measure the ambient noise as well as the peak sound levels. and i also actually walked around and i measured with microphones and did some spot measurements around the nightclubs just to -- just to get some extra data. and what they found was that in order for us to comply with the

san francisco noise ordinance, which basically are standard thermal windows that have a rating of 26, would comply. and the -- luckily the proposed rating that we have for a typical fixed window, which is actually the kind of lowest performing window that goes in the project was s.f.c., 28, so the news that our baseline specification was already exceeding the minimum rating to comply with the noise ordinance. but after some conversations with the entertainment commission and going back to our acoustic consultant, we decided just in an abundance of caution to make sure that we were meeting the, you know, the combined levels with all of these clubs operating together. we increased the minimum s.f.c.

rating for these certain facade that are highlighted to magenta to s.f.c.33. which brings our interior noise levels to what our acoustic engineer feels that would be comfortable when all of the nightclubs are operating. so we have some more information about the design if you want to go through it but i wanted to just pause here to see if anybody has any questions on the information that we have provided so far. >> i want to quickly add, now that you can lawyer m hear me bi have turned the microphone up. and one of the reasons that we have added to those specific locations and talking to the entertainment commission and talking to a sound engineer and a noise engineer, basically it's just recommended. because even though you can meet the code and you deliver s.f.c. to the code, sometimes the noise still penetrates and results in complaints. so by going to a higher s.f.c.

we can avoid that in those circumstances. along those parameters. >> project sponsors and commissioners, i just wanted to take a moment during the opening here, i probably should have included it here, however, i do want to call attention to the staff recommendation that i sent to you all in the form of a memo which is in your binder for this -- your virtual binder for this agenda item tonight. and so it includes the conditions relative to what the project sponsors are speaking about, about s.t.c. levels so i'm happy to read those out or to discuss them but i think that president bleiman, that's up to you. >> president bleiman: yeah, so can you guys -- can -- i can't see the commissioners because -- because i'm looking at their screen right now. so can we just stop screen

sharing for a minute here. >> sure. >> president bleiman: and then let me just see if there's any questions of the commissioners. commissioner thomas? >> commissioner thomas: mostly i just wanted to say thank you for already having reached out to the cultural district. that was going to be my first question. so, thank you. obviously, it's a neighborhood that has a lot of meaning both in terms of entertainment and in terms of the district and so i'm glad that you're reaching out to them and making sure that people moving into these apartments are interested in living in the south of market neighborhood. so, thank you. >> president bleiman: commissioner caminong. >> vice-president caminong: sorry about that. it took a second to unmute

myself. i do want to also recognize that you are also located in soma, the cultural heritage district of filipino-americans. it's a very large footprint and i just want to go on record to recognize some of the latinos as well. but i also know that eric toul is a big supporter of it since its inception. so i know that you guys have been doing a lot of amazing work supporting community organizations. i do have to say that since the formation of the r.d.r., this is the first time that a sponsor has come in front of our commission and has actually spoken to all of our venues. so i really appreciate your presentation, showcasing your project timelines of communication and also recording the sound during the high -- or high nightlife periods.

so i think this is well done. and i'm glad that you guys were able to get it in prior to shelter-in-place. and this is really exciting during shelter-in-place and we are in week 16 and it feels really good for us to be able to reopen and to do it in a very safe way. and as we are a model for the nation of how we shutdown the city, i think we will continue to be a model for the nation in how we reopen. so i appreciate the fact that you guys came in front of our commission and honored our process and worked very carefully with our staff around this process, ensuring that neighbors all get along. thank you. >> you're welcome. and we hope that there's going to be a lot of sound that we'll have to attenuate in the future. we'll be checking in. we miss it. >> president bleiman: commissioner wang. >> commissioner wang: i just wanted to echo my colleagues and

to commend you all for the outreach that you have done, particularly with such sensitivity to the cultural communities of note in soma there. and in terms of -- out of an abundance of caution, deciding to go with s.t.c. 33 already. i had another question just about the design aspect because there is such a high density of nightlife there. even though you're at s.t.c. 33. are the bedrooms of those facing facing it further back from the frontage of the street? is that how they're designed? >> so the -- the bedrooms are pretty much -- they're multi-oriented on the perimeter of the building. and that's mostly due -- i mean, due to just the kind of the limited size of the units as well as the, you know, the light and air requirements that both

planning and building departments, you know, are required to comply with. so most units have a bedroom and a living space, like a living room, that is facing the perimeter of the building. however, the -- there are some handful of units that do have a nested bedroom. so one of the bedrooms that is towards the interior of the unit plan. and the other thing is that the walls along the property line that are, for example, directly facing on to oasis, that's a solid wall. so, you know, the units that are facing the street and the public ways are, you know, glazed in a way that sort of is responsible. i do have a rendering, if you'd like to see, i could pull it up. >> commissioner wang: sure.

>> let's see. so -- so this is the view along folsom street. so these are bedrooms that are facing to street. and you can see on our typical floor plan, you know, the bedrooms are, you know, kind of in these corners and then there's the living spaces that are within the unit. >> commissioner wang: got it. okay, that's really helpful. thanks. >> no problem. >> president bleiman: commissioner lee. >> commissioner lee: so to add to that, so i can't really see the layout, so the bedrooms on one side has a window, and then the living room is next to that that has a window facing folsom street, correct? >> yes.

you know, i have a typical plan that i could pull up, a unit plan. so that would be helpful. >> it's pretty standard building code requires the bedrooms to have a window. >> commissioner lee: right. >> see if i can find one real quick. so if you look here this is our kind of typical most common three-bedroom layout, so there's two bedrooms facing along the perimeter wall that are facing on to folsom street and then there's a living space in the middle. and the bathrooms, and the kitchens are mostly in the interior of the courtyard. and here's that nested bedroom that i was talking about which has borrowed light. so this has to be, you know, has a certain percentage to be glazed. >> commissioner lee: and you're using s.t.d. 33 in all of

the fronts? >> correct. if you look back to this diagr diagram, everywhere that you see magenta we would have a minimum s.t.d.-33 at every residential unit. so if you look at the rendering, basically everything that, you know, all of these windows that face on the residential units would be a minimum of 33. >> commissioner lee: are all of these rental units or are they condos? >> they're all rental. all rental. >> commissioner lee: okay. so no matter how many people move in and out in the course of 10 years, they will be notified on what they're moving into and what they're expecting, right? >> as part of our -- we're working with the district and we have agreed to include as a position of our (indiscernible) an addendum. that we're in the entertainment district as well as the cultural

