i behalf of our partner bridge housing corporation it is my pleasure to welcome you all to the grand opening of broadway cove and 735 davis. >> jack and i will be the co-emcees. we promise to keep things moving. thank you for the part you played in making this possible. as jack said, we also are sonnored to partner with john jn stewart. thank you for celebrating with us today. >> we are going to do tag teaming. bear with us. the mayor is a cup well minutes

late. on the former site of the tom thefreeway we are reminded of te long histories of these sites. starting with the many generations of the ohlone people who lived here and on the bay that made up the site before filled in. by the 1980s these were on the edge of the embarcadero recoast red-light district. evidence of tobacco and drugs. the practice of kidnapping men were all found during the excavations of these sites. in fact, many historic artifacts unearthed have been preserved and will be on display in both

building lobbies. that way was an empty glass case in an month or two it will be filled with interesting stuff. after filling in of the bay and commercial uses the site was developed part of the freeway until it was demolished in 1991. then, thanks to the advocacy of the community including the friends at chinatown community development center that ensured these newly surplus pieces of land would be dedicated to a critical public use here in san francisco affordable housing. [applause] >> to continue the story. in 2016 the mayor's office of housing issued request for

proposals on behalf of the city and the port. for two parcels known as 322-1 and the dwp parcel where we are today. as is the mayor's office of housing custom they knew what they wanted, gave us a detailed program of rough sizes and affordability. there are unique things here as a result of that. we also had the benefit of community design workshop organized by the city and i think we were the beneficiary of drawings and input from the community as many of you know this community is very engaged. with that information in hand, we set about the task of trying to assemble a team to design, build, operate and finance and build the building. bridge housen and john stewart per successful on a project not

far from here on bay street. north beach place. for 12 years before, we built senior housing, family housing, child care, neighborhood serving retail, all of the components that exist here. not a very big leap to say let's use what we learned there and recreate it here. state-of-the-art 2016 at the time. memorable for me. i have been doing this for about 25 years. i will never forget about a month of effort. that is how much time you have when the r.f.p. comes out to present the building to the city. i worked with jack and jon stewart was directly involved. i had known don for a long time. he was friends with don turner.

i would see him in the office and say hi, never shoulder to shoulder with him. i made it memorable. he brought the standard humor and passion to this effort which included neighborhood serving restaurant here that was desired by the neighborhood and by us not a small decision. it basically was investment that bridge and john stewart were going to make in the neighborhood. i am excited. these buildings represent to me the physical manifestation of everything john was about. legions of san franciscans of all ages will live here with dignity for a long time. for myself i am grateful to participate in a small way alongside john steward. thank you.

>> thank you, brad. it is mixed feelings we difficult the ribbon, of course. following our selection by the city and the neighborhood representatives as the developer of the site, the development team embarked upon intensive community outreach and design process involving multiple neighborhood groups that marie will talk to later. the port itself, city, historic preservation and many additional stakeholders. collaborative process that represents the best of san francisco i lot of give and take and serving the community and generating public benefit. leveraging public private partnership for public benefit. we put together the mother of mixed-use projects, as brad

mentioned multigenerational affordable housing for low income seniors and families, first subsidized units for missing middle moderate income housing. permanent housing for homeless. neighborhoods targeting a coffee shop, family style restaurant in broadway cove. mixed income child care operated by the ymca of san francisco and robust resident services company from lutheran social services and ymca serving all residents of the two buildings. broad wage of sizes 24 studios. 65 one bedrooms, and income from homeless 30% medium up to 120% of medium and preference for

households with certificates of parties operation preference who were displaced by redevelopment and households relocated from the city's dynamic hope sf redomprojects in potraro. this is for every type of san francisco needing a helping hand. we are very proud of that. [applause] this doesn't happen without political vision and fearlessness. it is a great pleasure for me. i mentioned earlier the land under broadway cove owned by the port of san francisco. the port graciously granted a long term lease for affordable

housing. i am proud to introduce if executive director of the port of san francisco. one of on only 12 women in the ports of united states. there are 350 of them. welcome elaine forbes. >> welcome, jack. ports aren't doing that great on gender equality. we hope they move along. the story has been told as well as the details of the units. i will skip that in my remarks. first we are excited to see everyone today. this is an incredibly important project for the port. we hadn't always gotten development right in this part of town, but this project really came together for us. generally speaking, port property is not appropriate for housing because it is a private use. we really had to work with state lands commission to identify

this was appropriate for housing. we found a 75 year ground lease to allow the project to happen. i want to thank my staff here today working so hard with the state lands commission, the community residents to get this right. as direct or i can't say how proud we are to bring affordable housing to a very high cost area in the waterfront. waterfront property for affordable housing for people in a welcoming in the neighborhood for diversity and -- diversity and equity. we are proud to be part of this. thank you for being here. we can't wait for the ribbon-cutting. thank you,. (applause). >> i will add thanks for the amazing partnership that allowed us to be here today. the next speaker is a fighter

