thank you all so much for coming. i'm very excited about today's programming and i'm so grateful that you all came out for this important event despite the much needed rain. i am deeply honored to be here. my name is jeffery tumlin and i'm the executive director to have the san francisco municipal transportation agency. before we begin, it's also important to acknowledge where we've come from. the geary corridor was muni's first transit line. the b. geary electric streetcar ran down here in 1912 and has long been one of the highest

ridership service transit lines in north america. this neighborhood has also long been one of the most and interesting neighborhoods anywhere in the world and home to very strong populations of japanese and african americans. this is also a place where japanese americans were expelled from, were sent forcibly to internment camps during world war ii. also the area where post war era the redevelopment agency demolished of blocks displacing thousands of residents and businesses in the name of urban renewal. geary street used to be one lane in each direction lined with businesses owned by japanese and african americans and all of that was destroyed to make way for the eight-lane geary expressway. and so though we're so proud of this project, we also must

acknowledge the project area's history and to acknowledge that this is a very small token of appreciation for what these neighborhoods have suffered and a start of healing. the geary expressway was intentionally designed to exclude, to separate these neighborhoods from one another. and so this project and working with the community and understanding the historic suffering, this project is designed in a small way to help with the healing and help restore the connectivity between japan town and the filmore. we're partly cloudy of the work that all of our teams have done, listening to community members to understand their stories and also to acknowledge the past and to also begin the healing. we've also learned a lot from past projects and delivery of this project. unlike certain other projects that have continued to drag on for year after year, we built

this project very differently. we broke the work up into many different contract segments allowing for more and more diverse contractors to be able to do the work. we collaborated with half a dozen city agencies skillfully in order to get all kinds of work done while we were here including utility replacement and paving and pedestrian safety projects and, of course, the transit priority treatment. we also did much of the work in what we call quick build style allowing us to move more quickly and efficiently minimizing negative impacts on the community and its businesses. it's also meant that although is this project has moved incredibly quickly, we're already delivering a 20% improvement in speed and reliability to the 38 geary bus line. [ applause ] and i'm so proud of my team for just fine tuning

all the details that allow for safer passenger loading and unloading and speedier departure, the changes to the traffic signals to allow the buses to be delayed at red lights, but particularly to these pedestrian crosswalks which were the first out here in five decades that allows peds could walk across the street into the square. simple changes, the changes that mean so much to community. so i am so thankful as well to the way my teams worked together with each other. i really want to thank liz bryson who led this project. dan pricen.

michael carlin from the sfpuc. public works who is here and all of their construction management and design team who work together. i'm grateful to the sfcta who helped us fund and get this project through the environmental review. i'm grateful as well to our contractors who work together seamlessly together and with the project teams to deliver all of this work on time and on budget. who helped us figure out how to

deliver this project for minimum disruption. and so a special to the benefit districts, the japantown task force. the filmore merchants and neighborhood collaborative. st. francis square cooperative. rosa parks elementary school. the tenderloin district. the union square alliance. the geary community advisory district and so many others. there are way too many people that i need to thank. thank you to all of you and thank you for showing up here today. and i would like to introduce our mayor london breed. please come up, mayor london breed. >> when i think about this

project and what it's actually going to do to bring the western district and the japantown community together in a different kind of way, it really fills my heart with so much joy because i can tell you as someone who grew up here. i have some witnesses here because i know jada, pia, you toeia, you remember what it was like when we would come from this area of buchanan. we would stop at every park. we'd hop the fence and hang out in the playgrounds there and then we'd cross this very dangerous street. this is not anything i would advise anybody to do or any kid to do, but this is why this was so important to me. this crossing right here was so important to me because i wanted people to be safe. i wanted to make sure kids who are at the ymca, rosa parks who

are in the square. who are apart of this community and who want to be apart of j-town and all the great activities and things to do here that they felt safe. so the field trip. i'm sure they probably just used the crossing here today to come over. so we're glad to have them and we're glad to see geary improve for pedestrian safety to meet our vision 0 goals to keep our people safe and to ensure that our transit system is working more efficiently. i see my folks from j-town, the folks who have been involved for so many years including sandy moory, ben nakasho. these are extraordinary leaders in j-town. and whenever there's a problem that they want fixed, you know, usually i get the phone call from sandy. so when this bridge was being threatened through this project of being torn down on on

