we had before. i wish fred would have stayed with us. but the mayor did come in and rob one of our best talents. i think fred has been wonderful to us. he left us with a very good team, good vision, and good discipline. we are transitioning as we speak. now that we have established, with the unanimous oversight committee -- we are creating a delivery team. we have divided responsibilities between our city administrator's office and our work force division in the mayor's office. i will personally be overseeing a lot of that to happen. we made a commitment. we are not going to let housing go. house and was -- the number 1 producer was our redevelopment agency. i announced at the start a housing trust fund, and invited all of the developers and housing advocates to help figure

out how to create a stream of around $50 million a year to keep up with a need for affordable and workplace housing. housing is a challenge. we knew that from the start. we made the financial it commitment to make sure we take care of that. we are in the room now with the best minds. i started the trust fund working group. one conference room was filled, standing room only, with entities who wanted a common dialogue about how to create a housing trust fund to build the kind of housing we need. we know that if we do not pay attention to that, having lost redevelopment, we will lose the housing struggle. that will mean a tremendous authority to help people who worked at different economic levels.

>> why has redevelopment hit oakland hard? >> he is the city and county and got to take over himself. that is unique. you have to remember oakland is a poor city. we had many more blighted areas. we expanded the redevelopment areas amazingly. some of the products are worked out very well. when i started working downtown, we were still suffering from a lot of damaged buildings. you do not see that now. if anything, the uptown and redevelopment tax is ahead of schedule. that is why we are no. 5 on the new york times list, in many ways. what i think is the lemons from

lemonade -- the fact we have had these blighted areas and these long old industrial areas are now becoming the hot areas. i see the estuary being very much like what happened in mission bay and near the airport and coliseum, areas that can be massive for research parks or office spaces. as well as integration of industrial uses other areas. we continue a fairly diverse economy. i think what we are saying is when you are the major you have to represent the 100%. i took my little 99% button and changed it to 100%. we need to grow the entire city. in our case, we are looking at an economy that has industrial roots, historically.

we are rivals for a new, green, and tech industries. at last count, we had 250 of them. when we move forward in these new areas, redevelopment was very helpful in terms of the land, the cleanup of the brown fields. i think there will be some state programs that will maintain affordable housing, the brownfield's aspect, and the transit-oriented development. our redevelopment funds are already set and should be safe. we expect a lot of continuation. some of our stuff has already been ok under the deadline. i think there will be new mechanisms.

i think steinberg is looking for a way to keep and save both affordable housing and transit- oriented development. >> with what mayor quan said -- as i emphasized in my presentation, one of the most important things that we as mayors need to do is make sure we create an investor-confidence situation here. what redevelopment has taught us is they had investors dependent on a certain system to work with tax increments, but we have lost that. we now have a challenge. how do we continue with investors, who invested multiple millions of dollars in our re-development strategies? how we keep our investor confident about what we're doing.

that is how this audience is good to be able to help. >> on another topic, you referred earlier today to the changes your administration is made it -- is making to the peril tax. there have been many attempts and failures to do that over the it years. what is the difference this time? >> i have used my own style of communication in this effort.

all the businesses are experiencing a new fund relationship and level of communication and of not had in a long time. we are not going anywhere. i am here to stay and see this out in every aspect of it. i think these conditions offer us a good level of conversation about what it is that we need to replace it with. we are already working with the comptroller -- the controller's office. how does any tax impact the industry's? what is the outlook? "we do this work is not a sudden thing? it could be manageable. taxing and tax structures are all about expectations. financials like wells fargo and high tech, or large employers --

we will do it right. the new conversation is we have to be smart in our legislation. that means getting the input of the front end, not surprising everybody, and floating out those ideas in ways in which it is not favoring one over the other, but is what is best for the whole city. it is a pin bearing on our outlooks. >> you have a housecleaning, bringing in new executives and department heads. you mentioned earlier this week that it was something, looking back, you wish you had done sooner. is that process complete? do you have the team you want fully in place? other pieces that still need to be moved in? >> i think oakland is strong.

you have mayors who have been involved in different levels of government. the first mayor who wants to be comprehensively involved -- that takes looking at the whole department. i waited until i had my administration in place. i wish there were a couple of positions i could have moved earlier. the team is coming together. we will continue to reorganize. we have new institutional issues coming up in the next decade we have to look at. i am almost worried that we have cut too much at the

administrative level, trying to cut bureaucracy. we will see. we named public safety issues, and the first of african american woman to lead a major metropolitan fire department in the country. we are looking at other departments. we have several other openings, partly because of retirements. i think we are trying to be nimble. what i have tried to do is really provide an opportunity for us to have the best and the brightest, and start growing our leadership from within, giving younger people in the administration a chance to move up, but also to work in partnership with the business community. we cannot do everything. if we are going to succeed, we have to do it in different ways.

