>> good morning everyone. here we are. some of you have been with us. this is our fifth building the

infrastructure of america event for our country. democrats delivered today safe streets and roads for all. some of you were with us when we began this series of just a few weeks ago at the joe mazola training center where we saw apprenticeships in action, kids learning how to weld so they could repair and build water systems which were very much apart of the infrastructure legislation, the bipartisan ininfrastructure frame work. following that, some of us were together at the transbay terminal where we all came together to solute what was happening in that legislation for transportation in the bay area. $5 billion to come right here for transit whether it's e

electricfication. next, we had a town hall which was participated in by thousands of people in the bay area to talk about with garrett hoffman what was happening in the legislation to save our planet as we improve the quality of life, created jobs, lowered costs in the legislation. and, today, we have our fifth event. this one is a matter of life and death. this one is so important to us and this one takes place on a day where across america will probably add up to about 500 events including the ones that i mentioned to come to the community, thank people for their ideas, to share with them opportunities that will be there as we build back better. this is an initiative of president joe biden. president biden has said i want to do everything i can in a bipartisan way to build the infrastructure of our country, but i will not confine my

vision for the country to that and so we're working on the b.b.b., the build back better legislation as we go forward to save the planet to lower cost for health care, to prescription drugs, lower cost for child care, lower costs in every way, lower taxes for the middle class again doing so paid for by making people who are wealthy and corporate america to pay for fair share. that's what's taking place today. so it's an honor to be in san francisco. we'll be joined by the mayor shortly. i want to thank her for all of her initiatives. oh, we are. thank you, mayor, for honoring us with your presence. and thank you for the leadership and the priority you have placed on the safety of the people of san francisco which is a very major

responsibility for us. your vision 0 bold plan to end traffic fatalities by 2024 as well as your leadership just last week with the proposal to invest $400 million in muni reliability and street safety. i solute you for that and i know you join me in saluting our bay area colleagues who are here who are going to be making their fregss. janice lee, the san francisco bicycle coalition and i know you will agree our v.i.p. today is julie nicholson who survived a terrible traffic injury on our streets here in san francisco and extraordinary courage and resilience inspires us all and she will be speaking and representing the voices of so many of those who are here,

families for safe streets. thank you all for being here. for sharing your tragedies, but also giving us your courage to turn your pain into progress and help to prevent other families from suffering the agony that you have. and we even have some other survivors of crashes as well. so we'll be hearing from them; but first as i put in context, this is a drum beat across america to make sure this happens, i'll talk to you know just a little bit before i have the privilege of yielding not only yielding, but praising our mayor once again. here's what it's about. the bay area has long seen more of its fair share of heart breaking traffic deaths. you all are here as eloquent testimony to that.

while we saw 462 traffic fatalities nationally last year marked the most traffic deaths and fatalities have been shortly on the rise for a decade. they are families shattered by the tragedy, community safe streets and roads for all. we secured $14 billion nationally for roadway safety which will help make california streets safer and friendlier. $260 million from the highway

improvement program to help reduce fatalities and injuries on our roads. this will help design complete streets to design safe and accessible. but the new $5 billion safe streets for all initiatives, our city can compete for funding for vision 0 particularly for our high injury network just 13% of roads account for 75% of severe and fatal accidents. with new funding to modernize our data collection, we'll get a clearer picture of where and how our crashes occur. and with $7.2 billion for transportation alternatives nationally, we'll improve safety of sidewalks, bike lanes, just got a tour in terms of what it means for bike lanes and trails. so i just want to for the bay

area workers, rebuilding middle class as we rebuild communities. it will be transformative safe system approach and i know that's what's happening right here on folsom and second with this historic achievement, democrats are delivering for the bay area and beyond. i was now at this point supposed to be introducing julie nicholson. instead, we're just going to hear first from our distinguished mayor and we thank her for the priority of the people of san francisco. whether it's safety on the streets. safety in terms of their health care. safety in terms of diminishing drug use. more people have died of drug use and covid here. and the mayor is taking the bull by the horns. with that fighting retail

crimes and all. safety is the first responsibility of government. it's the oath we take to protect and defend whether it's the constitution or the people, our mayor has been a champion in living up to that important priority for the community, for the people, for the children, our mayor, london breed. [ applause ] [please stand by]

