>> thank you very much for being here everyone. good evening san francisco mayor london breed joined here today by department of public health, dr. grant colfax as well as dr. susan phillips, and members of the board of surprisers including the president of the board walton, members mandalten, dorsey and our state sin scott wiener. we are here because we as a city and county of san francisco

officially are declaring a state of emergency for a public health crisis in san francisco involving monkeypox and more clearly, we want to make it known that san francisco has one of the highest case rates already of monkeypox of any other major city in the country. and just to put that into perspective recollect we saw over the past couple weeks the numbers begin to increase. at one point there was 60 and 80 and 140 and when there was 140 on july 20 i sent a letter to the secretary of the department of health and human service expressing significant concern and urgency for the need of vaccine in san francisco and we are at

a very scary place and we dont want to be ignored by the federal government in our need. so many leaders of the lgbt community weeks ago asked for additional help and support and assistance and this was july 20 and now here we are. july july 28 and double the number at 281 cases of monkeypox and desperate need of vaccines and to put that into perspectives we received about 12 thousand vaccines to date. we really need 70 thousand we sent a letter asking for 35 thousand because we want to prevent the

numbers increasing. we have a solution in the vaccines and we want to make sure that everyone who is requesting a vaccine gets one. we had 5 sites identified in san francisco and have to close many of those sites because we run out of vaccines. so we are all here today because we know the importance of this. we know the challenges of what happens in san francisco with we put public health on the back-burner and seen this happen in history. during the aids crisis when san francisco was virtually left on its own to fend for itself. to address what became a real pandemic in the country and we use the example what we did when we came together to fight against it discrimination,

against the hate, to focus on public health because this is about public health of the residents of our city. and so by sounding the alarm what we are saying is this is not going to be ignored, this is a public health crisis, that we are in desperate need of vaccines to support the people of san francisco. here to talk specifically about what it is that is happening in the department of public health and what we are going to continue to push for and fight for and what the declaration of emergency will do and represent and help with in san francisco is the director of the department of public health dr. grant colfax. >> good evening everybody and thank you mayor breed for your leadership: i really want to thank senator wiener, president

walter and supervisors mandelman and dorsey joining us today. today announcement is a critical piece of our city response to the monkeypox outbreak. by declaring this is a local helths emergency we are making sure everyone that everyone understands that this is a threat to our entire community. and as the mayor has mentioned, our city has a rich history of elevating celebrating and advocating for the lives of the lgbtq plus community. we have always as a city as a community been at the forefront of advocacy, treatment, research, for medical conditions disproportionately impact the lgbtq plus commune ity. this is personal to me. as a gay man who came out and

did medical training during the peak of the aids pandemic i experienced the difference, the home phobia and stigma by the medical and public health institutions with regard to prioritizing hiv prevention and care. but san francisco community driven and responsive care system were a notable exception and today we seek to immolate that history by elevating our response to this disease. this declaration will allow us to serve the city and the residents better. our covid-19 response taught us that it is imperative that we mobilize city resources rapidly and this declaration helps insure that we have the tools available to augment our outreach, testing,

vaccines and treatment, particularly and especially in the lgbtq plus community. thank you. and my pleasure to introduce dr. susan phillips our public health officer. >> thank you so much mayor breed and dr. colfax for your words. good afternoon, my name is dr. susan phillips. the health officer for the city and county of san francisco. as health officer issuing the declaration to affirm our commitment to the wellbeing of the communities that dr. colfax mentioned, the lgbtq xhungties. to alloy us to move more quickly, to obtain and distribute the resources needed to help those who are disproportionly impacted and within the lgbtq

community we know latino men who are gay many bisexual men, other men who have sex with men and trans individuals are impacted so happy to work with community based organizations such as dr. tyler (inaudible) here today with the san francisco aids foundation and amazing team and partners who have particular expertise and work in from within and for latino communities in san francisco. san francisco will not leave anyone behind in this crittle moment. we understand the difficulties and trying to get vaccinated. and let's make no mistake, even though one died of monkeypox in san francisco it is causing severe suffering and pain for many individuals. there are people who are unable to eat due to pain, there are people unable to urinate or have a bowel movement. these are strong words but this is the reason why we must act now to preserve the health

