>> supervisor wiener: thank you. i have several items today. first, i introducing legislation that will ensure that new housing developments in san francisco are able to include car sharing spots, accessible to the general public. car sharing is part of the future of transportation in san francisco. if we truly want to get people out of their private automobiles, then in addition to improved muni and bike access we need to provide people with high quality taxi service and convenient access to car sharing opportunities. being a transit-first city means making it easy for people to use these various transportation options. my legislation will help move us in this direction by allowing developers to include a limited number much car sharing spaces without counting those spaces towards their parking maximums. these optional car sharing spots

would be an addition to the one or two car sharing spots that certain larger projects are already required to provide. in many parts of the city, developers require to build projects with less than one-to-one parkinging, constituently one parking spot for every two units. currently any required and any optional car sharing spots are included together in this maximum parking allotment, even though easy access to car sharing, as we know, makes it easier for people not to own a private automobile. as a result, particularly in smaller developments, developers may forego having car sharing spots because they don't want to reduce the already-low number of parking spots for the residents of the development. my legislation would allow an optional car sharing spots, with up to five optional spots for developments up to 49 units, and eight optional spots for any

developments 50 units and above. in exchange these spots would have to be deed restricted and could never be used for private vehicle parking. so colleagues i look forward to a discussion about this important aspect of our transportation system. i'm also calling for a hearing on the city's urban forest, with the specific focus on the city's plan to care for our street trees and park trees. we have hundreds of thousands of trees in the public realm in this city and it's one of our greatest assets that makes our city green, cleans our air and beautifies our streets. yet for a number of years budget cuts have severely reduced dpw and urban parks budget and their ability to maintain these trees. dpw has proposed a tree maintenance transfer plan, transferring tens of thousands of trees to property owners who may not want them, who may not know how to care for them and may not be willing to spend the the money to care for them

properly. rec and park on average is able to prune its trees once every 50 years. which is not acceptable. i believe we need to find sustainable source for our urban forest. i'm asking the department of public works, rec and park and the planning department to participate in this important hearing which will include discussion of the forthcoming urban forest master plan. then i'm also introducing legislation to approve the mta's purchase of -- contract to purchase 45 new 40 foot long low floored diesel hybrid buses and the rehabilitation of 80 existing buses. muni has the great need for new and rehabilitated buses and it will help improve the system. the rest i submit. >> angela calvillo: thank you, supervisor wiener. president chiu. >> president chiu: first of all as someone who regularly uses car sharing services in san francisco and as legislator

in this area i want to cosponsor supervisor wiener. i appreciate what you're doing in that area. i have two in memoriams, mr. fabs served our san francisco police department for 27 years from 1966 to 1993. he was known by former members of this board for his service, in protecting the public safety of our neighborhoods. there will be a memorialal service this friday at forest city. also would like to make an in memorium request for andy lee leecokeus a local small business owner who ran the sports bar at the ferry building for many years. he was also known as the mayor of golden gateway based on his close relationships in that neighborhood and that neighbors told me no one had more friends or more generous than andy.

he served as a army ranger in the korean war. we will miss him dearly. colleagues,'m also introducing a resolution today to congratulate the city college of san francisco on the upcoming completion and opening of the chinatown north beach campus. this is a campus that has been 40 years in the making in the northeast neighborhoods that i'm honored to represent. we've had a number of disoperate and unconnected sites that have not been adequate for meeting needs of higher education for our residents. i know that we are all looking forward to a ribbon cutting happening in a week and a half to open up this campus which will be educating 6,000 students a year, many of whom are recent immigrants, and working folks in the northeast neighborhoods. the completion of this campus will exemplify the end of a 40 year dream for so many education

activists, and neighborhood activists, and folks that have wanted to see with the financial support of the community, the creation of this campus. i want to take a moment and thank my colleagues -- our colleague, supervisor mar, and -- for their cosponsorship. the rest i will submit. >> angela calvillo: thank you, mr. president. supervisor campos. >> supervisor campos: thank you, madam clerk. i wasn't planning on saying anything today, but after watching the exchange in question time today, i think it's only appropriate for us to say -- for me to say something about that. i appreciate the question from supervisor carmen chu, but i don't know that i'm the only one who feels this way about question time. but my own personal view is that question time is no longer working. i don't know that it ever really worked. i think that it's too scripted. and from my perspective, the intent of question time when it was first brought forward and

first talked about was to engage in a meaningful discussion between the board of supervisors and the mayor. and i think that the way that it's currently structured in my view, i don't think that that meaningful discussion is really taking place. so i'm certainly interested in pursuing and exploring different ways in which we can modify question time to make sure that it is more interactive and not as scripted as it's become. so i certainly will be thinking of ways of tweaking it, and with the hope of bringing something to the board, and i would encourage my colleagues if they have specific ideas about ways in which we can actually create a process that actually allows for that meaningful discussion so that the public really benefits, i think it would be something that will be of service, not only to this board, to the mayor, but to the public. >> angela calvillo: thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor olague. >> supervisor olague: i have two in memoriums.

