they were in the past. you can get a deep satisfaction from responding a lot of year practicing in one thing and becoming really good at something. sometimes i think that it is better to get lost. you have to practice and become good at what you do, so if you have everything together then go out in the world and do what you do and then i think people weal accept that.

>> good morning everybody. thanks for being here this morning. so we're going to start this off with our mayor who needs no introduction. but we're here today to talk about our city's efforts to really curve and reduce the amount of retail left in san francisco. so without further adieu, mayor breed. >> thank you, chief. and thank you everyone for being here today. we know sadly that this pandemic has been very challenging for our city, for our country and what we've seen in terms of theft and burglaries has been really definitely frustrating. the videos that have gone viral don't necessarily tell the full story about what's happening in

san francisco. yes, what we saw was very problematic, but what we haven't seen was the good work that has been done by the men and women of the san francisco police department to apprehend many suspects in many of these cases. we know that what happens with these particular crimes, it's not just about stealing merchandise and thinking that, okay, these are large companies and they can recover. they can deal with lost prevention and recuperate their expenses to insurance. when these businesses decide they don't want to do business in this city and they close, people lose their jobs. when the pharmacies decide we're going to close in this neighborhood because we have too many challenges with theft, the seniors and folks who depend on the medications of those pharmacies, they lose,

the community loses. what community doesn't want a pharmacy in their neighborhood? what community doesn't want a grocery store in their neighborhood? what community doesn't want resource that is they can access that are easy to get to? and when we rob these places that serve our community, we're taking away this resource from the people that we care about from our mothers, our grandmothers, our grandfathers, our family members who are in need. the people who work at these establishments when they lose their jobs, what do they do? we are better than this. and what i will also say sadly in many of these organized theft rings, a lot of young people, parents, what's going on with your kids?

in some cases, these kids are under the age of 18. we are better than this and we can do better than this. here is san francisco, we're a compassionate city. we care about criminal justice reform. we care about second chances. we care about making sure that people are not wrongly accused. but don't take our kindness for weakness, our compassion for weakness. when a crime is committed in the city, when you cross that line, there will be consequences. there has to be consequences because we can't continue to allow what we see as lawlessness continue to dominate our city and the domino effect of closures, of

people feeling unsafe. it's frustrating and we are tired of it. this city has jeffed significant resources and to job training and placement program, small business initiatives, resources around education. styphens for training programs. our goal is to make sure with our plan that we have sufficient resources dedicated specifically to investigate, to apprehend, and to make sure that we gather the appropriate evidence for a conviction for these crimes. so as a result of the work that

we've been doing here in san francisco, a couple things that we're going to be doing and the chief can talk a little bit more specifically about them we will expand san francisco police department's retail officers from two to six. this will be their sole job is to deal with these retail thefts. we will expand our san francisco community ambassador program consisting of retired police officers. originally, i created this program for union square, for the need who need to make sure that people who are shopping and visiting union square felt safe. for the holiday season. we are expanding that program. we have eight people who will part of that program now. we're going to increase that program to 25 and those retired

officers will be of significant service to help with this program. we plan to hire a new strategic coordinator and deployment of off-duty police officers. they'll be a lieutenant who's responsible in the department for those who serve in 12b and many of you know 12b are officers who are able to be hired by private businesses to work during the times that they're off duty. we now will have a change in how we deploy those officers to the most heavily needed retail establishments. many of those places like the wallgreens and the targets and the large retailers that have been targeted, we will make changes to deployment in the hardest hit areas. and expand the rapid reporting and response to our teleserve unit and that is so that people who need to report a crime,

they have an easier way to do it. online and making a phone call rather than waiting hours for a police officer to show up. we don't want people to not report these crimes. we want to know what's happening whether you have a video or not. we want these crimes reported so we can make adjustments in the area that we target to address theft throughout san francisco and our retail establishments. so our goal is to expand it and to make sure that the resources are available so that we can respond quickly. i just want to give one example of the san francisco police department and the work that they've done to address some of the theft and the vandalism in some cases of some businesses in chinatown. there were about 49 reported incidents of vandalism and of those 49 reported incidents,

there were 30 that were committed by one person who was apprehended and is behind bars as we speak. many of you saw the video that went viral of the guy riding his bike into the walgreens. everybody talked about it, but nobody talked about the fact that that suspect has been apprehended and is awaiting prosecution as we speak. so the work gets done by this police department, the investigations get done, the arrests get made and we're adding more services to ensure that we continue to do the work for the people of san francisco to make sure that people in communities who want these pharmacies and businesses in their communities are able to keep them. folks are able to keep their jobs and we're able to serve san francisco and that we as a city through our law enforcement agency will respond when that line is crossed and those crimes are committed. with that, i want to introduce

