-- i did not intend to move her amendments today thinking that there could be a chance for as more conversation to be frank to see where we could land on may 26th within committee. but now that knowing if there's no interest and must move this to the full board with positive recommendation, with only the amendments proposed by supervisor mandelman and supervisor safai that i will be perhaps a lone vote of 'no' to move this forward with positive recommendation to the full board today and that to say that i would like to make the motion to approve or amend the legislation with supervisor melgar's amendments and in the event that motion fails, perhaps we will make this attempt again in the full board in the chamber when it does come forward. but i just wanted to lay that out. thank you, chair mar.

>> chairman: thank you, supervisor chan. so again, i would like to maybe -- we'll start with supervisor mandelman's proposed amendments just because he's the chief sponsor and have the committee sort of weigh in on whether we're supportive of those and then we'll go to supervisor melgar's amendments and actually supervisor safai's as well. i'm happy to summarize them. supervisor mandelman -- supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank you, chair mar. i was going to wait until after supervisor melgar explained her amendments again, but i'll go ahead and just speak now. i want to thank supervisor mandelman for this piece of legislation. i know that it is specific towards a certain population of our homeless individuals and i am proud to co-sponsor it. i'm happy he corrected a few of the things that we heard here today that this is not congregate shelter for all. that's not what we envision,

it's just warehousing a whole bunch of people in an undignified way. that's not what i am for. also talking about a permanent supportive housing plan and really underscoring the problems with encampments for the individuals that are there, you know, the fact that we've had individuals die in had these tents. we've had women that have been raped in these tents it is not dignified for them and not fair to them to only have that option when there isn't a permanent supportive housing unit for them in that moment. and to focus on how we can have another place in addition to our permanent supportive housing is what i think is a good idea and, you know, i just wanted to underscore as well and we look and hear this all the time as supervisors at least, i hear it all the time, we've allocated $1 billion to address homelessness last year

and over $25 million to address mental health crisis and these twin crisis continue to get worse and people are wondering why? why is it we spend more money and don't see any solutions. we don't see any progress and just when you -- and we've also significantly broadened who can access shelter in place and hotel rooms which is a good thing to do and i'm glad we've done that and we've had more permanent supportive housing than any other city in the country which is a good thing and something that san francisco should be proud of. you know when i look at the problem over a the problem has been growing increasingly dramatic between 2005 and 2020 the estimated number of

homeless people in san francisco increased from 5,400 to 8,100 people. and the unsheltered rose from 2,600 to 5,100. so we're seeing huge increases especially among our unsheltered homeless population. meanwhile, homelessness has declined in the nation as a whole and in other big cities over the last 15 years. so you have to wonder what are we doing in san francisco that we might do better? what could we be doing different because what we're doing now isn't really hitting the mark. nationwide homelessness declined from 763,000 to 568,000 in the last 15 years and san francisco has the greatest quantitiy of permanent supportive houses per can to a than any other major city in the u.s. and twice as much as new york

city and chicago and also the unsheltered homeless population of new york and chicago well 11% and 10% between 2005 and 2020. while san francisco's rose. our unsheltered homeless population in that time period rose by 95%. so when i look at the piece of legislation put forward and we do it all the time and i just want to emphasize too that we

getting back to do we have to show for that. and, you know, when i've walked through the tenderloin more than a few times. and obviously addiction is something that you and i talk a lot about, supervisor mandelman. we've had our treatment on demand hearings and what you see and what i've seen in the tent encampments are people especially with regard to addiction that are not getting the help they need are not people living on the streets but my experience and what i know of addiction is that people are slowly dying on our streets and intervention is being made again for their dignity they deserve and for how we need to intervene to help them and whether it's the tiny homes that some people

like and some people don't, whether it's a different kind of shelter, not congregate shelter, we have to look at different options. we have to and that's what i believe that this legislation does. i believe the current system is just not working and that additional critical interventions and resources are necessary if we want to get serious about addressing the crisis. and i believe as lori brook said with rescue sf that we can work together. the divisiveness and the toxic acrimony around it is unnecessary. and we are all compassionate human beingses here. no one has cornered the market on compassion in san francisco and i do not believe this comes from a it comes from a place of people wanting to find additional housing and i support that.

i love my colleague supervisor melgar very much as she knowses. i do want to respect supervisor mandelman's view of this legislation. i will be supporting the first part of the amendment this he articulated but the other two that are subs substantiative, i will be supporting today. i believe this piece of legislation is ready to go out and that's where i stand and i want to thank you supervisor mandelman for your thoughtfulness and bravery for bringing it back again in spite of some people not wanting you to. i hope we can all work together to find ways to deal with the encampments in a way that is respectful of all those that need housing and respectful of all those that continue to walk by the encampments in ways that aren't safe for many people as we discussed about the

tenderloin when we had what seems like a 24 hour hearing on christmas eve for the tenderloin emergency order. there's obviously necessary things we need to address and i believe this legislation is a first step and, again, thank you, supervisor mandelman. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor stefani. so again, if we can consider supervisor mandelman's amendments and, supervisor mandelman, i think it would be helpful for you just to kind of walk us through them and we can see how the committee feels about them. >> supervisor mandelman: sure. my amendments. so on page eight in so the resitals we had a reference to safe overnight parking lots and we have changed the description from tiny homes to the more

appropriate noncongregate cab cabins. that was part of a change that supervisor safai and supervisor melgar had emphasized. and then we made the change around tiny homes throughout. and also we added safe references to safe overnight parking lots in a number of places including in the definitions. on page 10, section 118.5, the implementation plan we heard from h.s.h. that three months was not enough time for them to come up with an implementation plan that seemed reasonable and so we are giving them what we hope will be six to get to the end of 2022. added a reference to and implementation time line. supervisor safai, i believe referenced the change on the

next page b kav yachting the business planning for people who may be expected to shelter-in-place and for whom housing has not been made. and then further down in the description of what's included in the implementation plan we've added a description of the recommended service in order to offer and expedite guests moving into shelters and housing. that's the desire to see people getting moved in and not warehoused and that doesn't become the case and adding section and rental subsidies needed to ensure all guests. nine the new nine is a description of the homelessness prevention programs and services.

