last question, it's a comment for dr. kunis. of the 30 or so referrals you're making to mental health resources, two questions. of those 30 or so, how many of those individuals are homeless and how many referrals are to residential programs? >> i do not know the answer to the first one. this is part of our increase in our data quality and tracking. i know only the second that the majority are to residential transmit. part of our he was and metrics is to answer your questions now as well as some of the others that come up.

>> supervisor ronen: i have a hearing that supervisor mandelman will have here shortly. i want to thank you for spending so much time. i wanted to appreciate you all for taking this so seriously. supervisor peskin, did you want >> supervisor peskin: ms. friede nbach and the tenderloin coalition please. >> thank you for having me. this jennifer friedenbach. i believe we supposed to do a slide show.

as that's happening. i will start. good afternoon and thank you directors and supervisors. when the mayor announced the tenderloin emergency ordinance almost 100 individuals came together to form a coalition, deeply concerned that ensuring resources mobilized under the emergency ordinance, long standing and root causes in this neighborhood. ensuring that increased criminalization did not occur. since this effort began, weekly d.e.m. reports have been issued that focus on surface issues in the visibility of problems.

they lack clear measurable goals. we spent time developing metrics and met to replace metrics and work together and got very positive reception. we are calling for d.e.m. to replace the metrics with new set of impact metrics from communities to improve the health. this ordinance is posed to be decreasing it. there are clear priority ideas with overdose, homelessness, mental health and waste. there's one or two metrics in

each one that d.e.m. would set a baseline. this is supervisor ronen's point. this is key because we're not making progress we're just rounding up existing resources

and redistribute them to the t.l. we also need to track placements. this shows what portion of citywide placements are out of the t.l. efforts to president walton's point. we see how many beds are available and how many went to the t.l. lastly, we need to address turnaways from the linkage center. last priority area is behavioral mental health, the goal, the new increase number of people participating in programs. then operation metric is how much additional blocks are created and treatment of services. not just from the linkage center but from c.b.o.s. this is really key to equity

goals. turnaways from linkage center. we would like to have a collaborative process to implement these metrics and carry out the plan. we're getting at the root causes, to decrease arrests. than doesn't get us there. we already know that. we look forward working with d.e.m. to implement some replacement metrics to address those root causes. thank you. >> president walton: thank you so much jennifer for your presentation. before we go to any questions, i

do believe we have someone from the controller's office that's here to respond to supervisor preston's question. >> clerk: that is correct. >> thank you mr. president and members of the board. >> president walton: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: i was asking i have a previous hearing on this, what the state of -- what allocations have been made pursuant to the emergency order? last we checked, there hadn't been any. i wanted to check with you for an update if there have been any allocations? >> certainly, supervisor preston, through the president. we'll be issuing required reports to the board tomorrow actually. there are two processed as of

today. one is $2 million transfer within the department of emergency management budget for cost associated with the linkage center. second is a $7.4 million appropriations to the economic and workforce development department for community outreach and ambassador services. total of $9.4 million transferred under the orderly to date. >> supervisor preston: thank you mr. rosenfield. >> president walton: supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: thank you. just back to dr. kunis, i want to give her the opportunity to come back and tell us some of the sober living partners that they are referring to or have on call to refer to. she wasn't able to answer that question initially.

>> i have some specifics. if i may, sort of framework for a moment to make sure i'm clear about what you're asking and ask for clarification. as you know, the d.p.h. both contracts and refers to a array of treatment providers. the treatment providers overall enroll people who are interested in sobriety and stopping drug use. i know that some of the providers have been or sometimes characterized as being absence oriented or harm reduction oriented. the theme to reinforce, we are aiming to treat people to support their recovery to stop their substance use. that is what our providers

aiming to do and supporting clients who enter treatment with that goal and however, because of the exactlies and the disease of addiction, do have a high rate, unfortunately of relapse even with effective treatment. we are providers are skilled at keeping people through that period. may be intensifying their care with the goal of supporting them through a potential relapse or return to drug use. i want to encourage all of us to not sort of fall to what i think is a false dichotomy absence versus harm reduction. from all of us together to improve health outcomes. we contract and refer to a total

of 11 residential treatment programs. i can read them if you like. some of the programs work with residential providers to organize medication treatment in conjunction with residential care. we also refer to nine different outpatient providers, many of whom for specific populations or substantive. >> supervisor safai: it would be great if you can read them for the record. >> for my team, we refer to the

following residential providers. some of them have more than one site by the way. epiphany, latino commission, friendship house, acceptance place, ferguson, hr360, father alfred, adult and teen challenge. we work with t.r.p. academy and salvation army. >> supervisor safai: how many out of those are sober living or absence-based? how many of them are purely that, how many of them are a blend? >> i want to genuinely answer your question in my view, we don't distinguish. meaning all of these providers are aiming to support people in

recovery to stop drug use. i do know that we do strongly support, this is by california state regulation that all treatment providers must offer approved medication for the treatment of addiction care. whether it's through collaboration with a provider or themselves. i want to offer sober living environment and offer licenses treatment. it's in association with an outpatient program or a treatment provider comes on site. what sober living and many of our residential providers offer are on site mutual support groups such as narcotics

anonymous or alcohol anonymous is a key example. >> supervisor safai: how many of them would be sober living? >> some of them offer step-down care which is what we term residential step down like epiphany and hr360 in this longer term post-treatment process. >> supervisor safai: one of the approaches that i think is important, i will end with this, we can talk more offline, i think that i'm hopeful that in this process that we're going to be trying to do more things differently than we've done in the past. i think there's been lot of

investment in harm reduction. there's been very little investment in sober living or abstinence based treatment. it's important to increase the options for people that might want those options. it's one of the reasons yes pushed for therapeutic community with adult probation. i would say that, that's an important piece and hopefully will come out of this. everyone has a different set of goals. i know that we've heard directly from addictive community, black and brown community, that are looking for options. it seems as though from this list we have little. we can follow up on that. i'll end there. i appreciate you getting me that information. >> president walton: thank you supervisor safai.

supervisor stefani? >> supervisor stefani: i have to question to follow up on. i'm wondering if there's any collaboration with 12 step programs? programs that are free and programs where people actually reach out to those that are either in hospitals or in institutions or possibly centers like this. obviously, i think that's part of the whole entire equation when you're dealing with those who are suffering from substance abuse disorder. if somebody can answer that question for me. if we're going to provide all forms of support for those who are seeking any type of recovery from their addiction, that we need to include everything. i'm hopeful that there's some type of link or information to

-- [ indiscernible ] >> i'll take that supervisor. thank you so much. we include 12 step referrals as part of the menu. the way that often mutual support and 12 step is incorporated is additionally through our treatment providers who often, as far as i understand, offer that to clients or patients both during treatment and following treatment. i very much welcome your input on that and we are looking for ways that we can expand both on site at the linkage center as we are building that out and our responding to feedback around

sober options for folks accessing services at the center. >> supervisor stefani: i do think that is something that should be followed up on if there's a separate room, you can have 12 step meeting there. that's something you can organize with the programs you're aware of. thank you so much. >> president walton: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: back to dr. i wanted to follow back up on the list that you read. i understand these are opportunities for referral, how many of these do the city contract with for services? >> the list that i just read was the majority we are in contract

with. >> supervisor safai: are we still in contract the -- >> no. we do make referrals to them. >> supervisor safai: what about father alfred? >> i believe we refer but are not in contract. >> supervisor safai: two of those are purely abstinence based treatment. the t.r.p. is done through the adult probation that's different. it seems as though, it doesn't sound like there's sober living that department of public health contracts with. >> supervisor, i think that we would consider residential stepdown part of a post-treatment living environment that we do contract

for. as you might be aware, the expansion of residential step down is on a high priority for us as part of the new beds expansion which we are working to increase. >> supervisor safai: i would come back to this. do you think it's worthwhile? we're trying to look at things through a different lens. it seems as though based on this list, we've abandoned all together abstinence-based. i understand you're looking at the step do you know. it seems as though the city, we have abandoned and moved away from them. is there a reason for that? is this an opportunity to advance this conversation? >> i'll say, i'm happy to look at any and all opportunities to

expand effective approaches to engaging people in treatment, promoting recovery and keeping people alive, in particular with the fentanyl and overdose crises. i'm happy to continue to speak and think about this and consider it. i wanted to add is that another -- other end of the spectrum, what we're doing at the linkage center and d.p.h., it's nationally and locally, the vast majority of people who need treatment, who have a substance use disorder do not get that treatment.

to not to divert from your question supervisor but to add these important issues around engagement and pulling people into care whenever and however we can. >> supervisor safai: i want to ask you a question based on your experience. i know you come from new york

city. did new york city ban abstinence-based treatment. >> do you mean treatment -- >> supervisor safai: purely sober living environment, similar to delancey street and t.r.p. i'm curious. this is enlightening to me today. i wasn't aware we had completely moved away from that here in san francisco. it will be good to know the history of that. it's important for the public to hear that. it's important in this instance when we're talking about dealing with drug addiction trying to do something new in this declared state of emergency. it would be good to have balance and options. i'm curious from the experience that you bring from new york city, in a city of 8 to

