relationships around public safety issues. occasionally, we have a murder. how can we respond, as a community. ? we have had several murders since i have been in office, and every time i look at how i can support the family, victims, regardless of the situation. try to get people involved in talking with the police, helping the community feels safer. these are the ways that i would like to be able to respond, something that i would always like to be a part of, the effort, as supervisor. one thing that i am tackling and expect to be for a long time is looking at how muni operates in my district. the 14 bus is one of the busiest routes in san francisco. in my district, it is very well used. oftentimes, the muni bus does

not go all the way to the end of the line. i am trying to work out how we can actually extend down to daly city. so if you want to get downtown, from my area, you can take the bart it, and then go downtown, and be there within 20 minutes. right now, you take the 14 bus 2 balboa station, and it will take you 40 minutes just to get to balboa station. that is one thing i am looking at, making muni more effective. san francisco, we talk about it being a transit first city, but it does not mean a lot of options for transit are not well thought out in places further from downtown. my district is one place where we need to create better options. >> you mentioned muni and the changes that are happening. what about parking, traffic, is

the area safer for pedestrians? >> there is always a lot of work to do with pedestrians. making sure the department of parking and traffic is painting along alemany. along balboa park station, geneva, san jose, pushing hard to get a ramp for pedestrians. right now, it is dangerous to cross the street, especially if you are pushing a stroller or are in a wheelchair. you have to go further than you but typically have to. there is so much more to do. we have to figure out how to calm the traffic. a lot of cars, speeding through and make it unsafe for pedestrians. sidewalks are not very convenient for people. it takes a lot of money to do that, but it is really about being vigilant and looking at

the fund the come through the transportation authority. we have been extending sidewalks in some places to help with pedestrians, trying to put in islands, plantings to slow down traffic. bike lanes have helped. a bit controversial where i live is a bike lane. people do not see as many bikes, but we are seeing more and more common now that the bike lanes are coming in. that makes it safer for pedestrians. we have a bike way on a major street. you do not have as much time to cross, and you cut down one lane for the cars and a pedestrian can then walk more swiftly along the street. that is something that i have been supporting and want to see more of. >> switching gears, let's talk about the issues facing the city as a whole. what are some of the things that you feel could be improved upon?

>> we could always go back to muni. part of the difficulty with muni is funding we are losing from the state. i think it is $65 million of year that we have lost. that creates a huge impact. we are also challenged by traffic. the buses are slow because they are contending cars crossing, double parked. we need to figure out how to create better use of our streets. looking at crosswalks, how you can have better timed crosswalks. maybe we could have more crosswalks to crossed diagonally across the street. overall, our budget, we are in our fifth year of major budget deficits. i have been chair of the budget committee for the past couple of years. i am still involved in budget issues. i want to make sure i can be helpful to my colleagues who are grappling with our huge deficit.

it is inevitable that we are going to make painful cuts, so how do we do it in a way that will minimize the impact to every day san franciscans, how can we keep our parks in good conditions? how do we maintain our safety net for public health services, public security services, public safety? all these are critical decision that need to be made. the pension question is something that comes up. the cost of our pension liability will cost the city, especially because of our investments in the market have come down since 2008. we are spending more of our general fund to pay our pension costs. that is a big challenge. it is a long-term problem, but it also has short-term implications. we know right away we are not going to have the enough money as we need to cover our services

and pension costs as well. i support efforts to figure out short-term solutions around contributions that workers can make. it is important to work collaborative way, as much as possible with labor, organizations, to come up with solutions. we have to figure out, jobs are at stake. we have to cut positions, services. if we do not resolve the pension issue, we will have to cut services in a way that will be harmful to san franciscans. fewer options for muni, parks deteriorating, less investment in public infrastructure, if we cannot resolve these issues. the tide is rising. we need to figure out how to swim quickly. >> let's talk about the city's housing needs. what do you feel are the biggest needs and what should the board of supervisors to to address these needs? >> we have a variety of housing

