authority. we also have authority general legal counsel who specializes in transportation legal services. currently, we are in three-year contract. the original list $630,000. we have nearly expended almost all mainly because of unforeseen litigation regarding the presidio apartment can -- project. in november 2010, a professional engineer in california government and union filed a lawsuit with the california transportation commission caltrans and the authority for the public/private partnership agreement to design, finance, operate, and name the project. we've replaced -- we request an opportunity to review the

project. the court ruled against and the court upheld the ruling in 2011. originally in november 2011, the supreme court rejected a request to hear the appeal on the legal challenge. currently, we have suspended $300,000 for this litigation as almost half of the budget we have had 43 years f --or 3 -- for three years of the contract. i'm here to request to increase the amount to basically replenish the cost we have incurred for this litigation and also to help us with the implementation of the timma.

i also want to mention the requirement of 5% @ -- 5% that has been maintained. also, again, the tec will not be hearing this item until the fifth, our regularly scheduled meeting tomorrow night, and the funding for this contract is a combination of reimbursement from an agreement between city apartments and prop k appropriation and funds. the increase of the contract will be implemented in the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget, which we anticipate bringing before you in the next couple of months. with that, i will be more than happy to answer any questions. we are recommending for the committee to approve the amendment to increase the contract to $930,000. supervisor mar: thank you.

i see no questions from colleagues. any members of the public who wish to speak on this item? seeing none, we will close public comment. with this item for without objection? thank you. please call the next item. >> item 6, introduction of new items. supervisor mar: is there anyone in public that wish is to be heard on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. next item. >> 7, public comment. supervisor mar: is there anyone from the public that would like to speak? public comment is closed. is there any other business before us? >> item 8, adjournment. supervisor mar: thank you. thanks, everyone. meeting adjourned.

++ >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for coming out this afternoon. we're very excited to be here today with the mayor to announce the completion of the central market economic strategy and to launch the community ambassador program on market street. i am the director of the mayor's office of economic and workforce development though it is under mayor lee's leadership that, for the past 10 months, we have been working through a community-based process to create an economic strategy for this corridor of central market street to help revitalize and stabilize this community. as a result of many, many community meetings, business surveys, resident service, focus groups, talking to a broad range of stakeholders, we now have a

road map for how to stabilize and revitalize the market street. while much good work has already been done over the last 10 months, we now have a document that will help guide efforts to come. without further ado i am going to introduce the mayor and let him talk about some of those initiatives. the mayor. [applause] >> thank you very much. and to our united nations plaza, also home of our off the grid food truck every thursday here, as well as our arts festival here as well. these are two examples of how we have reactivated united nations plaza. it has been a plaza that i remember for a very long time, and know my good friend who is now heading up public works, he and i spent many occasions here, as we become a cleaning, brushing, and reece leading. we know that the secret is to activate our committee, activate other people to come and help us

with good positive activation spiller that is what our arts festival here is doing. that is what our of the grid food market is doing as well. as you all know, i have been actually spending my second home here along market street for about the last three months. specifically at 6th and market street. i have had the pleasure of really knowing, snelling, thinking, and hearing all this sounds of our central market and paying attention to every detail of what we need to do. and talking with all of the residents, the social service organizations, the arts organizations that have come here to help us, and the new businesses that have joined us. we all need to work together. i am is so enthusiastic about the fact that we have a very active community benefits

district. we have a great merchants association that has formed. we have a very active redevelopment agency that really has gone beyond what their decades ago reputation is, working with the city very closely, working with all of the agencies to help us revitalize this whole neighborhood, and particularly, this midmarket corridor. you all know that what we have done with the board of supervisors and the mayor in terms of our relationship with the technology companies and the new businesses, through the leadership of the office of economic and workforce development, we have made a solid step to make sure that businesses are welcome here at the central market. at the same time, we need to do more. that is why we worked hard with the redevelopment agency, with all the different nonprofits, the community residents, to

work hard to put together strategic and not -- economic development plan that serves as a roadmap for what we need to pay attention to and how we need to do that. i want to say to you, and will continue repeating this, it is not just physical improvements that you will appreciate on this corridor. it will also be a transformation of lives, of people who have been here for years and decades, asking for the city's attention. people who are living in the sro's north and south of market street. people who have wanted a grocery store, wanted more museums, wanted just the simple vitality of the city reflected in the middle of their neighborhood. we want to bring that in the way in which it is sensitive, a way in which we're going to have a very equitable development and of limitation of this plan. i invite you to study this strategy.

