i'm starving. what's for breakfast? guten tag!

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>> and they will want to thank them for the lumir willingness. i want to recognize that we also have a very diverse group of individuals serving on a diverse group of boards and bodies. have the pleasure of reappointing someone who has a connection that goes back generations, larry mazzola, sr. i'm pleased that subject to approval, p.j. johnson will serve again. president of the arts commission, who has been doing an outstanding job, really raising the bar in terms of

public art and our commitment to neighborhood arts. i want to thank lisa gruwell for her willingness to serve on the civil service commission that sets my salary. i wish you luck and independence from whoever is serving as mayor. i want to thank the environment commission, which is something we are very proud of, for his willingness to serve as a new member. london and michael are quite familiar to their commissions. they will both be here. thank you, chief. i know you are pleased to have both of them. you have already told me you are pleased to have both of them. i am enthusiastic about their commissions.

it's a good thing for everybody. we will have the opportunity to give people an opportunity to give people on their respective boards the opportunity to serve as well. thank you, lily chan. she will be serving on the golden gate park concourse authority, which is interesting for so many reasons. i'm grateful that you are willing to continue your service here and the city as well. human rights commission, reappointing cecilia, michael, and julius. you have done a great job. i appreciate your support of our director, into the good work, the human rights commission continues to do. where is sam? there you are. thank you, sam. thank you for your willingness to continue to serve on the immigrant rights commission, and your good stewardship and leadership in the committee.

michael nguyen. we technically swore in michael, but it was private. i appreciate your willingness to come here are any more public setting and have the honor to swear you in. carol kingsley, who was supported unanimously, which is pretty impressive, on the police commission. she will be serving as the newest police commissioner. i'm very enthusiastic. the board of supervisors seems to share that. well, air and good lucome and g. not the easiest of commissions, but incredibly important. we went through a lot of presiresidents.

i'm appreciative of her willingness to serve. the rent board. do not screw up something that is working. we had a debate on a solution to a mysterious problem. we do not have a problem because we have a balanced rent board. people that want to obtain a strong relationship and inappropriate one. as a consequence, i felt like i did not need to reappoint new folks. felt like i could reappoint the existing folks. they're doing a great job. thank you for your willingness to continue your service. i do not know why -- all of you were enthusiastic, too, when i called you.

i thought maybe one or two of you wanted to take a vacation from the service. i am grateful that you were willing. i am also grateful the retirement board is getting a lot of attention. pensions are getting a lot of attention. some people have confused san francisco with sacramento. it is a big difference. budgets, pensions, retirements. nonetheless, this is an important body and board. we have two great people who are willing to serve. i know he is very enthusiastic. he was very concerned that we appoint people of high integrity, high skills, that tended to be above a lot of the politics in this town. we have two great people there.

i imagine he wanted to be with all of you. he wanted to be with his wife in particular. wendy paskin-jordan is here as one of the new appointees to the retirement board. she will join victor makras, who is very familiar to us. i kind of try to convince you. i was not sure victor was so excited about this. i asked him. hi needed somebody of his character. i am very pleased. i think those are two great appointees, wendy and victor. this will continue to elevate what is already a model retirement board for the rest of the state. the two remaining divisions, the small business commission, jamie, thank you for your willingness to serve. as a small businesswoman, you know a thing or two about the

challenges and reveal. lu o'brien -- how long have you serve? not even a full year. this will extend his turn. -- term. you guys ask good questions yesterday. it is important. finally, al norman. al, thank you for your willingness to serve in the southeast community facility commission. i always thought -- we need to raise this far out there of what we do for the southeast community facility. we'll have a lot of conversations. al is a legend out there. thank you for that. who else are we missing? oh, yeah, nancy.

you will also be continuing your service. i apologize. we did not know you were going to make it. i'm glad you made it, nancy. thank you for extending your service with the golden gate concourse. i will remind everybody -- if you are going to disagree with me, please give me a heads up. that does not mean that things do not, in front of you that are controversial and on the fly, you might have a point of view, and you should share that point of view. on big issues, all i ask is a heads up. only on two occasions -- frank, i imagine this has happened to you periodically. i have a call at 2:00 in the morning where one of my department heads was removed by the commission. nobody gave me a heads up. i was a little concerned about that.

