>> first off, i want to of course welcome all of you to san francisco, my name is carmen chu, san francisco city administrator. i hope as you have all come to san francisco, i believe monday was the first day that many of our folks, our partners across the country have come to san francisco, that you've had a chance to take in the breathtaking views of san francisco and the wonderful food and the people and community that is here. a monthly jiez, i'm a little bit under the weather -- i apologize, i'm under the weather. this is resilience from my three-year-old's germs and i want to welcome you from across north america to san francisco. we're here today along our partners and cities from houston so montreal to reaffirm san

francisco's commitment to building a stronger and more resilient san francisco. it's no secret that san francisco grapples with some of the most daunting challenges that face cities of our time. we have challenges around affordable housing, it is not unique to san francisco. but lasting impacts of a global pandemic, the shots and stressors of climate change and our seismic risk in the bay area. san francisco has never shied away from these challenges from the great earthquakes and fires of 1906 so the loma prieta earthquakes to the boom and bust of past economies, we have proved that we can rise up and come back stronger when we face these challenges head on. in the coming years, of resiliency of our cities will be tested by our ability not only to respond quickly but bounce back from climate related events. that's why it's so important we are investing in strategies and programs that improve our

resiliency and capacity to extend climate emergencies while strengthening our economy. i'm grateful for the work of elaine forks, the director of the port who you'll hear from, with preparing our waterfront ages to the challenges of sea level rise and flooding. i'm grateful to work of brian strong who is our chief resiliency officer for overseeing, yes, applause is great. [applause] for overseeing and coordinating citywide resiliency initiatives including our earthquake city implementation program. in a few minutes, we'll be here signing a letter that affirms san francisco's continued commitment to the resilient city's network, a global network of committees committed to urban resiliency. this signing underscores our pledge to build a city that meets the demands of the future, and we value the opportunity to share our knowledge and best practices with our partners cities around the globe and hear what everyone else is doing. in

only that way will we build a stronger community. so i want to thank the resiliency partnership and supporting this work and bringing cities from around the globe together and for being here and choosing to be in san francisco. so thank you for that. i'd like to bring up elaine forbes who will share a few remarks with you. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, city administrator chu and welcome, climate experts, resilience folks from around the city and public officials trying to build a safer and resilient community. we're happy to host you at the port's waterfront today. it's really an honor to have you here and i thought my comments to uplift what our city administrator has provided to you, would be to say, what it's like to be an agency that is in a city that is totally dedicated to resilience. so, here you are at the port. we have 7 and a half miles of waterfront property and about ten years ago, we began a journey of

figuring out we have something very, very challenging to solve in a hard place to solve it and we had to get to work. we got our seawall put into the city's assets and ten years ago the city said, what's under there and protecting our shoreline and provides flood protection to the downtown and city administrator's team and the mayor's won a grant called the city administrator's award and we went to other cities to see how we would insure flood insurance along this important shoreline. we started investigating very deeply, learning about all layers of mud down to the bottom, down to the top, how this, how this shoreline is stable and then, the city family decided we would go out to our voters with a general obligation bond, now six years ago, i believe or yes. to say we know we have a bad problem. look at all this earthquake risk. we know the

tide is rising and we know the waterfront is important and protects all the city infrastructure and what we love about this town but but we don't know what to do. can we have a ten percent down payment to figure it out. i was shocked the city officials were willing to be that proactive and aggressive to say this is a problem to solve. and amazingly, 84% of the san francisco voters agreed with these city officials, so where are we now? now, after this long journey of forward planning, we know all of the soils of the 3.5 miles of the historic shoreline that projects so much city infrastructure, transportation systems, et cetera, and we know how to prioritize city improvements and we have a study we're doing with the army corps of engineers and we're months away of figuring out a plan for flood protection, that the city and our city family will engage in. it's the long-term vision and such an honor to be an agency that serves the city completely

committed to our future and so i'm very proud to be here and i see my resilience team members are here, brad benson and adam barrett and others on the front lines of working on these challenges so excited to be here today with you all and excited to see an exchange, great ideas about how to make our community stronger in the face of climate change and the resiliency challenges we face and i would like to invite brian strong, the resiliency officer and he'll remember everything i described to you. with that, brian strong. [applause] >> thank you, elaine and yes. it has been a long journey and i remember every step. there's more to go. yeah. i'm brian strong, the resiliency officer of the city and county of san francisco. i want to echo what carmen and elaine next pressing