i invite you to look closely at how we're going to be asking the city and our own government to fund it, to make sure we encourage funding for it. the financial institutions as well as the company's and nonprofits and the grand foundations. all of them will be participating at many different levels, along with private investment. the resurgence of this is to really encourage the investment confidence that this is a really great place to invest. with those investments, you're probably see right off the bat some sort of employment and training model, because i think that is what everybody told me as i was running for this great office in this great city. please develop the jobs. that is what gets us into this announcement today. because behind me, these very bright yellow packets, is our ambassadors, our midmarket,

central market ambassadors that i want to introduce you to today. as you know, over a year ago, when i was city administrator, we had to respond to some levels of violence along third street and in visitation area. so we responded with the help of the board of supervisors, with then-mayor gavin newsom, and with a number of social groups and crime fighting groups with our youth groups all over, to say that maybe we can do is something different here, something special. we came up with this idea, and hit has resonated in visitation valley and among third street with these ambassadors. these -- they live in our city. they want our city to succeed, want to work with the agencies, and are trained by our police department's own academy, and now they will be introduced to the beat cops and all the other players that have been here intending to help revitalize.

there will be introduced to the new small businesses, like huckleberry bikes, show dogs, like the incoming, moving in, dottie's cafe. these are names of companies you are already committed or are already here on market street to these ambassadors will be here on a daily basis, beginning at 11:00 a.m., and it will go all the way through 8:00 p.m., different shifts. they will be working with people who live here and work here, and they will be an additional eyes and ears not only looking out for the people who work and live here, but helping to provide basic information about where things are at, about who to contact, and they also have emergency cell phones on them that are provided by at&t for free, so in case they need some backup, they have that

instantaneously. they have all been trained to do that. most importantly, i have emphasized their title. they are community ambassadors, the best of the best. they came through our dpw corridor training program. they have, like me, swept our streets, picked up everything there was to pick up. now they get to have this opportunity to be employed on a full-time basis. they get to work with adrian, who has been our civic engagement director through the city administrator's office. she put together the program at the first of last year, a year ago. and her staff is also not only improved on that program, i also want to thank the redevelopment agency. i want to thank the arts commission. tiffany is here, those from the redevelopment agency. the arts institute, byron chung

is here, he has been a great supporter. kurt is here. shannon is with farm table. that is another great new entity that is coming on market street. coerce, mohammed as -- of course mohammed as i mentioned earlier. zandesky is here as well. all of the arts organizations, whoer going to spend hours not only in the mornings, but in the evenings activating our market street. one of the things i did when i had our campaign office here, we did pop-up art. we did these things that occurred in the evening. i would like this place to be not only safe -- to be so safe that evening activities would be a freight welcome.

i want to thank our chief. he has been a great partner. i want to thank our academy for training our ambassadors. now without adieu, we are going to start walking down our great corridor, introducing all of our wonderful ambassadors to the existing, new businesses, and forthcoming businesses that they need to know by first name . thank you very much.

>> i am the executive director of the san francisco film commission, and really wonderful to have you all here tonight. it is a great turn out. nice to see you all here. you can't hear me. sorry. can we turn up the volume on that? thank you. i really want to thank you all for coming tonight. it's a great turn-out. i want to thank our commissioners for coming tonight. they are instrumental in having this be what it is. without their endorsement, about wouldn't have had it. marlene, one of our commissioners is here. if you could say hello. thank you for coming tonight. we appreciate it. [applause] i am grateful to have the honor

to introduce a very special guest tonight. we have our newly elected mayor, ed lee, joining us tonight and introducing the film collective. [applause] and without his support this woot not be possible -- would not be possible. he is a big backer to filming in the city. we are thankful for your support, and thank you very much. we are very excited that you are going to be our mayor for the next four years, and we intend to keep the momentum going of the film commission under your leadership. please welcome mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. good evening, everyone. we are in a celebration mode. so before i begin, i want to make sure you know it is suzanna's birthday yesterday. i want to celebrate our wonderful director.

[applause] >> we won't talk age. we will just talk celebration. but i want to congratulate her. i want to congratulate the san francisco film commission for starting this wonderful collective in the middle of our tenderloin in our city. i have had a chance to work with her briefly as the city administrator and got excited about her new directorship still and things that gavinned talk todd me about. we need to get back to the wonderful film history we have in the city. that is one of those things i want to make sure we do, to resurge that ever. so i am going to be a big supporter of the film industry and particularly this type of innovation here, this thing baitor where you have independent film makers and documentaries coming together. the city can come together

here, and we have helped to find space and worked with a land leonard named craig. is craig here tonight? if anybody says he is craig, we thank him because he has given us a great deal here. and also doing it in a way in which it compliments the district here in the tenderloin. i want to thank the v.b.d. are you here? where did you go? >> here. [applause] >> ok, thank you. i am excited about revising and resources and making sure we support our independent film makers, our documentary film makers. we have a lot to talk about. i am also excited about some of the ideas that have already been on the books. but now that we have the space,

we have a great -- production crews have already started here. i understand there is pot luck productions. cob great -- congratulations for being here. [applause] >> there is stampede productions here. >> [applause] >> there is ecopoise here. [applause] >> and then there is a production company, and i will have to admit to you when i heard this name, i thought they were engaged in horror films. scary cow. [applause] >> having learned what they do, and what their reward system is and how they incentivize by rewarding the great initiatives that some of the film has, and when their popularity grows, they get rewarded to get their next film. i love that concept. i have an entry for you. it is something called too legit to quit.

