to speak to you this morning. before i -- before the mayor takes the make phone, i want to

say a few words and introduce our mayor, london breene. it's been an incredible year. 2020, first part of 2021 has been a very challenging year for all of us. i can't be more proud of being a part of a city under the leadership with our mayor. we saw what true leadership means. in the midst of a global pandemic, san francisco was the first to take action to really get in front of what was facing us. we saw the result. we led across the board in terms of big cities, the amount of preventing death. the shelter in place order which our mayor's leadership started really a national movement on

shelter in place. we got into june with the george floyd murder that followed that. we had had our mayor step up and respond to the challenge to get the resources that we needed to really put the rioted and the civil unrest and looting and fires down really quickly. we saw where a lot of cities continued to have problems for months. we saw really a peaceful summer here last summer given all that was going on in our country. leadership is important. people are important. staffing is important. we're going to talk a little bit about all of that today. the other thing that i'd like to say that with our mayor and staffing and all the issues i

just brought up. it didn't just start when she became mayor. she was the first supervisor that i met when i got here on the board of supervisors. she has been supportive from the day a riefed. riefed. arrived. i appreciate it, the san francisco police department appreciate it. without further adieu, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breene. >> : thank you, chief. it's definitely great to be here with all of you in person today. it's been a very very challenging 15 months. to be here in person is so significant. we appreciate it a lot more as a result of what we had to do in terms of our actions during covid. here we are, san francisco with over 82 percent of our residents

who have been vaccinated. we're doing great in comparison to other major cities. i'm grateful to the people of this city who stepped up and made that difference. we're seeing a whole other spot light being placed on san francisco. on the one hand with covid what we've seen is a lot of praise and support, san francisco has gotten a lot of great attention as it relate it covid. but sadly as it relate it crime, we've gotten a lot of negative attention. when you think about where we were last year during the holiday july 4th, we saw unprecedented shootings. the death of a young six year old boy in the bay view hunter's point community. it was heart breaking. when i think about what happened last year with violent crime and

where we were even this past forth of july weekend. we saw not one homicide over that weekend time period. just recently lory was here from chicago. i'm sure you have been hearing about the unprecedented amount of gun violence in chicago. over a hundred shootings over the week anne. weekend.here in san francisco we nowhere near that. we've gotten to a better place. not perfect. but a better place than what's being highlighted now. we've seen a lot of the attacks on our elderly particularly our asian seniors. the videos are not just going viral in san francisco but all over the world. what's not going viral is every

single instance our police department have arrested many of the people in these particular crimes. there have been arrested sadly in the death of jays young. the guy, we saw the video of him riding the bicycle into the walgreens. he has been arrested and is currently awaiting trial. the case of the man walking home from the post office who was stabbed and robbed. his perpetrator was arrested. the man in the franklin street market, i beloved member of the community, his perpetrator has been arrested. two people were stabbed, that perpetrator has been arrested. what is not getting the attention is the fact that when you come to san francisco and commit a crime, you will be arrested by this police

department. our investigators and the work that they do to bring people to justice has been extraordinary. when we talk about the burglar burglaries and car break ins perpetrated by ten groups of people. when those groups get arrested, we see those car break ins go down significantly. at the end of the day we have to make sure that accountability is a part of this. one of the big conversations that is happening around defunding the police is not taking into account all the incredible work san francisco has done to invest in program that's help to prevent crimes from happening in the first place. an unprecedented investment of $65 million in my budget to help with street violence prevention and victim services.

all the incredible work, thank you for the work that you do to reach out to the families who sadly are victims of violent crimes. a lot of investment preventing these crimes from happening. wellness teams out in the communities checking on those who are suffering from mental illness and addiction. a sobering center. a street crisis response team who are responding to the calls who don't know what to do when they see people screaming and unresponsive in the streets. mental health beds. an unprecedented investment. all of these things are a part of our network of trying to address public safety. it's not just about funding or defunding the police. not just about funding one program over another. it's a comprehensive strategy to make sure the right investments

