>> we have a great program today. i know many of you are here to celebrate the opening of a building. so many more of us are here because it's an exciting day to celebrate the life of one of our good friends and colleagues, natalie gub, and a lot of us are gathered here for both, so -- [applause]

>> i'm doug shoemaker, and we're lucky enough to be here with you to celebrate this fantastic day. i'm wandering over here, wondering what to say, but i think i have it pretty much intact. in addition to the opening of a building, natalie was somebody that was near and dear to many people. you see a lot of us wearing these pins that say i worked for natalie, and i think half of the people in housing feel that way, whether you worked for the city, worked for a housing director or whether you worked directly for natalie. i know that, you know, by the time i accomplished next to nothing, natalie was already taking credit for whatever it is that i did, and whatever it is that i ever accomplished, she took double credit for. i know i'm not alone in the room

when i say she deserves twice as much credit as she took, and she took a lot of credit. i'm not going to take a lot of time today, but i want to take a moment and thank mayor london breed, who's here with you all. went to bed last night, there was a housing authority. woke up this morning and suddenly discovered that the city is stepping in in a very profound way to assist with this big problem. i don't know how many of you read the chronicle, but it's one of the reasons to make me excited to have london breed in the mayor, i think there are many places in the united states that their housing authorize runs into the same problems we had, and the city turns a blind eye. but you know that this city is not turning its back on the

housing authority nor to its citizens, and it makes me proud to be a citizen and it makes me proud to have a mayor like london breed. >> the hon. london breed: thank you, doug, and thank you, mercy housing, not just for the natalie gub comments here but for housing projects all over san francisco that serve a low-income population. and i want to thank david, natalie's husband, thank you so much for being with us. this is to commemorate another 120 100% affordable units in san francisco. with the unit right next to it, this is 190 affordable units here in the city and county of

san francisco. it is such a beautiful day to cut the ribbon on the property, but also to honor a person who fought for low-income tax credits dating back to the 1980's. natalie was an incredible advocate, and i see many of you wearing buttons. you had the opportunity to work with her on creative solutions for housing affordable not just in san francisco but throughout the state of california. we know this is not just a battle to make sure that we have affordable housing in san francisco, we need to make sure that we have affordable housing throughout the state of california and look at our dated policies that have existed since the 1960's and make changes. it's why i was so proud to lead the effort around neighborhood preference legislation, so that 40% of all new developments would go to the people who

actually live in that community first to avoid displacement of the existing residents. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: you know, projects like this making mayor wonderful, but i want to make sure we create thousands more. i don't want a city that has extremely wealthy and extremely poor, we need everyone in between to be able to afford to live in a place like san francisco, a place that i was born and raised in. and i am just so happy to be here because this is not just any commons, this is not just any apartment complex, there will be child care on-site for the families that are here, which is absolutely amazing. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: so we have more work to do, and i want to thank so many amazing people to helped to make this possible, of course, starting with mercy

housing, the office of community investment and infrastructure, the mayor's office of housing and community development. i know kate hartley is here, hope sf and wells fargo. it takes a village to create something like this, and today is a day we celebrate affordable housing in san francisco, and thank you all so much for being a part of it. [applause] >> so the mayor made brief reference to it, and i just want to follow up on one of her points. so mercy housing has the good fortune to be working with the city and the housing authority and our partner related on the redevelopment and renovation of sunnydale and visitacion valley. i want to thank ocii and the mayor's office of housing and the mayor because we were able

to do something extraordinary, we were able to provide residents of sunnydale a property that has been falling apart for a while because of just lack of funds, we're rebuilding it. it's going to take sometime, but as a consequence of the fact that we had housing opportunities here, ocii and the mayor's office stepped up and made 23 of those apartments available to the residents of sunnydale who decided they wanted to try living here in this neighborhood. [applause] >> so it's an incredibly important thing, i think something that we really wanted to see happen. it's amaze not to see something like this happen in a short period of time, but it's really an important opportunity, and i just want to say how much we appreciate it and i'm looking forward to many more opportunities for residents like that, in particular the