district. boaboth of those things. and i believe that there's language that we would be happy to adopt into these addend mums. >> we require a disclosure to all of your future renters. >> yep. >> what has happened in the past is that, you know, the first set of renters get the notification and the next set of renters don't get a noteification at all. -- notification at all. >> that's definitely to make all of the effort and process to get a lease signed and to not notify them ahead of time just seems -- and in dogpatch we were required to notify renters that they were moving in next to the hells angels. >> okay. >> and then my last question just on the lighting. what is your lighting plan on the outside? i mean, it's normally dark there right now. and you're talking about -- if

you're talking about 400 units you're literally talking about, what, almost 800 people? >> sorry commissioner, it's 240 units. >> 240. so about 400 people in this district, correct? so 5d ad tha add that with the s when at full capacity so we are talking about heavy usage. so i see here to the entry to your garage, is that going to be all lit up behind the oasis? or is it all -- i mean, is there a lighting -- >> you are talking about this -- the alley currently byrnes place? >> i see where the oasis is and then you have a bunch of units there, right, across from the oasis in the back. is that a driveway? correct? >> so here you can see our ground floor plan.

so this block on the corner here is oasis. so the primary access to the garage is through byrnes place. and so there's some townhomes that face on to it, which will be, you know, heavily planted. and we will have -- definitely have street lighting there. we're basically re-doing this whole portion of the street because there's grating issues and we are meeting accessibility requirements after working with the accessibility coordinator to add a four-foot sidewalk to the north side of byrne's place. so that whole alleyway will kind of being completely re-done. >> and well lit? >> yes. >> and along folsom street as well? >> absolutely. >> okay. all right. that's all i have. >> president bleiman: all right. i don't think that any other

commissioners have any comments. not seeing any. okay, let's open this up for public comment. i'm seeing that there's a number of attendees here that are actually business owners in the neighborhood. one of them, dylan, how do we do this? so lily has an exclamation point next to her name. should we start with her? how do we do this? you're on mute, dylan. >> sorry about that. so they have to call that number that we have been repeating and put in the access code and press star, 3, which means that they'll pop up as a raised hand. and then i unmute them. >> president bleiman: got it. so is there one call-in number with star, 3 there? >> clerk: so that is actually our commissioner falzon is doing it. >> president bleiman: so if there's any -- do you see any

callers with raised hands? >> clerk: there are none. and i'm happy to read it again if it helps. >> president bleiman: let's read it out. it looks like they did quite bit of outreach. >> clerk: for those that want to do public comment please right now dial 1-(408)-418-9388. and then enter the access code, 146 069 9630. and then press star, 3. and then wait for us to unmute you. >> president bleiman: i'm going to put this, if i can, let's see --... i'm sure that it's out there somewhere. >> dylan, could you potentially type that into the chat for -- >> president bleiman: copy and paste it? >> clerk: i will. and it's also on fo sfgov-tv, ad i'll do it now. it's on our agenda as well.

>> okay. >> it looks like lily has asked questions in the q. and a. as well. i don't know if you want to read those. >> president bleiman: yeah,ly thlet me find the q ask a. >> the very bottom right. >> hello participants in chat, there's q. and a. >> clerk: someone else can

read it or i can read it if you want. >> could. >> first question, has there been any discussion about how the building's management will handle any possible noise complaints with the p.o.e.? second question, street parking is already challenging in the neighborhoods. will there be an additional fee for the residents' dedicated parking spaces. and any visitor parking? >> well, i can answer that. there will be an additional fee. the parking in san francisco is required to be unbundled. so anyone wanting -- it does not come with your unit. you have to pay an extra fee. to tell you the truth it has been a struggle to get the 83 spots. planning has asked us to reduce the parking even more. and as far as visitor parking, how much accessory park doing we

have, daniel? >> we -- 83 is the total number of spaces including car share, you know, 88 spaces. so we don't have, you know, a specific allocation of how many of those spots would be for guests versus residents. >> the first question -- i'm sorry, we didn't ask the first question. something to do with howry we handle complaints, is that it? >> president bleiman: yes. >> for projects that we normally hire a professional management company. so like a manager for the dog patch project and was managing at windsor. so i don't have a specific answer to that other than that we generally hire third-party institutional. most of our investors are pension funds like calpers that

we did our other project. so we hire institutional property managers. to try to follow whatever the rules and the regulations in place are. >> president bleiman: dylan, do we have anybody that called in? >> clerk: nobody has called in. >> just note that i received a message from gina molano that she's been trying and she can't get it to work. >> president bleiman: did she see the directions in the chat? >> i believe so, because she said that she's trying again n now. >> president bleiman: you can also type her questions -- >> clerk: if she wants she can do it through -- through typing. >> president bleiman: we'll give her a second. gina, we want to hear from you.

>> president bleiman: i saw another chat question in the interval. this is from brad and he put it through the chat. will there be anything on the rooftop of the building? >> yes. i can -- again, i can flip back to the screen if you would like to see. but we have -- i'll pull it up.

so we have actually two roof decks. so there's one roof deck that is on the north building, the kissling building that faces on kissling street. and then there's another one that is on the lower portion of the folsom building, so it's kind of tucked behind this top floor residential units. can then there's a community room with amenities and then a roof deck here where they could maybe catch a glimpse of the roof deck at the oasis and they can wave to each other. >> it's one floor shorter, so it's shielded from the folsom street. >> the only other outdoor amenities are -- there's a bunh of private patios so the units

on level two have access to private outdoor space. but these are pretty well protected by the mass of the building. >> president bleiman: got it. gina wrote in that she does feel a line of defense with the management company would be helpful. so i ask if she wanted to clarify what that meant just for the record. (indiscernible). and then we are getting confirmation that the phone number is operational. so i don't know what is happening. >> gina wrote, sorry, every time i type it gets deleted. >> she's trying to. >> yeah. >> president bleiman: the internet is trying to keep gina from speaking.

i don't know. [laughter]. >> it's possibly too wonky but she can always call my cell and i can put her on speaker phone still. >> yeah, i think that we should do that. >> give me a call if you want. i'll put you on blast. >> it is public comment, versus q. and a. >> president bleiman: give her a minute here. [phone ringing] >> president bleiman: all right, she's calling you. we're having some connectivity issues maybe? >> i think that maggie is calling her and she's calling maggie. there is another item that came into the chat.

