but i also want to make sure that we are -- . . . >> thank you, all, for joining us here in the bright and foggy richmond district of san francisco. it is so great to be here. this past weekend, san francisco really was pumping. i don't know about you, but i was all over the city and i saw people everywhere going to chase center to see preseason of the warriors and where we beat. . . . . and one of the most significant and the italian heritage parade

and it was packed in north beach with so many people and so many businesses. our hotels were full. and so much going on in san francisco. it was really great and we just announced that one of the first cruise ships that we have seen since the pandemic started has returned. so when you think about we are still living in a pandemic, because 83% of san franciscans are vaccinated and seeing lower infection rates, that has everything to do with why we have been able to make really great decisions and continue to we occupy our city. we are on the way to a serious economic recovery and also i am

so happy to see people out and about in the city. all the issues we faced before the pandemic continues. one of the biggest issues has everything to do with housing and affordability. when i talk about housing and how important it is to move forward, it has everything to do with growing up in san francisco and watching it become less and less affordable. watching friend and family move out of san francisco. people making decisions about whether or not to have children because of affordability. when i think about my life in san francisco, there were challenges and this is an amazing city and there is no other place i would rather be than in san francisco. but also i want to make sure that we are sharing in those opportunities. i talked to so many people in this community in particular and the conversation i have with

them when i was first running for mayor, scott weaner has this bill that i think most people on the west side was completely adamantly opposed to and the conversation i would constantly have is how long have you been here? they were mostly born and raised here and here for 40, 50 years. they raised their children in the same house and still live there. when i ask where the children live now, the children who were adults and sometimes married with their own kids, often times they were not living in san francisco because they couldn't afford to live here. we have not done our part in insuring that we build housing equitably, geographically and our entire city. that is what today is about and looking at opportunities. we are not trying to make the

west side of town into downtown, but what we're saying with underutilized places like this place that used to be a gas station, there can be the possibility to create four stories. with gus's market. this is possible in underutilized spaces and incredible addition to this community. this is important that we get rid of the bureaucracy, get rid of the layers and we look at being innovative and make it easier to build housing. it should not take 10, 15 years once a property is available to build. we have over 70,000 units that have been approved and the director of planning is here with us today and he is working overtime to come up with solutions to get the units online, but it is going to

require a lot more. and today we're announcing a new piece of legislation that will help us get there called cars to casas or cas. mi casa, su casa. and cars to casas. and the whole point is taking underutilized spaces like gas stations that are closed, like garages and parking lots, places that aren't realizing their full potential and moving forward with allowing them to be zoned to build housing. that is what we're doing and i want to recognize the environmental impacts of what happens when you build more housing in the city and people

are moving further out and commuting further and the freeways are packed and the cars and the congestion. when you build housing around transit corridors and that is how you help with the environment, too. it is so many things that this will do. affordability, helping the environment, and making sure that generation of san franciscans who love the city and who want to continue to call this city home and people who want to raise their children here and affords to live here. that is what more building means and all the folks who are joining us here today and in addition we have the folks who will talk in a little bit and ty davis from the housing action coalition and another person from bright line and folks who

care about moving bureaucracy and moving the drama out of the way because we care about not only making that to live here. and we want to make sure the next generation doesn't continue to do with the challenges of affordability and as it relates to housing in san francisco and that is what's most important. and with that, i would like to introduce someone who has been a champion and unapologetic about pushing the envelope to get more housing built everywhere. and i don't know about you, but i don't see a four-story building and i don't think it's unreasonable to build something like this in areas where we desperately need housing and of course, a great supermarket to add. and the state senator is making

it easier to build housing and robust transit and is willing to push the envelope and how housing plays a role in all of those things. we appreciate his work and advocacy and with that i would like to introduce state senator scott weaner. >> thank you for your leadership on housing. we are working very hard at the state level to encourage and sometimes require cities to allow more housing. and we have cities throughout the state that unfortunately many of them have just not allowed very much housing at all over time and have made it just impossible to actually get anything built and so we are trying to reset the rules at the

