extraordinary piece. the most challenging of all. string orchestra work. 23 solo instrument, no violin section, now viola section; everybody is responsible for their part in this piece. the challenge is something that i felt not only that we could do , absolutely could do, but i wanted to show off. i can't tell you how aware i am of the audience. not only what i hear but their vibes, so strong. i have been doing this for a long time. i kind of make them feel what i want them to feel.

there is nobody in that audience or anywhere that is not going to know that particular song by the fourth note. and that is our encore on tour. by the way. i am proud to play it, we are from san francisco. we are going to play that piece no matter where we are. >> [inaudible] i'm a

illustrator by day and a [inaudible] composition teacher. right now i'm practice by transscribing [inaudible] that is what i have been doing the past couple years, teaching myself. california college of the arts, illustration there has really great teachers. robert hunt, vance story taught me a lot. what i'm working on is a portfolio [inaudible] riding a donkey unicorn in the process. >> my name is dawn richardson and musician, drummer and drum teacher. i guess i would say i started my professional path quh i started playing in bands and teaching drum lesson when i was in college. they were definitely

not that many women that would do what is doing. in 198 8 i graduated from cal state los ang and studied mostly classical percussion and music education but at the same time i was in hollywood so played at night in rock bands so was doing two different things. >> the reason i'm [inaudible] the people. there is a extremely vibrant art community especially arounds the red poppy art house [inaudible] as a artist in the past 2 or 3 years there is a event called the [inaudible] every 3 months a free art music festival that i usually play at and just met so many people. >> i was teaching a little bit and doing odd jobs like waitressing and

going at night and playing in bands and meeting a lot of people. i chss in ban that had cool break jz get parts on tv shows or things like that. a friend of mine, we had mutual friends that got signed to a record deal in san francisco called 4 nonblaunds and i addition frd the bands and moved to the bay area. i think things are different now than 30 years ago, the world evolved a lot. it could be a challenge but have to know how to negotiate everything and sometimeatize is [inaudible] it was great to get to a point where i was just treated like another one of the people, a musician not a female musician and that is always what [inaudible] >> you don't hear stuff on the

radio [inaudible] i need to write music [inaudible] be more conscious in their decisions and somehow make that poetic so they will be convinced. i think i will do that. [singing in backgrounds] drawing and writing music since i was a really little kid and fortunate enough to have a good education in art and parentss who supported me. i hope my life will continue to allow me to do both. >> for me now having all male, female girls, boys students it shows the world has changed a lot and people areope toon open to a lot more than they were in the past. you can get a deep satisfaction from responding a lot of year practicing in one thing and becoming really good at

something. sometimes i think that it is better to get lost. you have to practice and become good at what you do, so if you have everything together then go out in the world and do what you do and then i think people w

>> (clapping.) >> in san francisco the

medical examiner performs the function of investigating medical and legal that occurs with the city and county of san francisco from a variety of circumstances in san francisco there is approximately 5 thousand deaths annually i'm christopher director for the chief mr. chairman the chief my best testimony a at the hall of justice on 870 drooint street that is dramatically updated and not sufficient for the medical chairman facility i've charles program manager public works should a earthquake of a major are proportion occurs we'll not continue to perform the services or otherwise inhabit the building before the earthquake. >> we're in a facility that was designs for a department that functions and in the mid

60s and friends scientific has significantly changed we've had significant problems with storage capacity for evidence items of property and also personal protective if you're doing a job on a daily basis current little storage for prirjs are frirnlsz we're in an aging facility the total project cost forever ever commercial is $65 million the funding was brought by a vote of go bond approved by the voters and the locations is in the neighborhood the awarded contract in 2013 and the i'm the executive director we broke ground in november 2015 and that started with the demolition of existing facility we moved into the foundation and

january so pile foundation and then with second construction of the new facility. >> one of the ways that we keep our project on time on budget and we're having quality to have regular meeting and the variety of meetings with construction process meeting as well as cost of control meeting and i'm a project manager for public works the office of chief commercial we want walk the project site when we sign up and also with a contractor insinuates for a change over we need to verify what or what was instead of. >> the building is 42 feet tall so it is two stories and 46 thousand square feet roughly we're that's a great question to be on time and budget have the roof complete a the exterior moving with the site work.

