the bus in this place every day. that affects me. on my way to school, i see the dirty parts. there is a lot of trash in it. once i'm out of school, i see all these youth on the streets hanging out, doing nothing productive, because we do not have enough youth programs. even though we do not have a lot of resources, we do manage to create a big impact in our city. and we are a powerful and united community. we cannot keep on taking money from district 11 because this money is needed to improve lives here in our neighborhood, my neighborhood. cuts to our community cannot be always the answer -- or are not the answer. there is a lot of people in my community talking about the

budget. we want people to see it in a different perspective. not just budget cuts. as services for kids and families get cut and more people need jobs and affordable housing and police and firefighters -- they are still getting paid, and now, they are getting a raise, even more this year. rich people in san francisco are still rich, and banks and corporations are not paying what they should to protect our city resources. [applause] mayor lee, supervisors avalos and chiu, and city staff, how do you plan to protect district 11 from cuts this year and create a different perspective on the budget in the future? thank you. [applause]

supervisor avalos: thank you, jonathan. this is the only microphone that is actually working. when we have the wireless microphone on, it interferes with our translation, so, mayor lee, if you could come forward here to respond. thank you. mayor lee: first of all, i wanted to acknowledge our civic engagement division of the city administrator's office. i know they are here to translate, making sure every voice is heard tonight. that is a pretty hard question. it is not an easy one. that is why we are out here, because we have not made any basic decisions.

with the presentation tonight tells me is we have to wait this all in and give it very serious consideration. i have gotten the message about youth programs, and we had a hard task in front of us because we do have less funding than before. i got the message about job training here in this district. that your future lies with jobs. everybody has told me around the whole city, "i got to have a job. that is what is going to keep me focus, keep us dignified." it is through those jobs you can afford to have the daily necessities to live in this very expensive city. i got the message about affordable housing. i got the message because of all the foreclosures, but because there are so many people crunched up in such small units that we have got to pay attention to affordable housing here. there is no easy answer to this. it begins by letting you know

what values you are affecting in me and the staff here today. it is not an easy decision that we're going to make, but we go into it with our ears open, and you are affecting the decision making right as we are speaking tonight. so how do we do it? we do it by listening carefully, we do it by bringing in the comments and concerns and values you have had today, bringing it into our decision making. i will commit to you that we will be working very closely with our supervisors. certainly, carmen chu because she is the budget director, and very certainly because supervisor avalos is out here with a neighborhood he feels is very important. he has a very strong voice as well. i will say that the process will reflect the things we heard tonight, and the things that are important to you will be reflected in our decisions. [inaudible]

[applause] that is as honest and direct as i can be because we have not started making those decisions. there will be a lot of things to balance. we have heard you, and we have heard all of the comments tonight so far, and i know there is many more, but that is my initial comment. if the other departments want to speak up, because they will be part of that decision making, but you certainly have my years. thank you very much. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you, mayor lee. just one more part to that question, and that is looking at our demographics in district 11, and we have, as you mentioned by a dozen kids in district 11, over the average for all the other districts together, so we have a really high need in district 11. yet, we only get $3 million out

of $56 million of the children's fund. we get 5% of the children's fund in this part of town. we have more children than any other district, and if we were proportional to what our district needs are to the children's fund, we would get 9%. we know that we are taking cuts in this district. we have a tremendous need, which grows every year, and we would like a commitment that our district, when it comes to children's services and all the services, can go without cuts. love to hear a response to that. mayor lee: we spend a lot of money, and we spend it in the community, making sure that the senses was done right. you all know that. many of you worked on the civic engagement thing. we did not do it because we would do the same thing year and here again with the way we do

budget formulas and others. this city has grown. families have -- families have grown. we recognize that. the data tells us that. we are more disciplined now than ever, letting data speak to us about where the needs are. i think that, as the children's needs have grown out here, and there is a larger recognize proportion, we have to have a budget that reflects that. as the population has changed, it is no longer growth in certain communities. the asian communities and latino community have grown in the city. we recognize that. there are more needs as those communities grow. there are more needs out here than we have ever documented before. so, yes, proportionately, we have to recognize with the growth is, where the needs are, and we will definitely take that under consideration. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you. i appreciate your being here.

