you are watching san francisco swith chris manor. today's special guest is sarah phillips. >> hi, i'm chris manors and you are watching n rising the show about restarting rebuilding and eare imagineing this sarah

the executive director economic development. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me. let's talk about the cieconic a the city's road map to san francisco future. can you give a brief overview and update on progress? >> absolute e. in 2023 mayor breed released the roadmap comprised to 9 strategies to move the city forward understanding there ural and lang impact. changing by the 134 were shorter term impacts how people using transit downtown t using small businesses, some of long-tructural impacts. the way we work. how often we are in an office and how uch office space

companies who had headquartered in san francisco need. those were structural impacts how we stop. there has long-term change as online shopping takes up a are how we performs and covid-19 took a shift that would probably 10 to 15 years happen and collapse what happened ofern thtimeframe to 2 years so saw structural impacts how people o. we have seen a lot of progress rchlt we are 9 months in and significant things we haveseen is efforts creating permitinant experiencing homelessness is dr we increased the number of shelter beds dramatically and take-up of the beds dramatically, and there is more work to on the safety side there are exciting things that happened.s

among the highest in the bay ais a important thing for recruitment. untry is down so recruiting the best we can means we need to give a pay set. august the highsh return graduates. we see 75 decrease theft and 50 percent reduction in car break ins which alitof l francisco experienced so there is real progresses we are seeing on clean and safe sides. one thinpoin e mayor roadmap we are not ying to get back to 2020 vision. i think covid showed downtown with people sitting at ofesthe best downtown it can be. i think it is a opportunity 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 ntin plazas throughout the city. can you talk about those and if there is upcoming events too? >> i think you toucketo the may map. rticularly san francisco downtown to move forward and be successful as a great american city, it is about bringing tother because they want to be together not because they center to be together and . the planet concert series coming up and happening throughout the city just golden gate park but downtown locations are a great exampl■2. there are smaller examples as well. the landing at--is a new plaza we constructed in the mayor roadmap where two sts come together akwraisant to a couple

daytime, chairs and seating and e week they have lunch time and e bring people together after work. something we are working on really exciting is our sf ich live program and that will brinfull 2024 concert series where we match local venues bringing their work and music center plaza 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 that program is?

>> yeah. so, we opened a program where we put out a call for landlords space for free fo 6 month jz small business or storefront operators who had a proposal what they would do for. it is pilot. we had a incredible amount of interest. we had--i'm forgetting number of landlords, but more then we expected because we are in a plcommercial real estate understands they need to come to help make our groundfloor lively and resulting ine the groundfloor is seen less as a moionbut more as a leader to lease up floors. if you have a active ground floor yields better on the lease. that was great, a lot of cooperatscr over 700 small

business or operators that cal. 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 hedon't have the final data, but there different spaces, some are colocated, which is why the difference, and out of those 9 spaces that are being for free, now 7 of them are in discsifor long-term leases so the spaces continue. it is the we are hopeful to have a second and third traunch and hoping to with other partners. it is not an inexpensive program because there is a lot of l that goes into popping up for short amount of time but what we are they visit the businesses, the businesses are successful and san francisco want to hopeful t expand it. >> that's great. can you tabit about why

piloting programs and testing iimportant? >> absolutely. you know, i would not only the important generally but important in san francisco ecif. the benefit of pilot programs in the reasons they are really important heit allows us to try something and say, there mt let's understand those in real time rather then waiting to start a if they are le we think about too great we can modify the program as we go. mta has absorbed the strategy whr lane or other to figure how best to use the street? is it working for bikes and cars and buses? maybe not, let's switch it around and pilots have been important to oewd our office particularly because we tend to have thiland the mayor's support through the

budget process to things through request for proposals or rfp process where we can put out a small amount of funding, try activation and small public i think the benefit there is, if tried it and had the benefit of seeing real time and when rk, we are able to uplift that and mto a permanent strategy and that is where our agency turns over something we piloted to another agency because it is part of the city er procedure. pilots also give people hope. when we have the short-term is physical public plaza or activation that shows change is possible and allows them the current ai boom, do you

think there is a to leverage those new changes to take a bunch of francisco's status as a tech hub? >> i doey 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 rm of the multi-story building has been open including allowing residential but we put other s barriers et cetera and what pethe height of our preevious boom is that, the amount tech companies were willing to pay for office space bid everything outso we-without intentionally zoning a single use downtown, we facto became a single use downtown and thereat is the opp

out. now because downtowso convertible from work from home, particularly as and how m companies put at the ma fice s high vacanow, all most 30 percent so there is lot of square feet but that presents a lortunt of y. we have the ability expansion of the tech industry we are so strong at. seen over 800 thousand square feet of ai space leased still more demand out in the market, more ai companies looking for space so that is a the vac an the opportunity too is prices for downtown lease s have also m nd that opens up a breath of opportunity to a breath of companies thare priced out in 2018, 2019, 20 san francisco has always been great at starting companies a