residents of sunnydale and potrero. on that note, i want to bring up supervisor jane kim, who as many of you know, has been to as many of these ribbon cuttings that you can imagine. i think there's been more affordable housing in her district than any in the city. but foremost ribbon cuttings in a supervisorial term, if she hasn't won it, i don't know who has. she's been a profound supporter of affordable housing if her career. she's been a great friend to mercy housing and all the work that you do, and i want to thank and welcome supervisor kim. [applause] >> supervisor kim: i think i hold the most ribbon cuttings for any housing development in the city as we build 60% of all of san francisco's housing, and i'm really proud that the

majority of the affordable housing is being built in this district, the south of market, mission bay, and the tenderloin. and while that takes leadership, i also have to thank the residents of district six who have accepted affordable housing, believed in mixed income communities and has not put up barriers to us building housing in this neighborhood. this would not be possible if not for us having such graed community leadership and organizations here. so i am a proud neighbor of mercy housing. i am surrounded by mercy housing where i live in the south of market. to the south of me, we have columbia square. to the north of me, we have two projects on howard street. to the south of me, we have del soro housing, that we just cut the ribbon on last year, and to the west, we have another.

there is nothing more rewarding than seeing the real households, families and seniors that get to stay here in san francisco with security in knowing that they are able to walk into a healthy and safe home every single night with their children and with their grandparents. and this project is exciting because it was the very first -- well, i'm sorry. it was the very first of my time on the board of supervisors when we were -- when we had started initiating the transbay redevelopment process. the first was 100% affordable housing across the street, renee casa nas -- casa nueva. 190 units of affordable housing

is an extraordinary project in a single -- in a single building. and on top of that, it has really been our affordable housing developers in transbay that have been the first to lease up their ground floor retail, so whether it's phil's coffee or our affordable child care site, it has been the retailers that has been the first to lease up to child care, and ensure that the amenities provided to all of our residents are there from day one, and so i ask the market rate developers to follow in their leadership in activating our neighborhood for all of us. [applause] >> supervisor kim: i do want to recognize the staff of ocii, our director, nadia cesae.

finally, beyond, of course, recognizing the amazing staff at mercy housing that bring our policies into actual fruition and make this a reality for our residents that get to live there, i do want to give a special thanks to natalie gub and her family. i know that her family and husband, david, are here today. i learned a little bit about

this opening, as well. i did not realize that natalie was instrumental in drafting the low-income housing tax credit in 1986, and i cannot tell you how critical that has been in almost the construction of every single affordable housing development in san francisco, and if not for natalie's tenacious implementation of this, thousands of housing units would never have been built in san francisco. i want to thank natalie, i want to thank her family for supporting her immense leadership that has benefited thousands of households throughout the country and certainly here in san francisco. i have to say, i think this is the first ribbon cutting that i've been to where a building is named after a woman. [applause] >> supervisor kim: examine it is time that we recognize women for their contribution and leadership here in our city, so thank you very much to everyone.

[applause] >> i don't know if we should be proud that we're the first building that the supervisor can remember -- i know it was said lovingly. i think it's great that we named the building after a woman, and i'm trying to rack my brain to see if this organization led my women has done the right thing on this, but if we haven't named enough buildings after women, blame jane graff. that's all i'm going to say on that topic. manage up. i don't know what to tell you. so no, this is a fabulous district. mercy housing has achieved what we have achieved so much as an organization because we are based here in san francisco. there's no chance that we would be the organization that we are

today because the partnership of the city of san francisco. i think, you know, i look at all these colleagues, and i know there are days where we fight like siblings. i think it's like siblings. i think that's the right thing, but on days like today, i think we can really feel a proud sense of joint accomplishment of all the things that we accomplish together. there is no more a mercy housing building than an ocii building than a city of san francisco building. these impossible to do on your own. it is fantastic that we have a city that tries and tries and tries to raise the bar ever higher. sometimes we raise it too high, and we have to readjust, but if you don't raise it high, you'll never get to where you need to go. i think there are few cities in the nation that could have said we have 35% of affordable neighborhoods with these types

of units and these types of rents, but we are doing it. i want to thank the staff at housing and ocii, and we have another unit across. these are 600 units of affordable and market rate, and the project across the street is going to be 700. these units are going to be 50% affordable. i think i've got my math right, and if i don't, blame jeff. i'd like to thank the supervisors. they've made these opportunities extraordinary for the developers and all the people that work with ocii, the staff and everyone else. it would not be possible but for the leadership and the staff. and i want to bring up lawanda harda to talk a little bit about the organization. >> thank you. as you can tell, all the women are on one side, and the men are on this side. thank you, natalie.

