>> director hinze: i did enjoy the exercise but i wanted to state publicly that it was in sort of a bubble. we're all sort of human. so that was that, but i did enjoy it in terms of getting a sense of what it was like to sort of being on the hot seat and make those tradeoffs. i tend to agree with director brinkman and i'll be really quick on the values. my top value will still be anything that generates revenue for this agency at this time. when i think that it rises to the top if i'm being honest. and also easy wins.

and then really when i was doing this i was trying to remember that we were asked to really think about -- asked to what we think about funding within the next 18 months to two years. and not just the economic recovery but the recovery us as a city and the role that the sfmta could play in that recovery. while also thinking about safety, so things like vision zero and people wanting to be outside again and not fearing for their lives. and i agree that we should serve

the people who need us most. so thinking that everything that we do from equity and accessibility lens. and with regard to the budget and using reserves or taking a conservative approach, i do think that at the current time -- we talked earlier about certain scenarios based on federal relief, so in the near-term, i do think that we should wait and look at those scenarios and see what plays out at the federal level. but then i do agree with director lai that up to 2022 when we consider some of the rev revenue generating measures that

could be in our control, if these ballot measures were considered, then i think that in order to make the pitch to the voters, that we need to look at how we may distribute this better. and we need to -- to look at the image as it relates to p.r. and public engagement. so that's something to keep in the back of our minds. so whatever that takes before 2022 would be also i think something to consider. then on -- i agree with director

eaken that i wish that it were four hours earlier. and i think that an efficient way to handle the specific questions that you asked of director tumlin, is something like what director heminger has suggested where we do some sort of poll and then -- yeah. >> chair borden: great. thank you so much, director hinze. i would say pretty much everything that has been said is exactly how i feel. i think that one thing to point out going back to the whole notion of values, we made -- the issue that i had with the value definition and going forward that we need to think about that and how we deal with that in the public. we had vision zero at the top but the red light cameras at the bottom. so but we said vision zero is number one but in our ranking we made the red light camera and the right turns at the bottom. so this is the issue that i had with the model that we looked at and what we have to think about going forward if we are -- if that's really how we decide that

we're going to make our decisions. to make sure that there's alinement. and so the exercise of looking at the projects individually will give us guidelines. and then we have to figure out from staff, like, how when we are making decisions, like, how we -- how we put that in there and the language, to show priorities and these project does need priorities or whatever it is. but the biggest thing that i think that other than our input is really i do want us to engage the public around these values and how we say these values and what they are. because it would would be terrible if we adopted a set of values that the general public wasn't directly opposed to. because going back to what director lai said at the end of the day we need the public to have faith in this agency and to vote on large measures for us. so that's why quick wins are personality and advancing on bold moves that make a difference. if there's not an agreement on values with the larger public

and with the employees who have to implement and to make these things happen, then we'll be in trouble. so i hope that you guys, the staff, can spend some time really kind of drilling down with, you know, going out to our officers and our operators and all of the people that are involved in living these decisions, to see also how they feel, because i think that part of the issue that we have had in delivering projects is the morale and the people talking to each other internal to the agency. i tang part of the success really is, i mean, all of the success really is a buy-in, of course, of the staff and the team internally and then also the support of the public and seeing that we're making strides. even if we fail at times if we're all in alignment there's permission to go forward. so director lai had one more question and then opening up to public comment. >> director lai: i have a quick request. so director tumlin, one of the feetires that i really like body the model that you provided is that under the priority funding

section you provided a place for notations. when you come back with a version that is more similar to director heminger's suggestion, if you can still keep that that would be really be helpful for me. you're basically trying to get us to provide some pretty simple disstilled feed back for you inanced and complex issues and i would appreciate the opportunity to qualify our responses. thanks. >> chair borden: thank you. so with that we will open it up to public comments. moderators, are there callers on the line? >> you have one question remaining. >> chair borden: speaker, please get started. >> caller: yes, this is sterling hayward. yes, can you hear me? >> chair borden: we can.