one for james mccray sr. he was born march 12, 1927. the third son of johnny and rosie hughes. mccray, on the family farm, located at dennis mills louisiana. he grew up surrounded by five brothers and three sisters. in 1948, he moved to san francisco, and in 1949, he married gloria irving. to this union, one son was born, james mccray jr., who some of you might know. he's a commissioner on the building inspection commission, and a long time pastor and community advocate in district 5. james mccray sr. lived as a self-starter and was quite entrepreneurial. operating an evening janitorial service, while working by day for the ford company. after extending his educational background, james went to work

for standard oil, which eventually became chevron. becoming one of the first african-americans to manage service stations in san francisco. after retiring in 1989, he spent the remainder of his life working in his yard, and chatting with those friends he met daily while running errands. mr. mccray sr. is survived by his loving wife, gloria h. mccray, his devoted son, james mccray jr., three special sisters, his four grandchildren, as well as his five great grandchildren, keith, justin, james iv, sophia and grayson. he was a special part of the jones memorial united methodist community and he will be greatly missed. also, i would like to close the meeting in memory of

mr. jonathan bullock jr., who passed away last week. he was a well-known member of the westside courts community, and he will be missed. mr. bullock's death is a reminders of our individual and collective responsibility to keep our communities safe and free from violence. i send my condolences to his family, and will remain committed to working with groups like the healing circle, and west side community services, to provide assistance t to victims and family members that have experienced loss and trauma. >> angela calvillo: thank you, supervisor olague. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: thank you, madam clerk. today, i'm requesting a hearing on the series of theft scams that have targeted chinese elders. as a member of the public safety committee but also the district 1 supervisor, i'm concerned

because they've been hitting the richmond district. from january to september elderly members of the chinese community were victimized by several scam artists and nearly $2 million has been made off by the scam artists this year. several of these cases were in the richmond, but also other areas like chinatown, the sunset and other district in the city. the scams have targeted the chinese communities of other major cities like new york and chicago. the san francisco police department and the district attorney's office have continued to receive reports from many elderly chinese seniors in our communities. my office is working closely with the police department, and the district attorney's office, but also safety awareness for everyone, sf safe and members of our community on key strategies to stop these scams that target the vulnerable in our communities. there's a cantonese and -- tip line, 415-a 553-9212.

i am cosponsoring the resolution congratulating the city college chinatown north beach campus. it's been a 10 year struggle for that campus to be built and i wanted to congratulate the new dean, and kind of the outgoing dean for their tremendous work and students and staff members. i plan to be there on friday, september 21, to celebrate with everyone the victory of the campus and a brand new place in chinatown and north beach. also this morning, i was joined by our city librarian, luis herrera, and adrian pawn, to raise awareness about an important public hearing process for the public library system. it's very important, every five years, under the library preservation fund, we're

required to listen hard to representatives anresidents andf libraries. we're starting the first of 11 public hearings on improving the libraries. i'm very proud that our office is really trying to help with getting more of the immigrant communities and non-english speakers to weigh in on the hours, the types of materials, computer labs, number of ebooks, even issues related to improving our libraries. there's a whole list of the 11 different supervisorial hearings but i wanted to raise awareness on thursday from 6:00 to 8:00 at the branch library on 9th avenue at geary and clement we will be holding the first of 11 hearings. i also wanted to alert people and congratulate the chef at assiza restaurant one of the best in the city on geary and 22nd. he's been named by the u.s. government in a ceremony

recently by u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton as one of the american chef corps chefs. he's called a state chef now and the u.s. state department really brings them together to celebrate food as a diplomatic tool. so he will be able to share the great food of assiza and san francisco kind of throughout not only the u. s. but throughout the world. it's really important that he will be preparing meals at state dinners and traveling to other countries, representing not just san francisco but the united states of america. i wanted to thank sarah confrom the richmond sf blog for alerting us and congratulate chef lalu from assiza if you can. i think people know i was on the school board for eight years when we enacted our arts education plan for the school district. this week is national arts in education week. i know some of my colleagues

