>> hi, you're watching coping with covid-19.

today my guest, director of the san francisco international airport and he's here today to talk to us about how sfo has been weathering the pandemic, the safety measures put in place a touch on the future of airline travel. welcome to the show. >> thank you chris, great to be here. >> i know airlines and airports have been particularly hard hit during the crisis. how has sfo managed and what have you put in place to protect passengers and employees? >> it's hard to believe we have been at this now for 9, 10 months. it is incredible to think about the kind of devastate to our industry. but we have managed through it i think really well and early on, it was clear that we needed to be a primary source for information for people arriving into san francisco. and so we really took that on and put together a really robust

program of media as well as announcements in our facilities and we're focusing on informing the public what to expect when they fly through sfo. and our priority is always the safety and security of our passengers and our employees and this certainly challenged us in a way we never could have imagined. but for starters, it was about physical distancing and we were fortunate to have very spacious facilities. we invested in our terminals over the past 25 years and allowed for an environment to create space and allow for the physical distancing and face mask wearing. really those three priorities when you talk about also having hand sanitizers, but we were the first airport to enforce face mask wearing and it started with employees and expanded it to the traveling public.

and we developed and implemented our own hand sanitizing stations and really focused on a helpful safe experience in our terminals and one that builds confidence in the public. there's a lot of interest in what we have done. we have been involved as a national and global level, really it was about that protecting of our passengers and our employees and being flexible and able to respond as conditions changed. >> i would imagine that includes signage as well. >> yes, signage and announcements. so we have put together our own sfo program of signage about mask compliance and physical distancing and the way things to do about washing hands and using hand sanitizer and all those

things were important to our messaging and our public address system, we have been messaging since the beginning about the importance of safety of all of these measures. >> that's great. is there an effort among airports to pull information and come up with guidelines for air travel and how is sfo involved? >> yes, and i feel the pandemic has brought us all together more as an industry. we're involved in a couple of layers of the industry, at a global scale with eight other global airports and sharing best practices with them and we're involved in many of the work groups around covid preparedness and response with other large u.s. airports. this really is an industry changing moment and sfo wants to be in the role of defining what the future looks like and

passengers want a consistent experience and they have a right to expect the consistent experience because we have to all be using similar protocols so there's preparedness and expectation of what is going to be the requirement at both ends over travel. so we have been working on something called an air information hub that could be the source of information for travellers to go to to find out what is happening, updated by the airports and the airline, so there's the understanding of what's required as they travel. >> this is typically the busiest time of the year for traveling. how was thanksgiving and what do you expect for the rest of the holiday season? >> thanks giving was unlike any other we have seen. and you know, with the health orders and travel advisories and things going into effect, we

again saw a primary role of being the point of information. i believe we had more traffic than we have had throughout the crisis, our busiest day we had 20,000 outbound passengers which would have been 80,000, but more than we've had since the crisis began. so we see this continuing trend of low traffic volumes through the holiday period and it will continue to depress travel as more orders happen. we see more of the same happening. and likely there will be further cancellatio cancellations. >> right, in the future what changes will we see for air travel? can you talk about international travel and recent speculation about vaccine visas? >> you know, it is all evolving and interesting about what the

future of air travel looks like. we want to be on the front-end of defining what that is. as i talked about early on, it's about restoring passenger confidence and that should be the priority of our entire industry to get people comfortable with flying again. and so what does that new normal look like and the first thing is, expectation when you come to an airport you have a safe experience. and we did a survey of our passengers and sfo is rated a 4.3 out of five based on the preparations we have in place for physical distancing and messaging and the mask wearing compliance and all of those things, so that is just the first priority is the safety of the facility. and then, you know, testing is i think part of our future. and our testing has been very

well received and it is compelling the success and again building confidence by having tested flights for people before entering the destinations, that they have to get a test to avoid quarantine. on-site testing has been very effective, particularly in the hawaii flights we worked with united on. we see that because the planes are 70% full instead of 40% full because of the testing element. and i think that's a framework that is going to be important for the foreseeable future, test at airports but ultimately, covid-free flights through testing protocols that are applied at both ends of travel and when you talk about vaccinations and credentials, i think that's the next revolution of this. you will be required to show your health credentials and

