>> i love teaching. it is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. >> this really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. this is very enriching as an artist. a lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. >> there are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. that is a really big draw. >> this is a signature piece. this is the bill largest darkroom in the u.s.. >> there are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room.

>> i think it is the heart of this place. you feel it when you come in. >> the people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also everyone who works here is working in photography.

>> we get to build the community here. this is different. first of all, this is a great location. it is in a less-populated area. >> of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. it is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. the people have a lot, they can really come together and share a love and a passion. >> we offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to process your first roll of film. we offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing.

we offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. there is a way for the programs exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. >> hello, my name is jennifer. >> my name is simone. we are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill. >> c'mon, c'mon, c'mon. >> actually, i have been here a lot. i have never looked closely enough to see everything. now, i get to take pictures. >> we want to try to get them to be more creative with it.

we let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. >> you can focus in here. >> that was cool. >> if you see that? >> behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. the see any more hills? >> these kids are wonderful. they get to explore, they get to see different things. >> we let them explore a little bit. they get their best. if their parents ever ask, we can learn -- they can say that

they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. some of the things they come up with are fantastic. that is what we're trying to encourage. these kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. >> a lot of people come into my classes and they don't feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them some tips and ideas. >> this is kind of the best kept secret. you should come on and take a class. we have orientations on most saturdays. this is a really wonderful location and is the real jewel to the community. >> ready to develop your photography skills? the harvey milk photo center

focuses on adult classes. and saturday workshops expose youth and adults to photography classes. >> hi everyone. welcome. we're going to start our program today. i'm captain paul yep. i want to welcome everyone here today. elected officials, department heads and thank you media, i know you're getting wet. thank you for being here. first of all, happy up coming lunar new year of the dog. some characters are loyalty and honesty and principles in helping and serving others, thus

they make good police officers, scientists, politicians and judges. the office at central station must be convinced i was born in the year of the dog because of the barking i do at the station but i was born in the year of the monkey. i had the fortune of taking over the station. i worked at central station for retired deputy chief tom, the captain for the years of the dragon, the snake and the horse. during the dynasties, they worked vigorously to end extortion, reduce overall crimes and increase public safety in chinatown. we work hard to continue to build on their successes and legacy. they built great relationships and friendships in the chinatown

community and our city family. chinatown has been known as an underserved community. i want to personally thank officials, the mayor, commissioner peskin for their continued support and dedication to public safety and resources to chinatown. thanks to you, we have more officers dedicated to you can wassing -- we have more officers working in chinatown. we have improved traffic safety and safety on muni we will continue to work on. thank you. (applause)

>> thank you very much. thank you. >> you have to protect the hair. >> you're absolutely right. hello everyone. i'm the new executive director and happy to be back in san francisco. we're looking forward to making it another celebration of a crime-free lunar new year. when the event was started 21 years ago it was a time when san francisco was often fearful because of the extortion and pick pocketing that was common. until recently extortion cases were in the hundreds and now down to very few. we're thrilled to say the reports of lunar new year related crimes directly related to our work and building

connections with neighborhoods and businesses and folks like you in the community. i hope you join us as we walk the neighborhood to visit our neighbors and share more tips while we celebrate the lunar new year. we'll hold another event like this tomorrow at mr. bread. we hope to see you there. to help launch one of the san francisco great celebration seasons, a native and someone i have known for a long time, i want to introduce acting mayor london breed. (applause) >> thank you. >> no job too big or too small. (laughter) >> thank you commander lazar for protecting my hair today.