. . . . it was really about a demand from the people of san francisco to see change to see see change in the particular areas. so many collisions to build for access from the east side to the west side. homes were bulldozed in my community to make what i for gary boulevard which is in essence a freeway in the middle of our city. and we have had to make some significant change and as

speaker pelosi has said, 13% of the location that are the high injury network represent 75% of the collisions that occurred in the street causing major injury and death. this infrastructure bill is so important because here in san francisco we are fortunate that the people of the city care about making improvements to our city. and last week i introduced a transportation and safety bond that will help with high injury corridors and we will aggressively continue the work. but local dollars alone are not enough, and we need help. this infrastructure bill will not only help san francisco. it will help this entire

country. so that we can improve safety on the streets especially in major densities like san francisco where you have seen a significant increase in the number of people who are walking and biking and i am really proud that this city has taken steps since i have been mayor to produce 20 new miles of protected bike lanes as well as daylighting and changes. and we prioritize safety over speed. so that we change how people move around the city. so people know exactly where they belong on the streets to get from point a to point b. madam speaker said our responsibility as leaders to keep people safe. and part of keeping people safe is making investments and sometimes the changes and

removal of parking and other things make people upset or uncomfortable. at the end of the day, if it's going to save someone's life, this is a small sacrifice to make. i am grateful to be here with the extraordinary leader with walk sf and the bicycle coalition and so many advocates who have been impact by tragedy. tragedy where they lost loved ones and where sadly they have experienced it personally hems. and my hope is that we don't continue to go down this path. that is why these investments and that work in san francisco is so important. at this time and i would like to yield the floor back to our special guest julie. thank you so much. >> thank you so much, mayor breed. and madam speaker.

what an incredible honor it is to be here today. i am julie nicholson. i am a member for safe streets community and see behind me a professor of early childhood and a mother of three wonderful girls. almost two years ago january 4, 2020 i was out doing my favorite form of self-care jogging in the panhandle and kel a britting getting to the -- celebrating getting to the end of my husband's final chemo treatment and a driver ricochetted off a car and making an illegal left turn and came into the park to hit me throwing me 20 feet and leaving me with a broken back and broken neck. took me eight months of therapy and healing. but here i am. i'm fortunate. going through that experience opened my eyes to the

preventible health crisis of traffic violence. this is a preventible health crisis that is getting worse not better. it is a preventible health crisis that impacts not just me but everything with the preventible health crisis with proven solutions. i am standing up feeling so thankful, so grateful and overwhelmeded as a traffic violence survivor and i also feel so grateful to our federal leaders for the infrastructure bill that is going to bring attention and action to bring safer streets. we have trauma all across this country from those who are being hurt by traffic violence, but i'm here to say thank you to madam speaker. and on behalf of families for safe streets and our community,

i want to say thank you for the infrastructure bill, for the action you are taking to make our streets safer. it means so much to me. it means so much to all of us. >> thank you. >> and it says so much when we talk about what julie describes. and the eloquence of your statement and speaking for families for safe streets and the tragedy they underwent and one of them said this isn't about an accident. some of this is the decision to run a red light and we have to be prepared in every possible way. and the person who knows that very well is jeffrey tumlint

director of san francisco municipal transportation area. thank you so much. >> let's hear it for jeffrey for keeping san francisco moving in a way that is safe for bicycle, pedestrians, people in cars and the rest. and during the q&a he will take all the hard questions because he tells us a beautiful story about what is happening at second and fulsom with the and as a local member of the state legislature -- so in any case, >> i hope he is not one of my constituents. >> i just really want to thank

all of you for being here. i want to thank the speaker for the tenacity and vision at the last that i was able to attend. i want to thank the mayor for her vision and tenacity in a very difficult position. she is inspiring as a speaker. thank you so much for your career and vocation and your heartfelt story about your experience and to all of you as the speaker said through experiencing and helping you save lives. and i want to thank somebody as a staff person and appreciate -- she is shaking her head. we used to serve together when i was an mtc commissioner and she was a wonderful staff person and now she is working with san francisco to make sure the projects are done.

and so this is really a kwigs vigs and it is time as the mayor said and the speaker has done so with her usual tenacity and for the federal government to reengage in the trfk. and when i started in transportation and the federal government and the model was almost 75% from the federal government, 25% local and state. and here in san francisco and the region with the eastern bay and contra costa county where we have passed super majority self-help sales tax to invest and where the state has done that and the mayor mentioned she is doing it again. now the federal government is back thanks to our leadership. this whole systems management not only will save lives but help everyone's quality of life. for every single occupancy vehicle you take off the road and put somebody on a bike or

walking, it saves the environment. it is a multiplier of 10 on climate and traditional pollutants. it creates safety and reduces congestion. my constituents in the suburbs say every time we take one of us out of a car and put them on transit and bikes like comben hagan and amsterdam and mus any where 50% of the peak trips are by bike, we start to reduce congestion along with tele commuting and this is how readdress our transportation challenges hoer in the bay area. and what happens in the bay area and what happens in california, as jimmy carter said, happens in the rest of the united states. what we're doing here today not just saves lives here, not just in the region, not just in california, but will save lives all over the united states. so thank you so much for your vision, your tenacity and heartfelt advocacy.

