The risk of having all those cameras. Making sure nothing breaks because he has wonderful things in this store. And i also want to thank regina who is here this afternoon with the Small Business commission. So thanks so much, regina. [applause] so we all know that san franciscans love Small Businesses. And everyone here has appealed you to do the right thing to shop local and shop in the castro or the haight or wherever your best neighborhood is. But i want to remind everybody why the best reason to shop local, to get out and get offline is because shopping is fun. And its social. You remember how it used to be when you would go with your best friend and you would go shopping and get that special thing for your mom or get that special thing for your boyfriend or girlfriend or whoever it was or your dad, shopping is fun. And thats why its important that you remember you go back to what it used to be like. And i want to encourage everyone to take a challenge this weekend and not shop online. To get out and shop in the castro instead, because, again, shopping is something that you do with your friends and family, and you can enjoy your relationships and build on that and have an experience that is really fun and interesting and unique. And we have some really great, unique stores in the castro, as a matter of fact. Theres local take on 17th street where that little f line turn around is, local take. Sells handcrafted artisan kinds of things. So you can go there and you can support local artists, and at the same time you are supporting a Small Business in the castro. You can also shop here. You can shop at stag and manor. The castro has three home decor Small Businesses. Theres stag and manor, theres the kenneth winguard store that has really unusual and special gifts, and then theres this little shop that is hidden so if you like to explore the neighborhood, its down on sanchez street. Its called, i think the address is 286 sanchez. Its called s16 home. They have unique items there for that very special someone in your life or someones. Also right next door to this place is the incredible place called d h sustainable jewelers. This Jewelry Store is high end. So if you have a special person that you are looking for this incredible, unique piece of jewelry, its sustainable in nature, which means you are helping the environment, and you are also being able to purchase a really unique piece of jewelry for that very special person in your life. What else . Oh, and i did want to mention theres this very cool shop on castro. We are in the castro, after all. And they advertise themselves as the dayest shop ever, the official name of the store is nobs, its 432 castro street. You can go there with your friends. They have a runway so you can tryon your newest styles try on your newest styles and model and experience what it would be like to walk around in those new clothes. The castro has really unique businesses and its a fun place to come shopping and i want to remind everybody the castro is open for everyone. We want to serve businesses business to everybody. So come and explore the castro during the day. You probably know the castro at night, but the daytime its a great place, and experience what shopping is like and purchasing those special gifts for you and maybe even yourselves. So thank you very much. [applause] and i know that seth from stag and manor wants to say a few words. So next up is seth. [off mic] i didnt even know i was going to be speaking today but i want to say thank you all for coming to stag and manor. Its such an honor to serve this community which is my community, the community ive lived in for many years now. Its been such an honor to have the shop open for a year this saturday with incredible customers coming through every day with so many wonderful things being a part of it all. And i hope we are all just sharing these experiences with all our friends and neighbors to get more people out, because now is the time to really support Small Business. Im so happy, andrea mentioned the friends i was going to mention to make sure they got a shoutout. Ill add crystal way, another long time Small Business that does wonderful work. Come out on next thursday for the castro artwork at one of our Wonderful Community events. Also the following saturday our neighbors are going to be hosting the rocket Dog Rescue Group next door as part of a promotional event to show our community and the way we work together. So again, thank you everybody, such a pleasure. Come on up. The cookies that [off mic] finally. So everyone gets one. These are from hot cookie . Yes wow, look at that. Doesnt look like a cookie, it looks like a cake. Wow. Thank you. All right. Thank you, again, thank you mayor breed. Such a pleasure to have you in the shop. Thank you, seth. [off mic] well, as was mentioned by the supervisor earlier, unfortunately there was a fire that happened just a few weeks ago. And the amazing men and women of the San FranciscoFire Department did an incredible job. And afterwards, the people from the office of economic and Workforce Development did a extraordinary job stepping in, meeting with people, working with the tenants as well as the Small Business owners to provide whatever support we could. We know that experiencing fire oftentimes you lose everything, but then its not just the people, its also maybe the employees and meeting payroll and how you get up and running. You