jeremy paul about the farmhouse and the possible dislocation of the artists there. can you give us a little background on that particular issue and if there's any sort of means by which they can upgrade that facility and not have to vacate it while they do it? >> yes. good evening, commissioners. i don't have knowledge of this particular site, but what i do know is the process, and we follow the process, and we're consistent with this. when we receive a complaint, we do respond and inspect. if there is a violation of the fire code, we notify the

occupants. there very well may be a complaint in motion. at this time, we are not up to a violate. the intent when we respond to a violation is to make sure the tenants are safe. we're here to partner with all san franciscans and keep san franciscans safe. our kind of our guide and measurement in making a determination if a building is safe to say, is it safe to use, is it a deficient use, do we have proper rescuing stairs and windows? if we don't come to those determinations, we would determine it has come to an

inhabitable lev inhabitable state. >> commissioner cleaveland: have you issued a notice to vacate? >> i believe we've issued four notices of to vacate in five years. we've come a number of buildings that have been occupied in violation of the building code, illegal change of use, but only five of them have been issued a notice to vacate. we do not issue a notice to vacate unless it's deemed an imminent danger hazard. so again, if the building is deemed reasonably safe, even though it's being occupied in violation or not per code, we will continue to work with those occupants and the building owner as they work through the process and try to get a change of use through the building department. >> commissioner cleaveland: can you keep the commission appraised of this particular

farmhouse project? >> absolutely. >> commissioner cleaveland: thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner cleaveland. commissioner hardeman? >> commissioner hardeman: thank you very much, commissioner nakajo. we have plenty of time, so i might get rambling. as we talk about -- on chief nicholson's time -- >> my time is your time. >> commissioner hardeman: talking about mayor breed, i think we have to give her a lot of accolades in doing this transition. it's a brilliant move, fantastic. very happy when we heard it. all the commissioners, i think, were involved in the fire department, especially the upper echelon, fire command staff.

the other thing i talks about -- talked about, my respect for chief joanne hayes-white. i don't want to sound like the mayors feinstein, jordan, lee, and newsom. they could be difficult to work with, but almost in the week, mayor breed appointed heather fong for the fire department, a number of whole -- a whole litany of women leaders to take over leadership. when it comes to you, he made

that decision. so any way, and then brown -- mayor willie brown, the smartest politician i ever worked with. he changed the whole city in the waterfront and mission bay. the guy is just the most fantastic mind i ever worked with in politics. the smartest guy i ever met in politics was jerry brown. he has a photographic memory, but willie brown, the city will never be able to repay him. i wanted to bring up the notre dame fire in paris. you know, when they showed the firefighters who made a conscious decision to risk their lives to defend this structure, that tells you

something about firefighters. it's one thing when you risk your life to save a human, but it's another thing when you risk your life -- and they were risking their lives to save this structure. i think it says a lot about the type of person that is a firefighter. that was quite remarkable, and it moved me when i saw it was happening. they weren't ordered to do it, they voluntarily saved most of it. so that was it. i wanted to throw that out there how wonderful that was. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner hardeman. commissioner alioto veronese. >> commissioner veronese: thank you very much. commissioner hardeman reminded me of the fire in paris.

that was an historical fire, something once in a lifetime we see, and i was wondering if they had needed or we had offered any resources to them or for that matter, if there's anything we can learn from that fire, and would it be worth sending somebody out there to study either the response, the fire itself, the type of building, anything related to that? i'm wondering since it was such an unusual fire, would it be good to send somebody from chief sotto's office. >> so church fires are notoriously difficult to fire,

especially a church like that. there will be an after action report and investigation that comes out of that, and we always look at those things, whether it's from, you know, a fire in, you know, houston, texas or in north carolina or -- but we typically don't send people over there to -- during an investigation, but we do -- we always learn from incidents such as this, and we will -- once we get that report, once we see that report, i will. >> commissioner veronese: i'm going to be reaching out to a team of those firefighters. i'm going to invite them to come over and do the stair climb, so if there's anything that can be said on behalf of the department, let me know, and i'll say that.

