same sex marriages not a second time any. in contrast, in san francisco, this is what we can do, add up all these computers here. expand our capacity by x. we can open up early. stay open late and on weekends. it's unbelievable and we coordinate all the training and get all through the process and make sure everything is signed and certified. that's a model for others. what happens is, when people prove things can be done. it raises the bar for what's possible. >> i think a lot of people were here from 2004 and they knew what that was like and wanted

to take part in 2008. i think people really again, you know, stepped up and really put out their best that anybody could do in very short amount of time and literally, i think we pulled this together in 2 weeks. we put in long hours to make this all happen.

>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it

does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death.

one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his

wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to

murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.

>> i need your executive director of cnbc.

-- i am the executive director of cnbc. i want to welcome you to this truly joyous occasion, commemorating the completion of the rehab of civic center residents. we bought this building 38 years ago, and it has been through a couple of partial rehabs before now, but before now, this had leaky plumbing, inadequate electrical. it was just one, slow elevator, and a dingy community kitchen. you can see what a beautiful space it is now. we raised $30,000,000.20% of that came from the mayor's office of housing. -- $30 million and 20% of that came from the mayor's office of housing.

the department of public health is providing subsidies for the 100-plus homeless households' living here. housing and community development, enterprise. hundreds of staff people coming together to bring this beautiful project to fruition. in that sense, this is our model for preserving affordable housing in san francisco and throughout the country. for another 30 years, this will provide an affordable home for generations of low income people. with that, i would like to introduce our mayor, ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. don, it is my personal pleasure to be here, in a community that i care very much about, and that we know has a history of

struggling to exist. now we see something that reflects a lot of my values, the history that i have had with this city, having been an attorney who represented tenants who live in a lot of run-down places, to now be able to walk into these well-managed places, sro's, half of which are focused on our homeless or formally- homeless persons. i also want to recognize the incredible efforts by some in the different people who have come together to make this happen. i know a lot of these people personally. so many of the entities in

between. when deraa was describing the entities they came together to forge a $31 million it took, he named seven different agencies that had to combine themselves in different ways, including redevelopment, housing, state, and all of these entities have to work together. i am so glad that we have a mayor's office of housing that can help with a reputable community-based agency to forge this kind of relationship. because, when you are working in a building where you also promiseall of the construction g on, and when our goal is to make this building seismically safe, and when every unit gets a working bathroom, accessible showers on every floor come and

that people can live here while that is happening, that is an incredible, complex thing to do in the heart of our city in the tenderloin. tried to do that in another community, -- try to do that in another community. it is hard. you need a tight-knit community. i was walking around here this morning. it is all smiles. though they know that they have got a great place to be, for a long time. the significance of this rehabilitation has other aspects of our wealth and human for the city. its seismic upgrades. extremelif you know me, one of my passions is to be sure we

are ready for the next earthquake. for folks who could not move elsewhere, to feel safe in the building they were a part of, helped to contribute to making seismically safe, and our earnings and ability to have earthquake insurance cover them, we have a fantastic story to tell here. in addition, it has added 105 units to the whole 10-year end homeless program that we committed to. this helps to achieve 1800 units of those 3000 that we committed to building. i am sure the people that helped us write the program would be proud. these units are not just high

places for people. it is also a service. services from our department of public health and from the human services agency. a collaboration that this building represents. we have a lot to celebrate because not only is it a complex thing to do, in a needy community, but it accomplishes so many other goals that the city has articulated that are really important. i look forward to many more with the tndc. there is a lot more to do. i walk in and marvel all of the amenities that we have, and units are so precious in this community. i can only thing, how many hundreds of others wanted to be in this situation? and they would want to have a

mayor, board of supervisors, city and state agencies all working together in a less political setting, more in a community, social goals setting, where we can collaborate and put our money together and work with wonderful banks, like wells fargo, and others who are contributing to the financing of this building. it is not politics that rules the day. it is people that have great objectives that put down the barriers they can. the biggest barrier is the barrier of poverty. to put that away and to just people can live in decent housing all their lives, and the city can benefit to that goal. i want to thank everyone here who worked together on this. those that had to move tenants around in the building, keeping everyone safe. and while the construction was going on, there was a fire in the tenderloin a few months ago,

