supervisor." we have been speaking with supervisor elsbernd. we will be back next time with another one of our supervisors. ♪ supervisor wiener: what we have here is a very important project and a very important

mission and a completely reasonable objection of neighbors who are concerned about a five-story building going in on their block, which is something we see in san francisco all the time, and there is nothing exceptional or inappropriate about people taking issue with the size of a building. i grow up in the philadelphia area, in new jersey, went to school up and down the east coast. i went to undergrad at duke university and law school at harvard. after clerking for a judge, i came out here and have been in here for the last 14 years. i always assumed i would go back to the philadelphia area because that is where my family is, but i was always interested in sanford cisco in terms of the city, culture, the amazing lgbt community -- i was always interested in san francisco. i am an attorney. i started off in private

practice, doing complex litigation. in 2002, i moved to the san francisco city attorney's office, where our work on the trial team, doing trials for the city and doing my own cases and supervising a team of attorneys as well. another huge issue confronting the city is the deferred maintenance on our infrastructure. we have a lot of infrastructure that has been deteriorating because we have not maintained it properly, from our roads to our sewer system to muni. we need to be much more diligent about maintaining our infrastructure. i have been interested in politics since i was a kid. i have worked on campaigns since i was a teenager. i was involved in campaigning against senator jesse helms when i was in college. when i came out here i was not initially involved politically.

i was involved in community work, helping to build the lgbt community center, doing neighborhood work, and i eventually started doing campaigns and gradually got more involved in democratic party politics. ultimately, in 2004, i ran for the democratic county central committee and ended up chairing the committee. it was a gradual process for me. by the time i started thinking about running for supervisor, it made sense because of my involvement in the community and the politics. i knock on about $15,000 -- i knocked on about 15,000 doors and a huge amount of people. the best way to learn about the city and what people want and what people's concerns are. i feel like i know so much more than before i started campaigning. i am a good liberal democrat. in the san francisco, miniature

spectrum, i am considered pretty middle of the road. one thing about me is i am very independent when it comes to the issues, and i do not vote on party lines. i judge each issue on its merit. we have provided woefully inadequate support for our transition-age youth, and when we do not provide that support, we end up causing other problems. it is not like it disappears. these are our youth, who are here in our community, and we need to make sure we are providing services for them. yesterday, we had a hearing on the dcyf budget, and i was very disappointed with one aspect of the budget, particularly the alt and backs were being eliminated -- that all add-backs were being

eliminated on a number of different subjects. i do not agree with that. i am in discussions with dcyf, and i am is hopeful we will be able to work something out. my predecessor was always committed to making sure funding occurred, and i will continue to do that, so you have an ally in me. the budget is the most eminent issue, and we do have a structural budget deficit in the city, so we need to deal, of course, with the short-term balancing our budget in a way that does not decimate city services that people rely on, but also to address our long- term structural budget deficit, and that means implementing some budget reforms. smooth out our budget process so it is not a boom/bust kind of budget. reforming our pension system and retiree health care system so that they are stable. we do a decent job providing

low-income housing. we do a terrible job providing housing for low or middle class and middle-class people, people who are working and paying taxes that we need to have here for a functioning economy, so i am looking for ways to try to fund that, particularly for essential employees like teachers, nurses, first responders. projects coming up in the city like the renovation of dolores park, which is a once in 50 years opportunity to define what the park is and what changes we want to make to it. that will be a very significant projects. [inaudible] when was the last time it rained? there are puddles. we elect our supervisors by

district, and it is very important to pay attention to the district, to be engaged in projects in the district, but we also represent the whole city. any supervisor that just focuses on the district without addressing the citywide issues is not doing his or her job. every day, i'd make sure i am working both on the citywide issues and on district issues.

