Live from Age-Friendly San Francisco

Livestreaming has the potential to make the world more accessible, especially for homebound people.  Starting with the Great American Solar Eclipse last summer, I’ve organized a few livestreaming watch parties in an older adult residential community.  Last month’s Power to Change symposium included closed captioning and the ability to ask real-time questions.  Then earlier this month, I organized a watch party of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (author of 1999 Olmstead decision) being interviewed by Forward editor Jane Eisler, with ASL interpreter and questions submitted by viewers in advance. Each livestream came with technical audio-visual difficulties, along with complaints from mainly oldest-old (age 85+) residents who preferred face-to-face interactions than virtual learning.

As a lifelong learner and old soul myself, I reach out to local experts who can speak live from age-friendly San Francisco on a variety of topics that engage mature adults.   

Nostalgia for comfort food

Rachel Gross, Professor of American Jewish Studies at SFSU, presented a talk on Referendum on the Deli Menu: American Jewish Nostalgia and the Deli Revival about adapting traditional American Jewish comfort foods for the 21^st century, with an emphasis on sustainability and local sourcing.

Medical cannabis 

Donald Abrams, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF, presented a timely talk on Medical Cannabis. With the growing number of states legalizing cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, cannabis use among older Americans has increased significantly, despite a lack of biomedical, clinical, and public health research.  Cannabis remains illegal under federal law.  Because the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has listed cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug (“high potential for abuse” and “no currently accepted medical use”) and has designated National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)—part of National Institutes of Health (NIH)—as the sole source of cannabis for scientists, NIDA will not fund cannabis studies on its health benefits but only harm.  Yet, with funding from NIH, Dr. Abrams has conducted pioneering research on the safety and pain relief properties of cannabis for patients with AIDS and cancer.

Dr. Abrams suggested that cannabis-induced euphoria is not such a bad thing: “Is it really an ‘adverse experience,’ particularly in a terminal patient? Is a single treatment that increases appetite, decreases nausea and vomiting, relieves pain and improves sleep and mood, a potentially useful tool in oncology and palliative medicine?”  

During Dennis Peron Memorial Tour in Castro District (aka LGBT mecca), Green Guide Tours founder Stuart Watts showed a photo of himself with Castro resident Peron aka “Father of Medical Marijuana” who died last month at age 71. Peron advocated for medical cannabis, which helped his partner ill with AIDS ease pain and nausea. 

“Brownie Mary” Rathbun (1921-1999) met Peron at Café Flore in 1974.  Brownie Mary was an IHOP waitress, with a grandmotherly visage, who earned extra money baking and selling cannabis-laced brownies from her home.  Her customers were mostly gay men with AIDS, who found that cannabis helped them with wasting syndrome.  Later people donated cannabis to Brownie Mary, who then began baking more brownies and distributing them free to sick people.  She was arrested several times for possession of cannabis brownies.  Brownie Mary also volunteered at SF General Hospital’s AIDS ward, where Dr. Abrams worked as physician and became inspired to conduct the first study about the effects of cannabinoids in people with HIV. 

Thanks to the efforts of Peron and Brownie Mary, San Francisco passed Prop P, the nation’s first medical cannabis bill in 1991.  In the following year, they opened the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club, the first medical cannabis dispensary in the U.S.  In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical cannabis with voter-approved Proposition 215. According to Peron, “Every cannabis user is a medical patient whether they know it or not.” 

Effective January 1, 2018, Proposition 64 (passed in 2016) allows licensed medical cannabis dispensaries in California to open their doors to recreational customers age 21+ who can purchase a limited amount (1 ounce) of cannabis without a current physician’s recommendation or medical marijuana identification card (MMIC, which can cost up to $100).  MMIC holders must be age 18+, may purchase higher quantities of cannabis, and do not have to pay sales and use taxes on their cannabis purchases. 

Social insurance

At Home With Growing Older hosted a forum on Social Security, Medicare and the Campaign against Entitlements, presented by Justice in Aging Executive Director Kevin Prindiville and UCSF Sociology Professor Emerita Carroll Estes, at SF Public Library.

Lifelong mothering

At Reinhardt Alumnae House, Mills College President Elizabeth Hillman and former College President Jan Holmgren hosted It Never Ends: Mothering Middle-Aged Daughters (2017) book reading and discussion with authors, Sandra Butler (age 79) and Nan Fink Gefen (76), who explored older women’s reflections on motherhood when daughters are in their 40s and 50s. 

