>> i think it ae's public and

private property. i'm against graffiti. >> who can get it out the most who can be noticed the most. >> i i've seen seniors doing graffiti. >> the city is art, other people who have their names tag -- >> [inaudible] our unit there are 2 sections we are doing one is abating and others are notice of violation to private property. all the utility boxes in public right-of-way we abate. >> we abate calls that come within 48 hours. >> we are a small group in g f graffiti. we don't have enough help. >> i have a group in town down

and china town and the north tunnel. [inaudible] the graffiti we abate everything is coming up to the areas now. >> i'm willing to take it on. i think -- >> you are telling me you are ready for this? >> i think so. >> okay. >> there you go. >> all right. >> all right. >> ready to do it. let's go. >> want to get the gray signses this over here and the garbage can and normally we don't do private property since it's on the corridor route you can come with me we will use black. >> we had a lot of changes in the graffiti unit. we do private property if someone moved we remove it and send it to the

attorney's office and they take appropriate action. >> damage their property there. it's important to write the color in case they want to say what part of our house you abated the graffiti on. >> using your safety glasses the gloves. >> you got it. >> you know some places we gashi, people appreciate that. you know, a lot of timeses they say, thank you. >> the time where it's visible. a lot of people put it on the ground.

>> i like when tourists come and say, you do this for your city and you get paid for that? >> we use the [inaudible] for the holes and the retaining walls. [inaudible]. white on the fire hydrants. fire box red for the fire boxes. our brown for the pg and e poles. >> we are not painters we do our best. >> i'm assuming it has to do with gang activity. >> if it's territorial i mind. >> in case it's gang related

and they are marking our territory i would like to paint it over. >> anything with numbers like x iv or x 13 west side mob and the bay view those are gang related. with gang related or profanity we will abait it as soon as possible. >> i consider it an art. there are circles of people that form around it whether or not they should ruin public property. >> this is art work i'm for it. unless it's on someone's property and they don't want it there. judge kids with silver paint expressing their ego needs doesn't belong on our property. >> graffiti is when you don't have permission to write anything on their property.

>> eighth street is part of your regular rout? >> yes. >> everyday. >> eighth street. divisidero street. irving street. every block they going through they paint 3 or 4 streets in the block the poles the utility boxes, mailbox. >> thank you. >> okay. >> put the drop cloth. come on around. >> there you go. force for we have to remember we are not painters we abate graffiti. we are abaters not painters. get that out of the way and keep moving.

>> how many of these do you do a day? how many poles we do a day? >> yeah. >> depends on the location. may be 20. >> do you like working with the team? >> yes because i'm a people person. i like being outside and interacting with the public and i like the response we get especially from the good job we do in the community. >> goodbye.

>> okay, if we can have everybody take their seats. okay, good morning. we're going to get warm because you're all together. but we really want to welcome all of you today to the opening

of our new city, new bridge hiv research facility. let's give it a hand. [cheering and applauding] >> one of the greatest honors that i have and barbara garcia, the director of health and one of the greatest honors i have is the critical staff that i get to work with. and one of those incredible staffs is going to be susan [speaker not understood]. [cheering and applauding] >> susan is a premiere doctor in our community, in our san francisco general hospital focused on hiv and aids. ands as importantly and sometimes even more, her importance of being a researcher in the area of hiv and aids and is a renowned world leader in this area. by the way, we have many of you who are, well, world renowned researchers also in the midst of all of us.

i'm the principal investigator on this project and that means that i'm supposed to be in charge of making sure it happens. so, we're 70% done and you're seeing one of the major parts of it today. and i want to introduce susan so we can get the show on the road. so, thank you so much. (applause) >> well, i want to welcome you all here today for the launch of our state offices aids renovation project otherwise known as soar. and i'm susan buck binder. i'm speaking on behalf of the entire aids office. we are fortunate to be a world class research organization housed within the health department which is pretty much unique globally. we have three amazing sections that we work with. the first is the surveillance epidemiology section. they really started at the very beginning of the hiv epidemic in tracking what was then known

as grid and other term and became aids and then also tracking new cases of hiv infection. and, so, there's really been leaders around the world in how to track trends in new infections and that is what helps us drive both our prevention and our treatment program. they share their data around the world. they are leaders in helping other organizations around the world set up their own surveillance group. this was led by dr. susan sheer and dr. willie mcfar land and i want to acknowledge them and their entire team. (applause) >> the hiv prevention section formerly led it now it's led by tracy packer who is here in the crowd. (applause)

