>> chairman: good morning, ns welcome to the rules committee of the san francisco board of supervisors for today, monday, may 24th, 2021, i am the chair, aaron peskin, joined by vice chair, supervisor raphael mandelman and connie chan. our clerk is mr. victor young. do you have any ?owments? >> clerk: yes. due to the covid-19 emergency, and to protect board members, city employees, and the public, the committee room and board of chambers room are closed. committee members will. attend the meeting through video conference to the same extent as if they were physically present. public comment will be available on each item on the agenda, both on sfgovtv.org or on the

number screening across the screen, you can call 415-655-0001, the meeting i.d. 1874896279, and then press ##. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions, but you will be muted. when your item of interest comes up, dial *3. speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. alternatively, you may submit public comment by e-mail at vivtor.young@sfgov.org. it will be forwarded to the supervisors and be included as part of the official file. that completes the official comments. >> chairman: thank you. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: item is a hearing to appoint one

member april 30, 2022, on the commission for animal control and welfare. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. colleagues, we heard most of the seats for this body last week. i am delighted that mr. van horn has reapplied for seat seven, which has to be a licensed veterinarian. and has served on the body in the past. mr. van horn, do you have any comments? i saw you, mr. van horn. the floor is yours, sir. he was on there a second ago. >> clerk: he is still currently logged in. there you go. >> how is that? >> chairman: that's perfect. >> sorry. i've been kicked off twice in the last 30 minutes. we're trying with

my iphone at this point. for the last couple of years, i have been the veterinarian occupying seat seven mainly because i haven't been able to wrangle anybody else into doing it. but i am happy to continue. i've tried to stay impartial in terms of subjects that come to the commission. i feel like my position there is mainly to reflect the veterinarian profession as a whole. i mean, i've got colleagues who work with peta and also colleagues who make their living in the beef industry. i have colleagues that are all about, you know, animal research and other colleagues that are absolutely not. so i try and just bring background from all parties and their views to the various topics that we're discussing. if anything, i think i've done a pretty good job of staying impartial through

my input on the various topics that have come up. and if people are happy with my work, i'm happy to keep serving. >> chairman: thank you so much, mr. van horn. we very much appreciate your service and expertise that you bring. and your colleagues seek your reappointment. and thank you very much for your willingness to continue on, and i am sorry for your failure to wrangle another veterinarian for seat number seven. is there any public comment on item number one, mr. young? >> clerk: yes. members of the public, who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001, the meeting i.d. 1874896279. then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial *3 to

line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. at this time, we have no members of the public in line for public comment. >> chairman: okay. then public comment is hereby closed. and thank you, again, mr. van horn. i would like to make a motion to send this item with recommendation as a committee report so that it can be heard with the other applicants that we approve next week. on that motion, mr. clerk, a roll call please. >> clerk: this is a recommendation for appointment to seat seven. >> chairman: that is correct. >> clerk: on that motion. [roll call] >> clerk: the motion to

recommend as a committee report is adopted without objection. >> chairman: next item, please. >> clerk: thank you. item 2 is a motion approving or directing the mayor's nomination for the reappointment of julia patiknik to the treasure island for a term ending february 26, 2025. >> chairman: thank you. commissioner, are you there and ready to say a few words? >> yes, i am. good morning. >> chairman: good morning. >> can you hear me okay? >> chairman: we can. >> thank you very much. it is great to see all of you today. i'm really thrilled to be renominated. i've already served a short 30 month stint and really enjoy working with the board at treasure island. i'm sharing my 20 years of expertise and energy in the environment. we have had continual blackouts on the island, and i've been working with different groups to try to find solutions for the

community. i've been working on backup batteries, and also working on equity and community justice issues, working with the newest board member and with community leaders to help on making sure that the transition is just as reasonable and really some of the work that i do with the coalition-building across the country, bringing shared lessons learned so we can implement and really work on transparency and accountability. and so as the two islands move towards this development to really make sure that we're constantly working with the community and approving their voices in the process, so it is not just one versus the other, and it is more of a joint work in progress. i would love the opportunity to continue to work with the community and with the staff and the current directors on moving us forward in a just and equity way. >> chairman: thank you so much, commissioner. are there any questions from members of the rules committee? seeing none, i -- oh,

commissioner? supervisor chan? >> i just want to make a quick comment. i'm really glad that you brought up about the power shortages. i do feel like every time when we have a storm in san francisco, somehow that treasure island always gets the short end of that stick. and it always happens there. so it is just music to my ears. i have great sympathy for my supervisor, matt haney. and he was the only supervisor who could not walk his entire district. i always have the pleasure to be able to do door-knocking in my district simply by walking there, and to know that treasure island truly is an island. and yet they're still really part of the community of san francisco. and we need to continue to make sure that whatever we do there is inclusive, and

make sure that they do have voices. so it is great to hear that that is the first point that you brought up. i appreciate that. >> thank you. it is really important. the same with the toll issues and the congestion and the ferries. the accessibility is so critical, and it can't just been for one group of people. that connective tissue that makes san francisco so great as a community, i agree. we have to constantly keep saying that message and showing by our actions that we can do this. >> chairman: is there any public comment on item 2? >> clerk: members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item should call 415-655-0001, the meeting i.d. 1874896279. then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please dial *3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand.

wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your public comment. at this time, we have no listeners and nobody in line for public comment. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed. i would just like to start by thinking you for your service and soon to be your continued service to the treasure island development authority board of directors, and also acknowledge your work at nrdc, and i will say not apapo to this, i'm in receipt of a letter which or nrdc signed on to this morning questioning whether or not the city attorney should be the next general manager of the public utilities commission. a fascinating letter. we'll have those discussions at future meetings. having said that, i would like to make a motion to

amend the subject motion by removing the word "rejecting" at line three, and removing the word "reject" at line eight. on that motion, mr. clerk, a roll call, please. >> clerk: on the motion to amendment, supervisor mandelman? >> aye. >> clerk: supervisor chan? >> aye. >> clerk: chair peskin? >> chairman: aye. >> clerk: the motion to amend is adopted without objection. >> chairman: i would like to send the motion at amended with recommendation to the full board of supervisors. on that motion, a roll call, please. >> clerk: yes, on that motion, supervisor mandelman? >> aye. >> clerk: supervisor chan? >> aye. >> clerk: chair peskin? >> chairman: aye. >> clerk: the motion is adopted without objection. >> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. congratulations, julia, and colleagues, we are

adjourned.

>> van ness avenue runs from market street to bay street in san francisco. south vanness runs from south of market to cesar chavez street. originally residential after the 1906 earthquake it was used as a fire break. many car dealerships and businesses exist on vanness today with expansion of bus lanes. originally marlet street was named after james vanness, seventh mayor of san francisco from 1855 to 1856. vanness heavy are streets in santa cruz, los angeles and

fresno in his honor. in 1915 streetcars started the opening of the expo. in 1950s it was removed and replaced by a tree-lined median. it was part of the central freeway from bayshore to hayes valley. it is part of uses 101. it was damaged during the 1989 earthquake. in 1992 the elevator part of the roadway was removed. it was developed into a surface boulevard. today the vanness bus rapid transit project is to have designated bus lanes service from mission. it will display the history of the city. van ness avenue.

>> my nave is jeffrey and i'm the director of the san francisco municipal transportation agency and i am so excited to be here and to inago rate the restart of the san francisco subway system and our f-line. it has been a long 14 months and we are not out of the woods yet. i am so grateful to my hard-working teams. everyone who has been work to go try to get service restarted. muni is the life blood of san francisco. it's how college students get to school and it's how people around and how we function as a place and brings service back is absolutely essential to san francisco's economy so with no further adieu, i would like to introduce our mayor, london

breed. [applause] >> thank you, jeff. first let's give it up for the official band of san francisco! the gay and lesbian band. i don't know about you, but i'm excited to be here. we're listen to go live music for a change. san francisco is truly coming alive. and one of the things that happened at the beginning of this pandemic, so many of us basically said, i hope san francisco will do a better job at some of the construction projects so that they don't interfere with my commute to work or to school when the city begins to reopen. well, in some cases we couldn't necessarily do that. but the good news is, we have an incredible leader in jeff tumlin and an amazing department m.t.a. and the commissioner who is joining us here today. they knew this was an opportunity and an opportunity

to make significant improvements to muni. because let me tell you, as we begin to open our city and begin down the path of recovery, having a good public transportation system is going to be critical. now, some of the nuts and bolts, mostly don't sound really exciting to people, but they're exciting to the people who ride muni, who for example, want to access the internet when they're underground, this is something i've been work on since i was supervisor and scott wiener was helping for this cause. here is the good news, a lot of the work we were able to do is making it possible to make muni more efficient than ever. it was a struggle, yes, but we are in a very, very good place. we're asking for people to be patient. so here is what we have planned.

first of all, the f-line, the historic cars, the museum, that's over there that talks about the history of rail in san francisco and just how important it is, bringing those cars back is really important, not just for transportation but for tourism and the f-line that goes from the castro to fisherman's wharf, those with the open covers and the closed covers, those lines are starting back tomorrow. [applause] under ground. i know we missed the different underground trains to take us from downtown all the way to the west side in rapid speed when it's working right, right. muni underground is coming back in effect tomorrow. we did a lot of the underground

work and you know how sometimes you get stuck in that tunnel at church street, and you are like, man, and all the trains get backed up because our system wasn't necessarily equipped to handle the number of riders that we see and jeff had the foresight to look at this along with a number of experts in transportation and we're going to combine the t and the k line and we're going to make that line more efficient but let me tell you, i'm most excited about this because this is something that i've been working on, again, since supervisor. they will have two car trains in every instance instead of one for all those folks who wait where i used to campaign at when i was supervisors at the early stages of my political soft involvement, it was providing better service for then june a.

i'm excited about it. just imagine being late to work and school all the time because of then june a. the other thing that will happen, which is really great, i think, is we'll have wifi underground and publicard and better mow efficient service so i can tell you this but you are going to experience it. you will fee. i was listed a a celebrity announcement and your mayor welcome you you back to san francisco muni train and that includes the voice of renelle

brooks moon and jerry rice and there's also one other person ledge on dar tee actor bd wong so great voices including mine so this is a good day for san francisco and we have a need to make sure our transportation system is up and running and getting us from point a to point b. i want you all to return to muni and i want you all to be patient with us we're keeping our cars clean and keep service working more and i want to take this opportunity to especially thank many of the drivers of our trains and our buses because let me tell you, this pandemic has hit our city hard and when you look at the city data for those

impacted by covid it was many of our drivers who were on the front line and they put their lives on the line to continue to make sure our essential workers and people got to and from work and i really want to thank them and thank you all so much and thank you for the work that you continue to be there for the people of san francisco and make sure you treat your drivers with kindness and respect because they go through a lot in this city trying to get people around. all the staff and all the parking control officers and all the of the folks who have been out there trying to direct traffic and do all the things that make sure we can efficiently get from point a to point b. there's a new day in san francisco, i appreciate you all being here and we're here with a number of officials that will speak and i've went on for way too long but at this time i want to introduce someone who has

been a true champion of public transportation for this city. i miss him when he was in san francisco fighting the good fight but i'm excited about his fight in sack ra men co and it's why the government is making a big announcement about a significant increase in support for transportation no one is aggressive and support, calling financial support for this city and this state for public transportation to make it better and more efficient for all of us than our state senators, scott wiener. [applause] >> thank you, madam mayor. i have to say, i do miss when the mayor and i were on the board of supervisors together and we were probably a little irritating to m.t.a. at times because we were pushing and pushing but in the end, we were all able to work together to make muni run better and so

thank you madam mayor for your leadership and thank you to jeff tumlin, who i was so excited when he agreed to come in at the m.t.a. it's an exceptional leader and visionary and jeff and i actual low road muni from castro and market today. it felt like the old days when we would get on muni and take the f-market down market street and now that's going to be the new days because the f is coming back and that is so exciting. so, i have pretty long relationship with muni. i've been a regular daily muni rider since 1997. obviously in sacramento i'm not riding it. it was how i commuted and i didn't drive my car, i took muni. thank you again to the muni drivers who have gotten me around for 23, almost 24 years

here and who have stood with us during this terrible pandemic. and so, this matters to me personally but it also matters to my community. so many people in this city are dependent on muni. they don't have a car. muni is how they get around. it's how they get to work and to the doctor and it's how they go shopping. and so the idea, when we were starting to hear things, during the pandemic, about would -- there we go. [ bells ringing ] i'll wait a second. >> i'm compete against the bell. so, when we were hearing during the pandemic, that what would muni be like after covid. would muni still be around in the same way? were we going to loose lines?

