expectations that the regional agencies are putting on you and a lot of effort to facilitate this in terms of funding and doing some of the research you all want to do about the impact so we're committed to working with the supervisors here and everyone else on the board of supervisors in this city. to make sure that the region fulfills its obligation and that they don't just expect san francisco to do more with less, but they actuallyand actually pe resources. we know they are making those resources now. >> i am george williams. i know i am the oldest one in the room. i hope you listen to me. i volunteer at rosa parks school. on wednesday, we get food from the food bank.

we put it in 160 bags. the kids take it home, because they need the food. that is for all week. certainly, they do not have extra money for buses. we want to keep our people educated. one way is to get them at school, have them eat and function. i think this is great. i am proud of what the positions here, that you are bringing this up and worked on it. i want to thank each one of you for your time. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> my name is steve williams. i believe this has been an

enlightening conversation today. we have heard from people who have direct experience about why bringing back passes for young people is critically important. there have been a couple issues raised that are important to underscore. this proposal is for 3 past losses -- three fast passes for all young people. we do not want a means test, because it could create a stigma where people begin to see me as poor people transportation. low income people who qualify for free and reduced lunch often do not apply. it is both because of the stigma and because of the red tape. it makes no sense to try to create a bureaucracy that has to gauge which young people qualify for free fast passes and which young people do not. what do we do when a parent loses their job in the middle of the year?

if we are concerned about finances, it makes more sense to provide free passes to young people. with that, it makes sense to provide passes to young people k-12, not just 17-year-olds, because some people are still in high school when they turn 18. to be clear, there is urgency. when i went to school, most people took courses. [laughter] -- horses. for those who were lucky enough to take the yellow school bus, it was free. it is not radical. socialist organizations like google provide free transportation for employees to get to work. they think it is important. if san francisco thinks it is important to raise a new generation of leaders for this society, it is critical, in

light of the cuts happening to the yellow school bus service -- it is critical that san francisco fill the void. that is the boy that was killed -- that was filled -- that was the boy that was filled. we will be making priorities. the mtv -- the mta decided to allocate $1.8 million for a bus that had already been built into the budget. that was responding for a particular need. people who were not able to get on the bus -- it was right to provide the special express bus. it was also right to provide free fast passes. >> next speaker, please?

>> i am the chairman of the san francisco youth commission. >> the reason i support a free muni resolution -- i looked at all my friends from my neighborhood. i feel the need for affordable public transportation. at this point, every single day, i have to walk to school. i do not feel i want to pay for the bus today. that is not affordable for me. that is why i feel the process will be helpful for youth in san francisco. it is not just low-income youth. it should be for all youth.

we need to bridge a gap so we can have more stigma and more social justice. i hope this will be for all public high school students, because i am going to turn 18 in december. i know a lot of my friends and my school -- we want this to be for all public school students, regardless of age. we need to make sure that we have a good public reputation system. i sincerely support free muni for all youth. i hope that i can get it very soon. thank you.

supervisor avalos: are there other members of the public who want to comment? i have seen you walk to school. a lot. we will close public comment. supervisor campos? supervisor campos: thank you, mr. chair. i think now you understand the urgency. i think your birthday is coming up. is it the middle of december? we do not have a lot of time. on an unrelated note, let me say what is amazing about this hearing is what it says about how lucky we are we have youth of this caliber living in the city and county of san francisco. [applause] one thing is for sure.

one thing is clear. the city is going to be in amazing hands. we're very lucky these young people are going to be the leaders of the city. i want to say i am very proud to live in the city that provides this kind of a forum to the young people. i have always said that whenever you have young people in the room, and you have young people engaging in this type of discussion, it is a lot more substantive and thoughtful than a lot of what you see in that building. i am proud of you, and grateful for all the different perspectives. i look forward to continuing this discussion in the spirit of what we heard today. this resolution simply calls for a collaborative process among all the city agencies. it is my hope it will come out

of this committee today. i want to acknowledge my colleagues who are co-sponsors of the resolution, supervisors avalos, cohen, kim, mar, mirkarimi and president chiu. we want to have additional co- sponsors to make this a reality. there is a lot more to be said, and a lot more will be said. i believe the issue of whether or not they should be for all youth are targeted for low income -- i understand the perspective. i think the young lady who spoke about that was eloquent and articulate. i simply would respectfully disagree, because i do worry about the possible stigma created, in addition to worrying about the burden of enforcing some of that.