Reverse Aging? 

Sutter Health Institute for Health and Healing hosted The Science of Healthy Aging with 51-year-old Sara Gottfried, MD, at Sherith Israel.  As one of the first 350 to register for this free event, I received a free copy of Gottfried’s book Younger: A Breakthrough Program to Reset Your Genes, Reverse Aging, and Turn Back the Clock 10 Years (2017).  As an old soul who aspires to greater maturity, I was almost repelled by the title of this anti-aging book and its overemphasis on a youthful physical appearance rather than health.

Creative Aging 

At Contemporary Jewish Museum, met up with SFSU Gerontology Professor and Program Chair Darlene Yee-Melichar to attend Creating A New Old San Francisco, a one-day “deep dive into contemporary aging” by Creative Aging International (CAI).  She stands between journalist Paul Kleyman and fellow Gerontology Professor Emiko Takagi.

Event included resource table and networking opportunities.  Connected with Caitlin Morgan of Institute on Aging and Hope Levy of City College of San Francisco’s Older Adults Program.

Dominic Campbell, CAI co-founder and Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) Fellow, described this mini-fest of contemporary aging about conversation, connections and “joining the complex story in the middle.”

Session 1 Overview – Issues in Contemporary Aging: “Why? Everyone attending brings expertise. To avoid telling people what they already know while articulating what makes contemporary aging unique, we asked these speakers to share knowledge from their experience, so we might begin to think together.”

San Francisco Bay Area speakers seated from right to left in photo above, and presented in the following order:

•     Carroll Estes, PhD, of UCSF and Nicholas DiCarlo discussed concepts from their upcoming An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Aging (expected to be published by Routledge in late 2018/early 2019): inequality, power, resistance, abjection, trauma, destruction of the commons, right to self-development, intergenerational, interdependence, austerity, gentrification, watch-bitch v. watchdog.

•     Susan Hoffman, Director of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Berkeley, spoke about Radical Aging: BELIEF that we can all self-actualize, KNOW that there are obstacles and limitations, WISDOM and experience to expand possibilities; our roles (pioneers & activists; researchers & translators; poets & philosophers; inventors & designers; educators; artists & amateurs); 25% of OLLI members are age 80+, calling OLLI the “4^th Age Salon.”  She highlighted influences through the decades (1960s: Marian Diamond’s brain plasticity research, Free Speech activism, White House Conference on Aging; 1970s: gerontology programs, Gray Panthers, The Center for Independent Living, American Society on Aging, On Lok, California Arts Council; 1980s: Age Wave, SeniorNet, Genome Research Institute, Association for Cultural Equity; 1990s: Encore, Multimedia Gulch, UCSF Memory & Aging, Walter Bortz’s Dare to be 100, Xerox PARC; 2000s: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Stanford Center on Longevity, Village Movement, IDEO, Elizabeth Blackburn’s telomeres research; 2010s: Age-Friendly Cities, Aging 2.0, GBHI Fellows).  She said we need to transcend divisive generation labels because we are all perennials!

•     Gretchen Addi, Consultant and Designer-in-Residence at Aging 2.0, on Technology and Business – Insider Awareness: recalled Jetsons family in 1962 living in the future—"what we take for granted today was the science fiction of the previous generation”; mentioned superpowers, like IDEO colleague Barbara Beskind who is seeking to design glasses and earbud for facial recognition as adaptive technology for her macular degeneration; new technology can improve lives of people as we age; called for shift to design with (not for) older adults, about people (not age group), interdependence (not independence); keep older adults mobile, engaged, healthy, connected; accessibility to avoid risks of exclusion and isolation if not tech savvy, privacy and security concerns. 

•     Bruce Miller, MD, Director of UCSF Memory and Aging Center, on Challenges of Dementia: epidemic of age-related cognitive impairment, most costly health problem in U.S. that especially impacts poor; 70% preventable risk factors (cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, lack of exercise, loneliness, isolation, depression, head trauma), 30% neurodegeneration by aggregate bad proteins.

