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tv   [untitled]    June 6, 2013 3:00pm-3:31pm PDT

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of you, you truly represent the incredible promise that our great city of san francisco is. thank you david, for your very kind introduction, as one of lowell's student leaders you must be very proud to be standing here in front of your class who will be graduating with you, thank you for being a great example to your fellow classmates and to our city's youth and i hope that kayla your senior class president and david your student body president as well as the entire lowell graduating class of 2013
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become the great community and civic leaders of san francisco future. because of being your mayor, i think that the people of the city every day for the opportunity to serve san francisco. it is a privilege to wake up each morning and to work for you, a people the our city and to do everything that i can to help all of us be successful. and as your graduation day is a day when you set off on a path to success you will use what you learned at lowell to tackle the great challenges next in your life, to make the differences in your world and the impact in the lives of your peers, family, your friends, and your community. looking back at my graduation day in high school, i remember feeling excited, scared, nervous, and inspired to make a difference in the world and
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just like you my journey started on this very important day, graduation day. and you know, each of our lives brings different challenges and each of you will have your own individual challenges. for me, i lost my father, when i was a sophomore in high school, so i knew that my days ahead were not going to be very easy. in fact, i made up my mind as a graduate of public high school, that i was pretty much going to go it alone even though my dad was a cook and my mom was a seamstress and she had five other kids to take care of and i did not want to be a burden. so, i was going to do what i think all of you are trained to do at lowell high school i was going to work my rear off to make sure that i could prove myself. and if i did it on my own, more
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pride to be taken. as a graduating senior, i had a vision to make this world better, a better place for my family as well as my community. after graduate froming public high school in seattle i went to a small liberal arts college in the state of maine, i went from seattle to maine. i had to sees the opportunity even if it meant moving away from friends and family and moving away from what i was familiar with to take on new challenges looking back at those years i made the right move because the learned the east coast, i learned now where my daughters are at so i could tell them what they were about to face, and i know that this
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country is tied much more than just land. going from east coast you get a lot of experiences, after four and a half years i had enough of the east coast and i moved back to the west coast here to get a law degree at uc berkeley and i knew that san francisco would be become my new home. as some of you may know my background is as a civil rights lawyer working right here in san francisco. back then, a generation set out to make sure that we all recognized our greatest asset as a nation, our diversity. and together, in those years, we locked arms and stood in a doorway of the international hotel. to prevent the wrongful eviction of senior chinese and filipino immigrants who had no money and no place to go. [ applause ]
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and today san francisco has some of the best tenant protections. we sued the san francisco fire department, to get women and people of color a chance to be a firefighter, to serve, the public of san francisco. and to dedicate their lives to public safety, today we have a city's first female fire chief and our public safety agencies are more diverse than ever, and just as proud and good as any other generation that this city has ever seen. i joined with others there that were just as dedicated and committed as i was to make a difference for the residents of san francisco. together, we helped to make san francisco a different place, one that embraces and celebrates diversity. and today, san francisco is one of the most diverse cities and one of the most diverse regions.
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in fact, in the world's most diverse democracy. i never thought that i would ever in my lifetime see an african american as president of the united states and i never imagined that san francisco would have an asian american mayor. [ applause ] so as mayor, one of my many goals during my term in office is to empower all of the residents and make our city even more responsive, efficient and accountable to the voice of all the diverse communities. i gather the importance of the ties in the need of our community and every day i am trying to make san francisco a place where everyone succeeds, a city for the 100 percent. i am honored to be working for the community, and fighting for the community, and trying to
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help the community and our city be a better place for everyone to live, work, visit, and do business. today, san francisco's economy is recovering. our unemployment rate has dropped from 9.6 percent when i first came into of in 2011, to an astonishing 5.4 percent today. [ applause ] we put san franciscans back to work and gave them back the dignity of a paycheck so that they could support their families. but it is still not good enough. and i will remain focused on making sure that no one is left behind. that is why we created programs like tech sf to insure that our long term unploid and youth have access to education, training, and job placement assistance. we have already trained and packed scores of people in
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technology jobs and the first graduation is this june. last summer, i proudly joined mayor pelosi to take up president obama's challenge of taking up summer jobs for activities for at risk youth and we surpassed our own goal, we got 5,201 summer jobs for kids last summer. the summer jobs plus program and now thanks to another great partnership with the united way this summer. we are working even harder to make sure that we find the paid job opportunities for 6,000 youth in our city. yes, we want to insure that all of you have opportunities and skills needed to compete in the 21st century economy and workforce. that is why with the shared goals with the superintendents of our school and boards and we
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continue to make it the expectation >> and with the kindergarten to college program we are able to establish a college savings account for every kindergarten student, can you believe that? as a city? yes. >> and we are working to insure that every student especially students of our middle schools have the resources and opportunities to graduate ready for college. and since day one i have been committed to our cities' family and our children and our youth and i will remain committed because i see education and training not as an expense, but as an investment. my wife, anita and i have been parents to both of our daughters so i know first hand what it is like to be a parent here in san francisco. and i want to thank you all parents to being here. because they could not have done it without you. i know that.