reduce suffering of our fellow san franciscans. this declaration will help us ease the process of vaccine distribution. it will also send a message to the federal government that san francisco is in dire need of more vaccines. we had to prioritize first doses of vack cine to get vaccine is to as many people who benefit from it and we will differ, not cancel but differ the second deployment. we will notify the communities when our supply is sufficient to schedule the second doses. this is the best strategy at the moment to keep san franciscans as protected as possible while supplies are limited. and i want to no introduce senator scott wiener who is a strong champion for the health of gay men and all our lgbtq communities

in san francisco during the outbreak of monkeypox. - >> public health is about. just like the city did and mayor and department of public health did so quickly at the beginning of covid pandemic and adjust like the city did 40 plus years ago when the federal government completely and utterly abandoned our community when gay and bi men

were dying in droves a mass die-off and the federal government completely abandoned us and san francisco stood strong and reprioritized and focused and built public health infrastructure to try to save lives and so i'm so proud to be a san franciscans. what is frustrating is that what is happening now was completely preventable and we need to always remember that because this won't be the last virus that impact us. it was preventable. unlike covid, unlike hiv, monkeypox is not a new mysterious are disease that just appeared. we have known about this virus for more then half century. we knee what it is, we know about the spread and there is a vaccine and a treatment already. and yet, as

monkeypox started accelerating in west africa over the last number of years spreading more and more, the world didn't do anything. instead of flooding africa with vaccines to try to stomp out this outbreak, 3, 4, 5 years ago, the world did nothing because it was africa. unfortunately that is long-history of that. experts were telling us for years that monkeypox was a matter of time before monkeypox spread outside of africa to europe and north america and elsewhere and unfortunately the u.s. did not do enough to prepare. purchased very few dogess doses of vaccine so here we are. the good news is that despite a sluggish start at the

federal level, our local health officials and at the state level sprung into action quickly and now at all levels we are rowing in the same direction. we just need to row a lot faster and we need more vaccines yesterday. we need more manufacturers of the vaccine. one manufacture is not enough. it needs to be licensed that ask manufacture not 5 or 6 million doses for u.s. other wise this will spread out of control. we have a small window of time to control the outbreak and if we dont it might be endemic and have to deal with 2 for ever. i'm very really happy to report that at the state level we is a

group of legislators working together with the administration and making budget request to provide support to our county public health departments. the county are going to have to stand up testing, vaccination sites and do a lot of education and grass roots outreach anded should not let the county do this on their own. they are under funded so the state needs to step up. we have budget surplus and provide resources. finally i want to say that i came of age as gay man in 1987 when i was 17 years old and one of the worse points of the hiv crises and feel this is de javu once again gay men are getting attacked and demonized and blamed as we get sick. that we can never tolerate

that. we need to call out these attacks and homeo phobia and treat this as a health problem and need to act with compassion and strength, make sure everyone has access to what they need to remain healthy. madam mayor, thank you so much. it is now my honor to bring up supervisor mandelman who is also incredibly vocal and tenacious around this outbreak. >> thank you senator wiener. i am very grateful for this declaration of emergency and want to thank our public health officers susan fillip and mayor and director of public hemth. it communicates to different folks a message that needs to be communicated in the face of a slow sluggish

federal response, it communicates the federal government there is a emergency and it is real and it demands immediate response with urgency. we need vaccines, we needed them a month ago. we needed them weeks ago when director colfax asked for 35 thousand as a first installment. pointed out we have gotten 12 thousand at this point. we need 70 thousand. we need more from the federal government and we need it yesterday. it communicates to folks who may be at risk. this is a emergency. monkeypox we hope will not kill you but i have talked to too many doctors and folks who have gotten monkeypox and describe the symptoms. the potentially life long disfigurement that can come from monkeypox. people need to take this seriously. if you can get yourself a vaccination and you are at risk do it. if you are not able yet to access a vaccination, do some serious thinking

