>> good afternoon everyone. i'm san francisco mayor london breed and thank you all for being here today with a number of our city department heads who are responsible for responding to emergencies specifically as it relates to the severe weather we just experienced over the holiday weekday. i want to start by really thanking our first responders. in fact, we were under the impression and notified by our national weather service that we could anticipate not even a inch of rain and in fact what we saw was within 24 hour period was a 5.5 inches of rain, which is the second largest

amount of rain we have seen in a 24 hour period. it had not happen in san francisco in this capacity since 1849 so it ipacted our city in such a significant way and including businesses, homes, our streets and number other things and the information we had was not sufficient to help us prepare in the capacity that we needed to address the issue, our first responders many from the public utilities commission who cleared out storm drains along with department of public works, our fire department, our police department, so many of the folks in the department of emergency management stepped up and did what we needed to do to address this unprecedented event. now, in addition to the response, over 8500 sand bags were distributed to folks throughout san francisco and we

anticipate coming up another storm. a storm tomorrow which was estimated to be 2 to 3 inches, but we are definitely preparing for more. we also expect 24 to 29 miles per hour winds with a gust of up to 50 miles per hour. so, we anticipate something just as significant tomorrow as what we experienced and we will be prepared. with sand bags we will be prepared with support and we want to just say to the public, please use 911 wisely. we have a lot of emergencies that we will need to respond to, so we want to make sure that line 11 is used as a life or death tool only. we do have 311, so if there is major flooding in specific areas or other needs, please use 311 as

a tool to be directed to the appropriate resource so we can respond. we have a number of our city agencies that are here today to talk more specifically about what we need to do to be prepared. this again is something that san francisco has only seen once and even in 1994 to a certain extent we saw during that time as well. we saw it all over the bay area, not just in san francisco and our hope is that while we are still recovering cleaning out storm drains and working really hard to get our city back on track, the time is not going to be sufficient between now and the next storm to completely recover and so we are asking the public to just limit a number of things. limit unnecessary travel. make sure that if you need sand bags we have carla short from dpw providing information as to where you can go to

get additional sand bags. stay focused on using 911 for emergencies only and use 311 as a alternative. we are prepared to deal with this and we are hopeful that the public will help us and for those san franciscans who have been adopting drains over the years, i know a lot of community members have taken responsibility to help clear drains to insure that the water flow is able to make it into the storm drains, but we know the amount of water that had come down during new year's eve and possibly happen tomorrow may overwhelm our system. this is why we are out working 24/7 to get our storm drains cleared, get our city prepared and we are asking members of the public to be patient, to be understanding as we get through this, because we will get through this. and at this time, i want to introduce the director of the department of emergency management who will

be responsible for overseeing our emergency operation as we get through this very challenging time mary ellen carol. >> good afternoon. thank you madam mayor as always. i appreciate your leadership and your support for san francisco emergency preparedness efforts. i want to echo my appreciation for all of my colleagues and the countless public servants including our 911 dispatchers and emergency managers. at the department of emergency management who responded on new year eve. official forecast were less then a inch and got more then expected. the city employees rallied and activated our eoc late morning when we relized that the what was happening actually was a little different then the forecast.

what will happen now is that we have a flood watch in san francisco starting tomorrow at 4 a.m. through thursday at 4 p.m. and we also have wind watch. right before this press conference, i got a briefing from the national weather service and the predictions are upping a little bit, so we are looking to perhaps have another inch of rain more then what was predicted earlier and winds are going to be stronger with up to 60 to 70 degree-mile per hour gust expected during the afternoon tomorrow. we do expect localized flooding and mud slides, down trees and power lines to occur in san francisco. our job at our emergency operation center is to insure that our storm operations are coordinated and that we can respond effectively