within our population there are people who simply do not have access to the internet, who do not have the means to access information the way that others have, and i think that it's really imperative for government to make sure that we play a role in closing that technological divide. so you have to strike that balance between maintaining that character, but also welcoming in the new people who bring their own -- >> absolutely. >> so i love that. i love that mix, that balance that comes with it. it's hard to strike the right balance, but -- >> it really is. >> but it's there. >> i was born in guatemala and came to this country as a kid. i was brought here by my parents. and essentially grew up in l.a. and then moved up to the bay area, where i went to college. i went to stanford. my background for the first few years out of school was a practicing attorney. i worked for -- in the private

sector for a number of years and then i went and worked for the city as a deputy city attorney and then became general council of the school district here in san francisco, and through that became involved in politics and at some point decided to run for office. [speaking spanish] >> i think that san francisco really represents the best that this country has to offer. it's a place that welcomes people from all over the world, from all over the country, and it's a place that not only tolerates, but actually embraces diversity, a place

that is very forward thinking in terms of how it looks at issues. it always felt like home, and i felt that as a gala tino man that this -- gay la taken no man, that this is a place where i could be happy. now doing the job of a supervisor has been the most rewarding experience. it is really remarkable how amazing our neighborhoods are, how amazing its people are. i have a progressive outlook in terms of how i see things, and by progressive i mean we have to make government and make the city work for everyone, and that means that it's not just those who are doing well, it's also those who are not doing so well, those who have the least. but it also means making sure that the city works for the middle class. >> good evening, everyone. good evening. thank you all for being here. and when we first got into office about two years ago, we started talking to the mayor's office of workforce and economic development and trying to figure out how we can help different corridors within our

district have a better sense of what that neighborhood should look like, what its main concerns and priorities should be and a strategy for the community. and that means business, residents and the city working together to make whatever that vision is a reality. ultimately if there is a guidance on how i approach government, i believe in good government, i believe in transparency, i believe in accountability, i believe in making sure that we follow best practices. i think that oftentimes transcends the left, the middle and the right. it goes beyond that. and that's why as a supervisor i focus so much on contracts and how the city spends its money, which is not traditionally a progressive issue. but i believe that we have an

obligation to make every penny count. thank you. [applause] we are still going through a very tough economic time. we are still not where we need to be in terms of job creation and economic development. so government, i think, has to work with a lot of different folks, not only the business community, but also the community groups to see how we can create economic development that works for every san franciscans. >> one of the topics is -- [inaudible] >> as a member of the police commission, i learned that the most effective policing is the policing where you have the police and the community working together. so you need training for the police officer who's already there.

it is important to have police officers on the street and having that police presence, but at the same time, there has to be a connection between the police and the community. so i think we're on the same page. you have to make sure that you create an atmosphere where people feel safe, and i think that to feel safe they have to feel like they're in partnership. i really believe that when you are blessed with the opportunities that this country gives you, that you have an obligation to give back. i really believe in public service. i could be in the private sector and make a lot of money, but i believe that i have a duty to try to make things better for other people and to pay back to a country that has given me so much.

>> good morning, everyone. i'm jennifer mats. i'm director of the mayor's office of economic and work force development. i'd like to welcome you here this morning to the grand opening of pearls and for announcement regarding our community ambassador program here on central market as well as some increased public safety measures. without further ado, i'm going to introduce mayor ed lee and

then a few other speakers to talk about the initiatives and talk about pearl. so mayor lee? >> thank you. thanks, jennifer. >> good morning, everybody. can everybody hear me? all right. well thank you, everyone, for coming to the new pearls delux burger here at sixth and market. thank you. [applause] i want to thank silvia, the owner. jim is the manager here. thank you for managing this place. and also congratulate all 16 permanent employees who have just started here today. that's been a theme of ours. i know david chui is here. kim is here. jennifer with thank you very much, supervisors. tiffany, director of our redevelopment agency. thank you for being a great

