website, >> 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. is -- >> our united states constitution requires every ten years that america counts every human being in the united states, which is incredibly important for many reasons. it's important for preliminary

representation because if -- political representation because if we under count california, we get less representatives in congress. it's important for san francisco because if we don't have all of the people in our city, if we don't have all of the folks in california, california and san francisco stand to lose billions of dollars in funding. >> it's really important to the city of san francisco that the federal government gets the count right, so we've created count sf to motivate all -- sf count to motivate all citizens to participate in the census.

>> for the immigrant community, a lot of people aren't sure whether they should take part, whether this is something for u.s. citizens or whether it's something for anybody who's in the yunited states, and it is something for everybody. census counts the entire population. >> we've given out $2 million to over 30 community-based organizations to help people do the census in the communities where they live and work. we've also partnered with the public libraries here in the city and also the public schools to make sure there are informational materials to make sure the folks do the census at those sites, as well, and we've initiated a campaign to motivate the citizens and make sure they participate in census

2020. because of the language issues that many chinese community and families experience, there is a lot of mistrust in the federal government and whether their private information will be kept private and confidential. >> so it's really important that communities like bayview-hunters point participate because in the past, they've been under counted, so what that means is that funding that should have gone to these communities, it wasn't enough. >> we're going to help educate people in the tenderloin, the multicultural residents of the tenderloin. you know, any one of our given blocks, there's 35 different languages spoken, so we are the original u.n. of san francisco. so it's -- our job is to

educate people and be able to familiarize themselves on doing this census. >> you go on-line and do the census. it's available in 13 languages, and you don't need anything. it's based on household. you put in your address and answer nine simple questions. how many people are in your household, do you rent, and your information. your name, your age, your race, your gender. >> everybody is $2,000 in funding for our child care, housing, food stamps, and medical care. >> all of the residents in the city and county of san francisco need to be counted in census 2020. if you're not counted, then your community is underrepresented and will be underserved.

>> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry he -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's

hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism. you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my

biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add

to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space

let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family

that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention,

which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the

rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here. i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is

work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. [applause] [applause] >> wow, i got to say, i am

really honestly overwhelmed with gratitude to all of you. this has been a tough time for our city. we know that every single day when we are out there talking about the people who are really putting their lives on the line, those people are all of you. showing up to this hospital, doing the important work, reassuring people that things are going to be okay, putting yourself and your families at jeopardy. it's hard to really put into words what you all have done to help save lives for people in this city. i think i am a little overwhelmed right now because i

never expected when i became mayor to be dealing with the pandemic. i'm sure that none of you ever thought we would ever see something like this happen, ever. we read about it in the history books. we know that san francisco and with ucsf and the technology and everything that we've done to combat infectious diseases in the past, there's no way that something like this could have even been possible. here we are and here you are showing up every single day, taking care of people that can't take care of themselves. i know that in some ways -- it's

been more difficult because there were a lot of things that we couldn't provide you with that you needed. we remember the early conversations around p.p.e. we remember the things that you asked for in order to take care of and support your patients. it was so difficult that fight to get you the resources you need in order to not only support and protect your patients, but to protect yourself. you still came to work everyday. you still showed up for the people of san francisco. i'm just again a little

overwhelmed right now because when we talk about essential workers, there are a lot of folks that we have been thanking. you all are really the front line workers. you all are really the people that we are counting on to help guide us through this pandemic. in addition to what we see happening all over the country. you know, after george floyd's death, every time there is a death of an african american man at the hands of law enforcement, it keeps taking me back. it takes me back to my cousin who i lost. it takes me back to kids i helped raise in the community. it takes me back so on top of this global pandemic, we have

this uprising like something again i never thought i would ever see as an african american woman. i never thought i would see the day when people could really understand the level of racism that we constantly deal with and i still deal with as mayor of this city. [applause] >> the fact is through all of this, through all of this stuff that is hard to deal with, i still have hope. i have hope. i have faith. i have hope and i have faith because you all show up to

support people who need it the most. i have faith in people. i have faith that out of this talent, out of this struggle, the very best of us is emerging. because of that, we are going to be a better city. because of you, we are a better city. because of your support, your love, your advocacy, everything that you bring, your heart and soul to the work that you do for people, we are a better city. so i know this is a tough time for all of us. i know this was more, suppose to be more of a pep rally as an expression of appreciation to all of you for what you have done to help this city get

through this. i know that because of you we are in a good place. i know that we still have a ways to go. i'm sure some of you see the numbers recently and the surge as we try to reopen and get back to the normal. just yesterday, we seen an increase in the numbers by over 100 new patients. what that sadly means is that our plans for monday to reopen a number of businesses and places that we have committed to.

