park systems in the 40 biggest cities in the country, it rated san francisco as no. 1 in the country. we have the best park system anywhere in the country. that's because of the big investments made by previous generations of san franciscoans. the bad news is that a lot of that infrastructure is 60 to 80 years old and it's worn out and the city identified about 1.4 billion dollars worth of renovation that our park system needs to bring it back up to snuff. the good news is that the city has a long-term capital plan that includes that exact work. we started with the 2008 parks bond, which is already beginning to have a huge positive impact in our parks and recreation facilities all across the city and the 2012 bond is designed to pick up where the 2008 bond loofrbs up and keep moving forward with that effort to renovation playgrounds, trails, open space all across the city. >> george, how would you like to respond? >> i would like to respond

first by saying thanks, richard, for inviting me. what has happened to the park system where groups throughout san francisco are now getting together to say no to another park bond. why is this happening? is the park system really being effective in san francisco? the same national trust for public grants, which matt just mentioned, we are one of the best-funded parks in the country. yet you see so many parks with problems. you see so many people that are having problems with the recreation and parks department as they never listen to neighborhood concerns, they don't deal with neighborhood concerns, and what's happened is we feel that we have paid for these parks and we feel like we paid 100 percent. the mayor's office has stopped this payment and the city keeps asking the people who live in san francisco, the voters, to pass

bonds to continue it support the park system. the 2012 bpbld was originally scheduled for 2014 and it has been moved up. about 41 percent of the 2008 bond, 73 million dollars, has yet to be spent. so we're asking ourselves why now, why with so many parks, with so many problems are you coming to us when you don't even have the maintenance or operational people to maintain these parks? it's time for rec and park system to take care of the things that they build and not just continue to build things. thank you. >> thank you. so, matthew, my understanding is there is a current bond that's still in progress that hasn't been completed yet. why do you believe that we should have another bond issue while we still have one that's in progress? >> correct. great question. the 2008 parks bond passed by voters in 2008, obviously,

covered 185 million dollars worth of investments in the park system. that sbair bond is already fully committed for projects either completed, under construction or in the pipeline to be under construction within a matter of months. that only was the down payment on that 1.4 billion dollars worgts of renovation work, ada compliance work, and it's going it take us many years to get through that entire list of work and is the next big investment we need to make. >> george, how would you like to respond? >> i would like to respond right now the current 2012 bond they are offering, they went to the neighborhoods very quickly without a good plan, they misrepresented what they were going to be doing in several instances, they went back to the (inaudible) and said the

neighborhoods love what you are doing. i live in district 7, we're getting only $2 million dollars. the funny thing about the $2 million dollars is that it's going to like merced yet park and rec will not tell us anything about what they're spending the money on. they are asking for blind faith from the voters. they are asking us to vote on the bond then they will tell us after we've voted what they are going to do with the money. we're tired of it. we want to know exactly what you are going to do with the money if we're going to give you the money. thank you. >> how would you like to respond? >> that's just plain completely inaccurate. as is the policy for all bonds in san francisco, the restrictions on how bond funds get spent is very clear and very tight. the 2012 bond has a long list of capital projects that will be funded by the bond, as well as an array of specific sites and

specific topics that will be addressed. for example, the 2 million that's ear marked for like merced, that can only get spent on like merced. the exact way that that money will be spent will be determined tlau a rigorous public community engagement process that is also required by the bond legislation that residents will be invited to participate in to determine what the best way to make improvements in like merced using that money. >> okay, and george? >> if all of this were true, as you know he could not state what he's going to be doing with the 2 million dollars. as far as the rigorous inviting of neighborhoods, yes, they will get some neighborhood groups, they will get some people from the neighborhoods, but this is an rpd situation where the rpd finally decides how they're going to spend this money. these groups are great for show. it's a great dog and pony show but in terms of real actionable things, the rec and park system does not listen to the neighborhoods. they will go ahead and do whatever they

want to do and i would simply ask you what are you going to do with the $2 million dollars you are spending at like merced? >> would you like to respond to that? >> sure. state law requires that for a specific project to be identified in a bond measure like this one, that it go through an environmental review process first called ceqa, california environmental quality act. that's a rigorous planning process that is required. all of the projects that have been called out in this bond have been through that process. but that hasn't been completed yet for sites like like merced, so it's not possible, it's not legally possible, to specify exactly how that money would get spent on that particular site. we know there's a lot of habitat restoration work that's needed at like merced, there's trail work that's needed, there's recreation facility renovations that are needed. there's a lot of different needs in like merced that have built up over time and so the