what bart going to be around in the same way. for a lot of us, it was really scary because san francisco would not be san francisco without muni. san francisco won be the transit oriented climate change friendly place that we are without muni and it's part of not just our life blood but our core values as a city and as a community and so i am so excited that muni will come back as strong as ever many of the subway, the f-market and we'll keep these bus lines riding because so many people rely on the buses as much as we love the subway and i am optimistic about where this agency is going to heaved. i want to really thank congress and our federal government for throwing repeated life lines to muni, to bart, to all of our transit systems and had congress not stepped up and dramatically funded transit, multiple times, we would not be here today.

i don't know where muni would be. i don't know how we would get reopened. how do you do that? where would bart be. so what the federal government did, was absolutely life saving for these transit systems. and we are working very hard at the state level toll make sure that this amazing budget surplus that we have, because of income tax and because of our stimulus relief, that we're using a portion of that for transit and other sustainable transportation. and the governor just made a big announcement today and i am very, very excited about what we're going to be able to put in as a state. thank you to everyone. thank you muni for helping get us around and let's keep fighting and making this system as amazing as it can be. thank you. >> i am so grateful to have a state senator who i can randomly run into on my morning commute on muni. i am so grateful to mayor breed

and scott keener's support and helping us come back and also to the federal government because we would not be here today. we're also going to be grateful to the state for using some of their surplus on capital investments because while we've made a lot of progress in the subway over the last 14 months, we still have a jenky system that runs on floppy disks so things will be better tomorrow but they're not going to be perfect. what i can promise you is we will continue to be honest with the public about the state of our conditions and what our service is like and what you can do if things don't work as well as we moment and that has been my over all strategy as director sfmta. we're grateful for community partners who have helped us come

back and continue to advocate for our success. one of our port post art partners is market street railway and so i would like to introduce. >> thank you, jeff. isn't it great to be vaccinated. let's all thank the mayor in her leadership in bringing us through the fog of this pandemic. [applause] you have been a great light to this city, mayor breed. thank you to jeff and julie and the entire muni team, mta team. from the very top all the way through the ranks to the front line people who made this happen. you know, a famous leader in america, another great woman leader, said it takes a village. that's what made the return of the f-line possible. it was all up and down the mta

pulling together with operators taking the initiatives to say we want to come back and how can we help? they helped design the protective barriers you will see in the street car as it pulls up. in the all the street cars you ride on the f-line, you will be able to be safe and this is a very positive development. it was a real collaborative effort and the shop team put them in at an unprecedented pace. i have never seen such collaboration in my 40 years around muni so i want today hear a shout out for the operators and the maintainers. [applause] also i want to give a shout out to all the business leaders and the neighborhood groups, the cbds and bids and all those alphabet agencies that bring our businesses, our small businesses together to make their neighborhoods a better place to do business and they stepped up, they talked to their district supervisors and they talked to

jeff and they got results and the folks in castro, and andrea yellow the people up in the wharf, randel scott and on and on and on, they've all done a great job. are there any neighborhood representatives here? and robbie silver from downtown. and karen flood from union scare. they were all here. you guys were all great. one more shout out is to michael dellard, an old friend who has been a stalwart businessman here at one market restaurant for a long time and he stepped up to us and said what can we do to get the f-line going and by the way, we would like to give you a merge of every proceeds from every ruben we sell in our new newdeli. you help us when you help

yourself to a ruben. it's a brooklyn sandwich but it's a san francisco generosity. we appreciate that. it's all part of our san francisco village. it's a city that honors its her tige while it strives to correct mistakes we've made in excluding people, denigrating people and keeping people down. we work to make this city better all the time and that's what our future is. that fits right in with our organization's motto, which is keeping the past, present in the future. and we are glad that these street cars are going back to work, helping to rebuild our economy, and helping to carry people where they want to go and helping to draw visitors back to our city. we're going to be riding on this wonderful boat tram and that vehicle was brought by our non-profit along with a second one to san francisco years ago and our board is led by our chair carmen clark, who is here and i want to shout out to.

carmenwho used to run muni. and our board members, ron fisher and cat siegel are here. we are proud to have done that and told the story of how for transit built a livable city and keeps renewing it. we're open, go in and get a free calender from us because the rest of the year is going to be a lot better than the months we've had. thank you to our mayor, thanks to this team. thank you all, very much. [applause] >> thank you, rick. well, many of us spent the pandemic behind our computer screens at home and in our pa jam a. the entire sfmta front line crews have been out there everyday during the pandemic getting essential workers to work. i am so grateful for their resilience and hard work through all of this.

they're why i work the hours that i do. and so i would like to introduce one of our operators, alena galloway who worked at agency for over 25 years with 19 years of safe driving experience and someone whom we rely upon for her direct advice. >> good afternoon. there's some expressions of gratitude in order. thank you to london breed, union, roger moranko, market street railway, rick lobsher, president, engineer body and pcc shop for their craftmanship when building the operators safetien close you'res. san francisco board of supervisor, citizens advisory committee, thank you to sfmta

for placing the f-line back in business it takes a village to get our float rolling again. from castro and market to the west field shopping center past the railway museum and down the embarcadero to pier 39 and on to fisherman's wharf. the f-line transporting a diverse ridership in our diverse city on a uniquely diverse historic street cars. from all around the world, our cars are so unique, that people travel far and wide to get photo ops or a ride. now along with san francisco's resilience, and survival instincts, that is something to be proud of. it's an honor and a pleasure to be a operator in the city of san

francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please help me help you a arrive at your destination safely by wearing your mask and practices all cdc guidelines. thank you and i'll see you out there. [applause] getting through the pandemic has required all sorts of new partnerships. it's required a depth of pippa cross almost every city department and so, i would like to introduce the director of the ports, elaine forbes, who is here along with our key policymakers. including sharon lie who is on the sfmta board and of course, member of the board of supervisors ahsha safai. and in order to introduce our last speaker, i want to say while the sfmta is mostly about mobility, we are about so many other things as well. our vehicles are a symbol of san

francisco and support the visitor economy. we're also a primary driver of supporting small business success which is why we have been such staunch supporters of the shared spaces program from the very beginning and one of the many reasons we're so happy to be bringing back the f-line the way it supports small business recovery and so now i'd like to introduce joseph who is the owner of a restaurant here at the ferry building to say a few words. [applause] thank you, mayor breed for in inviting me to speak and forgive me if i sound a little nervous, i'm a baker not a speaker. i also want to say thank you to the sfmta for reopening the f-line. i run a bakery line and it's a charge. i can't imagine running a whole transit line. my name is joey and my wife and

i opened in 2008 and which started at farmers' markets which led us to a spot in the ferry building. in that time, we've been in the ferry building for 10 years, in that time we've enjoyed the crowds shoulder and shoulder crowds of international travelers, bay area commuters, and then also experienced charges more recently of of course the last year with the pandemic. with the ferry building being opened during the whole time, you know, it gave us and our colleagues in the marketplace the opportunity to continue to service our communities and to give our ploy's a place to work and really was a lifeline to keep and stay open. so, with that, with the farmers market and the marketplace, i've

been firsthand witness to see what public easily accessible transportation does to a small economy and it not only brings more traffic into the areas but it also brings more diverse crowds. i think some of our customers would probably not make it to us without places without the f line. i think right now, as we see san francisco and the bay area seeing air recovery, it's a great time to be opening up the f line. not only is it a beautiful streetcar, it's also a need that

allows bringing people into the area. i think the cable cars are the world, the world can have the cable cars but the street cars are ours, they're very san francisco. i'm really looking forward to welcoming back our customers and really want to saw thanks to everybody. thank you, very much. [applause] >> thank you so much, everyone for being here. i just want to take a moment to say how excited i am to see elaine a here today and i didn't recognize her because she still looks the same since i was a kid. her grandmother, miss redman, used to press my hair and all the kids' hair in the neighborhood in the back of her house. you can get a press for $8 and if you didn't have enough money, her grandmother would let you

slide and that was, her grand mother was less than 100 pounds, the cutest woman you want to see but the toughest woman you want to meet. those hands were brutal. she would get your hair straight as i nails. i'm so excited to see her, someone who has been working for muni for so many years. along with so many people who have an incredible history in this city. and that same history that is existed for some time are resilience and how we've been able to look back and use the examples and the mistakes and the challenges that existed in the past to bring us forward towards a future is exactly how we're going to recover as a city. i'm looking forward to it. i'm excited about it and let me also just sigh, it's small business month in san francisco for the month of may, stop buy some of the small businesses and provide support and go to a restaurant and different places all over the city. hop on muni to do that and smile and say hi to your muni driver

and enjoy and be patient as we continue down our path of recovery for our city. thank you all for joining us here today. >> good morning, everyone! i get the amazing privilege of being the coronavirus of habitat for humanity greater san francisco and we're so pleased

you can join us. we're here in diamond heights to break ground on a very important project to us. there's not very many community occasions that is exciting as the ground breaking except for the day we give the keys to the family which is coming soon. as we begin, i would love to invite a champion for affordable housing and a good friend to habitat for humanity, pastor teresa chow sigh a few words and to bless us all. pastor chow. [applause] thank you. a house carries very significant importance. it's more than just a shelter, for some it's a sanctuary, place of rest and belonging. for my parents, who emigrated to the u.s. from south korea a house was a dream, however their

dream didn't stop at owning a house for themselves, but being able to provide a house for their children and grandchildren. 20 years ago, when i moved to san francisco, newly married, my parents' dream was realized as they helped my husband and i purchase our first home. and it's why i chose to wear this particular stolz today. this korean fabric means many colors. during very difficult times through out korean history, parents would don their children in these colorful fabrics as a symbol of their hope. they carry the hopes and dreams of the community and i wear this carrying dreams many of us for not just housing but affordable housing. to make this dream come true, it takes the community to put fourth the sweat equity, to push fourth just policies, build a foundation, network the resources and carry the hopes with determination. i love that the homes that will

be built here on this land begins with community. city officials, faith leaders, volunteers, neighbors, homeowners and home dreamers, which truly makes it our house. in the korean angst possess i have pronoun, my is rarely used. we use our. my house is our house, my dream is our dream, my land is our land. however, when we say our house, we also carry the responsibility of not only the hopeful future but the past so that our dreams do not -- are not at the expense of others and that's what it means to be a community. so in the spirit i would like to share this house blessing by poet jan richardson and acknowledging this is on the ancestrial home lapped of the aloney people who are the or not

inhabitants. think of the year as a house, door swung wide and welcome, threshold swept and waiting a grace spaciousness, opening and offering itself to you. let it be blessed in every room, let the it be hollowed in every corner. let every nook in the refuge and every object set to holy youth, let it be here that safety will rest, let it be here that health will make its home, let it be here that peace will show its face and let it be here that love will find its way, here let the weary come and let the aching come, let the lost come and let them find rest and find their soothing and let them find their place. and let them find their delight. and may it be in this house of a year that the seasons will spin in beauty and may it be in these turning days the time will spiral with joy and rooms will fill with ordinary grace and lights spill from every window

with welcome to the strangers calling it home. amen. [applause] >> thank you so much pastor. we appreciate you and your congregation for your friendship and your advocacy on housing and your on going support. i want to welcome our guests here with us today. because of covid we had to limit the crowd. i appreciate all of you who are here with us, and physically and in spirit. i'm delighted to say that mayor breed is with us today. since her inauguration, mayor breed has been a true champion and leader prioritizing affordable housing. under her leadership, the mayor's office of housing and community development has continued and increased their work supporting families and communities across the city. today, san francisco has a robust pipeline of affordable

housing and ready to be built and available at all levels for all family sizes. madam mayor, it's great to see you and we look forward to bringing hundreds more homes that we have in our pipeline in the next several years forward to partner with the city. i also couldn't be happier the district 8 supervisor mandelman is with us today. there are few people who have worked harder more thoughtfully than you have to get more affordable homes built with the needs of each neighborhood. it's good to see you. i'm going to come back to a would be wonderful proposal of yours in a little while. eric shaw is also with us today. thank you for your leadership and your vision and we really appreciate it. we also have with us three san francisco habitat homeowners today. den ice, jenn, and jeanette. if you can all just wave.

