CALENDAR

• 6/1 & 6/5 - Better Market Street public open houses - Stop by to learn more about the City’s multi-agency project to transform 2.2 miles of Market Street – from Octavia Boulevard to Steuart Street – improving safety and accessibility, providing more reliable and efficient transit service and enhancing shared public space.  Project team members from San Francisco Public Works, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and San Francisco Planning will provide key updates, including the first phase of the project (Market Street between Fifth and Eighth streets, scheduled to break ground in 2020), a design alternative for Market Street between Hayes and Gough streets, commercial loading and transit stops and near-term improvements.
  • 6/1: 10 a.m. - noon
  • 6/5: 4 - 7 p.m.
  • A.C.T. Costume Shop
  • 1117 Market St.
  • Bike valet parking provided.

• 6/14 - Sunset Boulevard Master Plan Community Meeting - District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and Public Works landscape architects will share plans to reinvigorate Sunset Boulevard.
  • 6:30 - 8 p.m.
  • St. Ignatius College Prep
  • Carlin Commons
  • 2001 37th Ave.

• 6/14 - Women’s Summit: BE INVINCIBLE - Hosted by Mayor London Breed and City Administrator Naomi Kelly, the event features keynote speakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to then-President Barack Obama, as well as breakout sessions and interactive exhibits.
  •  ​7:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
  • Moscone Center West
  • 800 Howard St.

• 6/15 & 6/18 - Chinatown Library Community Meetings - In collaboration with community members and architects from San Francisco Public Works, the San Francisco Public Library aims to transform the Chinatown / Him Mark Lai Branch Library into an energy efficient, safe and resilient neighborhood library, while maintaining the building’s inherent charm. Join us for community meetings to learn more about the project and provide feedback.
  • Chinatown Branch Library
  • 1135 Powell St.
  • 6/15 at 1 p.m.; 6/18 at 7 p.m.

• 6/22 - Community Clean Team in District 4 - Community Clean Team is San Francisco Public Works’ longest-running and largest volunteer program that keeps San Francisco beautiful through landscaping and gardening projects, graffiti removal and litter cleanup in our neighborhoods. Community Clean Team, in partnership with the Giant Sweep anti-litter campaign, needs your help to keep our city clean and green in 2019. Join us and volunteer!
  • 8:30 a.m. – registration
  • 9 a.m. - noon – community work projects
  • Abraham Lincoln High School
  • 2162 - 24th Ave.

• 6/29 - 6/30 - 2019 San Francisco Pride Festival - With more than 200 parade contingents, 200 exhibitors, and more than 20 stages and venues, the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration and Parade is the largest LGBT gathering in the nation. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and straight revelers fill up Civic Center for a weekend full of concerts, DJs, performances, speeches and, of course, the grand parade on Sunday morning.
  • 6/29; Noon - 6 p.m.
  • 6/30; Festival - 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.;
  • Parade - 10:30 a.m.

AWARDS

• The Moscone Expansion Project’s green building design earned the distinction of being the highest-rated LEED Platinum-certified convention center in the world. Public Works is proud to have led the team to LEED Platinum status.
• The Polk Streetscape and Central Shops projects received awards at the International Partnering Institute’s 2019 Collaboration Awards Ceremony on May 17.  San Francisco Public Works provided project management on both multi-agency City projects.