>> caller: okay. this is sterling hayward, parking control officer. 1021. so a few things that you guys brought up, you know, as far as all of these projects go -- actually talking about the -- i guess the thing that you guys did as far as that -- i didn't even look at it. and the reason that i didn't look at it is because if you have hundred dollars to your name and you live if a house you're not thinking of remodeling and you're making sure that people are taken care of. and all of these things that we're doing is pretty much useless. and the reason that i say that is because we look at things like safer market and the thing like the red carpet and none is enforced. absolutely none of it. there's no police officers that are enforcing the restrictions. it's pretty much just a waste of

money. it's money that could be used to help the -- to help the people that are on the ground. and that's what i'm going to keep on telling you guys. the connection should be you take care of the people on the ground, they're going to take care of the citizens and the citizens take care of us. it's a domino effect but we keep missing that. and i just feel that you guys got to look at the big picture. the big picture is that you've got to take care of the people that are doing the work. i'm going to just keep on emphasizing that. because we tried that before in 2008, and, you know, everybody took all of these, you know, all of these things so that we couldn't get raises and we couldn't hire people and the department suffered. and looking at what's going on, it looks like it's going to be the same thing for the years to come. so like i said i do behoove you guys to take your time again before you guys say, oh, let's put a camera here. hold on a second, let's talk to them and see what they think and

do this for the buses. let's talk to a bus driver. >> chair borden: time. >> to really interact and talk to the people. thank you. you guys be safe. >> chair borden: thank you very much for your comments. moderator, are there additional callers on the line? >> you have six questions remaining. >> chair borden: next speaker, please. >> caller: good evening, edward mason. in 1989, prop b, the precursor to the current prop k, the voter handbook was endorsed by the board of supervisors and the mayor and they cited transportation projects, several listed directly related to transportation and other programs. when you went to the fine print in the back of the voter handbook, you read that it was to replace the property tax that would have been devoted to transportation. and in there was an expenditure

plan. listing the transit related expenditures. and then there was $12 million for street tree planting. proposition e recently allocated $20 million as a set aside in the budget. d.p.w. basically drains the current prop k funds for tree plants. now is the time for discussion on muni or street trees. d.p.t. -- d.p.w. could initiate its own tax for its own project in accordance with the planning departments street trees for tomorrow. the designation of the essential taxes is a priority. >> chair borden: 30 seconds. >> caller: allocated among the citys and right now everything has been allocated for bart to san jose to the dismay of the

cities and the opportunitiy and there's a big uproar now over that expenditure plan versus what was promised the residents in santa clara county for the half percent sales tax. so clarity and transparency is utmost in any future propositions for funding requests from the taxpayers. thank you. >> chair borden: thank you, mr. mason. next speaker, please. >> you have five questions remaining. >> caller: hi, board. i'm a (indiscernible) i'm also a supervisor for the parking control officers. so i need to address a couple issues. first, they brought up the covid-19 issue and it was misled what they said yesterday. so as of january 1st, we have

had at least two employees test positive every week. currently we have several shifts that have been quarantined because of the safety issues that we keep asking. trevor and sterling cope a keepg about the safety issue and nothing seems to happen. next you guys should offer an early retirement? that could help your budget. and also the bike lane. years ago they used to charge for bikes and they used to have to register. look at something like that to register bicycles that could be a fee for you guys. and you guys are losing money on street cleaning because you're not allowing overtime. midnight shifts, we don't have enough employees that get in or they are off for covid, they don't allow people to come in and to work overtime to cover those shifts that cost you guys

money in street cleaning. you prominently make money in street cleaning. it doesn't make sense to hire more a bunch more p.c.o.s to cover the sunday streets or extended hours because it's going to cost you more to hire -- >> chair borden: 30 seconds. >> caller: that's it from me, thank you for your time. >> chair borden: thank you. next speaker, please. >> caller: hello, hayden miller. i wanted to comment. first, to say that i hope that you guys are listening to all of the employees that have called in for the past two days. i think that it's really important to hear their perspectives, especially around covid safety and other issues. that i have been talking about for a long time. and maybe hearing it from them will make you care. and the second thing just in terms of the questions that were