city will use this community engagement process to determine what's the best way to use that, once the bond passes ?oo ?a okay, thank you. so we have a little bit of time left so i'd like closing comments by both of you. thank you. >> well, i just want to follow-up on what he said. how interesting since 99 million dollars of the bond is ceqa approved? categorical exemption. so they are getting categorical exemptions through ceqa right now and what this leads to is complete lying to the voter. for example, when you go to golden gate park, beach solis, that was listed simply aiz categorical exemption for a field. all of a sudden you have a soccer stadium out of nowhere that the voters were never told about where they are going to change grass into turf

i think a lot of this is very disingenuous and i think it's why neighborhoods are tired of rec and park. >> first, there's no soccer stadium. this bond is about current and future san franciscoans, especially our kids. this bond would pay for renovation of play grounds all across the city that are failing. it will pay for renovation of swim pools that are many years old and in threat of being closed because of their physical condition. it will pay for trail maintenance, tree maintenance, improving and cleaning up toxic pollution along the city's eastern waterfront and a wide array of positive vital investments in our park system to help maintain that no. 1 rating for us and for future generations. >> thank you, gentlemen. we

hope that this discussion was informative. for more information on this and other ballot measures in this year's election, please visit the san francisco league of women voters vote at sfvotes.org. remember, early voting is available at city hall monday through friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm if you don't vote early, be sure to >> hello. you're watching the show that explores san francisco's love affair with food. there are at least 18 farmers markets in san francisco alone, providing fresh and affordable to year-round. this is a great resource that

does not break the bank. to show just how easy it can be to do just that, we have come up with something called the farmers' market challenge. we find someone who loves to cook, give them $20, and challenge them to create a delicious meal from ingredients found right here in the farmer's market. who did we find for today's challenge? >> today with regard to made a pot greater thanchapino. >> you only have $20 to spend. >> i know peter it is going to be tough, but i think i can do it. it is a san francisco classic. we are celebrating bay area food. we have nice beautiful plum tomatoes here. we have some beautiful fresh

fish here. it will come together beautifully. >> many to cut out all this talk, and let's go shop. yeah. ♪ >> what makes your dish unique? >> i like it spicy and smoky. i will take fresh italian tomatoes and the fresh seafood, and will bring them to other with some nice spoked paprika and some nice smoked jalapeno peppers. i am going to stew them up and get a nice savory, smoky, fishy, tomatoy, spicy broth. >> bring it on. how are you feeling? >> i feel good. i spent the $20 and have a few pennies less. i am going to go home and cook.

i will text message u.n. is done. >> excellent and really looking forward to it. >> today we're going to make the san francisco classic dish invented by italian and portuguese fishermen. it'll be like a nice spaghetti sauce. then we will put in the fish soup. the last thing is the dungeon as crab, let it all blend together. it will be delicious. when i could, i will try to make healthy meals with fresh ingredients, whatever is in season and local. those juicy, fresh tomatoes will take about an hour to cook down into a nice sauce. this is a good time to make our fish stock. we will take a step that seems like trash and boil it up in water and make a delicious and they speed up my parents were great clerics, and we had wonderful food. family dinners are very important. any chance you can sit down together and have a meal together, it is great communal atmosphere. one of the things i like the most is the opportunity to be

creative. hello. anybody with sets their mind to it can cut. always nice to start chopping some vegetables and x and the delicious. all this double in view is this broth with great flavor. but your heart into it. make something that you, family, and friends will really enjoy. >> i am here with a manager at the heart of the city farmer's market in san francisco. thank you for joining us. tell us a little bit about the organization. >> we're 30 years old now. we started with 14 farmers, and it has grown out to over 80. >> what is the mission of the organization? >> this area has no grocery store spiller it is all mom-and- pop stores. we have this because it is needed. we knew it was needed. and the plaza needed somebody. it was empty. beautiful with city hall in the

background. >> thank you for speaking with us. are you on the web? >> yes, hocfarmersmarket.org. >> check them out. thank you. >> welcome. the dish is ready. >> it looks and smells amazing. >> thank you. it was not easy to meet the $20 budget. i checked everybody out and found some great produce. really lovely seafood. i think that you are going to love it. >> do not be shy. cyou know this can run you $35 to $45 for a bowl, so it is great you did this for $20. >> this will feed four to six people. >> not if you invite me over for dinner. i am ready to dig in. >> i hope you'll love it. >> mmm.