ARTICLES

• EPISODE 0054 - The Ficus Tree Dilemma - Tune in to learn about the ficus trees that line many of our streets. Although they have their share of problems, these trees are very valuable to our City and have many benefits that go beyond their physical appearance.
• Public Works Week 2019: A time to teach, learn and celebrate - We packed a lot into Public Works Week 2019 with a series of events that gave us a chance to celebrate our achievements and showcase our projects and services to provide the public with a deeper understanding of what we do. A major focus of Public Works Week is to get students interested in public works-related careers – engineering, architecture, plumbing, sheet metal work, electrical and arborist, among others. We opened our building and infrastructure divisions to San Francisco grade-schoolers where they worked side by side architects, landscape architects and engineers to build model cities, and then place them on a specially made shake table to see whether they’d withstand an earthquake. We invited visitors into our Operations Yard to check out the trades and get some hands-on experience working in the carpentry and metal shops, and planting flowers and herbs. They also got to patch potholes, paint out graffiti and ride sky-high in bucket trucks.Throughout Public Works Week, held this year April 29-May 3, we hosted tours to give people a behind-the-scenes glimpse into our work. The roster included our new Materials Testing Lab, the City’s new high-rise office building at 49 South Van Ness Ave., Chinatown alleyway streetscape improvements and our pioneering Pit Stop public toilet program, which operates at 25 locations in 12 neighborhoods.We also held an awards ceremony to recognize staffers who performed exceptional work over the past year and for their length of service with the City.
• EPISODE 0052 - It Starts Here: Celebrating Public Works Week 2019 - San Francisco Public Works Week 2019 ran from - April 29 to May 3. Our annual event energizes and educates the public on the contributions San Francisco Public Works makes to improve the quality of life in our communities and gives us a chance to join together to celebrate our accomplishments with fun tours and activities.
• Steven Duong: The ambassadors’ ambassador - You might say Steven Duong’s impact on San Francisco can be seen in every neighborhood. Duong, supervisor of the City’s Corridor Ambassadors and this year’s Public Works Employee of the Year, is at the helm of a program that aims to keep San Francisco’s most popular neighborhood commercial corridors – 100-plus routes and counting – clean and welcoming for residents, merchants and visitors. The front-line program is one of our most visible and most popular. Each ambassador is responsible for keeping a targeted area, usually four to six blocks, looking good. They generally work Thursdays through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. You can spot them in their orange vests with the blue and white Public Works logo on the back. The key to managing the diverse workforce of corridor workers, many of whom have faced barriers to employment, is being encouraging and remaining calm, Duong noted. For many, this is their first stable job and can serve as the start of a career path with Public Works. Duong works behind the scenes preparing his ambassadors for their assignments and helping ensure their success.  Often, they become part of the fabric of a neighborhood, getting to know the people who live and work in there, while remaining focused on the never-ending tasks of sweeping the sidewalks and picking up litter.  The workers also serve as eyes and ears for us, alerting us to graffiti and illegal dumping for a prompt response from our other specialized cleaning crews. “You have to be patient, listen and communicate. How you treat them and how you communicate with them is key to getting the job done,” he said. Their positive impact, which often is conveyed to Duong through complimentary letters and emails, is a source of pride for Duong, whose office at our Operations Yard in the Bayview contains two bulletin boards – one with photos of his young sons, and the other with pictures of his smiling corridor workers. “He’s always even tempered,” said Larry Stringer, deputy director of operations for Public Works. “He handles a very large program. He has more than 120 corridor workers ultimately working under him, and six supervisors. He does it without complaints and he delivers results that benefit our neighborhoods.” Each morning Duong consults an old-school spiral notebook that contains the names of all his corridor workers and their schedules, as well as notes and special cleaning requests he’s received. Though his administrative workload is demanding, Duong tries to find time to drive around the City, checking in with his ambassadors, replenishing their supplies and asking how he can help.  He makes a point of knowing every ambassador, their respective route and, often, their personal story. “Everybody’s come here for a reason, and we try to provide the tools,” he said. Duong began his own Public Works career as an apprentice more than 20 years ago and is straightforward when it comes to the expectations he conveys to his workforce: Don’t spend time on your cell phone; be respectful; work with integrity; follow instructions; be flexible; and show up! He credits his own career success to the department that honored him as employee of the year at our annual recognition ceremony.