used to reduce the number of people exiting homelessness in san francisco. so that's a analysis plan and for the resources to ensure that shelter's available to folks experiencing homelessness in all neighborhoods of san francisco. we know there are people who are exextraordinarily impacted. i think the castro's pretty impacted but there's homelessness and there are encampments throughout the city and there's a plan on how the department is going to respond to homelessness throughout the city. and then the next change is in c which as i mentioned a list that is -- a list of possible

sites that would not be just a point in time but would continue to be refreshed and the next page page 13, we had a limitation on safe sleep sites at 20% and supervisor safai requested that we take that down to ten. i think the department of homeness and supportive housing has no desire to do any. i think folks are more likely to take that exit or perhaps a tiny home than they would be certainly a congregate. so i would not like to see this option eliminated entirely but we're -- this would have it down at 10% and then there's in addition to that in public works and as one of the agencies that would need to be

coordinated with. i think those are mine. >> chairman: thank you, supervisor mandelman. just resummarizing your amendments. i think those all seem like good amendments yeah, and they're nonsubstantiative. supervisor stefani and supervisor chan. >> supervisor stefani: i will move those amendments. i'm fine with them. >> chairman: great. and i know some of them there's overlap with some of supervisor melgar's amendments. so why don't we go to supervisor melgar if you can summarize your amendments. i think, i'd prefer if we try

to yeah see where there's. >> supervisor melgar: let me just, if i could, you know i have no issues with any of the amendments that supervisor mandelman is putting forward. i think it's great. and i'm grateful that you included a lot of my issues in your amendments. so that's great. the issue for me is that a couple of -- it doesn't go far enough in terms of a policy. so i have added my own amendments at which as supervisor stefani very well said i don't think there's any need for acrimony and we heard that from the community both from rescue sf and folks in the coalition. so i'm happy if you vote on supervisor mandelman's amendments first, because i don't think there's any beef here. >> chairman: thank you. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: actually. i have a quick question. i do see that i'm just opening supervisor safai's aid bill

barns' amendment that you know, this is what supervisor safai has proposed and i'm trying to you know coordinate between what supervisor mandelman has just went through but for example i am not proposing to move his because anyway. it's that on page 13, right, on page 13 line seven which i don't think that is what supervisor mandelman had discussed, but in supervisor safai's proposal i believe he did say at the rate. so in line 7, page 13 line seven the last sentence at the rate of successful referral to to shelter amount to people who offer such placement.

i think there's a difference and unfortunately he's not here to go through those amendments. i just want to flag that. i'm not making a movement to incorporated in what supervisor mandelman has just discussed. >> chairman: thank you supervisor chan. what i was hoping is if we can go through. three sets of amendments. as supervisor stefani made the motion on that you know we can all agree on and if there's

going to be some overlap and working to figure out how to address that through language. deputy city attorney pierson. >> there are probably a number of different ways dood this. and then to turn to supervisor safai's amendments where there is considerable overlap to add something or to make that motion even if it's in contradiction, then we can do that and then after that supervisor melgar's amendments. >> chairman: so why don't we a

motion to adopt. >> clerk: on item number three, [roll call] >> chairman: so in major nine, he adds in addition to safe overnight parking lots which has already been added to. >> supervisor mandelman: 's triage centers, yeah that's online 24. i think that appears a number of other places in his legislation where in addition to safe overnight parking lots, he specifies vehicle navigation

triage centers. >> if i may there's a separate section of the code that addresses safe parking programs. so i believe one in supervisor mandelman and supervisor safai has referenced them throughout. >> if the committee wants to indicate which ones they or you can make it amendment by

amendment. like if the committee wanted to adopt supervisor safai's amendments that wouldn't undo anything i've done for example i'm looking at page 11. both sets of amendments offer.

>> supervisor mandelman: well, from my part i would be fine with supervisor safai's amendments trumping my amendments. >> with different language we need to know which one the committee prefers. >> well, that's interesting language. well, the other possibility is if supervisor safai's language is nonsubstantiative. if the committee accepts supervisor melgar's amendments and the thing gets continued two weeks, there wouldn't be any. and if it's not, then it could

be added to the full board right. >> that's right. i think if you wanted to make a motion to add the vehicle triage centers where he has under the policy, he adds language that it should be further the policy of the city and vehicle nav jaegs prior to there being offered another shelter or housing option. >> supervisor mandelman: it was not. although i'm fine with that. >> i would support i'm not making a motion right now, but support us, yeah amending further amending the

legislation to add supervisor safai's amendments. i think they're all helpful in just further clarifying things and then except it'd be helpful to note deputy city attorney if you can note which one there would be some confusion over. >> looking through it quickly, i do think that's the only one where there's sort of a conflict because different language is chosen is the example that i highlighted which was on -- sorry. page. it was in subsection b page 11, line 5 or line 6. the concept is the same, the words are different. so. >> supervisor mandelman: i'm fine with either. >> okay. >> chairman: okay.

so i would -- yeah. i would move that we further amend the legislation and adopt the amendments supervisor safai presented. please call roll. >> clerk: all right. on the motion to accept the amendments as offered by supervisor safai to item number three, [roll call] there are three ayes. >> chairman: thank you. now on supervisor melgar's, you can just resummarize your amendments and there's already a motion by supervisor chan to adopt them. >> supervisor melgar: thank you so much supervisor, chair mar. really there's three things to our controversial, the main thing is that after every word that's a shelter in this policy statement, we say 'shelter' and permanent supportive housing.

