Struggles people are going through from friends from family members and from the community. While San Francisco has been a leader in the fight against this pandemic, everyday we suffer losses. People are losing their jobs, people are losing their grip on their Mental Health. Worst of all, people are losing family members to this disease. Even as we endure these losses, im hopeful for the future. These months of Public Health crises and social unrest has shown us that when we come together, we can have the hard conversations and make the tough choices to do what needs to be done. Not just save lives but to address systemic racism head on and change society as we know it. I know today is about our budget and our path forward. As we step into the future, one that im hopeful for, is important we take a moment to recognize where weve come from. At the beginning of this year, we were living in a different world. Our Unemployment Rate was at a historic low. Tourism was at alltime high. Hotels were full, we had all plans to shape the future of this city we all love. I know i have plans to address homelessness and housing, to reimagine our Mental Health system, to improve transportation and make our streets safer and build a more equitable city. To lift up those who too often are left behind. Like i said, we had lot of plans. What we didnt have plans for was the coronavirus. It certainly had plans for us. Here we are today in a very different San Francisco with Small Businesses closing and schools struggling to bring kids back to the classrooms. With over 180 thousands san francisc100 180,000 sanfrancr unemployment. We have seen San Francisco come together in a way that makes me proud. Proud to be mayor, yes, but also proud to be a san franciscan. We Work Together to make sure thousands of people had access to medical support, to testing, food and housing. We move forward emergency policies to protect tenant and businesses from eviction. Give people emergency sick leave and keep workers safe. We raised millions of dollars in donations through give to sf to support Small Businesses, workers and vulnerable residents. We think people organized to check on elderly neighbors and deliver groceries for those who cant leave the house. While Nursing Homes across the country have been devastated by this virus, we havent had a single death among the over 700 residents at laguana hospital. Weve seen Community Groups rise up to support our most vulnerable residents in the bayview and mission and other hard hit areas. Weve seen the spirit of San Francisco rise to meet this challenge to flatten the curve and then rise once again when the virus came back the second time. Today, we are proposing a balanced budget that closes that 1. 5 billion deficit. While still meeting the needs of our city. Through all of this, we continue to protect our public workforce. Let be clear, when we talk about 180,000 san franciscans applying for unemployment, not one of those people is doing so because of city cut their job. Not one. As our economy plummeted, we wanted our city workers to focus on their health and the health of their families and on serving our residents during this crises. Not on whether or not they would have a paycheck. With the budget im proposing today, i i want to continue to prevent all layoffs. But to do that, we need our labor partners to work with us. We need them to agree to delay any planned wage increases for two years. So far, we are having good conversations with the firefighters and the Police Officers on delaying their raises im hopeful other unions will agree to do the same. I dont think this is too much to ask. Our entire city is suffering now. We all need to do our part to hair in that sacrifice. I want to be very clear, if the union dont agree to delay their raises, then we will be forced to lay people off. We will be forced to cut city services. We dont want to see those unemployment numbers go up because we are forced into layoffs. Thats not what i want. Its not what anyone wants. Im hopeful that our labor partners will step up and work with us in the coming weeks. Because there is a lot we have to do with this budget. Including continuing to fund our ongoing Covid Response. We all know we are living with covid for the next year. Likely longer than that. San francisco has been a National Leader in responding to this pandemic, thanks to our efforts to follow the data, build a testing system from scratch, create a robust Contact Tracing team and provide food, support and shelter for our most vulnerable residents. We will keep doing everything we can to get this city through this pandemic. Hopefully the federal government will continue to provide the necessary support. We know the federal government wont cover everything. Thats why we are putting 93 million from our general fund towards supporting our continued Covid Response. This is a significant investment but honestly, its not really a choice. Without a strong and sustained Covid Response our students wont return to school, people wont go back to work and our economy wont recover. Even as we continue to wrestle with covid, we cant lose sight of other key priorities. Our homelessness crises didnt go with covid. Covid has made it even more challenging. I know people are frustrated with what they see on our streets. We have had to reduce capacity in our existing shelters by 70 leaving more people out on the streets. Our outreach workers continue to do very difficult work all while practicing social distancing. We met this challenge by moving thousands of people into hotel rooms, trailers, safe sleeping site and new emergency shelters. This work took an amazing effort from city staff and nonprofit partners, work that normally take months and years in planning and implementation done in a matter of weeks. The tenderloin alone we moved over 500 people. We are expanding those efforts oeffort neighborhoods like selma and the mission. While we are seeing some progress, frankly its clearly not enough. We need more than shortterm hotel rooms. We more than parking lots for safe sleeping sites. We need housing. Lots of housing. Thats why this budget funds 1500 new units supportive housing. Which