10 million people, was that option available, complete sober living environment and did they all in favor from that treatment option? >> i can share that new york city government did not fund sober living environment. new york state medicaid did not pay for sober living environment. like san francisco, the need for housing is quite acute. i think that -- i don't think it was particularly different. we held fewer contracts than we do here in san francisco. because of medicaid regulations both in california and nationally, sober living is not considered licensed treatment

under both federal and state law. is therefore, not eligible or kind of considered treatment according to medicaid regulation. that is a change in our collective environment over the last decade. just to be aware of, it's part of the context of this conversation. >> supervisor safai: there's nothing in our code now that prohibits us from contracting with delancey street or father alfred currently? if there was a direction that we chose to go in? >> my understanding is that because we are part of the california medi-cal program, as part of being a medi-cal provider, programs must offer medication treatment by state

regulation and medi-cal regulation. there's some constraints in who we can contract for. this is also part of the state department of healthcare services regulations for us as a locality. >> supervisor safai: thank you. >> president walton: thank you supervisor safai. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i want to follow-up on that. people keep saying, i don't know what you mean by abstinence. there are people who have substance use disorder that can cannot use their drug of choice. they can't take a sip of wine, they can't smoke fentanyl because they could die and they don't want to. they are seeking abstinence in

their life. they don't want to use that drug any more. that is abstinence-based recovery. i don't know why if continues to be so confusing about what abstinence-based recovery is. there's examples all other city. there are recovery addicts come to this board and they told us what it is. we are not saying that you can't have harm reduction either, we are saying make a place for abstinence-based recovery for those who are suffering and need it. that's all we're saying. that's all. >> president walton: i concur. i think it's pretty obvious what it is. having several members of my family who are fortunately not using at this time. they will be considered addicts, they have not tested their drug

of choice for years. i don't see anyone else on the roster. with that madam clerk, can we go to public comment on the committee of the whole? >> clerk: board of supervisors will now hear public testimony specific to the proclamation of local emergency, relating to drug overdose in the tenderloin. dial (415)655-0001 when you hear the prompt enter the meeting 2489 226 6438. press the pound sign twice. you'll have joined the meeting as a listener. you will hear the discussion. your line will be muted. once you're ready to get in the queue to provide your testimony,s that when you should press star 3. when it is your turn, listen for the prompt. it will say you have been unmuted. we do have three interpreters

who are stand big from the off of civic engagement and immigrant affairs. it's important for them to introduce themselves in language and provide access how to access this meeting. agnes li for chinese and welcome. [speaking chinese]

>> clerk: thank you for being with us. we appreciate your on board with us tonight and until 8:00 p.m. let's hear from our first caller. we are setting the timer for two minutes. we are talking about public testimony on the proclamation of local emergency for drug overdoses in the tenderloin. general public comment will happen later in the meeting. >> caller: good evening president walton and supervisors. i'm senior policy manager for glide. the tenderloin emergency initiative was reported to be a strategic plan.

we know substance use and overdose is best understood. the plan was launched by exploitation to justify increased mying. so many communities have been harmed by policing. data shows these issues cannot be solved by criminalization. meanwhile, based on the findings, black is over represented per capita in all interactions with sfpd. this self-referral process needs to be reinstated.

if we can't implement this plan, we can reinstate a policy for self-control. a apology that keeps doors closed to people experiencing homelessness only serves public health. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have about 18 callers in the queue who are ready to make their comments. >> caller: thank you supervisors. i live in district 8. i would like to see the board unanimously vote to continue on with the tenderloin initiative. i think it is vital that we get to the core of the issues. i am not an expert but i do

applaud all of the questions and especially support safai on why aren't we doing different things to solve the problem. >> caller: my name is william jake. san francisco resident for 29 years. i urge you to continue to support the mayor's emergency declaration. there's a lot of work remaining to be done. if people are still buying and using drugs in public, people resorting to camp on the street, the work is most definitely not done. the city needs you to show you can make this work. certainly for unhoused people with substance abuse issues but also, just as importantly, for people who live and work and visit this city.

we're depending on you to make our streets safe and clean for all of you. i know you are dedicated to our city, so are the outreach workers, emergency response teams and dedicated and capable police officer. keep up the good work and please make sure that the tenderloin and the rest of the city as well benefits from this extraordinary effort. thank you. >> caller: hi. i will say a few things.

i'm case manager at glide. i'm in personal recovery myself. i urge yous to continue with this emergency plan to continue with the linkage center and lean into the data and the metrics to measure what's happening instead of relying on our emotions and engaging in a dispassionate way and looking at the data. our preconceived notion -- decades of the war on drugs have led us to believe that abstinence is only way. abstinence is a part of harm reduction. it works really well. harm reduction very often leads

people to abstinence. i urge you to support this linkage center. let's start bringing the data in. really measuring this out and seeing, we have 110 supervised consumption sites. this is the solution. >> caller: i'm director of harm reduction policy for the san francisco foundation and i'm a member of the safer inside coalition and resident of. district 10. if we don't open supervised consumption services in tenderloin and other neighborhoods we are missing the

opportunity to reduce overdose fatalities in san francisco. it's clear that the federal government is changing its legal approach to supervise consumption services and san francisco should take advantage of the emergency declaration that we have in place to move forward providing these services. jailing people increases overdose rates.

i would ask that we keep that in mind as the board of supervisors look at what fall under this. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. >> clerk: next caller please. >> caller: many of our clients and residents in the tenderloin are struggling with trauma.

this is urgent. because these same communities are the same communities that are target and forced into selling drugs in exchange for housing. please consider these metrics of this emergency plan. thanks. >> clerk: we have 22 listening and ready to make their

comments. >> caller: good afternoon, my name is dale seymour. i been to many board of supervisors meeting. we were on one subject to okay or not okay extension of this linkage center. i want to tell the board, we don't need to be beating down. they only been in business for three weeks. let's give them a chance. some of the supervisors were saying where you putting all these resources into the tenderloin. the tenderloin is at large a district. we got people from every district in san francisco in the

tenderloin. your people are being served. trust and believe in that. on this abstinence issue, this is not the catholic church city anymore. we don't run adult programs based on religion. that's what these abstinence programs are based on religion. that should not be brought in the conversation. i don't like that it's brought in. the other thing is, we have sat here for three hours, very respectful and listen to all the posturing of the supervisors now it's time for public comment, i'm looking at the picture, everyone just mingling around and you're not listening to us. we respected you and you do not feel like you want to listen to us. that's very unfair. >> clerk: let's hear from the next caller please. >> caller: this is kristin evans. i was going to make a comment

about the issue of resources. i was in an operation outside of the tenderloin on friday. i'm also in contact with individuals that are hoping to place people in the tenderloin and shelter resources in the same day that they were operating outside of the tenderloin, they approached 14 different people and only three received services. they did not have other resources to offer that day. i went out to the same location today and all the same people are still there. including a man in a wheelchair with two broken feet that were really trying to advocate for an appropriate indoors location for him. i know the tenderloin does need services but other areas need

services too. the tenderloin opened non-congregate shelter hotel. i believe 15 people went indoors in that hotel. that's great. all of the individuals went from the tenderloin. >> clerk: we have 42 listening and there are approximately 22 who are in the queue. we are setting the timer for two minutes. we're taking public testimony pursuant to the proclamation of local emergency for drug overdoses in the tenderloin.

>> caller: i'm speaking as a tenderloin resident. i'm for the emergency declaration. i have seen a difference in it. i do want to echo the sentiment of the previous caller in terms of the disrespect seeing online. supervisors not listening to our opinions. this neighborhood has been looked and overlooked for many decades. we are in a crises or compared to other districts. for other supervisors from their district saying they are taking resources out, where is the equity? san francisco is about equity? what does that mean? we are frustrated. we are threatened as residents here. i hear that the criminal activity ticks precedence over us who live here? how is that fair? i'm extremely frustrated.

i need change. i want to address that. we need to address the root cause. not open up injection sites that will not address the drug deal market going out. i would appreciate folks who listen to the residents that live here. we don't feel safe. it's unsanitary. it's not there. where is the equity? >> clerk: thank you for your comments. [speaking foreign

language] [speaking foreign language]

>> interpreter: good afternoon, i am a community organizer. i would like to probably throw some questions and also make some suggestions. i want to tell you all that i don't want us to continue harming people who are vulnerable. people who are came here from their country because the situation in their countries was bad. after covid, there were some spaces where these people had a space to live in. these places have been taken away from them and they had to resort to living in the street. in the street, you have to survive and everything that you have sometimes is being able to sell drugs. the police and all of us who want to solve this problem should ask ourselves the following questions. who is selling these drugs and why would we be making decisions that are not good for these people? with community organizes, we

have tried to reach out and we feel that we have not been heard. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. next caller please. >> caller: hi. i'm calling long-term resident of district 4. i work in the tenderloin for many years. i have two quick issues. the sip hotels and homelessness is part of this emergency issue. two articles just this week were published saying more sip hotels are being closed with and the

numbers that 2000 people recently were exited the sip hotels with something like 300 placements in homes. whatever is happening, there's no reason for the sip hotels to be stopped at this moment. there's work that can be done there, the same as what you're doing in this new 24-hour place. you can work with people in their hotel rooms. i do support housing for the homeless people, 100%. that is the base issue here. people out on the streets, just like the last caller called, this low-level drug dealing. it's survival drug dealing.

>> caller: i want to thank the board of supervisors and thank the mayor as well for the tenderloin emergency declaration. we were strongly in support of it and as a matter of fact, we brought supporters to the table in support of as well. we support good ideas and great ideas for public safety. one thing i do want to bring up in regards to this. the sheriff's office is a progressive agency. the deputy sheriff's association has highly supportive, providingive. -- i want to thankyou all for s.

i'm hearing from some of the commenters that seem to be anti-law enforcement or against police making arrests. i want you to understand quickly, in order for these great ideas to work, there have to be some controls if place. there has to be some consequences. that are criticals -- criminals that will take advantages of these things. there has to be controls. deputy sheriffs are highly trained in conflict resolution. we have a problem. we have a shortage of about 150 deputy sheriffs and the sheriff is doing difficulty getting funding to fill those positions.