Session 2 The San Franciscan View – Innovations at Home: “Why? Aging shrinks geography, all successes are, ultimately, local. Great innovations are happening. This celebration of SF projects already ‘creating a new old’ shares some of the innovation in this city.”  Choice of two breakout sessions:

Room 1 – Caring Systems – how we live where we live: “Cultures of caring community being nurtured in SF.”  This session was chaired by Tim Carpenter, founder of EngAGE, a 20-year-old nonprofit that builds and operates affordable senior and multigenerational apartment communities as “vibrant centers of learning, wellness, and creativity.” 

·     Jerry Brown, CEO of Bethany Center Senior Housing, talked about his affordable housing site’s collaboration with partners (OnLok PACE, IHSS, IOA, Openhouse, etc.) to provide a continuum of care to diverse elders representing 37 countries and 8 languages. Housed at Bethany Center and modeled after Mather LifeWays, Ruth’s Table is a multigenerational community center that provides art and wellness programs, integrating senior residents with visitors of all ages from the surrounding community. 

·     Kate Hoepke, Executive Director of San Francisco Village (SFV), talked about social networks diminishing as we get older and face marginalization; in response, the village grassroots movement began 12 years ago to create intentional communities that are intergenerational to dignify aging.  She noted the greatest barrier is reluctance to ask for help, yet one needs to ask to get help.

·     Karyn Skultety, Executive Director of Openhouse, introduced her organization as the 1^st LGBT-welcoming affordable senior housing, serving over 2,300 people not living in housing last year, and a resource for cultural humility training.

·     Rachel Lovett of Thriving in Place (advocacy for IHSS) and Re:Imagine (end-of-life exploration event on April 16-22, 2018).

Room 2 – Dignity and Empathy in Place: “Dignity and empathy as drivers of creativity, generations of innovation,” chaired by Rachel Main of Alzheimer’s Association.  (Photo only, attended session in Room 1 instead.)

·     Jessica McCracken – Ruth’s Table http://www.ruthstable.org/

·     Doniece Sandoval – LavaMae https://lavamae.org/

·     Jenn Chan – Senior Shower Project https://www.seniorshowerproject.com/

·     Cathy Davis – Bayview Senior Services https://bhpmss.org

·     Adam Waskow – Memory Dog http://www.memorydog.org/team

Vegetarian box lunch prepared on-site by Wise Sons Jewish Deli 

JCCSF Adult Programs Manager Shiva Schulz and Hope Levy

Session 3A – Creative Practice as Strategy – Examples from national and international understanding of creative practice leading change.

·     Anne Basting, Professor of Theater at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Founder, CEO of TimeSlips Creative Storytelling, asked us to text someone: "what gives you a feeling of awe?" She mentioned 3 sources of awe: nature, art and spirituality.  We can facilitate awe through creative engagement: Yes, and (inviting and affirming choices through play/improv); Beautiful Questions (open shared path of discovery); Proof of Listening (radical affirmation of choices); Rigor/Value (frame in context with social capital); Connect (individual and communal purpose)

·       Arti Prashar, Artistic Director/CEO of Spare Tyre in London, promotes collaborative participatory art with hard-to-reach people (age 60+, people with dementia/learning disabilities, women who have experienced violence).  This can be done using gardens as non-verbal theater that engages in the present moment, invites in space of senses, adjusts to slower pace, elicits play and imagination.

·       Dominic Campbell, co-founder of CAI and director of Bealtaine Festival in Ireland, the world’s first (1996) nationwide arts festival celebrating creativity and aging.  He talked about Celebration as Strategy, and the need for fun festivals, with elements of individual choice (because life is about risk), empathy exchange, disruption (stereotype-smashing creative arts day club, Meet Me at the Albany) and connection.

In The Vintage Years: Finding Your Inner Artist (Writer, Musician, Artist) After Sixty (2013), author and retired SF Bay Area clinical psychologist Francine Toder, PhD, notes that later life is an exceptionally good time to study art because our mature brain has improved judgment, focus of attention, patterning, and bilaterality. Nearing age 70 as she approached retirement, she took up playing the cello and practices daily. 

Hope Levy and Darlene Yee-Melichar, holding Legacy Film Festival on Aging (LFFoA) program, meet-up with LFFoA Director Sheila Malkind.

Dance and Tai Chi with Greacian Goeke, Director of Impromptu No Tutu, and her Bay Area dance ensemble express themselves in improvisational movement outside CJM, after emergency alarm triggered temporary evacuation.

