tv [untitled] December 30, 2011 6:31pm-7:01pm PST
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we build at over 150% of the need. we are building over the need of the market rates. we are actually building at roughly 80% of that need. so, not bad, but not great. a lot of that has happened through the work of the board of supervisors, negotiating with developers to develop very low income housing for individuals who were formerly homeless. but as you start to look at the categories, a lower income and middle income folks, we're not building for that need at all. i think we need to do more to make sure we are supporting that type of housing. one initiative i started working on was a student teacher housing which is directly in that
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income, essential employee housing. we will be releasing an rfp, which is really exciting, because we want to keep people engaged. we have to push for more. need to pass another affordable housing bond. it has come up two more times, and i hope we have the political will to support that again. >> what are your ideas about dealing with the issue of homelessness? supervisor kim: homelessness is a tough issue. we have amazing organizations that run incredible centers and services, and also supports the board of housing for the
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formerly homeless. not just providing housing, but safe housing and services -- whether it is job training for drug rehab or mental health. there are two categories of homelessness. this is on the end of been able to afford to live in san francisco. that live paycheck to paycheck. when they do not get that next paycheck, they could be homeless the next week on that level, we need to continue to support economic development, support job creation, small businesses, the act would create 60% to 70% of the jobs in san francisco. we need to push legislation white -- like local hire, which is supervisor avalos's legislation. we demand that companies hire
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folks from our city. that is one end. we have to do what we can use to subsidize other essential services, whether it is transportation or public health, so people can afford to live in the city. then you have another category of homelessness, which is chronic homelessness. it is not just living paycheck to paycheck, but other issues like mental health or drug addiction. that is a much harder population to address. i think -- the district that i represent as many of the community organizations. it continues to be a pressing problem. >> where do you think the attics and mentally ill will go? supervisor kim: first of all, a
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ton of families live in the tenderloin. people do not realize this, but the tenderloin is a family neighborhood. it in not a proponent for cleaning up the tenderloin. i love the tenderloin. i love what it is right now. you know, i recognize that we have a diversity of folks who want to live there. i do not have a problem with people being out on the streets and socializing. it is part of the character of the neighborhood. i do not think the party is something we should criminalize. that being said, we cannot have open drug dealing. i do support a foot patrol. we are currently working with several organizations or have safe passages where we have high
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school students and adults in the neighborhood. but shockingly, one of the top issues is being hit by cars, more than getting harassed by neighbors. that is something we are working on as well, traffic issues, can turn some of those streets to be two-way. another thing that we are trying to push is actually getting some business incubators in the neighborhood, because there are a lot of people who want to open businesses that cater to the families who live there. we do not have a full-service gross restore in the tenderloin, but we do have a number of -- grocery store in the tenderloin, but we do have a number of small businesses. >> what is happening with crime in your district and hal is the police department doing? supervisor kim: it is a
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difficult issue. i probably interface with the police department every week because with such an incredible need from our police officers in our district, ranging from south beach to the tender line to the intermission. -- to the tenderloin to the inner mission. i want to see our officers on the street, walking the beat, and i want our small business owners to know who they are. i think that alone creates an atmosphere of safety that is really important. i'm really excited about the substation coming up to 63. i think we need to continue to provide social services in our
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district. it has to be a partnership with sfpd. >> what about community courts? supervisor kim: i visited the court it was modeled after, which is the red hook court in brooklyn. the judge will visit the apartments or the locations talked about in the case and he has evolved this relationship of trust with the neighborhood that think is really positive. i think we are not there yet, here in san francisco. i am not sure if that is a time issue or the tenderloin is a different type of neighborhood then -- than red hook.