as former budget share, know the difficulties that we face. as current supervisor, i will be working with community groups to make sure that we can have as minimal or no impact to the services that are here because we know that over the years, that our services are held together with band-aids, putting band-aids on band-aids is not a solution. if i could work with you and supervisor carmen chu on that, i would be glad to do that. i love to give a moment to supervisor carmen chu if you have comments to make before we go to public comment. we actually have gone over. we were going to have a q&a, but we're going to postpone that. but we want to make sure we can have at least 20 minutes of public comment. we will do, like, two minutes per person for that. supervisor carmen chu, who is

the budget chair. [applause] supervisor chu: i will keep my comments brief. i want to thank supervisor avalos for organizing this. he is a great supervisor, and i can tell you from city hall and being one of his colleagues, he fights hard for this community. he cares for this community, and i know he will be working hard with us to make sure this budget is something we can all live with and all be proud of. i can do half as good a job as john did with the budget in previous years, i will be very happy. i just want to say your supervisor is a really great one. for me, going into the budget process this year, we know it will be a hard one, so i appreciate the departments to have made a tremendous effort to try to get feedback early. i know that in budgets years past, one of the things we have heard back from the community was, "why is it that we only hear about things after the fact, after the budget submission?"

we are really trying to change that. though i cannot singularly change the outcome of the budget, one thing we can really work toward is to make the process transparent and open and one that tries to get as much feedback from the communities and all of our district as much as possible. just listening to what supervisor avalos talked about in terms of the make of the community and the values important in your district, to be honest, it is not a very far in the from the district i represent. even though you might have the highest number of kids, the highest number of seniors in your district, we are not that far behind. we have a huge number of kids in our neighborhood who do not have very many services. we have a huge amount of seniors who have raised their families who are living in isolation in my district as well. a lot of the things you talk about are things i can identify with because it is echoing the same experiences in my district. so i just going to leave it at that because i am very appreciative to be here and

listen to your comments and then going to take that back to our budget process. thank you. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you. we have talked a lot about how our districts are very similar. i would say that given the number of children you have in your district and the services you have that there, you need more. if we applied the same formula about no cuts to district 11, more services to district four. >> [inaudible] supervisor avalos: love/hate were going to have a q&a with the department heads, but we are -- [laughter] we were going to have a q&a with the department heads, but we are running out of time. we're going to open this space of here. i'm going to limit the time for each person to two minutes, and then we will cut the time off,

and after that, we will close it out. i want to thank all the members of the city staff for staying here so long, and thank you for listening and continuing through public comment as well. if you could line up right here along this side of the room. anyone who might need any assistance, we can bring the microphone to them. we cannot take it too far, but we might be able to take it a little closer. >> good afternoon. i'm representing the lake view district. i am with the inner city youth program. i would like to thank you for everybody present. my main concern would be in the budget jobs that pay a living wage for a transitional use. it is a lot of youth that come from broken homes that really do not have anybody to support

them, and they do not have anywhere to go with that, and that is why crime is up, in my belly. if somebody does not really have no word ago or nothing to do, the streets will influence them a lot. when i was 17, i was committed. i had did some crimes, and i was charged as an adult with two felonies. i have really changed my life all the way around, but it was so hard because there was a no opportunities for me. there was a no jobs for me. thanks to the inner-city youth, mr. brown, and my case manager that really new and seen the potential in me to do good. now i am with transitional aid youth committee for the mayor. also, with horizon, all nonprofit foundations. i am lucky to have their

support, but there is a lot of kids that do not have that because there's not money to support that right now. that is why i feel instead of putting the money everywhere else, you have to give it to the youth because we will be the ones in your shoes 10, 15 years from now, doing your jobs. hopefully, we have enough education and enough influence to really do a good job at what you guys do right now. also, i would like to say in the budget, we could fit some for transportation, because there is a lot of kids that have the potential to do some good but are scared to go somewhere else because they do not know. when you do not know, you are scared to do it. i feel if we had transportation for kids to go other places -- for example, you might have a job opportunity in hunters point. you are from sunnyvale, lake view district. you might be scared to go over there. so if we had better

transportation just to show kids a couple of times that as long as you do good, you are going to be ok, and when you do bad, bad things come to you, but we did not have anything like that to really show that once you are on that right path, good things will come to you. i would hope we all will one day make and of women or something to see what we do. weather is five minutes of your time, that is all we want. thank you. [applause] my name is brandon jackson. i'm 21 years of age.

