>> thank you to i think the members of the board of supervisors joining us today. i see superintendent safai, budget chair matt haney, supervisor mandelman. thank you for joining us as well as our treasurer, our assessor recorder torrez, the district attorney bodine, and i'm not sure. i think agot all the elected officials here.

thank you so much. good afternoon to all the community members, the city staff, elected officials, i can not tell you how happy i am to be here. [applause] not just because we are announcing that we have officially balanced our latest two-year budget -- though that is important. , no, and i'm happy because i am here in chinatown in front of actual people again. and it feels great. this is the first time in so long that i've seen so many familiar faces kinda. i think i recognize you all. over the past few weeks, san francisco has really started to open up. you can see it everywhere. people are going to museums, to baseball games, enjoying the incredible outdoor dining spaces and families and our parks and

playgrounds like this one that we are at today. willy woo woo wang. i had the opportunity to go to the symphony and the performance was incredible. just being at davey symphony hall was magic. it was san francisco coming back to life. people are excited for what's coming. and i'm excited to be here today with all of you. i want to recognize my budget chair or my budget director ashley and her incredible team. thank you for the hours and hours of work you've put into working with labor and community stakeholders and the city departments to get this budget balanced and delivered on time.

over the last year i have seen what we can do. all of us have been tested like never before. our spirit, our resilience, and our compassion for one another have all been tested. the past year has been hard. we've all been tired. we've been worn down. we faced challenges with our mental health. our kids have suffered. our seniors have suffered. our outlook at times was pretty dark, but through it all we held it together and now today gathered together at willy woo woo wang playground, we are in the light. no, covid is not gone. but the number of people in the

hospital is lower than it's been since march of last year. and almost 80% of eligible people have been vaccinated. >> and thanks to the hard work of so many health care providers and city workers and the parks workers and the people of the city, i can finally declare with pride and confidence that we are literally out of the woods. >> but keep your mask on. now, we haven't done this alone. we have had strong support from the state and federal government including governor gavin new some who has led california and delivered for the workers and small businesses and most vulnerable residents through project home key. thanks to the american rescue plan put forward by the

president joe biden and vice president kamala harris and speaker of the house nancy pe low sis, we don't have a crushing budget deficit. thanks to all of those folks. what we do have, however, is an opportunity, an opportunity to take all that we've lived through and all the lessons that we've learned and focus on what really matters. that's what this budget is about. it's about fulfilling the many promises we made. delivering on fundamental change and lifting up our entire city. now we are here in chinatown because we know this neighborhood was hit first and it was hit hard. february is normally an amazing time for this community when the lunar new year celebrations bring visitors from all over the world. but in february of last year, things were really dark.

the lunar new year parade was cancelled. tourists disappeared. small businesses were struggling. and the streets were empty. and in the month since then this neighborhood has been one of the continuing to suffer from the loss of visitors, yes, but also from the disgusting xenophobia and shocking acts of violence. seniors are afraid to run errands. families worried about their safety. what is happening right now, in particular the attacks against our elders is shameful for our city. it is shameful for our country. just last week i was out to lunch at r&g lounge down the street from here with a woman named ms. wong. after my grandmother passed away, ms. wong became my adopted grandmother. she's so warm and kind, but just like my grandmother, you don't want to get on her bad side.

and she fills me with such joy when i see her. she tells me she is proud of me and shows me pictures of her grandchildren. she is truly a beautiful spirit, and she is joining us here today. thank you, ms. wong. that's my baby, y'all. you mess with ms. wrong, you mess with me. when i see these attacks against our asian seniors, i think of my grandmother. i think of ms. wong. i think of how i feel if someone would lay their hands on them. i know so many of us feel that way here today. and it breaks my heart every single time. and an attack against one of us is an attack on all of us, and san franciscans, we will rise to the occasion to protect our seniors by any means necessary. i have been proud to stand with leaders like assembly member david chiu bill king to call for

