>> i would also like to invite everyone to the local production of "the vagina monologues." the cast includes supervisor malia cohen and others. it is women of color united against violence. i have been a volunteer in this production for about eight years. vice chair joseph: will everyone be there? >> it is this friday at 7:30. president newlin: anybody else? >> i just wanted to say that last night the harvey milk club had their soiree, which was fantastic. as a result, today, on harvey milk fifth birthday -- happy birthday. today was named jose saria day

at the board chambers. and the harvey milk club -- this is the first time he has been recognized with a proclamation in our city. we are really excited about that. he has a street, but the other is a day to go with that street. maybe we would get a parade going. also, i just wanted to say that the alice b. toklas club and the hard enough club will be joining us for a clear night life program at the women's center. -- queer nightlife program at the women's center. we are very excited about it. >> on thursday -- i think you have a fire in your books. -- flier in your books. this is asia pacific heritage

month. 5:30 is a celebration hosted by mary lee, honoring the secretary of transportation who grounded all the airlines during 9/11. it is a free event. there is food. i am producing all the entertainment for the evening. we are going live. it is all live performers. we are going with one of the bands that has played in the japan town area for many years. it will be our backup band. the singers are not all professional. it is going to be kind of like an american idol in city hall. the live performance goes from

5:32 6:00 for the speakers. 7:00 to 8:30 is the live performances. it is in the rotunda. we are taking over the space. president newlin: all the permits in order? [laughter] i would hate to send guys down there. i just have one item. i would like to point out that our becker -- our deputies director we did our deputy director, nicholas king, has outstanding taste in clothing, particularly shirts. [laughter] having said that, we will move on to item seven. new business, request for future agenda items. seeing none, this will be my pleasure to conclude the tuesday, may 22 meeting of the entertainment commission for the city and county of san francisco. thank you all in the audience for coming.

>> thank you. good morning, everyone. thank you very much. as many of you know, i'm a person that doesn't like a whole lot of drama. but i do want to make sure that we take this opportunity to enjoy. this budget is one that's important to all of us, it certainly is one to me and one that reflects a lot of great work. first of all, let me thank everybody for coming this morning. certainly board president david

chiu for helping me co-host this and carmen chu and her work with us already started and will help guide us, along with board president david chiu on all of the hearings that the rest of the board will have. i want to thank each and every member of the board of supervisors as well. you've been weighing in and we've been creating a different dialogue on the front end to make sure that all of our constituents know what we're doing, more transparent, and ultimately where our values are. i also want a big shout-out and thanks to everybody in this room. there's a lot of department heads and commissions and labor representatives and representatives from our non-profits and community members as well. thank you for engaging us in this really dedicated six-month process. i want to go back to the very first neighborhood budget hearing that we held about almost six months ago.

it was one where i was asked at the very beginning, what does the budget mean to you? and i wasn't the only one. there were several supervisors that were there, and we all said pretty much the same thing. it really is a reflection of our values as a city and it's one that we want to work hard at, but ultimately it is who we are and it's a combined effort here, a collaborative effort. so it still is that way, and you'll see from the highlights that we'll be announcing today, as reflected in this budget, it still is a reflection of all of our values. so good morning, everybody. thank you for joining me here today. again, thank you for board president chiu and budget chair carmen chu and all the others that i've identified here today. i also want to say at the outset this budget reflects countless hours of work.

a lot of work behind the scenes. in addition to all the neighborhood budget meetings that we had, there were numerous, numerous staff meetings. kate howard's done a wonderful job with her staff. they've met with all of the different departments -- [applause] this is her first full year budget working with us and she's done a great job and her staff has done a great job. it isn't just putting numbers together, it's listening to each of the finance personnel from each department, it is engaging in the numerous meetings that we have with community, it's engaging with staff of the various supervisors, the non-profits. we had special meetings help, it was health and human services and housing and homeless advocates and others.

she was there and her staff was there at every turn making sure that we listened and it reflected in both number-crunching and challenging what the priorities are and so forth. also want to give a shout-out to steve cava. steve, wonderful with all your work. [applause] it's not easy. you and micki callahan, it's really not easy at all to face a year when there's 27 contracts open, trying to face everybody in the room, trying to make sure that we can make promises we can keep. having been a former employees relations director, i know that keeping promises with our labor representative is critical to building trust and to make sure that we carry out and we honor all that they do every single day in carrying out services

for us. to all the department heads and your wonderful staffs, thank you. i also want to make sure i acknowledge all of our labor unions, all of our representatives. for years you've worked with us and sacrificed and bemoaned the bad budget years, but you've stepped up in every occasion. for the department heads and non-department heads who we've shared challenges with, thank you for sacrificing so many years. and now we get to, i think, a budget that has some relatively good news and a good foundation. this year we begin the hard work of presenting the city's first two-year budget. and we began that year with a $263 million deficit for our general fund. and then the coming year, the second year of $375 million shortfall. that's what we faced at the very beginning. but because of the fiscal

discipline that we put in process, a discipline that's reflected in the great work of ben rose enfield and his staff and the controller's office that keeps reminding me of the credit ratings of our city and that we must make sure that we do things in a very solid financial way, we made investments in job creation and we made commitments to reform with that guidance. now san francisco's economy is recovering and reserves are going. in fact, during the last nine months the controller has reported that our revenues were $172 million more than projected. this is good news. this is good news, but it did not come without commitments, without sacrifice by everybody and all the groups represented in this room. i would like to again thank owe employee unions for working with us to find a common goal, saving more than $28 million in

