set up outside of the bill graham auditorium on grove street. you can either walk up to hand off your ballot, or you can use the drive-thru election. there'll be a ballot drop off location at each of the city's libraries. consider going early in the day, when it should be less busy. from october 28 through election day, any registered voter unable to drop off their own ballot may authorize somebody else to do so. to authorize somebody's to return your vote by mail ballot, make sure you complete the additional section on your ballot return envelope. if you're picking up or dropping off any ballots, wear a mask and use hand sanitizer after touching any surfaces. if you wish to drop it off in

person, vis person, -- if you wish to vote in person, visit the bill graham center. you can avoid lines and save time by preparing your ballots in advance and going to the polling place during off-peak hours. if you're planning on filling out your ballot at the voting center, consider bringing some wipes to clean surfaces and hand sanitizer to use after you vote. for those who are planning to vote on election day, consider going to your polling place at off-peak time dos, such as mid-morning, because it might reduce wait time. and finally, once you get home, wash your hands. here's a quick recap. and that's it for this

episode. for . >> mayor breed: good morning, everyone. i'm san francisco mayor, london breed, and i want to thank you for being with us today, to provide an update on covid and the election and halloween in san francisco. we have 12,320 cases of covid total since this crisis began. 37 hospitalizations, 147 people have sadly lost their lives. san francisco has really stepped up its pace around its testing. we have been doing around 5,000 tests a day, which is absolutely

incredible. right now our positivity rate is 0.89 and i know that so many san franciscans have been hearing the stories about how great san francisco has been doing in fighting the virus, but the fact is we're still in the midst of a pandemic. so today is just a reminder that not only are we doing well, we are starting to see a slight uptick in the number of hospitalizations, which puts us in a situation where things could possibly get worse than what they are. it's just a reminder. in places like france and germany, they've had to make adjustments. france is in lockdown again. and germany, which has been a model in the rest of the world, is looking at restrictions. it's not just what is happening here in the united states, it's

still challenging all over the world. it is just a reminder that we are in the midst of this pandemic. as a result of some changes that we've seen in the numbers, what we will have to do as a result is put a pause on some of our reopening efforts we have for next week. let me just say that san francisco is in a good place. we are in the yellow tier. as a result of being in the yellow tier, we made some very conservative choices around our reopening efforts. our reopening and the decisions that have been made focused on when we were in the orange tier because we know that the more we open, the more people are moving around, the more possibility there could be of spread. and the last thing we want to do is go backwards or tell a business or a school or

someplace that they can open and then tell them they have to close. so we are proceeding with caution and what that means is that some of the decisions we made will still move forward, the ones that are already in place and a few more, but others will need to take a pause until we see improvement in the numbers. what will remain closed, indoor pools, bowling alleys, locker rooms and showers at fitness centers. the capacity will stay at 25%. we initially talked about increasing capacity in restaurants from 25% indoors to 50% indoors. we unfortunately are going to need to put a pause on that, but we will leave 25% intact. non-essential offices will be able to open at 25%, which they've already done and we will keep it at that.

so capacity staying at 25% includes restaurants or indoor worshiping places, churches, religious facilities, indoor museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theatres which continue without concessions unfortunately. what's coming -- some places that will still be able to reopen include indoor dining at museums at 25% capacity, expanding indoor film production and additionally live performances with up to six performers with a drive-in setting. i know these are nuanced and complicated in some ways, but if you have any questions and you want to know how the policies relate to your particular industry, please visit the department of public health website. it not only provides a list of what is opening and what can and

can't open, but also guidelines that will allow people to make a decision of what makes the most sense to move forward. remember, we are still in a pandemic. we are tired of covid-19, but covid-19 is not tired of us just because we are tired of it. so it is still here and present. we see it in the increased number of cases every day and in the number of people who are sadly hospitalized. and we definitely feel it when someone loses their life. it's important for us to keep that in mind. what i'm so proud of is what i see in the streets of san francisco, people who are wearing their masks and social distancing, and those spraying their down tables to keep their visitors safe, it's because of

you. it's because of your -- because you are following our public health experts and their guidelines. it's why san francisco is in the yellow tier in the first place. when you think about that, it's remarkab remarkable. we are the second-densest city in the country and we are still in the better place than most large, urban cities. we should be proud. but we also know there is still more work to do. we also know that tomorrow is halloween. halloween is my favorite time of year. there are those making plans. i'm going to wear a costume, but i also know that i can't participate in any parties or large events or anything of that nature. so we know that this is also important to families. family families have children who want

to trick-or-treat and people have parties and want to get together. what we've seen during holidays, sadly, is an uptick in the number of cases because people have chosen to come together. these parties and events and gatherings could become superspreaders. it takes one person to infect all people who attend a party. that's where we've seen numbers increase and in the past. i just want you to be mindful because even though this year will be a sacrifice, the sacrifice is worth it because it means that we can get our kids back in school sooner and we can get our economy going faster. the more that we sacrifice now presents a better opportunity for us in the future. this is going to be a tough halloween, i know, but i know that we can do it and there are creative ways that you can participate in a number of

programs. there is a virtual halloween contest that i'm going to be attending and it's supporting larkin street youth services and cindy lauper is performing and it's going to be online. there are so many creative ways in which you can celebrate. restaurants are still open. the shared spaces program and people's ability to dine outdoors social distancing from one another has been a huge success in our city, supporting our restaurants and small businesses, while continuing to follow the health guidelines to keep people safe is critical. so let's be creative, let's be safe. look on the department of public health's website for some guidance for some things you can do with your children, with your families, with your communities. but more importantly, let's not take this as an opportunity to celebrate and to go out and to party because it could end up

