small businesses we are inviting here, the arts program here today we are going to have a lot to celebrate these holidays because they are the same people that have been here forever that still want to be part of the success at san francisco. i want to thank everybody for working together and i know we'll go through a lot of the specifics. this is a wonderful day to announce the existence of cast and thanks to the rain an and loan foundation. thank you very much. >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. when you talk about leadership, it's always important to have the local leadership of your supervisor and the incredible advocacy and teaching that you do for all of us to ensure we are serving the community to the best of our ability. now we have one of our best supervisors jane kim.

>> base guitarist. my first show was at the shop many years ago. speaking about the arts in the 2000 i cofounded a space here in san francisco in south of market. i remember having a performance arts space, we moved three times in 6 years and finding spaces to support them was in incredibly challenging during that time. we were eventually able to share spaces through other arts organizations, but i do remember how important permanent physical space was. that's why it's so exciting to be here 13 years later to celebrate the acquisition of two very important buildings here in the tenderloin and mid-market for two organizations that have held strong in the mid-market area

for a long time and that's leading and -- luggage store gallery, i want to recognize mr. smith and jessica from counter paul. it's so fun to be able to kind of switch roles as our arts community grows. i remember going to the intersection of the arts and now they are here a block away at 5 m and dr. cohen is now the director of yerba buena center for the arts. that is community begins to evolve, we are here growing the job sector here in mid-market. in 2011 when the mayor held a press conference across the street, we had the highest vacancy commercial rate in the city. what we are seeing

now at mid-market is that everyone wants to be here now. of course what that means that everyone wants to be here, what does that mean for the arts community that has always been here. this is going to keep artist and the artist organization here. it was great to work with the california community loan funds and the office of economic development to make this a reality. over the past couple of year with hard work and procuring money and property owners we were able to procure these sites to ensure the arts remain here permanently. this is a huge effort. it's not just the elected officials that get to stay here. it's the main market community that holds this together. whether it's the collaborative that continues

to advocates for public safety and all of you that make this a viable and dynamic and exciting community and diverse. that's the challenge here. we are trying to revitalize this area and still remain diversity. it's not going to happen easy. there is going to be a lot of challenges. but what's exciting is that everyone here from the mayor's office is committed to making that the reality here on market street. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, supervisor. and to talk about the incredible entity that has been created to help us celebrate today is the president of cast and also a board member of the foundation. that is eric roaden back. [ applause ]

>> hi. i would like to thank mayor ed lee and supervisor jane kim. it's incredible to be standing here with them. thank you. we appreciate the commitment the city has shown forecast and for the arts community. i have lived in the tenderloin for 10 years and this is a warm spot in my neighborhood. this used to be a cool neighborhood in san francisco and it's great to be back on track. as the mayor said, this is the greatest place for economic development for the community and it's also important educational resource and help us transcend barriers across these communities. these dynamics are as the mayor and

supervisor said are seriously impacting the art and we need a permanent solution to address the displacement of our organization. we collaborate with local government agencies, businesses, and civic leaders and artist to purchase and lease space for artist in the organization and to develop and expand their facilities and purchase their own facilities. we are developing this with the can an foundation and we fund arts in san francisco. and it's with the city's key artist the need for space which forms a huge challenge. it doesn't matter how much we provide if we don't have a place for performance art. we are providing $5 million in seed funding over 5 years to cast.

[ applause ] northern california community loan foundation has extensive experience working with arts organizations and they helped us identify these two key properties so we can start doing something about it. they also understand the concept of buying new property in this neighborhood and that adds to the investment in the neighborhood. if you invest 100s in $100 in the neighborhood you get $20 back. we look forward to working with them in the future in concert with the mayor's central market economic strategy. so our first major undertaking, this includes two pilot projects in the district focusing on supporting counter post and the luggage gallery. as a board member over the years we've awarded these project grants

and given some organization to put on the project. my co-board member is engaged in multiyear capacity building grants. an organization that we can help create their own capacity so they don't have to continuously rely on us and this was in someway that we heard over again what they needed mostly to be successful was affordable space. this is a step in the multiyear effort. we are proud to announce these two projects. with your help we can move this further. we need foundation and individual investors to help us expand this work. we know that we can expand our role. we honor the reliability and we invite you to join us. thank you. [ applause ]

>> thank you very much, eric. now to the beneficiaries of this incredible outcome. first we stand in front of the luggage store today so i want to welcome darryl smith. >> thank you, mayor lee and supervisor kim, the focus that you are bringing to this project. i want to thank all of you for being here. looking out at you i see the diversity that is reflective of what mid-market and tenderloin encompasses. i wanted to bring your attention to this structure that local artist dustin made. it's kind of a scrapie recycled construction of the buildings that are to

symbolize our home, our continuation and to be able in mid-market and to be able to do what we do which is to support artist and their formative early careers and to also to support the notion of affordable living for those artist. there are several hundred artist that moved here and began migrating to central market during the time of the dot com that forced them out of the mission. this is where they came here. we moved here in 1991. we had a beneficiary who rented our top floor for $600 a month. purchasing a building wasn't even an idea or endeavor. today with the conditions that are in play now, as been expressed by the

