done it? i have a great way. go home and find a 14-year-old boy and ask him to play a video game. i have done this with both of my sons when they were younger, and it is an amazing experience. my kids will be playing a game, which i am total in not understanding at all, and my kids say, "jump," and i go, " how?" everything that is intuitive to them is completely foreign to me. the good news is i am at no risk of becoming addicted to video games. the last point i would like to make is that the environment is really changing rapidly. 10 years ago, if we had sat down and talk about seniors and technology, a lot of people would have wondered why seniors would want to use computers, but that has shifted. over the next few years, as all of us move toward being seniors, we will not be wanting technology. we will be demanding it. the field is going to change,

and more and more people are going to be here. so the ability to make technology accessible is there. those of us charged with doing this have a really important role. we have to be able to provide the tools for the technology in ways that the people can hear. i am happy to be your speaking with you because i think this is an incredibly important topic. this afternoon, there is a workshop on addressing multiple barriers for accessing technology, and it will be a brainstorming session where someone from my office and a couple of other people will be leading a discussion of what issues people run into and how you deal with them. i think it is a really important topic and i think it is probably one of the most important things people could be talking about now. for all of us, technology is here and going to be here, and we all need it. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you. i am really pleased to be up here -- well, not really, but you're so pleased to be able to tell you about two things before lunch -- i am pleased to be able to tell you about two things before lunch. as you know, this is the middle of a process to train and teach more people how to use computers. we wanted to showcase a little bit of what folks are learning out there. first, we will show a video, and then wind up -- linda will explain about lunch. i know a few people have slipped over there, but i ask everyone to be quiet for a few minutes. there is plenty to go around. the video we're going to show right now -- i got a feeling this morning at 4:00 a.m. that tells you how dedicated people were to be able to produce it and have it here today. i wanted to thank paul grant,

who has worked with the project with the family services agency senior community services employment program. you will see his good work here also john boswell, who came in at the last minute and help us pull this together. he did it in exchange for tyne bank hours with the bay area community exchange time bank. if you want to know about that, you can learn about that across the hall after lunch. finally, from the broadband technology opportunity program, which provides opportunities for seniors and people with disabilities to teach each other, to learn from each other, and create more connections across all of our communities. please q the video, and after that, we will dismiss for lunch after a little explanation. >> we want people to come into the center and learn how to use all the different social media so they are not left behind. we do not want the whole community to be left behind.

>> i have always been intimidated by computers. afraid that i would break anything. i wanted to learn. i wanted to see if i could, you know? but i was not sure, because of my age. i have grandkids i did not get to see as often as i would like, but my son post pictures all the time. >> i thought it would be important to bring my mom and my sister to learn basic computer skills so that they are not isolated. even the medical community wants to send her notes and things via e-mail. so it is important for her to be able to learn how use the computer, at least for those simple things. >> we are part of the social media team. we will be teaching twitter, facebook, skype so the seniors in our community will not be

isolated. >> there is no dumb question. we tried to make this an easygoing environment for everyone to learn here. >> they understand what you're talking about. i want to get on the internet and, like, if i need to, call the social security office or any other business. that i would know how to get in touch with them. >> people like us who are in wheelchairs in rehabilitation situations, in hospitals -- it opens the windows of the world to us. to be able to put your eyes anywhere in the world that you want to at a moment's notice. i paid acrylics. sometimes i search the internet or put images on the internet through cameras, through different pictures that i take of the subject matter. -- i paint acrylics. >> all my life, i did not use

this, but i had to learn how to tight and everything, so i tied to find, and moved the mouse fine on my computer, so it was not a real problem -- i typed fine. everything is on the computer, and easy to find. it is like a road map. all these blogs, etc., and so on, because i have all this time. i concentrate on a few at a time. >> i never expected to have a computer. i am 96. as they say, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. and as you say, we do have this resistance to it.

my daughter taught me how to play games. i am really hooked on that now to exercise my brain, and i started doing other things more quickly. i find that it really helps me. i can see pictures either that i have taken or that other people have taken if they are on a digital camera. i put them into my computer, and then i can crop the picture, enhance it. find out what safeway has on sale, and then michaels. they have their ads. i do use people who advertise, e-mail, so it is a very important part of my life. i love to e-mail, and i like to hear from people. i have trouble hearing from people on the phone, so if you send an e-mail and one in answer

to a question, they can find it, or if they do not know the answer, they call you back again. it has been a big help with the family in many ways. now, i cannot be without my computer. i would be lost. >> it becomes second nature, and it becomes easier. it becomes a tool in your hand. >> it is so wonderful. memaw is on the computer. i would recommend coming here to learn the computer. it is not as hard as you think it is. >> do not be afraid. it really is kind of easy once you get the hang of it. >> go at your own face. do not get frustrated. >> do not be afraid of the computer. the only thing to be afraid of is that you will get addicted to

it. [applause] >> you will see some of the stars are around. please thank them for being so brave and consider signing up to be one of them yourself. i wanted to invite dave up again to say how much we really appreciate him being part of today's program, helping shepherd it and share his own experiences. so thank you so much. >> thank you. thank you all. thank you. you are very, very kind. can i just be selfish and say that you inspired me? i am so happy. even if i do not see you again for regularly, i am taking pictures of your faces and thinking of all the successes you will make technologically, even when i do not see you, so

feel good about it. do not be afraid of it. tackle it. it is yours, and congratulations. thank you for being a wonderful, wonderful audience. thank you. [applause] 0, and happy birthday.