Session 3B - Creative Practice as Strategy - Evolving Innovation: Where, how and why.

·     Anne Basting of Timeslips talked about transforming long-term care with the collaboration of nursing home residents through The Penelope Project: An Arts-Based Odyssey to Change Eldercare (2016)  

·     Kate de Medeiros of Miami University co-authored with Basting The Gerontologist article, "'Shall I Compare Thee to a Dose of Donepezil?': Cultural Arts Interventions in Dementia Care Research" about the challenges of measuring interventions in dementia care based on subjective experience.

Variety Pack! a capella community choir from Oakland, with Artistic Director Lauren Carley.

Session 4 – Sustained Systemic Innovation: Planned sustained change session chaired by William Cleveland from Center for the Study of Art and Community (Bainbridge Island, WA), which builds arts partnerships.

·       Maura O’Malley and Ed Friedman, founders of Lifetime Arts in New York, provide technical assistance to support arts programming for older adults based on Gene Cohen’s creative aging research focused on mastery and social engagement.  Lifetime Arts is also a leader in library-based creative aging programs, partnering with American Library Association. 

·       Kelly Dearman, Chair of Aging & Disability Friendly Task Force in San Francisco, presented on the implementation of San Francisco’s Age and Disability Friendly Plan

·       Gavin Barlow and Annabel Turpin of Meet Me in Albany & Future Arts Centres in UK

·       Tim Carpenter – EngAGE 

Bay Area monologuist and GBHI Fellow Josh Kornbluth performed a piece from “Brain Improvs” based on his experiences with people with dementia, a disease characterized by loss of empathy.  His idea is to start a revolution through storytelling, which mirrors what people have gone through so distance is broken down for a “worldwide peaceful revolution of peaceful empathy.”  His show at The Marsh has been extended through the end of this year. 

Session 5 - Tools for Change: Moving towards deeper strategy.

·       Penelope Douglas of Culture Bank in San Francisco talked about how art helps us see the poor as communities with assets of value and opportunity for investment.

·       William Cleveland, Director at Center for the Study of Art and Community in Washington State, talked about Arts Based Community Development (ABCD) ecosystem to advance dignity, health, productivity

·       Teresa Bonner, Director of Aroha Philanthropies in Minneapolis, shared website of resources at https://www.vitalityarts.org/ to champion participatory arts education programs for older adults.  

Session 6 - What Next? A question to start and end with. When you determine the kind of old you want to be, you shape the world you want to grow older in. What’s your next step? Sharing thoughts from the room gathered over this one day – nurture and heal, inspire and mobilize, educate and inform, build and improve.

Community Music Choir Solera Singers of Mission Neighborhood Center sing songs in Spanish from Latin America.

Power to Change

Power to Change: Creative Aging Symposium was a one-day virtual event hosted by Senior Center Without Walls (SCWW) and Creative Aging San Francisco: 

“Elders are looking for ways to have their voices heard, to create change in their lives, and the lives of others…

Whether you think of yourself as creative or not, we will give tools to unlock the creative promise we all carry… creativity is beyond art-making – it is about using your imagination to forge new paths. This symposium will share inspiring stories and creative tools to ignite changes from the very personal level of communicating one’s story all the way to addressing policy-makers.”

This online Symposium, accessible via computer or phone, included 15-minute breaks for reflection between presentations and a 75-minute lunch break.  

Fred Mandell, Ph.D., co-author of Becoming a Life Change Artist: 7 Creative Skills to Reinvent Yourself at Any Stage in Life (2010), talked about risk-taking in his creative transition.  Leaving the familiarity of a 21-year career in financial services, Fred explored the unknown when he enrolled in a sculpture class as he had not taken an art class since 7^th grade.  Three years into studying sculpture, he had a one-man show to sell his art and then took up painting; his artworks are sold online. His reflections: “Do and learn at the same time …Build skills through failure in workshops …Find a community of support …develop a new network (tribe) that will be a source of encouragement and resilience … passion will sustain growth and discovery.”  He recommended journaling that helps reflect on our state of mind and heart, opportunities and disappointments.  

In 2014, Fred founded Global Institute for Arts and Leadership, a nonprofit that uses arts-based learning for innovative leadership and social impact. Fred explained art’s value in problem-solving by providing divergent, expansive ways of looking/thinking and a communal experience to make and share art that will elicit a response and dialogue that is less threatening than politics—a fixed mindset can be challenged with art that connects what’s deep inside us and to the world. 