“Public Works gave me an opportunity to change my life, provided training and work experience,” Duong said. What’s more, he said, his work exposed him to every single neighborhood of the City that became home upon his family’s arrival from Vietnam when he was 5 years old.  Duong acknowledges that the City has changed significantly since then, and keeping it clean is more challenging than ever – but the bottom line has never changed. “Our goal,” he said, “is to keep the City clean and safe and livable and vibrant for the public.” 
• A brand new fire station in the heart of the Western Addition - City officials, firefighters and community members joined together this month to celebrate the opening of the newly completed Fire Station No. 5, a voter-approved earthquake-safety project that bolsters the City’s resiliency. Built from the ground up, the new Fire Station No. 5 at 1301 Turk St. in the Western Addition neighborhood replaced the 1950s-era firehouse at the same location that no longer met the demands of a modern-day San Francisco. The new facility was designed to exceed national accreditation standards for first responders, with resilient life-safety systems, improved ADA accessibility, a new fuel dispensing system, an enhanced communications room and upgraded living quarters. “This Fire Station will serve our community every day and allow our first responders to keep our residents safe when the next major earthquake hits,” said Mayor London Breed. “Projects like this one are why we need to continue investing in critical public safety infrastructure.” She was joined at the May 1 ribbon-cutting ceremony by District 5 Supervisor Vallie Brown; Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru; City Administrator Naomi Kelly; and then-Fire Chief Joanne Hayes White, who retired days later after serving 29 years in the Fire Department. San Francisco’s new fire chief, Jeanine Nicholson, also was on hand. The 21,193 square-foot fire station is one of San Francisco’s largest, serving as the flagship station for the San Francisco Fire Department’s Division 2, which consists of 20 fire stations located in the downtown, Financial District and northwestern neighborhoods. The fire station has a rotating crew of 57 first responders, with 11 firefighters on duty at any given time. The new three-story structure has five apparatus bay doors, allowing space for an engine truck, a ladder truck, backup fire engines and Light Rescue 5 – an emergency-response vehicle that is dispatched when crews respond to building collapses and trench rescues. San Francisco Public Works designed and managed construction of the new facility for the San Francisco Fire Department and hired Alten Construction as the primary contractor. It was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification for energy and water efficiency. The Fire Station No. 5 replacement project was funded by the Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) Bond Program, an initiative to strengthen earthquake safety and emergency response resiliency through capital improvements on critical infrastructure, including firehouses, police stations and other first response facilities.  San Francisco voters approved the first $412.3 million ESER Bond in 2010 and the second $400 million ESER Bond in 2014. A third phase of the ESER program has been proposed for the March 2020 ballot to build upon the progress already made. The Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response Bond Program is a component of the City’s Ten-Year Capital Plan – a blueprint prioritizing key capital projects that impact public safety. More information on the ESER Bond Program can be found at www.sfearthquakesafety.org. 
• Home sweet home: Work starts on SF’s new animal shelter - There were a lot of high-fives and tail-wagging this month as City leaders joined more than 100 community volunteers and a handful of four-legged friends at a ceremonial groundbreaking for San Francisco’s new Animal Care and Control headquarters and shelter in the Mission District. Upon its anticipated completion in winter 2021, the new facility at 1419 Bryant St. will have better ventilation, improved cleaning systems to reduce the spread of disease and mechanisms that more effectively control noise and odors. It will replace the City’s existing shelter housed in a seismically vulnerable former warehouse at 15th and Harrison streets that is cramped and outdated. Every year, the shelter cares for nearly 10,000 animals, from dogs and cats to bunnies and parakeets, not to mention pigs, goats, squirrels, lizards and other creatures. With nearly double the square footage of the current San Francisco Animal Care and Control facility, the new 65,000-square-foot shelter will include a modernized veterinary suite, adoption center, expanded play and training areas for all animals and larger education spaces to serve the public, animal care staff and volunteers. Collectively, the shelter's