>> welcome to city hall. it is my pleasure today to join board president david chiu.

our chief of police is here today. hydra mendoza, the president of our board of education. the director of public works. my wife anita -- she is the most important. who else do we have? the director of our treasure island authority is here. also member of our housing authority. thank you very much for being here. our city librarian -- thank you for being here as well. the president of the san francisco giants is here. all right. and they won today. [applause] sorry if i forgot to mention anybody. i know supervisor avalos will join us later. and sandy. thank you for being with us today. sharon has been here for many years. thank you for being here as well. to all of you who our guests --

family, friends, brothers and sisters of our youth commission -- thank you very much for joining us. i have been very thrilled to be your mayor for the last eight months, and one of the things that i have delighted in in terms of meeting all the different -- come on up, john. supervisor avalos, good to see you. [applause] one of the things i have been delighted in in all the different town hall budget meetings and the community-based organization meetings we have had is to listen to what our views were saying about our city -- listen to what our youth were saying about our city. it either make me happy or sad. it is your opinions that measure the polls and the direction of what we're doing as a city. ultimately, and i know all the

other departments will agree with me -- you are going to take over this city. you are going to take it over. you are going to take my job. you are going to take their jobs. you are going to do better than we did. the reason is because we know that we can only do so much, and we have limited time in the offices that we have. but for right now, for you, where you are at, you can give us the best advice about where we should go as a city. you can give us the advice about better legislation, about better programs, about being more sensitive to families in this city, and to our youth, to the future leaders that this city will have pirie whether you are a police officer or police chief, firefighter, or you may become a doctor or nurse or a teacher or you may become a

librarian for the batter for the next giants team, or you may become a social service worker, or you may become a major -- mayor, in all of these efforts, we need your input. we need your advice. it is with great pleasure that we have this opportunity to point you to our youth commission. as a whole body, we need to listen to our youth, so we know which is the right and wrong directions for us to go to and what your needs are. whether it is education, whether it is in sports and social programs for socializing, whether it is ideas about how to make your life safer, whether your communities are safer, or whether it is just how to make the city a happier place, we need that input. so i want to thank all of your family and friends here today because they will need your support.

every commissioner that served in public capacity always sacrifices personal time, and your sacrifice will be well worth it, i assure you. because i will listen and supervisors will listen as you go through your deliberations. all we ask is that you create an opportunity for us to listen to you carefully and make sure we consider your ideas to help make the city better. so before we do the official swearing in, i know that board president chiu would like to share a few words and also supervisor avalos as well. [applause] supervisor chiu: thank you. i want to add my congratulations to the folks that he has that. there are a couple of folks i would also like to of knowledge. first of all, mario from the youth commission.

[applause] who has done an incredible job in helping to mentor our future leaders. i also want to recognize someone who recently joined the staff. [applause] thank you for the work you are doing. and there is one other group of folks that we have to take a moment to acknowledge, and that is your mothers and fathers. can we give it to the parents in the house? [applause] and, of course, all the other surrogate parents that i know are here along with your biological parents. as many of you know, the commission was born 15 years ago. that means it is a 15-year-old teenager. i have to tell you, when i was 15 years old, i could not find city hall on a map. congratulations for being, as mayor lee said, our next

generation of leaders. [applause] without the work that you do, mayor lee, john avalos, hydra mendoza -- we would not have ideas about how to improve public safety, how to improve our schools, or i do not think any of us would have thought about the importance of providing free muni you have shown tremendous leadership. you represent the diversity of san francisco. you represent our neighborhoods and every corner of our city. you inspire us. when you are able to come together, it signals to us, the adults of city hall, that we also have to come together. we have to work together. she is excited as well. [laughter] i want to tell you to keep on fighting and in part in the wisdom -- imparting wisdom you

can see through your eyes as we're deliberating here. i look forward sunday to working on the campaigns of some of you here -- someday to working on the campaigns of some of you here. i look forward to working with you as you head up our city departments, non-profits, companies, and this great city of san francisco. thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> you have touched on many aspects of your work as commissioners. you have acknowledged your family's supporting you as well. i want to say thank you for your service. thank you for taking on this leadership role. it is not just looking at your future. it is about looking at what your present is like.

