Theres my grandma. Well come. Welcome to San FranciscoJames R Herman cruz terminal at pier 27. The first stop for all most 300 thousand people who come here every year from around the world to our beautiful city. I want to tell you about another jewel of the San Francisco port that just celebrated 125 years. The San FranciscoFerry Building. [applause] in the 19th century, commuters and visitors traveled by train or ferry or both. A Ferry Terminal on the waterfront downtown was a practical necessity. It was the sfo of its day. Grand central station. But as we so often do, San Francisco built a practical space a world class beauty, with a 245 foot clock tower along arched arcade, and a interior worthy of a renaissance cathedral. At the foot of Market Street, a beautiful bridge from water to land, the Ferry Building announced to every commuter, every traveller, this is San Francisco. You have arrived. Until that is, [applause] until that is, in the late 1930s when two new bridges the bay and golden gate and rise of the automobile made the Ferry Building seem outdated and unwanted. Soon the grand interior converted to drab cuneals cubicles and in a act of urban planning catastrophes only the 1950 could respond, a doubledecker slicing it from the city it served. For decades, this great landmark was isolated. Nearly forgotten, a crumbling shell of its former glory. No one went there. No one bet on its future. Its time had passed, but then the freeway came down and the city created a new walkable grand embarcadero with the giants on one end and the restored Ferry Building at the center with patience, smart planning, investment and time. San francisco turned a discarded transit hub back into a global icon. A famous city most famous landmark as herb cane called it. Today the Ferry Building hosts shops restaurant, artists and torests and locals and just a few month ago during apec hosted leaders from around the world. This one building at the heart of downtown says a lot about our downtown and about our city. First, beautiful places, world class desirable places are never forgotten for long. Second, our local government with the right vision and right investment and right support can spark monumental turnarounds. Third, and most important, never ever bet against San Francisco. [applause] we never stay down for long. We have faced incredible challenges in the fast 5 years, two unparalleled health crisis. One in the form of covid, the other in the form of fentanyl and National Reckoning on policing and sublic safety and some people inside and out of San Francisco feel these challenges have overwhelmed us. I dont begrudge people frustrations. I dont dispute these have been a tough 5 years, but rather then destroying our city, the storms revealed our strengths, our spirit and service to each other. I believe past is a precursor to our rise. This is a year of the dragon and we will soar again. [applause] we all know the story. Shortly after i took office, we began to hear thisquiting reports of the new and deadly virus. Soon enough, covid19 would up end the world. San francisco declared a emergency february 2020 and then with our partners around the bay, issued the first shutdown or order in the country. My administration then marshaled department of emergency management, Public Health and staff throughout City Government to mobilize and turn our Convention Center into a global commandcovid command center. We cut through the bureaucratic red tape to set up testing sites, Community Hubs and vaccination sites around the city. City workers fanned out to tend to our most vulnerable residents and as Nursing Homes across the country saw ballooning death rates, we protected our seniors at laguna honda and elsewhere. [applause] we were one of the first cities in the country to reach an 80 percent vaccination rate and as deaths climeed across the u. S. And the world, San Francisco saw the lowest death rate of any large city in the country. [applause] people want to say our civic government is dysfunctional. We cant collaborate, we cant get hard things done. Tell that to the thousands of san franciscans alive today because of what we did. [applause] our city faced a storm unlike anything we have seen in a hundred years. Is anybody here a hundred years old . You didnt see it either. [laughter] through hard work, collaboration, ingenuity and simple decency of people we orchestrated the most successful response in the country and as covid wane and vaccinations froze we entered the second phase of my tenure, recovery. The pandemic lead to a massive shift how our economy functions all most overnight. Work from home, exposed to weakness in economies and big cities, especially tech forward San Francisco, we were too dependent on fields that can work from home. Our downtown had never been designed as a neighborhood with many homes and round the clock residents. Downtown was office and office was hit hard. Simultaneously the pandemic constrained our efforts to house the homeless. Then the murder of george floyd and ensuing National Reckoning devastated Police Recruitment and staffing here in San Francisco and around the country. Even as they brought to light the systemic racism that many of us have known for far too long, the department of justice has called the Police Staffing shortage a national crisis. These are national challenges, exacerbated