that way we are guiding or telling the department to present a plan that is in the context of our housing first policy but adds the crucial component of shelter so that we can quantify shelter in the context of housing. so it would read you know submit to the board of supervisors and the mayor to implement a program to provide unsheltered persons in san francisco with access to shelter and permanent supportive housing a place for all programses. and then the second thing. and that is throughout the document. there's many places but the other thing that i would ask is that you consider also adding requiring h.s.h. to implement a

system to allow individuals experiencing homelessness to register for shelter by telephone which provides a way for both geographic equity and operationalizing it and also provides folks who are not currently on the sidewalk but are experiencing homelessness in need of shelter beds away to access it in a way that's easy that's low barrier and allows them to get in. so those are the things that are substantiative in my amendment. >> chairman: thank you. i did want to point out one other proposed amendment from you that i think is important and that's page 12, line 5 item 3. it says an analysis of the cost

effectiveness of different shelter and you added homelessness prevention and permanent supportive housing models which addresses the association between each model and the outcomes for clients. and then additionally on page 13, line 17, item c the city shall not fund operation of new shelters with funds that may not be lawfully using for those purposes including tax revenue designated by the voters for use to support behavioral health treatment and permanent housing. so thank you. >> supervisor melgar: thank you for talking, supervisor mar. >> chairman: supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: sorry. nitpicking for the title, i would suggest it's shelter expansion and permanent supportive housing program because my assumption is the idea is expanding the shelter it's not to expand permanent

supportive housing. that's all. >> chairman: yeah. well thank you, supervisor melgar for your work on these amendments. i think these really help to address some of my concerns around, you know the legislation as it was originally drafted and really ensuring that our plan to expand shelter is really done in coordination and in close coordination with our plan to address homelessness in a long term permanent way through permanent supportive housing and affordable housing and services and then also that the key point around reimplementing a telephone registration system

just to make it easier for folkses who are living in shelter to be able to get to request shelter. so i appreciate those. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: thank you, i just have a quick question did supervisor chan move all three amendments together? >> chairman: supervisor chan moved to adopt supervisor melgar's amendments. >> supervisor stefani: okay. as we mentioned i was find with the nonsubstantiative amendment and not with the other two. i don't think it's going to matter but if anybody wanted to split that i'd be fine or not. >> clerk: mr. chair if we can divide the question on supervisor melgar's amendments if that's the case. >> chairman: so.

>> clerk: we have three amendments that you guys have called out. if you'd like to take them one by one we can do that and divide the question on it. >> chairman: okay. yeah. >> clerk: would you like to do that? >> chairman: sure. >> clerk: okay. we can go ahead and take the first one regarding shelter and adding after shelter with supervisor chan's addition to shelter expansion and permanent housing program and that is changed throughout the legislation. >> if i may just clarify one thing about that amendment, that word is added throughout so it would expand the scope of the plan and it would expand the scope of the program. the other change that's in there, but maybe not so obvious is that the current proposal requires that the city try to estimate the number of beds or units that would be required

for all the people experiencing homelessness and supervisor melgar's version is a little more expansive and would require for all the people experiencing homelessness with the expecting number who would not accept it. >> chairman: so the first one is clearly substantiative expanding the scope of the plan and implementation and the other one that's substantiative is reinstating the telephonic registration system. those are the two substantiative amendments

right. okay. >> supervisor chan: yes. i will make the motion to the amendments to add permanent supportive housing throughout the legislation so that it reads as shelter and permanent supportive housing. >> chairman: supervisor melgar. >> supervisor melgar: just so i understand i really liked your shelter expansion and permanent supportive housing. can i accept that on the fly city attorney? >> are you talking about the title. >> the short title is something that's prepared by the city attorney's office to comply with noticing requirements. but it's not something that the board amends. >> supervisor melgar: okay. >> supervisor chan: i make that motion so you have to call the roll. >> chairman: yeah. why don't we call roll on that. >> clerk: on the motion for the divided question for the first amendment to supervisor

melgar's proposal, [roll call] there are two ayes. >> chairman: thank you. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: and, i'll make the second motion to amend to add the register for shelter by telephone. >> chairman: can we call roll on that madam clerk. >> clerk: on the second divided question to supervisor melgar's amendment [roll call] there are two ayes. >> chairman: thank you. >> supervisor chan: and then i think the third was for the rest. i don't know. >> chairman: the rest of supervisor melgar's amendments

that are nonsubstantiative. >> supervisor chan: yeah. so the rest will be. i will make the motion to amend the definitions which is adding the definition of like homelessness prevention and permanent supportive housing. >> chairman: great. please call roll. >> clerk: yes on the third divided question, [roll call] there are three ayes. >> chairman: thank you. >> chairman: so deputy city attorney. >> i think it might be worthwhile to take one final vote. there are a couple issues that are remaining that i don't think were captured in the descriptions of the motions taken so far. so just a vote to approve the expansion that i described previously that applies both to the analysis and the program itself that would expand those

not only to look at people i thought the last one was just definitions, the stated motion. >> [ indiscernible ] >> those definitions appear throughout so, are yeah. >> [ indiscernible ] >> i think so. i think we haven't captureded 100%. >> chairman: actually and then can we just clarify this point. so the third motion that

supervisor chan made that we adopted was only adopting the amendments to the definition section. >> that was the motion that i heard and i think madam clerk agrees. >> chairman: there are additional amendments that supervisor melgar had presented that are part of the implementation plan or the plan in the implementation. >> there are a small number of additional amendments that i think haven't been captured yet including the language that would prohibit the use of funds that are allocated for other types of projects. so i just don't want the committee to miss anything that is intended to change. >> chairman: supervisor

mandelman. >> supervisor mandelman: yeah. i think we somehow split. the buckets that we have described have been voted on three times for two buckets and the third bucket which was the item on which i think we were all agreed about not breaking the law has not been voted on. right? >> chairman: supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i'd like to move to rescind that last vote. >> chairman: okay. and that's -- okay. >> supervisor stefani: the last motion regarding the definitions. >> chairman: okay. madam clerk. >> clerk: on the motion to rescind the last vote on the third divided question, [roll call]

there are three ayes. >> chairman: thank you. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: i'll make the motion to amend the definition as well as the implementation and evaluation to add both the permanent supportive housing as well as the -- my apologies, homelessness -- oh my gosh my apologies for going too fast. now i lost my place. i will make the motion to move to amend the definition of -- there we go. i will move to amend homeless -- amend the definitions of

homelessness prevention as well as the permanent supportive housing and save overnight parking lot that is on page 9 and then it would then continue through to the implementation and evaluation. is that sufficient motion? >> i'm a little concerned it doesn't capture 100% of the amendments that are in the document. my understanding is the committee has approveded the addition of permanent housing. of the second motion was approved the telephonic line. now, the committee could consider a motion to approve everything else at this point or everything except for something. i think at this point there's definition that is need to be added throughout. >> supervisor chan: if i make the motion to say we accept