are being made to deal with the challenges that exist. going back to covid, we use the data and the science. what we should do as a city. that's what we did in this year's budget. the chief today is going to talk a lot about the statistics because there's a lot of misinformation out there about what's happening in san francisco. we know that numbers don't matter when you're the victim of a crime, any crime in any capacity. at the end of the day we have to use this data to make a decision about our policies an our investments. in the coming months we're going to be making some significant changes. we are not prepared to reveal all of our plans to help address some of these issues around these retail thefts and holding companies accountable like amazon to not do their due

diligence to vet these stolen goods. we have to make sure there are tools to hold people accountable but more importantly, we have to look at the data and allow that to help guide us. finally as we move forward, we need police officers. we have a number of officers retiring, this work just doesn't happen. we have a number of officers retiring, we have others leaving the force for different reasons. we need to back fill those officers. i'm hopeful that the work we're doing to make those investments to bring those officers out on the streets to bring down crime as well are significant. work withing our partners, ambassadors has everything to do with prevention and also accountability. we have to reability when a

crime is committed but the best case scenario is to make sure that crime never happens in the first place. here in san francisco, yes, like any major city we have our challenges. at the end of the day we're going to work hard to step up and do everything we can to make the right investments, arrests, hold people accountable and do what we can to look at the data and make the appropriate changes to our system for the safety of our city. i want to thank all of you for being here today. i want to thank the men and women of the police department. if you take nothing from this event, this press conference today that you go down the laundry list of all of those crimes that have been committed here in san francisco over the past year. you look especially at the violent crimes in particular and look at the arrests that have been made and start to highlight

those in a way that they've been highlighted in terms of when the videos went viral. when you see the incredible work that goes into the investigation part of it an arrests and all the things this san francisco police department is doing to bring justice to those families that are victims, you would be proud of the work being done. i truly am. thank you for all being here today. thank you chief scott. he will go over the the statistics so you can see in comparison where we are with the crimes in san francisco. >> : thank you mayor. i know the mayor touched on public perceptions, i think it's important to start by acknowledging people's fear about crime particularly when these videos go viral. these things get in our head. people start to believe that is

our city. that is not our city. today's news conference i'm going to show you some comparative numbers. think of this as a mid year check in. computer statistics. it's a program police departments across the country use to perform statistics to understand where their cities are in terms of statistics. it allows us to reduce those crimes. let me be very clear about something, about two things. those numbers you're about to see represent human beings. they represent people, i don't want to be dehumanizing when i talk about numbers an statistics. we understand because we see it day in and day out, these are people. our brothers, sisters, nephews,

aunts, friends that are being victimized. it's important to take a step back and remember that statistics represent people. what we see on some of these videos are brazen crimes. there's no statistic on the outlook and how we perceive what's going on in our city. that's why police officers are so important. most of us feel more comfortable when thee see officers in their neighborhood. that's our justification for the reality of our officers being on the beat and being on the street to make people feel safer. these crimes aren't as frequent

as many people think but it's still unsettling. most of these crimes are solved and we'll continue to do that. i want to start by really lifting up what's going on here in our city. it starts with the members of the san francisco police department. i'm the chief of police, you see command staff members on the wall here. the mayor. the work is being done by the members, the patrol officers. day in day out solving crimes, working with the community and doing what we need to do to keep our city safe. still, even when we have everything to work right, it seems like it's not enough. you've heard this cliche before. we can't arrest our way out of problems. we need to make arrests and hold

people accountable. the other side of that equation is officers on the street. this mayor, from day one, has been very definitive about the need to have officers on the beat. she supported the budget and staffing. we need to have staffing to balance the other side of the equation. holding people accountable that will always be one half of the equation. the other side we struggle with is keeping enough officers on the street so you see them in your communities to prevent what is happening from happening. according to city beat, 75% of san franciscans want more sfpd officers in high crime areas. seventy six percent want expanded community policing through their neighborhoods and

sixty four percent want more sfpd office everies in busy areas where we have these brazen crimes that we've seen on video. china town included. that's why we're so appreciative of what's happening with the mayor's leadership and community members calling to staff this department adequately so we can do our jobs. that is not going to go away. we'll continue to advocate for what we need to keep this city safe. every number represents a human being, even someone has suffered a loss of injury sometimes the damage is irrevokable. homicides, we have people in this room that have lost members of their family both in uniform and out of uniform. people in this family who have