volunteer team gives more than 27,000 hours of time annually. In addition to these much-needed improvements for staff, volunteers and animals, the facility will be seismically safe and equipped to continue operations for up to 72 hours after a major earthquake or other disaster, and will be able to provide additional services and temporary accommodations for San Francisco pets in times of emergency. It also will provide peace of mind for pet owners in times of crisis, while also ensuring its everyday conditions are safe, sanitary, humane and in line with best-practice animal health and welfare standards. The relocation project involves the adaptive reuse and rehabilitation of the original Market Street Railway Company powerhouse, built in 1893. This unreinforced masonry building is a contributing resource to the historic Showplace Square District, which is known for its brick warehouses and factories that were constructed in the late 1800s, and is eligible for listing on the state and national registers of historic places. It most recently was used as the overhead lines maintenance center for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which relocated that operation to the Bayview. The new Animal Care and Control facility will be constructed within the original warehouse footprint and the building will retain its historic brick façade and industrial wood windows, while the structure will be repurposed to house a modern, multi-level facility. On behalf of San Francisco Animal Care and Control, Public Works designed the new facility and is managing construction. Clark Construction is the general contractor.
• EPISODE 0053 - Building a new home for SF's animals - Tune in to learn about the new San Francisco Animal Care and Control facility that will open in winter 2021. The City celebrated its groundbreaking with a ceremony on May 15, 2019 and construction is scheduled to begin on Monday, May 20, 2019.
• THE EYES HAVE IT - This street mural of the late actor Robin Williams, on Market Street between Sixth and Seventh streets, gives us a distinct feeling that someone is watching over our crew patching the pavement.
• Bay to Breakers cleanup: Our crews have it down - This month’s Bay to Breakers event in San Francisco generated a lot of interest, drawing tens of thousands of racers and hundreds of thousands more onlookers who lined the 7.46-mile course. It also generated a lot of trash: Public Works cleaning crews picked up 27,529 pounds of litter and debris left behind on the streets and sidewalks – and they got the job done by 1:30 p.m., less than five hours after the first racer left the start line. Watching our street cleaners get the job done is like watching a well-choreographed dance, as crews go block by block on foot using rakes, brooms, shovels and blowers. Then come the mechanical sweepers and flusher trucks. The crews pick up everything from sweaty shirts, banners and lawn chairs to water bottles, energy bar wrappers and bandages. The annual cleanup operation is always one of the biggest of the year, along with the Chinese New Year Parade, the Pride Parade and Carnaval. We operate a special operations center on Bay to Breakers race day, where we closely monitor the progress of the race and direct crews to move in as soon as the racers pass in order to get the route open to traffic as quickly as possible. Public Works cleans the course from The Embarcadero to the eastern edge of Golden Gate Park at Stanyan Street, and then at the finish line on the Great Highway. The Recreation and Park Department handles the cleanup within the boundaries of Golden Gate Park, and Recology, the private waste-hauling firm, assists throughout. And we’re not only at Bay to Breakers to clean up; more than 100 Public Works employees spent their day off running and walking the only-in-San Francisco tradition that’s part race, part moving party, and a big part of the City fabric.
• Community Benefit Districts go above and beyond - Public Works relies on a lot of different types of partners to keep our city clean, with Community Benefit District and Business Improvement District organizations among the most impactful. Known informally as CBDs, these nonprofits focus on quality-of-life initiatives in targeted commercial and mixed-use neighborhoods. Property owners in each CBD voted to be levied a special assessment to pay for the improvements. For example, the CBDs may provide extra block sweeping, steam cleaning and graffiti removal, plant and maintain flowers and trees and refresh street furniture. Their work is intended to go above and beyond the City’s baseline services – to augment, not supplant. We spent the morning of May 14 with leaders from many of San Francisco’s 17 CBDs to forge an even stronger alliance by building a better understanding of our collective challenges. We shared with them 311 service request data and details on our around-the-clock cleaning operations and they offered us additional insights on addressing neighborhood concerns. Everyone walked away from the meeting with a renewed commitment to do what it takes to improve the experience of people living, working and visiting our diverse neighborhoods and make them even more welcoming and vibrant.