that is taking a picture right now. >> mayor lee, chairman, and members of the board of supervisors and members of the chung family and guests, what a remarkable contribution that mom chung made to the city of fung and while big al moves contributions in a different field, she too loves san francisco. she were two wonderful women who left their marks. as an architect you love construction projects and so did my grandmother and not only provide the infrastructure that our country needs but thousands of jobs as well. they also benefit to how the creativity and optism and confidence to the future. she was a model and studied art as what is known as the san francisco art institute.

she is best known, however, for conceiving and delivering another construction project, the california pal ace of legion of honor and it should be remembered that this museum was originally build as a memorial to all of the thousands who died in world war i. >> i am not sure what you have thought about having a tunnel boring machine named after her, but she had a good sense of humor. she worked with a number of mayors and often entertaining them over a martini or two. i suspect, although it is not in my script that i was one way of insuring the (inaudible) of a permit application, most pleased with this tribute. she will not stay on a job until august. however, she will have to work extra hard to keep up with mom chung. in closing, i wish to salute the engineers and contractors and thank the hundreds of men and women who arrived with their lunch pails and their

hard hats each day for making this subway a reality. thank you all very much and i think that it is fitting that we honor the past, and as we are building the future last year muni celebrated the 100th anniversary and we are the first public transit in the country and we are now the 7th largest and important part of the fabric of san francisco and honoring the path as we build the future i think is entirely fitting and so in closing, but before we cut the cake, i just want to acknowledge a few more folks that really it takes a village to make a project like this happen. and so i would acknowledge that the number of sfmta staff here from real estate to finance, the communications the construction, and they were all part of supporting this program

going forward and maria from the transportation authority and from the department of public works and julie from the city attorney's office and i saw hernandez from labor, local 261, and we have been partnering and work ng tunnels and it is a specialized part of the craft and so we are training people and getting them to work. all of the other partners in labor and the city and the community want to thank you all so incredibly much for being here, now the fun we are going to cut the cake, eat the cake and go down and check out the machines, thank you all for coming here today.

>> thank you, for that wonderful introduction, this is exciting for me as david indicated both my daughters are graduate of lowell high school. [ applause ] so i know how your parents feel. i am excited today the last time i was at a high school commencement was for my daughters. i want to say that this is

exciting for me because as i was listening to darle and the other speakers that had a moment to reflect on my high school years and i will talk for a few moments about that. those exciting days. but i did want to say that i was walking over here with my director of employment and workforce opportunities and i took a deep breath and said todd you have to find 613 more jobs. and that is what we do in san francisco. we look for jobs for you and we make sure. this city is successful so that when you come back to your studies you are ready to go. >> the principal, and thank you so much for inviting me, and the faculty, and the staff, and the administrators, school board members, and of course, the students, families and friends. >> i would like to begin my

remarks by sending my sincerist condolences to the family of (inaudible) chan was happened was a terrible waste and calls us to action to do better and we will do better. we will make that street safe for everybody. >> and i know that (inaudible) was a beloved member of your community and was in our thoughts today even as we celebrate your achievements. and i would also like to take the opportunity to recognize five phenomenal lowell high school staff members who are retiring today. they have helped shape your high school careers. dr. ray hill, lowell science teacher for 17 years,

congratulations dr. hill. tony, mona, math teacher for 41 years. >> wow. >> i have to say tony that i love my math teacher. vanessa guest, an english teacher for 13 years. cynthia mitchell, secretary for 39 years. thank you. >> and finally someone who has kept you safe on the campus, ron hodges, security, 41 years. thank you all for your dedication and your commitment to the youth at lowell high school and to our great city and now, good evening, for lowell high school graduates

class of 2013, go red and white. [ applause ] [ cheers ] >> i got my red on today. and with 613 students graduating today, i would like to say congratulations to all of you, you truly represent the incredible promise that our great city of san francisco is. thank you david, for your very kind introduction, as one of lowell's student leaders you must be very proud to be standing here in front of your class who will be graduating with you, thank you for being a great example to your fellow classmates and to our city's youth and i hope that kayla your senior class president and david your student body president as well as the entire lowell graduating class of 2013 become the great community and civic leaders of san francisco future. because of being your mayor, i think that the people of the

city every day for the opportunity to serve san francisco. it is a privilege to wake up each morning and to work for you, a people the our city and to do everything that i can to help all of us be successful. and as your graduation day is a day when you set off on a path to success you will use what you learned at lowell to tackle the great challenges next in your life, to make the differences in your world and the impact in the lives of your peers, family, your friends, and your community. looking back at my graduation day in high school, i remember feeling excited, scared, nervous, and inspired to make a difference in the world and just like you my journey started on this very important day, graduation day. and you know, each of our lives

brings different challenges and each of you will have your own individual challenges. for me, i lost my father, when i was a sophomore in high school, so i knew that my days ahead were not going to be very easy. in fact, i made up my mind as a graduate of public high school, that i was pretty much going to go it alone even though my dad was a cook and my mom was a seamstress and she had five other kids to take care of and i did not want to be a burden. so, i was going to do what i think all of you are trained to do at lowell high school i was going to work my rear off to make sure that i could prove myself. and if i did it on my own, more pride to be taken. as a graduating senior, i had a vision to make this world better, a better place for my