run a Small Business, you know, youre probably you know, again, the person who is the owner and the employee and sometimes you are lucky if you are able to hire other people. And then to add a fire to a situation makes it even worse. But im really excited that the city has a Disaster Relief fund that provides an opportunity to support our Small Business community in a way that gives them what they need to not worry so much. I mean, its not a lot, but it is more than what it used to be, which was nothing. And this is an opportunity to support our Small Business community, because what we want during the time of rebuilding and dealing with all of this, that we provide a little bit of support that will help in whatever way possible to at least keep those persons on their feet as they go through this most challenging process. And so i want to thank Joaquin Torres and his office for working so hard. In bureaucratic years, this is really fast to happen. [laughter] supervisor, you know, to have checks ready to go. We are going to be presenting four checks today to osaki sushi. Mr. Wang, thank you so much. And they had to do work for this. They had to fill out a whole application and everything else. And sam from cafe mystique. Met sam on the way in. Thank you, sam. Thank you. I appreciate it. And let me tell you, some of these businesses, you have been there since who has been there . There was a business thats been there, body oil or body since 89. And body. Andrew. Come on up. Isaiah oh, who is andrew . [off mic] oh, well, body, since 1989 this business has been in the castro. And how amazing is that . So we are so happy that you were opening right away. So make sure you stop by and purchase some items. Im so glad to have you. And last but not least, q bar, john . Are you here from q bar . Here you go. Thank you, really. And let me just say how much more important it is that when these businesses that arent back on their feet get back on their feet, that we support them. And that we go and we visit and we spend money as much as we can, because this im sure was difficult. It wasnt just the merchants. There were other People Living in the building. I think four are back in their apartments. But there are another eight people that arent. So very difficult time for all of you. We are glad to have you here today. We are hopeful that the rest of the businesses will open and then that you would get a lot of business so the merchants association, the San Francisco chamber of commerce, you got work to do to advertise for this community, these Small Businesses, lets support our incredible merchants in San Francisco. Lets have a good time in the castro. And lets eat these cookies, because they look good. [laughter] [applause] thank you so much. Go. Shop and dine the 49 promotes local businesses and changes san franciscans to do their shopping and dooipg within the 49 square miles by supporting local Services Within the neighborhood we help San Francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant so where will you shop and dine the 49 hi in my mind a ms. Medina we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. You can see us on the website good morning, everyone. Hello. I am the site manager here as the new childs development center. [cheers and applause] it gives me so much pleasure to say welcome and thank you for being here today. For braving the rain and making it here anyway. Without further do, i would like to introduce the master of ceremony, she does not need any more introduction. Lets put our hands together and welcome the mayor of the city and county of San Francisco, mayor london breed. [cheers and applause] thank you. I am really, really excited to be here. Last year i was able to attend the grand opening of Natalie Graham commons and it was absolutely amazing. Some of you know the history of Natalie Grubb and the work that she did to help create the Tax Credit Program that allows for opportunity to invest in Affordable Housing like this one that we are standing in and her family was here. It was a great occasion. 120 families of low income are living in this property as we speak. And today, when we open this preschool, they will be prioritized for the slots in this location, which is absolutely exactly what we should be doing in San Francisco how incredible is that . [applause] so im joined here by number of great people and i like to see the young people already playing this place isnt opening until next week, but they decided they wanted to try the place out. That is why they are here today. This new transbay Child Development center is a welcome addition to this Community Thanks to the citys childcare Facility Fund and also, a special thank you to mimi and peter. Mimi here is speak a little bit later. We are so grateful for that Publicprivate Partnership that allows for an opportunity to create Amazing Spaces like this for our children to grow and to thrive. This is the third Child Development center operated by the south of market childcare. So we are appreciative of the work they are doing in this community to provide these opportunities. Highquality childcare, educational services, and free support for families in the south of market neighborhood and throughout San Francisco where we know we have so many children and families. I am really excited about the features. You all look at the beautiful colors, the tiny tables with the chairs that