my friends came from a non-immigrant family. the other thing growing up in this climate is how polarizing the issue is. it seems like there has been a battle between people who are pro immigration and people who are anti-immigration. but i think, especially seeing all the faces here, just putting faces on this issue makes it so there aren't two sides to this people, that there are two grooms of people opposed to each other. somewhere down the line, all of us came here at some point, except the native americans. but yeah, i think like my mom said, just getting our voice out there, really are part of the same society, and i think our society has faced a real moral crisis where we have family values that are opposed to what our policies and laws

say, and we are splitting up families. i have friends who were born here and don't speak a word of spanish and could be deported and couldn't communicate with anyone. i think putting these faces out there and showing people that immigrants are a vibrant part of civic life, that that is a really important thing for the cause. thanks. >> thank you for your comments. they are duly noted. commissioners, we are coming to close here. are there commissioners who would like to make any comments? ok. commissioner? >> first of all, i want to thank everyone who is here tonight. i want to thank the centers. but i especially want to take time to thank the people from the immigrant rights movement who are here tonight and who are not here tonight for other reasons.

i think that san francisco -- anybody who has been here in san francisco for the past six months or year, we have seen a huge battle to really defend what we have won in the past 20 years around sanctuary city. i was glad to hear testimonies from were tonight, and i think that this commission has played a very important role in passing the change around the indictlement. this commission held a hearing with hundreds of people who came to give testimony. nothing that happens in the city, nothing that happens in the country happens because somebody wakes up one day and makes it happen. it happens because every day people organize and push for it to happen. this commission exists because of organizing of people.

and like they have said, it is important for us as commissions, and i myself commit to going out in the community and really talking about it. a symposium doesn't happen in a room like this. real change happens when we go out and talk to people. a lot of people can speak with their own voice around their own issue. i am committed to them, and as a commission i hope we can work to make that happen. this is a beginning, and i have gotten a lot of good information. to have representatives from congressional offices here is important. i want to say thank you to every one of you, and i want to recognize the san francisco immigrant rights movement for their work. thank you very much. >> thank you, commissioners. i want to rhyme my commissioners -- want ll, who

has scared me to death. after we hear all this, and he sounds like the problems are worse in washington. but are there any things positive you found in washington that have happened? >> there's a new president. [laughter] >> there are -- the enforcement priorities have changed somewhat. there are the voices of progressive immigrant rights folks are being heard. what you heard me articulate earlier is my best judgment of who is getting the better of that arm wrestling, unfortunately. but yeah, i mean there are good proposals floating out there in terms of backlog production, in terms of restraining ice, in

terms of potentially different types of visas that are more fluid. i wish i could say i was confident in that. i fear the worst because of what we are witnessing on health care reform. >> thank you. >> welcome to the commission. thank you for joining us this evening. this is his first commission hearing. >> i actually also had a question. we have heard a lot about sort of economics and family reunification. but i think there is the long-standing tra transition of framing immigration law. i think that has been absent from this conversation, and i

was wondering if there is anything you can offer about current political ideologies affecting immigration reform. >> you can go first. >> all right. i think that 9/11 was a watershed in immigration generallyly because we were at a moment where it seemed like there was some real consensus in moving forward on immigration reform. after that congress really went in the opposite direction, focusing on really keeping people out of the country. dan said this at the beginning of the evening that we have seen in the last eight years a mindset that is -- somehow or other that immigration is a negative and that our country is better off when we are tightly restricting who comes in. i think that there is movement

away from that. i think there has been a lot more work in energy, and a growing group of new citizens, naturalized and voting, who are changing that dynamic. but we're fighting the remnants of that every day. and i think the fact that. gration has been used as sort of a substitute for a -- immigration has been used as a sort of substitute for things that people are upset about, and it becomes easier to kick the immigrant. we see that with the restrictionists and the hate movement. those are the kind of things we are fighting against. some of that sells politically. the challenge is, as cindy was saying, in other parts of the country, really getting people

to see that being against immigration is being against america, and that we have to reframe the analysis that way so that people can't hide behind it and use that as their basis for bad votes and sort of running away from the issue. >> thank you. once department, thank you, panelists. >> i will make my comments. when i heard bat, for me it was good because it was like a recharging of the batteries. i needed that because i had been drinking the kool aid of the bad stuff out there and believing maybe there was no hope. but like most of you, i do believe there will be. i remember bart's story, that