>> caller: good evening board of supervisors. i live in district 8. i want to thank you for having this hearing. i want to show my support for supervisor preston, line of questioning and supervisor ronen and supervisor chan's line of questioning. only thing i didn't hear was what the police budget for

overtime or police services that had been used from the controller. i didn't hear anything about how much money was being spent on the police department. i wanted to show my support to supervisor preston and supervisor ronen. >> caller: thank you for the honor to address the san francisco board of supervisors. i'm very disappointed we're reframing harm reduction as things utter than harm reduction. i endorse and second everything supervisor stefani said. i definitely think it's theater

that we are having a conversation about giving drugs as harm reduction. drugs are bad. there's a reason why someone who's a supervisor stefani saying reopen alcatraz for drug dealers. it isn't rocket science. it's not trying to one of the world best for muni. this is kind of stuff you need a criminallology tremendous or go to law school for. we needed to say no to doing drug. it's just a matter of common sense. just use some common sense.

i can't wait for you to reopen your chambers. adventure i'm a cofounder rescue sf. >> caller: i want to thank the supervisors for the mayor's

proclamation for the city of tenderloin. we have not seen a surge in law enforcement. the biggest weakness are the current reporting the metric show how busy the city has been. we've had extensive conversations with the department of emergency management. they are committed to making reporting more meaningful. better data will improve our city progress and most importantly allow the city to make management decisions to see successful outcomes in the tenderloin. please continue to support the emergency proclamation and aid residents of the tenderloin.

>> caller: hello. my name is donny rock star. i live in the tenderloin here. i'm calling in reference to the state of emergency. we needed rapid expansion of emergency shelter beds in reference to what raphael mandelman said. we need a rapid expansion of the emergency shelter bed. 711 post street is not enough. we need large scale expansion. that way it will give you license to get the police to break this down.

we need to shift gears and stop approaching this with small ideas. we need rapid expansion, large one, at least 5000 shelter beds. don't just count them. assure them they'll find their way into linkage center. you got a linkage center and homeless outreach team. you don't have enough shelter beds. it's the elephant in the room.

>> president walton: i want to remind the public refrain from using names members of the board of supervisors. you may direct your comments to the entire board of supervisors not at members of the board. >> caller: i'm calling in today to speak on behalf of san francisco -- [ indiscernible ] we stand with other solidarity with other member who express concern over the racial economic inequities left unaddressed by this initiative. we urge you to understand the harm the police response part of the initiative poses to unhoused

residents and people who use drugs in the tenderloin. it also -- we urge to fix the unput of people who actual experience these issues and listen to the voices who are root the in the communities for which you are proposing changes. beurge the city to use this emergency initiative to implement c.a.r.t. to address the social and behavioral health needs for unhoused people. we know our city can be a leader. thank you for your work so far.

>> caller: this is david lewis, i'm a 15-year resident of tenderloin with three compliments and suggestions. thank you for including jennifer friedenbach in this hearing. she helped represent community of people concerned. hi they are presentation of a. metrics which was developed by the community was excellent. i encourage her immediate adoption. thank you for the linkage center. initially i had concerns about. it seems to be actually helping people. i heard there dr. deborah borne.

she's getting the resources she needs as a result of this plan. she's able to help more people. this is all good news. please use this whole initiative is as opportunity to implement the community created plan for compassionate alternative respondent team or c.a.r.t. it's part of coalition about 40 others. it's an alternative to responding to complaints about encampments, panhandling and homeless issues without involving police. it's a community created solution. it's been funded by the board of supervisors. please include this. finally, second include a transition plan for linkage center after the 90-day order expired.

>> caller: good evening and members. my name is carolyn kennedy and

resident of district 8. i'm glad that the city is acting with the urgency. i urge you to vote to continue tenderloin emergency proclamation and initiative. many of my concerns have been raise by the supervisors. i urge you to apply the key learnings from the tenderloin initiative to get people into shelter housing or other treatment. i'm concerned that all san francisco districts and neighborhoods are engaged in drugs they use get services and get shelter or treatment. for the department of public health, it's been over two years that the study supposed to identify number of beds needed to meet the demand. i urge you to get those beds as well as hire the staff to treat people. i urge more shelter, both those coming to the linkage center and

for those in other neighborhoods. insufficient shelter has been long standing obstacle. >> caller: we have 35 listening and 16 callers are lined up and ready to make their testimony. >> caller: my name is sarah dejesus. i notice the one of the long-term goals of the tenderloin initiative is increase long-term connections to treatment and services. there's been the results with this initiative, i want to

encourage future plans to increase the span of this initiative to include providing access to and expanding healthcare coverage for individuals facing housing insecurity in the tenderloin and rest of san francisco. thank you. >> clerk: we are currently taking public testimony for the local emergency for drug overdoses in the tenderloin. we'll be taking general public comment later in the meeting. let hear from our next caller.

>> caller: hi, i'm a resident of tenderloin. african-americans are six times more likelily to experience overdose that the metric city laid out. they say nothing about the progress addressing racial racil inequities. i encourage the city to create long-term investments that will result in realtime solutions for those in need.

remember that referrals without housing. we are asking for more shelter beds. thank you. >> caller: good evening. an organize with the parties for social liberation. we do lot of work in the tenderloin. i guess first all, i wanted to clarify something. this conversation has morphed to yes or no vote on a linkage center. it's an emergency proclamation that the mayor gave and which gives her sweeping powers for a 90-day period. basically do whatever she wants with immunity. this is an elected official who was in august fined $23,000 for

ethics violation. i would call that corruption. i don't have an interest in trusting london breed on this. there's a lack of transparent information even going to the board. i'm urging supervisors to rescind the ordinance. another thing about chief scott's comments and illegal vending. i was there on sunday. i saw some cops terrorizing some of the people there. these are elderly asian women selling canned food that were from the food pantry. this is hardly something you should pat yourself on back of when you go in and clear these people. it's ridiculous. it's not helping anybody.

>> caller: supervisors, i've been paying attention to all the supervisors and most of all seem to be concerned about this issue. the people at home want the supervisors sitting in their seats and not roaming around and having a side bar. another thing is, the public can call out anybody supervisor's name. where is the law that says that they cannot. don't make your own rules and regulations.

two supervisors from district 5 and 2, they have represented their constituency well. supervisor having a side bar, you can't represent the people, go away. thank you very much. >> caller: my name is ailson. i live in district 9. i lived in the tenderloin for five years. i appreciate the supervisor who continues to follow up on impact of police on the community under this ordinance is working to get data from the mayor's office. the police commissioner said that police will arrest people on the street who do not want to go to the center. please continue to followup the

impact on policing. i like to echo the concerns of a previous caller who begged question who do these people need to sell drugs. i'm wondering what the board is doing to address the systemic issue underlying this crises. please implement c.a.r.t. that was suggested. thank you. >> caller: good evening board of supervisors. i'm calling in to express my concerns with some of the statements that have been made. for example, putting people

behind bars for selling drugs will not solve the overdose crises. what we see in the tenderloin, didn't stem from overnight. thank you for your time.

>> caller: hello. [ indiscernible ]

housing is the first step for every single homeless people. i am right here. i'm healthy and i really want you guys to do this first. housing is the first step. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have 10 callers in line to provide their testimony. we have 29 who are listening. let's go to our next caller please.

>> caller: my name is ian. i worked in tenderloin. i have to be honest after three hours, i'm not sure what it is. it's more adjusting ability of problems on the street than addressing the root causes. the city has millions of dollars in unspent housing funds, millions of dollars unspent prop c program.

>> clerk: next caller please. >> caller: hi, i work in the tenderloin. i'm calling on the city to focus on improving public health and implementing metrics. the current metrics serves over policing and what the mayor called tough love. which is just a sinister way of

criminalizing poverty. we should implement the new metric. we know that african-americans are six times more likely to experience a fatal overdose. we're calling on the city to report back on progress and other racial disparities related to the emergency. i agree what many folks have been saying that shelter referrals is not actually housing. i gotten several call this week in the linkage center asking if my community-based organization can have folks. we have thousands of dollars in unspent money that can be used towards this. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your

comment. next caller please. >> caller: i'm lydia branson. please implement the new matrix set up by jennifer friedenbach. please spend the money that has been allocated for mental health and please keep the linkage center up and running, open supervised injection sites, overdose sites. thank you. >> caller: next caller please.

[speaking spanish]

>> interpreter: supervisors, thank you very much for which you have been doing for the tenderloin by putting folks in specific places to take care of different locations.

things have gotten better. it would be good to help children and elderly folks who need to find a home. may be it could be like having somebody who can help these folks with employment or schooling. it would also be a good idea to put up a school like a transition school that helps children who come from other countries. these children are the most vulnerable. i'm person who suffers from chronic pain. i continue to work to help female find examples. people need to know where the resources are and where there's a great need especially in the tenderloin. thank you very much. >> clerk: do we have another caller in the queue?

