* radio those are the people that are out there. >> awesome. if anybody has compliment for san francisco let me know because we can put that in right now. [laughter] >> alex, you live here. hold on. let me get over to you quickly and then we'll have you -- >> the one thing that i really got from catherine's presentation that really touched me was she was telling us to go forward 2030 in term of technologies and looking back to today. but this conference with all the vendors we had here had an amazing impact on me as learning of new technologies. i really feel in the 21st century of different types of technologies. i'm not going to make any pitches here. but bottom line is we are learning and this conference to me, and i know for many of us here, it was a great learning experience. thank you. >> awesome, thank you. (applause) >> thank you. all right.

if we don't have any more questions, i'm going to give it over to drew to do his little sales pitch up there. or any announcements that need to be made. >> [speaker not understood]. >> okay, do you want the microphone? i'll hold it. i'm kidding. here you go. >> i'm obviously part of the nonprofit [speaker not understood], i have a products company. and for what it's worth, it hasn't gone to development yet. but we have a one-coat film that so far is working on traffic signs with unlimited cleanings. once it goes to market we'll let you know at the 2013 conference. we're not quite there yet, but it is close. the films can be difficult to apply on signs and very labor intensive, but the sign shops something you'll be able to apply yourself. when it comes to completion, all graffiti [speaker not understood] will get a sample. can (applause) * >> okay. so, we have a couple minutes.

if there's no more questions, no more compliments, the panel, thank you so much for coming. (applause) >> it's been awesome. hopefully we'll be having another one next year somewhere in the world. ... >> i think it ae's public and private property. i'm against graffiti. >> who can get it out the most who can be noticed the most.

>> i i've seen seniors doing graffiti. >> the city is art, other people who have their names tag -- >> [inaudible] our unit there are 2 sections we are doing one is abating and others are notice of violation to private property. all the utility boxes in public right-of-way we abate. >> we abate calls that come within 48 hours. >> we are a small group in g f graffiti. we don't have enough help. >> i have a group in town down and china town and the north

tunnel. [inaudible] the graffiti we abate everything is coming up to the areas now. >> i'm willing to take it on. i think -- >> you are telling me you are ready for this? >> i think so. >> okay. >> there you go. >> all right. >> all right. >> ready to do it. let's go. >> want to get the gray signses this over here and the garbage can and normally we don't do private property since it's on the corridor route you can come with me we will use black. >> we had a lot of changes in the graffiti unit. we do private property if someone moved we remove it and send it to the attorney's office and they take appropriate action. >> damage their property there.

it's important to write the color in case they want to say what part of our house you abated the graffiti on. >> using your safety glasses the gloves. >> you got it. >> you know some places we gashi, people appreciate that. you know, a lot of timeses they say, thank you. >> the time where it's visible. a lot of people put it on the ground. >> i like when tourists come and say, you do this for your

city and you get paid for that? >> we use the [inaudible] for the holes and the retaining walls. [inaudible]. white on the fire hydrants. fire box red for the fire boxes. our brown for the pg and e poles. >> we are not painters we do our best. >> i'm assuming it has to do with gang activity. >> if it's territorial i mind. >> in case it's gang related and they are marking our territory i would like to paint it over. >> anything with numbers like x

iv or x 13 west side mob and the bay view those are gang related. with gang related or profanity we will abait it as soon as possible. >> i consider it an art. there are circles of people that form around it whether or not they should ruin public property. >> this is art work i'm for it. unless it's on someone's property and they don't want it there. judge kids with silver paint expressing their ego needs doesn't belong on our property. >> graffiti is when you don't have permission to write anything on their property. >> eighth street is part of your regular rout? >> yes. >> everyday. >> eighth street.

divisidero street. irving street. every block they going through they paint 3 or 4 streets in the block the poles the utility boxes, mailbox. >> thank you. >> okay. >> put the drop cloth. come on around. >> there you go. force for we have to remember we are not painters we abate graffiti. we are abaters not painters. get that out of the way and keep moving. >> how many of these do you do

a day? how many poles we do a day? >> yeah. >> depends on the location. may be 20. >> do you like working with the team? >> yes because i'm a people person. i like being outside and interacting with the public and i like the response we get especially from the good job we do in the community. >> goodbye. good evening, everybody. if i can have everybody's attention for a few minutes. we would like to welcome you to the reopening of our visitor information center here in san francisco. it's a real great