>> what do you think? >> i think i am going to need more. perhaps you can have all you want. >> i am produce the that you have crushed this farmer's market challenge by a landslide. the first, we're going to have to tally of your shopping list and see what you actually spend that the farmer's market. >> and go for it. >> incredible. you have shown us how to make super healthy, refresh chapino from the farmers market on the budget, that for the whole family. that is outstanding. >> thank you peter i am glad that you like it. i think anybody can do it. >> if you like the recipe for this dish, you can e-mail us at sfgtv@sfgov.org or reach out to us on facebook or twitter and we

here to introduce the mayor of san francisco, forecast sf sponsor and regional vice president health system innovation and community benefit for california pacific medical center, please welcome judy lee. judy. (applause). >> good morning. i've learned a lot this morning nr tim and john and i think the most personally relevant to me is john's comments about the mortgage rate hitting the all-time low. so i think i'm going to have it call my husband and take that refi offer during the break. but back to the agenda. since becoming mayor, at lee has prioritized job grow *t and making san francisco the innovation capital of the world. and the chamber has worked very closely with the

mayor on a number of initiatives, one that we're very proud of is the midmarket payroll tax initiatives. that is to make san francisco much more attracttive to entrepreneurial companies and renovate a blighted area. we're particularly proud of this kind of public-private partnership to move the city forward. now join me in welcoming the city's first asian american mayor and i'm very proud to say a member of the lee tribe, the 43rd mayor of san francisco, ed lee. (applause). >> thank you, judy, very much for that introduction. good morning, everyone. >> good morning. >> it's great to be here at the san francisco chamber and of course the center for economic development here, your breakfast for 2012, it's my pleasure to be here. i walked

in as ed from wells fargo was talking and i just wanted to make sure you knew, i am eternally grateful it the chamber, to wells fargo for helping me create 5,200 jobs for our kids. that's a wonderful accomplishment. i've been your mayor for almost two years now and everybody is coming up to me and asking, are you enjoying it? you know, some of the politics in the city it's hard to enjoy but i will say honestly to steve fox, to the chamber and judy and all of you working together to keep our city successful, i do enjoy creating jobs. and when you see our youth get those paid internships or get that summer job at a number of all of your or starbucks, even, or the jamba juice and all the others

and the nonprofits as well as our city departments and you see the gleam in their eye that they can really be part of this community in san francisco, that's something i really do enjoy and i will continue enjoying that for this whole 4 years term, even though i will avoid all the politics as much as i can. but i want to begin by saying that since i started, as judy mentioned earlier, san francisco businesses have created 22,500 jobs as my start, including 13,000 new jobs in technology and industry alone. unemployment dropped from 9.6 when i started to 7.4 percent, third lowest in the state, and i said in other jurisdictions, i'll say it again, i think we contribute to marin and san mateo because we buy all the wine up north for all of our hotels and it's our airport that's keeping san mateo no. 1. so thank you very

much for understanding that. but also to translate, that means 22,,000 or 25,000 san franciscoans are back to work and according to our federal labor department for the metropolitan area and just this area alone, we are the no. 1 job creator in the nation. no. 1 in san francisco. that's a credit to all of you. (applause). in commercial real estate we have experienced the strongest absorption rate since 1988, according to the 2011 data. this year we're looking to even best ourselves. we've got 78,000 square feet of positive absorption to date and forecasters are telling us to anticipate 1 1/2 to 2 million square feet by the end of this year. you don't need me to tell you how successful you are. just

look around at all the cranes. in fact, i thought i was going to be late this morning because of the crane action and a lot of construction that's going on in the city, along with oracle's open world and all the events starting up and we're still getting around the city, thanks to sfmta but you can also see our success not just in what we're building. this week we announced all the wonderful world class events that we're holding and hosting in our great city. whether it's fleet week, hardly strictly blue grass, america's cup, our own giants winning -- by the way, thanks for beating la last night -- or our very dominant performance by our san francisco 49er's, wow, both sides. this weekend is going to be one of the most significant ones because we have all these in play plus we have concerts and so many