putting us in a worse situation than we are today. so the other thing i wanted to talk a little bit about also was election day. election day is on tuesday. and i want to thank all the voters who have already voted and who have encouraged those who have not cast their ballots yet to make sure that you vote. and we know that we're not sure what's going to happen with this election, but we want to encourage people to watch from home or with friends based on your groups of folks that you interact with on a regular basis in your families. we know that people like to go out and a lot of the bars are closed still, but make sure that you keep that in mind, that we're still in the midst of this pandemic. we're not sure which way this election might go, but our city

plans to be ready for any situation. ultimately, when you have large gatherings, when people come together for any reason, that puts us at risk. please keep that in mind on election day and operate under precaution and safety. i also want to talk a little bit about our schools. this has been at the top of so many people's mind. it's been not only frustrating, but very sad that so many children in this city are still not back in school. we've had over a hundred applications from private schools, and we're still having some challenges with getting our public schools to a place where they are planning to open. dr. matthews and i and my office have been in close contact because we are here to help.

we are here to help the unified school district and get schools open sooner rather than later. i'm so grateful they're willing to work with us. they've reached out to evaluate the various facilities to make sure that they meet public health guidelines. we're also looking at how we're going to implement the testing that they want to set up to ensure safety within their various locations. so we think that working closely with the school districts, using all the resources from the city that are at our disposal is going to support them and get us moving our city a lot faster. we sadly see the achievement gap grow. even though there are some incredible fathers out there trying to do their part, we know that this burden of going to work and trying to socially distance and also take care of

your kids while they're doing this distance learning is having a tremendous impact on mostly women in this city, which is further creating a challenge around inequities that continue to exist. there is so much at stake here and that we continue to do. i want folks over the weekend and on election day to keep that in mind. you might not want kids going to our schools right now, but think about them and their experiences. let's try to do our part, whether we have children or not, whether we have elderly parents or not, whether we lost our jobs or businesses or not, because what we do by making sure we're wearing our mask and washing our hands and keeping our distance and avoiding large gatherings and parties and all the other things that we enjoy, what we're

doing is we're setting our city up for a better future sooner rather than later. that's what this is all about. thank you all so much for your cooperation. we'll get it done. i know this weekend is nice, but again, please do everything you can to stay safe and follow our guidelines. with that, i want to introduce dr. grant colfax who will provide an update around the challenges that exist in the department of public health. again, if you have any questions about halloween, any questions about elections or election day, if you have any questions, please visit sfgov.org or the department of health website. thank you so much and have a great day. with that, i want to introduce dr. grant colfax.

>> good afternoon. i'm grant colfax, director of public health for the city and county of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for your leadership during this pandemic. i want to reiterate mayor breed's thanks to the citizens, the community of san francisco, for everything you're doing to slow the spread of covid-19.

you know, my office across the street here is right next to the polling center where people are going to vote right now. on my way over, i saw san franciscans exercising their right to vote and doing it in a safe way, wearing masks, social distancing, using good hygiene. thank you. today is not unexpected with regard to our pause in reopening. since we've been removed from the state watch list on september 1, we have had a consistent path of increased activities. we have employees returning to offices at limited capacity. students returning to in-learning classrooms. indoor dining and playgrounds being used. this is, indeed, good news and this is progress.

but, as our activity increased, we realized we new and expected an increase in the infection is likely. we have been and are prepared for this. overall, san francisco continues to do well, but we have seen an increase in case positivity. we want to pause on riskier activities because we do not want the virus to get ahead of us. because, as we have seen in other countries around the world, when the virus gets on top of ahead, you can't catch up. and we, all of us together, have done a great job of not letting

the virus get too far ahead. from the onset of this pandemic, we have closely monitored our local data. we have monitored the spread of the virus so we can slow the spread of the virus and sustain the progress we've made. san francisco, we have avoided massive surges and crushed two curves, the first one in the spring and the second one in the summer. and the data are once again, as i told you this summer, the data are telling us it is time to pause. we are working to extend the time before we reopen the next phase of indoor activities. the reason for this is because in the last two weeks our case rate has gone from three per

100,000 of population to four. that's a 25% increase. that might not sound like a lot, but when this virus takes off, it takes off quickly, unless again we take efforts to slow the spread. in addition, our hospital numbers are increasing. they've increased in the last two weeks from 23 to 37. low numbers, the good news is our hospital capacity remains good to take care of people, but that rate of increase is concerning. as a result, we have a shift in our key local indicators in keeping the healthcare system stable and managing the current rate of infection. that hospital rate of increase is in the red and our case rate has shifted at the local level

from yellow to orange. we have also seen a 38% increase in cases in california and a 41% increase in cases in the united states over the past two weeks. until we understand the magnitude and the potential duration of increases, it makes sense for us to pause, to make sure we are mitigating the virus, so we can continue to move forward and not backwards. we remain in relatively good shape compared to other major cities. we still continue to have lower infection rates compared to places like new york, philadelph philadelphia, denver, and los angeles. we continue to have the lowest death rate among major cities and the highest testing rate, as the mayor said, currently testing over 5,000 people a day.

i am confident that working together we will again beat back the virus, as we have done two times before. but i wouldn't be me unless i reminded you, keep wearing those masks, so important, saving lives by wearing those masks, continue to physically distance, wash your hands, avoid large groups. the holidays are upon us and now is not the time to throw caution to the wind. let's be here next year when, hopefully, this pandemic will be behind us and we can get together with our loved ones, in close contact, hugging, sharing food, giving toast, but we need to use caution this year. we got do this without the help and cooperation of all of you.

