>> good afternoon. we just joined the first grade students from bryan elementary as they made deposits in their savings accounts. i am thrilled to say families in san francisco have more than $11 million saved in college in the kindergarten to college account. i extend appreciation to the bryant elementary school staff who worked to make today happen.

i don't think ms. cole is here. she is an amazing first grade teacher. when she heard about the field trip she personally raised funds so each student would have at least $30 to deposit today. graduates supported every student to help and many others across the city to put money into the college savings accounts. i confess in 2011 then mayor gavin newsom and i started the program so every student would have a future worth saving for. more important than money. the $11 million means there has been millions of conversations in every household that these students live in about their possibility of going to college. that is the purpose of this program. [applause]. the research, real research

showed that putting money into college savings, a lot or little begins a conversation that ends up with children going to college. that is what we want to happen for every child in san francisco. kindergarten to college pro boats college-going identity in the public schools. san francisco is not alone in the program. k-c is across the country with over 100 active college savings accounts today reaches 1.2 million kids in 39 states in this country. in 2019 california created california kids a statewide program for every child born in california. governor newsom expanded in 21-22 budget with investment of

nearly $2 billion. [applause]. that funding has resulted in our program providing additional funds to the accounts of students in low income schools. i would be remiss if i didn't pitch the governor and legislature to make sure that is continued and revised for an added boost to the college savings account. the best person to speak about this program are the students themselves. i am here, proud that tulea miller is here with us today. she is a junior at gateway high school. she is part of the first class of k-c students and she is here to help you hear about how k-c is impacting her future. please come on up.

[applause]. >> hi, i am tulea miller, i am a junior in high school. when i found out it was in kindergarten. i didn't think of it as something. as i got in middle school and high school i started to think about it, and how i really thought about it was in tenth grade when i applied for the video contest about my future. i talked how i wanted to be a apsychiatrist. i was second place in the city-wide competition. that is why i am here today. in the fall i will apply to colleges. these funds will really help me out. it means i am working towards my goals. my plans when i go to college

major in social work to be a travel social worker to able to travel and help people with traumatic experiences. the college application takes work. many high school seniors go through it in the fall. it is only because some students may not qualify for scholarships or grants or don't know what they want to pursue. i want to apply to 20 colleges. there are factors to consider which are financial aid, housing, location and other aspects. i got early acceptance to charles drew in los angeles. [applause]. i am a college-bound student. i also work at old navy. i am part of in field scholars.

as a black scholar i like to put myself with honors classes. i took college classes last summer. if i am able to change a couple laws, i would ban act and sat because it keeps minorities out of colleges. i feel like a test score shouldn't derm where you go within the three hour test period. thank you for having me. [applause] >> thank you. we are impressed by your success. we can't wait to see where your dreams take you. now another truly impressive graduate of the san francisco unified school districts our own mayor, london breed.

[applause]. >> mayor breed: i am happy to celebrate over 10 years of a program that will have an extraordinary impact on the lives of so many san francisco kids who we know we need to make investments to support. i love hearing tulea's story and her story of pursuing higher education. i am in agreement with the a ct what is it sat and when i was in college we had to take act and sat. at the time i didn't have money for the fees. what i appreciate most is my college counselor at galileo high school providing me guidance and support and understanding. i had no idea. those applications cost 30 to

$50. there were fees for that. when i think about young people who are growing out without means to not only afford some of the things required to get into college. what happens when you go there? what happens when you have to start buying your own toilet paper and taking responsibility if you are lucky enough to have parents and family to support you there are so many kids with those options. this program was innovative when the then mayor gavin newsom started with our treasure who is still our treasurer. the fact we are here with the state treasurer who is a money masterminds in counting numbers in her head and coming up with things to do stuff in california is remarkable. we are here mostly because we have to think about not just the pressing challenges that exhibit n front of us.

how do we make sure the next generation of young people in the city, state, country know there is real opportunity for them to succeed? sometimes making these early investments which won't see the fruits of our labor until after we are out of office is not sometimes very popular for many politicians to do even though i think jose might still be treasurer. the fact is we do it because we believe in it. we support it. it started with our then mayor governor newsom taking it to the other level to support kids throughout the entire state. it continues through my budget as mayor and future mayors will support this program. i have to tell you i am anxious to see the first kid and i am hoping that it is tulea the first kid using those dollars

and using those dollars to enter college but hopefully to help her throughout her entire four year time when she is in college because college is expensive. it is a huge undertaking. the debt from student loans and if you are lucky to get scholarships, those things are going to have a tremendous impact on the success of anyone who makes it through this program. i am looking forward to seeing this program continue. i am glad we are here to celebrate 10 years, $11 million over 130 programs all over the country. 36 states. this is absolutely extraordinary. it started right here in san francisco, california. [applause]. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco i want to

