to be their best while demonstrating respectful and responsible leadership wherever she is. [applause] [applause] gerald is at inner-city youth where he incurred as other people to be leaders. gerald is also praised for his perseverance and compassionate speaking out against violence. he recently completed the program at city college where he focused on green technology and will soon transferred to louisiana state university.

he will be missed. [applause] [applause] lauren dangerfield, 16, has led the forefront of campaigns for people winning in time of rights. -- employment rights. she also institutionalized ethnic studies. she is working to build more awareness on working to bridge the gap between ecology, race, and community. [applause]

[applause] lucky fisher travis, 17, is a youth supervisor with new ideas. he strives for greatness and also pushes and support this project leaders to envision britain is in themselves. -- greatness in themselves. [applause] [applause] michellechu, 17, is a committed youth board member and on the youth empowerment advisory

board. she is a college-bound ambassador in march from mentor school, where she is a wonderful model tutor. michelle is a responsible and motivated later working to bring you up voice to her community. [applause] nataliegranados, 18, has been a leader in the grenada movement where she had been in the budget crisis and have bravely spoken at the bourse supervisors. she has advocated for sense of participation and funding to be restored to our city's quality youth programs. [applause] [applause]

roblin bonner, 18, is an outspoken member of the youth leadership. roblin graduated from downtown high where she was a passionate role model and advocated for youth to be more engaged in the political process. [applause] [applause] -- 17, pawlenty first single occupancy sro in the chinatown development center. he also wrote a grant proposal to create a bilingual fire

safety and emergency preparedness curriculum along with emergency kits for each participating sro unit. [applause] [applause] valerie clinker is a voice of community change in front and behind the camera. she was a guest youth analyst at the third anniversary women's pioneer awards ceremony and presented gina davis with the woman pioneer award. she was also named valedictorian of the changing program. [applause]

last but not least, a nasalee, 18, spearheaded the 16th street bart installation about gender which infused her passion for art and activism. an asset is a second year career educator at the arid and engaging facilitator of the group trend magic rashid is committed to becoming a visible and zero allied to the transgender community. [applause]

[applause] >> thank you, supervisor mirkarimi, kim, mayor. once again, we are all here to honor and the phenomenal accomplishments of these 15 new four years. it has been a blessing and give to work with these wonderful warriors. thank you all for sharing this memorable day with us in honoring the 2011 youth warriors. these 15 are shining examples of what it means to be a warrior and is a gift to myself, the family, friends, nominators, and importantly, to the city and county of san francisco.

we all appreciate everything you have done. thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. [applause] the youth empowerment fund would love if you joined us for refreshments. please take some time to meet with the warriors and we also have photographs. thank you in helping us celebrate the 2011 you for your awards and ceremony.

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. >> this is holly lee knox. there are some proud pet owners in san francisco and they have brought all their pets here to strut their stuff. >> it's an annual event that we've had. this is our 18th year. we bring in rescue groupers, vendors, supporters, lots and lots of animals. it's a proud day for us and for the animals of san francisco.

>> the costume contest is really fun. people get really creative. it's a really fun event. people go all out, create costumes, buy costumes, whatever it is. but there's some really fun ones. >> we're just celebrating the pets and just their companionship and how they are invaluable. so everybody's having fun. >> we're the city's open door shelter. that means we take in every animal that comes through our door regardless of age, condition, species, everything in the city comes through us that is in need. >> animal care control, it is such an important agency and is very understaffed, has very few resources. but we make animals don't have a home, that we get them a home and that we

don't put the animals to sleep, that we're able to adopt them out. >> we have a huge number of volunteers who come in and they will walk our dogs, socialize our animals, play with cats, play with them, bring them to adoption events today. >> i volunteer with the animal control center and i do that every week. >> we're in an organization called friends of a.c.c. with that organization, you can donate money if you don't have time. if you do have time, you can come down to the shelter and volunteer to actually have one-on-one time with the animals. if you're like me and you don't have time to give to an animal, if you actually have one of your own, you can get your fix on the weekends, come in and pet them and love them and it's great. >> this has been pet pride 2011

brought to you by san francisco animal care and control. to find out more, visit them on the web at sfgov supervisor chiu: i fully appreciate the concerns raised by some tenant leaders. i would never supported the