webster. to and what it meant for safety and the community and so many of the kids and families from rosa parks elementary school fought to keep that bridge there and so i'm so glad that the city listened to the community and that bridge is still there along with making the crossways a lot more safe. but as jeff tumlin talked about before geary boulevard, this was a community of mostly african americans who live in harmony. i used to wonder when i hung out no matter how badly we behalved we were responsible for one another. we took care one another and we

built relationships and there was a real divide. and so what we are trying to do and correcting the mistakes of the past and build those bridges and make them stronger both with the people, but also with the infrastructure. and this project along with so many of the other improvements that are happening around geary boulevard to improve the ability for people to move around the city safely and also using public transportation and making it more efficient so that people use public transportation is critical to really also addressing climate change because 50% of the emissions, the green house gas emissions that go into the air and impacting our environment comes from private vehicles and so getting people to use public transit to continue to be an environmental leader.

making muni more efficient. making our streets more safe, building bridges, this project did it all and did it did it all while working with so many people in the tenderloin, in the richmond, the avenues and out there in that area in the western addition filmore connecting the city like never observer r before and i want to thank all of you all, the contractors, the kids, everyone that had a role to play in making this project. i see you having a role to play and making this a great project for san franciscans and starting to move our city forward. we have so many challenges and so much work to do. it is always nice to be somewhere where something incredible happened for the people of san francisco that puts a smile on your face. so thank you all so much for being here. congratulations on this wonderful project. [ applause ]

. >> thank you, mayor breed for your strong support. i'd also now like to introduce our state senator scott weaner who is also providing very strong support for us at the state level senator scott wiener. >> these are community that is need more transit and this is a great step forward. you know, as san francisco continues to wake up from our covid cacoon, we need to make sure people can get around. people want to be in cities, people want to be in san francisco and we need to make sure that the city is able to

accept the people who want to live here because this is the best city in the world and people do want to live here. and part of that means great world class public transportation. and -- [ applause ] -- and 38 geary is just one example of what we need to do. we need faster bus service. we need bus route transit and when i was on the board of supervisors and on our transportation authority, we went down to mexico city to look at their bus rapid transit systems which they deliver in three years from concept to cutting the ribbon and we need to be continually moving in that direction. more bus rapid transit, faster deliveries. sometimes we struggle with that. this was fast, but we need to make all of our transit projects happen quickly. we need to deliver these projects quickly for our community and i know m.t.a. and

our transportation authority are working hard on that. at the state level, we actually were able to pass a law last year to dramatically speed up delivery of bus rapid transit projects and we're looking to expand that law next year. so i see good things in the future for our city and for our

transit system. but, today, let's celebrate this huge win for the community, transit riders, pedestrians, and everyone else who needs to get around this city. thank you. >> thank you, senator wiener. next up, we have kelly chang. the transportation authority agency our sister agency. >> congratulations to you for leading this fantastic project in partnership with the other agencies. good morning everyone. on behalf of our board including chair rafael man delman. i want to say thanks to the folks who labored to build this project and the next generation of kids who's going to benefit from all the safety reliance. as we all know, geary is really a microcausem of our city. particularly now during the pandemic. it's such an important and critical service. now, this corridor does pass through five different districts from the bay to the beach reflecting all the diversity of our city and that's what you see on the bus. it's really true. where transit goes, community grows. so i really want to take this opportunity to congratulate the sfmta, sf public works and

p.u.c. because these projects are not easy. this one really had full features. we had bus liens, traffic signal upgrades and the sidewalk extensions. these are all features that make buses more reliable and the street safer for people walking and traveling. the transportation authority was proud to have provided over $13 million and sales tax funds as well as prop aa vehicle funds. so thank you to the voter who is have approved these sources and we hope to come back to you to do more in the coming years. thank you, of course, to japantown, filmore. and all the community members who remained involved in the planning station and of course in design and construction. this project, of course, will not only improve safety and reliability, but help support

economic revitalization and jobs. maintaining and creating jobs for our city. i want to thank you, mayor breed. you saw this project come before us at the t.a. and thank you to the citizens advisory committee. community advisory committee. and really just want to appreciate everybody's continued support. please keep asking for projects like this. please keep demanding safety and bus transit reliability and rapid transit projects. it's our pleasure to support the city and we hope to keep it going to benefit generations to come. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, director chang. we have three members of the sfmta board here. sharon lai, steve hemminger, and our final speaker, mta board member amanda eacon.