>> okay. thank you. >> president nakajo: thank you very much, commissioner alioto veronese, captain nicholson. captain sotto, the next meeting, you will be sitting in this seat, and part of that is to be able to have functionality and time to perform where your duties and tasks, which we know will take time. this commission will support you with that and with the rest of the command force. as we conclude this particular segment of administration reports, you as administration deputy chief, i just wanted to, because previously, we have acknowledged the command force, but also, there's a civilian command force as far as support, as well, and i just

wanted to take advantage of the fact that financial director mark corso is here, as well. sitting behind you is someone who has served the department very well. jesu jesus de shawn, and i wanted to thank you for all your services during the time of chief joanne hayes-white. thank you, chief nicholson, very much, for your service to this department. thank you. >> president nakajo: madam secretary. >> clerk: commissioners reports. activities since march 19, 2019. >> president nakajo: is there anyone that would like to update --

>> commissioner hardeman: the chief was visiting from kansas city and he just walked in. i said, do you know what's happened? he said no, we're just visiting. i said, do you know we have a woman fire chief? oh, no, my. i said, do you know we have another woman replacing them? he said oh, no my. commissioner cleaveland introduced me to them. >> president nakajo: and thank you, commissioner cleaveland, for introducing our visitor from kansas city. the only thing i wanted to report is i as the president had to meet with the grand jury, and i met with them on april the 15. the grand jury meets with the fire commission on a yearly basis and writes a report. commissioners, as we all know,

the grand jury are volunteers, and then to be privy to this information and discussion, a lot of the discussion was on the awss, auxiliary water system, as well as discussion on the next big one, the earthquake. i thought particularly, it was appropriate that we had the nert training that was immediately following our grand jury interview. you will hear probably in the report some comment about this department in terms of our readiness for the big one but also i remarked to the grand jury that their component is such an important component born out of the tragedy of '89, but citizens are going to be utmost in terms of working with us as a department. yes, we are first responders -- or the department is first responders, but if we don't have trained citizens out there

in san francisco to help and provide services as well as relief, it's going to be a great thing that we're going to need. so i appreciate training, i appreciate the concept of being ready, i made remarks that we're not trying to scare anybody in terms of the eventuality, but we know that we're going to have to be prepared and we know that we're going to have to be ready. thus, the training.

[inaudibl [inaudible] >> president nakajo: at this time, is there any public comment for commissioners report? madam secretary. >> clerk: item six, agenda for next and future fire commission meetings. >> president nakajo: commissioners, i purposely tried to make this meeting simple so that all of us can share some time with you, chief hayes-white, on your last commission meeting. a next meeting, we have a charter amendment on discipline that will be given by the city attorney. we also have a closed session that's scheduled, as well, for your point of information, and that will be in the next commission meeting that's scheduled for may, i believe

may the 8. madam secretary, is there any other item on this particular point? >> clerk: not that i have. >> president nakajo: all right. thank you, commissioners, at this point? all right. thank you very much. is there any public comment on agenda for next and future fire commissions from the public? seeing none, public comment is closed. madam secretary. >> clerk: item seven, resolution 2019-02, discussion and possible action regarding proposed resolution commending chief joanne hayes-white for her dedication and outstanding service to the members of the san francisco fire department and the city and county of san francisco. >> president nakajo: chief h hayes-white, in terms of this, all of the commissioners are going to participate in this resolution. we haven't had a chance to rehearse, so this is life,

coming from -- live, coming from the heart of the commissioners. this resolution is 2019-02. the commission assisted the county attorney in putting together this resolution, so i wanted to acknowledge maureen, as well. if we could start with our vice president, proceeded by commissioner cleaveland and then commissioner hardeman and commissioner veronese, we can present this resolution. commissioner covington. >> commissioner covington: thank you, mr. president. whereas joanne hayes-white entered the fire department in 1990, and became the first woman fire chief in january 2004. and. >> commissioner cleaveland: whereas chief joanne hayes-white has served the san francisco fire department with passion, integrity and honesty.