allowing them to grow here. when our prices are too high it prevs growth so now we are a super fertile ground for more start ups invasion on the smaller end of the sector because they can come and enter our marketd offer. to talk about san francisco's assets and the leveraging that, we sit at the epicenter of university and educational institutions. we are between uc stanford. the graduates produced just from those institutions alone i to rise up and work here, provida pounity for the start ups to build their companies and companies to here so we confident we will absorb a certain amount of office space with tech. with that, we are tein increasing our human capital growing graduates. downtown university is something the mayor is open to pursuing and we in conversations with uc berkeley we love to have as a pain

our downtown and then residential conversions are great partner to that. as we build back the office space, people will want a nverted to residential.an be the costs are high. partners on the board made significant changes to cecosts. we waived fees for change of uses in the downtown there are code changes that will make the conversions easier. there is a baot measure on the march ballot that will attempt to reduce costs those as well. it is ongoing process and noneo about absent ai downtown, but institutional growth downtown, arts owresiden conversions downtown are long-term changes so one thing i want to say recollect i do think there is a opportunity tobe patient because what lso we are talking about is is a real shift to the makep of

the downtown since from the growth it has ntury so that isn't a a 10 year chang center to watch as it goes. >> thank you so much. i really apia■:spenng the time and your creative vision and tianyou so much. >> thanks so much for having me and hope you all downtown d th. for sfgovtv i'm chris manors, thanks in fire prevention. i'm very t fire prevention because not only am i able to enforce the code and make changes to help the citizen of san francisco be safe in place of business, but i think my work also make sure that my fellow firefighters and first responders, when they respond to building is also safe for them. >> you're watching san francisco rising with chris manners. today's special guest oke nkins >> hi, i'm chris manners and you are watchs san francisco rising, the show about restarting ding and reimagining our city. ourguest san francisco district attorney

re to talk theopeioid crisis, criminal justice and more. >> thank you so much for having here. let's start with organized restale threft. some jurisdictions across the country imd of the punishment against people shop lifting groups but that may be applied disproportionately to epipooal and doesn't address the organization behind it all. how can sure both prosecute the ring leaders behind the crimes and ke justice is handed out in >> making sure we get to the higher level of organizations in organized retail threrft area so that is something myophilus is focused on working the police department on. looking at organized retail threat ringzsx but we have to make sure people are being caught have stealing and that is a big challenge in the sit a have worked with

retailers and small business owners to insure the necessary ols d procedures are in place to at the very laescatch people who are stealing because they have been running out of the stores and therefore facing no consequence so we have to start there and trying do to more with intervention with the youth who are some of g some of the threfts. many stores have turned to not detaining empls oertrng to stop them and that change in procedure lead to making it very the police department to capture these people stealing. we have been orki with the change in their protocol going back to the way it used to be have the opportunity to have consequences. >> right. so, let's move to id crisis which had a devastating impact across the acro the country, including san francisco. how can

your office help address the issue? >> the main back to where people feel there is a consequence dealing drugs city. we can't treat drug steel dealing as a victimless crme have ooverage 2 people dying a day from overdose victims of this offense so quha longer s did is the case we decriminalizing drug sales in san francisco the da office. we have to put consequence on table and insure the most agregiouss llers so massive quantityties of fentanyl, some enough to kill all most half the city. sometimes with people ens and guns are multiple of cases wi are treated differently then thoges with small contties so i ask people detain in custody. we can't have them on the later, but also trying to work with police

department and our city making sure our laws are enforced it is the only people people suffering from addiction will have a opportunity at recovry. imagine if you are trying to get clean and every 10 offered the drug you have been addicted to. it impossible. that is one way we are dealing with the pp side and we taking a different approach on the demand side, which is to say, if people are publicly using drugs over and over again, that we believe we need to intervene in those situations and so the police are citing them a somebody reaches 3 of the citations, we then file a them into a treatment court to try to they have a option take treatment or face charges? >> correct. essentially. we treatment encourage because that is what these folks need. >> absolutely, soluly. francisco is known for being forfront of criminal justice lw

reform with initiatives such as community justice nter restoreative justice, how do push for to build on aggressive policies insuring we have a fair emholds people accountable? >> i have been clear accountability comes in many different forms. historically, da office used one form and thatway i functioned as a prosecutor over the years is make su are finding the appropriate form of accountability for each and every person their specific circumstance, and so for some people may be incarceration, others it t angoing through behavioral heto stabilize mental health issue. some it is say ing we toopt see you get a job so we require that you go through a trade program so you can get a at allows you to take care of yourself in a different way. for me it is investing in those opportunities which requires us with

community based organizations to identify what people to, but i'm very much invested in seeing ou collaborative courts, which is what community justice centug court, young adult thrive and encouraging the lawyers to explore those opportunities. >> right. what role do you thfice can play addressing the issue of police misconduct and promoting accountability? >> our job is to prosecute police officers when they commit such misconduct and use excessive force in a way that is illegal so we'll ue maintain that is our job and our position. we prosecute all crime in francisco, it is not about what your statue is, what your position is or what office e law will always be our standard. we can't t tl where they come from,