will there be any operatable windows on the folsom street side? >> so, yes. there are operatable windows. however, one of the things that was found in the acoustic engineer's report is that the -- in order to meet the s.f. noise ordinance that it has to be mechanically ventilateed so if you're annoyed with the noise that you can close the windows. so the upper windows -- >> dylan, i just heard gina. is she in here? >> yeah, so she's echoing. can you hear us, gina? >> she was just somehow on here. >> gina, can you hear us? >> here, you guys can just look

at her -- (indiscernible). >> this is shawn with sfgov-tv. you can upmute her in the attendees list. >> i did that. >> so i want to have daniel finish your comment. >> sure. so the question was if there are operatable windows and the answer is that there are. you know, typically in, you know, in each bedroom would have a couple fixed windows and then maybe one portion of it that is a window that you can open to get some fresh air. but the -- the key is that all of the units are mechanically ventilated with ducted and, you know, lugerred systems. so if there is a resident that is annoyed about the noise from the nightclub because you have the windows open, they can close

the windows and their space would still be adequately ventilated. so the fresh air is not contingent upon the windows being open. >> president bleiman: so i've got a question then. in your paperwork do you make a notation that windows, you know, not to complain, but the windows are open -- because a lot of people do thinking that with their windows open they're not supposed to hear the club across the street. >> i mean, that's something that we're happy to add. >> i think that you should add it. >> it's common sense, but i agree with you that a lot of people don't have common sense sometimes. and i don't know how you want to document it, but we're happy to add that as a recommendation that noise mitigation, to just close the windows and turn on the ventilated air. maybe that's in the addendum and maybe in your disclosure notice. i'm happy to include it.

or let us know and we'll happy to include it. >> i am sure that maggie knows how to say it. >> yeah, so you would have to offer that as a potential addition within a motion, just f.y.i. it's not standard commission nor part of our staff recommendations. i do have gina on facetime here. so here you go. >> hey, guys, i know that you were desperate to hear from me. what is the timeline for actually being rented? what year are we talking about rentals being processed in the building? that's the first question. and, secondly, you guys have been great to deal with, honestly, you have reached out and you've been very receptive to our statements. and as business owners in the neighborhood, this could be 500 new club-goers, yay, or 500 complainants too.

so as suggested by lily, it would be great if there was some kind of line of defense against club owners that, you know, renters were instructed to reach out to the management company if they were having noise, you know, issues with the neighborhood or other issues with the neighborhood -- the traffic or parking or who knows what else. and then the management company would have some sort of dialogue that was, you know, in the entertainment district, this is all disclosed, so that these people aren't immediately calling police or calling entertainment commission and creating a lot of, you know, something for us as venue owners to deal with. so i feel that some stops in there where you call the company and maybe it's at three complaints and then it's escalated -- just something so we don't have 244 units taking up the city's time and, therefore, like, you know,

taking up our time moving into a neighborhood where we are, you know, we were here first and this is where we make our livi living. >> i have a response to that. as those impacted by the covid-19 pandemic, so have the real estate. so we're on a timeline but as far as commencing construction, our fingers are crossed and we're hopeful that things get back to normal within the next 12 months. so that does happen our earliest commencement of construction would be towards the end of next year and then a two-year construction period and then a one to three-year lease up. so the earliest that we'd see people living in the building is probably four years from now. if, again, this means that things get back to normal in a year or so in the apartment markets and in the economy.

with respect to -- i mean, i -- i wish i had an answer, you know, as we operate and manage a lot of properties and we have the same problems, you know. they'll call us, something is broken and your neighbors are noisy and they call the property management company and let us try to help you -- it's very hard to control every single tenant. but we could collaborate with you guys if maybe the entertainment commission could create a clearing house, a first responder type hotline for noise, we could definitely push -- >> it's called 311. [laughter]. >> yes, you know, adding the fact that we have closed windows, and recommendations to mitigate noise, whatever you guys -- all of these things we support. we don't need -- we want -- i think that dialogue is always better than conflict. so if you guys could help us, we'll definitely those us into

our leases and rules and regulations. >> president bleiman: got it. dylan, anymore public comment? >> clerk: there is none. >> president bleiman: i'll close public comment for this. and next i'd ask director wylan to have staff recommendations and could you go through what the recommendations are. >> absolutely. so they are pretty technical. (please stand by)

>> those are the staff recommendations. did you want to add anything for discussion. >> i want to add you know the complainants should have windows closed before they make a

complaint. it is like with windows open we get complaints. the rating is based on the windows being closed. it should be on the application. whatever they need to let them know when you sign on, don't complain with the windows open. >> what is the jargon to use for their recommendation? do you have any suggestions. >> please repeat that one more time. >> very simple. you know how we get complaints when windows are open they are too loud. the inspector goes and the windows are wide open and they are complaining. >> the only way for you to condition that is to

legitimately require the windows on certain façades of the development are inoperable and cannot open, and we have recommended that in the past. it sounded like the project sponsor was amenable to this. you may want to ask them. >> i want to be clear here. the reason we are in rdr is because of the legislation that president breed passed. that legislation is pretty clear in the disclosures that the ability of our renter and owner to complain or to cause problems if a venue within 300 feet is acting with in -- compliant is

extraordinary limited. >> i would be contrary within the fact that anyone has the right to complain, submit a complain to 311. it is within our staff to figure out if they signed the disclosure to use within the argument that he may be a nuisance. >> maybe it would make sense we could ask in the disclosures of the project sponsor they could provide a framework for how to handle noise. if there is noise, first thing to do is close windows. >> the other thing i will note around us going out to test whether a place of entertainment is in complains when someone is complaining nearby. this area is very hard to test

compliance with because of the sheer fact there are so many poes within one area. >> maybe we say can you add your disclosures the process for noise. the first thing is to close windows and turn on central air or whatever it is. >> i think in the disclosure we would be amenable to conditions that every at building has rules and regulations no dogs over 30 pounds. we could recommend the rules and recommendations would include the elements, economic all al -k windows, call 311. we can put that in rules and regulations versus disclosure. >> maybe we say add to the rules and regulations prior to making a noise complaint to please

close all windows. >> yes, second call 311. >> i am trying to cut back on some of the, you know, extra stuff. put that in there, that would be great. >> commissioner thomas. >> just i think 311 is appropriate. i think also what some of the venue owners were asking for was a more direct line of communication. instead of going to 311 and entertainment commission, residents are directed to call management about sound complaints and knowledge -- andg management main continues the line. if none of the venues were operating that night you have a

different issue and it is not a noise complaint. >> i am hearing in the rules and regulations prior to making noise complaint check windows and the proper way to make the noise complaint is first to contact the property manager in your rules. >> i would prefer that, too. happy to do that. >> did you have something? >> it is important to get the language right. this will be written as a condition of our approval. >> help me with that. >> well, you have got to say it. i think you are close. eric, if you could give us the language around the rules and regulations that i am not super-clear on. is that something the tenant receives upon signing the lease?

