>> you're watching quick bites, the show that is san francisco. and today you're in for a real treat. oh, my! food inspired by the mediterranean and middle east with a twist so unique you can only find it in one place in san francisco. we're at the 55th annual

armenian festival and bizarre. this is extra special not only because i happen to be armenian, but there is so much delicious food here. and i can't wait to share it with all of you. let's go. armenia, culture and cusine has had much cultural exchanges with its neighbors. today armenian food infuses he flavor from the mediterranean, middle east, and eastern europe. >> this is our 55th year and in san francisco we're the largest armenian food festival and widely recognized as one of the best food festivals in the area. we have vendors that come up from fresno, from los angeles showing off their craft. we really feel like we have something for everyone in the neighborhood and that's really what it is, is drawing people to see a little bit of our culture and experience what we experience weekend in and weekend out. >> we are behind the scenes now watching the chef at work preparing some delicious armenian kabob. this is a staple in armenian cooking, is that right?

>> absolutely, since the beginning of time. our soldiers used to skewer it on the swords. we have a combination of beef and lam and parsley. and every september over 2000 pounds of meat being cooked in three days. >> after all that savory protein, i was ready to check out the fresh veggie options. >> this is armenian cheat sheet. it's tomatos and mint and olive oil. that makes summer food. and what i'm doing is i'm putting some nutmeg. it is kind of like cream cheese. in armenia when they offer you food, you have to eat it. they would welcome you and food is very important for them. >> in every armenian community we feel like we're a "smallville"age and they come together to put on something like this.

what i find really interesting about san francisco is the blends of armenia that come together. once they are here, the way people work together at any age, including our grandmothers, our grandfathers, skewering the meat, it's fun to see. fun to see everybody get together. >> we call it subarek. it's a cheese turn over if you want. we make the dough from scratch. we boil it like you do for la san i can't. >> the amount of love and karin fused in these foods is tremendous. they come in every day to prepare, cook and bake bread, all in preparation for this big festival. >> nobody says no. when you come them, they have to come tomorrow for the feast. >> what a treat it is to taste a delicious recipe, all made from scratch and passed down through generations. it really makes you appreciate the little things. >> it's one of the best festivals. it's outstanding, a marvelous occasion.

>> we're outside checking some of the food to go options. i grabbed myself a ka bob sandwich, all kinds of herbs and spices. i'm going to taste this. looking fantastic. one of the best i've had in a long time. you know it's delicious b i have just enough room for dessert, my favorite part. we're behind the scenes right now watching how all the pastries get made. and we've got a whole array of pastries here. honey and nuts and cinnamon, all kinds of great ingredients. this is amazing. here's another yummy pastry made with filo dough. oh, my god. really sweet and similar, it's lighter. this is what i like. we have a lovely row here. looks like a very delicious and exciting surprise. i'm going to bite into it. here we go.

um. this is great with armenian coffee. now we're making some incredible armenian coffee. >> we buy our coffee, they have the best coffee. they come from armenia, specially made. and would you like to try it? >> i would like to try. >> would you like sugar or no sugar? >> no sugar today. i'm so excited. really earthy. you can really taste the grain. i think that's what makes it so special. really comes out. i hope you try it. we're having a great time at the armenian festival. we ate, we saw, and we definitely conquered. i don't know about you, but i have to go down to the food.

check out our blog for so much more at sf bites at tums abler.com. until next time, may the force be with you. ♪ ♪ >> first of all, everybody is welcome and we ask two things when they get here. one, that they try something they've never tried before. be it food or be it dancing or doing something. and if they feel like it was worth their while to tell one person and bring that person, that family member, that friend down the street to come with them. >> we're going to have to do a lot of eating so get ready. >> get ready. and you diet tomorrow.