unity against the racist attacks but to bring forward solutions to support our residents and to send a clear message that the disgusting attacks against our api community must end now and that doesn't just mean having more law enforcement on our streets. it means continuing and expanding programs like our community guardians. these multi-racial street patrol teams are walking the streets and neighborhoods like this one and visitation valley and the inner richmond, the tenderloin, san bruno avenue and other areas. they know the community. they are from these communities and they are bridging cultural divides, building relationships and watches out for the most vulnerable. this is exactly the kind of program my budget will invest in. it means continuing to fund the senior s corp. program which is serving members of this community. we are also launching an

ambitious plan to have community ambassadors up and down mid market corridor and across all of downtown and our waterfront. again, these are ambassadors who are watching our blocks and making calls for services for those who are struggling and given directions to those who are lost. offering a friendly face to those who are in need. but let's be clear. keeping our city safe also does require law enforcement. that means making sure we have officers on our streets walking the beat and responding to crime. right now every year we lose about 80 officers who either retire or leave the force for other reasons. if we don't replace these officers with new recruits, our police force will shrink. we will lose foot beat. we won't be able to quickly respond to 911 calls. we won't be able to make arrests to hold people accountable. that will not make our city

safe. so in this budget we are proposing two police academy classes to keep our ranks stable. the good news is -- the good news is as we add these academy classes, our police forces is also becoming more diverse. since 2009 the proportion of recruits in our classes have increased from the black community by 45%. the latino by 78%. and the asian community by 79%. removing the bias starts right there by making sure the people in uniform reflect and understand the communities they serve. and we know that we can't stop every crime, and sadly, there will be victims in our city. but i want all residents to feel

safe when they step forward to report a crime, especially our seniors, so we are creating a new office of justice innovation that will coordinate the city's response to victims across all communities including with targeted support for the api community. this new team will also continue our ground breaking work to find more effective ways to respond to people when they call for help no matter what neighborhood you live in. our street crisis response team is already taking our most challenging mental health call to the people who end up in bad situations when confronted by law enforcement. we've got four teams already out on the streets with two more coming soon. we are adding a 17th in this budget. why? because the teams are working. i have seen the results myself. a few weeks ago i went out with

a street crisis response team. we arrived on the scene on fisherman's wharf to find a man with no shoes, clearly in need of care talking to himself, walking in and out of traffic, and the kind of lost soul too many of us have seen too often and wondered why is no one doing anything? why? a police officer had arrived on the scene first, but when the street crisis response team showed up, i could see the relief in the officer's eyes. he knew he wasn't the one for this call. he knew there was a better way. i took time, over an hour and multiple conversations, but eventually that gentleman ended up getting care from paramedics and a clinician. it didn't end in violence or everyone just walking away. better solutions deliver better outcomes. that's how we make a difference.

and now in this budget we are expanding our street response teams to include wellness teams, composed of a paramedic and homeless outreach worker that will respond to even more calls, that would better benefit from a nonpolice response. and we're also adding street overdose response teams to help curb the crisis of overdoses in our city. fentanyl is destroying lives not just here in san francisco but across the country. that's why we will continue to pitch for overdose prevention programs with the help of senator scott weaner at the state level. and we will expand street medicine team and treatment program that have been effective in preventing overdoses and helping people get off opioids and meth. as we increase these services, we also need to continue to enforce our laws against drug

dealing. our police officers are on pace to seize more fentanyl this year than ever before. we need every level of our criminal justice system to step in to stop this drug dealing and especially the people in the tenderloin and other neighborhoods in the city. our residents and those who are suffering on the streets, they deserve better. as we change how we respond to people on the streets, we also need places for them to go. we can have all the outreach teems in the world, but if we don't have housing, shelter, and treatment bed, we are going to see those same people right back on the streets again and again and again. but the good news is it's take an lot of work but we have a plan. starting with treatment beds n. this budget we are funding the acquisition and operation of

over 340 new treatment beds. [applause] we have set aside funding to acquire facility for up to 300 more treatment beds so we can keep growing our pipeline. that is a plan for 640 new beds on top of the 2,000 beds we already have. that is real change. that is a long-term difference. and so when we see someone in need or a family member suffering, we can have some place for them to go and get healthy. and and we are taking the same approach with the homeless recovery plan which will create more permanent and supportive housing places to go. the plan which launched last

