now that we have got our record of how to do this, i think the next clerk and the city will be much informed with having our process and having our archives to look too. >> and that is how san francisco government worked out the kinks, twists and turns, bombs in the road, to select its new interim mayor, ed lee. san francisco's first asian- american mayor. >> this has been an unprecedented and historic transition of power here in san francisco. i am so happy the board of supervisors came together to select an outstanding choice along many outstanding candidates to lead us over the next several years. >> over the past several months when this issue has come up, it had been agonizing. the board has been put into a difficult situation. there are a lot of differences of opinion on how to run the city, how to mass make a decision, who should be in

place, 11 people to agree on that is a challenging thing. i think we have done the best we can do in the process, considering the difference of opinions. >> the people of san francisco can now choose their mayor, the direction they want to go. that is why this decision was so appropriate. >> the other big shock is that the moderates seem to have won this round. people thought, progressives have themselves on the board. there is no reason that they will not get together and take a noted leader who is a progressive to be interim mayor, and then stayed there for another term. the great thing about being in term mayor is to get to run as an incumbent. the fact that the progressives could not get together to get somebody into office as interim mayor in their own self-interest was very surprising for a lot of us. >> what happened in the last month in city hall was an incredible show of democracy that was part policy, part politics, and it all came

together, and more than anything -- not just from a reporter's perspective, often was this? but there was a public interest as well on what was going on in san francisco government. we take it for granted a law that there is a city government here. this was something that brought people together. you heard people talking about it at the cafes, park playground, people who do not always pay attention. in that $0.10, it was the best thing we could have done for city government, even though it was a little bit messy. it was a lot of fun and an eye opener. it got people interested again.

>> hey, everybody. welcome to portsmouth square. i am director of sustainable streets with the sfmta. once again, we are very pleased to be the lead agency in sponsoring the sunday streets

program for 2011. it is one of a series of very healthy and family-friendly events to take place in san francisco to promote walking, biking, and just generally taking advantage of the streets that are open and car-free, but it is more than that. i think it is also a chance for the residents of san francisco to reconnect not only with themselves, but the rich, diverse neighborhoods that connect our community. we have been very fortunate to have this program embraced by both residents and merchants, and the rapid spread of the program is a testimony of how popular it has become. this program would not have been possible without the cooperation from our fellow city agencies as

well as the mayor's office and all of the private partners we have the i will get into a in a little bit. speaking of the mayor's office, i would like to introduce mr. edwin lee, mayor of san francisco. mayor lee: good morning. i'm happy to be here, joining our supervisor from district 3 and president of the board, david chiu. sunday streets has been around for about three years. in 2008, we began with a couple of events. we were learning from some great cities throughout the world, particularly bogota, colombia, where we have learned from that mayor and from international leaders how wonderful that event was, in terms of not only taking over the streets, but connecting up with our neighborhoods. if you know anything about me, having been a former dpw

director and city administrator and now mayor, you know i have a passion for linking up all of the neighborhoods in the city as much as possible. and i will talk about that later because it becomes invaluable to events like what we have seen in japan to really have strong neighborhoods. but what i want to announce today is next sunday, march 20, is the first of eight planned sunday streets kickoffs. next sunday, we began in the embarcadero. it will be linking up fisherman's wharf, and it will have links to all over from france wobble of are all the way up to our first, and we will have one every single month for the beginning of winter. i want to thank our sponsors this year. bank of america is a big sponsor of wall with our traditional sponsors.

at&t, the bay area quality district, which will streets -- they have all been great sponsors. this year, i want to announce that we have a brand new route. in addition to 7, which we will do all over the city, we are going to add chinatown and north beach to our city streets -- to our sunday streets. that is going to be wonderful. it is one i have been trying to oversee as city administrator, working with our liveable streets and our chinatown chamber of commerce, our chinatown merchants association -- they are all very excited, and we will be looking at the way we have been using grant avenue, all the way through north beach, from california, across broadway, so we will have more details about that, but we do not have a date announced for that. we are working out the details, and we will listen carefully to all of the needs and concerns of our merchants along the area,

