>> good afternoon everyone. ladies and gentlemen, welcome. i am miriam, the chief of city and county of san francisco, and it is my absolute honor to extend our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for being here with us as we commemorate the endureing 45 years between san francisco and shanghai. welcome to mayor gong and his entire delegation from shanghai. we are so thrilled to have you here in san francisco. we have a tight program here for you, and very exciting one, so without further ado, it is my pleasure to welcome our one and only mayor london breed.

mayor. [applause] i apologize. [speaking chinese] [applause] >> good afternoon everybody. good afternoon! first of all, let me say welcome to mayor gong and his entire delegation and thank you to our consul general who consistently is on the for

front insuring that the u.s. china relationships remain strong and in tact. president she, visited san francisco as many know back in apec and highlighted the people, the people relationships that are important to insuring that our countries and our people are thriving, but more importantly, the san francisco vision. we know that san francisco is a gateway to the asian pacific and what happens in our city changing our entire counry and the world, so those people to people relationships are extremely important. it is why it is my honor to welcome so many of you here to city hall to celebrate 45 years of the san francisco and shanghai sister city relationship. [applause]

[speaking chinese]

[applause] >> mayor gong, we are very fortunate in san francisco to have a very thriving chinese community in our city, and in fact, what you see here today is a representation of business leaders, of those who own their own small businesses, of commissioners, of people who work in the tech industry, of folks who established not just political organizations, but non profit organizations that are helping to make a difference in the communities all over san francisco. gegraphcally many joining us today live in all parts of san francisco.

chinatown is a important part of the community, but there are people representing the west side of the city including taraval, richmond and innersunset and various neighborhoods that make up the fabric of our city. [speaking chinese]

this is community that is not also just involved in the work that they do personally, but so many of them give back to organizations that help to make the community better. i'm looking around and if i start naming names i might get in trouble, but all most every person here is not only successful as maybe an attorney, a business owner, or a publisher or a newspaper, but they are public servants serving the city and county of san francisco as commissioners, but also serving on the board of directors for a number of organizations that help to support and uplift so many people throughout san francisco, including our young people and our seniors. [speaking chinese]

today, as we sign the memorandum of understanding to recommit ourselves after an historical 45 year

relationship, it is important for us to highlight the specific things that we will focus on to renew that commitment. now, when this agreement was signed 45 years ago, at that time, technology was not what it is today and we are excited to really focus on the need to continue to develop our relationships around technology, sustainability, and the environment, and in highlights that people to people relationship insuring there are exchanges between our student populations, including our students who are both in high school and college. in fact, because that relationship, we will be sending 10 public high school students to shanghai during the month of july to continue to grow and develop the extraordinary relationship that is existed for the past over past

four decades. [applause] [speaking chinese]

you will be hearing from her in just a moment, but i want to take this opportunity to truly thank daphne for her extraordinary work with shanghai sister city and all she did to make our trip to shanghai success and make this trip in our relationship and the signing of the mou success as well. [applause] [speaking chinese] again recollect i want to

thank all for joining us. we have a few other speakers and i at this time i like to turn it back over to chief of protocol to introduce, mayor gong. [applause] [speaking chinese] >> it is my distict pleasure to introduce mayor gong of shanghai. mayor gong, thank you for honoring us with your presence. we are delighted to have you and your delegation here in san francisco. for this momentus occasion, celebrating our relationship of our two cities, and for us to have the opportunity to resipicate for your hospitality while we had our visit in shanghai,

thank you. [speaking chinese] welcome to mr. gong. [speaking chinese] [applause] >> [speaking chinese] >> honorable mayor breed, consul nob ladies and gentlemen , good

afternoon. >> [speaking chinese] >> gives me great pleasure to lead delegation to san francisco. one month after mayor breed's visit to shanghai. the moment we arrived here, the very attractive scenery of the city and inviting atmosphere make us feel very homecoming so on behalf of the shanghai municipal people government i extend greetings to community in san francisco and also want to thank the san francisco government for the

arrangement and hospitality. >> [speaking chinese] >> we often say the more friends, the closer they get. in the san francisco is shanghai first sister city in the united states and we carried active and extensive collaboration and in this process over the years as we learn from each other, we grow together too. >> [speaking chinese]

