think, we have more clarity on what we need to do to process as well. >> we always wanted to come to san francisco but we needed to have a high degree of confidence that we could get the sailing village finished by 2013. that was the critical factor. we had enough information in terms of the engineering. we have to go through the ceqa process, which we know will take one year, we hope not longer, but we did not know as much about the northern location as the location near at&t ballpark. we have to do the engineering assessments and it came up positively. we are very confident, unless something very unanticipated comes up, we will be able to get the village built in time and have a great event in 2013. >> let me underscore this issue of confidence, it is essential. when the board expresses

unanimity, environmental organizations, community groups, one of the big benefits of this kind of project is when you have more support than when you began, it gives you a degree of certainty that he may not have otherwise received. the ceqa process will begin in earnest. there is no guarantee with ceqa, but we are about as close as we can with some certainty to get that done. >> just for clarification, the least versus ownership? >> it is an issue on see what 30 -- seawall lot 30. we will be working with what the board provided us. we believe confidently that we can get that approved through the state agencies. we think it was an important thing for the event authority and advantageous from the city's

perspective. >> mr. alliellison, there is a t of attention between city negotiators and your group. just wondering how you can work past that to make sure that this is a successful event? >> we are very excited about being in san francisco. we have a high degree of confidence we can get the village done by 2013. the relationship and morale with our team is high and we are excited to be here. our relationship with the city is positive. this is the beginning, not an end. we have to work closely together with a number of people in the city. i think both sides are highly motivated to make this the best america's cup that has ever been, one of the greatest sporting events that has ever been. it is in both sides' interest to

do a good job here. i think we get along fine. >> phase one is behind us. we have already entered into phase two. that is the past. frankly, a lot of it was while the overplayed. we are in very good stead, moving forward. >> mr. ellison, you are going to end up with a lot of our rights to develop. what are your plans along those piers once the america's cup is over? >> but i do not think i can lay out what we want to do pier by pier. a lot of them are not contributing to the city and could be more beautiful than they are now. we want to develop them in such a way that is both environmentally friendly, makes an economic contribution to the

city, and where residents of the city want to go, whether it is for lunch or a walk by the waterfront, or boarding one of these wonderful books to go for a sale. we want to in view that life into the city. >> there was talk about putting a hotel on pier 50. is that something that you would consider for one of the others? >> we have focused on the sailing village, not a hotel. our big focus by 2013 is to make sure, if we have 16 teams here -- which is what we are planning for. i hope we get that many. we want to make sure we can house those teams, boats, their equipment, make sure all of that is in place so they can focus

just on competitive sailing and not worry about logistics, problems with their facilities. >> behind the scenes, we are working on visas, providing the resources for these teams. there is an enormous amount of work that does not get attention. san francisco is very good at those things. our village is already built. our stadium is already built. we have to spruce up these facilities, and a lot of them you do not even have access to it. there will be investments made, and that will be the legacy of this race. it is an extraordinary thing, from san francisco's perspective. that is why so many san franciscans support of this effort. >> mr. ellison --

>> we are almost out of time. two more questions. >> the america's cup is an enormous undertaking. i know many people have tried and failed and left. what is the driving force and motivation for you to keep going and accomplish this almost impossible goal? >> there is a personal and to that, why i pursued the america's cup, and then there is the sense and responsibility i have toward the sailing community. turning this from an elitist event into a popular sporting event. i sail primarily with professional sailors. i sail on the professional

circuit. i spend a lot of time with professional sailors. professional sailing is not as popular a sport as it could be, i think, because it has not done the right tv coverage, the boats we are sailing on are perhaps not as exciting to watch or sail, compared to somebody doing back flips off of a mogul. it is not an extreme sport, but we are trying to make it attractive. we want to attract young people, tv viewers. that would greatly benefit all the people who make their living selling. i have been a part of that community for a long time. i have a sense of obligation to them and that is why we are trying to transform the america's cup, the number one sailing event, into something

that is user friendly, fan- friendly. that is why we are in san francisco, this great amphitheater where people can watch from the shoreline. we went to the fastest boats that we could conceive of racing to make it much more fan- friendly, tv-friendly, and more commercial. that is going to raise the level of professional sailing to a point where it is maybe not at the level of professional tennis or baseball, but getting close. a lot of people take it seriously and follow it. the other answer is personal. why do i pursue sailing? why do i pursue my job? i believe human beings are interested in discovering their own limits. i think life is a journey of

discovery. one of the things that you find out is what you are good at and what you are not good at. a lot of my life is really testing my own limits. that is the personal answer to that question. >> thank you, everyone. thank you for mentioning moguls and backflips. that is a perfect way to end this press conference. and applause to everyone on stage. thank you, everyone, for coming, and let's celebrate.

the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one...

