animals. >> it is very impressive. we do not have this at home. >> tell us a little about some of the spider's we see here on display. >> at the california academy of sciences, there is a very large collection of preserved and live specimens, which are the evidence about evolution. we have the assassin spiders, which are spiders that exclusively kill and eat other spiders. they are under the microscope here. research done and the california academy's i rhinology lab suggests that the assassin spiders have been doing this for over 150 million years. this glassed in room is a real scientific laboratory, and the people in that room are preparing specimens of vertebrate, that is mammals and

birds. the way they do this is to remove the skin, sew it together in a relatively lifelike pose, and ensure that it does not decompose. >> i am a really big class actress fan, so i am here to see them, and beer week. >> i wanted to learn something and have fun. >> i always enjoy it. i am not all is well -- always working as i am tonight. sometimes i come to enjoy the music and to dance. ♪ >> culturewire covers the arts in san francisco, and one of my favorite culture artists is here tonight. jason, thank you for being on culturewire. tell us about some of your posters that we have here today. >> most of the posters here are four specific shows or tours.

i am hired by the bands or the venue. >> what is the inspiration behind these posters? >> no, disease of the related to the bay and, of course. music -- it is related to the band, of course the musical content or isn't related to the bed. album covers can come from anywhere. ♪ ♪ >> class actress was great. we have been having so much fun. i did not realize how beautiful

the cal academy looks than that. what other events take place here? >> we do corporate events that night on a regular basis. but nightlife is your best bet to come in as a regular person pharmacy the academy at night, and visit with friends. calacademy.org/nightlife. we have details for the next few weeks. you can get tickets online in advance or at the door. >> thank you so much. thank you for watching culturewire on sf gov tv.

>> 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 thank you f today on this beautiful summer san francisco morning. it's a little windy so bear with us. i'm with the s fm t a. i'm so excited to have you here, to have these folks behind me here but most of all to have these vehicles here. as i think about why we are so excited to have these new vehicles hitting the streets of san francisco. the

first new vehicles to hit the streets in six or seven years. it's not just that our riders will have a smoother nicer ride on vehicles that are cleaner and neater and easier to access. it's not just for the operators and the mechanics that will have vehicles that are easier to maintain, it's not just for the agencies to have increased security in the buses and better features from everything from the fuel to the light bulbs, what it's really about is when munis is working well, munis is such and important part of the city's economy that all city of san francisco benefits. all of the

people who ride these buses are really benefitting everybody because they are not out on their own vehicles in the road causing pollution and congestion. they are getting around san francisco in the cleanest way possible and really contributing to what makes the economy strong. we are super excited about these vehicles for us and for our operators and mechanics and they are really a great benefit for all san francisco. i want to acknowledge some people. i have been a member of my board of directors, my bosses, chairman to director jerry lee, ramos, i don't know if anybody else is here. mohammed the director of public works and we are going to hear a little bit about how these buses are part of the public space. just like

these are clean, we want to keep these clean. the buses here from input, from our operators, transit workers union local 258. the san francisco transit riders union. the mta advisory committee. a lot of folks working together, our fleet engineers, mechanics, supervisors, operators, most of whom are under the leadership of john who has been the driving force of getting these here. the one person who was so excited about this is our mayor. he kept saying when are we going to get to ride those buses? i'm happy to say this day is here. i would like to

introduce you're san francisco mayor,ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you. some of them have arrived and all of them will arrive by july. i want to thank the commission and ed riis skin and the staff for investing properly. this is what we talked about for a number of years. when you realize that many of the buses that we have are over 13 years old in the city and you realize on how not only how run down they are but we keep replacing the parts over again. we have learned the lessons of fuel economy, of ergonomics and designs and free coating on there and material that won't absorb the moisture