posed, first around, like, community service versus, like big frequent lines. i think that both have their role. but the real question is the lines that are in between. the lines like the 12, the 10, 27, 2, 3, who are not serving an area like the 36 -- that is going to really depend on the service. there's other alternatives. so i think that the key for those lines are choosing the ones that are most important. maybe you don't bring back the two and the three or maybe just one. maybe not 10 and 12, so maybe one. and other stuff in terms of risk, like i said yesterday, you only have one chance to get it right. so if the people come back to transit, or they're trying to come back after they get their vaccination and the buses are packed or their route is not running, they're going to just give up and they're not going to come back to transit. but if you're too aggressive and they're waiting at their stop for 15 minutes when the bus

should be coming every five, that's also not going to work. and they're not going to take transit. so i think that all of these questions, it's very nuanced and it's not either/or as a lot of the directors said. and on the little exercise, i think that a lot of the directors mentioned it and i tried to mess with it, it was frustrating. i didn't really enjoy it. and it was hard to use. so i think more simple survey, especially if you're going out to the public. i think that the public outreach on this is very important. >> chair borden: time. thank you so much. next speaker, please. >> you have five questions remaining. >> next speaker. your audio is compromised, speaker.

>> caller: try this, can you hear me? sorry. this is kat with the san francisco transit riders. i wanted to say thank you so much for all of the hard work that you are putting into this. and we are facing a really difficult and unknown future. where, we're, of course, very interested in championing robust funding for transit and for the national level for funding, including changing funding formulas away from highway funding and for public transit funding. we appreciate the careful process that you're going through to be careful with resources. to that end i can't emphasize enough the importance of rolling out transit lanes to provide more money for bus money and to get ahead of that curve. we hope to work with you on these and other challenging political discussions, and to champion world-class transportation for all san trannians on equity and reliability and sustainability.

thank you for your efforts. >> chair borden: thank you, miss carter. next speaker, please. >> you have four questions remaining. >> chair borden: next speaker. >> caller: hello, good afternoon, sfmta board. thank you for spending this afternoon sharing your workshop with us. i am hector nchts, and i'm a union rep and a resident of san francisco out in the richmond district. so i get to participate here in san francisco in a very unique way. i commend the board for requesting and considering various budget possibilities as safeguards while we very obviously wait for the direction that's going to be coming federally and locally with a much larger discussion that's actually happening about completely revamping our transportation infrastructure in the u.s. and so forth. that is a discussion that we cannot ignore or pretend that it's not happening at a time

that we're having these discussions. so i urge the board to continue to listen to the community and the frontline essential labor that you have to make your decisions. jeff, to take direction with the board. and with that combination we can work to keep s.f. moving safety without service interruptions and without the talk of layoffs and some of this nonsense that has come up in the minutes. and a much larger discussion that we're having -- we're starting to have federally that is not so much a matter of if, anymore, but when and how. thank you. i'm done, thank you. >> chair borden: thank you so much. next speaker, please. >> you have three questions remaining.

>> chair borden: next speaker. >> caller: thank you, chair. i'm going to backtrack a bit to the beginning of this section, i found the presentation to be most informative. i have been going to t.a. meetings over the past few years, both in person and then online. and i think that certainly we have to push for re-authorization, but i realize that our transit tax is only one half percent. i thought that it was a full percent. chicago i think has a whole percent. and seattle is 1.4%. so i think that we have to have a more intense review of how this community and city of san francisco funds transportation

which will call for a higher tax. i wouldn't call san francisco a conservative place, last i checked san francisco showed up blue on the election map. if you want to see a conservative just look for the red that you find on a man of the united states. -- map of the united states. so i would like to say that san francisco is a city on the bluer side of the spectrum would be supportive of a transit tax of 1% to 1.5%. >> chair borden: 30 seconds. >> caller: they haven't had any trouble in chicago and seattle. so structurally, i think that what it's going to take is to invest, not tax and spend. but to tax and invest and to build infrastructure that will last us the next hundred years. thank you. >> chair borden: thank you, mr. bree. next speaker, please.