everything else we amend everything else with the exception of the telephonic registry and permanent supportive housing? >> supervisor stefani: i'm thinking because -- i mean, at this point you have the votes. why don't you just move it and i'll just vote no. at this point. >> chairman: okay. thank you. supervisor chan has moved that we accept the rest of the remainder that supervisor melgar presented that weren't covered in the first two motions and these are nonsubstantiative. please call roll. >> clerk: on the motion we're taking the third divided question again on the balance of supervisor melgar's proposed amendments, [roll call] there are two ayes. >> chairman: thank you. and, so i think we basically

adopted the amendments that the three sets of amendments today that supervisor mandelman, supervisor safai and supervisor melgar have presented. and deputy city attorney pierson, it seems like you're going to see if there's any overlap in language and just clean that up if there's nothing significant. >> i think we identified one overlap and i understood from supervisor mandelman he was moving to accept the language in supervisor safai's conflicting language. so i think i have my marching orders. charm >> chairman: great. thank you. supervisor chan. >> supervisor chan: and with that, i withdraw my motion to continue the item. >> chairman: okay. thank you. >> because the amendments are substantiative the item will have to be continued. >> chairman: so i would move that we continue this to the next meeting of the p.s.n.s. committee. it is may 26th. >> yes. >> clerk: so on the motion to continue item number three to the may 26th 2022, psns

meeting as amended, [roll call] there are three ayes. >> chairman: thank you. everyone. thanks again, supervisor mandelman. supervisor melgar and colleagues and everybody from the public. this will be continued. why don't we go back to -- we need to finish up item four. so deputy city attorney pierson, i know my office was in communication with you about an amendment to this that would allow us to keep this. >> i understand from the clerk that there actually is a little bit of room in the calendar to continue the item because the original is only at the mayor's office right now and there's 30

more days before it goes into effect. i understand it's okay to continue it with the intention of amending it at the next meeting. >> chairman: sounds good. i'll move that we continue item four to the call of the chair. madam clerk. >> clerk: on the motion to continue item number four to the call of the chair or may 26th? may 26th is the last opportunity. >> chairman: state that then. >> clerk: item number four will be continued to may 26th. [roll call] there are three ayes. >> chairman: great thank you. madam clerk, is there any further business? >> clerk: that concludes our business for today. >> chairman: we are adjourned.

>> we are right now in outer richmond in the last business area of this city. this area of merchants is in the most western part of san francisco, continue blocks down the street they're going to fall into the pacific ocean. two blocks over you're going to have golden gate park. there is japanese chinese, hamburgers, italian you don't have to cook. you can just walk up and down the street and you can get your cheese. i love it.

but the a very multicultural place with people from everywhere. it's just a wonderful environment. i love the richmond district. >> and my wife and i own a café. we have specialty coffee drinks your typical lattes and mochas and cappuccinos, and for lunches sandwiches and soup and salad. made fresh to order. we have something for everybody. >> my shop is in a very cool part of the city but that's one of the reasons why we provide such warm and generous treats, both physically and emotionally. (♪) >> it's an old-fashioned general store. they have coffee. other than that what we sell is fishing equipment. go out and have a good time. >> one of my customers that has

been coming here for years has always said this is my favorite store. when i get married i'm coming in your store. and then he in his wedding outfit and she in a beautiful dress came in here in between getting married at lands end and to the reception, unbelievable. (♪) >> the new public health order that we're announcing will require san franciscans to remain at home with exceptions only for essential outings. >> when the pandemic first hit we kind of saw the writing on the walls that potentially the city is going to shut all

businesses down. >> it was scary because it was such an unknown of how things were going to pan out. i honestly thought that this might be the end of our business. we're just a small business and we still need daily customers. >> i think that everybody was on edge. nobody was untouched. it was very silent. >> as a business owner, you know things don't just stop, right? you've still got your rent, and all of the overhead, it's still there. >> there's this underlying constant sense of dread and anxiety. it doesn't prevent you from going to work and doing your job, it doesn't stop you from doing your normal routine. what it does is just make you feel extra exhausted.

>> so we began to reopen one year later and we will emerge stronger we will emerge better as a city because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one another. >> this place has definitely been an anchor for us it's home for us, and again we are part of this community and the community is part of us. >> one of the things that we strived for is making everyone in the community feel welcome and we have a sign that says "you're welcome." no matter who you are no matter what your political views are, you're welcome here. and it's sort of the classic san francisco thing is that you work with folks. >> the your dutyit is your duty to help everybody in san francisco.

>> roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. the light bulb went off in my head and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. >> working with kids in the ocean that aren't familiar with this space is really special because you're dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time a lot of

excitement. >> when i first did it i was like really scared, but then, i did it again and i liked it. >> we'll get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach are terrified of the idea who don't like the beach. it's too cold out, and it's those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. >> over the last few years i think we've had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. >> surfing helped me with like, how to swim. >> we've start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. >> swimming at the pool just helps us with like being, like comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all -- not being anxious. >> so when we started the city

surf project one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p.e. credits. just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. but now that we've been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids that's consistent and the word has spread that it's super fun, that you learn about the ocean. >> starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids and we take them to a local beach. >> we usually go to linda mar and then occasionally ocean beach. we once did a special trip. we were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. >> we get in a circle and group

stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day and then we go down to the water. >> once we go to the beach i don't want to go home. i can't change my circumstances at home but i can change the way i approach them. >> our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. >> i don't really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to like get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didn't think i'd like like ended up being my best friends. >> it's a group sport the way we do it and with, like close camaraderie, but everybody's doing it for themselves. >> it's great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. >> it can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can

learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. >> i feel significantly like calmer. it definitely helps if i'm like feeling really stressed or like feeling really anxious about surfing and i go surfing, and then i just feel like i'm going to be okay. >> it gives them resiliency skills and helps them build self-confidence. and with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. >> i went to bring anymy family to the beach and tell them what i did. >> i saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students and i got to see them fail you know and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. >> for some kids that are,

like resistant to like being in a mentorship program like this it's they want to surf and then later, they'll find out that they've like, made this community connection. >> i think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. >> for kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. >> we go on 150 surf outings a year. that's year-round programming. we've seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. >> i just think the biggest thing is like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool that they're engaged in and that we like, care about them and