it's a beautiful day in san francisco, especially at natalie gub commons. finally, a name. we used to be calling this transbay block number six and number seven, and now it is the natalie gub commons, and it is a woman. i'm sure natalie is smiling and applauding us today from march up there, so i'm deeply honored to be able to celebrate with our city and nonprofit partners to celebrate this beautiful and much needed affordable housing complex. when the transbay development project was adopted 13 years ago, these were the types of buildings the former redevelopment agency envisioned. isn't it beautiful? i could live here. i live across from here. i'm a proud neighbor, and a b.m.r. tenant. so beautiful -- yes, so i know what it's like. so beautiful, affordable homes in the center of downtown san

francisco that fit in seamlessly with the surrounding community. this is the third project by mercy housing, and -- and thank you, doug, for leading this project. i want to congratulate natalie gub, whose family is here today, and her husband, david, for all of her hard work for bringing numerous housing projects to fruition. she will be remembered by all of us, but especially in the affordable housing community. as someone who lives in the neighborhood myself, i could actually have walked here, but i took lyft, and i didn't realize after he turned i was here, so i was one of the very early people who were here. i didn't realize where i was, i kind of got discombobulated. i was here when no one else was

here, so i'm pleased to see more affordable housing in the pipeline. about 1100 units in transbay alone, so i want to commend my fellow commissioners, commissioner rosales, commissioner singh, and commissioner scott who are here, and of course mayor london breed who used to be in the redevelopment commission. because of all of you, because of the work that the commissioners put in pro bono, we're able to achieve this project. and of course, the ocii staff led by nadia cesay, our executive director, thank you for our leadership, and of course, mercy housing, the mayor's office of housing and community development, mohcd, hope sf, the housing authority, and many others. it's been a joy to collaborate in this endeavor. so i also want to thank mayor breed, thank you for your continued leadership.

supervisor jane kim, my supervisor in district six. i've lived here for 35 years. don shoemaker, the president of mercy housing. the services provider, the south of market child care center, have you checked this out, this child care for 40 kids? it's beautiful [applause] >> i mean, look at all these things here that they provider our kids. we have -- the architect, architect santos prescott -- there you are -- well, from the company. another woman, the contractor, kayhill construction. is kayhill construction -- oh, there i see a hand -- a couple of hands. we have oh, the key staff of ocii that made this happen. thank you for all your work. [applause] >> the mohcd director, kay

hartley, the hsa director barbara smith. so thank you all for being here. today is really a beautiful day in san francisco, and thank you for joining the celebration. [applause] >> all right. i'm going to thank mayor lee, especially since she thanked half the people that i was supposed to. anyone i didn't mention, i want to thank, as well. we -- we do a lot of these ribbon cuttings, which is great. we like to do them as often as we possibly can. part of what makes it possible is to have an understanding of what it takes to get this done. so in the obscure world of housing, you heard about the tax credit, which i'm sure you talk about over dinner.

at least if you're in the affordable housing world, you talk about it all the time. you can't escape it. natalie was an expert in this. she helped shape the way our industry works with these programs, and she -- i think in addition to shaping those of us that work on this side, she shaped or banking and investment partners. no, natalie was tough, not as tough as then commissioner breed when she was on the redevelopment commission, but she was tough. and we are really lucky. we have some tremendous financing partners that we get to work with on these projects. it's a very specialized field. we get to work with a lot of these individuals in this world, and very few do it as well as wells fargo. i'm going to bring up tim mccann from our wonderful partner, wells fargo. >> thank you, thank you mercy

housing, for inviting me. can i move this? thank you. i'm just going to make a few brief comments. my name's tim mccann, and i represent wells fargo. we've invested $30 million in this project, and we're the construction lender for $35 million. i want to thank my internal partners at wells fargo. we've always worked together with mercy housing to form this partnership, and i really appreciate this opportunity not only to partner with you, but to be part of natalie gub commons which is historic in its own way. like i said, i work for wells fargo, and wells fargo believes part of our culture is investing in our communities because we believe -- we can only be as successful as the communities that we invest in. and i work for a group that's called community lending investment, and that commitment extends nationwide, and we're