with yourself about risk mitigation. this is something that gay, bi have been doing a long time but important to do it now and communicate a important message to everyone in city government who will have something to do with getting vaccinations out and the tools they need to respond. i am again grateful san francisco is taking the step and look forward to other levels of government treating this crisis with the seriousness it deserves and the urgency. thank you. and i think i am introducing my colleague supervisor matt dorsey. >> thank you so much. i want to say thank you to the department of public health, dr. colfax and dr. phillips and mayor breed. this was mentioned san francisco has a long history called the san

francisco model for how we respond to public health crisis. that is how we responded a generation ago to the aids crisis. i think we saw that again how our city responded to covid-192 and a half years ago and seeing it again today so i want to say how grateful i am to the leadership of our city and public health officialess and senator wiener and president walton and (inaudible) i like to hand it off to tyler, the ceo of the san francisco aids foundation. >> public health crisis. a community filled with fear, unanswered questions and valid outrage. resilient people that had to rise up in support of one another to educate each ort and fight for access for resources they need and deserve. a moment in

history where a federal public health response fails a community causing them unnecessary emotional mental and physical harm. no, i'm not talking about chronically hiv policy from the earliest day when the federal government resisted addressing the onset of aids in our country. i reference this very moment in the nation history when all is a lack of urgency during a public health crisis impacting transgender men and non binary folks within the country. how did woe get to this moment? this history of the u.s. government and our action on hiv aids from the past offers important lessens concerning the limits and possibilities of u.s. public health policy and health care

delivery. the last few years should have taught us valuable lessens on how to intentionally and equitably scale up testing, community awareness, vaccination, and how coordinated harm reduction messaging can help prevent the spread of disease. but here we are months after ringing the first alarm to the federal government. weeks after my warning we had a imminent window to prevent the spread of monkeypox in our community and now we arrive at a public health state of emergency. san francisco aids foundation applauds this decision of the city to declare monkeypox a public health emergency. we hope that this decision will bring greater resources and attention to monkeypox response here in san francisco and we are continuing to push the federal government to also

declare a similar public health emergency. we heard one reason the federal government has decided not to declare a public health emergency around monkeypox is because monkeypox is not a fatal disease as we heard. this is true, but what cannot be over-stated is monkeypox is causing extreme distress, fear anxiety and pain to our community. there will be unfortunate lasting consequence to our communities because of the federal government slow inadequate response to this outbreak. even with the public health emergency declared in san francisco today, we cannot let up on demands for a number of things here in our city. we need more vaccines and we need them quickly. we must insure that testing and vaccines are made available to all people at increased risk for

monkeypox. the clinicians need easier access to monkeypox treatment so people diagnosed with monkeypox can receive care quickly and efficiently. we also need to be lifting up vaccine equity in this moment and insuring communities disproportionately impacted by monkeypox have access to the information and resources they need. this evening at 6 p.m. san francisco aids foundation will host a spanish language town hall to provide information to the latin excommunity currently feeling the disproportionate impact of monkeypox in san francisco. it will be virtually streamed from the website. and finally, we must continue to fight stigma by balancing the need for population specific messaging with non stigmatizing sex positive health communication and public health response strategy. for ongeing information visit our website

at san franciscoaids foundation and reach out to the monkeypox hotline if you have questions fear or concerns. thank you so much. >> thank you and i appreciate everyone joining us here today and just to be clear, the message is that if there were any other community that was disproportionate ly impacted by monkeypox the way the gay community is impacted the whole country would be up in arms so lets not treat this community different then we would anyone else and do what we need in order to get the vaccine and get the treatment and get the resources to the cities that need them the most . san francisco clearly is base on the data, the city that needs it the most so our declaration of emergency is sound the alarm and make it very clear we are in desperate need of more vaccines and desperate need of more treatment to support the people of our city who

deserve health care just like anyone else. and i also want to take this opportunity to recognize and thank speaker nancy pelosi (inaudible) but also president of the health commission here in san francisco. all our wonderful speakers and again thanks to president of the board walton being here and members of the board of supervisors expressing just how critical this is to our city and the need to do everything we can. we have the infrastructure, we have the ability to move vaccines to the community quickly. we have the community partners. we can do this, but we definitely need support from the federal partners and we will not let ubuntil we get the resources we need to have a significant impact and to see these numbers decline and get to a point of being non existence