stock that is getting old. we have to figure out how to stabilize it. we had a bond last year to stabilize housing, to make it earthquake-safe. there are people losing homes in my district, where there are single-family homes, as well as district 10. we have a foreclosure crisis that is not being recognized in the way that it needs to be. we need to leverage our resources in the city, which are scant, with private sector resources. there could be an opportunity to add investment firms to support home owners in my district. we are looking at leveraging funds with those to help people renovate their homes and modify their loans in a way that they can stay in housing. that is one issue. we also have apartment housing that we have to make sure is stable, safe, that we can keep

renters in their place. we have to make sure that we can preserve apartment housing, which is affordable. it is important that we have a good balance between condos in the city and maintaining our apartment house in stock. that is a big pension. i expect we will see another effort to create a condo fee. i can understand in certain conditions, it can be effective, but how can we put that port so that it is affected and rent housing from flipping over into condos? not everyone in an apartment would be able to move into a condo. i thing we need more folks at the table to decide, under what conditions will this be workable? there are a lot of people who would like to convert to condos in the lottery system and have been waiting for years to go

through it. i have heard their frustration, but we do not have the formula yet to fix it, but we can get there as a city. we have the right combination of people in the city, relationships with the mayor, board of supervisors, to come up with a solution. we need to build more affordable housing. funding is an issue with our current recession. it is hard to find funding for affordable housing. i have a lot of people in my district who are in desperate need of it. people in my district live in substandard housing, families doubled up. that is the only way they can afford to buy a home, with another family. we have people living in garages, people renting rooms. people say that there is a parking problem. we have a housing problem in district 11. it is hard for a city like san francisco to deal with, but we

have to figure out how we can improve the housing situation for these people living in the sub standard situations. >> what about the issue of homelessness? what are your ideas on dealing with this? >> we have a long-term plan to combat homelessness through a continual of care. it looks at economics, housing stock, health care support, and all those pieces need to be part of our deal with homelessness in san francisco. on the public health side, we need to make sure we have services that are going to help people stabilize their lives, how they can access mental health services, substance abuse services. a lot of people on the street are suffering from a disease of alcoholism, drug dependency. a lot of them are there because they have lost their jobs, housing. some of them are there because of

that is one cause -- one part of the homeless population, but also, being homeless makes you more susceptible to contract in hiv. so we need to look at the public health system to make sure we can do our work around finding resources to get people to understand how they need to live more healthy. housing is an issue. i like the idea of building more supportive housing that can help people have a room but also these other services i have mentioned, so that they can be stable in their housing. it is probably -- i would like to think that we can get over it, but building the housing stock, having an economy with enough jobs for people where it can be stable, services on the health side is what it will take. homelessness has been an issue that is always a perennial issue that people are using in campaigns, what they are going to do to resolve the homeless

issue. sometimes, i see them being scapegoat as the cause of a problem, but we need to think of it in a compassionate way, how we can provide real care that will help people turn their lives around. the success is how we are able to help people to make the changes in their lives where they can have housing, a job, independent living, where there are free of the services that we helped them to maintain that level of freedom. >> what about the challenges that you face in your district, the on met challenges? what about those issues? >> one of the biggest issues is jobs. young people finding work. i was just talking with the director of the department of children, youth, and families, talking about doing outreach to businesses to see how we can encourage some incentives to hire young people. that is a big issue.

families where they have one or two parents who could be unemployed. often, kids need to bring in money to the family. that is some pressure. a small minority of kids get involved in thing that may bring in money that are not good for our community. not very healthy. maybe dealing drugs. it is not a big issue in my district, but it is there. there are enough opportunities for young people to engage in sports, recreation, and jobs, other activities. i am excited about the ocean view neighborhood. we have a new wreck center. the city foundation is looking at putting in some artificial turf there. i consider that a great opportunity where you can build sports programs, softball, baseball, soccer, football, getting people involved in productive things that are good for them.