had their houses and cars broken into. we all know how that feels when it happens to you. you don't care about statistics. it happened to me and turned my life upside down. we understand that. that's why it is so important to work with our community. through the mayor's leadership and urging we established a community liaison unit to help people get through the turmoil of being victimizeled. to pre vied a better service. we want to prevent it in the first place but when it happens people need help to navigate the system and need help. that's what the system does. let's go to our statistics. this is our mid year statistics and how we're going to frame the conversation to show you year to date and mid year statistics

we're going to take a look back so can you compare where we were 2018 and 2017 same time of year. one of the things that make this time of year challenging and unique. last year we had people inside their homes, we didn't have the tourist that's we normally have. it's hard to get a gauge on where we are in crime when you only look at last year. we're going look at the last three years to get a perspective of where we are an where we've been. homicides last year. we are up somewhat from where we were this time last year. if you look at 2019, 2018, 2017 you see pretty consistent numbers. we're up four this year. if you go back to 2017 we're

down pretty significantly from 2017, even 2016 and up slightly from 2015. next slide, let me say a few things about that. some of our strategies that we've introduced this year include a partnership with an entity called california partnership for safe communities. one of the things among the many we want to do with homicides and this speaks to what the mayor said earlier is investigate the root causes. our investigators do a magnificent job of clearing homicide cases. the other side of that is what can we do for the individuals most at risk for being involved in a shooting or homicide either as a victim or as a perpetrator. what can we do for those

individuals and families to provent it. our strategy moving forward is to get to that issue. that's what the mayor spoke to with the partnerships. identify the people most at risk who are people of color. black and brown men. that's not necessarily policing. we're a conduit to get services to the families most at risk. our job is to prevent and solve crime and get other people involved to address those issues to make the situation better. let's go to gun violence. since 2016 this is where we're having some challenges. 2021 we're almost double where we were last year in terms of gun violence. this includes fatal and non fatal shootings.

2019, 2020 we were in the mid fifties. you can see that we're not terribly higher than we were in 2016, 17, and 18. we're almost double where we were in the last two years. part of the strategies i just mentioned will help address that. it building relationships with the community members that are necessary to get a handle on this issue. we have commander pete who are a big part of this along with our investigations bureau, this brings all this together. our strategies on gun violence are holistic. we have to get a handle on this. illegal legal ghost guns. the number of illegal ghost guns that we con fist kateed over the

last four years have increased exponentially. these are guns that materialize in people's homes. they are dangerous, unregulated and in our city. we're addressing that with our partners from atf and our federal partners. we have an increase in con -- next we'll go to sexual assaults. here is an area that i'm pleased to say is far below where it was the last few years. when you look at 2019 to 2020. this was a significant drop.

2021 we continue to go down in that area. still that's 88 victims that have been sexually assaulted, far too many. we're working with the district attorney and advocacy groups. including treatment and services to the victims. that's a par of our plan, if you will, to get better in all of those areas. we do okay. we can always get better. we dropped sexual assaults from eleven cases to nineteen case nz june. that's a huge increase from a month to month perspective. it's something we want to keep an eye on because that's concerned. we want to make sure we keep control of that. next we'll go to robberies.

again, videos drive perception. when you see people getting robbed. when you see elderly victims get getting robbed and they go viral. here is the reality. our robberies from 2018 to year to date have gone down each year. we hope to continue that by year's end. if we continue the trend, we hope to keep this going. robberies are one of the categories where cops in the street matter. police officers in the street really matter when it comes to driving down robberies. people are less likely to rob people when they see officers nearby. that's a fact, it's proven. it's tried and true.

