and the 17-point economic plan that we introduced last year, but we have consistently had discussions on as we could challenge with all of these cuts and the struggle in the economy that we wanted to make appropriate investments in our neighborhoods. that has not been forgotten. it will certainly be reflected in this budget. we wanted to announce two of these initiatives today, and there will be a few more before the end of the week, where the emphasis is that we have not forgotten, but we have actually embraced the vibrancy of our commercial neighborhoods. that is why we are here on little saigon today. the invest in its neighborhood initiatives has been one would have been thinking about planning for for quite some months. and clearly through our office of economic development, workforce development, we were listening with the years and the help of the small business

commission, and many of our neighborhood residents here and businesses that we listened very carefully to what they need. in addition to thinking of supervisors here today and all the departments here, dpw, fire departments, a number of different departments, the biggest bang so whatever the people behind me that represent all these small neighborhood efforts from nonprofits to for- profit. they have been here. they have been very patient. they have been always trying to engage themselves more and more and talk about the needs of small businesses. when you come down here. whether the day or evening, you will see their great work. you will see their own personal investments and the partnerships that they have put all of our agencies. i think this will be another example of how successful these neighborhood commercial corridors can be if city hall just listens and pays attention,

as we're doing more and more all over the rest of the city. we're announcing today an additional $1.50 million in grants and funding for all these commercial corridors throughout the city. that is about double what we have invested in years past. so this will be for two years, $1.5 million. this will be in addition to the $4 million that we are putting into the small business loan program over the next two years that will have about 25 different neighborhood corridors in the city. and that is in addition to the board of supervisors and the mayor's office of already done with the replenishing of about $1 million that we decided on earlier this year. that all combined is a great amount of investment. this is reflective. it will be in the budget. we are excited about this,

because we know that after listening to the small business commission, after listening to numerous small businesses along this corridor and a long at least 20 to 25 others, we have gotten there and put about what they needed. these grants and these loans will be targeted for things that they need. for example, i know turtle tower is one example here. they wanted to in zandt. they have so much business. they do not want their customers like me and mohammed nuru and others in the winter to stand aside in mind waiting for the delicious noodles that they have, so they are extending here. it is for that kind of expansion that these grants and loans are for. in addition, when there is the events that would help to celebrate and promote neighborhoods, whether there additional flags or lighting or foes saw improvements, that money will be there for them as well. and to repeat, it is not only

for larkin. it is for release 20 neighborhoods throughout the city. to show the we're listening to their needs. make sure that people, not only local residents here, but everybody can go and visit those other neighborhoods and spend money and support their neighbors as well. i also want to suggest to you that the partnership that this money will be there for is really a public-private partnership. we have done really well here working with all the nonprofits, whether they're the housing groups or arts groups. i know kara is here for grants for the arts. she and i have been working for many years making sure that the arts programs, the nonprofits, with their housing or job creation programs, that they work in concert with the job creators as well, which is all of our small business. that is part of the announcement, and that is the essence of the small business and invest in neighborhoods businesses.

in an addition, we will have as part of this effort, a centralized vacancy data base. in other words, we do. i signalled this for quite some time now, and i know the supervisors as well. we all do not want to see vacancies. we want those paid attention to. we're starting a centralized tracking system for this additional investment, but we can work with the neighborhoods and get expertise out, get some concentration on how we can fill these vacancies and how we can utilize the kinds of incentives that we have been using all along central market and some of the the more successful places. and in bayview as well, where we can bring that talent and focused to fill in these vacancies. it begins by making sure we have a data base of that and that we are tracking them and getting businesses to say that this is

another place you can locate if you're starting out or if you are graduating from some of the city colleges for the food support programs, the culinary academy, the art academies. anyone to start your own businesses. we can point them to vacancies that are in need in areas around the city. that would be agreed at a base to have. we used to struggle with that. to have that data base as part of it would be great. those are four basic assets and -- aspects of the program. the other announcement we are making is we're going to be adding two additional persons to a four-person unit under the mayor's office of economic and workforce development. precisely, we call it the job squads. basically, for years, and the