so celebrate, but celebrate safely. virtual election parties, small outdoor gatherings limited to three households, and again, please wear those masks. thank you. >> this concludes today's press conference. thank you, mayor breed, and dr. colfax for your time. [♪]

>> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, i'm going to be talking about checking with your neighbors. >> start off by giving your neighbor a call to see how they are or if they need help. if they don't answer, don't get anxious. try again later. check to see if their car is parked nearby. are they lights being turned on and off during normal hours? if you still can't contact them, contact your other neighbors and see if they've had contact with them recently. you can also leave a note in their mailbox, and when you do get in touch with them, ask if they'd like to share their emergency contact information. if you're getting groceries for a neighbor, get a mask and sanitizing wipe. put the groceries by the front

door and then move back and call them from the sidewalk. if you need to ring the doorbell, don't use your hand. use the wipe or paper towel that you brought. when you call, stay on the sidewalk at least 6 feet away from them. as you're talking to them, ask about any other help they might need. some might need further assistance with groceries or just need to chat. maybe they might need you to pick up prescriptions from the pharmacy. and as always, as soon as you get home, wash your hands. here's a quick recap.

>> well, that's it for this episode. i hope you found it useful. go to sfgov for. >> i just feel like this is what i was born to do when i was a little kid i would make up performances and daydream it was always performing and doing something i feel if i can't do that than i can't be e me. >> i just get excited and my nickname is x usher my mom calls

me i stuck out like a sore thumb for sure hey everybody i'm susan kitten on the keys from there, i working in vintage clothing and chris in the 30's and fosz and aesthetic. >> i think part of the what i did i could have put on my poa he focus on a lot of different musical eras. >> shirley temple is created as ahsha safai the nation with happens and light heartenness shirley temple my biggest influence i love david boo and el john and may i west coast their flamboyant and show people (singing)

can't be unhappy as a dr. murase and it is so fun it is a joyful instrument i learned more about music by playing the piano it was interesting the way i was brought up the youth taught me about music he picked up the a correspond that was so hard my first performing experience happened as 3-year-old an age i did executive services and also thanks to the lord and sank in youth groups people will be powering grave over their turk i'll be playing better and better back la i worked as places where men make more money than me i was in bands i was treated as other the next thing

i know i'm in grants performing for a huge protection with a few of my friends berry elect and new berry elect and can be ray was then and we kept getting invited back you are shows got better we made it to paris in 2005 a famous arc we ended up getting a months residencey other than an island and he came to our show and started writing a script based on our troop of 6 american burr elect performs in france we were woman of all this angels and shapes and sizes and it was very exciting to be part of the a few lettering elect scene at the

time he here he was bay area born and breed braces and with glossaries all of a sudden walking 9 red carpet in i walgreens pedestrian care. >> land for best director that was backpack in 2010 the french love this music i come back here and because of film was not released in the united states nobody gave a rats ass let's say the music and berry elect and performing doesn't pay very much i definitely feel into a huge depression especially, when it ended i didn't feel kemgd to france anymore he definitely didn't feel connected to the scene i almost feel like i have

to beg for tips i hey i'm from the bay area and an artist you don't make a living it changed my represent tar to appeal and the folks that are coming into the wars these days people are not listening they love the idea of having a live musician but don't really nurture it like having a potted plant if you don't warrant it it dizzy sort of feel like a potted plant (laughter) i'm going to give san francisco one more year i've been here since 1981 born and raised in the bay area i know that is not for me i'll keep on trying and if the struggle becomes too hard i'll have to move on i don't know where that will be but i love here so so much i used to

dab he will in substances i don't do that i'm sober and part of the being is an and sober and happy to be able to play music and perform and express myself if i make. >> few people happy of all ages i've gone my job so i have so stay is an i feel like the piano and music in general with my voice together i feel really powerful and strong

leaders would not be where we are today without the career leader of ruth bader ginsburg. the league of women voters is a san francisco nonpartisan

political nonprofit. the league never endorses candidates, however, we do take stands on issues. we are committed to providing the resources that voters need to exercise this most fund amountal right of our democracy and be assured that our votes will be counted. please remember that you must be registered to vote by october 19. all registered voters will receive a mail ballot in early october, and options for in-person voting will be available, as well, both early and also on election day, november 3. please visit our website at lwvsf.org/vote where you will find all of the resources that we offer. the league of women voters is a

nonprofit organization. if you would like to get involved, please contact us or go to our website. i would like to introduce our moderator tonight, [inaudible] she was appointed by governor newsom as the chief of staff to the california public utilities commission in 2019. well come, luong. >> thank you, and welcome, candidat candidates, to the forum for district 11 board of supervisors candidates forum.

first, i'd like to remind you of our ground rules. responses should be on the issues and policy-related. candidates are expected to be respectful of other candidates and asked to not make personal attacks on other individuals. here are the procedures for this evening's forum. the candidates will have the opportunity to make 90-second opening and closing statements. opening statements will be in alphabetical order by first name. closing statements will be in reverse alphabetical order by first name. each candidate will have 90 seconds to answer questions. each candidate will have the opportunity to answer the same number of questions. any rebuttals may be included

in the candidate's closing statement, which will be 90 seconds. a count downtimer will be displayed with a visual indication. the aspect of the forum will be equally fair to all candidates. thank you to our attendees tonight. you are in listen-only mode. the q&a and chat features are not active. this forum will be ordered and made -- recorded and made available on our website, lwvsf.org, our youtube channel, and sfgovtv channel. tonight's forum will give you an opportunity to learn before you vote on november 3. now, let's begin. you will start off with