and. >> commissioner hardeman: whereas over the nearly 30 years of her service to the san francisco fire department, joanne hayes-white has attained many goals and has worked tirelessly to achieve the goals of the san francisco fire department. and. >> commissioner veronese: whereas the san francisco fire department wish to acknowledge the outstanding efforts of chief joanne hayes-white and for her efforts to make the san francisco fire department one of the most diverse in the nation. >> president nakajo: be it known that the san francisco fire commission acknowledges chief joanne hayes-white, and thank her for her devotion and outstanding service to the

members of the san francisco fire department and the city and county of san francisco. at this point, i'll take public comment on this resolution. if there's no public comment, public comment is closed. i'll call for the question. >> so moved. >> second. >> so moved. >> president nakajo: i'll call for the question. all in favor? thank you very much, commissioners. thank you very much for participating. [applause]

>> president nakajo: on behalf of the san francisco fire commission, thank you very much. the commission secretary assisted me in this, as well. congratulations and godspeed to you. >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you very much, everybody. [applause] >> president nakajo: at this particular time, in terms of adjournment, we'd like to close this commission meeting in memory of vince nolan. commissioners, i'm going to need a motion and a second. >> commissioner hardeman: move. >> commissioner covington: second. >> president nakajo: moved by commissioner hardeman, seconded by commissioner covington. ladies and gentlemen, this meeting is concluded. thank you.

today we are going to talk about fire safety. we are here at the urban center on mission street in san francisco. it's a wonderful

display. a little house in the urban center exhibition center that shows what it's like in a home in san francisco after an earthquake. one of the major issues that we are going to face after earthquakes are fire hazard. we are happy to have the fire marshall join us today. >> thank you. my pleasure. >> we talk about the san francisco earthquake that was a fire that mostly devastated the city. how do we avoid that kind of problem. how can we reduce fire hazard? >> the construction was a lot different. we don't expect what we had then. we want to make sure with the gas heaters that the gas is shut off. >> if you shut it off you are going to have no hot water or

heat. be careful not to shut it off unless you smell gas. >> absolutely because once you do shut it off you should have the utility company come in and turn it back on. here is a mock up of a gas hear the on a house. where would we find the gas meter? >> it should be in your garage. everyone should be familiar with where the gas meter is. >> one of the tools is a wrench, a crescent wrench. >> yes. the crescent wrench is good and this is a perfect example of how to have it so you can loosen it up and use it when you need it. >> okay. let's go inside to talk about fire safety.

many of the issues here relate to fire, for example, we have a little smoke detector and i see you brought one here, a carbon monoxide smoke detector. >> this is a combination of smoke and carbon monoxide detector. they are required in single homes now and in apartment buildings. if gas appliance is not burning properly this will alert you before the fumes buildup and will affect you negatively. >> this is a battery powered? >> this is a battery powered and it has a 10 year battery life. a lot of times you may have one or the other. if you put in just a carbon monoxide

detector, it's important to have one of these too. every house should have a fire extinguisher, yes. >> one thing people expect to do when the power goes out after an earthquake about using candles. what would you recommend? >> if you have a battery operated candle would be better to use. this kind of a candle, you wouldn't want it in an area where it can cause a fire or aftershock that it doesn't rollover. you definitely want to have this in a non-combustible surface. >> now, here we have our stove. after a significant earthquake we expect that we may have gas

disrupted and so without gas in your home, how are you going to cook? >> well, i wouldn't recommend cooking inside of the house. you have to go outside and use a portable stove or something else. >> so it wouldn't be safe to use your fireplace to cook? >> not at first. you should check it by a professional first. >> outside should be a safe place to cook as long as you stay away from buildings and doors and windows. >> yes. that will be fine. >> here we have some alternative cooking areas. >> you can barbecue and if you have a regular propane bark

could barbecue. >> thank you for joining us. and thanks for this terrific space that you have in this exhibition space and thanks for helping san francisco stay >> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love.

like ribeye tacos and quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different

things. this is a great part of town and there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hanhang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful muellermixer ura alsomurals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local mean that wor people willr money as well.

i hope people shop locally. [ ♪ ]