[applause] >> this is going to be very, very embarrassing because my introduction of the elderly will be shorter than my introduction. but you are here to listen to it said lee, not me. so with that, it is an honor to introduce our 43rd mayor of san francisco. i did not know ed lee when he was appointed by gavin two years ago, but he proved himself to the tech community by keeping twitter in san francisco and passing the private company's stock option tax waiver, and this is while he was interim

mayor. he announced back then his platform would be all about creating jobs, and guess what, the city of san francisco's employment rate is now outpacing that of the rest of the nation. that is a measurement that not many other cities can talk about. [applause] so, ed was born in seattle, when to bouduin college. [laughter] we never stop learning. bowdoin college. i had never said that were before. what is significant about ed is he sets an agenda and then stays on it. lots of politicians do not do

that, they get distracted. ed lee is a friend of attack, creating jobs, and that will make the economic climate and life in san francisco a lot better. with that, i would like to turn over the mike so that it can discuss his top priorities and his first 100 days in office. [applause] >> thank you, ron, for that very kind introduction. yes, it is voting, because i was constantly reminded when i went to college, people on the east coast new how to pronounce that college. i want to thank you not only for the introduction but certainly for your friendship, counsel, and it is really wonderful to see so many people, including

ron, who have worked with the business and technology community to work with the city. it is not easy where people just a political positions and people forgot how great cities are built. they are built with everybody's involvement. the technology companies have a greater level of contribution to our city. i am excited to work with you and make sure that you know that i am grateful for everything you have done and for sf city and the companies that have joined in membership. they will be successful companies. i am so excited, just hearing the company instagram getting bought by facebook 4 $1 billion, knowing that they started here, there innovation was right here in san francisco. signals to these other companies you are going to be as successful as you want to be, but hopefully it is in san francisco where innovation

continues. we are and continue to be innovation capital of the world. i am glad to be here tonight. thank you, rose, everyone from the commonwealth. it was only six months ago, october 6 to be exact, with 15 other colorful people, and i am still recovering from that. i do not think today will be as entertaining. i recall there were some wacky statements made that night, but i am glad and honored to be here to explain what i have done and all you have heard and read about some of the things we are doing. clearly, i am excited about hear your comments and questions tonight because this city is deserving of everyone's opinion. whether you are critical or supportive, being the mayor of a

great city like san francisco, i have learned to respect everybody's opinion and still try tomb make the right decisions on an everyday basis. so i'm excited to be here, just short of the 100 days, and i think the voters gave us four more years to help manage and run the city together, based on two premises. the first one is something that i talked about six months ago, my promise was to work really hard and make sure we are a much more collaborative city. when the board of mayors and supervise got together, we would intelligently discuss the things that were involved and not be distracted with rhetoric or political positioning so much as asking the question of why we are here and what it is we have to do to recover.

the second premise i believe the voters voted to have four years of my leadership was on a topic that i have spoken at least a couple of times about, and that is jobs. [laughter] i had to put that in there. 17-point economic plan is what i ran on, economic recovery, job creation, the promise that an urban setting has welcoming as san francisco could actually produce jobs at a depth and number that more and more citizens can participate in, or returning veterans, or people in their mid career scampered dissipate in. the economic growth of this city is so important. so many other cities are challenged by their economics. i think that part of my appeal,

if you will, his because i still think 22 years of experience is worth something, under four mayors and five departments, if i could run the city, it would be impossible for anyone else. i have been careful not to make the mistake that some politicians have made in the past, and that is something that could be done in 100 days. i left that with full expectations because i know some very politicians -- famous politicians have made that mistake of promising too much in the first 100 days. totally understandable in terms of their in exuberance. you want to always promised something, but now that i have been 22 years of experience, i know delivering on more than

what you promise is always welcome in a city like san francisco. civility at civil -- city hall. i have been working on that. as you know, once a month, i walk over the hallway -- in fact, one of those days was today, to answer questions that they have. and it is less dramatic, without the rhetoric that you have seen, but guess what? i have appreciated the questions they have been asking me because there is a lot more thought in those questions now. it is not a gotcha hour. it is not how you can sound good and maybe not follow through and do good. so i think those questions have become that much more mature, focused on the things that are important to the public, and i always take the opportunity to thank those supervisors for their questions. i will walk with them in their

