francisco unique with just empathy, love, of being acceptable of different people, the out liers, the crazy ones. we've become so focused onic maing money that we forgot about those that make our city and community unique. when people come to discover, i want them to rediscover the magic of what diversity and empathy can create. when you're positive and committed to using that energy,

>> good morning, everyone. i am your city librarian. i want to extend a warm welcome to the beautiful and historic chinatown branch library, and thank you mrs. lee for joining us today, it is an honor to meet you and an honor to have you present this morning. special thanks to our city administrator, naomi kelly, and your entire team. merely -- mayor lee's staff and our own library team for coming together this morning to launch this book, highlighting mayor ed lee's leadership. the library appreciate this opportunity to add such important work to our collection for future generations to learn about his leadership and his contributions to the city and county of san francisco. the book "mayor lee and the city he loved" will be a treasured asset for the san francisco public library. as a student of history and leadership, i look forward to reading this book myself.

it highlights not only his leadership, but also his concern for the residents of san francisco. his dedication to this city, and his humour and his kindness. i remain so impressed by the love and devotion his staff showed for mayor lee and the joy and friendship you brought to our city family. what you might not know is that mayor ed lee and his family were regular library users, and tremendous champions of the branch system. in fact, his leadership of the city's public works department paved the way for the branch library improvement program which saw the renovation of 16 neighborhood libraries and the construction of eight brand-new libraries. this program ensures that all branches were seismically safe, a.d.a. accessible, and prepared to deliver 21st century library services. the branch library improvement program was the largest capital

program in the library's history once the branches were completed , he turned his focus to the main library, supporting the creation of a state-of-the-art digital media lab lab for teenagers, the mix. the mix provides a safe space for teens to come together and create music, videos, learn coding, and do homework. the mix is a great legacy for our mayor who recognized the growing need for our youth to have access to technology and opportunities to compete in the newtek economy. mayor lee also helped us launch the bridge, our literacy and learning centre on the fifth floor of the main library. this space features two award-winning literacy programs. one does not help models, and the other designed to help young people learn how to read. it also features a veteran's resource center, and an accredited online skies -- high

school program. as the city prospered, mayor lee ensured the library system and our residents prospered as well. he provided the critical support to allow us to hire more staff and open every library every day , creating seven-day a week service at all 28 library locations. our libraries are a basket of democracy for all residents, and mayor lee recognize the importance they served as anchors in our neighborhoods. it is fitting that we launch this book during asian and pacific islander heritage month. as the first asian-american to leave the san francisco public library, i stand on the giant shoulders of mayor lee, our first asian-american mayor. i aspire to shepherd our library system in the same professional manner that mayor lee dilute -- directed the city. it is my pleasure to introduce our city administrator naomi kelly. [applause]

>> thank you, michael. i have to say that i have some fond memories of working with mayor lee and supporting the library. he personally had me fundraising for the teen digital center digital center down at the main library, one city hall turned 100, we worked closely with michael and susan goldstein to make sure that we honor the beauty and the history of san francisco. i just want to recognize, as michael did, that i am so happy that you are here today, anita lee. we talked the last year and more about honouring mayor lee and his legacy, and all that he has done for this city, and i have enjoyed and treasured each of those conversations because i still feel have, and malcolm has been part of many of those conversations, i feel that together, we are going to keep

this story alive, and everything that he has done for the city of san francisco. i also want to give a heartfelt thanks to all of his former staff and his colleagues who contributed to this book. they all came through with stories, with facts, with data, just so that the residents in the visitors of san francisco know the history of what was accomplished in his time as mayor, and i see many of my colleagues here in the audience today and i want to thank you for being here. today's presentation is to formally memorialize mayor ed lee's accomplishments, and as a historical document, it will remind generations to come about the amount of work you put into the city of san francisco. there was a time of growth and transition. ed literally rolled up his sleeves and got down to business , and not without his

signature smile and his humourous jokes. although his time with us with the city was way too short, we can all agree that he was able to accomplish many things during his administration from 2011 to 2017. he was kind, he was generous, he was thoughtful, he was humourous he was influential in addressing street homelessness with the first navigation center model during his administration. he launched and invested in neighborhoods, for neighborhoods and small business along local merchant corridors. he improved public housing, including one right down the street. when he became mayor, it was during the recession. he focused on job growth and local higher, and as always, from the time he was city administrator to the time he was mayor, he focused on our infrastructure and our -- infrastructure and our resilience, and keeping future generations of san francisco safe, but there's not enough time for me to go through all