those plans will be put on pause because what we don't want to happen. what we don't want to happen is we don't want this hospital to get overwhelmed with patients. i know the last thing you all want to see is somebody walk up to that door and get turned away because you want to help. the last thing i want to make -- the last thing i want to happen is to put you in a situation where you can't help. so we're going to have to dial it back. we're going to have to dial it back because of what we see with the data. we're going to have to dial it back because i want to make sure that if we have to help somebody, we can help somebody, that we're prepared for that. i know that, that is the most

important thing to every single person here. so with that, i want to again express my gratitude. thank you for hanging in there for us. thank you to the people who can retire, that have not retired because you want to help us. thank you to so many of the african american employees who we know are dealing with challenges and struggles and as i said to you brenda, we are committed to making real change to support the african american community in this city. [applaus [applause] >> thank you to the doctors, the nurses, to the clinicians, to the people who are cleaning the halls of this place, to the people who are the social workers, to all the outreach workers, to the h.r. folks, to

the various supervisors, to the technicians, to those of you showing up everyday for the people of san francisco. when we talk about gratitude, words are inadequate. they are all we have at this time. so i want to express my deep appreciation for the work that you have done and will continue to do because we are not out of the woods yet. we need you. so we need to do a better job as a city to up lift you and support you in the work that you do every single day. that is why i'm here. i'm here to express my support. i'm here to express things will be really hard for us both as we

deal with this pandemic and other challenges that our city faces, but i appreciate you all being there. i appreciate your commitment. i appreciate your support. we're going to get through this together. so thank you, thank you, thank you, to all the essential workers. thank you. [applause] >> i also think i had a certificate -- i did i have a certificate -- no? good. last but not least, let me just say something that is really important. it's important that you take care of yourself. we put in place a number of resources.

take care of your physical and your mental health because that is so critical. when i think about what you have to do everyday, sometimes you have to take a moment and pause, even if you need to go in a quiet place alone. i am doing the best i can to take care of myself. i get my sleep. i drink my water, i get my exercise. if i'm not in a good place, if i'm not healthy physically and mentally, then i can't take care of the people that i'm here to take care of. so i want you to take care of yourselves because this is not a sprint. this is a marathon. after we get through this, we're going to look back and we're going to tell some stories about what we experienced in the police -- myst of all this and

how we came through. some of you were around during the aid crisis. some of you worked at a time where so many doors were closed to san francisco. this became the epicenter of that crisis. look at where we are. look at how far we come. we have been a leader in getting to zero. we have seen the numbers decline to levels that we never anticipated possible. so if we can get through that, we can get through anything. we'll get through this pandemic. we'll get through thisening whi which -- this challenging time and as a result we will emerge stronger than we ever have been before. so again, thank you all so much. enjoy your workday. stay healthy, stay safe, and thank you, thank you, thank you. [applause]

>> good afternoon. thank you mayor breed. i'm the director of health for the city and county of san francisco. i wanted to thank the mayor for her leadership during these unprecedenteded times and for making san francisco a leader in how we address the covid-19 pandemic. early on as we first saw the frightening and fast growing

effects of this new virus, we immediately started making preparations for what we knew would need to be an enormous and critical response here in san francisco. the s.f.g. emptied beds to make room for a coming surge. the patients we knew, you knew would eventually come. i.c.u.s were readied, supplies ordered, staff prepared. this hospital, the s.f.g. led other san francisco hospitals in a coordinated an unified citywide effort. these preparations allowed us to meet the needs of our communit., hospital beds in critical care, testing, guidance, and modeling safe behaviors. i'm especially happy to see everyone with face coverings here. the s.f.g. also gave us early and critically important

information about the disproportionate impact that covid was and is having on the city's latinx patients. that has helped us focus all our efforts on effective community outreach and testing of those most vulnerable to the virus, not only here in the mission, but in other parts of the city, including the bay view and the tenderloin. we won't let this virus or any pandemic keep us from our mission to build healthcare equity in san francisco. it is appropriate that we would be here during essential workers week. what happens everyday at zuckerberg is the very highest degree of essential work for our city. this is true not only during the covid-19 pandemic, but as the mayor said, it was true during the h.i.v. epidemic. it was true when i trained here with many of you in the e.r., in