90-second statements in alphabetical order. [inaudible], and thank you for participating in this forum. please introduce yourself, tell us which neighborhood you live in, and why you are running for district 11 supervisor. we'll start with ahsha safai. you're on mute. >> okay. sorry. my name is supervisor ahsha safai. thank you to the san francisco league of women voters for having me tonight. i've proudly represented this district for the last four years. when i first ran for office, i had just been working with organized labor for almost a decade and cared deeply about being a strong voice for working families. distri

district 11 has one of the highest concentration of children and people under 19. we are the backbone of this city, the people that get up and make san francisco work fore every single day, and for the last four years, i've been a strong voice for those families every day. whether it was our green jobs legislation, whether it was ensuring we chad accessible affordable child care or a woman chief of staff when i was elected board of supervisors. this week honoring justice ginsburg, i'm very proud to say that the san francisco political women's committee, along with planned parenthood of northern california has given me their sole endorsements. i've been a fighter and working hard for my district. i'm very proud, and i look forward to another four years. >> thank you. john avalos. >> good evening. it's really great to be here. i'm john avalos, and i'm a

22-year resident of district 11. i live in the excelsior neighborhood of district 11. i'm a father of two, fiance to raquel redondiez, and living with her. have a senior at balboa high, and a balboa graduate living with us in this neighborhood. i'm very honored to have this opportunity to experience representing people in district 11, minorities, people of color, working class, people who are teachers restaurant workers, a lot of people who are dealing with unemployment at this time. we are in a real difficult situation with the pandemic and the economic crisis that we're in, and looking to bring back all of my work i did at the

board of supervisors, working citywide to make sure we could have the resources for the entire city, but also working with residents here in district 11 so make sure we can build our parks and commercial corridors, making sure we have child care for our families, that we have families, support for our schoolworkers. thank you. >> marcella -- marcello colusi. >> thank you. my name is marcello colusi, and i am running for district 11 supervisor. i am running because i was a worker in people's homes at one

time, and they were shocked about what's going on in our city. i think we need to not do politics in between and do what is the most efficient for our residents. that's actually why i'm running for supervisor district 11 san francisco. >> thank you. now we'll move onto our questions for tonight. we'll start with ahsha. how do you define affordable housing, and what specific steps will you take to increase affordable housing in district 11? >> thank you. when i first got on the board of supervisors, we were able to engage on the inclusionary

housing program on the city. it's where we asked project sponsors to set aside a certain amount of housing as affordable. but the question was affordable for who? affordable for so long has been defined as extremely low-income. and what that meant was teachers, janitor's, nonprofit workers could afford to live in district 11, working class neighborhood, could no longer afford to live in san francisco. so i'm very proud to say we were able to expand the definition slightly, and prior to me coming into office, probably about 17 upts nits of affordable housing. we have built 600 units, with 2,000 in the pipeline.

we have worked with the mayor to purchase the city's largest acquisition in history, making 25 units affordable in perpetuity. >> thank you. marcello, same question. you're on mute. >> thank you. affordable housing for me is the people that work in our neighborhoods for minimum wage can afford here. i don't think that's going to end until the city of san francisco does what [inaudible] when you think about it, they have 40,000 employees, they have $12 billion budget. the only reason that the housing is so expensive, the only reason the housing is so

expensive is the builders are trying to make a profit. the moment you cut profits in between, it will be stop. the city needs to -- it will not stop. the city needs to open their own nonprofit. they have the opportunity, and they have everything to do it. >> john? >> thank you. affordable housing, to me, is where our housing costs no more than what a household of 120% area median income can afford, where they're paying no more than 30% of their income for housing. i also believe that we need to be building housing no more than that, that rate, but also a large -- the largest amount of housing that is deeply affordable. here in district 11, we have a

lot of households that are bundled up into single homes and need relief. a lot of them are very low-income and would benefit from having deeply affordable housing. for me, i've been working for years to expand finances for housing, affordable housing in san francisco, looking at various sources from our general fund to housing bond. i actually wrote the housing bond on 2015, and i wrote with the mayor of san francisco the housing trust fund in 2012. i'm excited about propositions i and propositions k that are on the ballot that are going to tax real estate transfers to bring in money for creation of municipal housing. pr prop k would allow the city to create public housing, and i

want to create a public bank that would shape how we create public housing to benefit all of san francisco. >> thank you. for the next question, we'll start with marcello. how about you ensure that the current residents of district 11 will be able to remain in their homes given the increased cost of living in san francisco and the economic downturn due to the covid-19 pandemic? >> it's going to have to involve everyone: the landlords, the tenants, the city. you have landlords that are making money on the properties, you have landlords that are barely making it or going on the rent, and because of that, you have to go case by case to figure out who can do it and who is in deep trouble so that the moment that those landlords are going to lose their homes

to [inaudible] and the same issue. the banking industry, as soon as they get a foreclosure they're going to start kicking people out. we're going to have a huge crisis, and we cannot have that. we have to work [inaudible] political issues trying to work for our residents and actually give our people, keep our residents at home. >> thank you. john? >> it's really tough to see what's happening right now for a lot of people living in the city and, of course, in district 11 households who are unemployed or getting less unemployment money are now making difficult choices, whether to pay rent or mortgage or the food on the table. these are real-life issues and