that sometimes is spilled on there. these are going to be great vehicles, not only for the drivers to drive through our cities safely and for customers for residents who need a more modern fleet of vehicles to serve them as we attract more customers. this is where the economy has picked up and certainly the financial situation from munis is improving as they make more investments. these are the proper investments to do. they are cleaner and hydro electric. we are using the money responsibly matched up with local monies. these are great investment. this is just the beginning. these bids take a long time, the manufactures

take a long time in delivering these buses. but we'll see in the near future, the replacement of some 60 trolley cars that will bring street cars into the similar level of standard that we want. we are reif refurbishing as we speak. you see not only a modern aspect to them. you see the bike racks in front because munis is about multi-ways of transportation. it not just stopping at destination to other destination. they can take other forms of transportation. these vehicles have arrived in a timely way. we have major events that will bring thousands more people into our city whether they are going to the concerts in our golden gate park or they are

going to america's cup beginning next month all the way through september -- or they are making game day trips to the park. this will get people all around the city where they need to be and these will be the standard that we have for the future beginning now. i'm proud for munis and the commission and they are working with dpw. speaking about dpw, muhammad and i worked together and we literally saw people who realized the second the bus arrives they can't eat on the bus. so where do they toss it? if they weren't looking or realized there was a trash can next to them as most bus stops do have them. they were irresponsible. we literally saw

people tossing things as they got on boarding the buses. that's not good behavior. obviously we need to do a lot more education. we need to end that practice and we need to keep and attitude, a very spirit of keeping our public assets clean and beautiful as you see them today. this is what these buses ought to look like a few years from now. we know they won't, but we need to keep that attitude in the city, not only with our youth but everybody in the city of all ages we see them discarding waste material onto the streets. we have a crew of people picking these up and reminding folks. we wanted to change things. that is part of using the giant sweep in the world ferries that we can use that spirit. i want to thank rachel gordon and the whole

public works for using the giant sweep theme. today we have over 10,000 kids who signed that pledge. that pledge means they will personally take responsibility for their actions. so think about it. they will involve their families and talk to people. this campaign, larry said it's one of the best campaigns they have seen because they love all the players that associate themselves with the giant sweep. of course today we have somebody that i felt, when we connect up and this is where muhammad and ed riis skin is doing to connect everything. we love our arts and we are engaging some of our street artist to be part of it. sweeping i believe is here today. he's one of our sales people for this pitch but he's

going to be with us and i think you will find at some of the bus stops that we encourage some of the street artist to perform in they are going to find a medium without a word of negativity and they will point out why are you doing that? they will have an attitude for our assets and bus stops and all the other places. i want to thank dpw again for the giant sweep campaign that they are doing and again reminding people we are a world class city. we ought to have that world class attitude. you look at some of the cities across the country i have had the opportunity to travel through. the streets are very clean and get reminded that we all have

to contribute in every part of our city. that same attitude in every city is the last point i want to make today. june 6, almost 10 days ago, there was a very bad incident that occurred. a shooting occurred of someone firing into one of our buses. as horrible as that is, and we can talk all day long, everything from gun violence to violence in itself to youth violence, we are doing everything we can to prevent that. while we are doing that in the community, there are individuals that want to cease the moment and make our community safe. on that particular day, rather that run away from the incident, there

was concern for a passenger on one of our munis buses and the driver acted very responsely that they got out of harms way and drove to the hospital to get attention to one of the passengers that was strayed by a bullet. this driver is a san francisco resident, 14 years experience in the city, has demonstrated year in and out with her fantastic driving record. button this moment, she acted way beyond the call of her daily duties and demonstrated heroic effort in making sure everybody on that bus was safe and getting that particular injured passenger to some services. i want to today to take a moment to not only recognize the buses in the city, but to take a special

moment to recognize and thank the good samaritan for this year and that's phylica anderson. you are really are a great demonstration. not only a loyal employee but one that has act out of very good concern for the public. it's something that we hope we have the guts to do when the moment happens. you do have the guts. you have a love for this city and i want to give you this good samaritan award for your heroic efforts. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> i just want to thank god