supervisors have heard this. i have heard it when i have had copies out there to the cleanup programs we have had. small-business owners, when they need something, sometimes it is really difficult to figure it out. when you are expanding in your kitchen area and you have got to go through the fire marshal -- right, chief? and then go through public health then dbi, and then someone will catch you on something you forgot about planning. everybody ends up having to find time to navigate that. i know that small business owners need to focus on running their businesses. that is what they have to do. they cannot be overnight expediters for their own permits. so we need people in our shop to not only be there. we need them to get out to all 25 commercial corridors, and that is why we are creating an additional two spots so we have people going out into the neighborhoods, bringing their expertise and how to coordinate

with all these different agencies to make sure that the permits that they need in the permission or the reviews that have to be done are coordinated so that it is not honored their time. it is on our a dime. i think that is a great investment. it helps our small businesses so that they do not have to suffer the time commitment or the frustration of not knowing. sometimes people are not at their desk when you like them to be. they cannot answer the phone. they are out and about doing their other work. so they will get that information or they will get delayed for days on end. we do not want that to happen. when that the results of it, it is job creation. as you know, i could talk all day long, and i will not today, but i will in the coming weeks. again, it is about jobs. it is about the job creators and small businesses that create some many jobs. i want our job creators, our small businesses to spend time expanding, improving their wonderful assets that they have

in the public-private partnership, and they can do so if they get a little help. that help will be not only from the invest in neighborhoods program but also from our jobs squad and those that will be out here proactively seeking to help them out. not just here but along central market. there will be out in taraval. there is some need in attention out there. there will be out in the excelsior. they will be in the bayview and visitation valley. they will be there at clement street where a couple of vacancies have shown up. all the areas. portola, approach for arrow, all areas that are of great concern. they all host wonderful restaurants, bakeries, small business-serving entities that are vital. as i said at the start, one of the beautiful things to san francisco, it is unique neighborhoods and all the different cultures it represents.

all of them along martins -- market street and along the tenderloin, many are here today. they're proud to be here. i am proud to be with them making this announcement. we want to make sure they are never lost in this budget. they have their rightful place in our cities. they are vital to our job creation. certainly, i enjoy, when i go out on the weekend, all of our corridors and making sure we pay attention to them. all the collaboration has to happen to make them successful. when visitors are through with all the golden gate bridge and taking pictures, the green background, and others, as well as fisherman's wharf, many of them are asking, what else is there? they are excited about our neighborhood corridors. i am excited every weekend when i get out after my round of golf. so these are the highlights of our invest in its neighborhoods, our job squad program. we want to make sure we announce

that in the neighborhood where i think people are going to field is a very quickly, and now if i may introduce our host supervisor, jane kim, who knows this neighborhood very, very well. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. i truly have the honor of representing this neighborhood that we stand in today, which is the tenderloin. i love, love this neighborhood. the reason why i love this neighborhood is because of the people that make it run. they stand here today. besides the small businesses will be introducing, i want to recognize a couple folks here. one of the most important elements of the tenderloin, which is something that a lot of community folks have fought over the last several decades for, is affordable housing in the neighborhoods. i want to recognize randy from the tenderloin housing clinic. [applause] don from the tenderloin in a neighborhood development

association. and those from housing partnership. we have one of our most beautiful hotel residential owners. kathy from the cadillac hotel. if you have not gone, usually on the second friday, they host a monthly jazz concert series free for the neighborhood, along with the north of market community benefit district. nina is here to represent north of market cvt. it is amazing program we have, and i invite you to come to that. i also really want to thank the partners in our city that have worked so closely with our office to continue to make the tenderloin what it is, which is a vibrant neighborhood with services and small businesses and housing. i want to recognize mohammed nuru from dpw. he works 24 hours. we have a lot of requests from the tenderloin, and mohammed nuru is always there. i know the captain is not here. i think we have the best police

captain. sari, carmen. i think we have the best police captain in the city. he is not here, but he does an amazing job in keeping our neighborhoods safer. , to recognize the work of the men and women who serve our residents. we work really closely also with jeff buckley from the mayor's office. he has spent years being an organizer and service provider in the tenderloin. answers every single one of our calls. of course, naomi kelly and bill barnes from the city administrator's office. thank you for working so closely with our office. we care deeply about our neighborhood. it is a rich neighborhood that deserves a lot of our attention. and to keep it to be what it is. to talk a little bit about our neighborhood, we have several of our small business owners to talk a little bit about what their experience here, particularly in little saigon, which is a cornerstone of the tenderloin neighborhood. it is amazing what little saigon