year by july of 2022, including -- i know, i am excited about it, too. including the largest expansion of permanent supportive housing in 20 years. and this plan is already working. we have fewer people living in tents on our streets than at the height of the pandemic than even before the pandemic. and we are moving people out of shelter in place hotels right now into permanent, supportive housing. each of these stories is a success and a life changed. people like the vulnerable senior who had been homeless in the mission for 45 years. let's call him tyrone, not call tyrone, but call him tyrone. some of you got that. thank you. >> it wasn't until they got him into a hotel and connected to

services that he began to relax. that he had the opportunity to heal. and tyrone moved into permanent supportive housing and 45 years homeless and now housed permanently. that is almost longer than i have been alive. actually, that is longer than i have been alive kinda. so yes, the homeless recovery plan is working and over the next years between local, state, and federal funding, we are putting in over a billion dollars into action in san francisco to address this. this is an historic investment which will allow us to provide up to 4,000 more new placements to get people off the streets including 1,000 new unit of permanent supportive housing in addition to the 1500 units we already have. we will add two new safe parking

sites and create a new 40 and to keep people housed is the easiest way to end homelessness. more housing, more placements, more people living indoors. yes, this is an historic investment for our city but we have to be honest with ourselves. if we're going to see change on our streets, it takes more than money. we also have to have the will to make the change. so to be clear, we will lead with services to get people housing and the help they need for those with complex needs we will do everything we can to assist them and get them on the path of recovery. we know it's not easy, but that's our commitment. and for those exhibiting harmful behavior, whether to themselves

or to others and those refusing assistance, we will use every tool we have into treatment and services to get them indoors. we won't accept people just staying on the streets when we have a place for them to go. if we focus and invest right, we have a real chance to make a fundamental change for those who are living on the streets for our city as a whole. we also know that our recovery isn't just about getting back to where we were. it's about taking on the existing disparities laid bare by this pandemic. we saw the devastating impact on the latino community. those who lived in crowded conditions who didn't have access to health care and didn't have a lot of trust in government. we saw systemic racism that many of us have known all too well for far too long in the african-american community. exposed by covid and the murder

of george floyd. we saw our transgender community suffer from disproportional impact. we saw the young people devastated and women pushed out of the workforce at higher rates than men when our schools shut down. we witnessed all of this and it's clear that we have a duty to commit so to an equitable community and will continue in the african-american community to fund the dream keeper's initiative. we will include $57 million to fund programs and impacted communities to deliver on work force, small business support, economy relief, food security, testing, vaccine, and mental

health support. all the things that got us through this. we will build on the guaranteed income pilot programs to deliver payment to members of the transgender community. we will offer women free child care so they can get back in the work force. we will fund mental health support for our public school students and continue our opportunities for all program which is providing our young people with paid internship and setting them on the path to success. [applause] we are back filling our lost hotel taxes to ensure that the

art and artist cans continue to thrive, deborah walker. and we are setting aside funding to purchase a site for the lgbt cultural museum to have a home to celebrate all those that fought for exneck this city, supervisor mandelman. we are funding affordable housing, improving playgrounds like this one we constant in today. and improving our streets and replacing aging city infrastructure. we are investing in our inspection system, delivering over $90 million to support muni and bike and pedestrian safety projects because if we don't have a fully functional transportation system, people won't be able to get around in this city.

we need testing, outbreak management, shelter in place hotels and to feed and supported those who are in need for months ahead. like i said, we are out of the woods, but one thing we have learned over the last year, we never know what lies ahead. this pandemic did not give us notice and neither will the next earthquake. that's why we have to do the hard work to prepare. remember over the last year during the worst of our budget, we did not have to lay off any city workers because we had a strong reserve to take us through. we were so lucky to receive the tremendous support from the federal government to stabilize us. there are still challenging

times ahead. i know responsibility doesn't grab headlines. but it's what leaders do. we don't raid our reserves unnecessarily so. we protect and we grow them. that's how we will weather any challenge that comes our way because we are a resilient city. the people of the city are strong and resilient. the people of the neighborhood, chinatown, they are strong and resilient. it is in their history, the oldest chinatown in the country. after the 1906 earthquake and fire, almost all of china town like much of san francisco burned to the ground. people from outside this community said let's move china town to the southeast part of the city and to go across the river to oakland. and the people who lived there

and their homes and neighborhood and community. the people who knew proud place and those who came before and welcomed those who stayed after. they fought for their home and they won. and out of the ashes of that great fire they rebuilt this incredible neighborhood. that is the story of china town and the story of san francisco. not even a global pandemic can knock us out. san francisco is coming back. with these investments, we have a path to get us to where we need to be. it is the people of the city who will propel us to the place we know we need to go.

