>> the hon. london breed: good morning. i'm san francisco mayor london breed, and i'm really excited to be here at pier 39 today. i'm excited to be here today because we have some good news. i know i gave it away last week when i said that the state was going to finally allow us to get into the red tier. we were keeping our fingers crossed, hoping we would get here, and guess what? we're here. we're in the red. now, i know red doesn't sound that great, but it's great. here we are. we were in the super purple, dr. colfax, and what that means is this is just the beginning. this is the beginning of a new day for san francisco. today, i'm joined by director

of public health, dr. grant colfax, the director of the port commission, elaine forbes, the director of the golden gate restaurant association, as well as the executive director of pier 39. most people who come to pier 39 are the people who visit our city, but let me just tell you, pier 39 and specifically the wharf and this area which attracts tourists from all over the country, this is also and can be a destination for san franciscans, especially at a time like this. and because we're in the red tier, the opportunity to expand

what we open and what we make available to the public is really exciting. in fact, when i went to galileo high school near ghirardelli square, some of us would go down the street -- this is when atari came out, and nintendo was just starting to take over the game. when people came to san francisco, we felt like we were ambassadors because they always had questions about where to go and what to do. for everyone, i'm sure you're tired of being cooped in the house and want something to do. here is your chance to come to pier 39 and get irish coffee at

cioppino's, scoma's, and some of the places that we all know and love. what better way to come out and open the doors than to come out and open the doors and enjoy your own city, to do a staycation in san francisco. what does a red tier mean for san francisco? it means that indoor dining can begin to resume at 25%. for us ladies, we can get facials now, and places like our ferris wheel in golden gate

park, the carousel pier, can open. so you better go ride the ferris wheel in golden gate park before the fun police shut it down. there are so many things to do in san francisco, and what we want to do is we want to support them. we want to support our businesses, to enjoy our city, but we still have to remember we are still in the midst of a global pandemic. so that means in a restaurant, when you're waiting for your table, keep your mask on. when your waiter walks up to the table, put your mask on. when you go to use the rest room, put your mask on. we're in the red zone now, but in a few weeks, we'll probably be in the orange, and that means we open our city more. and then, eventually, we'll be

in the yellow. once we get vaccine and have more supply, we'll be in a better place. as of this day, over 22% of san franciscans over the age of 16 have been vaccinated, and 54% of those 65 and up have been vaccinated, and those are our most vulnerable population. those are the ones most likely to get covid. we're in an amazing place. we're not completely where we want to be, but we're better than we have been since october of last year. so i'm excited. this is the beginning of a great time in san francisco. he saved money, not buying

those plane tickets to other places. you can come out, enjoy the shops and incredibly vibrancy of pier 39. you want to go and visit alcatraz, even though you want to make sure you have a ticket to come back so you don't get stuck over there. take advantage of every opportunity, but be mindful of the fact that we are not where we need to be yet, but we are getting there, san francisco. we're getting there because we stuck together. yes, i've had to come out here sometimes and, you know, ask people to be on their best behavior, dolores park and some other places, but ultimately, san francisco has had one of the lowest infection rates and lowest death rates of any other major city in the country.

we should be proud. i am, and i'm excited about what this means for the future. so folks, let's see what this means. let's slowly get back our city so we can do what we know and we love and -- we can get back to what we know and what we love and what we miss. and now, let's talk about the numbers with the doctors in the house. dr. grant colfax. [applause] >> well good morning, everybody. today is a great day for san francisco, and i'm so proud of how far we've done, and thank

you, mayor breed, for your leadership during this unprecedented time. we've now emerged from the worst surge since the beginning of this pandemic, and we are ready to slowly start opening again to support our businesses and to resume some of the activities we've so sorely missed during these past months. right now, san francisco is averaging about 67 new cases of covid-19 every day, and while that's still far too many covid cases, we are down from 169 that we had at the beginning of february and far down from our peak surge in december. right now, we are at about 7.5 new cases per 100,000 residents, and as we look at our city testing rate, our seven-day rolling average rate of positivity is just about

