>> hello. how are you. >> very well. >> your helpers are here. >> you are looking wonderful. >> my goodness. you know what is so funny? we are anxious to get started with christmas. we haven't had thanksgiving. that is okay. in san francisco, we are celebrating this holiday cheer. we are going to enjoy the season because last year during this pandemic it was so hard for us

to come together. santa, are you going to deliver those toys this year? >> a lot of toys. we will brick through at the port of oakland and get all of the toys. >> mayor breed: thank you, santa. santa is going to do what he needs to do to get toys to the kids all over the city. hi, everybody. i am mayor london breed. it is good to be here on chestnut street in the heart of the marina. i was here this weekend, and the area was buzzing. people were everywhere, shopping, dining, hanging out. it is good to see you all here today. i hope that is not covid. [laughter]. i got my mask, don't worry. anyway, it is great to be here at one of my favorite praises to

shop. ei candle. i buy all of my candles here. i am glad to have the owner, eric, with us today. if you want any kind of candle that smells like anything, including christmas, this is the place to come. i have been shopping here for a long time. there are unique businesses like ei all over san francisco. in fact, they are gifts, candles, things unique to san francisco. part of the launch of today's campaign has everything to do with reminding you how special san francisco is. how unique san francisco is. how when you shop at a place like this, you find something that you may not find at any other store anywhere. today as we kickoff shop and dine in the 49, we are asking

san franciscans and those who visit our city to shop locally. shop on hate and chestnut and union street and hayes valley and the inner sun sept where you see these incredible stores. because not only do we help to ensure trees storefronts remain open and available in these thriving neighborhoods we make sure we support our economy. with just a small increase in shopping locally, that can increase our support and revenues to the city by millions of dollars pouring into our economy to help businesses, to help employees and to help continue to make sure we are making the kinds of investments that we know will continue to support san francisco. it is great to be here with so many people to shop and dine in

the 49. since i knew i was coming today i know which candles i need today. one of my friends have a baby. they have baby clothes, pet toys and other really cute unique gifts. lastly, let me say this because i know that it has been challenging not just with the pandemic but what we have seen with a number of the things we see on the news around the burglaries and robberies and other things that happen in san francisco. i want to be clear. we are not going to let what others try to do to our city define who we are as a city. we are better than this. the reason why you see now especially during the holiday season a significant increase in police and ambassadors and other things because we are going to make sure we do everything we can to keep our city safe.

the people, employees, merchants and residents alike. i want to thank the san francisco police department for being here with us today. i saw them late hours on chestnut street on saturday night. they were working. they weren't out hanging out afternoon drinking. they were working. we are grateful for their service and grateful for everything that they have done to serve and protect the city. with that i want to take the opportunity to just again thank all of you for being here. happy thanksgiving. with that please help me welcome our executive director of the san francisco chamber of commerce, rodney fong. >> don't go too far. a little bird told me one of your favorite candles is in here. it is a tough year for you. i want to thank you for all of

the work you have done. i believe it is one of your favorite candles. petite louise. >> mayor breed: thank you. >> on chestnut street. the chamber has been around for 171 years. 53% of the members are small businesses, familiar many on the street. they have been here for a long time. the fireside camera. patronize them and shop locally as we celebrate shop and dine in the 49. i will mention san francisco is unique from retail perspective. it is difficult but there are fine things that are handmade in san francisco. they are manufactured locally. enjoy shop and dine in the 49. i am going to pass it to someone who is important for commerce.

mcgill from master card. [applause] >> thank you very much. i will be brief. this is a fantastic occasion to be back. not just with you but to help small business come back here in san francisco. we all know in our communities that we live in that small businesses are a key component of that community. not only for the commerce and economy, but frankly for the community and society that surrounds them. at master card we see that in every community we serve and are engaged in how important the small business community is. we have been investing heavily in helping the small business through the pandemic to compete in the new reality. as we focus on recovery helping them come back stronger and better than before. partnerships like this with mayor breed and the shop and dine in the 49 has been around

since when i lived here. it was an opportunity to come back and invest in san francisco to help the small business community thrive and grow and demonstrate leadership around the world. thank you, rodney. thank you for hosting us. it is a pleasure to be here. we look forward to continuing our engagement partnership here in san francisco. [applause] >> thank you very much for coming today. don't forget to shop local with us this season. thank you so much. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, eric. eric owns ei home. thank mcgill and master card for providing resources to advertise shop and dine in the