[laughter] anyway, i had a little bit of fun watching the producers of that come out as well. that should indicate to you there should be a lot of fun, a lot of information to share with the rest of the world, postseason. one of these days i am sure somebody is going to do something about occupy san francisco. i know that is going to happen. please better view me. i've got some opinions. but we are working closely about that. but there is just -- in san francisco when you're a film maker, i know there are a lot topics you can cover, a lot of lines, a lot of precious stories. this is a hot bed for opinions, for postseason and for film making. and i want to make sure that that story-telling, that ability to show the postseason, the ability to educate our world and our own communities

thrives and success in our great city of san francisco. and that we are also an international city. so that my hope is that when these offices are filled and the real energy of this innovation and spirit that is already reflected here, when these production companies find their gems to produce, that you get international attention. because these stories probably will have international themes to them and will resonate all over the world. congratulations, i will be a background supporter. we will be working with the commission to support it as much as we can, and you may see something in the budget. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. just a couple of notes before we get started. for those of you that don't know about the collective, in is a space that has four

minimum making grooms at this point. we have six other offices still available. there is information on how big they are and how much they cost. but we welcome you to submit an application if you are interested. we would love to have more film makers in here. it is a great environment for collaboration, sharing ideas and just getting your work done. i think it is a pretty beautiful space. we are very fortunate to have this space here tonight. before we get started, i wanted to give thanks to pressure island wines. they are donating the wine for tonight, and it is really delicious, wonderful, and we are thankful to have their donations. let's give them a hand. [applause] i also want to acknowledge the hard work of christine monday, who is from our film office. really, this film collective is her idea, and she has put a lot

of energy into it. thank you, christine, for all the work you have done. [applause] >> and again thanking our film commission for supporting this. they have really put a lot of support behind it, letting us have it to start with. and then also giving us the go-ahead to put funds toward connecting this to high speed internet. right now we have tapped into the city's broadband network, so we have 25 up and 25 down, which not being a tech person, i don't really know everything that means. a file used to take 30 minutes to upload, and now it takes three minutes to upload. that is fantastic. in the rent, that is included. utilities and john torle are -- jantorial are included, and a common area and your own space. it is great a good deal for film makers if you are

interested in participating. craig larson is the owner of the building. he has worked with us, and he has been so generous to make it where we could afford this space and where we could give it to you at an affordable rate so. thank you, craig, even though you're not here. i think that's it for now. christine, if you would like to come up and introduce the next >> just a few steps away from union square is a quiet corner stone of san francisco's our community to the meridian

gallery has a 20-year history of supporting visual arts. experimental music concert, and also readings. >> give us this day our daily bread at least three times a day. and lead us not into temptation to often on weekdays. [laughter] >> meridians' stands apart from the commercial galleries around union square, and it is because of their core mission, to increase social, philosophical, and spiritual change my isolated individuals and communities. >> it gives a statement, the idea that a significant art of any kind, in any discipline, creates change. >> it is philosophy that attracted david linger to mount a show at meridian. >> you want to feel like your work this summer that it can do some good. i felt like at meridian, it

could do some good. we did not even talk about price until the day before the show. of course, meridian needs to support itself and support the community. but that was not the first consideration, so that made me very happy. >> his work is printed porcelain. he transfers images onto and spoils the surface a fragile shes of clay. each one, only one-tenth of an inch thick. >> it took about two years to get it down. i would say i lose 30% of the pieces that i made. something happens to them. they cracked, the break during the process. it is very complex. they fall apart. but it is worth it to me. there are photographs i took 1 hours 99 the former soviet union. these are blown up to a gigantic images. they lose resolution. i do not mind that, because my images are about the images, but they're also about the idea, which is why there is text all over the entire surface.

>> marie in moved into the mansion on powell street just five years ago. its galleries are housed in one of the very rare single family residences around union square. for the 100th anniversary of the mansion, meridian hosted a series of special events, including a world premiere reading by lawrence ferlinghetti. >> the birth of an american corporate fascism, the next to last free states radio, the next-to-last independent newspaper raising hell, the next-to-last independent bookstore with a mind of its own, the next to last leftie looking for obama nirvana. [laughter] the first day of the wall street occupation set forth upon this continent a new revolutionary

nation. [applause] >> in addition to its own programming as -- of artist talks, meridian has been a downtown host for san francisco states well-known port trees center. recent luminaries have included david meltzer, steve dixon, and jack hirsch man. >> you can black as out of the press, blog and arrest us, tear gas, mace, and shoot us, as we know very well, you will, but this time we're not turning back. we know you are finished. desperate, near the end. hysterical in your flabbergastlyness. amen. >> after the readings, the crowd headed to a reception upstairs by wandering through the other gallery rooms in the

historic home. the third floor is not usually reserved for just parties, however. it is the stage for live performances. ♪ under the guidance of musical curators, these three, meridian has maintained a strong commitment to new music, compositions that are innovative, experimental, and sometimes challenging. sound art is an artistic and event that usually receives short shrift from most galleries because san francisco is musicians have responded by showing strong support for the programming. ♪