1.5%. our hospitalizations are also down by 72% from their peak, and right now, we have 74 people hospitalized across san francisco, and we are at a relatively robust 31% i.c.u. intensive care unit capacity. we've made great progress these past few months, and these key indicators are the very reason we're gradually able to reopen. it's because people in san francisco did their part: socially distanced, wearing masks, and avoided traveling outside except for essential businesses. now we are able to move in to the red tier, and here in san francisco, our health equity metric continues to improve. nationally, for that metric, we

are now in the orange tier, with a most recent value of 3.5%. and today's local good news follows the great news that we now have a third vaccine: the johnson & johnson product. this is another key development. we know that our vaccines are our ticket out of this pandemic. so soon here in san francisco, we will have three vaccines to offer people. our vaccine rollout continues. we have administered over 250,000 shots in san francisco. this is not sufficient, but we are making progress, and we now have the capacity to administer well over 10,000 vaccines a day. we just need that supply to improve. and because we haven't gotten all those vaccines into arms

yet, we have a way to go, it is critical that we stay vigilant to maintain our progress. and when it is your turn, and you are offered the vaccine, take the shot. these vaccines are safe and effective, and along with our safety measures, are our way forward. i do also want to briefly mention the variants. while we have so many kinds of hope, our variants are a concerning factor, and we are watching and monitoring the situation closely. there is a growing presence of more variants in our region, and they represent an increased risk of transmission of the virus. nationally, as you can seen, cases have started to rise slightly over the last couple of days, so this is why we need to continue to double down on those prevention measures. remember, san francisco, we know despite this unprecedented

year and all the uncertainty, we know how to slow the spread of the virus. we've beaten back three surges. let's keep our progress. i have been amazed and inspired by the ways our city has responded to these moments, and i know this has been an incredibly difficult year for us in our community, but remember, mask on, stay strong. by committing to the guidelines and following the tried-and-true preventative measures we know work, we can continue moving forward. thank you. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, dr. colfax, and just want to reiterate that now as a result of our vaccines, we're providing vaccines for those in

1-a and 1-b. many of you know that we announced that last week, and what that means is people who are teachers, people who are child care workers, those who are muni drivers and others are able to get the vaccines, but also, what's really exciting is that restaurant workers will be able to get the vaccine because of where we are in the 1-b tier. and today to talk about the restaurants and about what they face but also to get you excited about going to restaurants is laura thomas, the director of the golden gate restaurant association. [applause] >> hi, everyone, and thank you, mayor breed for inviting me to come today. can everyone hear me today? it's pretty windy, so i'll try

to talk into the microphone. so this year has been so challenging to our industry, and many have been without work as we've had to shutter our restaurants in response. we are really thankful for the strong, science driven leadership we have in san francisco with mayor breed, dr. colfax, dr. philips, and oewd. we also really appreciate what mayor breed and the team was able to do last week and give all of us a one kind of week heads up so we could all be ready to open up for the public hopefully tomorrow for indoor dining and the amazing outdoor dining that we've been able to take advantage of with shared spaces. so while shared spaces is continuing, we're all excited

to take the next step in this march, which is 25% indoor dining capacity. this doesn't save our industry, but again, it lets us start to move forward to losing less money, i like to say. i have two restaurants myself, and i have to say it's been a really financially devastating year, and we're grateful for the help at the local, state, and federal level, but it's not enough. we need to safely reopen and moving in that direction. with that in mind, i just want to go over a few points that we reiterated last week that we'll be doing with the city. how do we safely reopen? we're going to open a little bit looser restrictions on the outdoor dining. we're going to allow no curfew, so as long as you're seated and eating, you can dine beyond the

10:00 p.m. time frame that we've done before. we're going to loosen it to three households, six people or less. you have to have bona fide meals without alcohol just to keep everything under control. that's why it's there. everything is going to feel tighter, but remember, we're moving forward. we're going to ask that people sit in tables of four or less, that it's one household. and mayor breed said it, and i know it's a pain, but whenever approaches you, be it a waiter, a busser, a server, or a manager, we need you to put your mask back on before they reach the table. to help educate the public that this is going to help the situation, the easier it's going to be on everybody.