i'm currently working here with the kids. the reason they cannot stay was because their parents were coming to get them at 8:00 and they have to be indoors. i am a case monitor. i really get my nose 30 accommodate into it with the kids, help them with situations they need help with, things that occur. i pretty much -- and of here to tell you more about my youth center. arturo touched on the key factors, how he really felt. we promote loyalty to our kids because me and my co-workers, we feel like it is all right to be loyal, but it is not all right to be loyal to the wrong things, such as not being loyal to your books, but being a loyal to a corner. not being loyal to the school, but being loyal to hang out with your friends. we teach them every day -- do something positive, something that will help you in the end.

it is no point to sit on the corner, talk about people that its disabled because i didn't, we are providing you help the most kids do not have. some did not take advantage of it. those that do succeed in life. i was talking to a few kids that fill that applications, and they were supposed to go to a screening. the screening is located at 1099 sunnyvale street. i work in the eagle said district, and some kids decided they would not go there. the same -- the day you let somebody dictate where you can can i go to benefit yourself and your life, will be the day you stop yourself from succeeding. [applause] i feel like everybody is saying we need to help the kids, but in reality, some of us are scared

of the kids. i feel we would have no reason to be scared of them if we gave them a helping hand. thank you. [applause] >> thank you all for being here. i am founder and director of life brands inc. and a living library. i want to urge the mayor and all of you to not cut the 10% contingency %dcyf because i think there are clues here that are not only for children and youth. they have to do with public safety. they have to do with improving the public realm. case in point, outside this door along the whole street are 700 -- several hundred california native trees planted by children and youth and a live-in lover program that has improved the quality of this neighborhood the past decade. last year, the year that we are in, we were allocated a 75% cut.

through the add back, we are now only cut 40%, but we are still doing a really good work in district 11 and in district 9. both communities -- ronald heights and excelsior -- burn all heights -- bernal heights and excelsior. we are also in chinatown and other impacted neighborhoods. this also leads to the relationship between green skills job training and education and improving the public realm. i think we have the local is thickly, systemically, and not be arbitrarily cutting at backs. i think it is really important that you look critically at all of these important programs that dcyf funds for the children and youth especially. i'm going to give you some

paperwork on this matter. thank you very much. [applause] >> good evening, everybody. 32-year resident of the english side neighborhood. not a native, as my daughter's tell me, but 32 years is a long time. thank you for being here tonight and listening to us. here are some items i would like you to consider. first of all, let's get back balboa park station fix that. as we do it, let's not forget about pedestrian improvements. we have to make sure that with gas at $4 or $5 a gallon, we will all be walking, so let's make it as attractive and pedestrian-friendly as possible. second, we have a signature building in this neighborhood.

it has been an abandoned eyesore for too long. there is a fabulous program by the friends of the geneva car barn to put together a youth programs there. why can we have a signature building in this neighborhood with signature programs for all the youth we have? we have the kids out here. let's get the building taken care of. i would sure like to see that done. [applause] moving on, i would like to see more neighborhood enhancement, more public/private partnerships. the pavement to parks programs are outstanding, and i would like to see some more of that, particularly on ridge lane. supervisor avalos walked that with me. does not take a lot of money, and great improvement can be done with a little bit of money. curb enforcement. how many vacant, abandoned, decades-old structures do we have to live with a year after year after year? let's take care of them. i could come up with a list of

them. i would be happy to share with any staff who would care to hear that from me. then, you know, we've got streets that are just in terrible condition. let's take care of them. we have taught holes the size of walruses. suspensions on our cars are falling apart. let's take care of those. last, we have affordable housing sites in the upper yard at muni. i spent 25 years directing and managing affordable housing units in san retail county, and the gold standard for uniqueness and capability was we would always look to san francisco. let's do it again here at the upper yard at the carbonic, across the street from the carbine, build some more affordable housing. thank you very much. [applause] >> good evening to all of you here assembled.