during this storm incident. so, our emergency operation will be activated for a 12 hour shift starting tomorrow and will continue for as long as necessary. we will provide storm preparedness response, recovery and we'll be coordinating city resources. we'll also be providing public alerts warning and any information that we believe necessary. in addition to the eoc activation the 911 dispatchers are always on duty and ready to respond and answer calls, but this becomes a lot harder when everyone calls in to 911 for non life threatening issues and this did happen for a period of time on new year's eve so we are asking the public to only use 911 for the life safety emergencies. we have 311 and we would like the public to use 311. you can report storm effects and are

events on the app, online at sf311.org or call directly to 311. we understand flooding in the home can be a scary situation, but unless there is in danger and there is a life safety issue we ask that be reported to 311. on new year eve the 311 reps dispatched 800 calls for storm related issues and ready to do it again for the next incoming storm. i want to echo the mayor, we urge people to avoid traveling on the roads during the heaviest rains which are all day most of the day toferm and into the evening tomorrow night. if you have to be out, please avoid flooded areas and of course please avoid any power lines that may be down. 6 inches of rain can take down a pedestrian

and a foot of moving water can disable or sweep a vehicle away. and finally, we urge everyone to be prepared. high winds are (inaudible) that may cause power to go out, please make sure you have extra supplies that you need like a flaxlight and batteries. storm preparedness and safety information with details about sand bag distribution and all of our emergency alerts can be found on sf72.org. you can sign up for alert texting to 888777. as we have been preparing and all city colleagues have been over the last 48 hours it reminds me these are the same people and some same issues if we had a earthquake. while we don't- we wish this wasn't happening, please remember all of this preparedness is important not only for a storm but

could be for a earthquake also. please take the steps you need to to prepare and look out for one another. at this time, i like to introduce my partner and public safety who is your fire chief, jeanine nicoleson. thank you. >> thank you director carol and thank you mayper breed for your leadership. my name is jeanine nicoleson your san francisco fire chief and here before you today you have quite a few leaders of city departments and you have before you what we call a city family and as the city family our departments are here to help, to help the citizens of this city whether whatever storm it is, however, i can't stress it enough, call 911 for life threatening emergencies only. we

still have to run all of our critical 911 calls whether it is a cardiac arrest or car accident or a fire, and if you add all of these flooding issues that we had earlier this week, it can really over tax the system so again, if you have a little of flooding in your home, call 311. if someone is having a heart attack and someone sweft away by water, call 911. the san francisco fire department receives all most 800 calls for service in a 24 hour period. during this last storm. that is about twice what we normally receive and fortunately the san francisco fire department is prepared for a disaster. it is what we do, but we could really use the public's help. please stay home. please do

have your flashlights and if you have generators have fuel in them to be able to take care of yourselves and your family and not have to go out in this and then have to call 911 for someone to rescue you. please stay safe, stay home, 911 for life threatening emergencies only. 311 for other issues. with that, i would like to introduce another city department, a partner in the city family, director of public works, carla short. >> thank you chief nicoleson and thank you mayor breed for your leadership during this challenging storm event. as the mayor noted, woe have already given out approximately 8500 sand bags. we have additional sand bags on the truck on the way to

the operation yard as we speak. as what we are asking the public is if you have not experienced flooding in previous storm events, you are not likely to experience flooding, so please leave those sand bags for people who had flooding issues in the home. we are doing everything to source sand bags from all over the region and we will continue to provide updates through sf72.org and twitter feed at san francisco public works and the website. we will be updateing our hours of distribution for sand bags on those platforms and additional locations. the operation yard at 2323 cesar chavez will be open to 8 p.m. for distribution of sand bags and you can enter that off-if

you have not experienced flooding we ask you leave them for people who have had flooding in the past. they are more likely to to have additional flooding but we will do everything we can to make sure we have sufficient sand bags available. thank you. i like to introduce the general manager of the public utilities commission. >> are thank you carla, thank you mayor breed and thank you all of you for being here to help inform the public. so we are all prepared for what everybody i think agrees are unique weather events but unfortunately are going to become all the more common with climate change. the fact we are focusing on protecting our residents and focusing on flood resiliency and incredibly important. at the puc we have a 3 pronged approach. the first is operation and are maintenance many know you year round our crews clean repair and replace aijsing sewer infrastruck chur through capital projects and