i do believe this is about investing in a future generation of writers. i do think there is something to be said about a young person growing up using public transit. i think there is a certain investment that comes with this. it is an investment you see played out in something like the social security program. the fact that it applies to everyone means that everyone is invested. we want everyone to be invested in public transportation, which is why i believe we need to make this happen. with that, i leave it to you, and respectfully ask for your support. thank you for your patience. i know it is late in the day. thank you to the young people who have come out, and to the parents as well. supervisor avalos: thank you. and i want to thank the commission for working on this resolution and bringing it to

us, and of course the supervisor, for bringing this over, and all the youth who are here and not here who worked on this issue. i know it is a citywide issue. i look at the petition sent to us and i see virtually every zip code of san francisco on the petition. i probably can assume it is not just young people, that adults have signed on to the petition, so there are allies supporting young people supporting the idea of free muni. i want to congratulate you on your effort and coming to speak in front of us. i will be supportive of the resolution. i believe it is thoughtful, because it asks the city to come together to figure out how to make that happen. it is important to know we have to figure out how to do it. >> if i may add, i was very touched by the 82-year-old gentleman coming here to support

our youth. you can see this crosses all generations. it is really great to see that happen in san francisco. [applause] supervisor mar: i acknowledged a bunch of organizations that are the main core of the movement that is building for a free muni for youth. but i also wanted to thank coleman advocates, san francisco organizing project, the bike coalition, and others that are here. thank you for building a movement with youth in the lead, from the bottom up. supervisor elsbernd: i get to be the bad guy this afternoon. i think somebody has to. i think somebody needs to put forward some of the dissenting views on this. not that this is not an important issue. not that i do not recognize the need.

but the board of supervisors rarely -- the first time in a long time the board would pass on -- would pass a resolution urging the mta to fund something. this is saying this is our budget party, what we want to see happen. the question in front of us -- if we had an extra $5.80 million, is this how we want to see it spent? with respect to everybody in this room, we have tens of millions of dollars of unfunded mandates at the mta. somebody brought up the city survey. the reason numbers are so low is because service is so unreliable. the city spent millions of dollars over the last five years putting together a document called the transit effectiveness project. i appreciate that supervisor campos made reference to that in his resolution. if i had $5.80 million, i would put it into that project, and

into the service improvements it recommends. i would like to see that happen first. but that is not the reality either. i think the practical reality and what is possible here is a blend. i understand we do not want to see a stigma, but we do not live in a perfect world. governments -- governance is about doing the most with what we care and to achieve the ends here. i think we can achieve a lot for those of you who need this. but i really appreciate the point of the young woman who said, "what is needed." we can achieve the end of helping those who need it in and improve service for all san francisco if we appropriately spend our dollars. but just saying this is our budget priority, i think is a

mistake. i would like a roll call on the resolution. supervisor avalos: ok. supervisor campos: i look forward to continuing this discussion. i remain hopeful that supervisor elsbernd continue to engage in this discussion. we are making sure that as we proceed with this it is not just pie in the sky, the we identify a way in which we can make this fiscally responsible. i think it is possible. i think we should definitely do what is needed. i think we have heard today from our young people and families that there is a need. the city needs to improve our public transportation. the city needs to keep families in san francisco. the city needs to make sure young people are not forced to choose between walking to school or evading the fair.

we need all these things, which is why i look forward to continuing the discussion. you make some very good points, and i hope we have an opportunity to convince you this makes sense. again, thank you all for being here. supervisor avalos: just a question on need. is the service not based on whether you need to pay it or not? it is whether you need to get across the city are not. the need is transit. people have to get to school and work. i looked at it in that way. we have a motion to have a roll- call vote on this ordinance, so we can move it forward with recommendation. we will have that vote. supervisor mar: aye. supervisor elsbernd: no. supervisor avalos: aye. the motion passes. [applause]

really have any other items before us? we are adjourned. thank you.

do you like this top? that's so gay. really? yeah. it's totally gay. you know, you really shouldn't say that. say what? well, say that something is "gay" when you mean it's bad. it's insulting. what if every time something was bad, everybody said, "ugh. that's so girl wearing a skirt as a top." oh. you are. ha ha. shut up.

those are cute jeans, though.