gratitude for the resiliency networks and the partners coming to the bay area. we were in oakland yesterday and learning this knowledge sharing, it's so important. these are really difficult and difficult issues and the more we can work together, i think the better it lifts all of us up, right, in ways we can't think about now. the synergy that gets formed. so, i oversee citywide programs and initiates to bring city departments and community partners together in san francisco to strengthen our resilience. we've been a long-time champion of coordinated citywide resiliency planning and initiatives because we know meeting the challenges of today and the future requires working and innovating together. that's why we really appreciate and participate in organizations like the resiliency network. yesterday and today we're learning from these cities like norfolk, miami and miami-dade

who are experiencing their sea level rise challenges and working closely with the army corps of engineers so we're learning and working together and learning from vancouver, los angeles and berkeley and other places where they have similar challenge was seismic risks on top of climate and sea level rise risk we face, that we know are somewhat unique to different regions of the country. san francisco is the first city in the 100 cities network in the globe to hire a resiliency officer. we released our first strategy in 2016 and completed 90% of the objectives in that strategy. to date, we are now following through on a next set of action items and a lot of those are really focused on and has resiliency climate action planning effort and around our retrofit programs that we're

successfully completed but we're moving to vulnerable buildings in san francisco. we are also doing a lot of work in passing critical bonds, elaine mentioned seawall bond, we've done a significant, over billion dollars of housing bonds because we understand affordable housing is critical to resilient and focused on equity to make sure our most vulnerable communities are also being lifted up and not left behind. we know there's more to do and we need to continue to push forward with the various programs that i've talked about. ultimately, you know, resilient is about improving structures, processes, to make sure people's lives and communities more equitable, and safe and able to respond and thrive is what i would say, thrive -- you know, benefit from the challenges we're going to be facing. with that, i would also like to thank my boss, city administrator carmen chu, again,

for taking on this mantle and being a champion in san francisco for this work. i would like to introduce my very good friend and someone i've been working with for several years, laurian farrell. she's the global director of the knowledge, transportation, of knowledge transformation, sorry for the global cities resiliency city's network and oversees the north america chief resilient officer who's are here today. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, thank you, brian. good morning, everyone. thank you, city administrator chu and elaine forbes for your words. through your examples you have shown the examples that all cities can take to move toward a resilient future and we're joined by 189 cities from -- 18 cities from across the united states and canada. when we started our regional convening and chose the bay area, we did

it in part because of this amazing beautiful geography of the area, of course, but also in part because of the breath of resilience activities that you are all undertaking across the bay area. but i would say that we truly picked this area to come and visit because of the people that are here doing this work in resilience, and you truly are leading the pack in resilience. you see building a resilient city is extremely hard and it takes technical know-how across many disciplines, but it also takes people with holistic mindsets with coalition building skills and the optimism and belief that it really is possible for us to build urban resilient cities that serve every member of our communities. and we know we must do this because the shocks and stresses that cities are facing are

inevitable. we must deal with them. we recognize the leadership of san francisco and fine strong and thank you for supporting the work of the network, since it was originally formed in 100 resilient city days and reinvented as resilient cities years ago. it's vehicles for knowledge sharing and cocreation. personally, i'm a water resources engineer by trade from toronto canada and i started thinking about resilience when i was work nothing the city doing flood risk management, so i'm happy to be beside the water this morning. i feel comfortable here. i worked in, i was a person drawing the flood lines, the person telling people where the risks were. i was issuing flood warnings to get people to stay safe and stay away from the rivers and i was the person trying to figure out mitigate plans for flood risk. along the way, i realized there has to be, there was something missing in my practices in engineer and it

was the people element. i've spent a lot of time looking at maps and drawing lines and doing budgets this led me to resilience and how did i bring in my scope of practice and become a better engineer. in resilience, i have many people who are different discipline was the same mindset, how do i become a better economic person? how do i become a better politician? how do i become a better person working on social coalition? and we come together to form resilience, to build resilience. brian strong was one of the first people that i met, when i started this journey. bryan exemplifies why we need cro's working on resilience. bryan was instrumental in shaping this network from its inception. he embraced the idea that our network is city led, meaning our cities tell us what they need help on and we help to