>> you have two questions remaining. next speaker. >> caller: this is nicole. i wanted to weigh in on this exercise because honestly if this agency truly believed in -- are you guys getting feedback? >> chair borden: we are. >> caller: so if this agency believes in equity and then community and resiliency are top priorities. they're not the only priorities but they are the top priorities. and trying to force this board to make a decision between them is really a non-starter. it doesn't make sense. it's destructive. it is not moving us forward.

we need to find a way to generate new revenue which many of the employees who have called in today have given you those ideas. and we also need to have a way to build up the community. many of the unions in this city have been very, very vocal with him about the ideas for increasing revenue because we are frontline workers and we are on the street with this city, with the customers, with the public. and we can tell you what does and doesn't work. all you have to do is ask us. we have not had any substantial conversations regarding revenue, except the doom and gloom presentation that jonathan rewers gave earlier. please listen to us. we're not on this call because we have nothing better to do. we are on this call because we know from our checkbook to our children's school to our gas tank to our work site, we know

what is at risk. you have a resource. utilize it. please, for the last time, utilize the workforce that you have. thank you. >> chair borden: thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> caller: hi, this is barry toronto again. i want to say that i commend all of you for sticking it out these two days. it used to be a one-day affair. i believe that the m.t.a. even bought you a lunch to go along with it. unfortunately, you're going to have to make your own meals or provide your own water during these meetings. at least they broke it up into two days so you had time to go have dinner, rather than to miss out on it or to eat with your

family. so i wanted to point out they think that excluding community engagement is a huge mistake. or balancing out the issue of safety or expediency over community engagement is -- it should go hand-in-hand. for example, if a street wants to do r.p.p. parking or put in a speed hump, that is different than blocking an entire street, or eliminating parking completely without the feedback of the city departments or agencies that would be impacted by that, as well as the services that need to have access to the street or access to the neighborhood. so i think that -- i think that there's a huge difference there. and i hope that you would take a look at that as well. and also i'm very pleased to hear from the union representatives as well. i feel that different departments and different employees and different

employees in different departments need to be more cooperative with each other and work together because they have common interests and common goals. if you look at staffing for p.c.o.s, they could use more in the off hours. you would get more compliance and more income from violators if you responded more quickly to customer complaints in the off-hours. >> time. >> so i urge you to look at those issues and to speak outside of the box. it wasn't fair years ago when one former -- >> chair borden: your time is up. >> she thought that market street should be without cars. thank you. >> chair borden, you're on mute, i think. >> chair borden: thank you, mr. toronto. next speaker, please. >> you have zero questions remaining. >> chair borden: with that we

will close the public comment. jeff, do you want to say a quick comment to wrap up the day in terms of next steps and what the public can expect for their participation and staff who is also called in and what the steps are for us and our process. >> thank you for your very hard work and not just the sessions here in the last few days but for the homework that you have done with playing with our spreadsheet tool. i'm not surprised that it made some of you very uncomfortable making these hard tradeoff decisions is very uncomfortable for staff who have to make the decisions. and i hope that you have found some ways of using the sample tool that we gave you to frame your future decision-making. i think that we are very happy as staff to take your feedback and to have simple crude

spreadsheet tools to understand for many of the fundamental questions that we'll face as an agency on a scale of 1-10 or 1 to 100, where do you each fall. so that we can see where there's clear alignment that can help us to understand how to best prepare analyses for you. but also where there's diversions on the board. i'm hoping to see some diversions because that is also helpful for us to understand the types of analysis that's necessary in order to frame up that divergence and to help to bring diversional sides of the board together towards consensus. so we'll prepare additional materials for our next meeting in february. in the meantime, for the public, all of these materials are available on the board budget workshop website, including the spreadsheet tool for you all to play around with. we'll upload whatever additional

tools we develop to the website as well. i would like to point out that we spent a lot of time listening to our workforce, and we have developed a massive database of all of the cost saving measures that we have heard from our workforce -- hundreds of suggestions that we have analyzed, all of them. and we have provided information back to our workforce on where to find that spreadsheet and which ones are super helpful that we have actually folded into our budgeting and which ones have unintended consequences. there are some things that seem like savings but, in fact, they end up producing more expense than actually results from those savings. some of the analysis that we have done that is necessary in order to actually evaluate what seems like a good idea isn't always a good idea. that's the lesson that i hope that you have learned in the spreadsheet exercise focused on the hard choices that we need to

make. so with that i'm happy to close. we're only half an hour late. it's 5:30, perhaps one of our earlier closing times, particularly considering the intensity of the issues that we have discussed today. so thank you for your time. >> chair borden: thank you. and this two-day workshop is adjourned and thank you staff for your hard work and preparation for this. it was a lion's share of work that people had to put together and thank you for your patience with questions and inquiries and thank you to working to make this a very meaningful and impactful two days and we look forward to, you know, rolling up our sleeves and continuing to dig in as we have many comments to do in the next few months. >> great stuff. everybody. >> hopefully back together in person for next year's workshop. >> bye, everyone, have a good evening. thank you all.

>> mayor london breed: twice before we have gathered in late january -- first at the national lgbtq center for the arts, then last year in the rotunda of city hall -- so i could share with you my view of the state of our city. as we gather virtually today, you don't really need me to tell you the state of our city. we are anxious. we're frustrated. we're impatient. and we are lonely. i know it because i feel it myself. and i know, in many cases, folks are hurting even more than that.

but if i can impart anything to you today, it is that we deserve -- we need -- to feel two more things: pride and hope. pride because we have pulled together to weather storms like we've never seen before. hope because we can see a brighter future. the fact is the state of our city is resilient, and it is resilient because of what all of us, every one of us, have accomplished this past year. i am speaking to you today from the moscone center, but my heart is really a few miles from here at laguna honda hospital. laguna honda is one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country. for 155 years, since it was founded to care for aging pioneers, laguna honda has served the neediest people of san francisco, through thick and thin. my grandmother, miss comelia

brown, spent her last 12 years in that hospital. dementia had taken her ability to speak before she arrived. but it never took her personality, not all of it, anyway. miss brown loved chewing gum. she had lost her teeth by then, but she loved chewing gum. so the nurses and staff there would bring pieces in their coat pockets and hand it to her to brighten her day. miss brown was always very particular about her hair and nails. she was a southern lady at heart, and a lady must look the part. so the staff painted her nails. they left each other careful notes to make sure her hair was done just right. she couldn't speak, but her caretakers were making sure we understood our grandma was still in there. we've all been reminded of something in the last year, something that i think i've known for a long time -- the men and women of laguna honda, the nurses, doctors, paramedics, and staff there, along with all

those taking care of people in need across the city -- they are heroes. they are the best of us. at the outset of the pandemic, we saw frightening news accounts of outbreaks in nursing homes all around the country. some called laguna honda a "ticking time bomb" -- a "powder keg." it's true, the virus could have easily swept through the laguna honda and killed dozens. hundreds. but thanks to our frontline workers, the department of public health, and everyone who did their part, covid was contained at laguna honda. and so it was with great relief, and great pride, that only a couple weeks ago we saw the staff and residents of laguna honda get their vaccinations, the very definition of the most vulnerable san franciscans, among the very first to get vaccinated. that filled my heart. that's who we are. a year ago, i declared a state of emergency.