ongoing maintenance and preventative operations and maintenance. with large storms like we are experiencing now, we increase staffing and prioritize low lying neighborhoods to clear storm drains and then respond to 311 calls related to sewers during and after the storm. we deploy crews to clear storm drains and specialized equipment like (inaudible) to remove debris storm water helps prevent storm water moving into the storm system and with respect to this storm we have 3 strike crews on the street ready to be deployed with potential for 4th and 10 trucks already ready to go, 5 trucks and 5 other trucks that are designed to clean and pump out catch basins and sewer lines. so, they are all ready to go to

respond on a moment notice and will be proactively out there. the second prong we have is infrastructure projects. we have 3 separate projects in low liar neighborhoods of the city. many are familiar with them. (inaudible) 17 and folsom and the lower al meiny and those designed to inclees the volume of storm water sewers can handle and collectively these three projects reflect $600 million investment from the puc in trying to get more flood resiliency. the 15 (inaudible) project is already under construction and i would say that the 17 and folsom some are familiar with right outside the spot bar and others that is a low lying area. we already made the decision to deploy flood barriers in that area even though on the last storm that wasn't as intense as we had seen previously but abundance of caution

we are deploying at 17 and folsom and standing up our flood response unit throughout the puc to make sure we are coordinating our efforts. many of you are familiar with the green infrastructure program, which handed out 10 and a half million dollars of grants to schools and non profits to fund rain gardens green roofs and green infrastructure to help slow down and redirect our flood waters and we are hopeful long-term the grants will be accelerating to make a even bigger impact. the third impact-third approach is city wide policy. we work on all client departments to foster development projects that prioritize green infrastructure and in a 12 year anniversary of our city storm water management ordinance, we already have 400 projects throughout the city that are incorporating green infrastructure and

storm water resiliency in development and redevelopment of new projects and hopefully that is something that will continue to benefit san francisco more generally. now, while all this work is great, we all know we can't do this on our own. we can't do it-the storms are (inaudible) depend on our community partnerships. we have 25 thousand storm drains in this city. we are lucky we have 2500 volunteers in the city who become our partners to help clear the storm drains. we have 2500 volunteers who already volunteered to take on about 3800 of those different drains, spending their time racking and help clear the drains and happy we have david lang here our community partner who adopted 8 drains on his very own to take responsibility for. so, we need to go out and spread the word about the good work that our community partners can do to

help us collectively manage a problem. a problem that is going to become all more intense with increasing challenges we face from climate change. david, thank you very much. for those of you that are sort of wondering what else you can do, you heard preventive things you can do as a resident and encourage you to get flood insurance. it is available for renters, for your belongings and building owners yourselves. and also at the puc to take advantage of the flood water management grant program where we reimburse you up to hundred thousand dollars for projects that are flood resilient that qualify. if you install back water valves, flood barriers on door steps of the drive bp ways, water resisant seals, sump pumps, please take advantage of the grant program. we want to be your partner and

will reward you for taking the step to help us along. so, you can find information on our website in multiple languages about flood insurance by visiting sfpuc.org/rainreadysf.c om. that is we have in the short term and more long-term how to partner together to make sure we are all doing our part to be as flood resilient as possible and thank my city partners and mayor breed for her leadership to make sure we are as coordinated as possible to protect the resident of the city and county of san francisco. thanks very much. >> thank you director herrera. we also have joining us our city administrator, carmen chu rks director of homelessness, (inaudible) our sheriff and deputy chief from the police department david

lazar. with that we'll open up for questions. >> can i ask about the [difficulty hearing speaker] >> well, we do expect some delays with our public transportation system in light of the heavy rains, but it appears as though the last storm it wasn't as impacted as what we would have anticipated in light of such significant rains. our hope is to continue to make sure our trains and buses are running on time as much as possible, but there will be delays. >> (inaudible) you mentioned this is more common with climate change, (inaudible)

