storytelling of who we are as human beings. i am so honored to be an asian american representative here in san francisco and to have the largest art collection in the western world in our cities across the street from where i work is truly special. to have the 6000-year history, as depicted in the 17,000 artifacts that are here, i do not think any of us can question our fortune. the work that was done to pull together this complicated negotiation and to get to where we are today, i want to thank the mayor, city attorney, then rosenfield, nadia, my colleagues on the board. i commit to you as the president of the board of supervisors along with my colleagues, that we will do what we need to do to get this done. hopefully, in short order, we

can write the financial situation here and get us back on a footing we need to hopefully be an institution that will be around for another 6000 years. thank you for being here. [applause] >> our next speaker will be the president of the foundation of the asian art museum and the vice chair of the asian arts commission. >> on behalf of the asian art museum foundation, i express our deep gratitude to mayor newsom, mayer brown, city attorney dennis herrerra, controller rosenfield, and other leaders for their leadership and helping us find a solution to the debt. we appreciate the city's assistance and support for assisting us in these difficult economic challenges.

the city's support is for a wealthy cause. for nearly 40 years, the asian art museum foundation has provided much-needed financial support for the museum. this support has enabled the museum to successfully fulfill its mission of leading a diverse global audience in discovering the unique materials, aesthetic and intellectual, achievements of the asian culture. over the years, millions of museum visitors have experienced the museum's world-renowned connection -- collection. truly one of the city's most viable assets as well as for a great array of education. the city's plan for strengthening the museum's financial position will make sure the foundation can continue these efforts for future generations. a successful capital campaign requires leadership, leadership, -- leadership,

vision, and a well found gold. the foundation's leadership, led by our chair, has developed a framework of a strategic plan that aims to bolster the museum's commitment to serving our community. the plan also intends to maintain the organization's financial health to robust fundraising while also making sure the museum uses its resources in the most effective manner. we fully recognize the challenge that lies ahead but oare confident that our members and donors will support us, as they have done in the past. the foundation welcomes the leadership of the city in helping us achieve our goal. also, thanks to the board of supervisors who have shown strong support of the mayor's proposal. thank you very much. [applause]

>> let's welcome supervisor carmen chu. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for all of the individuals who came today. as you know, today is a day that we can celebrate a path for for the asian arts museum. i want to take some time to thank the people who have been so crucial in making sure this day is here. mayor gavin newsom and your staff for leading this effort and for all of your attention to this. even over the winter holiday, i know staff was working through this, so a big thank-you to you. dennis and his fine team who have been working diligently to make sure that all the terms are correct, that we have the best deal for the city. thank you to the board president and members of the board who have always supported the asian arts museum. this is a good day for the asian

foundation. of course, to the comptroller ben rosenfield and nadia, we would not be here without your hard work. today, i simply want to give two messages. one is just how important the asian art museum is to san francisco and to our history. san francisco and asian american communities are intricately linked. we have had a huge mystery here. one of the things that this museum represents to me personally is not just an arts museum that shows bali and the shanghai exhibit. it is the history from where my parents came, from where many san franciscans have come. if there is any message i could leave today, for my lincoln high school mustangs out there, communities in the richmond, bayview hunters point, visitation valley -- this is not

my museum along. this is your museum, this is your history. please support the museum. please make sure that this can stay here for your generation and for our kids. thank you for the tremendous leadership we have seen today, and thank you in advance to the community for their support. [applause] thank you -- >> thank you so much supervisor carmen chu. now i think we have all been waiting to hear from our city comptroller ben rosenfield about key points of the proposal to restructure the foundation's bond. [applause] >> that would be the first time that people would be waiting to hear me speak. [laughter] i am just happy to be here today because that means we found a solution to a set of problems that threaten the viability and vitality of this wonderful

institution. more than anything, i am pleased that collectively we have gone to that point. i will talk through some of the high points in the deal. fundamentally, this is a complicated negotiation agreement that involves five different parties, very quickly worked out under challenging circumstances and executed this morning. some are still subsequent to board approval, approval of the founders of the board of directors and others, but the deal is set. what it's fundamentally does -- of the $120 million in outstanding debt that the foundation formally held, lenders have forgiven $21 million. so approaching 20% of the debt has been written off. secondly, $30 million approximately in collateral that

the foundation had been required to post with j.p. morgan under the terms of the old financial arrangement. those would be returned to the foundation. the form of that underlie agreement has been ripped up. secondly, so that the amount of outstanding debt is reduced, what is outstanding his then refinanced under more stable terms. form of financing was a variable rate subject to interest-rate fluctuations that would change the foundation's payments. it has been restructured as a stable, fixed 30-year loan at 4.6%, which is a competitive rate, and is free of some of the other financial bells and whistles that had served to create some of the challenge with the former financing. third, the foundation commits,

