individual he knew that san francisco had to regain it's place in the world. he decided to have the tallest dome built in the united states. it's now stands 307 feet 6 inches from the ground 40 feet taller than the united states capital. >> you could spend days going around the building and finding something new. the embellishment, the carvings, it represents commerce, navigation, all of the things that san francisco is famous for. >> the wood you see in the board of supervisor's chambers

is oak and all hand carved on site. interesting thing about the oak is there isn't anymore in the entire world. the floors in china was cleard and never replanted. if you look up at the seceiling you would believe that's hand kof carved out of wood and it is a cast plaster sealing and the only spanish design in an arts building. there are no records about how many people worked on this building. the workman who worked on this building did not all speak the same language. and what happened was the person working next to the other person

respected a skill a skill that was so wonderful that we have this masterpiece to show the world today. >> i never thought i would be at a press conference in the city surrounded by a bunch of pickup trucks. here we are. these are no average pickup trucks. these have solid green credentials. san francisco has a long history of groundbreaking initiatives an enlargement of victories. this is where the latest bring innovations have been, whether

it is pursuing our zero ways to goals by 2020, when the reducing toxics in san francisco, whether it is becoming the electric vehicle capital of the u.s., this is where green innovation happens. and we practice what we preach in san francisco. every city of san francisco's department is required to develop a department action plan annually, which inventory their own emissions and sets common action targets for the department. this process engages departments that do not typically considered themselves and are mentally focused and effectively makes the link between in one of the responsibility and the financial bottom line the efficiency. requiring each city department to be responsible for the carbon footprint helps integrate the city's climate work into all levels of organizational functioning and incentivizes all employees to participate in this process. the program that we are going to

announce today will help make our individual departments sweet -- more sustainable and help us meet the goals from our climate action plans. additionally, plugging hybrid technology and its electric vehicles represent a good start towards achieving the new fuel efficiency standards that were just announced by president obama, a 54.5 miles to the gallon. this was announced when president obama noted, just as cars will go farther on a gallon of gas, our economy move will farther on a barrel of oil. when we achieve the 54.5 mpg target, it will reduce consumption from our vehicles by 40% and cut in half the amount of greenhouse gas solutions coming out of our exhaust pipe. the electric vehicles, as you may well now, building up the electric vehicle capital here in san francisco is one of mayor lee's top anbar mental priorities. we are honored to be partnering

with chrysler and the u.s. department of energy to push forward with yet another dimension of electric transportation. but first, without further ado, i would like to introduce chrysler's senior manager to tell you more about the program and to make a special presentation to mayor lee. >> good afternoon, everybody. thank you for the warm welcome, mr. mayor. beautiful weather, beautiful city. on behalf of chrysler, i am proud to present the mayor and the city of san francisco with the supply and hybrid trucks. these trucks are part of a grant received from the department of energy to demonstrate technology and further enhance the ability of engineering

organizations to implement this technology and future applications to be a part of the green energy that chrysler and bodies and to support the recently announced fuel economy rolling. we are proud to be in partnership with the mayor, and we are looking forward to work with your team over the next few years to demonstrate the technology and to learn from how they will dry data and further enhance the ability to demonstrate these applications. thank you very much. i look forward to working with your team. [applause] >> thank you. we are just commenting, as your walking up, he has been in the auto industry for quite some years. i have been working in government for some years and we are both tried to find our youth in what we do. it is need to work on something

that is fun, that is great for our country, that is very much a part of this movement that the whole country is not interested in, getting off of foreign oil and making sure we do something for our environment. this is fun because you are looking at 14 pickup trucks that have in them a hemi engine, but powered by electricity. these 14 pickup trucks will be lent to us for the next three years or free, thanks to our department of energy and their grants with chrysler's own contributions put together to allow for our city to devote one of the few cities organized across this. i know sacramento will have some of this. other states, there is only less

than a handful of other states participating in this nice experiment. for san francisco, we are probably going to be one of the hilliest cities that have this opportunity over the next three years to test these electric trucks in the most hardened ways. in other words, we are going to have department of public work'' picking up trash in these vehicles, the bureau of engineering to be looking at and traveling to all parts of the city in these vehicles, managing the projects in this city, thanks to our city engineer. different departments under our acting city administrator, including, interestingly enough, animal care and control. they will be caring for stray animals, making sure they are safely transported, and the day from our streets and into shelters, and so forth. the puc, police department,

real-estate department, a multitude of some 14 departments, that will have the chance to use these trucks and the way in which they operate. the very essence of city fleet operations. so i want to thank chrysler for allowing sanfrancisco to experiment with our department of energy, and also while we are experimenting with this, we have uc-davis as a partner. we have the director of our plugged in demonstration project. working together with the transportation electrification institute here. with their corporations, getting the data about how these vehicles are used, how they are tested, whether they can go up hills as efficiently, bringing up the cargo and animals and

tool that dpw will use, various departments inspecting buildings, streets, all of the different uses for a city fleet, all on the dime of the department of energy because they want to see these the electric vehicle properly used, the way that we use our fleet generally now. ali, they will be replacing the fleet that we are using now and saving that money. and then do what i do, i keep in mind -- i do not ever want to run out of the electric power. as i come to city hall, i asked my staff, plug it in. i try not to use any oil so that we can try to do this in the cleanest way possible. that makes it fun. it is a bit of a game that i play with our staff, but that is a game that everyone is playing with these cars.