for affordable housing and true champion for the neighbors of district 3. this project was conceived in 2015-2016, supervisor peskin was running for his third term after a little time off. he took office just in time. really to be the force to get this beautiful complex built. join me in warmly welcoming supervisor aaron peskin. (applause). >> thank you, brad. it is really a pleasure to be back with the team i started with 20 years ago, bridge and jon stewart company at north beach place, which gave me the opportunity to work with john on a project that was impossible. so many people to thank. let me join jack in thanking the community. this is the same progressive

community that supported more density and more affordability at north beach place over on bay street. same community that came together, barbary coast neighbors to support this project. it was great to be here when we turned the first shovel full of dirt. it seems like yesterday. this project was a long time in the making. let me start by thanking god for the earthquake. then move to mayor agnes who made the tough command decision to tear that freeway that separated northeast corner of san francisco from the waterfront. let me fill in the history between 1991 when that freeway came down and 2016 when that

r.f.p. went out. it wasn't an easy history. it long pre-dates the desire for affordable housing at this location. the original bill from the senator required all of these former freeway parcels to be disposed of for cash to pair for the embarcadero roadway structure. we overcame that. in 1996, the chinese chamber of commerce wrote a series of memoranda which i have unearthed that are remarkable in the vision for reuniting chinatown for the embarcadero freeway that led to improvements along the embarcadero and the one and only affordable housing project. remember mayor brown at that point. there were four parcels.

1-a ford ability housing, sevenral please, third class a hotel and the fourth the park down the street. were it not for pushing from the community. broadway would have been a police station and not affordable housing. this would have been a hotel and not affordable housing. i want to thank everybody who made that dream a reality. our newest city attorney david chu for carrying that and making sure we turn car pace to people space. congratulations one and all. [applause] >> thanks, supervisor. yeah, that actually made the development the easy part of the project, i think. that is the not usually the

case. you practically introduced the next leader. this project requires state and local leadership. we had a champion in sacramento for many years even if he recently returned to his hometown. it is my privilege and honor to introduce former board president, assemblyman, chair of the state housing and community development committee and san francisco's current and first asian-american city attorney david chu. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jack. it is so good to be home. let me say that i have been following the weather the week. it was supposed to rain today. i think it is fitting that the sun is shining on broadway cove.

my predecessor the great aaron peskin started sharing some of the background. i think we could write a book what it took to bring the community together. let me fill in a couple moments because i realized this project did really occupy time of former supervisors, my time on the board of supervisors and legislature and where we are today. this area was really collaboration between chinatown community and the neighborhoods around it. as former board chair of shinena town community development center we are so much better for it. i want to go back to meetings i remember when i was on the board of supervisors when the barbary coast and north beach neighbors came together and said, how do we envision this place?

initially we were thinking it was going to be just low income affordable. there was a decision made to not just mix up the moderate and low income affordable. think about family housing which as father of five-year-old is relevant to what we need to be as city. i thank the neighborhood associations for one of the best examples how community collaborates with developers to get things done. fast forward to 2018. i remember conversations with bridge, with the jon stewart company. they wanted me to carry this bill. it involved amending the burton act. i was talking to john burton last night with his colorful language. i explained we want to make a little change to allow a surface parking lot to become family

housing and child care. that is what we had to do. we had to get state change to get it. it took us nine votes in the legislature to get it done. that is one time nechapter how we move this. this project really came about because it takes the village of the public sector led by the mayor and the leadership from the city working with nonprofit bridge housing and so many instrumental to this. working with the private sector from bank of america to the architects to builders to really make this happen. i just want to thank you on behalf of all of us from the elected family for that. let me end with one final thing. we are here. the sun is shining because jon stewart is looking upon us. [applause] i want to say to the

family, john was literally larger than life. i think brad was talking about being shoulder to shoulder. aaron and i would maybe reach his chest. he was not only renaissance man, he was a true visionary. his heart was in this community. he sacrificed so much. i remember the brain damage deals. this was probably one of those deals, right, jack? where we are today is full of the spirit of so many but certainly the spirit of the stewart family and the spirits of john. i will say we miss him, we love him, we know he is here today. with that the last thing i will say keep doing this over and over again. keep building projects that reflect the very best who we are. have a great morning. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you so much, mr. city attorney. it is going to take me awhile to get that into it. we know you as such a housing warrior. thank you. as jack said. we had to build complicated mixed income, mixed use site on some toxic land in the middle of a pandemic. nothing to it. our next speaker, i think, reflects the neighborhood passion that residents here in district three have. bruno cantor is a local architect and neighborhood advocate. president of the board of north beach neighbors on the northern advisory committee of the port. probably well-known to our friend elaine. with that i also in talking about this with the rest of our team learned that mr. cantor was