verify that you have been vaccinated and if you haven't been vaccinated, as we go through this transition, that testing is available and there's confirmation that people are covid-free. i think that's all part of the future of what travel looks like, at least in the next several years i imagine. but also it's about preparedness for the long-term, too, and this pandemic is likely not the only pandemic we'll see. i think there's this preparedness and technology preparedness to help us in the future. >> finally, could you explain the air concept to us? >> we have been working on this with a group of global airports, it's testing protocols at both ends of a journey so there's a certainty that there's not a spread of the virus by arriving

passengers. so if we could develop policies and protocols that provide for this and airline partners that we work with that help enforce this and obviously governmental support for these things, then i think it will help mitigate the spread and have that assurance that flying is not contributing to local spread of the virus, so it requires the testing at both ends. there was a trial with london and new york and we are working on trials as well. with our testing on site, there's a lot of interest. we have been getting a lot of calls from, well, airports that are trying to catch up with testing at their facilities but a lot of airlines interested in leveraging our testing for different destinations. we are doing testing -- some level of testing and worked with

united on these branded covid-free flights. >> that's great. thank you so much. i really appreciate the time you have given us today. thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you chris. glad to be here and talk about what is going on at sfo with what we're all living through. thank you so much. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more pandemic-related information shortly. you have been watching coping with covid-19. thank you for watching. ♪ streets.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> i wanted to wish you a best wishes and congratulations the community has shifted a lot of when i was growing up in the 60s and 50's a good portion of chicano-american chinese-american lived in north beach a nob hill community. >> as part the immigrant family is some of the recreation centers are making people have the ability to get together and meet 0 other people if communities in the 60s a 70s and 80s and 90s saw a move to the richmond the sunset district and more

recently out to the excelsior the avenue community as well as the ensuring u bayview so chinese family living all over the city and when he grape it was in this area. >> we're united. >> and growing up in the area that was a big part of the my leave you know playing basketball and mycy took band lessons and grew up. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> allergies welcome to the

community fair it kicks off three weeks of celebrations for the year and let's keep everybody safe and celebrate the biggest parade outside of china on february 11th go best wishes and congratulations and 3, 2, 1 happy enough is enough. >> i grew up volley ball education and in media professional contrary as an educator he work with all skids whether or not caucasian hispanic and i african-american cumber a lot of arrest binge kids my philosophy to work with all kids but being here and griping in the chinese

community being a chinese-american is important going to american school during the day but went to chinese school that is community is important working with all the kids and having them exposed to all culture it is important to me. >> it is a mask evening. >> i'd like to thank you a you all to celebrate an installation of the days here in the asian art museum. >> one time has become so many things in the past two centuries because of the different did i licks the immigration officer didn't understand it became no standard chinese marine or cantonese sproupgs it became so many different sounds this is convenient for the

immigration officer this okay your family name so this tells the generations of immigrants where they come from and also many stories behind it too. >> and what a better way to celebrate the enough is enough nuru with the light nothing is more important at an the hope the energy we. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> relative to the current administration it is, it is touching very worrisome for our immigrant frames you know and some of the stability in the country and i know how this new

president is doing you know immigration as well as immigrants (fireworks) later than you think new year the largest holiday no asia and china those of us when my grandparents came over in the 19 hundreds and celebrated in the united states chinese nuru is traditional with a lot of meani meaning. >> good afternoon my name is carmen chu assessor-recorder i want to wish everything a happy new year thank you for joining us i want to say.

>> (speaking foreign language.) >> (speaking foreign language.) >> i'm proud to be a native san franciscan i grew up in the chinatown, north beach community port commission important to come back and work with those that live in the community that i grew up in and that that very, very important to give back to continue to work with the community and hope e help those who may not be as capable in under serving come back and giv

parks and places of communicated and thanks to the mayor and the department of technology and supervisor farrell and google. we had a very very unique partnership that was able to bring wifi to our most heavily used parks and squares. >> parks in particular are really important way of life and quality of life and so is connectivity. bringing those two things together in a project like this is right on target with what san francisco is and wants to be. >> it's all about breaking apart the divide. the people with expensive data plan can have access to information and economy. this is really breaking down the digital divide and giving people across the spectrum the

opportunity to information and giving them mobility and freedom. >> particularly by investing in connectivity in park spaces we are also ensuring the connection to digital inclusion opportunities and parks are designed for all neighborhoods. >> people are on the move. they are no longer chained to their desk tops at home. people can accomplish a lot and we prefer them being here an enjoying the outdoors and nature. given all the mobile community and mobile information that's available. we thought it was important to make it for our parks acceptable for everyone and give everyone the opportunity to live and to work and be at the parks at the same time. >> our full mission in life is to give them access to the internet, give them access to information. in san