>> all attendees. >> all participants is fine. >> all panelists. noise issues. check all windows and openings.

[ inaudible ] >> i will go on record and say this is the weirdest hearing we have ever had. >> you can play with that as you want and add in this order, this priority. incorporate rules and regulati regulations. it is a standard preference to the document. >> the next course of action would be one of us to make a move to require this be incorporated into their rules and regulations? >> yes, i would potentially if we were to adopt this just staff

side, i would flush out these a little further. advice the tenant check and secure all outside windows and openings. untwo. contact property management prior to other complaint outlets. >> at some point can i talk? can someone let me know when there is a break? >> break. go ahead. >> i really think we are getting in the weeds. i think this is really problematic when we put structure how the public can make a complaint. they just need to deal with it. what we could do is provid is pe

instructions to 311. ask person are windows open. our staff could do the same. we are getting kind of weird putting together this structure. we are way in the weeds. >> we have no teeth when it comes to asking that of tenants. >> i understand, but i think we are asking a level of detail that frankly people are not going to read this paperwork when they move in. i think if you are moving there you are moving for nightlife. i don't anticipate a problem. if it occurs, i don't think they will pullout a 30 page document and say i need to shut windows. if you want it that is fine. we are spending a lot of time on something that can be hard to articulate and getting evasive. that is my opinion.

>> if only reason why it became an entertainment corridor because of situations like this. this is a big unit. this is 200 units in that little neighborhood, which is the biggest ever coming in. eleventh street was built on protecting those clubs. >> i am not disagreeing with you. i am suggesting the solution does not solve the problem. i am questioning this language issue. i don't see it solving the problem. i think part of our industry we have learned there is abuse and complaints. this is not going to solve that. i am convinced that well educated people will move into this building for the exact intent to be in this environment. that is what makes it very attractive.

>> commissioner thomas. >> i think you are both right. i think that people probably will leave windows open and complain about the noise. we have to deal with that the same way we always have. what is more important to me is ensuring there is good communication between building management and the venues and that is residents have some way to raise concerns that is short of engaging 311 and the entertainment commission. if they do that, that is fine. i would like to have a first line of defense and some communication. i feel like that doesn't necessarily need to be part of the conditions as that needs to be something building management wants to do. >> i tend to agree. i don't think we are forcing people to do anything. we are asking the project

sponsor to put specific language in their policies to ask that their residents make sure they close windows if they hear noise. they would prefer or would recommend to reach out to the building manager to sort it out. i totally agree with you. it is a slippery slope to tell people what they can and can't do. we are asking the project sponsor to offer a best case solution. i am sorry best practice. i don't think we should get too specific. i don't think we should really like lay out exactly what the project sponsor needs to do. i think in this neighborhood specifically because this is the highest concentration of nightclubs we have anywhere that we should ask them to include in their regulation language saying the preferred method is first

make sure windows are closed. second immediately contact the building management to help mitigate the issue. that does not tell them that it is forbidden for them to call 311 or police or anything they want to do. at least the project sponsor is in line and asking them to mitigate that. does that help address the concerns you had commissioner falzon. >> iowan to heai do want to heae language. >> i think we can look at the project sponsor's language that he had. i am not sure where we put it. i have trouble finding it. something like we would -- the motion with staff recommendation

as well as and then add what the project sponsor said. eric, i cannot see what you wrote. if somebody could that will be helpful. >> applicant shall incorporate into the standard rules and regulations protocol for noise. one, advice check and secure all windows and openings, three contact property management and three call 311. >> perfect. >> if that is the motion i will second it. let's do it. >> i will put it out there. >> i will second it. >> we have three people. commissioner to thomas has something to say. >> i will make a motion we accept the staff recommendation

with the added language that the applicant shall incorporate into the standard rules and regulations a protocol for noise advice tenant check and secure outside opening, three contact project management and three call 311. >> motion is out. did you want to second that commissioner falzon. >> i love it. i second it. >> public comment is closed we can vote on this. >> thank you, commissioner thomas. >> commissioner lee. >> yes. >> commissioner perez. >> aye. >> vice presidentca mean no. >> aye. >> commissioner thomas. >> aye. >> commissioner falzon.

>> aye. >> commissioner tang. >> aye. >> president blieman. >> aye. >> thank you for coming in. we appreciate it. you did a fantastic job reaching out to the neighborhood. we appreciate that. >> we do want to say thank you to all club owners. they are accommodating and cooperative. we got it done over one weekend. >> thank you so much. >> all right. this is now the final agenda item 7. commissioner comments and questions. anybody have something to say? commissioner thomas. >> i couple of things. this is a very strange time but i am acutely aware of the nightlife that we have lost.

i am proud to wear my san francisco t-shirt and recognizing the stud and other venues that we have lost. i know it is a hard time for everyone. also, recognizing the folks who work in the nightlife industry. i have been so happy to see the work of the queer nightlife fund-raising money for those working in nightlife. i encourage people to donate to the various go fund mes for bar and venue staff. recognizing how hard it is out there for folks in the industry. i am really eager to be back in live music venues. i have a feeling it is going to be a long time coming. i really miss it. that is it.

>> commissioner perez. >> i wanted to officially say welcome to the commissioner tang, urban planning representative. we are looking forward to working with you. best wishes to you. >> thank you so much. >> i will close it out here. one thing i did not mention all the hard work that vice president c a.m.i. mong put in. please accept my apologies. she is working on these things. i got flustered. this is my first web exehave done. i want to welcome commissioner tang. you asked for -- commissioner wang. you asked what it is like. i would say i think the seat you

hold is important going forward. i think we are going to see massive changes in urban planning in the next two years. i hope we do and it is driven and we can get into the planning side and zoning side to help us and guide us. we are excited to have you. it is a long time coming. thank you, staff, extra times. what a fun meeting to preside over. this is great. any public comment on our comments or questions? >> no callers. there is something here. thanks everyone. now to try to survive the next four years so we can get these people into clubs as guests. thanks for the work you have been doing on our behalf.