the largest investor in low-income housing tax credits. we invest about $2 billion a year for the past four or five years, and we're very proud of that. we're also proud of the partners that we partner with, and i especially want to thank mercy housing, a cast of thousands, i think, and we're really proud to be partners with them, and we're proud to partner with ocii, the mayor's office of housing, london breed, everybody in san francisco that has made this project come together. we really appreciate that. and i especially want to thank natalie gub. i have kind of a story. i hope it makes sense. there's a sports analogy on here, and seeing how i'm on a basketball court, maybe it all makes sense. so i was a boy, i wanted to be a professional athlete like most

boys, and i always imagined someday i would be playing with larry byrd or something like that. spoiler alert, it didn't work out. i went to work for a firm out of college, in consulting, back in 1992 when i was in my 20's. and i worked for fnme. and every time i worked with mercy housing, they were represented by natalie gub. i thought natalie was amazing, she knew what she was doing. joel worked on those, as well. i didn't think he was quite so amazing, but that's another story. natalie worked on all these deals, and she was a dig player in the transactions. i was doing all the work but not getting any credit. so my career moved on. i went to work with wachovia,

and then, they merged with wells fargo. and wells fargo asked me to go to california again, and i worked again with natalie gub. and working with natalie gub was kind of like playing with larry byrd. here's somebody who is a big part of the industry, started the industry, was a big player in my mind, and here i was, working with her, so it was very exciting for me. i felt like i kind of matriculated to the brass ring to work with natalie gub to have her be a partner of mine, a mentor of mine. it was tli it was thrilling to come to california to work with her, and i think it's fitting that this is named natalie gub commons. thank you very much. >> i don't know if any of you are trying to figure out which

celtic tim is. knicks or warriors. people move around. what once would have been a career at the celtics, now, she would have had a lot of opportunities. thanks, tim, there are other people that aren't here, and i do want to thank the state department of housing and community development. some of you are wondering with what happens with the cap and trade dollars that we get at the state level as we've been working to try to figure out how to control carbon emissions and make the world safe for the next generation. one part of how the state invests that money is in projects like this, whereas marily said -- try a scooter

next time. i hear they're wonderful. but those funds are invested in projects like this. if you live at natalie gub commons, you have the opportunity to walk just about anywhere in the city. you can get on any forms of transit. soon, there will be high speed rail -- it's hard to visualize. that's why i'm having trouble. we're inches away from the transbay terminal, and it's that kind of investment that will enable people to live without cars or use cars on a periodic basis, and that's why the state invests so much in things like this. it's so important as you speak to elected officials that you recognize sort of where the money that we're using to build these projects goes to. when you run into your representatives or state senators, you can remind them how important is projects like this. all right. i want to transition now, we've talked a lot about the project

and people have made reference to natalie. i -- i was lucky, when i came to mercy, the relationship with natalie and david was already very, very strong. it extended well beyond anything that relates to the business or work that we do, and david and natalie have welcomed countless members of the mercy housing staff and family into their homes over the years and into the relationships that we were all able to form over the years. we had a very nice, small event with the family here about two or three weeks ago. david said some wonderful words, and he has greagreed to share a little bit more here, so i want to bring up natalie's husband, david. >> i am honored to be here today to acknowledge the legacy of natalie, and to represent our

two sons, erin and ethan, and natalie's sister and brother. having natalie's name attached to a place that people call home in this city she so loved makes a profound statement of her life's work. often when we were in san francisco together, natalie would insist that we see one or more of the many affordable housing developments she worked on and was so proud of. as map reading and a sense of direction were not really her forte, i often had to navigate the way to the housing developments that she wanted to show me. i have a sense, though, that even natalie would not have difficulty locating natalie gub commons. right here in the heart of this city, in transformation. another little known fact about natalie was her lack of interest in looking at site and building

plans. she would ask clients to please just describe it in words, but if natalie were here today, she would not need to hear words to feel honored by this very public dedication of a beautiful property that provides desperately needed housing that she worked so tirelessly to provide for more than 30 years. however, as those of you who worked with her can well imagine, she would have deeply appreciated all of the words that are being spoken here today in recognition of her life's work. natalie likes to dispense with formality. she would correct children who addressed her as ms. gub, or,

