>> happy arbor day, everyone. we have a lot of volunteers from the richmond district center. i grew up in the california area, ended up at uc-davis. i made my way out to san francisco in 1984 when i was a college student. i remember growing up on clement street. i have always lived around in richmond area, just being around a unique area of the richmond, discovering san francisco in the 1980's.

>> i am hoping we can not support small businesses like this because they are the unique character that makes neighborhoods like this so rich and lively to live in. >> i have also been active as a community organizer. i worked at the chinese progressive association. i also worked at the mental health center in the richmond district. i have always been passionate about civil rights, equality for everyone. i have a 10-year-old daughter, so having a girl has made me much more sensitive to gender equality issues. i guess i have always been vocal about my politics, but as a supervisor, i have to listen to other perspectives and making decisions. >> very soon there will be of much more seniors in that area. we are trying to focus on whether a stop sign or stoplight might help. >> tried to look at issues of

senior nutrition programs, alzheimer's research, even housing policies that allowed our buildings to become more senior-friendly. also looking at how to support senior services, neighborhood- by-neighborhood programs that allow aging in place. people who are getting older helping each other stay in their homes and communities longer so that they can contribute as long as possible, as opposed to institutionalizing them. >> i support working families, livable communities, definite drawn support for the small business. even in my district, there are pockets of poverty and many people of work. so it is also about supporting those under employed people, small businesses in this difficult economy. >> there are a lot of vacant storefronts, so we are trying to find people to read these spaces. there is a bookstore over there.

this way there are a lot of businesses that have been closing. >> i support the small businesses versus more chain stores that seem to be coming in to some of the vacant storefronts. i am trying to be sensitive to the local merchants because they make up the unique character and diversity of our neighborhoods. you go to lafayette. i was just there reading to a bunch of kids. i think i was reading to fifth graders. what grade are you in? >> as a member of the school board, i know strong schools in the richmond is key. also, from the birth to 5 commission -- each commission has an organization to oversee pre-kindergarten kids. i want to ensure that the state level that we advocate strong support for young children and their families, good parenting support as well.

>> often, we have to govern with our hearts. 80,000 people in the richmond district sometimes have different needs than people in the mission district or bayview hunters point. so often, elected officials and other hard working staff have to make tough decisions. they are political in nature, in many ways, even though people denied that, but at times, many of us are politicians, but we always try to govern with our hearts. >> i have always considered myself having progressive politics. i believe in a vision of people having their needs met. i believe in equity. when people have special needs, we should be considered of that. i also feel that working families in the lowest income population should have a safety net. we should have civil-rights and equality rights for people as well. if that is being a progressive, then i am proud of being a progressive.

>> i just want to make a public statement to acknowledge that appointments to the police commission and any commission which is a policy-making body is very important. i want to encourage about keep in front of our minds the importance of not only to elect women, but to work to get more women appointed to these bodies that help make legislative decisions for our city and county of san francisco. >> i am from san francisco. i grew up in the local neighborhood. i did my under deprad wait work at fisk university, where i studied political science with a concentration in public administration and worked eight years largely in the public sector. then i earned a master's degree from carnegie melon in pittsburg, pennsylvania. i spent some time as assistant

executive director for a non-profit. we did work if a lot of kids in the neighborhood. i have done fundraising for candidates and issues. i have experience with the federal reserve bank of san francisco. when i look around my neighborhood and see the changes that are happening, i so there is no neighborhood grocery store. i see that small businesses in particular are coming and going, and they haven't been able to really sustain themselves. from my work experience in working for the city in the mayor's office as well as in the non-profit, i had a good sense as to what some of the challenges were. when i look in the future, i could see more challenges coming. i thought i had a set of experiences and more importantly a passion and desire to serve. >> i understand that no one wants to have their programs cut. of course not. i also want everyone here to understand that no one up here wants to cut programs because they don't care about the population being served. there are no value ains here.