partner on this. our chief of police, who is making sure -- because he just signed a lease right next door down the block for the sixth street substation. we're getting that bill! [applause] that is coming onboard next year and it's on its way. he signed a lease. the construction documents are getting in place. we just have to get past the little freeze the governor put on us on redevelopment. but that's not stopping the redevelopment staff from doing their work. thank you very much. all of you for the redevelopment staff, thank you for being here today. we did -- i just rode down here, we did that on the green bike lanes. we hope everybody gets the chance to do it. we'll have a meeting the next couple weeks to find the patches to smooth over even more of the green bike lanes so people can stop by right here, get their burgers and the shakes and the real shakes, not the ones on the

bike. thank you, leah, for a wonderful ride down here as well. and i also want to thank the bicycle owner, whose bike i got to rent this morning, huckle berry bicycles. thank you very much. zack sender. there he is. we're opening up his bicycle repair and maintenance shop, right up the street by the end of the month. they're going to really have a great partnership. i want to thank zack and everybody because they've been offering free bicycle tune-ups for all of the bicyclists that come down market street for many, many months. thank you, zack, for being here. look forward to opening up your place. you need to ride a bicycle to get here because these burgers are so good that you're going to want to really work them off. i know i'm going to do that as i pick up my burger and go back to my very, very long meetings this afternoon.

i want to thank jen, amy co-en, her wonderful staff. they've been working together with our redevelopment agency with the market street, the c.b.d. thank you for being there. carlin diamond from our market street association as well. the c.a.c., i need to thank them. where's john and terry bow guard? thank you. the owners of the building. thank you for being here. thank you for the construction work as well. thank you. you've all been very patient working with us, working with our mid market, our cultural district lone fund with the oewd, with redevelopment and their funding. there were many months of that when gavin was mayor to put that all together. they had great faith. just like ralph lee does. because he's the owner of a nice hotel up there, the hotel, and

he's known that this feeling of the transformation of mid market is really coming, and it's come with today's opening and a lot of people's hope continued to make sure that my office, working with the boozer, continue the positive transformation. so we have two announcements today and i want to get to them. thank you so much for being here. market and tenderloin, randy sharbg tenderloin housing. thank you for being here. we look forward to working with you on the grocery store and museum and everything else for the tenderloin. thank you very much. with that, i wanted to just brush with you alittle bit of the history here. as i said earlier, it began over

a year, year and a half ago in 2010 to really look at this corner, and when silvia and young decided ok, if we've got a little help with redevelopment, oewd, with our cultural district loan fund, all the positive things that are going on here, they made a long-term commitment to being here and they put forth a plan to open up their forth -- at least their third that they manage here right here at sixth and market, and we are embracing this opportunity because it complements show dogs, it complements all the other businesses that have benefited from the loan fund. it also complements and supports the wonderful arts organizations that have started all around here that have been the great catalysts. all the others that have been taking a little bit of risk but knowing there's going to be a big payoff. the payoff is the constant transition here.

i want to thank zendesk for being here. mikhail, thank you for being here. the substation is going to be here. the burgers that will be here as well. but i want to thank just the acumen, the faith that people have about continuing the contribute to the positive changes on mid market. everybody wants this area to succeed. everybody knows it has to succeed. for the benefit of the tenderloin, benefit of soma. and then market. we have a lot of things we want to do here. i'm going to continue moving that effort as much as we can. every week we have something else, whether it's the union on united nations plaza this afternoon. i want to thank everyone for constantly contributing to keeping the creative ideas flowing and the commitments that we want to make. it isn't just money, it isn't

just public safety. it's all of us working combined. it's having the employees walk these streets and spending their precious dollars on supporting the small businesses. it's making commitments and keeping to those promises, however long they have been made, to make sure we deliver on them. all of the community who's lived here for many, many years, deserve us fulfilling our promises. that's what we all want to continue doing. we made a lot of promises in the past. i'm going to keep fulfilling the old ones that we've always wanted to make. we're going to keep bringing more people down here, keep this lively, keep it safe. i want to thank silvia for being here, all the employees. we're creating jobs. 16 permanent new jobs right here on this street.

