and i wanted to start off -- i know the creation of job opportunities is one of the number one priority is for our city if fenestration. i wanted to make sure every day people are involved in those conversations and that something that is happening in district 11. the community organizations have come together, and we have led conversations in our neighborhood, in-depth conversations come in spanish and english with over 220 residents and stakeholders in the district. these conversations have provided powerful narrative's, of our communities everyday struggle to raise families and survive in district 11. we would like to share the themes that came from the analysis. what is the chronic abuse of workers' rights and advocacy.

the lack of opportunities to build economic asset. for folks in the neighborhood including working cooperatives. the need for cultural, the tech resources within district 11 that currently exist, none funded by the city, and the need for public policy reforms to create more job opportunities for native represents. we believe you and adults have the skills and talents to build a strong local economy. what we need is investment from the city, and we know that takes a partnership. we have begun partnership with the work force development, and we would like to see your support in order to bring those efforts to fruition. i believe supervisor avalos has a copy of the report he can share with you. thank you very much. [applause] >> i am a private citizen.

my comment is probably not very important. several years ago there was talk about the centennial from cleveland school. construction began on the yard for the ceremony, we thought. a month later after they did that they tore up the yard and again and put oa more concrete. a month or so later they tore up the yard again. what they have finally done now is we do have two children playgrounds, and the building, which i hope is permanent, and the podium is there. i just do not know why all of the cost was spent. on the other hand, the city has saved money, because on persia, which is a thoroughfare, tree- lined, the cleaning day is

monday, and it did not clean it any other holiday so they can save money, and i think that is very wonderful. [applause] >> good morning. i have had the great privilege of being a youth leader at out of sites used center. i serve on the youth advisory board. over the past year we worked on designing the first parklike in excelsior, which we finally got built, thanks to a grant that we wrote. we also work with the excelsior action group, and over spring break we were able to hire 12 high school in turn sought to help finish the designed, and also construct the parkway. it was a really great experience. i got to participate in it.

we learned to use all kinds of tools, and it was great to be there on the street interacting with people and spreading the message about the project. i wanted to reiterate a point that has been made today that it is really important to continue funding youth employment and opportunities for work force development. thank you. [applause] >> i am a resident of visitation valley and i have raised both of my children and excelsior. i'm the executive director of san francisco clean city. we have programs that are actually growing. we recently opened the doors on phoenicia avenue. i believe there are a bunch of groups that have the capacity to create innovative -- innovative solutions to work force development. while i commend the jobs we have for the summer, i would like to draw attention to having jobs in

our neighborhood that are neighborhood-serving, not to corporations. being youth centers within the existing program, doing innovative recycling programs come in doing -- it recently supervisor avalos supported us for the mission corridor with young adults. we would like to grow the programs in our neighborhood with our youth and with adults in our neighborhood. and also infrastructure. all over the city there are one- stops. we do not have that infrastructure in our neighborhood. i would like to bring up mclaren park like other people have. we have a 312 acre park that borders these neighborhoods that is an incredible opportunity that could be supporting programs for young people and adults. we would like to work together with the city to use the public spaces as a way to create opportunities. the bond is a big part of that because $6.5 million for 312

acres. our groups are called saved mclaren park because we have not had the investment from the city and a lot of the infrastructure. we would please like you to revisit that in this upcoming bond. thank you. [applause] >> we want everyone to give yourselves a hand. i think this was a very productive conversation. everyone stuck to the time and made my job easier. i think you for that as well. i believe it is back to you, mr. mayor. >> thank you. thank you. great job. thank you very much. well, there is a lot of needs out here.

obviously i have taken a very detailed notes and listened very carefully. i will continue this, because some people did not have enough time to get their points across, so we welcome additional information and viewpoints that we shared. you give us a lot to work on, supervisors. i will say this, as i said earlier, we got cut from the state, cuts from the fed. we will have to depend upon ourselves. a lot of you are talking about where the city should make its investments. i also need you to know i will also turn around and ask companies to actually co invest with us. if they make money and create

conditions for them to invest in our city, we expect them to work in partnership with us. that is why you see a lot of department's finding innovative ways to work with private companies to make money. whether they protect companies like sales force or twitter, they will make a lot of private investment moneys. we're trying to turn their attention to our needs in government, as well as the private sector, and investing in neighborhoods. if you can grow in the bayview, third street, they can grow with us. it is always about not just them growing, all of us growing together and to share. that is why we are having this great discussion about shared economy, because we need for sharing. that is the secret, i think, in making better government. where the money is gained, we share it and allow other people to build on the foundation.