family as well as my community. after graduate froming public high school in seattle i went to a small liberal arts college in the state of maine, i went from seattle to maine. i had to sees the opportunity even if it meant moving away from friends and family and moving away from what i was familiar with to take on new challenges looking back at those years i made the right move because the learned the east coast, i learned now where my daughters are at so i could tell them what they were about to face, and i know that this country is tied much more than just land. going from east coast you get a lot of experiences, after four and a half years i had enough

of the east coast and i moved back to the west coast here to get a law degree at uc berkeley and i knew that san francisco would be become my new home. as some of you may know my background is as a civil rights lawyer working right here in san francisco. back then, a generation set out to make sure that we all recognized our greatest asset as a nation, our diversity. and together, in those years, we locked arms and stood in a doorway of the international hotel. to prevent the wrongful eviction of senior chinese and filipino immigrants who had no money and no place to go. [ applause ] and today san francisco has some of the best tenant

protections. we sued the san francisco fire department, to get women and people of color a chance to be a firefighter, to serve, the public of san francisco. and to dedicate their lives to public safety, today we have a city's first female fire chief and our public safety agencies are more diverse than ever, and just as proud and good as any other generation that this city has ever seen. i joined with others there that were just as dedicated and committed as i was to make a difference for the residents of san francisco. together, we helped to make san francisco a different place, one that embraces and celebrates diversity. and today, san francisco is one of the most diverse cities and one of the most diverse regions. in fact, in the world's most diverse democracy. i never thought that i would

ever in my lifetime see an african american as president of the united states and i never imagined that san francisco would have an asian american mayor. [ applause ] so as mayor, one of my many goals during my term in office is to empower all of the residents and make our city even more responsive, efficient and accountable to the voice of all the diverse communities. i gather the importance of the ties in the need of our community and every day i am trying to make san francisco a place where everyone succeeds, a city for the 100 percent. i am honored to be working for the community, and fighting for the community, and trying to help the community and our city be a better place for everyone to live, work, visit, and do

business. today, san francisco's economy is recovering. our unemployment rate has dropped from 9.6 percent when i first came into office in 2011, to an astonishing 5.4 percent today. [ applause ] we put san franciscans back to work and gave them back the dignity of a paycheck so that they could support their families. but it is still not good enough. and i will remain focused on making sure that no one is left behind. that is why we created programs like tech sf to insure that our long term unploid and youth have access to education, training, and job placement assistance. we have already trained and packed scores of people in technology jobs and the first graduation is this june. last summer, i proudly joined

mayor pelosi to take up president obama's challenge of taking up summer jobs for activities for at risk youth and we surpassed our own goal, we got 5,201 summer jobs for kids last summer. the summer jobs plus program and now thanks to another great partnership with the united way this summer. we are working even harder to make sure that we find the paid job opportunities for 6,000 youth in our city. yes, we want to insure that all of you have opportunities and skills needed to compete in the 21st century economy and workforce. that is why with the shared goals with the superintendents of our school and boards and we continue to make it the expectation >> and with the kindergarten to college program we are able to

establish a college savings account for every kindergarten student, can you believe that? as a city? yes. >> and we are working to insure that every student especially students of our middle schools have the resources and opportunities to graduate ready for college. and since day one i have been committed to our cities' family and our children and our youth and i will remain committed because i see education and training not as an expense, but as an investment. my wife, anita and i have been parents to both of our daughters so i know first hand what it is like to be a parent here in san francisco. and i want to thank you all parents to being here. because they could not have done it without you. i know that. and what sacrifices your parents made, i know that. because they are investing in you as part of our future and

helping you pursue your dreams. we all want you to succeed. because as all of you embark on the next leg of your journey, i want you to remember to come back to san francisco. i want you to come back, i want you to work here, the innovation, capitol of the world. i want you to come back and i want you to raise your families here and i want you to buy a house and maybe a couple send your own kids to public school right here in san francisco. i want you to come back and be the next generation of leaders like the great that have help to build san francisco like the houses and the fishers and so many more that fight for the community and build the strong neighborhoods and yes these names you know because they were in your shoes, they were also graduates of lowell high school. [ applause ] >> san francisco is the

greatest city in the world, i know it. i know it. and wherever you go, we will get to brag about that because we are and we know this. and they love the city, and we love the city. so when you succeed whether you become the next fortune ceo or a noble prize winner or a supreme court justice, remember to make your community and your city a better place for all. i leave you with this advice as you begin your new journey, my vision began when i was graduating high school senior. and now, it is your turn to make your vision a reality. make an impact on the future, and make your community and this world a better place. be bold, and to quote one of my favorite movies, boldly go where no one has gone before. congratulations class of 2013,

go out there and change the world. thank you. [ applause ] >> good morning, everyone, it is may one, 2013, and i want to thank everybody for taking your

