Spaces. Its a lot easier to clean concrete, maybe, but at the end we end up with a much warmer and lesshuman, lessenvironmentally connected city. So we want to work through that. We already talked about the actual local and native plant supply. The last one staffing and resources really focused on collaboration. We really in a lot of our work, we want to really acknowledge and build into our work plans that collaboration costs money and not lose sight of that. Finally, our next steps, we are going to be working very specifically on applying the social equity lens to our work plans for the next couple of years. Were also going to be interfacing with stakeholders, including other departments and any other stakeholders that you might recommend about these key initiatives, ways they can be successful and other ideas. One of the great things from your resolution and it set us up in this practical way as we head into our own work plans to be integrating this work and looking to solve for the longterm maintenance and stewardship challenges. We thank you again for your attention. Unless you have any immediate questions, i would like to call up our colleague from the port, but also were happy to take immediate questions. Thank you, lisa. I dont see any questions, but i do want to acknowledge supervisor mandalman has joined us. Im here to convey the ports enthusiastic support for the biodiversity work that has been initiated in the last year and a half. On march 26 of this year, the Port Commission unanimously adopted its own biodiversity resolution that reflects the goals set forth in the citywide resolution, but also tailored towards the particular ways that the port can implement biodiversity on our property. That is both on land, open space that the port owns, and also in working with our private Development Partners to see that biodiversity is incorporated into the really extensive, new urban development that were undertaking to the greatest extent possible. The port has worked to cultivate partnerships with the golden gate society and the department of recreation and parks and lots of local organizations in our southern waterfront area where the primary open spaces are. The natural areas are small and unique in the opportunity they provide to promote Public Engagement and equitable access to nature, and thats something that our Port Commissions are really committed to and enthusiastic about working on as we implement the biodiversity resolution at the port thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I am here on behalf of the recreation and parks department. We too would like to voice our support for this resolution and to thank the board and the department of the environment and the Planning Department for passing and implementing citywide biodiversity vision which aligns very closely with key aspects of rec and parks departments longstanding commitment to biodiversity and also the public. Biodiversity is a core initiative. Biodiversity conservation and also promoting citizen stuartship of ecological resources. Our Core Department values that are included in numerous of our initiatives and policies. This is also enshrined in many of our guiding documents, including our Mission Statement as well as our Strategic Plan, which tells us that we must increase biodiversity and also to increase eco literacy of park users and park staff. The third document is our Natural Resources Management Plan which has numerous goals that include promoting biodiversity, restoring native flora and fauna, promoting soil and water conservation, Climate Change resiliency and also environmental justice. A few highlights quickly of rec and park departments work in this realm. The roots in the 080100. And also our stewardship work. Rec and park departments natural areas includes 32 natural areas, over 1,000 areas of the city across 32 different parks. These are managed on an ongoing basis through the Natural Resources division. We had numerous ecological stewardship initiatives, including the volunteer program which on most recent count had over 200,000 volunteer hours from the public. Also many friends of groups that we aligned very closely with, groups such as Youth Stewardship Program which get youth from all over the city out into green spaces and involved in ecological initiatives. The San Francisco children in Nature Initiative and the list goes on and on. We have many, many things that we do in this realm pm also prioritizing sustainable and native landscaping in new infrastructure, parks, Capital Improvements that were making is a very strong focus in our capital and planning division. We really have worked for a long time in many ways to protect San Franciscos diverse biological resources and were proud to support this initiative. Thank you. Thank you, spencer. Supervisor fewer. Lets open this up for Public Comment. Seeing no comments from my colleagues, so im going to call some cards that ive gotten. Greg i think mr. Brasseau may want to add one thing. If i may add jennifer from public works to come up. Absolutely. Hi, thank you, ill keep this brief so we can get to the Public Comments. Just as everyone else, i would really like to reinforce public works to recognize the success of this initiative and to thank the supervisors on this and to peter for bringing us together on a monthly basis. What i want to share is the power of bringing these groups together that we could be much more effective working together towards the public goal. We design, implement, and maintain latin scapes all over the city. We have had a vested interest in the land use. Some of the projects weve created has been ongoing. New projects