none of us fit in, the bathrooms, the play areas, a place that not only is very beautiful, but promotes creativity and has an incredible learning environment. On world childrens day last month, i, along with president of the board of supervisors announced that we in San Francisco are launching the child and youth friendly city initiative. We are pledging to be a child friendly city and we want to make sure that young people have a safe and healthy environment to grow and to thrive. It is time we start taking care of young people in all parts of San Francisco. It starts with Early Childhood education. Ingrid is here who is the director of the Early Childhood education for the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you for joining us. Earlier this week, under the leadership of president yee, we created a new Stipend Program called carers to. 0 to support two support the early educators because we know one of the Biggest Challenges we have is recruiting and retaining preschool teachers. I experienced this firsthand when we opened a brandnew childcare facility in west point it was promised to that community and they have such a hard time recruiting preschool teachers. We can do better. We need to do better to support the educators who are educating our children. That is why i am really excited about that program as well. [applause] but we are going to go even further. And next year we will hold a child and youth summit in San Francisco to really bring together people and experts and others to begin to have a conversation about how we do a better job as a city with taking care of not just our children, but everybodys children. Other kids who may not have those parents or grandparents or Community Members who are looking out for their best interest. We have to do a better job in investing in kids that often times are neglected and forgotten and not getting the resources that they need and deserve to grow and thrive. This is personal for me as someone who grew up raised by my grandmother in Public Housing and have seen the devastating impacts of neglect. So many of the people that i grew up with and it up, unfortunately in very different situations and i should be the norm and not the exception and so we have to commit to now, today to do a better job for our kids and it starts with our summit and the number of investments that we are making to start to support our young people early in their lives. So with that, i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. Thank you to nadine who you will hear from in a minute. The ring the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development in the office of early care and education. Mercy housing and the architects for this project, santos priest got who was instrumental in this project. It is absolutely beautiful and we are grateful. Thank you for to the contractor. Thank you to make me haas who is joining us here today who is the president of the mimi and p. But peter hoss fund. It does take a village. This village came together to make something magical happened and i am so looking forward to doing more projects like this to change what is normal in San Francisco. Having access to affordable child care for all families. Whether you are low or middle income to create to make sure kids have the kind of environments while they grow and thrive. This is just the beginning and i am excited to partner with the next speaker. President with the board of supervisors, norman he, who is ready really like the childcare king. Let me tell you. This man, when we came onto the board of supervisors together and every single instance he had already been the person who had advocated to make sure that with development there were resources for childcare with anything that we were doing, whether it was Holding People accountable to think about childcare and how we provide resources for young people, he was at the forefront of those conversations and so i am excited that we have come full circle with the fees from developments being used for purposes like this. That is what is making some of this happen. So we are able to do that with the hardworking leadership from the president president of the board of supervisors. [applause] thank you. I like to think that i play a role in some of the staff and part of it is i am just one person and many of you in this room have been in this battlefield for decades and this is really, to me, the results of all those battles we had over the 40 years i have been involved in this field. I am really thrilled to be here. When i walked through here today , i kept on thinking, every child, every toddler, every preschooler should have the same opportunity and this quality environment. And of course, the south of market childcare is really the ideal organization to operate this. Not only are they won of the best quality Early Education organizations in the city, with their commitment to this area, to the south of market area pre sees almost everybody in this room. They have been here for 40 or 50 years and ive worked with them through many of those years and seen them grow and wanting to serve the people who live in this community. Thank you to their organization. And again, mayor breed think a lot of organizations that made this happen pick it really does take a village. I think this village came together from this. One of those important persons that is part of this village is mimi hoss. I really