>> i think you are already seeing the investment in that kind of thing. i just talked about $600 million. it is in recognition of the fact we do have a changing normal. you heard me talk about the 400 development and redevelopment projects the city has which represent a city wide approach to development and redevelopment to demand that development projects incorporate green infrastructure and resiliency so we can have diversion and reroot water and make sure it lessens the impact so think those projects reflect the collective political will of everybody up here as well as the board of supervisors that

we have to get ready for a new normal so i think that is indicative of the fact that under mayor breed's leadership and other members of the board, that everybody takes this very seriously and we have to continue to look how to attack it in a very comprehensive way. >> (inaudible) are they cleaned regularly? because i talk people at 15th and folsom who said the water was gushing out of the storm drain and don't (inaudible) >> we do. we prioritize-as i said we have 25 thousand drains and we partner with people like david lang and there is a shared response. we have crews that go out and rake and get to those and up that during a time when we know will have a flood. we have 3 strike teams out there now doing that so they are regularly cleaned, maintained, we use the trucks and have ongoing maintenance, but when we have a storm things get washed in. we also

heighten up our intensity when we know we have something coming. >> i talked to (inaudible) canceled the flood insurance because of the pandemic and has all this damage at 15 and folsom, what will she do? >> we have flood insurance, and also have flood mitigation improvalment program. there are people at 17th and folsom, there is a cafe on the corner who took advantage of that program. we have been publicizing our program and encouraging business owners and individuals with a history of flooding to take advantage so we can be a partner and it hasn't gotten the up tick we would have hoped. we want to get the word out there so hopefully your inquiry and your message will help people get out there because we are there to be a partner with you and hopeful folks will take advantage of the program.

>> (inaudible) >> i will tell you, if you look at in the last storm we didn't have (inaudible) lower al many we didn't have much problems and think that is because of the preventative maintenance we are doing. 17th and folsom we know we have a issue so didn't have a huge problem the other day but we are deploying the flood barriers now. when we hear about things, it is a combination of ongoing maintenance, but also when we become aware we try to be as proactive and preventative as we can and i think we have been very very successful and successful the other day even though that was a storm that exceeded everybody's prediction and we will be ready tomorrow as well.

>> (inaudible) >> i can't say. i can tell you marina boulevard was impacted the other day. that was because i think where the-how the rain came in. i -itp depends on intensity and location where water comes particularly, but we will be as ready best we can to respond to resident issues. >> next question. >> (inaudible) >> i'll lettia renemic faden answer the question. i want to reiterate we haven't rain of this magnitude within a 24 hour period in san francisco only 2 other times in 1849 and 1994, and in addition to doing all the work and cleaning

out the drains, this water is coming down fast, so with all the work that is happening out there to prepare, please keep in mind that a lot of this may be out of our control, because of the intensity and amount of rain we are getting, which is not just happening here in san francisco. you are reporting the news, you are reporting some of the challenges that have existed that were happening here in the bay area as a whole but even in sacramento where people experienced a number of challenges andive saved from floating thin river. i think we have a lot of intensity as it relates to the water that we can expect and we are doing everything we can to be as prepared as we can and in light what we receive from the national weather service about what to expect, the fact that it was so significantly different, so out of range and we were still able to respond with a significant number of

emergency personnel in this city, it is something that i must say i'm very proud of and grateful to the people who work for this city who showed up during a holiday weekday to go above and beyond and address the situation that was not brought to our attention in a timely manner. however, even though we anticipate anywhere between 2 and 3 inches we are going to be prepared for more in light of what happened this past weekday and with that i'll let sharene talk about the plans around the shelter system including the ability for people to walk up on first come first serve basis. >> thank you mayor breed for your leadership on this. what we have done is been able to repurpose beds between our winter interfaith shelter system and other beds we had dedicated to certain populations. we repurposed those within our system right now we got as of this