have a lot to do with what we've been experiencing for years but are now heightened during the pandemic and this economic crisis. as supervisor, i created and worked on various methods to allow people to stay in their homes. advancing tenant protections, we need to expand in that. as supervisor, i made it illegal to destroy rental housing, and that has protected thousands of units here in san francisco and district 11. i've also made it easier to set up a.d.u.s and accessory dwelling units are able to stay up and running. we have funding available through the city and d.b.i. for people who want to modify those. i've worked to create principle reduction programs in san francisco so that we can actually ensure that a wide

variety of people, homeowners and renters can stay in san francisco and not be threatened by the crisis that we're in and actually have faith that we can keep our residents here in the city. thank you. ahsha? >> thank you. i think there's a -- this is a very good question. it's about the immediate. it's about what we are going to do right now, today, because people are being he ievicted. they're getting sick and losing their jobs? one of the things we were able to do as supervisors were creating an eviction moratorium, so no one will be evicted during this health crisis. myself and dean preston and others put that forward. but we also need to have rental assistance. if people have rental assistance, they will be able

to pay their rent and the help they need to pay their mortgages. district 11, 94112, has the highest number of requests for rental assistance, and we've helped to facilitate that working with the q foundation. on a daily basis, people are calling us for assistance paying their rent. the other thing we need to do is open up our economy back in a safe manner. we've moved to orange. myself and supervisor peskin worked on legislation that's called our healthy and hotel ordinance. that will allow people to go back to work. when people go back to work, they have to go that they will be safe in their job, so we created 80 hours of sick leave to help them. >> thank you. so the next question will start with john. what are your plans to bring equity and jobs, education, and

economic development to the black communities in district 11, especially in the lakeview and sunnydale neighborhoods? >> thank you. i'm proud to have worked on the local hiring ordinance. back in 2010, i was the sponsor of it and worked closely with the african american community, with mike brown, who is the director of inner city youth at that time, to make sure that we were creating jobs with our public funds when we actuality built -- actually built municipal buildings. that's resulted in people being able to find jobs in the building trades here in san francisco. and as supervisor are, i've actually worked over the years to develop the lakeview community collaborative, the lakeview community collaborative that is a number

of organizations working together for a budget that serves them, that keeps programs running and going. it's been great to see that the work is ongoing, and based on that organization that we initiated back in 2010, that it's a workforce center now on broad street. and as supervisor, i want to do much more to actually look at the private sector and how we can do local hiring in the private sector, and anyone that wants to be doing -- setting up shop here at the office of economic and workforce development, to be able to provide small business support to hire local residents. >> thank you. ahsha? >> thank you. it's a great question. if the folks in district 11 have felt ignored and not given the help they need, the blake

families in lakeview felt even more like that. we looked at where the incarceration rate, drop out rate, homeless rate was, and based on those statistics from day one, we asked for and advocated for resources to go into black lakeview. we opened up the first jobs center in the district in that regard, right there on broad and capital. the mayor and i cut the ribbon on that last year. we are building a brand-new library in that area of town. we have invested in black-led organizations. i.t. book man, inner city youth, and i.t. first, all of which are invested in, promoting, and assisting the black community and youth. i think that's what equity looks like. we didn't wait until the recent movement of black lives matter, we've been doing that from day

one. another thing is empowering and uplifting folks from the black community to lead and advocate for themselves. that's what happened in a movement we called invest black. many folks in the community led that. they put their stamp on broad street, and we're very, very proud of that work. >> thank you. marcelo? >> i personally think that [inaudible] and what we have to do is train people to actually [inaudible] and to train them to work with their own businesses, even if it [inaudible] when somebody can have a small business in their house, they will not have to commute. they will be producing money on a daily basis, and part of my

idea is yujust to have small businesses over the place who can support each other. when you have small businesses working for corporations, and those corporations close down shop, and they leave, and those peoples are out of work. when you have a small business that's owned by the residents of the neighborhood, those small businesses survive, and they -- they thrive, and that's when the economy comes back. the idea is to push it, as much as we can, to train and to actually work with the residents to be able to open their own businesses. >> thank you. for the next question, we'll start with marcelo. what do you consider to be the most important infrastructure improvements and projects

needed for district 11? how did ywill you advocate fore projects? >> i think safe streets, to be able to walk to the store. [inaudible] i think that part is huge for our community basically because, like, the other candidates say, we have the most children -- most children will be able to say in their houses. they will be able to go to public schools, and the public schools [inaudible] we'll actually give that allocation to our kids, and those kids will be able to [inaudible]

coming from all over the place in two or three years. we owe it to those families. we have to be able to work on those projects to be able to uplift our communities. >> thank you. john? >> thank you. actually, i loved the question about community development. i think it's one of my greatest focuses when i was supervisor was working with the community from the grassroots up to define what we need for our districts so we can thrive and live and remain in the districts. so now, we're in real tough times, and we need to figure out how we can make real tough action, and the best thing we can do is have a whole new economy centered around our whole future. and for me, that's a green new deal, and that includes all of the infrastructure that we're

going to need for sustainable. number one is the housing investment. i mentioned some of the resources that we have on the ballot this year, prop i, and prop k. we also have other resources that have recently been approved with the prop c that has now been -- the funds have been released so we can use housing needs for a lot of people that are homeless in our district. we also need to put money into transit and build jobs around the creation of transit based on renewable energy. our parks are really a vital resource, and especially during the pandemic, we need to find a place to access nature and release ourselves. i want to be part of creating an urban ag system that will be mutual aid in our investment efforts. we need slow streets, and that's why i'm petitioning to change d.b.i. with prop w.