our chief bill scott who can talk more about the program and answer any questions. >> thank you mayor breed. as the mayor said, we've been challenged and these retail theft crimes, they impact us all and you don't have to be directly impacted by this. you go into your favorite retailer whether it's a community business or a large national brand retailer, your experience is important and if you shop in the city, if you live in the city, if you work in the city, if you play in the city, your experience is important. it's important to this mayor. it's important to us. and it's important to the people that we've talked to. so i'm going to go into little bit of detail how we intend to make things better. as the mayor said, we first of all had to sit down and had to really make a plan to rise to

this occasion because it is challenging and when these things happen and they get captured on cellphone video, they do go viral and then it makes it even worse because then people then start fearing crime even if they haven't been victimized and we have to address that as well. this is where the increased presence, the better and tighter control the management of our privately funded 10v officers working in uniform becomes important. so i'm going to go into a little bit of detail and after i speak, we'll make ourselves ready for questions. we have deputy lieutenant lazarre and we'll be able to answer any further questions that you have. so a little bit of detail about how we arrived to this point. first of all, i want to say thank you to all the retailers that we sat down and not only had discussions with, but we

listened to, he heard them. they are apart of the solution as well and better communications. better investigative processes from the time the crime is committed is something i believe we all should share to make better and that is very well in progress. in terms of our investigations unit and that's headed by lieutenant scott ryan, again, sitting down with the investigators doing the work and listening to what they have to say and hearing them. one of the thing that is they told me when i sat down with them and lieutenant ryan was, chief, we're working as hard as we can work, we need more resources. and we had to recalibrate and give them more resources and as the mayor mentioned to increase that unit from two to six investigators will do wonders because we have more capacity to investigate these cases and we have some 'really good investigations going and we expect really good outcomes in terms of arrests from these

investigations that we have ongoing. so that is a big step forward. the other thing that i want to go into detail is the privately funded officers in uniform as the mayor referred to this earlier, we had to do a better job in coordinating the scheduling of those, making sure that that aligned with the needs of this city. and what i mean specifically by that, we have hot spots in retail theft. we see organized groups go in, take a bunch of property, run out, and a lot of times these things are captured on video. we can't be totally driven by that, but we have to be data driven. and we felt we could do a better job of analyzing our data. getting data from the retailers some data we weren't getting before and making sure we know where things are happening. we understand where these problems are occurring. but here's one thing that we know. these crimes are underreported and in our discussions with

many of our retailers, even some of the community, the mom and pop type of businesses, they're not always reporting the crimes. so one of the things that the mayor mentioned in terms of our reporting process is we've implemented new processes to make it easier to report. now, there's a plus side to that but we expect you're going to see an increase with better reporting and that's not a bad thing because it gives us an opportunity to have, number one, good data to begin with. secondly, to know where to put our resources because we don't know what we don't know. and we encourage everybody to report these crimes when they happen so we know where to put our resources. we do expect an increase. we do online reporting in about three weeks, we'll come online to enhance that and we expect to have better data. the other thing is what we depo

with that data is this increase of resources, we put them in the right locations. so the retired officers we're bringing back to work in these locations. we've seen tremendous success with what they bring to the table in union square. as the mayor said, we started this holiday season last year. tremendous support and praise from our retailers in that area as well as our community members who benefit from these folks being out there and what i mean by that is they have police radios and they call our on-duty resources to see what the problem. and that's the value added to

this whole process. that's what they'll be doing as we mentioned from eight to 24 members and that's huge because it expands our geographic reach across the city so we'll be beyond union square and that's a big step forward. the 10b coordination. another thing, coordination of communication and getting the information to the people that it needs to get to. we have officers day in and day out who work in uniform and they're hired privately by businesses and they are for security purposes, they're in stores. you go to a lot of our retailers across the city and you'll see officers in uniform. so one of the things as we said i want to talk with everybody who has a stake in this, we have to have better coordination with the information. lieutenant ryan's investigators, they need to know what these officers are

seeing day in and day out and we felt we could do better there and we are doing better. that lieutenant that the mayor mentioned has already been hired. they're already on board and we've seen better deployment almost immediately at the retailers who needed the help the most. and that's big. it's really huge. the other thing is these officers typically work in these stores quite often. they know these customers and the people and better communications with the retailers with people who are chronic defenders who are not supposed to be in those store s in the first place and if the retailers don't know who they are because communications haven't been what they should be. how do they tell the officers