admire her for ongoing, never giving up, support of Early Education in San Francisco thank you, mimi. [applause] even the kids know that. It has been my lifes work. I work in this field as an educator and also an executive director of one of the larger childcare providers or Early Education providers in San Francisco for over 15 years. That i have seen, what i have seen over the years is the need to constantly advocate for more resources. Early educators are underpaid and unfortunately the state has not been able to keep up with its investments. As a city, we have invested in creating an entire office of early care and education dedicated millions to sustain our child provider workforce. And most recently as mayor breed mentioned, i really want to commend her for supporting this notion of the program. It is something that i played a role in many years ago in creating the program. And at the time, it was earth shattering for it to happen. It is something that the rest of california followed right after we did it and i was telling a story to somebody, i have forgotten now, but two months ago, i was approached by a young lady, probably under 20 something. She said, hi, i remember you. You were santa when i was in preschool and i said wow. Why would a preschooler remember that . And she said, no, because my mother, joy, told her when she was growing up that it was the program that she was ready to leave the field. And because of that program she stuck it out. I think she is retired now, but she stuck it out for many more years. That is what we need to do in San Francisco is support our teachers, our early educators who really are the most important people when it comes to education of our children in San Francisco. Thank you very much again. I would like to say that i never get a chance to talk about Early Education enough. It is never enough. We are seeing a slight increase in our Young Children population number one issue i hear all the time from families and parents is that, you know, Early Education is inaccessible and unaffordable in San Francisco. Mayor breed and i announced that we were taking the challenge to be truly a child and youth friend friendly city that Centers Children at our policy and planning decision. One of the easiest ways to ensure that that every neighborhood, every housing, every project provides adequate space for childcare. I have been around for so long. I could talk about history a lot there was a downtown Childcare Development fee or plan that was brought to San Francisco over 25 years ago by some of my predecessors on the board of supervisors. And through the years we have realized, if we needed 10, all we got from that was two sense. It was just really inadequate. One of the things i looked at was to increase what we call the childcare fees for development and that helped a little bit. It wasnt enough. That wasnt enough. And in mayor breeds budget this year, we actually put in more funding for childcare facilities and that is why we are able to afford to build these facilities for our children. On the board, every developer knows, any developers here . Every developer knows by now or at least many years ago, if you come into the office about a new development, that they better have the response to how they would address the childcare shortage in San Francisco, otherwise dont come into my office. I hope to see more ceremonies like this and i am also hopeful that the initiative will finally be implemented so that families are provided subsidies to cover the high cost of Early Education it is something we are waiting for. I am sure we will win in the courts. We will get every low income family off the waiting list. About 2500. We also will help another 2500. I am really, really excited that the dream of having universal Early Education will eventually happen. Right, mimi . Yes. This is about investing in the future. What people often dont realize is how much investing in early years of a childs life is really the best way for us to address the social inequities so many that so many of our communities are facing. If you are talking about working upstream, then we must urgently show parental care or prenatal care. Our future really depends on it in this city. This is why the child and Youth Friendly Initiative that everyone is talking about is so critical. It is about thinking differently about the way we grow our city. And if we design what with children in mind, we truly design something that is universal universally safe and vibrant for everyone. Imagine early care and education being a basic service for every family regardless of income. Imagine child friendly spaces on every block so youth can safely explore the city . Imagine streets are designed so even a preschooler can go across imagine Housing Units like the ones above us, and every development so that families can expand and adapt with their changing needs. The opportunities are endless and i am ecstatic to join mayor breed and organizing the 2020 child and youth summit so to bring together our best partners from the Business Community of philanthropy, youth, advocates, parents, and residents to reimagine what San Francisco can and should be for the children, youth, and families. Thank you very much. [applause] now i would like to bring up your best supervisor in this district, best just best supervisor, matt haney. Thank you. First of all, speaking of the best, i dont think there