Hi, I'm Joe D’Alessandro, President and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association.  As the official destination marketing organization for the city of San Francisco, our company is dedicated to not only promoting San Francisco as a visitor destination, but also to ensuring San Francisco is the most compelling destination in the world.  

We work closely with the events team at RSAC each year in planning for your annual conference at The Moscone Center.  In the last few years, the planning team and those of you in attendance have been very patient during the construction at The Moscone Center.  I’m very excited to share that we are nearing completion of the project and will have a brand new facility for you in 2019.  Our thanks to all of you for sticking with us as we worked to enhance and improve the functionality of our convention center.   

We are aware that there have been increased concerns from RSAC attendees about the street conditions in San Francisco.  We share your concerns and I appreciate RSAC allowing me the opportunity to share with all of you the recent investments by our hospitality community and our city to improve our streets. I feel it’s important that we keep you informed on the progress we are making so that you feel safe when you return in March.  

Last year, San Francisco Travel hired a Director of Security and Safety, responsible for hiring and coordinating additional San Francisco Police Department foot patrols around The Moscone Center during convention event days.  Working closely with conference security and hotel security, these officers walk the pathways typically traveled by convention attendees to ensure that streets are clean and safe.  

Over the past year, we have extended our reach and are now working with the Community Benefit Districts in Union Square and Yerba Buena Gardens, who have deployed their own ambassadors within their districts to assist visitors and report any suspicious activity.   

Our Convention Services team now shares convention resumes with city departments so that all public safety, public health, and public works agencies know which conference is in town, where people are staying, and the start and end times of all events. This shared knowledge allows our city service departments to plan and deploy personnel appropriately. 

Since you were here last, the City has made record investments in safety measures, including committing to hire 250 new police officers over the next four years.  Additionally, the City is working on better coordination of the deployment of resources for calls for assistance, including quality of life matters. 

Lastly, we are proud to say that San Francisco is working hard to help those most vulnerable on our streets.  Recently, our newly elected mayor, London Breed, invested tens of millions of dollars in mobile street medicine teams, homeless services and programs, temporary and permanent housing, and additional cleaning programs. We are already seeing the positive results of this focused and coordinated effort. 

We appreciate your continued support of San Francisco. On behalf of the City and County of San Francisco and our hospitality community, we look forward to welcoming you back and are confident you will see improvements when you arrive.