>> caller: good evening. i'm i live in district 11. i'm an organizer. i'm extremely frustrated by the rhetoric of abstinence as best practice rather than harm reduction. the city's goal and focus should be to reduce drug overdoses rather than decrease open air drug use. , i'm in full system of the linkage center. the mayor released an emergency supplemental for increased police budget.

this funding will work against addressing the root causes neighborhood has been facing. >> clerk: next caller please. we have 9 lined up to listen and 27 who are listening. le will take general public comment later on in the meeting. welcome caller. >> caller: good evening supervisors. i'm calling for an end to the war on drugs. we say that we have a data oriented policy, the data speaks con clues -- conclusively. further enforcement leads to

violence in our community. it says that enforcement has driven the migration from opioid from heroin and heroin to fentanyl. we understand these economic laws. i call upon you supervisors to hear them and question the police. this emergency ordinance thislingage -- linkage center these are useful. police are abusing the community. i echo supervisor preston saying they are not helpful. i want to hear those sections of the argument emphasized. i'm frustrated that the police are not getting any of the oversight here. i'm disappointed to see safai

was able to question the police but preston was unable to. [ please stand by ]

we're here to help people and i ihave a question. i thought there were 11 supervisors and i only see six and i'm confused about that and also, i'm new to this. maybe i'm uneducate and i don't understand but thank you for your time and please, keep the linkage center hope and i've had a lot of neighbors come by and say they've gotten help there. >> thank you for your comments, ma'am. all right. do we have another caller in the queue, please? >> caller: i'm with health rights 360. thank you for making time in this hearing for me to talk. we are all in agreement that there's a drug overdose

emergency in the tenderloin and and the proclamation is called a local emergency for drug overdoses in the tenderloin so we need to focus on that. if we want to reduce the number of people dying of drug overdoses, and using drugs in the streets, we need to give people places indoors, safe, supported, supervised to reduce reverse their overdoses this she have them. this is the opportunity to do new and emerge see things. law enforcement is not new in terms of how we respond to people who use drugs and and ab sinnance-based treatment is not new. streets are filled with people who are discharged from treatment programs for using

drugs in treatment programs. that is what ab sin distance based treatment is and it's from health right 360 and to have ab tinnance you have a low tolerance for people who use drug in the program and that's why they came to us. so i urge to you really think differently if you want to think differently and do things differently if you want to expand treatment access, it's not beds we need staff to do it and currently our biggest challenge to make being access available to people on demand is not the beds f. not having stats. finally i urge you to support cart and the alternative metrics, thank you. >> thank you for your comments. may we have the next caller, please. >> caller: hello, good evening. my name is newbay brown with the san francisco debut national

black newspaper and i want to congratulate the people on this standing up or sitting on this call and waiting to make their comments only to have at first to be ignored by the supervisors and i'm glad the few that are still there are now sitting down and listening to us and the truth s. the power is in the people so i just want to really congratulate all of you that are here and giving your comments because i probably learned more from you than i did despite the fact that some of you are doing some good things and the three a lot from me is that we need to get people housed and stop criminalizing poverty and poor people and criminalizing people and most of their housed and because this city when people

people on the streets abused by them and we have our jails filled with people that are being criminalized because they cannot get the help that this city has plenty of resources to doll out and make sure that we are taking care of our people so again, i want to thank the people for making their comments because it seems to me that you know about how to, we know how to take care of each and yes, please implement cart. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we may have the next call i remember, please. >> let's go to our next caller.

please. >> caller: my name is rachel and i'm a harm reductionist. i'm sick of having a mayor who use drugs as less than human and only cares when had he thinks they're making her look bad. we have an emergency in the tenderloin but it isn't the one our cruel mayor identified. there's poison in the drug supply. people are overdosing they're being poisoned by a number the fentanyl anna logs, if we would not allow poisoning in alcohol or tobacco and we shouldn't be allowing another drug either. we have lots more people to fentanyl poisoning than to covid in the last couple of years. it's time that we looked at what addictions science says works. safe supply, we need to provide a safe supply until they're ready to quit using drugs. it's not what people think feels right or feels good about giving people drugs, it's about what works. we need to keep people alive and not have them die until they're ready to recover, not try to

strong arm them taking help when they're not ready and definitely, definitely we don't want to arrest them. did you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have six callers lined up in the queue and if you are one of the 24 listening, now is your opportunity to press star 3 or we might take this group to the end. mr. atkins, let's hear from our next caller. >> >> good evening supervisors, my name is amy fairwise the founder and director of the saint francis homelessness challenge and we go deep with the tenderloin and people living in the tenderloin and our stakeholders who are people who have been living on the streets and people who are living in thement apartments nearby and so the thing that needs to happen here this is one of the big values of our residents

homelessness challenge is we need to be team players we have what we call a strong mayor system here but it's a weak mayor who doesn't show up to her own party and talk with the people who really care about this and want to be a team. there's so much rhetoric and the mayor gets petty and so did jennifer freedombook. there's issues on both sides here everyone has made mistakes but we can come together in this moment and do residents stewardship programming, a new model, this is about overdoses we need to look inside the sros and we have to come up with residents stewardship programs and that helps people not overdose inside and where are the stats on that and in the aids epidemic with hiv, sf led the way with medical trials and

we can do that and at i've been asking scott wiener on twitter, let's talk about this because we can to clinical trials and there's adequate screening to be able to give people a choice o disrupt the opioid addiction and that is part of the tools and so is cannabis. we interviewed 100 people living on the streets of san francisco and many who are addicted and they wanted to be part of it residents stewardship programing and part of a team and they wanted independence and autonomy and be valued for their skills and they wanted options. >> thank you for your comments. i do apologize if i'm putting anyone off this evening. we're setting the timer for two minutes and mr. atkins, let's hear from another caller, please. >> my name is nick, i love in the tenderloin and i'm a member of the party for socialism and liberation and the the biggest crisis of poverty is right outside my door and i really

think it's a shame the mayor and other career politicians some who are currently running for higher office are scoring points for the relief that people receive from this linkage center and especially while tens of thousands of housing units sit empty in the city and while the immense wealth of san francisco's billionaires, banks, developers and major landlords wealth that is reached through the exploitation of poor and working class people, isn't being redistributed to find a dignified life for all people that live here. poverty doesn't need to exist in san francisco and it doesn't change the situation for someone who has to go back to sleeping on the streets. we know through leaked text messages the mayor has ordered sfpd to sweep unhoused people off the streets and now she wants to give sfpd millions of more dollars to further marginalize and criminalize people in the tenderloin.

public safety, community safety can be guaranteed like society organized to provide to all people the necessities for a dignified life. housing, healthcare, jobs, education you name it. so, stop the fear mongering and racist war on the poor and redistribute the wealth to make san francisco a city and all people get what they need to have a dig nightlife including all the services that progressive community groups are advocating for and capable of providing right now with the proper resources. >> thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have four callers in the queue and there are 26 who are listening if you are one of the 26 and you would like to provide testimony, press star 3 now. let's hear from our next caller, please. >> good evening, supervisors, this is mary and i live in district 8 and i work at compass family services in directing 6 and i'm the director of external affairs and policy. i just wanted to say that i

think we need to i public crisis with public-health solutions and i think it's really important for us to be focusing on all the interventions that the other callers mentioned in terms of harm reduction and making services available and it's important to focus on long-term and rolling out the short term interventions and i think it's great we set up the linkage center so quickly and it's great it's helping people and i do think that question need more things to link people that is not controversial and we have a massive spending plan for beds and treatment and services so i would really encourage us to strategically to leave with the services and to partner with the people who are working on the ground in the tenderloin and to create fullly implemented progressive solutions and longer term thank you. >> thank you for your comments. let's hear from our next caller,

please. >> this is is tom wolf i'm a recovery advocate and i'm formally homeless, residents of the tenderloin. i'm calling to let everybody know that unless we breakup the organized drug dealing and remove as much fentanyl off the street as possible. nothing will change. sfpd is pulling one keel owe of drugs off the the streets every single week and just in the tenderloin. that are struggling addiction. in regards to the linkage center, there are enough services in the linkage center that are lower barrier to draw

people in without having them use drugs on the inside. asking people to put their drugs away for an hour while they go inside and access service soldiers not unreasonable. there are enough services available inside, food, water, bathroom, showers, to draw people in before it continues to spin out of control and otherwise, when the three months is up and the emergency declaration is over and you stop and you look around, nothing will have changed. thank you. >> mr. atkins, do we have another caller in the queue, please? >> can the constituents on-line witnessing the board of supervisors who are neglecting their duties by ignoring public comment please track those by creating a youtube channel that shows the public exactly

who to vote out of office next election. they work for us. marie over stayed her welcome on all loved ones couch and guest rooms to find housing than marie anton et was pressured to bear an heir. her love lines questioned sceptically whether linkage center won't house her since the media confused the issue of over christmas shouldn't she try harder can't she make water into wine. the center can once again call the exact same people who have refused marie housing for decades. he couldn't avoid witnessing too many crimes for one homeless whistleblower to survive so she navigates retaliation by a

corrupt city she's unhoused and fading in. not a drug addict or crazy but it shimmers in a desert sf wasteland in her dreams. emma went to the finest schools, follows the rules and rules and disabled but san francisco won't comply with federal regulations and they have ada rights and she would die quickly so sf tells her she can go to h, e, ll before they a com bait her accor health needs. can we hear in our next caller. please. >> i wasn't going to call in but someone suggested it would be to

and meth owe drone are proven suggesting that cities should provide safe supply of medicine he cannily unethical and i'm surprised and frustrated to hear every advocate gloss over the fact the only people who have the legal right to address the highly organized dealers run through the cartel are the police we need a continued comprehensive enforcement of the drug dealers who are forcing violence and chaos on the low income residents of the tenderloin and all who support the emergency response and. >> thank you for your comments. we have one caller in the queue. if you are one of the 23 and you like to provide comment this evening, please press star 3 and we may take this last person to the end. let's hear from our next caller, please. >> caller: this is jenn with the legal voters san francisco and

i'm calling on the city to implement a set of metrics for the tenderloin emergency plan and i'm asking that we focus on improving public-health and the tenderloin and the city reports on this emergency should show how we are working to house people and reduce homelessness rather than decreasing the number of students. we have a hundred million dollars of unspent housing funds that would create over 2,000 housing placement and resources should be devoted towards spending that money and increasing policing and pushing people out of sight. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. do we have another caller in the queue, please? >> there are no further callers in the queue. >> thank you. mr. atkins. mr. president. >> seeing no more public comment, public investment is comment is nowclosed. this hearing besides han heard and is now filed.

supervisor peskin. >> i was going to speak to the item. >> thank you so much. this hearing has been heard and is now filed. supervisor peskin. >> thank you, colleagues and members of the public. i would like to continue this to the ends of a 90-day emergency march 15th, i believe it expires on or about march 18th s and so how about one more go at the end assuming it's not extended or maybe it will be extended but it seems like another five weeks would be a good time to do a check in on this local emergency. >> do we have a second? second by supervisor chan. madam clerk, there's a motion to continue this to march 15th. 2022 meeting. >> mr. president, you are speaking specifically about item

