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tv   [untitled]    November 3, 2013 1:00pm-1:31pm PST

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>> we've been talking to supervisor tang from district 4. watch for the next episode of meet your district supervisor when we'll be back with another round of our 11 city supervisors. sore sfgov-tv, i'm nona melkonian. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
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hello, welcome to meet our district supervisor. i've neon norm from district 7 which includes accident twin peaks and san francisco wood and other neighbors neighborhood today, we'll get to know him and talk about the tough issues. welcome supervisor thank you for joining us let's talk about our background. i was born in san francisco and i grew up in the north area and basically went to the public schools and jean parker and san frays parker. i lived in this area and from there, i went to city college then i went to cal and received
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my bachelors in civil engineer and worked there for about a decision that's not where my passion was so i left the job and went back to school and never turned back. that's what i've been doing pretty much all my life in the classroom or working on organizations that will focus on children and families. that's a little bit about my bathed >> born and raised san franciscan good for you. why did you choose to stay in the city >> i love the city. i'm very passionate about the city. i made the decision to focus on children and the families.
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i keep on asking the same question when i was younger why would i want to focus my efforts in san francisco. are there other places in the world where i could make a difference. i'm talking about the late 50s and 60s. there was at that time, a lot of population coming in from china. it was an opportunity for me to help people that were struggling in awe second amendment and getting used to things over here. >> what motivated you to get involved in politics. >> part of my motivation i guess you have to look at where i started. i as i mentioned he earlier i wanted to help people and at the time it was children and family.
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after many, many years of serving people i realized in providing services that somehow, i have to impact the decision-makers so i started advocating on issues i cared about. i was somewhat effective and wouldn't it be nice if i could do something different i ran an organization for 20 years. i felt i needed to grow as much as the impact i made the decision to leave the organization and asked myself now what. i want to make a bigger impact that's when i ran for the school board. people said you you've been
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involved in the issues and being in the classroom and one that grew up and having two daughters it seems like a natural thing to get into. i judgment into being an elected official >> you've worked on the school board house has that prepared you. >> there's a couple of of things that prepared me to be on the board of supervisors. number one i not only came in there the ranks vs. the youth director and tutoring uneven he run your organization and you can't miss like running the organization especially, when
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you're faced with cuts how do you handle the cuts. and in better years when you get some center funding how can you use that funding effectively. so those opportunities helped me to be on the school board. for 8 years on the school board we had to talk about kit because of state funding. again, it grew my experience in how do you handle this and work with the community to make those. and once you do that how to you articulate that. those experiences lend themselves really well. >> we're going to talk about the
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budgeting but what did you learn about campaigning. it was really interesting on the school board you have to campaign citywide. and when you do it citywide you can talk about the issues by nobody confessors about the same issues. you have to do it at two levels. one you need to focus on the district issues at the same time there's a lot of special interest groups that are not focused on those issues but we're on the citywide issues. you have this tension how do you balance it so people who care
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about the citywide issues what makes sense to them. i made a decision citywide issues are also going to be there but if i'm going to run i have to look at the interesting issues. so i listened to people. it was early on i made the decision to start knocking on doors and asking people and say i'd like to hear about your issues. it's really difficult to do that after awhile because people asked what's our platform. i didn't have a platform i listened to people my platform was on what people are interested in >> i mentioned that citywide
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issues are different. >> there are many issues one of the things is counts economy in san francisco is improving a lot. we didn't take a hit like the rest of the country. i look at the stats today and how are the wider margins in cal how do we sustain, you know, that growth so everybody can prosper. it shouldn't be just for the wall street folks but it should be for the mainstream. so that's one of the things it's
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always a challenge in the city to make sure there's prosperity for all >> san francisco is always facing cuts and whether or not to increase taxes how will you approach those. well, that first of all, i'd like to say as i mentioned earlier when i was the executive director of an organization and being on the budget committee for 8 years. one of the things i've learned from being an administrator i does not - my values would be we don't spend more than what we have and if we don't have enough there's two things you can do you can cut things or look for more revenues.
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for me, i would be taking the same approach how to generate more revenues for the services the city needs. and if we need to cut we don't have the revenues where do we cut. those are some basic things i believe we need to protect the safety net forepeople that are the most vulnerable and education issues would be very high on my priority particularly childcare. the services for zero to 5. it's a benefit for not only the young but also for the working parents >> you mentioned varies needs for people that are vulnerable in the city what do you think about the housing needs and what should is about addressed.