by local conditions. What did we do . We didnt throw up our hands we got to work, on Public Safety. We divertsed non emergency, 911 calls to free up officers while providing better overall responses for those struggling on our streets. I appointed a former hate crime prosecutor as our new District Attorney and Brooke Jenkins began prosecuting crime. [applause] we used bate cars and plain clothe officers to disrupt auto break ins. We coordinated every Public Safety agency you can name. Local, state and federal. Shareal miyamoto conducted deputies to conduct warrant sweeps. I appealed to Governor Newsom and he sent the california highway parole. Delivered the u. S. Attorney and Drug Enforcement agency to interrupt the sale and trafficking of fentanyl. [applause] and all of these efforts have paid off. We doubled the number of drug arrests in 2023. Retail theft and car breakens plummeted. The arrest was 25 points higher then the national average. Our crime rate is the lowest its been in 10 years. [applause] not including 2020 when we had to shut the city down. Yes, these figures are accurate. They coincide with the arrival of the chp national guard, u. S. Attorney office, da jenkins increased in prosecutions. I do recognize that some people dont feel the lower crime rate yet, and if you are someone you know is a victim of a crime, all the stats mean nothing. I understand that and i hear your concerns and thats exactly why we are not letting up. We will roll out 400 automated license plate readers at a hundred intersections across the city this month. [applause] thanks to the voters approving proposition e on tuesday. [applause] we will be installing new Public Safety cameras in high crime areas, deploying drones and changing Police Department rules so our sworn officers are out in the field and not behind a desk. [applause] and yes, we are adding more Police Officers thanks to our effort San Francisco is now the best paid major city in the region for starting Police Officers. Retention is improving. Officers are transferring here. We have the most Police Academy applicant in more then 5 years and the next Academy Class will be the largest since before the pandemic with 50 cadets. [applause] with all that, we will add 200 more officers in the next year and get to full Police Staffing in three years. [applause] at the same time, we are not sacrificing our reform work. The San FranciscoPolice Department is on track to reach the 272 department of justice reforms by april of this year. [applause] thank you to those who lead these efforts including our police chief, bill scott. [applause] of course, we cant talk about Public Safety without talking about the other health crisis. This is a national tragedy, fentanyl is impacting our city both large and small, urban and rule. It is awful and heartbreaking and while im stepping up enforcementf oour laws because that is what our residents deserve and what pour city means, i remain absolutely committed to saving lives. Our approach [applause] our approach is about accountability, resources and new pathways. This means arresting and prosecuting dealers, and when necessary arresting users who are a danger to themselves. It means expanding existing Treatment Options and creating new ones like abstinence based treatment solution. [applause] yes, Offering Service is critical, but frankly we must compel some people into treatment. We will have a additional tool thanks to the voters who helped pass proposition f tuesday. [applause] and i directed the Human Service agency to create a action plan for prop f implementation. If we can provide cash assistance to more then 5 thousand people can screen recipients for Substance Use disorder and get them into treatment. [applause] and we have the services they need. Including 15 free clinics across San Francisco that can administer bupomor 15 day one. We are delivering the goal adding 400 new treatment beds and if Governor Newsom prop 1 passes we have a real opportunity to add hundreds more. We are not waiting, we are doing the work with supervisor mandelman so when the state opens the pipeline for new beds, San Francisco is ready and first in line. [applause] that brings me to homelessness, which also remains a key focus of our recovery. Now, since ifen polk been mayor, we helped over 15 thousand individuals exit homelessness. We are the only county in the bay area to see unsheltered homelessness go down in the last point in time count. We did it by increasing shelter capacity by 66 percent and increasing housing for formally Homeless People by over 50 percent. My office of invasion funded by bloomburg philanthropy is appointed new accountability tools to track data, outcomes and hold non profits we fund accountable. [applause] our encampment teams are bringing people indoors and bringing down the tents, despite attempts by the court and by some advocates to obstruct or efforts with City Attorney david chui we fought hard and helped more then 1500 people into shelter from encampment just over the past 6 months. [applause] the number of tents on our streets are down by 37 percent this past 6 months. At the lowest levels it has been since 2018. The other day a gentleman asked me, how can we help so many Homeless People and still have thousands more . Well, we know people fall into homelessness for many reasons and we have programs