how they're doing, like, in general. >> what i like best is they really care about me like i'm not alone and i have a group of people that i can go to and, also, surfing is fun. >> we're creating surfers, and we're changing the face of surfing. >> the feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. it's definitely faster than i think you expect it to be but it's definitely fun. >> it leaves you feeling really really positive about what that kid's going to go out and do. >> i think it's really magical almost. at least it was for me. >> it was really exciting when i caught my first wave. >> i felt like i was like -- it was like, magical, really. >> when they catch that first wave and their first lights up you know -- their face

lights up, you know you have them hooked. >> i was on top of the world. it's amazing. i felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. it was, like the scariest thing i'd ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after i worked on the it for 16+ years and i workeded an endless cycle of people going to the emergency room. i wanted to address those unmet needs. i have a satisfaction when we make a real difference in our clients' lives. we were getting people housed

connecting them to treatment and seeing them through sobriety. don't be afraid of failure. i have failed at things in my career and they are opportunities to continue on. it's important for women and women and people of color to see representation matters. when i first started my career 25 years ago there were not that many other women. so it is amazing to respond to meetings and go to meetings and see other female leaders and learn from each other. this career is my dream job from working on [ indiscernible ] to being the chief and overseeing a division. it's been challenging and rewarding and inspiring.

when i shoot chinatown, i shoot the architecture that people not just events, i shoot what's going on in daily life and everything changes. murals graffiti store opening. store closing. the bakery. i shoot anything and everything in chinatown. i shoot daily life. i'm a crazy animal. i'm shooting for fun.

that's what i love. >> i'm frank jane. i'm a community photographer for the last i think about 20 years. i joined the chinese historical society. it was a way i could practice my society and i can give the community memories. i've been practicing and get to know everybody and everybody knew me pretty much documenting the history i don't just shoot events. i'm telling a story in whatever photos that i post on facebook it's just like being there from front to end, i do a good job and i take hundreds and

hundreds of photos. and i was specializing in chinese american history. i want to cover what's happening in chinatown. what's happening in my community. i shoot a lot of government officials. i probably have thousands of photos of mayor lee and all the dignitaries. but they treat me like one of the family members because they see me all the time. they appreciate me. even the local cops the firemen, you know i feel at home. i was born in chinese hospital 1954. we grew up dirt poor. our family was lucky to grew up. when i was in junior high, i had a degree in hotel management restaurant. i was working in the restaurant

business for probably about 15 years. i started when i was 12 years old. when i got married, my wife had an import business. i figured, the restaurant business i got tired of it. i said come work for the family business. i said okay. it's going to be interesting and so interesting i lasted for 30 years. i'm married i have one daughter. she's a registered nurse. she lives in los angeles now. and two grandsons. we have fun. i got into photography when i was in junior high and high school. shooting cameras. the black and white days i was able to process my own film. i wasn't really that good because you know color film and processing was expensive and i kind of left it alone for about

30 years. i was doing product photography for advertising. and kind of got back into it. everybody said oh, digital photography, the year 2000. it was a ghost town in chinatown. i figured it's time to shoot chinatown store front nobody. everybody on grand avenue. there was not a soul out walking around chinatown. a new asia restaurant it used to be the biggest restaurant in chinatown. it can hold about a 1,000 people and i had been shooting events there for many years. it turned into a supermarket. and i got in.

i shot the supermarket. you know and its transformation. even the owner of the restaurant the restaurant it's 50 years old. i said yeah. it looks awful. history. because i'm shooting history. and it's impressive because it's history because you can't repeat. it's gone it's gone. >> you stick with her, she'll teach you everything. >> cellphone photography that's going to be the generation. i think cellphones in the next two, three years, the big cameras are obsolete already. mirrorless camera is going to take over market and the cellphone is going to be better. but nobody's going to archive

it. nobody's going to keep good history. everybody's going to take snapshots, but nobody's going to catalog. they don't care. >> i want to see you. >> it's not a keepsake. there's no memories behind it. everybody's sticking in the cloud. they lose it who cares. but, you know i care. >> last september of 2020 i had a minor stroke and my daughter caught it on zoom. i was having a zoom call for my grand kids. and my daughter and my these little kids said hey you sound strange. yeah. i said i'm not able to speak

properly. they said what happened. my wife was taking a nap and my daughter, she called home and said he's having a stroke. get him to the hospital. five minutes later, you know, the ambulance came and took me away and i was at i.c.u. for four days. i have hundreds of messages wishing me get well soon. everybody wished that i'm okay and back to normal. you know i was up and kicking two weeks after my hospital stay. it was a wake-up call. i needed to get my life in order and try to organize things especially organize my photos. >> probably took two million photos in the last 20 years.

i want to donate to an organization that's going to use it. i'm just doing it from the heart. i enjoy doing it to give back to the community. that's the most important. give back to the community. >> it's a lot for the community. >> i was a born hustler. i'm too busy to slow down. i love what i'm doing. i love to be busy. i go nuts when i'm not doing anything. i'm 67 this year. i figured 70 i'm ready to retire. i'm wishing to train a couple for photographers to take over my place. the younger generation they have a passion, to document the history because it's going to be forgotten in ten years, 20

years, maybe i will be forgotten when i'm gone in a couple years but i want to be remembered for my work and, you know photographs will be a remembrance. i'm frank jane. i'm a community photographer. this is my story. >> when you're not looking, frank's there. he'll snap that and then he'll send me an e-mail or two and they're always the best. >> these are all my p p p p p p p

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>> i don't want to be involved in the process after it happens. i want to be there at the front end to help people with something in my mind from a very early age. our community is the important way to look at things even now. george floyd was huge. it opened up wounds and a discussion on something festering for a long time. before rodney king. you can look at all the instances where there are calls for change. i think we are involved in change right now in this moment that is going to be long lasting. it is very challenging. i was the victim of a crime when

i was in middle school. some kids at recess came around at pe class and came to the locker room and tried to steal my watch and physically assaulted me. the officer that helped afterwards went out of his way to check the time to see how i was. that is the kind of work, the kind of perspective i like to have in our sheriff's office regardless of circumstance. that influenced me a lot. some of the storefronts have changed. what is mys is that i still see some things that trigger memories. the barbershop and the shoe store is another one that i remember buying shoestrings and getting my dad's old army boots fixed. we would see movies after the first run. my brother and i would go there. itit is nice.