residents, to make sure it is successful. the nice part of sunday streets -- it is not just the physical closing of the streets. it is really the way we work with all elements of our community to make sure we bring out things that are great for kids, for families, and the merchants will have an opportunity to read prioritize the way they welcome their traditional visitors and buyers. we are not selling this as another street fair, if you will. it is very different. its emphasis will be on the use of the streets and the use of our alleyways, particularly in chinatown, and how they can be opened up for different, creative uses. we will be creatively working with our school districts, with our public health departments, our social service departments, and rethinking how we can use the streets to do everything from exercising, for introducing new ways of playing on our streets, and to make sure that they are safe, that there are

new people that want to look not solely at traffic and react to it, but look at new ways of using our streets. that is what we are trying to do. i know the people behind me are committed. they are excited about working with the city. this is an official sponsorship that we do with our neighborhoods. i said earlier, what i'm all about in terms of my year being a mayor here is i want to make sure that we have even slight sunday streets, have events like our clean teams that we do on saturdays, where members of the community come out and work with all of us together to kind of know who they call on 311 every day. it is people that really want to connect with the neighborhood. if you have strong neighborhoods, if you have our mta working with public health, public works, fire and police officers, working together with

president associations, the associations, the environmental groups that have sprung up over many years of concern about our environment and our climate change and the use of our oceans -- when you have us working together to celebrate things like different uses of our streets, you start building a stronger connection, so that when even do challenge us, we are stronger for that very purpose, that we are already working together, that we are no stranger to breaking down bureaucratic walls, whether it is our libraries, our police departments, our fire departments. we are used to doing all of that, and that makes us a stronger, more connected city, and ultimately, it is about making a city connected all the way. i'm excited that our bicycle coalition has been working with me on opening up even more of our streets as we introduce companies whose workers want to ride to work every single day. that is exciting. i want to announce today that

the kickoff for our sunday streets, announcing additional ones, that we are having them every single month. there will be a sunday designated. dates will be set, and we will be adding more, so we will have a total of eight this year. we are not beating 2009. i think they have nine events. in 2008, we had, i think, six events. we are actually building upon all of our experiences, getting more people involved, different people, people of all walks of life, so thank you very much. [applause] >> as mayor lee mentioned earlier, the first event is going to be march 20, next sunday, and the venue is the central and northeast waterfront. it's communities are represented by our president of the board of supervisors, david chiu. he would like to say a few

words. supervisor chiu: thank you. good morning, everyone. i would like to echo how excited i am about the event we are about to kick off. in particular, i want to talk about the very special neighborhoods that will be included in sunday streets this year. most of you know that the neighborhoods of san francisco are the densest neighborhoods west of the mississippi, and the two neighborhoods being added to sunday streets today, north beach and chinatown, are the densest neighborhoods within the densest neighborhoods west of the mississippi. chinatown and north beach are not just the most historic and oldest and some of the most important neighborhoods that we have here in san francisco, but these are neighborhoods that have very little open space, and both north beach and chinatown, we do not have front porches. we do not have backyards. we do not have many places for people to play, for young people

to run around, and was on the streets is going to mean for the residents of chinatown and north beach will be an opportunity for all of our generations to join the rest of the city and plate. for our young people, our families, and seniors, and this is why it is so wonderful to be here as part of this kickoff announcement, but also, for this new announcement about the inclusion of chinatown and north beach. these are two neighborhoods that have been in recent years working in close partnership, and i want to thank the neighborhood association, the resident groups, and the merchant groups who have come here today to partner with our city government, our city agencies represented here, as well as our wonderful nonprofits -- livable city, walk sf, the bicycle coalition, that have had this vision for many years, and i want to thank our corporate sponsors, without a home this event would not happen. i want to see all of you playing on the streets. in coming months, i will be riding on my bicycle, and i

expect to see you guys enjoying the sun or enjoying the occasional cloud. thank you for being here. [applause] >> the supervisor mentioned the importance of partnership. one of the major partners we have in this effort is livable cities, especially susan king, who handles the day-to-day operations of this program. without her, things would be a lot more difficult to manage, so i appreciate all the help she has given us. susan, would you like to say a few words? >> thank you. i would like to introduce myself as the man behind the curtain. obviously not a man, but there's a lot that goes on to make sunday streets happen. it is a wonderful collaboration between city agencies, nonprofits, social service agencies, and it is a truly wonderful collaboration, and livable city is proud to be at