>> thank you. they are a health issue. clean air for our children. they are a safety issue in terms of what we are talking about here today. they are a jobs issue and the jobs created to do all of this. and they are, again, ea quality of life issue by getting more cars off the roads and more people safety making their own choices about walking and biking and here is jody who i referenced in my remarks. and from pedestrian.

>> i want to take a moment to remember the people who have lost this year in san francisco to violence with a moment of sigh tense. in the past month we lost aram who moved to san francisco to be closer to his grand kids and made the city his home. he loved walking. he was walking home after working the night shift as a security guard and was hit and killed in the bayview neighborhood. we also lost andrew zieman. andrew was a paraprofessional who works at the elementary school he attended as a child. the school kids used to call him mr. andrew. he was hit and killed outside of the school on november 10. i was only 30 years old. only one block from here where we stand, antonio was hit and

killed while, like so many others, simply trying to cross the street. standing with me today as you have heard from julie and members of the san francisco bay areas for safe streets. these are people who suffered incomprehensible loss. steve, gina and joe, we are here for you today. other survivors survived being severely injured with traffic crashes. the brave people are here to demand that the changes to the streets and mayor breed is

standing with us as well as a true visionary for safe streets. it is deeply meaningful for us no n pedestrian with madam speaker as well as representative. thank you for being here. for so long they have been focused around making it easy for cars to get around. and the speed of vehicles has been the priority. but this bill does change that. the thing that i think about is every day what if a mid sight airport fell from the sky? that is the equivalent of what we are counting in our country from countless towns and cities and people in communities are suffering from unsafe streets for facing the crisis we have in

our cities. we are sending a clear message that the country's approach to traffic safety must change because crashes are preventible. it is packing it up with funding to change this and doing this right here in san francisco. walk san francisco along with our advocates together with our city's mayor london breed and our city's agencies are pushing hard to make san francisco the beacon for other cities. we are trying to show what we can do when safety is the number one priority. and trying to cross the street is no longer a life or death situation. this infrastructure bill is focused on safety.

that is incredible. this might be the first time in our city's history that federal agency is thinking about safety first. and as secretary of transportation pete buttigieg said, we cannot and should not accept these fatalities as part of walk fran and representatives for standing with us today. thank you for taking action to fundamentally change this country's approach to traffic safety. thank you so much. >> thank you for being with us.

>> i want to extend my deep gratitude to madam speaker and representative for your tireless leadership in d.c., fighting for equity for bay area residents. the infrastructure and jobs act means equity for san franciscans right here in the south of market and means equity because this infrastructure bill is going to bring much-needed investments to streets historically design to be dangerous. just take a look at where we are right here standing. they were never designed with people biking, walking or taking transit and these were defactor highways to ket through one of the densest neighborhoods and the results were deadly. the names of bicyclists hit and killed while biking on these two treat streets won't stop until investments are made and of course, i cannot forget antonio,

the 78-year-old senior who was crossing a block away from here this past april. he was hit and killed by a speeding driver just around the corner from the senior affordable housing he lived in. he was a well phone and beloved member in the filipino community. it is people like this whose lives are cut short when we don't have our funds to update our infrastructure to the modern day. this needs to stop and we need to fund shovel ready projects now to bring equitable investments to save lives on our streets thanks to state and federal funding, we are seeing the fruits of early implementation but they will soon be overhauled with transit priority traffic signals, better lighting and safe intersections for pedestrians and a protected two-way bike lane. lastly, thank you to you, mayor breed. you mentioned we are celebrating

protected bike lanes ere and to build 20 miles of protected bike lanes in two years and thanks to jeffrey tumlin and the leadership at smif smif we want to thank you for prioritizing street safety because truly our lives depend on it. thank you. >> thank you for being with us. thank you for being with us. one of the many fine points is highways through the areas and to divide communities is equity

ir, fairness, justice and is so so much a part of what he is doing to undue some past injustices of dividing neighborhoods so that this just piece of it and within the initiatives of building back better. and with that, any questions you may have? we like to start on this subject. on this subject. >> we never give up. wrote a letter to my colleagues yesterday. saying first and foremost we will continue to pass to fight

the legislation. the democratic leader wrote a similar letter to his colleagues yesterday. this will happen, must happen and we will do it as soon as we can. there are conversations that are ongoing but we cannot walk away from this commitment and build back better and transforming the society. build back bet we are women in the work place and with work force development for younger people and newer people who are reaching in with the diversity that is there. this will not pass and i have confident that senator manchin cares about our country.