i just want to share that with you. i will say that we're not going to give up. we're not giving up. that is not going to go away. we just need, at this time, because of that elimination about redevelopment, you know how i feel about that already. we are through crying. half of the project is private investment. how do we match that? how do we increase more private and best bet in the development so we can get all of the benefits that so many of you have worked so hard for so many years hoping to make sure the design of leland avenue was reflected the in complementing that development. we need to get that done. you have my commitment to work with the supervisors, get that done, and make sure we do not leave a hole in the ground.

we want to make sure we recognize karen, because she is child support services with us as well. [applause] she is working really hard to make sure we pay attention to all of our families. you are right. the largest number of families in these districts. there are a lot of other questions you have about things. we will work with you on those individual areas, but i know that i got the smartest people possible heading up all of our different agencies, and the smartest ones are here today, because they know that just being smart is not good enough. smart means working with the neighborhoods, listening and opening up not only our hands to work hard, but i have department heads that work with their minds. ultimately won hands and minds and hearts.

that is what we want. hance, mines, and hearts all working with our neighborhoods. thank you very much for opening up your hearts to san francisco. we will be there with you. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor, and thank you for being here. i want to thank the residents of district 10 and 11 for being here. i want to thank you for your advocacy and great work, advancing our district in neighborhood, your volunteering and street cleaning and providing services for senior coming use, and families and making sure our district is better served by the city and county of san francisco. i am here to fight with you. i want to make sure we can have the best we can for san francisco. we actually have had a lot of flat funding over the years for district 10 and 11.

we have done a lot of investments to make sure we can continue to work together, and we want to see those investments bear fruit this year with greater resources coming to the neighborhoods. i actually believe we just cannot expect the government to get efficient. we have to make sure we are getting more revenue for the city and county of san francisco. i have worked on that over the years. two years ago i put on the ballot measure to raise money for the real-estate transfer tax. it has raised $25 million per year. we helped to passed up by a community partner labour -- partnership to make sure we could pass that legislation. [applause] this year i am looking at closing a loophole on banks when they foreclose on properties. they're not paying the loophole for the real estate transfer tax. we can close that loophole. minimize foreclosures, and bring more revenue to the city and

county of san francisco. we're also looking at changing the business tax as well and moving from apparel tax. i want to make sure that as we're doing that, that we are growing supply revenue for the city. taxing the highest, most profitable businesses at a higher rate to bring money to the city so we can perform the services we need to perform here in this part of san francisco. i want to thank you for being here. i want to work with you in advance in the district. thank you very much. [applause] >> just a second, i get across -- a chance to make closing remarks. i just want to say thank you for being a partner and investing your time in the neighborhood and investing your time in the meeting today. i think one of the key takeaways is you cannot pick apples with your back to the tree.

thank you.

>> kids with special needs have access to a venture on may 5.

over 25 businesses and nonprofit organizations build the music concourse with free refreshments, games, and bluegrass. access to a venture is part of sf rec and park's year-round activities in partnership with families. ♪ ♪ [applause] >> ok. that was really beautiful. we would like to welcome you to the third annual statewide celebration and recognition of asian-pacific islander american heritage month.

this event is hosted by the mayor. i will tell you a little bit more. it is a non-profit, non- partisan. since 2001, our focus has been on educating the public on public policy. and fostering the future leaders from our minority communities to serve at federal, state, and local levels. the mission is to empower patients and pacific islander americans in civic and public affairs to education, active participation, and leadership development. >> civic engagement, leadership development, and community servthe theme of tonight's evens

a celebration of the achievements and accomplishments of asian-americans in the state of california and our nation. >> ok'ing. -- ok. i would like to introduce our host for this evening. very well known as the first asian-american mayor in san francisco history. mayor lee championed balancing the budget to keep san francisco safe, solvents, and successful. he reformed city pensions. his focus is on economic development, job creation, and building san francisco's future. a great job, especially for helping out families. we want to keep families here. i also wanted to mention a little bit of his past. he was born in 1952 in the

beacon hill neighborhood of seattle, washington. his parents immigrated to the u.s. from china and the 1930's. his father fought in world war ii and worked as a cook. he passed away when the mayor was 15. his mother was a seamstress and a waitress. mayor lee has five siblings, he graduated from college in maine, he also went to uc- berkeley law school and finished in 1978. he and his wife have two daughters. i also want to mention, prior to becoming mayor, one of the key points in his contributions to the community is after he completed law school, he worked as a managing attorney for the san francisco asian law caucus,