the center of that, helping to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. we try to address any concerns. we are not responsible for the weather. i put in a call, but i have not heard back. we will have to see how that goes. nonetheless, this is an exciting opportunity for people to get out and explore new neighborhoods, explore their own city, meet their neighbors. we mentioned a few of our partners, and i really wanted to give a shout out to some of the groups that have played a really important part by providing resources that make this free event really possible. one big change this year is the event is going from 11 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. this change was precipitated by people who wanted more -- the event to go longer in the day, but also, because we are reaching out to religious institutions and churches, and for many of them, sunday is a day of worship. by moving it back an hour, this gives those people an opportunity to carry about with

their morning worship and still have time to come out and enjoy the day. this evolution is really going to help reach more people than we have been. a couple of our major sponsors. this year, bank of america is our lead partner, and we thank them for their leadership. at&t, another strong sponsor, both of whom are really pitching in. the bay area air quality management district is one of our long responses from going out to 2008. the department of rec and park. all of the park's that the events take place on our rec and park property. shape up, san francisco. the california pacific medical center. the american red cross provides all of our emergency medical. the san francisco bicycle coalition runs our volunteer program. california outdoor roller sports association provides the fund on

eight wheels and also a lot of the sound equipment that we use at these events. city car share, bike and roll, blazing saddles, they city bikes all provide necessary resources. the port, san francisco federal credit union. the exploratorium. you will hear later about the fisherman's wharf looks joining us march 20. thank you. [applause] ms sunday streets is all about biking, walking, and getting there by transit, so these are all very healthy activities. speaking of health the activities, we are pleased to have the department of public health as one of our major partners. i would like to introduce christine from the health department. [applause] >> good afternoon. shape up san francisco is so

excited that we are once again doing sunday streets. it is the perfect epitome of what shape of san francisco is about, creating environments that make it easy and fun for people to get out there and play, be physically active. liveable streets is incredibly important to this. i'm grateful to the city as a whole for offering this fun, safe places for people to get out and play. that is all i have to say. thank you. [applause] >> as susan mentioned earlier, one of our major partners and nonprofits is the bicycle coalition. they are responsible for helping us organize all of the volunteers, and we are totally indebted to them. we would not have happened without their support. i would like to introduce the executive director of the bicycle coalition. [applause] >> good morning. thank you, first of all, to all our friends in chinatown for welcoming us back. my first sunday streets started

out back here. was it three years ago? it is amazing it has been that long and we have grown so much. i want to echo and really recognize what mayor lee said. this really is about connecting our neighborhoods. when do we see folks from neighborhoods across the city coming out on their bicycles, their skateboards, their strollers, on their two feet, and walking, enjoying linking neighborhood to neighborhood. i love to come here and sample some of the amazing food, to go to fisherman's wharf and the they're not as a tourist, but as a local, go to the mission and check out the flavor of 24th street, to connect to ocean beach at golden gate park. this event is about displaying the best of san francisco, for those of us who live here. it is not only healthy and great for the environment. not only a great way to give the family activity at a low cost, but it is a great way to increased -- to appreciate our city, and that is what i love. i want to share also that we are really thrilled that we are seeing the spirit and lessons

learned in sunday streets come home every day to regular lives. i know several families whose children learn to ride their bikes during sunday streets. sunday streets was their back yard, their front yard, a place that their kids could learn to ride their own two wheels, and those kids are writing to school some days, to golden gate park, in joining the city on their own. it really is an event that keeps giving on regular life, too, not just on event days. and it would not happen, of course, without all of the amazing city leadership, the amazing general sponsors -- generous sponsors. it also would not happen without hundreds of volunteers. i'm going to ask right now, everyone threes' spread the word. we still need hundreds of volunteers. jack l. sundaystreetssf.com. -- check out. join us and enjoy what is i

think one of the best activities in all of san francisco. thank you all so much. [applause] >> as you know, this year's lead sponsor is bank of america. we are very pleased to have them on board and would like to introduce michele from the b of a. >> thank you very much. we are looking forward to coming down to sunday streets and taking advantage of all the help become a wonderful outdoor activities that this event will have to offer. we know that private sector support is critical in bringing these events to the community, and we are happy to be able to support these events this year. neighborhood excellence is very much a philanthropic focus for the bank, our support of these activities makes a lot of sense for us, so if you want to find out about more of our neighborhood activities, i invite you to visit our web site and find out more about neighborhood excellence initiatives.