also highly regarded by our friend jon stewart. please welcome bruno cantor. [applause] >> good morning everybody. some of you may remember me saying a few words at the ground breaking a couple years ago where i brought my five-year-old daughter with me. i remember john pulled me aside to say, bruno, don't bring your child up to the podium. she will up stage you. well, i did, and she certainly did up stage me. i am fortunate she is in school today. definitely working with john was such a pleasure, and he is sorely missed by all. fortunately, i was able to share this process of bringing affordable housing to my daughter and her native san

francisco making it possible for families like ours to continue to live in the city. i am an architect by trade as brad had suggested. i am so impressed by the architectural merits of these buildings. the architect and his team did a wonderful job in design of this complex. it is open, it is outward looking. this courtyard is inviting to the neighborhood, and it is spectacular. the commercial spaces here activate the street front and it is truly a place where -- worthy of being called gateway to north beach. what is more impressive is how we got here. the partnership between the public and private sectors and community to bring much needed affordable housing, i believe, is unsurpassed in this case. the process was started early

with extensive outreach to the community even before the architect was selected. the massing studies done with direct community input facilitated by architect not invited to see through the design. that made the residents of the neighborhood feel hurt and included in the process. we saw our input incorporated at a very early stage. i would like to thank former supervisor julie christian son who brought in senior housing and supervisor aaron peskin foreseeing the project through to its successful completion. of course, the leadership of the mayor's office of housing and community development just incredible what they have done here and, of course, bridge housing and the jon stewart company. i am a process guy.

it was amazing process to be involved with. the jon stewart company and leadership was again unsurpassed. of course, the port and the northern advisory committee members who contributed early in the process and bringing the stakeholder participation. i will end with saying that this is truly a city that my children will be proud to continue to live in. thank you. [applause] >> thanks, bruno. well, it takes a lot of community spirit and collaboration. it takes a load of leadership from elected officials at every level. since it is san francisco, it takes a lot of money. to paraphrase willy sutton. why do we go to bank of america?

that is where the money is. i thank and introduce or next speaker, her institution, the source of two key pieces of project financing. sizable construction loan and $25 million in needed capital. thank you, bank of america. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. it is so wonderful to be here on this beautiful sunnydale to see so many faces we are all here with three years ago when we did shovel that first bit of dirt as supervisor peskin said as well. this is a glorious, glorious development building. we are honored to be part of it. inst last year bank of america provided $5.9 billion in

financing for affordable developments across united states. this led to 13,000 affordable units, 6,000 green units, 2400 for seniors and 1600 units for veterans and people with stable needs and formerly homeless individuals. bank of america is proud to call san francisco our founding city from rebuilding after the 1904 earthquakes, financing two great brings and developments like this. proud of our $2.2 billion commitment through the san francisco process as well which redeveloped over 3500 units at 29 different properties. we would like to continue to thank our partners bridge housing and the jon stewart company, mayor breed and her team at the mayor's office of community housing, housing

authority, hud, port of san francisco and everyone who worked to make this development possible including our team at bank of america. thank you everyone. >> thank you. i have been at a number of these events and followed bank of america representative. we couldn't be here without the long history. these are complicated projects. you know, our partners at the mayor's office of housing are experts of helping us structure. we rely on lenders to bend on a variety of issues, some came up today. thank you bank of america for on wavering support. we are a little off script. we have the pinch-hitter in a minute. before i introduce her, a rare

opportunity for people like me deeply involved in the development. i get to meet neighbors and elected officials. i am one step removed from the people we are doing the work for. i relish the chance when there is a resident who has courage to step up to tell their story what this means to them. there is a resident of broadway cove who will share her thoughts about her new home. [applause] >> hi. i am a mother.

we are thankful to be part of this community with multiple backgrounds. our journey seemed long in the beginning. the transition happened in less than a year. in pandemic times accounting for the approval possessing times it was quick to the new complex. i am thankful that cheryl, chris, alyssa, my adult sons and myself stuck to the paperwork. we have never felt as safe and comfortable as we do now. i am thankful for my worker that encouraged me to follow-through with positive mind set. that is hard to maintain. this is our home. we can move on to other essential building blocks of our lives. the building is essential. i load dishes in the dish washer

as i wash laundry down the hall so i can graduate as aeners in the future -- as a nurse. we hope to move out and this unit shall open up for another need de family this will help with fancy electronic disposesible. [indiscernable] thank you for everybody that came together to make this possible for all of us. thank you. (applause). >> thank you so much. i would love to see you blossom. i hope you take advantage of all of the opportunities on your doorstep. a little drama today. it is my pleasure to introduce

mayor london breed. before i do. i wanted to share a little story i heard from a little bird about the mayor's weekend. as a group of fourth graders were trick-or-treating. they knocked on the door as out was carmen miranda from full fruit rig gallia. she was having as much fun as she was. san francisco kids knew who the elected officials were. i have it on great authority that they had a good time that night, you made that evening very memorable. please join me in welcoming our always fun, housing warrior, mayor london breed. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, brad. it is great to be here today with all of you. just to celebrate this