where he was an advocate for affordable housing and the rights of immigrants and renters. mayor lee -- [applause] >> thank you. welcome to city hall. the people's city hall, san francisco. i want you all to note that that was such a wonderful rendition of our national anthem. please give another applause to the millennium -- melanie and her daughter. i am so excited about all of you

and seen so many of you from all over our state. come to city hall anin san francisco, welcome. i would like to welcome the former secretary of transportation. [applause] thank you for being here. thank you, john, thank you. our board of supervisors comment david chiu, thank you very much. david campos, thank you for being here. he is our adopted asian brother. we have so many of our state representatives here. so many of you are here.

i have spent all night announcing your names, but they did not give me the full list. i will say thank you on behalf of our city. from sacramento, los angeles, from all the communities in between, thank you for coming to our fantastic city to celebrate our asian-pacific heritage month. it is my pleasure to also provide you with a warm welcome and thank you for somebody who worked on this idea to bring everybody here to san francisco, my very good friend. thank you. where are you? when we first talked about this, we said there had to be the place where everybody felt comfortable. there had to be a place where we could feel the excitement of

all very different asian american groups. we had to have a place where something wonderful had been accomplished. a leadership change, one that we never thought in our lifetimes. by the way, as you know, i never thought in our lifetimes we would see an african-american president of the united states. what a wonderful location, that is something to celebrate. he has been here many times, president obama. the very surprised we had of being able to celebrate the first asian mayor of san francisco. it was not my doing, it was all of the people of san francisco saying it is about time we celebrate. thank you to the people of san [applause] i have a very short message. what did i have felt very strongly in my first elected

year, but also during my tenure as interim mayor. we have a great deal of celebrate. we also have a great challenge in front of us. there are so many of our asian american friends, iranian friends, friends from the philippines, friends from our japanese-american community, are chinese-american community, waiting for the opportunity to come together to celebrate our diversity, but also to signal to our european friends, our latino france, we are ready to help lead this state. and helped change the conversation and not only celebrate diversity, but use diversity for our strength. that is our strength. i want to signal to you, let's come together, let's use this

opportunity to make sure we can celebrate our strength throughout the state. i also want to welcome carmen chu. thank you for joining us. we can really celebrate and we can bring this state for because i know -- he does not want to be alone in san francisco suggesting change. nobody wants to be alone. all of us can contribute to a more positive outlook on life. guess what -- when we look at where we came from, when we look at the parents that brought us here, the generations before us, we learned a great lesson. we learned lessons they faced, there were struggling to get past the barriers of discrimination. past the barriers of economic privilege, past the barriers of

the new immigrants to this country. they forged ahead. some of us aren't new generations, the generation of kids i want to -- some of us are new generations. make sure they have a big opportunity in san francisco. we hope you do not have those barriers that our parents did. we hope that you do not run into the road blocks that we had to struggle for. we hope that our lawsuits, are street advocacy, -- our street advocacy, and all the places we struggled with in our generations, that you never have to go through. the only way we can do that is to make sure the door is always open to everybody else. that is our promise, we have to keep that, we have to keep our education strong, we have to keep our economic foundation

strong, we have to keep our opportunities strong. thank you. i am honored. let us celebrate. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i officially declare this to be asian pacific heritage month in san francisco and the state of california. welcome. [applause] >> i am going to make one correction. he said president obama is the first african-american president. president obama crew up in hawaii. -- grew up in hawaii. it makes him an honorary asian- american. he is the first asian-american president as well. tonight's events would not be possible without our community

partners. a group that helped make all this happened, i am going to read them all. the asian business alliance, asian law alliance, the asian pacific american leadership institute, chinese-american cultural association, chinese american political association, citizens for better community, culture to culture, why in the chamber of commerce of northern care of -- kawai and chamber of commerce of northern california, northern california chinese athletic association, national association of american professionals, national federation of independent business, national federation of

filipino americans, the filipino chamber of commerce, around of applause for all of our community partners, please. that was a lot. [applause] >> i am so glad he had to do that. our next speaker is u.s. congressmen. he is representing the 15th congressional district of california in the u.s. house of representatives. in congress, he is a member of the powerful house appropriations and budget committee. share of the democratic caucuses, new media working group, house democratic senior went, and the original author