and non-pedestrian grade. thank you for coming out today. this is the beginning of the conversation. can we continue this to the call of the chair? >> without objection, we will continue this to the call of the chair. thank you, everybody and thank you for your patience. i know this item was scheduled for last week. are there any other items in front of the committee today? >> with that, the committee is adjourned.

>> this is holly lee knox. there are some proud pet owners in san francisco and they have brought all their pets here to

strut their stuff. >> it's an annual event that we've had. this is our 18th year. we bring in rescue groupers, vendors, supporters, lots and lots of animals. it's a proud day for us and for the animals of san francisco. >> the costume contest is really fun. people get really creative. it's a really fun event. people go all out, create costumes, buy costumes, whatever it is. but there's some really fun ones. >> we're just celebrating the pets and just their companionship and how they are invaluable. so everybody's having fun.

>> we're the city's open door shelter. that means we take in every animal that comes through our door regardless of age, condition, species, everything in the city comes through us that is in need. >> animal care control, it is such an important agency and is very understaffed, has very few resources. but we make animals don't have a home, that we get them a home and that we don't put the animals to sleep, that we're able to adopt them out. >> we have a huge number of volunteers who come in and they will walk our dogs, socialize our animals, play with cats, play with them, bring them to adoption events today. >> i volunteer with the animal control center and i do that every week. >> we're in an organization

called friends of a.c.c. with that organization, you can donate money if you don't have time. if you do have time, you can come down to the shelter and volunteer to actually have one-on-one time with the animals. if you're like me and you don't have time to give to an animal, if you actually have one of your own, you can get your fix on the weekends, come in and pet them and love them and it's great. >> this has been pet pride 2011 brought to you by san francisco animal care and control. to find out more, visit them on the web at sfgov >>. touring england was a time when robert as mentors were being challenged by a quickly growing middle-class. for endeavour's crew of new artists began to assert themselves, offering new definitions of the athletics of arts and beauty. over 180 objects of avant-garde

design and art from the victorian england has been collected inside the legion of honor snoot exhibition, it's the cold of the ec. -- the cult of beauty. >> there was this group of artists that were not only revolutionaries in their artistic expression but also in their personal lives and their interest in democratizing art in introducing beauty into the growing middle-class. >> one of the inspirations for the victorian avant-garde was the industrial revolution. quality household goods were now being mass-produced. artists responded by either creating elaborate unique court or by embracing technology and trying to share a beautiful creations with as many people as possible. >> william morris was in a difficult position, because he

wanted the middle-class to be able to acquire really beautifully made objects. but the piece is that he actually made, you know, took so much handcrafting that there were quite expensive. i think he would have been pleased to know that there are things like restoration hardware anne craig and bare all that tried to make available to the middle-class -- and crate and barrel that tried to make these things available to the middle class. >> over 60 lenders contributed art and craft to the exhibition. one of the partners is london's victoria and albert museum, which has been collecting the finest examples of victorian craft since queen victoria herself attended the groundbreaking ceremony. the artist of the victorian avant-garde believe that every object could contain an expression of beauty. the attention given when creating a towering sculpture should be the same as when

creating a simple cottage gate. they embraced arts for arts own sake. whether in the curl of a flower or a stray lot of unpin hair. surprisingly, sensuality returned to public view during the victorian era. albert moore and others were inspired by ancient greek sculptures and found new uses in modern times. >> many of these paintings are large. when you get close to them, they seem to wrap you in this luscious colors. there's a great sensuality to the paintings, even though there's nothing sexual going on in the pictures. the artists just took delight in luxurious fabrics and colors and beautiful women. >> symphony in white is a life- size portrait of the immense stress of james wisler. it is featured prominently in

the exhibition. harmony in gray and green was an of socially judged as a disagreeable presentation of a disagreeable young lady. the first public reaction of this series was so divisive that led to court proceedings. today, they hang in london's tate gallery. walking to the exhibition, you might be distracted by objects that seem to modern war appeared to be at least art deco era. forward thinking victorian artists emerged the economical ambitions of 18th-century cottage's style furniture with the asymmetrical design elements of japanese art that was introduced to london in 1862. >> so you come out with these very beautiful and sleek design worms that the artist combined -- a design forms. very modern. our visitors are really surprised that so many of the

works at a very modern feel to them. >> they believe that no object needed to be considered worthless or low class. each thing, existing in its own place, was the best thing for its place. and what first seems to be idle showiness, shows the richness of today and yesterday. >> it is exciting to have a project you have worked on for so long coming in know, come to your own museum. and museum curators are among the luckiest professionals, because we get to share with tens of thousands of people the things that give us enjoy and the things that explain to our visitors the relationship between art and society. art is not just a frivolous, you know, sidebar. it is a very important expression of culture and morals.