state level to say that all cities must participate and we need housing everywhere and this is about future of the state. it is fantastic when we have cities and more than you think and san francisco is one of them and mayor breed is leading the way here and is fantastic when cities without being told you have to do it do the right thing and acknowledge that if we are serious about having a future for young people in our city, that if we're serious about having a city that can be diverse and people afford housing and serious about tackling to be creative and to find ways to allow more housing. and the mayor is proposing this very, very creative approach where we know we have so many auto uses in san francisco and some are closing down. gas stations, car washes and

there the areas with the neighborhoods and the mixed use and near transit and near jobs and all parts of the city. and it is also about equity. and we have historically put our focused the housing in a few small starts of the city and we need that everywhere. and people on the west side also need more housing. and what i will also say is that the major talked about sb827 which to allow density near transit and actually the mayor during her campaign very bravely supported that legislation and she was the only candidate who did. and in the polling not only did she win, but the polling showed despite very loud voices that you hear, and that can sometimes seem like they represent the majority and the people who oppose all housing or don't want

any change and show up and spend 10 hours of planning commission hearings and they are not. and whe you look at the polling, people understand that and are and the politicians and the mayor get it. and this is a fantastic program and i fully support it and have the honor of bringing up one of the great housing advocates and one of the is a deep grass roots movement and the movement of people who want to say yes and

want to and billed like this and offer the really unique opportunity to make progress on multiple of our most issues. and this will take and we have the miracle of a moment in the middle of tragedy where rents dip and right back up there and we need to be doing everything we can to plan for the next generation and making our city more inclusive and access and building more homes and cars to casas and the number one thing that san francisco can be doing to address greenhouse gas emissions is building in-fill housing. this is going to literally be taking that car centric infrastructure and making it easier to build. the thing we know will make our

city more sustainable is homes for the family that are right now searching on craigslist and they are crying. they are saying, i cannot afford to live in the city that i love and i cannot afford to live near my job. i cannot afford to be close to my family. these bills are making the city more inclusive for the next generation. and this is about building back better, and it is an incredible opportunity. i am so glad that we have leadership that is willing to take the major steps to address our chronic housing shortage. and there is a great quote that says don't tell me your values, show me your budget. for local government, it is actually don't tell me your values, show me your land use policies. and you have land. how are you using it? and how are you making it at the city? the best it can be and the most inclusive it can be. and i am excited about this and i hope that the board of supervisors takes the advantage of what the mayor is putting forward and a bold idea of

taking car centric infrastructure and doing exactly what we know every climate scientist is telling us we need to be doing which is building in-fill, walkable communities and getting away from the carbon emitting technology of the past. and thank you so much and now i am going to hand it over to todd davis from housing action coalition. >> it is never fun to follow lar. i want to start by saying, how lucky are we in san francisco to have such amazing leadership on housing and mayor london breed and state senator weaner, two of the most amazing housing champions in california. as a parent of three teenager who is all want to come back to san francisco -- and i don't want them moving back into my house -- i think that we need more housing. look, we all know the housing action coalition, we are a member supported nonprofit that

supports housing at all levels of affordability. and just like you, we are well aware that san francisco is experiencing an affordable and displacement crisis being primarily caused by an underproduction of housing at all levels of affordability for the last 50 years. right? and we know that workers and people who work every day and the key workers and the teachers and the firefighters and the nurses and they are getting pushed further and further and further out of san francisco. and they have super commutes. they are driving two hours in each direction. and that is what is contributing to greenhouse gases and the climate change. it makes sense to look at where there is available land to develop and take old time car centric and gas stations and parking lots and make it easier for developers to build housing at all levels of affordability and that makes sense in san francisco.

