there should come education. the word minority is a derogatory term. believe it or not. thank you. >> we have a little bit of time left. i want to make sure all of the audience members are heard. >> my name is bruce grimes. i am an independent writer and producer of television, going back to "rolling stone." my question will relate to the comment about quality from dr. abraham. specifically about journalists today. 250 people, ranging in age between 25 and 35, pretty frightening. they were new media folks from a content perspective. what i came away with listening to them talk about their

audience, reaching out, being writers, was scared me was how selfish the audience seemed to be. subway breakfasts, your comment about crime and people being tired of reading about it, they were reaching for people like this, this is how they were going to make money. it scares the hell out of me. i brought it back and brought it up, especially in the '60s and '70s, it was a extremely political newspaper magazine that used music to bring in an audience. so, my question, what about the new journalists today reaching out to the 20-year-old and 30- year-old? your comment about the two schools of journalism and

reaching out, getting quality journalism to the public, how will we do that? >> we have a couple of issues here. the old school and the new school. i guess the question would be -- is there a standard? a single standard anymore for journalism? >> i do not know who sets that standard anymore. frightening, sometimes, to hear the fact that the most trusted name in news is jon stewart. but who can argue that there is not some good quality reporting and information that goes on on

a show like that? i think it will be far reaching. we have young people, both in print and on the internet. it is a wide range of opportunity. i do not know that there is any one standard today that anyone could point to that would be the single source. >> what about the chronicle right now? reducing $1 million per week, what does that look like right now? >> thank goodness we are not losing $1 million per week today. i am happy to say that. to give you an idea, fourth quarter of last year, in the toughest economic times of this country that we have seen since the great depression, it was a record quarter for us for the decade. now, the bar was awfully low,

but it was a profitable quarter. started out at the beginning of the year, in this type of environment, not making money today. but we are on our budget and on our plan. the last six months of the year looked to be a strong revenue environment for us. we think we will be fine overall for the year. >> we have gone over our time a little bit. one last question. >> this is for mr. frazier. the panel last night, it looks like there is no after the chronicle, so congratulations. we were talking about how people to get them to eat their broccoli with their ice-cream. reading city hall coverage with subway breakfasts. can you talk about ways you are experimenting with getting

people to eat them both? making it palatable? concrete experiments that you will try? >> that will -- that sounds terrible. [laughter] >> maybe we can have broccoli with cheese? i do not think that there is a simple answer. i think that people come to read various news sources. there will be multiple sources. some for entertainment, some for other resources. the key thing about broccoli and in sustaining a democracy, it tells us what we need to know even if we did not need to know it. it is about the role that the journalist plays, telling the community what we did that no we needed to know. cheese, ice cream, it does not matter. that means editors.

that means transparency. that means education about media. it means membership of junior journalists. without all of those things, there is no broccoli. no one will tell us what we need to know that we did now know we need to know. >> on that note we will have to conclude today's town hall forum. we hope that you enjoyed it. it has been presented by the northern california chapter of professional journalism. they've asked me to express thanks to tonight's panelists. thank you for being here today. [applause] thank you to the audience as well. give yourself a clap, making it on the tuesday evening from work or whatever. we would also like to thank the san francisco public library from -- for sharing this facility, the crew from sfgtv,

thank you for joining us. we wish you good news in everything that you do. [applause] >> thank you very much for joining us tonight. i would appreciate it if folks would move into the lobby for conversation.

oh, my! haa ha ha! ha hha ha! [snortg]

>> and they will want to thank them for the lumir willingness. i want to recognize that we also have a very diverse group of individuals serving on a diverse group of boards and bodies. have the pleasure of reappointing someone who has a connection that goes back generations, larry mazzola, sr. i'm pleased that subject to approval, p.j. johnson will serve again. president of the arts

commission, who has been doing an outstanding job, really raising the bar in terms of public art and our commitment to neighborhood arts. i want to thank lisa gruwell for her willingness to serve on the civil service commission that sets my salary. i wish you luck and independence from whoever is serving as mayor. i want to thank the environment commission, which is something we are very proud of, for his willingness to serve as a new member. london and michael are quite familiar to their commissions. they will both be here. thank you, chief. i know you are pleased to have both of them. you have already told me you are pleased to have both of them.

i am enthusiastic about their commissions. it's a good thing for everybody. we will have the opportunity to give people an opportunity to give people on their respective boards the opportunity to serve as well. thank you, lily chan. she will be serving on the golden gate park concourse authority, which is interesting for so many reasons. i'm grateful that you are willing to continue your service here and the city as well. human rights commission, reappointing cecilia, michael, and julius. you have done a great job. i appreciate your support of our director, into the good work, the human rights commission continues to do. where is sam? there you are. thank you, sam. thank you for your willingness

to continue to serve on the immigrant rights commission, and your good stewardship and leadership in the committee. michael nguyen. we technically swore in michael, but it was private. i appreciate your willingness to come here are any more public setting and have the honor to swear you in. carol kingsley, who was supported unanimously, which is pretty impressive, on the police commission. she will be serving as the newest police commissioner. i'm very enthusiastic. the board of supervisors seems to share that. well, air and good lucome and g.