>> and as you can see we've got a lot of the interior finishes installed. >> in an effort of an differentiate the facility that designed to work for 72 hours. >> not taking into account there was a lot of structural updates made into this building not seen in other construction throughout san francisco or other barriers we have friday morning examiners from 8 to one public comment monday to friday because of air circulation we literally have to shut the doors and so the autopsy is done without staffing being able to come and go or exit the space and literally lock down the autopsy in the new facility we have bio build one door opens and closed behind you you can gown up and go through a second

seizures of doors that has its own independent air supply and now in the exterior opt space having that middle space have greater flexibility of staff as they move in and out of the area. >> in the current facility investigative unit has small tiny, tiny place in the area of the new facility is almost doubled in all divisions from the current facility and the new facility. >> the planning we have here gives them the opportunity to have the pool needs to complete theirs jobs in a much more streamlined fashion. >> we're looking forward to have secured parking to minimize the egress of you know visiting and the members of the public

but really to minimize the investigators remaining remains from our advancing and so the facility. >> we have a new visitors area we're building that is a little bit more friendly to families. >> one thing you may notice in the room no windows there is no natural light not good for most autopsy but in the new facility at new hall we made that an objective they want to insure we were able to look up in the middle of exam and see the sky and see natural lights. >> that's one of the things the architect did to draw in as much light as possible. >> we have staff here onsite we insure the design of the new design enables the investigators

and other investigators skiefksz to consider to house on site this meant we needed to design and plan for locker room facilities and shower rooms the ability to sleep. >> third of the construction going into the building has been by contributions of small businesses. >> part of the project is also inclusive to the sidewalk have all new sidewalks and new curve cuts and landscaping around the building we'll have a syrup in front of the building and rain guardian. >> the medical examiner's office has been a several if in their contributions of the understanding the exception and needs. >> it's a building that the chief medical examiner has been looking forward to quite a few of the. >> it is extremely valuable contribution to the, neighborhood address san francisco as a whole.

>> the building will allow is to have greater very much and serve the city and county of san francisco and the neighboring >> 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. >> hello everyone. welcome to the bayview bistro. >> it is just time to bring the community together by deliciousness.

i am excited to be here today because nothing brings the community together like food. having amazing food options for and by the people of this community is critical to the success, the long-term success and stability of the bayview-hunters point community. >> i am nima romney. this is a mobile cafe. we do soul food with a latin twist. i wanted to open a truck to son

nor the soul food, my african heritage as well as mylas as my latindescent. >> i have been at this for 15 years. i have been cooking all my life pretty much, you know. i like cooking ribs, chicken, links. my favorite is oysters on the grill. >> i am the owner. it all started with banana pudding, the mother of them all. now what i do is take on traditional desserts and pair them with pudding so that is my ultimate goal of the business. >> our goal with the bayview bristow is to bring in businesses so they can really use this as a launching off

point to grow as a single business. we want to use this as the opportunity to support business owners of color and those who have contributed a lot to the community and are looking for opportunities to grow their business. >> these are the things that the san francisco public utilities commission is doing. they are doing it because they feel they have a responsibility to san franciscans and to people in this community. >> i had a grandmother who lived in bayview. she never moved, never wavered. it was a house of security answer entity where we went for holidays. i was a part of bayview most of my life. i can't remember not being a part of bayview. >> i have been here for several years. this space used to be unoccupied. it was used as a dump.

to repurpose it for something like this with the bistro to give an opportunity for the local vendors and food people to come out and showcase their work. that is a great way to give back to the community. >> this is a great example of a public-private community partnership. they have been supporting this including the san francisco public utilities commission and mayor's office of workforce department. >> working with the joint venture partners we got resources for the space, that the businesses were able to thrive because of all of the opportunities on the way to this community. >> bayview has changed. it is growing. a lot of things is different from when i was a kid. you have the t train. you have a lot of new business.

i am looking forward to being a business owner in my neighborhood. >> i love my city. you know, i went to city college and fourth and mission in san francisco under the chefs ria, marlene and betsy. they are proud of me. i don't want to leave them out of the journey. everyone works hard. they are very supportive and passionate about what they do, and they all have one goal in mind for the bayview to survive. >> all right. it is time to eat, people.