morning we got 170 vacant beds within our system and we are flexing the system so people with walk up and access shelter in 4 different places. that is sankuary, next door, msc south and saint mary, the winter shelter. we also have staff stationed at the eoc tomorrow along with mary ellen director carol and her team and we will be monitoring the situation on a daily basis. we know that the rain will be with us for a while and worse in the next couple days it will be around for a while and we'll keep that system flexible through the 15th of january, but we will be monitoring on a daily basis to see what else we need whether we need to do a pop up or anything like that. in addition the homeless outreach team will be on the street talking with people experiencing homelessness, letting know about shelter beds available and how toic

a access them and they will pass out things to people who need ponchos, benies and blansts and putting information on social media and website so people know how to access shelter beds. >> (inaudible) in regard to national weather service (inaudible) would there be consideration as far as alternatives-it appears the message was far off (inaudible) would there be- >> we are following all-national weather service, local-the puc tracks this by the minute because of their response. i just want to reiterate what general manager herrera said, we have climate change. the planet is changing. we experience this in the summer. we come in front of you when we

have heat waves and we experience air quality issues. these are things that i have been doing this work 18 years. the last 6 years, 5, 6 years have been completely different then what i have done over my more then all most 2 decades worth of work in emergency management. this is realty and not just in san francisco, it is across the board. across this country. depending where you are, it is different kinds of storms. could be snow, could be hurricanes and other things. yes, we are going to do-we have not stopped since it started raining basically on new year's eve. our team has been working on this. we are going to have be as coordinated as we can. we will get all the information out to folks, but as the mayor also said, there is a certain amount of this that is out of our hands. i think i maybe said to you, we don't have a device that stops the water from hitting the

ground before it gets here, so it is really around public information and everyone taking responsibility for keeping themselves safe, keeping our first respondsers available for those that truly need it. as i said and as fire chief said, people still have heart attacks and strokes and babies during all kinds of events, so we have to have that first response capability available. so, yes, we'll always plan for a little bit more and flex as much as we can, but we are looking at all different kinds of forecast. we worked with noa and national weather guys and women that do that work, they are challenged as much as anyone else. it is a whole new world and so we are going to follow everything they say, we are going to over-prepare and like for instance on new year's

eve we were home hoping for a quite day and didn't turn out to be the case but that is our job. we show up as did people in the field and we'll continue to do that. >> (inaudible) are they considering to be at the level of hundred year storm? (inaudible) >> they didn't describe that and i don't have all those metrix in my head, but it is-we know it is more then probably what our storm system is going to be able to handle which means during the heaviest periods of rain there will be flooding. i think the other concern what i'm concerned about is high winds. we have a saturated ground and we have trees that become much more vulnerable to the wind in that case so we will see i'm sure see trees down and branches down, which leads to power outages, so it is compounding impacts of the storm that we are getting ready for.

>> (inaudible) >> i don't know what it was ultimately categorized as and also you know, they don't know immediately. they take time even the puc to calculate the actual rainfall then to determine what category it was. sorry i dont know that information. >> (inaudible) have you been in contact (inaudible) >> we have been in touch with the school district and administrator been in touch with the superintendent. (inaudible) keeping kids in school is a priority for

everyone. of course sfusd will be monitoring the situation and make their own decision but as of now they are keeping kids in school and we support that decision. >> any other questions? >> (inaudible) >> we have been in touch. we are in touch. they were just on our incident management team call. they are doing their best. as you know, we have outages today. we had outages over the weekday. i fully expect we will have outages over the next few days and we will be in close contact with pg&e. for us, we try to make sure-we are monitoring our most critical infrastructure such as 911 center, hospitals and other operation centers and pg&e is well aware of what those are.

yes, we are close partners with pg&e. >> (inaudible) that concludes the press conference today. one over here. >> (inaudible) >> as i said, this is something that is unprecedented for our city, for the bay area, and we are going to do everything we can to prepare, but we can't control the weather, we can only make sure we are doing everything we can prepare to insure our storm drains are clear, to insure our emergency responses are prepared and that we are able to respond to people to provide help or to provide support more so probably going to be after the

fact in a case like what we are talking about as it relates to folsom. we know a lot of people are experiencing this not just there but also in the bayview hunter point community and other neighborhoods where their homes have been red tagged so i think at the end of the day making sure we are making investments in infrastructure make adjustment like the public utility commission director had talked about, all these investments-if our city was not on a path to think about the possibility of heat waves and extreme weather as it relates to rain and other things, capturing the rain water in a more responsible way and providing the level of support and changes to our infrastructure that we have over the past couple years thing s could have been a lot worse. what we can say is, we will do everything we can to prepare, reassess the situation and make additional improvements to infrasfruck dhr throughout the city to hopefully make sure this doesn't continue to

impact our residents and businesses in such a significant way. thank you. >> thank you everybody.