making sure they can go the whole day without using a drop of oil. that makes it fun and challenging and keeps my mind up to use the vehicles in the proper way. it is a corporate for san francisco to do this. we declared some two years ago, in cooperation with all nine counties in the bay area, we want to be the rv -- ev capital of the world. we are doing everything necessary to make sure that we are. with the cooperation of great cities like san jose and oakland, san jose and alameda counties, we are already putting in the anxiety-recharging stations all over the bay area. in fact, the airport already has 14 charges already installed at the airport, and we have, by

the end of the summer, some 43 charging stations in our garages that are already being done. by the end of the year, working together with charge. america, coolant technologies, we will have 100 charging station within san francisco already installed. so you will not have any anxiety. one of those is in the mayor's crotch, and that will be installed in the next couple of weeks. these fast charter will be out there in a public setting. with charge. america, in the bay area, they are doing charging stations for the residents and another in the public sector for the whole bay area. so we're getting rid of that anxiety quickly and making sure that all of the automobile manufacturers, including chrysler, can develop these beat

-- vehicle the best they can, use the data, test pilot them, but ultimately, i think we will see companies like chrysler bring to market an electric vehicles for all of our citizens to use, and every city fleet is doing so. we are working with the company throughout the bay area. we are all experimenting on the different flight uses of this. this is the first time i have seen or course trucks -- really, the dpw's of the world, puc's of the world, all of the utility- driven departments in our city, to carry equipment, cargo, transport trash and all the other thing that we do, these are the workhorses. this is going to be a great test and use of federal funding. i have to say -- i have to make sure i say this.

i am happy for this moment because president obama just signed this very important debt ceiling settlement with congress. the senate and house voted on it. leader pelosi was extremely grave in her performance, getting a number of democrats to sign this. i would be looking sad, even in light of this great news, we have to keep this country moving forward. we will not have the opportunity to use the technology that chrysler is offering if we are not strong in our economics. so we are doing it right. now that we have the debt ceiling behind us, we can move forward on all these programs. i want to thank the department of the environment. alan, you are gracious in your remarks, but the department of environment keeps me up with great ideas, keeps me talking constantly about one beacon do as a city, how we can contribute to our environment. the department of the in gardening keeps me on my toes to

say what can we create? so i want to thank chrysler, the department of energy, for their grants, the uc-davis, their work with the electrification transportation education program, to make sure that we test these things correctly. if we test them right, if we use our knowledge and experience the data here, we are going to have the best performing automobiles developed by the companies that have a great interest in saving us from oil and making sure that our country moves in the right direction. this is our new economy, one that i am proud to say we are doing across major cities across the country. but we in san francisco want to lead the way. we want to be the experimenters, the ones that push out this idea that we can do it in the bay area. if we do it here, it sends a trend across the country that

they can do it elsewhere. get ourselves off of oil, into a more pollution-free society. i just thank all the people working together on this. it takes everybody working together to line up not only our educational institution with us, car manufacturers with the stimulus package fund from the government, and with our own local leaders to make sure we are doing the right thing. again, thank you very much for using your many years of leadership in the auto industry to bring forth new technology, new ways of doing things. thank you for your partnership with our department of the environment as well and department of energy. [applause] >> we would like to take questions from the press regarding the electric vehicles, but i wanted to mention the

sound system is being powered off of the battery from one of these trucks. so this is emission-free power from the public utility commission. all these trucks are equipped with an extra battery to run equipment. we want to let the media know there is an opportunity to do test runs in these trucks. there are two other individuals available for questions. we have a director of plug in vehicle research center at uc- davis. we also have jason connolly from the department of energy. he is the product manager for the chrysler pev project. now we will get questions from the press. >> [inaudible] >> how long do you charge it?

[inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> it depends on how you drive it. for the first 50 miles, that is the charge to peak cycle. that is when you are in a state of charge or the vehicle will be a regular hybrid vehicle. then you can charge it as often as you would like after. we are recommending that you drive twice a day. chieonce it goes into the chargg station, the truck driver, you get 22 mpg.

chrysler does not at this point have any production plans but is an enabler to implement this technology, modify technology come into other applications. it could be an electric vehicle or hybrid vehicle or a plugged and hybrid vehicle. that is the purpose of this demonstration program. >> [inaudible] >> it is in comparison to the existing fleet vehicles. i give you numbers on the economy, how much vehicles would be consuming, their fuel efficiency. again, mr. mayor, you have 14 vehicles. >> when you look at the 14 conventional pickup trucks that will be replaced these 14th london hybrid trucks, they will burn 7000 fewer gallons of

gasoline a year, save $25,000 in fuel cost, and avoid 91 tons of carbon emissions each year. so very significant. >> there is another piece of technology that these vehicles have that nobody else has to date. they are able to generate ac power, 110 volts and 21 portable, up to 6.2 kilowatts of ac power. that makes the vehicle a mobile generator, in essence. the of the technology we have is we are linked to the smart bridge interface. that is up to mind when you charge the vehicle, based on the best available electricity rate. you can also a blow the power back to the power grid, through the reverse power flow. if the great need our, you can charge at the lowest rate, and then when the power grid needs power, you can upload it back.

basically, selling power to the electronic company. so all of this combined with the regular conventional hybrid technology are all the enablers that we have with chrysler. >> [inaudible] >> chrysler has already announced that we will have the fiat 500 electric vehicle in production next year. >> thank you. we are now going to do the test drives in the truck. thank you.

>> is housed in a spectacular building described by the world renowned architect. it is the san francisco destination for provocative expositions and programs that explore culture, history, art, and ideas. the director of cultural affairs told us more about the mission and to give us a tour of the latest exposition. ♪ >> today we find ourselves of the contemporary jewish museum. with me is the director of the museum. >> i am so happy you are here

today. >> we're getting close to a milestone for the museum. it is your third anniversary coming up. >> it is. you were here to help cut the ribbon. it has been an extraordinary journey ever since. we welcome hundreds of thousands of people into the building. we welcome school groups, interests -- tourists. >> the addition of the museum to the cultural pantheons of san francisco has been phenomenon. you have fabulous exhibits. there is one i want to talk about, "seeing gertrude stein." >> gertrude stein is a local woman. she was raised in oakland. she was an extraordinary individual who helped create -- many people call for the mother of modernism. years ago, i was introduced to someone doing research on her. i thought it would be an

extraordinary exposition to take her and understand her at all for complexity. that is what we have on view during the summer of 2011. >> it is full of wonderful drawings, paintings, and sculpture. >> there is incredible art on view. we have photographs. we have sculpture. we have a lot of different things. we have a little something made for her by picasso. there are five different ways of looking at her life. it is not in chronological installation. it is looking at how she is portrayed in help artists, painters, and photographers presented her and how she

thought about her own style and presentation. many people think she always had short hair. it was not until she was 52 that she cut off all of her hair. the second element is called "domestic stein." alice b. toklas was her lifelong partner. they had several different homes. we know about their home in paris, the famous salon. you get a taste of what their domestic life was like. >> one thing recreated is the fabulous wallpaper. the black-and-white photos do not convey the color. >> in doing a lot of research, you discover a little tidbits. with an exhibition, at the find ways to make it come together. we found beautiful photographs of the interior of their home. then we found a tiny scrap of the wallpaper.

we saw how blue and vibrant it was. we had a designer recreate the image of the wallpaper. we had it made into wallpaper so we could all experience what it would have been like to be in their home. it is dynamic and fantastic. they seem very monochromatic because you only know them through black-and-white photographs, but they had such a vibrant life. that is what the exhibition is also trying to show. the third one is the art of friendship. picasso and matisse were part of their second family. there were people she admired and worked with. we introduced the visitors to her second family in a sense. the fourth story is called celebrity stein. what a lot of people do not know is when she left united

states in the early 1900's, she only came back once in 1934. we also have a section of every single first edition book she ever published. >> it is incredible to see all the first edition books. >> it is really impressive to realize not only was she a grand dame of paris, but she had an incredible writing practice. she was a prolific writer. the fifth level really looks at her legacy and how artists continue to be inspired by her image, work, and concept. >> this is a compelling reason for people to visit the jewish museum. you also have life and theater. >> we are a non-collecting

museum. any time you walk in the building, you will always be treated to a range of very different and wonderful exhibitions. in our first floor exhibition space, we have an exhibition on the work of charlotte sullivan. she was a young artist in berlin. the nazis came into power. her parents sent her to the south of france to live with her grandparents. she put herself in a room for about 18 months and created 1200 small paintings telling her life story through a kind of reflection. it is another example of the way we try to bring a wide range of art and experiences to our public. we want them to find something meaningful to them. >> your institution has been in this neighborhood for three years. how do you like the neighborhood? >> this is the best neighborhood. we are the luckiest city in the

world to have this kind of cultural district, to have so many museums and cultural institutions. the center of our tourist life is here because this is where the convention center is. people from near and far can be introduced to the richness of the bay area. it is so wonderful and unique. >> the city thanks you for providing such wonderful leadership and vision. >> we're so happy to be part of the city and so honored to be part of "culture wire." >> to learn more about the exhibition and other upcoming events, visit the website. thank you for watching "culture