>> with that we will officially adjourn the meeting at 7:21 p.m. today. i hope to do this again soon. >> thank you. stay safe. all of these amazing organizations that exist in san francisco, it's great to be here and great to talk about the

incredible work that all of you are doing despite what our very challenging times for our city and our country, so let's get started and let's get to hear your questions and, also, i just want to make sure that you put in a plug for your organizations and the work that you are all doing and people don't have to sit at home by themselves. they can sit at home and maybe watch a great film that's going to be aired online by the film festival. let's make sure we get the word out.

>> thank you, mayor breed. i want to thank the panelists and welcome to all of the viewers at home. as asian pacific americans are facing extraordinary challenges at this time, not only because of the pandemic, but also because the rising tide of anti-asian violence. this reminds us about history when asian americans became scapegoats. the immigration station and the japanese americans during world war 2, the asian communities have been through it all! and that's why the communities are coming together to continue to navigate through the crisis and to track the future and that's why this afternoon's conversation with you, mayor breed, is so important as we

continue on this journey. to that end, we have selected two special topics to talk about this afternoon and one is the impact of the pandemic and anti-asian violence on youth and children. we are very concerned about how students will be treating each other when they get to go back to school. and the other one is -- the other topic is the impact on culture. this is what we normally would look to to bring communities, to bring comfort during times of crisis. however, we all know that the arts and culture communities are being hit very hard and they're going to have an even harder time next year when we may or may not get a tax refund. we are all in this together. so i hope this conversation is going to help us focus our thinking a little bit more about some of the topics so close to our hearts and close to the

community. without further ado, i would like to introduce the moderator, thomas lee, of this conversation. he iwe're lucky to have thomas s one of our celebration cochairs and the master of our website. everything to do with communication and all things social media and so thomas. >> thank you, cla claudine. thank you. we are bringing this celebration online virtually, like many organizations, we're finding new ways to celebrate and we're doing it all online. at this time, i would like to welcome our distinguished panel presenters, the mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed, and all of the viewers on facebook live. so i hope you're watching. tell a friend and we are on

facebook live, at facebook.com/sf. you can text that to a friend. for this afternoon's program, we have six community leaders representing civil righters, children and youth services, as well as arts. each presenter will have two minutes to share their perspectives and have the opportunity to ask mayor breed a question. we have a lot of ground to cover and let's get right to it. our first presenter is vincent penn, for affirmative action. for over 50 years, he has been at the forefront of events introducing civil rights and justice and providing equal opportunities for chinese and asian americans, caa co-launched a program to collect data of anti-asian incidents in the country encouraging asian pacific americans to report these incidents. please welcome vincent penn who will provide us an update on asian violence incidents.

>> thank you. at the outset of the pandemic, san francisco state universities and the asian pacific study's gunpoint anplanning in los anget community members could report incidents that were happening against asian americans and pacific islanders. in the past month and a half, we have received 1700 reports for both harassment, bullying, physical assaults and race-related property vandalism from across the country, including 117 incidents here in san francisco. the data shows that women have been proportionately harassed and all asian communities are being harmed. most is happening under shelter-in-place orders, so we expect the situation to get worse as orders are lifted. in some ways, this is not a new problem, just an escalated

problem, made worse by the covid-19, as well as the trump administration to blame everything on china. we all appreciate, mayor breed, the strong, strong stance you have made towards hate towards asian americans and all communities, but given the difficult economic and budget situation facing the city and the community, are you able to have resources to build in the capacity to address these anti-asian situations? >> well, i will say that as many of you all know, it's going to be a real challenge for our city financially. but, from the very beginning, before people were really paying attention to this pandemic, to the coronavirus, our asian community in san francisco was already being impacted. the level was zenophobia, the attacks and other violence against ederly seniors and we were experiencing that before

the pandemic hit hard and so, this is something we've paid close attention to, working with law enforcement, working with our small business community and trying to provide resources, but it's knot goin not going to be h the situation we're in. i'll start with, specifically, with what's happening around a lot of the attacks and the violence and the robberies. i want to just express how important it is that people report these things to the police, because this is going to help inform a lot of the decisions that we make. and we heard about a lot of incidents that have not been reported and we know there might be fear or people who are uncomfortable with that. i'll be looking to so many of your organizations to be that vehicle. we've provided access to a bilingual act that's available,

so some of our officers can call and get a translators on the phone to communicate and report crime. we need to do this now more than ever, because that's going to be important so that we can make sure people understand that not only this is happening but the work we have to do has to be started on supporting where we know the challenges are. recently, i a nancy tong has reported on the board of supervisors and there's rumblings of not supporting her. as much as i believe in criminal justice reform and as much as i don't want to put people in jail, if you commit an act of crime, you should be held accountable, and there should not be a negotiation there. having someone who believes that on the police commission, on the law enforcement community is important to making sure that people don't feel comfortable

coming to san francisco, committing crimes or attacking other people. so that's part of one of the challenges we will continue to face and i'm definitely planning to do everything i can to make sure that the investments are there to support this community. the businesses, it's really been tough. it's been tough because, again, it hit our asian businesses before it even touched anyone else and already, with the millions of dollars that we allocated to support our small businesses, whether it's a $10,000 grant or up to 50 $50,00 no-interest loan, we know we need to do more. so i'm raising money, as well as redirecting resources to support our businesses. and again, your help and your support to get people to apply for the funding is really necessary. we have an equity team that's embedded in our emergency

operation's centre, where their sole goal is to work with communities that are usually disenfranchise. so, for example, from day one, there were a number of businesses who were supposed to shut down but they didn't shut down because they didn't understand, they didn't speak english and there had to be another level of communication to make sure that they understood and they were connected to resources. and so we're going to have to continue that. because this is going to be really hard for us because some of these businesses are not going to be able to reopen. so the question is, how do we make sure that we outreach to the community? how do we make sure that we provide them with the records and the support that they need to maybe even transition into doing something other than what they were already doing? it's going to be a partnership with all of you because we cannot do this alone. we need trusted community representatives who people support and respect and who will