thank you. >> another major sponsor is at&t, and we are very glad that they are on board for the last several years. >> good morning. on behalf of a native san franciscan and resident raising my family here, i can say that my five year-old learn how to ride his bicycle during our sunday streets last year. this is -- i want to thank the leadership of san francisco, our organizations, our nonprofits, our public and private sector, and i do have to thank president chiu because it was a day i was sitting in his office when tom walked in, and we started walking -- talking about sunday streets, and a couple of days later, he secured the sponsorship. certification it is about working together and connecting, and it is a great opportunity. so thank you for bringing all of us together for this wonderful

event and to help us celebrate the beauty of san francisco. thank you. [applause] >> we have both new and old partners, and one of the oldest we have in the program is the fisherman's wharf community benefit district. representing them here today is kevin carroll, the executive director. the first event is in his back yard, so he would like to say a few words. >> thank you very much. i grew up playing on fisherman's wharf, so to have an event in our back yard as exciting. fisherman's wharf wants to thank the mayor and president chiu for their support and our partnership. we started with sunday streets when it began, and we are pleased to welcome san franciscans and people from the bay area back down to fisherman's wharf this sunday. it will be nice out, and we will

host a great family event. all sorts of activities for people and families to enjoy. and our partners on pier 39 are also going to have activities at the front of their location as well as music for people to enjoy. we want to thank you and invite you to come down and enjoy sunday streets and fisherman's wharf next sunday. thank you. [applause] >> as we conclude, i would like to thank our media partners, also, for helping us get the word out, and i also see, in the audience. he is the executive director of liveable cities, whose major nonprofit partner. lastly, i want to find all the partners from our city sister agency -- agencies.

and last of all but not least, the sfmta staff for getting this program together. i want to thank every one of them for their contribution. so we will see you this sunday, and looking forward to biking, walking, and if you can make it, get there by transit. [applause] >> this concludes the press conference, but i did want to invite you -- we have the president of the north beach merchants.

>> welcome to "culture wire." on this episode, we explore what it means to the aged, in today's society -- what it means to be chicana in today's society. chica chic features an array of artwork by five leading chicana artists that addresses a range of issues such as integration, sustainability, and integration. using a distinct visual approach, each of the artist's response to the shifting needs of their communities in ways that offer unique perspectives

and multiple points of entry. >> the exhibition is to bring together the voices of a new generation chicana artists, all of whom reference the works of the civil-rights movement in their works, but they are also responding to a new cultural concerns and new cultural circumstances. >> the works in the show include a large canvas depicting a woman washing the beach with her hair at the u.s./mexican border. the painting encourages the viewer to engage with the current debates over immigration and the politics of women and labor. influenced by the campaigns of the chicano civil rights movement, this oakland artist is a print maker whose work has helped and sustainability with the immigrant community as well as other current sociopolitical issues. this print-based work draws on

appropriated agricultural worker manuals and high fashion labels to satirically address class issues, cultural identities, and consumerism. >> angelica -- her father was an agricultural worker, so she has drawn a lot from the materials the agricultural department sends to agricultural workers, referencing the depiction of farm workers and some of the information about pesticide application. >> mitzi combines a variety of media, including embroidery, to create artifacts of mexican, chicano, pop culture. she greets immensely detailed drawings of celebrities on the same platform of her friends and families. her work combines elements of chicano portraiture and low writer art, rendered in upon new art style, or intricate drawings on handkerchiefs, also -- often

associated with prison art. her portrait of three girls is among several of original posters by the exhibition artists, which are on view at various bart stations as part of a public campaign funded by the national endowment of the arts. from the outset, the curator felt it was important for the exhibition to have a public art components of the work could reach the widest possible audience. more than just a promotion, the posters connect the work of these powerful artists with new audiences, including the vital chicano and latino community. images can be found in bart stations located in san for cisco and oakland. >> it is enormously exciting for me personally and for the institution. the poster with up right after new year's, and i remember very vividly -- i am a regular rider