preventing homelessness for san franciscans every single day. But we also know we keep housing people and people do keep coming here. The advocates and some elected officials want you to believe San Francisco isnt a destination. They want you to believe people dont come here for drugs or other reasons. We all know thats not true. Of those arrested for public drug use in the tenderloin and south of market over the last year, over half were not San Francisco residents. Half. I had enough of it and clearly the voters had enough too. We are not letting up. [applause] we are continuing to add new housing, new shelter. We are setting a new goal of a thousand people a year for homeward bound program. The program that provides unhoused people a ticket back to their home cities. [applause] and we have a new tool for those struggling with Mental Illness and addiction. For decades, state laws have prevented us compelling people into treatment, even if their families are begging us to do so. The people truly suffering you see walking in and out of traffic or screaming at nothing in particular, the people who so desperately need help. I fought to change the state conservatorship laws for years and we finally succeeded. [applause] now we are implementing the changes faster then any county in the state. So far this year yee increased the number of people submitted for conservatorship by 170 percent compared to last year. That is how we make change. That is how we save lives. And of course, there is the pandemic related issues felt most acutely in San Francisco. Our downtown recovery. I have always believed we need to start with a question and if not, how do we make downtown what it was, but rather, what do we want our downtown of the future to be . In 2022, 2023 we worked with trade groups, business owners, builders, neighbors and city departments to create the road map to downtown San Francisco future. A comprehensive plan for a dynamic resilient downtown with resident night life and businesses. A neighborhood that keeps going around the clock, downtown 24 7. [laughter] the first year focused on stabilization, filling our empty store fronts, creating attraction and night life activity and delivering tax incentives. We recruit new businesses and continue to see new leases signed lead by ai which alone is projected to add 12 million square feet of office space by 2030. And it wont be ai alone. This is one of the most beautiful urban environments in the world with a unrivaled pool of talent and builders and dreamers and largest collection of deployable capital in the country, but downtown cant just be about jobs, it cant just be the 9 to 5 financial district. We also need more people to live and study there. So, our new initiative, 30 by 30, 30 thousand more residents and students downtown by 2030. [applause] to do that, we first need to create more housing downtown. We already passed the few local laws to reduce fees to Office Conversion. Our first Office Conversion is happening now. 32 new homes at the warfield building that would not be happening if we hadnt stepped in, and more are coming. [applause] now, we are working on state laws to change state laws with senator scott wiener to spur production and speed up Housing Production downtown. That is housing, but 30 by 30 is also about bringing students down down, and a lot of them. We are working with thought leaders, business folks and educational institutions to make downtown a hub, a center of excellence. We invited the university of california and historically black call jss and universities to join us and some are coming as early as this summer [applause] we are working with other universities and existing anchors, uc law, usf and San Francisco state university. Imagine, student professors researchers and employees working from dorm room to classroom to start up from the Ferry Building to city hall. Cross pollinating ideas, cross pollinating companies. We will lead in ai, climate tech, bio tech and things we havent imagined yet are. Housing students, invasion, that is our future. Tearing out the bike lanes on Market Street going backwards will not move us forward and it wont magically revive downtown. [applause] but 30 thousand more People Living and going to school down there will. Downtown has always been the economic engine that funds the services we care about, and it is post pandemic difficulties are the driving reason for the deficit we now face. We no laupger have the luxury to penalize. We need to incentivize. So let me make two things clear, number one, the board of supervisors and i will close this deficit and we will not weaken our Public Safety to do so. [applause] number two, i have a clear vision for downtown future and my administration will make it happen. [applause] our vision is a vibrant mixed use neighborhood with transit, bar s, restaurants, venues, where people live, work, study, and play. We are through the valley of covid. We endered the slings and arrows of recovery, and now we rise to our next chapter on housing. We are changing our reputation. As a city of no to a city of yes. Yes. [applause] yes to reducing fees, yes to eliminating barriers and yes to any idea that overcomes obinstruction and builds the new homes we so desperately need. There is one housing no i will commit to, any piece of antihousing legislation that comes across my desk i