occasion for us. we enjoy seeing it today than the way it was before. many visitors especially international visitors get off the bus at the airport and come here as their very first stop looking for information from san francisco. we get over 400,000 people to come here to learn about what to do in san francisco. i think the changes which i'm going to talk about in san francisco. it's brought the feeling of the city in san francisco and the region into the building and it's a positive experience for us and the visitors and the volunteers who spend so much time here. so i would like to crews right now the mayor who has been a great partner with the hospital industry. in fact this whole project without the

city of san francisco could not have done with without the help to make the plaza better and the visitor center a better experience and will work to make it more welcoming. i would like to introduce mayor lee, a tremendous ambassador to what we are all about. let's give him a round of applause for that leadership. thank you for not only what you do for the residents, but the visitors as well. >> thank you, you and the board have been just fabulous. you know san francisco i get to talk about everywhere i go

whether it's ireland, paris or washington, d.c. and pretty soon i have to go to baltimore. what a downer. and eat their crab. [ laughter ] anyway, it's all in great gist that i say to you that again this is a 16 million person visit every year to san francisco. just millions and millions of dollars are spent by our visitors in this city. so we have to keep it beautiful, we have to keep it updated and informative. we have great partners that have known over many decades that this is the heart of our business, tourism, the hotels, some of the greatest hotels in the world are here in san francisco and they will be welcoming all the people that

come from 55 days of sailing. event after event find it's way to san francisco, the bay area because they know we know how to host this. i want to welcome bob from our chamber of commerce because he's learning very quickly how wonderful this place is. [ applause ] and how we do things and how we do things successfully is to identify or challenge and get really bright creative minds like joe, and you start working with union square and you discover and help everybody be successful and you find john, who gets this going. you get all of these discoveries like people in the city like john, who has been there year after year operateing the whole convention visitor center and

you start to putting things together and more each year things get better and better. when you see success, there is so many examples of our success in working together and cooperating together that you get a whole hotel group of owners together and they are paying for an expansion of the convention center. that's going to make us world class competitors with places because of the size. so they know how to get things done and know that our city is much acknowledging that this is the most important employment center, the tourism center for the city, it continues to be, we have natural beauty but we also have beauty because we all work together to get that great experience going and for this center to be refurbished,

technology wise, space wise and adding things like made in san francisco. i have to say that because for me i got to talk about san francisco in ireland, in paris, i'm going to talk about it beginning tomorrow night the day after when i arrive in beijing that we are really on our way to kind of manufacturing beautiful wonderful things that people can take with them that they are looking for all the time. i got those inquiries. what are you making in san francisco, the middle class in china, they have money to spend, they are investing all over the world. i want them to invest here along with the other 400,000 visitors that come through here and take the advantage of the exposure and what everybody associated with the movement here. we can have more of the products, more of the accessories, more of the

things that they want to have as memories, but also make on going connections with us. i want to thank all the volunteers that are working here because, you know, you do it for the love of the city. if the visitors who speak multiple different languages walk in and they don't get a smile from a volunteer, earning a lot of money, they are not going to spend money and not feel appreciated. we all know in this industry, it's not just the smile we care about, this is why we need to invest in looking at this future of the holiday plaza, working with webcor, we are working to try to redesign even better i

improvements here and you see the space in the highest level of appreciation for the city. i want to emphasize it would not happen without everybody reaching out to each other, with n the city, stake holders, in our small businesses, the hotels and successful areas of our city and say let's work together for an even more improved vision of what we can do for our visitors. that is going to enhance everything, that is what turns one visit into 5 visits with the same person. it turns someone who comes by themselves and then they bring their families or they meet up with friends here in san francisco. and this is what it's all about. this is what i care about and i know that i will continue to try to do the things that the mayor's

office that support this effort, talking about it, quoting the statistics to the supervisors and they know that visitors is at the heart and all the way to market street. pretty soon, i'm not supposed to announce these things, but i would like to announce things that are not finalized yet because they get people excited about what else people want to do. market street is going to get free wifi by the end of this year. i assure you of that. because the companies of at&t are saying gosh, look at what we are doing on market street. let's get free wifi going on the plazas and all the way so that we honor people's investment and honor all of the work they are doing to recreate and reestablish market street greatest street in san

francisco and then we'll work on many of the other corridors that also want our attention and as joe has done with travel to reignite for all the people to visit and experience and do different things. this year is going to be incredible year. the exploratorium opens next month, the america's cup, the giants are back for another great season and then you have in addition to all of that you have the latest, the bay lights. the incredible innovative [spelling?] spirit that it causes. how can you do that, to put led lights and you get incredible mastery of technology to go with art. these are the things we do to celebrate. i love this city more and more even though we