we are all on the same team. it is a tough situation, as we are here so that we can begin the work together. >> i am actually more forward thinking. for me it is less about being left or right, or in this town, moderate or progressive. it is really about the issues and about creating policies that will have a sustainable and lasting positive impact on the families that live here. it is very costly and difficult to do business in sfrinls, to raise your children in san francisco, and i would like to have a voice at that table to really create policies that will minimize that san francisco is not a big business-friendly city. i think we started to go in the wrong direction. the reason why we started walking down that path largely was because of political ideology. when you deal with me, you are dealing with facts, less than politics. i really want to have a positive impact on the city overall. >> good afternoon, everyone. how are you? >> good. >> it's a nice day today. thank you for coming out to our community event.

please give a round of [applause] to them. we have a lot of development going on. you see how lovely leland street looks. do you like it? >> yes. >> beautiful, isn't it? we are going to continue. we have a library that is going to be opening up in june. that's right. so i will see you all there at the library. there is a lot of activity going on. it is important we remain connected and engaged. >> would you mind if we were to pull the seniors together and translate for me in a mini meeting? >> yes, sir. >> what we are going ready to do is we are going to have a quick little mini meeting to -- because we didn't translate my short message before. >> i just want to say i want to welcome everyone to the event. >> we have folks in visitation valley only talking with

visitation valley. we have folks in bayview again only talking in a very small corridor of 3rd straight and the merchant corridor. we don't have people talking to the hill merchant association, doing patch. all these fragrmented conversations are happening, largely talking about the same thing, crime, keeping the streets clean, supporting sbaubs. that is something i made a concerted effort on the campaign to build bridges. >> along third street, dog patch, and everyone along the cord door has the same complaint. >> i have the same complaint. >> we have the third street merchant corridor and an opportunity to revite lies what i consider to be the main artery of the business district. it is a pretty long street. there is a lot of opportunity there. let's not squander that. when we recruit businesses, we

want it to be a healthy mix that reflects the cultural history of the southeast part of the city. we are all human, and how to connect with that human spirit, whether you are in public housing, own your own property, or if your asian, african-american, male or female, we are really a community. when we start to realize and move in the direction of being humans and having this human experience and connecting together, really if you will, being each other's keeper, then san francisco really begins to continue to thrive. out to bring someone special. welcome to corona height located in the height of the cast strow district the eye kong bay bridge and on towards the east bay. cone oi shakes park is one the

city's best kept secrets on lake twin peaks it's hardly crowded on a day any day you will run into a new lolls and hop on a bus to get there without any parking worries and lolls bring their four-legged fronds run freely with other dogs and a small touch of grass for the small dogs and wild flowers carpet the grasslands keep on the look out nor hawks and ot >> 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 for a long time, 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, security services? 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. >> 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 >> for those of us on the board, i know many of us have young ben

was in the city. i know a ton of my friends have left the city. one thing that the strike me as we have a ton of data, but it is a different places. this year, we will call for those constituents to come together to understand the issue better and, going forward, enacting policies to extend that period . of all the places i have been, this is my favorite. i am a born and raised san franciscan. more important, i represent district 2. i grew up in the marina district close to the palace of fine arts. my parents still live in the same set of plants that i live in. i went to grammar school here. i went to st. ignatius here. i am a proud wild cat. i went to college at loyola- marymount university in los angeles.

i had a scholarship to play baseball. i remember coming down here to christie field, when my dad was in the military, seeing how the beaches have transformed into but we have today. you cannot beat the views, of course. it just holds summoning memories and i can come here with our kids, our family. i ended up going to ireland to get a master's degree at the university college of dublin. i went back to the states and went to law school at university of pennsylvania. then i came back, and choosing to live in san francisco was natural to me. when you are a child, you do not realize what you had until you leave home. i had the opportunity to live in los angeles, abroad in ireland, and there is no place like home, when you are from san francisco. i have been a corporate attorney at palo -- in palo alto.

