supervisor cohen. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. you heard the long list of think use. i would also like to the knowledge our police captain from the bayview as well as a single side. this is the manifestation of community policing behind me. we have come to thank all of our elected leaders. but i am here to especially thank and pay my respects to the ambassador's themselves who have completed their technical training. not only will they be bringing safety to the san bruno avenue corridor, but they are making a fashion statement. you see these wonderful new jackets that they will be wearing. it is not easy, trust me. it is not easy to preach and bring safety first while you put it -- while looking good. i want to applaud the ambassadors for doing a good job. i think this is a fantastic example of our local hire ordinance at work, and i want

to also added knowledge that this is a response from the ground up. this is an indigenous response to public safety. the answers to our streets, bringing safety to our emerging corridors does not necessarily rest solely in the hands of the police department, but in all of our hands. when we see a crime, we must remember to report it. this particular program started many years ago, i believe in 1995. what you see today is a program that has taken language access, a desire for community policing and public safety, and matched it altogether. i am here to say thank you. i am humbled by the dedication and commitment we have found in our latest san franciscans. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor.

you have heard many times that violence has no place in any community. dr. joe marshall, the founder of the omega boys club, vice- president of the sentence to police commission, is a national recognized expert on violence prevention. omega is one of the primary partners of the ambassador program. they also provide much of the training for us. it is my pleasure to introduce dr. joseph marshall. [applause] >> i will add to my list of thank yous to the university program. the only thing i have seen that is as universally loved is this guy. let me tell you about something supervisor chu said -- president chu said -- chiu said, when that

gentleman was killed, and that warren was brought of the tea line. i know there was a lot of consternation in this district. i was at city hall. sometimes, you can make -- what is the phrase, lemonade out of london? sometimes you can turn something positive. i remember sitting in my office and somebody came together and said we have to do something. mayor lee, you were there. i want to throw out a name that you have not heard. chinese a part of an action. he was with me every week. duane johnson of the mayor's office. this idea of community ambassador is -- came to the fore. at that time, chief gascon, and

we want to keep him there, but we want to do something different. you could call that the urban core what ever you want. we thought this would be great, this would be fabulous. but it is wanting to come up with an idea, another to make it come to fruition. we went to the board. i remember talking to president chiu on the phone. chemical this off? guess what, we pulled it off. [applause] that is something that just does not happen. everybody universally loved this. i was here at the launch last year. i thought it was great. i knew it would do well. for once, the buying mission data proves that it was even better than we thought. to have this continue once again and now to be permanent is just a great thing. i happen to know them pretty intimately because they spend a

lot of time with me. i will buy for all of them. and omega is one of the community homes for the ambassador. it is sort of community ambassador week. they will be at the police commission on wednesday night, on my radio program on sunday. we will get them out as much to the public. this is one of those things that everybody should be proud of. all the partnerships involved. the city of sanfrancisco has come up with a winner. they have a tough job but a job that they are embracing and that they will do well. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, dr. marshall. chinese for affirmative action has been ahead of the curve on many issues, including race relations, civil rights, civic participation, and language access. jenny lamb is the director of community initiatives and the

first asian-american to serve on the sanfrancisco redistricting task force. we want to thank her for her leadership on these issues. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. thank you to the office of civic engagement for this opportunity to join the launch of today's permanent community ambassadors program. as we have heard, the community ambassadors program emerged during the time of crisis in san francisco last year in 2010 when a series of attacks on seniors occurred at muni stations here in the southeast. chinese for affirmative action, along with our partners, including dr. joe marshall, sharon hewitt, marlene tram, others who came together to really address the concerns of residents. we stood together and demanded change. the city responded.

you want to thank and lee, now mayor ed lee, and our supervisors for their big ship and support. many hours were spent collaborating. not only amongst advocates and service providers, but the residents themselves. every day we hear from residents the openly -- they openly expressed their struggles being limited in this profession and how difficult language is to services and knowing their rights. language access is critical, and we will continue to work to make the city as accessible to all residents. now it is time for our communities to heal. we know that when communities come together to work toward positive change, the more understanding results. as a city, we can not become complacent. it is through programs like the community ambassadors that neighbors get to know when each other, where children and

families do not live in fear when they step outside their homes. all residents deserve to be safe, respected, live with dignity, no matter what they but they are from. we call on the city to continue investing in programs that foster a tangible jobs and educational opportunity, cultural understanding, and ensure safety for all residents. congratulations to all the community ambassadors for their commitment and passion to making sanfrancisco a better city. [applause] >> thank you, jenny. before we introduce the ambassadors, we would like to make a special thank you to some of the community advocates who have really pushed and inspired us to do better, and not just once, but every day, i hear from at least one of them. you have already heard their

names, sharon hewitt, marlene tram, roger 10, eddie tseng. [applause] thank you so much, you are our inspiration. now we are going to introduce the community ambassadors team. as mayor lee said, in 2010 last year following a series of high- profile assaults, community activists demanded action. our city leaders responded. not only responded, but excelled because of their commitment and leadership. so we have concluded in june a successful yearlong pilot with very positive results, and more important, the community felt like they were a part of this program. this is all about the community, regardless of how panty the uniforms look or how many praises you hear from people. it is about the community. so i want to introduce the program lead. the project manager for the

ambassador program. richard. [applause] and someone that we call the ambassador of the mission. felix fuente. the field supervisor. as mayor lee said, the program employs 12 residents of san francisco. a very diverse. they speak eight different languages. cantonese, mandarin, spanish, a wine, samoan, and english. the majority of the embassadors live here in district 10. two live in the excelsior, one in the sunset. the ambassadors conduct their work in pairs. these teams that are really multi-ethnic provide a role model david to the community. i would now like to introduce the two team leaders. we are very proud of them and the rest of the ambassadors. [applause]