is for the tenderloin in terms of the vibrancy of the small business and the activities. also, the people they employ here. also, our businesses are truly family businesses. every owner we invited also brought their children, their kids with them as well. the first family i want to invite was steven and kathy from turtle tower. they keep city hall going, because the fetus on a daily basis. i wanted to see if they would come up. [applause] >> hi, thank you, everybody. >> thank you, everybody. i am very proud to be here. one of the small businesses here in the tenderloin area. and this area, to us, is a very important one. right here, we have a lot of the offices including federal.

we have this going on everyday in many towns. we're very excited about this city. a lot of people come over. here in little saigon, we have tried the vietnamese food as well to represent the real saigon. hopefully to make it better and better every day and bring more people here. that is what i want to say, thanks for the help from this city, the supervisors. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. thank you, mohammed nuru. >> awe. [laughter] >> good luck. thank you.

>> said it is to follow a in a little bit on what the mayor said, a turtle tower will be expanding. please look for us but we will expand to three doors down here. about 2013, there will not be any problem waiting in the rain are in the sun. we will have a perfect coverage and shelter. thank you for everybody's support. this place means a lot to us. now that we are a part of the community and a prominent merchant for little saigon, we hope we will develop more jobs and provide more services to everybody. thank you. [applause] >> kathy is a product of our public schools here in san francisco and not only speak us in delicia -- english but speaks vietnamese, cantonese, and spanish. she will probably be taking my

place. the next small business helps city of going in feeds us, burmese kitchen. i wanted to bring up dennis and his son winston. [applause] >> thank you for inviting us. to what to everybody here. mid businesses across the street from the federal building, called burmese kitchen. i started out eight years ago with this name, selling the sandwiches. the first type. what we're doing, we cannot survive, you know. finally, four years later, i was thinking of extending a different type of food in the area. so i finally started out with

burmese kitchen in the past, we must give up a couple times. within a month, somebody tried to break in during the nighttime two times. so i almost gave it up. but i had nothing to do after i gave it up, so finally i stuck with that and i kept moving on. this is moving really well. safety is really well. thank you to everybody. [applause] so, thank you for inviting me and letting me have a chance to talk about that. thank you very much. [applause] >> dennis also imports his ingredients straight from burma

and truly cares about the food he made this -- he makes. i wanted to recognize two more people. mr. chew and his daughter who has been working closely with our office on revitalizing this neighborhood but also, philip from southeast asian community center. they have been a stalwart here in the tunnel in supporting small businesses, particularly those owned by immigrants. >> thank you, supervisor. as you can tell, we're very excited about this program. i also want to recognize our city family. tom from the arts commission. joselyn from the entertainment commission. a member from grants for the fourth arts. neighborhood empowerment neighborhood. i am sure there is more. now have the honor of introducing the chair of the budget committee with the board of supervisors, supervisor

carmen chu. [applause] >> good afternoon, everybody. my name is carmen chu. i was just told that if i do not agree with this, i better speak now. [laughter] luckily, this is something that i am very pleased and happy to be here for. i actually had bird droppings on myself before. when i asked my mom, she said, how often does that happen? so maybe that is a sign of good luck. so that might be a reminder of all the work we have to do. i think one of the things i am very proud of is, mayor, you going out to our neighborhoods and putting your words were your pocket is, making sure we are spending money were you said you weren't. >> we would not let lani got to the taraval street in my neighborhood and your dog away from the ocean out to 19th avenue. we saw many things along the way. areas of this repair. blocks were we had many vacancies, as well as buildings

converted to a different uses. then some small pockets of the vibrancy. i really wanted to say thank you for making this investment. if there is anything we could be doing more for small businesses, i would support that. i myself grew up in a small business. my parents ran a restaurant. i was there helping out and helping to wait on tables and cleaning the restrooms at a small wage through college. i understand how hard and difficult it is to run a small business. anything we can do to help comme our small businesses vibrant and to support our families, that is very important. finally, the part that is really exciting, even today was the district's sixth show in terms of the merchants and came out, the fact that this is going to be city-wide in nature. one of the things that i know that the office of economic and workforce development has really done is to make sure they are looking at places and really saying, what does each community need? it is not one-size-fits-all.

