things to do and see. when we worked on the twitter deal to make sure the companies got here and to advantage of helping us revitalize markets street, that was just the beginning. you are already seeing some of the tech companies coming in. these are tech companies that have the heart of our city as their interest. they want to create the jobs. we want them to create jobs. we want them to do it right here for our youth. we want to make sure our residents have a chance to work in the wonderful buildings they occupy, to work with the technology companies we want to bring in, and work with the arts to bring in a revised central market. we will continue making that i highest priority. i want to get chris and jen up here to present to them our part of the city farmers' market day in san francisco -- heart of the

city farmers' market day in san francisco. come on up. come over this way. >> it is my pleasure to be here today. i was just speaking with ran dy. and get to represent one of the most exciting and dynamic parts of san francisco. that is the heart of san francisco. it is important to note the gaps we have in the existing neighborhoods. we still do not have a grocery store in the tenderloin. this market has been a central part of being able to serve our residence in the neighborhood. we're so grateful this happens here every wednesday.

our office is always out here getting food and buying groceries as well. since my time on the board of education, food equity has been a very important issue. we know it is one of the reasons why not all kids succeed in classes. we talk about improving performance in school buildings, a lot of it is also the opportunities that young people come into the classrooms with. food is one of them. when i was at the school district, we worked to find spaces in our grants to sponsored school gardens so that our kids can learn about nutrition and fresh foods. it is amazing to visit the schools. the kids know more than i do about identifying seeds, leaves, and all of those things. i am really proud to be year today. 30 more years for the market. the board of supervisors also has a proclamation honoring the 30th anniversary festival. in recognition of the 30th anniversary and the important

role of the market in providing a much-needed fresh food, we recognize the non-profit mission to support farmers, run the farmers' market, to keep the fees low so that farmers can afford to offer affordable produce for our city. we want to commend the marketing manager for revision, passion, and dedication in founding the farmers' market almost 30 years ago. thank you very much, christine. [applause] >> congratulations.

>> thank you, mayor lee and supervisor kim. i want to introduce the other association that has been working these 30 years to make markets to a more pleasant place for us. keeping the market here is just one piece of that. carolyn? >> 30 years ago when this market opened, its purpose was to serve low-income, inner-city people with inexpensive and quality produce. over these 30 years, the market has not only fulfilled its promise. it has gone far beyond that. it has become an institution in the mid-market area. health education boostths have

provided information, funds have been donated to local causes. students come here as a destination for field trips. local musicians entertaining consumers. children parade through here in their halloween costumes. besides being a source of farmers' livelihood, the market has become a family. it is a resources committee cannot match. the market sits on this historic site, a united nations plaza. it has become what the united nations was intended for, a cooperative entity integrating workers, residents, and visitors of many nations. it is a dynamic gathering place where food, ideas, philosophies, and french ships. -- friendships are exchanged and grown.

all of the workers and families know about the market and shop here with regularity. i hear people say, meet me at the market, and i know where they're going. the success proves that mid- market can support economic revitalization. today when many revitalization projects are being formed in this neighborhood, the market serves as an inspiration the business and economic growth is not only possible, but it can thrive. in the beginning, the market share of this space with a homeless encampment. the market was not afraid of being here, sharing the space, or a failure. it is a tribute to many who have the early vision that a farmer'' market was a necessity in this neighborhood. we honor the market and those special people who had the vision and tenacity to carry it fourtrth, the founders and

manager. we also honor those dedicated to this market who are no longer with us. carl landin helped to manage it for over 20 years. berni was alsoe one of the founders. in the early days, we did not know what bok choy was and had never seen fresh fish being sold by the pound. fresh foods sustainability and not even been invented yet. the market was here for all of us. it is truly the heart of the city.