and the president needed to have an emergency place. you are standing in the very place that tndc opened up for those victims for a couple of weeks. that shows the tremendous heart and bellevuevalue that tndc hasr this city. i am so fortunate that i can be here to share this with you, and to make sure that i acknowledge all the people that put this together, all the people that will run this place. we need more of these examples in the city. so with that, congratulations. congratulations to everyone here for putting together a fantastic project. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. please welcome to the podium,

richard gross from enterprise community partners. >> thank you. i was told by three different people leading up to this that i should speak for two minutes, and two minutes only. but as you can see from the program, i have a couple of people down because some other people are not here, so now i can speak for 45 minutes. i was trying to figure out what to say yesterday. i have been doing a number of these and i do not want to repeat myself at these things. there are some standards things i could say. we have over $100 million invested in the tndc projects, over 200 million in the tenderloin, south of market. we are proud to be invested

early on and these projects, committing to the work that tndc and other nonprofits are doing. i always say that these groups are the real heroes. they are the ones that sweat blood. they are the ones that deserve the real credit. more than any of us standing up here today. i was reading the newspaper this morning, and there was an article in the paper. i said, that is my chance for a soapbox. so i will speak for two minutes, starting now. it was an article about church street -- turk street. there is a tndc project there on the corner. i want to make sure i get this right. the author who wrote this column misses the point, as he

often does. it misses the point in a number of ways. 178 affordable units, services on site. probably the bright spot on that block. if tndc had more money, the entire bloc would be in good shape. this is a fantastic project. it is also adjacent to two other large projects. there is the ambassador. so the author of that article misses that and talks about the liquor store on the corner and more police presence. granted, those are problems, but getting rid of a liquor store and having more police does not solve a problem of poverty, lack of opportunity, lack of housing.

it does not solve the problem for the need of human services for low-income people. that is the point that needs to come across. the city of san francisco is more committed to affordable housing than probably any other country. we have redevelopment agency that, despite all of the difficulties of redevelopment agencies, this one put more effort and money towards great projects. this city has done a lot for affordable housing and human services. nonprofit developers in the city that are better than almost any other group in the country. we have innovation, skills, a commitment to the city. the real problem that is missing, what is mornini want ts

morning, it is time for the government to step up and match the resources for the economic crisis we are in. we should be blossoming more projects like this. so that is my soapbox. thank you for the opportunity for enterprise to be involved. [applause] >> please welcome supervisor jane kim. [applause] >> good morning. it is really an honor to serve as a district supervisor for the tenderloin neighborhood. one of the things that is the greatest honor is being able to post some of the best non-profit service providers and affordable housing agencies in the city. it is something that i am proud of. the mayor's office, board of supervisors, works hard to squeeze everything out of every

dollar we can, to make sure that organizations like tndc can do everything they can to create more opportunity for the residents of san francisco. it is really the work of these organizations that make a real difference for the people of san francisco. really excited about the rehab work that is happening here. the answer is not just housing that people can afford, but quality housing that people can afford. the tenderloin has long been a haven for our most low-income and poorest residents. something that we have seen in the recent census data is that the tenderloin continues to grow in population, density, and is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city, hosting tons of languages and ethnicities. i am looking forward to working with tndc as they

continue to be a pipeline for affordable housing. we have a 10-year plan to build housing units for the chronically homeless. it is great to know that we are halfway there. we still have more to go, but it is with partners such as these -- and as rich mentioned, some more sophisticated and smart developers we have. it is great on days like this. thank you to the hard-working staff, here at tndc. we look forward to working with you. [applause] >> please welcome mark trotz from the department of public health. >> hello, everybody. it is free to be an event like this. tndc has been such a great partner to the health department. there are a lot of things that i

love about them, but what i truly value from them is, a lot of people are concerned with the tenderloin, talk about improved safety, quality of life, improved health for the residents, but tndc is there on a day-to-day basis, and for a long time. i cannot think of another organization whose work on the ground is actually changing the character of the tenderloin. look at the ambassador. it took a hike -- an iconic hotel that was here at the beginning of aids crisis and have turned it into how many units? 105 units of gorgeous housing. this building has been here for a long time and got its second or third rebirth, and looks beautiful.

this project, in particular, has meaning to the health department. essentially, 80 of the 200 units are part of our direct access to housing program. tndc, early on, helped us with 60 chronically ill seniors. another thing about tndc, whether we have bombs in the road, disagreements along the way, they are one of those organizations, when you work with them, they will sit down with you and problem-solving and come to a solution at the drop of a hat. we really value that, and that is the way the collaborative should be. i am certain tndc will be alive and kicking for some time. they