>> and stacey leads an amazing team of people. they not only oversee and set the priorities for hiv prevention in the entire city and serve as really, again, one of the flagship prevention programs globally in making decisions about how to have the biggest impact on driving down new infections. but they're also a world class research organization that does research on testing, on linkage to care, community viral load, treatment of substance use as a way to prevent new hiv infections. and she, again, has a very difficult verse and very talented team and we're really excited to work with them as well. (applause) >> and then finally i want to introduce my staff. we were formally known as the hiv research section. but as you can see we have these other world class

research organizations housed in our same institution. so, we've renamed ourselves bridge hiv. and i'm going to tell you a little story because i have sitting here. we got a grant from the tap root organization, which is a group that does pro bono work for nonprofit organizations in a variety of areas. and tim led two of our projects, one of which was to help us rename ourselves because we knew that it was confusing for us to be called the hiv research section when so many of us do research. we are called bridge hiv because we're a bridge to the east bay, to our international collaboraters, from the past, the very beginning of the epidemic when there was a research study called the san francisco clinic city cohort study or the hepatitis b cohort study, that specimens from is that study were used to develop the very first hiv antibody test to where a link to the past and the future.

so, we're a link to the past and the future, and more than anything we're a link to the community. and our motto is where science meets community. our team does really cutting edge research on different kinds of prevention strategies, pre-exposure prophylaxis. and if you go to our website, join prep hiv, you'll see all of the many exciting studies that we have as well as our partnership with san francisco city clinic in launching the first demonstration project of pre-exposure prophylaxis, taking antihiv medicines to prevent new infections. we're studying topical gels, retro microbicide. the way we're going to end this epidemic is through a vaccine, we've controlled other infectious diseases through a cure. we're proud of our staff who contribute to this as well as

the many study participants. and i'm just going to close with a quick word about the project. the way that this project came about was actually one of our staff members, janey vincent who is our graphic designer, you'll see some of her beautiful work inside, noticed that there was -- she's hiding. (applause) >> she noticed that president obama had designated part of his stimulus money to nih for the national institutes of health and they were putting a billion dollars to research infrastructure, biomedical research infrastructure, something that's never happened before. she said, you know, we don't have enough space in our section. all of the three units had grown so much that we really needed more space. she said, do you think we could apply for this money? and, so, the three units came together and our goals were one, to be able to fully really

advance the science that we're doing by enrolling large diverse groups of study participants and we didn't have enough room to do that. the second was that we wanted to increase the space that we have so we could share collaboratively so we could work together with each other. and the third was really to engage with community. and we didn't have a large community space on-site. and, so, you'll see the space, see the additional clinical space that we've added. you'll see the additional rooms that we've added for conferences, formal and informal gatherings to staff as well as video conferencing capabilities for a greenway of communicating with our colleagues globally. and then finally, we're going to have a very beautiful, large community stage, it's that stage of the construction is not complete but you'll get a chance to see the status of that. so, again, i want to thank you all. and i now want to welcome mayor

ed lee. we're so proud to have mayor lee here to be in the city led by mayor lee. and, again, none of this could happen, none of our activities could happen without the support of the city. that's what makes us such a unique organization. it's what -- we've always had such strong support from the city. so, mayor lee, thank you. (applause) >> thank you. thank you, susan and barbara, and thank you all for coming out today on this ribbon cutting on a very, very important center of research. we have never given up on this fight to end aids, and i am so thankful to be working with supervisor scott weaner and supervisor david campos and the board of supervisors. and we have through the budget year in and year out, and particularly this last couple years, where state and federal funds may have been waiting. we stood up and said, we are continuing this fight at the

highest level to make sure we fund everything we can to end this aids epidemic. you know, i've been in the city working and the numbers came out. there were 20,000 people that died of this dreaded disease. there were over 20,000 people, more still are suffering from the aids epidemic and we need to find those cures. and, so, today is a delightful day because it is now again a part of the innovation spirit of this city that we create the clinical resources that we need, the laboratories that we need to invite the doctors and the researchers to come here and help us discover the latest efforts and to make sure we continue that progress. and i'm here today to thank a lot of the people that include dr. buck binder and barbara and the wonderful health commission that has been working, but also

just a few years ago, if you saw what the center was -- and i used to work in this building at the top level, a barbecue up front of all placeses, a saloon, people used to wear their boots to have the greatest barbecue they could have. and working that out with the hiv unit and research of our public health, working with our real estate, working with our department of technology and our city administrator. but ultimately working with our department of public works and mohammed at the helm, making sure this got done on time within budget, having the architects and engineers under [speaker not understood] working with the expert laboratory folks from dph and the hiv clinic to make sure that we did it right. because the laboratories have to meet federal standards. but i think also a great kudos