in the challenging times, that is what held us together. san francisco isn't going anywhere except straight ahead into what i see is a bright and hopeful future. i am so excited to work with each and every one of you to make sure that our city continues to shine. we've been through earthquakes. we've been through fires. we've been through challenges. now we can check off the global pandemic box and guess what, san francisco, after we get this budget passed and we move these dollars into action, we are going to see real change and things will look bet arenaed brighter than before the pandemic. you all are important part to thank in these efforts. thank you, all. looking forward to see this budget pass through the board of

supervisors. [applause] (clapping.) the airport it where i know to mind visions of traffic romance and excitement and gourmet can you limousine we're at san francisco inspirational airport to discover the award-winning concession that conspiracies us around the world. sfo serves are more 40 million travelers a year and a lot of

the them are hungry there's many restaurant and nearly all are restaurant and cafe that's right even the airport is a diane designation. so tell me a little bit the food program at sfo and what makes this so special >> well, we have a we have food and beverage program at sfo we trivia important the sustainable organic produce and our objective to be a nonterminal and bring in the best food of san francisco for our passengers. >> i like this it's is (inaudible) i thank my parents for bringing me here. >> this the definitely better

than the la airport one thousand times better than. >> i have a double knees burger with bacon. >> i realize i'm on a diet but i'm hoping this will be good. >> it total is san francisco experience because there's so many people and nationalities in this town to come to the airport especially everyone what have what they wanted. >> are repioneering or is this a model. >> we're definitely pioneers and in airport commemoration at least nationally if not intvrl we have many folks asking our our process and how we select our great operators.

>> ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ the food option in san francisco airport are phenomenal that's if it a lot of the airports >> yeah. >> you don't have the choice. >> some airports are all about food this is not many and this particular airport are amazing especially at the tirnl indicating and corey is my favorite i come one or two hours before my flight this is the life. >> we definitely try to use as many local grirnts as we can we use the goat cheese and we also use local vendors we use greenly

produce they summarize the local soured products and the last one had 97 percent open that. >> wow. >> have you taken up anything unique or odd here. >> i've picked up a few things in napa valley i love checking chocolates there's a lot of types of chocolate and caramel corn. >> now this is a given right there. >> i'm curious about the customer externals and how people are richmond to this collection of cities you've put together not only of san francisco food in san francisco but food across the bay area. >> this type of market with the local savors the high-end products is great.

>> i know people can't believe they're in an airport i really joy people picking up things for their friends and family and wait i don't have to be shopping now we want people take the opportunity at our location. >> how long has this been operating in san francisco and the late 18 hours it is one of the best places to get it coffee. >> we have intrrnl consumers that know of this original outlet here and come here for the coffee. >> so let's talk sandwiches.

>> uh-huh. >> can you tell me how you came about naming our sandwiches from the katrero hills or 27 years i thought okay neighborhood and how do you keep it fresh you can answer that mia anyway you want. >> our broadened is we're going not irving preserves or packaged goods we take the time to incubate our jogger art if scratch people appreciate our work here. >> so you feel like out of captured the airport atmosphere.