when we did go back to washington, the irish group. and we walked right back out. it told me that democracy is alive and well. after the kennedy-mccain bill failed, it disappointed me because i thought we were really close. we didn't just have an immigration problem, but we also had a public relations problem, and he talked about that this evening. you have touched on it so many times. that is our strongest ammunition here in our arsenal. we have to get our own lou dobbs on the air, and we have to get him educating the people on the pluses and how immigrants are the backbone of this country. i am going to close out the hearing. this concludes tonight's

symposium. on behalf of my fellow commissioners, we thank you for coming here. i would like to thank our assemblyman, the staff, the san francisco board of supervisors, david chew, our speaker and our panelists, our partners and collaborators, and most of all to the members of the audience and immigrant communities who are represented for which we exist, thank you for coming here this evening. we have learned a lot and are well educated for going forward. please look for a written report on these proceedings by the end of the meeting. also we look forward to a report on april 13, 2009 of the joint hearing with the human rights commission by the end of the year. thank you all for coming here this evening. [applause]

>> the meeting is adjourned. >> i came out to san francisco about seven years ago. i was trained as a carpenter.

i got sick of the cold weather and the hot weather. i wanted to pursue art. i thought i really be here for about three years. here i am, 7 years later. ♪ i have problems sleepwalking at night. i wanted to create a show about sleep. a mostly due painting kind of story telling. these are isolated subject matters, smaller studies for the larger paintings. i fell in love with it and wanted to create more of them. it is all charcoal on mylar. it is plastic.

i was experimenting and discovered the charcoal moves smoothly. it is like painting, building up layers of charcoal. it is very unforgiving. you have to be very precise with the mark-making. a mark dents the paper and leaves the material embedded. you have to go slowly. the drawings are really fragile. one wipe and they are gone completely. it is kind of like they're locked inside. all of the animals i am showing are dead. i wanted them to be taking -- taken as though they are sleeping, eternal sleep. i like to exaggerate the features of the animals. it gives it more of a surreal

element. it is a release subtle element. -- it is a really is subtle elements. the range of reactions people get is that normally they get what i am trying to achieve, the sense of calmness, it's really gentle state of mind -- a really gentle state of mind, i guess. ♪ [music] paratransit is specialized transportation for seniors and people with disabilities who are unable to use the muni system. in san francisco, we're proud that we've had a paratransit

program since 1978 long before it was mandated by the americans with disabilities act in 1990. san francisco is a unique city and our paratransit program reflects this. we have a network of services, including sf access van service, paratransit taxi, including wheelchair accessible ramp taxi and group van which serves groups of individuals going to a single location like a senior center. [music] >> i'm elsa scott and i'm a retired federal employee and i'm a native of san francisco. i use paratransit because, i've been using it for about six years because six years ago i had to start dialysis treatments at cpmc. so i'm very dependent on paratransit three times a week, coming and going..

my current driver is brian berquist.; he's just such a friendly, sort of a teddy bear kind of a guy. i don't know what it is about brian, but all of us old ladies want to feed brian. [music] >> hi, my name is fred lein. i'm most proud of driving a ramp taxi since the beginning of the program in 1994. [music] >> fred, you are the absolute best! thank you fred for providing transportation for me and opening up my social life, and taking care of medical appointments, taking care of my mother [music]

>> hi, my name is ann bailey and i've driven for luxor for almost five years now. i drove for desoto cab for 10 years prior to that. i drove in 1976 for the old, old yellow cab. this is frances mecchi and i've been driving her for about 11 or 12 years to her alzheimer's day program, which we call the memory club. every day when we drive through the presidio she'll say, "oh goody, you're taking me through the enchanted forest." [music] >> my name amr a.mahmoud.

i am like 49 years old. i have been driving cab more than 13 year in general. then i drove a ramp more than 3 years. this is my fourth now. i have been enjoying doing the job. i like every moment of it. >> thank you amr. [music} >> hi, my name is peter and i'm a paratransit driver for medsam, and this is north and south of market where i pick up my group and drop them off at home. >> thank you , peter! [singing] you are my sunshine.

very good driver. she says driver is very good. number 1. [music] larry mingo, mobility plus driver, san francisco paratransit. >> thank you, mingo. >> you're welcome. >> hi, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. thank you. [music] >> thank you, larry mingo. >> hey larry mingo, you are awesome. thanks for a great, great job you do for us. appreciate it. >> thank you, mingo. [music]