they signed the papers quickly enough, they'll get the payroll tax exemption. just like sven did. there are 80 employees today. by early next year, there will be 150 new employees, so that difference will take advantage of that payroll tax. thank you very much. the second announcement i want to make in this excitement is that we talked about how to make this area safer and cleaner. while the substation is being constructed and built and the chief's already made that commitment, we've already made the commitment that will keep the mobile van right here in front of the sixth street site, so that the officers know the commitment is very strong and you're going to see officers walking this beat very visibly. at the same time, we're not just

content with police. community policing is not just about them. it's about how the community responds. there's a program i was responsible to help create, when there was some degrees of violence in the third street corridor last year, and we responded with a very positive program called the community ambassador program. and we've taken that idea, working very closely with my very good friend and department head adrian pawn, who heads up the sisk engagement division. she's brought here the current staffing of the community ambassadors program that works on our third street corridor, they're wonderful people. we personally hired them from the community in d-10 and now they're going to also add d-6 residents to their work force and they're going to start the market street community ambassador program with all of you here. and they're going to go for 10

employees working alongside d.p.w., working alongside the community shines program, the community guides that are already here who actually helped clean the streets and they're part of the c.b.d. program here. they're going to work with everybody here, but they're going to be trained through the police academy to be additional eyes and ears for all of the visitors, all of the work force located here, and everyone who wants to be here and the feel -- it's not just being safe, it's also feeling safe. and having additional eyes and ears that are trained very, very well by our police acadny, and thanks again to the police department for training them. they're going to be here from -- i think it's like 10:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, just making sure -- 11:00 to 8:00, making sure that three zones from fifth street all the way to 12th street along market is covered, that people feel safe,

so if you're preoccupied with your headphones or other things that you're doing, they're going to watch out for you and they're going to be here in the hours in which the employees want to be here and feel much safer. so those eyes and ears will be kind of what we feel is an escort, they'll watch folks, guide them. if somebody says hey, i have a bunch of groceries, i feel a little unsafe, it's a little dark during these winter months and they need maybe an escort to their cars or hopefully the bicycle racks or to where the ultimate park. i want to thank the community ambassadors because they know that working alongside our officers, they're community folks. they want their they're wrong folks that they live with feeling safe as well. they will be multi legal. multi-cultural. they will be extra sensitive. those announcements i want to make today along with the

opening of pearl posted the luxembourgers, and hopefully, all of you will get a chance to have a burger if the lines are not too long. when you get it, you can either each year or join all of us at the latin dance. it starts at noon. you can walk with the ambassadors all day long, too. they get a good work out as well. those are the things we are announcing today, but there is a lot of fights. these are just milestones of things that have been in place. i want to thank all of the residents who have been here. they continue to be patient. they see the changes coming along. they are with us on all those changes, and this transformation is real. it is one that i have personally committed to. i am going to be down here and tell everybody wants to be down here locates here. congratulations, everyone. thank you very much.

[applause] >> as the mayor said, it certainly takes a village to do the work we are doing, but it also requires leadership, and we are lucky to have the leadership of supervisor kim to help us. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you appeared almost exactly six months ago, the mayor, president chiu, and i stood across the street to announce the spirit we talk about a vision we had, which, as many of you know, mid market has suffered the highest commercial vacancy rate of any court or in san francisco for over 50 years. we talked about the hope we had for pearl's deluxe burger moving in across the street, the hope for twitter. six months later, we have a company that has already moved in across the street.

this women of color-owned business has opened on the corner of sixth and market. three things our office has been concerned about. one is public safety. we are happy to say that the sixth straight substation leases science. we have our community ambassador program, and we're working closely with community planning and development to but more crosswalks on sixth street. something residents have talked a long time about. how we make sixth street safer to cross. second is economic revitalization. we want to see businesses come to mid market. that is what market street corridor was created for. we are finally seeing some of it happening. some of it was policy we passed, but a lot of it is a real commitment the city has seen, and we have so many amazing community partners that have dedicated years before we came to this point to develop plans dedicated years before we came to this point to develop plans