>> thank you. ahsha? >> one of the biggest things that we're working on right now is prop a, our mental health and recovery bond also for your parks. i advocated to ensure that crocker-amazon were included in that. the san francisco giants are going to supplement that. that would be more than a $30 million investment by the giants. another one is excelsior playground, definitely needs to be revitalized and redone, and then, another park. and then, continuing the housing. we're in the process of building more housing than has ever been built in district 11. we have to see those projects through, and we have to find more funding to build more

workplace housing and more affordable housing. the final one that i'm very proud of is the library. we're going to create the largest neighborhood library in the city. it's on the corner of orizaba and brotherhood. we're going to go from the smallest neighborhood library to the largest neighbor library. and then finally, we have a $20 million improvement to our neighborhood corridors. we have some of the highest fatality corridors, and that will begin in the spring. >> thank you. for this question, i'll start with ahsha. what funding for the police would you support going to other specific services. what specific changes would you require to be in place before the change is implemented? >> it's a great question. some of the largest number of calls we get are people that

are unhoused, people with mental health issues, and the police are often the first one to respond. in this ballot, as i said, prop a will have dollars for mental health. very pleased to see we were going to have additional dollars for mental health sf. was pleased to work with my colleagues supervisor hillary ronen and matt haney, along with the mayor. with the prop c being unlocked, winning that in the courts, that will mean additional dollars for mental health services. the police, one of the highest volume calls they get, have to do with our mental health individuals, and it will allow

the freeing up of police to go on other calls. and then, when we were able to have the resources, which we do now, and will come more, we need to have mental health professionals responding to those that are unhoused and have mental health crisis, and we have the ability to do that and transition nicely. >> thank you. john? >> thank you. we have, across the country, calls for defending the police. i've been looking at that issue, and what we need to implement. for me, what we need to be doing is transforming completely how we do public safety work in san francisco and across the country.

our policing has been based on racist institutions going back, you know, 150, 200 years, and we need to remake actually entirely how we do it. we need to narrow the intervention scope to what the police department does, but also putting a lot of resources into presvention, making sure that people have access to mental health care and addiction care and life sources that are out there. we need to make sure that we're putting in the resources like case managers and mental health clinicians and have those in place before we start making cuts to the police department. i was really alarmed that we didn't do that now when the budget was wide open before us.

we have a lot of people in district 11 who could benefit from mental health services, addiction services, a navigation center, and there's no place to do that. >> thank you. marcelo? >> thank you. what is -- this is the main question. we definitely need more resources, personally, i think, on mental health which has become an epidemic in san francisco on drug issues, which is also an issue. i was an e.m.t., and i consider it bad at that time. the question is now do we have enough police on the streets to

take care of the issues of the people who are out on the streets going to work? we have to look at this on a much different way than just cutting the funding of the police department. i do believe we need a lot more help on mental health and addiction. this is the main issue because the city is having a tough time, and this is not [inaudible] people are dying. i mean, people tell us every day, and [inaudible] and people are dying. it's unbelievable. san francisco has [inaudible] and at this time, you know, like i said before -- >> thank you. >> thank you. >> for the next question, we'll start with john. how will you advocate for the current and future educational

needs of children living in district 11? >> thank you. i'm really proud to have come out of coleman advocates for children and youth, an organization that's based in district 11 that is on the forefront of looking at education for children, youth, in san francisco. i was a community organizer with coleman advocates, and as supervisor in 2014, i had the first draft of the children's fund that expanded money for children, youth, and family services, early childhood education services, as well as transitional age youth as well as expand the ed fund for our schools. we also have a ballot measure that's vitally important that we pass for our teachers.

it's a tax -- i can't remember the number or the letter of it now, and we need to pass our schools and community first initiative, prop 15, on the california ballot, that will bring greater resources for education programs. it was night and day, the difference between 1978 and 1979, when prop 13 passed. now we can fix that. i look forward to working with community and labor to make sure that we are supporting households who are in our public schools. i also want to set up our hubs in our neighborhood schools so that our hubs can be places where families can access social workers, nutrition, and other services they need to continue to stay in their homes and continue to have good education experiences. >> thank you. marcelo? >> thank you. so [inaudible] how much i

fought the school district of school for [inaudible] for my kids and also equal needs for every student. we have a crisis in [inaudible] and san francisco does not have the resources that they deserve. and before the pandemic, and [inaudible] my idea was to get permission to dump funding into the school district -- the san francisco school district, to pool the resources on our kids because they're going to stay local, they're going to retire local after they come back from college. just dump as much as we can on our kids in districtthe school district. thank you. >> thank you. ahsha? >> thank you. one of the things that's often

left out of the conversation when we're talking about children and educational needs, are children from 0 to 5. it's one of the things that i've learned from president norman yee. he's been a lifelong advocate of children in preschools. actually, my headquarters for my campaign is in the largest nonprofit child care provider in the entire he city. very proud to have worked to ensure that they could buy their building and stabilize that. almost every project that we've worked on in this district, we've made sure there will be accessible, affordable child care. we don't have direct involvement in the schools. it's usually through the afterschool and summer programs. we were very fortunate the first two years i was in office, we were able to use the educational enrichment fund, eraf, first year, $45 million,

and after that, additional dollars into supporting our teachers and paras and educators in the school system. right now, i'm one of the sponsors of and supporters of prop j, which will open up, in year 1, 50 $50 to $60 million our school system. i'm a parent of two public school kids and have the most public school kids on the board of supervisors, so we have to continue to support that. >> thank you. for the next question, we'll start with john. how will you ensure that residents of district 11 have access to services and resources that will help them meet their basic needs as they struggle with the challenges of the covid-19 pandemic? >> thank you. well, for ensuring that our residents have access to the services that we need, it's really about the budget, the

city budget and making sure that the city budget works for working people. one of the biggest issues that i've spent most of my time working on was the city budget when i was in office, and before that, i was an advocate on the city budget, making sure we were providing more resources for seniors and children, youth, and families in particular. in 2009 and 2010, i got to chair the budget committee, overcoming two $500 million budget deficits each year. so i know a little bit how to move money around and to protect services, and we need to have this type of experience, especially now that chair fewer is leaving the board of supervisors to actually craft our budget, so we are preserving the best of san francisco, our working people, to make sure that we can provide these fs iseservic.