5-a, building 5, 20 to 15 years ago. it was true when many of our families, including my family, when i was little, got care here at zuckerberg san francisco general hospital. from the bottom of my heart, i thank each and every one of you. the s.f.g. has cared for about a third, a third of all covid patients in the city. patients from other counties in need as well. not only caring for the sick, but caring for other essential workers too. while the clinicians do so much of the work here, there are many others on the front lines, keeping the hospital and the city functioning well. environmental service workers, food and nutrition workers, engineers, information technology, patient financial services, nor is this just an effort at this hospital.

there are many other department of public health, d.p.h. essential workers at laguna hospital, our outpatient clinics, behavioral health, healthcare workers working everyday in hotels to keep people safe and off the streets and the case in contacting workers. the workers who are helping us find new cases and support people who are at risk for the disease. this is truly a comprehensive, a united and effective team. while today we have the news that we have some increase in cases, our case rate is increasing and we're going to need to take a pause in our reopening, again, following the data, science, and facts. together we will emerge from this challenging pandemic

stronger and unified more than ever before. i would add my sincere appreciation for all of you who work here, absolutely essential everyone. thank you, thank you so much. [applause] >> it is my pleasure to introduce dr. susan, the c.e.o. of the hospital. [applause] >> it is such an incredible privilege to be here with you a all, not just since the beginning of the pandemic but everyday that i've been at this hospital, it's been such an honor. i have been so humbled to serve with you and to be in this very

privileged position i am in. on behalf of the s.f.g. and all 6,000 people that work here, i want to thank you so much mayor and dr. colfax for your support. the work we do here is incredibly hard and yet it's so grad -- gratifying and it's made more gratifying by the incredible support that we have by our leaders and i don't take that granted at all. we're privileged to have it. i can't tell you how much we appreciate your remarks and the steadfast and unwavering support for all of us in the work that we do. our staff, us, i look around and i see people who have dedicated many years, entire careers, have paused their retirements to

continue work for us and everything you do for this city and the people who live here just means an incredible amount. from the very beginning of this pandemic, our staff has been on the front lines everyday, no matter what you do, if it's taking care of patients, keeping the hospitals clean and safe for patients, visitors and staff, fe feeding people, testing, opening new units. the creative ways you do them has been endless in the past three months. the importance of the work, the quality of the work, the amount of work, not to mention the pace has been nothing, nothing short of heroic. it's an amazing team and again i'm so proud to be a part of it. this team is sporting an incredibly beautiful recognition

of the work you do and i just want to thank you mayor brooed breed for bringing this to us and recognizing you. thank you everyone. [applause] >> well thank you again. we will move forward together. please as the mayor said, take care of yourself. we're in the second inning of a long game here. while we all hope there will be more effective treatments and vaccine as soon as possible, it will take a while. so please, we all, as healthcare providers, you're wired to do everything you can for everyone else. make sure you look inside. make sure you take care of your mind, your heart, your loved ones. stay safe, stay connected, stay

socially distant. thank you. bye-bye. [applause] watching. >> you're watching coping with covid-19 with chris manners. today's special guest is julie kirschbaum. >> hi. i'm chris manners. you're watching coping with covid-19. today, i'm speaking with the executive director of the sfmta. thank you and welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me.

>> can we begin by talking about the services that have been suspended and there have been changes to the services that are still running? >> absolutely. we've had to make really significant changes to our services in response to covid-19. initially going down to as few as 17 routes. these are routes that people use to get to work or the hospital, grocery stores, really to make the most essential trips that are needed throughout this process. we've been fortunate over the last, say, five or six weeks, that our staffing levels have gotten better, and as we've increased our cleaning capacity, that we've been able to add some community services back. we've added a shuttle on pacific avenue, which is helping seniors get to grocery stores in chinatown. we've added a community inline

bus in ingleside, and we've been adding more service to our core network. our corridors like mission street, potrero near s.f. general, and really needing increasingly more and more service in order to prevent spacing and -- keep spacing and prevent crowding on the bus. >> thank you. what measures have you been taking to prevent passengers on the bus? >> your safety has been our top priority and is guiding everything that we do. the most critical thing that we're doing is the mask requirement, where we're requiring people, if you're going to ride muni, to do it safely, protecting yourself and others from germs. we've also implemented back door boarding, so except for our customers with disabilities