whether they wear a uniform orlaw. for me, as a black latino maitis issue very personal to me. we had a death in police custody in myi heard about my entire life. i'm raising two black including a black son who you know, i will hato these type of issues as he grows up. i ouraged long before george floyd. the list goes on and on, but a have to m standard and it is whether somebo according to the law has committed a crime and so that's at. >> absolutely. finally, what message do you have for the people of san francisco and hope to accomplish during your tenure? >> i want the people to know i'm committed serving the function the da office was degned to serve which is make sure we

promote public safety across san francilikei said, we have to have accountability in our city. what we see going on in ouis r the result of people feeling as though there was none. they fear even the police walking by as they were committing a crime because there was a ef even if you arrest me, the da office isn't going to do anything that i'm afraid of experiencing, and so people to have a healthy fear of what a consequence will be, but i also want san francisco to know we are a da office that stands by the val aoos we have here in san francisco which is second chances, compassion, respbl alternative to incourseeration bought the end of e ha to be what people said back on the street or community in a fashion where they can succeed. every time cyes into the system we are

thoughtful what the person needs to get back on their feet and not create another victim in the future. >> quite right. thank yoh for coming on the show. i really appreciate the time you have given us >> thank you. >> that's it for this epde'lback for another shortly. for sfgovtv, you're watching san francisco rising. guest is monique gray. >> chris mannis and you're tc. the our guest today is marquis. he runs out of the office of

the mayor in the city and county s and he's with us today to talk about the recent progress the sunnidale hope sf housing project. welcome to sh. >> good morning. thank you for having me today. >> let's start by talking about the existing residents of sunnydale and their history. >> so sunnydale was in the 1940s for a workers. it's the public housing community west of the mississippi. it's about 50acres. pretty huge. 760 single story units one to four bedrooms. >> i understand it's an ambitious rethinking of the residences. can you briefly describe thee sf's involvement? the work of hope sf is th of r. that acknowledging that our

public housing community, the levels of violence and poverty that are in these communities arenoaccident. you know, it's opportunity to address a system issue, you know, that people need than housing. they need health services. resources. economic investment of that nature.jobs and and so hope sf strives to work with our cityyems to better serve our public housing communities. >> so recently,ayreed and speaker pelosi toured the site to both put focusn a national housing initiative and also to highlight the completion of the first neilding. how many units does it contain and when will people start moving in? >> yeah. it was an amazing event. have the secretary here with us as well in our community. units. it's about 75% going back toth currently live on site.

so the replacement. so i did forget to mention i want to say real quick, thesf development,displacements or an initiatives. so, for example, the building is 167 units. 75% of those units going to families that have lived there in tom generationings and the other 25% are tax credit s adding to the affordable housing stock here in san francisco and those units running now. they're leasing them as we speak. p op each week until they're filled up. >> so was thi building put on a new plot of land or did people have t move out so it could be constructed? >> that's a g first building w which you may have saw across et fm this building and then this plot of land is the way kd of do it, we do it in phases.

once one goes in, able to move families into the new unit occupying, able to demolish old buildings to build the new. so this area had some olderits >> it's impressive that construction has been a continue during the covid-19 pandemic. can you talk about some of the challenges that needed to be overcome and how the community has managed during the crisis?. you know, s i understand it correctly, i could be wrong, i believe housing was an essential the mayor made a strong commitment early on the pandemic that we would continue to build housings housing has been a critical issue in our city. so the housing part hasn't impacted us too much. 67 units have been going on current time line. the biggerleor us was

showing the families in our communities, lnc had the resou need to survive the pandemic. many of our families did ve thm home, working in the z things of that nature. making sure they access to covid testing and things of that nature. so i want to give a big shout our service providers across all four sites. for those that don't sunnydale is one of the four sites. and so across those sites, the most critical thing was making sure folks in these historically have be dionnecte have the things that they need to remainhealthy, to, you know, survive the pandemic as we all had pandemic and we did pretty well. we were able to bring back

scenes and covid testing on site. food distribution was happening ou the week. wellness services and things of that nature were all happening on site thanks to our resident leaders and our service provids sites. >> so, finally, when could we expect the next of residents to be ready? despite -- i g just said covid doesn't have an impact on the schedule. t residences be ready? >> yeah. things are rolling. have bloc to the building we were referring to earlier. and things are on pace. things a well. so we're looking at starting construction sin 2022 and that will be 170 unitsnd goal around2024. >> well, thank you so much. i really appreciate you c onon. thank you for giving us the time today.

>> thank yoris, and i really appreciate your time as well. >> and that's this episode. you've been watching san o rising for sfgov tv i'm chris manners. thanks so much for watching. weesday august 21. l&p 2024 regulart abatement appeal's board. first item iscall. period chavez. >> here. >> commissioner