Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20240714

Always, often, sympathize find that the five year moratorium is putting the burden in the wrong place. One thing i would look for in any further developments that we have is an aggressive pursuit of meaningful and strong remedies that will not overburden neighborhoods and communities but will get ads, especially, the proverbial bad actors that are doing things wrong. Next, systematically. We all look at trying to codify anything into 50 , 70 , or 25 of a facade, what constitutes demolition . We all have problems with it, in part, it encourages people to do their filing so they come in just under. Its all fine. That is really a pretty terrible way to do things. We get something submitted to planning and it meets all of their criteria. If they have, you know, 50 is their standard and it comes in at 49. Low and behold us and as we go and open walls and see what is going on, boy, isnt this surprising . Despite all the things we thought about how dangerous and prone to problems the blind walls are, and foundations, suddenly we are amazed to find that we have problems which are unanticipated. I think if i spoke to most of our experienced staff who have been in the field a lot, i dont think they would be so surprised to find a lot of dry rot, deterioration, other conditions. I think, you know, the preinspection process for threshold projects, especially with vertical additions. It is really something that we should not be afraid of. It will add to upfront expense, but it will add to overall more accurate filings, and i would actually suspect instead of having to go back 4five times having permitting and delays, and arbitrations, we may actually see the process move through faster. Really exploring what preinspection does for us, is something i would really love to see incorporated into this. Similarly, one of the things that always comes up that i havent seen addressed here, you know, are again legitimate concerns of neighbors. We always hear about, you know, the shoring isnt working, it wasnt meant for this, it has been there too long, it is failing. Really being certain that we are incorporating those concerns with great transparency so that any neighbor knows exactly what the shoring plan is has a full list of everybody whether its a dbi employee to call whether you feel there is a problem, or who is the architect, who is the structural engineer, who is a contractor so that there will be absolutely no question about how neighbors living next to these projects can feel that they are being respected and that there properties are not in danger. Much of what is written about aggressive enforcement for unprofessional behavior with any licensed professional, is something that really is very needed in my opinion. Perhaps we have to be a little bit heavyhanded with possible penalties or prescribed penalties, because clearly the bad actors in the field have forced us to do this. How we reconcile that with honest mistakes, learnings, in process things is something we really need to work out. This really, in many ways, started out the acting two really bad actors. Being sure that everything that we have here doesnt unduly burden the 99 of people who are trying to build houses, expand houses, most important they improve their houses when they have a legitimate need for it. Stop the bad actors from consistently misrepresenting things, and , you know, developing a track record. I dont think it is a secret that, you know, many of us can identify some of the bad actors. While we are not going to them today, you know, i really think that we need strong protocols for reporting to licensing authorities. Strong protocols for reporting to the city attorney. And the heightened review of anything submitted by somebody who has a history of violations, where the ordinance comes calls out some of these things. I think it is something that we really do need. These are many of my concerns, you know to accomplish all of these things, and to have tenant protections. To really make the considerations with how we densify the city, to really get significant contributions, additional housing. These are all things that i think we are working towards. I think there is not a person here that is not going to commit their time to working with the supervisor, and is aid to see how we can move forward on this. I share the feeling that this is a very very, very broad piece of work. It probably should be broken up into pieces addressing first; demolitions, and you know, penalties on bad actors might be one place to first target and be sure we have that under control since that seems to be the focus of where our concerns originated. All of the other things about, you know, integrity of merged units, sizes, other considerations are very valid, but they may be too much for us to tackle right now. Narrowing in the focus will serve us all well and allow us to accomplish something. I look forward to being part of that process. As a final thought we all know that the city has to engage in major seismic upgrades. So, having incentives built into this as well. We all say there is a need for more space, you know, when you think about when you do a seismic upgrade you are very often taking a 7 foot, no habitation space, and you can make it an eightfoot legal habitation space. When you are talking about maybe not expanding the envelope, but making more living space and accomplishing a good that we all know is necessary like seismic upgrade. Building that into, if you do your seismic upgrade we can work to get you extra living space out of it, as well. There should be ways that we have carrots as well as sticks. Being creative, and trying to find those, is a challenge that i think we should be up to. So, again, i applaud the efforts and i do think it needs focus. Again, i think in november of 2016, california voters passed proposition 64. The adult use of marijuana act. San