we're going to have workers living closer to the urban centers and being able to walk and take public transportation. we're going to be building that next generation of housing and making space for my children, for your children, and your grandchildren. and so we really have something that we should all be coming together and every neighborhood needs to be a part of the solution. right? and welcoming new neighbors and new personalities into their neighborhood. and so this is really exciting and cars to casa is super, super important piece of legislation and one of the main things it is going to do is going to eliminate a conditional use and can delay housing for a year. we know environmentally that this is the right thing to do and build on a parking lot or a

gas station, let's go for it and eliminate that bureaucracy and i want to thank you mayor london breed for moving this forward and the state senator for the unyielding, unwavering leadership and it is my pleasure to introduce. >> good afternoon and thank you. my name is sarah chiu from an environmental justice nonprofit based in san francisco. we work on a variety of policy issues and programmatic work including youth leadership, air quality monitoring and job

training. and and significant changes in transportation are needed to help achieve our climate goals such as limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees celsius or below and limiting carbon emissions for our city. the city should be moving to emission and prioritize public transit investment as new development occurs. this policy would make that this goes first and underutilize gas auto oriented land and to advance equitable, cleaner air in san francisco to impact low income and communities and households next to highways. week emissions can exacerbate existing conditions like asthma f and long-term exposure can

increase respiratory distress symptoms and airways, coughing and difficulty breathing. by transitioning more land away from auto oriented uses, this can bring a more climate resilient future for all the communities in san francisco. thank you. >> thank you so much. that concludes our presentation here today. and are there any questions? >> could you summarize what you are doing today? >> what we're doing is i am introducing legislation called cars to casas where the legislation will allow for us to remove the conditional use process to speed up the ability to zone properties like this one that used to be a gas station

and be able to places at the garages, gas stations, parking lots, car washes and things that mostly served and were zoned for car-related uses. and would allow for us to move forward in the process to build housing rather than go through an additional layer to remove a bureaucratic layer to add anywhere from 12 to 18 months to the process. >> pardon me. how is it going to streamline this process? so it changes -- >> an it changes the zoning of the properties. >> thank you. >> it says they don't have to -- and -- >> they don't need a conditional use. they don't need to go through that additional layer. they will be able to skip that entirely. that would be removed entirely to the process. and francis scott key and there

was another additional layer and added 18 months and you had to change the zoning to be used as a school and that is part of the challenge with the zoning laws and places to only be used for specific purposes and when you are changing the use of the places and a whole other process and the whole housing related process and if it is zoned for housing and we are saying the entire cities and the laws exist, we will automatically through the legislation say they are going to be automatically eligible if housing is an option and if someone wants to build housing and they don't have to go through the additional layer. that is the best way i can explain it. rich, do you want to add something to it? >> you can speak in planning terms. >> just add to what the mayor said. and it gets rid of the process

which can take anywhere from six months to 18 months. and it also gives project sponsors more flexibility and do more units on a parcel like this and is controlled and by the lot size and how many units you can do and gives flexibility and this project and 13 units or 12 units and they were pretty large. and gives us the possibility to do smaller, larger units and get rid of the process and get through the process quicker. >> can you spell your name? >> h-i-l-l-i-s. rich first name. >> and the director of the planning department. >> all right. any other questions? >> mayor, some of the mask rules are changing on friday? >> they are? yay. >> and in certain settings and wait for a wider change around

and will people be confuseed? >> do your best. we are all trying here. do your best. it's been a long time. >> [inaudible question] >> what was that? what was the first part? >> [inaudible question] >> several walgreens are closing, yes. the sad reality is in what we're facing and with a number of the crimes and to be clear is we all saw the person who rolled into a walgreens in their bike and robbed the store and that was what went viral all across the world and what didn't go viral is the fact this man has been arrested by the san francisco police department is behind bars and awaiting prosecution. and the fact the these crimes sadly are horrible crimes and they impact the quality of life of the communities. and more importantly, what i