>> a theme of our era. as we know san francisco, has strong economgic technological power and one of the world's major technology, business and cultural centers rchlt shanghai is china biggest economic powerhouse and striving to make the city is a international economic, financial, trade, shipping invasion center. we accelerated at efforts to turn shanghai into a metropalist with worldwide impact. >> [speaking chinese]

>> with signing of this new mou we hope we can enhance our cooperation in economy and trade, culture and education to arrive a new chapter of our friendship. >> [speaking chinese] >> i wish san francisco a very bright future and i also wish that the friendship between our two cities is strong and blended as the golden gate bridge. thank you. >> thank you! [applause] >> thank you very much mayor gong. it is new my pleasure to have the opportunity to introduce consul general zang. he is a advocate and friend to our city and played a crucial role in

fostering diplomatic relationships between our city and countries and truly understand the importance of people to people exchanges. >> [speaking chinese] >> consul general. >> thank you so much for your kind words. dear mayor breed, dear mayor

gong, madam [indiscernible] dear friends, good afternoon. it is my great honor to join you attending this soon to be signing ceremony. san francisco and shanghai were the first major chinese and american cities to enter the sister city relationship. [indiscernible] a lot has been accomplished. with the signing of the mou for a new round of cooperation, i think we can have a lot more to look forward to. the better is yet to come. san francisco is also where san francisco vision was developed. as a result of the successful summit between president--and president biden. when the vision is formulated it is up to all of us to take action to translate san francisco vision into reality and i think both mayor

breed and mayor gong have set very good examples for us by exchanging visits within a month. mayor breed was in shanghai last month and this month we welcome mayor gong to san francisco. i think this is very meaningful action to turn the vision into reality and to follow through on what our two presidents agreed. i really hope more chinese and american mayors will follow their example. the more visits take place, the better our relationship. before i conclude, i want to say, two years ago today, i started my journey to san francisco to take my position as chinese consul general. over the past 2 years i worked hard and i have gone through challenges, so i like to take this opportunity to express my heartful felt gratitude to

mayor breed, city hall, people represented here from all walks of life being in san francisco. thank you for your support. my colleagues and i and the consulate are committed and will double our efforts to make our relationship better and stronger. thank you. >> thank you. it is now my pleasure to introduce daphne fang, who is the chair of our sister city committee. she has been tirelessly working to bring us all together as part of the process of the mou which you will witness very very soon, but she has been really an advocate and a friend and as mayor mentioned, has worked very hard to support all our efforts.

daphne, thank you so much and please a round of warm welcome for daphne fang. [applause] [speaking chinese]

[applause] >> thank you. thank you miriam. i congratulate consul general for your anniversary. thanks for all your great work you have bring to san francisco in the two country relationship. [speaking chinese] as our mayor said, thank you and your teams hospitality, which have made our shanghai visit truly unforgettable. that is why you saw many up here, in shanghai about a month ago.

we like to come back here to welcome you to visit the city of san francisco. >> [speaking chinese] >> as part of the gift you give us, was the 10 high school students to participate in summer and you heard from our mayor, in the last four weeks

we made that happen and they will go in july to visit shanghai. >> [speaking chinese] >> this will pave the way for enhance the cultural understanding power of friendship across the board in the generations. >> [speaking chinese] >> i would like to extend my

deepest gratitude to miriam--[indiscernible] in the last 4 weeks the great work make this happen. >> [speaking chinese] >> we also like to thank [indiscernible] united air lines for their support. >> [speaking chinese] >> we are here to witness the

signing of a mou that will further strengthen the true sister city future of mutual growth, exchange and business collaborations. >> [speaking chinese] >> i would like to thank mayor breed for your vision and your leadership and we--san francisco shanghai sister city committee will continue our dedication to support the two greatest cities, two greatest mayors. >> [speaking chinese]