>> hello again, everybody. i would like to introduce someone who has given over 500 hours of volunteer time, who has embraced the market. she has been great. this is the first person who has been on our board of directors who became the president voted in by the farmers. she was a community member. she helped the market so much that we knew she would be great for the market. i want to introduce you to laura rodriguez. come on.

go ahead. >> for her outstanding service, we would like to reward her with the heart of gold award. you, too. one on each side. >> greetings, everyone. i want to begin by thanking the incredibly dedicated farmers who get up at an average of 2:30 in the morning to bring us this wonderful food. i like you to offer a warm hand to the farmers here today. of course, our great food producers. nutrition services is part of

the sentences the department of health. it includes ic and the feeling good project. we want to thank the farmers' market for bringing this wonderful food that is the foundation of good health to san francisco and to a community that really appreciate it. this place is buzzing from the moment the farmers arrive. at 7:00 p.m., people are already shopping. the farmers' market has been committed to feeding this community and has accepted food stamps from the very first day they opened. they have also supported the wic and senior voucher programs to make fruits and vegetables available to people to help them stay healthy. during the 11 years, we have really enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to share information about healthy eating and how to make that

possible through cooking and referral to services available through the department of health. i also want to highlight that this year, we took our collaboration to the next level with the campaign, a healthy heart of the city farmers' market. we collaborated in doing workshops for after-school programs and supported housing to provide a welcome to the market as well as give people nutrition information so that they can learn how to cook the healthy foods they are able to get here. it has been a wonderful opportunity to highlight how this market brings people together in a way that makes it possible for them to remain healthy and live better lives. we also offer tours of the farmers' market so that people can meet the farmers and learn about the things we have available. we look forward to future

collaboration. i want to thank the farmers' market and staff for all their hard work. [applause] >> that concludes our formal program. please go shopping. get all the wonderful food that is here. enjoy the music and activities planned. the day is not over. just this part of the program is over. thank you very much. ♪

>> good morning. how are you? wifi working? you're not a way get. we are going to wake you up. i am pleased to open today with a special interview with the mayor of san francisco. please welcome mayor italy -- mayor ed lee. [applause] >> good morning. thank you for making it out here. you are currently the mayor of san francisco. >> interim mayor. >> and you are running again in november. >> that is right, november 8. >> the mayor's microphone is not on. we have teams of people to fix this.

perhaps one of your opponents is backstage even as we speak. >> good morning, everyone. [applause] all right. >> we will start over. you are currently the mayor of san francisco. >> yes, i am. >> and you're running for mayor as well. >> yes, and voting day is november 8. >> you have to be a san francisco resident to vote for you. >> correct. >> it audience, raise your hand if you're a san francisco resident and a leader and that you are a registered voter. leave your hand if you're going to vote for the mayor. [laughter] that is everybody. amazing. it was unanimous. we also have people watching on tv, but they cannot raise their hand -- well, they could, but it would not be seen. this is my question.

i cannot find any evidence that you have ever run for anything before. are you a politician? have you ever run for something? >> no, this is the first time i have run for public office. the last time i ran was in high school. >> personally, i find that to be a huge plus. let's talk about the high school election. i think it is relevant since it was your last. what did you run for? >> senior class president of franklin high school in seattle, washington, where i grew up. >> did you win? >> yes. >> also, that is good. how did you win? during the campaign, did you go negative? how much did you raise for that campaign? >> [laughs] think my slogan was ed win, not lose. >> keep it simple. i think that is pretty awesome that you have never run for office.

it gives you a perfect street. >> i have been working in san francisco government for 22 years. i worked for four different mayors and headed up five different departments of the city. >> some of the work you have done has been hugely positive, which is why we made a priority to invite you here. one of the things we have been focusing on at tech crunch is the problems with the payroll tax system in san francisco from a tech company perspective. twitter and a lot of these companies are getting larger and threatening to leave the city because the 1.5% payroll tax in this weird stock option tax. talk about the things that you and the board has accomplished. >> certainly, when i came to office, there was already a notice on my desk that twitter had indicated that they were looking for space science out the san francisco because of our tax structure. so we worked quickly would supervisor kim and david chiu to

study it the payroll tax structure was job-punishing. we realized that as companies started here, they wanted to grow. the numbers were speaking to us. twitter was sitting there were going to grow from about four hundred employees took maybe 3000 in the next two years. all of that was going to be taxed on them, and they wanted to maybe look at another location without that. >> so it twitter did not want to pay taxes. >> no, there were willing to pay the taxes, but they did not want to be punished further growth was the distinction we wanted to make it a we work with supervisor kim to do two things. let's create an exemption and place it on one of the areas we want to revitalize, and that is midmarket. we went from 10th street, included parts of the tenderloin, and traded a six- year exemption in which it twitter said, that is attracted