that person can't be in the store. so these are things we believe will not only help prevent some of what's happening, but it will give us the tools to enforce the law. last thing i'll mention is just on the whole investigation piece, we have to have good outcomes. a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of resources, a lot of time, a lot of coordination has been poured into making this better. and we at the police department have to give our prosecutors the best evidence possible. we're asking for assistance with retailers, but we have forensic evidence that we have to make sure that we get our forensic folks out there to collect that evidence, but if we don't know about it, we can't do that. this is why it's so important to communicate and i'm encouraged by what we have seen this last month. the mayor gave very clear

direction on what she expects and what needs to happen. we're brought into that and we agree with that and we've been a part of that conversation from the start. what i expect is better outcomes. i expect people to be held accountable. we're not going to arrest everybody although we'd like to, but we're not going to catch everybody, but just know that you don't get a free pass when you come to this city and commit those types of crimes. please know that. people will be held accountable. they will be prosecuted. we're going to do our jobs and we're going to get better at it until we make this situation better and i'm encouraged by that and i believe we can

. >> reporter: when exactly do you expect to see an impact in terms of this and these crime rings brought at bay? >> well, we expect it to go up and then we'll have a comparison point collecting better data, like really being able to parse out how many of our theft cases are retail

theft. right now, it's difficult for us. i can tell you what our overall thefts and our car break-ins but we want tighter data and these are some of the systems we've put in place and to have tight numbers on specifically retail theft. so next year, we'll have a better benchmark. i think the following year, we'll have a true comparison on where we really are, but in the meantime, a lot of it is the eye test. look, if you are out shopping or doing what you do in the city and you're seeing these things occur, we want you to see less of it. we don't want you to see it at all, but we want you to see less of it and so some of it really amounts to that. you know, the statistics say what they say and we say there's an underreporting and people remind us of that all the time, but we need a solid base of data to compare and the way that usually works is we compare year to year. so as we collect better data,

as time goes on, we'll see what the trends show and we're going to work toward a decrease. >> reporter: this may be a question for you, mayor breed, or chief scott, some shop owners i've spoken to over the summer, one thing i heard from people on filmother street and they told me they heard this was where they're using drones to surveil shopping districts, so they knew when patrol officers were or weren't in the area. and they said that they've heard this from their own district. so curious if you know anything about this. if there's a reality to that situation or is that staff ring back and organized? >> i will tell you this, you know, any time we put a strategy in place, people try to get around it. so it wouldn't surprise me if that's happening. we have to be unpredictable as we can be in terms of our

deployment, but at the same time, we want people to know we'll be in these locations. that's what presence and deterrence is all about. the whole thought process is if they see a uniformed san francisco police officer at a store, around the store, or on foot or foot beats, we hope that that serves as a deterrent to go somewhere else if you're going to try to commit a crime. i'll ask lieutenant ryan to speak on the drone question because i'm not sure. >> i think that shows that they are trying to do what they can. i think that that means we're going our job. we're going to go to lengths that you're talking about. but if that's what they're going to do, we're going to get better and be just as fist indicated. >> reporter: and just clarity, the two to six increase are those detectives or

investigators or officers on patrol? >> those are sergeants. look, we're going to do what we need to do. and here's the bottom line. this is something that we've got to get better and we'll start and see where it goes. we have 2,000 employees in the department. but we're going to do what we need to do to make this better. we're going to rise to the occasion. we have to. >> is there a point where you wanted to push it over to light? >> a few things have been happening and some of this is not new, but we're trying to come out of a global pandemic unlike anything that we've seen and, you know, the mayor's directions has been clear as far as that as well and we all as department heads buy into this and agree with this. this pandemic has put us in a different place on several

fronts. we've seen violent crime go up across the nation. we've seen things that we weren't seeing before. we've had these robing vans of car caravans going into retail establishments and looting. we weren't seeing these things before. so we have to make adjustments as we come out of this pandemic in this city and the direction has been clear for the mayor is be ready to re-open the city for people who come here, who live here have good experiences and the retail theft thing kind of came to a head. a year ago, we had looting in the city. we got it under control pretty quickly here in san francisco thanks to the resources that, you know, we were able to get from the mayor's leadership. we only had one day of looting, but we had a lot more incidents that weren't big organized, you know, looting type of incidents that took us all summer really to manage and to arrest people and hold them to account. we arrested, you know, i think

