>> good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining me today. joining us all here today. my name is special agent jeremy brown with united states secret service and i'm the asian pacific enomic coordinator. the secret service and federal and state local partners joining me here today have been preparing for the apec leader summit, which was designated a national special security event. this event will take place in san francisco from november 15-18. the apec summit is a part of the apec leaders week and designated a national special security events. we refer as a nsse. due to the size significance and anticipated attendance.

this will be the united states secret service 75 national security event. this designation is given to insure the full weight leverage talent and resources of the federal government and our state and local partners to this event and other events like this. when an event is designated the u.s. secret service assumes its mandated role as the lead agency for it design and implementation of the operational security plan. however, the success of these events cannot be obtained by any one agency alone and i can say it has been a collaborative effort between the u.s. secret service, the san francisco police department, the california highway patrol, the federal bureau of investigation, the federal emergency management agency, u.s. coast guard, san francisco fire department and many federal state and local partner

tuesday design the security plan. during the last several months and in fact today, this collaborative team has conducted numerous training exercises, one of which we finished this morning a table top exercise to prepare for this event cht this insures that each agency is properly prepared for this event of this magnitude. the number one priority for the secret service and everyone standing here today is the safety of the world leaders, the attendees coming to the apec summit, but as well as the general public here in san francisco while the apec summit is here in san francisco. because of the nature of this designation and impact to the normal daily lives of san francisco residents and visitors is unavoidable. however, the team here has taken extraordinary measures to

minimize that impact where possible while maintaining our obligation to the safety of the attendees oof the apec semt as elwith as the general public. the public will experience increased traffic on both roads and walkways in and around the apec venues. vehicular public transportation and pedestrian impacts should be expected in the downtown area around the muconey center. around the san francisco waterfront, as well as the nob hill neighborhood. residents and businesses generally will have access to their normal residents and their normal businesses, however, they may under go a security screening and mild inconvenience to traverse these areas. specific road closures and pedestrian and vehicle access information have been provided on a map like the one displayed behind me here that can be

accessed online. also made available to mapping software people are familiar with here in san francisco that they have on their personal smart phones and other devices. secret service establish remote delivery and vehicle screening at pier 27 that allow all delivery vehicles going into their zones to be screened and then they will be given specific instructions once they are screened. their vehicle will be sealed and can access the perimeter under certain conditions. deliveries should occur between 10 p.m. 7 a.m. there will be temporary flight restrictions. this will impact commercial and private air traffic as well as drown operators. the federal aviation administration this and notice to all airman for all effected

air traffic. again to include drones. there will be restrictions for commercial and private maritime traffic around the waterfront area. those restrictions will be communicated directly by the u.s. coastguard and notice to mariners. the summit security plan is part of the secret service zero no fail protective mission and also a part of each and every state federal local agency participated in this security plan. we have absolute confidence in this plan and we have taken extraordinary measures to minimize the impact to the public and to the residents and visitors of san francisco. we thank the residents and visitors of san francisco for their patience. we will do our best to collectively keep the public informed of changes or impacts or incident that occur during the apec summit. i like to personally thank chief scott with the san francisco police department as well as the san francisco

department of emergency management and many other federal state and local partners who mentioned for all the work thus far. it is truly a collaborative effort and i thank you all for your continued partnership. my pleasure to introduce chief bill scott. >> thank you special agent brown. first of all, i want to thank our partners and like to start with special agents jeremy brown for leadership and professionalism planning the apec alongside the sfpd. i want to thank and acknowledge the partners at the cal highway patrol. we have [indiscernible] here and also thank commissioner [indiscernible] for their assistance and commitment of resources to this event. we cannot do this without their help and this is a

unprecedented event for the city of san francisco. we are very excited to take part in this event and putting the global spotlight on the city and county of san francisco. we are expecting up to 20 thousand people from across 21 member apec economys, ceo's around the world and expecting close to 1 thousand media representatives. our city is ready to meet this moment. the san francisco police department has a full time team working with all department bureaus to insure adequate service provided to the apec event and to the city as a whole. our department of emergency management headed by director carol and mayor office are working full time to coordinate all city agencies to be prepared for this epic event. the san francisco police department is also partnering with federal, state and local agencies to support the u.s. secret service, their security