>> this is its own the city the airline crews and the bag handlers and the frequent travels travelers and we've established relationships it feels good. >> when i get lunch or come to eat the food i feel like i'm not city. i was kind of under the assumption you want to be done with our gifts you are down one time not true >> we have a lot of regulars we didn't think we'd find that here at the airport. >> people come in at least one a week for that the food and service and the atmosphere. >> the food is great in san francisco it's a coffee and i took an e calorie home every

couple of weeks. >> i'm impressed i might come here on my own without a trip, you know, we have kids we could get a babysitter and have diner at the airport. >> this is a little bit of things for everybody there's plenty of restaurant to grab something and go otherwise in you want to sit you can enjoy the experience of local food. >> tell me about the future food. >> we're hoping to bring newer concepts out in san francisco and what our passengers want. >> i look forward to see what your cooking up (laughter)

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> today we've shown you the only restaurant in san francisco from the comfortableing old stand but you don't have to be hungry sfo has changed what it is like to eat another an airport check out our oblige at tumbler dating.com >> hi, you're watching coping with covid-19. today my guest, director of the san francisco international airport and he's here today to talk to us about how sfo has

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

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

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

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

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

than we have had throughout the crisis, our busiest day we had 20,000 outbound passengers which would have been 80,000, but more than we've had since the crisis began. so we see this continuing trend of low traffic volumes through the holiday period and it will continue to depress travel as more orders happen. we see more of the same happening. and likely there will be further cancellations. >> right, in the future what changes will we see for air travel? can you talk about international travel and recent speculation about vaccine visas? >> you know, it is all evolving and interesting about what the future of air travel looks like. we want to be on the front-end of defining what that is.

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

tested flights for people before entering the destinations, that they have to get a test to avoid quarantine. on-site testing has been very effective, particularly in the hawaii flights we worked with united on. we see that because the planes are 70% full instead of 40% full because of the testing element. and i think that's a framework that is going to be important for the foreseeable future, test at airports but ultimately, covid-free flights through testing protocols that are applied at both ends of travel and when you talk about vaccinations and credentials, i think that's the next revolution of this. you will be required to show your health credentials and verify that you have been vaccinated and if you haven't been vaccinated, as we go

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

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

i really appreciate the time you have given us today. thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you chris. glad to be here and talk about what is going on at sfo with what we're all living through. thank you so much. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back with more pandemic-related information shortly. you have been watching coping with covid-19. thank you for watching. ♪♪♪ >> restaurants will be open for take out only, but nonessential stores, like bars and gyms, will close effective midnight tonight. [♪♪♪]

>> my name is sharky laguana. i am a small business owner. i own a company called vandigo van rentals. it rents vans to the music industry. i am also a member of the small business commission as appointed by mayor breed in 2019. i am a musician and have worked as a professional musician and recording artist in the 90s. [♪♪♪] >> we came up in san francisco, so i've played at most of the live venues as a performer, and, of course, i've seen hundreds of shows over the years, and i care very, very

deeply about live entertainment. in fact, when i joined the commission, i said that i was going to make a particular effort to pay attention to the arts and entertainment and make sure that those small businesses receive the level of attention that i think they deserve. >> this is a constantly and rapidly changing situation, and we are working hard to be aggressive to flatten the curve to disrupt the spread of covid-19. >> when the pandemic hit, it was crystal clear to me that this was devastating to the music industry because live venues had to completely shutdown. there was no way for them to open for even a single day or in limited capacity. that hit me emotionally as an artist and hit me professionally, as well as a small business that caters to artists, so i was very deeply

concerned about what the city could do to help the entertainment committee. we knew we needed somebody to introduce some kind of legislation to get the ball rolling, and so we just started texting supervisor haney, just harassing him, saying we need to do something, we need to do something. he said i know we need to do something, but what do we do? we eventually settled on this idea that there would be an independent venue recovery fund. >> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president walton: thank you. without objection, this resolution is passed unanimously. >> and we were concerned for these small mom-and-pop businesses that contribute so much to our arts community. >> we are an extremely small

venue that has the capacity to do extremely small shows. most of our staff has been working for us for over ten years. there's very little turnover in the staff, so it felt like family. sharky with the small business commission was crucial in pestering supervisor haney and others to really keep our industry top of mind. we closed down on march 13 of 2020 when we heard that there was an order to do so by the mayor, and we had to call that show in the middle of the night. they were in the middle of their sound check, and i had to call the venue and say, we need

to cancel the show tonight. >> the fund is for our live music and entertainment venues, and in its first round, it will offer grants of at least $10,000 to qualifying venues. these are venues that offer a signature amount of live entertainment programming before the pandemic and are committed to reopening and offering live entertainment spaces after the pandemic. >> it's going to, you know, just stave off the bleeding for a moment. it's the city contributing to helping make sure these venues are around, to continue to be part of the economic recovery for our city. >> when you think about the venues for events in the city, we're talking about all of them. some have been able to come back adaptively over the last year and have been able to be shape shifters in this pandemic, and that's exciting to see, but i'm really looking