incredible project she and her boys and what this means for their life this. is so important to us as a city and why i know many of us here do this work. i know it is why for over 50 years jon stewart did this work. i remember in 2019 when we broke ground on this property completely empty lot we had a number of festivities and john, who retired many years ago but continued to work. often times jack was like i thought i was the boss. no, you are not the boss. john said i am retired. he was instrumental in the jon stewart company not just starting it but making it to what it became for affordable housing for 50 years from in san francisco. i met him in treasure island right out of college. what was amazing why he stood

out to me is because at the time we had -- jon stewart had taken over the property management of military housing provided to formerly homeless veterans and families and people. john said, wait a minute. these are people who were formerly homeless. when they move in how will they get furniture, a coffee maker? he helped work on a program that was developed in treasure island that allowed many of those families to go shopping at the warehouse where staging furniture existing for realtors to make the great properties look good and people got to go and pick out everything they wanted. i remember when i went on one of those trips i was in my own little notes that i wanted on my

place. that is the kind of person he was. that is why this project was important. it is going to serve a wide spectrum in san francisco which we talked about before i had a chance to get here. when thinking about affordable housing in san francisco and the challenges that exist with various families, people come from all backgrounds, all incomes, all challenges. folks formerly homeless live here. people who have incomes that may seem like a lot of money but not for san francisco are going to live here. we even in the city and county of san francisco fought down affordable so seniors extremely low income and may not have been able to qualify will be able to live here. section 8 vouchers will be helpful to afford this place.

making sure that we have mixed income level of people that build on the strong diversity that exists in our city. this is a community. it is not just housing. it is a home for those families who are moving in and who are going to be enjoying not just the amenities and ground floor retail and child care and community space, but each other. if this pandemic has not taught us anything, it definitely should have taught us how important the value is of being around one another, spending time together, developing partnerships and relationships and building community. the kids here are going to be hanging out with some of the seniors and hearing about stories of their lives. spending time with one another, developing those relationships. this is really an incredible milestone for our city. really, even though it pretty much started many, many years

ago, i think david chu was on the board of supervisors. the fact we broke ground in 2019 and it is 2021 and people are moving in, that is incredible. i want to thank so many of our city work force, the mayor's office of housing. eric shaw, elaine forbes right in the front row. elaine with the port had to do some maneuvering to get the property. as you remember before the 1989 earthquake when the freeway was here. actually it shut down before that. i can't remember. a long, long time ago this used to be a freeway. now it is housing. that is amazing. we are so grateful that bridge and jon stewart got together to create this wonderful community and just a step further in meeting our housing goals in san

francisco to ensure that people are housing, that they are living in affordable safe spaces in our city with dignity. thank you all so much for being here today to celebrate. [applause] >> thank you very much, mayor breed. it is clear to me why you and john were such kindred spirits. i think he dressed up as carmen miranda once for halloween, too. he gave me the mentoring this is so hard and takes a lot of hard work. you have to enjoy yourself along the way. you have to stop, smell the roses, have a laugh, bond with the people you are working next to, shoulder to shoulder with as you persevere through the

challenges. then have some fun. enjoy yourself. i think you have got that down. well-done. anyway, in terms of anecdotes, i appreciate your comments. the things we are experiencing as property managers we get to really wonderful to be the wantings who hand the keys to people, get first dishwasher. first locking door or first roof over their head in decades. if you aren't on the streets because you are traumatized, by the time you are on the streets you are traumatized. helping people back into conventional units andsive vit society is rewarding. it takes work. i don't want to take stuff away from them they are guarding on the corner for 20 years.

we have found ways to hang on to stuff, make sure it doesn't bring unfortunate very min into the project. bake it in our oven. no bedbugs. we have learned a lot along the way. that is where the rubber hits the road when you hand the key or welcome basket or go through the furniture warehouse on treasure island and they become housed or rejoin society in a way to be part of it. thank you for that. we have examples of a 95-year-old certificate of preference holder who has moved into 735 davis. we said you have had the cop a long time. she said you finally built something i wanted to move into. fair enough. we have multigenerational households where the grandparents live at 735 davis. the kids and grandkids live in the broadway cove.

exactly what the mayor was talking about. inter generational coming together right here in the center of the walkway is what john had in mind when he said we have got to have this crossroads in the middle of this thing, invited neighborhood partners to the property so it is not standoffish fortress. it is a welcoming and includes i place. i never met a mic i didn't like. on-line. i wrote a lot of his good stuff. final step or close to final step. thank you for being here. we will ask our project managers from bridge and jon stewart company. the director of housing ann

marie devore, some grand title at bridge housing. congratulations. if you could come up and recognize the many unsung heroes. thank you. [applause] >> hello, two years ago we stood here and it was a sunnydale as everybody was mentioning. it was empty parking lot and these two buildings went up within credible speed. we wanted to take time and thank the firms involved and staff in doing so. at bridge housing many people touched this project. one of the first i will thank the communications department for providing this event today, planning it and with the weather and everything. our services department who has helped bring together the