is part of our homeless Recovery Plan to move 4500 people from hotels, shelters and the streets into housing in the next two years. It will help us as a city meet the needs of the unsheltered and our residents who are frustrated by the conditions they see everyday in our neighborhoods. We also cant lose the progress weve made on improving our Mental Health system. Including funding Mental Health sf. That means adding more Mental Health beds, expanding our Behavioral HealthAccess Center so people can get Immediate Care when they need it and improving the system of care so that people struggling with Mental Illness and addiction. Were also creating a new Crises Response Team so that when you call 911 or 311, because someone on the street is clearly having a mental breakdown, we can send a team which includes a paramedics, clinician and Behavioral Health peer. We need to shift the burden Mental Health response call away from the police its not fair to ask our officers to do the work of Mental Health professionals. Its not effective for those in crises. This is a key piece of our Police Reform efforts. In addition to doing the work to call for service, i laid out three other major areas for Police Reform. Addressing accountability and bias, getting rid of military grade weapon and equipment and redirecting Law Enforcement funding towards the Africanamerican Community. While all are important, its the last one i want to talk about today. As a black woman who grew up in poverty in this city, Police Brutality was all too common. It was something we expected and complaints were usually ignored. Two months ago, the murder of george floyd shook this country to its core. In a way that i have never seen before. People responded like i have never seen before. Seeing people not just africanamericans, rise up against Police Brutality gave me hope that real change in this country is possible. But for those who support this movement, for those who truly believe that black lives matter, its important that we listen to black voices. Its important that we allow black people to lead this movement. Im not just talking about me or any of our black elected leaders who have been fighting this fight for generations. I mean we have to listen to the people in the community. We have to listen to the people who have seen and lived the devastation resulting from decades of disinvestment. We have to listen to the people who dont come to city hall because theyve known too many broken promises, made by those in this building who believe they know what is best for black people in this city. Thats why the first thing supervisor Shamann Walton and i said, when we announced we wanted to reprioritize funding to support the black community, was that this had to be a communityled process. Earlier this week, the Human Rights Commission released an initial report that highlighted what the Community Wants us to focus on. This report is the first step in guiding not just the investments we make with this budget but the change we need to make in the years to come. Changing the inequities in our country wont happen overnight. We wont change the fact that africanamericans have the lowest Median Household Income in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that black people have the highest mortality rate for nine of the top ten causes of death in San Francisco overnight. We wont change the fact that Graduation Rates for africanamerican students in our Public School system is just 53 . We wont change that overnight. We wont change the fact that nearly half of San FranciscoPolice Department used to force cases involve black people overnight. We will change these facts with this budget. We are listening to the community and prioritizing investments in the Africanamerican Community around housing, Mental Health and wellness, workforce development, economic justice, education, advocacy and accountability. As a first step in this effort, we will redirect 120 million from Law Enforcement to support these priorities over the next two years. Let me repeat that, this is 120 million. Its a first step. If we are going to make real change, we need to do the hard work. Its going to take all of us coming together, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. I often talk about how i overcame poverty, despair and vince to become violence to become mayor. My goal with these investments and this change in how we prioritize the black community is simple. I want my story, my experience to be the norm and not the exception. I want black girls growing up today to rise not in spite of their upbringing here in the city but because of it. I want black boys growing up today to thrive because we chose how to change the city and how this country treats our young black men. Not as a statistic or an tragedy but as an important part of our citys future. If we accomplished nothing more than that during my time as mayor, i will leave this office proud. I want to end by acknowledging the leadership of a few of the people who are central to this budget process. First, i want to thank board president norman yee and budget chair supervisor sandy fewer to continuing to be strong and collaborative leaders. Over the coming weeks, we will work with both of them and the board of supervisors to finalize this budget so that we can continue to deliver for the people of San Francisco. I want to thank controller ben rosen field for the work he and his team has put in as well as all the city departments who worked to find ways for us to close this deficit. Finally, i want to thank my budget team. Led by ashley golfenburgering. San francisco is lucky to have these two strong smart women leading this challenging process. Now at this time, i want to introduce ashley whos going to give us a short presentation on our budget. Good afternoon, thank you mayor breed. Im the mayors acting budget director. I like to thank the rest of the mayors Budget Office team who worked so hard to put this budget together under mayor breeds leadership. Today im happy to walk you through the details of the mayors fiscal year 2021 and 2 2122 budget. The total size of the proposed budget is 13. 7 billion in fiscal year 2021 and 12. 