(laughter) he doesn't just protect people, he protects hair. good afternoon everyone. i want to start by thanking sf safe executive director for being here and congratulations on your new role. this is another incredible event. we host it every year. i want to thank and acknowledge, i know many of my colleagues are here and will be speaking, thank you to chief scott for being here and carmen chew. this is a good moment to remind people to be aware. the lunar new year brings so many people to san francisco, but specifically to our great chinatown. and the festivities, although we have a good time and love the

excitement of it all, it sadly provides an opportunity for criminals. we need our residents to be vigilant and alert. and please remember, if you see something, say something. shortly after mayor lee's passing i met with a number of chi chinatown leaders and heard some of their concerns and sadly some of the examples going on, including the asian blessing scams that have targeted seniors. to help address the issues i'm announcing today we're adding two foot patrol officers to join the chinatown central station from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. so a total of seven officers walking the beats and in the area during that time. the two new officers will be

joining the one sergeant and four officers of the housing units that are already a part of the shifts. and i want to stop and thank all of the police officers who are here today who continue to serve and protect our neighborhoods and i want to thank captain yip and the folks at central station for the work they put in specifically. by working closely, we'll make sure the neighborhood is a safe and secure place for all of its residents. i wish you have a safe and prosperous lunar new year. (speaking chinese) thank you. (applause) i want to introduce one of our most crucial partners for building connections between san francisco and officers, welcome

chief of police mr. scott. (applause) >> thank you. thank you mayor breed. i'm going to be brief and get you guys out of the rain hopefully. thank you to everybody who came here today and braved the rain to talk about safety for the lunar new year. happy new year. this will be a prosperous year for our city. this is the 21st year that sf safe has given safety awareness tips for the lunar new year and i know our campaign on public safety is really about the people and keeping everybody safe and making sure people don't get victimized. first of all, i want to remind everybody to be aware, we have had some i believe targeting of some of our asian merchants.

we need people to be aware of that issue. i'm going to talk about a few tips to help people with that. blessing scams have been an issue in the community and we don't want anybody to fall prey to that. be aware of strangers, if anybody is asking for money or jewelry or anything like that, you might want to take caution and be aware. don't follow strangers home and don't bring any to your home. don't bring strangers to withdraw money or take out valuables in their presence. before withdrawing large sums of money or valuables, have a discussion with people you trust in your family first. often times people act on emotion and that's what the scam artists and people who prey on this type of person, that's what they do. they play on emotions. so often times when you talk to other people, you have a chance to collect your thoughts and think twice before you act.

please talk with someone you trust in your family or a good friend before withdrawing large sums of money. our commitment to providing education for the merchants is ongoing. we'll have merchant walks, i'm going to rollout the calendar, i think over 2,000 of these -- got it upside down -- but i think they'll be given to the merchants and it has safety tips as well, those will be readily available to remind people what to do to stay safe. also, pedestrian safety is really of the upmost importance. san francisco through the leadership and vision of mayor ed lee has engaged in vision zero and what that means, we want to cut traffic fatalities down to zero by 2024. we believe what was once a

distant vision and dream, we're well on our way to make it happen. we need your help. pedestrian safety is very important, particularly in chinatown. it's a condensed area. please don't drive distracted and if you're walking don't walk distracted. those simple things can help reduce accidents and fatalities and be kind to neighbors and friends in terms of allowing the pedestrians to walk about the street freely without having to worry about distracted driving. one of our commitments is language access. we know we have a lot of non english speaking residents and people who visit and live in the city. and sfpd is committeed to giving language access to those who don't speak english. so our officers are trained, we have translators and access is a huge thing in the community.

we need people to report what they see. we need people to feel comfortable talking to us, the police officer and the district attorney's office and other people in the criminal justice sxm access is really, really important for us. our training is ongoing and we're working with a lot of stakeholders from the community to make sure the language access is not a problem for anybody. i can go on further but i'm going to stop there. i know we have a lot of people who want to speak today. i want to say thank you for your support and it's a pleasure to work with you and let's have a safe chinese lunar new year. thank you. (applause) >> throughout his time district attorney has been a fantastic partner, including prosecuting the people who committed blessing scams. district attorney.