and with that we'll open up to any questions you have for mostly dr. phillips and dr. colfax. >> (inaudible) do you anticipate the state (inaudible) >> i think it is more so we are talking about a issue around public health and think dr. films or colfax should talk about the coordinated effort and some of the misinformation how this disease is transmitted because it isn't attributed being a sexually transmitted disease so i want dr. phillips and dr. colfax to address that

specifically. >> thank you very much for the question. so, as always the county and regions and us as health officers are very coordinated and talk regularly so they are are informed about the actions san francisco is taking and we have talked ways we can mutually support the work happening in san francisco. it is really important, we need more vaccines in san francisco. there are neighboring counties getting less then a hundred vaccines per allocation so it is a regional importance and we are closely communicateic with them but we are taking the first step because it is so incredibly important to san francisco as the mayor and other speakers have said. >> dr. colfax can you speak what challenges might exist given this is running concurrent with it covid pandemic and (inaudible) are there any challenges that exist

now with (inaudible) allocating vaccines as soon as you get them sh? >> i want to follow up on the-there was a question about the everybody is at risk and we have seen 95, 97 percent of the monkeypox cases in san francisco are among men (inaudible) that is the focus prioritizing vaccines. within the people who are infected we have seen the latin ex population has been disproportionately effected. the point is anyone can get monkeypox. now there are disparities ing risk for monkeypox which is why need more vaccine. the egz qu about covid and monkeypox, it is a balance. we have a pandemic and now have the spread of monkeypox to manage. what is helpful about the declaration

it allows us to integrate the efforts. we develop vaccination sites, testing, education and prevention and work wg community partners expangd as covid increased and with this declaration able to be more flexible bought it allows to shorten the burecrotic process so this is a step in the right direction. dr. phillips and her team along with community partners are doing a incredible job. it is a (inaudible) and confident with this declaration it will give more ability to move faster and be more responsive. what we need is more vaccine, we are ready for the 35 thousand doses. we have far more demand then

supply. >> one, (inaudible) how long is that? >> it is a good question and i think we can't-i won't speculate on that. i think what we know is that as has been said we have a vaccine for this disease. we know how to reduce the risk of transmitting the disease and we have treatment for the disease, so as i think the senator said and mayor said, there is no excuse for where we are now. but where the tipping point is, it is just speculative. i think what we are seeing now cases continued to climb faster then the vaccine so we have to get that into a better state. >> (inaudible)

>> if it means endemic it means the disease established in the population and propaligates. there are outbreaks of monkeypox in the past terminated in the united states but this is a endemic disease in other countries and because of the lack of global health response and adequate systems the investment and resources were not made so the disease were terminated in those countries. >> (inaudible) are you afraid people forget about covid and put all the focus on monkeypox? is that a concern of yours? >> we haven't heard that concern. i think it is managing two priorities at once and people are tired of covid and still encouraging people to take the precautions and get vaccinated. but we haven't-we are trying to insure people have all the information they

need about both of these serious diseases. i want to emphasize this monkeypox is a serious disease. it is painful. causing distress among people and cause life time scarring in situations, so this is not as wide spread as covid or transmissible as covid but we need to insure people are taking this seriously as well. >> (inaudible) >> would you like to answer that? >> sure. we are speaking to our local situation and what we need and what we are requesting in order to actually respond and protect health here and so that's why are in communication

with the state partners and federal partners and sometimes directly with the federal partners . so much advocacy from elected officials. we know there are supply constraints but as senator wiener said, there are ways to get around that and to try to work and have cooperation to create more vaccine so we are hopeful. we know there are very dedicated-people dedicated to the federal government as much as we are at the local government to the health of americans and asking them to move with all speed and it is hard to do that in big systems but we are doing thalocally and asking all our partners in government and public health to do the same. >> (inaudible) >> our case rates are here because-higher here for multiple reasons. we

are a destination where people come. there are a lot of events that are occurring over the summer as they should be after several years of not able to have those events. we also have increased access to testing here relative to other areas, so there are reasons. we have extremely savvy residents and clinicians looking for monkeypox. understand what the symptoms might be and seek testing. there are multiple reasonings why we see the cases we are. i think it is important even though scary to see the case numbers we don't want undiagnosed cases and want to the scope of the problem so we can raise the alarm and protect san franciscans. >> (inaudible) what is san francisco doing specifically to get the lion share of those (inaudible) >> we were certainly

advocating with the mayor's letter and other advocacy to get a starting place of 35 thousand vaccines. it is very heart ening to hear about the large supply of vaccines the federal government announced and our vaccine supply in san francisco comes through the state of california, so we do have to wait for california allocation and then there is a distribution that happens that includes san francisco as well as other counties with the exsemgz of los angeles. >> (inaudible)