that we have in the works including the Southeast Community center with the San Francisco public utility commission, which has a focus on plants, but also nature play children. Also the rec park tries to integrate native plants into childrens everyday lives. Something thats been in our agenda is the sunset boulevard master plan. I would like to thank supervisor marr for his support on that project. The planting master plan for the boulevard, but creates a corridor. We brought together an Amazing Group of partners. It was amazing to bring all of these groups together and to see what the power of that effort includes. Thank you to everybody and we support this initiative. Thank you very much. Lets open it up for Public Comment now. Good afternoon, supervisors. Im a native san franciscan and for the last 20 years ive been doing Habitat Restoration starting in the presidio and with the Natural Resources division as a volunteer. For me theres nothing more spiritually rewarding than to do Habitat Restoration and to watch biodiversity return to areas that were degraded or were concrete. For instance, at fredrick and aruelo street in 2010 we established a street park. We had the concrete removed from the traffic island and we planted all San Francisco native plants which we propagated at the former hank recycling center. Now we have seven species of butterflies and nesting sparrows in that traffic island. Its very rewarding to see this happen. It makes life worth living. We have to be reminded many times that this planet is the only place we are aware of in the entire universe that has life on it. Its a very special place and we need to treat it with great respect. I would like to mention a few action items that i would like to see possibly happen since i work in Golden Gate Park every day. The key is our parking lot should be removed and returned to parkland. There are 500 people waiting to get a garden spot at the Golden Gate Park community garden. That parking lot is a horrible eye sore good afternoon. Im the lawn policy leader for the earth center. Id like to express my gratitude as well to the committee, San Francisco environment, and the Interagency Working Group for your combined efforts to promote healthy biodiversity in San Francisco as a priority. Members of the board, with due respect to the other significant issues that come before this committee, protecting our biodiverse ecosystems is the most important. Climate change and the destruction of our environment is the greatest existential threat humanity has ever faced. Time is of the essence if we hope to preserve the environment that is so precious to this city. We would urge the board to loosen the purse strings, to provide the support necessary to employ qualified staff to study, monitor, and quult elevate local native plant production. Unfortunately, money, board resolutions, and interagency cooperation is not going to be enough to solve this problem. Every person in this room likely resides that treating nature as a commodity to be solved is an old paradigm that has failed us. Because the health and welfare of the citys residents is dependant on the natural environment, the board must do more. Its time to grant legal rights to nature. If corporations can have legal standing, why not the natural environment. In providing Legal Protection to the natural environment, we would urge the city to join tens of municipalities across the nation as well as several municipalities who have granted legal rights to nature to enable our biodiverse thank you. I volunteer in the natural areas. Thank you for supporting the citys biodiversity policy. Its a great start, but there are some barriers to a successful implementation. Im hoping our supervisors can help remove some of them. Number one, gardenready local ready plants are in short supply. Rec and parks supply some, but most of their supply is not native plants. The presidio has a model nursery that the city should try to replicate. There are landscaping gardens that can act as a demonstration for planners. Right now a master plan doesnt really exist. Number three, a Biodiversity Baseline needs to be established along with yearly goals and metrics to track success. An inventory of all the species in the city would help you monitor the rise or decline of priority species, map habitat change, and target threats. An houferl assessment of the city will help you target places like degraded open spaces and sterile wide yards. Create a biodiversity handbook for land managers, policy makers, conservationalists and others. Number five ws the city needs a naturalist to help the public understand biodiversity a little better. Thank you for addressing all these obstacles and i hope you continue pressing for better biodiversity. Thank you, supervisors. I am the president of the california native plan society. First, a thank you for bringing the biodiversity resolution forward. A big thank you to your staff for such a fine report on the progress on the policyies. Naturally our robust Human Development has caused degradable action. The percentage of indigenous plants here now are among the lowest in any city in america. Meanwhile, the landscaping continues to introduce exotic plants at a feverish pace. As a naturalist, its sobering to see these poor planting decisions. The good news is that many of the problems weve caused are relatively easy to fix. Simply switch to planting the nearly 500 beautiful indigenous plant species to exist here. Lets invest some resources into this movement and watch the returns come in. Hire some naturalists. Work in appreciation of our Natural Heritage into the city staff and school curriculum. Its a lot of fun. At its core, you are in the business of community happiness. Experience in local nature has proven to increase happiness. Lets celebrate our unique Natural Heritage weve been given. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im a board member and a field trip leader for golden gate autobahn society. Im speaking to show support for the resolution. One thing ive learned is about how birds have an incredible way of capturing peoples attention. Once people have tuned in these beautiful animals, they cant turn away from the environmental challenges they face and the human activity that causes it. The biodiversity of birds is remarkable. Over 500 species has been reported here, but that species richness is completely dependant on native plants. Native plants have a long evolutionary history and they provide food and shelter as well as support insects that many of the birds rely on. Many birds have seen frightening declines. Cityscapes need to be part of the solution if species are to survive the major challenges of habitat loss and Climate Change. For the migrators and the locals, the ability to adopt to all these changes will be on their ability to find food. I am the head of the urban chair forest council. As the chair of the urban forest council, i would like to inform you that we just finished our Strategic Plan we spent the last couple months foflg on that and our top priority is as follows. Develop a policy for the urban forest with respect to biodiversity, tree species pallet, availability, and Climate Change. We also decided that we need to expand our focus on backyard trees and park trees. We plan to use the focus of biodiversity on looking at those other areas. Now, when it comes to street trees, we have to acknowledge the fact that there are other issues that biodiversity may not be the determining factor of the trees that we put in the streets of San Francisco because of the way they interact with sidewalks and the public. But with Everything Else that were doing, we will be looking at the lens of biodiversity and how we approach backyard trees and park trees. In addition to that, as chairman of the ed friends of the living forest, we will be hoping to be launching a new project in the fall no, spring of this year where we want to be selling california native trees to homeowners to put in their backyard. In addition to that we have a robust urban forest understory in terms of planting gardens. Weve placed 100,000 square feet of discreet in the last ten years and 80 of those gardens have native california plants. Thank you very much. Hello, im the executive director of the speed fund. We are a Small Organization that has been supporting grassroots [ indiscernible ] official statement, raising the profile and priority of San Franciscos own indigenous nature and biodiversity. Thank you. As a funder, we understand that our society has many problems that need to be solved and the needed solutions often end up having to compete for the funding that they need. Given the worrying trajectory of our planets biodiversity and the interrelated biodiversity as weve been reminded today, we think the resources should be top of the priority list for San Francisco. As a zero waste and energy conservation, San Francisco can be a national and an International Environmental leader in eke logical ecological protection. Our foundation will continue to make our small contributions to the citys ecological health. We urge the citys government to add resources where they are needed to achieve the biodiversity vision. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im here for two organizations. One is chair of sf urban riders and were the local Mountain Bike advocacy group. We work on trails primarily, but adjacent to trails is all the environment. We take care of that and do native Habitat Restoration. One of the more recent things is i met a birder. There are birds that havent been here since 2015. I was certainly surprised to see a map i worked on on a board presentation. Of course i would just like to recognize all the amazing work in the city departments all the gross roots organizations that are not here. These bring people into nature to many parts of the city they have never seen before im really glad to see the idea of signing it. The thing that strikes me is that maintenance is always an issue. Many of the projects have been funded by the city, but theyre Capital Funds and allow us to start things, but maintenance is a concern. The continued support from the city supports the biodiversity. Good afternoon, supervisors. We wanted to thank supervisor fewer for sponsoring this hearing and for bringing this issue forward. Biodiversity is critical. Were in an ecological crisis, not just a climate crisis. Hearing the talks about there is not enough money, i dont think this city has a budget problem. I think we have an accounting problem. Everyone who has looked and said, okay, what if a dollar spent planting a tree, what does that mean for the city . Everyone who has looked at it found 5 back in terms of direct City Services and savings. These could be things like Stormwater Management and supporting local health, clean water and health, happiness, preventing runoff and so on. To say that theres not enough money to green the city, every little city is looking at their own silo. If you look at the whole system, greening makes terrific sense. Two ideas that we love, this twin peaks park. There is enough land to create this park where urban people could have this experience of natural lakes, views from hilltops. Lets make that happen. District 8, its in district 8 and 7. The waterfront