want people and your mother and grandmother, your relative, they depend on places like wall greens and c.v.s. and target where they have pharmacies to get the medication. when these locations close in a community and then the entire community loses. the things that people want the most in the grocery stores and pharmacies and hardware stores and places that help support the community. and so part of what has to happen is we all as a city have to come together to, of course, hold perpetrators accountable but make sure that the investments we're making on the front end never make it possible for these crimes to be committed. the last thing we want to do is see this happen. we have been in touch with many of the retailers in san francisco. we work with the san francisco police department to revamp our 10b program so that these companies can hire off-duty police officers to serve as security at their locations and

we have that happening and we redirected them in the locations that are the most problematic. ultimately we can't force a company to remain in san francisco, but we are trying to work with them and we want to make sure that they are doing a better job strategically around their security system to ensure that these crimes don't continue to happen. and our door is open. and we're continuing to have conversations with them. and we'll continue our police chief is working with them hand in hand. and as you see, the number of robberies with some of the establishments have slowed down considerably and i think some of the things that we have implemented are working but they're making this decision to move and that is going to be problematic for our city and we will continue to do that we can to improve the quality of life and safety and change their mind and come back. >> all right. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. it.

>> 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

>> supervisor peskin: thank you. as usual, we are still in the middle of a pandemic. my name is aaron peskin, so i will keep my mask on. sometimes i don't think that we celebrate our victories enough, and i just want to take a little time out and celebrate something that is all the more important in the middle of this pandemic. it's something that if you are my age, not the age of, you know, officer mah there, when i grew up, we didn't have the internet, and i can't figure out how we actually all survived without it. it was kind of amazing last week, when facebook went down for six hours, and people all over the world didn't know what to do, but that is the world

that we live in, and during the pandemic, the internet became all the more important for distance learning, not only in the san francisco unified school district but in every city around the world. it became remarkably important for wellness checks. it became remarkably important just for maintaining our social connections. it became important for the board of supervisors because that's how we had our meetings, was over the internet. we were all sitting in our individual houses, isolating. but the reality is, and we all know that, that the distribution of the internet is not equitable, and we, actually interesting enough, identified that problem, not because we're

smart but because the community is smart, and the community came to us, and i want to acknowledge him in particular, calvin yan in my office. thank you, calvin, and i think we, just in time, appropriated a little bit of money, $200,000, to try to get buildings in this community hooked up. now, the city had already figured out that we had a responsibility that has been discharged and is being discharged by our incredible d.t. department to hookup low-income housing to fiber so they can get high speed internet, but in chinatown, there are literally hundreds of buildings like the one behind me here at 1351 stockton street that are not run by public housing, that are not run by

city dollars, and they have terrible wifi. and so we piloted a project, and we got d.t., who immediately started hooking up these buildings. we have now done three of them. it serves hundreds of people with high speed internet. it has been remarkable, so i just wanted to start by thanking the community for bringing this to us, thanking d.t. for doing such an awesome job. two more buildings are being hooked up, and this is, by all accounts, truly a successful program. and once we pilot something, we now the way. there are 530 single resident occupancy buildings in china down, in the tenderloin, in the mission -- in chinatown, in the tenderloin, in the mission.

they primarily serve low-income residents. in chinatown, they are filled with families, with seniors who need internet connections, with children who need internet connections, so i am hopeful that from the lessons learned in this pilot, we can spread that to the other 525 s.r.o. buildings in the city and county of san francisco. and then, let me say, before i introduce the city team, that the provide sector has responsibility here. and indeed, it's not only in the case of wifi and internet and connectivity, it has been from the old day, from the days of comcast and revision, there has been systemic

discrimination as to who gets service and it is our duty to say to the internet industry that they have a responsibility and obligation to connect everybody in every community, particularly underserved communities. so with that, it is my pleasure -- i have worked with joseph johns for 20 years. there is no job that he and his crew can't do. they roll out fiber that they lay out under these streets. i'd like to thank and welcome joseph johns. [applause] >> good morning. thank you, supervisors. i just wanted to personally thank supervisor peskin and the department, director linda