his accomplishments, which is why i'm so very happy to formally present mayor lee and the city he loved, a summary of his accomplishments from 2011 to 2017, to the daniel e. san francisco historic center which contains the official archive for the city and county of san francisco. with this, i would like to invite former ed lee staff member, malcolm young, to the podium to say a few words. [applause] >> thank you, naomi. my name is malcolm young, i am a current -- i'm currently over at chinatown community development center where we build affordable housing and really try to make sure that chinatown is a great community and remains an immigrant gateway. i want to say congratulations to michael on being the new director of our library. you are inheriting a great system and we are excited you

will make it better. we are excited we are doing this event here. i had the privilege of working for mayor lee in 2011 and 2012 as his first affordable housing advisor. i think people forget that prior to mayor lee becoming mayor, affordable housing isn't exactly the issue that we have today. when people say affordable housing in san francisco, the question isn't, whether we need affordable housing, really the fight is over how much affordable housing we need. i think people forget that prior to mayor lee, this city hadn't passed a single affordable housing ballot measures since 1996. in 2012, coming out of recession , he really reshapes the conversation around affordable housing in san francisco. it was a moment whenever the housing market was down and there's a lot of contentiousness around whether or not we needed to do affordable housing, but mayor lee had a vision. he understood that this city is

always going to have that issue, and he knew coming out of the recession that we were going to recover, and affordability would be important. with a housing trust fund process, he pulled together a working table that this city really hadn't seen, in probably 15 years. it was a table consisting of housing advocates, of whom i was formerly in their rank, market rate developers, landlords, it was really a truly remarkable table at that time, and i think what people forget is that prior to that moment, that table wasn't happening. we successfully went on to passed the housing trust fund in 2012, and then subsequently, the mayor mayor used the same model to past the housing bond -- to pass the housing bond in 2015. he is the first and only mayor to pass two affordable housing ballot measures ever. i mention this because we are in a moment right now where we will be putting another affordable housing bond measure on the ballot in november, a

600 million-dollar bond measure, and it is critical. we need to pass it. it is the largest ever. mayor breed has been a staunch champion of this bond, but i think in this moment, we need to take a step back and remember ed 's role in putting that table together, and refashioning the conversation around affordability in the city. in addition to that, in many ways, we are also standing in ed 's neighborhood. there is no block on this neighborhood where ed hasn't had an imprint, and i just don't mean in his role as a city. well prior to him joining the city, he was a young attorney at the asian law caucus. those were his early years coming out of law school. during that time, he led the way in fighting for civil rights, particularly within the city, disaggregating the fire department is one of the lawsuits that he filed, but near and dear to my heart, he was also a champion for tenant's writes an affordable housing, yet again. he fought so many anti- eviction

battles in this neighborhood, including the famous one at orange land, you know, where it really set the tone for chinatown and chinatown valuing the rights of tenants, and the rights of people to remain. ed also was the attorney who represented the opinion resident improvement association in the first affordable public housing rent strike, to really drive for safer conditions. he won that one, too, and that had a lasting imprint on ed, which led to his work around affordable housing. lastly, i just want to say, i am really glad that this book was pulled together, as an airport commissioner. we do have an aviation library, we typically don't really put anything in it that doesn't include aviation, but, you know, in about a week, we hope that we will be able to make another great announcement regarding ed 's legacy. i can't vote on it, but i believe that this coming tuesday

, the international terminal is going to be named after mayor ed lee. it is the culmination of about a year, year and a half of work by a joint, you know, community efforts with contributions from everybody, and i don't know if naomi wants to also say she contributed, too, but i think it would be appropriate to have this publication in the airport 's library as well, and we commit to buying a million copies. >> i think we will stand together so that you can see the official. we will present it to mrs. lee. >> here we go.