>> good afternoon, san francisco. on behalf of the entire mta board of directors i'm exciteded about the completion of the rapid geary project which is so important in accomplishing some of our key goals improving transit service and also improving traffic safety as mayor breed mentioned. it was noted my colleagues director lai and hemminger are here today and i want to thank them for their services. the geary bus lines are not just among the busiest in san francisco, they are among the busiest in the entire country where 56,000 and there's been a comprehensive suite of tools installed by this project to improve transit speed and reliability. of course, the red transit lanes bus stop optimization. as jeff mentioned, the quick builds alone improve transit service by 20% and i will tell you i experienced that this morning coming here on the 38r,

that bus was flying down the street and it got here 13 minutes faster than google maps predicted. thank you to the geary rapid project. it's so nice to be able to be early thanks to transit. that's just with the quick build improvements. so i cannot wait for the valuation of this project to be done once all of the measurements are done and see how much more even than 20% we are actually getting to. along with the full sfmta board, i am also deeply personally committed to san francisco's vision geary boulevard shows up prominently in what we call the height injury network. that's 13% of streets in our industry where 35% of fatalities occur because geary as a disproportionate share of traffic collisions.

you're eight times more likely to be hit by a car when crossing geary than the average city street. so just a couple numbers. 304 new pedestrian bulb outs. 74 new upgrade the crosswalks. 9 intersections with improvements as well as new pedestrian count down signals, longer crosswalk timing and also a reduction in the number of to just point, the number of total travel lanes from four to two and, of course, one bus lane in each direction. that's a lot of impressive numbers and i also wanted to share a story today about one geary corridor resident whose life has already been improved by this project. lou grosso is here with us today. maybe you can stand up or wave. [ applause ] thank you so much for being here. lou is a member of the geary

advisory committee that advises the project team and provides input on project issues from the community. lou is blind and lives just across the street from where we are gathered now in st. francis square and he is enthusiastic about the new crosswalk installed just down the street at buchanan street that connects st. francis square to japantown. thank you. [ applause ] lou recently told us that he completed his orientation and mobility training for the newly upgraded geary. today, he can now successfully walk from his home to his husband's work at calvary presbyterian church on philmore and jackson streets. [ applause ] lou told us this has been his goal ever since he moved to st. francis square in 2017. his mobility instructor had

previously told him he was forbidden from crossing geary because it was just too unsafe and the webster bridge was not an option for him. but because of all the safety improvements and with excellent training, lou can now cross geary on his own and make it all the way to the calvary church. [ applause ] thank you so much, lou, for your service on the committee. and thank you for letting us share your story today. we are so happy that your neighborhood is now more accessible to you. and thank you for working so closely with the project staff to make sure all of our pedestrian signals are loud enough so that they can be heard. thank you to everyone who helped to make this project a reality and thank you so much all of you for coming out today despite the rain to celebrate this milestone with us. thank you. [ applause ] >> all right.

thank you everyone for joining us. now it would not be a project kickoff without a ribbon and a giant pair of scissors. so i would like to invite back up the mayor, our key project sponsors, sandy moory who will be holding the scissors for us. and i would also like to invite all of you to please stick around after the ribbon cutting ceremony for some delightful performances by local groups in japantown and st. francis square. thank you all for coming out. [ applause ]

>> you need to be very careful. okay. are we ready? five, four, three, two, one. we almost had it.

>> they are giant scissors. >> van ness avenue runs from market street to bay street in san francisco. south vanness runs from south of market to cesar chavez street. originally residential after the 1906 earthquake it was used as a fire break. many car dealerships and businesses exist on vanness today with expansion of bus lanes. originally marlet street was

named after james vanness, seventh mayor of san francisco from 1855 to 1856. vanness heavy are streets in santa cruz, los angeles and fresno in his honor. in 1915 streetcars started the opening of the expo. in 1950s it was removed and replaced by a tree-lined median. it was part of the central freeway from bayshore to hayes valley. it is part of uses 101. it was damaged during the 1989 earthquake. in 1992 the elevator part of the roadway was removed. it was developed into a surface boulevard. today the vanness bus rapid transit project is to have designated bus lanes service

from mission. it will display the history of the city. van ness avenue.

all right.. good afternoon everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed. and i am joined by the chancellor of san francisco state university lei mahoney and the superintendent of the san francisco unified school district dr. matthews and we are making what i think is an extraordinary announcement. many of you know that here in san francisco.

