i guess you guys had a library built in new orleans? >> that was on our website. it was very spontaneous. the groups who knew what they needed, because they are doing building -- they do not have any resources. they just went down there to mississippi and started doing things. they ended up rebuilding housing, a buddhist temple that was a block away.

joan baez was there that year saying -- she was singing one of her anthems. amazing grace. people started day fund, they started to collect money out there. that was just the beginning. we got a call from somebody asking, is dpw doing this? we said yes. i have $50,000, i will support it. we are a private group. this is not tax deductible. we do not care.

and they rebuilt some houses. the problem with most people is they could not even teardown their homes. but this is the burning man twist. i love telling this story. being who they were, the culture, at the end of each day, the landscape was strewn with debris. you have to seeing the pictures. they gather up the debris, at night, they turn it into a bonfire. that is part of our culture. then locals started to come

around and one woman said, i have never seen anything like this. i have never seen anything like this, but i like it. pretty soon, they were making art. fema is not going to do that for you. and that was just a spontaneous effort. now it has expanded around the world. this came out of burning man, this wild, crazy party. >> let us start over here with a question. >> i would like to ask a question about dpw.

the people that build infrastructure. i want to know why they do not get workers' comp when they are injured. >> of course they do. who told you they did not? >> my friends who work for dpw. they did not have insurance. >> we have workers' comp. i assure you, they are wrong. once in awhile, an employer will claim workers, for something that did not happen on the job. there have been a couple of incidents like that. there could have been discontent over that. of course we have workers caught. ask them again. when did they work for dpw? >> one of them just tweeted me

the question. >> my name is anne marie. i represent in north of market community benefit district, the tenderloin. we are very excited to have your company coming in. just talking about the burning man twist, that is an interesting phrase. this may be premature. any ideas in place to affect our immediate neighbors? especially the children in the tenderloin. there are more children per capita than anywhere else in san francisco. i see it as a fantastic opportunity to collaborate. >> the we moved in and everyone is talking about going up, but when we came in, we did a press conference.

we said, we are immigrants here. we want to learn, we want to meet the people that live here. and we are getting to know people better. i will give you an example of something that could be done. i had an idea, based on an installation that i saw in europe. i am struck by the fact that there are more children in the tenderloin than anywhere in san francisco. people are amazed by this. it is a wonderful opportunity down here. by law, it will be impossible to dislodge all of these folks and replace it with real estate, condos, dentists, not that there

is anything wrong with them. but you know. they are not going to be dislodged, they live here. >> we expect development, we like that. the tender line is approach development. -- tenderloin is pro- development. >> this is just a kind of thing. this is just an idea rattling in my head. we may not do this. we like to do things radically. we like to go to the root of things. what if he went to the families and kids, and with great respect for all the institutions that

exist, -- you see, i saw this thing in holland. little glass canisters, and they would talk to all of the young people at this festival. they said, pick one sound that is really important to you. and that is a radical notion. who is the best expert on what sound matters most to a child? they are. nobody else. what i would like to do, doing cross-disciplinary -- going to our friend with all of the digital devices. they could record that sound and then say what it was.

then we could put it into a votive container, and then put a light in there. then you could create a shrine filled with the voices of children, talking about what is valuable to them. and why not use that device to publicize the fact that these kids are out there, by letting them do it? let them walk into an environment where they can create -- a brilliant artist. we are pretty good out in the desert. we know how to sacrifice space. we are pretty good. and then get all of the people -- people of means, take them to that.

then the whole neighborhood comes in. maybe bring in glass blowers and show them how to make things, work with the people. i have not talked to anybody, so i do not want to get ahead of myself. but you see the strategy i am talking about that goes right to the root of community. that engages everyone as a participant. and i do not just mean, here you go, susie. cut this, and we will slap it on. you participated. in the new year, we are going to be ready with things you want to do. we want them to be expressive, interactive, collaborative.

i do not know if everyone is an artist, but they can express themselves. >> i look forward to that. some credi>> what is burning a's relationship right now with empire, nixon, burlap? how has that evolved over time, do you have twitter set up with them? >> we have been out there for 20 years. we know the folks out there. we have a ranch there where we used to stage our event. we brought it -- we bought property in the community.

derleth, nevada is a tiny place. the empire you mentioned, that is a neighboring town which does not exist anymore. it was a classic company town. usgs cut their losses in sheet rock and closed down. it is gone. the houses are there but the people are gone. it is the real wild west, the way it was. it takes a lot of the romance out of it. so we have done several things. black rock solor, which came out of burning man in gerlach.

the school is closing down because they do not have any kids. the economy has been based on mining. there are some tourists that come through. hunters. some of our people come through and leave money in their wake. a little town like that does not know how to make money. but they have learned in certain ways. we have made significant charitable contributions. i do not want to great -- take much credit for this, but we are helping to keep them alive. the thing about our event, we do not do commercial things at the event.

it spreads out the economic development to our neighbors. the piutes down the road are now doing in the in taco stands now and we know them. there was the day when we were considered scary, coming from san francisco, you know. it is much easier to break into a big city. but we are well accepted and respected because we talk straight with everyone and we have benefited everyone. >> one more question and then one final question for you. >> something my friends have

talked about is this kind of bipolar attitude of what it takes to look like a burner. it is expensive, what it takes to go out there. you said that we find high levels of satisfaction in consumption. what do you think of this industry is growing around what it takes to fit in out there? >> everyone lives in their own world. this is pretty much how i look out there. the hat, shirt. >> this is what i wear. >> this is not expensive apparel. i would not wear these shoes. they are too nice.