[cheers and applause]. >> all right. good morning, everybody. first of all, i am mayor london breed, and i am so excited to be here to talk about housing. now you guys maybe tired of me talking about housing, but i will not stop until we get it built, and that is why we are here today. [applause]. >> we are joined by so many amazing supporters of affordable and teacher housing in san francisco. we have so much work to do to build more housing all over the city across all income levels. we are working together right now to put together an affordable housing bond for this november, and i'm really excited

about the folks who are working hand-in-hand to make this a reality. this is a key part of our housing plan to fund the production of new affordable housing. but just having the funding isn't enough. we have to get better at approving more housing faster in this city. and in january, i announced during my state of the city address that we will be moving forward with a charter amendment to make it easier to build affordable housing and teacher housing in san francisco, that we will no longer let the bureaucracy of city government stand in the way, that we will no longer let let's barriers to housing stand in the way. i made a promise to make affordable housing in san francisco as of right, because affordable housing is a right. [applause].

>> today, i'm proud to say that we have follow-through on followed through on that promise , and yesterday, we introduced the charter amendment at the board of supervisors, and i want to thank our cosponsors standing here with us today. supervisor vallie brown from district five. [cheers and applause]. >> and supervisor safai from district 11. [cheers and applause]. >> to those other members of the board of supervisors, we are looking at other cosponsors. this is critical. the housing production in san francisco, and thank you to the 20 supervisors for joining us today to step up to the plate and say when we have 100% affordable housing projects or a teacher housing project proposed within the zoning, that we

should build it. no more hoops to jump through, no more commission hearings, no more appeals, no more know in my backyard. [applause]. >> we also want to thank the elected officials who are here and support, because while we know there are plenty of teachers in this town who support teacher housing, we are busy in our schools teaching our students. we have the next best thing. the elected official who run air community college board and the san francisco board of education , thank you to community college board members alex randolph who is here today. [applause] , and i think tom is here as well today. thank you so much to tom temporal no. also from the san francisco board of education, we have

jenny lam who is here today. [applause]. >> i think. she is on her way. and mar sanchez. [applause]. >> the leaders here know that the students they know benefit from making sure that our educators have access to safe and affordable housing, and i'm also making another exciting announcement, that today, i will be signing onto the ballot and ordinance to help us build more teacher affordable housing. this law will rezone all of our public parcels for affordable and teacher housing. let me tell you, what that means is we will be opening up opportunities to build housing faster on public property throughout san francisco. let me give you an example. many of you know that years ago,

the project that's going to be happening at the old campus of france's key, we committed to building teacher housing on this particular property. but unfortunately, this property would not know that -- was not necessarily zoned for teacher housing, adding, in addition to the years of process, adding another two years on top of the bureaucracy that is making it difficult to get this housing built now when we know we need it the most. so what this legislation would do is completely rezone all of the public properties that exist in san francisco, so the opportunity to use these properties for 100% affordable and teacher housing would be made faster. so the goal is, this long process to rezone land which was slow down and adding extra years of bureaucracy is one that will

hopefully make a significant difference. this ballot measure will allow us to move more quickly and use surplus public land to build badly needed affordable and future housing. i am very excited about this opportunity. i know that a lot of the folks who are part of the housing community understand and are excited about this crazy bureaucracy that we are trying to peel away like an onion to get to the root. ultimately, we are going to continue to push the envelope to get rid of the layers of bureaucracy, to make it easier to build housing. it should not be so challenging when we commit to trying to build 140 units of family housing. 120 units of teacher housing. why is it taking so long? these two proposals will help cut that time down considerably,

and it would mean getting people into affordable housing faster, and getting it built faster in san francisco. i want to thank everyone who is here with us today, not just the elected officials, but the advocates, and the workers who are out there every day fighting for more housing. together i know that we can make a difference at the ballot box this november. we will pass our affordable housing bonds. we will make it easier to build affordable and teacher housing in san francisco, and we will do it together. at this time, i want to introduce someone who has been a champion for affordable housing. many of the products, for example, -- projects, for example, in district five started long before i even became supervisor, and the challenges of trying to get properties that are slated for 100% affordable housing built has been a very challenging one. we could add thousands of units