[♪] >> 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. >> good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us here tonight as we celebrate the accomplishments of the late mayor edwin lee who will be forever documented in the city archives. i was honored to be in chinatown earlier today to present mayor lee and the city he loved, a summary of accomplishments, 2011 through 2017, to our city librarian, michael lambert, and even though one book cannot fully convey what ed lee did for our city and what he gave to our city, it is a critical -- it is of critical importance to record his accomplishments and document his legacy, and his place in san francisco's history. [cheers and applause]

>> as you know, previous mayoral administrations compiled and published accomplishments at the end of their tenure, but because mayor lee tragically and unexpectedly passed away, almost two years before the end of his second term, the record of his administrative accomplishments and highlights had to wait. that is because when faced with unspeakable tragedy, mayor lee's apartment head, his staff, and his friends knew that we had to do what he would want us to do, and he would want us to take care of the city, which we did, to provide a smooth transition to mayor breed, then mayor farrell, and now back to mayor breed. [laughter] >> and to keep the people of san francisco as a higher priority, even while we grieved. we now have had time to reflect

on nearly seven years of his administration, and today, we are gathered here to memorialize his leadership and contributions , affirm his legacy , and celebrate the man and the mayor, and who he was. please take time to read through the book. it details his work on critical issues that he faced in the city , also very familiar because we are dealing with these issues today, the need for more housing at all income levels, housing for homeless, providing clean and safe neighborhoods, building a resilient city. improving local and regional transportation, fighting climate change, introducing innovation and new technology into city government, strengthening the city's social safety net and vital -- fighting for civil rights, equity, inclusion missed the back draft of national attacks on our civic value, all while celebrating san francisco. none of this happened in a

vacuum. we have to remember that mayor lee's administration began amid a backdrop of national, economic uncertainty, record unemployment , and overwhelming city budget deficits. this book puts his accomplishments and administration in historical context and details his work to stabilize a city struggling through the great recession, putting people back to work, and protecting city services. i would like to give a special thank you to our hard-working committee, former mayoral staff, department heads, and colleagues to help get us over the finish line. i would like to thank selena song, our project manager extraordinaire. [cheers and applause] >> a special thank you to mayor lee's chief of staff steve kava and jason elliott. [cheers and applause]

>> as we were breve -- grieving, jason had the presence of mind to start collecting all of this information that went in the book today, and we appointed kate howard to collect it, and i want to thank kate howard. [applause] she was the chief of staff to mayor lee, his great strategic advisors and communication team, christine, tony, and deirdre. [cheers and applause] >> mary jo who helped put this event together tonight, and many more. [cheers and applause] >> thomas lee who did the great graphics, jay, caitlin, cairo, lee may, olga, francis, and marc -- and martha who put the table cloths out in the colors of all the great sports teams that

mayor lee loved, the giants, the warriors, and the 40 niners. [cheers and applause] >> he was a champion and leader for all. he had a track record for bringing people together as evidenced by the way people -- by the array of people you see here tonight. i want to thank you for joining us. up next, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] >> hello, everyone. good evening. i had a prepared speech, but i decided to deviate from it because i was looking through this book, and i saw this picture with mayor lee and michelle obama. let me tell you the story behind the picture. we were at the salesforce conference, and we were

listening to the fireside chat, and of course, it was michelle obama, so we were all excited and giddy, and afterwards, you know, they usually have the photo line, and so the mayor and i, i jumped on his bandwagon, of course, deirdre, i thank you were there, and is it okay, we need to get you a picture with michelle obama, let's go, let's go, i was like his staffer, because i knew how to do that, too. so i am bringing the mayor up, and we are standing in line. and i said wait a minute, this is the mayor of san francisco, and all these people -- this is the mayor of san francisco, we are way back here, and i start seeing people, and i start getting those folks to come over to help us. basically, i said, we are going to the front of the line because , you know, he has to get back to work, this is the mayor of san francisco, everybody, so we cut in line, and then someone

sauce, and they moved us up to the very front, and guess who was the first person to take a picture with michelle obama? was actually me. [laughter] >> but the point is, the point is, the mayor was so gracious, and that was the kind of person that he was. he would have stood in that line , he would have stood in that line and waited, he would have taken a picture with everyone who would have asked him, he would've had conversations with anyone because that was a kind of person he was. he would very -- he was very gracious, and over the course of the time that i worked with him as a member of the board of supervisors, again, it was, okay , this is what i want, and then it was like, okay, mayor, i will do the press conference on my own, i will take all the credit for it, you don't mind, do you? and he would always say, go ahead, because the work was more important to him, the results of the work that we were doing to

