residents in the back as well. [applause] >> good evening.i a i am pat, spekaing for the boys and girls clubs of san francisco. through the three clubhouses, we serve 7525 youth. the three clubs and 9350 other youth with school and community organizations. this is not just a large number of kids that we serve, we have good character and community engagement. i want to give the time up for the youth and parents to say how

they feel about what is going on in the community. and thank you again, supervisors kim and olague. for your support. we look forward to serving more children with the club on fulton. >> hi, my name. >> lord of mercy. i am lavina -- the treasure island clubhouse. we are one of nine clubhouses. we are the only youth program from 6-18 year olds. thank you, mayor and everyone. i have a few members that would like to share a bit about them. >> she's been dying to do this.

>> thank you. good evening, everybody. my name is vonya and i am a member of the boys and girls club on treasure island. i am 10 years old. my brother and i have been in the club for five years and this is my home away from home. i come from the club every day after school and every day when there is no school. boys and girls club is the only youth program on treasure island. my family and i love and need the club as it provides me with the skills needed to help me with my education, life skills, and to be a young lady. [laughter] [applause] >> the club keeps me safe and out of trouble and i am

surrounded by people who love and care about me. in order to help me grow and be successful, we need your support to help programs like boys and girl's club, and san francisco a lot. thanks to everyone and our supervisor, jane kim. [applause] >> i am linda wong, representing the tnederloitenderloin boys ans club. there are a lot of programs and many kids had experiences like mine.

basically, the boys and girls clubs help me. i was not thinking of going to college, because i thought that they would cut the budget. taking everything away from me, and when no one believed in me, they believed in me. thank you. >> i will call another group of speakers. we have about five more minutes. i will call these names. henry carnilowitz, scott piper, daniel landry, jaela anderson,

and john mark johnson. >> good evening. i would like to thank jane kim for making this happen. south of market -- as we know, small businesses are the economic and cultural engine of a city. this needs fuel to keel to keep running. the organization i speka of ak of is urban solutions. i would urge you to make the funds available. particularly in areas like sixth street and bayview and tenderloin. i urge you to set funds aside

for that. and one last thing, good to see you here. one speaker said, the police station. we would like to see it happen. thank you very much. >> hello. i am john mark johnson, and i work in district six. the city contractor with the direct access -- i wanted to advocate not to throcut funding for the direct access program. the relocation of 109 people would leave 109 eoplpeolpple who are homeless homeless.

it would cost around $2 million the first year. it doesn't make sense we we would cut -- we would cut housong aning and leave our most vulnerable people on the street without the support that they need. [applause] >> first, thank you. the supervisors -- the call in the town hall meeting. i am daniel landry. i was born and raised in the western addition. what i hear is about economics, i am a small-business owner and was impacted by the redevelopment era. my question, and my thought is that, can we find a way to make certain that those who have been

impacted by the redevelopment agency have opportunities, economically, and for housing? the beat goes on. it may seem like the sunset of the redevelopment agency may be happy for some state officials, but some of us have been left behind. a few years ago we took the delegation to vallejo, and warned ossie dviavis they were on trouble. the city went bankrupt. this is about how you treat the poor. at the end of the day, nations and states and localities have failed because the poor people do not have an opportunity. i want to put that in the front burner. i thank you for coming out and sharing the information you have on the city budget, thank you.

[applause] >> fanstic ideas that we have heard here today. thank you, mayor and supervisors were coming out to hear these ideas. the arts are an incredible value add to san francisco. we bring in an enormous amount to the tourism budget. we hvave some funding with the hotel task fund. it has gone into the general fund, and we have a chance that is about to be completed for the 1% for public arts, and is being expanded. thank you, to a large amount of the soma area, and we want to make sure we don't lose this

with the new housing developments coming up. there are chances to feed into this and it benefits the members of those programs. consider reinstating these areas and as we discussed affordable housong foing for the redevelopment agency, make sure this is included. i hope to see a continued san francisco existence for us. thank you. >> can we give it up one more time for everyone who spoke today? [applause] i know we talk about dollars and cents, but it comes down to how it effects people's lives. all of us, business owners,

artists, we make twork togethero make this the best city it can be. this is just the start of the budget process. there will be five more of these and budget hearings. we have heard from everyone about a lot of important issues. i ask you to be involved and bring your family to see how these issues effect everyone's everyday life. thank you all, one more time. [applause] >> and so we are going to close. >> give it up for lisha. [applause] >> thank you. it is loud. thank you agian. my role is to thank you. this is your valualbble time.