several hundred people just for that. so it puts people in different head space and we're not out of this pandemic yet. you know, people are hurting and i'm not making any excuses. it's wrong to steal, but we're dealing with the dynamics that we have not had to deal with before. we had to be ready to adjust and it's not one incident. i think it's a combination of many things, but the bottom line is we have to adjust to it. we have to do what we need to do to make this situation better. >> reporter: and you mentioned a lot of these crimes go unreported. why do you think that's the case? >> i think there's several reasons for it. you know, some of the retailers have a threshold, a monetary threshold and some of them have corporate policies that, hey, if we can get our property back, we're not going to bother the police department. you stop somebody at the door, they have an $800 handbag, we take our handbag back and we're

not going to bother calling the police department. we'll let that person go. we'll give them a trespassing order not to come in our store, we have our own security. the bottom line is we need to know about that person that stole that $800 purse that you stopped at the door and got your purse back because they're probably going to go down the street and try it again. so we need to know about that. there's probably in apathy for people who don't think it's going to make a difference. these crimes sometimes aren't easy to solve and sometimes people give up and that's why we need to promote so people are encouraged to report to us and they need to know we're going to take action and i hope what you're hearing here encourages people that we're serious about this and that's why these extra investigators or additional investigators put into place so we have better outcomes for people so they don't get discouraged. >> reporter: some of the apathy may come from the idea

that people feel that this is not going to be resolved. right. i think we talked about public reception of all this. perception that they're going to do it over and over again. the same people are cycling again. what are you going to do with the d.a.'s office to try to make sure you're getting the outcomes that you need to make an effective change? >> well, thank you for that question. i think it's a bigger issue than that. people also have to realize, you know, what our voters have voted for and i'm not going to stand up here chief of police and criticize instead of look and really say we have to do a better job because we have to arrest and give the district attorney and the prosecutors and the courts the best evidence we can give them. now, the reality is this, you know, the laws have changed and, you know, while we're

doing all this, we're reenvisioning the criminal justice system. there's a concerted effort to have people sit in jail for a petty theft. and that's not a bad thing, but we have to adjust to it. so part of i think trying to promote confidence in our criminal justice system is doing what we try to do in this police department and tell people we're trying to work with the system we have, with the prosecutor that we have and make things better and we are committed to doing that and i can't speak for the district attorney, but i can say, we bring them a case and his people a case and they will prosecute it. we don't always get the outcomes we want. sometimes we ask for people to be detained and they get released. sometimes they're detaineded. but the bottom line is we have to do what we need to do and, you know, part of what i think needs to stop is we need to stop doing this and do this and just try to get better at what we can control and if everybody

does that, we're going to be in a better place. >> how do you expect to see the increase in reports of these crimes? i think you said it's going to be implemented in three weeks. what does that mean to that? >> about three weeks, we should start seeing this and hopefully immediately people will start reporting. david, you want to speak on that. >> yeah. with regard to reporting, our teleservice unit is opened now. that's staffed by department personnel. we figured calling the phone and having the report prepared over the phone will be much more efficient for the retailers and much more efficient for us. that system's in place now. in terms of three weeks from now, we'll have our current cop logic system where you can go online and write a report. you can do that now, but you can't put suspect information into that and so we're going to make that change so that the retailers can give us as much

information as possible. much easier way for retailer, merchants and others to report crime makes it much more efficient for us. >> this might be a question for chief scott or mayor breed. when it comes to supervisors advise requests that you and district attorney provide more information about retail theft. >> well supervisor safai's trying to help. and he's doing what he can to help people to help the situation. this is a part of that conversation not the cause of it and this direction was clearly from the mayor in term officer making sure that we pulled all this work together. but what supervisor safai's doing is trying to add value to this process by helping bring us together and talk through these issues and hopefully providing the resources we need to actually do something. this has to come with resources and the mayor mentioned it and i'll emphasize it. we can say all we want to say about the plans, but if we

don't have the people to do it and the resources to do it, it's not going to work. so we have to commit the resources to this. >> were they now hires to sfpd? >> no they're seasoned investigators. >> does that mean they're off some others? >> yeah. we have to make adjustments and that's the trade-off. we have to make adjustments and that's apart of policing and police management and different trends will happen and we have to adjust to it. so that's just a part of what we have to do. >> one more question. >> chief scott, this is an unrelated note. about a month ago a couple of your employees in the police department received a letter from h.r. recommending suspension if they continue to refuse reporting their vaccination status. where does that stand today? have they been suspended or are you moving to suspend any employees? >> we only had eight employees