6 billion in fiscal year 202122. The fiscal year 2021 proposely budget represents a 1. 4 billion increase over the fiscal year 1920 budget primarily driven by one expenditure related to the covid19 pandemic which go away in the second year of the budget. The total proposed budget is made up of 7. 5 billion or 54 Nongeneral Fund expenditures which include enterprise and selfsupporting activities. 6. 2 or 46 of general Fund Expenditures. It is important to note that selfsupporting and Enterprise Funding are restricted and not eligible to be used to balance the citys General Fund Budget. These includes things like operations that are airport, the Public Utilities commission, port and the mta. It is also important to note that the 3. 9 billion of the 6. 2 billion in general Fund Expenditures are restricted by state and federal reimbursements and voter mandated services for children, transit and seniors. The remaining 2. 3 billion represents Discretionary Fund budget available to pay for the Public Services san franciscans rely on. The mayors proposed budget achieved four key objectives. It balances the budget responsibly, avoiding layoffs for City Employees and Major Service cuts, it makes progress on shared priorities of homelessness and Behavioral Health. It reinvest significant resources toward initiatives that support Racial Equity and identifying alternatives to policing and it maintains a robust importance to the covid19 pandemic. The mayors required by the charter to submit a balance twoyear budget. The proposed budget utilizes variety of one time and ongoing revenue and expenditures solutions to balance this projected shortfall while also investing in shared priority areas. The may 2020 joint report projected a 1. 5 billion twoyear General Fund Budget shortfall. Driven by stark revenue losses resulting from the Economic Impact of the covid19 emergency. In july, worsening Economic Conditions resulted in a further downgrade of revenue projections for the upcoming budget period. To overcome the shortfall, the mayors proposed budget utilizes reserves, new revenue and other savings. The mayors proposed budget utilizes 340 million from the citys main economic reserves during the budget period ensuring reserve balances remain in tact to hedge against future risk. The budget assumes ongoing excess reserve from the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund or eraf to balance the shortfall. The proposed budget assumes 300 million that will become available with the passage of Business Tax Reform measure. In order to avoid layoffs and maintain critical city services, the mayor has asked the citys labor unions to defer scheduled wage increases over the period of the twoyear budget. The savings associated with that are reflected this proposed budget. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget assumed many citywide and departmental saving. It includes underfunding the citys Capital Equipment and i. T. Programs, only funding critical projects while deferring other new costs. This also includes savings offered by city departments that keep positions vacant and achieve other efficiencies all while avoiding layoffs and Major Service impacts. Taken together, these solutions equal 1. 9 billion over the two years. Despite the economic challenges we face, the mayors propose the budget is able to make over 300 million in targeted investments in priority areas. The mayors proposed budget invest general fund dollars in Behavioral Health and homelessness, maintaining the investments weve made in shelter, Navigation Centers and Behavioral Health beds while also feeding new general fund support such as the homeless rory plan and Mental Health sf which will be implemented through the passage of the november business tax measure. The proposed budget also reinvest 120 million in Law Enforcement funding over the next two years to support programs and services that benefit the Africanamerican Community and advance Racial Equity in our city. The proposed budget also seeks to prioritize youth investing 15 million in onetime support to the San FranciscoUnified School District to provide needed Financial Relief and support for vulnerable students. Lastly, the mayors proposed budget maintains robust response to the ongoing covid19 pandemic. Allocated 100 million in new general fund support. The mayors proposed budget is able to close the projected shortfall without layoffs and Minimal Service impacts. However, we are just beginning to see the effects of this recession and must remain vigilant of the risks that uncertainties that lie ahead. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had approximately 1 billion in reserves. The proposed budget will utilize about half of those reserves over the coming three years, leaving the remainder to hedge against significant risk that far exceed the remaining reserves. These risks include the failure of the november 2020 Business Tax Reform measure, which should not prevail could create 300 million shortfall. The proposed budget assumes that the city continues to receive fema reimbursements for eligible covid expenditures through the end of the fiscal year. Should the federal government declare the emergency over, the city would face a significant financial burden to continue to respond to covid. A prolonged worsening of the pandemic would negatively impact the citys finances both in the form of ongoing expenditures not planned for in this budget and in worsening conditions that can further slow economic recovery. While we believe the assumptions around access eraf and other state revenues are sounds, theres risk that worsening conditions that the state level can result in further losses of state revenue. Lastly, while this budget proposed ongoing solutions, the city still faces a structural deficit and must maintain reserves. To conclude, while the proposed budget balanced it is balance end on a number of asunshines that could fail to materialize which under underscores the importance maintain reserves to guard against these future risks. Thank you. Thank you ashley. Thank you again. Nothing about this pandemic is easy. Nothing is certain. I believe that the more transparent