like all habitat homeowners, denise jenn and janette know their way around a construction site and experienced home builders. i know they can't wait to welcome new families to these homes and help them on their journey. i'm so pleased to see bryn smith here today, a fantastic volunteer who has worked hundreds of hours both here in san francisco and overseas across the globe. thank you, bryn. you live a stone's throw away and we'll see him working on the homes. representing our amazing dime opened heights neighborhoods, i can see betsy eddie, thank you, co president of the diamond heights community association, and betsy is such a strong supporter of this project. from the moment i first called her to say yes, how can we help and i really appreciate you. last time we were together, just up the hill at the police academy, we had about 70 community members join us to learn about and support the project. i was so impressed that we had

almost everyone 68 out of the 70 who said yes we want to see this project happen. something that doesn't get enough recognition here in our city. our architectses, toby is here and you can see the beautiful rendering behind me and it will turn into a beautiful community for the families that live here. and you can see reflected in the design the compliments of the neighborhood as you look around. several members of our habitat for humanity greater san francisco board are with us today. mark and ken preston and thank you for coming out and if i missed anyone, sorry. we have a board meeting later so i'll hear about it. normally, of course, in pro covid times, we would be able to welcome many more of our hundreds of homeowners and thousands of volunteers to this event. i feel so blessed that we've been able to be here together and gather as many friends. i know we're all excited to be moving forward with this path to a gradual and safe reopening.

we're starting the project with a very special story attached to it. on this site, right here, stood the home of a great san franciscan maria collish. she was one of the first people to move into the diamond heights neighborhood in the '50s when all of this was in open meadow. she was a chemist, activist, medical researcher whose circle of friends included chemist line, artist, and venture and architect fuller and photographer imaging cunningham and if you look over at the plaque, you will see the beautiful image that the shot of her that we memorized on a plaque. she loved her city and had he loved the people who live here. the site was donated by her son and his wife. in her honor and memory they wish to help more hard-working families stay in the city that she cared for. today, mischa at 99-years-old is

resting at home and he is looking forward to seeing a video of us all later today. the flag recognizing his mother will be a fix to the building when finished. the sculpture is based on a photo. this will stand as a reminder to all of the life maria left and her generosity to families in san francisco. so now where there was previously one home, there will be eight homes. three and four bedroom homes for families. this type of urban refill project typically more manageable numbers on units on smaller parcels o of land has potential to contribute to the number of homes that low income people can be homeowners in in san francisco. that's why we're so supportive of sensible proposals such as those by supervisor mandelman to make it a little easier to build smaller size projects and certain locations that are in keeping with the neighborhood

character density and transportation availability. just yesterday, the supervisor introduced legislation to make four-unit buildings easier to build and we support that effort. so what makes a habitat project? well, all of our homes are affordable homeownership. because we know home opioid allows families to realize potential, to build wealth and equity and accomplish their dreams. habitat serves as both the general contractor, the developer and the mortgage lender with a zero down and zero percentage interest loan for families. we cap all families housing costs at 30% of their income and this pro voids predictability, stability, and for the next generation, and for this generation as well. our homeowners invest 500 hours working alongside their neighbors and the community. they will be joined by hundreds of volunteers who live and work in san francisco and who want to make sure families have a chance to stay and plant their roots in the community. these homes are forever

affordable as habitat buys them back when families move on it market rate homes or relocate after their children are grown and the process starts over again with another family. san francisco loves volunteers, pound for pound we have the most generous people in the country right here in san francisco. we've already been inundated with offers from volunteers who are anxious to safely get back to work after the past year of quarantine. this will be supported by habitat pro commercial construction staff and they have kept our construction sites safely and productively across our region. habitat san francisco is building in and to see so much affordable housing gun o in our. and the balboa reservoir projects last year.

we're excited and proud to be homeowner developers in these projects. this is being supported by the mayor's office of housing and community development with $1.5 million in construction and permanent financing. just like so many affordable developments, the mayor will drive them to the finish. i want to acknowledge eric. when he learned that 85% of habitat homeowners were bipoc family in san francisco and we look forward to carrying the legacy forward in awful our projects. and as our reopening process proceeds, we listen to the guidance from local government, we look forward to restarting our critical repair work which has helped so many of our neighbors stay safe and warm in the homes they know and they've been in for a long time, especially in the buy view and san francisco. tur for being here. i'm delighted to introduce you to the woman who needs no introduction, and the leader mayor london broad. breed. [applause]

madam mayor, welcome. >> thank you, i had to put my hair back. it's windy out here. first of all, let me say how excited i am about this project and i am not surprised the community here in diamond heights rallied together to support it. this community is a very active community and i have a history, believe it or not, with the diamond heights community when i worked at treasure island when the city was considering moving the police academy to treasure island. this community fought to keep the police academy right here in this community and they were successful. along with the work and the advocacy around george christopher park and we broke ground on a new playground and in that particular area, a couple weeks ago. and so, this is an amazing community. it's a resilient community. it's a community that has a

history that was just talked about. maria polish, one of the first residents here in the 1950s when it was just a meadow and now look at it. a neighborhood and a community where children are raised and people shop and see each other at the grocery store and we know that this project is going to be an important part of this community too. so, i am excited about it. i'm especially excited because some of you might have remembered when i served on the board of supervisors i introduced neighborhood preference legislation and that legislation made sure that when we build affordable housing in communities, the right of first refusal for the certain percentage of those units goes to the people who actually live here who are qualified for the affordable unit. in order to allow for opportunities for your children or grand children, who may have grown up in this community, to have at least the possibility of getting access to these homes. so in this particular project,

neighborhood preference will be used for home ownership. i can't be more thrilled to be working with habitat for humanity because of the incredible work that they do the hardest part of owning a home is putting together a down payment. and in san francisco, that's at least a minimum of $250,000 in order to own a home that many people sometimes can barely afford. and here, no down payment. no more than 30% of their income used to pay representative. a place that people will call home and be able to raise their families. and if they are so fortunate enough to excel in life and generate more revenue for their household and move on to purchase another property, the home will still be affordable to the next generation. this is an incredible project for our city. and i couldn't be more thrilled. i wanted to say how much i appreciate all of you the voters of san francisco. when i first became mayor, we put on the ballot an affordable

housing bond which wow supported overwhelmingly and since i've taken office, we've been able to, along with that affordable housing and other resources, we're able town vest over a billion dollars in affordable housing in san francisco. that's why it was not a hard sil for us, immediately providing the resources necessary to get the job done for this project so it's your support, your advocacy and everyone coming together and it really does take a village and this village came together to provide incredible opportunities for home ownership for families and i'm looking forward to being here when we cut the ribbon in the first families move in. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] thank you so much, mayor. now i want to introduce someone well-known to us and well-known further afield for his thoughtful approach to an environment where more affordable homes can be built. i want to welcome rafael

mandelman. welcome. >> thank you. samson bloom. this is a little bit of like a collision of my multiple world's. i want to grad school 20 something years ago with eric and hey eric, and i worked when i was a lawyer in private practice representing local governments on many teams, are you representing kappa chat? you are on the board. awesome. well, good to see you. so, at any rate, everybody, i am so excited about this particular moment. from the moment that i started as a supervisor, i wanted to see more affordable housing built in district 8 and district 8 is a hard district to get affordable housing built in notwithstanding the displacement that has happened from district 8. it's hard because we're built out and we don't have a lot of available sites because land

values are high. from our very first meeting with mayor breed, i've been asking her for help with affordable housing in district 8 and she's been delivering it. she acquired a big giant property on market street that is going to house lgbtq queer seniors and friends. this particular project is really exciting and required moe and eric to do outside the box thinking about how to use the funds. in district 8, projects small projects like this habitat projects, affordable home projects make a lot of sense on these small sites. but it's been something that most have been funding before and i'm sure partly through the intervention of our mayor and doing things like this and it showed great flexibility around funding this and i have all sorts of people who i should thank.

got the mayor and eric shaw and of course habitat for humanity and the tremendous work you do and you are pushing us to think outside the box about getting this project done. all of the volunteers and of course the neighbors. betsy, deserves praise all the time in every way but it's wonderful to be in a neighborhood that is welcoming affordable housing and wants to see it built here and i'd love to say this was courageous to have this project here but the neighborhood wants it and people have been e-mailing us saying when is it getting done. there's excitement and enthusiasm and of course finally to mischa and his family for making this opportunity availability this is exciting. thank you, everyone. >> thank you so much. so as we get ready to mark the occasion with some photos.

we're going to put some shovels in the ground. i want to thank everyone for being here and lending your support. thank you mayor breed, you are well served by your staff and they were amazing to work with and thank you supervisor mandelman and your team, also amazing and thank you to our neighbors here in beautiful diamond heights we can't wait to see you out on the construction site in the spring and be ready to start with our volunteers, right, err on, and all our communities of homeowners, volunteers, board members, staff, donors, thank you, thank you, thank you. and a most special thank you to my friends, and our generous donor mischa and the vision and donation of this hand in honor of maria, began journey and brought us here where today. thank you all. thank you very much and we appreciate you joining us. we're going to move over to some photos. 3, 2, 1, turn that dirt!

>> we're in business! today's special guest is virginia donnahu. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you're watching coping with covid-19. today, my guest is virginia donnahugh. she's with us today to talk about how her team has managed during the pandemic and their experience completing construction on a 65,000 square

foot facility and moving into it during this crisis. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. >> let's talk about the new building and how your operations have adapted because of covid-19. can you walk us through the experience of completing construction on the new facility at 419 bryant street during the covid-19 crisis and then actually moving in? >> first of all, the new facility is wonderful. it gives us twice as much space for the animals, it improved our hvac system. it improves our ability to give care. but finishing this facility was d. stressful during covid-19. we went from a team of people who met every week at the facility all the time, to having to meet virtually, to having to figure out the last half of construction not in person and that was certainly a challenge. the move itself was something

that was i was very anxious about that having go well and it actually went pretty flawless. we can have up to 250 animals in the shelter at any given time and we knew that moving 250 animals would just be impossible. that would just be a nightmare. so we worked really hard ahead of time with our adoption partners to get the animal population as low as possible. we moved them first thing in the morning. they woke up. they came over from the old shelter to the new shelter and had breakfast in their new shelter. and our animal care professionals were here the night before to set up all their beds and dishes, to set up everything so that it would be a smooth entry for the animals. >> i understand they haven't been able to help as much as they used to. >> our volunteers were not able

to help with the actual move itself because of covid. what our volunteers have been doing for the past year is doing a lot of foster care for us and a lot of transportation. so as we send animals to other shelters, we have lots of volunteers who come to the shelter, pick up the animal and drive it anywhere from wild care in marin if you're a pigeon to oregon or idaho with a couple of dogs. so we have some wonderful volunteers who do a lot of work for us. we normally have about 400 volunteers. last noncovid year, they donated 26,000 hours of service. generally, they've been responsible for a lot of the animal enrichment here. so the staff had to take over the enrichment part and we have been very fortunate that the adult population had been lower than normal.