if you keep walking down sacramento. the nice think about the city it takes you to japan town. that is where my grandparents were brought up. that is the traditional foods or movies. they were able to celebrate the culture in that community. my family also had a dry-cleaning business. very hard work. the family grew up with apartments above the business. we have a built-in work force. 19 had 1 as -- 1941 as soon as that happened the entire community was fixed. >> determined to do the job as democracy should with real consideration for the people involved. >> the decision to take every one of japan niece american -- o

japanese from their homes. my family went to the mountains and experienced winter and summer and springs. they tried to make their home a home. the community came together to share. they tried to infuse each home are little things. they created things. i remember my grand mother saying they were very scared. they were worried. they also felt the great sense of pride. >> japanese americans. >> my grand granduncle joined the 442nd. when the opportunity came when the time that was not right. they were in the campaign in italy.

they were there every step of the way. >> president truman pays tribute. >> that was the most decorated unit in the history of the united states army. commitment and loyal to to the country despite that their families were in the camp at that time. they chose to come back to san francisco even after all of that. my father was a civil servant as well and served the state of california workers' compensation attorney and judge and appellate board. my parents influenced me to look at civil service s.i applied to police and sheriff's department at the same time. the sheriff's department grabbed me first. it was unique. it was not just me in that moment it was everyone. it wasn't me looking at the

crowd. it was all of us being together. i was standing there alone. i felt everyone standing next to me. the only way to describe it. it is not about me. it is from my father. my father couldn't be there. he was sick. the first person i saw was him. i still sometimes am surprised by the fact i see my name as the sheriff. i am happy to be in the position i am in to honor their memory doing what i am doing now to help the larger comment. when i say that we want to be especially focused on marginalized communities that have been wronged. coming from my background and my family experienced what they did. that didn't happen in a vacuum.

it was a decision made by the government. nobody raised their voice. now, i think we are in a better place as country and community. when we see something wrong we have change agents step up to help the community affected. that is a important thing to continue to do. you talk about change and being a leader in change and not knowing whether you have successes or results. the fact of the matter is by choosing to push for change you have already changed things. through inspiration for others, take up the matter or whether it is through actual functional change as a result of your voice being heard. i think you have already started on a path to change by choosing that path. in doing that in april of itself creates change. i continue in that type of service for my family.

something i hope to see in my children. i have a pretty good chance with five children one will go into some sort of civil service. i hope that happens to continue that legacy. >> i am paul sheriff of san francisco. [ music ]

there's so much involved with becoming a firefighter. and as a component of being a woman in the field, it takes a lot of perception. it takes belief in yourself. it takes asking the right questions of people who already have the job so that you have the confidence to build it and it takes someone telling you that this job is a possibility for you. my job has given me 25 years of satisfaction. the primary thing is that i grew up here in san francisco and i'm serving in the city where i grew up. i transitioned to community training and i was able to build disaster resilient padre of volunteers and bringing us

all the latest information so that we can be ready for a disaster. pride and loyalty are the heart of a firefighter. it's in the way we do our job from the very smallest thing from our everyday checks we do of our equipment. from the way that we treat each other and the community we come in contact with every day. and loyalty is to our own families is to the pride we have in this department. it's to the other members when we're out in a dangerous situation keeping each other safe. it goes throughout every aspect of being a firefighter. i'm really proud of the way our department approaches diversity, equity, and inclusion. i was hired in a class that had 45 people and 17 women. it was an accomplishment at the time but there were many women that came before me that laid the ground work and i had to see it to be it. someone had to recruit me into this job. i didn't know it was a possibility for myself. and so the importance of young women seeing what it takes to be a firefighter seeing themselves when they look at

me. it really brings myself a lot of pride and joy in this work. >> i view san francisco almost as a sibling or a parent or something. i just love the city. i love everything about it. when i'm away from it i miss it like a person. i grew up in san francisco kind of all over the city. we had pretty much the run of the city 'cause we lived pretty close to polk street and so we would -- in the summer, we'd all all the way down to aquatic park and we'd walk down to the

library, to the kids' center. in those days, the city was safe and nobody worried about us running around. i went to high school in spring valley. it was over the hill from chinatown. it was kind of fun to experience being in a minority, which most white people don't get to experience that often. everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun. when i was a teenager, we didn't have a lot of money. we could go to sam wong's and get super -- soup for $1. my parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. they wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at the time but my mother had some serious mental illness issues, and i don't think my father were really aware of

that and those didn't really become evident until i was about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up and my mother took me all over the world. most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. when i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan and that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. i remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. mostly i remember the smells very intensely but i loved japan. it was wonderful. toward the end. my mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. we would go somewhere stay for a certain amount of months a year period of time and she would inevitably have a breakdown. we always came back to san francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and

that was what kept me sort of stable. my mother hated to fly so she would always make us take ships places so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal and she had a breakdown on the ship. so she was put in the brig and i was left to wander the ship until we got to fluorfluora few days later where we had a distant -- florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. i think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. i used to write short stories, and i thought someday i'm going to write a book about all these ad ventures that my mother took me on.

when i became a cop i found i turned off parts of my brain. i found i had to learn to conform, which was not anything i'd really been taught but felt very safe to me. i think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable environment. and even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt very safe to me. my girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvio's bar and i looked out the window and i saw a police car and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. for a moment, i thought i was me. and i turned to my friend and i said, i think i'm supposed to do this. i saw myself driving in this car. as a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there weren't any until the mid70's, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job.

when i saw here, it seemed like this is what i was meant to do. one of my bosses as ben johnson's had been a cop, and he he -- i said i have this weird idea that i should do this. he said i think you'd be good. the department was forced to hire us and because of all of the posters, and the big recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. so the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. finally took an inspector's test and passed that and then went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career which was fun. i just felt sort of buried

alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that there were just so many of them and some of them i didn't know if we'd ever be able to solve so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. he transferred me out and a couple of weeks later i found out i had breast cancer. my intuition that the job was killing me. i ended up leaving, and by then i had 28 years or the years in i think. the writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didn't know. they didn't know my story they didn't know why i had a relationship with my mother why we had no family to speak of. it just poured out of me. i gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this. i am so lucky to live here. i am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the

city. i am so grateful they did. that it neverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[speaking in native language]

