said the disco and every other official to visit barcelona. i am sure that our cities can grow and learn together. today, it is a great honor for us to be here. thank you, mr. newsom for your hospitality. [speaking catalan] we have another sister city like you, mr. mayor. [speaking catalan] thank you very much to everybody. congratulations.

[applause] >> thank you. as mayor newsom said, we have supervisor bevan dufty. i also want to the knowledge and member of the other supervisors wanted to be here today but there are stuck in a committee meeting. i know that many others wanted to be here as well. next i want to introduce the man who represents the country of spain, here in tampa disco, and of course we cannot talk about spain without talking about the world cup. we are all excited about the victory, and thank you mayor newsom, to you and the rec and parks department for the work they did around the world cup. if you have the opportunity to watch the game in front of city hall, i have to point out, the man who scored the winning goal is someone who plays for the barcelona team. that is important.

the council's general of spain. manuel pradas. >> i wore red for the spanish team. when we arrived for the first time in san francisco, they were flabbergasted by the beauty of the unique and beautiful city that overlooks the san francisco bay. if i am told -- many times i am -- no wonder this is a city founded by spaniards. we know how to choose the right place. [laughter] as you know, back in the 17th century, spanish sailors explored the pacific ocean. together, we came with ideas and

language. it is no surprise that many of the mountains, rivers, cities in california have spanish names. all spaniards gathered in city hall, many from catalonia, and from other regions in my country. many of you here represent the foundation for the better relations between the united states and spain. the signing of this memorandum of understanding between the city of barcelona and san francisco marks the establishing of a new city partnership that aims to create new links between 10 francisco and the barcelona. and the path ahead that will allow us to widen our economic and trade relations.

scientific and technical knowledge. better understanding for the mutual interest, not only of these two cities, but of our country. the date is the right time to recognize and honor the effort this project. the mayor of the city of san francisco gavin newsom and his team, the mayor of barcelona and his team and all institutions and private citizens who helped make possible this relationship between san francisco and barcelona. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. council in general. next to let me introduce someone who is very important. that is not just about establishing the sister city relationship, but making sure it is a meaningful one. that would not be possible without the work of the sister

city committee. the president of that committee is here. she has been working diligently for the last few months. we are excited about the leadership that she will continue to provide. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, welcome and thank you for being here. it is an honor to have such key figures here today as we welcome the formal recognition of the sister city relationship between barcelona and san francisco, and what better timing than spain's recent victory in the world cup last week. back in history, the catalan region was home to an important figure, gaspart laportala.

finally touching in the san francisco bay area after a 10- month journey. we now turn our sights to the advances in technology and transportation as we forge ahead with our new sister city relationship. the committee has been formed. we lead efforts in streamlining sure of communication with our colleagues in barcelona and one of our first effort will be to lead the drive for direct flights between san francisco and the barcelona. transportation will be a key interplay between the two cities and san francisco looks forward to learning more about the high-speed train systems and learning about future space projects. further information sharing in

business and technology and the areas of academia, a green tie, clean-cut, will be fostered and developed through these new lines of communication. san francisco and are still hold two of the largest gay communities in the world. we will do our effort to bring the two communities together to further their ideas and goals. last but not least, the committee will play a significant role in the cultural and gastronomy exchanges, between the opera, symphony, art collections, and that made in food and wine to of both regions, both cities have much enthusiasm in building or bridges. we are pleased to be carrying on these endeavors. on the calf of our co-chair and committee, i want to thank the mayor's office of barcelona and san francisco, special thanks to david campos and his team for their leadership, and the foundation for their tireless

efforts, and one last thing. my mother, god bless her soul, passed away two months ago. i had to leave my mother in iran and my original country to attend this. that would have wanted me to be here to work on this. working on something i believe in. thank you and congratulations. >> thank you. [applause] it is now my honor to announce the memorandum of understanding between the city of san francisco and the barcelona will now be signed by -- mayor gavin newsom.

>> thank you, everyone for the leadership that helped to make this today -- make this happen

today. we have some sparkling wine from spain. we have a present here. >> thank you. that is great. this is good. [inaudible]

[applause] >> thank you all for being here. please stick around and enjoy the morning. take the rest of the day off, right, mayor?