mission. sfpd is working to insure first amendment activity is properly facilitated and remains peaceful and let me be very very clear, any act of violence against any member of the public or law enforcement will not be tolerated. this department has a lot of experience in handling large scale security events. yearly we have the pride event. the 2018 global climate action summit superbowl and victory parade for golden state warriors and san francisco giants. we have experience with this but so do all our partners. that experience will make us successful with this year's apec event. ypt to talk about our staffing. the san francisco police department is staffed up and prepared to make sure this event is safe for everyone. work wg our department of emergency management and will have a joint information center to respond to inquirys and get

information out in real time. we do not anticipate apec impact city services by ems or 911. emergency responders will be available everywhere in the city. several hundred sfpd officers are dedicated to normal operations, including calls for service and emergency response acrauz the city. and we plan to maintain adequate service for the greater city in our 10 district stations outside of the apec conference boundaries in order to handle our routine normal calls for service and provide the public safety needs of this city. all of our sworn members will be working. we are mobilized for that week and we will have hundreds of sfpd officers ambassadors, volunteers dedicated to this apec conference to insure the safety of visitors and dignitaries in both the city limits and at the san francisco international airport.

the california highway patrol and over a dozen local agencies are providing personnel to supplement the needs for the uniform law enforcement as designated apec venues and events. our san mateo county agency is supporting the san francisco airport so we are well prepared for this events. here is our call to axz. we are asking the public, stay vigilant. if you see something, say something. we should do that always no matter what you see, we will check it out. don't be afraid to call. be patient. as special agent brown mentioned, many areas of the city will be impacted by street closures, detours, buses rerouted, public transportation rerouted and dignitaries escorts. it will take all patience to get through this week. we will keep you informed and make sure you know what routes you can take for public transportation, what routes are closed so you can plan

accordingly. we encourage you to take public transportation or walk, but most importantly, please enjoy the city as you would normally. this police department and our public safety partners will be out 24/7 as always insuring our community is safe. last, let's please be respectful and tolerant of one another. many people from many cultures and many different countries with many different ways of life will be converging on the city of san francisco during apec. we are that city. we are a welcoming city that respects every culture, so let's make sure that we model that this week and beyond. let's show the world that we are truly a world class city. the map has been provided. working closely with city partners and agencies to assist with road closures.

working with mta on public transportation but pay attention to the alerts because that will help us get through this with hopefully minimized disruption to normal routine. with that, i like to close by saying, thank you, thank you again to our partners. this will be a exciting time for the city of san francisco as we will be on the global stage. we are prepared. we have done this before. we have the experience. we have the collaboration. we have partnership and we are committed to making this a safe event for everyone and with that, i like to introduce special agent in charge from the fbi, bob trip. >> good afternoon everyone. thank you chief scott. my name is bob trip. in november, apec will bring together the leaders of nations that account for 40 percent of

the global population and 50 percent of global trade. the fbi is committed insuring these leaders, other visitors and the city and residents of the bay area can enjoy these events in a safe and security environment. we are bringing all fbi resources to bear to fulfill our own mission and to plan for contingencies. our role will focus on crisis management, investigation, and intelligence support as part of our preventing terrorism mission. we will work together with partners to collect threat intelligence and mitigate any threats in support of this event. a driving force behind the summit is the power collaboration that same principle is guiding the planning and engagement of the federal state and local partners that you see gathered here today. the fbi is proud to stand among our partners and to provide them all with our full support. i'll turn things back over to

secret service for questions. >> we can take some questions related to the apec event. first up. >> hi. there. what measure s might the secret service might conduct sweeps to make sure any unhoused individuals in zone may be removed, is that something the secret service will be working on? >> first off, thank you for that question. i know there is a lot of concern in san francisco regarding the homeless population. we have a plan that we work closely with san francisco police department on. i will turn it over to chief scott. i think he has more detailed information to answer this specific question. >> thank you for that question. first of all, let me say, we are not conducting sweeps.