>> good afternoon, welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of tuesday, july the 15th, 2014. madam clerk, could you please kale the roll? >> supervisor avalos? avalos present. supervisor breed? breed present. supervisor campos? campos absent. president chiu? chiu present. supervisor cohen? cohen absent. supervisor farrell? farrell not present. supervisor kim? supervisor kim? kim present. supervisor mar? mar present. supervisor tang? tang present. supervisor wiener? wiener present. supervisor yee? yee present. mr. president, you have a quorum. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, please join us in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands; one

nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> colleagues, we have our june 10th, 2014 board meeting minutes as well as the june 11, 2014 special meeting minutes of the rules committee. could i have a motion to approve those minutes? motion by supervisor mar, seconded by supervisor breed. without objection, those meeting minutes are approved. [gavel] >> and with that, madam clerk, are there any communications? >> there are no communication, mr. president. >> and could you read our 2:00 p.m. special order? >> the first item of the business is the policy discussion between the honorable mayor edwin lee and members of the board of supervisors. this week representing the odd districts, specifically districts 1, 3 and 11, the mayor may address the board initially for up to five minutes. the president will recognize the supervisor who will present their own question to the mayor and follow-up questions are in order as long as the entire discussion does not exceed five minutes per supervisor. >> mr. mayor, welcome back to

the board chamber. >> thank you, president chiu. good afternoon, supervisors, and welcome to the audience. thank you for joining us. even though it is summer, we are certainly not slowing down here in city hall and just last week i joined all 11 of you supervisors to introduce the children's and family charter amendment in order to assure our children and our youth and our families still thrive in the city. with this unanimously supported legislation and the support of our residents, san francisco will continue to prepare our children for their future and our city's future success. for the last few years we've made historic investments in our school district, with more resources being provided than any other time in our city's history. and as a result, today we have one of the most top performing urban school districts in california, and by any measures in the nation. we launched programs like

summer jobs plus and my middle school initiative, leadership initiative, making sure our youth have access to the latest and greatest technology to help them succeed in the 21st century. we've also worked together to provide fee muni for youth and we have world class parks and sports programs to keep our city's youth and families healthy this summer. but we know we have to do more and we have to make sure our investments lead to outcomes our cities deserve -- our city deserve and our kids deserve. that's why i'm looking forward to working with all of you on bringing this measure forward to join our efforts to improve the lives of residents, including a 500 million dollars transportation bond, my housing measure, and raising the minimum wage. thank you for your support and i know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us to make sure we create an even better city, a city for the 100%. now let's get to your questions. thank you. >> first question will be by our district 1 colleague, supervisor mar.

>> thank you, president chiu. thank you for being here, mayor lee. mr. mayor, we are all excited to have an opportunity to raise our city's minimum wage this november, and i'd like to thank you and your leadership on this issue. unfortunately, even with this potential increase on the horizon for many low-wage workers, many our workers face significant barriers to achieving economic stability and economic justice. chain stores also known as formula retail establishments are a major employment base for san francisco. there are approximately 1250 formula retail establishments in the city, accounting for about 12% of all of our retailers. the city has a strong interest in ensuring that the jobs created by these formula retail establishments are jobs that allow worker to meet basic needs and achieve economic security. however, these employers have increasingly moved to scheduling practices that relegate their workers to involuntary part-time status and leave these workers with

unpredictable and unstable work schedules, which contribute to the economic insecurity of low-wage workers. this unpredictable and fib stability in work schedules makes it extremely difficult for employees to plan a weekly budget, arrange for child care, take on a second job, pursue job training, arrange for transportation to and from work, or attend classes. these schedules significantly undermine workers' efforts to achieve economic security for them self-and their families. i'd like to thank president chiu for convening the task force that he's working with on many similar issues. giving part-time employees the opportunity to work more hours when the work is available advances the interests of the city as a whole by creating jobs that keep workers and their families out of poverty, and will help these worker meet basic needs and avoid economic hardship. i am currently working on a proposal that would help achieve these goals. can i count on your support in