we ask for your help communicating that message. there will be signs. they will say if you're seating inside, you are going to need to continue -- we are good night to continue the curfew there, so that will stay there. we're going to ask that everybody is completely outside by 10:30. nobody can do reservations or enter after 10:00, and that we want to just keep it calm for a while until we can move to the orange. if you have an issue, please dine outside. if you're still uncomfortable, we're all doing to-go, we're all doing delivery, and we appreciate everybody's support of our industry, and we want to get everybody vaccinated. it's been amazing. we're one week into the vaccines for our industry of workers, and we're seeing things moving forward now.

we appreciate everybody's support, and we couldn't have a better team here to work with. thank you. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, laura. just a side note that candy baron has pink popcorn, if you remember pink popcorn from back in the day. feel free to go in and grab some. the other line is the f-line, they'll start serving this community seven days a week starting in may. i know there's been a lot of talk about the cable cars. now you know we're not san francisco without cable cars, so just so you know, the cable cars are coming back, and they're coming back sometime this year, date to be determined. so with that, thank you so much for being here. happy to open it up to

questions. [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: well, i think i'm more optimistic than confident. i would say that what we're doing with the vaccines especially with the most vulnerable population, those who are the ones most likely to be hospitalized, those have been extremely helpful. and i think as we continue to see hospitalizations continue to decline, i think we'll be in a good place. i'm pretty optimistic and hopeful, and i think that we are in a very, very good place to not go backwards, and it also is going to be contingent on our behavior, as well, but i think a combination of vaccine and our behavior is going to put us in a situation where we most likely won't go backwards. [inaudible]

>> the hon. london breed: laura, do you want to talk about that? >> yeah, i'll be happy to. so we've always had the restaurant workers -- we provide p.p.e. if they want it, the face masks. we've all followed the sanitation guidelines for the sanitizers. you guys have seen it if you've gone out, wiping the tables between, following strict guidelines on capacity, and yes, there's always been an amazing sick pay program in san francisco. prepandemic, we always offer up to 72 hours a year. if you do the math, that's nine days on a normal eight-hour day, and then at the federal level, there's the ffcra program which goes until the end of march. if somebody can't come in due to covid, the businesses can actually payout that sick pay and then ask for reimbursement

from the federal government. so we're ramping up our vaccines, we're getting them to the people, and we need them to be able to operate. [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: my response is that all of you know, san francisco was the first major city to shutdown, and we've been extremely conservative about every decision we make. in fact, dr. colfax and i argue every single day because i want to do more. and even though the state gives us permission to do more, we're still doing things stricter than the guidelines even. what i will say is that san francisco has been the most conservative when it comes to the implementation of the

lockdown, and i'm confident of the decisions of the department of public health to move forward in this decision. [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: well, i think dr. colfax should probably address that directly, but ultimately, i think that, you know, when you look at our case rate, when you look at our death rate, when you look at what we've done in san francisco, i think the numbers speak for themselves even though it's been a challenging time for all of us. [inaudible] >> the hon. london breed: okay. thank you. make sure you have lunch at pier 39.

>> coping with covid-19 with chris manning. >> hi. i'm chris manners, and you're watching coping with covid-19. my guest today is tanya peterson. she's the director of the san francisco zoo on sloat boulevard, and she's here today to talk about how the zoo's managing during the pandemic and how they're reopening. tanya, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> i'm really pleased to hear that the zoo has reopened again. that's great news. can you tell us what changes you've made to make visitors to the zoo feel comfortable and safe when they're there. i understand now you have to

make reservations, and there's only a limited number available each day. >> we were making changes before shelter in place. fortunately, because we work with animals, and we have a vet hospital on-site, we have the safe coverings before the shelter in place. while we were closed, we made some internal and external changes. the first one, i guess, would be on-line reservations. you now need to make reservations to visit the zoo, just like your favorite dinner restaurant. that is an effort to slow down congestion. try to keep everything smooth, and we can control the number of families coming in over the course of time. >> that's great. what about the indoor exhibits and the playground. are those off limits now? >> well, they're not off

limits, but the playground, we had -- we had started child care program for essential workers even when we were closed, and the playground is used exclusively by our child care programs. so if you can think of the zoo, 100 acres, about a good third of it right now is reserved for child care, so what we do is we have the -- we've got the children in their safe pods. they're with each other for three weeks. they're in a controlled environment, and in the morning, one pod has the playground, we disinfect, and in the afternoon, another pod comes. all indoor spaces were closed before the shelter in place. the one thing i'm asked most frequently about is the train. we have a 100-year-old train, and as soon as we can disinfect that, we'll get that open,