your contract negotiations with us. i'm happy to report that i'm presenting a responsible and balanced two-year budget. while we spare the city the deep cuts we've experienced over the last several years and one that i present to you in a san francisco economy that's recovering, in this budget you will see investments. investments that ensure that people who live, work and visit our city feel safe, investments that protect our social safety net that supports seniors and youth, low-income and working-class families, investments that support our neighborhoods, our infrastructure and our commercial corridors. this budget reflects a lot of collaboration and partnership with our san francisco community. one thing we agreed on early was that in a time of state and federal cuts, protecting our social safety net is more important than ever, and in this budget i've rejected all service reductions in our

health department and human service agencies. [applause] s i've included full restoration of federal cuts to programs and services that serve people with h.i.v. and aids. the loss of redevelopment has been a severe blow to our city, especially for this first street corridor. so we will invest in economic initiatives in the heart of bayview to stabilize businesses and attract new ones. [applause] we will also continue our investment in central market and especially sixth street, where the elimination of

redevelopment has left a gap in services. with our community partners and including the very spirited arts community that's been so wonderful in helping us lead that effort, we'll support businesses in that sector, attract new ones, and keep the area clean and safe. we will also invest in the youth of sfsk and in their education. i will propose releasing the $6 million in rainy day funds to support our public schools, to offset the state's deep cuts to education. [applause] most importantly in this budget we are putting san franciscans back to work. you've heard me say on many occasions recently our unemployment rate dropped from 9.6% in early 2011 to 7.4% today, our lowest since 2008. [applause] we, as a city, along with our

business partners and every neighborhood, we created 22,500 net new jobs in san francisco in just the last year. [applause] that's good. that is really good, but we need to do more. with this budget we are continuing to invest in strategies and incentivized job creation, training, and place our residents for their jobs for the 21st sent re. we are creating a climate that gives entrepreneurs and investors confidence in our city, allowing them to work with us to innovate, grow and create jobs, whether they are in neighborhoods, small businesses or tech start-up or a thriving global headquarters. in neighborhoods, we are more than doubling grants available to small businesses, and we are including $4 million for neighborhood commercial districts through our new invest in neighborhood strategy. that includes job squad and the recapitalize the small business

revolving loan fund. we are bringing staal to the neighborhoods -- city hall to the neighborhoods where it belongs, to support small businesses. my proposed budget includes $4 million in smart capital investments and $441 million in smart capital investments in our city's 10-year capital plan to improve and invest in the city's infrastructure. [applause] over the next two years we'll invest in and improve or water system and continue investing in our waterfront. we will also continue to invest in our parks. and i've joined the members of the board of supervisors to introduce $195 million bond measure to keep our parks clean and safe. [applause]

all told, over the next two years enterprise departments will spend more than -- will actually support more than 8,700 jobs in san francisco by infusing $1.3 billion into our local economy. as our economy grows and as we add jobs, we must redouble our efforts to expand housing opportunities and build more housing for people at every income level. i get it. i know there's anxiety out there, because rents are start together creep up again in every neighborhood as our economy recovers. but the answer to scarce housing and rising rents is not to stop growing our economy or creating jobs. that's why we proposed the housing trust fund measure for this november, to create a permanent source of housing and revenue to fund the production of housing at every level of our economic spectrum. i am pleased to share with you,

too, that my budget also includes a six-year police and fire hiring plan. [applause] this hiring plan for police and fire will train the next generation of san francisco public safety personnel. we are planning for anticipated retirement, reducing overtime and making sure our public safety departments are appropriately stand. mow, of course, this submission of the bubt is not the end of the process. i've looked forward to working with the full board to ensure that our residents receive quality services while we balance the budget and continue in our economic recovery. i again want to recognize supervisor carmen chu and the board of supervisors for their steadfast leadership and commitment to building a collaborative process, backed up with our board president,

david chiu. thank you steve cava, chief of staff, thank you budget office, director kate howard, and to best rosenfeld, thank you to you and your wonderful staff and i will advance, thank you harvey rose, for his work he'll be doing. this is very less dramatic presentation, i know that. but all the work that's been done in a very comprehensive way, and i want you to know that the values of the city are intact, we are moving forward, and we are investing in all of our neighbors in san francisco. thank you very much. [applause]

ok, back to work. >>. 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 >> there are kids and families ever were. it is really an extraordinary playground. it has got a little something for everyone. it is aesthetically billion. it is completely accessible. you can see how excited people are for this playground. it is very special. >> on opening day in the brand- new helen diller playground at north park, children can be

seen swinging, gliding, swinging, exploring, digging, hanging, jumping, and even making drumming sounds. this major renovation was possible with the generous donation of more than $1.5 million from the mercer fund in honor of san francisco bay area philanthropist helen diller. together with the clean and safe neighborhood parks fund and the city's general fund. >> 4. 3. 2. 1. [applause] >> the playground is broken into three general areas. one for the preschool set, another for older children, and a sand area designed for kids of all ages. unlike the old playground, the new one is accessible to people with disabilities. this brand-new playground has several unique and exciting features. two slides, including one 45-

foot super slide with an elevation change of nearly 30 feet. climbing ropes and walls, including one made of granite. 88 suspension bridge. recycling, traditional swing, plus a therapeutics win for children with disabilities, and even a sand garden with chines and drums. >> it is a visionary $3.5 million world class playground in the heart of san francisco. this is just really a big, community win and a celebration for us all. >> to learn more about the helen diller playground in dolores park, go to sfrecpark.org.