each community is different. as you can tell what i am wearing today, this is sunset district of tyre. medina district 6 attire. we all need something different in our businesses. i wanted thank you for recognizing the uniqueness of our neighborhoods, and i look forward to working with you. thank you and congratulations. [applause] >> and now i had the honor of inviting randy shaw from the tenderloin housing clinic to come up and speak. >> thank you. of course, what you think may yearly who has been done in the neighborhood a lot. there are a few other business people here. phil's coffey, who is opening up a new branch. we have depak patel who owns the heartland to tell the on the street. he is working to restore a five- story neon sign.

he is picking up most of the costs. we also have one of the largest property owners in the neighborhood here. i am sure there are others that i have missed. having spent a lot of time with tenderloin small businesses, we put together of town tenderloin, a walking map. the historic district with all these businesses on geary. a great corridor. in the course of my staff meeting with every single business between polk and taylor or o'farrell and geary, i can tell you that we needed jobs squad. those businesses in the area, they are working all the time. they do not know what is available. they can i go to hearings. having people going out to them is going to make a huge difference. i also want to call a people's attention to this part of eddy

street. it is a two-way street starting here. that was not the case just three weeks ago. a document was enacted by the board of supervisors. proposed an two thousand five. and acted unanimously by the board in 2007 called the tenderloin little saigon transit plan. the first phase was not implemented in completed until two weeks ago. it makes eddy and ellis two-way street. it is a small business. the kurds are going too fast to see the businesses. they did not stop and look. we now have ellis street two ways. is at risk in here? i did not hear him get announced. but i want to thank him. when he took control of the product, he made it happen. rachel is here. she also helped with the little

saigon plan. it makes a big difference because we have too much traffic in the tenderloin, and to the bed for business. bedcpmc development agreement will make all of -- the cpmc development agreement will make them both two way street. it will bring 135 pedestrian street lights in this neighborhood. a lot of people say it is not safe here at night. that is because it is so dark. we have the fewest streetlights pitiless places of five on a blood. we average one into, at most, three. within a year of that agreement being finalized, we will have 135 street lights more in the tenderloin, which makes a big difference. [applause] anaya also want to mention way down on ninth street, as you go down larkin, it becomes ninth street. that is where it twitter is moving in. it has market hall. all those people, a lot of the

restaurants here are really crowded during the lunch hour, but they're not necessarily as crowded for dinner. this evening business, people the knowledge to come down here, it is not sick. we won all those twitter folks when they get off work, come on down to turtle tower. burmese kitchen. all the places up that street. this is a great place to eat at night. so give it a chance. mayor, thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. that concludes our press conference. the mayor is available for a few questions privately afterwards. so thank you. [applause]

>> welcome, everyone. my name is bevin dufty, and we're so excited your your for the public launch of the san francisco home for heroes campaign. let me introduce some of the individuals who are here with us. we do have several speakers. we have several veterans who are here and bad recipience. you will be able to talk to them

-- bagehot recipients. you'll be able to talk to them after the ceremony. michael and thomas and joseph -- have a touch, the veterans here with us right now? i just want to say, this is an incredible partnership jump started by our friends and the veterans administration, but we could not be successful without some of our partners. i would like to say the san francisco association has been incredible. also, peter weiss is here, and i would like to say a part of this story has not been known. we want to acknowledge this. we're so pleased with some of the leaders of the chinese real- estate association are here.

archer woman is here. we also have our president elect. cvs and visa are providing gift cards. i would also like to say that our representatives from hud have been incredibly important. you'll be hearing from the leadership of hud. jake martin is here from the va , and joanna's year as part of the incredible case work that has gone on. and trent, his incredible team. and joyce krum, his deputy for homeless services. i want to acknowledge they have been helpful in pulling together the nation's