83% of san franciscans have been vaccinated. but you know who's leading the way? our kids. so that is absolutely remarkable and i'm really proud of all of our kids who are stepping up and doing their part because what we want to do is, of course, get our institutions of higher learning as well as the school district and many of our schools that are open, we want them to stay open and we want the teachers, we want the administrators, we want the janitors and all of the folks who work in the schools and our kids to be safe and so far so good right, dr. matthews. now, we are on the west side of town of san francisco, state university and i can tell everyone we're on the west side because usually we have all the clouds in the air. but that's how we like it in san francisco. san franciscans love the fog. we love the clouds.

we love the comforts of being apart of a community that really is an extraordinary community. a number of students here are happy to return to campus and so many kids are happy to go back to school. i'm sure many of you who have children or those who encounter, the first thing i asked are you happy that you're back in school and now back in the day, with us as kids, we probably would have said no unless we went through a global pandemic and every kid is like, yes, i'm so happy. all of the things that we used to do. that's really remarkable. and, today, our special announcement is something that as i said i think is extraordinary because and we have dr. baba here from the department of public health. thank you for your work and for being here as well. our announcement here today is really because we want to get more kids vaccinated and the

announcement today is that san francisco state university is offering a chance for people who are vaccinated and plan to get vaccinated to enter into a drawing that would allow for free full four-year ride at san francisco state university. that is something worth clapping for. so we're talking about a full ride and so those of you who have already went to college or who are enrolled in college, this does not include you. this only includes our kids ages 12-17 who can go to a number of sides which we're going to talk about where you can register as long as you show proof of vaccination and those who are still holding out and waiting to get vaccinated. here's your chance at a whole ride in your back yard at san

francisco state university. this is an extraordinary partnership between san francisco unified school district and san francisco state because, yes, we want our kids to be fully vaccinated, but most importantly, we also want them to have access to a higher education and one that is affordable. i know so many kids in san francisco choose san francisco state as an option to attend college including our own dr. vince matthews who is probably an alumni here at san francisco state. so it's not too late for that other 10% of kids age 12-17. here's your shot. don't miss your shot like hamilton. i'm not throwing away my shot. well, go get your shot. go get your vaccine and make sure that you enter to be apart of this drawing where ten lucky students from san francisco unified school district will be selected to attend san francisco state university on a

free ride and i can't think of a better incentive than that in order to be apart of what i think is an incredible institution that has been apart of the fabric of san francisco for so many years. with that, i want to introduce the superintendent of the san francisco unified school district who's been really an extraordinary leader during difficult times and who is here as an alumni, a proud alumni of not just san francisco state, but also public schools like i am here in san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome dr. vincent matthews. >> thank you, mayor breed for those kind words. good afternoon everyone, i am absolutely thrilled to be here back on what i consider my campus. i am a proud alumni of san francisco state. i have three degrees from here. my masters and my doctorate all from san francisco state. so i'm very proud and humbled

to be here today. i was just thinking on the ride over, it was back in -- the summer of 1982, i was at a cross roads in my life. i just graduated from city college. i was working. i was a checker at lucky's, so i was making a pretty good salary and i was going to try to figure out what i was going to do for the rest of my life. was i going to continue at lucky's or was i going to do something different. so what i did at that point, i applied for at that point what was called cal grant aid. if i got the cal grant, then i was going to come to san francisco state. what actually happened was those dollars gave me hope. once i got the dollars in hand, i came to san francisco state and i just told you. i have no doubt, if i did not have those dollars, the dollars from cal grant a, i would not be standing in front of you

today. what's happening right now is the opportunity for scholarships and for the students who eventually will get these scholarships. this is the opportunity. this is hope for them. so i'm so proud of the city, san francisco state and the district partnering together to make this happen for our youth. dollars, funding, partnership. it's another thing to know that you have the dollars to make it happen. i'm so extremely grateful for san francisco state as i said for our great city of san francisco and for our school district to come together to make this happen for our youth. one of the things i said at the beginning of this pandemic is we have to take care of each other. we can, you know, it's like people in a row boat, you can get in the row boat and you can argue with each other or you can figure out how we're going to take care of each other and how we're going to support each other. one of the additional things i said is one of the ways we can take care of each other is by getting vaccinated.