bring everyone together to share ideas, to share knowledge. yesterday, brian spoke about how the city established funds to implement resilience actions, something that many of our cities sought up in their seats and said how did you do that and how can we learn from you? during the pandemic, when cities were really struggling in the early days, brian came to our group and talked about the economic recovery plan that the city of san francisco was developing and many, many cities took lessons away from that and applied them to their cities and these are practical tangible solutions that's not easy but san francisco found a way to get things done. we want, in this network, to share our knowledge in a way that transforms action so changes the way we can build cities, so we can build stronger and resilient cities when we

work together and brian said that word along much i want to thank brian strong and city administrator carmen chu for your support and the continue support of this network and global community of resilient cities. and with that, i would like to thank you all for joining us this morning and i will turn the mic over to city administrator chu, thank you. [applause] >> i think often times as we do the work, we are doing our work in front of au a computer and planning documents and meeting and i think being out here, which is a rare thing for me to be able to come out of my office, but to be able to stand out here at the waterfront with all of you, serves as a reminder of what is at stake here and i want to thank the team who is here for all the work they are doing because what is at stake is the city, right. what is at stake are the people who live and work here and the economy

that thrives here and it's this beautiful place we call san francisco and the cities and we need to do right and do the right thing and plan and prepare for the things that may not come tomorrow, but we know surely are coming. we know earthquake risk is real. we know that climate change is real and sea level rise is real. and so, these are things we can't just pretend don't exist and we don't plan for. what's at risk is making sure we have a city that's resilient and that can withstand all of the shocks that will come. and that's our responsibility, that's all of your responsibilities. so, again, i want to thank all of you for being here and again, on behalf of the mayor, we are very, very excited to have you here. we're glad you have a chance to see our city. we hope you have fallen in love with the city as much as we love our city and will come back again. with that, i would like to i object viet our chief resiliency officers, all the folks who joined us here to come as we sign now. thank you so much. come on up. [applause] we're not going to sign until

you're up here, okay. [laughter] >> all right. are we all ready? >> yeah. >> okay. i wish my signature was longer, but.... [laughter] yay! [applause]

>> you are watching san francisco rising with chris manners. today's special guest, carolyn mante. >> hi, i'm chris manners and you are watching san francisco the stow about restaffing rebuilding and reimaging the city. the guest is carolyn manteto talk about the organization is helping to preserve the city cultural heritage and architecture. welcome to the show. >> thank you for having me e. >> good to have you here. >> can we talk bat the history of your organization and the mission. >> sure, thank you. san francisco heritage started 51 years ago and the main mission is to preserve and enhance the architectural and cultural identity of san francisco. when it started out the focus was really on the

buildings, historic landmark listings and really concentrated on downtown area with all the development happening. our organization was raising a reg red flag with historic landmarks in danger and victorian mansions so a hallmark of our organization is moving these victorian mansions in the way of development to inwestern addition neighborhood and other areas to get out of the way of development and preserve them. our organization was around before there was the historic preservation commission of the city so we were at the forefront drawings attention to historic preservation, landmarking and over the last 51 years we have seen how there are more then just buildsings in safeguarding the city cultural resources, there is also small businesses and the different neighborhood icons that make a

neighborhood special, so our outreach has really-it is really come full circle in a way because it moved downtown into the neighborhoods and now with the covid epidemic it is really going back to downtown again looking at how we can play a role in the economic recovery and revitalization of downtown san francisco. >> that's great. so, now i understand your organization is also responsible for maintaining a couple properties. could you tell us a little about those? >> yes, our non profit was gifted in 1973, the historic (inaudible) house. it is now a historic house museum but this was a family since 1886 built this victorian mansion in the same family year after year and one of the last resident of the family when she passed way gifted the mansion to san francisco heritage so since then we have been

running this historic house and the home of our office. in 2018, one of the long time members nor aa lasten gifting a building on the e h-as hate polk became a commercial corridor after the earthquake, the owner at the time, he raised the house and put 6 store front underneath in order to take advantage of the commerce so we are in charge of the house on the corner and it has been a wonderful way to get new numbers, new audiences interested in the work of our organization. during the pandemic, we have been using it as a artson residents and partnering with different bay area artists as well as cultural institutions, cultural districts and then one