events going on and we have neighborhoods activated and connecting up. so it's not just that we are showcasing or that we're building our way out of the economic dole drums, we're showcasing our world class city with all these events and at the same time we're creating jobs and we're making sure our economy is boosting at the same time. we've been very successful at creating conditions to make sure that our investors and our entrepreneurs in this city maintain their investor confidence, allowing them to innovate, to grow and to create jobs. and whether they are a neighborhood or a small business or an international clean tech company or new technology company, they've got investor confidence in our city. we're also creating investor confidence because we have in working closely with our controller and all the other financial organizations of our city and all of our departments, we're now on a

more financially stable responsible path. we've done our pension reform, it's not 100 percent, we've gt a big chunk of it down and we're going to continue doing the smart things to make sure that pension is solid. and we've got structural reforms in our budget as well. we passed our first two-year budget. that's a wonderful accomplishment, one that i'm interested in to continue it make sure we plan for the long-term. and we're not going to rest on today's success. this is just a beginning and you know this is just my first year, 4 years, and i'm going gang busters on our financial economy, stablization and financial ideas because that's what we have to do first, is have a good economic foundation in which to grow. for the first time in years you've seen a lot of unity move around this city between business and labor, between the laib and the board of supervisors. we've all come together to tax reform, on

housing, on fixing our parks and open space. we've got this year coming together in unprecedented way to put these issues on the ballot before the voters and make sure it's the right time for all of us to be smart, to make long-term investments in housing and in parks and it is time to do tax reform. together we're putting people back to work, building our city at the same time and now the tax structure has to be addressed. a lot of people keep asking me, what is this tax reform? it's kind of complicated. and i tell them it's about real people, real businesses and real jobs. because it is now that we're the only city in the state of california that's got a payroll tax. we're still taxing job creation, opposite of what we've all wanted to do many if not most of you have complained for years, why are we doing this to ourselves? well, i'm happy to report that we're long last at reforming

our business tax structure. we're going to stop taxing jobs and we're going to help companies large and small start here, stay here and grow right here. and we need to protect existing jobs at the same time we spur job creation. in our consensus measure we'll generate new revenue for housing, for economic development and critical infrastructure like our roads and muni, investments that will help our workers and our businesses. and because we are growing and a vibrant economy we require a growing and diverse supply of housing. so we need a housing trust fund. that's proposition c creating a permanent fund to fund housing in san francisco we'll be sure it's a vibrant place for everyone to live, diverse backgrounds and diverse economic spectrums. i remain committed to stabilizing and increasing

middle to affordable housing which will create jobs and make sure people and families can stay in our great city. diverse interests do come together to make sure, after years of debate, that we have a long range sustainable plan to fund the supportable housing mandate for its production increasing home ownership and stimulating market rate production as well. and we need to continue to invest in our infrastructure needed in our city so that quality parks and open spaces can be the attraction for residents for generations to come. in san francisco we're pretty unique. we love our parks. we love our open spaces. and we need them to continue being a world class city. whenever i go to companies and have a chance to talk to employees, they marvel at our open spaces. that's why we've

got proposition b, 195 million dollar investment that will not increase your property taxes. that's what gavin newsom assigned me to and i worked hard to accomplish that. we don't fix it today, we're going to pay for it in the long run, our aging infrastructures exacerbate existing costs, we know that, and that's why we have placed a great amount of discipline in our all city assets. when we do this, we've shown we can build our assets and maintain them on time and within budget and for our parks bond as an example, the 2008 tax bond, all of them came in under budget or at budget and certainly on time and this means this new $195 million

dollars will provide nearly 1300 new construction jobs. that's how we get our city moving. and we're not going to move backwards. we have to move forward and i want our city government to move forward at the same time. something that i had hoped not to see on the ballot, an effort to tear down our hetch hetchy and question whether and where we would ever get the cleanest water this country has from the hetch hetchy source. i have said over and over again this dangerous and misguided effort, it will be disasterous for our economy and some people out there are sulgting we can tear down this dam and still get enough water for our residents and businesses and i tell you, that's simply not true and it is insane. (applause). now, that's what's going on. what about looking forward?

since this is a breakfast, to look forward. major development projects like forced cities 5m project to preserve the ionic chronicle building and preserve 4 acres of underutilized parking lots and industrial structures into an urban mixed use campus, we are getting that done. the muscone expansion project will assure our convention center remains a linchpin of our city's tourism sector and you know we have world class tourism in this city and by expanding the muscone center, we're going to capture a market that has been waiting to come to san francisco and not to other sin cities. i've talked to a lot of people and they have slogans like what stayness someplace happens in someplace, happens in someplace and stays in someplace. whatever that is. but you know in san francisco when we hold conventions