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i think we need alternatives to our criminal justice system. i do not think our criminal justice actually works. many of the offenders to come through our system of flood started as victims of urea the community courts is a way of addressing those offenders, which is important and what i hope to see from the community court here. i do not think we are there yet. it does not mean we cannot get there. it took several years for the judge to develop a relationship with that neighborhood. >> what are your thoughts on the city's economic development? are we on track? supervisor kim: i think economic development is a policy area our city continues to struggle with your read it is so dependent on what the state and federal government does. on the local level, i would love for us to figure out what we can
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do, because this is the heart of san francisco. as i said before, they provide 70% of the jobs here. most people do not realize that. small businesses are what provides jobs here. they provided locally and the hon not going to go, they are not going to offshore their jobs any time. i think we're in a very difficult city. we have tons of permits, tons of different apartments to go through. i wish there were a way to streamline the process, just to make it easier for them to be here in san francisco. >> what are your thoughts about expanding the tax breaks, giving business to other areas in your district? >> i talked a little bit earlier about raising taxes and raising revenues and fees, and for me, the tax exemption is something i
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do not philosophically supports. yet, i often represent part of san francisco that has been neglected for decades, and that is the midmarket corridor. we have over 3 million square feet of commercial real estate. a lot of it has been vacant for decades. the building twitter is going to be using, it has been vacant since 1968. we have to start looking at what tools do we have to revitalize the area, and what i like about this legislation is we are not just giving a tax break to come in. you have to create jobs. you pay your payroll tax base, but if you move to midmarket and create jobs, we will not tax you on those jobs for six years. for the next six years, you are a community partner with us, partnering with us to revitalize neighborhood and then, if you
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are successful in six years, hopefully and the midmarket become successful, you come back into the tax system. i do not have an interest in expanding it. it was not about corporate welfare to companies. that was not the purpose. the purpose was to help revitalize the area and make it the use is supposed to be for large businesses that have an incredible number of jobs for santa insistence. with 18 muni bus lines that -- for san francisco. we have 18 muni bus lines that run through it. that is what this legislation was carefully tailored to have that type of outcome. i am happy to concede we should monitor the legislation and make sure it is doing what we wanted
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to do. >> talk about the role of sports and in the city's future. you have thoughts about the america's cup, the 49ers? supervisor kim: i am a fan of the forty-niners and are giants and are warriors. i want them to stay in the area. one thing i love about the giants is it is so easily accessible by caltran and muni, and i hope to see that infrastructure build for the forty-niners if the state. the same thing for the america's cup. we have to make sure as we build infrastructure for major sporting events we are keeping in mind the needs of san francisco and what they would like to see come out of these events. it is great if it creates jobs and helps to raise our tax base. >> slightly unrelated, but i am
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curious how you feel your work -- how your work with the school board has prepared to for being a supervisor? supervisor kim: i will say this about the board of education. when i ran for the board of education, i really wanted to represent and make sure i had to be -- had to have a voice in the system. what really surprised me about being on the school board was how much i enjoyed it. i really loved it. i love meeting with families, meeting with teachers, visiting schools, and getting a deeper understanding of how our system works better and doing it with our communities. on that level, it prepared me for a much wider scale,, what it
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means to work for constituents, and also kind of -- you know, the low interfacing with your colleagues, working with a large bureaucracy to make it happen. it is tough. it is not easy to come before the community organizers -- working with small nonprofits, it was very unfamiliar to me, to slowly move a large glacier. >> are there any other issues that concern you we have not discussed, or any other issues of specific interest you plan to concentrate on? supervisor kim: job growth, economic development. land use. i did to represent one of the most exciting and dynamic districts in the city. i think it is exciting weekend
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model how to be a smart growth neighborhood, how we can use transit effectively to serve our city and do a lot of green-type policies we have developed over the last 10 years. but the third area of office is really interested in is how to support families in need. honestly, that is not something city hall has done in good enough job with. in many ways, we at city hall feel we're off the hook in that area, that we do not have to worry about our public schools, that other people haven't covered. i think the city can do a tremendous amount. it can do a tremendous amount for our families. one thing i learned from my predecessor, chris daly, is what we can do to ensure we are
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prioritizing parts and affordable housing for our families and -- prioritizing parks and affordable housing for our families. i think that we need to support things that our schools cannot fund, like summer school. i would love for our city, in better revenue years, to have the longest school year and the longest school day, to really model for the rest of california what you can do if you really fund schools. so, that is the third area. hopefully we will kickstart our economy back up again. >> it looks like we are out of time. i want to thank you for joining us today. supervisor kim: thank you. >> we have been talking to supervisor of jane kim.