serve the citizens of this city, it was more important than who got the credit. and that was so -- what was so amazing about him as someone who wasn't necessarily a politician. he was just a person who cared about doing good things for people. he cared about doing good things for san francisco. he cared about making great things happen for the people of san francisco. many of you, you either work for him or work with him, you cared about him because he genuinely, not only cared about the work you were doing, he cared about your lives and what was going on in your lives, and how your lives were impacted by the decisions that we were making in city hall every single day. so it is really a fitting tribute to have this documentation to just really recognize and put into perspective all of the work that he has done, and as someone who is now in the position as mayor, i have to tell you, it is a

newfound appreciation for mayor lee and what he did, and how he worked with people, and how he basically, i don't know how he tolerated all the stuff that he did. [laughter] >> but it is a newfound appreciation for what he did to keep the city going, and to take this and look at the number of jobs, and to look at the climate change, and all the different initiatives, and all the work, and how much of an impact that it has not only had on the citizens of san francisco, but people follow san francisco's example in other cities throughout the country. the things that we did here are many of the things that other communities are now trying to duplicate, and his leadership, his forethought, his inspiration , and what he did to get the city to this point has been absolutely amazing. we were so lucky to have his leadership, to have his support,

to have his guidance, and yes, on occasion, to have his not so funny jokes. [laughter] >> which, you know, and nita would just laugh and rolled her eyes a bit, but that was her boo , so she had his back. and to all the folks here that worked for mayor lee over the years, thank you for your service, thank you for the work that you did when we lost him, and you all just rose to the occasion. it was not about personalities, it wasn't about politics, it was about the work and moving the city forward, and taking care of san francisco. thank you to anita and your family for just allowing us the opportunity to work with him. i remember a time when i would come to his office to meet with him and you would be right there and i said, i will just be five minutes, and you said okay, you always said yes. you are always very supportive, and i'm so excited that naomi and her team had the foresight

to come together to create what i think is a great documentation of his work, and we also know that even now, and most mayors probably wouldn't say this, but even now when i'm cutting those ribbons, i know that was because of the hard work of mayor lee. a lot of the fruits of his labor were now start -- we are now starting to see come to light because of the new housing, because of, you know, the chase center that will be opening this year. all these incredible things that he made happen in san francisco, and this is the only time i am going to not take credit for those accomplishments. [laughter] >> so thank you to everyone who is here tonight to celebrate, you know, our mayor, mayor lee, and his amazing legacy for our legacy -- for our city, and i know his birthday was may 5th, and i see our former fire chief

is here. [applause]. >> she retired on his birthday as a tribute to mayor lee, again , i saw you, you are the best boss -- best boss ever. he was a great boss, he was a great friend, and he was a great human being, and we all miss him every single day, and i want to thank all of you for being here for this special tribute to mayor lee and the work that he is done to make san francisco a better place for us now and for generations to come. with that, i would like to introduce the person who basically, i mean, steve, you have been in city government forever, i can't even believe you are retired now, but he has come out of retirement to

occasionally assist me every now and then, and he said i wasn't as nice as ed lee in terms of being a boss, but, you know, i am working on it, actually, no, i'm not. [laughter] >> steve was mayor lee's chief of staff, as you all know, for so many years, and he was like any typical chief of staff, he was always telling us know, and what we couldn't do, and yelling out is about money and how irresponsible we are, and we have to take care of the citizens of the city, and then we would go ask mayor lee for something, and he said sure, you can have that, you can do whatever you want. he was the good cop and steve was the bad cop, but for the purposes of protecting the city, he was definitely a dear friend to mayor lee. steve kava. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. she is absolutely correct, mayor

lee was a lot nicer. [laughter] >> he actually paid me when i worked for him, when i work worked for her, she doesn't pay. [laughter]. >> it is so great to be here tonight, and nita, to see you, and to see a lot of familiar faces and friendly faces. it is pretty much every day i think about mayor lee ones something comes up in a drive-by something. today was no different. i got a text this morning from tony winnick a. and tony said, i forgot, can you speak tonight at the event? and he followed it with, and it will be short, and i said, it will be short? no, if mayor lee was here, that would be like taking a slope all over home plate with him to bat, and he would hit that comment out of the park with another short joke, and for the years i worked with him, i heard a lot