officially declare the kindergarten to college day in san francisco today for you, for the treasurer and i would like to introduce our governor who as i said came up with so many innovative programs when he was mayor. he has taken many of those programs and expanded them for all of the citizens of the state of california and has made not only kindergarten to college a priority but ensuring that kids have access to child care that they are taken carry of in the early days of their existence on this earth is something that is remarkable. i don't see very many leader in the state and country talking what we need to do to invest kids and support throughout their entire times until they get to college and off on their careers. we have a governor who beliefs

in that. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome governor gavin newsom. >> the state treasure signs my paycheck. she can go before me. [applause] >> thank you very much. it is my honor to be here. i want to thank publicly then mayor gavin newsom and the treasurer for starting this innovative program. we say san francisco. we like to lead. we do things that nobody else has ever done. then it becomes a state wide and national program. this is what this k-c program is starting to become. i want to thank governor newsom and the legislator for putting $2 billion into new programs. you can announce it i won't

steal his thunder. this adds ministration focused on the getting kids out of childhood poverty. so many children are hungry, with no place to sleep, and going to college is the priority. making sure that they are not burdened by high student loan debt. as the treasurer, i am the banker and oversee the 529 program. even during the pandemic over the last two years, more parents have opened up accounts for their young children. it is never too early or late to save for college. i thank all of you for being here. i thank our wonderful mayor london breed for her leadership on so many issues that impact every day californians. thank you. [applause] >> i will thank the treasure and i will thank mayor breed for the

privilege of coming back in the same space where this initiative was announced a little over 11 yearsal. i see some reporters that i think you were there and you are still here as well. what i am so proud of and impressed by is the commitment of jose cisneros and his team to this program. i say that because the success of this program was not predetermined. we had done something no other state had done at the time. we had the obama administration tipping the hat to the best practice hope and expectation to stretch the minds of our children. we made the point 11 years ago. i recall saying this at the press conference kicking this off. once a mind is stretched it never goes back to the original form. the college going mind set at a

very young age we believed would have a profound impact. little did we know the data collected since in small pilot programs not just san francisco buts across the country and the world have not only proven that construct but have allowed us an opportunity to understand that the impact was far greater than we ever could have imagined. this motion you are three times more likely to go to college even with moders december amount of money in a savings account. four times more likely to graduate with even as little as $500 in a savings account is something that we asserted but couldn't necessarily prove over a decade ago. this program has been incredibly impactful. jose said it well. the notion of all conversations that would have never taken

shape with householdses. opportunity to have a savings account and the dignity that comes with that. well over half the folks in public education don't have access to checking and savings yet their child has the account in their name. dignity and respect from that. this is not just about college going mind set it is about as mayor breed said addressing the issue that has defined so many other issues in the state and nation addressing the disparities that persist in the city, state and in our country. not just issues around income but wealth. we talk so much about income and equality not enough about wealth disparities. this is about closing wealth gaps. this is if creating conversations around financial

literacy. why we can't figure this out as a nation is beyond me. the basics. balance, checking or savings account. you have to have one to be able to balance it. i am proud of this city. close to 50,000 accounts, $11 million is great. 50,000 opportunities. it is a great pathway. you met one young lady. i can't believe we are back. you are so old now. junior, soon to be senior heading off to college. that is extraordinary. we are proud. i will close on this that success because of your faith, devotion and commitment to this cause gave us the ability to go to the california legislature to make the case we could bring this to every part of california.

3.5 million accounts will be established in the next 60 days. in july of this year 3.5 million california residents start with $500 in their savings. some kids get up to $1,500 in their savings account. in other jurisdiction in the world has ever done something like this. $2 billion. the good news to jose's point and strong advocacy of the treasurer. we got the support of the legislature to approve this program going forward. this is not one. we are doing minimum of 300,000 new accounts every single year after establishing the baseline of 3.5 million accounts. we mean business. this is a big idea and we think it will have a big impact in

this state and nation. (applause). we are proud of it. i am excited and honored to be back here at home. mayor, it is so true. the future happens here first. you are in so many ways the city and county america's coming attraction not just state of california. i love that about this city. you are the future of this as they say. we are planning a much brighter future for tens of thousands in san francisco and millions in california and hope and expectation of a program that expands to hundreds of millions more. congratulations on k-c day in san francisco.

you're watching san francisco rising with chris manors. today's special guest is jeff tumlin. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you're watching san francisco rising. the show on starting, rebuilding, and reimagining our city. our guest is jeff tumlin and he's with us to talk about our transportation recovery plan and some exciting projects across the city. mr. tumlin welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me.