we are looking to bring in businesses. we talked yesterday about, as we negotiate with the legislature, what kind of new housing or new transit-oriented funding can bring together some of the top developers in the city, to bring us ideas about what they need. we are not used to packaging products the way asians and others are used to when they go and invest in a different country. >> that is the green card investment plan. you bring in $500,000? >> and you get two vises. -- visas. i have seen people come with half a billion dollars they want to invest. they want a clear return, a bundled package. we are not used to doing that. we are struggling with how to

fully take advantage of those. i have been studying that pretty carefully. >> that was a project that required a system. -- assistance. >> that is what we do. >> the yankees always need money. mayor lee, you quoted the tech industry pretty heavily during your campaign. i do not know if it is properly referred to as an election campaign or a reelection campaign. you formed a task advisory committee at that time. i am not clear if they are still in existence, and if they are what advice you are getting from them. >> it is very much in existence. sfcut -- sfcity is a group of 100 technology companies who have formed a new relationship that is almost considered to be

a technology chamber of commerce to advise us on a number of things. they set out, consistent with my priorities -- they wanted to start creating not only jobs they are already establishing, but post them in a way which could be reached out to all san franciscans who wanted those jobs. that was the number-one thing they did. the second thing they are hoping create is unemployment training center, where the skill sets of this technology companies are being identified. that still set will be the center of that training center. the employment training center -- they are finding themselves. they are going to be connecting up that training center with their schools. likewise, the linkages with our high school kids or junior high school kids -- what curriculum do they need to be good at to get to the sales forces of the future, as they come out after

college? that is the future of sfcity. in the meantime, i appointed a chief innovation officer for the city of san francisco, that is my connector to sfcity and code for america, a nonprofit of technology companies that does what they call kharkov bonds, -- call hack-a-thons, which they used to help the government look at the way they deliver services, and do business, and use the innovation of the technology world to overlay process with new ideas about how to deliver services more efficiently. with that relationship and through our chief innovation officer, we have got, i think, the beginnings of a brand new relationship that i think will bring us closer to the business

needs of that new industry, but at the same time allow us to change the way we do business so we can be more responsive to that. the first year i did this breakfast, it was willie brown in your seat, jerry brown in your seat, and we had questions about the difficulty of buildings for the stadium in order to retain teams. it feels like groundhog day. how many years on, we are still there. you seem to be in the hot seat. you have three professional sports teams, all of whom could go elsewhere. i know you just approved a $3 million grant from a redevelopment fund to look at the coliseum. is there a reasonable amount of money within oakland's ability to spend that would guarantee these teams remain here? or do you have to be open to the

possibility one or more of them could leave? >> our goal is to keep all three of them. that is one thing i do not want to share with ed, is my sports teams. we will clearly be dealing, i think, with some announcements of around coliseum city. i think we have to wait to see how redevelopment shakes out, to look at some of the other options. i am feeling generally optimistic. the family joke is if i was not so optimistic i would not be mayor. i am optimistic about the teams. we are in discussions with most of the team's i am particularly excited by the coliseum said the concept. we already own the land there. a lot of studies show a lot of interest and ability to

privately finance a lot of that project. it is something that i think i certainly am spending a significant amount of time on, with all of the major news. the thing about being a mayor is you have to be hands on on these kinds of projects, because these are so critical to stimulate the economy in each of those regions of the city. >> is there a team in one of those stadiums that is more important economically than another? >> which of your children do you like? >> that is like choosing among your children. the reason i am holding out to see if i can find a private investment is because baseball brings about 2 million visits to downtown oakland. at jack london square, the would be a huge boost for a hotel industry that is coming back. it is so close to the city, the

vibrant restaurant industry we already have, lead by free shuttles from outside your door. we would like a lake in, jack and square, and uptown in a constant -- that would link the lake, jacklyn squre, and updown in a constant loop. with the convention center and the airport -- it would have the airport connector at the end, less than 10 minutes away. it would be a huge boost the economy. nobody builds a team alone. you use the stadium for a multiplier effect, and how it affects our economy, whether it is downtown or the coliseum. >> san francisco is doing their part on the warriors, trying to lure them across the bridge to a