>> welcome to our good old fashion budget signing. [applause] oom polk san francisco mayor london breed and today we sign an all most $14 billion budget for the city and i'm so excitesed and proud and i got to say that this was probably one of the most [laughter] not as hard as it has been the past budget processes and that has a lot to do with supervisor ronen who led the chair of the budget committee [ [applause] >> i know it want easyism it wasn't easy on both sides. and i know your colleagues are sitting here today, maybe not all smiling because

you had to do what you had to do but at the end of the day i feel really good what we were able to do together, because we knew we were going to have to make hard decisions and in fact contverseeral decision but one of the decisions i'm most proud of is the decision to support the work force. i dont know any other mayor in recent history that didn't go to arbitration to negotiate wage increases. and this is one of the first times that we did not do that. and we know that could have resulted in possibly a lower wage, but in fact, we understood through this pandemic, through all the challenges we experience, a lot of people probably felt beat, burned out and defeated and what we want to do is restore excitement about it

work. excitement about what we do as public serve ant and reward the work force who did their jobs because they had to as essential workers, but those who also showed up as emergency workers who stepped up and did a lot of other things for the city at muconey center and places throughout the city that got through the pandemic and evening though san francisco is one of densest cities in the city we had one of the lowest-leadership of dr. col fax and mary elening (inaudible) and so many folks who made it possible. it really was a village, a village of a lot of the work force, a lot of non profit workers and let me just also say, in order to support our non profit workers we provided non profit agencies not only with the same raise and a little bit

more the city employees receive but we also provided an additional $15 million in this budget to support non profit agencies in san francisco that also stepped up to the plate during covid to help us get to where we needed to go. so, [applause] i'm deviating a little from my notes. i know that we have members of the board of supervisors here and thank you all for joining us including the president of the board of surprisers. i want to thank you to public safety officials and elected leaders and deerment paheads and all the people who work every single day to make sure that we are meeting the needs of the people of san francisco, because we know it is not easy work and i want to also take us back to really again, thank hillary ronen as a chair and the best chair since sandy fewer isn't

here. the best chair we ever worked with on the board of supervisors. as i said earlier, it was not easy, but working with your team, bringing us realistic possibilities. we started from a whole place that i didn't know if we would ever get to that point but i know what it took to not only meet with all the different department heads and agencies but work with the colleague and community, to sit in the budget process. i have done it myself never as budget chair but know how hard it is i how many hours you put into the work so thank you and your office for leadership and work and consist agency and great to work with our budget department. i know ashley isn't here. ashley left was the budget director for my office, and she was so saddened that the celtics lost

to the warriors she decided to go home and cheer here team because they needed her so she left san francisco to work there so i thank the budget team and everyone for all the work you all did. a lot of changes, lot of twists and turns but again we came up with what i think is a really great budget. i really want to thank all the different departments as i said for your work too, because doing this work is-during budget season it is probably the roughest most challenging time, but we know that at the end of the day our budget is a big reflection of our values, and i will also say that you know, we focused on a lot of priorities what people in the city cared about. we focused on public safety and i know that sometimes the conversation around public safety really tries to center around

the police department, but the realty is, we have a department that is under staffed and a department that needs additional resources. police is just a part of the equation and when we look at the resources that we invested in our streets, violence prevention program, the homeless outreach teams, the wellness teams the street crisis response teams all these different groups, ambassadors, all these people are the ones who are responding to calls that don't need a police response. they are showing up and in fact over the past year since the street crisis response team existed, responding to over a thousand calls and helping close to 70 percent of the people get some level of services. the people we hear about where folks say they are taking off all their clothesx you need to help them. they are lost and got