project if i did not feel comfortable that tenant rights have been protected here with parker said -- part merced. i say this as one of the few tenants on the board of supervisors, who has been a staunch advocate of tenants before i was elected and with my votes on this board. my parents immigrated to the united states in the 1960's, and i was the first kid born in the u.s. my parents sacrificed everything so that their kids could have the opportunities that they wanted when they came here. i grew up in the boston area, live in different parts of boston, went to a catholic high school in dorchester, which is a section of boston. because of my parents work and the opportunities they gave me, my brothers and i were all blessed to go to harvard university. it was intense. i stayed there for college, for law school, and i also have a master's in public policy there. those are subjects i decided to

study in part because i was very interested in public service and public policy issues and government. i ran for office in part because i wanted to serve the city and really protect all that is so special about what san francisco is. >> we've been talking for years about how important it is to build new neighborhoods, to develop affordable housing, make sure we have transit-oriented sustainable green development that really is worthy of a 21st century san francisco. what we're doing today -- and, frankly, what we're doing this year will have impacts on the city for decades to come. thank you all for being part of this, and i look forward to that mid-cutting. i moved to san francisco 15 years ago for all the reasons that we all love our city. our cable cars. our hills. the diversity of our neighborhoods. and have loved every minute of being here. >> like many of you here, i did not actually grow up in san francisco. i grew up in another part of the country that was not quite as

tolerant or quite as diverse. san francisco drew me, as i think it through all of us, because we live in a very special place. i just want to say on behalf of the board of supervisors -- we have a special responsibility and a special leadership role in the world. as we come together, we symbolize all of this date we have in humanity, the faith we have in the fight for civil rights, the faith we have, frankly, as a common family. >> i consider myself someone who shares the progress of value that need san francisco's -- many san franciscans hold dear. >> i do believe that a majority of this board share the same progressive values, and i think there is a danger and an overly narrow definition of what is progressive.

we have to remember that being progressive stance for values of inclusiveness, of tolerance, of acceptance, and we need to think hard about how we characterize various votes of either being within that definition or outside of that. >> before i ran for office, i worked in san francisco as a criminal prosecutor and a civil- rights attorney and really got to understand how much of a beacon to the rest of the world san francisco is for social justice. i also been spent a number of years helping to grow a small business, got to understand the innovative spirit here in san francisco. at night, i volunteered as a neighborhood association leader and also as the chair of an affordable housing organization and learned so much about the challenges facing our neighborhoods and facing a really special tools that are the urban villages that we live in. sen for assistance -- facing

really the special jules -- jewels that are the urban villages that we live in. san franciscans during campaigns read everything they are sent in the mail. love to meet candidates. a gauge with them in conversations. i also learned how important it is to build bridges between communities, particularly communities of diversity we have. i was just incredibly honored to have been elected in november 2008. my district really encompasses the ethnic and economic diversity that exists throughout the city. as a result, i think my district is really emblematic of the entire city. you can find every political perspective that you could possibly want in district 3. so oftentimes, the interest of my district and the city really are quite a line, so i do not have to think about this difference is probably quite as often as some of my colleagues may have to.

i in particular want to thank the mayor for his decision to protect our nutrition programs. this is something that i think we all believe is incredibly important at a time when we have seen massive federal and state cuts, for us to hold the line locally and stand up in the city of st. francis for our seniors and our nutrition programs and families. i think we have a lot of challenges right now. we are still in the midst of the great recession. we all know way too many folks who are struggling in a minimum wage jobs pirouette of folks who have been laid off at work. i think as a city, we need to do much better at creating an environment where we have more jobs and more economic development. i know that all of us are committed to ensuring that we have a budget that not only provides basic city services that we have come to expect but make sure that we take care of our most vulnerable. whether it be our at-risk use, our seniors, are disabled, our working families, folks who are out of work.

i know something that every public servant who is here is committed to. adding with all come together as a board, as a city. we should come together as san franciscans, and, colleagues, at this time, i hope, and i asked that we unanimously vote for ed lee to be our next mayor. this is also a historic day for the asian-american community. for a community that has been here in santa francisco, for over 160 years, i am a product of that community. i know the ed and all of us of asian-american decent feel the legacy. i want to thank all of you who have been part of this historic moment to make this happen. and say that this is obviously not just about a chinese- american community or an asian aman