there will always be that attitude. i can see by your office that we are -- outift that you are a burner. if people go out there and too expensive things, that is great. if they pay money for these things, fine. we are not against commerce. in essence, when they do that, we see that as a gift to others. they are giving that to other people. they are dressing up the landscape. they are certainly not staying in their tent. but there is that notion. there have been fashion spreads in some magazines about that burner look.

and but you will not see me in fluffy leggings. [laughter] that is fine for anyone that prefers them. i do not know. there are just a lot of people that do pay a lot of attention. i am one of them. i suppose, if you wanted to have that special, that look, you could spend a lot of money on it. >> i was going to ask you this, final question, but he may have answered it. what is your 60-second the idea to change the world? it sounds like it is get to the right gear. >> yeah. if you can just get the right gear, you can -- change the world? >> not change it in 60 seconds. >> i don't know.

>> say how to change it. >> i don't know. >> for the better. >> just connect. just connect. >> all right. you have 54 seconds left. >> fluffy leggings. >> all right. let's have a big round of applause for larry. [applause] and this meeting of the commonwealth club is officially adjourned. [applause]

>> welcome, everybody. to the 2011 justice summit by the book. i'm so excited to be here. you know, we've been doing these summits now for seven years, but this by far is the most exciting summit. i cannot wait to hear the panelists that we have today. we're going to be delving in to some of the most critical issues affecting the criminal justice system at this time. and we're going to talk about, what is justice and what it means. you know, plateo said, "i do not know what justice is, but i know what it is not."

and that is very true when you think about it because it's something that we take for granted, that we believe in, that we hope for, but the reality is is that we don't understand and appreciate justice unless we are deprived of it. and in many cases the definition of justice is the correction of an injustice, and that's really the spisht that we're approaching today. we have three action-packed panels. our first panel celebrates the 50th anniversary of a novel that really defined american justice in the 1960's and that's "to kill a mockingbird." and many a lawyer was motivated by atticus finch in his closing

argument in that case which in many ways represented the civil rights movement that was to come and it already begun. we have best-selling authors. we have a real-life atticus finch, tony serra, who is here and has motivated so many of us to do what we do. our second panel looks at abuse of power, abuse of power and how it happens and why it happens and most importantly what we can do and need to do to prevent it. whether it's a prosecutor or a judge or a defender render ineffective assistance to counsel or a police officer violating constitutional rights. this is not something we can tolerate, yet it happens each and every day. and our panel is going to delve

deep into the issues that we're seeing not only here in the bay area but throughout the country and throughout the world. our third panel after lunch will talk about the future of the death penalty and hopefully its demise. you might be surprised that we are having a conversation here in san francisco about the death penalty. as you know, our district attorney has indicated that he may seek the death penalty in appropriate cases in san francisco, and that has not been the case for the past decade. but he's coming today to talk about his views. we also have a former warden at san quentin who surprised the last three executions, and she is now the head of death penalty focus which is an

anti-death penalty group. we have somebody, though, who really symbolizes everything that's wrong with the death penalty. in 1983 he was arrested and within 120 days was convicted in two trials which resulted in the death penalty. he was sentenced to angola in louisiana, death row, where they were executing people left and right. he spent 14 years. he had nearly half a dozen execution dates. and yet he survived and he's here today. and actually -- i know you are on the third panel. come on up. come on up. this is james "j.t." thompson.

he came all the way from louisiana to be here today. [applause] one question, how did you survive? >> god. god. god. death row is a place that brings out the truest human being in you. it makes you realize you can't take nothing for granted. you need to love every moment of each day and praise and thank god for each moment you have out here. for the system to do what it did to me -- i was the only child from my mother. i was a father too. the system didn't see none of that. it did not see me not having a

criminal record. it's hard to accept. it's hard to keep on continuing to accept a prosecutor or somebody that wants to sentence swub to death with a system that's corrupt as ours. all right. [applause] >> i want to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors who have made the summit possible. the law firm of brown and furtel and my good friend, dave young, thank you. the criminal trial lawyers association. we'll hear from their incoming president in a few minutes. and also stuart hanlon as well as the bar association of san francisco. so let's have a round of applause for our sponsors today

. let's get down to it. so before we get started i want to introduce someone who's a wonderful leader in our community and that's the president of the bar association of san francisco. >> thank you. thank you, jeff, for inviting me on behalf of the bar association of san francisco. i'm priya sanger. i'm president of the bar association of san francisco. basf, as we note the bar association to be called, has had a long relationship with the public defenders office. it is crucially important for administration of justice.

and so is san francisco conflicts panels where administration, which the bar association has provided in partnership with public defenders. so in san francisco when a public defender has a conflict of interest, criminal defendants and minors are represented by private attorneys from a panel administered by the bar association of san francisco. maintaining this independent body of attorneys is critically important as a well-run public defenders office. we are each other's complement. we are the sum of the parts that makes whole the criminal departments working so well in san francisco. in 2003 the superior court contracted with the bar association of san francisco indigent to have cost-saving oversight to the administration and billing associated with conflicts. so tron is the director of the

courts administration and has been working with jeff since 2003 to make sure that indigent panels are effective and that they do all -- that we do all we can to prevent recidivism. so thank you, jeff, for allowing us to be here and co-sponsoring this event. thank you all for coming here. [applause] >> thank you. next i'd like to introduce, the incoming president of the criminal trial lawyers association of northern california, frank. >> hello. i'm frank and president-elect of criminal trial lawyers association of northern california. ctla is a proud co-sponsor of the justice summit here today. i've been asked to say a few words about ctla to both inform