new arena by at&t park. what is the status of that project, and who would pay for it? i am talking about financially. >> let me put this in perspective. if there is anything i have learned, it is that sports teams are also businesses. they want to be successful as well. there is changes. if you are an observer of the sports business, there have been changes in the business models. the giants have been extremely successful owning their own stadium in san francisco. it is one that i think some francisco has learned a little bit early. owning your own stadium means a lot of infrastructure investment that sometimes we do not have in bad years. the model about the sports franchises who might consider owning their own stadiums is challenging. it is one i personally support, because it is their private

investment that has to be laid out there. for any arena that we build, i think the reason why there is a discussion that was going on between the warriors and the giants, it is because of that very successful model. there are things i cannot say, because i am not privy to all the details. but i am hoping sports teams look at san francisco being a great venue not just for their sport, but if they do decide to invest in their own venue, the venue has to be successful well beyond those numbers of games that might be had there. we are talking about an entertainment arena. the same challenge for the coliseum -- i used to live in oakland and wanted success all around. you have to have an environment for other things to happen, to have other events that are successful, to make money for

all the different investors. you have to have an entryway and transportation infrastructure that supports that. that is what we have in mission bay. the details to follow. i think we are more than just the warriors. i think there are other sports ideas coming forth. with my discussions with the niners, we have ongoing discussions about the legacy of san francisco. they obviously want the name san francisco forty-niners. that means there has to be a constant link with us. what does that economically mean? we are in those discussions as we speak. >> we have time for one more discussion. you were recognized, acquired rightly, as pioneers coming into office, as chinese american mayors in our regions of two biggest cities. what has that meant to your city?

what benefits has a broad backs either of you can take the first crack at that. >> obviously, being the first chinese asian american mayor in san francisco is significant. as mayor quan knows, we have generations of his stories were we had the local laws that literally prevented our population from voting. it is significant for so many fronts that i think are all well spoken of already. having said that, i have been working in government for 22 years. i have seen what it takes for a mayor to be successful. i have supported for may years. i have run five different departments. for me it is good to not only celebrate this historic vote, but recognize how important it was with communities that have suffered for many years, but to

take that and share it with all the other communities of san francisco. we could be a jeremy lin. to be able to lead an open opportunities for african- americans and gays and lesbians to work with labor as strong as other mayors have and to make sure there are linked with the big decisions, to unite the city in the wake -- in a way, as you take the significance of this appointment at election, we could be leaders as well. a lot of asians use to shy away from politics, as you know. we used to -- generations before us, our parents said to not go into politics. on your own business. be a financial person.

the lawyer. you went to moscow. be a lawyer, make money. those were safe things. -- you went to law school. to make sure we can be -- as american as anybody else. shore leadership skills and values and share those values that are looked upon as strong. looking out for everybody. making sure that society is safe for everyone and looking at the whole family, as a whole for everybody. our values that i am lucky to share as the first asian american mayor of san francisco. >> we will give you the last word. >> sometimes people ask me, if being mayor as the first asian- american or the first woman more difficult? i would say the asian american

community has come into its own. we have a few glass ceilings to break. i am proud of that. that is where the chinese exclusion act and all the anti- chinese legislation started nationally and historically. my family and i helped found the society. we have a deep sense of history. to put it in more human terms, the other day, my staff and i were going somewhere and a group of young students stopped by, black and asian. typical downtown oakland and i stopped to take pictures. i said when i grew up i never saw anybody asian on tv who was not a waiter or had a thick accent. i understand what the symbolism is for hope for young asian americans. in my city because we're so divorce, anybody can become

mayor. just as president obama's election was so important for a generation of kids of all colors, breaking the barriers. probably what has been surprising, i did not know as much for ed. when i was elected, i got emails from shanghai and china. recently one of the members of the consulate staff said you are known by more chinese than by more americans. we're in such an intern global economy with the media and internet at the time as we mean personally internationally probably maybe a role we have not totally on folded. i feel we need to market the california brand in a shut more effectively. we need to do that more collectively.

that is an important market for the port of oakland. that is a huge part of our future economy. we play some personal role, oakland and san francisco are the usual stopping places for chinese investors and asian politicians. we play an important role in building that future global economy. that is something i will continue the focus on. not just selling open lines -- wines. representing the state and the economy with the port of oakland being the only port that exports more than we import, we need to build on to that. it helps the region. >> thank you. thank you to both of you. best of luck in the coming year. [applause] >> let's have a huge round of

applause for our great mares. thank you for great job of monitoring -- moderating. i want to thank our sponsors and your partner, city national bank, golden gate university, a kaiser permanente a-- kaiser permanente. we wish you great success individually and collectively. we hope you have great prosperity in 2012. we will see you next year in san francisco.