of short jokes. i heard a lot of jokes, and the person who enjoyed those jokes the most was the mayor. [laughter] >> he would laugh and laugh, jason, and all the rest of us would be trying to get to work, and he would still be laughing about those jokes. but i miss his laugh, i miss it every day, but today, we're here to talk about his legacy, his amazing legacy, and one of the things people don't realize is if you look back at his history as mayor, he was ahead of the time. yes, he became mayor in the midst of the great recession, 40,000 san franciscans where without a job when he became mayor. that was the issue of the day, not for him. he had a big job, but he thought

about them and their jobs, and the fact they didn't have one. and how does one raise a family, how does one take care of themselves. when you talk about income inequality, if you don't have a job, what does that mean? he went right to work. he went right to work here. an area of town that nobody paid attention to. he put something in place that allow this economic prosperity, that to this day, the longest economic prosperity in san francisco's history is still going on. [applause] but guess what? i think mayor breed has a huge task at hand and she has been doing a tremendous job on the issue of housing, but who started that housing initiative nobody else was talking about it mayor lee, the housing trust

fund in 2011 when he was interim mayor. he did the most difficult thing when it comes to governing, he just decided to do it by consensus, it is not easy bringing the people of the city into one space, into one room, with all different voices, and try to get them to agree. you all know that. you guys try every day to do it. he was a master at doing it. he was a master because of who he was, his personality, the fact that nobody was offended by him, nobody was offended by him. he didn't offend anybody. he allowed you to open your mind , to come in and know that something good can happen from this. he did the housing trust fund, and he did something else, mayor breed was his champion with this , he decided to make sure that all those folks living in public housing weren't separate from san francisco, they would be part of san francisco under

his administration and forever. [applause] >> mayor breed is keeping up the good work. he also, by the way, was the first person in san francisco that said, we should raise the minimum wage. december of 2014, a lot of people take credit for that now, but he is the one who announced it, do you remember that, jason? in 2014, the first one out of the box to say we need to now start addressing this issue of income inequality, and he did that. he did so much more. the fact that this city has never had the world-class entertainment center like the chase center that is about to happen, i mean, this city, san francisco, didn't have one. it is going to have one because of one person, ed lee. [applause]. >> we should all thank him for that.

and so i could go on and on, and that book goes on and on about the great things that he did, but he would be really mad at me right now. he would be saying, i didn't do it, steve, they did it. he wouldn't want the credit. he wanted you all to have the credit, because guess what? he valued public service, and he valued public servants, he didn't disgrace you or disparage you, he knew, from his own history what you do every single day to make this city and this society a better place. he honored you every single day by the way he carried himself, his steadiness, his lack of selfishness that he had, the selflessness that he had, it was truly amazing. he was the mayor, but the man is also someone that we should all look up to, how he conducted

himself in a very stressful environment here in city hall and other places with the issues that he had. he never, never reacted negatively to the staff when the stress was on him. he took it all in himself. he bore that burden himself. he was quite the man, i will never forget him, i don't think any of us will ever forget him. his legacy, which is in that book, is also in our hearts, you know, i was trying to think what words can really say about mayor lee, and ed lee the public servant. there is a famous speech that a senator from massachusetts, i speak a little bit like him, but a senator from massachusetts gave at a convention speech in new york. and he said, for those who's

cares are our concern, the cars, the work goes on, the hope still lives, and the dreams shall never die. thank you mayor lee for making so many dreams come true. [applause] >> that was beautiful, steve. next up, i will call annie chung from self-help for the elderly. [applause] >> thank you. when mayor lee made -- when you made the statement about ed never takes credit for anything, and he is just so humble and modest, it reminds me of a similar story that the mayor

always comes to our thanksgiving lunch that we give to about 3,000 seniors every year at self-help, and so that year, we were waiting for him, you know, for the car to drive him, and sometimes, just the mayor came in from another event, and then that day, i didn't see any police car, no escort, you know, no staff, and ed was just walking across the street from nation street, so we all said, mayor, where is your car, where is your driver? he said i gave them the day off, and i just drove myself. after the event, we said, can we escort you to the car? and he said if i can't walk to my car in chinatown, i couldn't go anywhere. [laughter]. >> i said, that's right. so naomi, you asked me to say something about ed today, and i