just in district five if we can get these measures past, and the person to help us lead the way on those efforts is none other then the supervisor for that district, vallie brown. [cheers and applause]. >> thank you, mayor breed to, and everyone that is here today, all the housing advocates. it will take us all to make this happen. san francisco is in the midst of probably the most serious housing crisis that we have had that threatens our culture, and it also threatens our economy. sure, you know, san francisco, we have always had wealthy people that live here, but we are also a town of teachers, and artists, small business people, bartenders, and labor. we are a working-class town, but the lack of affordable housing, more and more of our families

seen san francisco cannot afford housing. so what do they do create they leave. this is our teachers, this is labor, this is people who just cannot afford housing, even if they have a rent controlled apartment, when they are growing their family, they usually leave because there is no options. there's no choices for them. keeping you working people in san francisco should also be a priority for us because it is their home. this charter amendment will shorten the time and lower the cost of building 100% affordable housing, and teacher housing. don't we want our teachers to live in our community? yes, absolutely. [applause]. >> when the teachers live in the community, they are much more invested, and they also, it helps in being able to take care of their own families because they live close to their jobs.

it will exempt qualifying housing projects from all discretionary review and appeals , and instead, apply a variety of mistral his for review. that is really important. we already do this for low income and moderate households that make up to $66,000 a year, and for one person and in a family of four, of $94,000 a year. this charter amendment would extend the same treatment for teacher housing, and housing that is affordable for the middle income households. it is so important to keep our middle income families and households in this city. who are middle income people? there are seasons many mobile drivers and a teacher. there are two teachers, they are somebody who works for the city and a janitor. these are the people that we want to keep in our community,

ending other and in other words, it also encouraged 100% affordable for housing for san francisco for working people. it is our middle class, it is our middle class that is also in danger of housing here, of no affordable housing for them, and it was very clear in 2014 when we passed prop k. that this was really important for the residents of san francisco. this connection between our housing crisis and our homeless crisis is pretty clear to me. our housing crisis also -- also is threatening and many other areas of our life in this city. if our teachers can't afford to live here, let alone raise their families in the city, it is pretty clear that we are threatens or we will have a threatening housing crisis that we need to address. also, and we talked about this before, half of our drivers live outside of the city. when you think that they have to

drive hours in to drive a bus, or they are sleeping in their cars because they can't afford this city, that is wrong. they are our frontlines people that work for the city for all of our social issues. they also -- we trust them to get us around and our children around the city. so this is something that we need to do. we need to build housing so people who work for the city can actually live here, like our many munimobile operators. also, when we don't think this way, when we don't think about everyone in the city and trying to keep middle-class and low income in the city, it actually hurts us all, we have to think of it that way. so working people make city life possible, and they make it desirable. when you go into your favorite restaurant or go get your hair cut or your favorite bar, don't you want to make sure that the people you know can work there and that is because they can live in the community. they can live in the city.

so we need to more choices. choice is so important. this isn't going to solve everything, thank you, but you are in the right place, this is city hall, lots of sharks. [laughter]. >> so this is one thing that we need to do. this many other things we need to do. we need to preserve affordable housing by buying existing buildings. we need to build housing, we need to have a dus, accessible dwelling units being built. there are so many things that we need to do to self this housing crisis, and i'm so happy that everybody is here with us to solve this. thank you very much. [cheers and applause]. >> now i want to introduce one of our partners to help build 100% affordable housing, ladies and gentlemen, from mission mission housing, sam moss.

[cheers and applause]. >> good morning, everybody. thank you, mayor breed and supervisors. thank you for coming here. affordable housing is hard enough to build without having to take ten years and loads a bureaucracy to do it. mission housing and myself, i'm really proud to be part of a movement that will ensure that high-quality affordable housing is built in every neighborhood of san francisco, because we live in the crisis of our time. it is time for every day people. and especially the leaders and supervisors at those neighborhoods to get on board and start helping solve this crisis. from st. francis would to the sunset, from the marina, it is time for telegraph hill, it is time for everyone to get on board and be part of solving this crisis, because the mission and soma, and the bayview cannot do it on our own any longer. [applause].

