>> thank you for gathering here today for this wonderful event. looks like the rain is going to hold off hopefully prayerfully. i am robert cowan and a pastor and we're here and we are blessed to have many of our city officials including the mayor who is going to come and speak in a few moments as soon as everyone is gathered. it's great to see everybody. what a great compilation of folks. the children aren't paying attention as it should be. how is the food? >> great. [applause] >> sip did a wonderful job with the barbecue. let's give them a hand. [applause] . a street violence intervention program. they did a wonderful job with the barbecue and the hamburgers and

hot dogs and if you go away hungry you must be on a diet so water further delay let's welcome our mayor, mayor lee. [applause] >> thank you. thank you reverend. thanks for being here as well and blessing us. good evening everyone. welcome to herst play ground in sunnydale. i am grateful to the chief and supervisor cohen and park and rec and juvenile justice here. we have so many departments that worked together to make sure that this place is safe and we welcome everybody back here. i know that everybody feels the tragedies of things that happened a few weeks ago, but this community is strong because

of its people, but saying we want to bring people back to our own park. this is the people's park right here at herst play ground and we want to make sure on this national night out not only do we celebrate across the city but we bring people out to their parks, to our parks, to our neighborhood to celebrate to reclaim the areas we want to be safe and collaborate with our youth and employment organizations, our education institutions to work together with seniors and families to make sure that there is no place in the city that is unsafe and particularly here, so i want to say thank you to everybody for coming out tonight, and that this should be yet another beginning, not just this one night. this is everybody's park. this is where the kids can feel safe to play where the

parents can bring them out and watch over them where all the different agencies can have and create programs that support them. where our seniors can have a walk and feel the vibrancy of the city and invest in play grounds like this. you like this new play ground? yeah. [applause] and soon we will get the sand out of that play area and replace it with some good things that don't have the sand in them. we're going to continue investing in this neighborhood and in the people especially but i want to say again thank you to supervisor cohen. your wonderful leadership out here working with us. thank you to tamika moss and the program working with the residents of sunnydale and the community. thank you to all of the different agencies. i know public works is out here doing the fiscal things with rec and

park but we're all here to invest in the people that live out here and i want to say thank you again to the police department. you are -- all of you are on the front lines helping us not just with your service but also making sure that community policing leads our effort here, and how about creating more jobs for our youth making sure we do the right thing because it's not just about police services. it's about youth services. making sure our public health is supported out here. give people the recovery that they need. helping with services -- our youth organizations, our health and human services program, our jobs program working together to make our community strong. this is for everyone. it's not just prevent crime. it's about encouraging people to fulfill their whole lives richly. this is what this play ground means to me and i plan to be out here

often and embrace our kids and grow up freely strongly safely in our neighborhood. thank you everybody for being out here tonight. [applause] >> thank you sir. all right. you know advisory board for the police is the one that organized this. we really want to thank the mayor and the police chief for bringing all these resources together so that all that you can see came together. we are also blessed to sur police chief here so let's welcome our police chief suhr. >> thanks reverend. [applause] >> i got to thank the ingleside sea path as well and acknowledge the captain over there for coordinating with park and rec. how about the rides and jumping

things? this is exactly how national night out is supposed to be. this is a national event. it's all across the country and it's just great that this year again after having such a sad event that occurred up the block just last month this year -- this is bigger than last year. we were here last year and i don't think there is anyway it was bigger than this so it's great to see everyone came back to the play ground where kids and community should always be able to go and we and the mayor and the rest of the city agencies here are committed to this neighborhood and this park should be for the kids and the community, not just on national night out but any night of the work to come and enjoy so there will be cops here regularly. soon enough they will be using this clubhouse as a place they use as the base of operations and there's not -- i can't say enough how much time

we want to spend with the young people in san francisco and for all of the people that contributed tonight and for the mayor and his leadership supervisor cohen, the district attorney, and others and i think you jinxed us with saying the rain isn't coming and have a good time and next year will be even better. >> thank you sir. we are blessed to have the supervisor for district 10 so let's welcome supervisor cohen. >> hello family. hello. what a beautiful day. my god we couldn't have prayed for something better than this. thank you for everyone for coming out. thank you. because you know what national night out is about? it's very simple. it's one night when cities all around the country come together to say we're taking back our parks, taking back our streets,

taking back our cities, taking it back from the violent crime element and reclaiming it as a safe haven for the community. there are people here that deserve some recognition. i want to recognize the community partners and specifically list up ms. ruth jackson sitting here in the green. this woman deserves serious recognition and love. i want to recognize the fact that we have a true community. you look around here we've got sano ans, asian pacific islander community, the chinese community, african-americans, caucasians. we have literally the physical man festation of what makes san francisco biewsm. we have the latino community. this is incredible. we have young people. we have seniors this. is exactly what this is about and what visitation valley is about and i want to thank all

of the sponsors and partners who made this possible and all of my friends out there in the back serving and grilling and packaging food and giving from their hearts and that's what this is about. this is a labor of love so remember that as we continue to have a good time tonight. i am malia cohen. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much and we have -- blessed to have our district attorney here, district attorney gas con. >> thank you reverend and mayor and malia. the essence of community is the ability to come together and have good people use the open space, and today not only are we celebrating people coming together and using this park, but also we're celebrating the fact that as a community we refuse to allow

violence to define us. we as a community are coming together, neighbors, police officers, supervisors, the district attorney's office, our probation because we refuse to allow our community to be defined by the worse moment -- by a bad moment of violence, so i am very proud of being here today. this park is a wonderful place. it's a place that we want to want to make sure the community uses and we are committed to ensuring this is a safe place for all to play. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i also want to recognize rec and park for really providing so much of what you see here, the table and the chairs and the bouncy houses and that thing, whatever it is.