god forbid, mrs. gub, advising them to ad her as natalie. i am grateful, as i know she would have been, to have this home for many named natalie gub commons, and to be here today in acknowledgement and celebration. on behalf of all of us, thank you. the entire mercy housing team, and all the other people that are involved in this family of building such needed housing and for honoring natalie's work and life in such a thoughtful and meaningful way. [applause] >> thanks, david. well, many people thank many

people, and i'm looking at my list because i want to be sure i don't forget all the people that i usually forget, but i do want to thank another folks. i think they're mentioned already, but the fab lus folks at south of market child care. i think it's going to be a fabulous place. it's not unnoticed by all of us just how profound moving into an affordable housing development can be on the lives of future children, it's profound, and we're looking forward to the partnership with you. i want to also thank some folks that did the hard work, greg chin from california partnership, julia bennett, chris rivera, who does the construction management for us. i just want to make a minute, if you work for mercy housing, if you wouldn't mind just raising your hand, standup for a second

to just be acknowledged for all of the great work that you do. [applause] >> you know, i think mercy housing is a very special place, but i just saw someone acknowledge we're part of a broader movement and a field of people who do this work. many of the people in this room go to other ribbon cuttings just like this. we're fortunate in a we can go to work at a place that we can do so much good in the world. it's a very rewarding feeling to go to work most days. and, you know, we joke at mercy housing that we're the world's worst marketsing people. i don't really think it's a joke. we're not all that great at marketing. maybe we need to start selling

something like lemonjade or something. but i think this is great marketing. i'm personally very thrilled. my kids are a little bit like david described. they know their way around san francisco by pinpointing -- yes, dad, we know, that's the bg on ocean avenue. yes, dad -- they were forced to take the affordable housing tour with great regularity, and i'm pleased that the affordable housing, we moved it off the pink palate. today, we've moved away with that. bruce took a big step away with transbay six, much to the delight of our partners. small inside joke. in any event, we're winding down, but i do want to just take a moment, we have a moment in

all of our openings that we take a minute to hear from somebody who lives in here. adrian lived in this building and he's already made a giant step back. he seems to be a very, very active member of this neighborhood. i personally at this moment -- i don't even know what disney musical or disney show -- i went to sleep in rincon, but i woke up here in east cut. he's been a tremendous asset to the staff and to the neighborhood, and i want to bring him up now. [applause] >> hi, everybody. my name is adrian caratosa.

i'm a resident of natalie gub commons. i am very lucky to be in this building. i know a lot of people have applied for this lottery. this is my 25th lottery. six years, it took me to get in. [applause] >> i used to live in a t.m.c. building in the tenderloin for five years. they were really good to me. a little bit about me, when i was nine years old, i contracted h.i.v., and early stage of my life, i had a lot of health issues. for a long time, i did not feel like i mattered, and i definitely felt like no one would ever hire me. and when i got into this place, i actually felt for the first time in my life that i could do something for other people. so me paying it forward, letting other people know that they matter, no matter how much money

or no money they make, they are equal to everyone else. for me to be living here and hopefully for the rest of my life, i want to make a difference. i'm pushing for affordable groceries in this building or in this entire area. that's a big thing to me. [applause] >> and yeah, i'm -- a couple years ago i was someone who could not go into a room full of people, and here i am, giving a speech, winging it. i'm very fortunate to be in this building. i hope i can make a change, but more importantly, i hope i can help other people to embrace their voice, as well. so thank you so much. [applause] >> you guys see the cable tv possibilities, right? i think it is very hard for me to picture that adrian is somebody that had a hard time speaking in front of people. but really appreciate your work,

and your advocacy on behalf of the neighborhood, and i'm sure the commissioners are hearing your excitement about having affordable groceries, although just to clarify, not at this building. thank you so much for your patience. i know it was a relatively long program. it's a fantastic day here in san francisco. it's a great day to celebrate our partnership together and celebrate natalie gubb. we're going to ask your patient, once these people have cleared through, feel free to standup. there's some food on the inside in the common area, and thank you so much for coming here and joining us here today.