>> we're ready to get started. good evening and welcome. i'm karen clausen, president of the league of women voters of san francisco. the league is a non-partisan, but political organization dedicated to the active and informed participation of all citizens in government. we never support or oppose candidates. however, we do take stands on issues, and so for further information about candidates and election issues, visit our website, www.sf job votes.org. we want to thank our co-sponsors

for tonight's forum. the pa trer row boosters. the dog patch neighborhood association. the university of california san francisco. and media son supervisors nbc bay area, san francisco government television, sfgtv, and educational access tv, e.a. tv. you will hear from candidates for supervisor for district 10, malia cohen, christine inea, chris jackson, tony kelly, dewitt lacey, jeffrey morris, steve moss, eric smith, lynette sweet, and diane wesley smith. they will have a chance to present their views upon issues affecting the district and the city, and to answer your

questions about those issues. to submit questions for the candidates, look for a league volunteer who will be handing out index cards. we will collect all questions by 6:30. i have a few housekeeping items that i'm sure you've been hearing about since you came in the door. that is no literature, campaign signs, or buttons may be distributed or posted inside of this meeting room. if you have them in your lap, put them face down on the floor or in the seat. candidates and their supporters are expected to be respectful of our candidates and the audience and to help maintain quiet during the forum. candidates are asked to make no personal attacks on other individuals. no flash photography is allowed

due to the fact that that forum is being taped for broadcast by san francisco government television, sfgtv, and educational access tv, e.a. tv. finally, we would ask all in the audience and onstage to mute their cell phones and pagers. it is my great pleasure to introduce our moderator this evening, nbc bay area news anchor, calling san francisco home since 1990, tom brings decades of experience to the nbc bay area news team. among the stories he has covered are the nuclear accident at three-mile island, hurricanes hugo and agnes, the explosion of the space shuttle challenger, the los angeles riots, and the

oakland hills fire storm. tom also has extensive experience covering politics. he reported live from al gore's campaign headquarters in nashville on the infamous election night of 2000 and provided coverage for the bay area from the democratic national convention in 2008 when barack obama made his historic nomination acceptance speech in denver. he has been awarded three regional emmy awards, along with numerous other awards for writing and reporting. tom lives in san francisco with his wife and two children and we are deeply honored to welcome tom. [applause] >> thank you, everybody. thank you, karen. good evening, everybody. this evening, we have 10

candidates for district tensor president. the candidates are going to have only one minute to answer questions because we have a rot of questions we want to move through tonight. you in the audience will submit all of our questions virtually, as well as questions that have been submitted to the league of women voters website at www .sfvotes.org. every candidate will have the opportunity to answer every question. because of the of candidates, unfortunately, we will not have time for rebutles. any rebutles may be included, however, in the candidates' closing statement. now, the timekeepers, they're very important. they're right here in the front row. one is a yellow card. which means, of course, take your foot off the accelerator. because the next card you'll see is the red card, which means that your minute is up. all candidates have agreed to ask their supporters to be

respectful of our candidates and to maintain quiet during this forum. every aspect of the forum is going to be equally fair to all participating candidates. we know that everyone out here has a very important decision to make on november 2, so today's forum, we certainly hope will give you an opportunity to be heard. and now liths begin. and we have in the last few minutes collected some of the questions from the audience members, and i will say as we begin our discussion tonight that they are very practical in nature. so let's begin tonight by asking ms. cohen this following question. from my house, the nearest full service grocery is four miles away. even a fresh piece of produce is over two miles away. what idea do you have to bring fresh food to hunter's point? >> good evening, everyone. thank you for coming tonight.

recently, over by the -- ke cal palace, a partnership between fiona's office and members of the city council and daily city. i use this as an example to help bridge the gap that we live in. we live in a food desert. we have very little access to good quality, healthy food. one of the things that i'm interested in bringing is with the development in universal paragon, the southern-most part of the city, there's an opportunity for us to first sustain the businesses that have been providing some food supplies as well asfh4jl- parth developers that understand our challenges and that are willing to bring healthy food options to the southeast part of san francisco. so to answer the question on bay vurek i'd like to see a farmer's market specifically designated on the hill.