it's been fantastic and a blessing with being accommodating and with this we have a closing prayer. this will go on to 8:00 o'clock but we want god's blessing on this park and now to forever only things happen to you. we ask you for your spirit here and god rebuke all violence and evil from this area. we pray in the name jesus. we know you can do it. have grace and amen. thank you very much. [applause]

[music] paratransit is specialized transportation for seniors and people with disabilities who are unable to use the muni system. in san francisco, we're proud that we've had a paratransit program since 1978 long before it was mandated by the americans with disabilities act in 1990. san francisco is a unique city and our paratransit program reflects this. we have a network of services, including sf access van service, paratransit taxi, including wheelchair accessible ramp taxi and group van which serves groups of individuals going to a single location like a senior center. [music] >> i'm elsa scott and i'm a retired federal employee and i'm a native of san francisco. i use paratransit because, i've

been using it for about six years because six years ago i had to start dialysis treatments at cpmc. so i'm very dependent on paratransit three times a week, coming and going.. my current driver is brian berquist.; he's just such a friendly, sort of a teddy bear kind of a guy. i don't know what it is about brian, but all of us old ladies want to feed brian. [music] >> hi, my name is fred lein. i'm most proud of driving a ramp taxi since the beginning of the program in 1994. [music]

>> fred, you are the absolute best! thank you fred for providing transportation for me and opening up my social life, and taking care of medical appointments, taking care of my mother [music] >> hi, my name is ann bailey and i've driven for luxor for almost five years now. i drove for desoto cab for 10 years prior to that. i drove in 1976 for the old, old yellow cab. this is frances mecchi and i've been driving her for about 11 or 12 years to her alzheimer's day program, which we call the memory club. every day when we drive through the presidio she'll say, "oh

goody, you're taking me through the enchanted forest." [music] >> my name amr a.mahmoud. i am like 49 years old. i have been driving cab more than 13 year in general. then i drove a ramp more than 3 years. this is my fourth now. i have been enjoying doing the job. i like every moment of it. >> thank you amr. [music}

>> hi, my name is peter and i'm a paratransit driver for medsam, and this is north and south of market where i pick up my group and drop them off at home. >> thank you , peter! [singing] you are my sunshine. very good driver. she says driver is very good. number 1. [music] larry mingo, mobility plus driver, san francisco paratransit. >> thank you, mingo. >> you're welcome. >> hi, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. thank you. [music] >> thank you, larry mingo.

>> hey larry mingo, you are awesome. thanks for a great, great job you do for us. appreciate it. >> thank you, mingo. [music] >> hello, my name is james fells i've been working with paratransit for 13 years now. i get a kick out of the job; i like helping people you know when they need help to go shopping or getting picked up at the medical building. i really like helping people and that's why i've been working so long. >> hi, my name is kalani. i'm a driver with mobility plus. i love my job! and i've been working, i've been a driver since may and i'm pretty satisfied with the company. so, two thumbs up, hope you guys have a nice day. >> sandra johnson and i've been working for mobility plus for about 4 and a half years. i love it. this is my job and i love it.

it's very rewarding for me. one of my proudest moments is one of my clients left his cane on the bus and i've been picking him up now for about three years so i know that that cane was important to him. and i had dropped him off and i noticed the cane later on that day so i kept it with me and when i went back down to la play, when i worked my way back down there on a break to give it to him, he kissed my hand, 'cuz he can't talk. so he grabbed my hand and he kissed my hand. it just made me know that that was an important thing for him. so that was my proudest moment. [music] >> one couple who were riding with us, morning and afternoon, mr. and mrs. lee. mr. lee was the dialysis patient and he's probably in his 80's and every time we would drive up to buchanan street,

the hospital, mr. lee would say, "good job, fine driver, number one driver" and he would go like this [thumbs up gesture]. and then as brian would be helping him off the van, mr. lee, i heard him so often say, "brian, if anybody gives you any trouble you send them to me and i'll take care of them." and here great big old brian would say, "henry, you're the first one i would try to get help from." and he says, "the second one is elsa." [laugh] so we knew that we were being relied on by brian. a few weeks back, mrs. lee called brian early in the morning to tell him not to bother picking them up because they were already at the hospital. mr. lee was ill and she had taken him to the er. the next day or so, brian, on his lunchtime, found out that mr. lee had been admitted to the hospital and he went up to mr. lee's room and just stuck his head in just to say hello. and the minute mr. lee saw him

he went [gesture thumb up in the air] like that. and mrs. lee said, "he's telling you again you're number one driver. so brian really appreciated that; he thought that was really sweet. but he could see mr. lee wasn't doing so well so he left really quickly. and unfortunately, mr. lee passed away that evening. that had a great impact on brian and me. it was very sad, but it was so touching that he had seen mr. lee and mr. lee had confirmed that brian was "number one driver." >> this is san francisco paratransit. it's not perfect; we have our ups and downs: late trips, frustrated customers, stressed out drivers. but at our best, we get our riders where they need to go on time and with a smile.

and when we pay attention real carefully and notice what's happening on the van, taxi, or at the senior center, we notice that our drivers make a difference in the rider's lives and the riders make a difference in the drivers lives.

test. >> good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco budget & finance sub-committee i'm supervisor wiener to my right is

supervisor kim the committee vice chair and supervisor cohen will not be able to join us today, our clerk is awning debris awe bigger and thank you to commissioner honda jennifer lowe and other. madam clerk, any announcements? phones, pagers and similar sound-producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. implemented speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk and the. >> can i have a motion to excuse supervisor cohen. >> madam clerk one item. this is for the business sign in the planning code >> thank you. i'm the author of item one my co-sponsor is supervisor chiu.