>> thank you. and happy year of the dog to everyone. it's wonderful to be here today, even with the rain. we were talking that we've had years here where we have to wear sunblock and today we wear as umbrellas. we continue to move forward for public safety in this community and other communities. years ago we would be talking about blessing scams and the first jurisdiction in the country to prosecute the cases successfully and they're not what they used to be. but nevertheless, we need to continue to be vigilant. we're still having people who are victimized and we depend on the media, specifically the chinese media because it's a crime that impacts the chinese community mostly, our phone number is 415-551-9595.

it's a 24/7 phone. we take cases and we work with our partners at sf safe who are great incredible partners and the police department. but at the end of the day, this is a collaboration and community plays an important role. happy lunar new year and thank you for all you do. i look forward to the parade and the merchant walk today and i just want to take a moment and i know it's in all of our hearts, maybe if we can take one moment of silence in memory of mayor lee. this is a community that obviously he had very, very deeply ties to it and we all should recognize that. so if you would take a moment of silence please. thank you and happy lunar new

year. (applause) >> now i would like to introduce a 30 year district three resident who faithfully represents the businesses and people at city hall, everyone's supervisor peskin. >> thank you. (speaking chinese) all right! i want to -- first, i want to thank and welcome sf safe for doing this for over 20 years, what she said is right, we have seen the number of extortion cases drop year after year. i'm delighted to continue to do this to stay vigilant. thank you chief scott and captain yip and men and women of the san francisco police department. you can see how important it is, from our acting mayor that every

member of the board of supervisors, we take it seriously. let me leave you with one thought to the media to say again and again, report, report, report. if people do not report extortion, we are only as good as the eyes and ears that we have in the community. we have language access as you heard, but please, send the message that people should feel comfortable contacting the police, contacting elected officials to keep our community safe. (applause) >> she is smart and solutions oriented representative for san francisco, growing up in a family running a small business, please welcome miss carmen chew. >> i'm pleased to be here with

everybody as well. i think there's a phrase our supervisor didn't say in chinese. he said them all. he didn't say (chinese) which means have many children to everybody. happy new year. i'm glad to be here. i really think it's important for all of us to get together to remind everybody about the importance of reporting crime. we talked about blessing scams, i think our district attorney spoke about that earlier. i think people know the scammers are very smart. they figure out new ways to trick people and get access to your information and money. so whether it is pretending to be the consulate general's office or blessing scam, be aware and make sure you don't provide personal information to people. (chinese)

(applause) >> someone who has worked closely on the issue and long time advocate for chinatown merchants, eddie owl. >> hi everyone. good afternoon. on behalf of the chinese chamber of commerce, i want to thank san francisco safe organization for working to create a safe environment in which our small business can thrive.

the fight against extortion is extremely important. especially as lunar new year approaches. for over 20 years, will continue support this effort and educate and encourage merchants to report any attempted extortion preparing for the upcoming new year festivities. we must remain aware and work with our local police to ensure the safety of our community. thank you. (speaking chinese)

(speaking chinese) come february 16th and join with us new year day. thank you. >> next, another ally in building strong connections across san francisco cultures. someone i have been grateful to collaborate with in my career in san francisco. i want to welcome chinese newcomer service director george chan. >> hello everyone. i'm george chan, the executive

director of newcomer service center. thank you for letting us join this event. (speaking chinese) (applause) >> okay. our next speaker is someone i have had the pleasure of working with, we have worked together on cross-cultur cross-cultural collaborations, please welcome sarah wong. >> i want to shout out to all the community based organizations, helping out and walking along in chinatown to talk to merchants about safety during new year. i want to shout out to all the special volunteers. thank you for their work.

i wish everyone well, health and happiness in the year of the dog. thank you. (applause) >> now i want to welcome assembly member choy, representing chinatown. >> good afternoon everyone. good to see everyone on a classically sunny day in san francisco. i apologize for being late, i just got here from a floor session in the assembly. but thank you for being part of the important safety announcement. this is a press conference i have taken part in virtually every year i've been in office. it's so important to not just wish everyone a happy lunar new year but make sure we're safe. i know there have been speakers who have talked about fraud and blessing scams but it's so important to get the word out. i want to take a moment to mention another safety issue that has been threatened to our immigrant communities and that