services including child care. susan and her team. i also wanted to thank the former c.e.o. cynthia parker who had the vision and support for this project. last but not least the project manager who is here today. raise your hand. [applause] >> brought this in on budget and on time. with the jon stewart company we thank the folks at jon stewart company. i wanted to mention it was a privilege to work with the jon stewart company like brad and jack said. even on the staff level. it was a perfect joint venture. we enjoyed it. it was difficult but we had some fun along the way. >> thanks, marie. it is great working with this project. i want to thank them for the

hard work. we had fun along the way. i want to thank the property management staff in leasing up the projects. it is a complicated process and during the pandemic they are amazing and have done a good job. we also want to thank the city partners. they truly have been colleagues and partners on this project and especially faith kirkpatrick long time project manager. >> thanks, don. >> the port of san francisco was also instrumental. at staff level we worked with rebecca and i am sorry. michael martin. without them we wouldn't have come to this place. they were instrumental to donate the land with the ground lease to this project.

staff was really incredible to work with. we wanted to mention our architect for the site. they were more than an architect. as you heard earlier from brad and from jack they were involved early on in the project in the community outreach effort. they worked with community with the neighbors, with bruno from north beach neighbors and the barberry coast association to provide input early on and all of their visions and their support was implemented in this project. bill letty, close friend of jon stewart that led the community outreach and this project. it was really a great partnership with our architect

and the two project managers that i wanted to mention. aaron. mario who worked on the project. during construction. it was an incredible piece. thank you, guys. [applause] >> i want to acknowledge the design work on the open spaces and design of the breezeway that john was passionate about and fought hard to maintain. i will step over here. i want to thank cahill and matt irwin and the whole a team. cahill was amazing. they were always willing to work with us and collaborate and brought both projects in under

budget and on time. [applause] >> thank you, cahill for all of your work. in addition to a great contractor rehad a great construction manager instrumental to get the project started. larry couldn't be here today. sheparded through this on cost and schedule basis. we are grateful for their time. >> we often say these projects are so complicated only attorneys could love them. it is really nice when you have attorneys smart that you like to work with. thank you heather and amy and charles olson who worked out the pieces for this. >> we also want to thank the staff that worked to provide the

necessary funding. the construction debt and the equity and bearings provided permanent financing. thank you, staff, for your help on getting this project closed. seeing it through construction and completion. [applause] >> we will turn this over to jack to finish this. >> appreciate it. >> thanks very much. it has been a sunny morning clouding up. it is running long. we are going to hit the gas pedal here. after devoting decades of life to developing and managing affordable housing throughout california and the country and years of his life to broadway cove and 735 davis, as many people mentioned we are saddened that john passed last year before he could see it

completed. as mentioned earlier, john started making presentations at the port on seawall lot 322-1 years before the project started and working through with the neighborhood groups to think about what could be done. he attended numerous community association meetings. he contributed to affordable housing in the city and state and at broadway cove and 735. he was overjoyed to see the project starting construction last year. honestly, i think i do feel his presence with us here today, especially in the hearts of everyone who has spoken about him. they say people live on in what they leave behind in the hearts of the people they interacted with. if that is true, john is living on in a way few of us have any hope of doing given how he touched so many people so

sincere really and honestly in affordable housing in his hometown and his neighborhood. is it an honor to carry on his legacy. we are proud of this beautiful project which he contributed so much to bring to fruition. that is why we have dedicated a big rock with a plaque for john. he was the big guy. that is the big rock. to help me unveil this plaque honoring john i would love to ask gus see stewart to join me at the rock. >> welcome to the the rock. >> brad, you want a hand on this? we are going to ceremonially.

okay. i think simply reading the plaque will do it and john the most justice. if you would just bear with me. >> memory of john k stewart 1934 to 2020. husband, father, friend, founder of the jon stewart company. his lifelong commitment was building well designed high-quality affordable housing throughout california. he was a giant of a man in every way. he used his great intelligence, humor and business skills to bring people together to make housing like this a reality. thank you, john. [applause] >> can i ask you to say a couple words? >> we are hiding behind the bush. here we go.

>> i want to continue the thanks. this means the world to me. this is the first and only memorial of its kind for john. it is hard to have a person die in the middle of a pandemic. at last we can celebrate him and i can't thank all of the team that made this project possible for allowing this plaque to be here to celebrate this wonderful passage way and this absolutely beautiful project. thank you all, thank you, jack, particularly, and everyone who was part of this. [applause] >> thanks. while i know you would kill me for saying this, i would also like to thank you and john for the very significant personal

contribution that you made to the construction costs of our child care center at the end. it wasn't just talk, it wasn't just time. it was work, wisdom and wealth they devotessed. thank you so much for that. thank you. [applause] >> that is it for this morning. many thanks to my co-emcee brad. no. it is not. okay. thanks to co-emcee. partner bridge. all of you for attending. let's cut this ribbon. thank you everyone. five, four, three, two, one. (applause).