[indiscernible] for the motivation to supplement this free internet project. so far, we have done two locations in district three itself, and throughout the city, we have done about 80 locations, 7,000 total units, and we continue to do that. several years ago, i remember supervisor peskin coming to my office and reviewing the fiber deployment and motivating us to do more and more of that. actually, this project, we are now able to implement in a very cost effective, very resourceful way to put in fiber. and supervisor peskin used to advise us to put in more and more fiber. and that has helped us a lot

not only in district 3, that is helping other parts of the city, also. and we have a highly dedicated motivated team, and we are looking for opportunity to do more and more locations. and with that, i will request, i think randy will tell some of the challenges that we faced. >> randy casanes. i've worked with d.t. for 2.5 years now. i started as a summer intern, and this is the only project that i've been on, and it's truly an honor to serve the community. even though i've done four years in the marine corps, i feel like i'm still serving people here. in this pilot project, it's specifically for chinatown s.r.o.s. the challenges that my team has faced has been language barriers, and the way we overcame that was we have two

new summer interns on our team that speak mandarin and cantonese. other challenges that we faced, the conduit and fiber here in chinatown has been pretty congested, but the fiber team found ways around that. they would have to do such things as overnight work in the manholes to get across through busy intersections, and i think the last challenge is a lot of these buildings that we worked on were built in the early 1900s, and they just are not fitted with the typical infrastructure that you would put in a new building, but we over came each together, and we will continue to connect more

items like this one. >> supervisor peskin: and more importantly, we're going to hear from people whose lives have been changed by internet and wifi, someone who lives right behind here, in unit 51. [speaking native language]

[applause] >> supervisor peskin: and next, we'll hear from ms. tan from the first building that we did, which actually has a different back hall strategy than this one, which i'll leave that to the technical experts, but i just wanted randy to know that.

and here's ms. tan from 833 kearney. [speaking native language]

[applause] >> supervisor peskin: johnny just texted me. he's got wifi off of this, too. so to those of you from ktsf, it's good to hear what we heard from mr. yu, that he's able to get ktsf on the internet, which he used to have to pay. none of this would have happened without the incredible work and advocacy of the chinatown community center, so i wanted to thank them for what they knew they could do, and with that, jim chan. [applause] >> thank you.

good morning, everybody. my name is jen chan, and i work for chinatown c.c.c. i want to thank the city and the department of technology for everything that they've done, from upgrading our towers to our single-room occupancies. this is an important move on the city's part as well as a very crucial step. especially throughout the pandemic, a lot of our families were stuck at home, not able to connect to the outside world, so this was a key piece in allowing our kids to continue to go to school. but for our seniors, a lot of them were home bound, and really before that, a lot of them relied on things like the internet to connect with their

families on things that they haven't been able to see. but the most important thing is now they can connect to their families, and that our families also have access to internet and this equity divide that we see that often affects communities of color, and so i just want to thank the city's partnership in that step, and i believe that this is only the beginning, and the effort that the city puts in is great. thank you. >> supervisor peskin: so d.t., take a bow. you always wonder if you allocate dollars, if you're

going to see the project done in your lifetime. but this project was done on time and in budget, and the central subway is going to be opened in a few months. those trains are going to open in a few months. we're happy to answer any questions that you may have, and if not, have a happy, healthy, prosperous rest of the week.

>> good morning, the meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, october 14th meeting of the public safety & neighborhood services committee. i'm supervisor gordon mar, and i'm joined by vice chair catherine stefani, and we'll be joined by supervisor aaron peskin for item 2. i want to thank this committee's john carroll mr. clerk, do you have any announcements? >> clerk: thank you, mr. chair. the committee members are participating in this meeting through video conferce