i can't say it enough, we need officers on the street to keep this going in the right direction. some of our high traffic corridors, our tourist areas. people enjoying themselves. we have to see police officers out there. the mayor did market vibrancy plan. we have seen robberies cut by 3. it matters when police officers are on their beat and able to stay on their beat. we want to continue that trend an make sure we keep that going in the right direction. aggravated assault is our next category. if you look at the five year period, again, this is some of the videos that we see happening that go viral. when you look at where we are

now compared to where we were just three years ago, we're actually doing okay. i want to say this. we know that not all crime rz ce reported. there's always a degree of under reporting of crime. we encourage people to report if they are victimized. that's how we know what going on and how we deploy. if you look at 2018, 2019, 2020. you see a significant drop. we are below where we were in 2019 our precovid year. can we do better? yes. we're not doing terribly and we want to keep that trend going as

well. again, research. the university of california, they started the foot beat deployment to see how that effected aggravated assault. it's proven, cops matter. when we put them in those areas, high corridor areas, assaults went down. we know that matters. that's been proven by research. next topic is burglaries. as we talk about property crime, the narrative in san francisco has been car break ins. it's been that way for a long time. here is an area we're struggling somewhat in terms of increases. we saw this trend start even before covid. last year we started to see burglaries go up.

we started to see other types of crime go down. could there have been some type of displacement? maybe. a lot of those were garage type burglaries. tools, bicycles. the good news is we started the year off really in a hole and over the last three and a half four months, we've seen burglaries decrease. at a about four percent increase year to date. it's still an increase. some of the things we've done is made some drastic change nzs in deproiment. deployment. a lot of these crimes happen overnight and we had to make that adjustment.

continue to keep these people off balance to let these people know that you'll see officers overnight. burglaries are up. we are going in the right direction compared to the way we started the year off. 2020, particularly last summer we had a spike because of the civil unrest. we had a lot of looting but we were able to get that under control. we have to compare it. next we'll go to larceny theft. retail theft is in that category. as you can see from 2017 and these are mid year numbers to now, it's been a steady decrease in this category. i will give you not every crime

reported. we can only go by what we know. it's counter to the narrative. not to say that these things that are happening, they are brazen and heinous. they need to stop and people held accountable. the statistics are in front of you. much work needs to be done in retail theft. a lot of the things the mayor said are coming into play. it's very challenging. what we can control is what we can control. that's our strategies an tactics. give the da the best cases we can give them. when these crimes do have them particularly when they are crews that were mentioned earlier, we identify who they are an bring

them to account for these crimes. we do a pretty good job at that. we have to get better. this is something that people -- it's personal to me when people think what they see on the video is what we represent. we all work and live here, it's a good city and safe city. that's not what you think when you see a guy ate local pharmacy and having at it with someone. they're in jail. we will catch you. make no mistakes about that. we're good at what we do. we'll keep going until we catch the people responsible for these crimes. we hope to keep that going in the right direction and listen

the frequency of these viral videos that we keep seeing on news and social media. next category is car break ins. here is another thing that tends to go viral. if you look at where we were in 2017, it was the worst year we had ever had. we ended that year with over 30,000 car break inns. ins. we shifted our focus. car break ins that continued in 2019 and 2020.

we're starting to go back up. we'll get a handle on that. put together a plan that we believe will make a difference. more officers on beat. particularly in the corridors that people visit our cities. that's where our problems are concentrated and that's where we will be. we have to be there. we have to be consistent about our deployment. we'll be consistent in our arrests and we also have to continue to drive some of these things down. we are up seven hundred crimes from where we were last year. we need the officers to do the work. we're going to make due with what we have until we start to get academy classes through.

we'll make it happen. this is is the image of our city that we're talking about. you can come to san francisco. it's a safe city. sfpd, the mayor, elected officials. we got your back. next category, auto theft. auto thefts are up. that's a two year trend. we started to see that also in 2020 before covid. that trend continued not as significantly. less of an increase this year but it's still up. that is also an issue that we need to get a handle on. if you look at where we were back in 2015, we're down pretty significantly but it's after a good year in 2018 and it went up a little bit, we're starting to

go back up. it's pretty significant from 2019 to 202 #. 2021. these are hard crimes to solve. we're going to do everything we can to keep this under wraps and under control as well. the auto thefts are middle of the night type of crimes as well. that's where nighttime deployment can can impact some. it's a difficult case. most of all the thefts we recover a lot of cars that get recovered in other jurisdictions. when your car gets stolen, you

don't care what is stealing it, you just want your car back. that is our mid year statistic. you can see when you look at these over time, it paints a much different picture than watching a video that goes viral. i don't want to be dismissive of the videos because they are brazen and heinous and awful. we need to prevent those things from happening and arrest the people doing it. we want to keep perspective on the reality of what's really happening in terms of crime activity in our city. i hope this provided some perspective for you. that concludes our presentation. we'll be available for some questions.