28 to continue that item to the proposed state or would you like both the public hearing as well? >> i believe we are moving the public hearing and as well as the vote on proclamation. >> clerk: if you would declare the public hearing filed it will bring it back before us. >> on the motion to continue. to a committee of the whole. supervisor kess kin. >> march 15th. 2022. [roll call vote]

>> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> thank you. motion carries unanimously. madam clerk, would you please take us back to item number 22. >> clerk: item 22 is a motion to approve or reject the mayor's nomination for the reappointment of andre shorter to the juvenile probation term ending january 15th, 2026. >> thank you so much supervisor peskin. >> >> i'd like to make a motion to continue this to next week's meeting february 15th. >> thank you, madam clerk on the motion. >> on the motion to continue item 22, to the meeting of

february 15th, 2022 -- [roll call vote] [roll call vote] >> there are seven ayes and three nos with supervisors mandelman, safai and stefani in the dissent. >> thank you, madam clerk. we have a vote of 7-3. motion to continue to our february 15th meeting carries. madam clerk, item 29 was not sent as a committee report so can you read item 30. >> clerk: yes, items 30 and 31 were considered by rules committee at a rescheduled

meeting on monday february 7th, 2022 and both were recommended as committee reports. i'll read items 30. item 30 is the charter amendment, third draft, to amend the charter of the city and county of san francisco and to revise the duties competition and method of appointment from members of the building inspection commission and to affirm the ceqa determination. >> thank you supervisor melgar. >> thank you, president walton. so i have been working with my colleagues and thank you so much for your co-sponsorship supervisors mandelman, peskin and ronen to again to address the many, many because of inspection. this is a long road and it involves structures and this

charter a amendment is a very modest but absolutely necessary step to reform the way the commissioners are nominated in appointed and it also gives the oversight of the department from the commission to the mayor whoever that is, and it protects the leadership team gives them civil service protection. the way the dbi has been set up, after prop g in the 1994, has just created a culture in the department that has been ensil reand row cyst ant to change and i think there's the willingness among many of us to give the process of reform and address the issues that the public has been bringing up for many, many years. we have seen civil grant jury reports and we have seen audits

and i do believe that there's a willingness right now in the leadership and administration and among many of us to address some of trees structure issues and make for a more efficient transparent and honest department. so, i ask that you support this charter amendment and that i hope that the voters grow with us that we need to clean up and make the department more efficient and more transparent and also address some of the issues that have plagued the department for many, many years, thank you. >> thank you supervisor melgar. supervisor safai. >> thank you mr. president. i just want to say on the record, add me as a co-sponsor and i really appreciate the hard work melgar and leadership has shown. this is a good measure and i think it's the right direction that we need right now so i appreciate all the work that's again into it and how many people have been brought no the

process to get to this point. >> thank you supervisor safai. madam clerk, do we need to continue item 30. >> so moved. >> clerk: yes, mr. president. shall the charter amendment be continued. >> it's on the agenda. i didn't need to make a motion. >> ok, sorry. >> we will take this item same house same call. and without objection. >> clerk: mr. president, i will record supervisor peskin's motion to continue and who was the second? >> it doesn't need it. i withdrew it. >> reporter: typically we do it. >> supervisor ronen. >> we should call the roll so we have a full compliment. we had a different house and different vote. >> thank you, the roll, please.

>> clerk: on the motion to continue item 30 to february 15th, next week, supervisor chan -- [roll call vote] clear [roll call vote] >> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> motion to continue carries unanimously and we'll entertain a motion for item 31 to be continued. >> clerk: mr. president, i'll just call it very quickly. item 31 is a charter amendment third draft to amend the charter of the city to extend the ban on the initiation of recall petitions from six to 12 months after the official have assumed office to prohibit the

submission of a recall petition to the department of elections. if the subsequent recall election would be required to be held within 12 months, of a regularly scheduled election for the office held by the official sought to be recalled and to provide that any interim officer appointed to fill a vacancy may not be a candidate in the subsequent vacancy election to be heard at an election to be held on june 7th, 2022. >> thank you, madam clerk. supervisor peskin. >> president walton insofar as charter amendments need to sit one week and this is been heard in rules, i will reserve my comments for next week and make a motion to continue this item one week to february 15th. >> president walton: thank you, seconds by supervisor ronen. madam clerk, roll on the motion. >> clerk: on the motion to continue item 31.

[roll call vote] >> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: this motion to continue this item to february 15th, 2022 meeting is approved unanimously. madam clerk, we are now at roll call for introductions. >> clerk: first member to introduce new business is supervisor chan. >> thank you, madam clerk. colleagues will will keep this short since it's been a while now. i am -- i just want to highlight one thing i'm submitting today is a hearing request on the impact of plastic recycling management and plastic

pollution. i want to share with you that according to cal recycle our -- [please stand by]

>> supervisor chan: let's make them pay their fair share for polluting our environment. i look forward to having the hearing. i have legislation that can burst out of those hearing.

i urge for your support. >> clerk: supervisor mandelman? involuntary manslaughter i'm-- >> supervisor mandelman: jeanine was an accomplished artist. she died much too young in district 8. she grew up in southern california cities of norwalk. she attended university of california-san diego and graduated with a b.a. in political arts. she moved to the bay area and earned ph.d. from the university of california at berkeley. she taught at the san francisco art institute for years. in 2005, she joined the faculty full time and 2006 became the chair of sfai contemporary arts.

in 2012 she accepted position as provost at cal arts. she was credited helping to modernize department and schools, sheparding through a project funded by l.a. county jeanine pursued other projects. she was executive director of bureau of urban secrets. the purpose was to make people think about the city as places of experience and pleasure rather than just a frustrating place for one happens to live.

one evening, she caught a whiff of the perfume and asked the woman next to her if she was wearing urban essence. she pulled the scent out of production. it led her to serve on various cities on nonprofit boards. jeanine is survived by her husband eric and daughter isabella. the rest i submit. >> clerk: supervisor mar >> supervisor mar: thank you. i have in memoriam in today of barry mcgrass. he's a native of ireland who immigrated to san francisco and the sunset district and died on

january 29, 2022 following a tragic car collision. gary moved to the san francisco bay area over six years ago and working at p.c.w. as senior manager at the time of his passing. he was immersed in the irish community in the san francisco bay area where he was a beloved leader. he was treasurer of san francisco gaelick association. he played with the sons -- the gaelick football team. funeral mass was held for barry on thursday february 3rd where large number of attendees from

across the bay area, the united states and family from ireland remembered barry, celebrated his life and reflected on the enormous impact that he made here in san francisco in a relatively short time. before the funeral service, i was grateful for the chance to meet with barry's immediate family at the irish consulate here in san francisco. barry is predeceased by his loving dad john, his brother brian and his wife. by his three adored nephews ben, eddie and timmy. his wonderful circle of fist cousins all his extended family and friend. barry made he final journey to ireland departing san francisco on friday 4th. he was laid to rest today tuesday february 8th in ireland at our lady chapel in

galloway. i'm introducing a letter of inquiry requesting number of traffic engineering decisions and metrics and information on how traffic engineering decisions are made. the fatal collision on january 29th like all forms of traffic violence was preventible. residents who lived near the intersection where the fatal collision happened have expressed concern years that it's dangerous by design. we supported residents request for additional stop sign for this intersection to make it safer. this request was denying, sfmta stated that the present arrangement of traffic control is appropriate and his opinion was substanceuated by the

record. we cannot reach vision zero by waiting for unsafe intersections. even while residents expressed concern about their lived experiences, of a clear lack of safety and need. i would get that other offices had similar experiences. it is the first fatality that followed the request being denied. in the hopes it is the last, i'm submitting letter of inquiry requesting sfmta submit records if the traffic engineering

review a description of sfmta protocols following traffic fatality, the criteria or metrics that must be met for intersections to relieve stop sign by year over the past five years in the number of requests approved or denied. i look forward to receiving these records and working in partnership with all of you and sfmta to prevent traffic fatalities and realized our shared commitment to vision zero. >> clerk: thank you. supervisor melgar? >> supervisor melgar: thank you. i request that we close the meeting in the memory of pastor greg chisholm. i'm presenting pastor chisholm is emotionally heart wrenching for me. i knew him. he was the senior pastor of

authentic church on 19th avenue in district 7. he was lovingly known as pastor greg and shared his compassion with everyone. pastor greg was born on march 3, 1963. he attended hayward high where he played football. he went on to bible institute in chicago, illinois where he studied theology and played basketball. in chicago he met his wife wendy whom he married in 1987. he received master's degree. pastor greg's spiritual journey took him to oak park where he served as the johnson baptist church and then moved to l.a. to the english congregation at the chinese faith church. in 2005, pastor greg and his family moved to san francisco to be part of the temple baptist

church which was later renamed authentic church. for over 16 years, he was pastor there. he sheparded the authentic church. pastor greg's life was taken abruptly. when he killed by a vehicle while riding his bike in marin county on january 29, 2022. riding his bike, was his time to connect with his faith. he lived his last moments doing something he loved. it pains me that his death was preventible. pastor greg is remembered and loved by his family, congregation and community. he saw the good in every person and every situation. his calling was to help others. i the pleasure to meet pastor

greg last year when i took office. he reached out to establish a relationship and to share a vision to offer the church open space for the community as a place of respite and restoration. in his memory, i hope the work of the church and the city will make this vision come true. i also hope that this -- to make sure that bike riders can get around our city safely and we invest in the infrastructure to prevent these preventible deaths. pastor greg is survived business wife wendy. and daughter -- a celebration of life service is planned for