we have a infrastructure in the city to address some of the challenges with our unhoused population and we will plug into that infrastructure to make sure people need help need help. the main thing, the main focus that we are all here for is public safety and the safety of this event. there will be places where we wont allow access and we are prepared to deal with that if we have unhoused people that are displaced. they will have opportunities for shelter. they will have opportunities for help, but the main thing is to make sure it is a safe environment, so we will plug into our regular infrastructure. the department of emergency management. the fire department has a street crisis response team. we have shelter beds available. we have the resources to make this work and that's what we intend to do. i want to say this, it isn't a crime to be unhoused. it isn't a crime to be homeless.

we are out there to make sure we help people. we are out there to make sure this event is a safe event but we also want to represent our city in the finest light, so all these components and infrastructure pieces we put together over a number of years will come together and help guide us to a successful event. >> should people start expecting to see like, [indiscernible] things in the ramp up to this since they are necessary to [indiscernible] heads of state. >> thanks for the question. in the days leading up to the period of the nsse, you will see what we would call administrative movement of motorcade vehicles throughout

the city to prepare. you will see instillation of various physical barriers to assist with the restrictions displayed on the map here in the days leading up to the 15-18 period. it is slow ramp up a few day ahead and culminating the evening of the 14 to early morning hours of the 15 of november. >> on the map, what are all the colors mean? can someone point out what everything up there means [indiscernible] >> if i could get a map here i can refer to real quick. i got one with me and will try to talk through it. so, the colors and everything on the map are self-explanatory. there is a legend at the bottom corner and so i'm happy to visit privately after this to answer those questions, but for

me to explain entirety of the map, there is a lot on the map. there is vehicle restricted zones. there is pedestrian restricted zones. there is closures of public transportation routes. there are reroutes available to the public of san francisco to take in lieu of the closed public transportation routes. those are all displayed on the map. those are what the different things mean, but detailed explanation of the map for the purpose of time here today, not going through from a-z on that. >> [indiscernible] for people listening at home. where can people read and find out the closures that effect them? >> excellent question. i know this map is going to be most important to the public so i'll differ that question to a san francisco pd or city partners. >> [indiscernible] >> you are saying there is a [indiscernible] can you elaborate on that?

people are wondering [indiscernible] we had the president here. we had a lot of people from out of town. what type of extra security are we expecting, especially 21 leaders? >> great question. again, as i said earlier, this event has warranted full resources of the federal, state and local government, so i'm not going to speak to specific numbers. what i can tell you is there will be a extraordinary amount of law enforcement, military and public safety personnel in san francisco for this event, so well above what anybody has ever seen here before. >> can you give us the idea--we have seen the president in san francisco before. can you give comparison how much more locked down the city will be? >> i can't give you a detailed comparison other then to say, it will be much more then a normal presidential visit to

san francisco. we are anticipating not just the president of the united states, also the vice president, also potentially heads of state from 21 other countries that are coming to this event, so you know, minimum, 21 times what you would normally see might be a good opening ball park, but again, very hard to specifically describe and compare because you are comparing apples to oranges. >> [indiscernible] >> that's a great question. so, the major closures around muconey will be from second street to 5 ethstreet. those streets will be open beyond the points the streets will be closed. then from market street to harrison street. again, both streets being open, but anything beyond that boundary is closed to vehicular

traffic. >> [indiscernible] >> i'm going to differ to the city of san francisco on the public transportation questions because they are the experts on that. >> good afternoon. i name is jeffrey tumlin the executive director of the san francisco municipal transportation agency. we are very grateful how closely the secret serve iss worked with us to minimize negative impact to the transit system and particularly to center naerbds like chinatown, union square, south of market and the whole southeast quadrant of san francisco. that said, for security reasons, the yurba buena station and 4th and brandon station of the central subway will need to be closed for it duration of the event. we are grateful we are able to reroute trains, so the t3 trains instead of going into the central subway will simply follow the old route to market street subway and very importantly will be able to run

high frequency shuttle trains between union square, market street station, and chinatown. this is very important for us to make sure we maintain strong conductivity to chinatown. bart, caltrain will be fully operational uneffected. sams trans and golden gate experience very miner reroutes so if you are coming to san francisco that week, please do take public transit. very importantly, we will be publishing very detailed traffic walking biking and especially transit updates under our website later this afternoon and will continue to update that as we get more information. please go to sfmta.com/apec. where you can not only find information, but also sign up for regular alerts and updates. >> what about the cable cars