According to Fred’s book, here are the 7 creative skills to reinvent yourself:

1. Preparation: Deliberately engaging in activities that help break us from our usual patterns of thought and feeling, and prepare us for creative insight.
2. Seeing: Discerning new connections, fresh perspectives and possibilities.
3. Using context: Understanding how varied environments in which we live and work influence our thoughts and behaviors, and then using this knowledge to make changes in our lives.
4. Embracing uncertainty: Acting on opportunities, sometimes hidden, presented by change and uncertainty.
5. Risk taking: Acting without certainty of outcome.
6. Discipline: Acting consistently, regardless of motivation.
7. Collaboration: Engaging with others to help one make desired changes.

Its essence was similar to AARP’s Life Reimagined. Power to Change honors the creative possibilities available to us as lifelong learners who can make meaningful contributions.

Next up was Stagebridge performing arts company founded 1978 in Oakland, celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year! Stagebridge members talked about Telling Your Story:

•  Time Slips creative storytelling project (Anne Basting's “forget memory, try imagination”) with people with dementia, using photo image, facilitator, echoer, and scribe. This experience enabled member Emily to be more comfortable with memory loss, after realizing that memory goes, but lots left—creativity, imagination and fun remain.
• Playback Theater with Ed Bernstein and Sarah Strong, learning that improv is about trusting inner guidance; using roles of conductor (like to add anything?), teller (new perspective on life story), and actor.

After lunch break, enjoyed 15 minutes of Poetry Reading by Gregory Pond, who has published two books of poetry, Blackened Blue and after moon.  We were nostalgic or looking forward to our next meal as he read home cookin’:

back burner glows

slow slimmer on

crock pot watch

heated up then

turned down low

to slightly bubbling

babbling brook…

rich thick steam rising

and mixing above

with

the good home aroma

of spices

and love.

David “Lucky” Goff, Ph.D., author of The Evolving Elder: Applying What Really Matters to Life (2017) and community organizer, talked about surviving a hemorrhagic stroke in 2003 and experiencing a “traumatic blessing.”  After his stroke left him permanently disabled, he lost his marriage, home, and career in psychotherapy.  He started writing a journal, Reports from the Slow Lane (now blog), to exorcise his regrets, re-learned to speak so he has been on Growing an Elder Culture radio show for past 6 years now, and co-founded Elders Salon in Sebastopol.  Lucky said he has been living creatively as a social artist because of his hardships, and his experience with disability has meant moving to a slower pace so he can notice what’s going on, rather than miss a lot while speeding through life. 

Postcards with a Punch workshop demonstrated how writing your legislators does make a difference and provided tips on how to make our letters stand out.

•  Shirley Krohn of California Senior Legislature discussed Meals on Wheels’ “Don’t Empty My Plate” campaign that involved seniors writing their personal stories (“If it wasn’t for Meals on Wheels, I would starve”) on paper plates for visual impact and sent to Congress.
• Jessica McCracken of Ruth’s Table suggested ways to get informed on policy issues (American Society on Aging, Leading Age, Americans for the Arts), and then showed how to create a collage from magazine clippings, using glue stick, on a 3”x5” postcard with message—"AGING massive power JUST BEAUTIFUL" or song lyrics/poems that touch the soul.

After the polarizing 2016 election, Cindy Weil left her wallpaper business to follow her impulse to be part of something bigger and found Enactivist.  She launched the Immigrant Yarn Project, involving seniors and Girls Scouts in piecing together a yarn-based creation (knit squares, pom-poms) representing our common immigrant roots for a massive public art, open-air installation at Fort Point this fall.  
SCWW Program Manager Katie Wade (pictured above at left) concluded the symposium, noting the mosaic Power to Change logo of the butterfly symbolizing transformation, reflection and exploration of our creativity as a tool for change within ourselves and our community. 

Art-making

Rhoda Goldman Plaza (RGP) Assisted Living residents learned step-by-step Portrait Painting taught by Mike Ritch of Jean Henry School of Art (pictured with model Amy Hittner, Board member of Legacy Film Festival on Aging and former Chair of SFSU Counseling Department).

