fr >> you are watching san francisco . [music]st 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.t this time us about yourself how you became the public defend and why it provide legal representtation to can't afford council. >> i started in contra costa county graduated from berkeley and a li number of years special jeff recruited me to san francisco f the former elected public defender of san francisco and i began as a line department here and then asked me to bú1 managers of the felony unit the uni after he passed away, i was appointed to be defend and electd and recently reelected. but you know what i think about what you know the 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 ie country when i think of what public defenders dot most person thing is to see our clients so than i cany realize their full potential that is important to me and to our cult usual of our office. >> you know the right to a defender was developed inensuring the right to a public dender. we take this very seriously in our office. my vision is that anyone in our office should be representing the people r way they want their love 1s to representd a you have a public defender representing you in san francisco you will bet better than a private attorney. we will leave no stone motion unfiled and try to perform the highest clients >> that's fantastic >> often when people think public defenders they jump to the idea of somebody defending somebody in court your office

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 wend way. as the only elected public defender there is an elected da and sheriff in every in the state but one elected public defender. our office pushed envelope and and state wide and lo 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 client advocating for community power. we have two 501c3's infr bayview and fillmore that are be more umbrelast

public defender's office.ese are youth empowerment organizations that do programming throughout the summers. which back pack givekid 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 of0k 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 position of trust the fifth amendment protectst our clients can have with us. that to really encourage a trusting rep and 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 r potential. that is another piece behalf we do. 17 un

and you know we take collabor we try to do every tail to meet our mission, vision and values >>. a part is ensuringreoccur >> of course the left thing we want to see is a client to return to be a client again. intentionally from the moment we start representing a client wit 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 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 country public defenders are not funds equal 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 the

entities are detaining cloinlt in i way it is up to us to defend this is manage we are working on and alsoination wide to change that. we need more staff and every wing of our office. the logo is 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. 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. this is the pretextual collaborated with 110 organizations throughout the city to convince the police general order that stops some 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 andy tragic occurrence that can happen. by collaborating we be powerful than the sheer numbers in our organization. >> sure. so you know like cities cross the country 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. 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 h for everyone who needs that intensive treatment. contributing to staffers to get more funding for they need. because the reality is there 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 s know about you and your office? >> i think what i like the residents to know is how muchow important it is defender be aggressive. 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 passe last day.

we had to plaintiff and against the crt t. is important this we have an independent public defend 30 is willing to do 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 is important we have an aggressive public 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 theo they are less likely to access the j.w. they need for stability or housing and then will im people and lead to more ts 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 rk. thank you for your interest in the development. you know i wanted to say if anyoneí 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 convictions we have a cleanonging hundreds of records every year. and people can go to our website sfpublicdefender. org and move r 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 >> you are watching san francisco rising with chris manners. today's special guest, carolyn mante. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you are watching san frabout restaffing rebuilding and reimaging city. the guest is carolyn manteto talk about the organization is helping to preserve the city cultural heritage and architecture. welcome to the show. >> good to have you here. >> ca talk bat the history of your organization and the mission. >> sure, thank you. san francisco heritage started 51 years ago and the main mie and enhance the architectural and cultural ident francisco.

when it started out the focus was really buildings, historic landmark listings and really concentrated downtown area with all the development happening. our organization was raising a reg 5qred flag with historic landmarks in danger and victorian mansions a hallmark of our organization is moving victorian mansions in the way of development to inwestern addition neighborhood and other areas to get out of the way of development and preserve them. our organization was around before there was the historic preservation commission of the city so we were at the forefront drawings attention historic preservation, landmarking and over the last 51 yeaow there are more then just bu city cultural resources, there is also small businesses and the different neighborhood icons that make a neighborhood outreach has really-it is really come full circle in a way because it

moved downtown into the neighborhoods and now &/ with the covid epidemic it is really going back to downtown we can play a role in the economic +/ and revitalization of downtown san francisco. >> that's great. so organization is also responsible for maintaining a couple properties. could you tell us a little about those? >> yes, our non profit was gifted in the historic (inaudible) house. it is now a historic but this was a family since 1886 built the same family year after year and one of the family when she passed way gifted the mansion to san francisco heritage so since then we have been running this historic house and the home of our office. in 2018, one of the long time members nor aa lasten gifting a building on the e h-as hate polk

a commercial corridor after the earthquake, the owner time, he raised the house and put 6 store front underneath in order to take advantage of the commerce so we are in charge of the house on the corner and it has been a wonderful way to get new numbers, new audiences interested in thn. during the pandemic, we have been using it as a artson residents and partnering with different tists as well as cultural institutions, cultural districts and then one storefronts we converted into a pop up galleries so gives a opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of the art and cultural resources in san francisco. >> that's fantastic. talk about legacy business. what does the designation mean? how does somebody get add today the cy business registry and

what benefits does being named a legacy business? >> i love this% program. it was started by san francisco heritage and adopt ed by the city and run by the office of small business but the program looks what are the businesses really contributing to san francisco and the neighborhood. started the first focus was bars and restaurants it exb panded to include other businesses so these are places ataracter of a neighborhood, so sam's grill downtown, the amazingarian press in the presidio. book stores like city lights oergreen apple recently named. this year we had a attention on the legacy business program. we put out a contest to the public of what you think should be the next legacy business and one of the businesses that was recommended was the

club deluxe, jazz club on the corner, days after we launched the contest, the owners announced they w have to close. the rent was driven up, they couldn't afford it, coming out of the pandemic so we worked at speed to that application submitted with them and that status convinced their landlord to negotiate with them a lower rent and this way they have been able to stay, there was a lot media support around this, so when you become a marketing and business support from the office of small