that will need the support of the front door, the ramp, or the leader, we're asking customers to enter from the back to give extra spacing to our operators. we've provided operators with all of the protective equipment that they need to do the job safely, including gloves and masks, and we're really fortunately that our bus -- fortunate that our buses are equipped with a plexi glass door that creates an operating space for our operators. and some of services like the cable car historic trolleys we don't have that same protection, we suspended early on in this process. we want our operators to have the physical separation that they need to stay safe on the road. >> absolutely. so how have you been managing

physical distancing on public transportation? what happens if a bus gets full? >> great question. we have reduced the number of people that we consider a bus to be crowded, so heading into this, we might have had 70 or 80 people on the bus. now, it's closer to 20. we also are monitoring our passenger loads. both our operators are monitoring them as well as we're monitoring them remotely from our transportation management center. if the bus does get too crowded, the operators have a drop-off only sign, and they stop picking passengers up until enough exit the vehicle. it might be a little bit inconvenient if you're waiting for a bus and it doesn't stop to pick you up, but there's another one coming behind it so we can make sure that you have social distancing throughout

this process. >> what other ways have you been letting passengers and residents know about these changes and new policies? >> we've been using all methods to keep customers informed about all of these changes. we've put up almost 2,000 signs and posters at our bus stops in multiple languages, letting people know when routes have been eliminated, when hours have changed, when service has changed. we've also been putting it up through social media and neighborhood groups, and also really relying on the media and press to notify customers about changing. we want the public to know what to expect in this really unique and unusual time to make things as convenient as possible. >> quite right, yes. other than the operators themselves, i know you have a very large support staff.

have you made changes at your muni facilities, as well. >> sfmta has 29 facilities, and enhancing safety at those facilities has really been a team effort. we have an amazing custodial crew that's been doing deep cleanings. we were able to take staff that had been cleaning the subway stations and dedicate them to our facilities. we have also seen staff at every level jump in and help with daily cleanings in places like common areas, desks, tools. everyone is pitching in to wipe stuff down, which makes a big difference. we are proud of the fact that we haven't had any clusters of staff who have had the virus or really any examples of staff catching it from each other,

and we feel it's because of the steps that we're taking to keep people safe at work. we're also taking ideas from everywhere in the organization. that includes safety briefings, rather than doing them in a small room, doing them outside, in a parking lot. in order to get to job sites, staff had previously taken three or four people in a city truck. now, we're taking them in a bus so they can actually space out during the trip to the site. >> oh, that's great stuff. when we look at the transportation system as a whole, what additional steps have been taken to encourage people to consider alternative forms of transit. >> we have been looking at it as a system in part because the bus system is doing less than

it has in the past because we have fewer routes and because we have fewer people riding. one example is our e.t.c. program, which is a taxi-based program that seniors and people with disabilities can sign up for and use a taxi for essential trips at a highly discounted rate. we're also looking at a transit system that people can get out walking or biking. >> how are we planning on next steps as restrictions ease and we move into phase two and eventually phases three and four? >> i think probably our biggest thing that we're getting ready for right now is the start of school in august, and make sure that we're ready, not only to accommodate all of the general activities, like going to restaurants and recreation, but

also getting kids to school safely. we're also looking at what are other cities doing around the world that we can learn from, and that's where we are forming our work, as well. we are really fortunate that we had an opportunity to skype with taipei, a city that's had a lot of success addressing the virus. the mayor actually joined the skype call, and one of the things that they shared with us, their biggest success has come with 100% compliance masks on mass transit. in other cases, monitoring for temperatures and really making sure that people were riding, that they were riding healthy, so we're trying to model and apply those best practices to our system and learn as much as we can through this process. >> well, that's fantastic

information. i really appreciate you coming on the show, miss kirschbaum. thank you for the time you've given us today. >> thank you. >> thanks again. well, that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more covid-19 relates information shortly. you've been watching coping with covid-19. i'm chris manners. thanks for watching. now in ter

of essential workers and what's available. what we plan to have this summer and what people can do to either sign up or what other programs to do to prepare under the new guideline for the programs that they want to make available to people.

