presentations. organized five merchant walks and, of course, not to mention the new year press conference organized by safe, david chen who is in the audience. so, needless to say we are very, very passionate about what we do, but we are also very, very fortunate that we have the support that we do. we know nothing would have been possible without the support from the building department. thank you very much. and it's so good to see captain long and captain here in the audience. thank you. again, we don't take it for granted. and, of course, supervisor mar, supervisor tang, supervisor farrell board of directors, thank you so very much. supervisor mar, we just started a new and exciting program with your office, bike registry to

address a growing problem with bike theft in the city. we're looking forward to many, many new projects. and again, many, many thanks. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker, please. supervisors and mayor lee and city officers, i want to speak today as an ihhs home care worker who serves seniors and disabled. points have been made, but let me just state we're not coming to ask for a raise. we're asking for the city to backfill a state cut to keep us where we're at. right now we are facing this 8% cut. you know, our clients have had assessments where a certain amount of work is required to meet their needs, and we'll still have to do this work

after the 8% hours cut, one way or another. and year after year, you know, we've phased these cuts. we appreciate the board of supervisors stepping in and not reducing our or making our members pay more for health premiums in a recent budget process. but right now we're not asking for a raise overall, but we are asking for the city to help backfill. and from the state cuts we have this reduction. but from the federal government we have help that has come to the city in the form of a new face for home care funding that the city has to send to the state. and you've already budgeted a higher figure that it's now been reduced. so, we're asking that that difference be contributed to help backfill the cut that our members are facing.

and i know that sometimes for people who make less, 11.54 doesn't sound like such a bad deal. but in san francisco, the livable minimum wage for a 40-hour week is $12.43. so, our members are not making that. and our average members work only 21-1/2 hours, so that 11.54 has to be stretched out. when you take that 6, 21-1/2 hours and stretch it to a 40 week, that's like $6 an hour. so, help us help our seniors and disabled, keep them at home, keep the costs down, keep them out of our institutions, and keep them happy and flourishing. thank you. >> thank you. (applause) >> thank you. next speaker, please. good morning, city staffers, elected officials. i'm brian larkin, larkin like the street. i'm here to request that we underground our utilities out here in the richmond district.

pg&e has a schedule to do it, we're not even on it. we've heard about senior citizens and the number of us in san francisco -- i'm over 60 -- so there is a certain sense of urgency to get them done so i can see it before i die. also, speaking of transportation, eric mentioned that i'm an advocate for that. i'd like to see us build a subway, lrt system out here, extend the central subway out to our neighborhood. no one has ever built a subway in any community and regretted it later on. is that on the time? thanks very much. (applause) >> thank you. [speaking through interpreter]

my name is shu wow lee. [speaker not understood]. i'm a district resident, ihhs, and seiu. i currently take care of an elderly person in district 4.

the person i currently take care of, his son is away from home and so it's very important for us to make sure they take their medication on time, that their needs are met. with the limited income that we have, we really hope that there's more funding to our income. there hasn't been an increase for six years and it's really important that bemake sure we serve all the needy seniors and disabled individuals. please let us to live a good and quality mannered life in the city and county of san francisco. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. do we have any other folks here from [speaker not understood]? good morning, city officials.

my name is eric wu. i am a member of the san francisco youth commission. the youth commission is a body of 17 young people ages 12 to 23, that advises the mayor and the board of supervisors on issues that affect the young people in san francisco. one of our priorities is actually the summer job plus program and supporting that and expanding that. currently there's still a significant population of job-seeking young people in our city that are currently unemployed and we hope that the city will collaborate with our -- with the nonprofit organizations and the private sectors in bringing more jobs to young people this summer. last summer, s.f. summer job plus program was extremely successful. we brought over 5,000 jobs to our young population. and this summer we hope to

bring 6,000 jobs to our young people. and on behalf of san francisco youth commission and the young people in san francisco, i would like to thank the mayor and all those who have worked and collaborated in bringing jobs to the young people in san francisco. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. do we have other speakers? all right. with that, i just wanted to also take some time just to layout from here on out the process. so, the mayor, his team, and some of the department representatives will be traveling throughout the next several weeks to hold other budget town hall meetings throughout different districts. i know that the mayor's office as well as supervisor farrell have on their website information about where those next dates and locations will be. so, check those websites for the latest upcoming town halls. in addition to that, just wanted to kick it over to supervisor mark farrell.