time to come celebrate with us. this is the day that we will be launching a month long celebration, for asian pacific heritage month. it is a very special time of the year for some of us because it is really a time that we come together and spend a little bit more time with each other. i was thinking about this when i was driving down to city hall today and i say, mmm, a lot of us see each other during the times of the year. but, just the law of this country, the month of may was designated every year for the special celebration and heritage of asian pacific americans and i am glad that we in san francisco and it is a time for us to come together and this celebration every year would not have happened if a committee of volunteers did not come together to plan this. i must say, that you know, the volunteers committee met last november and every year we think about what do we do, how do we bring our people together

because as you know they are over 30 ethic groups in the family, so we are a very, very diverse group and when you think about heritage month, we don't think of koreas or filipino or all of the rest. we think about the family. that is special about who we are and we are in a city that welcomes that and in a city with the mayor that is some of our own and we cannot be more proud their mayor lee is here today to have us kick off a whole month of celebration, mayor lee? >> thank you, claudene, thank you for your annual work. you and the committee, i know that you get together with everybody months in advance to pull this off and there is an exciting number of events that

we have, but let me say, first of all, thank you, to assess recorder carmen for joining us today and our newest supervisor tang for joining us today they are going to be great partners in helping me run this city. also, again, to the committee that there is going to be so many events happening this month, the month of may, for all of you is a very, very busy month. many, many different events. i often go back to that nice musical that i watched many years when i was young camelot and they always referred to the lusty month of may there is so much going on, it is spring and a lot of things and the warriors are winning and the giants are winning and so much going on. again, this whole month we get to celebrate all of the things

that we do in the city that celebrate diversity in general and focus on our broad, deepening asian community and as she said, even though i am chinese, i love the fact that i can celebrate with the vietnamese and the korean and learn all of the subgroups that are forming that have come here, not only in san francisco, the whole bay area. and we come together, i know, we have a very special event coming up on monday, at the jazz center. which is going to be i think for everybody a first to visit that. and to celebrate and i want to thank, the people who have been judging for our themes because it is not just cultural celebrations, they are actually focused this year on the asia contribution to the performing

arts. and hopefully that gets me closer to hollywood. because we have a lot of stars in our communities and i know that in this era where we have grown up, certainly my parents did not necessarily put a great focus on the arts. but i know that as families starts establishments and certainly for me and anita, we wanted to make sure that our kids had an appreciate of the arts. we actually forced them to do piano lessons. but then as we grew up, they really appreciated it. because they play and they enjoy it. that is why, my daughters got into the youth for asian art at loyal high school yfat and they gave them exposure and i know that katie knows that because she was introduced to it at the same time where the drama and

performance complicated their education. and so now arts has become part of the education and because the appreciation of that means that you are even more well rounded in the things that we do. and for many of you who have worked with me in the last couple of years, you know that arts is leading the effort to revitalize market street. the tenderloin, south of market. it is the rising of that and i know that nobody in this room knows better than dr. lisa stevens of the academy of art university, because we look at her business, and it is going because people appreciate the roll of arts in all of our lives. it enriches us. but it is also a great profession to become a part of. it is a great point of education the arts is now become a critical partner with technology. and you can't sell products

without designing them for people who want to use them. you can't enliven people's enthusiasm without roles in arts. and so, it is part of our business as well. and so, i think that this great contribution of the arts is going to be wonderful and i want to thank dr. stevens and i want to thank richards and wo ng from bay cat from being the three wonderful judges that had the very difficult tasks of selecting these wonderful contributers to our arts programs in the bay area. that will be announced on monday, i believe. so, they don't get to put the pressure on the mayor any more to make those decisions. because we always lose, you know, support when we don't have one winner, so we are depending on them. any way, again, that is just one aspect. come, may 18th. we have, of course, the annual

9th street fair asian heritage street fair and that will be here at civic center and again a wonderful celebration of bringing together multicultural asian participation. and those are, that is a lovely, lovely street there because it is one of the largest ones that just keeps building every year and i know that ted fang and the wonderful contributions of his committee is going to be helpful for that. there will be many other events during this month, that again, celebrate asian heritage, cultural arts, performing arts. we have a lot that we are contributing to the whole art scene and all of the united states and i know that this is going on not only in our city. but across the country. and i want to take a moment to also give my personal thanks to the corporate sponsors because we could not, we are doing this without government funds, and it becomes invaluable to us.

these public, private partnership and i want to give a mean thanks to the target stores to their lead contribution for the third year. and of course, we will work with them on the fourth year because this keeps going and so thank you, target. but there are so many others, of course, art university, and at&t. pg&e. mcdonalds. thank you, cici for being here and of course wells fargo bank are all great contributers to this growing celebration. i also wanted to say that it is not just a celebration, we have a lot of work to do in this country. that is why part of my work, in visiting washington, d.c. last week was to work with mayor and represent the mayers of this country to push our country to make sure this month if not the next month, we get comprehensive immigration reform done, because that is