49 to remind people to shop locally. usually on black friday the day after christmas most of the time -- hello -- i am first one at the door at 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. i decided i am not going to do that because i am going to make sure i am able to get up on friday and go out in the neighborhoods and become a new plant mom since this pandemic. i will be shopping for plants at various locations and shopping for gifts and toys. toys are hard to find. i am hopeful to get some toys and other great things all over san francisco. i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. i think santa's elfs are passing out bags. fill those with local gifts on chestnut street. thank you for coming here today.

[applause] >> shopping in san francisco with what is happening, what are you telling people to make sure they turn-out and shop? >> mayor breed: one announcement through the end of the city all city-owned parking garages will be two hours free parking. that is almost unheard of in san francisco. i think how we get the word out is what is happening and what happened this past weekends is people have noticed increased presence of police officers. they have noticed ambassadors, changes. we are hoping that not only will the media help us get the word out but our advertisement through shop and dine social

media and word of mouth. i have been getting a lot of great responses from people about experiences in shopping downtown this past week end. i was down there myself to see how people feel. i know that people feel a certain kind of way because there is a number of stores boarded up. they are still showing up and shopping. we have police officers in those garages as well. we have an escort program, a number of ambassadors. we are keeping the streets clean. we are going to work at this every single day. we are hopeful people will come back. i think this past weekends when you saw all of the folks out aye skating, shopping, going to restaurants. the city was jumping. people were going to plays at golden gate theater. there was a performance at the war field. san francisco was jam-packed on

saturday and sunday. we hope those experiences will lead to others knowing that we are going to do everything we can to keep the city safe and open for business. we hope to turn the image around. >> how are you going to hold people accountable to show that this is not going to happen again in san francisco? >> mayor breed: part of what we are doing to hold people accountable is within my ability to do so. number one, make sure we have officers on the streets and on the ground. once the arrests are made, we are hopeful that our da will prosecute. it is my understanding today he already made an announcement or will be making announcement about felony charges on the eight people that we were able to arrest during what happened this past friday.

i think there is a lot of tough talk. talk doesn't mean anything unless we can demonstrate we followed through on what we say we are going to do and people are held accountable for the crimes they commit in our city. >> concerns about covid in the holidays? >> mayor breed: that is why we ask people to get vaccinated and get your flu shot. i got the booster shot and flu shot on the same day. so far i am okay. that was about two weeks ago. >> the surveillance cameras. >> part of what we need to do there are privacy laws and we don't want to violate anybody's rights. at the end of the day we have to

be strategic how we provide safety. being able to access cameras to deal with the most violent of crimes in our city is important. we dealt with this issue many, many years ago in public housing sites where the number of homicides that occurred weren't being solved. people would witness this but concerned about their own safety. having cameras were significant in helping solve these crimes and prosecute people. definitely it is a conversation that needs to be had and a change we need to make. we will work with our chief on trying to make some changes to that. [ inaudible ]

>> mayor breed: i think a couple of things we have been doing and resources allocated. we have had small businesses that had windows broken not necessarily for theft but random acts. we have a broken windows fund we provided for small businesses and provided resources in the budget. through our department of office of economic and work force development. working with merchants to install more cameras. we can't put a camera on somebody's property. we try to work with the businesses. we have provided funding for hundreds of cameras all over the city. the latest one we did was sf safe in chinatown, in particular. the outreach we are doing with the office of eewd and talking to and working with small businesses we are try to help when they do experience those particular problems with either

grants or no interest loans. we have had to do a lot of that with discussions with business associations. they have been hard-hit and we provided support in some instances, not every single instance. [ inaudible ] >> we have not finalized the plans to close any streets to through traffic. right now what is happens is the main points of entry in the evening time to union square have been cut off. we are cutting off from what time, chief? 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. we are looking at permanent street closures. the goal is, of course, to make it difficult for cars to commit the acts that they have where

they have basically rushed the stores, taken a lot of items and jumped in vehicles and taken off. we are looking at ways to make downtown shopping more safe for pedestrians. this is not just about stolen goods. this is in the process of getting away how someone can get hurt. having the ability to shop without concern about a vehicle hitting you is really important. we are currently working with m.t.a. to have those discussions. thank you all. after you have finished wrapping up your cameras. go eat at one of the restaurants on chest nut street. what a beautiful san francisco. thank you for being here.