from jane kim to david campos know this but our education master plan is a model for other school districts around the country. this week there is a number of events, one on wednesday, at the asian art museum is a special gathering called the creative impact public reception and it's free to teachers and parents throughout the san francisco bay area. it's a fair that will highlight 35 of our city's arts organizations that really focus on providing arts in the schools. i also wanted to say that my daughter is really a beneficiary of our arts education master plan in the school district as are many of our kids here on the board of supervisors. but the arts education master plan main goal is to create equity among all the kids in the school district so that kids from low income neighborhoods have as good and possibly better arts education than kids in the more affluent areas where it's an equalizer goal of the arts education master plan. we have to fully fund it so

supporting the schools through proposition h for example is one thing hopefully we will all support in the coming years. assemblyman tom ammiano and leaders from the school district and our communities were starting to get together to discuss the reauthorization of prop h so that we have a fully funded arts education master plan for all children in the san francisco schools. the rest i'll submit. thank you. >> angela calvillo: thank you. supervisor avalos. >> supervisor avalos: thank you, madam clerk. colleagues,for introduction i have a couple of items related to the passage of proposition b that was on the ballot in june. prop b is related to coit tower. it was passed by 53.4% of the vote. and was a declaration of policy to suggest strictly limiting commercial activities and private events at coit tower and to prioritize funds generated at coit tower for maintenance of

the tower's murals. according to the city charter, around declarations of policy the board of supervisors shall, within 90 days of such approval, take such actions within their powers as shall be necessary to carry out the declaration and to effect. and i'm requesting the budget analyst and park department to work together on identifying how funds have been -- revenue has been generated at coit tower and how they have been expended over the past five years, and looking forward about how we could actually get a sense of what spending has been like and how we can better program funding that's there. so i have a letter of inquiry to the rec and park department to that effect and a request of the budget analyst to carry out analysis about funding and how it can be used and recommendations for the board to begin to enact new policy. that is mine. thanks. >> angela calvillo: thank you.

supervisor carmen chu. >> supervisor chu: i wanted to adds my comments to the resolution congratulating city college for the chinatown north beach campus. again i know supervisor chu and supervisor mar spoke to it about the importance of the campus, especially to the chinatown and chinese community but i also want to say this is such an important step for us. i won't be there at the opening unfortunately but it is a place or institution where many of our newest immigrants are able to go, to learn the language, to gain new skills. and it's something i think will really help to revitalize the chinatown area. i want to simply say how important this opening of the campus is, and again of course i am absolutely supportive of the resolution. thank you. >> the clerk: thank you, supervisor chu. mr. president, seeing no other names on the roster, that concludes roll call for introductions. >> president chiu: thank you. i understand supervisor cohen had a motion to rescind. supervisor cohen.

>> supervisor cohen: i'd like to make a motion to rescind items 13 through 18. >> president chiu: i think it's 13 through 19. >> supervisor cohen: 13 through 19. >> president chiu: yes, 13 through 19. supervisor cohen's made a motion to rescind those items. there is a second? seconded by supervisor chu. any objection? without objection those items are rescinded. if we can take a roll call vote on items 13 through 19. >> angela calvillo: supervisor farrell, aye. supervisor kim, aye. supervisor mar, aye. supervisor olague, aye. supervisor wiener, aye. supervisor avalos, aye. supervisor campos, aye. president chiu, aye. supervisor chu, aye. supervisor cohen, aye. supervisor elsbernd, aye.

there are 11 ayes. >> president chiu: those items are passed. and why don't we go to our 3:30 special commendations. i know our first commendation will be offered by supervisor avalos. supervisor avalos. >> supervisor avalos: thank you, president chiu. colleagues, i would like to call up ameal deguzman, a resident in my district, and has been a great public servant in it san francisco for a number of years. coming up now. colleagues, i'm excited today to honor emeal, on the occasion of his retirement from the scoin of san francisco. he is retired after almost 15 years of service, with the human rights commission. he's been a housing representative there. before the human rights commission, he was employed by

the san francisco police department for 12 years, to provide protective services for the elderly, who are vulnerable to street crimes. he has a bachelor's from uc-berkeley, a master's of public administration from harvard university, john f. kennedy school for government, born and raised in san francisco and grew up in the fillmore district. he's an active resident of district 11, where he's done a lot of great work residents. he lives with his wife and two kids. his daughter is with him as well. she's filming him as we speak. his wife maggie, teaches elementary school for the san francisco unified school district. emill has a long history of public service to the city but on top of that he has also a long history of social justice work for decades in san francisco. as an undergrad at uc-berkeley, he was involved in the 1969 third world strike and was very