i've moved movie into -- money into different programs. thank you. >> thank you. marcelo. >> so this is a case where we have to start auditing where the money is going because in a 12 billion budget, there's a lot of money that's being wasted, and we need to figure out where that money is going and put it in our communities that need it the most. this is the part, also [inaudible] have asked, the main issue, the lack of resources for decades into the

poor communities. and we have to start noticing these communities and dumping it into those communities that really need, it desperately need it with the main issue of covid trying to come back from this [inaudible] thank you. >> thank you. ahsha? >> so during this crisis, this was -- this was not about theory anymore, this was about action. and we had to go with basically over the last eight months, my entire job has been about leading do you remember this crisis and ensuring that district 11 and the entire city had the resources, support, and safety net that we need. we've opened up and help to support three meal distribution sites in district 11. we've distributed over 10,000 masks to individuals and 25,000

gloves and gallons of disinfectants supporting our small businesses. we worked with the board and the mayor to ensure that there was at least $10 million for undocumented families who have been completely left out of the recovery funds that have been created. we've fought for, advocated, and ensured that all workers in the city, all city workers would have access to 80 hours of sick leave, 80 hours of potential inquiry sick leave, and ensuring sick leave for businesses with 100 employees or more. we're working aggressively to open up the economy safely to make sure that people can go back to work. we also worked with our child care providers to create a $100

million fund so they would have access grants to continue providing early childhood care. >> thank you. we'll start with marcelo. what is your plan to revitalize district 11. >> it comes down to [inaudible] somebody who's coming down to city hall to open a small business [inaudible] but if you don't help them open, those small businesses [inaudible] we have to help them stay open for

as long as they want. >> thank you. ahsha? >> thank you. when i first was elected, we initiated the excelsior outer mission district, and one of the goals was to create a business corridor. i was presented with a plan by individuals that talked about trying to rezone the entire randolph corridor. i was against that plan. it was not community driven, and it was really about creating investment opportunities that would have essentially led to gentrification and displacement. so we need to ensure that whatever plans we put in order will be community driven and

ensure that we're protecting existing businesses but also attracting new businesses that will complement. i'm very proud to say over the last four years that i've been in office, we've gotten dozens of businesses to open up along the corridor. there's still a very high number of vacancies along broad-randolph, as well as mission and geneva. but we're continuing -- every day, one of the first things i did in the planning process was change the law to allow arrested programming, and -- art programming, and that allowed a few businesses to get in there, and we're going to continue to do that. >> thank you. john? >> one of the biggest questions we're facing is how do we revitalize our business corridor? we have the huge issue of amazon creating a zombie of our

commercial corridors and our businesses around the world. one of the things that i want to do is looking at passing prop b. the votership process prop b so we can have a process of making sure our corridors are clean, and we're picking up garbage. i want to look at our empty spaces and use them effectively, doing mutual aid work, but also shared space that a lot of our immigrant businesses can operate in. our city nickels and dimes our small businesses, and i want to waive that when we are in this economic crisis. i also want to make sure that we create a grant program that supports businesses not just on mission and geneva, but also on broad and randolph streets. we want to make sure that we're

building from the grassroots up and making sure that our metrics are being defined by the residents and not by the city. the city has a one-size-fits-all to support our businesses, and what works on divisadero doesn't work for us. >> thank you. and now we'll be going to the final question, and we'll start with ahsha. proposition 15 is the california state ballot measure that would change the method for assessing property taxes on commercial properties with the goal of creating additional funding for schools and local communities. if this proposition passes, and additional community funding becomes available, how would you propose that san francisco use the increased revenue?

>> thank you. well, as a proud supporter of the san francisco labor council, i fully support prop 15 to change the split role tax. this will infuse millions of dollars into our schools and community. i think the first priority has to be the educational system, public education system. we would go to a process of working hand in hand with our school boards and community organizations. i also think there would have to be a conversation from our human rights commission, director sheryl davis, and looking at things through an equity lens. i think that's one of the things that i've been proud of during my time on the board of supervisors, as well, is ensuring that the office of racial equity is looking at things through that lens. one of the saddest things of covid right now has been

expanding and enhancing the learning experiences for brala and brown communities. those schools that are underperforming, those schools that need the additional resources, and our educators would have the financial support that they need. >> thank you. john? >> yes, really important question. we're hoping that prop 15 passes, so vote for prop 15 all across the state of california. i'm proud to say that i'm endorsed by the united educators of san francisco who are teaching our students, they

are our teachers and paras in san francisco. i agree, we need to be putting our greatest investments in our public education system and city college. city college will be a lynch pin for making sure that people are prepared for the recovery and we're building toward a sustainable future. how we're building industries with qualified trained workers who can help rebuild san francisco, our housing, our transit, to make sure that everything is working well. this is the housing of the future, and prop 15 can provide vital funding for that, as well. we also need to make sure that our department of public health has resources to protect people during the pandemic, and making sure that p.p.e. can be distributed well throughout our neighborhoods so that we can be

protected against the spread, as well. those are areas that i would want to make sure that are funded with revenue from prop 15. >> thank you. marcelo? >> first of all, i think it needs to be used to support education during the pandemic, but people who love their jobs, they are about to go off unemployment and if we don't support those people [inaudible] in particular, they will be homeless. they will create a much wider [inaudible] we need to dump funding into people that need it the most.