RGP’s Annual Resident Art Show + Reception with strolling violinist Seth Byrd, featured origami by Hedy, paintings by Roberta, and mixed collage/painting by Shelly. 

Metal sculptures by Barry

Upcycled art by Freda

Power of Resilience

This month’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts featured a screening of the documentary, “Resilience:The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope”, followed by journalist Belva Davis moderating a discussion with panelists: James Redford (filmmaker), Claire Willhite (Center for Youth Wellness), Lyslynn Lacoste (Bayview-Hunters Point Mobilization for Adolescent Growth in our Communities) and Lauran Cherry (Alameda Department of Education).

The documentary explored the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE, such as abuse, neglect, household dysfunction) on adult health and behaviors, and adopting a resilience-oriented approach to trauma-informed care. According to the ACE study, chronic inflammation due to toxic stress in childhood can lead to changes in brain development and body systems. Resilience is built over time, so universal screening and interventions (presence of a stable, caring adult; therapy; mindfulness; nutrition; exercise) are key. 

FDR Democratic Club hosted a community conversation on Disaster Preparedness for Seniors and People with Disabilities (PWD) at Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  We viewed Rooted in Rights’ “Right to be Rescued,” a short documentary that tells the stories of PWD affected by Hurricane Katrina.  In times of disaster (hurricanes, wildfires, severe weather, etc.), older adults and PWD are vulnerable due to special needs and tend to be overlooked.  In “The Right to be Rescued: Disability Justice in an Age of Disaster," Adrien Weibgen argued for the right of PWD to receive emergency services, including their input in emergency planning.

“…the systemic exclusion of PWDs from disaster plans, coupled with arguments that it may be impossible to meet the needs of all people during times of disaster, suggests a widespread, if tacit, endorsement of the notion that it is fine to value lives differently when push comes to shove…Rather than accept as inevitable that some people will be left behind, we must significantly increase our overall level of commitment to managing emergency events.”

We heard from local and state officials on disaster preparedness:

Daniel Homsey, Director of Neighborhood Resilience, visited New Orleans 10 years ago in aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which he called a “social justice disaster." Each of us can asset map, prepare Recology disaster kit, get Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) training by SF Fire Department, and know our community (get connected to AlertSF to receive real-time emergency alerts by texting your zip code to 888-777).  After noting that 70% of the City’s first responders do not live in the City, Daniel talked about building community resilience through grassroots Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN)’s Empowered Communities Program (ECP).  He encouraged us to build “who’s in kit” (social capital) through relationships in the community to kick-off a social contract of caring and problem-solving; for example, Resilient Miraloma Park neighbors staged an off-the-grid block party to practice their safety responses using emergency radios for communications and solar generators for cooking.  Daniel explained that the City promotes Neighborfests as community building tools through incentives by removing fees, providing free barricades and training for organizing block parties for neighbors:  how to form teams, implement a plan and feed one another – frequent practice uses muscle memory to respond in a real emergency.

Vance Taylor, Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, joined the meeting via Skype.  Vance is responsible for ensuring the needs of individuals with disabilities and persons with access and functional needs are identified before, during and after a disaster. 

Event included resource tables by nonprofit and government organizations:

• Independent Living Resource Center SF (Fiona Hinze, Systems Change Coordinator/Community Organizer): “Prepare to Prosper: The Positive Way to Prepare for Emergencies” video focuses on building resilience--1) think ahead (preparedness is for everyday life), 2) communicate in different ways, and 3) mobilize assets (make environment safe).
•  Community Living Campaign (Marie Jobling, Executive Director): builds neighborhood networks of support—turning strangers into neighbors, and neighbors into friends
• SF Department of Emergency Management (Lisa Starliper, Emergency Planning Manager): sign up for public alerts and check out resources at  https://www.sf72.org/
  

•  Joanna Fraguli, Deputy Director of Programmatic Access at Mayor’s Office on Disability: Disability Disaster Preparedness Committee (DDPC) meets every other month to identify policy needs and propose concrete recommendations. 

