about 40 trees in golden gate park. this follows the terrible vandalism of the trees in the music concourse area. chase freedom has come forward with a $34,000 check. they did that during the outside concert. it was a wonderful ceremony. we are accepting this money to plant trees in the concourse area. i also want to acknowledge my rally tell. my whole family is into this. i hope black and orange becomes the trend in the city as we win the world series as well. president chiu: i have a couple of in a more ian's for today. -- in memoriums. the first is for a woman who was born in sicily and immigrated here, and left a lot of family here in san francisco. she will be missed by our local

community. i also have a second in memoriam for a businessmen and civic leader in san francisco who had served on the board of the asian art museum, the fort mason commission, was the founder of pro bono san francisco, and was someone many of us knew as being an active city and community leader in san francisco. the rest of my items i will submit. >> thank you, mr. president. supervisor msupervisor mirkarimi: -- supervisor mirkarimi, supervisor campos you wanted to be re-referred. my understanding is that concludes will call for introductions. supervisor dufty: i submitted a number of hearings and

resolutions. i am also introducing a revised, updated version of mobile food facilities legislation to create a food legislation. i am submitting an in memoriam for muffy myer. she was born in san francisco to parents who came here from portland, oregon. she has been a lifelong resident of san francisco and is survived by her siblings and their families, her beloved nephew alan ryan, her brother in law, and her nephew, alex novelli. she leaves behind a world of friends and families who grieve the loss of a friend. her life will always be defined by the fierce loyalty to the one she loved. she had a profound wisdom and

provided advice to every level of government. a tireless desire to help those in need. she had a profound capacity for friendship most profoundly by her love for her nephew. her contributions are numerous. don cecil worked with her for a number of years. she had a great devotion to her community and was very involved with the zen hospice project. she was a past member of the concordia club, a member of congregation emanu-el, and a political consultant. a memorial service is taking place and many will miss her. i also submit an in memoriam for neil shaton, who passed away on november 12 after a massive heart attack.

i am sure many of you who served in city government had the privilege of visiting the submarine at the waterfront and having a pancake breakfast he organized. he was a u.s. naval academy graduate who served as an officer on submarines during the cold war. he was a trustee and former president of the san francisco maritime national park association, which operates the world war ii submarine docked at pier 45. he obtained an appointment to annapolis from senator kilgore and graduated in 1950 and served on submarines, particularly the razorback. he moved to san francisco after his navy career and manufactured heavy equipment. he sold the business in 1992. at the time of his passing, he was an executive of mckinley

elevator corporation. he participated in the life of his adopted city and served on the board of the asian art museum, the national maritime association, and others. he served as chairman of the san francisco maritime national historical park advisory commission. he propounded pro bono san francisco, a group interested in political issues in the city. he had a great love of maritime education for school children, particularly the "age of sail" programs. he is survived by his widow, and jejean. he will be greatly missed as someone who worked very hard to maintain san francisco's maritime history. >> supervisor campos? supervisor campos: thank you for re-referring me.

i do have an in memoriam, and i think many colleagues will say a word as well about the passing of a very special individual not only to the mission community but to all of san francisco. that is the very sudden and unfortunate passing of maricio vela. a lot has been said and a lot will be said, and i want to share a few words. i also want to acknowledge that we have in the audience a number of people who are coming from the bernal heights neighborhood center. i would ask them to please stand. there are many people, thank you, in the mission and throughout the city who are thinking of maricio today.

he was born in 1959, on december 15. he passed away last week. let me just read a few words about maricio, although i know many of you will add to that. he was a father who deeply loved his family. he cherished his friends and supporters. his passing on october 22, 2010 was something that has impacted many people. he is survived by his sons, carlos and edward. he also leaves behind siblings and many nieces and nephews. he was born in san francisco to maria vela and the late carlos vela.

he graduated from uc-berkeley. he has had a distinguished career. among other things, he ran the youth and senior programs at the neighborhood center, and went on to serve as executive director of the bernal heights neighborhood center until 2004. he sat on a number of boards and commissions, most recently working as a member of the board for all non- -- for fullman advocates and jamestown community center. he was the leader on ongoing neighborhood issues. there were many issues maricio worked on over the years. many heard from him on saving the bernal preschool. the latest issue was saving the murals. it was a campaign that has been ongoing for a number of years,

and i think through that effort maricio vela demonstrated the kind of person he was. he was passionate. he stood up for what he believed. he was also someone who was willing to extend a hand and reached out to people who do not agree with him. it was because of those efforts that ultimately the issue of what to do with the mural and the library was resolved through mediation, a process and a solution that would not have happened unless maricio vela had actually reached out to people who disagreed with him. in so doing, i did he taught many of us a lot of lessons. some have described him as one of the great ones in community building here in san francisco, a gifted organizer, and that he was. i was reminded that one of the many talents that maricio had was that when he came to you and