>> my name is ashley chang. i served as ambassador in the first year of this program. if you have written on the t in the past year during peak hours, chances are we have already met. i have seen the difference that we can make in this community, especially for modeling will and it limited english speaking residents. we are all happy and excited to be back in full operations. thank you for all your support. for those of you who i have not yet met, i look forward to talk to you soon. now i will have my other team lead introduce herself. >> my name is niasha vincent. a lifelong resident of district 10. i have always wanted to serve my

community, so i'm happy to be an ambassador with this ongoing program. our job is to pretty much make sure the residents feel safe and informed with what is going on with the community. i am going to pass it back over to ashley who will introduce her team. >> let me introduce my six wonderful crewmembers. cindy, and elena, have your, sue, and terry. they will be working with me to help make this a safer neighborhood. thank you very much. [applause] >> on the tea line, we are going to have jessica, leo, theresa, and will. [applause] we are already to serve the community and we look forward to

working with the residents here in the bayview and district 10. thank you. [applause] >> two short thank you and then we are done. the mta has been a key city partner for the city embassadors program. i just want to recognize deborah johnson. she has been invaluable to connecting our program to muni operations, helping us in countless ways, big and small. she is currently the acting executive director and ceo of the mta. happy to call her a friend and colleague. thank you, deborah. also here today is the external affairs director for at&t. at&t provides the cell phones and services provided for emergency calls by the ambassadors. we could not exist without the help of deputy city administrator linda young. she is also the cfo.

she makes sure we have all our resources. so this concludes our press conference. media kits are in the front of the room. thank you very much, everyone. [applause]

>> 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. the biggest issue

in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one...

supervisor chu: thank you very much, president chiu. i wanted to emphasize what supervisor cohen, and this is the same conversation we have had with the nominee, and i look forward to seeing mr. ramos and the conversations and the balance he has expressed to me, and also recognizing some of the challenges that different neighborhoods might have with having accessible transportation, usage of cars and how is he would balance that, given multiple demands there might be, such as large families among other things. so i look forward to that conversation. my parents immigrated to the united states about 30 years ago, and that probably was the most formative part of my background. growing up in an immigrant family, you learn many things. my parents raised me in southern california, and i grew up in the

restaurant business. they had a small restaurant at the time, and i was there every weekend working, and it taught me the value of working hard and what it meant to be part of a small business, a small family, and an immigrant family at that. growing up in an atmosphere in being impacted by the los angeles riots when it did occur. we were always worried watching the news to see whether or not the restaurant would be looted, whether it would go up in fire, so it was something that was a big concern and worry for my family at the time. i remember thinking even at that age how important it was to consider what the economics were in communities, whether people had or felt that they had opportunities or did not have opportunities, and what role it was that government played in those outcomes. >> [inaudible] supervisor chu: that is what really put me on the path to

public policy. so i pursued public policy both at occidental college where i went to school as an undergrad, and also uc berkeley where i pursued public policy. i work on public finance for a while after i graduated and came back to government to really pursue that. ever since then, i have stayed here and fallen in love with how wonderful the bay area is. it is a really great place to be. all around the room, you will see a lot of great financial institutions. talk to them. you will see people who can help you with financial aid. talk to them. he will see departments that might have summer job opportunities. talk to them. utilize your opportunities today. learn a little bit about what you should be thinking about in the future. generally, a very practical legislator. i like to look at what the impacts of legislation would be before really voting on it, so i

think, depending on the issue, you can move around, and that should be the way most people think, which is let's consider the facts of legislation before you actually consider it, irrespective of what spectrum it comes from and what spectrum it is perceived to be. sunset district is a great district. has many residents who are families. we have a lot of families in our district. lots of kids, seniors, people who have raised their families there for many generations. the big issue moving people is the state of the economy. how is it that we are going to be able to bring down the unemployment rate in san francisco? how is it that our future generations, our kids, and our youth are trained so they are able to take advantage of what is emerging? whether that is clean technology, technology in general, the health-care industry or other things that might be looking rosier in terms of future economic activity.

thank you. today, i am very happy to have come with you all and to bike in today. i was able to ride a bike that had a two-person seat on it. i was in the back, and we both paddle together, and one thing i wanted to say is if you bike to school or anywhere, make sure to always wear a helmet. make sure to be safe, and of course, have fun, right? in terms of interesting jobs, this has to be one of the most interesting jobs. you work on a whole host of issues all year round, and you meet so many interesting people around the way, so i really enjoyed that.