Safe Streets for Seniors

“Streets will always serve as transport routes, allowing citizens to move around the city – yet the forms of transport that dominate those routes will determine if streets can fulfil their other key role, as centres of communities. Streets that prioritise pedestrians, bikes, buses and other types of mass transit are far more likely to be places where people want to meet, socialise, shop and live.” – Mark Watts, “Streets can kill cities: on the Fossil-Fuel-Streets Declaration,” City Metric, December 18, 2017 

San Francisco’s dense population of 874,000 residents in 49 square miles and ride-hails (45,000 Uber and Lyft drivers account for 15% of all vehicle trips inside San Francisco) put pressure on streets.  Uber and Lyft account for two-thirds of congestion-related traffic violations in Downtown SF. 

Over 800 pedestrians are struck in traffic collisions each year in San Francisco, which has the highest level of pedestrian collisions in the state, and over 50% of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians, the second highest rate in the country.  Each year, over 200 people are seriously injured and another 30 are killed while traveling the streets of San Francisco.  

In 2014, San Francisco adopted Vision Zero to prioritize street safety and eliminate traffic deaths within a decade, or by 2024.   

To accomplish this goal, Vision Zero SF (VZSF) is implementing its Two-Year Action Strategy 2017-2018, and focusing on a 3-prong effort of E’s: 

• Engineering: SF Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) implemented reduced speed limits earlier this year, and identified safer street designs. Based on data obtained from SF General Hospital (about 50% of its trauma patients are people injured in traffic crashes) and SF Police Department (SFPD)’s Collision Report, SF Department of Public Health (SFDPH) released a High Injury Network map showing red lines on high injury streets, where traffic safety improvements are most needed.  According to SFMTA, 70% of San Francisco’s severe and fatal traffic injuries are focused on just 12% of the City’s streets.
• Enforcement: SFPD implemented Focus on Five mandate of 50% of all tickets issued for the most dangerous traffic violations (speeding, running red lights, failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, failing to yield while making left or U-turn, failing to fully stop at stop signs) that contribute to traffic injuries and death.  However, because annual tickets issued by SFPD have dropped since 2016 (by 23,000), making it easier to meet its mandate, street safety advocates favor a bill (AB 342) to legalize Automated Speed Enforcement cameras. 

• Education: SFMTA, SFPD, SFDPH and Walk SF collaborated on Safe Streets SF  education campaign to promote safer habits (take pledge to slow down and look around, know the rules of the road, be alert, etc.) to reduce the number of pedestrian collisions, injuries and deaths.  

Just last month before his sudden death, 65-year-old SF Mayor Ed Lee created a Vision Zero “rapid response team” directing better collaboration among city agencies to speed up transportation and street improvement projects at sites of traffic-related fatalities.

Seniors and people with disabilities top the list of vulnerable populations at risk of injury inequities.  Seniors make up only 15% of San Francisco’s population, but accounted for 44% of all traffic deaths in 2016.  If one counts only pedestrian deaths (not motorists or cyclists), seniors make up 88% of people killed in San Francisco’s traffic collisions. Seniors are four times more likely than people under 65 to be killed by a traffic collision. To ensure that Vision Zero does not exacerbate existing inequities, community engagement is essential with targeted outreach for Safe Streets for Seniors to obtain input to identify and request engineering and enforcement improvements.

Walk SF Walk Audit

Community Organizer Natasha Opfell and Executive Director Jodie Medeiros of Walk SF  and Transportation Planner Shayda Haghgoo of SFMTA (dressed in orange vest) facilitated walk audit with residents from Rhoda Goldman Plaza (RGP) Assisted Living in the Western Addition.  Walk SF provided yellow Vision Zero safety vests for participants.

• Curb ramps: present (one side or both sides of street)? lead straight across the road—not into center of street or aligned across the street? street curb landing level is appropriate (e.g., smooth/blended to avoid tripping)?
• Crosswalks: marked (continental or standard striping)? paint is clean/bright and uninterrupted?
• Street conditions: good (no cracks, potholes, or other uneven surfaces)
• Signals: pedestrian countdown on each side of crossing (if yes, auditory or non-auditory? if auditory, can hear clearly or not clear/loud enough?), crossing time is sufficient to make it all the way across to the other side of the street?
• Drivers, speed and turns: most drivers seem to be obeying speed limit? most drivers yield to pedestrians when turning? cars allowed to turn right on red?