[applause] [applause] >> hi, everyone. good evening and everyone welcome to the san francisco 18th annual aapi heritage celebration. you may know me a executive director as well as japan community district. i am one of the lucky co-chairs of this year's event along with my brothers al perez and thomas lee. yeah i know. they deserve a big hand. [applause] >> let's give another round of applause to the samoan warriors from the community center. cdc was formed in 1991 and it's

the san francisco base nonprofit organization and it really serves the needs of the samoan mesh community providing programs and services that are essential for their community. so we are really grateful that they are here today and then i'm going to pass it onto my brother al. >> thank you, grace. good evening everyone my name is al perez. i'm serving as your san francisco commissioner in san francisco. tonight's event would not be possible without generous support of many people and organizations. we are grateful to our sponsors, publicity partners and volunteers especially members of one vet one voice together ff dear communityíp-=0ñ ymca of san francisco the u.s. bank business resource group, the san francisco union lyon club and

friends of ron lee you know who you are. we are also very -- we deeply appreciate our volunteer coordinator courtney ellington and her team, please give them all a round of applause. [applause] >> good evening, my name thomas lee. i'm excited to be here. in addition we want to recognize a few more folks that really bring so much life and event to our celebration. our celebration partners this evening are the asian art museum, the san francisco7s public library and the center for asian american media celebrating 40 years. these three organizations and many others are bringing so many events and activities throughout the month. we encourage you to look into these activities on our website at pasf.com. and without further due it's great -- it's my great pleasure to welcome the mistress of

ceremony my local hero, abc 7 reporter deon lim as mistress of ceremony. [applause] >> wow, can you believe we are all back together? yes. as you just heard my name is deon lee i'm a news anchor at kgtv and i do not mince words and i'm unapologetic in my messaging and it has been a tough past 3 years, hasn't it? let me tell you to be here on this stage in front of all of you after what we have gone through not only as a community as a whole but as asian americans in the bay area, it feels like a triumph in a way. i've covered tirelessly the hate the discrimination, the

xenophobia and it has been nothing short of heart-wrenching and a challenge every day. i always say you have to celebrate the wins, you to celebrate the celebrations an amplify them when you can and that is what we are doing here@uyu in the auditorium today. [applause] >> so without further due, i would like to introduce someone who i will speak a little bit more about momentarily after her performance but she is quite a force to be reckoned with. do not be mistaken by her small stature because she's big in her voice. welcome to the stage for the national anthem, ms. july miss juliette.

[national anthem]

[cheers and applause] >> i mean, talk about a show-stopper how do you follow an act up like that? [laughter] >> julia by the way and i had the pleasure of working together about a year ago when we were searching for stories to amplify achievements. she's actually just 5 year's old for all of you who don't know. she's also a certified menza genius. yeah. and not to make all of us look bad, she told me behind the stage that she's actually performing for all of you her smallest audience to date.

[laughter] >> true story. now, i'd like to get into a little bit of the history of how we got here today our timeline because admittedly as someone who is so invested in telling aapi stories i did not know a lot about how this came to be. 44 years ago. president jimmy carter signed into law a resolution declaring one week in the month of may as asian pacific american heritage month. it wasn't until 1990 that one week celebration then expanded to the entire month of may. and then 1992 when legislation was signed into law making aapi heritage month in may a permanent celebration in the united states. [applause] >> i just need to take a moment. i have so much pride sharing all of this with you.

not only that, in 2005, san francisco's mayor gavin newsome he supported the idea of an annual office celebration an official one that would include all asian and pacific islanders. now here in san francisco where more than a third of the population is asian american or pacific islander in descent, we continue to show the nation how to properly celebrate asian-pacific american heritage month and we do it with events like this. [applause] >> now planning all of this takes an army. the planning of our city's celebration includes public awareness campaigns they are the collective efforts of members of the apa heritage committee, tireless volunteers, all in partnership with the apa heritage foundation. this is for all of you who don't know a nonprofit organization that's dedicated to securing

these sponsorships and resources to make celebrations like this happen. it takes an army. at this time, i would like to welcome a very impressive woman claudia chang coordinator of this community celebration to give greetings on behalf of the team. claudine. [applause] >> we are doing it because we have an amazing team. happy aapi heritage month, everyone. hey, we are here. [applause] >> we are here to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the federal law when president jimmy carter signed into law in 1978 a -- at that time the law was only to celebrate our heritage week during the month of may and as

you have heard it has since been expanded. and every time when we gather here for this event something that we always talk about is, yes, heritage -- heritage is not just about traditions and the past. when we think about the term heritage we are thinking about the present all of us, what all of us can do here and also the future, the next generation like juliette that we just heard from sois so inspiring. but today i think i would like to take a moment and look into the past. yesterday we all heard the very sad news of the passing of secretary and he's none to known to many of us to as just nom. we would not be celebrate apa

heritage week or month if not for someone like nami in 1997 together with congressman frank from new york proposed a celebration for celebrating our heritage and contributions to this country. i remember reading his passionate speech in the house of representatives that he talked about how asian american -- pacific americans are part of the fabrics of this country that we should be included, same thing that we are still talking about today. are we included? but -- but so without at that time without fighting for it and frank harton and other members of congress supported the resolution, we would not be celebrating this occasion every

year. and many of you probably heard of him have met him was amazing. he was inspiring from being the son of a japanese immigrant who went through the internment camps in world war ii in the u.s. army to being the mayor of san jose and one of the longest serving member of congress. if that wasn't history enough, he was one of the rare asian pacific americans that actually served in two cabinet positions. secretary of commerce and the secretary of transportation and to this day he was still recognized as -- recognized as secretary mineto and all through his life it was inspiring, he was breaking barriers for asian-pacific americans have never gone before and he was paving the way for us. he was -- for those of you who have had an opportunity to have met him, he's very soft spoken, extremely personable and

extremely humble but when he was fights for rights, fighting for our opportunity he was forceful formidable tenacious out there fighting for us every day so today i would like to ask for a moment of silence in memory of lamin mineto. [silence] >> thank you. so nome left a gate legacy. i remember the last time meeting him at campus and it was campus opening in 2018 with mayor and we presented at the time a legacy award to celebrate him and title of that documentary is an american story. so he is an american story and he has left a legacy that i think that really encouraged all