this particular moment, the artists were interested in community. >> san francisco is the exclusive american host for the cult of beauty exhibition. the legion of honor is website has more information about the artists and tips for planning your visit. learn more at the website. thank you for watching

>> good morning, everyone. i am the president of the board of directors of the golden gate bridge highway and transportation district. it is my absolute pleasure to welcome all of you here this morning. thank you so much for coming out. as caretakers of this magnificent bridge, all of us here in the district know how treasured this landmark is and we know that each of us sees

this bridge as our very own. it has its own personal meeting, its own history, and even its own emotional pull. that is why we celebrate this 75th anniversary with the theme bridging us all. since its inception, the golden gate bridge has had the power to connect us, and we happily share this bridge with the city, the bay area, state, nation, and even the world. to kick off our celebration today, it is only fitting that we are joined by so many special guests, the people, organizations, and public agencies that have been absolutely instrumental in helping us kick off this anniversary celebration. first, i would like to welcome the wonderful organizing partners of our 75th anniversary and all those representing those partners who have joined with us here today. we begin with the golden gate

bridge highway transportation district board and staff. [applause] raise your hand, board members and staff. the golden gate national parks conservancy board, board associates, and staff. where are you? [applause] the national park service. [applause] the presidio trust board and staff. [applause] and the elected officials and the staff of the great city and county of san francisco. [applause] than today we want to welcome our corporate partners who have supported our anniversary with funding and communications support. we are especially grateful to our to our partners.

genentech, represented by jeffrey teeter. [applause] hewlett-packard, represented today by kirsten rivera. [applause] kaiser permanente take, represented by yvette radford. [applause] wells fargo, represented by richard belite. [applause] to our cable partner, odwalla, represented by mason thorton. [applause] to our building partner, chevron, represented by russ yaro. [applause] david miller. [applause] levi strauss and co.,

represented by jill nash. [applause] pg&e, represented today by tony early. [applause] who proposed to his beautiful wife on the golden gate bridge. a fantastic story. [applause] speeck products -- speck products, represented by their whole marketing team. [applause] thank you all so much. we would not be here without your brief and to support. please join me in expressing our gratitude to our media and promotion partners -- and this is quite a list. nbc bay area. [applause] san francisco chronicle, sf gate, kgo, knbr, kfso, san

francisco magazine, san francisco travels, telemundo, and because it is the 21st century, twitter. and of course, we are grateful to our business and individual contributors, through our joseph strauss legacy circle. we welcome all of them here today. for the lead car predict we thank bank of america foundation. thank you. [applause] and deep gratitude to the reset and of goldman fund for your the individual gift. thank you so much lisa and doug. [applause] today, on this memorial day weekend, we are honored to be joined by representatives from our armed forces and san francisco fleet week association, who will be introduced later in the program.

[applause] finally, we are thrilled to have so many public agencies, special districts, and elected officials joined us today. we have to of representatives from congresswoman woolsey's office and jackie spear's office. we want to welcome you. [applause] we have supervisors here today representing the board of supervisors from our six golden gate counties, and we extend our warmest welcome to all of you. [applause] today, the six counties that put up everything they had to build this bridge. we certainly honor you today. as we stand in the great city of san francisco, we want to offer a special welcome to the president of the san francisco board of supervisors, mr. david chiu. [applause]

david, we welcome your colleagues as well. of course, we are honored to have with us so many of our transportation partners at the federal, state, regional, and county levels. thank you very much. there are a lot of people to think. today, we officially open in amazing collection of gives made in honor of the anniversary. the british pavilion, as you can see behind me, is our new welcome place an interpretation. the enlarged josef strauss plaza is a place for visitors to gather. the renovated round house visitor program center is a place of education and discovery and memory. just beyond where we stand today, you can see our improved trails and new overlooks constructed as an additional anniversary gifts. we hope you have your tennis shoes on and can go for a hike

after this is over. we want to extend our sincere and special thanks to the golden gate national parks conservancy. they are a nonprofit connecting the bridge to a nearby national park. we thank them for raising the funds to celebrate the anniversary and building the improvements that we will dedicate today, in concert with the national parks service. we owe them a great debt of gratitude [applause] --gratitude. [applause] the conservancy did not do it alone. they were supported by a stellar collection of civic leaders who volunteer their time and talents to serve on the golden gate bridge anniversary steering committee. the committee is headed by cochairs nancye helman and larry bear. without their of leadership, none of this would have been possible. [applause]

i want to welcome not only them, but all of the steering committee, and the host committee members who are here today. please identify yourself. [applause] the bridge and the city of san francisco have a special connection. cynically, physically, and culturally. we have been so honored to have the city as an organizing partner for the 75th anniversary with a fabulous leadership of mayor at the and the super support of the special events director martha colon, as well as all of the city departments. ladies and gentlemen, please help me in giving a warm welcome to the mayor who bridges us all, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you very much for that wonderful welcome. thank you, everyone, for coming.