>> hello, my name is james fells i've been working with paratransit for 13 years now. i get a kick out of the job; i like helping people you know when they need help to go shopping or getting picked up at the medical building. i really like helping people and that's why i've been working so long. >> hi, my name is kalani. i'm a driver with mobility plus. i love my job! and i've been working, i've been a driver since may and i'm pretty satisfied with the company. so, two thumbs up, hope you guys have a nice day. >> sandra johnson and i've been working for mobility plus for about 4 and a half years. i love it. this is my job and i love it. it's very rewarding for me. one of my proudest moments is one of my clients left his cane on the bus and i've been picking him up now for about three years so i know that that cane was important to him. and i had dropped him off and i

noticed the cane later on that day so i kept it with me and when i went back down to la play, when i worked my way back down there on a break to give it to him, he kissed my hand, 'cuz he can't talk. so he grabbed my hand and he kissed my hand. it just made me know that that was an important thing for him. so that was my proudest moment. [music] >> one couple who were riding with us, morning and afternoon, mr. and mrs. lee. mr. lee was the dialysis patient and he's probably in his 80's and every time we would drive up to buchanan street, the hospital, mr. lee would say, "good job, fine driver, number one driver" and he would go like this [thumbs up gesture]. and then as brian would be helping him off the van, mr. lee, i heard him so often say, "brian, if anybody gives you any trouble you send them to me and i'll take care of them."

and here great big old brian would say, "henry, you're the first one i would try to get help from." and he says, "the second one is elsa." [laugh] so we knew that we were being relied on by brian. a few weeks back, mrs. lee called brian early in the morning to tell him not to bother picking them up because they were already at the hospital. mr. lee was ill and she had taken him to the er. the next day or so, brian, on his lunchtime, found out that mr. lee had been admitted to the hospital and he went up to mr. lee's room and just stuck his head in just to say hello. and the minute mr. lee saw him he went [gesture thumb up in the air] like that. and mrs. lee said, "he's telling you again you're number one driver. so brian really appreciated that; he thought that was really sweet. but he could see mr. lee wasn't doing so well so he left really quickly. and unfortunately, mr. lee

passed away that evening. that had a great impact on brian and me. it was very sad, but it was so touching that he had seen mr. lee and mr. lee had confirmed that brian was "number one driver." >> this is san francisco paratransit. it's not perfect; we have our ups and downs: late trips, frustrated customers, stressed out drivers. but at our best, we get our riders where they need to go on time and with a smile. and when we pay attention real carefully and notice what's happening on the van, taxi, or at the senior center, we notice that our drivers make a difference in the rider's lives and the riders make a difference in the drivers lives.

>> the public wants to access particular information about your house or neighborhood we point them to gis. gis is a combination of maps and data. not a graphic you see on a screen. you get the traffic for the streets the number of crimes for a police district in a period of time. if the idea of combining the

different layerce of information and stacking them on top of each other to present to the public. >> other types of gis are web based mapping systems. like google earth, yahoo maps. microsoft. those are examples of on line mapping systems that can be used to find businesses or get driving directions or check on traffic conditions. all digital maps. >> gis is used in the city of san francisco to better support what departments do. >> you imagine all the various elements of a city including parcels and the critical infrastructure where the storm drains are. the city access like the traffic lights and fire hydrants. anything you is represent in a

geo graphic space with be stored for retrieval and analysis. >> the department of public works they maintain what goes on in the right-of-way, looking to dig up the streets to put in a pipe. with the permit. with mapping you click on the map, click on the street and up will come up the nchgz that will help them make a decision. currently available is sf parcel the assessor's application. you can go to the assessor's website and bring up a map of san francisco you can search by address and get information about any place in san francisco. you can search by address and

find incidents of crime in san francisco in the last 90 days. we have [inaudible] which allows you to click on a map and get nchldz like your supervisor or who your supervisor is. the nearest public facility. and through the sf applications we support from the mayor's office of neighborhood services. you can drill down in the neighborhood and get where the newest hospital or police or fire station. >> we are positive about gis not only people access it in the office but from home because we use the internet. what we used to do was carry the large maps and it took a long time to find the information. >> it saves the city time and money. you are not taking up the time of a particular employee at the

assessor's office. you might be doing things more efficient. >> they have it ready to go and say, this is what i want. >> they are finding the same things happening on the phone where people call in and ask, how do i find this information? we say, go to this website and they go and get the information easily. >> a picture tells a thousand stories. some say a map