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tv   [untitled]    September 6, 2011 8:30pm-9:00pm PDT

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trains, estimating are bought stocks with a high degree of accuracy. the bus and train our arrival information can be accessed from your computer and even on your cellular phone or personal digital assistant. knowing their arrival time of the bus allows riders the choice of waiting for it or perhaps doing some shopping locally or getting a cup of coffee. it also gives a greater sense that they can count on you to get to their destination on time. the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button.
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>> the success of these tests led to the expansion of the program to all stations on the light rail and is part of the new shelter contract, push to talk will be installed. check out the new technology making your right easier every day
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>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that
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they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln.
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she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect.
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a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant.
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>> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers. these are pretty flowers, but they are flowers with weird and fascinating stories behind them. that is really fun and really not what people normally think of when they come to a horticultural institution. >> "wicked plants" is now showing at the san francisco conserve tore of flowers. unless next time, get out and play.
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>> 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
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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
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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
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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,
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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]
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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]
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♪ >> san francisco is home to a renowned civic art collection that includes a comic works -- iconic works by local and national artists integrated into our public buildings and six basis. the arts commission has struggled to take care of the priceless collection because of limited resources. in an effort to gather more funding for the maintenance of the collection, the art commission has joined forces with the san francisco art
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dealers association to establish art care, a new initiative that provides a way for the public to get involved. the director of public affairs recently met with the founder and liquor -- local gallery owner to check out the first art care project. ♪ >> many san franciscans are not aware that there is a civic art collection of numbers almost 4000 works of art. preserving the collection and maintaining it is something being addressed by a new program called art care. it is a way for citizens to participate in the preservation of the civic art collection.
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with me is the creator of the art care program. welcome. the reason we wanted to interview you is that the artist in question is peter volkas. why is he so important to the history of san francisco art? >> he is a very famous ceramic ist. knowing the limitations of clay, he got involved in bronze in around 1962. he was teaching at the university of california, berkeley. >> your gallery celebrated the 50th anniversary of continuous operation. you are a pioneer in introducing the work and representing him. >> i have represented him since 1966. i was not in business until
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1961. he made a big deal out of working in clay. the things he was doing was something never seen before. >> it is a large scale bronze. it has been sitting here of the hall of justice since 1971. talk about what happens to the work of art out of the elements. >> the arts commission commissioned the piece. they did not set aside money for repair. it has slowly changed color. it was black. it has been restored. >> it has been restored to the original patina. >> there was no damage done to its.
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i do not think there were any holes made in it. they have been working on it for six or eight weeks. it is practically ready to go. i am very excited to see it done. >> over the course of the arts in richmond program, we have added almost 800 works of art into the public space. maintaining that is not something that the bond funds allow us to do. this is why you came up with the idea of art care. >> i hope we get the community going and get people who really like to be involved. we will give them a chance to be involved. if you are interested in art, this is a marvelous way to get involved. there is work all over the city where every year ago. -- there is artwork all over the
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city wherever you go. my idea was to get people in the neighborhood to take care of the pieces and let the art commission have the money for the bigger pieces. >> i was talking to the former president of the arts commission yesterday. the 2% ordnance is something he helped to champion. >> it is all over california and other states now. we really were the forerunners. it is a wonderful thing to bring the community into this now. people have seen art being put into the community. this has not been touched by any graffiti. it just faded over time. it is so open here