of the storefronts we converted into a pop up galleries so gives a opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of the art and cultural resources in san francisco. >> that's fantastic. so, now, let's talk about legacy business. what does the designation mean? how does somebody get add today the legacy business registry and what benefits does being named a legacy business? >> i love this program. it was started by san francisco heritage and adopt ed by the city and run by the office of small business but the program looks what are the businesses really contributing to san francisco and the neighborhood. when we started the first focus was bars and restaurants but over the years it exb panded to include other businesses so these are places that contribute to the character of a neighborhood, so sam's grill downtown,

the amazingarian press in the presidio. book stores like city lights oergreen apple recently named. this year we had a lot of attention on the legacy business program. we put out a contest to the public of what you think should be the next legacy business and one of the businesses that was recommended was the club deluxe, jazz club on the corner, and 2 or 3 days after we launched the contest, the owners announced they would have to close. the rent was driven up, they couldn't afford it, coming out of the pandemic so we worked at speed to get that application submitted with them and that status convinced their landlord to negotiate with them a lower rent and this way they have been able to stay, there was a lot of social media support around this, so when you become a legacy business, not only do

you get marketing and business support from the office of small business, but you also eligible for grants and we work closely with the legacy businesses as we do our work for san francisco heritage. >> that's great. so, apart from architecture and buildings, you also work with cultural districts, and the castro theater strikes me as a place that is both. a beautiful building and cultural hub and center. what has been happening with the recent acquisition by new owners; >> it is leased to another planet entertainment and been in contact with planet entertainment by the castro theater is historic land mark building. it is recognized as a very important architectural

monument. one thing-one of the main activist organizations of the preservation of the theater we work together with supervisor mandelman on a interior landmark historic landmark designation for interior, but what happened over the is summer and people learned is there is a lot of concern not just by san franciscans but people all over the world, movie directors, stars who are very concerned about the risk to the lgbtq and film programming at the castro theater. another planet hosted community stakeholder in august, and it was so moving to see the number of people who took the microphone-everyone had two minutes to say their testimony of what castro theater meant to them and those testimonys showed this

building is contributing not just as a architectural monument but plays a role in the lgbtq community that is irrelaceuble able. >> it is beautiful theater. >> it is. my involvement in the theater raised awareness to not only the castro theater to be emblematic of the lgbtq culture and history but also there are many other sites in the city that also contribute to the identity. that is why so many people come to san francisco as a place of freedom and diversity so in my previous work i worked at the world heritage center, so when i joined san francisco heritage i was thinking why isn't san francisco a world heritage city? for the architecture alone it could be inscribed. golden gate bridge to

name a few but the city is so unique in the architecture, the mansioned and historic landmarks so hoping to start a conversation on that with city stakeholders this year. >> that is great. let's talk about your relationship with other agencies. you mentioned economic and office of work force development and planning commission. how do you unt integrate to them? >> these relationships are essential. we are working with office of small business for the legacy business program and the planning department is really one of our most crucial relationships. we meet quarterly with them and we really see how we can support not only historic land mark listings and historical cultural context statements, strategy for culture districts and city survey among many other activities that

really are of concern to both of us. for the office of workforce development, i attended a etmooing recently that the chamber of commerce organized with them on the downtown revitalization and a key goal in that meeting and in the downtown revitalization is to make sure that the city historic culture resources play a key #r0e8 in the economic recovery and revitalization especially after the pandemic. the office of workforce development has the city build program which is admirable program where youth are trained in construction techniques for rebuilding and especially with the new housing legislation, and we really want to see how can that workforce be expanded to include training in historic preservation. we have so many victorian homes, historic buildings and other places that really need a skilled labor force to make sure that they are preserved and that

they help keep the special identify of the city. we really value these relationships, we meet quarterly with the various organizations and we are really grateful for grants of the arts we receive and other supports so definitely that is a key relationship for san francisco heritage. >> the city build is great. i like that a lot. thank you so much for the time you have given today. appreciate you coming on the show. >> thank you so much raising awareness about san francisco heritage. we hope the people watching will join us in the mission to help keep san francisco special. thank you. >> that's it for this episode. we'll be back shortly. i'm chris manners, thanks .

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