10 months ago, with our neighbors around the bay, we implemented the first shelter-in-place order in the country. and from there we continued to make difficult decisions -- heartbreaking decisions -- all year long. today, i'm standing in moscone center, which has been the beating heart of our emergency response. it was here where city workers from so many different departments came together to do whatever it took to protect this city. when we didn't have enough testing to know where the virus was, they were here. when we didn't have enough p.p.e. to go around, they were here. when we didn't have a federal government ready or willing to lead the way, they were here. the hours were long, the days were chaotic, and any sense of an ending to all this was impossible to see. but day after day, rain or shine, our city employees came and did the work. and i want to thank each and

every one of them who has walked through these doors or been out in the community, and those who are still here working today. back in march, a neighbor in midtown terrace wrote this on nextdoor: "when you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, what you're seeing is love in action." what you are seeing is hope we care for each other, for our parents and grandparents and doctors and nurses and people that we may never meet. take a moment to look into all . take a moment to look into all of that emptiness and marvel. it is the most remarkable act o solidarity that we we have ever witnessed. san francisco's response to covid-19 has been hailed as a national model. we have the lowest death rate of any major city in the united states. and though every life lost is a tragedy, we have saved thousands of lives.

and now we can see the light a the end of the tunnel. we were able to do this not just because our city government was collaborative, flexible, and full of dedicated public servants -- though it is. we were able to do this not just because our hospitals, nursing homes, and medical professionals are some of the best in the world -- though they are. we did this because of you. we did this because of the sacrifices you made, the losses you endured, the love you showed for people you may never meet. years from now, people will look back on what we've done, and i hope they will remember not the frustration and pain we feel now, but the love we showed, the lives we saved. take pride in that, san francisco. find hope in that. each of those lives is a treasure.

each of those lives is precious, every one of them. each one is one more grandmother, grandfather, mother or father, brother or sister, son or daughter, who will be there for the next birthday. the next wedding. the next anniversary. each life saved is precious. so, yes, it has been hard. and, no, we're not out of the woods yet. but we have been fighting for something real. we have been fighting for each other. don't forget that. and there is reason for hope. on monday, the stay-at-home order for the bay area was lifted, today, san francisco can begin to recover. today we can begin to re-open our doors, re-open our businesses, begin to resume our lives. with some restrictions, and many, many precautions, of course, but we are reopening. we are vaccinating more and more people each day, and very soon we will open another large vaccination site right here at moscone center. and with support from the state and -- thank god -- the new biden-harris administration in the white house, we have a plan

to administer 10,000 vaccines a day. we can see the light. folks, our recovery starts now. so i want to say something to all the people who are writing us off -- to those who are writing obituaries of san francisco -- we've read all of these before. we've proved them all wrong before. and we'll do it again. cities aren't a collection of buildings. if they were, the year 1906 would have been our last. cities are people. working from home doesn't spell the end of urban life, because cities aren't merely a collection of jobs. cities are people. cities are passions, culture, vibrancy, and change. but look, we san franciscans have thick skins. so we'll show the rest of you how we bounce back. when you get restless and wan to come dance to live music or

to see steph curry do his thing on the court, eat at the world's best restaurants, drink at the best bars, start your next business, host a convention right here at moscone center, or just watch the giants from your kayak, we'll be happy to have you. san francisco has always been and will continue to be a magnet, a destination, a place that draws people. we are the city of pride. today, with hard lessons learned, and so much yet to do, i believe we are at the start of an incredible recovery. we aren't just going to repair. we are going to reinvigorate. to come back even stronger. we will put people back to work. our businesses will flourish. opportunities will expand. and as we do all of that, our recovery will focus on moving our city forward and putting people first. we will continue our work to cut the red tape for small businesses, because it's more important than ever.

for example, in november, voters passed our small business streamlining measure -- proposition h -- and it's already working. one small immigrant-owned business that wanted to convert a hair shop to an ice cream shop -- saw their approval time cut from the normal six to nine months down to one day. one day. we'll build on this success and make it even easier to turn an idea into a thriving small business. bureaucracy can't keep getting in the way of people. our recovery also means building housing... now during this economic downturn. as we rise again, let's not repeat the mistakes of the past. we will put affordable housing dollars to work, and streamline the approval process -- even if it means going to the voters to do it. we will keep pushing to meet our goal of building 5,000 new homes each year.