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>> i tried to think about this room as the dream room, where we dream and bring some of those dreams to life. i feel very blessed that i have been able to spend the last 31 years of my life doing it my way, thinking about things better interesting to me, and then pursuing them. there are a lot of different artists that come here to work, mostly doing aerial work. kindred spirits, so to speak. there is a circus company that i
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have been fortunate enough to work with the last couple of years. i use elements of dance and choreography and combine that with theater techniques. a lot of the work is content- based, has a strong narrative. the dancers have more of a theatrical feel. i think we are best known for our specific work. in the last 15 years, spending a lot of time focusing on issues that affect us and are related to the african-american experience, here in the united states. i had heard of marcus shelby and had been in join his work but never had the opportunity to meet him. we were brought together by the equal justice society specifically for this project. we were charged with beginning
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work. marquez and i spent a lot of time addressing our own position on the death penalty, our experiences with people who had been incarcerated, family members, friends of friends. pulling our information. beyond that, we did our own research. to create a picture that resonated with humanity. it is the shape of a house. in this context, it is also small and acts like a cell. i thought that was an interesting play on how these people make these adjustments, half to create home. what is home for these people? the home is their cell.
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people talk a lot about noise -- very noisy in prisons. that is interesting to me. looking at the communication level, the rise of frustration of being caged, wondering, where does redemption fit into the equation here? [singing] i think both of us really believe the death penalty is wrong, and is flawed for many reasons. the list is as long as my arm -- about several others.
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we feel this is important for both of us, personally, to participate in the debate of this issue in a way that we can help people frame it for a conversation. >> just a few steps away from union square is a quiet corner stone of san francisco's our community to the meridian gallery has a 20-year history of supporting visual arts. experimental music concert, and also readings. >> give us this day our daily bread at least three times a
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day. and lead us not into temptation to often on weekdays. [laughter] >> meridians' stands apart from the commercial galleries around union square, and it is because of their core mission, to increase social, philosophical, and spiritual change my isolated individuals and communities. >> it gives a statement, the idea that a significant art of any kind, in any discipline, creates change. >> it is philosophy that attracted david linger to mount a show at meridian. >> you want to feel like your work this summer that it can do some good. i felt like at meridian, it could do some good. we did not even talk about price until the day before the show. of course, meridian needs to support itself and support the community. but that was not the first consideration, so that made me
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very happy. >> his work is printed porcelain. he transfers images onto and spoils the surface a fragile shes of clay. each one, only one-tenth of an inch thick. >> it took about two years to get it down. i would say i lose 30% of the pieces that i made. something happens to them. they cracked, the break during the process. it is very complex. they fall apart. but it is worth it to me. there are photographs i took 1 hours 99 the former soviet union. these are blown up to a gigantic images. they lose resolution. i do not mind that, because my images are about the images, but they're also about the idea, which is why there is text all over the entire surface. >> marie in moved into the mansion on powell street just five years ago. its galleries are housed in one of the very rare single family residences around union square.
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for the 100th anniversary of the mansion, meridian hosted a series of special events, including a world premiere reading by lawrence ferlinghetti. >> the birth of an american corporate fascism, the next to last free states radio, the next-to-last independent newspaper raising hell, the next-to-last independent bookstore with a mind of its own, the next to last leftie looking for obama nirvana. [laughter] the first day of the wall street occupation set forth upon this continent a new revolutionary nation. [applause] >> in addition to its own programming as -- of artist
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talks, meridian has been a downtown host for san francisco states well-known port trees center. recent luminaries have included david meltzer, steve dixon, and jack hirsch man. >> you can black as out of the press, blog and arrest us, tear gas, mace, and shoot us, as we know very well, you will, but this time we're not turning back. we know you are finished. desperate, near the end. hysterical in your flabbergastlyness. amen. >> after the readings, the crowd headed to a reception upstairs by wandering through the other gallery rooms in the historic home. the third floor is not usually reserved for just parties, however. it is the stage for live performances. ♪
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under the guidance of musical curators, these three, meridian has maintained a strong commitment to new music, compositions that are innovative, experimental, and sometimes challenging. sound art is an artistic and event that usually receives short shrift from most galleries because san francisco is musicians have responded by showing strong support for the programming. ♪ looking into meridian's future, she says she wants to keep doing the same thing that she has been doing since 1989. to enlighten and disturbed.
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