we've had lots and lots of people who are anxious to have pets. so animals have been flowing out of here much more quickly than normal. >> you have a lot more space in the new facility. what's your favorite part and has anything surprised you about how the animals are responding to their new surroundings? >> i would say that my favorite part of the new place is the central courtyard. the central courtyard is first floor and you can see it behind me in the background a bit. it's a giant place based on the first floor and from anywhere in the building, you can kind of glance over and see an animal playing in the park. and i have to tell you nothing lights up your day more than seeing a dog playing fetch in the park. it's a great little break. it's been a surprise. i didn't expect to just get

such a rush of kind of relief. it's really a stress breaker to see that going on. so that's been fabulous. so the dogs in particular have been noticeably quieter, noticeably less stressed out. we added a lot of glass to the facility and originally we had thought we would tinker with the lighting so that we and the public could see in, but the animals couldn't see how. we thought that would be more relaxing, but we haven't adjusted the lights yet and i have noticed that there are a lot of dogs who are enjoying seeing us walk by. but just watching the normal staff of the shelter walk around the building, they really just seem to be paying attention to what we're doing and they're finding it pretty relaxing. >> can you tell us about some of the special features in the new location? >> so the new facility is twice as big as the old facility and

before, the animals were really in spaces that were too small. every animal has twice as much space. we also used to have one play yard and now we have four. we have three for the dogs and one play yard specifically dedicated to the rabbits because the rabbits used to share with the dogs and we all know that was not a good deal for the rabbits. >> so whereabouts is the play center located in the building? >> we have one central courtyard which when you come into the building, you see it right there. the other three are on the roof deck. most animal shelters are in places where there's land, lots of land and you spread out horizontally. being in san francisco, we, of course, had to go vertical and this is a converted building from the 1890s. so there was a large roof deck on top with three split places and all the mechanical equipment that powers the building. >> now, you never stopped

operations during the pandemic. what changes did you make to your usual procedures to make sure the general public, staff, and the animals are all safe? >> right. we have never closed. we switched a lot of our services to online. for example, you can get a dog license online now. you don't have to mail it in, you can just sit at home on your computer and do it. so that was one change. we also went to an appointment system. it used to be we did everything on a drop-in basis and now we do everything on appointment which actually has seem to be a more pleasant way to deliver customer service in general. there's no more waiting around. in terms of our adoption, our volunteers have been great at being foster family so we get an animal in the shelter. depending on how long it's going to be here, we can transfer it to a foster family. the foster family can work with

its behavior, help get it settled in and then we put it up on the website and people interested in adopting during the height of covid, we were just matching them with the foster family so that they didn't -- neither party had to come into the shelter. so that's been good. in the beginning, we were really less sure how covid spread. we were working in different shifts so we had team a and team b. so if team a became infected we had team b come in. we had wards prepared for dogs who were exposed to covid because in the beginning, there was a lot of concern about pets being a source or a way to spread covid. >> fortunately, you didn't have to take care of pets who caught covid-19. >> no. just the two or three. we also thought there would be

a lot of people who were hospitalized for long periods of time who would need our custody program support. we have a regular program where you're a hospitalized victim of a fire in court, incarcerated, domestic violence. if you can't care for your pet, we'll take your pet for two weeks, we didn't have to do that at all really. >> now, you mentioned that the pandemic had an impact on the number of animals coming through your doors. were you still able to find new homes for those animals you were taking care of? >> no. actually. finding homes has been easier than it ever has been. it's been remarkable. dogs especially pit bulls used to tend to stay here for a long time, they found homes within days. it's been marvelous how the public has stepped up and taken these animals into their homes. it's been great. overall, our intake of wild

life stayed the same. cats and dogs dropped pretty significantly. we don't know why, but fewer people surrendered their pets during this time period. >> perhaps because people are staying put during the crisis. >> yeah. maybe less moving. less losing housing because people usually surrender their pets to us because of some traumatic change to circumstance in their life. they're moving because they want to move, they get evicted. they've had a pet and the landlord finds out and says, oh, no pets. they lose a job, they become sick and we really didn't see much of that this year. >> finally, is there anything the general public can do to help? i know the local vet always needs blankets and towels. >> sure.

we always need bath sized towels. we always need those. of course, we always need financial donations. they're a great help. kitten season is coming up, so we always need nursing supplies and those sorts of things and we keep that all updated on our website sfanimalcare.org. we have links to amazon and links to chewy. when you're buying your pet food, you can always sneak in something extra for us. >> how do i drop off towels? >> well, at this point, we're open monday through friday 7:00 to 5:00 and we have a donation box out front. so you don't even need to come in. >> great. i'm looking forward to the day you can open up again for the general public. the new building looks fantastic. i want to thank you so much for coming on the show, and for gives us your time today. >> thank you. we look forward to having the

public come and see us too. >> thanks again. and that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more pandemic information shortly. you've been washing "coping with covid-19." i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

the celebration of our a.p.i. community goes on every day. but i'll say that a.p.i. heritage has become a bigger and better event effort each year. more partners, more appreciation and attention locally and nationally. and more recognition for the role asian americans and pacific islanders play in the life of this country in this very city. we're proud to welcome you to the museum to start the celebration. the asian art museum celebrates asian american culture, a place to explore, to discover and to be inspired by the power and the meaning of art and inspiration is the key to connection and connection is what this celebration is all about. so i'm thrilled to introduce

claud chen to tell you more about what's in store. claudian is a supporter of asian art culture and she has been the organizing force behind this celebration for 17 years. and she also serves on the board of the asian arts museum foundation. i'm so grateful and delighted to welcome to say a few words, introduce today's program to all of us. claudine. >> thank you. is it almost afternoon yet. thank you everyone for coming. every year, we would like to make sure the public learns about what we have planned for asian heritage month. this year, our theme is celebration theme is celebrate resilience, uplift voices. we all know the tremendous challenges that the a.p.i.

community has been facing this past year whether it's with covid-19 or with the anti-asian hate. however, it is the consensus of the community that we want the celebration of this month to be positive. we want to show the world that we are proud asian pacific americans and we are proud being americans. so, as you will see, throughout the month, we have many programs over 50 programs that show case the art and culture of asian pacific america. later on this morning, you will hear from the best museum of the world of asian art museum, the best public library in the country, the san francisco public library as well as the largest asian american film festival in the country. i was told also in the world. so what's different about this year? we want to be relevant. we are very concerned about

social justice issues that asian communities are facing with. so this year in addition to arts and culture so this year's program to talk about what it means, what racism means. how do we achieve equity. what does solidarity mean. so we and public safety, very important on everybody's mind. public safety. and, in addition to that, what's new this year. we are going to for the first time have a multi-cultural program. we live in a diverse society and a very multi-cultural society. so taking advantage of asian heritage month, we are putting together the first anti-asian program that will be featuring

artists from diverse programs to talk about cultural identities to talk about how they achieve social justice through art. there's some activities and programs for everyone to enjoy. we encourage everyone to find out what they can do in the month of may in san francisco. at this time, i would like to warmly welcome our mayor, mayor london breed. there's no other better champion that the a.p.i. community has found in this past year through the challenges that we have. we note that's one person we can count on who cares about us, making sure san francisco is the most multi-diverse city in the country. so here's mayor breed.

>> thank you so much claudine. it's a little windy out here today. i can't wait until we can get back indoors for these press conferences. i don't know about you. but it's now overdue with over 70% of san franciscans receiving their first dose of the vaccine so far. so san francisco is doing an incredible job with the vaccination process and, today, as we kick off asian pacific american heritage month in san francisco during the month of may, it just reminds us as to how far we've come as a city. last year, this celebration was held virtually. we didn't let this pandemic stop us from celebrating and uplift our asian pacific islander community in san francisco and i really want to take this opportunity to not only thank claudine chang for founding the committee that

founded a.p.i. heritage month in san francisco, but continuing to elevate the conversations that are so important to build the bridges between the a.p.i. community and others in our city. we know that this community has had a really challenging time over the past few months. with the xenophobia and discrimination ever since this pandemic began perpetrated by even leaders of this country that i am now happy are gone. it is up to us to make sure that we don't allow that to infect san francisco in a negative way. and so the work that claudine is doing to bridge that gap with communities not just in this moment, in this festival, but what she does year around is very much appreciated and very necessary in order to make

sure that we drive out the hatred that divides us and we bring forth our history and culture and all the things that unite us. just think about it. all of us want a safe place to raise your families and take care of our parents and live a good life and how do we talk about our differences and how do we talk about our similarities in a way that supports and uplifts one another. api heritage month is a time where we pause and we recognize the contributions of our asian pacific islander community here in san francisco. when we recognize how significant they are to building this city, to building this country. here in san francisco, we make it very clear that we will not tolerate the hate and division. we will do everything we can to make not just the right policy changes and investments, but

the right program attic things that are needed in order to bridge those gaps and so we all stand united putting forth a program that in some cases will be in person, but we will do so safely. but as we prepare for next year where we're really going to show case the performance or the events because yes, i don't mind the zoom and video stuff that you watch online. we adjusted to that, but now it's time to start opening the doors and come back together again and i can't be more excited to do that by kicking off api heritage month here in san francisco right across from city hall at this incredible asian art museum right next to the library. we have our city librarian michael lambert with us with some amazing programatic plans

for this month. if you haven't been to cam fest, you are missing out big time. make sure you take advantage of the programs and the events. so many great act its, so many ways in which we can celebrate and uplift our a.p.a. community here in san francisco and with that, i'd like to introduce our city administrator car men chiu. >> thank you very much, mayor, for the warm welcome to everybody who is here today and of course to claudine and jay for hosting this event today. my name is carmen chiu. we've all had a difficult year dealing with not only the pandemic on our hands, but some of the racial violence and challenges we've seen not on here locally, in the bay area and in san francisco, but across the country. i think it's worthwhile to note

especially someone who has grown up here as an asian american woman that xenophobia and some of the challenges we are facing in our community is not something that's new. it's not something that just came about because of the pandemic. but it's something we've seen embedded within our history here in the united states. whether it was the people who were discriminated against when they came to work on the railroads or the chinese exclusion act among all of the other different discriminatory acts that we've seen, we've seen this play out through many different ways whether through legal action or the subtle ways where people are excluded or treated or always as a perpetual immigrant in this society. i have to say i'm very excited to be here to kick off our apa heritage month and the reason is because this is an opportunity for us to take all of those challenges and that

pain and that hurt and to turn it into something that is different and positive. to begin to turn the leaf on what we think our country should be to live up the ideals of making sure we have an inclusive community and inclusive society. i want to thank claudine and all of the folks because it's an opportunity for all of us to engage to remind everyone that asian american history is american history. that when we start to open up the conversations, we start to make ourselves vulnerable to talk about our hurts, our pains, our experiences. we start to build those connections and bridges between our communities to make sure what we are advancing where we are. so, again, i'm very excited to be here for that reason because let's not forget that we've always been a community of resilience. my parents, many people before them who've immigrated with nothing, we've been a resilient community.

we're going to get through this together and the way we start is by uplifting our voices, making our voices be heard and sharing all of those experiences that help to bring our communities together. thank you very much. with that, claudine. >> thank you, city administrator. so the mayor just now talked about we will have a kickoff celebration in japantown on saturday. of course, the event will be in compliance of san francisco's public health guidelines. at that event, every year following our tradition, we will be honoring some exceptional organizations for the significant milestones. we will be honoring this year the 60th anniversary of the san francisco soul. we will be honoring the san francisco and also the national

japanese american historical society for 40 years of contributions. this year, because we always talk about we are the san francisco bay region. we are also -- we give special recognition to two special organizations that have brought bay area compact. the national japanese chamber of commerce of northern california for being around for seventy years and, of course, world journal, one of the premier newspapers in the country and of course in san francisco bay area providing news and information to our chinese american community congratulating them on their 45th anniversary. so, hopefully all of you will be there when we celebrate all these milestones and, now, i would like to invite our celebration partners to tell you the highlight maybe just one or two of what your organization is offering in the month of may, maybe starting with the largest asian american

film festival in the country. and the director of the festival. >> thank you, claudine. hello everyone. i am the festival and exhibitions director at the center for asian american media. i want to thank claudine so much for letting cam participate in this wonderful month of celebrations and i'm surrounded by so many amazing people, it's quite it's the nation's largest film festival that celebrates asian american stories. we will be presenting over 100 diverse films, over 50 unique events. mostly virtual, but also at fort mason center, we will have three wonderful evenings of

screenings of films. half of those films are local films about our asian american communities. as everyone mentioned, there's a lot of anxiety in the world, there's a lot happening. and we wanted a festival that represents that moment. as we all know in this last year, media's so important. being able to connect. being able to have some levity to be inspired by films and stories is so important. so we do hope we can do a lot for our communities, not only let you all know about some talented creative folk, but hopefully to inspire people to heal communities. camfest.com is where a lot of our screenings and programs will happen. one of the great things is we have film makers from all around the world who will be participating being able to connect with you all. so once again, claudine, thank you so much. i do hope this year, i know it's going to be fabulous, but in my brain, i'm thinking about

next year. i'm thinking about my 40th anniversary festival and i dream of being back at the asian art museum opening night. i hope to see you all there this may, but then also next year as well. thank you. >> and, so we have our city librarian michael lambert. michael. >> thank you, claudine. and thank you, madam mayor, for your leadership in guiding us through this past year. i'm really excited that this is the 60th anniversary of the soul sister city committee. i was born in sol and i want to thank mayor breed for appointing me to be the first asian american city librarian in san francisco and the first asian american to lead any major urban library in the country. it's truly wonderful to be here at the asian art museum to celebrate the kickoff of asian pacific american heritage month.