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>> the housing needs are growing and where do we meet the grouth growth. district 7 that there's a tendency for anywhere to say yes, we understand we need growth but don't change my neighborhood. i'm sorry for me, i feel like everywhere in san francisco needs to be a part of the solution and that if there's opportunity to provide some growth in housing we should do that. there's always being to be tension of don't do it here. i'll listen to folks is this too much, too little and still be part of the solution. part of it you allow for some growth and have you have to be
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smart. how do you work with the community. it's important for me that my you type of development to ask this is what we're envisioning what adjustments do we need to make? i've seen that on ocean avenue forensic they built a supermarket and by the time you - they went through a process where the community was satisfying but it - and i think i'm supportive of last year's proposition where we're going to be able to have more funding
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that's part of the solution. can we make sure there's other housing stock in san francisco so we want to keep the university here. almost everybody wants i don't care where you are people want a diverse society in san francisco that's not just begin about affordable housing >> and what are your plans on park merced. >> there was a lot of discussions and i could have gotten engaged in a hypothetical. there's also a lawsuit that's
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pending so let's play that out because i have no influence, you know, under any decision or lawsuit that the court is hearing. so my commitment to the residents out there as i look at the agreement and there were some promises to the occurring residents and i said my commitment is i said i will do everything in my power to make sure those commitments are made. they could have been skeptical but a lot of the residents believed me and there's been - been asked to leave several times over the last 2 decades
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and each time i've stepped in and working in partnership with the school itself to help it stay there. that example was very powerful for the residents there >> i mentioned a little bit about your district what are some of the other issues. >> it's interesting there's going to be many, many issues but when i look back at what i did in terms of what my platform was about. equivalent when i heard enough peoples concerns it was about safety in general. of course, there's crime there's crime all over the place but the major thing is pedestrian safety. another issue i choose to focus on would be to help as much as
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possible small businesses in the neighborhoods. so i define it as in the neighborhood. sometimes we're talking about 1 hundred employees or less that's not our neighborhood business. so for pedestrian safety the first thing i did do the first meeting i asked for a meeting. it was very timely. it's really unfortunate that i have to say that thought fatalities in san francisco 3 of them were in district 7. so i feel the time is right to talk about that and what are some of the solutions. we found that we have thirty or 40 people in district 7 to come out and testify.
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i told people i'm very commented to this to get something done >> what else do you hear from your constituents about the transportation situation. the vast majority of people in district 7 are cabins their leaders. in terms of having it operate on sunday's and increasing the rates. so if i had the power i would probably turn it back a that's in the my jurisdiction i'm not under the board of supervisors jurisdiction. and some of the sunday issues i - right now there's a lot of confusion. there's other places i've gone where sunday you pay so part of it i'm glad that at least mta backed off of having sunday in
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the morning and it doesn't toward until 12 so the chur churchgoers don't have to worry about that. if you don't live out there but because you're out there and there's so many hills the issues are different. if you take away a bus stop 3 blocks away you're talking about a fourteen percent incline are where you're walking up this hill or something and if you have issues from being in a wheeler or your 70 years old it's going to be a lot. and there's the issue of the mooney is great then they shot off in their own direction but
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the m line forensic is a major complaint in my district payroll one of my staff went out there and that was not late evening you have to wait 67 manipulates >> oh, wow. that's a while. >> so that's an issue. >> so there could be more mooney service. >> yes, it's a big concern. i stood out there many moerngz and late afternoon i saw people crossing the street >> do you feel we're on the right track for economics. >> yes. i looked at some stats today that are relative to california and the united
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states. we're doing real well, of course, we could do better. employment is coming down. the number of jobs are going up. what i would like us to do, you know, we've had a major focus on the technical destroy. i also feel like there's some opportunities for us to bring back some manufacturing jobs. again to keep the diversity of the touching people and the job opportunities i would support that. way about the role of sports are you supportive of the imply warriors stadium. the warriors starred in san francisco. they plated at the pacific auditorium. and when it was there i went to
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the sports activities. i'm sort of a basketball junky i'd like to see the warriors come back. this is definitely going to be some economic benefits >> to what degree do you feel the city should subsidize the team. >> well, if one of the game plans is for them to be at pier thirty and 32 i believe which is not very fundamental right now we're not generating anything from those piers. if they were to build there we would then provide some savings
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for them going down the road. to offset the cost of the rental. is that subsidies you could call that subsidies but what would you have any revenues. one has to be carefully what talking about that and a we've out of time but are there any issues that i want to talk about or any issues you want to concentrate as supervisor and a well, my concentration is on pedestrian safety. i'm hoping i can take the process on developing district 7 into the citywide process and again anywhere i can help with small businesses because i know their the driving engine in san