so, let's get started. phil, you -- we hit the ball running, both you and maria su got together because we knew the schools were going to close. but we also knew that there was an essential workforce out there. people who were driving muni, people who were working at hospitals. they had children. they needed child care. they were concerned about taking their children to their elderly parents. they couldn't leave them at home. tell us a little bit about the program that you established that is available currently and will potentially be extended once programming starts for june 15 during the summer. >> thank you, mayor. yeah. you asked us as soon as the schools closed to start thinking about our kids and working families, particularly our health care workers and first responders and people who were needed to help in the city's response. and so the department of children, youth and family and recreation park department are working closely together under the guidance of department of

public health, set up an emergency child care system that is now in its 12th week. we, over time, served over 475 kids, 19,000 hours of child care offered during that time and we served over 4,000 meals at over 25 different sites. the program runs between 6:30 in the morning and 7:30 p.m. and kids have been involved in distance learning and a little bit of recreation and it's really been, you know, wasn't what we were used to doing and we had to stand it up pretty quickly, but it has been an amazing experience and i'm really grateful for my partner in runing this thing, maria, and the department of youth and family who have been terrific. >> and i want to just add -- because i know that, you know, sadly, you had these kids and these pods with limited number of social distancing. these are kids coming together on a regular basis. something similar to what we're

going to be doing this summer. and, unfortunately, there have been people who have made nasty comments or complained or even yelled at, you know, the kids. and so what i want to say to people is to back off and mind your own business and to leave kids alone. because at the end of the day, these are kids whose family members are putting their lives on the line to help support this city. so, i can't reiterate enough that it's important that folks really just stay in their lane, mind your own business. we're providing essential service. and we want to extend this and make this available to more kids. so, let's talk a little bit about -- phil, can you just talk a little bit about june 15? >> sure. >> we're going start programming and we're going to extend the number of kids that we're able to serve. not just in our park system, but our overall summer program so i want you, phil, to touch on what will be available for

our park system, both for our young people and our teenagers and then we're going to jump into maria su to talk about programming in general. >> sure. so, our child care operation -- it's summer, and child care was intended to operate while during the school year while the school system -- when the school system was closed and what families and kids are used to during the summer is camp. you're right. the truth of the matter, it will look somewhat similar in that we're going to have pods of 12, but beginning june 15, rec and park -- between rec and park t private sector camp providers and our nonprofit providers we expect that there will be over 200 different camps available to kids can. we are going to prioritize. kids of parents who are working in essential businesses, who are part of the city's

response, who are, you know, in allowable businesses and, frankly t kids who need us the most right now. many of our kids in the city have been without their coaches and mentors for going on 10 weeks and we want to reengage and make sure that these kids, above all else, have something to do this summer. so, starting june 15, camp providers will be allowed to operate. they're going to need to certify that they're going to comply with the health order and guidance coming out of public health, which means kids still need to be in pods of 12 for older kids. the minimum session for camp providers will be three weeks and the boll rationale behind that is to keep kids from normally during a normal summer kids go to one week of this camp and one week of another camp and the health -- and our public health officials have asked us to keep kids together in a consistent pod.

so we'll have three three-week sessions beginning june 15. at rec and park, we're planning over 25 different camps. we expect there to be another 40 to 50 private camp providers operating in our park system. i believe that maria is estimating nearly 100 nonprofit camp providers will operate around the city and then there are some other muscle private providers that will be operating on, you know, nonpark property in different spaces. we're going to start working with camp providers as quickly as possible, right after we're done speaking with you. and for our camps, for rec and park camps, we'll begin priority registration on may 26 for all of the participants that are currently in our emergency child care program and our kids in our scholarship program who are a little bit more vulnerable and who really, really need us. we're going reach out to those

populations first and then city-wide, registration for rec and park camps will begin on june 6. all of this information will be laid out on the department of children, youth and family's website, dcyf/cares.org. and i'll turn it over to maria to talk about the other providers and program staffing. >> thank you, phil. thank you, mayor, for this opportunity to share with our residents of the work that we're doing right now. so, like the mayor shared, we are in the process of expanding the opportunities for families, particularly for summer. we're really excited about this because, as a parent myself who has two children, this is going to be great opportunity for our young -- our young people to go out there and engage with others and just really address