>> he is a real leader that listens and knows how to bring people together. brought this department together like never before. i am so excited to be swearing in the next chief of the san francisco fire department,

ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome, jeanine nicholson. (applause). >> i grew up total tomboy, athlete. i loved a good crisis, a good challenge. i grew up across the street from the fire station. my dad used to take me there to vote. i never saw any female firefighters because there weren't any in the 1970s. i didn't know i could be a fire fighter. when i moved to san francisco in 1990, some things opened up. i saw women doing things they hadn't been doing when i was growing up. one thing was firefighting.

a woman recruited me at the gay-pride parade in 1991. it was a perfect fit. i liked using my brain, body, working as a team, figuring things out, troubleshooting and coming up with different ways to solve a problem. in terms of coming in after another female chief, i don't think anybody says that about men. you are coming in after another man, chief, what is that like. i understand why it is asked. it is unusual to have a woman in this position. i think san francisco is a trailblazer in that way in terms of showing the world what can happen and what other people who may not look like what you think the fire chief should look like how they can be successful. be asked me about being the first lbgq i have an understands

because there are little queer kids that see me. i worked my way up. i came in january of 1994. i built relationships over the years, and i spent 24 years in the field, as we call it. working out of firehouses. the fire department is a family. we live together, eat together, sleep in the same dorm together, go to crazy calls together, dangerous calls and we have to look out for one another. when i was burned in a fire years ago and i felt responsible, i felt awful. i didn't want to talk to any of my civilian friends. they couldn't understand what i was going through. the firefighters knew, they understood. they had been there. it is a different relationship. we have to rely on one another. in terms of me being the chief

of the department, i am really trying to maintain an open relationship with all of our members in the field so myself and my deputy chiefs, one of the priorities i had was for each of us to go around to different fire stations to make sure we hit all within the first three or four months to start a conversation. that hasn't been there for a while. part of the reason that i am getting along well with the field now is because i was there. i worked there. people know me and because i know what we need. i know what they need to be successful. >> i have known jeanine nicholson since we worked together at station 15. i have always held her in the highest regard. since she is the chief she has infused the department with

optimism. she is easy to approach and is concerned with the firefighters and paramedics. i appreciate that she is concerned with the issues relevant to the fire department today. >> there is a retired captain who started the cancer prevention foundation 10 years ago because he had cancer and he noticed fellow firefighters were getting cancer. he started looking into it. in 2012 i was diagnosed with breast canner, and some of my fellow firefighters noticed there are a lot of women in the san francisco fire department, premenopausal in their 40s getting breast cancer. it was a higher rate than the general population. we were working with workers comp to make it flow more easily for our members so they didn't have to worry about the paper

work when they go through chemo. the turnout gear was covered with suit. it was a badge to have that all over your coat and face and helmet. the dirtier you were the harder you worked. that is a cancer causeser. it -- casser. it is not -- cancer causer. there islassic everywhere. we had to reduce our exposure. we washed our gear more often, we didn't take gear where we were eating or sleeping. we started decontaminating ourselves at the fire scene after the fire was out. going back to the fire station and then taking a shower. i have taught, worked on the decontamination policy to be

sure that gets through. it is not if or when. it is who is the next person. it is like a cancer sniper out there. who is going to get it next. one of the things i love about the fire department. it is always a team effort. you are my family. i love the city and department and i love being of service. i vow to work hard -- to work hard to carry out the vision of the san francisco fire department and to move us forward in a positive way. if i were to give a little advice to women and queer kids, find people to support you. keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep trying.

you never know what door is going to open next. you really don't. [cheers and . eers and >> chairman: good morning. this is the rules committee. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor rafael mandelman and supervisor connie chan and our clerk is mr. victor young. do you have any announcements, mr. clerk?