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francisco >> great we'll be looking forward to seeing what happens. well, we're out of time thank you for meeting our district supervisor >> thank you. >> watch for the next session when we're back with on the one of your 11 city supervisors thank you from ♪ ♪ hello, welcome to meet your district supervisor. i'm nona melkonian and we're here with supervisor london breed from district 5 which
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includes the inner sunset, haight/ashbury, lower haight, western addition, japantown, and part of hayes valley. supervisor breed is one of two new supervisors elected in 2012. today we'll get to know her and talk about the toughest issues facing the city. welcome, supervisor. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you is for having me. >> let's start talking a little about your background, where you drogue up, went to school and what kind of jobs you had in the past. >> well, i grew up in the heart of the western addition. i grew up in public housing in the western addition. my grandmother raised me and my brothers and i went to public schools here in the city. ended up at u.c. davis and graduated and immediately returned back to the community and started working for the mayor's office of neighborhood services, and worked on treasure island, and eventually became the executive director of the african-american art and culture complex located in the western addition, a place i participated in programs in the arts as a kid. so, it was really an honor to
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be able to work directly in the community, to impact so many lives. and i really thoroughly enjoyed that experience. >> you've lived most of your life in san francisco. why did you choose to live in the city? >> i chose because it's my home. it's just a place i love the most. i pretty much only lived outside the city when i went to college and i came home almost every weekend on the greyhound bus. and i just love san francisco. it's an amazing place, it's a beautiful city. it's nothing like coming across that bridge and seeing the city and feeling like, i'm home, or coming from any part of anywhere, whether you're on a plane, whether you're on a bus, whether you're in a car, just to see the skyline of the city, it's just always made me feel at peace. and, so, i can't imagine myself living anyplace else. >> what motivated you to get involved in politics? >> well, as i said, i grew up in public housing and i experienced a lot of sad times
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as some people are still experiencing, whether it's crime and violence, issues of despair, issues of hopelessness. i mean, that still continues to plague many of our public housing residents today. and, so, it's really challenging when this is the way that i pretty much spent most of my life. and when i think about the challenges people still are going through, i know that the only way to make changes to those types of issues is to actually be a part of the decision making body of this city. and, so, what motivated me in the past has always been about making sure that i wasn't the only one that had an incredible opportunity to participate in the city, to have a great life in the city. i felt like there were too many of my peers that should have had this same opportunity. and, so, it's a big reason why i decided to participate in politics. >> you mentioned you were the
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executive director of the african-american arts and culture complex. how has that experience as well as the experience of serving on two commissions prepared you for the board of supervisors? >> well, i did serve on the san francisco redevelopment agency commission and the fire commission and i was really fortunate to run this great center. and all of those experiences, running a nonprofit, being on a commission, working for the city, responding to constituents, doing the kind of things many folks are doing every single day to make our city better -- i mean, i don't see a better preparation than that for becoming a city supervisor. the nonprofit world is a very challenging community to work in because of the fund-raising involved, because of the need for such great programs. so, to be in the middle of that and to advocate for an incredible community asset, to work with city departments, to attain funding, i mean the list goes on and on. so, over the years i've been fortunate to develop some incredible relationships with city department heads and other
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city commissioners who helped me to do some of the great work i've been able to do in the community. so, it's somewhat of a natural progression and i think all of that entails really helped me to be -- it's going to help me in my role as supervisor and it actually helped me get here. >> the district 5 race for supervisor was an especially eventful one this time around. what did you learn amidst all that controversy and all that competition? >> i think that what i learned is that we have an incredible district of people who can see what's genuine, who can see when someone really cares and has a heart for the community. and i think that's -- that was demonstrated in who they decided to elect. i mean, regardless of personalities or ideology, what have you, people know when you really care. and i think that came across in my campaign. and, so, what i learned is to respect the voters and respect how they feel about candidates, whether it's me or anyone else. i want to make sure that they
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are given the options and they are able to make the choice that they choose, and that once the election is over, we move on and do what we need to do to make our city better. >> where do you place yourself on the political spectrum? are you more progressive, centrist, or more on the conservative side? >> that's a really challenging question because, i mean, throughout the campaign i made sure that i didn't define myself as either because i think that what it does is in a lot of ways, it divides our city. i think clearly when you have a desire to run, you have a desire to serve. you really care about what happens in san francisco. you just have a different way of which you believe we should go about doing that. and i just think that i don't necessarily see myself in one particular category because i have different feelings about different situations based on my various experiences of growing up in the city. and, so, my, my, my commitment