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and what sacrifices your parents made, i know that. because they are investing in you as part of our future and helping you pursue your dreams. we all want you to succeed. because as all of you embark on the next leg of your journey, i want you to remember to come back to san francisco. i want you to come back, i want you to work here, the innovation, capitol of the world. i want you to come back and i want you to raise your families here and i want you to buy a house and maybe a couple send your own kids to public school right here in san francisco. i want you to come back and be the next generation of leaders like the great that have help to build san francisco like the houses and the fishers and so many more that fight for the community and build the strong neighborhoods and yes these names you know because they were in your shoes, they were also graduates of lowell high
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school. [ applause ] >> san francisco is the greatest city in the world, i know it. i know it. and wherever you go, we will get to brag about that because we are and we know this. and they love the city, and we love the city. so when you succeed whether you become the next fortune ceo or a noble prize winner or a supreme court justice, remember to make your community and your city a better place for all. i leave you with this advice as you begin your new journey, my vision began when i was graduating high school senior. and now, it is your turn to make your vision a reality. make an impact on the future, and make your community and this world a better place. be bold, and to quote one of my
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favorite movies, boldly go where no one has gone before. congratulations class of 2013, go out there and change the world. thank you. thank you. [ applause ]
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do you like this top? that's so gay. really? yeah. it's totally gay. you know, you really shouldn't say that. say what? well, say that something is "gay" when you mean it's bad. it's insulting. what if every time something was bad, everybody said, "ugh. that's so girl wearing a skirt as a top." oh. you are. ha ha. shut up. those are cute jeans, though. >> i have been a cable car grip for 21 years. i am a third generation. my grand farther and my dad worked over in green division for 27. i guess you could say it's
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blood. >> come on in. have a seat. hold on. i like it because i am standing up. i am outside without a roof over my head and i see all kinds of people. >> you catch up to people you know from the past. you know. went to school with. people that you work with at other jobs. military or something. kind of weird. it's a small word, you be. like i said, what do people do when they come to san francisco? they ride a cable car. >> california line starts in the financial district. people are coming down knobbhill. the cable car picks people up. takes them to work.
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>> there still is no other device to conquer these hills better than a cable car. nobody wanted to live up here because you had to climb up here. with the invention of the cable car, these hills became accessible. he watched horses be dragged to death. cable cars were invent in san francisco to solve the problem with it's unique, vertically challenged terrain. we are still using cars a century old >> the old cable car is the most unique thing, it's still going. it was a good design by then
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and is still now. if we don't do something now. it's going to be worse later. >> the cable cars are built the same as they were in the late 1800's. we use a modern machinery. we haven't changed a thing. it's just how we get there. >> it's a time consuming job. we go for the quality rather than the production. we take pride in our work and it shows in the end product. >> the california line is mostly locals. the commuters in the morning, i see a lot of the same people. we don't have as tourists.
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we are coming up to street to chinatown. since 1957, we are the only city in the world that runs cable cars. these cars right here are part of national parks system. in the early 1960's, they became the first roles monument. the way city spread changed with the invention of the cable car.
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>> people know in san francisco, first thing they think about is, let's go
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around 3:15. >> welcome book i'll to remind the folks in the audience the commission does not the report any out bifurcates of any kind. commissioners we left off on the
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fourteen 90 request for authorization >> microphone please. good afternoon. michael smith in the planning department staff. you have before you a project to demolish a gas station before and presidential 43 hundred feet of retailer space for the property at the fourteen 90 located on the northeast corner. the project requires conditional authorization pursuant to codes. to department a lot. the commission must adopt sequa
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finding at part of the approval. we have 3 letters from neighbors they are concerned about it's too tall or impact an parking or hazardous material and seismic harassess. and we got a letter from the homeowners association that raised concerns about the heights at well, and the entrance to the neighborhood of north of the site. and the characterizations of the folks who signed for the project and they expressed support for the one to one parking which is being provided by the project. the department is recommending approval with conditions we
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believe this will provide thirty units within a family oriented neighborhood. we feel the 4 story height is appropriate for a transit corridor as well. the b.a. both plan gave the site 5 feet in height. it's a pretty minimal height increase. and that height has been added to the ground floor to provide the kind of commercial space speaker in the not a mid block parcel it is a corner location. because the corner will allow the project to breathe. and the park is located to the