because that's the number one question i guess, when is the train reopening. >> is there a map how you're supposed to walk around the zoo? >> yes. in certain areas, we created a one-way path. we try to make it fun. they're generally in the shape of bear paws and colored -- you know, follow the blue bear paws, follow the red bear paws -- but we've tried to make it fun. when children have not been out for three months, they were climbing anything and everything. we didn't anticipate that, so we put coverings open water fountains, statue signs. kids had been cooped up, so they went crazy the first few

days. more control in place. >> that sounds great. how did the zoo's residents respond to a lack of visitors. did you observe any behavioral differences? >> absolutely. we have some shy residents, gorillas and orangs. we have a male orangutan, he would blow me kisses. the rhinos, they would come out when i would feed them. >> how does it feel to have the zoo open again to the general public, even if it's a limited fashion? >> it feels fantastic. i'm a mother, and i know it's been hard on kids. to be able to open safely outdoors -- we're one of the few zoos on an ocean, so you've

got the coastal air coming through. we see families or self-ascribed pods coming through. it's been great for our staff and for our visitors. it's been heart warming, all the true experiences the first few days. >> clearly. you have a lot of mouths to feed. how did you cope with the pandemic so far? were you able to get some financial assistance, and how can viewers contribute if they'd like to? >> well, thank you. we received some help, but we burned through that quickly, and we received some financial

donations. we burned through a lot of our funding, and we were really feeling it. all of the people who supported us and hung in there, i thank you. you can join as a member. it's a tax deduction. david attenborough said it best. if the zoo becomes extinction, we all do. in the wild, poachers are getting the best of the wild animals, but i think with the help of the zoo and the community, we can save the

animals. >> where can i go if i want to donate? >> you can go to sfzoo.org. you can join, become a member or make a donation. it takes about $30,000 a day to feed all of our 2,000 animals, so you can pick how you want to help. >> well, i appreciate you coming onto the show today, miss peterson. >> thank you. the animals and i thank you from the bottom of our hearts. >> you've been watching coping with covid-19. for sfgovtv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

san francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for san francisco, but for all of the bay area.

[sirens] >> fire station 35 was built in 1915. so it is over 100 years old. and helped it, we're going to build fire boat station 35. >> so the finished capital planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on sea level rise. >> the station 35, construction cost is approximately $30 million. and the schedule was complicated because of what you call a float. it is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for

installation. >> we're looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float. the historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. >> this totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of sea level rise over the next 100 years. that's what the city's guidance is requiring. it is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises, and sits on four fixed guide piles. so if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. >> it does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. so that allows for current

tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. >> the fire boat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. >> the access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. in that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for a slight few inches of lateral motion of the float. both the access ramps, which there is two, and the utility's only flexible connection connecting from the float to the back of the building. so electrical power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connection to the boat. >> high boat station number 35 will provide mooring for three fire boats and one rescue boat. >> currently we're staffed

with seven members per day, but the fire department would like to establish a new dedicated marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidences. looking into the future, we have not only at&t park, where we have a lot of kayakers, but we have a lot of developments in the southeast side, including the stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incident along these new developments. >> there are very few designs for people sleeping on the water. we're looking at cruiseships, which are larger structures, several times the size of harbor station 35, but they're the only good reference point. we look to the cruiseship industry who has kind of an index for how much acceleration they were accommodate. >> it is very unique. i don't know that any

other fire station built on the water is in the united states. >> the fire boat is a regional asset that can be used for water rescue, but we also do environmental cleanup. we have special rigging that we carry that will contain oil spills until an environmental unit can come out. this is a job for us, but it is also a way of life and a lifestyle. we're proud to serve our community. and we're willing to help people in any way we can.reside

vice president santacana and commissioner chang, commissioner lazarus and commissioner swig. at the control of the legal clerk and i'm the executive director of the board. we'll be joined by representatives from the city departments presenting before the board this meeting, scott sanchez with the planning department. joseph duffy with san francisco department of building inspection. carla short, san francisco public of department works. the board meeting guidelines requests that you turnoff our silence all phones so they don't