good afternoon everyone. thank you for joining us here today. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and i'm joined today by supervisor matt haney as well as the director of the department of emergency management mary ellen carol. the department of public health behavioral health director dr. hillary kunis and we are also joined by our police chief bill scott. i am here with our various leaders in san francisco to officially declare a state of emergency in the tenderloin community of the city and county of san francisco. we know that there have been a number of challenges that have happened in this community and have persisted over the years. but if we take a step back, when this pandemic first hit san francisco, of course, we immediately in light of what we

knew was inevitable declared a state of emergency to deal with the global pandemic of covid-19 and, in fact, what we saw over the last almost two years was san francisco step up, remove the bureaucratic layers and the opticals that get in the way of actually being effective and collaborating with our various city agencies and what we were able to do to deal with the pandemic was extraordinary. we are one of the densest cities in the country and with less than 700 people who lost their lives throughout the entire pandemic, we saw one of the lowest death rates of any other major city in the u.s. and san francisco not just because we acted quickly and shut down early, it's because

we had the ability to move quickly and set up our various locations including a covid command center embedded equity into our response to help deal with challenges all over the city. but the sad reality is when we look at the loss of life in the pandemic which every lost life is tragic, we had over 700 people alone die due to a drug overdose last year in san francisco. we have over 600 and counting this year. when we look at the conditions on our streets, it is really unfortunate, it's sad, it's heart breaking, and i must say, what doesn't get publicized

enough is the fact that not only do we say and we are a compassionate city, the amount of money that we spend on services to help people struggling with mental illness, substance use disorders, programs. our street overdose team, our wellness team. additional resources for narcan. the additional organizations that assist us with those struggling with addiction and mental illness. the significant increase in number of behavioral health beds in our system. a mental health sf, we've done a lot of work to try and turn things around because we know that suffering from those

things are not easy. it is not just about homelessness. it's about addiction. it's about the fact that there is clearly in the tenderloin community with the conditions of not just the streets, but the people living there and the people suffering that we are in a crisis and we need to respond accordingly. it's not just about our police response to make sure that when people cross that line and commit crimes, we hold them accountable. it's about getting people the help that they need and being able to do so quickly. i've said this time and time again, if you don't know what it's like to experience an addiction and i hope to god you never find out, we have to meet people where they are. we can't wait for something to be set up.

we have to move quickly. we can't wait until something goes through a layered process. we have to move quickly. too many people are dying in this city. too many people are sprawled out all over our streets. and now we have a plan to address it. a robust, aggressive plan to address it. earlier this week, i made it clear that there are going to be a number of things that this city is going to do to address public safety and part of that is a police response. part of that is accountability. part of that is making sure that we are consistent, but the other part is being aggressive about getting people into

services and support and not allowing what has happened on our streets to continue. not only the fact that people who are suffering from these things are randomly committing acts of violence towards people who are just walking down the street not to mention the number of shootings and stabbings and other things that are happening randomly in this community, but also the high number of people who are dying from fentanyl overdoses. so leading this effort to address this emergency will be mary ellen carol and the work that we have in place after our assessment will allow us the ability through this emergency declaration to move quickly, to

move fast, to change the conditions specifically of the tenderloin community. this is necessary in order to see a difference, in order to reverse some of the deaths from overdoses and the assaults and attacks and other things happening in this community. so, at this time, i want to introduce someone who's been advocating for resources and let's be clear, this city spends more money on when

people walk down the streets of san francisco, they should feel safe. they shouldn't have to see someone sticking a needle in various part officer their body laying out on the streets and wondering what can i do to help them. they shouldn't be spit on. we have to have an honest conversation about people who suffer from mental illness and substance use disorder and that

crosses a line and impacts other peoples' ability to feel safe in our city, addressing those challenges, understanding what people are suffering through and meeting them where they are. and i'd like to introduce supervisor matt haney of district 6 to say a few words. >> supervisor haney: i want to thank the mayor for her focus for her urgency and courage in today's announcement. the tenderloin is a community of residents who want and deserve safety, who want and deserve health and who want to

survive. they need help. and this is a statement of the urgency that help is on the way. our city came together over the last few years and through everything we had to confront a deadly epidemic. and because of those actions of the people who are standing up here, we save lives. and we have to do that again. the overdose epidemic is taking the lives of nearly two people a day in our city. most of those people in the tenderloin are south of market and mostly fentanyl. and if we are going to stop the epidemic, if we are going to save lives. we are going to once again throw everything we have at it. we need resources. we need coordination. we need tracking and we need it now. we cannot wait to take action. every day that we wait, anything that is getting our