>> hi, i'm with building san francisco. and we have a special program of stay safe today where we're going to talk about what you can do to your home after an earthquake to make it waterproof and to be more comfortable. we're here at spur in san francisco, this wonderful exhibit of safe enough to stay. and this is an example of what your home might be like after an earthquake. and we have today with us ben latimer from tvan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll talk about things you can do you don't have to be a professional contractor to make your home more livable after an earthquake. >> i want to talk about things

a homeowner can do. we have comfort and we have things like a little bit of maybe safety if your front door is ajar and waterproofing if you have a leak in your roof, or if you have broken glass on the window. >> so unr, one of the most important fib use is keeping outside out and inside in. let's look at windows. >> let's assume this window is broken in the earthquake. we have wind and rain blowing in. one of the most important things you need to do as a homeowner is secure the plastic properly. if you just take staples or nails and put them into the plastic, we're going to get a strong wind and rip it right off. what i'm going to have somebody do is they're going to have -- this is an old piece of shingle. you might have -- everybody has a piece of wood in their basement. it doesn't have to be fancy. they take out this rusty screw begun, and hopefully you have one of these. >> there is one at the neighborhood support center. >> at the neighborhood support center. you're going to wrap this plastic around this board, take

your screw. and then screw that in. >> you need a permit for this? >> you do need a permit for this. and you can contact the former head building inspector to get that permit. that's it. now when the wind blows, it's tight and it's not going to pull through, having a single point of contact. >> great. what about this door? take a look at this door. what can you do? let's say it doesn't shut tight. what can you do? >> for the sake of argument, we're on the inside. i can't lock my door at night. i have a very similar, very similar idea. i'm going to take my 2 by 4. i can put it across the jamb in the door. one. two. maybe i want another one up here, maybe another one down there. but i can go to sleep. and

that quickly, i can get it off in the morning. >> terrific. what about the roof up here? we see people throw blue tarps over their roof after an earthquake. that seems reasonable. >> i think the blue tarp is reasonable. the things that people want to know that they need to know is if you have multiple tarps, how you overlap. starting from the bottom and moving up so that you're overlapping this way. so, rain running down doesn't slide under your tarp. >> right. >> and the same technique we did over here, as silly as it may sound, wrapping the end of that blue tarp with your board and then securing that if you can underneath, if you have to on top is fine. but making sure that you don't have an area where the wind is going to get under and bill owe that tarp. >> the wind can rip it right off. >> and then you're back up there again. >> let's go inside and check out what we can do inside. >> old fun. here we go. >> so, ben, i see you have nails, universal tool right here. >> man's best friend. duct tape. let me show you a couple things we can use this for after an

earthquake. this window right here, because it's off kilter, we have open seams all along. i have a lot of air coming through. i want to stay comfortable at night. i want to keep that air out. it's as simple as that, all the way around. >> excellent. >> now i don't have any air coming in. let's say this one is one that would annoy me. everything is a little off. my doors won't stay closed. i take a piece of my favorite duct tape here, close it up. and at least it will stay out of my way when i'm trying to live throughout my day. if we're not talking about pressurized water, we're talking about just the drain, sometimes they're going to get a crack here. >> right, sure. >> and you're going to get a leak. duct tape around that is going to help us get through until we can get a plumber out and get that fixed as well. let's say we only have electricity in one room, so we're running extension cords across the house. if i'm going to run an extension cord from one room to the other, i don't want kids tripping on it. i don't want to trippon it. i take my trusty duct tape, tape it to the floor, and i