owners; >> it is leased to another planet entertainment and been in planet entertainment by the castro theater is historbuilding. it is recognized as a very important monument. one thing-one main activist organizations of the preservation of the theater we work together with mandelman on a interior landmark historic landmark designation for interior, but happened over the is summer and q learned is there is a lot of concern not just by san franciscans but people all over world, movie directors, stars who are very concerned risk to the

lgbtq and film programming at the castro theater. another planet stakeholder in august, and it was so moving to see the number of people who took the microphone-everyone had two minutes to say their testimony of what castro theater meant to them and those testimonys showed this building is contributing not just as a but plays a role in the lgbtq community that is irrelaceuble able. >> it is beautiful theater. is. involvement in the theater raised awareness to not only the castro theater to be emblem lgbtq culture and history but also there are many other sites in the city that also contribute to the identity. that is why so many people come to san francisco as a place of freedom my previous work i worked atthe

world heritage center, so when i joined san francisco heritage i was thinking why isn't san francisco a world heritage city? for architecture alone it could be lden gate bridge to name a few but the city is so the architecture, the oric landmarks so hoping to start a conversation on that with city stakeholders this year. >> that is great. let's talk u about your relationship with other agencies. you mentioned office of work force development and planning updo you unt integrate to >> these relationships are essential. we are working with office of small business for the legacy business program and the planning department is really one of our most crucial relationships. we meet quarterly with them and we really see how we can support not only historic land mark listings and historical atements,

strategy for culture districts and city survey activities that really are of concern to botoffice of workforce development, i attended a etmoothat the chamber of commerce organized with them on the downtown revitalization and a key goal in that meeting and in the downtown revitalization is to make sure that the city historic a key #r0e8 in the economic recovery and revitalization especially after the pandemic. the office of workforce development has the ciild program which is admirable prograyouth are trained in construction techniques for rebuilding and especially with the housing legislation, and we really want to see how can that workforce be expanded to include traini we have so many victorian homes, historic buildings and other places that really need a skilled labor force to make sure that they are preserved and that they help keep

identify of the city. we really value we meet quarterly with the various organizations and we are really grateful for grants of the arts we receivsupports so definitely that is a key relationship for san francisco heritage. >> the city build is great. i like that a lot. the time you have given today. appreciate you coming on the show. much raising awareness about san francisco heritage. we hope the people watching will join us in the san francisco special. thank you. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back shortly. i'm chris manners, thanks you're watching san francisco rising with chris manors. today's special guest is jeff

you're watching san francisco rising. the show on starting reimagining our citytumlin and he's with us to talk about our transportation recovery plan and some exciting projects across tfhe mr. tumlin welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. > so we just got good news thisk. we're getting an extra $115 million from the rescue plan and this is basically the exact amount of finally needed in order to close the gap between now and november of 2024 when we'll have to additional revenue sources in meantime, i finally have the confidence to be able to rapidly hire to restore

services and to make s is there for san francisco's larger economic recovery san francisco doesn't work without muni. >> quite right. pandemic was that some projects like the valencia bike improvements had to be put on hold. are we starting to gear up on those again? >> yes so it's an interesting case study. of right before covid hit, we were about ready tok build bike lanes. arguably the most important bike order in san francisco. lockdown and then as you'll recall, during covid kinds of other new programs like shared spaces in order to support our small businesses gñ well as sunday street light events for neighborhood commercial streets where streets were closed off to cars and turned over to commercial those successes now that they've been made permanent actually interrupt the draft design we had put together.

so we've gone back to the drawing board and we are looking forward to having some additional community conversations about other design ideas for valencia. we're committed to completing a quick build project on this calendar. >> that's such good news. valencia is a really great biking. so there are two huge and exciting projects that are been completed. let's talk about the bus rapid transit project on van ness avenue. how extensive have the improvements been? >> what's called the van ness transit rapid project is in fact more about complete reconstruction of the street and most the 100-year-old utilities un so all of the water, sewer telecommunications gas under the street were basically rebuilt from market street all the way to lumbard. the part on the surface which provides dedicated bus lanes for golden gate transit and

muni, that was relatively straight forward excited we're going to start revenue service for muni on april 1st. >> that's fantastic. i understand there were some sidewalkre were sidewalk improvements. we planted 374 trees. there is new storm water treatment incxñe sidewalk there's a bunch of art. there's all kinds of things. we put in new street for the entire corridor. >> finally, the other big news is about central subway. can you briefly describe project and give us an update. >> yes, so the central t-line project, another stop at union square that connects directly into powell station and a final stop in the heart of chinatown at stockton and washington. that project has also run into

challenges. it's 120' under muni under bart chinatown in some unexpectedlyn challenging soils. but that project is nearly complete. cl6q it's at about 98% completion right now which means we're testing trains, we're testing the elevators and escalators and the final electronics and we're still on track to open that in october presuming all of the well. so fingers crossed on in a one. allowing people to have a subway ride from the heart of chinatown all the way to convention center to the caltrans station and all the way down to bayview and visitation valley. >> it's great to see all these >& completion. we're all grateful for your team's hard work and the show mr. tumlin. thank you for the time you've given us today. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me.

>> and that's it for this episode. for sf tv i'm chris manors. thanks for watching. >> this is regular meeting of the abatement appeals board. to remine everyone to mute yourself if you are not speaking and on the agenda is roll call. president chavez, present. commissioner alexander-tut, here. commissioner meng, here.