that's so critical. you take care of yourself, but not only yourself, you take care of your neighbor to get vaccinated. as the mayor said, our young people, 90% have gotten vaccinated, but we want 100%. our young people are leading the way and we are going to do everything we can to encourage them to make that happen. these scholarships as they come forward are san francisco state, the city, the district giving back which we all should do. it's also us taking care of each other and that's why this event today is so important. we want you to get vaccinated, number one, and here's an opportunity for you to get as you heard a full ride to san francisco state. the greatest institution in the history of human kind. it's an opportunity for us to give back and make sure students have the schools they need to thrive in the 21st century. i'm so proud of being here and being apart of this partnership and now i'd like to introduce someone who keeps all of our

city scholars at the forefront of the president of san francisco state lei mahomey. >> thank you superintendent matthews. i just want to thank you all for joining us today and especially our partner san francisco mayor, the honorable london breed. my favorite at the moment alumnus, you're all my favorite, san francisco unified school district superintendent matthews. we also have dr. baba from the san francisco department of public health. alex wong is here representing senator scott weaner's office and i want to thank in particular the san francisco state university foundation board of directors and chair kimberly brandon. as the superintendent mentioned, access is important, but dollars are important. and so i want to thank the san francisco state university board of directors and chair kimberly brandon for supporting this program. we couldn't have done it

without them. we are so proud to be here today to join the san francisco department of public health, the mayor's office and san francisco unified schools in partnering to make sure we get vaccinated. it has been a pleasure to be a president of a university in which the mayor and the department of public health led the nation in its response to the pandemic. not just the state, but the nation. and this is just another step in that direction. the san francisco state, we took the need to get vaccinated very seriously and all of my appeals, we've required vaccination for in-person activities in the fall. we went further modelling ourselves after the city and the department of public health. we require that our students provide actual proof of vaccination. we would not let them in a class on the first monday of classes had they not provided that proof of vaccination and just as we keep talking about our young people leading the way, our students led the way.

over 98% of san francisco state is participating in-person face-to-face activities this fall are vaccinated and have provided that. this is more incentive for our young people to lead the way. among many of the consequences of the pandemic that we all worry about, i worry about in particular what it's going to do to the rate of college attendance. we have seen proof across the state that attended the community colleges has declined and in particular, there are concerns be about college goingness among our black and latinx students in the state. so this program is an attempt to do two things. it is to support the city in its efforts to get us back to normal by getting us as close to 100% as we can of vaccination rates. it's also about reminding students that there's nothing more important as they do their own upward mobilities and i appreciated the

superintendent's story about the moment in which the availability of a grant made a difference for him. in san francisco state, we are particularly proud of our role as an engine of upward mobility and educational equity and, in fact, in the west by world news and report for our work in the upward mobility of our graduates. these scholarships provide us an opportunity to further public health goals and as importantly, help the city and san francisco unified by building the next generation of leaders for the city's workforce. so again, we're grateful to the partnerships that were expressed today and i want to thank those of san francisco state and the city. i haven't been here for more than five minutes. it is now my pleasure to introduce dr. baba from the san francisco department of public health who she serves as a

deputy director. thank you. >> thank you, president mahoney. this is such an exciting day and we cannot be more grateful for the everies around getting scholarships out to this cohoard. over 90% fully vaccinated, that's just incredible and that's really a tribute to both them as well as their parents. so if there's a way that we can give back and save them a little bit on their educational cost, i think that's more than enough reward. we know that the 12% cohort as well as children in general have been through a lot throughout the pandemic. and, you know, the way to recover is to get them back together, to get them back into school and society be with the community so they can be out and volunteering and working and being with their friends. vaccination has been critical as part of that effort.