that no one was seriously hurt. thank you. [ applause ] >> she says she wants to be the first one to drive one of these new buses. >> thank you felicia, an extraordinary act that shows incredible courage and quick thinking and compassion. one thing i have come to realize in this job is that munis bus drivers and train operators, all operators have an extra extra ordinary difficult job, with what's going on in the bus and the traffic with the streets and with events like you just heard about, it's a very difficult job and the

great majority of them do it extraordinary well. we have professionals like felicia that do this when we have that kind of professionalism and excellence. thank you again for your great work. [ applause ] >> so, the mayor referred to these buses as investments and that's exactly what they are. they are investment in the transportation system. while everybody has lots of ideas about what munis should do and mta should do and we all want great things to happen, it's about a community investment to direct where the funds are going to go and according to rules and that leadership comes

from the mta board of directors. they are the ones allocating the resources to best serve the needs of this city. now i would like to introduce the great member of the board to come and speak on behalf of the board. >> mr. mayor lee, good morning. i want to thank my colleagues here this morning. we've all been together on this and we work very well together to keep the whole city moving. i want to thank the director of transportation. lots of things are happening in this city. a lot of things are planning for the future. but this is so exciting because this is something that people can actually see. they will see it and ride it and enjoy it from the moment the service begins.

thank john hailey for this experience. i'm glad to be part of the mta. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mr. chairman. i had the pleasure of working with him. we are very grateful to have his partnership in helping us keep these buses. i love the mayor's challenge at least i heard of the challenge that years down the road we should look at these buses to look as good as they do today. we have support from all of san francisco to keep these great investments to continue to look good. the other one is our transit director john daleey

who has spent a lot of time to get these buses to hit the streets as soon as possible in a way that they will be providing great service for us for the next decade and more. to tell you a little bit more about the specifics of the buses i want to welcome job to -- john, to say a few words. >> thank you, everyone for coming. just a couple things to point out. we heard about the investment. one of the things about our bus fleet is it carries 3/4 of our rider ship. 7,000 trips a day are done on our bus fleet. this is the transportation for the city. it's clearly a billion dollar investment just in our bus fleet. you heard some of the features today. this has additional safety features both on the outside of the bus. it has state of the art cameras,

not only to help with toll lanes and exclusive transit lanes only but to see everything on the bus. cameras on the outside to help guide the drivers as numerous people have said we've worked closely with all the constituents and stake holders to design this bus. the number one cause of munis delay. we are having these buses roll on the streets as opposed to hit the streets. we want rolling. this is a big step for us but only the first one. as you heard of other programs the help of the mayor, his administration, our board analyzed -- and the leadership of ed. this is going to make a difference in moving us forward. i will be happy to tell you more about the buses

but more anxious for to you see them and take a ride. this is a collective effort and also we all own a stake in this bus and we are going to need everyone's help to work together to keep the fleet the best in the nation. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. i want to thank everyone, all the stake holders that worked hard to get us here today and i want to thank the leaders who were behind us who are not here but made this possible. i think we are ready to cut the ribbon and see the buses roll onto the street. thank you for coming. [ applause ]

>> okay. 3, 2, 1. let's roll em. [ applause ] ♪ i'm nicole and lindsey, i like the fresh air. when we

sign up, it's always so gratifying. we want to be here. so i'm very excite ied to be here today. >> your volunteerism is appreciated most definitely. >> last year we were able to do 6,000 hours volunteering. without that we can't survive. volunteering is really important because we can't do this. it's important to understand and a concept of learning how to take care of

this park. we have almost a 160 acres in the district 10 area. >> it's fun to come out here. >> we have a park. it's better to take some of the stuff off the fences so people can look at the park. >> the street, every time, our friends. >> i think everybody should give back. we are very fortunate. we are successful with the company and it's time to give back. it's a great place for us. the weather is nice. no rain. beautiful san francisco.

>> it's a great way to be able to have fun and give back and walk away with a great feeling. for more opportunities we have volunteering every single day of the week. get in touch with the parks and recreation center