-- attractive enough, and they ended up signing a long-term lease. they and the shorenstein properties are getting their buildings ready to be retrofitted for seismic safety. >> this is on new employees with in a special area. >> that is right. >> and they have other employees outside of that area, and they will pay the normal payroll tax on those. >> that is right. if they are located in that area, than those net new employees will be exempted. >> do you believe twitter would have left the city had you not come up with a compromise like this? >> yes, it was serious on their part. we met at their offices were there at today. in net -- in addition to meeting the cfo's and ceo's, i asked if i can meet with the employee is separately. they allowed me to do that, i asked what they liked about the city. one of the things they said to me was they enjoy the diversity

that the city has, all of its culture and arts, but i really like is dedicated bike lanes. they really want not to have to drive to work. we have been working very hard on that. >> they ask for anything else? >> they asked that our city keep its innovative spirit. i think a lot of the young workers here -- >> anything specific? like, i would like you to promise me the giants will win the world series every year that your mayor. can you promise that? >> i could do it with a few miracles for the next 15 games. i would love to promise that. we will have to depend upon some miracles to happen, kind of like last year. >> so you cannot promise that. >> i cannot, but i would love to join in on the miracle trip. >> do you have a chief logger

position? because i am currently out of work. [laughter] i do not even need to be paid that much. i could be your blogger person. would that be a problem? >> that could be a different position we can create. aid is new media. >> i do not know what you said. i think you said no. i do want to get back to the tax issues, because it is a very serious. i am amazed that with the disliked for business that i see what some supervisor's in this city, i am amazed you're able to work out a compromise at all, even for six years. was it difficult? >> i do not think it was that difficult. we had to get past the direct blast the rhetoric. people have seen companies to grow big and not contribute. >> and there was a lot of rhetoric. >> yes, and we just appears to through that.

the number-one thing we have to do is create jobs. we have to see how we can attract business, make investment to get the appropriately turn so that more jobs are created. i want to make sure that companies start here, stay here, and grow. the way to do that is you sit down and talk with the technology ceo's and cfo's and the workers themselves to find out what it is that makes them want to stay here. you work on those things. whether it is bike lanes or exemptions, taxes, even learning about the stock options and how that was going to hurt. >> the stock option part of this is a little different. for example, zynga is not in the exclusion area, correct? >> that is right. there on thompson street. >> said it will continue to pay payroll taxes. >> yes. they just moved in, and they could not offer a different move

to midmarket, but they're going to grow and are about to turn public. they were explaining to us, this is how we start in growth, and if you're eager to punish us on taxing our stock options as they make us profitable, not only will the investors away, but i think the company will disappear. we had to pay attention to that. that is a story that came out of tech crunch. we realized stock options was part of the compensation we were taxing. we had to pay attention to how the companies are growing here and make a distinction. we were able to do that was supervisor mirkarimi and supervisor farrell's leadership at the board, to pay attention to that specific idea. the board of supervisors and the mayor's office got together to offer that six-year exemption there and not tax stock options for six years. >> he had the tax exclusion area, which cuts out payroll, the payroll tax for new

employees -- is that permit? >> six years. >> and you also have a six-year exemption on this 1.5% stock option tax. >> and that this city-wide. >> and that keeps zynga here. >> them and others that are about to go public. >> you have done everything. there's no more to do. >> no, no, there's plenty more to do. in fact, what we have started as an ongoing competition with technology companies. that has been exciting to me, because the more i learn about the technology companies, companies that started up here, people who want to disrupt the way we do media and increase the value of their companies, we need to learn about that. the city government is still -- i mean, i have got the privilege of working with our young supervisors who are energetic and want to understand how we grow our companies here and how we make sure we make the decisions at city hall to allow the to stay here and grow.