we are really excited about this program. i want to mention the fact that our community-based partners have done a lot to make sure that the work gets out to our young population and we have over 100 vaccine sites to create low barrier access to vaccinations for the entire community. i think one of the things we know is that incentives can work in certain circumstances. we've hit 90% in this this age group, but a little bit more of a push so we can get as close that 98% of the students are here and vaccinated. and i just want to say that, you know, i think one of the things that we all should offer is hope for the future and that there is hope for the future. we are ready to be out of this pandemic. we are ready to return back to life and school is part of that life and growing up and going to college is one of the things that a lot of people and kids look forward to.

so i'm really excited to be part of this. and thank you for their work on this. [ applause ] >> we are now happy to answer any questions you might have either for the department of public health, the mayor, we also have folks in the audience who can help with specifics as well. >> i have a question as a mother. considering we have so many kids who are vaccinated, i'm wondering there might be more the 12 and under, 11 and under. [inaudible] the state and the city the state of emergency in the city. >> we really want to get that vaccine approved for them right, dr. baba. do you have someone under 12 at home? you're asking for others.

>> for others. >> i'm still going to get asked by potential students what's step one and step two how to go about. >> i hope you'll correct me if i'm wrong. we have things set up all across the city. we'll do that annually and run that against our add missions records. one of those schools have their tuition covered for eight consecutive terms. >> do you mean physical or online? >> the physical site. we're going to send them out. >> thank you. >> placed across the city. >> i'm from the san francisco examiner. we know people from all walks of life and also the age group between 25 to 34 is really the lowest vaccinated age group right now. so can you talk about why this is specifically for the age

group that it was and kind of what your thoughts are with kind of getting that younger adult age group vaccinated too. >> we're focused on this group because they are so far our largest incoming students. we'll see how this was. we'll see incentives for transfer students, but we started with students because this is the they are most likely to attend and live in residence. we have a big run on the site those days. >> and just quickly, is the university paying for this? >> it's being paid for supported by the san francisco state university foundation board of directors. so it is our philanthropic arm. i'm very grateful because we couldn't do this without their

support. >> thank you. >> for the first time in nearly two decades fishers have been granted the legal right to sell fish directly to the package right off their boat -- to the public right off their boats in san francisco. it's not only helping local fishers to stay afloat but it's evoking the spirit of the wharf by resurfacing the traditional methods of selling fish. but how is it regulated? and what does it take for a boat to be transported into a floating fish market? find out as we hop on board on this episode of "what's next sf." (♪♪♪) we're here with the owner and

the captain of the vessel pioneer. it's no coincidence that your boat is called the pioneer because it's doing just that. it's the first boat in san francisco to sell fish directly from the boat. how did you establish your boat into such a floating fish market? >> well, you know, i always thought that it would be nice to be able to provide fresh fish to the locals because most of the fish markets, you would have to do a large amount of volume in order to bring in enough fish to cover the overhead. when you start selling to the public that volume is much less so it makes it hard to make enough money. so being able to do this is really -- it's a big positive thing i think for the entire community. >> a very positive thing. as a third-generation fisherman joe as his friends call him has been trawling the california waters for sustainably caught seafood since an early age. since obtaining a permit to sell fish directly to the public he is able to serve fish at an

affordable price. >> right now we're just selling what a lot of the markets like, flat fish and rock fish and what the public likes. so we have been working for many, many years and putting cameras in them. there's the ability to short fish and we have panels that we open and close so we target the different species of fish by adjusting the net. and then not only that but then the net sort out the sizes which is really important. >> joe brings in a lot of fish, around 20,000 pounds per fishing trip to be exact. >> we had one day one time that we sold almost 18,000 pounds. >> it's incredible. >> i know, it's hard to imagine. >> but this wasn't always the case for joe. >> the markets that we have left in california, they're few and far between, and they really are restrictive. they'll let you fish for a couple months and shut you down. a lot of times it's rough weather and if you can't make your delivery you will lose your rotation. that's why there's hardly any boats left in california because of the market challenges. my boat was often sitting over

here at the dock for years and i couldn't do anything with it because we had no market. the ability to go catch fish is fine, i had the permits, but you couldn't take them off your boat. >> that was until the port commission of san francisco rallied behind them and voted unanimously to approve a pilot program to allow the fish to be sold directly to consumers right off their boats. >> the purpose of the program is to allow commercial fishers to sell their fish directly from their boats to the end consumer in a safe and orderly manner for the benefit of the overall fishing community at the port of san francisco. we have limited the program to certain types of fish such as salmon, halibut, tuna and rock fish. crab is restricted from this program because we did not want to interfere with the existing crab sales on taylor street and jefferson street. so this is not meant to favor one aspect of the fishing industry more than another.