active with united farm workers. as a student he was also involved in the historic struggle to preserve manilatown. as president of the international hotel tenants association he fought along side the ihotel residence and a coalition of students tenants and community activists to stop the demolition of the "i" hotel. he was among the tenants on that notorious night back in 1978 when the courageous tenants were dragged and forcibly removed from their place of residence. after the eviction he continued to fight along side other community members to rebuild the "i" hotel which was rebuilt and reopened as affordable housing for seniors in 2005. he is currently on the board of the directors of -- board of directors of the manilatown heritage foundation which is promoting social and economic justice for -- and preserves the "i" hotel legacy advocating for

equal access and advancing filipino arts and culture. you have done tremendous work in the city and county of san francisco in your touch and mark on the city is around in so many different ways. i want to congratulate you on your great service and i look forward to all the work we can do together in our district in the years to come. >> well thank you, supervisor. i just wanted to thank president chiu and honorable supervisors, and, you know, my colleagues from the human rights commission. this is sort of a 180 degree turn from when i was an advocate and not working for the city. because hostility in the board of supervisors was more kind of what things were like in the 70's. and to the point where we gathered our cockroaches in the "i" hotel and threw them at the board of supervisors because they were so hostile to us.

so i have many friends on the board, and i'm very happy to be here. having, you know -- i'm at the quorum, always an activist, and i will always continue to be there. but i was also a city official and i worked for the city. and i tried to do my best of providing public service. and i will always encourage people to work for the city, to make it a better, to make it more affordable, to make it so that it serves the most lowest income and the most deprived individual. so i want to just kind of get that across as to what i think is -- what the spirit of many of us in san francisco. we come from an era where so much was done to make it a great city. i don't want it to just purely be for, you know, a world-class city for well-off people. it's got to be for working people. thank you very much. >> i know a couple of other folks want to speak but emeal,

as you know, you have been someone who has led so many efforts in the city, particularly within my district and the international hotel. colleagues i should let you know when i don't have a district chart in my office i have a photograph of emeal as a slightly younger man in 1977 as he was being dragged out of the international hotel during that protest by our city deposit depy sheriffs. it became symbol not just of that fight but the beginning of the asian-american political mobilizations that have continued to this day. and i very much want to thank you for your service over the years. thank your family for their service and thank supervisor avalos for recognizing one of his great district 11 residents. >> thank you, honorable president. >> [applause.] >> president chiu: and that's not all. i know supervisor olague and others have a few things to say. supervisor olague.

>> supervisor olague: i want to thank you for all of your help. when i was working at the mission agenda we used to call you frequently, asking for help with some of the habitability issues, with that residents of single room occupancy hotels had to contend with. and then you were also very helpful when i was working at the senior action network. we'd call you all the time, me, tony robles and others. and just want to thank you for all of your wisdom and your openness, because you never always did everything you could turned away a call, and you to help the residents, especially the ones we were working with, particularly, very low income residents. so thank you. i know -- is here, but we're glad to have lupe, but we'll miss you a lot. >> thank you, supervisor. >> president chiu: supervisor kim. >> supervisor kim: i just wanted to dhie chime in and also thank you for all of your work. as a college student i remember watching the fall of the "i" hotel and learning about you and

the story of al robles. it was inspiring to me as a student to be committed and dedicated to working on behalf of our communities, and also just learning about the history of our activism, and of asian-americans who stood up on behalf of our neighborhoods and our most vulnerable members for a population. your work is inspiring. when we were finally able to rebuild the "i" hotel 30 years later it was amazing to see both you and al, and al was serving up food just like he did in the 70's. it's amazing to see that continuum and to be a part of that now and to work with you and your family, maggie of course is a really important part of the south of market community and bessie carmichael. your family does so much not just in the manilatown and cheentowchinatown but south of s well. >> thank you, supervisor. >> president chiu: last but not least, supervisor mar.

>> supervisor mar: thank you, for your leadership in our movements from the international hotel tenants oh, and the spirit of the "i" hotel to the work on housing justice and even for seniors and so many others. i know you as a great parent too. i remember immigrant pride day events with you and your children. and for you and maggie and your family i wish you the best of everything. but i know that you're going to stay involved. and you have nurtured so many young activists to many other organizations. and i hope you get some rest, and recuperation, and then get back out there and helping to build our movements. but thank you so much for your service to san francisco. >> thank you. thank you, supervisor. >> [applause.]

>> it's kind of rare i do two in one day but i've got another commendation for another amazing person, lilie haskell who i would like to call up to the podium. lilie haskell is a moroccan american organizer who has been organizing a community based organization here in