better. we did that with you as students, with your principals, and many of your teachers. you got credit for it as well. we even painted some of the benches red for those eagles. a lot of the other school sports areas. we are working hard to make sure you have jobs when you come out of school. that is what i have been working on. [applause] thank you. one of the things when i was running for mayor last year, i had to go to all these different meetings in the community. a lot of your parents were engaged in telling me what they thought they needed to happen.

the number one thing i heard all the time was help us get more jobs in the city. people feel that if they do not good jobs, they do not have the income to afford all the expenses. when you go in to good restaurants or the movie, it cost a lot of money. it cost a lot of money to even get a car. which i would advise you not to get too early in your life because there is no parking. i would want to encourage you to get a bicycle instead. we are investing in our committee system so that you get around any place you what -- are muni system so that you can get around any place you want to go. my daughters never asked me for a ride. outside of that, they would see

their friends all the time. we do not need you to give us a ride. at that time, it was $10 a month for a pass. now, it is $21. it is getting harder and harder. the movie might be asking, this is so expensive, academy -- some of you might be asking, this is so expensive, can we do anything about it? we are working on it. some people are stating, making it for free. we will try to get there. we will have a pilot program that will bring the cost down so that you do not have to be spending the money on that. you could be spending your money on books, games, movies, things that you enjoy. or stuff that you want to do. maybe in ipad and be able to do anything. we are trying to do that, but it begins with making sure we have

a good economy in the city. that economy begins with looking at where all of our economic streams are as the city. when we create more jobs, you, your parents, friends, can stay in the city longer and not feel the pressure that you cannot afford to live in the city. that has been a very big request coming to me as the mayor, make the city more affordable to allow more families. making sure it is safe. i think we have a pretty safe city. we have a good police chief working with community, not working by themselves. we're trying to do this concept called community policing. when you get on certain lines, you're looking around saying if you are safe. we have been teaching all of you

and hopefully you got the message, if you have an iphone or in ipad, please be alert when you are on the muni. do not become a victim. if something happens, do not be a hero. we have cameras mounted, things that we can do to catch the bad folks. we do want to make sure that muni is safe. not only affordable, but safe. so your experience will be ones where you will always say, san francisco is my city. i grew up here. i want to be here. i want to have a family or establish myself. san francisco is a pretty exciting place to be. if you go to any other city, if you go to los angeles, new york, chicago, washington, d.c., if you tell them they it -- if they tell -- if you tell them you are

from san francisco, people turn their heads. -- it is a cool place. we are the headquarters for twitter, zynga, salesforce, cloud. it is all headquartered right here in our city. what i am trying to do is make sure those technology companies, when they start here, they were looking for people that would do the fantastic engineering. they could put it all on the social platform. that is why they have grown to billion dollar companies. they are located right here and all their talent has been right here. what if you had a chance to work for those companies?

those are just three. there are 300. there are 1500 technology companies in san francisco. so of the names of which you have not heard about. they are producing all the different applications that you might be using. whether it is music, finding out where you are apt, yelp, they are all located here. in order to get these jobs, you have to have the same talent they are recruiting. that is what i want you to make sure you pay attention to your education. if you have a good grounding in your basic stuff, if you get to college, these jobs are waiting for you. people love coming here and living here and working here. they will pay really good salaries. that is what we're working on to

make sure our economy is strong. you have to get ready for them. we are using your time, too, in making sure you can get ready. it is not just what happens in the classroom. it is also what you do for yourself and what we can do together. we have two things going on. in the next month, we will announce something in concert with president obama. he is putting this whole program together and we are one of the city's double experiment hiring youth to get into the private sector for internships. internships that will expose you to the work experience. there will be thousands of these internships available to you. so that you can choose where you want to go. we will announce that in april in concert would cities across the country. this program is called opportunity youth.

be ready for that announcement. we have been doing pretty good at city government hiring many high school youth threw a lot of programs. different programs we have had at the government. but now we are challenging the private sector. all of these companies moving into san francisco, we want them to join us. the second thing i want to announce is that we got a pretty big grant from the federal government, department of labour. we announced a couple of weeks ago. it is a $5 million grant. technology is the future. you have to know that. you have to be pretty skilled in

technology in order to do any job well in the near future. tech sf is the money that was granted to us as a city, and aimed at those entities that helped train kids like you and others to the technology skills so that you can get a job at ibm or twitter or salesforce or wells fargo or bank of america. all of these technology jobs need the skill sets. it is a good opportunity. we are working with entities. that has been putting those skills together. you can get enrolled in these

nonprofits and cable brokerage you. you can get job training. i saw some of the kids. they are smiling because they know they have a future with all the these companies. they can move around and choose what it is they want to do. whether it is in the music industry, financial industry, social services industry. all of that will be tech driven. i been spending time making sure the city is safe, making sure we do with our budget. it is an exciting for me because it is the first time i ever did this. i have not been a politician before this. some of this stuff is coming at me in a new way. i have been working for government for 23 years. i try to use that experience in making sure and make good decisions on your behalf. so with that, some of you had

some questions for me. if i could take a few moments, i will see if i can answer them. i will see if the answers resonate with you. maybe you can help me figure out this stuff. why does private property have to clean its own graffiti even if it is incredibly small? it has happened to my house and we cannot afford to match. aberdeen knows what graffiti is, right? -- everybody knows what graffiti is, right? some people say graffiti is cool because it is artwork. there is a definition of graffiti. some of that art work could look good, but the definition of graffiti is one basic difference. artwork is permitted.