>> i just want to think mayor breed for her leadership, and i'm excited to start building some housing. thank you. [applause]. >> thank you, sam. another one of our cosponsors and champions for getting more affordable housing built throughout the city includes the representative from district 11, supervisor safai. [applause]. >> thank you, mayor breed. i will be brief because i think we are all melting on the stage here. >> we are melting. >> i will be real fast. i just want to say that it is amazing how much the conversation has changed in the two years that i have been on the boards. mayor breed and i locked arms when she was on the board of supervisors, and we took on a really difficult conversation about expanding the conversation of what is affordable. because parts of the city, sm

was talking about, the need to do more always absorbed our middle and working-class families. the excelsior, the outer mission , the sunset, bayview hunter's point, these are parts of the city that we didn't think would ever be under assault in terms of major gentrification. but when homes in my district and excelsior go for $1.9 million, this city is no longer affordable. so the fact that we are putting legislation forward that not only expands the definition of what is affordable to include working and middle-class families, but speeds up the process, in two years, the cost of construction has gone up by 30%. every moment that we wait costs these projects more money, cost the taxpayers more money, and endangers losing more working and middle-class families from san francisco because they have to leave, the can't live in the city, the can't access the affordable housing.

i'm just go to wrap it up by saying we have neighborhood preference that mayor breed fought for, we accelerating the process by which we can go through the bureaucracy, we are increasing the funding, whether it is through additional surplus money we have, or the affordable housing bonds that we are going to fight for, we are doing every single thing that we can think about, and i just want to give kudos to mayor breed for doing things that a lot of people talked about, that are making happen in less than one here that she has been in office. congratulations to all that hauser his who have been fighting here. thank you mayor breed for your leadership, and we look forward to building affordable housing in the excelsior, outer mission, because me know we are next in line. thank you very much. >> thank you. we had one of our residents who had planned to speak today, but unfortunately she couldn't make it. she is part of tenderloin housing clinic, and at this time , i would like to introduce

randy shot to say a few words, since she was not able to make it. [applause]. >> you know, i will be even briefer because it is hot. i have to say, listening to mayor breed, i have a book out called "generation priced out" who gets to live a new urban america, and i recommend to all cities is one of the key strategies for affordability is to take all public land and converted to affordable housing. thank you for proving what should be done. i gave her a copy of my book. >> i haven't read it yet. >> i'm telling you, what is happening in san francisco around affordable housing is something that we all need to have done years ago. it doesn't make sense when we have supervisors here saying they only want affordable housing, but it can't be built in their districts because of the zoning. otherwise you are not really for it because it can't be built. so if we all agree that 100% affordable housing, we all supported, they should be unanimous support in the board of supervisors for what the mayor has pronounced. let's make sure that happens.

talk to your district supervisors about what is happening here. thank you. [applause]. >> thank you, randy. let me also just say thank you to a family who are here today who continue to fight on a regular basis to say yes in my backyard, yes to housing in san francisco in all neighborhoods. thank you so much for your advocacy. and now, at this time, i would like to introduce a member of the community college board college board, alex randolph. [applause]. >> thank you, mayor. i think the weather today is an indication that we will turning up the heat on affordable housing and making sure that we are building affordable housing here in san francisco. it is past due that we can no longer wait for affordable housing to be built here in san francisco. i want to thank the mayor, i want to thank the supervisors for introducing this legislation , this critical legislation, and for inviting city college to be part of this press conference here today.

the city college communities no stranger to the current housing crisis. we see first-hand every single day the impact it has on our college and our community. to get a better sense of what it actually does to our community and to actually see the data, we recently conducted a housing survey and discover there is a significant need for affordable housing for our hard-working faculty and staff at city college for affordable housing in san francisco. especially our entry-level faculty and staff, always known as freeway flyers because they come from all over the bay area to work and teach at city college, and they spend sometimes more times -- more time commuting to san francisco than actually teaching our students or holding office hours it is a critical need. we all know that our teachers and educators are more effective if they are part of the community, in this charter amendment is an important and right step towards offering an