this year's theme celebrates resilience and uplift voice social security really the perfect inspiration as we're on our way to recovery and healing. i want to thank the apa celebration partners and particularly claudine for your passion and ongoing commitment to celebrating our culture and heritage in san francisco. apa heritage month is all about celebrating community. honored to be one of the cultural institutions that helps to highlight the important contributions of our aapi community to the richness and vitality of san francisco. we have an incredible lineup of programming this year and i encourage everyone to visit the website. apaheritage.org and take advantage of some of these programs. we've got incredible authors. i saw chef martin yan is in the lineup. i'm excited to welcome our community back inside the main library on monday and to our

chinatown branch and a couple weeks after that. the books are back and we are well on our way to re-opening our library system and i so look forward to seeing everyone back in the stacks soon. thank you. >> jay, do we have anything to add for the museum? >> thank you, claudine. i would be delighted. claudine, with our mayor, commission administrator, and program sponsors and of course our media friends. thank you for spending this beautiful nevertheless windy museum. asian art celebrates asian american art in the heritage center and we're also playing a leading role in raising our collective voices in fighting against anti-asian racism and violence. so after this press conference, i'll encourage you to all go to the other side of our museum to

see the murals outside the museum. we really have turned the museum inside out. we express ourselves from our internal values to our external audience's engagement and these are the works by asian american women artists. very powerful in raising their voices through the voice of art and for this particular month, apa heritage month, we also celebrate connections amongst this very diverse community and their cross cultural impacts and those connections are beyond not only within the asian american api communities but also beyond with all diverse communities. so let me just highlight three programs. our content involves visual arts, of course, but also food, but also music. one program is called artist panel, environmental resilience and asian pacific american leadership. the topic that transcends all

boundaries. in the program, food at the table, afro asian art. asian art museum has been exploring very active partnerships and other museums of other communities all along. one of our strongest community partners. and we continue to explore the cross pollination and collaboration. the third program i'll just highlight is called "celebrating asian futures" in music conversation with venn and voo and friends with a wonderful american vietnamese asian artist. and asian american heritage every day. so come to enjoy the museum and also advise us to tell us how we can do better.

thank you very much. >> thank you, jay. so, apa heritage month is really a big community celebration. it's coming back together of our apa family. so i want to really thank many of the volunteers that have been able, that are coming together to make this happen that are not here today because everyone is working, but i just want to take this opportunity to acknowledge all the volunteers who serve on our committee and our board. we could have not brought this together without our sponsors. this is a big collaboration between our city, our government, and business communities. we have many sponsors with us this year and including but not limited to anthem blue cross, ramo and for many years the golden state warriors and, this year, we have three amazing presenting sponsors. kaiser, amazon, and u.s. bank.

two of the representatives are here today and i really want to thank them and maybe they have greetings to share with us and jane pang from u.s. bank is here. jane. >> good afternoon. on behalf of u.s. bank, i am so proud to be part of today's official kickoff. i'm jane pang, vice president and business making leader with u.s. bank. this past year has been an especially difficult one for our community. at u.s. bank, we have pledged to do our part to combat racism and anti-asian hate in the community. diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of everything we do and we are

committed to stand with you during apa month and beyond. just last month, u.s. bank helped deliver 3,000 personal safety kits to our customers and community groups. in chinatown and other asian american neighborhoods across the bay area. and, last week, our employees volunteered to help distribute meal vouchers to vulnerable seniors in chinatown. u.s. bank has also announced additional financial support to aapi organizations including our incredible partner here today, asian pacific american heritage foundation. our work and support of aapi communities is critically important and will continue. thank you. >> thank you, jane, and last but not least, i think apa heritage month, from amazon, sally kay. >> thank you, claudine. and, thank you, mayor breed. and all the members of the apa

heritage committee. i want to applaud you for many years of devotion to ensure the api community has been celebrated in san francisco. amazon is here today to celebrate asian pacific american heritage month along with our employees, our customers and our neighbors and friends throughout the city. it's wonderful to be here today with the optimism of spring and to gather together with a new hope. this last year, the tragic events that have happened have made this celebration even more important. and, with that in mind, amazon music which has a large number of employees here in san francisco has highlighted play lists, new music, short films and more to highlight visibility for api artists. at amazon, we stand in celebration and in solidarity with the api community and we are committed to help building a country and a world where

everyone is free from fear and can live with dignity. and amazon is committed to advancing social equity and justice throughout san francisco. thank you so much for having us. >> thank you, sally. and, thank you, mayor breed for your time and thank you all for coming and hope to see you all on saturday, may 1st in japantown. >> my name is amanda [inaudible] over see the girls

sports program. when i came to san francisco and studied recreation and parks and towerism and after i graduated i moved to candlestick park and grain r gain adlot of experience work with the san francisco 49 and [inaudible] be agfemale in a vore sports dynamic facility. i coached volo ball on the side and as candle stick closed down the city had me move in92 too [inaudible] >> immediate interaction and response when you work with kids. i think that is what drives other people to do this. what drew me to come to [inaudible] to begin with for me to stay. i use today work in advertising as a media buyer and it wasn't fulfilling enough and i found a opportunity to be a writing coach. the moment

[inaudible] you to take advantage of how you change and inspire a child by the words you say and actions you do. >> you have a 30 different programs for girls through rec and park and fast ball, soft ball and volley ball. i started the first volley ball league and very proud what i have done with that. being a leader for girls is passion and showing to be confident and being ambiggish and strong person. [inaudible] for about 5 years. programs offered thraw thirty-three rec and park and oversee thg prms about a year. other than the programs we offer we offer summer camp squz do [inaudible] during the summer and that is something i wherei have been able to shine in my role. >> couple years we started the civic center socking league and

what an amazing opportunity it was and is it for kid in the neighborhood who come together every friday in the civic center plaza on green grass to run and play. you otonly see soccer and poetry but also see books t. is a really promoting literacy to our kid and giving them to tools to make it work at home. real fortunate to see the [inaudible] grow. >> girls get pressureed with society and i know that is obvious, but we see it every day, magazines, commercials the idea what a woman should look like but i like to be a strong female role for it goals that play sports because a lot of times they don't see someone strong in a female role with something connected with sports and athleticism and i love i can bring that to the table. >> soccer, poetry, community

service. we now have field of dreams. we are [inaudible] all over the bay area and excited to be share our mission with other schools across the bay to really build the confidence and character of kids when they go out to play and close their eyes and think, why was [inaudible] we want to make sure-i want to make sure they remember me and remember the other folks who [inaudible] >> get out there and do it. who cares about what anybody else says. there will be poopal people that come up and want to wreck your ideas. that happen today eme when i went to candle stick part and wanted to [inaudible] people told me no left and right. whether you go out for something you are passionate about our something you want to grow in and feel

people will say no. go out and get it done. i can be the strong leader female and i love that. >> you're watching "coping with covid-19" with chris manners. today's special guest is katie birdbaum. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you're watching "coping with covid-19." my guest is katie birdbalm. she's here today to talk about san francisco city programs which transforms city streets

into car-free spaces. the program's beginning to start up again. ms. birdbalm, welcome to the show. >> thank you, chris, i'm excited to be here. >> before we get into the details, can you give us a brief overview of how it works. >> yeah. it's san francisco's open streets program and it was founded in 2008 as a mayoral initiative under mayor gavin newsome the now governor. the climate change equity program. to be able to transform our streets. the community spaces allow communities historically underserved and suffer from higher rates of preventable diseases can be connected to healthy eating, active living activities and really connect to the rest of the city as well and so that's how we got started in 2008. >> i know that some small scale

events started up again in april. could you police man where they were. how they managed safety and what they managed to do? >> yeah. absolutely. we still are in the waning days of the pandemic. we're there, so we do have some safety protocols in place. but we really were able to bring back sunday streets this april. we celebrated the opening of a biking and walking path in the bayview indian basin shoreline. we were able to offer fitness classes and things like that as well as covid-19 testing. along the water front and a way for people to basically celebrate our new walking and biking path and be able to get outside and exercise while still being totally safe in

terms of covid compliance and plenty of social distancing and ability to control who and where you're around. >> that's great. what can we look forward to in may? i've heard there's going to be new ways to celebrate carnival and cinco de mayo. >> yeah. so one thing we've been partnering with san francisco and carnival. there are a lot of large festivals. they've had to change some of their programming to compliance needs and the health and safety needs of our community, but that does not stop the fabulous spirit of carnival coming to san francisco. but we're going to continue our partnership this year and they're going to continue a health and wellness fair. so they're able to access the critical covid-19 resources and also be able to experience some

beautiful cultural performances in a safe, compliant format. we're able to do that with them again this year, so we're really excited to bring that program back out and we're helping offer some fitness classes around their health and safety fairs. that's going to be a beautiful way to celebrate spring and celebrate the culture that san francisco is known for around the world and then also with that, we're going to be doing a bike ride with them on cinco de mayo, so helping support the latino taskforce food hub and they're organizing a bike ride and active living. we're going to be supporting that and riding out with carnival on cinco de mayo. >> that's cool. we haven't talked about walkway weekends yet. is that an ongoing event? >> yeah, so walkway weekend is one of the anchor sites for this year. so, you know, as part of covid

compliance, we're not able to do big events, but we're doing a lot of smaller activation city rides and walkway weekends in chinatown is one of our anchor sites throughout the year. so we were able to access grant avenue car-free, that's from california to washington car-free every saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and it's full with kind of the beautiful culture and art that is chinatown all the time. kind of a fun way to experience that with plenty of extra room in the street. also, as little extra room for us to have things like a lion dance. there's an exhibition that's there every saturday. we're also going to be offering some fitness classes as well as other cultural programming as we're allowed to do it as things open up. >> these events take a lot of planning. i require a variety of resources to get off the

ground. i know you work closely with the sfmta and the department of public health to organize them, but could you talk a little bit about the partnerships that make the sunday streets program possible and explain why they're so important? >> yeah. absolutely. sunday streets really at its core, you know, i work for a nonprofit called "livable city" and we hold the city streets program and at the center of it, it's been a partnership program. so they're transforming miles anywhere from 1 to 4 miles of city streets into car-free community spaces filling those with community groups, nonprofits, business activities and just kind of unique san francisco treasures wanting to bring their specialness to the streets. it really has always been a partnership program. it's quite literally magic when all of these streets can transform within just a couple of, you know, we end up doing it in about 30 to 45 minutes

where we transform 1 to 4 miles of streets into car-free community spaces. every city agency supports it as well as hundreds of community partners. it's a whole family of partners that are stepping forward to make sure that that space and that opportunity is being offered to the community in san francisco. >> could you talk about the four concepts of sunday streets. i understand you have something in the planning stages for october and, do you think our residents will be ready for large events by then? >> well, we do have something brewing for october and very much, you know, to answer your question, are people going to be ready to be together and in crowds again? that is part of our strategy for the rides together season as we are starting now with small, like i said, very small comfortable, safe format with not that many people at it, so people can start getting used to being out and about again,

right and that it is an activity that can be safe and enjoyable and really just start getting their feet wet in that type of community activity. so the hope is that, you know, we are able to throughout the spring and summer and into the early parts of the fall really get people used to being again in community again for ability for us to be able to come back in full force, sometime in the late fall. so we're looking at october is what we're looking at and the hopes is that we can actually create miles of streets for us to come out and celebrate in. you know, we're obviously going to be watching the public health directives and as they unfold and follow them and make sure we're keeping all the community members safe and we'll make adjustments as needed. but the way things are trending right now, we should be able to be out together by the fall in

a way that looks and feels a lot more like it used to for sunday streets. >> i'm really excited to see the city open up again and what you're doing with the sunday streets program is promising. and i want to thank you for coming on the show today. this has been really encouraging. >> thank you, chris. we're excited to see everybody out in the streets sometime when it's safe. >> thanks again. that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more updates shortly. you've been watching "coping with covid-19." for sfgov tv, i'm chris manners. thanks for watching.