it is a fantastic evening in san francisco, california, isn't it? and there will not glad we live in america where we have the freedom of choice? a meeting like this cannot happen in some countries, so we are glad that we are americans. in the third vice president of the san francisco grand naacp. this is my neighborhood. i know where the mayor's office is because the naacp san francisco branch -- we have been there pleading our cases before him, and, supervisor avalos, thank you for all that you have done for this community. i have a business, a beauty salon in this area. i have been there 37 years. i have grandchildren. my grandson works with the inner city youth. i have a granddaughter that will start school here in the fall,

but she is a student, along with my great-grandson, who is in preschool and going to kindergarten. so i have a lot invested in this community. so my plea to you is to keep the inner city youth funds coming so that we can keep the programs for our youth, give them the training they need so they can grow up to be good citizens, the mayor, the police officer, and take the seats of where you are sitting because they are our future. invest in our children. thank you. [applause] >> i'm jacki cash, president of the excelsior district improvement association. i'm going to say this wrong. we just need to get that out there ahead of time.

the main thing i wanted to talk about when i got up here -- for one thing, yes, youth. anything for kids or for seniors. those are the most vulnerable populations we have. the people in the middle, the people who are able-bodied, the people of working age -- we will muddle through, but to take care of our most vulnerable population is the top thing because when you allow that to disintegrate, you end up with calcutta. you end up with these really creepy conditions that nobody wants to live in any way. people will just leave the city in droves if you have to look at old ladies lying on the street, which, by the way, i have to do. that comes into another thing, which is code enforcement. there is a lot of congestion in my neighborhood, and a lot of it has to do with people who are taking advantage of people of

color, people of low income, dividing up their houses as much as possible, putting 18 people into a four-bedroom house, just keeping these little slumed things that look the same as all the other houses, but people are being terribly abused and misused and forced to live these horrible lives in them. it is causing incredible parking congestion. we now have something like double or triple the number of people compared to what we used to have, and we have not increased our number of parking spaces, and our number -- a lot of these places, if they have a four-bedroom house with 18 people, at least four of those people will have cars, and nobody can park. we have all kinds of problems that have to do with essentially code enforcement. if people would -- if the cops would come and take it for, you know, parking in somebody else's driveway, that would help. health inspectors would come and

say, "you cannot do this to people and keep them trapped in these houses like that, that would help. and the last thing -- i know i am sort of battling, but the last thing is we had our foot beat -- we used to go up and down mission street, and it really helped. it was a new program at the time, about five years ago, and it really helped and made a real difference, and the policemen that were working that really felt that it made a difference. there were guys in the cup cars who said they would never go back again. they said they felt connected to the community. i noticed that, and everybody else noticed that. what happened was this past year, the captain said that they cut that for us. we do not even have a bike patrol. we have two cars serving this neighborhood at night. we need a lot more than that. but if we could have just the foot patrol back. because he said they had to cut something. and if you could somehow fund that, it would be great. ok, that is it. thank you.

[applause] >> hold on. this is yours. it is nice, too. you might want to keep it. first of all, let me say thank you to all of you who came out. you could have been anywhere else tonight, but you chose to be here, which means that you care. you are showing the panel that we care. i'm curious, how many youth are here today? our young people and not so young, these are the youth of our excelsior district. thank you for coming out. you, too, could have been home watching television, but you came out here today to learn how you make your community a better place. for that, i thank you and your parents that brought you out here and made you a process so you can learn how this is done. when you grow up to be 18 years old, you can vote intelligently. know who works for you and know what works for you.

so thank you for that. and to the panel that came out, thank you for taking interest in our community. as you can see, our community is very interested in our community. in the pta president of longfellow elementary school. we are 650 students strong. i will 100 students to school every wednesday, and yet, i cannot get police escorts. i have 100 kids that i walk to school, eight blocks every wednesday to help save the environment, help them keep healthy, and alleviate the problems with our traffic. even though i said e-mails, i cannot get police escorts to help keep our children safe as i walk them to school. they are my responsibility. even though i sent e-mails, i do not get police escort. i would like police escort for those 100 children i walk to school every wednesday to get to school safely. i would apprecia