11:00 a.m. on thursday march 3rd at authentic church at 3355 19th avenue. >> clerk: thank you. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: i like to join supervisor melgar's in memoriam. i have nothing to submit. >> clerk: thank you. preview preston. >> supervisor preston: this morning my office and faith in action bay area announced the filing of an empty home tax ballot measure intended for the november 2022 ballot. if passed the law is estimated to bring approximately 5000

housing units online in the first two years and raise more than $38 million annually for homelessness, prevention and affordable housing. the announcement comes a week after the b.l.a. published a report showing 1 out of every 10 residential unit in san francisco, more than 40,000 homes are unoccupied. the number of vacant homes has increased by 20% since 2015. with the faster growing category of vacant uniting about those that are purchased but never occupied. which includes investor-owned properties. we heard the report last week in land use committee and heard from the b.l.a. who presented their excellent and detailed report. i want to really thank fred brewso of b.l.a. for their

meticulous research but also on what different jurisdictions in other cities have done to address this. in a city with a chronic shortage of affordable housing, and more than 8000 people living on our streets is unconsciencable that we have tens of thousands of homes sitting empty. the empty homes tax will incentivize property owners to turn vacant units into places that san franciscans can call home. the taxes modeled after a residential vacancy tax in vancouver, which is credited bringing more than 18,000 units online. if san francisco were to adopt a tax-based on the vancouver model, the city could see an activation of estimated 5000 units within two years. the equivalent of approximately 90% of the average number housing units added in san

francisco according to the b.l.a. report. half of funds will be allocated to rental subsidies for seniors and low income families. the other half would be dedicated to a new program for the city to acquire vacant buildings and convert them into permanently affordable houses. i want to recognize that an empty homes tax has been discussed for years and many advocate -- advocates have been involved. i want to acknowledge supervisor ronen past research and advocacy on this issue and her partnership in this effort. also supervisor peskin's leadership on the storefront vacancy tax which was unanimously endorsed about the members of board of supervisors in 2019. i want to thank my chief of

staff for their work on this important and complex issue. i want to thank the members and leadership of d.s.a. and faith in action for their leadership on this measure. i look forward to see this on the ballot and continuing to work to address prolonged vacancies in our cities. thank you. the rest of submit. >> clerk: supervisor ronen? >> supervisor ronen: thank you. today with a heavy heart, i offer in memoriam melissa who passed away at the age of 19 years old. she began working as a phlebotomist last year.

melissa was small but was known as big red at the vaccination center because of her bright red hair. she loved her job and coworkers. she would express how grateful she was to help the community get healthy. she was so dedicated to serving her community. even though she was not from the mission, she was soon accepted as a loving member of the community and soon came to the embrace that even most hard core local just before he passed, she told her boss the vaccine center was her happy place. her impact and her memory will live on in the live of all those she helped protect and the hearts of all the people she

knew. she is survived by her father and brother, may she rest in peace. >> clerk: thank you. supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: submit. >> clerk: supervisor stefani. submit, thank you. president walton. >> president walton: smith. >> clerk: thank you. mr. president, seeing no name on the roster. that concludes the introduction of new business. >> president walton: thank you madam clerk. let's go to public comment. >> clerk: at this time the board of supervisors welcomes your general public comment. the best practice is to use your touch phone. you'll be in live sync to listen to the proceeding and provide your comment. the telephone has been stream on your screen it is (415)655-0001. when you hear the prompt enter the meeting i.d. 2489 226 6438.

press pound twice. listen carefully for the prompt you have been unmuted and begin speaking. here you may provide general public comment in the next couple of items i'll mention. the mayoral appearance, approval of the board meeting minutes, item on the latter section of the agenda, these items are called before adoption without reference to committee. items 36-38 and general matters that are not on the general today but within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board of supervisors. all other general content had all oath public comment comment fulfilled.

with the off of civic engagement we have entrepreneurers. we have chinese and spanish still with us for the next half hour. i like to introduce themselves quickly and provide the information to the public on how to access this remote meeting in language please. [speaking chinese]

[speaking spanish] >> clerk: thank you both for staying with us. we are setting the timer for two minutes. we have 11 members of the public who are listening and there are

4 in the queue. if you like to speak this evening, press star 3. welcome caller. >> caller: good evening madam clerk, president walton and board of supervisors. muni only cares about fare heights and service cuts. i don't understand why san jose, san mateo and marin are giving free rides to their residents san francisco is not.

muni should be free for all. we need to restore services to muni lines. we had 280 muni drivers that were out sick last week because of covid. the week before, more than 240 muni drivers were absent because of covid. what is going on with muni? why are they getting sick? aren't they vaccinated, aren't they boosted? what is going on with muni? muni is a disaster. we need to expand service throughout the city. there are areas of the city that center no bus service whatsoever. muni is ripping out bus stops during the middle of the night and cutting lines that have been in service for 30 or 40 years. we need to restore muni and have

a transit system that works. there are thousands muni buses parked in the lot. they should be on the street. it's tame for muni to act responsible. thank you. >> caller: this david elliott lewis. i'm going on my fourth decade in the san francisco. in my 40 years in the city, i have only begun to witness street homelessness in the last decade or so. it hasn't been a huge issue in the prior 30 years before that. something has gone wrong in our city and system to allow this to happen. it's shameful and disgraceful.

we spend huge amount of money on it, last year in 2021, we spent half billion dollars on h.s.h. homelessness and supportive housing. i'm not saying that money shouldn't have been spent. it's a lot of money. half billion dollar budget. what do we have to show for it? i think we can learn from other cities. we can look at what new york city has done requiring shelters for all their unhoused residents. certainly as you heard before, we can fix our entry system. we can allow for self-referral to shelters. we can deal with unspent prop c fund. we need better auditing of all unspent money. to help our unhoused population. alternatives to policing like c.a.r.t. and alternative response team. funded but not implementing in

not even an r.f.p. or r.f.q. is an issue. we can do better. we need a plan to behind homelessness once for and more all. david elliott lewis, thank you very much. >> caller: hello, i decided to stick around for public comment. heard david was going to speak. i support everything he said and what i wanted to say, echoes that sentiment. one thing that i would really like you as a body to figure out working with the mayor and with h.s.h. is i keep hearing this number of 900 available units or

900 supportive housing units that are currently available and vacant and able to be utilized. there's some issues there. that's a management and department issue. may be the mayor needs some help. i don't know. can we look into those units that are available. secondly, critique when necessary, give credit where it's due. rafael mandelman brought something forward. there's a big push back against the coalition about rafael's legislation. it's time to revisit place for all and have a robust comprehensive approach and people who turned it down i think it was safai and haney. time to revisit that work with

supervisor mandelman. we need to focus on coming together with the team approach. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. we have three callers in the queue ready to speak. if you are one of the ten who are listening, press star 3 now.

>> caller: confusing victims of digital crimes with paranoid and need of medication, hot teen can't secure their database any more elections can securenline voting integrity. s.f. real estate is as hot a commodity as partisanship is in congress. victoria i was labeled a narc then a mark on the streets. beaten, raped, drugged.

>> caller: i'm calling to comment to what we discussed tonight. the thing i want to discuss tonight is our police. specifically with regards to the drug war. our economists have been clear.

we've gone from opium from heroin to fentanyl. we know the process of prohibition. when we examining the situation today, we know where the oversight needs to be applied. it cries for it desperately. our supervisors need to find a way to bring the police. to answer the question that

needs desperate answered. why imprison people when it's been proven to lead to a life of crime. why commit violence in your community when the result is reliable. more violence in your community. tonight, supervisors, i'm calling for an end to violence in our community. an end to the war on drugs. please, defund the police and fund social services that might actually help the situation. that's all. thank you. >> clerk: thank you for your comment. >> caller: hello. i like to comment that almost like three hours on the tenderloin -- >> clerk: i'm going to pause

your time. the tenderloin declaration of emergency has been disposed of by this body. that is not topic of conversation for general public comment. i'm going to resume your time. >> caller: i was looking at the chronicle, mentioned that in reality only few dozen people were accepted into housing or long-term services that cost about $9.4 million. finland is the only country where homelessness is falling. the country has adopted a

housing first policy whereby social services defines homeless individuals to rental homes first and issues like mental health and substance abuse are treated second. i was looking at these numbers and the amount of money that is coming in from these propositions that san francisco has made it a priority to find housing for these people. >> clerk: thank you for your comments. >> there are no further callers in the queue. >> president walton: thank you so much. public comment is now closed. ma'am, -- madam clerk we'll come

back for closed session for items 34 and 35. please call items it 36 and 38. >> clerk: introduced for adoption without committee reference. unanimous vote is required for adoption of resolutions on first reading today a member may require resolution to go to committee. >> supervisor safai: i like to be added as a co-sponsor for items 36 and 37. >> president walton: please call the roll for the for adoption without committee reference. >> clerk: on items 36-38. [roll call vote]

there are 10 ayes. >> president walton: the resolutions are adopted and the motion is approved unanimously. madam clerk, let's go to our closed session, items 34 and 35. >> clerk: closed session for the board of supervisors to convene today february 8, 2022 for the purpose of conferring or receiving advice from the city attorney regarding the followingist examining -- following existing litigation. lawsuit by --