thank you. >> thank you very much. that minute is tough, we know. >> thank you. i'm christine inea. my ideas for bringing fresh produce into district 10 are as follows. one, support the opening of the fresh and easy market in third street on bay view. two, continue to support the redevelopment, which i believe will include a full service grocery store in visitation valley. third, i would like to support the redevelopment agency's efforts of the southeast food access group to remodel the super save on third street in bay view. we have a very motivated owner. the project that i'm most excited about is we are working with several partners to apply for grant funds to acquire some property to create an urban farm. this could be a community-led farm. it would go through a exunety process to determine the last model. this would be fresh food in the

lute worst food desert, where we have about 99% housing and one liquor store. those are my ideas. thanks. >> thank you. mr. jackson? >> yes. it's true that we live this a food desert. and these are because of decisions that our leadership has made over the decades. it's time that we actually work our hardest to prioritize district 10 as a place where we will grow healthy food and we'll place healthy food options. first of all, we've talked about how many liquor stores are in our exunety. i actually want to work on liquor store reform. i think it's very important. other groups have worked on this before and require a certain level of certain square footage being dedicated to fresh produce. i also want to bring back urban gardening. slug was a wonderful program that employed people in the community to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. that also takes care of our public safety issues. also, we have many, many school

sites in our community. we should be using these school sites on the weekends to actually impact the families and children that have farmers markets on the school sites, where successful people know how to get there and it's actually make use of existing space. thank you. >> mr. kelly? >> this kind of issue is where land use gets real. land use determines who lives here and who works here and how they do it, so it really is the number one issue in this race. it's where i've done a lot of my work over the last decade, educating myself and our neighborhoods about land use with the neighborhood association. specifically on this issue, ms. inie a has the right ideas, supporting opportunities in the development areas. we can finance. we can provide some help for fresh produce along third street. we need to bring back more redevelopth resources to do that. we used to have 11 greenhouses in the district.

now we have one and it's falling apart. bring back more people powered green economy urban agriculture. thanks. >> mr. lacey? >> thank you. dewitt lacey. there's a few things that i think we could do to alleviate so. the problems around fresh produce. one, i do believe we do need to promote a farmer's market within the bay view hunter's point area, as well as have local farms, and opportunities like farms that i helped restore out off of alameda boulevard. those are types of thing we could do within our public housing development. not only give people a resource to their own freshly grown products, but also give kids some knowledge about growing plants and our vegetation. things they so desperately need. as well, i think we should

support community developments that have food marts within them as well. >> ms. morris? >> hi, in the bay view, we did have a farmer's market, but it didn't go so well and it wasn't really participated. but we have community-based organizations like hunter's point that are going to get a juice bar. so maybe working with our current non-profits like hunter's point family gardens and creating a juice bar, making our major train, have more edible, desirable food in the neighborhood, as well as supporting the fresh and easy in the other developth. but immediately, we need to make the major changes, which is holding foods accountable for giving our community quality food in the bay view area. >> mr. moss?

>> i'm steve moss. i think first we need to understand that a lack of a grocery is an indication of a community that has larger needs. when you have a wealthy community that has jobs, there are grocery stores. so here we have a community that is deficit in jobs and public transportation and all kinds of things, and the supermarket and access to grocery store is just one indication of that. now, my non-profit san francisco community power that i founded 10 years ago started working with super save eight years ago to help put them on the track of providing fresh fruits and vegetables. we provided refrigeration as part of our project in order to help them do that. we've also been working with the san francisco wholesale produce mart for the last 10 years to help them also expand access to fresh fruits and vegetables. that's actually a central place where almost all the fruits and vegetables come through to the city and are disbursed to the other neighborhoods. we should bring home school lunch money and buy our fresh fruits and vegetables from local producers that can be made and

produced in district 10. thanks very much. >> and we appreciate the energy and the excitement about the issues tonight from the league of women voters. they have asked that the candidates remain seated. mr. smith. >> thank you, tom. eric smith. fresh and easy is a company from england. what i'd like to see them do is first become a union, which would be great, and also to hire from the community. that should be first and foremost. it is a food desert. we need a lot of different options and opportunities. you've heard about using our schools as a hub for farmers markets and the like. i do a lot of urban farming myself. we have some 85 geets out -- goats out there that we use. i think it's very important to do that. we'll see what happens. i'd like to encourage that. i'd like to see a supermarket there. it is a food desert and we need

to do something about that and change that. thank you. >> now, ms. sweep? >> i'd like to say that right now there is a grocery store. it's inadequate in its current capacity. the redevelopment agency, in conjunction with our current sitting supervisor sophie maxwell, have worked out a deal to expand that footprint and turn it into a kroger. that's going to be a major impact on on what goes on in our district because we will have a full service grocery store. fresh and easy is going to be a wonderful complement to that store because it will give us those fresh fruits and vegetables that we're looking for, but in addition, the community gardens are going on right now all overbay view hunter's point, are providing a lot of what we see in some of our schools right now, because even the food bank that's located in district 10 draws from those.