>> now, we like to invite all the mayors and come up and signing of the mou. >> [speaking chinese] [applause]

forward/hospitality. >> heart of san francisco an aide so important diverse culture in the name for remarkable individuals like carlton b goodlett a man wheeg

legacy is at the iconic lashed not just a man of intelligent his journey was far from san francisco good had studies earning a mountain lake cut off road in child psychiatric a city that is is campus for staff's contributions a city with a very different place when dr. good let was around and you would see him on streets like the fillmore and what he did he mrs. minority healthcare to people who that did not have insurance or an ability to pay for that. >> dr. good working hard around city hall meaning he

would load boxes with people and they would go to san francisco state mainly and other places as well and protest these unjust treatments and unfairness of their system. >> dr. good was a america civil service activity with naacp and protested for the discriminations against blacks and public transportation and public housing and the reporter as most people come into the building today don't know who he was was district attorney know that not only was a physician, a activity but also an incredible cardplayer. in his spare time. >> and the won a number i

published and the also ended edited another newspaper wells fargo willie brown and dr. good had a close relationship in the early 90s several groups got together to his own dr. good and put together petitions and worked very, very hard to have the official address changed. >> dr. king's day of the celebration is in january, i got to call from mayor brown which i've known for in many, many years to ask me to change the street sign this is remarkable. okay. >> in january of 1999 right

after the building reopened, mayor brown and i went outside at that moment it was still cold street we shut down the word on the sign that read polk. >> put up the sign that said number one, dr. carlson carlton b goodlett white. >> i think that he earned a certain place in respect of all poem he was just a remarkable individual. unfortunately, we didn't live long enough here to see the street sign

you are watching san francisco rising with chris manor. today's special guest is sarah phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching san francisco rising the show about

restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing the city. the guest today is sarah phillips the executive director of economic workforce development. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. let's talk about the city economic plan and specifically the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview and update on progress? >> absolute e. in february 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there was structural and lang lasting changing by the covid impact. 134 were shorter term impacts how people using transit downtown and coming out and are using small businesses, some of them remember long-term structural impacts. the way we work.

how often we are in an office and how much office space companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. some of those were structural impacts how we stop. there has been a long-term change as online shopping takes up a greater share how we performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably take 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern the timeframe to 2 years so saw structural impacts how people shop. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we have seen is efforts creating permitinant services and homes for people experiencing homelessness is dramatic. we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more work to do. on the safety side there are

exciting things that happened. we increased our police pay among the highest in the bay area which is a important thing for recruitment. police recruitment across the country is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a high pay set. august the highsh return in graduates. we see 75 decrease in retail theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which is quality of life crime san francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thing important in the mayor roadmap we are not trying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed having a downtown with people sitting at offices isn't the best downtown it can be.

i think it is a opportunity to bring 24 hour life use downtown. >> music and concerts is a great way to bring people to a specific location. golden gate park we had lots of events in plazas throughout the city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you touched on something key to the mayor road map. for san francisco and particularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing people together because they want to be together not because they center to be together and music is a strong part that. the planet concert sear ries coming up and happening throughout the city not just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great example. there are smaller examples as well. the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor

roadmap where two streets come together akwraisant to a couple restaurants closed to cars in daytime, chairs and seating and throughout the week they have lunch time and evening music to bring people together after work. they participate in that. something we are working on setting up for next year which is really exciting is our sf live program and that will bring a full 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and partnership to useian square, music center plaza and embark cadero. we will be able to announce concert series through the sf- >> you mentioned vacant to vibrant, that program has a lot of attention lately.

can you talk generally what exactly that program is? >> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords willing to offer groundfloor space for free for 3 to 6 month jz small business or storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for 3 to 6 months. it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting the number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a place where commercial real estate understands they need to come to the table to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting in a transition where the groundfloor is seen less as a money making operation, but more as a leader to lease upper floors. if you have a active ground floor yields better on the other 80 percent of the building you are trying to lease. that was great, a lot of

cooperation scr over 700 small business or operators responded to that call. it is pop up. there is no intention this would result in forever small businesses, but there is certainly a hope and i think what we are hearing, i don't have the final data, but there are 17 activators in 9 different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9 spaces that are being leased for free, now 7 of them are in discussions for long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the program. we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to pilot in other neighborhoods with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of capital that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are seen is they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to support this activation so hopeful to expand it. >> that's great.