he's going to show a little about his budget priorities as the budget chair this year. >> thank you, supervisor tang. and i'll keep it brief, but i want to say thank you all for being out here today, especially those who spoke at the podium. you know, from my perspective, we are feeling a lot better as a city of san francisco. as i just mentioned to mayor lee, our unemployment is actually at 6% right now this month, down from over 9.8% just a few years ago under mayor lee's leadership we've gotten so far down the road. but we do have a challenge in the budget. as was mentioned before, we have a $123 million budget deficit heading into next year. but we're all committed as a budget here to you and everyone in san francisco that we will have an open and transparent process, that we will manage our finances in a very fiscally responsible manner going forward, and that our budget that comes out will reflect the priorities of all people who live here in san francisco. i commit that to you and i look forward to a long process and

coming in july having a budget that, again, reflects all of our priorities together. so, thank you for being here today. (applause) >> there are actually a number of other people that i think had signed cards, but i'll make sure that any of the questions and comments that people wrote on the cards are given to kate howard and leo and the budget office so that they're integrated into the budget process. i also want to thank everyone for the very thoughtful comments. also, if anyone has any questions or comments for the budget process, please fill that out in the cards and we'll make sure it gets integrated. for my role on the budget committee as well, i think supervisor farrell has been doing a great job as a budget chair and we're looking forward to taking as much input in, not only for districts 1 and 4, but for the whole city. i also wanted to say that before i let mayor lee wrap us up today, i wanted to thank all the richmond district folks for

coming out and speaking. i also see disability organizations like the fdr club and jonathan lions back there. i see merchants associations david heller and [speaker not understood], and others that are here representing our small businesses as well. and ray holland and nick baloney from the planning association for the richmond. and i see the director of the richmond area multi-services, which really provides significant and culturally sensitive and multi-cultural mental health services not just for the richmond but throughout the city. also i really appreciate all the senior and youth and family service agencies and child care and organizations that have spoken today. lastly, i wanted to thank the city department heads and reps from all of our departments for spending their beautiful saturday morning in this dark but great auditorium of the washington eagles. and i wanted to say that i hope you have a great weekend and a beautiful saturday and sunday and earth day as well on monday.

and thanks so much to victor lim, [speaker not understood] and peter from my staff and supervisor tang's staff as well. but also our mayor's office of neighborhood service staff and our office of civic engaged immigrant and civic engagement and the mayor's budget office for making this first of our series of budget hearings a great one. so, now i'll let mayor ed lee wrap us up. (applause) >> thank you, supervisors. again, and department heads. this is the first of many town halls. i've given up pretty much my saturday rounds of golf to make sure that we listen, even though my doctor says i need more exercise. but anyway, i'm glad to do it. so, some of you who may have just participated here but didn't really know what question you wanted to ask but you got an issue, you're definitely invited to the other town halls.

we have a full schedule. just because we hold it in other districts doesn't mean anyone from anyplace else can join as well. so, please, again, feel comfortable in talking with your elected representatives, your city wide officials as well as your department heads. this is all for you to get us the feedback in a direction for what we prioritize in the budget. i've heard a lot of things today. we're definitely taking them to heart. i want to note that one of our summer youth job seekers who was very successful in real estate. i'm going to assign him to work with your senior centers rent reduction issue so we have that instantaneous service right there. (applause) >> but i also want to say that with the question that was directed at me for the undocumented youth, first of all, what came to my mind immediately is we have a

municipal id card to make sure that those who are undocumented get an official card from city hall. so, please make sure you're aware of that because something that i had worked on with a number of supervisors throughout so many years as our city administrator, and i want to make sure that works for everybody. having said that, we also fund a lot of community-based nonprofits to help us with the employers in the city. and this is why we have focused our effort with united way of the bay area because we do have nonprofits who can bridge the child's undocumented status to their ability to get a job. and we specifically fund groups to do that. so, please, if you have those issues, make sure that they talk with our family youth and children services centers as well as united way. as eric said, and i'm going to be very excited about this, because this year we're focused

on 6,000 jobs for our youth, focused on the most disadvantaged kids of all different backgrounds, want to get everybody employed. as supervisor farrell says, it's moving even faster down to 6%. so, maybe we'll get down to that 5% pretty soon with the help of united way. and it's going to be a shared responsibility of departments, but we're going to push really hard on private sector because they're the ones that are experiencing the most success in our city right now. so, we're going to ask them to help pick up this great opportunity to work with our kids. i can't think of anything better than to have our youth experience the summer jobs because it pays for year after year after year if you get an individual to be focused on their careers. and that's going to help all of us focus on a better city. there's a lot of issues that we have documented here. we'll make sure they're

incorporated into the priorities that we have. we've heard from seniors, we've heard from ihh -- from your work force, from the experience that you've had. we heard from youth. we've heard from people that need our help and all the gaps that we have and we'll definitely pay attention to that. so, again, thank you for giving up your saturday to join us. i look forward to seeing some of you in the other hearings. and, again, we appreciate your input and your guidance for our priorities. we have some questions? mr. hal? mr. mayor, i wanted to thank you for being here. [speaker not understood]. [speaker not understood].