francisco you don't have to be bottled up in an office. you can be around and enjoy your work anywhere. it's great for the local community here and it means a lot to me. >> in the park, you are people that can teach you about the trees in the park and you can go to parks and recreation .org and having wifi in our parks makes it more accessible. if you want more information about how to enjoy wifi in san francisco parks, go to 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. >> it did take a village. i was really lucky when i was 14 years old to get an internship. the difference that it made for me is i had a job, but there were other people who didn't have a job, who, unfortunately, needed money. and they were shown to commit illegal acts to get money. that is what i want to prevent. [♪] today we are here to officially

kick off the first class of opportunities for all. [applause]. >> opportunities for all is a program that mayor breed launched in october of 2018. it really was a vision of mayor breed to get to all of the young people in san francisco, but with an intention to focus on young people that have typically not being able to access opportunities such as internships or work-based learning opportunities. >> money should never be a barrier to your ability to succeed in life and that is what this program is about. >> there's always these conversations about young people not being prepared and not having experience for work and if they don't get an opportunity to work, then they cannot gain the experience that they need. this is really about investing in the future talent pool and getting them the experience that they need. >> it is good for everyone because down the road we will need future mechanics, future pilots, future bankers, future whatever they may be in any

industry. this is the pipe on we need to work with. we need to start developing talent, getting people excited about careers, opening up those pathways and frankly giving opportunities out there that would normally not be presented. [♪] >> the way that it is organized is there are different points of entry and different ways of engagement for the young person and potential employers. young people can work in cohorts or in groups and that's really for people that have maybe never had job experience or who are still trying to figure out what they want to do and they can explore. and in the same way, it is open for employers to say, you know what, i don't think we are ready to host an intern year-round are all summer, but that they can open up their doors and do site visits or tours or panels or conversations. and then it runs all the way up to the opportunity for young people to have long-term employment, and work on a project and be part of the

employee base. >> something new, to get new experience and meet people and then you are getting paid for it you are getting paid for doing that. it is really cool. >> i starting next week, i will be a freshman. [cheers and applause] two of the things i appreciate about this program was the amazing mentorship in the job experience that i had. i am grateful for this opportunity. thank you. >> something i learned at airbnb is how to network and how important it is to network because it is not only what you know, but also who you know to get far in life. >> during this program, i learned basic coding languages, had a had to identify the main components and how to network on a corporate level. it is also helping me accumulate my skills all be going towards my college tuition where i will pursue a major in computer science. >> for myself, being that i am

an actual residential realtor, it was great. if anybody wants to buy a house, let me know. whenever. [applause] it is good. i got you. it was really cool to see the commercial side and think about the process of developing property and different things that i can explore. opportunities for all was a great opportunity for all. >> we were aiming to have 1,000 young people register and we had over 2,000 people register and we were able to place about between 50 and did. we are still getting the final numbers of that. >> over several weeks, we were able to have students participate in investment banking they were able to work with our team, or technology team, our engineering 20 we also gave them lessons around the industry, around financial literacy. >> there are 32,000 young people ages 16 and 24 living in san francisco.

and imagine if we can create an opera skin it just opportunity for all program for every young person that lives in public housing, affordable housing, low income communities. it is all up to you to make that happen. >> we have had really great response from employers and they have been talking about it with other employers, so we have had a lot of interest for next year to have people sign on. we are starting to figure out how to stay connected to those young people and to get prepared to make sure we can get all 2400 or so that registered. we want to give them placement and what it looks like if they get more. >> let's be honest, there is always a shortage of good talent in any industry, and so this is a real great career path. >> for potential sponsors who might be interested in supporting opportunities for all , there is an opportunity to make a difference in our city. this is a really thriving, booming economy, but not for everyone. this is a way to make sure that

everyone gets to benefit from the great place that san francisco is and that we are building pathways for folks to be able to stay here and that they feel like they will belong. >> just do it. sign up for it. [♪] [