advocated for an issue he was not just telling you that. he was actually behind that with a lot of work he had already done to make sure that his advocacy was effective. he was always someone that you could count on to follow through on whatever he was working on, something that made him extremely effective and extremely successful. many people in the mission will miss him. some would say that he was old school. his favorites were tower of power, santana, and attending the voices of latin rock event. he attended barbeques and was an advocate giants and forty- niners van. speaking of the giants, he was telling anyone who was here how he thought the giants would make it to the world series this

year. he was right. so he will be remembered as someone who made tremendous contributions to his community. for those of you who are interested, a vigil service will be held on wednesday, october 27, up from 3:00 to 9:00 p.m., with rosary services at 7:00 p.m., at a place on valencia's street. i would like to read something that was written by former supervisor myaki, who wrote this a couple of days ago. "he was one of those guys to could not help but like. if you were a san franciscan, he typified the kind of activist who would routinely be a pain in your butt, but do it in such a

way you ended up going out afterwards with him and having a drink. to say his passion burn hot is understanding what it was like to be in his presence. in the gang killing, and the family that was victimized, in just as he took to heart and wanted to make sure -- any injustice he took to heart and wanted to make sure you did as well. there were times you wanted him to back off and turn it down and notch, but that was not maricio. he passed away just before his beloved giants clinched the pennant just before they went to the world series. he was surrounded by family and friends. he died too young at the age of 50, going on 30. that was maricio vela." now i will turn it over to my

colleagues. supervisor avalos: thank you, president chiu and supervisor campos. this is a great loss for san francisco. i cannot think of anyone in my part of the city who has had such a great impact on our neighborhoods. i have known maricio since 1986, when i was an advocate for children and youth. i got to know him over the years. he has had such an incredible way of bringing people around him on to his causes. i guess that is what a true organizer is that supervisor miyake talks about. when i first was organizing about 11 years ago, there was a small youth center called the greater mission consortium that

occupied a small office space on the corner of ocean avenue and mission. it was maricio's dream to see that that small office would turn into a teen center. it would mean more space and greater staffing. it was through his organizing with people in the neighborhood over the years that was able to get a new center that was moved down the street. it is such a vibrant place now. just yesterday, the center, which is now called the excelsior community center, opened its doors again to serve teens and seniors. if you look at the work maricio vela has done, it is supporting seniors, young people, and family. it is a place to occupy, a place to visit in the day. that was part of his dream.

he also was part of the effort to build senior housing on rolf street in my district as well, and guaranteeing about 35 senior residents would have a place to live that did not have that. we do not have any senior housing like that in my part of town. so it was a very unique experience to have that come about, and it was really because of his efforts as an organizer to make that happen. you think of maricio and he has incredible part, incredible vitality. to think of him gone despite of that is very hard to reconcile, very hard to understand. we're going to miss you tremendously, maricio, and your work will live on. i know we are going to have a mural on bernal that will have an all moths to -- have an homage to maricio.

we will miss you and your work will live on. supervisor dufty: i worked with maricio for 18 years, beginning as a board aid. i would understand -- i would underscore what colleagues have said. he was as upbeat as possible. no matter the circumstances, he had a smile. he was always asking about how you were doing in the course of conducting community business. i want to reflect he had a pivotal role in making the bernal gateway happen, which is a very important project at mission and thomas. i always enjoyed -- mission and chavez. i enjoyed the work he did around the bernal community congress, allowing people to come to gather on decisions around the community.

one of the things maricio did not accomplish was getting elected for the school board, even though he ran for it several times and i was glad to support him. i know eric was out on the campaign trail with him on a couple of cycles. you would always wonder why he wanted to do this, why he wanted the headache of 50 meetings and going after this again. he was so positive that you could not say no. he was very proud of the fact that his parents lived in my district, district 8. he talked about his parents all the time, and about his sons. i do not think for generations to come anybody will think about bernal heights and not think about maricio. supervisor mirkarimi: i am still trying to get over the fact that maricio has left us. it was shocking. i was one of the many people who had supported him in several of

his attempts at running for school board, and worked very closely with him when i was also a legislative aide to a supervisor. when we went to the district attorney's office, maricio well represented not only the bernal heights community, but many disadvantaged communities and the interests of youth, who leads the leadership and heart that -- who need the leadership and heart that he represented. it is an amazing lost to us that he has passed. it is heartbreaking. supervisor mar: i wanted to add to what my colleagues have said. the real, and deeply felt, sincere condolence to his sister's and brothers, and to his sons, carlos and edward.

i began working with maricio several years ago. -- 20 years ago. he was a good parent leader who worked closely with leaders to address the issue of torture schools, edison charter school in particular -- of charter schools, edison charter school in particular. he was valuable and effective. we have a better school system because of his leadership as a parent and community leader. i think he loved to, music as well -- i think he loved chicano music as well. it was in power and to walk down the street was someone who has been so embedded into the fabric of san francisco. i will miss him. supervisor campos: thank you.