franciscans overwhelmingly approved it by nearly 75 . And the law went into effect in january of 2018. [ ] under californias new law, adults age 21 and over can legally possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis and grow up to six plants at home. Adults in california can legally give up to 1 ounce to other adults. In the state of california, we passed a law that said adult consumption is legal. If you are an adult and in possession of certain amounts, you will no longer be tried. You will not be arrested or prosecuted for that. That is changing the landscape dramatically. [ ] to legalization of cannabis could bring tremendous economic and social benefits to cities like San Francisco. This industry is projected to reach 22 billion by the year 2020. And that is just a few years away. It can be a huge Legal Industry in california. I think very shortly, the actual growing of marijuana may become the biggest cash crop in the state and so you want that to be a legal tax paying cash crop, all the way down the line to a sales tax on the retail level. The california medical industry is a 3 billiondollar industry last year. Anticipating that multiplier as 20, 30, 50 times in the consumer marketplace once adult use is really in place, you could go ahead and apply that multiplier to revenue. It will be huge. When that underground economy becomes part of the regular tax paying employment economy of the bay area, it not only has a direct impact, that money has a ripple impact through the economy as well. It is not just about retail. It is not just about the sensor. Is about manufacturing pick a lot of innovative manufacturing is happening here in San Francisco in addition to other parts of the state as well as the cultivation. We should be encouraging that. There is a vast array of jobs that are going to be available in the newly regulated cannabis industry. You can start at the top tier which a scientist working in testing labs. Scientists working at extraction companies. And you work towards agricultural jobs. You have ones that will require less education and you look towards Cannabis Retail and see traditional retail jobs and you see general management jobs. Those things that are similar to working at a Bar Restaurant or working at a retail store. We are offering, essentially, high paid manufacturing jobs. Typical starting wage of 18 20 an hour, almost no barrier to entry, you do not need an education. That means that people who do not have college educations, workingclass people, will have an opportunity to have a job at cultivating cannabis plants. Theres a whole wide array of Job Opportunities from the seedling to the sale of the cannabis. [ ] last year, they said 26 Million People came to San Francisco. The Tourism Industry continues to be very robust here and the city and county of San Francisco is about a billiondollar industry. If we use a conservative cannabis user Adoption Rate to 15 that means 4 million tourists want that means 4 million tourists want to purchase cannabis. And we need to be ready for th them. In 2015, as adult use legalization efforts gained momentum in california, the supervisors created the San Francisco Cannabis State Legalization Task force. This task force offered to research and advice to the supervisors, the mayor and other city departments. We knew that adult use legalization was coming to the ballot and stat that would bring with it a number of decisions that the city would have to make about zoning and regulation and so forth. And i decided at that time, at a know it was a great, that rather than have a fire drill after the ballot measure passes, as suspected it would, we should plan an event. So i authored a task force to spend a year studying it and we made it a broadbased task force. We prepared ourselves by developing a Health Impact assessment and partnered that with key stakeholder discussions with washington, oregon, colorado, to really learn lessons from their experience rolling out both adult and medicinal cannabis. Within days of the passing of the proposition, ed lee called on agencies to act decisively. He issued an executive order asking the department of Public Health, along with planning and other city departments to think through an internal working group around what we needed to do to consider writing this law. We collectively, i would say that was representatives from g. S. A. , as well as the mayors office, met with a lot of departments to talk through what prop 64 and the implementation of prop 64 it meant to them. The mayor proposed an office of cannabis, a onestop shop for permits allowing operators to grow and sell cannabis. He wanted a smart structure. He wanted a regulatory structure that ensured that kids didnt have access and communitys were safe and that consumers were safe. And he wanted to ensure, more importantly, it was a regulatory structure that encouraged diversity and inclusivity. This is an office that will be solely charged with a duty of wanting not only the policies that we create, implementing and enforcing them, but also executing the licenses that are needed. Were talking about 20 different licenses that will put us into compliance with what is happening on the state level. This is a highly, highly regulated industry now, at this point. We have anywhere from 710 departments that will be working with these industry participants as they go through the permitting process. That is a lot of work at a loss of coordination. We are creating a permitting process that is smart and is digital. It is much easier for the user and for community input, and is less mired in bureaucracy. For the First Time Ever in San Francisco history, standalone licenses are available for all aspects of the nonretail side of the cannabis industry. Now, a cultivator can go in to the department of building inspection and to the department of health and say, with this first registered and temporary license, and then what will