and can we finally put to rest the fantasy that supply-and-demand doesn't apply to our housing situation? you may have noticed, rent prices went down, way down, last year... why? because demand went down. when it goes back up -- and that is a "when," not an "if" -- let's be ready with more supply, more housing, so everyone can afford to live here. we will continue to aggressively push forward our homeless recovery plan, which includes the large event expansion of permanent supportive housing in the last 20 years. and we will implement mental health reform, so we can get more people off the streets and safely indoors. we will continue to divert 911 calls from police through innovative solutions like our street response team. so people struggling with addiction and mental illness get better care.

and so our police officers can address violent crime and the burglaries and break-ins happening in our city. we want nothing more than to prevent crime from happening in our city, and, sadly, when it does, it is just as important to hold people accountable for the crimes they commit. we will continue to enliven our neighborhoods through outdoor dining on our sidewalks, our streets and in our public spaces. we will do more for families, starting with getting our kids back in school. our city can't fully recover until our students are supported, our schools are open. and i will continue to do everything i can to help get our kids back in the classroom. we will invest in people by investing in infrastructure. we can put san franciscans back to work by harnessing the power of public investments. we will strengthen our seawall, build parks, police and fire stations, and mental health facilities, and improve public

transportation. yes, public transportation is the lifeblood of a great city, and making muni work -- better than ever -- is critical to our economic recovery. in all, i plan to move forwar on more than $3.5 billion in city projects. just this week, for example, we opened our new navigation center in the bayview. this 200-bed shelter will serve some of our most vulnerable residents. but the project also created 330 jobs, during the height of the pandemic. that's 330 people who can provide for themselves and their families. and our recovery also needs to be about the arts, our cultural institutions and culturally diverse neighborhoods, and the public spaces we all miss so much. we will also help music venues, clubs and bars -- who have lost

so much -- get reopened and get back on their feet. 2020 was a year like nothing we've ever experienced. this terrible pandemic tore our neighborhoods, tore through our businesses, tore us from one another. it's taken lives, destroyed businesses, savaged our economy and tore at the very fabric of community. and we always told ourselves that the sun will still rise tomorrow, until one day it didn't. the streets of san francisco and cities around the country erupted with protests as our nation's legacy of racial injustice, white privilege and prejudice against black people boiled over. i will never shake the image of george floyd on the ground, a knee on his neck. that knee, that knee has been on the necks of black americans for

400 years. and it's the knee of the chinese exclusion act, the briggs initiative, japanese internment, redlining and urban renewal and kids in cages and transgender discrimination. san francisco is in many ways a collection of people who were tired of living under someone else's norms or knee, and came here to find common cause. our diversity, our acceptance, our spirit is what makes us strong. and no virus -- whether it's named covid or h.i.v. -- will ever take that away. quite the opposite -- it will only make us stronger. it is in times of crisis that san francisco has thrown its true grit. we've been tested before. earthquakes. fire. recessions. shocking assassinations. aids... every time, we were

shaken, and we were tested. and every time, we didn't just bounce back, we pushed forward. out of ashes, we built an even greater city. out of despair, we formed even stronger alliances. out of tragedy, we forged even greater humanity. let's not remember 2020 only as the year we suffered. it was the year we learned what matters most. what binds us together. it was the year we sacrificed to save each others' lives. the hard winter is almost behind us, and hope lies ahead. as amanda gorman said just two weeks ago at the inauguration -- even as we grieved, we grew. even as we hurt, we hoped. even as we tired, we tried. and when day comes we step identity of the shade, aflame and unafraid. the new dawn blooms as we free

it. if there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. if only we're brave enough to be it. my fellow san franciscans, there is light. let's be proud. let's be hopeful. let's be brave. thank you.