help to identify where there are holes, what we may not be doing right and how we can make that connection to support our communities. we've made a lot of gains over the years because we've had really good budget times, but we are really in trouble. and it will require all of us to work together and it's going to require a big sacrifice. we want to make sure we're not leaving anyone behind, especially our asian community, which has been impacted over this virus more than any other community. >> thank you, mayor breed. and you have a great bunch of allies on this call in addition to people on facebook who are tuning in right now. so are next presenter is sarah wong, the executive director of the community center of san francisco. she started as an organization that focuses on addressing issues for at-risk in chinatown. and over the years, she gets

involved in the city-wide agency serves over 8,000 multi cultural youths, and please welcome sarah wong. >> thank you, thomas, thank you, mayor. thomas is doing the best job so i'll jump right into the topic. to the pandemic has really become another reason to target asian communities a communitiese country. it's our hope to turn the table around in education. ethnic study's courses have been instituted in all of san francisco school district high schools to give students an introduction to the experience of the ethnic communities that are rarely represented in textbooks. we need to work with project-based learning on racial justice in cross-cultural relationship buildings, such as

by educational documentaries, and also chinese exclusion acts. what most of our youth programming have moved to virtual settings, most of our youth are still dealing with fear, isolation and this triggers depression and other mental health symptoms. and many of our youth couldn't even talk on the phone with our staff to share their feelings due to the lack of privacy and space. it is crucial to prioritize the offering of cultural competent mental health services to students at the schools and community settings in this current crisis. and as the incidents of violence will continue to increase, especially after the school reopens, i would like to ask mayor breed to not only send a strong message to our young people in response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia, but to create a task

force where our community members track incidents of anti-hate violence in communities and schools that target our young people. kind of similar to the current hate campaign at the national level, and also the policy in action plans to ensure all of our young people will be able to be in a violence-free community. some thank you, sarah, and thank you for providing that perspective. i think that's an incredible idea. i think that -- i'm happy to do whatever i can and i love the idea of -- as i was hearing you speak, i was thinking we needed to launch some sort of campaign around this, to really highlight how this is not the way. and i will touch bases with the superintendent to figure out whether or not this can be incorporated into their distance-learning strategy. in fact, as you know, as a recipient of some of the resources where you're able to

help support your youth through opportunities for all and other programs, i love the idea making sure that the opportunities for all kids who are participating in paid internships, working with them to come up with strategies and ideas and outreach in order to be the ambassadors. when i was in elementary school here in the city, my teacher, because i talked a lot and drove my teacher crazy, if someone was sitting in the corner by themselves, i would try to solve their issue and i think that's the level that we got to get back to. we have to get back to caring about what's happening with each other and we want to make sure

that, especially kids who, unfortunately, may not even know better because of their upbringing or what have you, we have to make sure that they are educated about how harmful, what they do is when they attack anyone with a racial slur or anything else for that matter. i think the time is now for bridge building and for a campaign and something that could be inspired through our young people. and i know you, along with john osaki, jcyc would be two incredible resources for all programs to look at a way to incorporate that into the work we do and we'll touch bases with our superintendent, dr. vincent matthews and then the director of the human right's commission, cheryl davis, who oversees the opportunities for all programs and maybe there's something we can get started with now to really turn the tide on this. >> a lot of discussion about

opportunities for all. in facebook, we've been operatinparticipating for oppors for all and this year, we're looking at new ways toengage with cheryl. >> i don't know all of the answers and so i'm looking to many of you for strategies or even these kids, because kids can come up with some of the best ideas. >> absolutely. >> and i know there are young people. just given the opportunity, they can kind of push these campaigns over. they're the ones who know how to use this technology and social media and stuff like that to do stuff, right? so let's tap into that in a way that could spread like wildflowers and bring our city closer together. >> speaking of opportunities for all, let me bring on our next speaker to discuss the impacts on youth and children, it's john

osaki, the japanese community youth council and this year jcyc is celebrating 50 years focusing on japan youth and a broad range of programs from preschool to college prep to opportunities for all and jcyc is leading many youth initiatives is please welcome john osaki. >> thank you, mayor breed and thank you for being a part of this town hall. i'll focus on some of the things you were just talking about regarding building bridges. they talked about safety and education and i think that the area that i really want to emphasize is that i think it's so important that we find ways to build and promote understanding between communities here in san francisco. as i'm sure you know, san francisco is the birthplace of anti-asian sentiment in this

country. and so i think it's so important that san francisco be a leader in this area and really think about how it can promote strategies that really build understanding. i think the thing that's been so alarming to me is to see how quickly and easily asians could become a target again in this country. and so, i think one of the things that we would be very interested this is a systemic approach to putting together a planning effort that's going to address this at many different levels because, unfortunately, this virus is not going away any time soon. it could easily pop back up. and i think many of us are very interested in figuring out how do we come up with recommendations and ideas, such as some of the work that sarah has been pioneering in the bayview, where she's really been promoting understanding between the chinese community and the african-american community. and i think efforts like that

are so critical to promote -- making sure we understand each other's experience and can appreciate all of oppression the communities have experienced so that we can ban together push back against the tide of hate and the type of targeting that's going on right now. so i would like to know if you would support an effort to bring together a systemic approach and recommendation for house san francisco can be a leader in pushing back against some of hate we're seeing today. >> thank you, john, for putting that in perspective and i think it's overdue and we need to get started on something of that nature now which incorporates all of the different layers. because again, when kids were in school, we know there were kids who were picked on about this virus before it hit. businesses were suffering and being discriminated against and people were attacked and robbed

and a number of other very violent incidents have occurred. and we know that it's important to develop solutions and to start to really change the tone of folks who are a part of our city who represent the asian community, how they are treated. and i think that we can put this together in a way that proposes solutions that we can work towards. and i do think it's important and i go back to the schools, because that learned behaviour that starts when you're a kid continues to develop into adulthood. so it's so important that we really work with and use our kids in a way as an opportunity to bridge that gap because that is going to help to fill out, i

think, the rest of the city. so i'm definitely open to the idea of developing a campaign, developing a system, putting together a committee, a diverse committee of folks who care about this issue. i know that folks from the nacp of san francisco and other organizations would be happy to participate and we can work as partners in developing solutions. but i also want to say that it's going to take a level of consistency unlike evacuee seen in the past. we've seen tensions, in particular, and i'm using this as an example because i know that our asian community is being discriminated against by all races. but in particular, in this city, we've had tensions in the past, you know, sometimes between the

african-americans and our asian community and to our chinese community, in particular. and when those things happen, what we would do, woe come we we together, have these forums, try to work together and they would die down. so i think the difference here is that we have to maintain this effort of a coalition of people who are really consistently active in making sure that we spread a different message, that we combat this and that we not allow xenophobia to be tolerated against people in our asian community or any community, for that matter. and soy think there' so i thinkn opportunity to work together to be consistent and to try to make sure that we get over this hump and that even after this pandemic is over, we have to hold steady on the work we need

to do to address these challenge. challenges. >> thank you, mayor breed and thank you, john. we'll shift gears a minute and we'll talk about the arts and culture sector and how that pandemic has impacted it. so next, i would like to bring on jay xi, the director of the asian art museum, which is home to one of the world's finest and collection of asian art over the 50 plus years. the museum has been successful in achieving the mission of inspiring new ways of connecting diverse communities to both traditional and contrary art. please welcome jay xi. >> thank you, thomas, for the introduction and hello, mayor breed. i would like to thank you for your leadership and thank you for making the video statement, the owner of the ap heritage month in speaking strongly against the anti-asian racism that is going on right now.