mayor and supervisor are very vital that we protect through acquisition, not only buildings for the arts organization but the residents who live here. yeah, that's what i want to say actually. when i moved here, my mentor was richard from the theatre. there were only seven arts groups. the community arts program was one. on one hand i can count the active arts group. today there are over 30 arts group throughout central market and the hundreds of artist who are here and that make work and struggle to live here and make work through their domiciles. i look forward to the language that you expressed that so very well for

that kind of support. the way we can partner with the it community. i think they were here, they were attracted to the language of the emerging arts district. it's real. i think that it's on us to sort of pave that way for their integration and support and securing sustainability of arts in the tenderloin and central market. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> i want to give a big thanks, i want to do a couple big thanks and one is to my friend alvin padilla who showed up here 3 years ago and i have to say that he's been an inspiration to me and all of us have touched hands with alvin and the tenderloin economic development project. so, it's all of us working together, the

non-profit housing group, the arts community, that we should be as our show is titled the whole pie. thank you. [ applause ] thank you very much, joe. before we bring up our final speaker, i want you to know the whole pie is a function of our people. i want to thank amy cohen, our staff from economic enforcement and to the san francisco police department, especially captain for all the extraordinary work they do. to laurie from the luggage store. laurie, at work and jackie from the hospitality house and director to ensure the programming is available here for folks. to mary' from the

california community loan fund and of course to the godmother of the arts kerry schulman and the san francisco arts commission tom mccaneey. now our final speaker, i would like to make sure we give a special shout out to you robin love who hands out a huge effort of accountability. which will have it's new home. jessica, thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much to mayor lee, supervisor kim and the amazing folks at cast and clf and owe. it's an exciting thing for a grass roots oration to -- organization to get out of central market and building a new home. this builds

community. what that means in practical terms is that we find dance and theatre artist whose voice haven't been heard yet. we give them support and freedom to create new work and we form with grass roots and non-profit to form that. we are only moving 5 blocks and that gives us a chance to partner with the tenderloin rich organizations. we are excited to be in this journey with the luggage. we are going to fund raise a major campaign to purchase a new home. we are looking for leaders of that campaign to share with the power of art. i recognize many of those leaders are here today. i see colleagues from the 950 project who will be our neighbors and arts partners and organizations and collaborators from the tenderloin community and sisters and brothers in social service and social

justice. i see building owners who have the ethics and foresight to invest in our community and those seeking to positively impact their new neighborhood and of course the rain an san francisco foundation who has been working on this issue for a very long time. thank you all. [ applause ] as the other speaker said, this is a milestone and time for celebration but also just the beginning. we have a lot of work to be done. we have work to do as a community because counter post and the luggage are the two that need stability and we need to help our organization to be able to stay in this city. it's been quite a while to be here in this moment. i want to thank the staff. and our board who have each made a deep personal commitment to this project.

without their support, i wouldn't even consider doing this. we are only one organization, but we are part of a larger ecosystem. that's why we have been in conversations over the last 9 months with neighborhood residents and businesses to think about how can we leverage the transition from one building to an entire community. we are building theatre and a cafe. we ask for your help with the physical transition but more than that, we invite you to be part of the dreaming for a larger organization that this room is possible. we are a space for possibility. we have a sign up sheet going around because we want to invite you. we couldn't do it today but we want to invite you at our new home and talk to you about your vision for the neighborhood because we

are all in this together. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, jessica. i want to make sure we acknowledge the rain an foundation president and ronnie fung. and in addition to the services we have available we want to make sure we announce the technical program to ensure those organizations that want to be here can be here and we have the resources available to do that work here in the central market tenderloin. for more information visit our website and follow us on twitter. thank you for coming. congratulations. [ applause ] >>

>> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes.

but i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people. >> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here? the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes.

this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very

important message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a. victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms

of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building. it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in

the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines. we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to

communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars,

the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes.

♪ >> welcome to hamilton recreation and aquatics center. it is the only facility that has an integrated swimming pool and recreation center combined. we have to pools, the city's water slide, for little kids and those of you that are more daring and want to try the rockslide, we have a drop slide. >> exercises for everybody. hi have a great time. the ladies and guys that come, it is for the community and we really make it fun. people think it is only for those that play basketball or swim.

>> i have been coming to the pool for a long time now. it is nice, they are sweet. >> in the aquatics center, they are very committed to combining for people in san francisco. and also ensuring that they have public safety. >> there are a lot of different personalities that come through here and it makes it very exciting all the time. they, their family or teach their kids have a swim. >> of the gem is fantastic, there is an incredible program going on there, both of my girls have learned to swim there. it is a fantastic place, check

it out. it is an incredible indication of what bonn dollars can do with our hearts and facilities. it is as good as anything you will find out why mca. parents come from all over. >> there are not too many pools that are still around, and this is one-stop shopping for kids. you can bring your kid here and have a cool summer. >> if you want to see some of the youth and young men throughout san francisco play some great pickup games, come wednesday night for midnight basketball. on saturdays, we have a senior lyons dance that has a great time getting exercise and a movement. we have all the music going, the

generally have a good time. whether it is awkward camp or junior guard. >> from more information, visit (calling roll). >> mr. chairman, you have a quorum. item 3, prohibition of sound producing items during the meeting. sound producing items are prohibited during the meeting. any person responsible for one going off