>> the city of san jose and i'm honored to be joined by friends and colleagues as part of the california big city mayor's coalition united for a common and urgent cause that is well after this pandemic has passed and an even pandemic will persist and that is

homelessness. our city mayors no far too well that affects 161,000 of our fellow californians we have convened today. this year's budget presents california with a once in a generation opportunity to dramatically reduce homelessness. if we can muster the collective courage and will to stand up for our most vulnerable neighbors. today, we stand together to issue a clearing call for historic investment against california's shameful scourge against homelessness. we sent a letter to our governor and legislative leadership encouraging that they commit a substantial share of this year's more than $40 billion budgetary surplus toward a multi-year funding strategy towards this crisis. a commitment of $4 billion per year.

we call for flexibility of dollars to prevent homelessness to triple down on successful initiative such as governor newsol's project home to get more of our neighbors off the streets. sustained successful models of emergency transitional permanent housing, tiny homes and many other initiatives that have emerged in our city. $4 billion per year over the next half decade. this commitment would be bold, part of this pandemic, the state of california had never spent more than a billion dollars to address homelessness, but we stand together to say we need to treat homelessness like the crisis that it is. we have met with the governor and legislative leadership to discuss our options and opportunities, we've pressed our case and they have

responded. in mid april, our senate leader rose and the california senate issued its budget plan called "build it back boldly." they called for precisely $4 billion in investment and homelessness solutions in each of the next five years for a total of $20 billion and just yesterday, the assembly released its budget and their colleagues similarly called for a $20 billion investment spread over the next half decade. we express our immense gratitude to our leadership and staff for recognizing this unique moment and for their continued partnership in this fight. and fortunately, we have a governor who gets it and who has already made historic commitments towards housing

solutions and many others have forged a set of initiatives. project "room key" serving more than 35,000 homeless residents. and certainly this is greater progress than we've ever seen, but we have much more work to do. i want to thank the amazing leaders who are about to speak after me and who i'm honored to call my colleagues and friends and enable timely flexible dollars they use to address the unique needs of their cities and to do so quickly. we'll be displaying this in the backgrounds behind us. behind me, next to this freeway, that is the 101, the emergency housing community we built here and just opened in recent weeks. although, building apartments in the bay area typically cost

about $700,000 per apartment building, we've shown how we can utilize and neglect publicland and innovative like this one in less than six months. we've built three of these already in the last year and a fourth one will be under way shortly. it's my great honor to introduce my friend and colleague he's just announced an epic commitment to address homelessness. welcome eric garcetti. >> thank you so much. and to this incredible group of brother and sister mayors across the state.

to come across partisan, bipartisan gentlemen graphy and it was in 2017, maybe 2016 when i was chairing this group and we were the big 11 before we became the big 13 and so glad to have both stockton and riverside as part of this organization now where we were with the last governor saying this homelessness thing is pretty big, we'd love to see the state get involved and we all love jerry brown. but we wouldn't quit. and we convinced him grudgingly because he only spent money grudgingly, but happily in the end knowing cities can turn around solutions to homelessness immediately. we had a governor who had as a mayor tackled homelessness, governor newsome saw that and tackled it and then doing cutting edge work which is now making a national splash with

programs like "operation home key" and los angeles resulted with the state buying 15 buildings and on our own another five that inspired us to get the twenty buildings we purchased in just three months. this is the biggest crisis in california. we see them under our bridges and, unfortunately, it's not just there anymore in the shadows. it's in front of businesses and homes. it is everywhere. it's the first thing people talk about and the second thing they talk about. and long after this pandemic is done, the pandemic of homelessness let's be clear what the consequences are and the worst cases, people die from homelessness. it's time for california at a moment of a historic surplus to speak to our values and to step up and i know we have the dream team with this governor and two legislative leaders and their fellow colleagues. this is why we were overjoyed to see both president and the speaker put together the

support of $4 billion a year to have a 5-year commitment, $20 billion to go straight into california's communities and in those concentrated areas of california's biggest cities to make sure we continue that momentum. behind each one of us, you see how we spend it. it's for shelter, permanent housing, it's for everything we need to address the complexity of homelessness. and, typically, those who are listening from the media are used to folks from cities or folks from an issue area coming to sacramento and saying "solve this problem for us. here's our empty hat and hand." we're not coming with empty hats in hand. and pockets full of investments. in los angeles, what that meant and when i became manager of the state, we're not lucky like london to have a county and city together was just

$10 million. in the budget i released last week, it's $955 million. part of that is state money. part of that is local measure that we passed and part of that is every extra ounce that we can find in this budget because this is our top priority. add that up between 13 cities. we are putting billions of dollars of money on the line and saying match us. meet this. get it right. it's not an either or. it is housing. it is shelter. yes, it is services. it is also trusting that cutting through red tape works when you empower local communities to make the decisions and spend quickly the money and we have a record and the data to show of the dollars effectively quickly, and happily being spent in our communities. i want to hand it over to my brother mayor in san diego who is one of our newest mayors, but also one of our boldest leaders. you know him from his state legislative work.

by ty gloria, the floor is yours. let's get this done. >> thank you, mayor garcetti. thank you my fellow mayor who is are here today. to help this issue in housing and homelessness. you were saying a moment ago, it resinated for me. we were leading during the pandemic and economic slowdown. it is striking to me the thing i'm asked about the most is what are you doing about homelessness. a moment where their health and health of their loved ones. fearful about their finances and the finances of loved ones that this is the issue they talked the most about and that's precisely why this group of leaders in cities across the state. bipartisan leaders say we need to continue state assistance in order to be able to respond to that about what we're doing about homelessness.

i want to acknowledge the leadership of our governor and my former colleagues and my former speaker or the current speaker, my former legislative leader anthony rendon and $20 billion over multiple years understanding that we can't solve this problem in one fiscal year. it then takes the repeated commitment of state, federal, and local leadership to get the job done. now, eric was talking about bringing some hard hats to the table, i'm bringing some [inaudible] to the table. my former colleagues in the legislature. we really want to see how we're bringing these dollars to work. to make sure that the dollars that californians entrust their state government with that those dollars are actually getting the job done. and, i'll tell you down here in san diego, we've been working extremely hard to change the status quo on homelessness. to move away from shiny objects, instead, invest in

proven strategies that are housing first spoken, human centered and compassionate in their approach. i want to tell you about a couple key stories. number one, we converted our city convention center into a temporary homeless shelter during the pandemic. collaborations between the city, the county, and nonprofit partners, we were able toll house over 4,000 san diegans. 43 families housed through that process. it really shows what happens when we choose to make this a priority and tapped with the urgency that californians are asking. through that process, we were able to vaccinate many of our homeless in our san diego community making sure our worst fears of outbreak and our population did not come. more importantly for our friends, we used a significant amount of home key dollars to

purchase two extended stay hotels and convert them into new, permanent supportive homes for four hundred high need clients. you can see one of those hotels behind me. the 332 homes we were able to build of acquired $2.3 million of annual funds to keep people housed. the housing unit is helpful, but as my fellow mayors know, it's the services that keep people housed for the long term. the city of san diego is prepared, ready, anxious to be able to acquire more of these hotels to convert them to supportive housing to get people off the streets for good. we need flexible funding as well to provide those services to say with a straight face to our residents and to our bosses that we will keep people housed and keep them off the street permanently. i will just tell you when we follow the housing first strategies, when we invest in more housing, permanent

housing, we know that we can get people off the streets and we can use innovative concepts that are seen behind so many of my colleagues here to see even more. emergency beds, safe parking program. dollars entrusted to us by the state that are getting results. and so it's my colleagues in sacramento who are diffeying up the budget as we speak and doing the difficult things like siting those housing projects, by executing the contracts to get the housing done. in my proposed budget, we are making an unprecedented commitment to this particular problem. we can do even more. so we are calling upon our state leaders for their continued partnership to take advantage of this once in a generation opportunity to fund

the housing and the services that we know work for people experiencing homelessness and to make a lasting impact on this crisis that i believe all of us were elected to solve. so, with those comments, it gives me great pleasure to turn the mic over to my friend up in san francisco. some people that's the second largest city in the state. i'll remind them it is san diego. my friend, mayor london breed. >> thank you, mayor gloria. and, thank you so much everyone for joining us here today and for coming together on these very important issues that impact our cities. here in san francisco, we've been working really hard to build housing, more shelters, and to connect people with the services they need. we've developed over 9,000 permanent housing placements and we created thousands more, but in our last point in time count, we still have over 5,000 people who are facing unsheltered homelessness. the reality is not one city can

do this alone. not one city can fully address this problem because it's clearly a statewide crisis. we all need more resources to truly face this challenge of the scale that's needed to make a real difference. and, we need to acknowledge that this problem won't be fixed overnight. it will require a sustained commitment over multiple years. this is a challenge that's developed over decades and our response will take multiple years to really solve what is truly an embedded problem. we need to build more housing, of course, provide rental assistance for people in need and create connections to employment, education, health care and behavioral resources. there's no one solution to homelessness. it requires a number of different approaches and many of them take time. that's why we're all here today. we're calling for a commitment from the state to provide the resources we need to make a difference over multiple years. there's so much to do. we have to reactivate our

shelter systems after covid. to house people from shelter-in-place hotels and continue to move people off the streets. some of us have been able to purchase hotels and make them permanent housing options for formally homeless people. that has been incredible. has a lot to do with project room key. in our reaction with this pandemic if we were provided the resources, it can be done. i look forward to making sure we have partners and resources and support in the state. and, with that, i'd like to introduce mayor jerry drier from fresno. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed. i appreciate it. again, jerry dyer mayor of the city of fresno. i can't say enough about the

unprecedented partnership that exists between california's largest cities, governor newsome and our state legislaturers and it is a crisis. this partnership is allowing us to rescue our most vulnerable population providing them with a safe environment to live. much needed services and ultimately hope for a future, a better future. and, in fresno, we've used "project home key" dollars to purchase and operate five motels to house and provide services to our homeless population here. these motels have allowed us to initiate what we refer to as "project offramp" in our city. it is an offramp from our freeways and life of

homelessness and an onramp to services. our freeways which quite frankly once reasonable urban campgrounds are very close to becoming homeless-free in fresno thanks to "project home key" and our state legislative leaders and governor newsome. however, this success story is only the beginning. it is our plan to take project offramp and replicate it city wide and neighborhood by neighborhood. in order to do so, we need long-term flexible funding and to provide services and alternative housing models for our homeless population. absent that, we ultimately displacing homelessness from one neighborhood to the next neighborhood without real solutions. with the state's budget surplus and one time federal stimulus

dollars, i believe we have a unique opportunity to make transformative investments putting an end to homelessness once and for all. i urge our state legislative leaders and governor newsome to continue with what i believe the most meaningful partnership in our state's history and to be able to allocate the $20 billion in order for us to address homelessness over the next five years. and so it's my honor at this time to be able to introduce a long-time state leader, a senator pro temp for seven years and that is mayor darrell steinberg from the city of sacramento. darrell. >> have to unmute. thank you very much, mayor dyer. i really appreciate that. i am sitting virtually as it is

virtual in one of sacramento's sprung shelters. a quality facility where we have the capacity to house up to 100 women suffering from homelessness and as my colleagues have said, it's one of the many strategies that we as big city mayors are employing to combat this seemingly intractable issue of homelessness. it's not intractable. it just requires will and resources. i'm worried about the big city mayors because i want to make sure those listening understand how impactful this group of mayors has been and continues to be. and mayor garcetti to continue that history it was this organization that for the first time convinced excessive

governors and the legislature to direct resources directly to cities to combat homelessness. because we're not health and human services agencies and yet homelessness as is evident is our most significant urban problem. i was thinking about last night and pride and how he talked about seizing the moment and how he talked about a rare opportunity. to make a fundamental change that changes the course of history. to make a change that affects in a positive way. the lives of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. an opportunity to prove the impossible is possible. this is the moment in california to take that and make homelessness dramatically

different in all of our cities. it need not be hopelessness for we know what works. we are doing it. we are getting thousands of people off the street and now with the additional resources to be able to help those dealing with rent struggles and to be able to prevent evictions and to be able to prevent people from losing their homes. with $20 billion of state resources which is about ten times more than we have ever gotten even with heap and hap and "project room key" and "home key" what we are demonstrating in realtime works and imagine a californian with these kind of investments, people breathing a sigh of

relief because we've done the humane thing. we've done the right thing on behalf of suffering people and our business communities in our neighborhoods. not that we cure it, but that we make it dramatically and visibly better. that's the moon shot we have here in california over these next couple of weeks. i agree with mayor ricardo and the other mayors. so grateful for the legislative leadership for putting forth that $20 billion proposal and we know the governor, whatever the number is is also going to go big as he has in the past. let's get this done and let's start getting more people indoors. thank you. it's my honor now to turn it over to my friend, our mayor, demonstrating that homelessness knows no partisan boundaries and that's the mayor of bakersfield, karen dough.