with the assistance of elected to the leadership, to raise $20 million over the next 20 years to meet the remaining gap on this financing. lastly, the city enters into this agreement and provides certain assurances for the lenders necessary to make this financing work. in essence, we lead our credit rating to this deal. in the words of the city attorney, it is hard to find such a good deal for all the five parties involved. it would not have happened without the leadership of each. i am here, happy to talk about the leadership before me and look forward to more stable financial footing for the foundation and this wonderful museum in the years ahead. thank you. [applause] >> once again, on behalf of the

staff of the asian art museum, i cannot say enough of our gratitude to civic leaders, mayor newsom, the city attorney, and board of supervisors president david chiu, carmen chu, ben rosenfield, and the public utilities finance director, and the others who have done so much work without being mentioned. and everyone coming together, from the museum to our city, and banking communities coming together to develop this proposal. about the value of the museum, i cannot say it any better any be civic leaders that have said about the wonderful importance of this museum. so we are very motivated to work together, to move the process forward and the at some upon the i would like to acknowledge some of the save members on the

museum staff who worked diligently particularly our c.f.o., mark. he is right there. thank you very much. come back to visit us as a body and once again we have experienced wonderful art from asia and interconnectivity from asia and our city. our leaders here will be available for interviews afterwards for questions. thank you very much for coming. >> welcome to "culturewire." for the past year, the arts commission has been participating in the city's effort to revitalize the central market street corridor.

in addition to the thursday arts market and are in store front, the art commission recently launched the artery project. for the next year, the artery project will bring energy and excitement to market street, recalling the st.'s heyday as san francisco's vibrant and bustling theater district. >> un.n plaza during business hours seize hundreds of passing office workers and students, but the activity winds down at 5:00 every day. theater productions bring some but traffic, but central market is more of a thoroughfare than a destination after the sun goes down. on december 9, the artery project's launch brought a party atmosphere to market street, led by mayor gavin newsom, city

officials flipped the switch on three new art installations that light up the st.'s architecture. a looping a video at 1119 market street was the first words to be some -- the first work to be seen that evening. before the unveiling, the director of cultural affairs spoke to artist jim campbell about the concepts behind bourbon reflection and how he created the work. >> i'm really excited to have your installation on public view starting today here on market street. you created a site-specific work. can you talk about that? >> yes, i looked at two or three different locations, and this one seemed the best. i work with customer electronics, so indoors seemed the best for the work. i also like how close it was 2 market street itself. it is only about 10 feet away, so i chose this location.

>> what is the duration? if someone were to stand in front of your installation today. >> at the moment, it is 12 minutes, but i've been thinking about adding footage over the time because it is going to go through a couple of seasons. >> could you describe a little bit in terms of what your creative process is? >> it is a curtain, and image made up of a curtain, so it is very valuable, and the idea was to use this technology that i've been using for the last 10 years, low resolution imagery, to reflect market street back to the pedestrians walking by. the reason that it kind of works in this environment is that you see people walking by. you see cars going by. you see buses going by, but you cannot help we the people are because it is low resolution. you cannot see their faces. you can see the way they walk. you might be able to tell the kind of car going by. >> what do you think passersby

will experience? >> i was thinking it was going to be a test of the success of the work if people stop and look. i have noticed in the last few nights that people do stop and look. a certain percentage. one of the things i was playing with was the ambiguity of whether it is alive or not, so people walk by, and they might even move like this back and forth, thinking that they are in the image, and they realize that it is a daytime shot, and that kind of thing. >> thanks for being part of life on market street. >> my pleasure. >> after the lighting of urban reflection, mayor newsom led the party to the corner of seventh street. lighting the way down the street were members of the filipino cultural center's youth program, carrying traditional core role lanterns. on the side of the resort hotel is a projection titled

"storylines." working with students from the art commission writer's corps program, paul organized a series of images with text captions. they will change every evening until a different -- and tell a different story. one block away, theodore watson has created an interactive installation that crosses over six street. spaces' begins with a photo capture station on the north side of the street that projects your face on to a building on the south side of the street. on opening night, the installation was an immediate hit with the crowd. we talked with the or what said about his remarkable installation. >> what inspired you to create this interactive piece? >> the work i typically do is kind of interactive installations or both indoor and also outdoor and public space.

for me, what i'm most interested in is how we can use technology to make the city, which is typically quite a static environment architecturally speaking -- how can we make it come alive? >> what i love about your work is there is such sophisticated software and electronics and complex connections that all have to work together to make it successful, but yet, all of that is invisible to the people interact with the work. >> they do not realize there is all these cables and projectors and computers and all this technology behind the scenes, and if you can keep it hidden, it feels like a really magical moment. to me, that is what is inspiring, and that is what makes the public, their eyes light up. >> you feel a little bit like the wizard of oz? >> totally, yes. >> having been on market street for a while and seeing how the public is reacting to your piece, what is your impression