don't have to worry about it getting kicked. >> great, great. look at this. let's look at the duct tape here because we see a big -- >> yes. in the event of an earthquake, i don't think we're going to have too many -- too much debris that's safe to put into a plastic bag, even as strong as it might be. these are called vice bags. this is what they use to put rice and things when they ship it. this is something where i take my glass, i can take broken pieces of wood, i can take anything sharp and fill it. and it's not going to puncture and come out. it's not going to fall all over the floor. i've not going to have it sticking out, maybe scratch myself, cut myself or anything like that. these are a great thing to have. >> you have a little go-to box for emergencies. that's great. thanks very much for joining us, ben. it's really been interesting. and i want to thank you all for joining us here at the spur urban center.

>> it had been rain for several days. at 12:30 there was a notice of large amount of input into the reservoir. we opened up the incident command and started working the incident to make sure employees and the public were kept were safe there is what we call diversion dam upstream of moccasin. the water floods the drinking water reservoir. we couldn't leave work. if the dam fails what is going to happen. >> we had three objectives. evacuate and keep the community

and employees safe. second was to monitor the dam. third objective was to activate emergency action plan and call the agencies that needed contacted. >> the time was implement failure of the dam. we needed to set up for an extended incident. we got people evacuated downstream. they came back to say it is clear downstream, start issuing problems and create work orders as problems come in. >> powerhouse was flooded. water was so high it came through the basement floor plate, mud and debris were there. it was a survey where are we? >> what are we going to do to get the drinking water back in. >> we have had several emergencies. with each incident we all ways

operate withins dent command open. process works without headache. when we do it right it makes it easier for the next one. >> we may experience working as a team in the different format. always the team comes together. they work together. >> our staff i feel does take a lot of pride of ownership of the projects that they work on for the city. we are a small organization that helps to service the water for 2.7 million people. >> the diversity of the group makes us successful. the best description we are a big family. it is an honor to have my team recognized. i consider my team as a small part of what we do here, but it makes you proud to see people

come together in a disaster. >> safety is number one through the whole city of san francisco. we want people to go home at the end of the day to see their loved ones. we don't want them hurt. we want them back the next day to do their work. >> there is a lot of responsibility the team members take on. they word very -- they work hard. they are proud of what they do. i am proud they are recognized. is r. my name is debra alvarez rodriguez. i'm the deputy director in san

francisco. my background is one in which i have spent the entirety of my life committed to finding solution to poverty and addressing the issues of inequity so people and communities can have accesses to resources and financial freedom. one thing true anode dear to my heart was the power of business ownership in creating pathways to financial freedom. we have still in infancy. we had over 100 entrepreneurs come and start their businesses. some are food trucks. some are restaurants. some are in farmer's markets and so farther. that's an incredible legacy and record to build upon. this was the perfect opportunity for me to come back home, you know, come back to the neighborhood and take my skills and networks and resources and put it backseat

in service of the community. given everything with racial reckoning and pandemic it was time for me and everyone else that had the opportunity to leave and get educated to come back home. we have a opportunity to grow our impact in terms of the number of people we serve and how we serve them. we grow our impact in taking the money we make with our entrepreneurs and circulate those resources back interview the community for community development. the third thing is we have a opportunity to have an impact on public policy in terms of the policies and practices the district has been notorious about interms of inequities. all of those are just the beginning of what is possible in terms of growth and

impact. ♪ [ music ] ♪♪ >> we worked very hard with the san francisco venue coalition, the independent venue alliance to advocate for venues. put this issue on the radar of the supervisors and obviously mayor breed. the entertainment commission and the office of small business and we went to meetings and showed up and did public comment and it was a concerted effort between 50 venues in the city and they are kind of traditional like live performance venues and we all made a concerted effort to get out there and sound the alarm and to her credit, maybe