and [indiscernible] >> yes. the cable cars will be disrupted by the nob hill area zone but grateful to the secret service and our team who found a way to continue operate the hyde street line from the cable car barn at mason street to the hyde street terminal so that will keep running. the rest of the line needs to be replaced by bus connectivity. >> it sounds like there are three areas. there is muscone, nob hill and waterfront portion. can you talk about the waterfront portion? >> i will differ to secret service for the details of the dates and boundaries, but for each of those, they worked very closely with us in order to develop plans to make sure public transit can be rerouted around those closures as needed.

>> i wondered about the-- >> if i can answer that question first and come to you. so, your questions about the waterfront. >> [indiscernible] three security [indiscernible] >> that's correct. so, the question i think is about the waterfront, and that will primarily be on the day of and especially the afternoon and evening of the 15 of november. we expect the embarcadero to be closed that day on the 15 of november from battery to broadway that will be a closure there. you will also see diversion of traffic before you get to battery or before to broadway to prevent congestion. also on the map you see a area in the water that is maritime restriction zone. that will be in effect the afternoon and evening of 15 of november that include ferrys and such diverted around that zone. we made large enough to account

for safety needs and security needs we intend to have for that particular venue, but also allowing as much traffic as possible around that zone to take place. >> [indiscernible] >> i wondered about the people in the area they might have to undergo security check. is that bag check or beyond that? >> great question. for people that live around or operate businesses around some of these venues, particularly mos coney if you are trying to access for example the met rion or something of that nature, you will have to go what is effectively a bag check. any packages or bags you have with you would have to be inspected, but nothing beyond the bag or package check will be the procedure there. >> how are you planning to respond to protesters and can you confirm if and where there will be zones that protesting

cannot take place. >> appreciate the question. the question is regarding protest and demonstration. so, i'll answer part of it and turn the rest to chief scott. so, from secret service perspective, to answer your second part first, secret service does not designate protest zones, no protest zones. we designate general public areas and areas restricted from the general public. as far as your question regarding any concern over protests, as chief scott stated in his remarks and i'll second this, during this planning, we accounted for the fact there will be perhaps many different groups and many different type of people that want to come to san francisco and exercise their first amendment rights and we are prepared to see that. we dont want to discourage that, however we want to make sure that if anybody is doing anything in conjunction with those activities that result in violence or criminal activity,

that will not be tolerated by the u.s. secret service or the san francisco police department. i'll turn it over to chief scott for any second comments on that question. >> thank you special agent brown. i just reiterate what was just said. it is about facilitation of peaceful first amendment activity and also about the general public safety for this event and the public as well. including the protesters themselves. we will facilitate like we always do first amendment activity. we do that very well and we will employ similar tactics and strategy we always have and it is about facilitation. if and when protesters show up we will be deployed to handle that. we have extra officers that we will be able to handle that type of event if it occurs. the message is this and want to reiterate, criminal activity will not be tolerated and anybody think they are going

to come in name of protest and hurt somebody or do crime or start fires that will not be tolerated so want to reemphasize that. we will do it consitutionally and respect rights and professional in our actions but will not tolerate the nonsense so i want to make that clear. we are all professionals up here. we respect the country consitution and will facilitate that, but we also want to make sure this is a peaceful event. >> question for chief scott. well aware sfpd had under staffing issues working with mutual partners in other counties and cities, is it safe to say during this time that sfpd might be fully staffed? >> everybody is working, so we will be fully staffed and we have assistance. i said earlier in my remarks,

can't thank the california highway patrol enough, the u.s. secret service, all our partners, we are all in this together but the municipal policing is the san francisco police department with help from other local agencies. we have motorcycle officers from other agencies, squads to deal with the security assignments and we have squads to deal with the fixed posts and we are prepared to adequately police the rest of the city during this event, so we are ready, and we are short, but thank goodness we do have the assistance of calling everybody in that make this work. thank you, great question and fair question. thank you. >> businesses operating in some of the security zones, is there going to be any impact to their hours and also, is there cases where there is inconveniences

because of dignitaries? is there compensation for some of the [indiscernible] >> so, appreciate the question regarding the impact to businesses. with very few if any very rare exceptions there will be no businesses asked to effectively close. there will be impacts. already discussed that people that are patrons of the businesses may need to undergo screening if they wish to do business with these places or perhaps the business workers or owners. there will also be impacts during motorcade movement. there is restriction of traffic and restriction of pedestrian traffic during key times so there will be impacts, but we are anticipating any full closures of any private businesses here in san francisco as a result of this.

