San Francisco, CA—Mayor Edwin M. Lee today launched the Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Promise, a new initiative to improve the quality of life in all of San Francisco’s neighborhoods with a new comprehensive and coordinated approach to delivering City services better and faster to neighborhoods. The Mayor issued an Executive Directive to Department Heads that are responsible for neighborhood quality of life issues directing them to prioritize and focus on programs and services so that all residents feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods and that all residents have access to clean, well maintained public spaces and facilities, such as parks, public transportation, sidewalks, and streets. To ensure success, Mayor Lee also announced a series of Neighborhoods Promise new funding including expanded street cleaning and Pit Stops and the hiring of more police officers to walk beats in the neighborhoods.

“In times of great prosperity, City government can do more to improve the quality of life and sense of personal safety in the neighborhoods, and to make our City more livable for residents and visitors,” said Mayor Lee. “We make this promise to the residents of San Francisco to ensure that your neighborhood is safe and clean. This Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Promise will be more than words – it will be the organizing principle for the thousands of City employees who work every day on the streets, in our parks, and with our businesses. If we identify something that needs fixing, we ought to fix it right then and there.”

In the Executive Directive, Mayor Lee directed City Departments to identify any immediate actions that fulfill the Mayor’s Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Promise and to prioritize these programs. Departments will identify any existing laws that can be more consistently enforced to improve safety and livability in the neighborhoods, laws such as graffiti abatement, illegal dumping, street camping, blight enforcement or disorderly behavior towards fellow residents. City workers will work collaboratively with other departments, private utilities, and other government entities to uphold the Promise, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries, to prioritize positive outcomes for neighborhoods.

Mayor Lee also announced the Neighborhoods Promise budget investments over the next two years to improve the quality of life for residents and families including accelerated police hiring plan, enhanced street cleaning, more Pit Stop public toilets and 311 improvements. The new Neighborhoods Promise includes:

• New, neighborhood-based Fix-It Teams with the strategy of “See it, Fix it.” As City workers observe improvements or clean-ups that need addressing or people that need help, the teams are ordered to fix what they can on the spot, and call for additional resources as needed. The pilot phase of the Fix-It Teams will be informed by neighborhood and community meetings, attended by department heads and managers, to identify the unique challenges facing each neighborhood. From this feedback, priorities will be set, and teams created. Each pilot neighborhood will require participation from different departments in the Fix-It Teams, based on what issues communities identify as top priorities for safety and livability. Some examples of common issues that may be addressed with Fix-It Teams include painting out graffiti on public property, removing illegal postings, finding housing or shelter placements for homeless individuals, curb re-painting, filling potholes, or steam cleaning bus shelters. While all departments play a role in improving quality of life in the neighborhoods, the six departments primarily responsible include Public Works, Recreation and Parks, the Public Utilities Commission, the San Francisco Police Department, Homeless Outreach Teams, and the SFMTA. Each of these departments will identify 6-10 field workers who will be assigned to Fix-It Teams as needed, and these teams will work with a new Neighborhood Promise coordinator in the Mayor’s Office.
• Investments include more than $6.1 million in new funding for enhanced street cleaning in neighborhoods across the City, and an expansion of the Pit Stop program to an additional two new locations. With the addition of 20 staff and 6 new steamer units, Public Works will be able to remove an additional estimated 956 tons of garbage from City streets over the next two years. Additional staff will be primarily deployed outside the downtown core, and will be able to respond to requests coming from neighborhood business corridors and residential areas more quickly. Over the last year, street cleaning service requests have increased by 30 percent, tonnage (average per week, in pounds) has increased by 36 percent, steamer requests have increased by 20 percent, and excrement-related steamer requests have increased by 64 percent. San Francisco Public Works opened its first three Pit Stop public toilet locations in the Tenderloin in the summer of 2014. The successful program has since expanded to eleven locations These staffed facilities expand the availability of clean and safe public toilets; provide cleaner, more sanitary sidewalks to improve neighborhood livability; reduce steam-cleaning requests in their immediate vicinity; decrease used syringes left in public areas; enhance litter pickup; provide for appropriate dog waste disposal; provide job training and jobs-skills experience for the attendants, many of whom were homeless or incarcerated and provide people who need to go to the bathroom a place to do so with dignity.
• Mayor Lee’s police hiring plan will accelerate hiring over the next two years to make sure there are more police officers in the neighborhoods. The current year adopted budget included funding for five Police Academy classes to put more police officers on the street faster and reach the City’s goal of 1,971 full duty sworn officers. The City will accelerate its hiring program by adding two more classes in the current year, for a total of seven. This is in addition to the three planned classes in FY 2016-17 and another two in FY 2017-18, the year in which the City is on pace to meet its 1,971 goal. Each class graduates about 41 new officers.
• Mayor Lee also launched the new SF311 website with improved features to make it even easier for residents, businesses and visitors to access City services and receive notifications about major events and services. The new site allows customers to create a personal account, create and view status of their service requests, and easily find information from an expanded information knowledgebase. 311 provides an easy, efficient way for residents and businesses to communicate concerns regarding quality of life to the Ci ty. The City will be enhancing 311 by adding more call takers to reduce wait times. Since 2007, San Francisco 311 has provided readily accessible city government services in more than 175 languages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Working closely with city agencies, SF311 has answered more than 18 million calls. The SF311 Mobile App is available on the App Store and Google Play. For phone assistance, dial 3-1-1 within San Francisco, (415) 701-2311 outside San Francisco, or (415) 701-2323 for TTY. To access the SF311 website, go to: MySF311.org.