we are with the facts and the more honest we are with the challenges we face, the better off we will all be. I know we will get this budget passed. We will continue to keep people healthy and safe and we will get through this challenging time together. Valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. The first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the Mission Neighborhood extending from market to mission street. It is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. From 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. The mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m. T. A. To put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [ ] valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in San Francisco. It has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. We promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. Valencia is our mission fits our mission perfectly. Our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. Whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. I have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. During that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. We have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. One of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. The most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. We kept all the passengers the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see out here. Most people arent actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. Half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6 00 p. M. , so could be used for fiveminute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. The five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. One of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. We worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. On this lot, there are a few schools. All these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. To address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings railings that channel channeled a designated crossing plane. We had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons . I do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. We have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the rightofway so they can cross the roadway. This is probably one of the most unique features. During the planning phase, the m. T. A. Came out with three alternatives for the long term project. One is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. A twoway bikeway. The third option is a Center Running twoway bikeway, c. Would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side. Earlier, there werent any enter lane designs in San Francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for San Francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesnt exist already. With all three concepts for valencias longterm improvement , theres a number of tradeoffs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. When he think about extending this pilot or this still this design, theres a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. The pilot is great. It is a nobrainer. It is also a teaser for us. Once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. What were trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. The Pilot Project is one of our first major improvements. We will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. This fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. By spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about longterm improvements. I appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the Community Workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. We want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. Theres a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. We will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [ ] what were trying to approach is bringing more diversity to our food. Its not just the old european style food. We are seeing a lot of influences, and all of this is because of our students. All we ask is make it flavorful. [ ] we are the first twoyear Culinary Hospitality School in the united states. The first year was 1936, and it was started by two graduates from cornell. Im a graduate of this program, and very proud of that. So students can expect to learn under the three degrees. Culinary Arts Management degree, Food Service Management degree, and Hotel Management degree. Were not a cooking school. Even though were not teaching you how to cook, were teaching you how to manage, how to supervise employees, how to manage a hotel, and plus youre getting an associate of science degree. My name is vince, and im a faculty member of the hospitality arts and Culinary School here in San Francisco. This is my 11th year. The policemrogram is very, ver in what this industry demands. Cooking, health, safety, and sanitation issues are included in it. Its quite a complete program to prepare them for whats happening out in the real world. The first time i heard about this program, i was working in a restaurant, and the sous chef had graduated from this program. He was very young to be a sous chef, and i want to be like him, basically, in the future. This program, its awesome. Its another world when youre here. Its another world. You get to be who you are, a person get to be who they are. You get to explore different things, and then, you get to explore and they encourage you to bring your background to the kitchen, too. Ive been in the program for about a year. Twoyear program, and im about halfway through. Before, i was studying behavioral genetics and dance. I had few injuries, and i couldnt pursue the things that i needed to to dance, so i pursued my other passion, cooking. When i stopped dance, i was deprived of my creative outlet, and cooking has been that for me, specifically pastry. The good thing is we have students everywhere from places like the ritz to we have kids from every area. Facebook and google. Kids from everywhere. They are all over the bay area, and theyre thriving. My name is jeff, and im a coowner of nopa restaurant, nopalito restaurant in San