[speaker not understood]. >> okay. i'm sorry if we missed some cards. we meant to get to every single card that was submitted. so, our apologies if that happened. but i will say, david, if there's any question about our commitment to small businesses, you hear from me directly that we are investing in neighborhoods in a very large amount. my budget from last year and this year reflect a very strong consideration for neighborhood small businesses in our city. and i know of not only your leadership, but mr.

carnilowitz's leadership. this is why we have an abundance invested in the leadership program. maybe if you have particular issues off line, we can do that after this, or if you want to have one more question, that's fine. [speaker not understood]. >> okay. [speaker not understood]. >> all right. if everybody didn't hear, the question is some businesses that want to operate mobile and that's coming from the mayor's office what the rumor is.

i can correct that's not true, but i do believe that people are submitting their ideas for whether or not mobile businesses can be successful here. i think it's a big challenge, to be quite candid with you, because we have a lot of people investing in the brick and mortar along our neighborhoods. we certainly feel that our investment right now, our priority has been to help them and to help them deal with those vacancies. in fact, i think we have an idea about making sure we, if anything, policy wise, we push ideas into the vacancies. that would be even better than try to operate on that basis. but anyway, we'll pay attention to that as well. again, i'm sorry if there are cards that were submitted that didn't get attention. we meant to get everybody covered. all right. thank you very much, everybody, appreciate it. (applause)

(music) >> herb theatre,open rehearsal. listen to the rehearsal. i think it is fun for them, they see our work process, our discussions, the decisions we make. it is good for us. we kind of behavior little bit when we have people in the audience. msk

(music) >> we are rehearsing for our most expensive tour; plus two concerts here. we are proud that the growth of the orchestra, and how it is expanded and it is being accepted. my ambition when i came on as music director here -- it was evident we needed absolutely excellent work. also evident to me that i thought everyone should know that. this was my purpose. and after we opened, which was a spectacular opening concert about five weeks after that the economy completely crashed. my plan -- and i'm absolutely dogmatic about my plans --were delayed

slightly. i would say that in this very difficult timefor the arts and everyone, especially the arts, it's phenomenal how new century has grown where many unfortunate organizations have stopped. during this period we got ourselves on national radio presence; we started touring, releasing cds, a dvd. we continue to tour. reputation grows and grows and grows and it has never stopped going forward. msk(music) >> the bay area knows the orchestra. you maybe take things for granted a little bit. that is simply not the case will go on the road. the audiences go crazy. they don't see vitality like this on stage.

we are capable of conveying joy when we play. msk(music) >> any performance that we do, that a program, that will be something on the program that you haven't heard before. string orchestra repertoire is pretty small. i used to be boxed into small repertoire. i kept constantly looking for new repertoire and commissioning new arrangements. if you look at the first of the program you have very early, young vibrant mendelson; fabulous opener and then you have this fabulous concerto written for us in the orchestra. is our gift.

msk(music) >> and then you have strauss, extraordinary piece. the most challenging of all. string orchestra work. 23 solo instrument, no violin section, now viola section; everybody is responsible for their part in this piece. the challenge is something that i felt not only that we could do , absolutely could do, but i wanted to show off. i can't tell you how aware i am of the audience. not only what i hear but their vibes, so strong. i have been doing this for a long time.

i kind of make them feel what i want them to feel. there is nobody in that audience or anywhere that is not going to know that particular song by the fourth note. and that is our encore on tour. by the way. i am proud to play it, we are from san francisco. we are going to play that piece no matter where we are. i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. a lot of

the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to

buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres. the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim. it's extremely popular. many fights in the city, as you know, about dogs in parks. we have 317 acres and god knows there's plenty of room for both of us. man and his best friend. early in the morning people before they go to work will walk their dogs or go on a jog themselves with their dogs. joggers love the park, there's 7 miles of hiking trails and there's off trail paths that hikers can take. all the recreational areas are heavily used on weekends. we have the group picnic area

which should accommodate 200 people, tennis courts are full. it also has 3 playground areas. the ampitheater was built in 1972. it was the home of the first blues festival. given the fact that jerry garcia used to play in this park, he was from this neighborhood, everybody knows his reputation. we thought what a great thing it would be to have an ampitheater named after jerry garcia. that is a name that has panache. it brings people from all over the bay area to the ampitheater. the calls that come in, we'd like to do a concert at the jerry garcia ampitheater and we do everything we can to accommodate them and help them because it gets people into the park. people like a lot of color and that's what they call a park. other people don't. you have to try to reconcile

all those different points of view. what should a park look like and what should it have? should it be manicured, should it be nice little cobblestones around all of the paths and like that. the biggest objective of course is getting people into the park to appreciate open space. whatever that's going to take to make them happy, to get them there, that's the main goal. if it takes a planter with flowers and stuff like that, fine. you know, so what? people need to get away from that urban rush and noise and this is a perfect place to do it. feedback is always amazement. they don't believe that it's in san francisco. we have visitors who will say, i never knew this was here and i'm a native san franciscoan. they wonder how long it's been here. when i tell them next year we'll get to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the park, every.

we have a packed agenda tonight. first we want to thank the southeast community facility commission for opening their doors tonight and their executive director, moses. thank you for opening the doors tonight. we have a very, very tight agenda. the goal here is for the community to be heard. this is not a question and answer time, but the goal is for the community to be heard. when we get to public comment, and you make your statements. remember we want you to be as concise as possible, because the department heads and the mayor are here to hear you. without further