help them feel that they had good skills to contribute. from that sense of confidence, they can have success in other parts of their life, relationships with other people. i think those are beneficial for young people. i am excited to see these services come into my district. >> what are your thoughts on the city's economic development. are we on the right track? >> we need to do what we can to create the conditions for attracting businesses here. i am not necessarily in support of doing away with our payroll tax to attract businesses -- to give a payroll tax exemption for new hires is not a good policy. changing from a payroll tax to a gross receipts tax, where it is not based on the number of employees you have and how much

they are paid, but how much business you have, your business, is a better tax structure that does not harm businesses to hire more people. harman is a strong word, but does not attach the tax to your number of employees. it is a better structure, i believe. we do a lot of things to support businesses. muni improvements happening downtown, in the more distant parts of the city. supporting businesses. infrastructure we are putting in, sidewalks, lighting. all of this is important to businesses. lots of concentration on that in the downtown area. i see it as one of the big thing that we offer. we also have a pretty city. that attracts a lot of businesses. we have certain parts of the

city that have really great thinking going on. you see california, as of state. our hospitals attract a lot of minds and attention. -- uc california, sf state. >> it looks like we are just about of time. thank you for being on your district supervisor. we have been talking to supervisor at a loss from district 11. join us next time when we will be back with one of our 11 mr. supervisors. -- we have been talking to supervisor john avalos from district 11. join us next time when we will be back with one of our

>> i get really concerned one ip -- hear people say the payroll tax is a job killer. maybe in some industries the payroll tax might be a disincentive on business going forward, but i would not be surprised if we came out of the whole discussion about remaking our tax for next year that it involves a combination of a payroll tax, commercial occupancy tax, and gross receipts tax. all of that could be in a remade form of our business tax structure. >> that is a good question to ask. i will ask this monday. >> i was born in of los angeles. i was in a mexican-american, a chicano town. my dad was a launch your worker. my mother was an office worker at usc. my parents were divorced when i was 10 years old. i moved to the east coast and

lived there for six years and then fled back to california after high school. i went to school at uc santa barbara. i have been in san francisco since 1989, have lived in the excelsior since 1999. the difficulty is, muni often sees it as an industrial area, not a neighborhood. we have to figure out how to make it work as a neighborhood and as a place that can service the light rail vehicles. i have had lots of different jobs. my main job has been doing social work for san francisco state university. i have been a community organizer, a social worker, but i have also been a legislative aide. i worked mostly for community- based organization supporting kids and families, working for labor. i got to see how city hall could be an effective tool to create change. i looked at running in 2007, 2008, and somehow i made it.

i have been in politics for so many ways, doing work around central america, supporting people in central america against u.s. imperialism, their right to live, self determination. i did a lot of work on that on campus when i was in college. a bit of work on apartheid when i was in college as well. >> i never got involved in supporting a candidate. i never thought a candidate was someone that i would support. then when tom ammiano ran against willie brown, i got inspired. i thought, someone with integrity and honesty, if they can run for mayor, maybe i can be somebody who represents what is true about our people. that is what inspired me to run and be a candidate.

one thing this year that i really tackling, and i expect to a lonim looking at me and how it operates in my district. san francisco, we talk about it being a transit first city, but it does not mean a lot if transit is not very well thought out in places away from downtown. my district is where we need to create better options. all the way down to randall street, there is no accessible boarding areas for the church. there is a woman that lives in a wheelchair on santa rosa. she has to go across to glen park to get out transit. >> those new stations, those are the ones that we are going to have to depend on. >> along balboa park station, near geneva, i have been pushing hard to get ramps for pedestrians. right now, it is dangerous to cross the street.

i want to insure the department of parking and traffic is painting lines on alemany street. beyond that, we need to figure out how to calm the traffic. a lot of cars go speeding through. sidewalks are not convenient for people. >> i am the supervisor for district 11, the debt -- the best district in san francisco. this year, we get to show how great district 11 really is. >> we are in our fifth year of major budget deficits. it is inevitable that we will make painful cuts. so how do we do it in a way that will minimize the impact on every day san franciscans? >> i really appreciate what you're doing here. you are a really patient gentleman, and i appreciate that. >> our parks are often cut first. how do we maintain our safety net, public health services, serity serces

all of these are critical decisions that have to be made. >> i have seen many people come forward today who i know whose lives have changed because of the services we are providing. that is something that we can be proud of and have a as a goal at the budget process to make sure that we can turn lives around and create a liveable communities. >> if we do not resolve the pension issue, we will have to cut. we will see fewer options for muni. we will see the parks deteriorate. i think the tide is rising. we have to figure out how to swim very quickly.

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