>> once i got the hang of it a little bit, you know, like the first time, i never left the court. i just fell in love with it and any opportunity i had to get out there, you know, they didn't have to ask twice. you can always find me on the court. [♪♪♪] >> we have been able to participate in 12 athletics wheelchairs.

they provide what is an expensive tool to facilitate basketball specifically. behind me are the amazing golden state road warriors, which are one of the most competitive adaptive basketball teams in the state led by its captain, chuck hill, who was a national paralympic and, and is now an assistant coach on the national big team. >> it is great to have this opportunity here in san francisco. we are the main hub of the bay area, which, you know, we should definitely have resources here. now that that is happening, you know, i i'm looking forward to that growing and spreading and helping spread the word that needs -- that these people are here for everyone. i think it is important for people with disabilities, as well as able-bodied, to be able to see and to try different sports, and to appreciate trying different things.

>> people can come and check out this chairs and use them. but then also friday evening, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m., it will be wheelchair basketball we will make sure it is available, and that way people can no that people will be coming to play at the same time. >> we offer a wide variety of adaptive and inclusion programming, but this is the first time we have had our own equipment. [♪♪♪]

we're here in fisherman's wharf, a very popular

destination for tourists in san francisco, not too far from the high school that i went to galleleio high school. and this is frequently visited by tourists for people to enjoy the businesses, a lot of the restaurants, to ride the cable car which i'm so happy that all of these things are continuing to open. and they're opening because we're fortunate in san francisco that we are seeing a change as it relates to covid. at least 83% of san franciscans are fully vaccinated, so we should be very proud of what we've done from the very beginning of this pandemic to where we are now. so thank you all so much for getting vaccinated. and it's not too late. we always make it easy for folks to get vaccinated so please do your part to continue to keep everyone safe.

but san francisco is a beautiful city and the golden gate bridge, this is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and people come to visit from all over the world because it's magical, but we do have challenges. like any other major city we have serious challenges around car break-ins like fisherman's wharf, like the palace of fine arts, like alamo square. just imagine going to visit the most beautiful city in the world and coming back to your car and actually witness someone breaking into your car and sadly as we just saw holding you hostage to gun point, how terrifying that

would be tragic. it is tragic. it's really embarrassing for our city. it's frustrating and it gives people the impression that it's not safe to come here. now, we have been implementing a lot of great policies including our tourism, deployment plan which since july when we announced it who may be able to replace all of the valuables which may not cost much in the resell market, but it means everything to

them. this is what we're dealing with. yes, we've seen a reduction, but there's more, of course, that needs to be done. so while we have deployed our police officers and some of our community ambassadors and many of those high traffic barriers. and today, we're announcing that more. what we're announcing today because of the leadership of people like commissioner laguana and others are partners with enterprise rent a car is a program that will allow $100,000 rewart for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of those who are stealing the items, but also those who are reselling the items, we're here to target

everyone involved in those crimes because we have to get to the root of what is causing the issue. because the items are stolen, but where are they going. they're going on to platforms like amazon and other places, there's a market for reselling these items that need to be targeted as well. so we want people who are perpetrating these crimes to know we're watching, we're aware. we will per sue with every tool we have within our criminal justice system. those who commit these crimes, we will hold them accountable and make sure we do what we can to make these large rings which chief scott will talk about a little bit, but they are dealt with because this is not just an individual. this is about a whole group of

people who were targeting san francisco for this purpose. in order to get these items that belong to others and resell them to make money, to make a profit off of someone el's tragedy and that's the thing that we have to address. with that, i want to appreciate sharky and the work he's been doing and he'll talk a little bit later, but in the meantime, talk about where we are and what we'll continue to do around vehicle break-ins is our police chief bill scott. >> thank you. thank you, mayor breed. so, first, let me that our mayor for pulling us together and her leadership and making things better for our city, but

i'll start where she ended. we have a whole lot more things to do. when we announced this in july, one of the things that we talked about was sustaining this effort and we have sustained this effort and we will continue to sustain this effort because we're not going away. we are committed to making our city safer and better and we're not going away. i also want to say thanks to sharky laguana and you'll hear from our partnership with enterprise rent-a-car on this. really exciting adding this car break-in issue in our city. this is a privately funded cash reward as the mayor said for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved and organized criminal fencing operations. and the word i want you to

remember is organize. we have seen through our investigations that much of this is organized, not all of it, but a significant part of it and the most damaging part is organized. we know this organized effort and this area that we're standing in has been one of the most heavily impacted. when we rolled out our tourism deployment plan that the mayor talked about, we introduced that with the addition of 26 additional officers. the majority of those officers are working in this area and this is where we've seen a significant amount of reduction and burglaries, car burglaries since we rolled this out in july. so today's announcement adds a new tool to our arsenal. we know the profit motivates what's happening in our city, and we know that fencing is the infrastructure that fuels all this work that these folks do when they come into our city or