thank you for coming out. i want to thank tenderloin elementary school. and just an example -- this school was able to develop a partnership for free dental care. it is really amazing. i want to recognize the mayor's office of immigrant affairs for translation service, and adrian for working with us, and sfgtv for recording this, and you can watch it to test the words. i want to thank my staff, they spent a lot of time on this. there wil lbe more town halls. supervisor olague will announce

her next, and thank you. >> i would like to thank ed lee, for years i have organized this event. this seat was always empty. i want to thank hom for engaging with all of us and sharing the priority for the district. as promised, there will be more opportunities for you to express your feelings about the budget priorities. we will have this pariapril 25 t the county fair building. there are fliers as you leave. i want to thank you for coming and sharing your priority with us. we will work hard to meet those

priorities. thank you. [applause] >> well, we certainly got off to a good start. last year, when we started this, -- i will tell you, one reason why i think there are a lot of programs that are safe is because you conducted yourself in a way we listened very carefully because he represented yourselves well. people often say that we are a very rich city. i think that we are a rich city not just because we have a budget of $6.80 billion, we are rich because of the diversity represented in this room, and you are willing to give us your involvement and your ideas, and to give us your passion. i have a lot of notes here and i

know that the department's that our represented here took a lot of notes as well. when you talk about seniors and emigrants, youth, all of these programs, all of the diverse populations that exist here, we listened very carefully tonight. we will take this under very serious consideration when we make these decisions. it is these opportunities that we have, that tell us what is important. and we listened very carefully over the substance that you are saying to us. this will be reflected in the balanced budget. thank you for your courtesy. thank you very much. >> and i want to recognize

dominica henderson and judy bee, and thank you, thank you for coming. have a good night.

>> tonight marks the eighth anniversary of small business week in san francisco. wells fargo started it eight years ago. [applause] my name is lesley, and i am a senior vice president of the san francisco chamber of commerce. my partner is steve adams, the president of the small business commission. we had the honor of cochairing small business week again this year, our second year running. and do was add flavors of san francisco last night? all right, thank you so much. you made it really amazing. we had a lot of small businesses, incredible restaurants, and all of the small business resource providers mated just extraordinary this year, many are saying the best ever.

thank you for that. we celebrate small business week every year as a san francisco community, to celebrate, honor, and support small businesses that really bring the texture and the distinguished experiences in the neighborhoods. they bring the jobs. they put people to work. [applause] and then make our neighborhoods special. innovation is growing every day from the people in this room and small businesses across san francisco. >> and we would like to thank a few people who helped get us here today. san francisco small business week is managed by a volunteer committee made up of people who are dedicated to the success of small business. a special thank you to all you have made san francisco small business week the best anywhere. i do not know if you guys knew this, but san francisco small business week is the largest small business week celebration in the united states.

[applause] so i would like to thank our honorary post, mayor ed lee. mark from the sba. michael from wells fargo. steve from the chamber of commerce. and our committee members, regina and jane from the office of small business. kathleen and steve from the small business administration. sharon of the renaissance entrepreneurial center. melanie with the san francisco chamber of commerce. brigid from the san francisco african american chamber of commerce. jim from the council of district merchants. eric and pat from the golden gate business association. edith of the as the entrepreneurial center. susan, ella, a and katy from

wells fargo bank, and adam and allison of strauss events. [applause] >> and thank you very much to our sponsors who make this week- long bigger and more meaningful to small business every year, starting with our title and presenting sponsor wells fargo, of entrepreneur sponsor sfmta. if you have seen that we have been able to promote small business to where we needed the attention. we wanted small business to know we were throwing a party and a weeklong celebration and a week- long opportunity to educate and inspire a small business. visa, at&t advertising solutions, a constant contact. recology, pacific gas and electric company, kaiser permanente, zero, chevron, and

vertical response. >> t-mobile, microsoft office -- office 365, dynatech, veriphone, and our principal sponsor, it aaa flag and banner, fedex, and strauss event. seven by seven magazines, the bay citizens, san francisco business times, san francisco bay guardian, in the bay area reporter. let's get our sponsors and media sponsors a round of applause. [applause] >> we are here to solicit several small businesses tonight that have gone above and -- salute several small businesses denied that have gone above and beyond to open their stores, get on the phone, turn on their websites, and stand up as mentors for small businesses. this is not an easy time, and small businesses overall, many

of them are struggling to stay afloat, including many in this room. so we would like to shine the spotlight for a little while tonight on some of these small businesses that have been able to push the envelope and continue to do very well. they have been beacons of hope, and we cannot have this event tonight to really give them the recognition that they deserve without recology. recology has long been the community sponsor of small business week and small business even said throughout this city. we're thrilled to have that consistency, to have the partner in recology and the work they do in san francisco and beyond. we would like to have the opportunity to introduce our host tonight, a vice president of recology, john medino. [applause] >> good evening.