way to move slower, may cost lives. and this is something that we know we can do. decades ago, there was another epidemic that we faced which was hiv and aids. and this city came together we led the way and we saved lives. and so even though this is an epidemic that's not only affecting our city and the tentder loin, it's a national epidemic. we have to demonstrate through commitment and compassion not only looking the other way, but confronting the problem. i think if there's anything we've demonstrated over the last year and a half under mayor breed's leadership that

we can absolutely do this. but it takes us treating it like the emergency and the crisis it is and that's what we're doing today. thank you, mayor breed also as a resident of the coo at the scale of the problem we're facing and you have my full support and partnership. and i want to thank chief carol and director scott and chief kunis for your partnership on it. i want to introduce the person who is going to lead this effort through the covid-19 pandemic bringing together resources, bringing together staff. unprecedented focus and speed to confront a pandemic. we have to do it again with this deadly epidemic of drug overdose.

so i want to welcome up now director caroll. >> director: thank you, mayor breed, and thank you, supervisor haney. in emergencies, people need resources immediately and not months from now. an emergency declaration allows san francisco to cut through the red tape, to obtain the contracts, the resources and the personnel that we need to address the crisis conditions in the tenderloin. we only have to look at our covid response to see how an emergency declaration allowed us to quickly lease hotels, hire critical staff and establish testing and vaccines. if you remember, when we did that declaration, there is a lot of questions about why we were doing a declaration so early before we even had a case in san francisco. it is because we knew the lead time that we needed and we knew

how important it was to have the ability to conduct those resources. that's what it's about. this includes speeding up the establishment of a linkage center that once activated. the site will connect individuals in crisis to resources like substance use treatment, counseling, and medical care. to date, we have conducted neighborhood assessments, community stakeholder engagement. we've coordinated interventions, and helped people in crisis connect to social services. i just want to reiterate that the emergency declaration is really about removing obstacles so that we can go in and conduct the work we need to do to help the residents of the tenderloin. our goal is to get those

services coordinated as quickly as we can in order to alleviate the overall suffering that people are experiencing in the neighborhood. thank you very much. i'll turn it back to you. >> so, with that, are there any questions? >> question: the chronicle was told two months ago, if you declare it an emergency, it could practically allow -- not practically allow, but you can do anything [inaudible] today. what does this mean in two months? >> can you go back to the first question? >> question: [inaudible] >> so the challenge we have with our conservetorship process is we wait until

someone is 51/50 which is a 72-hour hold before we can implement a course of action which goes through a lengthy court process. from my perspective, it's not strong enough to be as effective as we would like it to be and i think that's why we have to use our alternative of not giving people any option when they are struggling with addiction and have challenges with mental health. we have to take them somewhere. so either that somewhere is going to be san francisco general depending on their condition or that somewhere is going to be a location that we will set up as a result of this emergency declaration and the goal is to not let anyone stay out in the streets and not give them an option and to enforce many of our various laws that are on the books including sit

lie and camping and sleeping and other things. so we're going to be a lot more aggressive with implementing existing laws on the books in order to get people off the streets and unfortunately the conservatorship does not work as effectively as is it should. >> question: and why the change in two months? if we did declare an opioid crisis that we would not be able to do anything that we're not doing now. so i'm wondering what's is changed in two months? >> what's changed is at that time we were working with the department of public health and the city attorney's office to understand how we can get more creative on declaring a state of emergency because the problem we were having is technically under some of of 0 our various laws, it wasn't in terms of what was put forward

and what was suggested, it wasn't something that technically we could use legally as a basis. so we had hunkered down, got creative and workeded with our attorneys to figure out a way. even at that time, it was a crisis. this is not something that just all of sudden happened. we were able to find a way which we needed in order to address it and so that's what we did. >> question: mayor, do you think this declaration will save lives? >> my hope is that it will save lives. people laid out on the streets, we don't know if they're dead or alive. the ability for our street wellness teams to do checks, but most important, that person probably needs to be monitored and so part of our process is removing them from that location and moving them inside