of us to follow and then left path to follow. this year our celebration theme is forging community bonds. it's very relevant to the times that we live in after couple of of the pandemic, after having to address anti-asian hate, it is time that we come together and think about how we get to know each other a lot -- a little more how we can support each other. i'm not talking about just within the diverse api community but also through our san francisco with the diverse demographics. that's what -- that is a call for action forging community bonds. i am so proud and so happy that actually on may 14th all around the country in 20 some cities there's -- that is the date of solidarity and celebration and they are all adopting our theme forging community bonds because it makes sense to them. i mean, this is the times that we live in so we hope that because of all the programs that

are offered by our -- by so many organizations in our communities that -- that everyone finds -- find a program to enjoy and try to get out there try to get to know each other a little bit more so that we can all be friends because we do need to get along and we need to support each other in our city. and i remember just last week when we launched the celebration of this month in chinatown at the amazing 7-hour art festival neon was never brighter and i hope some of you are able to go and enjoy that. [applause] >> i remember at the press conference that our mayor brief said we are -- we come from all very diversed programs but we are one city, we are one community. and we are so lucky to have a mayor that really understood that and amplified every day so with no further due, mayor

london bridge. [applause] >> thank you claudine, i will start by saying it's great to be here in person for people for a change and it's been such a long time since we've had the opportunity to come together in this capacity. usually mayor brown and i don't show up at the same events together because i know how much he likes to steal the show but not today mayor brown not today. [laughter] >> but what i want to do is really take us back a little bit to a time when willy brown was mayor and how he exemplified the forging of community bonds how he worked with various communities and, in fact, i was oftentimes very impressed with the amount of support that he

consistently received from the asian community in san francisco. he was truly an example of bringing people together and part why this celebration is so important it's not just because we are coming together but it's how we forge the community bonds in san francisco with people of different races and backgrounds and how we continue to forge and strengthen bonds between so many people throughout the entire world in light of all of the challenges that continue to persist. and so i want to take this moment to acknowledge and thank some of the council generals as well as some of their representatives who are here today in solidarity to support aapi heritage month here in san francisco starting with the korea council general's office as well as china philippines

united kingdom those representatives please stand for a round of applause. [applause] >> thank you for your work and thank you for your friendship. claudine is bringing them on stage too okay. well, good, i don't mind the house lights being up. it's really great to see all of the wonderful faces. come on up since she wants to bring you all up. [laughter] >> and i just want so say thank you and celebrating with this community. they'll be wonderful activities

and you heard about camp fest telling the stories of asian americans and asian people throughout the world, you've heard about the great events that are going to be happening at the library and other activities and i just would like to take a moment to just also acknowledge the incredible bruce lee exhibit that's happening at the chinese cultural center and how timely it is because i know that oftentimes when people think about bruce lee they think about a person who was a good fighter. we know that he was a marshal artist but he really was a revolutionary artist and when you think about the theme of this event and the forging of bonds, this is what bruce lee did at a time when he himself in the film industry was being discriminated against when even -- when he tried to teach marshal arts to people that were

not necessarily of chinese decent, he was treated badly and unfairly and sometimes even by his own people and he refused to not be himself and himself being the bringing of people together and forging those bonds and the importance of doing so. now growing up as a kid i'm sure some of you remember watching those movies he was in and i didn't understand the language but i sure loved watching those moves and in our community in the black community, bruce lee was a hero. he was a hero that brought people together because his art his personality and what he represented was universal. and he took that and used that to forge bonds with various communities which is why celebrating him at this time as

revolutionary artist is someone that not just the asian community could be proud of but all of us could be proud of as an example in bringing communities together is so important. so make sure you get to see that exhibit because it is impressive, it's amazing and it's inspiring. and i also did not mention that someone is here from the council generals office of japan and so thank you so much for being here as well. i also want to just take the opportunity to acknowledge the honorees martin promised me that he would make a meal just for me. an extraordinary chef, master chef as we would call him and we are so proud and grateful that he's here today with us and we can claim him as one of our own here in san francisco and to rudy great choreographer wonderful artist. we are grateful to have you as well and i think robert honda is

here who we are honoring the television personality there and thank you so much, robert, for your work. great people to honor great activities great events during the month of may and also in honor of aapi heritage month in san francisco city hall will be lit up in the colors that claudine told us to light up city hall in. [laughter] [applause] >> as you walk out and you walk over to city hall and if it's dark outside you'll be able to see it as you celebrate. you know, claudine i'm so glad that you brought the event to the theater and i remember when we used to have it at city hall and we used to have at the mayor's conference room and how crowded it would be because there would be so many people who wanted to participate. this event has gown and it demonstrates just how important this community is to our city and to the people who are part of the city and so i want to

thank you all so much for being here as we recognize and celebrate the contributions of asian americans and their impacts on this city and the people of this city, thank you all so much. [applause] >> and now my official duty today is to sign a proclamation declaring it officially ap -- aapi we changed it from apa. aapi heritage month in the city and county of san francisco and for the signing of this proclamation iclamation in addition toallyclamation in additionally i will ask mayor brown. thank you.

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>> so nice to see everybody now that the lights are on. thank you for your vision and leadership and mayor is leaving

but mayor it is good to know that claudine has commands and instructions for you too and not just me. we are in this together. nothing but love claudine, you know. she has been part of this celebration for 17 years. this is my first time so thank you for the opportunity. i'm so incredibly grateful. thank you to the mayor staff office for all of the support, for not only being here but really truly caring about our community. now to what you see on screen tonight's celebration would not be possible if it were not for the commitment for the generous businesses, all of the support and the sponsors. so at this time i would like to introduce this year's event sponsors including the 3 copresenting sponsors amazon u.s. bank and virus geeks. also we have heritage captain sponsor, kaiser permanente, cruise heritage sponsors aapi

legislative caucus foundation first republic bank, golden state warriors japan center garage corporation and meta. pg&e and at the heritage friends level a1 comcast and the san francisco association of realtors. this list is so incredibly long of the media sponsors the community sponsors you can see a list of them in your program book that you have in your laps. they are also at our web night facebook page and other publicity materials. so once again thank you for all of your support for this community celebration. once again for all of them a round of applause. [applause] >> how many of you are fans of kpop?

yes, yes. all right because we have a special treat coming up for you momentarily. founded in 2010 korean performance group also known as kpg, the dance team with passion for kpop. the team focuses on performances at u.c. berkeley and around the bay area. they strive for excellence, why not take it away. [applause]