has ever been a bigger, more effective champion for Early Childhood education then president norman g. Can we give him one more round of applause we from before he was on the school board to when he was on the school board, and now as a supervisor this has been such a huge priority for him. He had about three more pages of things to say. That shows how much leadership he has shown on this. Thank you for your leadership, mayor breed. Not just for the center, but for the larger initiative. Thank you to all of you. Thank you to all of the staff and educators who are here. Thank you for not just this center, but for all of the children that you serve and families that you serve across the south of market neighborhood i am deeply appreciative and know how high quality the services are that you provide to kids and families. I want to thank the families who are here and the kids who are here who are already enjoying what is just a wonderful, beautiful, colorful home for children and families. I cant wait to come in here and see 60 plus kids running around, having fun, learning, being supported and valued and loved. This is what it is all about. This is what every child in our city deserves and i want to put a myth to rest right now, which is when you look around this neighborhood, a lot of what people see are lots of highrises and New Buildings and law firms and Tech Companies and when you see that, sometimes you dont recognize that this is also a neighborhood of families. This is also a neighborhood of children. This is a residential neighborhood. And in order to have a neighborhood of families and children and residents, you need Early Childhood education. And so we believe that we dont only need this center, we need the next building that goes out also have Early Childhood education and its building, and we need to plan in a way that plans for families and for kids. So that means not only Early Childhood education, we need a an Elementary School in this neighborhood as well. We need to start to plan for the future where families are truly valued and that starts with Early Education and what were doing here. Soma, transbay, east cut, the hill, whatever you call it is a family neighborhood. It is a neighborhood that values and welcomes children and this is the best possible sign of our collective commitment to doing that. I also want to shout out to the stabilization fund. I also know we are a big part of funding the center and prioritizing Early Childhood education. I see my friends from the Community Benefit district here as well. As your supervisor, there is nothing more that we can do together with the mayor, with all the Community Partners here then think about our youngest, our littlest, and our future. That is what were doing here today. Thank you all for being here today. Thank you for opening this center. Thank you. And now i would like to bring up mimi haas who is the president of the mimi and peter hoss fund for a few remarks. Their generous support made it possible to get this place sooner rather than later. Come on up, mimi. [applause] i am definitely not a public speaker and it wasnt clear that i really was going to make some remarks, but i am honored. We have been involved in Early Childhood quality childhood education in San Francisco since 1994 and i admit that we keep pushing ahead. We know where we still what we still have to attain in San Francisco, but we should take all of you all of you should take credit that it still is one of the best cities in the country for Early Childhood education, quality Early Childhood education. We always have to add that to it congratulations to all of you. [applause] congratulations to you and your staff. You worked on this for five years. Sometimes it is worth waiting for. This place certainly is and at the same time, keeping the quality at your other two sites which are always some of my favourites to visit. One of the things that we really cant say enough is the commitment that the teachers and the parents make. We cant think the mayor mayor and the supervisors enough to pay our teachers what they deserve. We are a long way from it, but it is just crucial. We cant thank them enough for their commitment and the passion that they gave in this area. So we want to move ahead. Everybody wants to look around, but i think all of you and i think all of you and the mayor for leading us to a better place for quality Early Childhood education in San Francisco. And thank you for having me here today. I think we are getting more credit than we deserve really. Thank you. [applause] thank you. We really appreciate your support and our familys legacy for giving back so much to San Francisco. It really does mean a lot. Not only to have you here, but to have you at the forefront of the fight for Early Childhood education. Thank you so much for being here and now i would like to introduce the executive director come on up. [applause] thank you so much. It is really a privilege to be here today with the mayor, matt haney, supervisor norming he, all of you. We are excited, we are thankful. It took us i made this speech five pages but i decided not to say it. It took us five years to build this beautiful school. We applied for and r. S. P. They were reviewing our r. S. P. We are very fortunate that they selected us. This is our dream. It does take a village to build a Child Development center. But it does take massive amounts of