>> well, good morning everyone. i first of all want to thank

you for coming out here and i want to thank our fire chief and our police chief, please come on up, chief. first of all thank both our fire and police departments for responding so well to just almost a week ago from today, the disaster, four-alarm fire that affected this section of ocean avenue. the fire chief and the police chief along with a number of other department heads and number of departments just met with many of the fire victims, the businesses as well as a couple of the property owners here to register with them that we're ready to help them get over this disaster immediately and start the rebuilding process in an expedited fashion. but i begin with a great deep of gratitude to our fire department for their response. there was a cup of ippingries

but nothing that can't be recovered from. thanks to them and our police department there were no lives lost. and in this kind of intense fire, that's always a situation we always have to be prepared for. now, we're on to a rebuild and we have a number of agencies including our planning department, building inspection and our health department, our department of emergency management, public works, building inspection, our small business commission, all working together in coordination with my office and the office of economic and workforce development that is now headed for tom ruffo and today we agreed working with them for our permits. they're willingness to make sure that they're investment was worth it pursuing the various permits and the

commission to get back their businesses up and running. it's a challenge for any of these fire victims to really get out of this misery that this tragedy causes them. again on with rebuilding of their businesses and in coordination with the others. so it's gooded to have this meeting to let them know how important we thought ocean avenue has been to not only to them but to the city. i think we registered that very clearly. and we also wanted to give them a sense of how willing we were to get things on the fast track. and so they have met with us. they continue to have excellent dialogue with the various agencys that will help them recover. and i want to thank the supervisor avalos and supervisor sean elsburn for district 11 and district seven in making sure they support all the small businesses along

here, recover. we're extending recovery not only to the business owners and the property owners but also to the very employees that may be challenged with their economics. and so we're going to assist the individual employees who may have lost a job either temporarily or for the long-term to assist them in getting jobs in the city and get them on to economic recovery at the same time. as you know, i've been very interested as i've been both the interim and the now elected mayor of the city that i always wanted to be prepared for disaster, making sure the city is ready. this coordination that we're having is somewhat unprecedented in my opinion but one that i feel is property for people who face disaster. we want them to feel that the city wants them to recover very quickly. it is tough enough to be a victim of this fire. it is tougher if we hear that people are further victimized

if they have a bureaucracy in the city that isn't sensitive to this, that isn't supporting their own effort to recover. so i don't ever want them to feel that way. i think that it's already hard enough to recover and so we need to make it a little easier for them whether it's a building permit, a planning process, working with public works, working with public health, if there's any food accomplishments here how they can get everything from air vents to approvals in the way. much of their challenge right now will be with the insurance companies and the property owners first because until they get permission and when they get all their insurance in line, they can't tell, the small business owners quickly they can can apply for their permits to get back their businesses. and so some of the businesses are still feeling a little bit weary about that because they may or may not have the tight

relationships that we have. this is why we had this meeting to encourage the property owners that they've got a city backing them on a strong, quick, recovery. so they can then talk to their small businesses and feel the same way. we have an official police, official fire investigation report that is being shared with them so they can get their insurance companies on to this effort. i also want to signal that i'm very glad to work our fire and police and all of our departments coordinating all of their services because it does reflect, i think, my approach to investing in our neighborhoods. and we don't want we do not want them to feel that because it is out here in ocean avenue, the city does not care. we do care. i want to thank the owner of the coffee house because he gave up this morning's coffee business

for us to have that meeting there but he is a great supporter of the small businesses. i want to thank him for his hospitality and friendship to the business here and eventually the neighbors who want to be here. we have invested a lot in ocean avenue in the last few years. we have ingleside branch, the avalon apartments and condominiums that were opened up here and moved on with the [inaudible] we are working with our neighborhood strategy to make sure there is less storefronts that have vacancies along this way. they are key to revitalizing city college and the businesses that want to have the benefit of a great transit corridor. we were stripping off the

graffiti as evidence we wanted this neighborhood and they did all the work. this has a community benefits district. i want to honor the businesses with their investments, the property owners with their investments, with strong support from the city. if we can do with this out here we can do it in any neighborhood. . thank you for listening to us and for evidencing the two medications we need to have. if there is comments from our fire chief or police chief, i welcome that as well. we can take questions. >> thank you. i thought it was great we did have the opportunity to provide additional information and some closure to the business owners

here. with the meeting that the mayor convened we got a call from -- 10 minutes to 6:00 a.m. and we thought the fire was coming in on the backside of the buildings so we headed over to that direction and redirected our resources to ocean ave. we were able to suppress the fire. we had two minor injuries, firefighters were treated and released the same day. the crews that were here, we had 140 personnel, 10 buildings that were involved in this fire. we're grateful there was no loss of life or major injuries. now it is about as the mayor said rebuilding, getting these businesses back on track and in business. having gone through this time after time, this is an excellent display of the city coordinating to not only provide

the emergency services but also the recovery services. i think mayor lee, under your leadership, we're working together more closely to be a greater service to the citizens we serve. thank you and we're happy to answer questions at the conclusion of this as well. >> i would echo the mayor and the chief's comments that it is always sad when this sort of thing happens. the upside is when it is a coming together, the city and the neighborhoods, everybody is in support of having the neighborhood recover as quickly as possible. as you can see the businesses have been secured, the police presence has stepped up and will be expediting any calls. if anybody sees something where someone might want to take advantage of this, that happens from time to time. >> i have asked todd to

coordinate the different services reflective of the city permit process to get these businesses back running. todd? >> the day of the fire, we have staff out to meet with business owners to share with them information and develop a strategy and response for the business recovery. one of the things that the office of economic workforce development who is supporting the business recovery with all the departments here today, as well as jean -- jane gong, we are working with businesses for their continued recovery. this is a highly coordinated effort between city departments and the city planning, building

investigation, and the department of public health to ensure these businesses are up and running. >> thank you, supervisor olague, for being here as well. i know you're a big supporter of small businesses, too. we headed out a list this morning of every contact of every department, e-mail and cell phone numbers so they have a point of contact. people will have faith in the city after the disaster if they have a city that welcomes their business back in. welcomes their -- back in. we will do what we can to get the business owners and employees who are -- have lost their income. i would be glad to answer any questions they have.

cause of the fire. we have our fire marshal who oversees investigation. we have a joint arson task force joined with members of the fire department and the police department and we can say with certainty this is a fire caused accidentally. due to some roofing work that have been done in previous days, up to the fire. >> [inaudible] >> the question was one of the buildings that was completely damaged, what will have to be

demolished first and how fast can we get that building up? a lot of it depends upon the older's plans whether they want to keep it the way it was or change the design and add more space. the director of planning. >> the answer is that if they want to rebuild it, in the same shape and size it is today, that can happen quite quickly. there is no notification process. will have t >> last question, anybody else? thank you to the businesses. thank you.

we are celebrating the glorious grand opening of the chinese rec center. ♪ 1951, 60 years ago, our first kids began to play in the chinese wrecks center -- rec center. >> i was 10 years old at the

time. i spent just about my whole life here. >> i came here to learn dancing. by we came -- >> we had a good time. made a lot of friends here. crisises part of the 2008 clean neighborhood park fund, and this is so important to our families. for many people who live in chinatown, this is their backyard. this is where many people come to congregate, and we are so happy to be able to deliver this project on time and under budget. >> a reason we all agreed to name this memorex center is because it is part of the history of i hear -- to name this rec center, is because it is part of the history of san francisco. >> they took off from logan