can you talk a bit about why piloting programs and testing things is so important? >> absolutely. you know, i would say not only the important generally but important in san francisco specifically. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really important here is, it allows us to try something and say, there may be consequence but let's understand those in real time rather then waiting to start a strategy while we think about them on paper and if they are too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whether a bike lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is this working? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd to our office particularly because we tend to

have the ability and the mayor's support through the budget process to pilot things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public plaza, see if it works and i think the benefit there is, if it doesn't work we tried it and had the benefit of seeing real time and when it does work, we are able to uplift that and move into a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city operating procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term whether it is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows them to vote for what they like. >> lastly, in lith light of

the current ai boom, do you think there is a way to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of san francisco's status as a tech hub? >> i do, i think they work together. san francisco right now has a strong vacancy problem in our office space. and there is a back-story to that. our zoning downtown has not prevented other uses, in terms of permitting uses of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other barriers, cost and code barriers et cetera and what happened also during the height of our preevious boom is that, the amount that tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything out so we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we de facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the

opportunity you are pointing out. now because downtown was so convertible from work from home, particularly as tech based downtown was and how much companies put at the market in the office spaces we are seeing high vacancy now, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lot of opportunity. we have the ability to absorb expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. we have seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased just in 2023 alone and there is still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a growth spot absorbing some of the vac ancy. the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also dropped and that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies that were priced out in 2018, 2019, 2020.

san francisco has always been great at starting companies and allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevents that growth so now we are a super fertile ground for more start ups and invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter our market and we have the space to offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of really great university and educational institutions. we are between uc berkeley and stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone stay in the bay area and want to rise up and work here, provide a real opportunity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to grow here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with ai tech. with that, we are interested in increasing our human capital growing graduates. downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we are in

conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a partner in our downtown and then residential conversions are a great partner to that. as we build back the office space, people will want to live downtown again and we have a number buildings that can be converted to residential. the costs are high. mayor breed and her partners on the board made significant changes to reduce the costs. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown area. there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a ballot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs for those as well. it is ongoing process and none of those changes we talked about absent ai growth downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts growth downtown and residential conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity per your question, but we also need to be patient because what

we are talking about is is a real shift to the make-up of the downtown since from the growth it has been starting at since the turn of the century so that isn't a 2 year change, that is a 10 year change and we center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really appreciate you spending the time here today and your creative vision and positivity, so thank you so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown and shop. >> that is it for this episode. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks >> making to may grandkids a program all about pop ups,

artists, non profits small business in into vacant downtown throughout the area for a three to 6 months engagement. >> i think san francisco is really bright and i wanted to be a part of it revitalization. >> i'm hillary, the owner of [indiscernible] pizza. vacant and vibrant got into safe downtown we never could have gotten into pre-pandemic. we thought about opening downtown but couldn't afford it and a landlord [indiscernible] this was a awesome opportunity for us to get our foot in here. >> the agency is the marriage between a conventional art gallery and fine art agency.

i'm victor gonzalez the founder of gcs agency. thes program is especially important for small business because it extended huge life line of resources, but also expertise from the people that have gathered around the vacant to vibrant program. it is allowed small businesses to pop up in spaces that have previously been fully unaccessible or just out of budget. vacant to vibrant was funded by a grant from the office of economic workforce development that was part of the mayor's economic recovery budget last year so we funded our non profit partners new deal who managed the process getting folks into these spaces. >> [indiscernible] have been tireless for all of us down here and it has been incredible. certainly never seen the kind