we are glad you are so boring. that is wonderful. -- so orange. thank you for joining all of us. so glad to be here with our board of supervisors, police chief, fire chief, so many of our other department directors. a wonderful occasion to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this iconic symbol and a bridge for so many other reasons, not just transportation. in fact, when i was courting and the head back in hong kong those days, it was both the golden arches and the golden gate bridge that i tried to get her over here. it is my pleasure to join all of you. i want to welcome governor brown, leader pelosi. thank you for your wonderful years of service. we just honored nancy for her

25 years in service. thank you so much for your service. jerry, your 2500 years of service. [laughter] i want to also recognize our general superintendent, frank dean, thank you for being here. craig milton, our presidio trust general executive director. brent mar, ceo of our national park conservancy. dennis mulligan, and general manager of the bridge highway district transportation. of course, i want to reiterate janet's praise for larry and nancy for coming up with the

celebration. i cannot think of a better parent to come up with this. thank you for your wonderful leadership. [applause] today is not only a great celebration for our bridge but also a time to do some reflection on what it has meant to us. as janet said earlier, we talk about today, what i've tried to do, making sure we aren't the innovation capital of the world, but in 1937, this bridge was the national symbol of innovation. a great effort behind this bridge. joseph strauss, charles ellis' fantastic design and leadership. of course, i have been tried to remember the mayor at that time -- andrew rossi -- his leadership as well. when we completed this bridge, it was not without cost, so we have to take a moment for the fantastic efforts.

we did lose a few lives in constructing this bridge, so i want to make sure that we honor that fantastic effort during that time. it was that symbol of prosperity, the beauty of our city that was being designed, and it has become and continues to be the symbol for our international world-class reputation for progress, grove, and continued innovation. i see this bridge has a symbol that is stronger than ever, being a bridge for everybody in the world, the gateway to the far east, as well as from them to the rest of our country. we are still the finest city in the world. international capital of the world. i want to continue that and will come thousands of visitors each year who come here to celebrate and think of this bridge as our

image, as our welcoming sign. not only celebrating the bridge on memorial day, when we remember our veterans, but we will also continue the symbol for generations to come as we invite them -- whether it is a bicycle race or the u.s. open, or later on this year and the america's cup -- that we continue to allow our iconic views from this bridge to symbolize that we continue to be a bridge for everybody. back in 1937, when joseph strauss said, on the completion of this bridge, he said i present to you a bridge that will last forever. here we are, 75 years later, celebrating not only the iconic symbol that it has, but that our continued symbol throughout america, our city, and our region, continues to be the hope

for everyone. i want to join with all of you and to challenge you to continue the next 75 years of continuing the innovative capital, the place where dreams are actually completed, and so much of our hope, our city, our country, we help celebrate a fantastic birthday of the golden gate bridge, and as a symbol of that, i want to present to our directors the golden gate bnnivn francisco. come on up, larry, nancy. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. the golden gate bridge is not only a symbol of san francisco,

but a symbol of the state of california. the feel of the state of california shote -- seal of the state of california shows the state before the bridge was built. today, i do not think there are too many people that have difficulty finding our bridge. now we understand the many ways in which this harbor has represented the promise of california since the gold rush times. indeed, it is my honor to welcome to the podium, a man whose family name is synonymous with the state of california, whose father served on the golden gate bridge port of directors a few years ago, and who himself has many ties to our beautiful golden gate bridge. ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to the great governor of the great state of california, gov. jerry brown. [applause] >> thank you.

it is really an exciting day. i am glad you reminded me that my father was on the golden gate bridge authority. growing up as kids, we had a free pass. every time we went across the bridge, we never had to pay the toll. i thought that was a little unreasonable. that is when i got my first notion of political reform. [applause] -- [laughter] in those days, if you were on the bridge authority, you got a free pass to cross the bridge. we have lost a few of those good perks that stimulated a lot of good work. by the way, my sister cynthia, she walked across the bridge the first day. [applause] there