not the easiest of commissions, but incredibly important. we went through a lot of presiresidents. i'm appreciative of her willingness to serve. the rent board. do not screw up something that is working. we had a debate on a solution to a mysterious problem. we do not have a problem because we have a balanced rent board. people that want to obtain a strong relationship and inappropriate one. as a consequence, i felt like i did not need to reappoint new folks. felt like i could reappoint the existing folks. they're doing a great job. thank you for your willingness to continue your service. i do not know why -- all of you

were enthusiastic, too, when i called you. i thought maybe one or two of you wanted to take a vacation from the service. i am grateful that you were willing. i am also grateful the retirement board is getting a lot of attention. pensions are getting a lot of attention. some people have confused san francisco with sacramento. it is a big difference. budgets, pensions, retirements. nonetheless, this is an important body and board. we have two great people who are willing to serve. i know he is very enthusiastic. he was very concerned that we appoint people of high integrity, high skills, that

tended to be above a lot of the politics in this town. we have two great people there. i imagine he wanted to be with all of you. he wanted to be with his wife in particular. wendy paskin-jordan is here as one of the new appointees to the retirement board. she will join victor makras, who is very familiar to us. i kind of try to convince you. i was not sure victor was so excited about this. i asked him. hi needed somebody of his character. i am very pleased. i think those are two great appointees, wendy and victor. this will continue to elevate what is already a model retirement board for the rest of the state. the two remaining divisions, the small business commission,

jamie, thank you for your willingness to serve. as a small businesswoman, you know a thing or two about the challenges and reveal. lu o'brien -- how long have you serve? not even a full year. this will extend his turn. -- term. you guys ask good questions yesterday. it is important. finally, al norman. al, thank you for your willingness to serve in the southeast community facility commission. i always thought -- we need to raise this far out there of what we do for the southeast community facility. we'll have a lot of conversations. al is a legend out there. thank you for that.

who else are we missing? oh, yeah, nancy. you will also be continuing your service. i apologize. we did not know you were going to make it. i'm glad you made it, nancy. thank you for extending your service with the golden gate concourse. i will remind everybody -- if you are going to disagree with me, please give me a heads up. that does not mean that things do not, in front of you that are controversial and on the fly, you might have a point of view, and you should share that point of view. on big issues, all i ask is a heads up. only on two occasions -- frank, i imagine this has happened to you periodically. i have a call at 2:00 in the morning where one of my department heads was removed by the commission. nobody gave me a heads up.

i was a little concerned about that. those are the kind of things. give me a heads up. otherwise, exercise your independence. exercise your insight. that's why you're here. i just want the opportunity to have a chance to dialogue if we are on different sides. then you use your judgement and conclude as best you could what is the right path for the people of san francisco, who do not represent some special interest. the folks that show up here are important. folks that do not have the time to show up here are equally important. please remember there are a lot of people out there that count on you to also have a voice that cannot make it down to your committee hearing or board. that is something that is very, very important to me. that's why you are here.

you are here to represent the city. that city includes those that do not have stickers or buttons, that do not show up at 6:00 p.m., that also deserve your attention and your goodwill and your stewardship. those are really two points. otherwise, i'm very happy that you're here. i'm very thankful. thank you for coming down to city hall. supervisor duffy is sitting there with his arms crossed. what is it? are you ready? all right. anytime someone has his hands crossed, that means get going. they are shutting down. [laughter] york physiology changed my standing up, and raising your right hand. when i say i, you state your

name. why don't we go down here? larry will go back, and we will end with you. during such time, we hold the position of -- and then you will mention your respective commission board or body. is that easy? all right. you have your right hand up. i -- [inaudible] i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the

constitution of the united states, and the constitution of the state of california, that i bear trap, faith, and allegiance to the state, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter. and during such time, as i hold the position, as a member -- [inaudible]

for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations, everybody. [applause] i appreciate how effective that was. [applause]

>> i have 2 job titles. i'm manager of the tour program as well as i am the historyian of city hall. this building is multifaceted to say the very least it's a municipal building that operates the city and county of san francisco. this building was a dream that became a reality of a man by the name of james junior elected mayor of san francisco in 1912. he didn't have a city hall

because it was destroyed in the earth wake of 1906. construction began in april of 1913. in december 1915, the building was complete. it opened it's doors in january 1916. >> it's a wonderful experience to come to a building built like this. the building is built as a palace. not for a king or queen. it's built for all people. this building is beautiful art. those are architecture at the time when city hall was built, san francisco had an enormous french population. therefore building a palace in the art tradition is not unusual.

>> jimmie was an incredible individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands 307 feet 6 inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the united states capital. >> you could spend days going around the building and finding something new. the embellishment, the carvings, it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that san francisco is famous for. >> the wood you see in the board of supervisor's chambers

is oak and all hand carved on site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened