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]

>> alright. good morning. it is a beautiful sunny day here in the bayview, right in the heart of the baby. is a great day to be here. we of great things we are talking about today. i am the director of public works for at least a little bit longer. happy to be here with this great group of folks behind me. i am going to introduce the folks who will speak, but just a little context here. there is a lot -- there are two themes coming together here we are talking about today. one of the themes is our neighborhoods. neighborhoods of san francisco are what make san francisco. for those of us who live here, they have an identity. they have a character. we want them looking good. the commercial corridors in our

neighborhoods are the lifeblood of the neighborhoods. it is where we come to shop and to be and to walk around. it also happens to be were the greatest need is in terms of keeping the city clean. we want to be strategic about where we deploy our resources. said that is one of the themes here today. -- so that is one of the themes here today. the second theme is jobs. when maoyr lee -- mayor lee came into office, he recognized that as one of his priorities. we have a great, new, strong ordinance, a new law in place.

the one thing the mayor has been singing from day one. we need to think beyond construction. we need to think about the private sector, elsewhere in the public sector. neighborhoods and jobs coming together is why we are here. without further ado, the man who is responsible for all of this and has been leading this great city very well for the last seven months or so, our mayor, ed lee. [applause] mayor lee: thank you, ed. thank you, public works. as you know, i used to head the agency. thank you. you have been helping keep our city clean and keep the projects

going and keep the employment that is so vital to the city up and keep the projects going to full completion, whether it is generally hospital or the library programs. i also want to think -- i also want to thank supervisor cohen. this is about promises we have heard from many, many years. and i want to thank her for being aggressive on this, because these are old promises that our city has made to communities like the bayview for many, many years. it takes new talent to keep those fulfilled. so, her office, with the mta getting their funding, and the department of the nine men -- putting all this funding together to work on the corridors program and to work with redevelopment and work

force development to make sure we are there as well. these programs combine to hire san francisco residents, to use a very valuable program verysf -- very valuable program called sf shine. and to work with a nonprofit she heads up. combining all that fulfills a promise that supervisor cohen and i have been talking about for a long time. how do we get back to cleaning up our streets? business facades that helps small businesses. how do we bring pride and economic development at the same time, and how do we breed hope

in people by locating shops that pay well? we also do that with a principle i have always held, and it is one i have had reflected in our relationship with the labor union. we do it with our labor friends. we do it with their apprenticeship programs. and while we have a pre- apprentice at the -- pre- apprentice ship program if we have an apprenticeship program. that apprentice ship program has been one in that opportunity to work with. the local labor unions have always found a way to work with the city. they have found it this way, and working with us and freeing up their resources to help establish a mission

neighborhood district center and having a nonprofit host their pre-apprenticeship program, they are providing financial resources as well as their apprenticeships rules directed program. we have done this the right way. i know everyone put a lot of valuable time into making this sunrise and putting all the funding together with the various departments coming together. what we have in store will cover 175 blocks in the city. the most gritty, i get the most sensitive ones that are commercial -- the most ready, yet the most sensitive ones that are commercial corridors in the city. they have already been through the hiring process. these individuals a proven they want to show up to work.

it is a world-class economy, and to let folks know the folks who will be cleaning streets, removing stickers from polls, cleaning graffiti, i want you to know, you are part of a world- class city. you are part of a work force that keeps our world-class status here. i do not want you to think you are just part of a street cleaning program. you are not. you are part of a world-class city. just like the labor union, the department of the environment. we take pride in connecting everyone up. it begins in our neighborhoods. but it ends with the whole city's world-class status. and we could not do this without everybody feeling the same y. they are part of the work force, some 26,000 people that served in the city, and they are part of a world-class standard. so, i want international

tourists to be visiting this restaurant and to know that it was part of sf shines, part of a program at the neighborhood level, but they have world class people to serve them better part of our revelation of businesses along the first street corridor, and i am so proud to be down here to kick this program off with supervisor cohen, knowing that it has the world-class touch to let. we have been feeling isolated, disconnected. we do not want that to happen. we want to make sure that those on third street feel a part of the. we did this with the renovation of the t-line.

it is an old promise, being led by new leaders like malia cohen. thank you for all the departments of come together on this. we have been talking about this for many months. especially last year when the budget had to be cut for the corridors program. we said, we are not going to let that stop was. mohamad talked about this, saying, how are we going to restore pride? we have to do it through at job creation. have to do it the right way. everyone has had combined efforts. even the puc, with their money, they know keeping track out of the water drainage system, that will all flow in when it is raining, they will be a better performing utilities commission on this. so, they put their money in.

everybody has done is the right way. mostly, i am proud of all of the residents here giving up hope that they can have these jobs that are modern jobs. with that come my congratulations to everybody. congratulations to all the department's. -- with that, my congratulations to everybody. all the 175 blocks to bring all level of planning, and a level of civic pride. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. maher. he kind of breeze over it, but i do want to note -- when he took office, he was facing a more than $300 million deficit he had to close. building the budget, he was focused on cutting in a way that

was responsible. but it was mostly a cutting exercise. when we went to him and said, we actually need to grow, sir, it took a lot of courage for him to make an investment as part of this budget. which he did. that, you could say, was may be the easy part. he proposes the budget, and then he has to turn to the board. the board was faced with a lot of demands for a small amount of resources. supervisor cohen was a great leader. they saw the value in this investment. investing in our neighborhoods, investing in our people be buying -- investing in our people. so, i do not want that to be lost in the fact that the mayor and the board have taken a courageous steps in making those dollars available. representing the board today,

we're in her district, you're great supervisor, supervisor melia -- supervisor malia cohen. supervisor cohen: i want to talk about mayor lee. he is so may your role now. there was a time when he would go to the microphone and say two or three sentences. those days are gone. he took all of my talking points. i want to commend his leadership in office, what he has been able to to. he has honor his commitments. everything he said he is going to do, he has done. i just want to also acknowledge -- thank you for being a business on that the third street emerging corridor.

you've made donations for a lot of our meetings. this is a beacon of hope. we are not stopping here. we are working along the third street corridor. steps that we are taking today are going to assure that folks who come to san francisco are going to come along the corridor and shop and spend their money and be able to see and feel the committee -- the community we have here. we will not be deterred by negative energy. we will continue to move forward in bill. i am glad to see the bayview here. it is today we kicked off the ambassadors program. -- yesterday we to adopt the ambassadors program. the commitment we have to the community is on wavering.

we are going to be here. i will be here with the department heads the banking or screaming, they will be here. hello? 35 members. this is local hire at its finest. at one to introduce vivian. everyone needs a visionary. everyone needs a visionary on their team. she runs the sf shines program. i also want to acknowledge our third street management corridor. we and many partners year that will make this community robust and drive. with other partners. we have these san francisco housing development corp. i could go on and on. it is important that we continue to show thankfulness and a

strong sense of gratitude. we do this work on a daily basis. i want to come out here and reiterate my commitment. is on wavering. i will be here in good times and bad. i will bring it the mayor and everyone else with me. i want to let them know the role they are playing along third street is important. you are, in many ways, the ambassador. it is important we keep the bayview clean and make it sparkle and shine. when we start to see pieces of trash, that sends a message to the residence that we do not care. today, we are watching and we are taking back third street. like i said, one block at a time. thank you, everyone. >> thank you, supervisor cohen, for your leadership.

i will not be coming kicking and screaming. and just so you know, the mayor already gave me your list of concerns about the muni coming through your district. the supervisor talked about this program, and putting folks to work is really resuscitating a program started years back. the reason why this is called a partnership is because it is not just about the city coming in and clean. is about a partnership with our businesses and residents in these corridors. in each one of these corridors, we work hard to establish relationships with the merchants to help educate in terms of responsibility for keeping the city clean, and to work with them to find out what we needed to jointly, collectively to make the city as beautiful as it is, to make it the world-class city the mayor spoke about. we have a great