the social isolation issues that we know is happening in our families right now. so dcyf is really excited to be partnering with rec and parks and the rest of our summer providers in the city to stand up all of these programs for the dcyf-specific agencies, which are the nonprofit agencies, that our department provides supports to, we are going to be working with them to open up camps and programs that they will then be made available for all of our families. we are looking at around 100 programs that will be available for families starting june 15. we are asking all of our nonprofit agencies to follow health guidelines, which still has shared, restrictive groups of young people in consistent

three-week programming at a minimum. we will also put on our website, dcyf.org/care. more information around the health order, around the drexives and the guidelines, with how private camps are also fulfill all of those requirements and then document that they are going to open up. so look for that website to go live -- actually the website is live now. but look for the forms to go live soon. >> great. >> and over time, mayor, i think we're going to try to inventory -- try to provide parents with as much information as we can about all of the camp opportunities because we have to think about it as a network this summer because of the health guidelines. so, we hope to be able to have a list and some reference materials for not just rec and

park camps, but all of the private camps happening around the city, too. >> yeah. and i want to touch a little bit because, you know, child care has been important because we have allowed that to continue for essential workers. can you talk a little bit, maria, what we can expect as it relates to the 0 to 5 age group and what might be available during the summer? >> yes. so, we're really excited that this new health order that you have authorized with our health department to allow the expansion of child care services for more families. so, there are child care programs for children 0 to 5 right now that are providing services for our essential workers and other allowable businesses. under this new health order, we are now opening that opportunity for more families. we have hear that there are families out there who are working, who need care, who

really, really need care for their children. and for children to need -- to need opportunities to be with their friends. so, this health order will allow more families to have access to these slots, these child care slots. i do want to caution folks that we are still following health guidelines and so the slots are going to be limited. we are restricted to a smaller group of children per site. so i just want to set expectations for everyone that it's not just usual child care as we remember how it was a year ago. >> yeah. and i do think it's great that, you know, this is providing an opportunity for kids to come together. so we're talking about pods of 12 within the course of a summer camp or preschool or in

other arenas so that not only can kids -- can parents get to work, but also it gives these children an tounlts interact with one another because i'm sure, especially if it is a child who doesn't have any siblings, to be able to play with another kid was -- like i know everything for me as a kid and i just feel so awful that these kids can't go out there and enjoy one another. this is an opportunity and a great opportunity. but i also, sadly, know it is a very limited opportunity. but do want to touch on, you know, teenagers because i know one of things that happens often times they are always left out. so i am commited to making sure that opportunities for all is available so that we have paid internships for kids during the summer. and that we make that available, especially for our teenagers.

because, you know, already they're missing their graduations and activities and events. and we want to make sure that they have a productive summer as well and they're not left out. so, maria, make you can touch on what might be happening with opportunities for all and i know that with rec and park, we have a number of teens that are going to be working and helping with these camps during summer. let's talk a little bit about, you know, how kids who are teenagers can sign up for some of the programs. >> thank you, mayor. so actually a lot of our programs are doing a lot of connections to young people now but they're doing it remotely. they're doing a lot of wellness checks and follow-up on what academic support these young people need. so, once again with this health order, we're now allowed to have face-to-face and in-person connections with these young people. so, we're going to work closely with our nonprofit agencies to help young people connect to

internship opportunities or actual job opportunities at some of these summer programs or at offices that are slowly opening up. so, there's great opportunities for private sector folks who are now interested -- who are opening up and would be interested in being a mentor for a young person this summer. that would be amazing. however, if that is not available, our young people are actually engaging in project-based learning right now. so a lot of our young people in our workforce program will be doing small projects that are -- that is remote for the agencis that they're assigned to. there will be engagement but it is so much better if the engagement is in person and not remote. i do -- >> how do they sign up?

like a teenager that wants to participate and have access to a paid internship? >> for now, we're directing everyone to go to dcyf.org/care so they can find out what's available in the community and make sections there. i also do want to say that, for young people and for families who are struggling right now because there are young people and familis who are struggling right now we do have a website that is available and under the mayor's leadership, she wanted to prioritize mental health services for families and for our essential workers and other service providers. for those who are struggling and who need support, please go to fieldsan francisco.org to learn more about different resources for parents, for young people and for adults and service providers. >> and also can we call 3-1-1

