1. (S. EXLINE: (415) 558-6332)
Rajiv Bhatia - Department of Health
- He gave a PowerPoint presentation regarding an assessment that the Department of Public Health is conducting in the Eastern Neighborhoods.
- What is public health? Trying to allow the societal conditions that allow people to be healthy. This involves working in partnership with a lot of organizations.
- What makes people healthy? A lot of money can be spent on health services and not result in very healthy people. Part of the answer is to work on social conditions.
- Research has shown that in segregated neighborhoods there is poorer air quality, nutrition, crime and violence, hospitalizations, environmental health problems, etc.
- There is a lack of environmental "assets" like grocery stores, financial institutions, jobs, etc.
- They were asked to address the issue of asthma, for example. After a study being done, they discovered that many households had mold, windows not working properly, bad ventilation, etc.
- Lead is another situation that can result in asthma.
- Cars are another cause of environmental problems. People who live in areas with high density, freeways, roads, etc. have high levels of pollution that also causes a lot of health problems.
- As houses are being built near traffic, it is a hard decision to make-balancing the need for housing with existing traffic concerns. There is also the issue of pedestrians being safe near high traffic areas.
- Health Impact Assessment is a fancy term for saying, "how does a public policy affect health?" HIA looks at all of the connections between a public policy and a variety of health outcomes at the same time.
- Many countries are involved in this health assessment (Canada, New England, New Zeeland, etc.)
- A collaborative consensus building process is a way of getting the Health Department to work in a proactive way in land planning and land use. There are many City departments that can work together to make this happen.
- The process involves the following: vision for a healthy city, identification of community health objectives and research questions, research on community conditions and improvement strategies, recommendations for development policy and selection of indicators of progress.
- There will be recommendations made to the City agencies that will be involved in this assessment.
- In the summer, they will be looking at the recommendations for their zoning plans and review how they align with the plans of the Planning Department.
Joe Speaks - MTA
- He is very impressed with how this process is bringing a variety of different people together.
- Regarding their feel management, they are currently working on better environmental friendly sources.
- Although, this is early in the process, it is important to start now.
Robert Pender - San Francisco Tenant's Network
- They surveyed their members recently and all the members support low-income units in the Eastern Neighborhoods.
Debra Stein - GCS Strategies
- She is representing a variety of stakeholders.
- She is concerned that there has not been enough outreach to community groups and activists, the real estate community, etc.
- She made several requests to be notified of when meetings were being held, when documents were issued, etc. She did not receive this information.
- It would be better to wait for the DEIR certification. Then feedback can come back for adoption.
Eric Quezada - Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition
- This, for the City, is a breakthrough in terms of how development is viewed.
- When there are families that have to live in SRO rooms - this is a health impact.
- [Usually] there seems to be some entitled approach on who could attend discussions. He feels that this is a very open forum.
- They want to continue to participate in this process.
Bob Hernandez
- He has lived in the Mission all his life.
- He has had asthma all his life.
- It is important to incorporate all the health needs of the neighborhoods.
- There are about 40 organizations that have been invited to be part of the process.
- If more people knew how important this process was, there would be more people here to comment.
Informational only. No action required or taken.