>> my name is holly i'm been in enterprise software training for 10 years that expired film and art and voice-over week work and all kinds of work. >> i'm jane a program director for the state of california i have the privilege of working on special technology projects for the depth of the technology a passion for helping people and a passion for doing work that makes a difference and makes me feel good at night and i think about what i did today and helping every single person in the city as. >> a technology professional a

need for more women and more women in leadership roles the diversity and the leadership pipeline is an area that needs a little bit of love. >> a lot of love. >> a whole lost love. >> i'll contribute for the change for women's equality by showing up and demonstrating that the face of success schizophrenia came come in a variety of corresponds. >> they're a lot of roadblocks for san francisco when it comes to our proposition and finding a play for information that has how to start and grow management so we started to build the san francisco business portal not just consults or the taxpayers and voters they're actually customers we are the government

serving the consumers in our neighborhood i point to at least one best that i personally touched with one way or another and makes me feel good about the projects like the business portal and in embarking on this new exciting journey of finding better and efficient ways to deliver services to san franciscans i sit through a lot of senior management meetings i'm the only woman in the room i know that our c i o is tried to recruit for women and a male dominated environment. >> i've felt unbounded and inspired to pursue a lot of things over time i recognize to be cricked in ways i didn't

anticipate you know i've followed the calling but now put me in a position to spend most of my time doing things i love this is the whole point; right? you ought to feel inspired in our work and found opportunities to have you're work put you in service for others and happy doing what you're spending so much time. >> my father was a journalist lift and my mom a teacher when we finally decided to give up their lives because of me and now i actually get to serve the city and county of san francisco it makes me feel really, really good not this didn't happen overnight i've worked my entire life to get to this point and much more to learn and i have a

lot of changes ahead. >> really think about what moves you what you're pat's about and trust that you are sufficient and enough where you are to begin and then is her that you are being tenacious about getting to the next place in the evolution but by all means start with you are and know that's enough

>> feel like it really is a community. they are not the same thing, but it really does feel like there's that kind of a five. everybody is there to enjoy a literary reading. >> the best lit in san francisco. friendly, free, and you might get fed. ♪

[applause] >> this san francisco ryther created the radar reading series in 2003. she was inspired when she first moved to this city in the early 1990's and discover the wild west atmosphere of open mi it's ic in the mission. >> although there were these open mics every night of the week, they were super macho. people writing poems about being jerks. beatty their chest onstage. >> she was energized by the scene and proved up with other girls who wanted their voices to be heard. touring the country and sharing gen-x 7 as a.

her mainstream reputation grew with her novel. theses san francisco public library took notice and asked her if she would begin carrying a monthly reading series based on her community. >> a lot of the raiders that i work with our like underground writers. they're just coming at publishing and at being a writer from this underground way. coming in to the library is awesome. very good for the library to show this writing community that they are welcome. at first, people were like, you want me to read at the library, really? things like that. >> as a documentary, there are interviews -- [inaudible] >> radar readings are focused on

clear culture. strayed all others might write about gay authors. gay authors might write about universal experiences. the host creates a welcoming environment for everybody. there is no cultural barrier to entry. >> the demographic of people who come will match the demographic of the reader. it is very simple. if we want more people of color, you book more people of color. you want more women, your book more women. kind of like that. it gets mixed up a little bit. in general, we kind of have a core group of people who come every month. their ages and very. we definitely have some folks who are straight. >> the loyal audience has allowed michelle to take more chances with the monthly lineup.

established authors bring in an older audience. younker authors bring in their friends from the community who might be bringing in an older author. >> raider has provided a stage for more than 400 writers. it ranges from fiction to academics stories to academic stories this service the underground of queer fell, history, or culture. >> and there are so many different literary circles in san francisco. i have been programming this reading series for nine years. and i still have a huge list on my computer of people i need to carry into this. >> the supportive audience has allowed michele to try new experiment this year, the radar book club. a deep explorationer of a single work.

after the talk, she bounces on stage to jump-start the q&a. less charlie rose and more carson daly. >> san francisco is consistently ranked as one of the most literate cities in the united states. multiple reading events are happening every night of the year, competing against a big names like city arts and lectures. radar was voted the winner of these san francisco contest. after two decades of working for free, michelle is able to make radar her full-time job. >> i am a right to myself, but i feel like my work in this world is eagerly to bring writers together and to produce literary events. if i was only doing my own work, i would not be happy.

it is, like throwing a party or a dinner party. i can match that person with that person. it is really fun for me. it is nerve wracking during the actual readings. i hope everyone is good. i hope the audience likes them. i hope everybody shows up. but everything works out. at the end of the reading, everyone is happy. ♪

>> clerk: (roll call) >> president bernal: we'll take some of the agenda items out of order. we'll be approving the minutes towards the end of