and be referred if we don't have access to the internet? >> yes. we'll definitely make sure that that's possible. >> great. great. we want to make it as easy for people as possible because i know sometimes you jump on a website and trying to figure it out or if you don't have internet access but want to ma you are that your friend knows that this might be available for their family. talk about what some of the teens are going to be doing in your program this summer. >> sure. for the last 607 years, san francisco has had a program called workreation, where we actually fund teenagers, kids between the ages of 14 and 17 to work in our camps. and because of your leadership and focus on getting these camps opened safely and getting kids an experience, we're hiring approximately 200 kid

this is summer that will be counselors in the camps that we just talked about. i also think there is an amazing opportunity, mayor, for those private camp providers that want to operate this summer to hire teenagers. here's why. the health order and the health guidance requires a minimum of two staff for every pod of 12 kids. and for private camp providers used to operating with a ton of kids and a few staff, you won't able to do that this year and staff won't be able to move around between pods during the camp session. for private camps to operate, they need to be very well-staffed and we highly, highly recommend that private camp providers hire teenagers to help and provide some support in making sure that your camps operate safely and smoothly and gives these kids a great experience and opportunity to make some money. >> i want to provide an example

because, for example, we have been providing a camp at -- well, i guess it is called a camp, i don't know what it is called, but we have been providing support for young people whose families are essential workers at hamilton rec center. so hamilton rec center has several rooms that could be used. so, i know that the plan is there is going to be probably two or three pods of 12. and each of those pods have their own rooms and their own activities around their rooms and they are also able to go outside and enjoy the field but not in the same pod, although they have their workers that are assigned to their pods. so, it provides for more opportunity to support more young people. so, the good news is even when they're in these situations, they're social distancing, but you know how it is when you're a kid and you're out playing, most likely you're going to somehow have some interaction where you might touch or be next to each other.

so that is really why the importance of keeping these pods to what they are is significant in preventing the spread of the virus and giving these kids a chance to have their community of people to hang out with. >> yeah. i think that is what we're going for. it is super important for kids to first of all get outside and reengage and, yes, there will be indoor spaces. but a lot more emphasis on being outside this summer for children. and as you know, mayor, for them to be together and hang out and a under the health guidance to your very early point for those who are concerned about the health of our children, under the health guidance, kids within the same pod can play sports. they can do certain activities. >> so, k they play basketball together? can they -- >> together, within the same pod. they can do those activities. and that is why this whole pod

concept is very important. our public health officials have been focused on minimizing risk. it is impossible to eliminate it 100%. but minimizing it. and that is the whole premise of these long three-week sessions and these pods of 12. depending upon which spaces a camp uses a camp may be able to have only one pod of 12 kids but may be able to have two pods or even three pods. as you know in hamilton or season seth rec center where the richmond or jolie, some of our buildings have multiple spaces, some schools where camps might operate have have multiple spaces. and then we've got the best park system in the country. so, we have plenty of outdoor spaces as well. for each pod, each pod requires a minimum of two staff people and staff cannot circulate between pods. so, again, for all you private camp providers out there, hire kids to help you this summer. >> all right. well thank you all so much for

the insight. i'm sure a lot of parents are excited about this. i am hopeful that, you know, some of the -- in addition to the private -- the public camps that we'll provide with rec and park and a number of rec centers and nonprofit partners will be able to provide a sufficient number of locations within the public sector and hopefully in combination with the private sector, many of our kids can have an enjoyable, effective, fun summer. so, we appreciate that and for more information, make sure that we reach out to department of children youth and families on the website or call 3-1-1 and before we wrap it up, i do want to talk a little bit about this weekend because it's memorial day weekend and typically everyone -- first of all, the weather in san francisco, even today, is gorgeous. and most of the time people want to go out and have barbecues and hang out with

friends and family and i really like the idea of what you did in terms of circles in park to make it clear like you have to stay away from each other. we want to be next to each other so bad. but at the same time, we're doing so well. we still see the numbers of infections going up. but we see the number of hospitalizations going down, the number of those who are in i.c.u. going down. san francisco is doing well. and the last thing we want to do is get too comfortable and all of a sudden go backwards so we still need people to keep their distance. we still need people to wear masks. we still need people to wash their hands regularly! wash your hands! but phil, tell us a little bit about what we can expect with the parks this weekend because we are, as much as we know people would want to use the parks, we'll be out in force regulating during memorial day weekend. again, we don't want to shut

down any parks but if it comes down to that point where things are out of control and aren't following the guidelines, we won't have a choice. we really need people to be on their absolute best behavior. so, tell us about what we can expect with our parks this weekend. >> sure. i mean, mayor, you covered it perfectly, which is that, look, our parks are super important right now. they are the one place where people can get outside, get some exercise, connect with nature and you have been amazing at making sure that these spaces are open and accessible. but for them to stay open and accessible, people need to do the right thing and over the last 10, 11 weeks, most people have been. but we need to focus and not ease up so you can be outside but you have to socially distance. we still recommend that you wear a mask. no partying, you know, no big events, no big picnics. just enjoy nature and enjoy a little time with your own immediate family or your own roommates.