helping this sector of our workforce? >> thank you for the question, supervisor mar. i would be happy to learn more about your proposal whenever you're ready to have it shared with us. i know that many of our constituents are having a hard time balancing jobs, kids, transportation, all the while trying to earn enough money to put food on the table and pay the rent. anything that we can do to make san francisco more livable and more affordable is a step in the right direction. that's why i've been so focused on job creation and supporting broad-based economic recovery for our city. and thanks to our economic resurgence, our city's unemployment rate that's dropped to 4.4%, with tens of thousands of residents back to work. i'm glad you mentioned the minimum wage increase that we are all supporting on the november ballot. increasing pay for the first rung on the economic ladder is exactly one of those policies that help our city become affordable for people at all

income levels. i definitely want to thank the board for its collaboration as we crafted this measure. i our elected leaders, private businesses organized laker and nonprofits came around this important goal and once again san francisco is showing the nation how it's done. this phased-in minimum wage hike will mean real tangible improvements to take-home pay for thousands of san franciscans. but i agree that increasing the minimum wage as important as it is will not in and of itself solve all of the economic anxiety that many of our residents are facing. i know that president chiu authored legislation last year that will hopefully lead to a more predictable and flexible work schedules for employees in the private sector. i think these kinds of meaningful policies can help alleviate some of the stress of trying to work a full-time job while parenting, or taking care of a sick child. and as you craft your proposal, supervisor, i hope to work with

you to identify economic principles that we want to protect. making sure people's work schedules aren't manipulated is important. and, so is creating as many quality jobs as we can for moderate income people. so, i hope we can work in a collaborative way to strike a balance. again, supervisor, i look forward to learning more about your proposal as you develop it. >> thank you. >> mr. mayor, i have the next question. as you know, last month supervisor kim and several colleagues introduced a ballot measure that would limit production of market rate housing based on the total percentage of affordable housing in our city. you and others have argued that such a measure is counterproductive and in response you introduced your building housing now about measure, which is a statement of support for construction of housing at all levels with language that would invalidate key provisions of supervisor kim's measure. given our ongoing housing affordability crisis in san francisco, i believe we must move beyond a divisive november

ballot fight that would actually not build new housing and instead focus on ideas such as a 2015 affordable housing bond and a right of first purchase for tenants. under what circumstances could we move beyond doing ballot measures and work together to meet the housing needs for all of our residents? >> supervisor kim, thank you for your question. the need to build more housing in san francisco is certainly one of the most important topics we can discuss right now. i crafted my building now measure because i believe san francisco should set ambitious goals for housing production and then work as hard as we can to meet those goals. our measure calls for 30,000 new housing units by 2020, a goal i proposed in my state of the city speech earlier this year. but i'll pause here because i have to be mindful of the rules that limit discussions about current ballot measures, measures i may support, and measures i may oppose while

here at the board chambers. i'll just say that i think there is broad consensus here at city hall that we need more affordable housing, affordable to people at all income levels. and i think that there is broad consensus that we need to direct additional resource ~s toward this goal. not just high end high-rises. my plan calls for 50% of this new housing to be affordable to low-income and middle income san franciscans. we need to stay focused on rebuilding the housing authority portfolio. we need to start producing housing at moderate income levels much more rapidly than we have in years past. what's stopping us from building affordable housing? i don't think we have a process problem, supervisor. we have a resource problem. what we need is more funding for housing goals. and unfortunately, i don't see major cash infusionses from the state or federal government

coming any time soon. instead, as a city we have risen to meet our own challenge and made significant progress in doing so. i have to thank the voters who approved a $1.3 billion housing trust fund for the construction and preservation of affordable housing. in fact, the budget you will review today includes an investment of more than $96 million over the next two years for this purpose. this major cash infusion is precisely what we need to tackle the housing shortage, more resources. let us not forget about some of the most vulnerable families in san francisco, those who live in the housing authority properties. my plan to reenvision public housing will improve the living standards for some of the lowest income, most at-risk people in san francisco. and, again, these steps forward take resources. that's been my focus, and i'll continue it to be my focus, finding money to build and rel