practices and what this coordination means in this day and age. it isn't just talking through but identifying the gaps that exist. and for our youth those gaps could be literally life dependent. and whether it's mental services. whether it's education. whether it's getting a referral to a job. or counseling. whether it's just those two days getting out of either incarceration or something to do with our criminal justice system. we have to pay more attention to the whole level of existence. and i want to thank all of the agency heads for coming here together. this is my understanding, the first time we have asked everybody to come together and to share what you are doing. as good as they might be, as

great as they might be. that we still have gaps. and i would be the first to admit it in our city. while we are probably exhibiting of the most successful things we are doing. whether it's 5,000 more summer jobs. we will do more of that. and whether it's getting an exciting grant from the department of laborer to the tune of $8 million and to get kids involved in technology. or whether it's the latest program in our youth and getting more housing for them and services directly connected. as good as those things may be, they are one offs. unless we all coordinate how it is that we can attack those gaps. and not leave any period of time where the kids might feel they have to go back to habits that they may have learned.

whether from their families or environment they grew up in. i am cognizant of that, having grown up in public housing. and to get better. and to try to do that with the public housing residents now. to give hope to them. no matter where they are, sunnyvale or potrero. but to work with the families and it's not just brick and mortar. i want to give you my personal thoughts of bringing everyone together. it's worth it. it's worth every ounce of our energy to really fill in all the gaps. what makes me the saddest is when diag, and i and police chief suhr get the texts on the

mornings where we see a victim of crime. and what i usually do is put a face on that. and i get characteristics. young black male. hispanic male. victim, 2 a.m. gunshot wound, sf general, did not survive. and i try to put my own face on that, which is the kids that i see that we try to graduate up. or middle school kids that i would have seen. what could i have done for them. whether some counseling or guidance. or some support to the family. and we can be very creative in this effort. we can show the country by coming together we can do things throughout the whole continuum to provide that support. and we know we have the answers.

because oftentimes we have seen those circumstances where we did bring out a troubled family out of a bad environment. but we put them some place and then two weeks later that individual will go back to where they were. and get into a situation. so we know that it isn't just the physical environment we have to change. it's also the internal thinking. who they associate with. what is giving them hope to leave either some of their own home-made friendships to new associations that give them hope to change the things that they do. otherwise habits that are growing up. survival tactics will always be with them. i am very cognizant of what we have to do. and it's not easy to do. it does take investment. it does take a lot of talk with

funding associations. it does take prioritization. as often my agencies tell me, when the budget time comes up. we have to prioritize this. we know the budget games we have to play to balance it out. it all comes together with this very important topic with our transitional age youth. we are very willing in our city to prioritize ourselves, and make sure we don't keep the generations of kids going with the same type of habits. that's why in addition to these programs we authored ipo, interrupt predictive analysis and organizing effort to deal with public safety issues involving our youth. we have to do more to interrupt those patterns out there. we have to do more to use data to predict and analyze where the high-crime rates are to get people in a safe environment.

once they are there, we have to be consistent with continuum of support to give and support people transition out of those dangerous habits and not go back. this will take a lot of time and a lot of coordination. but it's very meaningful to see so many people committed to doing this. i hope we stay the course and not give up. it's easy to when budget hits. or sequestration because the federal government is not there, and it's easy to say we have to cut this and that. and we have seen those years. now that the state is recovering a bit. and the city of san francisco is recovering a bit. we didn't make good investments. and this is a time that all of you working together can help us make the right investment. and continue that strong support for our youth. the happiest moments, because i told you where the saddest moments are in the text. when the youth get their jobs

and go to their first interview and they are prepared. and they have confidence. and they come out of a summer where they earned their effort. and they know what that feels like when you earn your own pay. and you gain skills. and you use those skills and your personality to get the interviews you want for an opportunity to change yourself in the way that you want to change. and create those opportunities for you for years to come. those the most happiest moments i have seen. and i have seen a lot of that happen as well. we have to do for the most disadvantaged and challenged kids in the systems. that we touch upon when it's juvenile, youth or adult probation. again, thank you very much for coming together and making this your priority as well. and again thank you for the lead agencies doing this too. appreciate it. [applause]

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 ] >> we are celebrating the glorious grand opening of the chinese rec center. ♪ 1951, 60 years ago, our first kids began to play in the chinese wrecks center -- rec center. >> i was 10 years old at the time. i spent just about my whole life here. >> i came here to learn dancing. by we came -- >> we had a good

time. made a lot of friends here. crisises part of the 2008 clean neighborhood park fund, and this is so important to our families. for many people who live in chinatown, this is their backyard. this is where many people come to congregate, and we are so happy to be able to deliver this project on time and under budget. >> a reason we all agreed to name this memorex center is because it is part of the history of i hear -- to name this rec center, is because it is part of the history of san francisco. >> they took off from logan airport, and the call of duty was to alert american airlines that her plane was hijacked, and she stayed on the phone prior to

the crash into the no. 9 world trade center. >> i would like to claim today the center and the naming of it. [applause] >> kmer i actually challenged me to a little bit of a ping pong -- the mayor actually challenge me to a little bit of a ping- pong, so i accept your challenge. ♪ >> it is an amazing spot. it is a state of the art center. >> is beautiful. quarkrights i would like to come here and join them