it's to basically to lift up the whole industry together. >> and if joe the program has been doing just that. >> it was almost breathtaking whenever i woke up one morning and i got my federal receiver, my first receivers license in the mail. and that gave me permission to actually take fish off my boat. once we started to be able to sell, it opened things up a bit. because now that we have that federal permit and i was able to petition the city council and getting permission from san francisco to actually use the dock and to sell fish here, it was a big turning point. because we really didn't think or know that we'd get such a positive response from the public. and so we're getting thousands of people coming down here buying fish every week and so that's pretty cool. they like the fish so much that they take pictures of it when they cook it and they send us all of these pictures and then they ask us, you know, constantly for certain types of fish now. and when they come down here the

one thing that they say is that they're so amazed that the fish is so fresh they could eat a little bit during the week and it's still fresh all week in the refrigerator. so that's really cool. >> the fish is very fresh and the price is super. i don't think that you can get it anywhere in the bay area. i can see it, and i can stir fry it, wow, you can do anything you want. i just can say this is a good place to shop and you have a good experience. >> this program supports the strategic plan in terms of engagement, people being connected to the waterfront, and also economic vitality. because it's helping the fishermen to make ends meet. they have no guarantees in their businesses, not like some people, and we want to do everything that we can to help them to have a good and thriving business. >> how does it feel to be able

to sell your fish locally kind of in the traditional way, like your grandfather probably did? >> when i was a kid and i used to work in my dad's fish market, a lot of the markets that we sell to now are second and third and fourth generation markets. so i remember as a kid putting their tags on the boxes of fish that we shipped out of monterey and ship down to l.a. so it's kind of cool that we're still dealing with the same families. and this is probably about the only way that anyone can really survive in california is to sell your own fish. >> one of the advantages of this program is the department people that pull in the fish, they can find out where they caught it and find out more about the fisherman and that adds to their experience. the feedback from the fishers has been very good and the feedback from the customers have very good. and there's a lot of people coming to the wharf now that might not have done so. in fact, there's people that go through the neighboring

restaurants that are going to eat fish inside but before they go in they see the action on the dock and they want to kind of look at what's happening on the boat before they go in and they have a meal. so it's generated some conversation down at the wharf and that's a good thing. >> as you can see by the line forming behind me getting ready to buy fish, the pilot program has been a huge success. for more information visit sfsport.com. (♪♪♪) (♪♪♪) >> i love teaching.

it is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. >> this really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. this is very enriching as an artist. a lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. >> there are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. that is a really big draw. >> this is a signature piece. this is the bill largest darkroom in the u.s.. >> there are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. >> i think it is the heart of this place. you feel it when you come in.

>> the people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also everyone who works here is working in photography. >> we get to build the community here. this is different. first of all, this is a great location.

it is in a less-populated area. >> of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. it is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. the people have a lot, they can really come together and share a love and a passion. >> we offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to process your first roll of film. we offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing. we offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. there is a way for the programs

exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. >> hello, my name is jennifer. >> my name is simone. we are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill. >> c'mon, c'mon, c'mon. >> actually, i have been here a lot. i have never looked closely enough to see everything. now, i get to take pictures. >> we want to try to get them to be more creative with it. we let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. >> you can focus in here.

>> that was cool. >> if you see that? >> behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. the see any more hills? >> these kids are wonderful. they get to explore, they get to see different things. >> we let them explore a little bit. they get their best. if their parents ever ask, we can learn -- they can say that they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. some of the things they come up with are fantastic. that is what we're trying to

encourage. these kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. >> a lot of people come into my classes and they don't feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them some tips and ideas. >> this is kind of the best kept secret. you should come on and take a class. we have orientations on most saturdays. this is a really wonderful location and is the real jewel to the community. >> ready to develop your photography skills? the harvey milk photo center focuses on adult classes. and saturday workshops expose youth and adults to photography classes.

>> good morning and welcome to the october 27th, 2021, meeting of the budget and finance committee. i am the chair of the budget and finance committee matt haney we are joined by supervisor melgar replaced by