>> thank you, mayor steinberg. my fellow mayors and i want to take the backgrounds that are behind them right now and have our homeless brothers and sisters have a background in their own home in their own office like the one behind me. combatting homelessness in our state continues to be a paramount issue. requires a broad range of resources for persons who find themselves in the most vulnerable situation of their lives. our california cities are on the front line of addressing the homeless crisis. we've demonstrated success in adding emergency bed space creating permanent housing solutions and now we must address and sustain the next phase of the challenge including providing housing,

supporting services for severely mentally ill and drug addicted persons. we are so grateful for the state's funding that's enabled bakersfield to double our emergency shelter bed space. yet, we find many of our homeless brothers and sisters on the street. we need ongoing resources to change the plight of jonathan, sharika, and karen who i met on the street yesterday and this morning. today, we're calling on state leaders to prioritize the much needed, ongoing flexible investments that will empower and address the youth challenges before us and sustain our progress. a $20, $20 billion funding

investment will change the futures of the many jonathans, the many sharikas and the many karen-anns in our great state. we are our brother's keeper. let us build back boldly to improve the lives of all californians. and now it's my pleasure to introduce anaheim mayor harry sadue from the happiest city in california. mayor sadue. >> thank you, mayor. good morning everyone. i'm anaheim mayor harry sadu. anaheim has been a leader in addressing homelessness for more than six years. since two thousand seventeen, we have opened four homeless shelters, including two temporary facilities that continue today.

these efforts were assisted by homeless emergency aid program funding. working with u.s. district judge david coder, we have cleared inhumane homeless encampments from the parks, and freeway underpasses. by maximizing city, state, and federal resources. but we are far from finished. we are working with the salvation army under long-term facility call center of hope as you see behind me. it will include shelter beds, supportive housing, health care and drug treatment. this public private partnership will be a game-changer for anaheim and orange county. you can see that these efforts in anaheim have proven to be a stronger turn on investment for california and we have made a

great gain. but these are, there are still too many homeless and the need for affordable housing is great. and this crisis is bigger than anaheim. with ongoing flexible support with state partners to meet this challenge and change lives. now, it's my pleasure to introduce riverside mayor patricia lock douzen. >> thank you, mayor sadu. one of the newest mayors in the big city mayor coalition, i appreciate the power that we have in our collective voice. so i have really appreciated being able to be part of this group and i want to echo the sentiment of my fellow mayors. i know we all want to thank our state legislatures and

governors for being proactive. we don't often have to seek them out, they come to us and they listen which i appreciate so much and like mayor gloria said i think it's true with most of us that they've made it clear homelessness is one of the greatest challenges of our time and leaders must rise to this occasion. we must rise to meet this challenge. and, you heard from every mayor here. each city faces its own unique but as you've also heard much more work remains to be done. we all know uniquely that the crisis of homelessness transcends our individual

cities. the funding that we're asking for for the legislature and that they have now budgeted gives us a unified front from the state things that we all need not just the beds, but mental health services. without ongoing funding, our efforts, our momentum will be solved and we won't be able to move forward. now the city of riverside has a proven track record of using direct funding from the state in an innovative and prudent manner. we are often the ones who roll up our sleeves and get to work because we've not always been included in things. we've worked very hard to spend our money frugally and with

great impact. this million dollars proposal will allow riverside to support long-term solutions. such as "project home key" or nontraditional models. this is the first of its kind in southern california and has provided a model that other cities have emulated and it's also where i met powerful paul this past week. he is is a pro boxer who is now getting into permanent supportive housing and he's very grateful for the work we have done here. so while we remain certain from recovering from this pandemic, we must also be equally certain and optimistic in our ability to meet the crisis of homelessness in our city. and, with this funding, i'm

hopeful. we just have a sense of optimism here and we can begin to move the needle and make a change and i'm pleased to be part of this historic day today. with that, i want to turn it over to the mayor of santa ana. >> thank you, mayor. i'm proud to stand with well virtually stand with all the mayors here on this call. so i'm not going to repeat what was said because i think a lot of the theme has already been articulately made. i just want to say that one thing we all can agree on as mayors and staff is that the buck stops with us and we get those tough questions and demands and we know that here, for us, what we've found most interesting was that when we were talking about different issues like public safety and now public health, homelessness is still holding higher than either of those two critical

issues that we deal with, so we know it's on the minds and hearts of many of our fellow residents. and so, for us, i know what we've tried to do is make sure we invest intelligently and we're looking at the background in the front of which is a permanent supportive housing project and we do a lot of service providing there, not only spaces and placements, but also wrap around services and, you know, one of the things i wanted to talk to you about is that santa ana's in orange county where 80% latino. many of our residents live below the poverty line. this is also an equity issue when we talk about homelessness. we want to deliver those services to unsheltered residents and population. but, at the same time, we want to create a quality of life that's going to be proud for our low income communities of color to be able to thrive in and that's the fairness that

they deserve and that's something that we have to deliver and be conscious of. so i know that when we talk about, you know, $20 billion's a big number. we have to have a proportional response to that issue. it's something that we know as mayors, it's not going to be a long-time lump sol approach. it's a multi-year effort that we have to all work together on and i'm proud of all the efforts we're doing collectively, but we all have unique communities and orange county and the minds of others may seem like -- and harry can speak to this, it's depicted as an affluent county. you see some real despair and that's where we have to use this money intelligently to address those things and so i'm really proud to say and we're blessed to be living in a state that i think there's an understanding and there's humanity that we all want to deliver these services in. but, i think the moment is now and i think that we all have

to, you know, ban together and use this opportunity and use it wisely because, look, if it goes away, it can be spent or miss spent other places and i think all of us are saying we can do things intelligently together and cohesively and make the state, again, one of the best places to live in and a place that i've grown up in myself. to the extent i'm completely supportive of what was said out of the effort that's going to be requested, we're grateful to the governor and his staff for being able to work with us. so let me go ahead and just because i know we're short on time. i want to turn it over to my friend and other newly elected mayor from the great city of stockton, mayor kevin lincoln. kevin, the floor is yours. >> thank you, mayor. and, again, just thank you to my fellow mayors here for your leadership. the image that you see behind me is the image of count center

studios here in stockton, california. this location was formerly a hotel that was converted. as a result of "project home key" and units that were provided to our shelter. over 80% of stockton residents view homelessness affecting the quality of life for all stocktonians. and over 50% are experiencing behavioral health challenges in the areas of mental health and substance abuse disorder. the need to expand wrap around services, emergency shelter capacity, transitional and permanent housing opportunities has never been greater. the fundamental allocate -- the $20 billion funding allocations to our cities would help us take bold actionable steps to mitigate homelessness by addressing the root cause of

homelessness in our communities and bring healing to unsheltered residents. it is imperative that our cities have access to increased levels of flexible funding from the state to adequately address the crisis through more positive initiatives like "project home key," community outreach efforts and ultimately homeless prevention. once again, this flexible funding allocation for homelessness would provide us with the opportunity to meet the immediate needs in our city. at this time, i'd like to turn it over to mayor shaft of oakland, california. >> thank you, mayor lincoln. i believe mayor shaft will be joining us momentarily. we can proceed with questions and perhaps come back if mayor shaft is able to jump on. so we welcome questions from anyone in the media to any of the members. >> mayor shaft is here now. >> great. welcome. >> hi, i apologize.

>> from the great city of oakland, i want to welcome my colleague and friend from across the bay mayor libby shaft. >> thank you so much, i know my job is to wrap us up and send us home. the state of california has made an amazing impact in our city in bending the curve to start to address this moral outrage that is homelessness. i'm sure you heard from all my colleagues there is nothing that our residents care more about than this. in oakland, the state's assistance has helped us double our shelter capacity. that means double the number of people that we have been able to get off of the streets and allow them to sleep with a roof over their heads. it's allowed us to advance innovations in shelters like our cabin communities, our safe rv parks. we also have used the "home key

program" to do miracles. i don't think anybody imagines that we could create permanent affordable housing for our homeless so rapidly using existing buildings and not just hotels and motels. in oakland, we converted a former college dormitory into housing and bought single-family homes to advance a very innovative model of shared housing for our formally homeless seniors. it's truly beautiful. we know that this problem -- we know how to fix this problem. each of our jurisdictions have done detailed analysis, have regional plans in the bay area, all homes just unveiled their regional action plan. and in alameda county, the second largest county in the bay area, we also just released

this week a detailed systems analysis that shows exactly how we can end homelessness. we know how to do it, we just need the resources. $20 billion is an appropriate, large investment in california's largest problem. it is something as mayors are

this request. >> thank you, mayor libby shaft. as members of the media can see, we have a great lineup but it's wonderful having a great clean-up hitter like mayor libby shaft to really drive us home. so the message is very clear. we're happy to take questions from members of the media to any of the big city mayors here today. >> absolutely. thank you, mayor. we're going to start with chris win from abc 7. chris, you should be able to

speak now. >> great. thank you so much, rachel. chris win from san francisco. this question is for san jose mayor licardo. this would be a big investment. what do you say to people who are on the fence that it will be money well spent. and, secondly, for mayor breed, some have the notion if you build it they will come. for those who might come here in search of housing and services. first, let's start with mayor licardo? >> that's, chris. it's no question it's a big investment. when we emerge from this pandemic, this will remain our biggest problem and the evidence is clear that we haven't spent nearly enough addressing this crisis. we believe this budget surplus will be something on the order

of $40 billion, perhaps more. obviously, the numbers change as we get closer to the final decision, but spending half of a surplus on the biggest problem we face in california and making that commitment last for a half decade, that's money well spent. mayor breed. i think -- >> mayor breed had to jump off for a scheduling conflict. chris, we'll connect you with her office after this. my apologies. >> great. thank you, chris. >> next question comes from telemundo sacramento. her question is the money will be used to continue the existing programs or to create a state program that will be implemented in every city and only the cities in this petition will have access to the money or will be distributed to every city.

>> i'm sorry, the question was how will the money be distributed? >> correct. >> yeah. again, i welcome any of my colleagues to jump in. we know that the funding formulas from the state have typically allocated dollars to counties and because of the leadership of predecessors like mayor darrell steinberg and eric garcetti we now have direct allocation to the cities. obviously, we'd love to have even larger allocations to the cities. we know this is going to be a partnership. cities and counties working together because we each have critical roles to play. homelessness is worse and that is in our big cities. mayor steinberg. >> i'll just try just on the question of how the money will be allocated. what we seek is maximum flexibility, to be able to balance both the capital that's

necessary to build whatever kind of structures we need to bring people under a roof, but then secondly and mayor shaft is absolutely correct, the five-year piece of this is important. it enables us to use flexible money for operations and to be able to spread that money out over five years. it's a combination of the capital and the operation that creates the magic that allows people to regain their lives off the streets. >> thank you, mayor steinberg. anyone else like to respond? okay. >> i'd just add that this is -- we're not asking for a new program. we all know what the proven strategies are. our issue is scaling them and so this is not a new state program. it is investing in

evidence-based strategies to prevent and end homelessness and the flexibility allows californians to get more bang for their buck. each one of us knows the investments we have made locally and where that added state dollar is going to have the biggest impact. that's what's so important about this request. >> thanks. i have a question from christina kim from ks. how many funds would san diego county expect to get and what programs or projects would you want to prioritize? >> appreciate the question. like our chair licardo mentioned, last year, home key dollars, we were able to receive over $30 million having housing for over 400 san diegans. that's a budget decision that

will be made by others. where i would like to see dollars, i would like to see the number of growing supportive housing units in our city. that's how you solve homelessness. that's what we did with the hotels. we are prepared to acquire hotels. we can also help provide gap funding. things that city council has already authorized. get more deeply affordable units, work with our county. i had a long meeting very early this morning with the county of san diego trying to coordinate our federal relief dollars. that probably looks like more detox beds, more recoup and care beds. the kind of niche spaces that we're looking with super sick people on the streets. it's the permanent housing that addresses the issues in the long run. some of these intermediate beds in between. everything's on the table and what i would refer to is look

at our city's homelessness plan. the full implementation of that plan will require $1.9 billion. you understand very clearly why i'm here today and so strongly in support of this proposal. it will help us get much closer to the interventions in that plan. it will reduce homelessness by half in the next couple of years in san diego. >> thanks. eric, you should be able to speak now. >> hello, my name is eric galicia. i'm the editor of the local college over here. my question is for mayor lock-dawson. in terms of the spending that riverside implements, how would you go about that when it comes to the fires that we've been seeing in the river bottom and other parts of the city?