>> thanks for coming today. we are announcing are temporary homeowner's property tax reduction program. this is what most assessor's up and down the state are doing. homeowners are reliable -- of all property owners are eligible for a temporary, 1-year property-tax assessment reduction if they believe or if we believe dave -- the assess the value has fallen above their market value, which means that the value would be lower than the market value. in general, homeowners who are eligible, chances are, they purchased homes after 2003. we do get applicants who have owned homes since 1995 or earlier. in general, anybody who is owned

their home prior to 2003, they are doing well, which is good news. chances are the market value is higher than the assessed value, meaning the property appreciate it. people we are able to offer little relief for, the sad news is, their homes have depreciated. there will be a little bit of relief for them. in general, last year, we saw 6400 applicants in comparison to four years ago when we had 248 requests. the form a simple. it is one page. name, telephone number, e-mail, and the address you are applying for. if you can give us sales in formation of similar types of homes, we do hope you can give us that. if you cannot come maternity leave blank and sign it. e-mail or fax it to us -- if

you cannot give us that, leave it blank and sign it. e-mail or fax it was. tenderloin downtown, south of market, mission bay, and south beach. those were many of the new high- rise condominiums that went in to market the last four or five years. we have seen a significant amount of depreciation in those areas. gaviria that has seen the largest value drop is -- the other area that has seen the largest volume drop is the outer mission, amazon, those areas have seen the largest percentage drop. it is where we have been hit hardest with foreclosures. we make sure that we take an extra look. we proactively have been reviewing every home that was purchased after 2000. even though we think eligibility is for people up to 2003, we review any homeowner who

purchased after 2000. that was roughly about 15,000 homeowners. of that, reduced -- no one had to apply or call us. we did this on our own. we reduced 10,000 of those homeowners. roughly, you have 10,000 reductions that we did on our own. 1700 reductions were done through this application process. 5000 time shares is how you get to the 17,000 number. just to give you a comparison, it is quite a bit in san francisco. these are huge numbers, larger than the dot com bust. alameda and santa clara did about 1000 come a tenfold. -- 1000, tenfold. we are doing better than our counterparts in other parts of the bay area.

i feel fortunate. the tax reduction was about 21 million in taxes that were not collected. 21 million in taxes were not collected. that is a significant number. it is out of a $6.5 billion budget. overall, the difference to the city is still rather small compared to what it meant to many of the other counties in other areas. let me stop there and take questions. >> [inaudible] >> 6462. of those, we actually reviewed only 4177. many of those were already reviewed. we have actively reviewed them. some of them were not eligible. >> [inaudible]

>> anybody who has gotten a reduction, they don't need to apply. we will look at it again. if you have gotten a reduction through an appeal or through our office, they don't need to apply again. they will be reviewed. they may want to apply because maybe they want to give us information we don't know. they are free to do that. that will be reviewed as part of that process. in general, they don't need to submit paperwork if they already got a reduction last year. >> [inaudible] >> well, i think because it is just flat, the market has not rebounded and gone up. we will probably see the same number of people deserve

reductions last year. i think it will be comparable. traditionally, an economic recovery is like a v. this is more like a u. we're at the bottom of it right now. my feeling is we are going to see, you know, a very unusual real-estate market in san francisco. it will be flat and not appreciate a whole lot right now. the number people who are eligible is probably similar to last year. i bet we will give about the same number of reductions this year as we did last year. it will not be that much different. >> [inaudible] >> anybody that was reviewed -- everybody in san francisco got a letter from us in july. they were told what their assessed value was. there were told that they got a reduction. if they got a reduction based on the letter, they don't need to reapply. what people do is we will review applicants. the deadline is march 31.

all 17,000 who got reductions will be reviewed automatically. everyone will get notified again in july. we will not talk to anybody prior to that. everyone else will be getting the standard notification in july. >> [inaudible] you review these every year. >> every year. the reductions we review every year. as the market appreciates, we may take their assessments up based on what the market value is. they may go all the way back up to the factor value. it may go up partially higher. obviously, that is what he would see. you would see a step over the years to include the appreciation based on what the market is feeling. right now, we are not seeing a whole lot of appreciation. chances are, the assessment will be a little bit different than last year.

the original purchase applies plus whatever the inflation factor was on an annual basis. in general, up to 2%. we had a negative inflation factor for the first time last year. everybody got a reduction last year. >> [inaudible] >> this year, cpi based on the final number we saw, is. 5% positive. it is still well below 2%. -- is .5% positive. it is still well below 2%. the economy is still rather flat. >> [inaudible] >> everybody who does not get a reduction will get a .5% increase in their assessment. that is just a proximate.

it will probably be pretty close to that. we can show you the website. we follow the same website. it is the state cpi. it is a tracking mechanism for the state. >> [inaudible] >> i think there will vote to finalize in the next month or two. i think the number is done. >> overall, when all is said and done, what is the amount that you're going to receive [inaudible] >> for reductions, it will really just depend on how much your property might have depreciated or appreciate id. some areas where maybe there was a 5% or 3%, the good news in san francisco, we have not seen a few drops we saw in other parts

of the bay area, like solano, or properties dropped 50%. you don't want that. you want your property to appreciate. that is the goal. it might be $50, $100, maybe a few hundred dollars. it and will not be anything huge -- it will not be anything huge. >> [inaudible] >> over last year, it was a $21 million difference. because of the temporary reductions in homeowners values, there was $21 million that was not collected by the county. let's put that in context of the $6.5 billion budget. >> [inaudible] >> the total property tax collected is about $2 billion. overall, we are doing quite well. >> [inaudible] >> overall, property-tax as have done extremely well the last

five, 10 years. we have seen huge increases overall. >> [inaudible] >> no idea. if i did, i should be in las vegas placing a bet, or should be in new york making more money than i am here. the controller's office is probably tracking it more than us. we don't know. we have seen -- we have seen several governments pumped $1 trillion into the economy. it is a huge amount of money. we have seen some improvements, but not the ones they were hoping for. great. ok. thanks, everybody.