is the recent suggestion and announcement by president trump's immigration authorities that they may be coming down into northern california in the coming weeks and months to do widespread raids of our communities. just this past hour, in sacramento, our attorney general announced we will be certainly enforcing a law that i authored this past year, that is the immigrant worker protection act to ensure that if ice agents come knocking on the doors of work places like restaurants, that employ many immigrant workers, employers are required to ask for subpoenas or judicial warrants before allowing the ice agents to do raids on their work places. i want to help educate the public about this because we are expecting raids imminently and it's important we are prepared as a community that knows how important our immigrant families and workers are in san francisco

and in california. but with that, i want to wish everybody a happy lunar new year and thank you to the organizers and safe for keeping us safe. >> hello. i think we're all going to come together on the board of supervisors. we want to wish you all a happy new year. (speaking chinese) happy new year to everyone. i'm a proud representative, i'm hillary ronen and i want to wish everyone a safe and happy lunar new year. >> (speaking chinese) i want to thank project safe for doing this and we'll be walking in the second chinatown san francisco doing the same thing with our

merchants. happy lunar new year to everyone. >> (speaking chinese) >> good afternoon everyone. i'm commissioner safai. i want to thank the district attorney and police chief from being here today, i am a true believer on deterring crime and what cameras can do and we saw that firsthand in our community. we've had a wave of home break-ins and one of the things that is very helpful in determining the crime are the home security cameras.

i want to encourage people to think about deterring crime. happy lunar new year and year of the dog. >> have much luck and fortune in the new year. i'm jane kim and i'm proud to represent the downtown area, including the market and tenderloin and treasure island. i want to as everyone else had remind everybody to be safe in one of the most important events here in san francisco, celebrating our new year. i want to recognize sf safe and sfpd for their partnership. this is my eighth year participating in this press conference and helping hundreds of people remain safe during if festivities. good luck to all of our residents. i want to thank and recognize paul yip but our captains

working the parades and festivities, darrell fong who is here today, i know will be working closely and from the tenderloin station, we'll be working in concert together to make sure residents and workers are safe as we celebrate the year of the dog. and finally in regards to making sure that we're all aware of what's going on with the blessing scams, i want to appreciate san francisco police chief for working with our officer and supervisor aaron peskin's office to convene a meeting to make sure sfpd is putting the resources it has available to investigating the scams as well. we want our constituents to report, but we want to make sure we're investigating and bringing people to justice to make sure they are not taking advantage of the most vulnerable in our community. happy new year. (applause)

>> okay. so i want to introduce malcolm young from the chinatown community development center. i got it. >> all right you got it! okay. i know, exactly. i'm going to make this quick. all right, so everybody, and the reverend isn't here but i stole it from him and we're going to do it every year. slow down for chinatown! >> slow down for chinatown! >> one more time. slow down for chinatown! all right thank you. pedestrian safety is key during chinese new year, there will be people every where and it's critical we watch out for people so no one gets hurt. one more time, slow down for chinatown! thank you everybody.

>> so in closing, i'm so proud to be here with all these passionate and community oriented leaders. our united efforts can help make san francisco a safer place for all residents. we know a key part of this is being a part of the community, when people know each other they look out for each other. when you stay aware and talk to your neighbors, you help protect your neighborhood and cities. before closing i want to say thank you to everyone in attendance and coming out in this weather. i appreciate it. thank you very much. ♪ ♪

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>> they tend to come up here and drive right up to the vehicle and in and out of their car and into the victim's vehicle, i would say from 10-15 seconds is all it takes to break into a car and they're gone. yeah, we get a lot of break-ins in the area. we try to -- >> i just want to say goodbye. thank you. >> sometimes that's all it takes. >> i never leave anything in my car. >> we let them know there's been a lot of vehicle break-ins in this area specifically, they target this area, rental cars or vehicles with visible items. >> this is just warning about vehicle break-ins. take a look at it. >> if we can get them to take it

with them, take it out of the cars, it helps. . >> and can you please rise for the pledge of allegiance. [ pledge of allegiance ] >> clerk: president turman, i'd like to call roll.