>> president walton: we'll go into closed session. we will open up to the public

>> supervisor melgar. >> melgar aye. >> supervisor peskin. >> aye. >> supervisor preston. >> aye. >> preston aye. supervisor ronen. aye. >> supervisor safai. >> aye. >> supervisor stefani. >> aye. >> supervisor walton. >> there are 10 ayes. >> we will not disclose our closed session deliberations. supervisor ronen, do you want to speak or after we call the item? >> after. >> thank you. >> madam clerk, would you call item number 35. >> item 35 is the ordinance to authorization settlement of the lawsuit filed by decarie spears against the city and county of san francisco for $700,000 and it involves an alleged civil rights violation. >> thank you, madam clerk. supervisor ronen. >> i just wanted to remark for a

moment on the politics that is happening and the city and county right now around racial a few years ago, george floyd was murdered in front of all of us and sparked a movement in this country after hundreds of years of vicious violence against black bodies for racial reckoning to say no more can police and the criminal-justice system continue to beat black men to a pulp, to incarcerate rate them at rates well outside their population and when it's

the politicization of this settlement or lawsuit, the timing with the police chief pulling out of the m.o.u. with people who have aspiration to run for different offices, and supporting candidates for commissions and who are the face against police accountability and reform i am ashamed of what is happening this city and how quickly we forget that we are not done with this movement and this fight against the brutalization of black bodies and i worry in this city, leaders from the police chief to our commissioners to our mayor to members of this board of supervisors, are politicizing case after case for their own personal benefit at the expense of a movement that is long overdue in this country and i feel the need to say that out loud because i'm sickened at what i'm watching day in and day

out. >> president walton: thank you supervisor ronen. supervisor preston. >> thank you president and and i just want to say i on this settlement as chair of the the and we engage with the city attorney to fully understand the case before us. i think i share much of the frustrations supervisor ronen just expressed and i think that continue this item and some of the things i've heard publicly are frankly deeply, deeply

disappointing and alarming and i think independent and actions were captured on a body-worn camera and he was standing there with his girlfriend when he was repeatedly beaten, by police, he was left with broken bones for which he was required surgery and he was in a while chair and like none of this is in dispute and none of this is in dispute. there's been nothing new raised by all of the and there's the nothing raised and police

misconduct and when we're reviewing settlement of the case and the objections noted regarding the settlement does not change the sounds of this case and the objections are completely unrelated to the civil case before us and the only thing this to send a message of victims of police brutality there are some on this board and in leadership in this city who are willing to be complicit to invalidate the harm done just because for the charges against a police officer. that's the message.

and i want to say that i do not stand for that and i surgery you all to reject that message, not just how you handle this settlement and how we address this case publicly. this settlement should be approved without further delay and appreciate everyone's attention though this. thank you. >> thank you so much, supervisor preston. supervisor chan. just many different settlements in general that i have frankly, personal point of view and opinions about some of the settlements and at the end of the day, i understand my role, you know, as elected member on the board working with city attorney and viewing these cases

and from the point of view of the best interest of our city governments and public dollars and so, with that, i am standing by the decision that i already made as a vice-chair of g.a.o. committee and that i supported this settlement and urge for your approval just like all the other settlements that i have in support of that and sent before you and this is no different. i want to make that as a public record. >> thank you president walton. i want to say, first of all, thank you to the city attorney and for providing us support and my colleagues for having done the work and i will be supporting this settlement and i also want to say thank you to supervisor stefani because her i

want to focus none of us have touched on up until now in that is the allegation of the victim of domestic violence. so, i agree with you supervisor preston just because someone has had a criminal history or especially history of domestic violence they don't deserve to have the bee jesus beaten out of them. no one deserves that. i think black women and latina women are likely to suffer domestic violence and we know this and the question is how do we best support this so that folks are successful in their

families. i think in a community that has suffered the oppression of criminalization, or the threat of deportation, because they don't have papers, dealing with the domestic violence through law enforcement approach is counter to what we need to do and your farther ner will get shit beat out of them. centering women in this situation, where we commit is where i want to be and you know, that's not what we're we're discussing today but i want to

not forget that this started as a domestic violence case and i don't want to say, this is, the moment that we're living in, and against women and to commit that we will fight violence against women. thank you. >> thank you president walton. i would agree with colleagues pointed out this case is not it's different and distinct from the district attorney's criminal prosecution of this officer. what has happened in that prosecution has given me concern and i think the allegations of how the district attorney office handled this case are concerning. the allegation a pressure withheld evidence is concerning and the statements the district attorney is quoted in the 2019

mission local article about the case describing the caller as a carren and describing, saying there was no evidence of domestic violence, giving me no confidence and it's the way the settlement will be understood, out in the public, is not as the risk calculations that it is but a statement by the berdych of and i have a lot of concerns and i'm not comfortable signing onto the settlement agreement today. >> president walton: supervisor stefani. >> thank you president walton and thank you colleagues for the continuance to the closed session and thank you to our deputy city attorneys and for

more education on this case. i am to bothered by the way this case has played out. i believe there are a significant number of terne concerns the way it was handled just as supervisor mandelman just said is that involves what we heard that came out of court a d.a. investigators felt like she had to do something she didn't want to do and she felt like excluding evidence that she described as exculpatory evidence was something is that would hurt the officer in this case. she felt she would be that should concern me and everybody. unfortunately, we know that there's another case just like that so now this is happening

twice. and it calls into question, what is really going on here. this is not easy. you could say what you want. but i've read everything. i want to know what went down. because it's ugly on so many levels. and what i've read, gives me great pause, again, on so many levels.

i won't go into the other investigators that was terminated and is the way it was

described in the interviews, if you read them, it's terrifying. for that victim of domestic violence. and those two women who called in and and then what strikes me

and when i get to what is really going on in this case because credibility is coming up because we have a d.a. who was saying, no evidence of dose mess tick dc violence. none, there was no evidence of domestic violence. there's evidence of domestic violence in here. and to call the women carrens? why? i don't get that. the domestic violence case that was just brushed aside, to me, and i'm not going to read, i was going to but i'm not going to do it.

>> the new evidence we heard about. the incident at the heart of all of this, it started all of this, was prompted by a creditable 9-1-1 call and response to what they're seeing and they even called it domestic violence. who on multiple indications described witnessing violent acts by spiers. why? why not invite the sergeant. it doesn't make sense. also when you look at the case, you know this is a person who has been arrested for db before.

who has done the same thing and put his hands around the neck of a woman. that evidence is admissible. they have it all. not only does it appear that they have all this evidence and they hold some inter what really got to me and we just did our second round of legislation on domestic violence reporting because domestic violence is something that i've worked on

for years. and the reason why i have done that and reason why we passed that where a lot of concerns have come up. ada told the case during this. >> alex: and you are going to he couldn't say he didn't do it. again, all in the interviews.

so for me this comes down to my feeling and my fears of how nonchalantly the underline dough domestic violence as if this victim nor future victims don't deserve our city to protect them and in the reporting and everything that said about everyone, let's get nasty and let's say this and do that and let's just take everyone down and let's not really talk about the facts let's just throw insults at each other, it comes back to domestic by the very agency supposed to protect domestic violence. i'm seeing it over and over again. it is very common for victims to recant to protect their abusers

and protect themselves from retaliation. it's very common. and abuse from what i have heard in the press, abuse does not require visible injuries and insisting that and prevents them from reporting abuse for fear they won't be believed. and i do believe and false narratives and violations of the

law. it's risk assessment and we're not determining guilt but for me it's the principles. i cannot get passed the fact that that i have read rooms of domestic violence and we have a government body continue to go say there's no domestic violence. i won't be able to support it today. >> thank you president walton and i know some of my colleagues are before us, is the settlement

of civil litigation and against a police officer what is before us, is the settlement of a civil claim brought against the city and county of san francisco from the victim of alleged excess force. we are not the jury in the criminal matter, we pursuant to section 6.102 of the charter have a duty to settle or not settle litigation brought by the city attorney. the city attorney has brought settlements that through and and

it's too rich or too little or in a handful of cases, we didn't like the indemnity tees or settlement for things known and unknown but what is before us and i say this to my lawyer colleagues, i'm no longer a member and that deals with these things in closed session and it is my understanding that on january 20th, the city attorney recommended settlement, deputy city attorney osborne may i ask you a few questions, please. >> yes, supervisor. >> your position in the city attorney's office is what? >> i am the chief trial deputy. >> the chief trial deputy and in that capacity, did you then leading up to and on january 20th, recommend the

settlement in the civil litigation for us today. >> you are doing a good job of cross examination but yes, the answer is yes, supervisor peskin. >> thank you deputy city attorney osborne and in the intervening time, you know that on a week ago on february the first, this came to the supervisors and there were some issues going on that we've heard about this evening and in the criminal case that is not before us, that led me as supervisor chan said to have a closed session that we had. has anything happened in the intervening time between januart leads to you change and pursuant to section 6.102 of the board of supervisors, city attorney osborne. >> the city attorney continues to recommend the proposed setselment on the agenda.

>> thank you supervisor peskin. >> supervisor preston. >> thank you, president walton and thank you supervisor peskin for refocusing on us. i think a lot of things that have come up are not relevant to the settlement and i also think we have a duty to be dealing with facts at this board and that when things come up, they were not factual and we have to correct them sometimes and this is one of those cases and so, the repeated assertion that there was significant evidence that domestic violence happened, and in this case, that there's new evidence that there was domestic violence at the time of the this incident that the domestic violence case was dealt with nonchalantly and brushed aside with not so subtle a reference in facts and explicitly to our current they

are not in dispute. the police department and the former district attorney declined to bring any domestic violence charges against mr. spiers. there were no charges. there's nothing new that has to come since sen and all was known by the police and the former district attorney that did not move forward and bring domestic charges. now the police are in the context of an officer being charged for the furred in san francisco and there's no

domestic violence case to bring and in fact the statute of limitations has run as i want to say the police and i hope you just please talk to the city attorney before you run out and trigger the next civil rights lawsuit by running out there and with no new evidence after a statute of limitations and arresting something. this is nuts. it's the attempt to -- if people want to take issue with the district attorney on things that is their prerogative. the sfpd didn't have anything. you know what they charged, resisting. watch that video of this man getting the crap beaten out of

him eight times struck by a baton including lying on the ground. i litigated these cases when i started my legal career. and most of the time when there was a cover charge and it was always resisting arrest. that was the only charge that was brought and then promptly by suzie lostis dismissed. so let's not create a factual background that is not accurate. if the san francisco police department and the police union wants to do publicity in the middle of a trial, when one of their officers is being charged, i suppose that is their right but i really don't appreciate bringing their misinformation into these chambers. so i urge everyone to support the settlement. thank you. >> thank you supervisor preston. i just want to associate my

comments with supervisor ronen's earlier. because it is getting pretty disgusting the way narratives are being used here. and san francisco and and i find it funny these things are happening after we have a reparations task force and after we carve out money for the plaque community, after we make baby steps forward to address a lot of the disparities that exist for black people here in san francisco. things start getting sensationalized and we're trying to turn san francisco to the most violent city so they can reverse the reforms that we fought so hard to achieve. and what is more disgusting for me, is the folks that have been a part of that fight, who have been here and seen these things happen, two black folks, time and time again, we can allow the

police department to do what they want to do. people are violating civil rights and let police sur veil what or warrants and violate the constitution. so i just want to remind us, all of us, how hard we fought, just for the little baby reforms that we have to try to protect black people, people of color. and keep everyone safe. this is about safety for everyone. to be able to walk around san francisco and not feel like they have to be a victim and i want to thank supervisor peskin for reminding us what this case is

about thank you to my colleagues for your conversation in closed session. with that, can we have the roll on item number 35. >> clerk: yes, mr. president. i must ask for a pause before we do that as we reemerged out of the closed session the streaming from teams was slowed to catch up and just for a moment i'd like to review the minutes as we emerged out of a closed session. the president indicated that no action was held in the closed session and a motion was made not to disclose by supervisor mandelman and seconded by supervisor peskin and on the call of the roll, supervisor haney who was excused from the meeting, 10 members of the board who are present in the chamber, voted for the motion not to disclose any action or language or conversation that occurred in the closed session.