i am wondering if i can ask, with your allowance -- if i can ask the executive director of bernal heights neighborhood center to have a few words. i would ask the staff of the neighborhood center. president chiu: i believe we can do that, with unanimity. >> thank you, supervisor campos. it is obviously a hard time. as you noted, it was very sudden. maricio took ill recently and wanted to keep the view of a strong man, and did not want to see -- did not want us to see him as he was the last few weeks. his strength, as you guys have noticed, is what keeps us going today. supervisor avalos was with us

at the excelsior community center yesterday. to see his vision, moving from a small office to a storefront in a previously burned out building -- maricio said we would make it a place where, right on mission street, we will have a place for youth. i will not go through too much more of what you guys have said, but just to highlight that as an example of his tenacity. we were criticized for many years, as the supervisor knows, for having a storefront space for our youth on mission street. it is highly visible. it is right on the hub of the excelsior. maricio's dream was to replicate the services we have had in bernal heights where there was not that hub of services. he wanted a multi-service hub in the excelsior, starting with our youth. everything with maricio started

with our youth. some of the most typical to serve youth in our city, coming from all different neighborhoods, would come to a storefront on the excelsior. a lot of people were a little upset. some people who are probably watching that on -- probably watching this on tv right now have called me to complain about our youth over the years on mission street. but they have seen that we have smoothed out the rough spots. we have made it work. our youth come to that center because it was on mission street. that was the vision, that it would be there at the intersection of our buses and that it would be accessible by our kids, going back and forth from school to home. what his vision was what is to follow our youth at the age from elementary school in bernal heights to the middle schools and high schools in the excelsior, where there were placed when the greater mission consortium was put into place.

that also speaks to why he kept running for school board. he ran for school board not necessarily because he was going to win but because he wanted to make a point about accountability. he thought a lot of our education system, and about what was happening to our youth in the system. all of us who are here, who work for the neighborhood center, and our board of directors, so many in our community have such respect for maricio. we carry on the vision he brought to the community. i was talking to helen, who is the woman who was the executive director who hired maricio and t possible for us to share that experience. just to give you kind of a taste of the fiery spirit of the neighborhood center that he invited for so many years is that we had a number of issues with the library.

the first was that it was going to close, and he led a battle to make sure that the branch library stayed open, and then, he led an effort to make sure that the bond passed so we could get the library renovated, and when the library was going to be renovated, there were two issues that did not get resolved -- one was where was the college preschool going to go, and the other was what was going to happen with the mill? helen, when i was talking with her this morning about the remarks she wanted to pass on, said she wanted to write a letter to me to present to our board of directors that i'm passing on to you now as an official request to have a plaque in honor of mauricio death the library, to show that we are not at war with the library, but the library needs to be part of our community, and we will keep reminding all institutions what it means to be part of the community and what it means to establish and

retain the equity and justice in our community. i do want to invite everybody -- we will be have been -- having a reduction center, and there will be a rosary at chisels, and the funeral will be at st. paul's over on church street at 10:00 a.m. on thursday, which is where mauricio went to elementary school. i want to thank all of you for the memorial for honoring his work. supervisor campos: thank you. in thinking about how to honor mauricio, we heard from supervisor alioto-pier and what the meat -- supervisor avalos and with the merrill then to

him -- what the mural meant to him. i would like to acknowledge the presence of two young people. he fought so hard to make sure that young people had opportunities, and one of the things that he and i worked closely on was making sure that the district 9 representative was someone who had that fiery spirit that he was known for, and i would like to of knowledge her presence, his niece, who is in the audience. commissioner, thank you for being here. if i may close by asking for some brief remarks from someone who i think demonstrates and shows the mauricio's spirit lives on, and that is his son. i just want to have an opportunity to say couple of brief words.

as you can see, mauricio lives on. >> thank you. as you all know, this is a tough time for my family and life. i currently live in chile so i just got back to the country on the 16th. i never would have expected this to happen so fast. i knew he was sick, but never would have expected it to happen so fast. it has been tough for my family and i, and i want to thank you guys for acknowledging my father and allowing the neighborhood center and myself to speak. i was here with him on plenty of occasions when we were in the back making noise, trying to fight for something he was going for, and at times when i was a little kid, i always said, "why do we have to do this?" now that i'm an adult, i realize

that everything had a meaning in a purpose, and it made myself, my brother, my cousins, and my family all stronger people for it, so again, i just want to thank you guys. when i was a little kid, i remember he wanted to be on the school board, on the board of supervisors, and he told me when i was little, he said, "win and 50, i want to be mayor of san francisco." unfortunately, god had another plan, and he is no longer with us, so again, thank you, and hopefully, i will see some of you at the services tomorrow and on thursday. supervisor chiu: colleagues, given that i think probably every single one of us has personally witnessed mauricio's contributions, i would like to ask that we do this in memoriam

on behalf of the entire board. at this time, why don't we move to public comment. then the next item on the agenda is the opportunity for the public to address the board for two minutes on items within the subject matter of jurisdiction of the board, including items on the agenda with the committee reference, portions of the agenda, including items which have already been hurt by a board committee. speakers using translation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time. a member of the public would like a document to be displayed, please clearly states such and remove the document when the screen should return to live meeting. supervisor chiu: thank you. two minutes per speaker. first speaker please. >> [speaking foreign language]