of what it is going to be like here? >> i'm already loving it. just the fact that i can look up and see someone seeing how crazy it is, and i have been bumping into people in the street who are recognized only from their portrait. i'm hoping that people will provide a slightly more friendly way to look at each other in this neighborhood. >> it is helping to reinforce and create a sense of neighborhood. so we want to thank you for being part of this project and thank you for bringing "faces" to san francisco. >> the artery project will have installations on market street until june 2011. this revitalization initiative is funded by the national endowment for the arts in an effort to transform market street into a nationally celebrated cultural district. additional projects and events will be launched throughout the

year, including art and storefronts and coordinated nighttime events hosted by the gray area foundation for the arts and the luggage store gallery. to learn more about the artery project, visit sf >> right on time. i am grateful that a number of you showed up today. i thought we had just a few people being sworn in. i kid you not. i was thinking we could do this in my office. we would have only been able to get a 10th of you in there. i am grateful that you took the time to be here. i thought this would be my last swearing in as mayor but i have two people, supervisor dufty,

tomorrow that i will quietly swear in. this is the last public swearing in of my tenure as mayor. i do hear some claps on the other side. i am glad i do not hear any on this side. somebody picked up on that. -- some of you picked up on that. [laughter] i am appreciative of department heads being here. of course, our city attorney dennis herrera, who has taken the time to be here, phil ting, bevan dufty, the ubiquitous supervisor, and so many leaders, particularly from the labor community, chief of staff, and

particular, the rank and file of my favorite local, 261. [applause] truly my favorite. they are here for you, vince. i am pleased to be swearing in six individuals and i am honored that two were recently and overwhelmingly supported by the board of supervisors as a member of their other applicants were rudely rejected for purely political purposes. but i am over that. but i needed to state that publicly. that is sometimes the way people act when they cannot make the right decisions. sometimes they make the wrong ones. in this case, they made the right ones with the two of you

and supported vince courtney to the public utilities commission -- [applause] i guess i should have appointed him four years ago. little did i know. i should have mentioned him last time. that is unfair to the other commissioners. i know jason does not even have a friend here. [laughter] he does, jason elliot, department of the environment. leona bridges. we are proud of her as well. [applause]

>> how many have dealt lta sigma theta in the house? [applause] >> our collegiate expert, supervisor dufty. we talk about behavioral health and mental health, and i say that in the context of anyone who wishes to serve on the mta board. leona clearly passed the test and i am glad she did. it is pretty remarkable with all of the warfare as it relates to public transit in our city, dealing with $220 million in state cuts over the past few years. we have been running surpluses at muni had the state not gone

in and drawn down nearly a quarter billion. that became the biggest challenge in your biggest frustration in the last few years. so we are navigating through that. that has been the struggle. we are going to be on a much firmer footing in the future. leona will be a big part of the new direction, particularly with the transit effectiveness plan. we have a real information to which we can make decisions about augmentation and changes, and that is the first time in over decades. ed harrington was a big part of that as comptroller. i really do feel more optimistic than ever about muni. that is a hard thing to say, right? but i do have faith about its

future. beverly, hang on. a big round of applause. [applause] this is a big deal. the mayor gets one appointment to the ethics commission. the ethics commission is a big deal, particularly when a lot of elections are going to take place, mayor's race, all of the public financing. we had a great meeting yesterday to talk about integrity, honesty, calling strikes, even if your friends are on the other side. you have to stand up and do the right thing. beverly was ahead of me on all these things. i gave this a lot of thought and did not make a precipitous decision in terms of this appointment. i am very grateful that beverly said yes, and i am also grateful if you would also give her a

round of applause. it is her birthday. [applause] happy birthday, beverly. [applause] i have known lorna for many years. she has been around since the old days of the school district. those were challenging days. we were on not getting along. it was challenging. lorna always stood out as someone trying to bridge those gaps, try to work for all those challenges. she has done some amazing work with an organization that only does good work, focuses on best practices, mckinsey, a great

think tank. we have talked a lot about how great she would be. she has been an advocate for women's rights, advocate for girls. we thought it was appropriate to appoint her to the commission on women. thank you for your willingness to serve. [applause] finally, i see francesca, our first department of the environment. there was an opening at the department of the environment and there wasn't a young guy that has driven a lot of us crazy because he is eager, enthusiastic, engage, and he plays above his weight, figuratively, not literally. that is jason elliott, whom i am honored to have served on the commission of the environment. he has been my policy guide. i am just going to -- at peril

of being judged -- to be bragadotious. i will put up our record that we have done in the environmental commission with any others. i am really proud of the work that has been done. i have great confidence jason will continue that work well beyond my tenure. which expires soon. [applause] the swearing in. i will ask each of you, if you could, to stand up, sit down if you must, but raise your right hand, which i insist upon. i will say i -- you will state your name, and then we will go down the road. you got it. vince, you got it?

i -- do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies foreign and domestic and i will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that i take this obligation freely without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties of which i am about to enter, and during such time as i hold the position as a mr