san francisco is surrounded on three sides by water, the fire boat station is intergal to maritime rescue and preparedness, not only for san francisco, but for all of the bay area. [sirens] >> fire station 35 was built in 1915. so it is over 100 years old. and helped it, we're going to build fire boat station 35. >> so the finished capital planning committee, i think about three years ago, issued a guidance that all city facilities must exist on sea level rise. >> the station 35, construction cost is approximately $30 million. and the schedule was complicated because of

what you call a float. it is being fabricated in china, and will be brought to treasure island, where the building site efficient will be constructed on top of it, and then brought to pier 22 and a half for installation. >> we're looking at late 2020 for final completion of the fire boat float. the historic firehouse will remain on the embarcadero, and we will still respond out of the historic firehouse with our fire engine, and respond to medical calls and other incidences in the district. >> this totally has to incorporate between three to six feet of sea level rise over the next 100 years. that's what the city's guidance is requiring. it is built on the float, that can move up and down as the water level rises,

and sits on four fixed guide piles. so if the seas go up, it can move up and down with that. >> it does have a full range of travel, from low tide to high tide of about 16 feet. so that allows for current tidal movements and sea lisle rises in the coming decades. >> the fire boat station float will also incorporate a ramp for ambulance deployment and access. >> the access ramp is rigidly connected to the land side, with more of a pivot or hinge connection, and then it is sliding over the top of the float. in that way the ramp can flex up and down like a hinge, and also allow for a slight few inches of lateral motion of the float. both the access ramps, which there is two, and the utility's only flexible connection connecting from the float to the back of the

building. so electrical power, water, sewage, it all has flexible connection to the boat. >> high boat station number 35 will provide mooring for three fire boats and one rescue boat. >> currently we're staffed with seven members per day, but the fire department would like to establish a new dedicated marine unit that would be able to respond to multiple incidences. looking into the future, we have not only at&t park, where we have a lot of kayakers, but we have a lot of developments in the southeast side, including the stadium, and we want to have the ability to respond to any marine or maritime incident along these new developments. >> there are very few designs for people sleeping on the water. we're looking at cruiseships, which are

larger structures, several times the size of harbor station 35, but they're the only good reference point. we look to the cruiseship industry who has kind of an index for how much acceleration they were accommodate. >> it is very unique. i don't know that any other fire station built on the water is in the united states. >> the fire boat is a regional asset that can be used for water rescue, but we also do environmental cleanup. we have special rigging that we carry that will contain oil spills until an environmental unit can come out. this is a job for us, but it is also a way of life and a lifestyle. we're proud to serve our community. and we're willing to help people in any way we can.

>> one more statement.an. we are the one. that is our first single that we made. that is our opinion. >> i can't argue with you. >> you are responsible please do not know his exact. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪]

[♪♪♪] >> i had a break when i was on a major label for my musical career. i took a seven year break. and then i came back. i worked in the library for a long time. when i started working the san francisco history centre, i noticed they had the hippie collection. i thought, if they have a hippie collection, they really need to have a punk collection as well. so i talked to the city archivist who is my boss. she was very interested. one of the things that i wanted to get to the library was the avengers collection. this is definitely a valuable poster. because it is petty bone. it has that weird look because it was framed. it had something acid on it and something not acid framing it. we had to bring all of this

stuff that had been piling up in my life here and make sure that the important parts of it got archived. it wasn't a big stretch for them to start collecting in the area of punk. we have a lot of great photos and flyers from that area and that. that i could donate myself. from they're, i decided, you know, why not pursue other people and other bands and get them to donate as well? the historic moments in san francisco, punk history, is the sex pistols concert which was at winterland. [♪♪♪] it brought all of the punks on the web -- west coast to san francisco to see this show. the sex pistols played the east coast and then they play texas and a few places in the south and then they came directly to san francisco. they skipped l.a. and they skipped most of the media centres. san francisco was really the biggest show for them pick it was their biggest show ever. their tour manager was interested in managing the