affordable place to live for our workforce and allow san francisco and city college to continue to provide high quality education. our educators are the ones that are training our first responders, they are training our nurses, they are training our teachers, our future teachers. they are training our people who we do not want to see left behind in this new economy in san francisco. we need to make sure that when all of our teachers are about to retire, and our staff is near retirement age, that we continue to be able to recruit high-quality individuals at city college. that is no longer the case, unfortunately due to the high cost of housing and the inability for many of them to move to san francisco. so on behalf of city college and my colleagues and the vice president, i want to thank the mayor and all of you for doing this. we are here to strongly support the charter amendment. thank you so much. [applause]. >> thank you. i want to thank all of you for

being here today. i continue to say that i grew up in san francisco, and i watched as our cities changed, i watched as so many of my friends and family members, over the years, who could no longer afford to live here, leave because this city has not done what it should in terms of building more housing. everyone says, yes, i want more housing, yes, i want my kids to live here, yes, i want my teachers to live here, but as soon as we try and build in communities that traditionally have not had a lot of housing production, it turns into a completely different conversation. it is time that we move forward. it is time that we do what we say we want to do, make san francisco a safer, more affordable city for everybody. with over 70,000 units in the pipeline as we speak, we are not doing enough to move forward. and just imagine what it would

do for our housing prices, for access to affordable housing if we were able to get those 70,000 units built today. today starts today. let's get it done, let's get these measures past, and let's build more housing in san francisco. thank you. [cheers and applause] . >> i love that i was in four plus years a a rent control tenant, and it might be normal because the tenant will -- for the longest, i was applying for b.m.r. rental, but i would be in the lottery and never be

like 307 or 310. i pretty much had kind of given up on that, and had to leave san francisco. i found out about the san francisco mayor's office of housing about two or three years ago, and i originally did home counseling with someone, but then, my certificate expired, and one of my friends jamie, she was actually interested in purchasing a unit. i told her about the housing program, the mayor's office, and i told her hey, you've got to do the six hour counseling and the 12 hour training. she said no, i want you to go with me. and then, the very next day that i went to the session, i notice this unit at 616 harrison became available, b.m.i. i was like wow, this could potentially work. housing purchases through the

b.m.r. program with the sf mayor's office of housing, they are all lotteries, and for this one, i did win the lottery. there were three people that applied, and they pulled my number first. i won, despite the luck i'd had with the program in the last couple years. things are finally breaking my way. when i first saw the unit, even though i knew it was less than ideal conditions, and it was very junky, i could see what this place could be. it's slowly beginning to feel like home. i can definitely -- you know, once i got it painted and slowly getting my custom furniture to fit this unit because it's a specialized unit, and all the units are microinterms of being very small. this unit in terms of adaptive, in terms of having a murphy bed, using the walls and

ceiling, getting as much space as i can. it's slowly becoming home for me. it is great that san francisco has this program to address, let's say, the housing crisis that exists here in the bay area. it will slowly become home, and i am appreciative that it is a bright spot in an otherwise we are celebrating the glorious grand opening of the chinese rec center. ♪ 1951, 60 years ago, our first

kids began to play in the chinese wrecks center -- rec center. >> i was 10 years old at the time. i spent just about my whole life here. >> i came here to learn dancing. by we came -- >> we had a good time. made a lot of friends here. crisises part of the 2008 clean neighborhood park fund, and this is so important to our families. for many people who live in chinatown, this is their backyard. this is where many people come to congregate, and we are so happy to be able to deliver this project on time and under budget. >> a reason we all agreed to name this memorex center is because it is part of the history of i hear -- to name this rec center, is because it

is part of the history of san francisco. >> they took off from logan airport, and the call of duty was to alert american airlines that her plane was hijacked, and she stayed on the phone prior to the crash into the no. 9 world trade center. >> i would like to claim today the center and the naming of it. [applause] >> kmer i actually challenged me to a little bit of a ping pong -- the mayor actually challenge me to a little bit of a ping- pong, so i accept your challenge. ♪

>> it is an amazing spot. it is a state of the art center. >> is beautiful. quarkrights i would like to come here and join them