those are the kind of things. give me a heads up. otherwise, exercise your independence. exercise your insight. that's why you're here. i just want the opportunity to have a chance to dialogue if we are on different sides. then you use your judgement and conclude as best you could what is the right path for the people of san francisco, who do not represent some special interest. the folks that show up here are important. folks that do not have the time to show up here are equally important. please remember there are a lot of people out there that count on you to also have a voice that cannot make it down to your committee hearing or board. that is something that is very, very important to me. that's why you are here. you are here to represent the city. that city includes those that do not have stickers or buttons,

that do not show up at 6:00 p.m., that also deserve your attention and your goodwill and your stewardship. those are really two points. otherwise, i'm very happy that you're here. i'm very thankful. thank you for coming down to city hall. supervisor duffy is sitting there with his arms crossed. what is it? are you ready? all right. anytime someone has his hands crossed, that means get going. they are shutting down. [laughter] york physiology changed my standing up, and raising your right hand. when i say i, you state your name. why don't we go down here?

larry will go back, and we will end with you. during such time, we hold the position of -- and then you will mention your respective commission board or body. is that easy? all right. you have your right hand up. i -- [inaudible] i do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states, and the constitution of

the state of california, that i bear trap, faith, and allegiance to the state, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter. and during such time, as i hold the position, as a member -- [inaudible]

for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations, everybody. [applause] i appreciate how effective that was. [applause]

>> being a pedestrian in san francisco is not easy for anybody. >> [inaudible] people push tables and chairs outside the

sidewalk. >> i have to be careful not to walk the sidewalk. it is very hard. >> sometimes people get half way across the intersection. >> you have to be alert because there is always something coming up that you need to know about. >> i learned to listen to the traffic patterns. sometimes i notice the other pedestrians, they are crossing, on occasion, i have decided i'm going to cross, too. i get to the middle of the intersection, and i find out that the light has changed. >> we need to be able to work and go from one place to the

other and have public transportation. the world needs to be open. >> people on disability has the task of addressing all the disability. when we are talk about the sidewalks, ramps, we have very specific issues. for people blind and low vision, we have the issue of knowing where they are and when the cross. it can be hit or miss. >> at hulk and grove, that sound the the automatic -- it helps people cross the street safely. >> now we have a successful

pedestrian signal. >> i push the button, i get an audible message letting me know that i need to wait. when it is safe to cross, not only am i going to get an audible indicator, this button is going to vibrate. so it tells me it is safe. there is the driller sound and this trigger is vibrating. i am not relying on anything but the actual light change, the light cycle built into it.

>> it brings san francisco from one of the major cities in the u.s. to what is going to be the lead city in the country. >> city working on all sorts of things. we are trying to be new and innovative and go beyond the ada says and make life more successful for people. >> disability rights movement, the city has the overall legal obligation to manage and maintain the accessibility and right of way. with regards to the curb ramps, bounded by a groove border,

12-inch wide border. for people with low vision to get the same information. the shape of the domes, flush transition between the bolt bottom of the ramp and gutter. >> we have a beveled transition on the change in level, tape on the surfaces, temporary asphalt to fill in level changes, flush transition to temporary wood platform and ramp down into the street under the scaffoldinging. detectable ramps. they are all detectable. nothing down below or protruding that people are going to get snagged up on.

smooth clean that nobody is going get caught up on. >> our no. 1 issue is what we see here, the uplifting and shreufting to concrete due too street tree roots. here is another problem we have with street trees. if i have i was a person blind, this would be an uncomfortable way to find out. >> we don't want to create hazards. >> sometimes vendors put sidewalk cafes where people push the chairs too far out.

>> sometimes it can be impassable. so much foot traffic that there is no room for a wheelchair or walker to go by. >> san francisco is a lively street life, it can be an issue with people with visual disabilities as well. they have these diverting barriers on other side of this tables and chairs area. if people can find thraeur way around it without getting tangled up, it is still fully accessible. >> we don't want anything special. we want people to basically adhere to the regulations and laws as they are on the books now. people can also, just be

cognizant if they have stuff on the street, they thaoed to have 48 inches so we can pass, think outside your own spectrum of yourself that there are other people you need to share the sidewalk with. we will all get along better. >> although san francisco is a hilly place for a whraoel chair user, we seem to be better at most. that doesn't mean we can't continue to improve upon ourselves. >> the public has a clear are -- of travel. we can't be every to make sure that is the place. we have to rely on the place. call 311. give them your name.

that goes into a data base. >> it is difficult, still, um to make the case that the disabled community isn't being represented. in some ways we are not. we have a long way to go. >> the city of san francisco is using the most innovative technology available. these devices allow people to remain out in their communities, doing things like shopping. it is great to be able to walk as a pedestrian in this city and cross streets safely.