we at the museum have turned our museum into a virtual museum. and we are featuring a wide range of artists, not only visual artists but performing artists and particularly asian american artists and our programs are diverse, too. not only offering the thoughtful meditation. at this time in the crisis, everybody needs time to meditate and take stock of what happened and what the future lies for all of us, but also programs speak strongly in action and in group discussions about the common efforts, fighting against anti-asian racism. in addition to very wide-range of programs which i encourage all of you and the audiences to check out our website. follow us on our social media. and asian museums is itself a diverse workforce, having strong

representation for asian american community. and in addition to giving back artistically, our staff has been also donating hundreds of masks and spending of hundreds of hours to helping service work. so we are there as an element, a very strong community to navigate together through this crisis. today is poignant because today, may 8th, was supposed to be the day we would open the transform expanded asian museum for our public. mayor, you were supposed to do the ribbon cutting for all of us and sorry for me getting a little caught up here, because this is ver a very emotional dar us. we will stay on course and transform the museum to the public, hopefully in the fall. just behind me, there's a new

rorendering of our facade, turng the museum inside and out. you can also enjoy the museum from outside. we're also turning the asian museum into a national leading platform promoting asian american artists. the artists that you see are my backdrop are all featuring asian american artists. i think the more artists amplified, the more they're empowered. i want to echo the theme about community and how we're playing an important role. i think the more artists can speak up, the better chance we will have in winning the war against the entire asian race. racism. my question to you is that you have implemented measures to

support local artists. what are the further measures that you can develop, plans you can develop in supporting asian american artists and measures to enhance or efforts in the fight against anti-asian race? >> thank you for that question. first of all, one of the things that we did was to provide grants for artists, because we know, for example, those filmmakers, those musicians, performers, people who paint and do other arts-related things, this is their livelihood and especially now during this pandemic, i think people are realizing the importance of art, because every time you hear about something, you hear about someone singing. you hear about someone showcasing some level of art and how that is what is getting people through this. and i do think it's important

that we pull together resources, financial resources. i think it was around $2 million or so dollars for immediate grants to artists with the goal to increase that even more, but the arts are going to take a big hit and as we lose revenue for hotel tax and other things, it's going to be very challenging. and my commitment is to really focus on making sure that we are supporting san francisco art's organization, that we are supporting san francisco artists, as much as we possibly can. my goal is to make sure that -- and let's be honest, there will be cuts and then usually, arts is first on the chopping block and that won't be the case with me.

i'll be looking for waste and places where money -- things that are not necessarily as valuable as making sure our kids are participating in paid summer internships or art's related functions. i mean, all of those things are important, but it's going to be difficult or we'll continue to do what we can. i think when we're talking about what john and sarah brought up in terms of coming together and developing the plan and possibly even developing a campaign of sorts, and maybe using the arts as a vehicle to support and promote that, you know, that is something that i think is important and it's something that should be prioritized and so, because it does matter. it does matter in terms of what's happening in our city and if that's a vehicle by which we can supportive, we will. so it doesn't give you, maybe,

reassurance that things will be great. they're not. and so, fortunately, as a museum, you have the ability to encourage many of your board members to possibly even contribute more. but there are shawler smaller institutions and other organizations that will have a much more difficult time. and so we want to be mindful of that and we also want to live within our means and i remember when i was the director of the african-american art and culture complex and we had a number of challenges in the western edition with violence, we could have fought for funding for our organization, but all of the organizations got together and because the community center -- and john, you remember this -- they were on the verge of closing. so we basically put aside what

we needed to make sure that organization had its support and i think that's where we are as a city now. because we have to remember that it can't just be us pushing for more funding for our organizations. let's be realistic. we're going to suffer. there will be budget cuts and let's try to be mindful of the fact there will be other organizations that will need something more than others. and so, i see thomas giving me the signal. >> madam mayor, i just got pinged by your staff that we are running late on time and we wanted to get through two more speakers about the arts before you have to go. iwe'll make sure you get in and out on time. so next we have irene almario, the studio that was founded in 1969, dedicated to showcasing emerging philippino artists and

providing access to a broad range of performing art's programs. please welcome irene. >> thank you for having me. first of all, thank you, mayor breed, for your action and early shelter-in-place order. we're grateful for the people in the cities who adjusted to this crisis, the bcyf, which allowed us to utilize our art's grants for direct covid relief services. now and so primarily, this is a expect organization and space that is dedicated to philippino american arts. we have a thriving artist community providing cedar workshops to seniors and youth in our local neighborhoods. all of our. eventevents have come to ahalt . artists who rely on contract work are finding it difficult to meet basic needs, dealing with isolation and digital

accessibility. we have had to completely pivot our operations to directly address the covid crisis in our community. we are now aiding service organizations like up, west bay, equity center and com-can. however, we want to continue to create and put on productions. we are trying to shift into alternative means to engage with our community, but we actually need more support. so madam mayor, my question is, small performing art's benefits will find it nearly impossible to implement social distancing measures in a viable way. will the city able to offer any support to small venues searching for alternative ways to present work, such as technical resources to move to the virtual platform? or when we can gather once again, creating a program that allows venues to stage performances in large public places like parks, gymnasiums, et cetera, while still making it affordable for a small

organization? thank you. >> well, thank you for your question. first of all, i am anxious for the day when our artists can get back to performing and playing and that is really what we so desperately need even now. and i think that -- i'm not familiar with all of the resources that will be specifically available for art's organizations. , bubut i do know that our plans to try to make sure that we're supporting art's organization and make sure -- i mean, you have your space, but there are also expenses associated with that. we want to make sure that you're still getting your grant support and able to provide some additional resources to your office. and we have not -- i'm not familiar with the technical aspect of online and what's going on there, but i will check with our equity team. the director of the human right's commission, she is