are working our toe nails down to make it better, you turn and see it's really worth it because everyone loves this city and you know we all appreciate it. thank you for working together, thank you for going beyond the boundaries and thank you for reaching out to each other and asking for help and solutions. so that we don't take the person on the sidewalk and say we have a problem and we have a problem. we do something about it. we are working with everybody to make things better. we have partners, they are showing up on market street. 3300 residential units being

constructed, and we have venture capitalist. we need more. this is a big way of saying thanks to everybody for working together. another great center here and we are going to make sure this center flowers with all the other plans that we have. thank you for working together. >> thank you. for your leadership today. today i was with the representative for the football league and they are looking at the site for football. they said i haven't seen this many cranes in american city for such a long time. it's very exciting. and mayor, i wasn't able to join you in court, but i will join you to our most important city and that is our sister in

italy. thanks again for your leadership and in taking this city to a new direction and preserving it's past and celebrating it's presence and making sure it's future is as strong. let's give mayor another round of applause. [ applause ] so now i would like to clues to -- introduce you to my other boss, the board share of the traveling association and the board share of the improvement district and the square, david maeld man. >> thank you joe, thank you mayor lee for all of your support, and your leadership. it's such a great time to be in san francisco. tourism is just coming and that's due to your efforts and your administration's efforts. thank

you very much. san francisco travel. as joe mentioned, i kind of wear three hats but i'm standing in the middle of my world. union square improvement districts and tremendous work that they are doing down here, joe dell sandero with travel and of course due to mayor lee's efforts it's a time for tourism and general manager in this city. thank you. visitors information center. it was a freudian slip because it improved tremendously and it couldn't be in greater location. so all the visitors that come to san francisco from

the airport stop right there and come here for information on things to do in the city. it's tremendous for me to be the general manager because i have concierge but the volunteers and the people here are an extension of concierge and giving information for all the visitors that come in and make this a world class city and really visit all the areas, the restaurants, the attractions and everything else this city has to offer. i want to thank again san francisco travel because they are the ones who market tourism, no. 1 industry in san francisco and again i want to thank you. i want to thank the volunteers. as mayor lee has said, you are the ones that truly breathe live into this city. and you give out information with just

such authentic and hospitality to all the visitors around the world. they go back and tell their friends and tell them to come to one of the best cities in the world, san francisco. thank you. [ applause ] >> in conclusion, a couple things. we have a little game we are playing here that we encourage you to do it. we talk about our staff and volunteer that wear a yellow ribbon that say staff on them. go ahead and meet them. write their names on the piece of paper. put it in the silver bucket and you have the opportunity to win -- some prices. these volunteers speak italian, hindu, french, mandarin, portuguese, spanish, tagalog and vietnamese. they are the ones that really help.

a couple things i want to point out, the main changes here. when you walked in here you bumped into a bunch of brochures. the real experts are not the brochures but the staff and volunteers who share their information and passion. we put the brochures against the wall and brought the volunteers and staff to the middle. when the people came and they needed to understand what was the heart and soul of the city to meet the geniuses, they found in front and middle. that was an important change. we don't always have a dj out here. many times we have volunteers and staff. another feature we are proud of is technology. we have touch screens. we have sf made products, we'll have more in the future as we continue. we have these the wonderful maps

back here. the one of san francisco and it's neighborhood and the one of california. it amazing how many volunteers want to get in front of this map and discuss what they remember about san francisco. we encourage you to spread the word and thank you for your partnership. thanks for coming tonight. enjoy the rest of the reception. thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ] >>

with its elegant rotunda, the reflecting waters of the sub rounding lagoon and fraying rant eucalyptus trees, special dates and memorable proposals. it is the perfect picnic spot to relax with that special someone by listening to water and fountain in the lagoon and gazing as the swans go gracefully by. beautiful to view from many locations along the lagoon and inside the columns is an ideal place to walk around with your loved one. the palace of fine arts is the most popular location in the city arts system. reservations for weddings and other events a

>> the garden contains plants referred to by william shakespeare's plays and poems. located near the academy of sciences, shakespeare's garden was designed in 1928 by the california spring and wild flower association. here is a truly enchanting and tranquil little garden tucked behind the path of a charming rot iron gate with romantic magic. the overarching cherry trees, the gorgeous big walkway and brick wall, the benches, the rustic sun dial. the pack picnic, lovely bench, enjoy the sunshine and soft breeze and let the