because of that, we are not anticipating any need to compensate business owners due to these impacts. it is something that as part of this national special security event and the fact it is here in the city of san francisco and hosted by the city that is anticipated these types of impacts will occur and i'll turn it over to the city for further comment on that, but that's effectively comes with the territory of with these type of events. >> from a city perspective, our mayor's office worked very hard to coordinate with small businesses, with all businesses. office of economic development, our office of small business development have been working at this for monthss to keep everybody informed as to what the impacts will be. online there will be a lot of people in the city that attend the conference. we hope it helps our businesses economically, but that only happens if we are well

coordinated, people well informed and people understand what the closures are, how to get to and from daily routine of life and we will do that well. the department of emergency management does a great job informing the public when we have these types of events and public notices particularly if there is a emergency that are tied into this or as a result, or emergencies around the city. we will keep everybody informed and i think that will be the key to making this a smooth as possible, but we definitely are--we understand the businesses will be-people will be disrupted and why we are here today and continue to message to the public to make sure we minimize the disruption and businesses can go about their routine. thank you. >> [indiscernible]

>> hifriends mptd i'm pria here at the san francisco giants ball park. here with runel the voice of the giant. so glad to be here. tell me about san francisco giants and the bay area sports culture. >> my goodness, we are so fochinate to have wonderful and successful sports franchises here. we are die hard sport fans in san francisco and this is is a baseball town, and if you didn't know it, if you were at the parade when we won our first world series in san francisco in 2010, if you didn't know then how important

this team is to the city, this is a very knowledgeable baseball town and i say all the time, the best fans in all baseball. >> you have been doing this job for a minute. tell about what you do and what it means to you. >> so, this job means so much to me and representation is so important. i'm still the only black woman doing this. giants hired the first female pa announcer sherry davis my predecessor so that was the giants then and there saying we support women, we are inclusive, we are diverse, and i'm really honored to be the voice of oracle park. >> what should people coming here outside the bay area know about san francisco and the love for the giant and other sport ? >> you must come to this ball park. it is a private speakeasy. harkens back to our history in new york. look at beautiful waterfront

and all the developments that we are in the midst of constructing now. it will be a really lively even more lively area then it already is, and then of course, you got your momo [indiscernible] there is a vibe. >> there are restaurants and construction and cool spaces within the ball park. >> if you don't like base ball you don't have to watch the game. we have plnty entertainment to see and especially for the kids, don't forget we got the big coca cola slide. the mini-ball park. we got garden. if you don't want a hot dog and garlic fries get you a fresh salad. we got [indiscernible] which is amazing. the crab sandwich everybody loves. >> it is a real san francisco experience. thank you so much. i appreciate it. >> my pleasure. thanks for coming to my

>> item 50 is resolution calling on department of public health to provide medically necessary transition related care for transgender related people and remove restrictions. >> in 2012 gender health sf was born out of advocacy from community stakeholders and local leaders. really as response to providing quality, accessible jnder aaffirming care for the most under-served. (indiscernible) the way i see it, there is two ways of folks we serve at our program. the first wave of folks who never imagined surgery access was accessible to them. many folks who had to save money or par ticipate in underground economy to access the surgery outside the country. (indiscernible) really to make something real in terms of being able to connect with the gender identity and external (indiscernible) and so transform so

many lives of many of trans folks who never imagined it was accessible to them. now we are in the different era and time where transrights is in the social political and general (indiscernible) and now we are serving young folks to support them and making sure their gender identity is connected to who they are, so providing a space to support transfolks to live authentically and that is the goal to provide the level of care trans folks deserve. >> when it comes to access to healthcare, while we all believe in cost control and make sure we deliver healthcare in a cost effective manner, i dont think that cost is a reason or legitinate rational to exclude people from healthcare