>> i know the pandemic was particularly challenging for the m.t.a. having to balance between keeping central transportation routes open, but things have improved. how are we doing with our transportation recovery plan? >> so we just got good news this week. we're getting an extra $115 million from the american rescue plan and this is basically the exact amount of money we finally needed in order to close the gap between now and november of 2024 when we'll have to find some additional revenue sources in order to sustain the agency. in the meantime, i finally have the confidence to be able to rapidly hire, to restore services and to make sure muni is there for san francisco's larger economic recovery because downtown san francisco doesn't work without muni. >> quite right. i guess the other impact of the

pandemic was that some projects like the valencia bike improvements had to be put on hold. are we starting to gear up on those again? >> yes, so it's an interesting case study. of right before covid hit, we were about ready to invest in quick build bike lanes. arguably the most important bike order in san francisco. that got stopped with lockdown and then as you'll recall, during covid, we invented all kinds of other new programs like shared spaces in order to support our small businesses as well as sunday street light events for neighborhood commercial streets where streets were closed off to cars and turned over to commercial activity. those successes now that they've been made permanent actually interrupt the draft design we had put together. so we've gone back to the drawing board and we are looking forward to having some additional community

conversations about other design ideas for valencia. we're committed to completing a quick build project on this calendar year. >> that's such good news. valencia is a really great street for biking. so there are two huge and exciting projects that are about to be or have just been completed. let's talk about the bus rapid transit project on van ness avenue. how extensive have the improvements been? >> what's called the van ness transit rapid project is in fact more about complete reconstruction of the street and most importantly, the 100-year-old utilities underneath the street. so all of the water, sewer, telecommunications, gas lines under the street were basically rebuilt from market street all the way to lumbard. the part on the surface which provides dedicated bus lanes for golden gate transit and

muni, that was relatively straight forward and we're so excited we're going to start revenue service for muni on april 1st. >> that's fantastic. i understand there were some sidewalk improvements too. >> there were sidewalk improvements. we planted 374 trees. there is new storm water treatment including infiltration in the sidewalk, there's a bunch of art. there's all kinds of things. we put in new street lights for the entire corridor. >> finally, the other big news is about the central subway. can you briefly describe the project and give us an update. >> yes, so the central t-line project, another stop at union square that connects directly into powell station and a final stop in the heart of chinatown

at stockton and washington. that project has also run into challenges. it's 120' under muni, under bart, 120' down and out under chinatown in some unexpectedly challenging soils. but that project is nearly complete. it's at about 98% completion right now which means we're testing trains, we're testing the elevators and escalators and the final electronics and we're still on track to open that in october presuming all of the testing continues to go well. so fingers crossed on in a one. we're really looking forward to allowing people to have a subway ride from the heart of chinatown all the way to the convention center to the caltrans station and all the way down to bayview and visitation valley. >> it's great to see all these projects coming to completion.

we're all grateful for your team's hard work and i really appreciate you coming on the show, mr. tumlin. thank you for the time you've given us today. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me. >> and that's it for this episode. for sfgov tv i'm chris manors. thanks for watching.

shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of san francisco. by supporting local services within our neighborhoods, we help san francisco remain unique, successful, and vibrant. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> my name is ray behr. i am the owner of chief plus. it's a destination specialty foods store, and it's also a corner grocery store, as well. we call it cheese plus because there's a lot of additions in addition to cheese here. from fresh flowers, to wine,

past a, chocolate, our dining area and espresso bar. you can have a casual meeting if you want to. it's a real community gathering place. what makes little polk unique, i think, first of all, it's a great pedestrian street. there's people out and about all day, meeting this neighbor and coming out and supporting the businesses. the businesses here are almost all exclusively independent owned small businesses. it harkens back to supporting local. polk street doesn't look like anywhere u.s.a. it has its own businesses and personality. we have clothing stores to gallerys, to personal service stores, where you can get your hsus repaired, luggage repaired. there's a music studio across the street. it's raily a diverse and unique

offering on this really great street. i think san franciscans should shop local as much as they can because they can discover things that they may not be familiar with. again, the marketplace is changing, and, you know, you look at a screen, and you click a mouse, and you order something, and it shows up, but to have a tangible experience, to be able to come in to taste things, to see things, to smell things, all those things, it's very important that you do so.

is >> the meeting is called to order. roll call. >> [mic is off] >> commissioner alexander. >> here. >> commissioner weisman-weissman-ward >> here. >> commissioner hsu. commissioner sanchez? >> here. >> president lam? >> here. >> vice-president boggess? >> here >> commissioner motamedi? >> here. >> thank you. >> thank you all and thanks for your patience. we're having audio challenges so we're trying to work through them but in the meantime because this is a virtually hybrid access meeting,