that is the number-one thing here. it is not just ending. in fact, the payroll tax exemption for six years on midmarket was just the beginning of that discussion. what we have promised to deliver is within the next year, to revamp our whole payroll tax and possibly to get rid of the payroll tax. >> i mean, really? the board of supervisors -- i am not going to say their communist, but they're certainly socialist. and they dislike everyone. [laughter] so they talk about twitter. twitter should give us all of their revenue because we give them the privilege of existing, etc. it is almost that rhetoric. i do not know how you, as a normal human being, what into a meeting in say let's cut through the rhetoric and have a discussion about the economic impact of twitter leaving the city. those people did not seem to understand that. >> and i think we are having much more civil discussions about how businesses start and grow and what our obstacles are to get rid of to allow the

growth to happen. the other part of it is that those jobs are coming right to san francisco residence as we speak. twitter, 35% of the jobs they have currently are san francisco resident. and more to come. as we talk about their building and as we work with shorenstein and we realize that they want to go gold platinum on that building for this indication, they're doing the best they can to retrofit the building. the jobs that will be offered in the building from building maintenance, janitorial work, architecture work, a lot of jobs will be part of that. >> and it is pretty clear. even though they're not paying payroll tax for these supplies, the economic benefits of them -- >> are huge. today, this year alone, we leased out 4.6 million square feet of office space in the city. 1.6 million of that was

technology companies using that space. >> can you put that into context? how much office space to tech companies currently have? >> there's 1503 technology companies in the city today, and they employ just south of 28,000 employees. that is a huge, huge market. >> sounds great. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> i do not live here. if i did, i would definitely vote for you. but i do not. is there any last thing you want to say to the san francisco residence to convince them that you're not going to, you know, somehow turn on them? >> i have not been a politician. what i like about the city is i like the excitement of the success. i think the technology companies here are part of a huge group of companies that will make its cities successful. no, we are an innovative city, a city of of entrepreneurs. started today, with the startup battlefield that is going on

this afternoon, with the hack-a- thon occurred earlier this week in, all part of the ability for technology companies to take advantage of the innovation we have here. what i will keep doing as the mayor, working closely with the board of supervisors is to pay attention and have -- and have constant engaged in dialogue with the companies. because you'll be joining the very stable companies like salsforce, treader , , zynga, as they want companies to engage with them. as you see all of the company's living into mission bay, you also engage with the biotech, the life sciences, the green at technology companies coming into the city. they also want to be engaged, and all of the new innovations and new entrepreneurs and the spirit of our city. our cities the success will be depended upon our constant

engagement with the technology companies, the companies that you represent, small ones. and if you can start here, then you'll grow here, and we want to make sure you stay here. >> that is awesome. >> thank you. [applause] >> i do not know if ever one hurt, but he said our cities successful based on our constant engagement with the technology companies, something along those lines. you speak plainly for politicians, and it warms my heart to hear that. thank you very much. >> keep reminding us what we have to do. >> i will. i do not have a block, but i am going to tweet at you. how many people now are convinced that either you're going to vote for the mayor or you would if you were a resident of san francisco, raise your hand? lead to more than a unanimous. that is excellent. >> the neat thing, too, is we're not just a city on the west coast. we are an international city.

so companies like zynga that are established, they know that they have an opportunity to establish a worldwide headquarters in san francisco. we are an international city. we understand -- just like this week, we're hosting the third senior officials' meetings in preparation for the asian- pacific economic cooperative council meetings that are happening right here in san francisco, because they know we are a gateway to the whole eastern hemisphere. so you're companies that start here have a great opportunity to become international headquarters. that is what i want to see. i wanted to the global market happen right here in san francisco. >> you sound a little bit like -- i do not want to see the dirty work, republic, but you do not sound like a liberal democrat. and you cannot be mere without being a liberal democrat here. >> every mayor across the country as the pigeon to economics. that is the number-one thing. if we do not have our cities if we do not have our cities economically sound, we're a bad