(indiscernible) colleagues i ask for your support. >> thank you supervisor wiener. colleagues on this item can we do this without role call? same house same call, without objection the resolution is adopted. [applause] >> you are watching san francisco rising. [music] today's special guest is mano raju. hi. i'm chris and you are watching san francisco rising the show about restarting and rebuilding and reimagineings our city. our guest is mano raju san francisco's public defender great you could be here. actual at this time us about yourself how you became the public defend and why it is important to provide legal

representtation to people that can't afford council. >> i started in contra costa county graduated from berkeley and a liven deputy for you a number of years special jeff recruited me to san francisco the former elected public defender of san francisco and i began as a line department here and then asked me to be training direct and the managers of the felony unit the unit most serious case. after he passed away, i was appointed to be the public defend and electd and recently reelected. but you know what i think about what you know the story of public to the office i like to start with my parents. they come from a farming village in india and dad was the first in family to finish high school. there were a couple people in his village who saw him and encouraged his parentses to

pursue studies and move in the country when i think of what public defenders dot most person thing is to see our clients so than i can hopefully realize their full potential that is important to me and to our office and the cult usual of our office. >> you know the right to a public defender was developed in 1963 in gideon case ensuring the right to a public defender. we take this very seriously in our office. my vision is that anyone in our office should be representing the people represent the same way they want their love 1s to representd and people think if you have a public defender representing you in san francisco you will bet better than a private attorney. we will leave no stone unturned no motion unfiled and try to perform the highest level for clients >> that's fantastic >> often when people think public defenders they jump to the idea of somebody defending

somebody in court your office does more than courtroom representation. >> i'm an elected public dem felonieder i campaigned on that it is important we break the mold of what is public for our office on accomplish. fiercely defending is the core of what we do and that will never go, way. as the only elected public defender there is an elected da and sheriff in every county. in the state but one elected public defender. it is important our office pushed envelope and engage in the national and state wide and local policy that will impact community how public safety and our clients. we have local policy directors, state policy director. we are active in sacramento in trying to make the law change in order to be more humane system for our clients.

we are believer in advocating for community power. we have two 501c3's in bayview and fillmore that are be more magic under the umbrelast public defender's office. these are youth empowerment organizations that do programming throughout the summers. which back pack give, ways to kid school sflois start the school year and believe engaging youth will prevent them from become clients. and put people on the path to thrive. we have a program, end of cycle program. culturally competent social workers going to the jails and finding out what the individual needs. we'll fight for their best legal outcome in the case. and the position of trust the fifth amendment protects the conversations that our clients can have with us.

we can use that to really encourage a trusting rep and telling us what they need and be frank and connect that individual with the substance abuse or mentor or housing or employment and educational opportunities hamp that individual needs to thrive and reach their full potential. that is another piece behalf we do. 17 units across our department and you know we take collaborating across units something we try to do every tail to meet our mission, vision and values >>. a part is ensuring recidivism does not reoccur >> of course the left thing we want to see is a client to return to be a client again. we work intentionally from the moment we start representing a client with our skilled staff and other members of our team to try to figure out what is that future going to be for the client when they leave our care? >> now, some critics argue public defenders have a heavy

case load. how is your office mechanicing this and what issues are most important to you. why we have a heavy case load. unfortunately, this is a problem across the country, public defenders are not funds equal low to da offices our fund suggest 61% of the da office. and the police department has 14 time the our budget. and there is the sheriff's department and any time the entities are detaining our cloinlt in i way it is up to us to defend this is manage we are working on locally. and alsoination wide to change that. we need more staff and every wing of our office. the logo is greater than one. so we know that we need to be greater twhoon individual in the office and use our teams effectively and strategically and skillfully and put in more hours to make sure we reveal