eventually be a permanent license, this is the project, this is what i am going to do. Very rarely in City Government do we interact with industries that are asking to be regulated. These guys want to be regulated. They want to be compliant. They want to work with the city. That is rare. San francisco has created a temporary licensing process so that the preexisting operators here in San Francisco can apply for a temporary state licensed. We have taken teams of up to 12 inspectors to inspect the facility twice a day. We have been doing that with the department of building inspection and the department of Public Health. And the fire department. It is really important for the industry to know that we are treating them like industry. Like manufacturing. Like coworkers pick so that is the way we are approaching this from a health and safety and a Consumer Protection network. This is just the way practice happens with restaurants or manufacturing facilities. Because there are so many pieces of industry that people havent even thought about. There are different permits for each piece. You have to set up a permitting system for growing, for manufacturing, for testing. For delivery. For retail. You have to make sure that there is an appropriate health code. Certainly the regulation of alcohol in terms of restaurants and retail its probably a model for how this industry will be regulated as well, both on sale and consumption. It is completely uncharted territory. There is a blessing and a curse with that. It is exciting because we are on a new frontier, but it is very nerveracking because theres a lot at stake. And quite frankly, being San Francisco, being the state of california, people are looking to us. We hope that cannabis does become more of an accepted part of society in the same way that alcohol is, the same way coffee is. It is a very innovative fear, particularly around manufacturing. San francisco could be an epicenter. San francisco can be a leader here. A Global Leader in the Cannabis Movement and set a bar just to other communities and cities and states and this nation how it is done. [ ] the cultural started at arts mission. This was the first set of grant money that the Arts Commission had to give away. By 1998, it was not only the Cultural Equity Grant Program but the cul Actual Center that happened. It meant that communities of color went from zero to like four or five million a year. Just over a very short period of time. Instead, we focused on building the arts community. The queer arts community. And out of that came fresh meat and radar and queer women of color media arts project and the transgender Film Festival and those organizations, some of those people are like part of the landscape now. Whereas, in the year 2000, they didnt exist. It was artists who raised the questions about equality, about gender, sexuality being different than gender. We think about it in our own life what weve seen go on here in the last 30 years. To see why the arts are important. Theyre worth investing in. [ ] i think it really is important to have government funding that is specifically targeted at people who live and work on the margins. Its so easy to overlook what those. Before they can start the race, just getting to that starting block can be very, very difficult for cultural reasons, the Queer Cultural Center asked me if i wanted to apply and they would help me apply. If you are white and you work in a black community and you are racist, you need to be i thought ok, well, im doing a writtenning. San francisco is so full of writers. What are the chances. I wasnt banking on it but when i found out, that i got the grant, it meant one, a group of people who were experts in the field, believed in me. For an artist, thats the hardest thing. Cities flourish when they have a creative class. When they have a layer of artists who are creating space and energy that supports other artists and attracts people who are fans of the arts. As long as there are young people in the city who are interested in our future, who are going to have strong and progressive and van guard arti artists. I cannot imagine my own work and organizations work can be possible without the support from San Francisco Arts Commission. I feel like to share those voices and to be the voice for those and to be the neighbor of those voices is something that we can be very proud of for the city. Im very grateful and at the same time very proud that we are are among our peer organizations. I feel like if i imagine 25 years from now how this San Francisco Arts Commission will be, the San Francisco Arts Commission has become a peoples commission. I think that would be a huge legacy to leave behind. [ ] [ ] all right. Hello, sunny day. [cheers. ] so, so excited to be here with each and every one of you. I am sorry for those we dont have chairs for. We didnt expect a big crowd, but when you talk about the city budget, i guess everyone shows up. I am so glad to see the residents here. Thank you to everyone who joined us on the tours earlier of the unit. Today we, of course, through the tours saw the challenging conditions that people are living right in this neighborhood, just a few miles from our thriving downtown, and yet a world apart. As someone who grew up in Public Housing, i have lived these conditions. I know these conditions. I dont expect everyone to understand the challenges of Public Housing the way that i do or the way the residents of sunny dale do, but i do expect everyone to put in the time to understand. I wanted department heading and elected officials to come see for yourselves the hard work that we have to do. Thank you to everyone who joined me today, especially the members of the board of supervisors and we have the president with us, norman yee, thank you so much. [applause. ] thank you for being with us. Supervissupervisor per visor gor and earlier we had supervisor safai, and he had to take off. Why arent you i