For consideration prior to the walk audit, Natasha provided an overview of engineering improvement solutions (“person might fail, but road should not”) for reduction in crashes:

• Increased time to cross: Walk SF is partnering with Senior & Disability Action (SDA) to change feet per second formula 
• Accessible pedestrian signals/non-visual features: audible tones, raised buttons
• Curb ramps, even pavement: safety necessities; property owners are responsible for repair of sidewalks adjacent to their property, while Department of Public Works is charged with enforcement
• Curb extensions (bulb-outs): shorten crossing distance, improve visibility and slow turning vehicles
• Painted curb extensions
• Advance limit lines: more room for people to cross
• “Daylighting”: increases buffer between crosswalk and parked cars
• Continental “zebra-striped” crosswalks: more visible 
• Raised crosswalks  
• Pedestrian scrambles 
• Pedestrian refuge islands 
• Flashing beacons: yellow light when crossing
• Mid-block crossings: for safe and predictable places to cross
• Fewer lanes of car traffic

RGP residents voiced concerns about cars speeding along Scott Street, increased car traffic by drivers seeking to avoid Divisadero and Geary corridors (one block away from Post and Scott Streets) during rush hours, lack of pedestrian countdown so they don’t know how much time left to cross before signal turns red, need for mid-block crossing as short-cut from RGP front entrance to park or Western Addition Branch Library across the street, fixing uneven pavement at corner of Post and Scott. 

Shayda presented an overview of Western Addition Community-Based Transportation Plan for near-term intersection improvements to include: advance limit lines (more separation between cars and pedestrians), daylighting, leading pedestrian intervals (let pedestrians walk before giving green signal to drivers to turn vehicles), and painting continental crosswalks.  She explained that a pedestrian countdown might take longer to happen due to high cost (new signal is $300,000); however, she encouraged residents to continue advocacy efforts with Walk SF.

SDA Crosswalk Timing Campaign

Beginning in the 1990s, Senior Action Network (predecessor of SDA) has advocated for senior pedestrian safety in San Francisco with demands for banning use of cell phones while driving, banning right turns on red light, increase timing of crosswalk signals.  

Since April 2017, SDA’s Transit Justice Group (TJG) has held 4 press conferences to emphasize to City officials that seniors and people with disabilities—even without canes and walkers--don’t have enough time to cross the streets of San Francisco safely.  In late October, SDA received a DPH grant for Safe Streets for Seniors to fund pedestrian safety activities.  Last month, SDA held a bilingual Spanish-English Pedestrian Safety Leadership class at Centro Latino de San Francisco Senior Center in the Mission District.

According to 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), walking design speed is 3.5 feet per second.  Previously MUTCD suggested 4 feet per second as a normal walking speed.  Yet, in one study of people age 70 or older, the normal walking speed for 90% of the group was less than 4 feet per second.  Other research estimated pedestrian speeds at 2.5 to 3.25 feet per second for older people.  Researchers also found:

·       older pedestrians cross more slowly than younger pedestrians;

·       within both age groups, women walk more slowly than men;

·       those who comply with traffic or pedestrian signals cross more slowly than noncompliers 

SDA Health Care Organizer Ligia Montano and TJG Organizer Pi Ra, who holds up sign in Spanish that reads in English translation: “CAUTION! Many pedestrians have been hit at this intersection. QUESTION: At this intersection, DO YOU NEED MORE TIME TO CROSS SAFELY? Contact 415.546.1333 or srira@sdaction.org.”

Pi explained that the 4 feet per second formula (i.e., 10 seconds to cross 40 feet crosswalk) was based on 1970s test of college students walking in Boston, and he met one former participant who is now 75 years old and cannot cross so quickly.  Pi said the City favors 3.5 feet per second, though the federal standard is 3 feet per second in areas with a lot of senior pedestrians.  SDA is advocating for the City to adopt 3 feet per second standard.  

Starting January 2018, TJG will conduct observation studies (walking speeds and crossing capabilities of seniors and people with disabilities at 10-12 high injury intersections) and opinion surveys (asking which intersections they routinely walk that are difficult to cross safely), and present data analysis by early Spring 2018.

Pi also proposed a solution from Singapore, which has the world’s fastest walkers:  Green Man Plus provides that Singaporeans who are age 60+ or with disabilities can apply for special transit cards, which can be swiped at sensors in intersections for an extra 3 to 13 seconds to cross streets.  

(Effective January 1, 2018, in California, pedestrians can legally enter a crosswalk during a countdown signal if there is enough time to reasonably complete the crossing safely.)