and, also, you campaigned on tackling homelessness through a regional approach, so if, you know, do you plan to use some of the funds at river side we get to help out our neighboring cities with homelessness? >> well, thanks for the question, eric. i appreciate that. both of those questions are related to each other, but i will tell you fires aren't necessarily a homeless related problem. i mean, some of it can be, but this money, we will use for most likely not just housing, but services. we're going to bring services to this region. and, also, we're already working with a regional coalition right now and we've made a plan to tackle these kinds of things where we are working with our surrounding cities, we're working with the county. we're working with the state

and we have a plan to address not only the fires in the river bottom but also just the folks that are down there and getting them into housing and getting the services that they need. so the money will be used wisely as it has in the past. as you know, we have in riverside here, the office of homeless solutions. on there, you can see our dash board and we've planned to use that money to just build on the programs as mayor shaft said. build on the programs that are successful. we know what works, so we just need to make sure we have the funding to continue that work. >> thank you, mayor. >> thank you. we have megan. megan, you should be allowed to speak now. please tell us your outlet as well. >> thank you, this is megan with los angeles magazine. my question is for mayor garcetti. this request comes as you know at this time in the federal

lawsuit, mayor, you had said after he issued this injunction that you would still hope to sit down and work something out with him. his order on the stay request sunday night opens the door for that. have you or anyone else at city hall talked with the judge this week, and, if so, how did those discussions go? >> i can't speak for everybody, but i was pleased to see him back off of the order and to sit down with us which we've never not wanted to do and engaging and making promises and meeting those promises. i just said stay out of the way of progress. i'm happy. i think the council president spoke to him briefly and we agreed to sit down on the 27th of may. i know he has a big case he's doing but in the meantime, we're not waiting one minute.

but i certainly don't want to see anything of what we're advocating here. we're acting too quickly to be able to stand up. >> so it doesn't sound like there's any discussion then before the stay request. that's still pending and it doesn't sound like there's any kind of settlement or negotiation. >> i would hope so. that's what we were aiming for. we already made one huge settlement jump. as you saw in my budget historic funding to get there we hope the county matches as well. but, no, we're ready. if we wants to talk to me tomorrow. >> may 27th is a long ways off. >> that's what he asked for. in the meantime we're satisfied with what he's withdrawn. >> okay. i did have another question regarding the pallet shelters

that are going up everywhere especially in north hollywood. these same shelters had a pretty bad fire last december and the mayor of redlands is citing that fire as a reason to go with another type of tiny home that he says isn't as flammable. i understand that i think the city bought these pallet shelters before the incident and banning, but i'm just wondering if there's been any review of the shelters? >> yeah. very expensively and folks wanted to build them much more densely, but our fire inspectors insisted on the space between them. because you can have them with or without those hvac extinguishers so we've done a lot of extensive work to make sure they're going to be safe and spaced out from each other. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, both. we've got about three more questions here. gina from bay city news.

gina, go ahead. >> hi, can you hear me? >> we can. >> great. so i have two questions. the first one is more general, but how exactly will the $20 billion proposal be split among cities? i mean, is it just the major cities here on this call or in this coalition and will it be based off maybe population? how do you anticipate that will be split. ? and the other one is specifically for mayor licardo, what issues would you prioritize in san jose and how much do you anticipate san jose would get if this was passed? >> thank you. the allocation will be determined by the legislature and the governor, but what we've seen in the past is essentially allocation that goes both to counties and to large cities. counties obviously have smaller cities within them and the allocation will be based on a formula that combines both point in time homeless count

and population and so we'd expect those kinds of formulas to continue and we'll be certainly advocating to ensure that the hardest hit cities after all it's large cities that suffered most from homelessness are in fact front and center in focus. in terms of san jose, i think what you've heard from my colleagues is very true in san jose as well. we need many different solutions because homelessness is a complex problem or diversity in which ways come into homelessness. we'll be spending dollars to prevent homelessness. very effective strategies using relatively small amounts of money that keeps families housed. that's a much more proactive way of addressing this problem. obviously. we'll be building more of these permanent supportive housing in shelters as well. we need all the above strategy

because we know we can't wait for one solution while others are still on the street. we're going to need multiple solutions. >> thank you. and just sorry. we know we've heard a lot this is a multi-pronged solution that the mayors already know. i mean, what are the main solutions to, you know end homelessness or at least curb it? >> i'll kick it off and ask my colleagues to jump in. the one solution is housing. we need to build a lot of housing than in the past and we need to be able to do it quickly and that requires some innovation and what you're seeing throughout these 13 cities are innovative approaches everything from tiny

homes to various approaches and density enabling more people to get off the street. we're able to get a lot of red tape out of the way the governor's been forthright. so we need flexibility and the ability to move quickly. i've also learned, preventing people from getting into homelessness is a much more cost effective approach. so we need housing and homelessness preevengs. >> tim, did you want to go ahead. go ahead, mayor shaft. >> i just wanted to lift up a reasonable action plan. and what it puts forth is really how we can maximize the flow to our system and make the investments that are going to be the fastest and most efficient at bending the curve

and that's the 1:2:4 ratio. every interim bed that we have, we need to create two permanent affordable houses for people to live in forever in security and we need to fund four prevention interventions. what we're seeing is we're getting people out of homelessness, but new people are getting homeless at a faster rate. in two years it's prevented 5,000 house holds from falling in to homelessness or rapidly resolving their homelessness and the average cost has been about $4,000 for average housing and allows us to maximize our speed at which we

completely end homelessness. 1:2:4. thank you. >> yeah. i wanted to address it from our perspective. the question is often answered, what is the process? and i think it's unique for every city. i can tell you in fresno, what has been working, you need to be able to fund outreach workers. there has to be that repore established and it takes a lot of work, a lot of energy, a lot of effort. the second thing is to be able to take those individuals and place them into transitional housing and that transitional housing must have security, it needs services for mental health, for alcohol substance abuse, addiction to address the growing population domestic violence. victims and their families out there on our streets. our veterans who are often times abandoned. all of those services need to

be provided and not on the short term, long-term and there has to be an exit strategy from that transitional housing and that's permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, alternative housing models like tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, as well as apartment complexes. all of those things have to happen. if not, we run into stagnation. and the fact that we ultimately end up with people remaining in transitional housing or emergency shelter for longer periods of time ultimately transitioning back out onto the streets in continuing with that life and lastly making sure that these folks have skills that will allow them to be gainfully employed. and so we need all of those services over a multiple period of time which is why we're asking for four to five years

of funding and sustained funding. so. >> would you like to jump in. >> one of the reasons why people are homeless is for different reasons and there's a different set of solutions for people for example who have become homeless for a short period of time because of an economic circumstance. contrast that with people who are living with severe mental illness or drug addiction we know what to do. the interventions are different. it's immediate housing to make sure that homelessness doesn't last long. for those who are chronically homeless, we call it a continuum of care. and what this funding would allow us to do would be able to

fund the assertive outreach, the case management, the wrap around services, the temporary housing that's needed and then the transition to longer term or permanent housing. it's all about getting to scale on all of the interventions and strategies that we know work because we're doing them, we just can't do it for enough. >> we'll take these two last questions and then we'll wrap up. >> this is christy growth with kthl. this question is for mayor steinberg and for mayor lincoln. if you guys are able to get this commitment, what programs and specific projects do you guys have ready to go.

to hit the ground running and going with that, how do you convent. ( who don't want those shelters and centers and affordable housing near them. >> i'll go ahead and start it off. thank you, christy for that question. when it comes to the matter, you know, it's very important to understand and have community buy-in and work alongside and through our current community based organizations that are currently partnering in the space to help the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. in order to get public buy-in. we have to make sure we're enhancing the services that are in place to meet the specific needs. what was the other question, i'm sorry. >> what specific projects do

you have ready to go if you were to get this allocation of money? >> yeah. so they're currently projects in place right now. one of the things we have to do is we have to expand that emergency so the capacity and enhance our transitional housing, but also work very hard towards that permanent affordable housing, you know, for our unsheltered population like many of our colleagues had said over the past hour that this is very multi-facetted. this is a very complex issue when it comes to homelessness and every community is impacted differently, but we can't forget the hard work that our community stakeholders are doing right now. and the people in our community that have been, have developed that repore to mayor dyer's point with the community, we have to work with and we have to double down on those resources so that they can be

as affected as they possibly can with reaching this most vulnerable population. >> darrell, did you want to respond? >> how will having more state money help solving this problem? >> i think it's been alluded to in a couple of the other questions and answers. it's not just getting people into beds. we have prevention strategies.

>> but also, we need better exit strategies. as mayor steinberg alluded to, we know what our population is. it's not just one monotypical population. we know we have people suffering from mental illness. we know we have people suffering from drug addiction. we know people have physical disabilities. people who are just down on their luck. need a leg up and help. so the money that we will be getting will be going towards each one of those programs. mostly what i would like to see though is focus on services. we have very -- the strategies that we've put in place now.

>> thank you. with that, i think that's a good note on which we should wrap this up. i want to thank all the members of the media for being with us and thank all of my colleagues for their forceful advocacy. we'll continue to push forth in the weeks ahead, we look forward to celebrating by getting more housing built in our communities and helping our homeless neighbors get off the streets. thank you all. >> roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. the light bulb went off in my

head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. >> working with kids in the ocean that aren't familiar with this space is really special because you're dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. >> when i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. >> we'll get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the

idea, who don't like the beach. it's too cold out, and it's those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. >> over the last few years, i think we've had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. >> surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. >> we've start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. >> swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all -- not being anxious. >> so when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p.e. credits. just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two.

but now that we've been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids that's consistent, and the word has spread, that it's super fun, that you learn about the ocean. >> starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. >> we usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. we once did a special trip. we were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. >> we get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. >> once we go to the beach, i don't want to go home. i can't change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. >> our program has definitely been a way for our students to

find community and build friends. >> i don't really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didn't think i'd like, like, ended up being my best friends. >> it's a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybody's doing it for themselves. >> it's great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. >> it can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. >> i feel significantly, like, calmer. it definitely helps if i'm, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel,

like, i'm going to be okay. >> it gives them resiliency skills and helps them build self-confidence. and with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. >> i went to bring my family to the beach and tell them what i did. >> i saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. >> for some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a mentorship program like this, it's they want to surf, and then later, they'll find out that they've, like, made this community connection. >> i think they provided level

playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. >> for kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. >> we go on 150 surf outings a year. that's year-round programming. we've seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. >> i just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that they're engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how they're doing, like, in general. >> what i like best is they really care about me, like, i'm not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. >> we're creating surfers, and

we're changing the face of surfing. >> the feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. it's definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but it's definitely fun. >> it leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kid's going to go out and do. >> i think it's really magical almost. at least it was for me. >> it was really exciting when i caught my first wave. >> i felt like i was, like -- it was, like, magical, really. >> when they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know -- their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. >> i was on top of the world. it's amazing. i felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. it was, like, the scariest thing i'd ever done, and i

think it was when i got hooked on surfing after.

>> my name is angela wilson and i'm an owner of the market i

worked at a butcher for about 10 years and became a butcher you i was a restaurant cook started in sxos and went to uc; isn't that so and opened a cafe we have produce from small farms without small butcher shops hard for small farms to survive we have a been a butcher shop since 1901 in the heights floor and the case are about from 1955 and it is only been a butcher shot not a lot of businesses if san francisco that have only been one thing. >> i'm all for vegetarians if you eat meat eat meat for quality and if we care of we're in a losing battle we need to

support butcher shops eat less we sell the chickens with the head and feet open somebody has to make money when you pay $25 for a chicken i guarantee if you go to save way half of the chicken goes in the enlarge but we started affordable housing depends on it occurred to us this is a male field people said good job even for a girl the interesting thing it is a women's field in most of world just here in united states it is that pay a man's job i'm an encountered woman and raise a son and teach i am who respect woman i consider all women's who work here to be impoverished and strong in san francisco labor is

high our cost of good ideas we seal the best good ideas the profit margin that low but everything that is a laboring and that's a challenge in the town so many people chasing money and not i can guarantee everybody this is their passion. >> i'm the - i've been cooking mile whole life this is a really, really strong presence of women heading up kitchens in the bay area it is really why i moved out here i think that we are really strong in the destroy and really off the pages kind of thing i feel like women befrp helps us to get back up i'm definitely the only female here i fell in love i love

setting up and love knowing were any food comes from i do the lamb and that's how i got here today something special to have a female here a male dominated field so i think that it is very special to have women and especially like it is going at it you know i'm a tiny girl but makes me feel good for sure. >> the sad thing the building is sold i'm renegotiating my lease the neighborhood wants us to be here with that said, this is a very difficult business it is a constant struggle to maintain freshness and deal with what we have to everyday

it is a very high labor of business but something i'm proud of if you want to get a job at affordable housing done nasal you need a good attitude and the jobs on the bottom you take care of all the produce and the fish and computer ferry terminal and work your way up employing people with a passion for this and empowering them to learn >> there's a new holiday shopping tradition, and shop and dine in the 49 is inviting everyone to join and buy black friday. now more than ever, ever dollar that you spend locally supports

small businesses and helps entrepreneurs and the community to thrive. this holiday season and year-round, make your dollar matter and buy black.