i became an >> i worked in the finance industry about 5 1/2 years. in the summer of 2009 i joined a venture capital firm with two other partners. >> we are all excited about the americas cup here in district two but one thing if you think about it everyone knows what fleet week is like here in the marina. this is fleet week on steroids. think about fort mason, these will be the most brings taken places to watch the americas cup. what we're working on and working to continue to work on and want your input on, how do we make it a positive experience for the people that live here. >> i'm happily married and my life and -- wife and i live around laurel village. we have two children, five around they. we are proud parents and now just excited to be here on the board. i think i'm in the middle. i'm a moderate person.

fiscal fiscally conservative and that is the way i intend to practice what i preach here. in terms of getting into politics, i thk for me it was really that reasons. first being from here, i think that was part of my own motivation, feeling a sense of roots in san francisco. also raising our children here. i think we went through as a young family the discussion and dialogue that many young families go through. should we move to the suburbs? away decided to stick around and we are very happy we did. once you stick around i think it was a turning point to say we are here for good. what can we do to make this place better? there were a lot of lessons to be learned in running a race in san francisco. a few that stick out, money does matter. raising money. that is a simple, somewhat unfortunate fact if you want to be candidate. most importantly, one thing i drew out of it is hard work and utter determination is the thing

that will, i think, allow to succeed more than anything else. i came from the private sector and looking at honestly answering the question did i have something different to offer that i thought would be valuable it san francisco right now and i think a hrrpbl part of our -- large part of problems are financial and with my background i think i can add a lot of value and that is why i decided to bet in the race. >> it means there might be some small profit if you run it correctly but not always. that is something we really need to keep in mind in our city government. from my point of view is that. we have to figure out what is it lake -- like to be a business person in the city and what we can do to not only have full restaurants and bars but making sure it is worth it to continue to open successful places that make our community that much better. >> we have a huge unemployment

rate in san francisco. it is about 9.6%. the fact that we have not done much about that in city hall i think has it change. that certainly is something i will be focused on in the beginning here in city hall. putting people back to work. it is an individual issue but it is a family issue and we've a lot of families still struggling and i think people have lost sight of that. hopefully we will be getting out of the recession soon but we need to do a lot to accelerate getting out of that recession, making sure families are back at work and children are provided for. to me that is my biggest priority. i think that we do lose a lot of sight in the past district supervisors lost sight of the fact that we do represent san francisco as a whole and we need to make sure in city hall we are enacting policies, laws and legislation that move the city forward as a whole. these are the neighborhoods i grew up in, so for me it is fun to be in them to really understand what is going on and be able it fundamentals some of

the thinking and some of the people that are making decisions. >> right here we played football. flag football right here every year. we hung out right in the gym. directors looked after us. parents used to check in but not only one parent, they checked on all the kids. that is what is great about this district, the community. the family base of everything. >> exactly. and look how you turned out. you are doing ok. >> doing all right. two local city guys. >> there you go. with its elegant rotunda, the reflecting waters of the sub rounding lagoon and fraying

rant eucalyptus trees, special dates and memorable proposals. it is the perfect picnic spot to relax with that special someone by listening to water and fountain in the lagoon and gazing as the swans go gracefully by. beautiful to view from many locations along the lagoon and inside the columns is an ideal place to walk around with your loved one. the palace of fine arts is the most popular location in the city arts system. reservations for weddings and other events a supervisor chiu: i fully appreciate the concerns raised by some tenant leaders. i would never supported the project if i did not feel comfortable that tenant rights have been protected here with parker said -- part merced.

i say this as one of the few tenants on the board of supervisors, who has been a staunch advocate of tenants before i was elected and with my votes on this board. my parents immigrated to the united states in the 1960's, and i was the first kid born in the u.s. my parents sacrificed everything so that their kids could have the opportunities that they wanted when they came here. i grew up in the boston area, live in different parts of boston, went to a catholic high school in dorchester, which is a section of boston. because of my parents work and the opportunities they gave me, my brothers and i were all blessed to go to harvard university. it was intense. i stayed there for college, for law school, and i also have a master's in public policy there. those are subjects i decided to study in part because i was very study in part because i was very interested in public service and