>> welcome to "culture wire." today we're headed to smpling f. camera works, a premiere venue for artists working in photographer, video, and digital media. the latest exhibition lists clearness as a set of political alliances and possibilities that it is behind the sphere of dominant gay and lesbian culture. the curator fills us in on the process of creating this thoughtful exhibition. and what she would like you to take away from it. >> i co-cureated with danny, a chicago-based writer and curator. the conceptual framework is what it means to be clear and radical for our generation. clearness as a set of political alliances and possibilities,

not necessarily related to institutions of gender and swam formativity. danny and i wanted the show to feel funky and to have a really tangible quality to it. so part of that was incorporated handmade objects and installations and beautifully printed photographs and videos. there is also a lot of opportunities to participate and to take postcards or to get the photo taken or sit within a tent made out of afghan blankets to watch videos. the exhibition is organized in three distinct galleries. in gallery one, which is the gallery designated to clear activism, there is an installation by the oakland-based collaboration and

it's called "unleashed power." it's all focused on one protest that happened in chicago in 1991 with the activist organization act up, which was protesting the inadequate health care for people living in aids, and specifically it focuses on an act of police violence that occurred at that protest. the thing that is really interesting for me about that piece is that it brings us back 20 years to what clear activism looked like at the height of the aids crisis. gallery two features work that is related to intentionally communities that exist both within cities, also in rural spaces, and transient communities as well. the return features a no madic clear tribe, the people who join this tribe are often in

various states of transition themselves, whether it's leaving behind previous gender assignments or corporate jobs or a life within cities. a lot of the work featured in the exhibition and a lot of the installations are handmade objects. there is a lot of do-it-yourself aesthetic and that handmade do-it-yourself feeling is something that mimics the idea and the reality of the alternative world making that we're trying to represent here as far as the self-sufficient community goes. gallery three features work that relates to the ideas of self-determinenism, alternative world making and utopia. visits can still participate in this -- visitors can still

participate in this project. during the opening, we invite visitors to come in and try on these costumes, pose in front of the backdrop. he was really inspired by comic books that he read as growing up and thinks of this space as a post-apocalyptic monster portrait gallery where people can remain genderless once they put on the costumes. we think it's important that this be happening in san francisco, which is considered an ekpe center of the queer actual cure. the majority of the queer cultural events happen in june which has been designated as the pride month. which to me translates as the period of time in which people can be in clear arts and culture. in september, it's hashingening

back to that and proving that this is something that is scon significantly happening all the time. what danny and i hope visitors take away from this exhibition is to observe the diversity within the designation of queer in terms of race, in terms of gender presentation and intergenerational perspective of what it means to be queer as well as what it means to exist and be active and work in solidarity with people whose identities may or may not look like yours.

>> welcome to culture wire. we're going to take a look at one of the biggest and most significant public art projects today. ♪ on june 26, mayor newsom and other officials gathered at the hospital to cut the ribbon and welcome the public into a beautiful new state-of-the-art facility. >> 3, 2, 1. [applause] >> in has been 10 years since voters approved the measure for the new building. >> when they cast the vote, we have an exciting opportunities

to rethink how art is done in a hospital setting. >> replacement program generated approximately $3.9 million in art enrichment funds for a comprehensive art program that contributes to the quality of life at the hospital by enhancing the environment and supporting the hospital's needs and therapeutic goals. artists were commissioned to create 100 original works of art. as was for the gardens and courtyard areas. >> be artwork does more than just hang on the wall. it will enhance the therapeutics of the hospital and will include sensory stimulation, orientation, social interaction.

>> it was set into like boxes to create color filled areas in the hospital. inspired by nature, the signature painting of native san francisco birds, clouds, and the surface of the ocean waves were translated into a variety of media including glass mosaic and tapestry. the playful clock encourages memory stimulation among the patients. they used the theme of the four elements as they relate to vocation. it is a direct homage to the historical murals in the original laguna honda building. it features to large tile walls.

by observing residents, the gardens created a public artwork in the form of the handrail. in one of the outdoor courtyards, the circular grouping of -- with a smooth finish. this features ten unique button sculptures with different pastel colors that function not only as a place to sit, but also as a touchstone to something recognizable, familiar, and comforting. another key component included an art project that responded directly to the hospital's rich history. using archival