Francisco. I attended city college of San Francisco, the culinary arts program, where it was called hotel and restaurant back then in the early 90s. Nopalito on broderick street, its based on no specific region in mexico. All our masa is hand made. We cook our own corn in house. Everything is pretty much hand made on a daily basis, so day and night, were making hand made tortillas, carnitas, salsas. A lot of love put into this. [ ] used to be very easy to define casual dining, fine dining, quick service. Now, its shades of gray, and were trying to define that experience through that spectrum of service. Fine dining calls into white table cloths. The cafeteria is Large Production kitchen, understanding vast production kitchens, the googles and the facebooks of the world that have those kitypes of kitchens. And the ideas that change every year, again, its the notion and the venue. One of the things i love about vince is one of our outlets is a concept restaurant, and he changes the concept every year to show students how to do a startup restaurant. Its been a pizzeria, a taco bar. Its been a mediterranean bar, its been a noodle bar. People choose ccsf over other hospitality programs because the industry recognizes that we instill the work ethic. We, again, serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Other culinary hospitality programs may open two days a week for breakfast service. Were open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner five days a week. The menus always interesting. They change it every semester, maybe more. Theres always a good variety of foods. The preparation is always beautiful. The students are really sincere, and they work so hard here, and theyre so proud of their work. Ive had people coming in to town, and i, like, bring them here for a special treat, so its more, like, not so much every day, but as often as i can for a special treat. When i have my interns in their final semester of the program go out in the industry, 80 to 90 of the students get hired in the industry, well above the industry average in the culinary program. We do have internals continually coming into our restaurants from city college of San Francisco, and most of the time that people doing internships with us realize this is what they want to do for a living. We hired many interns into employees from our restaurants. My partner is also a graduate of city college. So my goal is actually to travel and try to do some pastry in maybe italy or france, along those lines. I actually have developed a few connections through this program in italy, which i am excited to support. Im thinking about going to go work on a cruise ship for about two, three year so i can save some money and then hopefully venture out on my own. Yeah, i want to go back to china. I want to bring something that i learned here, the french cooking, the western system, back to china. So we want them to have a full toolkit. Were trying to make them ready for the world out there. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after i personally love the mega jobs. I think theyre a lot of fun. I like being part of a build that is bigger than myself and outlast me and make a mark on a landscape or industry. We do a lot of the big sexy jobs, the stacked towers, Transit Center, a lot of the note worthy projects. Im Second Generation construction. My dad was in it and for me it just felt right. I was about 16 when i first started drafting home plans for people and working my way through college. In college i became a project engineer on the job, replacing others who were there previously and took over for them. The Transit Center project is about a million square feet. The entire floor is for commuter buses to come in and drop off, there will be five and a half acre city park accessible to everyone. It has an amputheater and water marsh that will filter it through to use it for landscaping. Bay area council is big here in the area, and they have a gender equity group. I love going to the workshops. Its where i met jessica. We hit it off, we were both in the same field and the only two women in the same. Through that friendship did we discover that our projects are interrelated. The projects provide the power from san jose to San Francisco and end in the trans bay terminal where amanda was in charge of construction. Without her project basically i have a fancy bus stop. She has headed up the Womens Network and i do, too. We have exchanged a lot of ideas on how to get groups to Work Together. Its been a Good Partnership for us. Women can play leadership role in this field. I tell him that the schedule is behind, his work is crappy. He starts dropping fbombs and i say if youre going to talk to me like that, the meeting is over. So these are the challenges that we face over and over again. The reality, okay, but it is Getting Better i think. It has been great to bond with other women in the field. We lack diversity and so we have to support each other and change the culture a bit so more women see it as a great field that they can succeed in. What drew me in, i could use more of my mind than my body to get the work done. Its important for women to network with each other, especially in construction. The percentage of women and men in construction is so different. Its hard to feel a part of something and you feel alone. Its fun to play a leadership role in an important project, this is important for the transportation of the entire peninsula. To have that person of women coming into construction, returning to construction from family leave and creating the network of women that can rely on each other. Women are the main source of income in your household. Show of hands. People are very charmed with the idea of the reverse role, that theres a dad at home instead of a mom. You wont have gender equity in the office until its at home. Whatever you do, be the best you can be. Dont say i cant do it, you can excel and do whatever you want. This is a Small Business held of the small Commission Meeting and its being called to order at 11 03 a. M. We thank services for televising the media which can be viewed on sf gov2. Members calling in, the number is 888 2733658