>> this neighborhood was lived for approximately 22 years. >> yeah, like 21 years. >> 21 years in this neighborhood. >> in the same house. >> we moved into this neighborhood six months after we got married, actually. just about our whole entire married life has been here in excel. >> the owner came to the house and we wanted to sell the house and we were like, what? we were scared at first.

what are we going to do? where are we going to move into? the kids' school? our jobs? >> my name is maria. i'm a preschool teacher for the san francisco unified school district. >> my name is ronnie and i work in san francisco and i'm a driver from a local electrical company. >> we went through meta first and meta helped us to apply and be ready to get the down payment assistant loan program. that's the program that we used to secure the purchase of our home. it took us a year to get our credit ready to get ready to apply for the loan. >> the whole year we had to wait and wait through the process and

then when we got the notice, it's like, we were like thinking that. >> when we found out that we were settling down and we were going to get approved and we were going to go forward, it was just a really -- we felt like we could breathe. we have four kids and so to find a place even just to rent for a family of six. and two dogs. >> we were going to actually pay more for rent and to own a house. >> it feels good now to have to move. it feels for our children to stay in the neighborhood that they have grown in. they grew up here and they were born here. they know this neighborhood. they don't know anything outside san francisco. >> we really have it. >> we'd love to say thank you to the mayor's office. they opened a door that we thought was not possible to be opened for us. they allowed us to continue to live here. we're raising our family in san francisco and just to be able to

continue to be here is the great lesson. >> hi. my name is carmen chiu, san francisco's aelectricitied assessor. today, i want to share with you a property tax savings programs for families called proposition 58. prop 58 was passed in 1986 and it was helped parents pass on their lower property tax base to their children. so how does this work? under california's prop 13 law, the value we use to calculate your property tax is limited to 2% growth peryear. but when ownership changes, prop 13 requires that we reassess properties to market

value. if parents want to pass on their home or other property to their children, it would be considered a change in ownership. assuming the market value of your property has gone up, your children, the new owners, would pay taxes starting at that new higher level. that's where prop 58 comes in. prop 58 recognizes the transfer between parents and children so that instead of taxing your children at that new higher level, they get to keep your lower prop 13 value. remember, prop 58 only applies to transfers between parents and children. here's how the law twines an eligible child. a biological child, a step child, child adopted before the age of 18, and a son-in-law or daughter-in-law. to benefit from this tax saving program, remember, you just have to apply. download the prop 58 form from our website and submit it to our office.

now you may ask, is there a cap how much you can pass on. well, first, your principal residence can be excluded. other than that, the total tap of properties that can use this exclusion cannot exceed $1 million. this means for example if you have two other properties, each valued at $500,000, you can exclude both because they both fit under the $1 million cap. now what happens hwhen the totl value you want to pass on exceeds $1 million. let's say you have four properties. three with current taxable value of $300,000 and one at $200,000, totaling $1.1 million in value. assuming that you decide to pass on properties one, two, and three, we would apply the exclusions on a first come, first served basis. you would deduct properties one, two, and three, and you would still have $100,000 left to pass on. what happens when you pass on the last property?

this property, house four, has been existing value of 2 -- has an existing value of $200,000, and its existing property value is actually higher, $700,000. as i said, the value left in your cap is $100,000. when we first figure out your portion, we figure out the portion that can be excluded. we do that by dividing the exclusion value over the assessed value. in this case, it's 50%. this means 50% of the property will remain at its existing value. meanwhile, the rest will be reassessed at market value. so the new taxable value for this property will be 50% of the existing value, which is 200,000, equaling 100,000, plus the portion reassessed to market value, which is 50% times $700,000, in other words, 350,000, with a total coming out to $450,000. a similar program is also

available for prepping transfers fl interest r from grandparents to grandchildren. if you're interested in learning more visit our website or >> this is one place you can always count on to give you what you had before and remind you of what your san francisco history used to be. >> we hear that all the time, people bring their kids here

and their grandparents brought them here and down the line. >> even though people move away, whenever they come back to the city, they make it here. and they tell us that. >> you're going to get something made fresh, made by hand and made with quality products and something that's very, very good. ♪ >> the legacy bars and restaurants was something that was begun by san francisco simply to recognize and draw attention to the establishments. it really provides for san francisco's unique character. ♪ >> and that morphed into a request that we work with the city to develop a legacy business registration.