truth and make justice happen in courtrooms. greater than one also symbolizes the fact we are collaborating with other communities organizations to try to support and help our client and move policies that will help our clients. an example of this is the pretextual stop campaign we collaborated with 110 organizations throughout the city to convince the police commission to pass the general order that stops some of the stops traffic stops for things that don't impact public safety and lead to often con41ational interactions with the police and civil yens and. we wanted to minimize that mostly the shootings we read about and the the violence of inneraction gets in car and tragic occurrence that can happen. by collaborating we can be

powerful than the sheer numbers in our organization. >> sure. so you know like cities cross the country san francisco struggling with fentanyl and homelessness, how can our office contribute to help mitigate or solve those problems? >> one thing we can do, again often times with community based organizations; is to really try and figure out how we address the demand. you know. treatment on demand. again. finding people opportunity with housing or employment opportunity. you know mitigation or just any form of counciling that helps people. move in more positive direction in a way more inviting oppose to co hearsive. now we don't have enough beds for everyone who needs that intensive treatment. contributing to staffers to get more funding for people to get

treatment they need. because the reality is there will always be someone to fill the need. we work on the demand, which evidence based there was fee of dealing with addiction will move in a more positive direction. >> then, finally, what else would you like residents of san francisco to know about you and your office? >> i think what i like the san francisco residents to know is how muchow important it is that the public defender be aggressive. right now we had a huge backlog of cases in san francisco. there were over a housand passed the last day. a right to a speedy try and have case passed the last day. we had to plaintiff and against the court t. is important this we have an independent public defend 30 is willing to do that. and we got a good decision from the court of appeal and now the

courts move quick and are honoring this and the effort from policy team to 850 bryant the courthouse is to draw attention to this issue it is important we have an aggressive public defender. had someone gets convicted for something they did not do it impacts their family. clients are greater than one, it is important we fierce low defend. the same time because when someone gets convicted of something they did not do they are less likely to access the j.w. they need for stability or housing and then will impability a lot of people and lead to more issues on the streets and affect public safety. also to realize we are a public safety organization. we have social workers and take this social worker mentality or

support facilitative prop and get cloinlts to a better place. when our clients get to a better place we are all safer >> thank you mr. raju. we appreciate the work. thank you for your interest in the development. you know i wanted to say if anyone wants to know more about a lot of the initiatives and unit in our department they can go to you tube we have a dairy defender series. and people should look at that to learn more about the different units. also we talked about the dibilltating impact of convictions we have a clean slate program exsponging hundreds of records every year. and people can go to our website sfpublicdefender. org and move their live in a positive direction >> thank you very much. >> thank you >> that's it for this episode we

will be back shortly for government government i'm chris manners, t >> 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. >> hi, friends. i'm pria here at the palace of fine arts in san francisco. here with skylar who is the new managing director of the san francisco examiner. skylar, would you start by telling us about the examiner? >> absolutely. the san francisco examiner is san francisco's oldest locally owned newspaper. it is the newspaper of william randolph hurst and mark twain, so incredible history in san francisco and we cover all it the evenlts events in san francisco and particularly focused now on everything happening to bring san francisco back. >> which is a big part of the

story right now where san francisco has been and where it is going. you brought us here to the palace of fine arts because it is one of your favorite places. why are we here? tell us why it matters >> the palace of fine arts was built in 1915. it was part of the exhibition meant to show case san francisco after recovering from the 1906 earthquake. since then it has become a symbol of ingenuity and rezil silience. on a personal level i used to come here as a little girl and the exploratorium amazing scientific museum was based here and as i have gone through life, i come back here and see there is lots of community members out, people like to picnic here and i have a two month old i get to bring him down here and go for walks and a beautiful place to reflect, so really a special part of san francisco and i wanted to share

it. >> if people come here to check out the palace of fine arts, what else is there to do in the neighborhood? tell them about this incredible area. >> there is so much to do. my perfect saturday would be taking a walk to the golden gate bridge and you can touch hoppers hands at the bridge. come back through here, circle through the palace of fine arts and gaze up and wonder. you can go into the presidio and walk around a beautiful national park and when you are done, if you are tired or hungry, you can walk to chestnut street. tons of restaurants and wonderful places to get a famous san francisco craft cocktail. >> that sounds perfect. a lot of our videos seem to end on cocktails. [laughter] >> welcome to san francisco. >> thanks skylar. >>