forward to the day when events and venues can reopen and help drive the recovery here in san francisco. >> they have done a study that says for every dollar of ticket sales done in this city, $12 goes to neighboring businesses. from all of our vendors to the restaurants that are next to our ven sues and just so many other things that you can think of, all of which have been so negatively affected by covid. for this industry to fail is unthinkable on so many levels. it's unheard of, like, san francisco without its music scene would be a terribly dismal place. >> i don't know that this needs to be arrest -- that there needs to be art welfare for artists. we just need to live and pay for our food, and things will

take care of themselves. i think that that's not the given situation. what san francisco could do that they don't seem to do very much is really do something to support these clubs and venues that have all of these different artists performing in them. actually, i think precovid, it was, you know, don't have a warehouse party and don't do a gig. don't go outside, and don't do this. there was a lot of don't, don't, don't, and after the pandemic, they realized we're a big industry, and we bring a lot of money into this city, so they need to encourage and hope these venues. and then, you know, as far as people like me, it would be nice if you didn't only get encouraged for only singing opera or playing violin. [♪♪♪] >> entertainment is a huge part of what is going to make this city bounce back, and we're

going to need to have live music coming back, and comedy, and drag shows and everything under the sun that is fun and creative in order to get smiles back on our faces and in order to get the city moving again. [♪♪♪] >> venues serve a really vital function in society. there aren't many places where people from any walk of life, race, religion, sexuality can come together in the same room and experience joy, right? experience love, experience anything that what makes us human, community, our connective tissues between different souls. if we were to lose this, lose this situation, you're going to

lose this very vital piece of society, and just coming out of the pandemic, you know, it's going to help us recover socially? well, yeah, because we need to be in the same room with a bunch of people, and then help people across the country recover financially. >> san francisco art recovery fund, amazing. it opened yesterday on april 21. applications are open through may 5. we're encouraging everyone in the coalition to apply. there's very clear information on what's eligible, but that's basically been what our coalition has been advocating for from the beginning. you know, everyone's been supportive, and they've all been hugely integral to this program getting off the ground. you know, we found our champion with supervisor matt haney from district six who introduced this legislation and pushed this into law. mayor breed dedicated

$1.5 million this fund, and then supervisor haney matched that, so there's $3 million in this fund. this is a huge moment for our coalition. it's what we've been fighting for all along. >> one of the challenges of our business is staying on top of all the opportunities as they come back. at the office of oewd, office of economic and workforce development, if you need to speak to somebody, you can find people who can help you navigate any of the available programs and resources. >> a lot of blind optimism has kept us afloat, you know, and there's been a lot of reason for despair, but this is what keeps me in the business, and this is what keeps me fighting, you know, and continuing to advocate, is that we need this and this is part of our life's

blood as much as oxygen and food is. don't lose heart. look at there for all the various grants that are available to you. some of them might be very slow to unrao, and it might seem like too -- unroll, and it might seem like it's too late, but people are going to fight to keep their beloved venues open, and as a band, you're going to be okay. [♪♪♪]. >> hi my name is jason jones a xaefrp and communication capture at the san francisco water department i hnlt a high volume of calls and radio communications i enjoy coming to

work i still find it challenging i still learn everyday and i'm going to have the level of activity if zero to 60 in a matter of minutes i take bride pride in handling the emergencies. >> have are you available the work order is 2817827 that's one of the great things of sfpuc they offer work shops to help you get ahead you have to care about the job and go above and beyond to find out as much as you can the three puc i so no glass ceiling the opportunities are end

>> well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to union square. hello, san francisco. it's a beautiful sunny day here, and the fog has lifted, perhaps like the collective proverbial covid fog that we've all been stuck in the last year. my name is karen flood, and i'm the executive director of the union square business district, and we're so pleased to see you today, and so many visitors. we have missed you all. we have missed the visitors and the workers in union square who coer