funding. For the past five years, many of our staff have been writing grants and collecting funds from everywhere that we could to build these beautiful schools. And then our architects. They were experts in building the rooms and regulations of the city. We had several fire inspections. Every inspection was different than the other one. So either delaying the opening of the site. But we are fortunate that we are in San Francisco. Norman, mayor, mrs. Hoss, this is a very unique place. One of i have been in here for 40 years. It is our teachers and their wages. We are planning to open the site much earlier but we were not able to find the teachers. We are still not going to be at full capacity. This site has license for 60 children. We were not able to hire the staff that we needed. They are so lucky that they have been with the agency for many years and she came and paid for it. Otherwise we were not here to do this. It was our dream to build a facility like this. And our architect really listened to us, listen to our dreams and hopes for children and they came up with this design and planned it. We are so proud. Sixty children. The majority of them will be here. We will provide quality Early Education services. Our staff have already been engaging several weeks with professional Development Even before starting. We really care about the quality of our services. We will provide comprehensive Family Resources programs so families will have access to various services that our staff provide. I still have to think several people that we are engaging in this process and help us to build this. First off, i already said ingrid and graham. Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for the office of community of investment and infrastructure. This was supposed to be a parking space and the commissioners decided that, well , they will try a development. We are very thankful. Mayors office of housing and Community Development, john harris, stephen, and brian true. Thank you for all the paperwork that you had to do and you helped us with all of them. Stabilization fund, they were so supportive throughout the process and specially with claudine. The low Income Investment fund, they helped us with licensing. That was the last nightmare that we had to deal with to get the license. They helped us a lot. I have to think i know mimi says that they are not much involved, but they are they are very, very involved. To mimi and peter, the charity foundation, the Fremont Group foundation for their support and encouragement. Thank you. And thank you to our architects. We couldnt have done this. Thank you for making our dreams possible. Thank you to our staff you have been our support throughout this year to build this facility. Thank you to that board of directors for being there for us as a strong presence and thank you. Thank you. I think i covered everything. It does take a village to build a Child Development center. It does take tonnes of money to build a quality Child Development center. Thank you tenormin, thank you to match. I want to say one last thing. We are here in the tech capital of San Francisco. Salesforce is here, facebook, i dont know, they are opening up a campaign a campus. I hope that there will be a day that our staff will have equal wages and whatever their name is thank you. [applause] thank you. And now for a few words about her experience with her child, clearly who will be a student here at this place. Come on up. She is one of the parents here. Hi, everybody. I am a mom of two and i am thrilled to be here. This is the dream, like everybody else. It is a dream come true. I have been dreaming of this place since i moved here. Since weve become a resident over there, they told me that preschool will going to be here. We have been waiting for this for a long time. It feels like i have been waiting all my life. I have been calling melinda, she is somewhere here. I have been bugging her almost every day. I was calling her and saying, what is happening with the civic opening . I want to know because i want to go back to work, i want to know everything is safe. The next day they said october, and today it is december. I have been calling her so many times and this is so nice. I cant believe i have a second one now. Our older son, after we enrolled him in the same school and different location. You will be transferring here as well. My two boys will be here and i live next door. It could not be any better than this. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you for everybody who worked so hard to open. I am really glad, i hope i am not the only one who is living in this wonderful life. I hope everybody can live in our building and enrolled their child and go back to their work, their regular life as everybody else. As a parent, this is the best thing we can wish for. Thank you to everybody. [applause] thank you. And last before we cut this ribbon and get this place open so we can get out of the way of these kids who need more room to play, i just wanted to do a special presentation to you for your work for the past 15 years, your dedication. [applause] your dedication to being an advocate for Early Childhood education, working to support kids and be on the front lines for this. This is often times thankless work. It requires a lot of patience and a lot of hard work to hire people, to review contracts, to apply for dollars, to turn in the paperwork on time. You