[inaudible] for the workers that are behind the desks, checking out who needs the help. it's a monumental task. we need to work together, we need to work with common sense, and we need to work hard to be able to approach this main issue. the money [inaudible] the money isn't there, so we need to use it wisely. thank you. >> thank you. now we come to the candidates' closing statements. we will do the closing statements in reverse alphabetical order, and remember that you have 90 seconds. the order will be marce marcelo colusi, john avalos, and ahsha safai.

marcelo? >> thank you. [inaudible] almovote your hear vote who you believe in. [inaudible] but i am trying to change things for the better. [inaudible] if we don't do that, we're going to see the situation worse than what we have created today [inaudible] thank you very much for the opportunity. >> thank you. >> thank you for -- >> john? >> -- for this evening. it's been really great to share my experience and aspirations for elected office. you know, when i ran for reelection in 2012, i didn't

have an opponent, and i really missed the opportunity to reconnect with people in my district, and i'm doing that now, and it's the most incredible experience in my life, most humbling experience i've ever had. i want to be a supervisor who can work with everyone, regardless of people's political point of view. i want to be a supervisor who can actually share the city's resources and the pulpit that we have together so that city hall can look after us and take care of our needs. i want to say i have the number one endorsement of the democratic party. i also have the sole endorsement of the district 11 democratic club. i'm supported by the nurses union number 1, health care

workers number 1 and educators in our city college, and s.f. unified school district. these are voices that i want to -- organizations that i want to bring together to make sure that we have voices speaking that can represent us. i've served this district before, and i can do it again with your support. >> thank you. ahsha? >> thank you. as the current supervisor of district 11, this has been a wonderful four years. i'm very proud to say that we have made progress. when i ran office, i heard over and over again that people were tired of being treated like the forgeten peop forgotten people of san francisco. we've build homes, built a brand-new pool. we're building a brand-new

housing. we're peop we've planted over 2,000 trees. no other part of san francisco comes close to that, and we're doing it on a daily basis. we've worked in collaboration with first mayor lee, and now mayor breed, and they have made district 11 a priority, and i feel it, and i hear it on a daily basis. when i first ran for office, i knocked on 7,000 doors. i'm not able to do that because of the pandemic, but i've spoken to many people over the past few months. i'm the sole endorsed candidate of san francisco labor council. i have speaker pelosi's sole support. i have congress woman dianne feinstein, along with the san francisco building trades, and i'm going to continue to fight for working people in the next

four years if i' have i am -- f i'm reelected. thank you. >> thank you. on behalf of the league of women voters of san francisco, our thanks to our candidates for participating. and thanks for taking the time to inform yourself of the choices you need to make by november 3. please remember to register to vote if you aren't already registered and urge others to registered. if you've changed your name or you've moved, you need to register again at your new address. and if you'll be voting by mail this year, please be sure that your ballot will be counted by ensuring that your ballot is dropped off at your polling place before november 3. good evening. shop and dine in the 49

promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus. it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine, past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a

great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a. it has its own businesses and personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but

to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's very important that you do so.

. >> president yee: of the 26 neighborhoods we have in west portal, it's probably the most unique in terms of a small little town. you can walk around here, and it feels different from the rest of san francisco. people know each other. they shop here, they drink wine here. what makes it different is not only the people that live here, but the businesses, and without all these establishments, you wouldn't know one neighborhood from the other. el toreador is a unique restaurant. it's my favorite restaurant in san francisco, but when you look around, there's nowhere else that you'll see decorations like this, and it makes you feel like you're in a different world, which is very symbolic of west portal itself. >> well, the restaurant has

been here since 1957, so we're going on 63 years in the neighborhood. my family came into it in 1987, with me coming in in 1988. >> my husband was a designer, and he knew a lot about art, and he loved color, so that's what inspired him to do the decorati decorations. the few times we went to mexico, we tried to get as many things as we can, and we'd bring it in. even though we don't have no space, we try to make more space for everything else. >> president yee: juan of the reasons we came up with the legacy business concept, man eel businesses were closing down for a variety of reasons. it was a reaction to trying to keep our older businesses

continuing in the city, and i think we've had some success, and i think this restaurant itself is probably proof that it works. >> having the legacy business experience has helped us a lot, too because it makes it good for us because we have been in business so long and stayed here so long. >> we get to know people by name, and they bring their children, so we get to know them, also. it's a great experience to get to know them. supervisor yee comes to eat at the restaurant, so he's a wonderful customer, and he's very loyal to us. >> president yee: my favorite dish is the chile rellenos. i almost never from the same

things. my owner's son comes out, you want the same thing again? >> well, we are known for our mole, and we do three different types of mole. in the beginning, i wasn't too familiar with the whole legacy program, but san francisco, being committed to preserve a lot of the old-time businesses, it's important to preserve a lot of the old time flavor of these neighborhoods, and in that capacity, it was great to be recognized by the city and county of san francisco. >> i've been here 40 years, and i hope it will be another 40 yeararararararararararararararr