that is a huge commitment you are making to your peers and generation. that is knowledge can bring to us to help us make decisions at city hall. i think it is a great idea whose time has come. the work the youth commission did last year working with community organizations and youth from around the city was exceptional and worthy of action on our part to make sure it gets done. i wanted to say thank you for that. i want to acknowledge other folks who have gone on to public office from the recent youth commission. jesse is on the city council berkeley. exceptional things are going on that you will have access to in terms of government service. it is not just working as elected officials. nonprofit workers, julie has had

an exceptional career serving in people. we have nicole in the back to used to be a staffer at the youth commission who is now doing a lot of great political work. you may know her. i want to say thank you for taking on this leadership role. i look forward to working with you over the next year. i work very closely with the youth commission. i am very excited about the things we can do together, crafting legislation, approving budgets, insuring the young people continue to have a voice that will be acted upon by government. thank you so much. [applause] >> are you ready? if i may say this, first of all when they say free muni, let's make sure we know where the money is coming from. we have to be responsible. i want to say congratulations.

now you are going to take up the responsibility you have not taken up before. it is no longer about you. it is about us and our city. i want to make sure that you know that as you deliberate and recommend to me and the board of supervisors, the police chief, hydra, know that it is no longer a recommendation for the city. we are in international city. your recommendations will be viewed around the world, not just in san francisco. it will be around the world in hundreds of difference of languages -- in hundreds of different languages. we realize we're not just a city of san francisco in the state of california. we are san francisco, known throughout the world to provide leadership and hope to provide many other countries in the

world. what you say will be heard around the world. note that. please stand and raise your right hand. police say your full name and repeat after me. i, full name, do solidly a firm 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, that i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of california, that i

take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to injured during such time as i hold the office of youth commissioner for the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [cheers and applause] ♪

>> i want to thank everyone for coming. we aren't trying to do a lot to restore the luster of the uptown historic district. in the past couple of years we have installed the store? . we have a landmark sidewalk program that we want to institute. we also want to restore some of the historic advertising signs, which developed the neighborhood's character. in order to get this money, there is a challenge grant program. when we applied for this grant, the person in charge of the program was ultimately a cao named ed lee. so the mayor had to decide

whether or not to fund this project, so i am glad that he did. we had support and additional financial support from the people that run the organization. jon dugan as well. you can see that great historic pedestrian lighting, which we only have on taylor street and a small part of golden gate. i did not know this, but when he was a cao, ed lee got those installed on taylor street. the mayor also has a plan that would restore 135 historic street lights to the tenderloin. that is an incredibly important

thing for them, from an aesthetic and from a safety point of view. we are also one of the darkest neighborhoods. this is important. you can see how nice those are. imagine how nice they would look through the neighborhood. i also want to introduce leroy looper who goes back to the 1980's with us in the tenderloin. nothing that any of us are doing would have started without leroy's vision when he bought the cadillac. we always need to appreciate them for their contributions. so without further ado, i want to make -- introduced a person who made this possible, mayor ed lee. >> great podium. i am happy to be here.

happy to celebrate these wonderful murals that have been restored. we have been working on this for many years. i just love the fact that he is leading this effort with so many of the other community people. this community challenge grant was an easy decision that we made. i see our acting city administrator. she is continuing that very good community-based approach, working in close concert with the people from clean city, who are doing the sweeping around here, working with nonprofits as well. i want to thank the tenderloin development megacorporation. you are part of our partnership. as well, the tenderloin economic partnership. i want to celebrate these because it is part of our history, but we are renovating

them and giving them a facelift. this is an historical part of this district and kids like to the history that we are still trying to make sure that people feel the vibrancy of this community. you have to see the other ones as well. the one that says original joe's -- john is here. there is also a coca-cola one. i want to see them put the old phrase in their "the real thing." i missed that. we are also doing some restoration. it is all about making sure we pay attention to the uptown tenderloin historic district. we have done this for some years now. ever since the fire that occurred here -- unfortunately, there was a fire here a few years ago.