in our city and they break in cars so this enables us to benefit from a financial incentive. an incentive to do the right thing and the right thing is put a stop to this madness. the right thing is let's focus on the people that are doing this and these incentives will help get them in custody and prosecutor them to the fullest extent of the law. and this buildses on mayor breed's recent expansion of our community based ambassador's program and this includes upward take of our community ambassadors, and these are retired police officers who walk these streets and work in concert with our on duty uniformed officers and their job is solely to observe and report what they're seeing and if they believe that

something's amiss, they call us, we come, we investigate and we've been able to prevent crimes from happening by doing what i just described. lastly, i will just talk a little bit about the bigger picture. what's more amazing and this is a piece of good news is we've experienced this 37% reduction while our city is re-opening and one of the things that the mayors committed and really directed the police department and me and all of the city departments is we want to re-open the city the right way. as you saw just last week, we had fleet week. we had the giants playoff game. we had chase center. we had a lot of people in the city again for the first time in two years and it was great. it was outstanding. it got national coverage. our city was on the national spotlight and people came here and enjoyed themselves. that's what we want.

that's dwr we're doing this work. so this work will continue. we will sustain it and i would like to say also, again, you know, we don't want to make ourselves easy targets and as you walk around this area, particularly this area, you will see on the parking meters, you'll see signs that say 'park smart' and what that means is don't make yourself an easy target. these are the folks that are being victimized the most. it's a shame we have to say this, but we do, and we also know that this works. when people are resilient and vigilant about not making themselves easy targets, we've seen these crimes go down because there's nothing to steal. so word to the people that are doing this, we're not done yet. we will keep pursuing justice to keep our city safe and, again, i want to thank our

mayor, i want to thank sharky and all of you for being here to support this work. thank you. with that, i would like to introduce sharky laguana. >> president laguana: hey guys. first i want to thank the mayor, it's always a pleasure and honor to work with you on stuff. i've heard from the mayor while we were working on auto burglary issues, i've never -- it's hard to stick to my nose here without them. i first met the mayor when we were working together on auto burglary issues and i'll never forget, she said to me, we're going to throw everything and the kitchen sink at this. here comes the kitchen sink. chief scott, thank you for creating space in your department and innovation and trying new ideas and it's been an honor and pleasure working

with your team. eric street from enterprise has been an incredible partner and i also want to thank all of the community organizations and business leaders throughout the city who also made commitments to fund this reward program so that we can finally make a serious dent in this vexing auto burglary issue. you know, i first started working on this problem when i had to chase a stolen van all over the city and i was shocked to discover that this is just a small number of people that are responsible for most of the auto burglaries that we see in the city. it is sensing rings and their business model is they pay people to break into cars and steal from businesses and then they sell these goods overseas and online. the last major ring we busted in the bay area had $8 million of stolen goods in multiple

warehouses, so this is a big business and there's folks making a lot of money. now, i appreciate what the mayor said about focusing on what's important here. i think it's important to remember that drug stores aren't the biggest victims. the biggest victims are working families who don't have the time and money to repair windows, replace phones, go find new bicycles. the biggest victims aren't the big businesses, but the small businesses. they're not the ones that have to close a couple stores, they're the ones with no stores left to close. bikes had to shut down their operation. it took them weeks to get back online. finally, the biggest victims if we're being honest are the people that are injured and the familieses that have lost loved ones dealing with these crimes. we've made incredible progress lately. i think it's fantastic. as both the mayor and the chief

said, we have a lot more work to do and, you know, i personally am sick of what anesthesia fencing rings are doing and i know the people that live here are sick of it as well and so what i like about this program is that it is a cruise missile aimed at the leadership of these fencing rings. these are the guys making lots of money fencing these stolen goods and right now they are acting with impunity and they believe they aren't vulnerable. the people that know what they are and know what they do, that's a weak spot and this reward helps provide motivation for people to stand up and do the right thing and let us know who they are so we can shut them down. i'm excited about this program because finally i feel a sense of optimism we're going to

start to tear these rings apart. i'm looking forward to it. thank you mayor, thank you chief. >> i just want to acknowledge, thank you, eric for being here from rent-a-car for providing support for this reward program. and i just want to say two things that i know the chief mentioned park smart, you know, i know there are people who come here to san francisco from places and you come from places where you are probably used to leaving things in your car and not worrying about someone stealing from you and i'm sorry that you have to experience that in san francisco, but i do think it's important that our rental car companies and some of our hotels that we support and work with the visitors in san francisco to make sure that they are aware of what happens in many of these cases and in some of these cases, they're

people who are watching people, they are following them, they know what they might be loading in their car. so when we park, for example, here, and when we put things in the trunk, i've been a victim myself when i've parked some place and put something in the trunk and i come back and my car's broken into and sadly, that is something that happens. ultimately, we know it's not an easy solution, but part of it is, yes, we need to make arrests. we need to go after those who commit these crimes, but i also want to make sure we're doing a better job as a city of trying to protect the people who are visiting our city and providing ways in which they can protect whatever it is that they have, the valuables that they have so that they are not a victim. so park smart is a part of our program as well and i want to say also to those committing these crimes.