>> thank you so much. madam clerk. >> clerk: we'll take the roll mr. president on item 35. >> thank you. >> on item 35 -- [roll call vote] >> clerk: there are eight ayes and two nos with supervisors mandelman and stefani in the dissent. >> thank you and by a vote of 8-2, this ordinanced is passed on first reading. madam clerk, do we have any imperative agenda items. >> clerk: none to report, mr.

president. >> president walton: can you please read the inmemoriam. >> it will be adjourned in the following beloved individuals on bow half of supervisor mandelman and supervisor peskin for the late ms. jeannine preluski. thank you. on behalf of the supervisor mar for the late mr. barrie mcgrath, on behalf of supervisor melgar, for pastor gregory chisel. on behalf of supervisor peskin, for the late ms. rosemary mano and on behalf of supervisor ronen for the late melissa loy. >> thank you, madam clerk. do we have anymore business before us. >> that concludes our business for this evening. >> adversity, the art of thinking independently together. malcolm forbes. this meeting is adjourned.

[♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> so i grew up in cambridge, massachusetts and i was very fortunate to meet my future wife, now my wife while we were both attending graduate school at m.i.t., studying urban

planning. so this is her hometown. so, we fell in love and moved to her city. [♪♪♪] [♪♪♪] >> i was introduced to this part of town while working on a campaign for gavin, who is running for mayor. i was one of the organizers out here and i met the people and i fell in love with them in the neighborhood. so it also was a place in the city that at the time that i could afford to buy a home and i wanted to own my own home. this is where we laid down our roots like many people in this neighborhood and we started our family and this is where we are going to be. i mean we are the part of san francisco. it's the two neighborhoods with the most children under the age of 18. everybody likes to talk about how san francisco is not

family-friendly, there are not a lot of children and families. we have predominately single family homes. as i said, people move here to buy their first home, maybe with multiple family members or multiple families in the same home and they laid down their roots. [♪♪♪] >> it's different because again, we have little small storefronts. we don't have light industrial space or space where you can build high-rises or large office buildings. so the tech boom will never hit our neighborhood in that way when it comes to jobs. >> turkey, cheddar, avocado, lettuce and mayo, and little bit of mustard. that's my usual.

>> mike is the owner, born and bred in the neighborhood. he worked in the drugstore forever. he saved his money and opened up his own spot. we're always going to support home grown businesses and he spent generations living in this part of town, focusing on the family, and the vibe is great and people feel at home. it's like a little community gathering spot. >> this is the part of the city with a small town feel. a lot of mom and pop businesses, a lot of family run businesses. there is a conversation on whether starbucks would come in. i think there are some people that would embrace that. i think there are others that would prefer that not to be. i think we moved beyond that conversation. i think where we are now, we

really want to enhance and embrace and encourage the businesses and small businesses that we have here. in fact, it's more of a mom and pop style business. i think at the end of the day, what we're really trying to do is encourage and embrace the diversity and enhance that diversity of businesses we already have. we're the only supervisor in the city that has a permanent district office. a lot of folks use cafes or use offices or different places, but i want out and was able to raise money and open up a spot that we could pay for. i'm very fortunate to have that. >> hi, good to see you. just wanted to say hi, hi to the owner, see how he's doing. everything okay? >> yeah. >> good. >> we spend the entire day in

the district so we can talk to constituents and talk to small businesses. we put money in the budget so you guys could be out here. this is like a commercial corridor, so they focus on cleaning the streets and it made a significant impact as you can see. what an improvement it has made to have you guys out here. >> for sure. >> we have a significantly diverse neighborhood and population. so i think that's the richness of the mission and it always has been. it's what made me fall in love with this neighborhood and why i love it so much.

>> there is a lot of unique

characteristics about visitation valley. it is a unique part of the city. >> we are off in a corner of the city against the san francisco county line 101 on one side. vis station valley is still one of the last blue color neighborhoods in san francisco. a lot of working class families out here. it is unusual. not a lot of apartment buildings. a lot of single family homes. >> great business corridor. so much traffic coming through here and stopping off to grab coffee or sandwich or pick up food before going home. >> a lot of customers are from the neighborhood. they are painters or mechanics. they are like blue color workers, a lot of them. >> the community is lovely. multi-racial and hopefully we can look out for each other. >> there is a variety of

businesses on the block. you think of buffalo kitchen, chinese food, pork buns, sandwich. library, bank of america with a parking lot. the market where you can grab anything. amazing food choices, nail salons. basically everything you need is here. >> a lot of these businesses up and down leland are family owned. people running them are family. when you come here and you have an uncle and nephew and go across the street and have the guy and his dad. lisa and her daughter in the dog parlor and pam. it is very cool. >> is small businesses make the neighborhood unique. >> new businesses coming. in mission blue, gourmet chocolate manufacturing. the corridor has changed and is continuing to change.

we hope to see more businesses coming in the near future. >> this is what is needed. first, stay home. unless it is absoluteliness scary. social distancing is the most important step right now to limit spread of virus. cancel all nonessential gather everythings. >> when the pandemic litly land avenue suffered like other corridors. a few nail salons couldn't operate. they shut down. restaurants that had to adapt to more of a take out model. they haven't totally brought back indoor seating. >> it is heartbreaking to see the businesses that have closed down and shut because of the

pandemic. >> when the pandemic first hit it got really slow. we had to change our hours. we never had to close, which is a blessing. thank god. we stayed open the whole time. >> we were kind of nervous and anxious to see what was going to come next hoping we will not have to close down. >> during covid we would go outside and look on both sides of the street. it looked like old western town. nobody on the street. no cars. >> it was a hard eight or nine months. when they opened up half the people couldn't afford a haircut. >> during that time we kept saying the coffee shop was the living room of the valley. people would come to make sure they were okay. >> we checked on each other and patronized each other. i would get a cup of coffee, shirt, they would get a haircut. >> this is a generous and kind

community. people would be like i am getting the toffee for the guy behind me and some days it went on and on. it was amazing to watch. we saw a perfect picture of community. we are all in this together. >> since we began to reopen one year later, we will emerge stronger. we will emerge better as a city because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one another. >> when we opened up august 1st. i will not say it was all good. we are still struggling due to covid. it affected a lot of people. >> we are still in the pandemic right now. things are opening up a little bit. it is great to have space to come together. i did a three painting series of

visitation valley and the businesses on leland. it felt good to drop off the paintings and hung them. >> my business is picking up. the city is opening up. we have mask requirements. i check temperatures. i ask for vaccination card and/or recent test. the older folks they want to feel safe here. >> i feel like there is a sense of unity happening. >> what got us through the pandemic was our customers. their dogs needed groomed, we have to cut their nails so they don't over grow. >> this is only going to push us forward. i sense a spirit of community and just belief in one another. >> we are trying to see if we can help all small businesses around here. there is a cannabis club lounge next to the dog parlor to bring foot traffic. my business is not going to work

if the business across the street is not getting help. >> in hit us hard. i see a bright future to get the storefronts full. >> once people come here i think they really like it. >> if you are from san francisco visit visitation valley to see how this side of the city is the same but different. it.

>> shop & dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges resident to do their shop & dine in the 49 within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services in the neighborhood we help san francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so we're will you shop & dine in the 49 chinatown has to be one the best unique shopping areas in san francisco that is color fulfill and safe each vegetation and seafood and find everything in chinatown the walk shop in chinatown

welcome to jason dessert i'm the fifth generation of candy in san francisco still that serves 2000 district in the chinatown in the past it was the tradition and my family was the royal chef in the pot pals that's why we learned this stuff and moved from here to have dragon candy i want people to know that is art we will explain a walk and they can't walk in and out it is different techniques from stir frying to smoking to steaming and they do show of. >> beer a royalty for the age berry up to now not people know that especially the toughest they think this is - i really appreciate they love this art.

>> from the cantonese to the hypomania and we have hot pots we have all of the cuisines of china in our chinatown you don't have to go far. >> small business is important to our neighborhood because if we really make a lot of people lives better more people get a job here not just a big firm. >> you don't have to go anywhere else we have pocketed of great neighborhoods haul have all have their own uniqueness. >> san francisco has to all

>> i am so happy. african-americans in the military from the revolutionary war to the present, even though they have not had the basic civil rights in america. they don't know their history. in the military the most sacrifice as anyone in this country to be willing to lay down your blood and fight. i believe that all african-americans have served because they love this country

and the hope that the citizens. -- before the proceeding i would like to announce that we have american sign language interpretation services here this afternoon to assist those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing this town hall is also being translated into spanish and cantonese for members of our community who speak those languages. today's presentation will include details from an

officn