my predecessor gavin newsom asked me to come down here to work with the arts community, come up with every idea that we could, to work with the office of economic development to please key dollars here. we are working with so many organizations working our way up this great street, finding out that there was a lot of history to showcase. we wanted to make sure that we used our artistic ability, the ability to forge artistic programs, and that is why we invested in this foundation. they are taking over the old theater. now these murals. i want to thank the people who

got our two artists here. their work is presented here, in this unveiling of these advertising murals. and we are going to do more of this. we want to do all of this in partnership with neighborhoods. that is what randy is all about. i loved working with him because he and everyone in this neighborhood wants to take pride in where they live and work. we see kids growing up in the tenderloin. they need to know the history of this area. we also need to make sure that not only are they safe, but that they appreciate the history of this neighborhood. i want to thank everyone is level of cooperation here. we have a piano theater coming in. we have the underground for the

clay and ceramics. that will represent the role that part plays in helping us for a revitalization to this neighborhood. we are doing that at central market as well. and we are trying to revitalize this whole street. this is ground zero for where arts and civic minded this come together with local government, to forge a ongoing partnerships to make this revitalization their welcome and new. also, if you go around the corner here, you will see the newest restaurant around. they are investing in our neighborhood. a great restaurant has come in and they are going to start another trend of great food. you see the revitalization already happening. the inspiration comes from everybody working together and

never abandoning our neighborhoods. we never want to do that. so thank you very much for being here. i appreciate everyone's cooperation and thier roles. [applause] >> our next speaker is john dugan. he is a legend. we love that he helped to get these merrill back of on the buildings. >> i know you have a busy schedule, mr. mayor, but before you leave, thank you for your decision to keep this city ticking away that it is. i want to thank many of these people. you have been around here. thank you. i know it was not easy. but what a courageous decision. we are certainly behind you. randy chopped, what can i say about randy? we have gone back and forth over 30 years, but the mural restoration is just another

wonderful step -- and it is a happy step. a few months ago we were here talking about police protection, but this is a happy step. something that the tenderloin residents, the retail community, and property owners, can rejoice in. as long as we continue to work together, this tenderloin is going to get better and better. randy, again, thank you for what you did hear. >> carolyn from the mid market cbd is also here. there is a story about market and tenderloin, dark past, shared future. now we are going to have some fun hearing from the actual artist, susan cervantes.

>> thank you, randy. thank you, everyone, for coming out. i want to thank the mayor for his passionate comments. for our part, we feel very honored to have had this opportunity to do some restoration in the tenderloin. we have a couple of other minerals, one on golden gate and one on the glide, for we have contributed to neighborhood beautification. we love the fact that this is historica. it was amazing, when we started to do the research on the signs, looking at the walls, how much history there was. we took the one that were the most recent and restored those and even had to cover up some of

the others. but it was amazing to see all of the layers. and when you look at the coca- cola sign, you can see that the railway school actually overlapped it, so we left it that way. layers of history. when we started to clean the wall, the crew that is responsible for the painting -- i was just sort of directing them in the process of recreating them, making decisions about the color. but when you get up to the wall, we restore the actual color. when we were far away, we could not see what color it was until we clean its and then matched those callers. so that is the process of restoration. it is not just going up there and painting them any way that we want to. we really wanted to preserve the

history of the signs, when they could work created back in the 1930, 1940's. we want to thank the people here who have put so much into the neighborhoods. like i said, i was not the one that painted them. i have some talented artists that did the work. it is a lot of scaffolding to go up and down. i know that my son is here. come on up. and there weren't four artists. -- were four artists. one of them is actually in poland right now doing a community mural there.

but we are all proud of the work and we hope that you appreciate the brightness and uplifting of the community. we really want to thank you very much. >> i will mention, people know that original joe's is moving to north beach. but as part of the sidewalk project, there will be a plaque in front of original joe's installed in september or october to commemorate it, as well as the corner of the continent cafeteria. the famous location that started the freedom movement in san francisco. so we are in history here. i want to thank all of you for coming. i know on friday there is a mural presentation at the post office at thahyde and golden ga. 5:00. arts in the tenderloin continue

to flourish. and anita just came. thank you for shepherding us through the process. without your help, we could not have done this.