graffiti is not permitted. graffiti, someone is doing it on somebody's property without their permission. that is the big difference. we have been trying to get rid of that kind of graffiti because it was not planned, it was not approved, and sometimes, it is people scrabbling stuff. we have been trying to get out of the neighborhoods, because if you let it go, more people will do more of it. all the sudden, you have stuff that is written all over the place and it looks bad. it does not add value to the place. there are areas where we have made it permissible. there are graffiti artist we have invited to help us to arts and the city. we are working on even more spaces for that.

while that is happening, our neighborhoods need to make sure that it is clean for everybody. we are enforcing laws on both private and public property owners to clean that graffiti. if you come from a household where you do not have enough money to do it, we have a program. if you call 311 and tell them what is happening at an address, where your house or somebody's property got graffiti and they cannot afford to clean it up, we have a program where we will go out and help. as long as you work with us to help make sure it is kept. that is how we can help people without a lot of income. mayor, how is sf's budget?

that is a good question. i think it is getting better. we are just beginning that process to balance the city's budget. we have to balance two years in a row. we are no longer just doing a one-year budget. we have to do two years in order to get a more steady idea of our revenues and all of our debt. the budget is a pretty complicated thing. what i am doing, i have a whole schedule to bring out all the different departments to talk in the communities. we reach every supervisor world district in this city with this -- to let them know how we are dealing with the budget. there is funding for police, fire, libraries, parks, recreation, human services, a

lot of stuff in that budget that gets very complicated. overall, we're doing a better job. we still have things to catch up to the tune of about $170 million. next fiscal year, we have to figure out another $350 million. we will not do it by cutting programs. we will try to figure them out in a collaborative way. hopefully not by taxing people or increasing parking. it is already a pretty expensive place to live, so we do not want to make it harder for folks. we are coming up with ideas to generate revenue. we're getting better.

each of three or four months, we did our report from how all of our hotels and restaurants and revenue producing businesses are doing. banks and everything else. they're telling us more people are spending money to buy stuff. therefore, we are getting a tax revenue increase. we're not out of the woods yet. we will still try to make sure we have some discipline in the budget process and that we do not overspend what we do not have. how can the mayor were to create jobs for youth? i think i answered that earlier. with those programs. i would like to work with all of you, your ideas to not only have jobs, but what would make it even fun to work in this city? when i grew up, i had all kinds of jobs. i was working in my dad's restaurant, other people's

restaurants, i did everything to make a little bit of money. we even had to pay for the gyms. we had to get money for that. thus there and all the other stuff. -- bus fare and all the other stuff. we have to continue increasing opportunities for our youth. to be able to afford some of the technology appliances or applications. can you clean up the bums and litter? [laughter] that was somebody's custom. you want me to give them a shower? i think you are saying you see a

lot of people on the streets. they're sleeping in doorways. they obviously -- there might be a smelt associated with various in which you walk. -- area in which you walk. we are working on this more and more. there are homeless folks who refuse to come into the shelters. i just announced a new director of housing opportunities, partnerships, and engagements. he used to be a supervisor in san francisco. he has a strong passion for helping folks get off the streets. it is not a good situation when folks are sleeping in doorways at night. they cannot clean up after themselves. they are using the streets and sidewalks as places for doing their cleaning up. therefore, we are trying to coax

them and persuade them to get into our shelters. we have this program called a homeless can act -- connect where you as a whole day and we bring everybody that wants to volunteer. they do dentistry, haircuts, get them some counseling if they have some mental issues. advice they need. all kinds of things. even helping them find a job. that project is done once every two or three months. we have been trying to get people to make better decisions. they can talk to their families and try to get help. one of these days, if the advocacy they want to connect up, i think that would be a good

project. you know, being homeless is a serious situation. i do not want you to ever gets in that situation for yourself. people find themselves doing that because of drug addiction, or because they could not figure out some things. they got into alcoholism or something they cannot get out of. they lost their apartment and they end up getting into the street life. it could happen. it could happen to anybody. if people do not plan their lives and do not set themselves up for success. i want you to at least spend some time with me to try to be in doubt the world for a moment to help understand what people go through. to try to determine for yourself how you can help change that. i think it is an eye opener. right now, you are just some

folks on the street. you might have an attitude, just like i did for many years. did your life in order, do something. it is not that way for a lot of clubs. they went through years of struggle. they could not figure out and we are trying to figure out ways to help them figure that out. hopefully, one of these days, you will join me. i think you will see the value. how we try to make them get to the right choices. this is not an answer to probe these folks into prison. -- prodi spokes into prison. we have to do other creative ways. i would invite you to work with me on that. what you see on the streets, and you'll understand what we have to do to change that situation together.

what are you doing to help our lgbt community as far as marriage goes? we are a city that understands the freedom of marriage. you ought to be able to marry anybody you want and to live your life with anyone you want. we have that kind of freedom here in san francisco. however, we have a state law that says, that was passed that is now being challenged. the state law restricts marriages as between men and women. allow gay marriages. we tried to modernize that law, and the courts determined that would not be legal, so we are challenging that, and we are

awaiting a decision to help make a final decision. while this is going, we will allow people to marry anyone they wish. california is behind. there are almost 10 states throughout the country that have legalized gay marriages, and hopefully we will do so in the near future. last question, my dad works 2 months out of 12 as an electrician.

when will he find work? that is what our work on every single day, making sure we do a good development. i am a big proponent of the electric vehicles. you have to work with all the different electrical apparatus thoses to charge these cars. the first 35 minutes is purely electric, so we will continue building projects in the city, so there is alon a lot. please have your dad check in

early, because we have a lot of projects that need to be approved. we got a lot of projects going, and we are going to have a lot more on-line soon so a electricians will get back to work. i hope i have provided a detailed answers. congratulations. [applause]

>> 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 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 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. 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 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.