districts, commercial corridors, when they have been with me on any particular thing or not. we're all trying to run the city better. if we can do that, we will be ahead of the other cities that continue to debate among themselves, positions. we have a lot to look forward to, a lot to decide, and it takes civility at civil all -- city hall to get things going. just like now, we are having good conversations about a housing trust fund. who would have no redevelopment would be wiped out and we need a stream of revenue to replace that, or a sustainable replacement for our payroll tax. as ron and everyone else knows, we cannot have a tax that punishes people, while at the same time asking them to create jobs. that is kind of a crazy thing that only in san francisco we

have done, so we have to change that. we need to have a conversation about that. everyone is in the room, we have not left it yet, and we will get to the decision making, hopefully, in time for the november ballot. our economy is still in recovery. as ron said earlier, we went from 9.5% unemployment in january last year, to buy december, 7.6%. now it is right around 8%. almost 2%. the decision that we made, with technology companies, by inviting twitter to stay in mid market, as they grow from 450 employees, to over 2000. they signal that the beginning of their lease, they would release about 250,000 square feet of the building, but they

are exceeding that already. by june of next year, they will have 1000 people moving from their folsom street office to market street. that is what we were wishing would happen. what people do not understand, when they see the twitter deal, it was not so much the twittered deal as it was a mid-american revitalization effort by us. that is what we wanted to do. we wanted to use the ttwitter deal to signal the revitalization of the corridor. and it worked. i'm with another company that had decided to relocate in the same building, but what was happening across the street at a lot of people did not know. on 10th and market, there is a project that has been a hole in the ground for over three years, crescent heights. they did not start that project,

about 500 units, because there investors got shaky over the last couple of years, even though they got permits in hand, because of the economy. within weeks of the twitter deal being signed an legislation going forward to exempt them from the payroll tax, the investors of the 550-unit building released their contractors to go to work. that is why you see three cranes on that site. this is the investor confidence that we are now producing because of one decision that was so remarkably regurgitating to run market street. and then you have seen other things, donnie's cafe relocating. zendesk. even before that income was signed with twitter, zendesk moved in right in the middle of market street.

there are more coming in. there are three property owners who are about to change ownership in mid market because of the signal they feel. market street will change but all this activity. investor confidence. i want to come back to that game as to why i want to continue to manage the city in an economically-recoverable way. we still have a lot of work to do because, with 8% unemployment rate, that is 7000 people who have yet to get jobs, and they are looking desperately for them. we have got a huge partnership with sf city to get into that unemployment group of people. one of the things that the technology companies have signaled his they want to give back. part of the way you can give back, by way of their success, is to help me establish one of the first the employment training centers in the country aimed at people who want to join the technology industry.

this employment training center is being funded and led by the technology companies through sf city. they began with how they are recruiting right now their employees. they decided to consolidate their recruitment efforts online to a website that we have called hiresf.org. that is the beginning. there will be training programs. they are working on criteria that could then be reflected in training classes for skill sets they will hire people for and create internships for. that is how serious they are, that is how technology companies are working with us. technology is part of our future. if it is not technology just in the gaming industry or social media, it will be technology

that helps our city departments improve their delivery of service. how many people have used this website, application called sf park? it has been helpful to thousands of people. just to reduce the amount of congestion while people look for parking spaces. it is helping us manage traffic through managing parking. that application i have been able to use to attract other mayors to take a look at how technology has helped us and can help them. i got five or six hands from other mayors, from gainesville, fla., austin, texas who said they want to see that. i have parking problems that i cannot figure out. i want to see how this works. they have been testing it and asking questions, so we formed a technology and innovation task

force, a subgroup of the conference of mayors to introduce new ecology we are introducing here in san francisco, but we are along the experience to be felt across the united states. that is our giving back to the conference of mayors. that is one of the things i get excited about. every time i turn around there is a new application. we want some of those applications to reflect solutions for the problem we have been challenged by. that is exciting to me and that is why, every tuesday, and get the chance to work with my technology innovation officer, who was the first to be in the mayor's office, the first across the country, to have a chief innovation officer next to me telling me, you have to see this company. they are creating something that you do not even know about. every tuesday at 5:00, i get the least from my prison in city

hall to spend half an hour to 45 minutes with new technology companies. i cannot even pronounce all their names. one day in isyammer, and yelp, eventbrite. when i get in there, i do two things. i walk around and let them tell me what they do and what their business model is. then they have allowed me to do something that i did when i was at twitter. they let me speak to their employees. that is the most important thing. if i am going to give you a secret about technology, it is -- the fact that technology is here, partly it is because we have great cultural venues, great food, great bicycle and transit lines, but the real reason why the technology

industry is here is because they are in search of the talent that makes them successful. that talent is their employees. he may not have known this, but when i met with twitter the first time, i asked to meet with their top engineers by myself, without the cfo or ceo in the room, and they let me do that. that has become part of my visit. they have to let me speak with the employees themselves. if i ask the employees what they need from the city, and if i can cater to their needs, i have captured the cfo and ceo of the company, and their investors. that is the real secret to success. if you set up -- satisfy those top employees -- and they told me they want more affordable housing, great transit, the one to keep the cultural diversity of theci