has to happen to our partners, both locally, regionally, and the federal government. we could not have done this without the 9-1/2 million dollars of recovery monies that we got through the federal government. we have herb schultz here from the department of human services federal government. they've been really at the forefront with us. certainly dan bernel representing leader pelosi. she has been really a stalwart fighter. when everybody was cutting funds, she preserved that money for us. and, of course, i've got to put out a big, big thanks to president obama because without that recovery money, we wouldn't be here talking about this today. so, thank you, president obama. (applause) >> and leader pelosi, federal partners working with our local folks here. that's how we get these things done. and then i want to just give a

special shout out to dr. colvax who is here. i know he gave such you an incredible dedication when he was the head of the hiv unit while he was here. we're changing stories now that he's at the head of the national office on hiv policy and the national policy office. how wonderful he thinks of san francisco now and he has to go and interact with washington. (applause) >> they probably talk about that in a minute. but everybody that i know that ever has to go to washington, d.c. or any other place, that they came from san francisco. we know what they're doing here. we know we have a strong partnership and it's community-based agencies also that are helping make this connection because our residents and the people with aids wouldn't trust us if we didn't do it the way in which we collaborated so strongly with our neighbors, with our residents and our community-based agencies, with all of the different agencies that are represented here.

and i am privileged, very, very privileged to thank all of the partners here today to have 17,000 square feet of research space that will be used to its utmost to join in discovering the latest drugs, the latest prevention cures, to have a safe place for people who have contacted and been victims of aids to come here and tell us what's going on in their lives. help us help them help the rest of the world figure this out. this is what san francisco does. i am very, very proud of everyone who participates in this high level of interchange. so, again, thank you very much and i look forward to these great discoveries that we'll have. thank you, san francisco, for being a great place. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you, mayor lee. and in addition to the stimulus money that we have to thank president obama for, we also have to thank him for his wise

choice of the director of the white house office of national aids policy, dr. brad colfax. [cheering and applauding] >> well, good morning, everybody. isn't the fog great? [laughter] >> after spending the summer in d.c., i can say i will never, ever be critical of fog again. [laughter] >> and as many of you know, i had the privilege before going to the office of national aids policy in d.c. to work for the health department for 15 years under barbara's inspirational leadership and susan's incredible mentor ship and supervision. it's just been fantastic to go to d.c. and realize what incredible history and progress san francisco has and continues to make and help guide us at the national level in terms of the epidemic. today the celebration of bridge

research is just another step forward, a huge step forward in the city's remarkable leadership at the local, national, and international level in hiv prevention care and treatment. and the bridge research team, the history has just been remarkable in terms from the early days of the epidemic, in terms of the natural history of the disease, vaccine research, prevention measures, prophylaxis, treatment, testing technologies. as susan was saying, bringing this all together was integrating with surveillance work, with prevention work, and with community-based organizations. and this is really the san francisco model that really resonates in terms of how we approach the epidemic. the research is eloquent, it's rigorous, and it involves community at all levels. and that is something i think we really need to celebrate

about what bridge research means today. so, at the office of national aids policy, our job is to implement the president's national hiv/aids strategy. the president released the strategy two years ago. this is the first strategy for the -- first comprehensive strategy for the united states since the first epidemic. it has three main health outcome goals, to reduce hiv incidents, to improve health and wellness outcomes for people living with hiv, and to reduce hiv-related disparities. i'm sure that sounds familiar to many of you because that's certainly aligned with many of the san francisco's efforts. the fourth goal is to develop a more comprehensive coordinated response to the epidemic nationally and this is something that we really have been working on at the federal level and also bringing forward the state and local responsibility in terms of how we address this epidemic. and i just want to really

acknowledge the mayor's support at the local level, making sure that federal, state and local resources are brought forward to address this epidemic and it is something that we are really committed to as we move forward, continuing to implement the strategy. and we have our work cut out for us. at the entertioner international aids conference in july this year, the cdc reported that only 25% of people living in the united states with hiv has a suppressed viral load. so, only one quarter of people have reached outcomes that we really know is so important for people to live healthier lives when they're living with hiv. the 25% is really of concern. and when you look at the disparities in hiv, those numbers are even more concerning for people of color. so, as we move forward to health equity, our focus is really how do we help people access testing, how do we help people access care in