managing the equity team out of the emergency operation's center and i think that if you -- if there is something you're specifically in need of, i think that there is a way to connect you to access to the technology or resources that are necessary to get you online. i will say that, unfortunately, artists can perform on their own. but they can't necessarily come together and perform at this time because of the six feet of requirement. so i know whatever it is that you choose to do, i want to make sure that you do it within the help order and i will make sure that we follow up to figure out ways to help support you and the artists that you help. represent. >> on the topic of artists, let's turn to our friends at cam. our last presenter is steven gong, the executive director for center of the asian american

immediatmedia. they're celebrating 40 years this year and the leein leading present of american asian television. the cam-fest is right here and around the world. so welcome steven gong. >> thank you thomas and claudine and mayor breed. it was a year ago when you joined us at the castro theater for opening night. and like so many others, we were ready to present a fabulous festival again and had to cancel. but we have pivoted and next week, as you can see from the information behind me on may 13th, we will kick off our cam-fest online and, again, thank you for doing a welcome for us and so, you've answered one of my questions already and you've shown your leadership

here in support of the arts and cultural community. and i would also just want to mention that we have a national broadcast of a five-hour series of the on history of asian americans broadcasts from kdtv on monday and tuesday nights. the bay figure area, so prominently in the asian area. this is a time when the asian america is coming together in a way that we have waited generations for and at a time, we know we're facing such hardship. i wanted to make my turn, because i know i can count on your leadership for us. my question now from after what i have heard from all of my fellow speakers is to ask you to task us and that is to say what role can we play to help support

the kind of vision that you want and that we share your vision for a more unified community and diverse community? and even though it is a time of tremendous risk and challenges and hardship, we also know in this is time to shift and make new things happen. because you might as well start over and bill it th bill build . so please elaborate and give us a task. >> thank you for your leadership and the work you continue to do and thank you for your work on the series. i put it out on social media and i've announced it and asked people to tune in with a message, exactly of what we're talking about here. sadly, in liberal san francisco, we have seen xenophobia play out from our hurrican children to os

in a message and to learn more about the rich history of our asian community in san francisco, you know, tune into this series. i like the idea of really starting to shine a light only things that give people a perspective and part of that -- and what you do and as jay mentioned, the arts is a vehicle for that. filmmaking is a vehicle for that. performance on stage, all of those things can be used as messages and i know -- i remember there was a play because in the western community, we grew up and it was predominantly african and japanese and there was this relationship that existed with our communities of just respect and trust and that relationship has carried over the years and someone did a performance, a

play about -- i think you might remember this one, john. when the japanese americans were placed in internment camp and how there were african-americans who occupied their housing. when they were released, they turned their housing units back over. there was this very informal relationship. and i think a lot of it had everything to do with the fact that there were two communities living next to each other that were both treated poorly and were discriminated against and they, in some ways, we talk together. and we supported and respected each other. i mean, john osaki and his organization has helped more african-american kids than any other organization in the city. and i think part of what will be important is how our we using

the vehicle we have to bridge that gap? whether it's in the cam film festival and providing, of course, films featuredpy asian americans, but how do we begin to broaden that and make sure that they are maybe an african-american filmmaker who has asian people playing various roles in those films and featuring those films? i think the charge is, how do we begin to be together more in what we do? how do we start to work together to really make sure -- and again, it starts with the schools. it starts with the kids because i learned about the various asian cultures because of my school, because of the different festivals that highlighted the different times of year that were significant to all of us. that's how i learn.

and so part of this is really going to be a learning experience. how are we going do a better job around our communication strategy of promoting and supporting and helping people to understand and learn about the asian experience, not just in this city, but in this country and in this world and the value that is not only placed on your community because what makes us an incredible place is because we all have values. we all have values because of our own cultures but also our shared experiences. and so i think the call is really to remind people of that, how much alike we are and now more than ever, with this pandemic, what we see, it does not matter what color you are or matter about your socioeconomic status. it doesn't matter. this virus does not discriminate

against anyone. anyone could be affected at any given time and it shows that we are all on the same playing field. so how do we emerge out of this crisis stronger and better than ever? i think is really how we communicate, a consistent, positive message around the asian community and how we come together, whether it's a task force or a group. we've put together people who care about these issues with various races and we put out the right messaging and an implementation strategy to support our communities and our kids. and either consistent iand we'r. i would like to continue working with you all on just that because it's so important, especially now, because it just makes me crazy that people are targeted because of their race. and as you know, as an

african-american woman, as someone who gets targeted myself, like the last thing i want to see is this happen to anybody. it is the worst feeling in the world to be treated a certain way because of your race, to be discriminated against or attacked. it is the worst. let's turn the tide with our positive energy, our positive reinforcement, our positive solutions of coming together and really focusing on the things that we know our organizations can do and collectively what we can do to really turn the tide. that's what i would like to see us do. this is the beginning, i think, of it, because i know this is apa heritage month in san francisco and i'm glad that we are celebrating in this way, but it gives us also an opportunity to have this very important conversation and shine a light on this. and i think the next step is, let's put a team together and

let's start to move forward on some real solutions, especially with our young people. >> thank you, mayor breed. thumbs up. on that note of togetherness, let's turn it over to claudine for closing remarks, the person who brought us together in the first place. >> thank you. i feel very uplifted from your message, sharing your thoughts from us and i feel there is hope seeing all of us together and i think that many more out there that we need to expand this circle of discussion and i'm very happy to hear about the campaign. this is a positive energy. in fact, i know that many of educators are listening to us and hearing us, this program online. and i think we can view that alliance and network and have a multicultural solution to all of this and bringing people together and thank you so much,

mayor, and we are here to roll our sleeves up and work together. i think this conversation is started in this month, but i hope we will regularly have our other conversations and keep doing on and engage all together. thank you so much. >> thank you, claudine. >> thank you to everyone. to everyone in the public, go to apa@sf.org. >> thank you.

>> the hon. london breed: good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us. as civic demonstrations continue around the world, we are emboldened by the protests and the calls for action to address the racial injustices and inequities in policing and law enforcement. these protests come at a time when our communities have been struggling even more because of the coronavirus. for too long, black people have been subjected to abuse at the hands of those in power. now is the time that we