we will have park ranger, san francisco police department, police officers. we'll have sheriff's cadets, fire cadets, police cadets and the neighborhood emergency response team, all doing education and outreach. there are over 1500 signs in all of our parks indicating what you can and can't do. just do the right thing so we don't put the mayor in a position where she needs to take more drastic action. it is amazing, mayor, in a lot of cities just threw their hands up and say, oh, parks closed because we don't want to deal with it. you haven't done that. you've kept parks open for people. so, you know, we're all asking the public to do the right thing this weekend. the weather will be nice. you will want to get outside. if you have to get in a car, it's too far. so go to your neighborhood park, enjoy it. but socially distance.

if you're deloris or jackson or the marina green or washington square, we've offered a little bit of pop-up behavioral art to inspire you to claim your own space. that is the circles that are in some of the parks. and, you know, they're intended to be joyous and inspirational, but intended to remind everyone that we need to be mindful as we continue to fight this virus. >> and i just want to say that please don't get offended if, you know, our park rangers or someone walks up to you and asks you, you know, are you guys in the same household just to, you know, make sure that people are following these orders. we have a responsibility. and the other thing is, if you're not the police, then please don't act like you're the police. we don't need you to walk and regulate and tell other people what to do because that creates more drama. it creates more tension. so we are doing the very best we can. we want to make this park and open space available to you because we know how challenging

this has been. for the most part, san franciscans have followed the order and we are so fortunate that we have amazing residents in the city who are taking this seriously, even though not everyone is complying which has made life difficult in some respects. but please let us deal with that. we're doing our very best to try and reduce this curve to the point of it being nonexistence because i know how badly we want to get back to being out there, to going to work and allowing kids to play. but the fact is coronavirus is with us for some time. it is not about getting back completely to normal. it's about adjusting to our new normal in a responsible way. it is going to take time. it's going to take ai, patience. we appreciate everyone for what you continue to do to help san francisco be a leader in this effort. thank you, phil ginsburg, thank you, maria su for your insight.

for more information call 3-1-1. i know there might be a lot of questions also about the schools and other things. we're happy to continue these conversations based on your feedback. based on your questions. because many of us are doing the very best we can. this is not like anything any of us have ever expected. so, we're all in this together. we're going to get through this together and that requires us to continue to be patient, get information to you as soon as it is available and just really try to come together, lift one another up, enjoy the memorial day weekend. and thank you all so much for your cooperation. have a great weekend and we'll see you next week.

valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. the first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the mission neighborhood extending from market to mission street. >> it is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute

hours. >> from 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. the mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m.t.a. to put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [♪] >> valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in san francisco. it has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. we promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. valencia is our mission -- fits our mission perfectly. our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes.

whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. >> i have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. during that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. >> we have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. one of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. >> the most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. >> we kept all the passengers -- the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see

out here. >> most people aren't actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. >> half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6:00 p.m., so could be used for five-minute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. >> the five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. >> one of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. >> we worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. >> on this lot, there are a few schools. all these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. to address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings -- railings that channel -- channeled a designated crossing

plane. >> we had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons? >> i do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. >> we have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the right-of-way so they can cross the roadway. this is probably one of the most unique features. >> during the planning phase, the m.t.a. came out with three alternatives for the long term project. one is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. a two-way bikeway. the third option is a center running two-way bikeway, c. would have the two bike lanes running down the center with

protection on either side. >> earlier, there weren't any enter lane designs in san francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for san francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesn't exist already. >> with all three concepts for valencia's long-term improvement , there's a number of trade-offs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. when he think about extending this pilot or this still -- this design, there's a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. >> the pilot is great. it is a no-brainer. it is also a teaser for us. once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. >> what we're trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. the pilot project is one of our first major improvements. we will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out

here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. this fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. by spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about long-term improvements. >> i appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the community workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. >> we want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. there's a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. we will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [♪]

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