it is a pleasure to be here. recology is a community company, and we like to do things within our community. we do a lot with small business. after all, they're the fabric of san francisco, and we're part of that also we're glad to do it. i will keep it short tonight. i know people have a few things to say. more importantly, i want to make sure everybody gets enough to eat and drink. with that, thank you very much for allowing us to be a part of this. we are certainly going to continue this relationship and more to do with small business in the future. thank you very much. [applause] >> and we're lucky here today. we have sba regional administrator here to bring us a few words from washington, d.c. so let's welcome elizabeth. [applause] >> good evening, everyone.

it is so great to be here to celebrate with you. small business week and celebrating small business truly is the best part of my job. as president obama's voice for small business on the west coast, it is so great to be able to be here and celebrate with you. i want to thank our partners, sponsors, volunteers, and of course mark and his team for making this possible, as well as recology for hosting us in this beautiful spot, as well as the mayor and treasurer. thank you did during small business week, we honor our small businesses, and we should. we should be celebrating our small businesses every day of the week actually, because of course, they're the ones creating the jobs they create two out of three jobs. they represent 99% of our employers in the country, over 99% in california. and what i really love about the

west coast and san francisco in particular is not only are you a week ahead of the national small business week -- of will be traveling back to washington, d.c., this week and to celebrate national small business week, but you're also the largest. best of all, you do small business week in a unique way. you not only celebrate and honor our small businesses, but your help to provide them with the support they need to go on and be even more successful. for example, a number of you were there last night at flavors of sf, and over 1200 people there -- i love the people -- the idea of luring people in with food and helping to connect them with the resources to helping them succeed. tomorrow is the all day small business conference and training. a host of training to help a small businesses be more successful. san francisco really is unique, and i hope will lead the whole country in this. it is just a fabulous week.

thank you again to everyone, and congratulations to our award winners. [applause] >> thank you, elizabeth. and thank you so much for recognizing san francisco. i now would like to welcome the president and ceo of the san francisco chamber of commerce, a champion of small business, and my boss, steve locke. [applause] >> thank you. i guess she had to say that, but on behalf of the chamber of commerce, first of all, congratulations to all the award winners tonight. the chamber of commerce suffers from the perception of being a downtown big business organization. but the truth of the matter is, out of 1500 chamber members that represent almost 300,000 employees in the city, 1200 of them employ fewer than 50 employees.

so we really do represent all of you. we represent the small business community. and just to put that in perspective, 85% of all businesses in this city that have employees have fewer than 20 employees. 85%. and i certainly do not want to offend our large businesses, wells fargo -- [laughter] because we love large businesses, but the truth of the matter is, over the past 30 years, the number of employees working for businesses with 1000 or more employees has declined by 50%. so, what is the driving engine of the san francisco economy? you will hear it from the mayor. it is small business. that is where we get our neighborhoods. that is where we get the entrepreneurial spirit.

it is small businesses hiring people wonder two at a time, that will put san franciscans back to work. it is about small business. congratulations to all of you. and i would also like to thank john and recology for hosting us tonight. a reporter asked me earlier, why are you having this that recology? does it have something to do with prop a? i said it has nothing to do with prop a. recology is a good example of a large company that is very successful because the partners with small companies. 78% of all of the trash in at this city is diverted away from landfills. that is because this company works with all of you. we have finally figured out in this city -- it took a while, what goes in the blue came in,

what goes in the green can, what goes in the black can. [laughter] it took a while, but we figured it out. now we are number one in the country. [applause] yes, thank you. we are probably the no. 1 in the world. if we say it, it is real. [laughter] congratulations to recology. which brings me to the final point. tonight is not about politics. it is about celebrating award winners. i cannot help myself. we have the most successful operation of recycling and composting in the country. there is a proposition on the ballot, prop a, that will undermine and destroy the reputation. i encourage all of you to vote no on prop a.