of assistance from the city that vacant to vibrant has given us, for sure. >> vacant to ibvooerant is a important program because it just has the opportunity to build excitement what downtown could be. it is change the narrative talking about ground floor vacancy and office vacancy to talking about the amazing network of small scale entrepreneur, [indiscernible] >> this is a huge opportunity that is really happy about because it has given me space to showcase all the work i have been doing over the past few years, to have a space i can call my own for a extended period of time has been, i mean, it is incredible. >> big reason why i do this is specific to empower artist. there are a lot of people in san francisco that have really great ideas that have the work ethics, they just don't have

those opportunities presented, so this has been huge lifeline i think for entrepreneurs and small businesses. >> this was a great program for us. it has [indiscernible] opening the site. we benefited from it and i think because there is diverse and different [indiscernible] able to be down here that everybody kind of benefits from it. >> conduct a field shelter

exercise where we open up a number of tents that animal control has they have supplies and equipment and staff and volunteers. we simulate the need for cape ability after a disaster or earthquake. >> animal care and control is your city's animal shelter. we care for approximately 10,000 animals a year. we are opinion for san francisco's animal in thes upon effect of an emergency. we got our tents and practicing how to deal with that. >> this is the shelter is overwhelmed with animals after a disaster this shelter is full regularly. if we torch have an event that would cause a number of animals to escape or injured or stray or separate friday their people that's where we would respond.

>> pets are part of the family and need to make sure they are taken care of like people with the supplies and equip we are able to provide shelter for pets in addition to the existing shelter. >> we have formulated a plan so this in the event of a disaster we are hear ready to help and support the city. >> we are able to use the muni bus to transport the people. animals and other equip if the shelter. >> encourage people there is an evacuation order to take your pet with you. >> very first thing everyone should do is microchip the pet. and pack a bag >> shelter cert not a place where you want your animal to end up unless the last resort and like to keep most out of the shelter when we can.

>> take care of your people and your friend and family. pets need to be taken >> this lodge is home to some of the best fly casting pools in the world. these shallow concrete pools don't have fish. this is just a place where

people come to practice their fly casting technique. ith was built in the 1930's and ever since, people have been coming here to get back to nature. every year, the world championship of fly casting is held in san francisco and visitors from all over the globe travel to be here. >> we are here with phil, general manage of san francisco rec and parks department at the anglers lodge. what do you think about this? >> it is spectacular, travis from oregon, taught me a snake roll and a space cast. >> there are people from all over the world come to san francisco and say this is the place to be. >> yeah. it's amazing, we have teams from all over the world here today and they are thrilled. >> i flew from ireland to be

here. and been practicing since for the competition. all the best casters in the world come here. my fellow countryman came in first place and james is on the current team and he is the head man. >> it's unique. will not see anything like it where you go to compete in the world. competitions in ireland, scotland, norway, japan, russia each year, the facilities here in the park are second to none. there is no complex in the world that can touch it. >> i'm here with bob, and he has kindly agreed to tell me everything i need to know about casting. i'm going to suit up and next, we're in the water. >> what any gentleman should do. golden gate angling has free

lessons the second saturday of every month. we have equipment show up on the 9:30 on the second saturday of every month and we'll teach them to fly cast. >> ok. we are in the water. >> let me acquaint you with the fly rod. >> nice to meet you. >> this is the lower grip and the upper grip. this is a reel and a fly line. we are going to use the flex of this rod to fling away. exactly as you moved your hands. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> i'm a natural. >> push both arms forward and snap the lower hand into your tummy. push forward. >> i did gave it a try and had great time but i might need some more practice. i met someone else with real fly casting skills. her name is donna and she is an

international fly casting champion. >> i have competed in the casting ponds in golden gate park in san francisco. i have been to japan and norway for fly casting competition. i spend my weekends here at the club and at the casting pond. it's a great place to learn and have fun. on a season day like this, it was the perfect spot to be. i find fly casting very relaxing and also at the same time very challenging sport. takes me out into the nature. almost like drawing art in the air. and then i can make these beautiful loops out there. >> even though people from across the globe come here to compete, it's still a place where locals in the know relax and enjoy some rely unique

scenery. until next time, get out and play!