is another huge opportunity we should look at how other cities are addressing it. Restoring oyster beds and wetlands. We could have a much more sustainable waterfront if we change our approach. Thank you. Im the associate director of Natural Resources at the presia trust. Here on behalf of the trust, we strongly support this policy and wanted to highlight specifically a collaboration between our federal agency and the city on measuring and monitoring biodiversity and the city. An initiative we started with collaboration between department of the environment, California Academy of sciences, and the trust. We recognize that a lot of knees works how do we know if were successful in we in the trust are trying to tie our success as an organization to the results of the Habitat Restoration and stewardship work through specific targets of species that we hope to see as part of this. We want to highlight that as i list numb number 6 on this as it is an important feature of us Going Forward protecting biodiversity and recognizing what we have as well as how were going to preserve it. Thank you. Im a california naturalist. One thing i would really like to see is more education and awareness to our public. I think the public loves our wildlife and nature and like to see whales and sea lions. My neighborhood people complained that trees are being planted and new bike racks being put up because it affects the way they live. I would like to see awareness from the government to preserve the beauty that we have here. I think a lot of citizens dont realize that we need to do some work to preserve what we have. So my point is about education awareness and get that out on the buses or wherever you need to go. This presentation was really great for the 100 people in the room. What about the other 800,000 transients who come through the city, get their jobs, but dont realize the work we have to do. Thank you and i appreciate you coming today and that is all i have to say. I was a recreation park gardener and supervisor and for 29 years have led volunteers every wednesday in support of Natural Resource division staff. We average most of those years 1,000 donated hours per year. I have experience on how Natural Systems work, and im thankful the city has chosen to place a high value on the biological diversity. I am pleased with the Foundation Laid where we need to go and stating the problems of which there will be many. I have to stress the quality of this foundation. The city should have a staff biologist. We have a large constituency as athletic field, playgrounds, and swimming pools, but it is not organized and consequently is inarticulate and suffers at budget times. The most insects and our greatest biodiversity lies in our grasslands, but they are declining due to inadequate staffing. By far the greatest wildlife support is provided by locally native plants because they evolve together, but few of them can be found in nurseries. We need a large nursery to propagate the individual plants. Brett park has a nursery and it should be fostered for the whole city. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Thank you very much, supervisors, for your actions to improve the biodiversity throughout the city. I am a board member of the sutro stewards and i can see how effective it has been to have a collaboration among the many interested parties who want to have wildlife in the city. Weve had a wonderful collaboration with ucsf and were working to improve the biodiversity of the local lands. They are im speaking in support of the implementation efforts to make this citys biodiversity a high priority. I thank you again for your efforts. Hello, i want to thank you, supervisors, for this opportunity. Ive been working with the Natural Resource group of rec and park as a volunteer as well as working on the beaches in San Francisco to help its biodiversity. I agree with all the speakers before we, so i wont get into any of that. But i would like to share with you two things of concern. If youre going to proceed with this biodiversity plan, with this vision, there should be a Natural Resource manager overseeing their efforts. The other concern that i would have is that when the term open space is being used, pope space just means public property. It doesnt have any protections unless it is protected or conserved open space. With that said, the possibility of this measure e within San Francisco for Affordable Housing coming up or any other governing body in the future could actually take open space, public property, unless its protected, and use it for housing or other uses. So thats a concern of mine. One other concern that i have within that distinction of open space, theres park lands. As it sits now, parkland couldnt be used for housing, when, in fact, it could be if it was transferred to another department within this city. Please keep that in mind while moving forward with this effort. Just with regard to to the last speakers comment, you cannot transfer parkland under the chart of the city and county of San Francisco, so that is truly protected lands. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, speakers. Im really happy to be present while this biodiversity resolution is being presented and supported. I am a native plant nursery manager for literacy for environmental justice. Were an organization in the bayview district. One of the messages i want to get across is a lot of this work is already happening, but we need your support. Its not an issue of not having the money, but an issue of priority. Were using terms like crisis. I like to move away from fear and more towards love. To me the above part is the solution of this biodiversity resolution. One thing that working with biodiversity and Habitat Restoration does is it connects us to ourselves and to our local environment. It gives us a sense of place. This is something that is direly needed in this age of Digital Technology and service myopic closedin way of relating. This opens up eyes, hearts, minds, and something that brings happiness and solves this crisis that were facing. My organization does workforce development. We hire local youth. We address the inequity and access to open space by providing jobs to youth to grow these native plants. The solutions are here and we need your help and this is a great start. Thank you very much. Thank you. If there are any other speakers, if you would line up. I am here on my own behalf, here in full support of biodiversity, especially the resolution sponsored by the noted environmentalist. That being said, there are actions by the mta and the Planning Department that seem inconsistent, even contradictory with these goals. The Planning Department seems to determined to pave over open space, especially rear yard open space. It appears there are areas where it is still needed to walk the talk. Thank you. Supervisor haney. First of all, thank you, supervisors, for bringing this forward. I really appreciate the i did hear a bit in here some focus on both the port and then central soma and around the freeways. My district has a lack of inadequate open space. It also has a lot of publicly owned land by us or the state or other entities. So i really do hope there is a priority in thinking about equity and the opportunity in those areas, particularly around the freeways and around the port throughout the tenderloin. Two things i wanted to also flag to see if Treasure Island was a part of this strategy or how youre thinking about the Treasure Island open space. Also in district space in particular and some other areas as well, there is a lot of privatepublic open spaces. Those are ones where i think there is some opportunity if we were to bring some ways to better utilize that space and think about the biodiversity in those spaces, there is some rooftop gardens and things like that that i think are underutilized. So i wanted to flag those things and that my district is in support of this strategy. I would like to thank everyone for their prejtss today and thank you for the Public Comment that came out. I really want to give a shout tout to sf environment for all the hard work theyre doing, getting us to work as a team to meet our biodiversity needs and goals. I just want to commend everyone and also our city departments for working together. I just have a few comments and questions. One of my comments is that i notice that on this group that was not included and when were talking about access and equity, i think that we cant forget about our older and disabled adults and their access to the environment and what were doing about that. I would love to see them on the list. Also we need to coordinate with ggnra and the trust, but want to make sure that were all working with them in my neighborhood in each of the surrounding areas for my district. Also i wanted to know, are we also including Community Gardens and the effort around Community Gardens . Are we looking for more Community Gardens as we get more and more dense and people have less and less space in their back yards. I think thats a way for people to relate to nature and have an experience themselves or volunteer groups at the Golden Gate Park. I went on a tour with the friends of wood oaklands. I am impressed with what they are doij. They emailed me with two suggestions and one is to increase the budget of the San Francisco Recreation Parks Department national Resources Division which we heard in the Public Comment today and actually direct rec and park to foster policy to increase productive collaboration and material collaboration among our pd divisions and nrd as it pertains to San Francisco about the plan that the board passed in 2018. I love the idea of the friends of the urban forest centering on back yards because in my district i have so many backyards that have been concreted over. I think there is an opportunity to capture actually some of those homeowners that we have an influx of new homeowners as people who have aged out of their homes. This is an opportunity to bring up their responsibility as homeowners to add to our biodiversity. Also, i know there used to be plant displays along the beltway and in my neighborhood that you can actually look at plants that trees that you may want to plant. They have plaquards on them. I moved there in 1959. Full transparency, it was a long time ago, but i thought that idea was really good because you can actually see the trees and how you think is an example of which tree you can request and you have a recommendation of trees that are native to San Francisco. And then i just want to say about the pollinated gardens. Theres one in the belt way now. I think theres excellent and would love to see more and about our education and awareness. I think it is about education and youre absolutely right. I am having a lot of and a lot of Community Meetings about this contention between cars and bicycles and our vision zero. I think there is more education about what we can do individually in our responsibility to actually help reverse whats happening in our climate, that everyone has a responsibility but everyone actually can do something. In my neighborhood we are trying to put bike racks in. It has been a contentious conversation. Many people in my neighborhood own two or three cars. Thats not sustainable. I think the