to-do something about this and we are doing something about it. we are working with a team that is alternative 250 policing. working with ambassadors who are out in the downtown area and all across the tenderloin and other neighborhoods focusing on trying to keep the community safe but also well coming people and eyes and ears on the streets. we are committed to economic recovery, so we have to invest in some of the things that need toock done to get people back to work. we are going to have to invest in our neighborhoods and communities and the cleanliness of our city. woo we know san francisco is a special place and a lot of people tried to talk about san francisco in a not so favorable light and the fact is, we know the beauty of our city, we know the spirit of the city and know san francisco we are a compassionate city, we also are a city who believes in making hard decisions in order it get to a better

place, so i want to make sure that in passing this budget and getting it through that we realize that even though the budget process is a challenging process, the real work begins. the implementation of the promises we made in this budget to move things forward, to get people hired for the purposes we need them hired for, to get the streets to be cleaner, to make sure that the streets are safer, to make sure that this beautiful city is what everyone knows it is and more both in the neighborhoods, those who visit from all over the world and people who work here and take public transportation and move about all over the city every day. it is a lot of work to be done and so we take this moment to sign the budget as a opportunity to just really recognize all that work and recognize how much more work will need to be done

and recognize that we should feel good about what we invested in, because those investments are going to make a world of dif areance and we may not see the investments take place today but just earlier i was out at treasure island breaking drown on 138 new units, 71 of the units go to people who are homeless. 43 of the units will go to low income families. a new place of about 105 units for homeless veterans is built as we speak on treasure island cht those investments were not made in the budget today. those investments were made in previous budgets in the place so the fruits of our labor and the work we do to make san francisco is happening and happening because of the hard work of all of you here, so let's just make sure we take these dollars, we invest them right, let's not take

office supplies home, let's not waste money on printing if we dont have to, let's remember every dollar has value, it has value in the work we do, it has value in the lives we save, it has value in making the people's lives of san francisco better every single day. with that, i know i had a couple other things to say but i feel enough and i wanted to provide the budget chair who really lead this process to have a moment to speak. ladies and gentlemen, hillary ronen. [applause] >> thank you so much mayor breed. i have to say that karma came home to me during this budget process because even as a legislative aid i was a pain in the ass every single year during the budget. i was like district 9 isn't getting enough! i will not vote for the budget and or let david vote for the budget unless we get this and that and

every littling thing and became budget chair and like pains in the ass, all my colleagues are driving me crazy and all came home to roost so you get a different viewpoint depending on the role you play in these things so i wanted to say i have a lot more appreciation for having to look at the entire city and the big picture for all of you, every single department head, for the mayor. i wanted to thank two of my female colleague on the board. supervisor malgar and supervisor chan for being [applause] the behind the scenes lobbying team to get me appointed as budget chair. i think they drove president walton crazy and drove me crazy begging me to take the job if offered to me. i wanted to thank president walton for having faith in me and to the

entire budget team. vice chair safai who chair 3 committees. and supervisor mar. and i again just want to thank the mayor and also your staff. partially why this budget went so well is because your staff was just top notch. they are so easy to work with so substantive and honest and straight forward. ashley (inaudible) i will miss her so much but your top staff (inaudible) they were just a pleasure to work with. the entire time. good on you for hiring the right staff. [applause] and two other things. i cannot fail to mention my amazing staff, both sant augio

(inaudible) and nicky sany worked with all of their hearts on this budget [applause] they ran such a open process with all of the legislative aids, available to all community members. really didn't get a lot of sleep over at least the last month of the budget process so thank you so much for everything you did. and then last but not least, you started off the budget process you made it easy for us because you prioritized the city workers. i mean, both to you and to director -isen. you recognizing how important it was to prioritize the people that got us through the pangdemic and recognize their work was essential but meant we didn't have much money to play with so i want to thank all the

department heads who reallyic to the instructions gave the (inaudible) you really stepped up. you gave back every cent you could. you pinched, you struggled, director colfax department of public health made the process a lot easier with finding $12 million savings but really, i just appreciate you all for taking those directions so seriously. thank you so much. feel really proud of this budget and congratulations avenue -everyone. [applause] >> alright. normally a imayor wouldn't thank the budget and legislative analyst folks harvey rose and his team but i will thank them not highjacking all my money because again it reflects not just my values and values of the city it is the things you care about too and really glad we are

able to work together to get this done right for the people of san francisco, now spend it wisely. alright, let's sign this budget. [applause] [applause] [applause and clapping]