breed really stepped up, worked with matt haney, who is a supervisor haney was a huge champion for us and they got this done and they got $3 million into the sf venue recovery fund. >> we have represented about 40 independent venues in san francisco. basically, all the venues closed on march 13th, 2020. we were the first to close and we will be the last to reopen and we've had all the of the overhead costs are rent, mortgage, payroll, utilities and insurance with zero revenue. so many of these venues have been burning $1,000 a day just to stay closed. >> we have a huge music history

here in san francisco and the part of our cultural fab lick but it's also an economic driver. we produce $7 billion annual' here in san francisco and it's formidable. >> we've been very fortunate here. we've had the department of emergency management and ems division and using part of our building since last april and aside from being proud to i can't tell you how important to have some cost recovery coming in and income to keep the doors open. >> typically we'll have, three to 400 people working behind the teens to support the show and

that is everything from the teamsters and security staff and usualers, ticket takers, the folks that do our medical and the bar tenders and the people in the kitchen preparing food for backstage and concession and the people that sell key shirts and it's a pretty staggering amount of people that are out of work as a result of this one verne you going tarkanian. it doesn't work to open at reduced capacity. when we get past june 15th, out of the into the blue print for our economy we can open it it 100% and look at the festival in full capacity in october and we're just so grateful for the leadership of the mavor and dr. coal fax to make us the safest ♪ america and this is been hard for everybody in san

francisco and the world but our leadership has kept us safe and i trust them that they will let us know when it's safe to do that. >> a lot of people know about america is military stuff, bullying stuff, corporate stuff. when people like me and my friends go to these foreign country and play music, we're giving them an american cultural experience. it's important. the same way they can bring that here. it sounds comfy buyia, you know, we're a punk band and we're nasty and we were never much for peace and love and everything but that's the fertilizer that grows the big stuff that some day goes to bill graham's place and takes everybody's money but you have to start with us and so my hope is that allel groups and

people make music and get together because without out, hanging together we'll hang separately, you know. >> other venues like this, all over the place, not just in the san francisco bay area need to exist in order for communities to thrive and i'm not just talking about the arts communities, even if you are here to see a chuckle bucket comedy show and you are still experiencing humanity and in specific ways being able to gather with people and experience something together. and especially coming out of the pandemic, the loss of that in-person human connection recovering that in good ways is going to be vital for our entire society. >> it's a family club. most our staff has been working with us for 10 years so we feel

like a family. >> what people think of when they think of bottom of the hill and i get a lot of this is first of all, the first place i met my husband or where we had our first date and i love that and we love doing weddings and i expect there to be a wedding season post 2021 of all the make up we haddings and i hope that many people do that because we have had so many rock ep role weddings. >> i told my girlfriend, make sure you stand at the front of the stage and i can give you a kiss at midnight. at this got down on one knee at the stroke of midnight. it wasn't a public thing, i got down on one knee and said will you marry me and is he she had are you [beep] kidding me and i said no, i'm dead serious and she said yes.

we were any time homicideel of the show. we just paused for new year's eve and that was where i proposed to my wife. this is more than just a professional relationship it's more than just a relationship from a love of arts, it's where my family started. we'll always have a special place in my heart. >> venues, you know, represent so much. they are cultural beckons of a city. neighbors can learn and celebrate and mourn and dance together. venues and arts and culture are characterized as second responders to crisis and they provide a mental health outlet and a community center for people to come together at and it's the shared history of our city and these spaces is where we all come together and can celebrate. >> art often music opens up

people to understanding the fellow man and i mean, taz always necessary and if anything, it's going to be even more necessary as we come out of this to reach out and connect with people. >> we can sustain with food, water and shelter is accurate and does anybody have a good time over the last year? no. >> san francisco is a great down. i've been here many years and i love it here and it's a beautiful, beautiful, place to be music and art is key to that. drama, acting, movies, everything, everything that makes life worth living and that's what we've got to mow proteasome no san francisco and that's what is important now.

[♪♪♪] >> in person and virtual meeting of the san francisco entertain commission. my name is benn clee man and i'm the board president. we'll start with announcements. >> so we want to start the meeting with land acknowledgement. [land acknowledgement]