adventures, my band. we were asked to open to support the pistols way to that show. and the nuns were also asked to open the show. it was certainly the biggest crowd that we had ever played to. it was kind of terrifying but it did bring people all the way from vancouver, tee seattle, portland, san diego, all up and down the coast, and l.a., obviously. to san francisco to see this show. there are a lot of people who say that after they saw this show they thought they would start their own band. it was a great jumping off point for a lot of west coast punk. it was also, the pistols' last show. in a way, it was the end of one era of punk and the beginning of a new one. the city of san francisco didn't necessarily support punk rock. [♪♪♪] >> last, but certainly not least is a jell-o be opera. they are the punk rock candidate of the lead singer called the

dead kennedys. >> if we are blaming anybody in san francisco, we will just blame the dead kennedys. >> there you go. >> we had situations where concerts were cancelled due to flyers, obscene flyers that the city was thought -- that he thought was obscene that had been put up. the city of san francisco has come around to embrace it's musicians. when they have the centennial for city hall, they brought in all kinds of local musicians and i got to perform at that. that was, at -- in a way, and appreciation from the city of san francisco for the musical legends. i feel like a lot of people in san francisco don't realize what resources there are at the library. we had a film series, the s.f. punk film series that i put together. it was nearly sold out every single night. people were so appreciative that someone was bringing this for them.

it is free. everything in the library is free. >> it it is also a film producer who has a film coming out. maybe in 2018 about crime. what is the title of it? >> it is called san francisco first and only rock 'n' roll movie. crime, 1978. [laughter] >> when i first went to the art institute before the adventures were formed in 77, i was going to be a painter. i did not know i would turn into a punk singer. i got back into painting and i mostly do portraiture and figurative painting. one of the things about this job here is i discovered some great resources for images for my painting. i was looking through these mug shot books that we have here that are from the 1920s. i did a whole series of a mug shot paintings from those books. they are in the san francisco

history centre's s.f. police department records. there are so many different things that the library provides for san franciscans that i feel like a lot of people are like, oh, i don't have a library card. i've never been there. they need to come down and check it out and find out what we have. the people who are hiding stuff in their sellers and wondering what to do with these old photos or old junk, whether it is hippie stuff or punk stuff, or stuff from their grandparents, if they bring it here to us, we can preserve it and archive it and make it available to the public in the future. >> 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

>> we broke ground in december of last year. we broke ground the day after sandy hook connecticut and had a moment of silence here. it's really great to see the silence that we experienced then and we've experienced over the years in this playground is now filled with these voices. >> 321, okay. [ applause ] >> the park was kind of bleak. it was scary and over grown. we started to help maclaren

park when we found there wasn't any money in the bond for this park maclaren. we spent time for funding. it was expensive to raise money for this and there were a lot of delays. a lot of it was just the mural, the sprinklers and we didn't have any grass. it was that bad. we worked on sprinkler heads and grass and we fixed everything. we worked hard collecting everything. we had about 400 group members. every a little bit helped and now the park is busy all week. there is people with kids using the park and using strollers and now it's safer by utilizing it. >> maclaren park being the largest second park one of the best kept secrets. what's

exciting about this activation in particular is that it's the first of many. it's also representation of our city coming together but not only on the bureaucratic side of things. but also our neighbors, neighbors helped this happen. we are thrilled that today we are seeing the fruition of all that work in this city's open space. >> when we got involved with this park there was a broken swing set and half of -- for me, one thing i really like to point out to other groups is that when you are competing for funding in a hole on the ground, you need to articulate what you need for your park. i always point as this sight as a model for other communities. >> i hope we continue to work on the other empty pits that

are here. there are still a lot of areas that need help at maclaren park. we hope grants and money will be available to continue to improve this park to make it shine. it's a really hidden jewel. a lot of people don't know it's here. >> chair haney: this meeting will come to order. this is the july 14, 2021 budget and finance committee meeting. i am matt haney, chair of the budget and finance committee. i am joined by supervisors