name it and she does it. She has been doing it with them for the past 15 years and we are so grateful for your service and the work that you have done in the south of market community, but the work we know you will continue to do to be such a blessing to so many people who need childcare that is going to help make a difference in the childs life. So thank you on behalf of the city and county of San Francisco [applause] all right. Supervisor haney, president yee, mrs. Haas, and all the others, i think we will cut the ribbon. Will we cut the ribbon . We will cut the ribbon and then we are going to let our kids get back to playing and having a good time. Okay, kids . Yes. Do you want us to get out of your hair . Okay. [laughter] thank you, everyone, for coming. Five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] about two years ago now i had my first child. And i thought when i come back, you know, im going to get back in the swing of things and ill find a spot. And it wasnt really that way when i got back to work. Thats what really got me to think about the challenges that new mothers face when they come back to work. When it comes to innovative ideas and policies, San Francisco is known to pave the way, fighting for social justice or advocating for the environment, our city serves as the example and leader many times over. And this year, it leads the nation again, but for a new reason. Being the most supportive city of nursing mothers in the work place. I was inspired to work on legislation to help moms return to work, one of my legislative aids had a baby while working in the office and when she returned we had luckily just converted a bathroom at city hall into a lactation room. She was pumping a couple times a day and had it not been for the room around the hallway, i dont know if she could have continued to provide breast milk for her baby. Not all returning mothers have the same access, even though theres existing state laws on the issues. These moms usually work in low paying jobs and returning to work sooner and they dont feel wellsupported at work. We started out by having legislation to mandate that all city offices and departments have accommodations for mothers to return to work and lactate. But this year we passed legislation for private companies to have lactation policies for all new moms returning to work. With the newcome accommodations, moms should have those to return back to work. What are legislation . We wanted to make it applicable to all, we created a set of standards that can be achievable by everyone. Do you have a few minutes today to give us a quick tour. I would love to. Lets go. This is such an inviting space. What makes this a lactation room . As legislation requires it has the minimum standards, a seat, a surface to place your breast on, a clean space that doesnt have toxic chemicals or storage or anything like that. And we have electricity, we have plenty of outlets for pumps, for fridge. The things that make it a little extra, the fridge is in the room. And the sink is in the room. Our legislation does require a fridge and sink nearby but its all right in here. You can wash your pump and put your milk away and you dont have to put it in a fridge that you share with coworkers. The new standards will be applied to all businesses and places of employment in San Francisco. But are they achievable for the smaller employers in the city . I think Small Businesses rightfully have some concerns about providing lactation accommodations for employees, however we left a lot of leeway in the legislation to account for Small Businesses that may have small footprints. For example, we dont mandate that you have a lactation room, but rather lactation space. In city hall we have a lactation pod here open to the public. So the more we can change, especially in government offices, the more we can support women. I think for the work place to really offer support and encouragement for pumping and Breast Feeding mothers is necessary. What is most important about the legislation is that number one, we require that an employer have a lactation policy in place and then have a conversation with a new hire as well as an employee who requests parental leave. Otherwise a lot of times moms dont feel comfortable asking their boss for lactation accommodations. Really its hard to go back to the office after you have become a mom, youre leaving your heart outside of your body. When you can provide your child food from your body and know youre connecting with them in that way, i know it means a lot to a mommy motionlely and physically to be able to do that. And businesses and employers can just provide a space. If they dont have a room, they can provide a small space that is private and free from intrusion to help moms pump and that will attract moms to working in San Francisco. If you want more information visit sfdph. Org breastfeedingatwork. Good afternoon and welcome to the land use and Transportation Committee for today, monday, december 16th, 2019. Our last Land Use Committee meeting of the 2019 calender year. I am aaron peskin, the chair of this committee joined to my left by Committee Member supervisor matt haney and our clerk is ms. Erika major. We welcome, in her own right for her first trial by fire experience is Land Use Committee deputy City Attorney anne pearson. Do you have any announcements . Clerk silence all cellphones and electronic devices