education part of it would help all of us who are trying to look at a larger, global goal of keeping our planet safe and trying to repair it. I love this report and feel like youve got a lot of work on it and i feel the departments are working together. I also wanted to say i think private companies such as ecology should be at the table, we should be discussing it with them. Do they have a biodiversity policy. I think were all so interconnected here and our borders of San Francisco are finite but actually not finite, that we are interacting all the time to other entities. Thank you again to my colleagues on the board for holding this hearing. Thank you, supervisor fewer. Would you like us to continue this to the call of the chair or file the item . I believe i would like to file in item. Okay. I will make a motion to file the item and well take that without objection. Madam clerk, could you please read item 4 out of order. Clerk item had is the rooulgts renaming one block that runs parallel to 6 and 7 street and perpendicular to jeff adossi way. Today i am introducing a resolution to rename one street. I want to thank ten of my colleagues who are cosponsors for their support in honoring jeffs legacy. I also want to thank the hundreds of people that submitted letters in support of the name change and for those who signed our petition in support of jeff adachi way. I want to thank the residents who participated actively with us, either attending the meetings or responding to us over email and engaging with my office. I want to thank my chief of staff for her hard work on this. I recognize there are a lot of people who are here to speak on this, so i wont say too much about this. What i do want to say is we miss jeff every day. We miss him and his joy and who he was as a person and his friendship. We also miss the advocacy and the hard work and the fearlessness that he brought to his work every day. He was for six years as public defender, he transformed that office into a National Model for public defender work and also became a National Voice for racial justice. The street that we are going to be renaming is one that he walked on on a near daily basis since he started at the Public Defenders Office in 1987. It is a fitting way that we will honor jeff and his legacy. It will be a place where attorneys and others for decades and decades to come will be able to loom up and be reminded of the example that he set for all of us. I want to also thank the many folks who are here from the Public Defenders Office for their incredible work and support of this effort. I also want to recognize jeffs wife and jeffs family. Again, to thank the many folks who came out to speak on this and contacted us to support this. I also want to recognize that there were many folks who believed that this is an important thing for us to do, not just because of who jeff was and what he represented to the criminal defense community, but also how important it is that we elevate heroes in our community, particularly that represent the full diversity of San Francisco. The japan kneesjapanaseamerica and asianamerican community has been part of this. Unfortunately, there are few places in which we recognize and honor and celebrate the leadership of asianamerican leaders in our communities. As much as this is about jeff, which it is, it is also about making sure that a Community Gets recognition. I want to thank those from various japanesearn organizations that have spoken out in support of us taking this step. So there are no amendments that i have. Just as we did hear this once before in land use and we did make the change that we had discussed at that meeting, which is that this will be the one block between brandon and bryant that would be named jeff adachi way. We would have both names before becoming solely jeff adachi way. This is something our city does. There are many different blocks around the city that have this arrangement. Just right out here in front of city hall we have one name for one block. This would be similar. This is a hugely important block for the legacy that jeff represented across from the hall of justice. With that, chair peskin may want to open it up to Public Comment. Should we start with the public defender . Several years ago i was coming back from court after a hotly contested trial, which fortunately had a good result. Jeff met me in the hallway. I was flying out of the country the next day to do some International Human rights work in india. Jeff had with him this book about the legal system in india and the empire, almost uncannily the right gesture at the right time. While he was really proud of the work we did in the courtroom and what we accomplished, to me that gesture said volumes and was a thick read, not just about him as a civil rights hero but as a civil rights hero. When we think about human rights, if i had to instill jeffs philosophy to just a few words, it was is the level of representation that youre providing to this client the level of representation that you would want if a loved one of yours were facing charges . If its not, you need to raise the level. I can think of so better ethic for our staff to be reminded of as we go across that alley on the way to court to 850 bryant to do battle for our clients and their families. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is alex limeau. I am an attorney speaking today to represent the opinions of the residents and the property of owners of gillbert who are unanimous in the strong opposition to renaming their street and instead suggest to rename the public defenders building. Out of the 28 fronting properties, 23 responded to the letter. All of the residents opposed the renaming of their street. Furthermore, public works received a petition to keep the name. 18 of the residents also submitted signed declarations suggesting instead renaming the Public Defenders Office building in dedication of jeff adachi. The primary reason the residents opposed the name change is it imposes a significant expense. Every Property Owner would be forced to engage in a very timeconsuming process to update legal documents and in some cases be forced to obtain lawyers to update wills and other documents with real expenses. I note that those appearing today in support of this name change, none are residents of gilbert street who will have to pay this price. We urge the board not to ride rough shot over the residents of this street. Renames the building does not carry any of these down sides. And it will ensure his legacy continues. Thank you. Go ahead, next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is gregory mendez. I am here as a citizen of San Francisco. I fully support the comments just made by the attorney who spoke to you a few moments ago. I park on gilbert street and have for the last 19 years. I am well acquainted with the woman who i rent my parking space from, and she has told me many times how she would have to suffer the burdens of this name change. I fully agree that naming the public defender building after mr. Adachi would be wholly appropriate and, frankly, would not be a burden on anyone. I would also point out that its my belief, and i know this from contact with San Francisco Police Department officers, that the circumstances that brought about the tragic and terrible demise of mr. Adachi was not all together clear to the public. Im well aware of what actually happened, and i believe that naming a street for mr. Adachi is actually in furtherance of that effort by this city to conceal what actually happened. He deserved to be recognized for his fine work. Theres no question about that, but certainly not by naming this street after him. Thank you. Good afternoon. Im christopher holland. I as well represent several of the businesses and Property Owners on gillbert street. The cost factor in changing their biographic information is too much. I new jeff adachi. He was seven or eight years behind me and became an attorney in 1985, a public defender for 18 or 20 years. As we know, he became the head public defender in 2002, all the way up until february when he died. The guy was a fearless advocate and he has a wonderful staff, i guess about 100 deputy public defenders underneath him and i see them regularly in court. Theyve done extremely well. They are fearless advocates themselves, all trained under jeff adachi. Jeff adachi did a lot of good work and he did the immigrants in this city postconviction release, the motions that he brought to protect the immigrants. And what i dont think mr. Haney, you have sat back and looked why would they name a back street socalled alleyway after jeff adachi . Wouldnt it be more appropriate to name 5557 street in memory of jeff adachi . Thats kind of degrading besides the cost factor, and i dont think anybodys looked at that alternative. We know the hall of justice was named after Thomas Cahill and i think it was 1995. Youve mentioned thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisor haney. My name is vilasco win. I am a deputy public defender in San Francisco and i have been for over 15 years. More importantly, i am a San Francisco resident and a father of two. I am here in support of the name change, in particular because jeff adachis legacy has inspired and motivated me as a father and a San Francisco resident. I am also an artist, writer, and comedian. One thing that jeff has always imprinted on my life is that we can always find better, we can always love each other and respect. This is still a city full of hope for peace, justice, and art. Thank you very much, supervisors. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Im a spokeswoman for the Public Defenders Office. On behalf of the Department Today and with respect to our neighborhoods, we support the renaming of gilbert street to jeff adachi way and we thank you for proposing this. Jeff adachi left a mark on this city and having his name outside would be a reminder of his fight for civil and human rights. He recreated what a Public Defenders Office could be, a frontline Legal Organization that built practices at a high level. Were the understood dogfight for the rights of the over 20,000 indigent clients who become part of the San Francisco incarceral system every year. Were also a watchdog making sure that Law Enforcement is being held accountable. Under the leadership of the new leader, we will fight against the new challenges. We will not shy away from the National Conversations around racial justice, immigrant justice, youth justice and police accountability. Jeff adachi changed the definition of what a public defender can be. He said we all have to be public defenders now to make sure that we defend our own humanity. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is kevin epps. Im a lifelong resident of San Francisco, a community activist, father of three, currently from bayview hunters point. I want to echo my unwavering support on behalf of myself and my community for changing the jeff adachi changing the street to jeff adachi name to honor his legacy and his commitment to serving communities of color and Minorities Community in a fair and just way. He was such an inspiration to so many and something of this magnitude would honor his legacy and go forward a
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