who fell in that category and we intend to follow through on what was said, but there is a due process. like any disciplinary matter, our members have due process, that means they can appeal and their appeals will be heard if they choose to do so. but we fully intend to follow through on what we said we were going to do. i mean, we're in a global pandemic. we're over 600,000 people have lost their lives. we all have to do our part and, again, you know, our leadership, the mayor has been very clear on what she wants to see from all of her departments to make this situation better, so we'll follow through. but they do have due process. >> that means you are moving to suspend these eight employees? >> yes. the notice of discipline has been issued for those employees and they'll go through their process and see where that lands. we're going to follow our due process to be fair about this and continue to do what we have

to do to try to help do our part to help us get out of this pandemic. thank you all. >> thank you very much. shop and dine on the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services within neighborhood. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant. where will you shop and dine in the 49? san francisco owes the charm to the unique character of the neighborhood comer hall district.

each corridor has its own personality. our neighborhoods are the engine of the city. >> you are putting money and support back to the community you live in and you are helping small businesses grow. >> it is more environmentally friendly. >> shopping local is very important. i have had relationships with my local growers for 30 years. by shopping here and supporting us locally, you are also supporting the growers of the flowers, they are fresh and they have a price point that is not imported. it is really good for everybody. >> shopping locally is crucial. without that support, small business can't survive, and if

we lose small business, that diversity goes away, and, you know, it would be a shame to see that become a thing of the past. >> it is important to dine and shop locally. it allows us to maintain traditions. it makes the neighborhood. >> i think san francisco should shop local as much as they can. the retail marketplace is changes. we are trying to have people on the floor who can talk to you and help you with products you are interested in buying, and help you with exploration to try things you have never had before. >> the fish business, you think it is a piece of fish and fisherman. there are a lot of people working in the fish business,

between wholesalers and fishermen and bait and tackle. at the retail end, we about a lot of people and it is good for everybody. >> shopping and dining locally is so important to the community because it brings a tighter fabric to the community and allows the business owners to thrive in the community. we see more small businesses going away. we need to shop locally to keep the small business alive in san francisco. >> shop and dine in the 49 is a cool initiative. you can see the banners in the streets around town. it is great. anything that can showcase and legitimize small businesses is a wonderful tit.

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop & dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant

so we're will you shop & dine in the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in san francisco that is color fulfill and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown welcome to jason dessert i'm the fifth generation of candy in san francisco still that serves 2000 district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals that's why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art

we will explain a walk and they can't walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming and they do show of. >> beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is - i really appreciate they love this art. >> from the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you don't have to go far. >> small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. >> you don't have to go anywhere else we have pocketed

of great neighborhoods haul have all have their own uniqueness. >> san francisco has to all >> one more statement. 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 are providing breakfast, lunch, and supper for the kids. >> say hi. hi. what's your favorite? the carrots. >> the pizza? >> i'm not going to eat the pizza. >> you like the pizza? >> they will eat anything. >> yeah, well, okay.

>> sfusd's meal program right now is passing out five days worth of meals for monday through friday. the program came about when the shelter in place order came about for san francisco. we have a lot of students that depend on school lunches to meet their daily nutritional requirement. we have families that can't take a hit like that because they have to make three meals instead of one meal. >> for the lunch, we have turkey sandwiches. right now, we have spaghetti and meat balls, we have chicken

enchiladas, and then, we have cereals and fruits and crackers, and then we have the milk. >> we heard about the school districts, that they didn't know if they were going to be able to provide it, so we've been successful in going to the stores and providing some things. they've been helpful, pointing out making sure everybody is wearing masks, making sure they're staying distant, and everybody is doing their jobs, so that's a great thing when you're working with many kid does. >> the feedback has been really good. everybody seems really appreciative. they do request a little bit

more variety, which has been hard, trying to find different types of food, but for the most part, everyone seems appreciative. growing up, i depended on them, as well, so it reminds me of myself growing up. >> i have kids at home. i have six kids. i'm a mother first, so i'm just so glad to be here. it's so great to be able to help them in such a way because some families have lost their job, some families don't have access to this food, and we're just really glad to be

good morning everyone. who loves transit in san francisco? oh, my gosh, everybody loves transit. who had a great ride? who had a problematic ride? that's actually a pretty good. that's okay. that's good. hi, ktvu. so i am rafael mandalmen. i got to take the j church in with a group of activists who are very committed to getting the j back in the tunnel. my experience on the j was a mix of the good and the bad. so i will say that two years ago, the last time that we did this,