>> i'm michael cirocco and the owner of an area bakery. ♪ the bakery started in 191. my grandfather came over from italy and opened it up then. it is a small operation. it's not big. so everything is kind of quality that way. so i see every piece and cut every piece that comes in and out of that oven. >> i'm leslie cirocco-mitchell, a fourth generation baker here with my family. ♪ so we get up pretty early in the morning. i usually start baking around 5:00. and then you just start doing rounds of dough. loaves. >> my mom and sister basically handle the front and then i have my nephew james helps and then my two daughters and my wife come in and we actually do the baking. after that, my mom and my sister stay and sell the

product, retail it. ♪ you know, i don't really think about it. but then when i -- sometimes when i go places and i look and see places put up, oh this is our 50th anniversary and everything and we've been over 100 and that is when it kind of hits me. you know, that geez, we've been here a long time. [applause] ♪ >> a lot of people might ask why our legacy business is important. we all have our own stories to tell about our ancestry. our lineage and i'll use one example of tommy's joint. tommy's joint is a place that my husband went to as a child and he's a fourth generation san franciscan. it's a place we can still go to today with our children or grandchildren and share the stories of what was san

francisco like back in the 1950s. >> i'm the general manager at tommy's joint. people mostly recognize tommy's joint for its murals on the outside of the building. very bright blue. you drive down and see what it is. they know the building. tommy's is a san francisco hoffa, which is a german-style presenting food. we have five different carved meats and we carve it by hand at the station. you prefer it to be carved whether you like your brisket fatty or want it lean. you want your pastrami to be very lean. you can say i want that piece of corn beef and want it cut, you know, very thick and i want it with some sauerkraut.

tell the guys how you want to prepare it and they will do it right in front of you. san francisco's a place that's changing restaurants, except for tommy's joint. tommy's joint has been the same since it opened and that is important. san francisco in general that we don't lose a grip of what san francisco's came from. tommy's is a place that you'll always recognize whenever you lock in the door. you'll see the same staff, the same bartender and have the same meal and that is great. that's important. ♪ >> the service that san francisco heritage offers to the legacy businesses is to help them with that application process, to make sure that they

really recognize about them what it is that makes them so special here in san francisco. ♪ so we'll help them with that application process if, in fact, the board of supervisors does recognize them as a legacy business, then that does entitle them to certain financial benefits from the city of san francisco. but i say really, more importantly, it really brings them public recognition that this is a business in san francisco that has history and that is unique to san francisco. >> it started in june of 1953. ♪ and we make everything from scratch. everything. we started a you -- we started a off with 12 flavors and

mango fruits from the philippines and then started trying them one by one and the family had a whole new clientele. the business really boomed after that. >> i think that the flavors we make reflect the diversity of san francisco. we were really surprised about the legacy project but we were thrilled to be a part of it. businesses come and go in the city. pretty tough for businesss to stay here because it is so expensive and there's so much competition. so for us who have been here all these years and still be popular and to be recognized by the city has been really a huge honor. >> we got a phone call from a woman who was 91 and she wanted to know if the mitchells still owned it and she was so happy

that we were still involved, still the owners. she was our customer in 1953. and she still comes in. but she was just making sure that we were still around and it just makes us feel, you know, very proud that we're carrying on our father's legacy. and that we mean so much to so many people. ♪ >> it provides a perspective. and i think if you only looked at it in the here and now, you're missing the context. for me, legacy businesses, legacy bars and restaurants are really about setting the context for how we come to be where we are today. >> i just think it's part of san francisco. people like to see familiar stuff. at least i know i do. >> in the 1950s, you could see a picture of tommy's joint and looks exactly the same. we haven't change add thing.

>> i remember one lady saying, you know, i've been eating this ice cream since before i was born. and i thought, wow! we have, too.

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and all kinds of work. >> i'm jane a program director for the state of california i have the privilege of working on special technology projects for the depth of the technology a passion for helping people and a passion for doing work that makes a difference and makes me feel good at night and i think about what i did today and helping every single person in the city as. >> a technology professional a need for more women and more women in leadership roles the diversity and the leadership pipeline is an area that needs a little bit of love. >> a lot of love. >> a whole lost love. >> i'll contribute for the change for women's equality by

showing up and demonstrating that the face of success schizophrenia came come in a variety of corresponds. >> they're a lot of roadblocks for san francisco when it comes to our proposition and finding a play for information that has how to start and grow management so we started to build the san francisco business portal not just consults or the taxpayers and voters they're actually customers we are the government serving the consumers in our neighborhood i point to at least one best that i personally touched with one way or another and makes me feel good about the projects like the business portal and in embarking on this new exciting journey ond