number one, we will not rest until we are holding you accountable for these crimes, but also i want to say, you don't have to do this. the city has so many incredible employment opportunities. we're hiring muni drivers and other city employees, restaurants and places throughout san francisco, they're looking for people to hire. we're here to give people a chance. if you've never worked in tech sf. we provide stipens as you go through city build and other training programs. so there's no reason to risk your life, or freedom or someone else's life committing a crime that just makes things worse for all of us and so i would say that think about that and take us up on an opportunity to do something different with your life because san francisco has afforded so many people an

extraordinary opportunity to make a decent and honest living. once you cross that line, we have a responsibility. we have a responsibility to the public to make sure that people feel safe and so when those lines are crossed, we have no choice but to hold you accountable and that's what we will do. this reward is just another step in trying to get cooperation from the public so that we can make those arrests and we can not only hold the person who feels the items and breaks the windows and damages the property. we could also hold those who use this as a way to make a living. those who take those items and resell them on various platforms. we can hold them accountable and we're not just going to stop here locally. we are working with our state and federal partners in order to introduce legislation that will hold people who are

involved in these criminal rinks accountable for what they have created in these environments especially in major cities like san francisco. so i want to thank you all so much for being here. ultimately, there are challenges in any major city, but san francisco as i said at the beginning, it's a beautiful city and i want people to have beautiful experiences from start to finish from the time they drive here, from the time they land here on their planes to the museums, to the locations, i want them to go home with a smile on their face and be happy that they chose san francisco as their destination. so thank you all for being here today and we will answer any questions from the press if you have any about this program.

>> reporter: [inaudible] >> from the rental car standpoint, rental cars are being targeted, but yes from the residents, they're being targeted as well. from our conversations with the city as well, residents are also being impacted. that has really kind of created a bunch of businesses come together to try to privately help fund a reward. erick street, controller. you're welcome. >> reporter: can you address the car thieves in regards to this reward program. don't you think people will say i can do better turning in my own boss rather than stealing

things from cars? >> we want it to be that way. people who commit more crime, it's a lot more complicated. it's like hmm maybe, but they might think too, i'm the one who committed the act so i'm probably going to be held accountable, so the likelihood that will happen is probably not likely. it's a hope. but it's not likely. >> reporter: [inaudible] >> and i think a big part of that is making sure that the punishment fits the crime to the point where someone feels like, you know what, i don't want to go through that again. so when i get out, as long as there's an opportunity and as you know, san francisco supports giving people a second chance and providing that opportunity, then the likelihood that someone will go

back to that if there's an opportunity for them to succeed in something elsewhere they can generate income for their livelihood, the likelihood we can see them go back to committing these crimes is less likely. but people need to also be held accountable. and i think that's what's missing here in many cases because they believe they can come to san francisco, commit a crime. get arrested which our officers do a great job at investigating and making the arrest, but where's the accountability. that's the piece that needs to stick. yes. >> reporter: i just want to clarify, you also mentioned certified retailers and stuff like that. >> well, i think it's meant to incentivize everyone. you know, sometimes like i'll be honest, one of my car break-ins, i didn't even bother

to report it. it was like okay. let me get my window fixed. wasn't anything in my car. i'm not saying that should happen. we should report any crime and this is before a long time ago and part of one of the reasons of what's important to me is making sure that these crimes are reported so that we know that they're happening and also hopefully people are looking at license plates as people pull off, but then we know some of these cars may be stolen or may be connected to other people. but we're able to, if we're able to identify the car, there's fingerprints, there's a whole investigation. so if there are people we don't want you to put yourself in harm's way, but if they're paying attention and you see a license plate or make or model or any information and you're able to share that information with us, that's important and people who are merchants as well as folks who are out here may be more willing to provide

information, because the criminals are committing these acts in broad daylight in the city and the goal is to make sure that know eyes and ears are on the streets and we're not going to get them get away with it. >> reporter: when it comes to getting [inaudible] on somebody, isn't that where the d.a.'s office comes in? >> well, i can't speak for the d.a. he's an e independent elected district attorney. i do try to work with his office on these cases. i can't force him to do something that i believe he should be doing, but we try our best to work together. i can tell you from my perspective, our police officers and our investigators, they are doing a really good job with these investigations

and with these arrests and we, of course, need a layer with our district attorney, the courts and others which we don't necessarily have complete control of and this is not to make an excuse, but we need to be working together as one unit to address these problems and to hold people accountable and accountability could be a number of forms. you know, it's not just about locking someone up and throwing away the key. it can involve a number of layers of things. so my hope is that we'll get to that point. i'm hopeful. thank you.