to a location where we have the kinds of folks that can monitor, that can provide resources, but more importantly, we're not here to judge. we're here to say, we're here, we're paying attention, we don't want you to die and so we're going to do everything we can to support you but we've got to they you off the streets. >> question: a public defender said that expanding police presence is going to be harmful to people who are already overpoliced and it cuts the promise you made in the wake of the george floyd murder death. what is your response to that? >> answer: it doesn't. you see significant investments in programs including commitment to the african american community for $60 million a year ongoing. and so you tell that to the families who i met with who are in tears from the attacks and telling me that they want the police there. telling me that they call the

police and they want them to show up. the families and the people who live there, has anyone from the public defender's office or anyone else had a conversation with these families who feel uncomfortable walking their kids down the street. so have the public defender give them a call and see what they want and they need to protect their lives and their children. everyone in theory can is talk about all the policies they want around no police and defund the police and all of these other things, but at the end of the day, if someone beat your kid like that 11-year-old girl, who are you going to call to protect you? and that's the point of this. we have worked very hard in this city to turn things around with the challenges that have existed historically in the police department of san francisco and i'm very proud and confident in bill scott and

his leadership and the various trainings, anti-bias trainings, the new recruits which have made the department more and more diverse and understanding of various communities, making sure that we're sensitive to the need and we're not creating these barriers to those who in the past have historically had challenges with the police. we have people who want a relationship. businesses in the tenderloin who want a relationship and treat their police officers with kindness and respect, the same with the police officers towards them. so folks can say what they want about all of this going back on your word this and that, but at the end of the day, the people in this community are not safe and it is not fair and it's not right. and part of the response to this is definitely police officers. >> question:

[ indiscernible ] >> answer: and they're deployed in the tenderloin too. but let me just be clear and the chief can talk about that. this declaration of emergency is more so about making sure that we are dealing with our public health crisis on the streets and part of it separately from that is definitely a significant increase on our police response. so, if you want, i can bring chief scott up if you have a question. yes. >> thank you, mayor. everything that was said today only enhances our ability to do our jobs. enforcement, we have to enforce. we have to arrest drug dealers. a lot of what people complain about are the street conditions, open air injections

of whatever is being injected in peoples' arms and toes and those things have to be addressed. the other side of that is our officer has said time and time again, let's have a system where we can get the social workers involved and that's exactly what this does at the front end so we can go and do the things that the public wants us to do. arrest people that are hurting people. stop the open air drug uses. stop some of the craziness that's going on on our streets and that's what most of us came on this job to do and this only enhances our ability to do that because our officers will work in partnership with the health department and social services so they don't have to do that. we know to treat people with dignity and respect. we came on this job to be cops and this will only enhance that and the deployment that's

already been increased. and i want to echo that in my comments that the mayor said. thanks to the mayor and the support of her budget office than any other community by far year to date. all this needs to come together. we will continue to invest in the tenderloin, our officers have worked a lot of hours and they don't mind doing that, but they want good outcomes. so when we enforce, we want consequences when the evidence is there. we need to support so they're not doing social work. we understand we have to treat people well and do the job the way we have expected. and we need the support. the emergency declaration and my professional opinion will give us that support right now. so thank you. >> question: mayor breed, you

mention an intention to move people to a place they need to be monitored. can you expand on where they will be moved to? >> answer: yes. mary ellen caroll can answer that. >> yes. so we made reference to a linkage center and we will have people who are experiencing substance abuse disorder, they can link up with the department of public health resources. they can link with community based organization resources and treatment. we can find out where they are in the housing system if they need housing and we can also meet them where they are with some basic hygiene, food. we really want people to --

this is really intended to be a warm intervention with people to engage people. i think i can tell you personally and i think a lot of people feel frustrated with the lack of intervention and the lack of ways to intervene with people who are suffering on the street. and so this is a place that we can pull people in and get them warm, get them dry. get them fed and have them connected to all of the many services and resources that the city has. >> question: [ indiscernible ] >> answer: yes. it is voluntary. people can come in on their own. people will also be given choices. so there is a push pull. our intention is to be more pull than push, but there will be and as the chief has talked about, there may be instances

where people have a choice. you know, you're doing something illegal, something that's harmful in the neighborhood in this situation. we have this option for you to go here and we're hopeful that people are going to take us up on that option as much as possible.