>> there is a lot of unique characteristics about visitation valley. it is a unique part of the city. >> we are off in a corner of the city against the san francisco county line 101 on one side. vis station valley is still one of the last blue color neighborhoods in san francisco. a lot of working class families out here. it is unusual. not a lot of apartment buildings. a lot of single family homes. >> great business corridor. so much traffic coming through here and stopping off to grab

coffee or sandwich or pick up food before going home. >> a lot of customers are from the neighborhood. they are painters or mechanics. they are like blue color workers, a lot of them. >> the community is lovely. multi-racial and hopefully we can look out for each other. >> there is a variety of businesses on the block. you think of buffalo kitchen, chinese food, pork buns, sandwich. library, bank of america with a parking lot. the market where you can grab anything. amazing food choices, nail salons. basically everything you need is here. >> a lot of these businesses up and down leland are family owned. people running them are family. when you come here and you have an uncle and nephew and go across the street and have the guy and his dad.

lisa and her daughter in the dog parlor and pam. it is very cool. >> is small businesses make the neighborhood unique. >> new businesses coming. in mission blue, gourmet chocolate manufacturing. the corridor has changed and is continuing to change. we hope to see more businesses coming in the near future. >> this is what is needed. first, stay home. unless it is absoluteliness scary. social distancing is the most important step right now to limit spread of virus. cancel all nonessential gather everythings. >> when the pandemic litly land avenue suffered like other

corridors. a few nail salons couldn't operate. they shut down. restaurants that had to adapt to more of a take out model. they haven't totally brought back indoor seating. >> it is heartbreaking to see the businesses that have closed down and shut because of the pandemic. >> when the pandemic first hit it got really slow. we had to change our hours. we never had to close, which is a blessing. thank god. we stayed open the whole time. >> we were kind of nervous and anxious to see what was going to come next hoping we will not have to close down. >> during covid we would go outside and look on both sides of the street. it looked like old western town. nobody on the street. no cars. >> it was a hard eight or nine months. when they opened up half the

people couldn't afford a haircut. >> during that time we kept saying the coffee shop was the living room of the valley. people would come to make sure they were okay. >> we checked on each other and patronized each other. i would get a cup of coffee, shirt, they would get a haircut. >> this is a generous and kind community. people would be like i am getting the toffee for the guy behind me and some days it went on and on. it was amazing to watch. we saw a perfect picture of community. we are all in this together. >> since we began to reopen one year later, we will emerge stronger. we will emerge better as a city because we are still here and we stand in solidarity with one

another. >> when we opened up august 1st. i will not say it was all good. we are still struggling due to covid. it affected a lot of people. >> we are still in the pandemic right now. things are opening up a little bit. it is great to have space to come together. i did a three painting series of visitation valley and the businesses on leland. it felt good to drop off the paintings and hung them. >> my business is picking up. the city is opening up. we have mask requirements. i check temperatures. i ask for vaccination card and/or recent test. the older folks they want to feel safe here. >> i feel like there is a sense of unity happening. >> what got us through the pandemic was our customers. their dogs needed groomed, we have to cut their nails so they

don't over grow. >> this is only going to push us forward. i sense a spirit of community and just belief in one another. >> we are trying to see if we can help all small businesses around here. there is a cannabis club lounge next to the dog parlor to bring foot traffic. my business is not going to work if the business across the street is not getting help. >> in hit us hard. i see a bright future to get the storefronts full. >> once people come here i think they really like it. >> if you are from san francisco visit visitation valley to see how this side of the city is the same but different.

>> okay. good afternoon and welcome to the san francisco planning commission hybrid hearing for thursday, july 28, 2022. in person and remote hybrid meeting will require everyone's attention and most of all our patience if you're joining remotely and