we will not be deterred. anybody want to add to that? >> amen. >> but back to here, i think it will be very interesting just to hear jeffrey tell us this year some of what you told us on the tour because he made one point that was very interesting and i never thought of every day. and when you are building these kinds of changes for safety in neighborhoods, it is much more worker centric than big machinery. >> thank you, speaker. >> as the speaker said when we work for safe streets like building protected bike ways and upgrading traffic signals and other vision zero work t creation of jobs factor is so much greater than big machinery and concrete and steel.

every single dollar spent on vision zero projects goes to creating skill labor jobs and hundreds up here at the sfmta. a lot of this work we do in-house and a lot more we spend on local contractors and disadvantaged enterprises to have the money spend in a way that develops community and created more skilled jobs. >> thank you for that enlightenment and also for your leadership. any other questions on what we are doing here today? >> thank you, all, for coming and salute the mayor because what happens in pedestrian serves as a model aross loed and

what they thought would work very well, so your voices, the mayor's intercession and turn into public policy benefit not just san francisco but the entire country so thank you for being here. to all of you who suffers through any of this, thank you for your generosity of spirit to share your stories so el quantity so that other people will not have to offer. with that, again, congratulations, mayor, on your successes here. thank you, all, very much for coming. let's build back better for the people. thank you very much.

>> we are providing breakfast, lunch, and supper for the kids.

>> say hi. hi. what's your favorite? the carrots. >> the pizza? >> i'm not going to eat the pizza. >> you like the pizza? >> they will eat anything. >> yeah, well, okay. >> sfusd's meal program right now is passing out five days worth of meals for monday through friday. the program came about when the shelter in place order came about for san francisco. we have a lot of students that depend on school lunches to meet their daily nutritional requirement. we have families that can't take a hit like that because

they have to make three meals instead of one meal. >> for the lunch, we have turkey sandwiches. right now, we have spaghetti and meat balls, we have chicken enchiladas, and then, we have cereals and fruits and crackers, and then we have the milk. >> we heard about the school districts, that they didn't know if they were going to be able to provide it, so we've been successful in going to the stores and providing some things.

they've been helpful, pointing out making sure everybody is wearing masks, making sure they're staying distant, and everybody is doing their jobs, so that's a great thing when you're working with many kid does. >> the feedback has been really good. everybody seems really appreciative. they do request a little bit more variety, which has been hard, trying to find different types of food, but for the most part, everyone seems appreciative. growing up, i depended on them, as well, so it reminds me of myself growing up. >> i have kids at home. i have six kids. i'm a mother first, so i'm just

so glad to be here. it's so great to be able to help them in such a way because some families have lost their job, some families don't have access to this food, and we're just really glad to be

>> roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. the light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born.

>> working with kids in the ocean that aren't familiar with this space is really special because you're dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. >> when i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. >> we'll get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who don't like the beach. it's too cold out, and it's those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. >> over the last few years, i think we've had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. >> surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. >> we've start off with about two to four sessions in the

pool before actually going out and surfing. >> swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all -- not being anxious. >> so when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p.e. credits. just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. but now that we've been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids that's consistent, and the word has spread, that it's super fun, that you learn about the ocean. >> starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. >> we usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean

beach. we once did a special trip. we were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. >> we get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. >> once we go to the beach, i don't want to go home. i can't change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. >> our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. >> i don't really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didn't think i'd like, like, ended up being my best friends. >> it's a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybody's

doing it for themselves. >> it's great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. >> it can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. >> i feel significantly, like, calmer. it definitely helps if i'm, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, i'm going to be okay. >> it gives them resiliency skills and helps them build self-confidence. and with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. >> i went to bring my family to the beach and tell them what i did. >> i saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them

connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. >> for some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a mentorship program like this, it's they want to surf, and then later, they'll find out that they've, like, made this community connection. >> i think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. >> for kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. >> we go on 150 surf outings a year. that's year-round programming. we've seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other

facets of their lives. >> i just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that they're engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how they're doing, like, in general. >> what i like best is they really care about me, like, i'm not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. >> we're creating surfers, and we're changing the face of surfing. >> the feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. it's definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but it's definitely fun. >> it leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kid's going to go out and do. >> i think it's really magical almost. at least it was for me. >> it was really exciting when

i caught my first wave. >> i felt like i was, like -- it was, like, magical, really. >> when they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know -- their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. >> i was on top of the world. it's amazing. i felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. it was, like, the scariest thing i'd ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after

>> good afternoon and welcome to the january 11, 2022, regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk, will you please call the roll. [ roll call ]