have been to a lot of events, i've been to a lot of memorials for ed, been to a lot of celebrations, and i think, steve , you are right. every day we walk by his tree near the asian art museum that mope planted, a lot of us where there that day, and we walk by the chinese newcomer's school in chinatown, and we walk by places where we remember him playing ping-pong with walter right there, and so every day, there is something in our city and in our community, and in our life that we think of mayor lee. he was an extra, extra special person. i knew him from the late seventies when i started to work at self-help, and he was an attorney at the asian law caucus we were both assigned to make sure that the public housing

tenants are living in decent and safe housing, so he placed -- he played the lawyer's part to sue the housing authority, and i play the social worker part, which is to support the tenants with whatever they want. i think that dedication and commitment to the people who are not as fortunate as we are in this room, has always been part of ed's d.n.a. he always fought for every case, and protected the unreserved, the minority, our seniors, our families, and our youth in the community that needed his help. i remember when he became mayor in 2011, as interim, then 2012, the first thing he did was to ask me, to make sure that i bring to him and whatever the seniors are lacking. he said, make sure you call me or let me know what the seniors

need, and almost immediately, the state started to cut the number of very essential senior programs, like the health centers that were threatened to close down, and ed did what he promised to when we brought the problem to him. he asked kate, at that time, and steve to backfill the state money that we were going to lose to make sure that the seven centers remained in san francisco to serve the very needy and handicap -- handicapped seniors. so i worked with mayor lee on the immigration issues that steve mentioned, on the minimum wage with jason, and with a number of issues that many of us in this room are friends and colleagues, but more friends to add, and he would -- we would do anything that the mayor asked us to do. that's how much we trusted him, that's how much we loved him,

and that's also how much he, in return, loved and supported all of us in the community. naomi, i don't know if i'm supposed to share this, but i thought that, as a tribute to mayor lee, for the last 13 months, our community has been working quietly with naomi, karen, and steve on renaming the international terminal after mayor lee. [cheers and applause] >> we thought that being the mayor of san francisco, and having done so much for the airport, and making san francisco and international international, well-known famous city, this would be an easy task we had lunch with you and naomi, and we said, let's collect the signatures, we submitted it to the airport commission, and we

should be able to get the international terminal renamed. many of our cochairs are here tonight, walter, norman, henry, and malcolm. we collected 22,000 signatures within two weeks. it is an easy ask. nobody said no. along with the letters of support, and a short strategy that steve and naomi and the community had advised we submitted these, and the airport -- at the airport commission, and then we were told there was a process in renaming and dedicating anything at the s.f.o., even for mayor lee. so 13 months went by, with many, many scenarios and schemes, and the airport staff worked very hard. i was appointed on the special advisory committee, there were nine of us.

many other commissioners, and we were at a standstill, we were -- we couldn't accept any of the schemes that the airport staff, at that point, had recommended, and then we were looking to anita and the girls to give us some green light as to how much compromise we should take, but in all of that, steve, naomi, karen, i remember what you said constantly that if the mayor was here, he would not like to see as fight over this, he would be the first one to say, no, i don't need it, don't go through all this to rename the terminal after me, and that is just the way ed was. but the good news is, we got nine votes at the may meeting

from the special committee, so unanimous, and on june 4th, we are taking the resolution that the committee approved to the airport commission, and i'm hoping that it will be a unanimous vote on june 4th, and anita, that would be our birthday gift to our mayor and to the family. when we walk in in the future, in the near future, in the departures hall, in the international terminal right in the center, you will see mayor edwin m. lee international terminal departures hall. thank you very, very much. i have gone to a lot of you for support, and we loved ed, and thank you. naomi, i have to say, reading through all of his accomplishments, i have to think all of you that worked with ed and for ed. we are on the outside, and we don't know how much work it is, but seeing all that was done, and so many of us are involved with so many pieces of it, and

that's why ed was as good a mayor he was because of all of you, so thank you. [applause] >> thank you. so, i don't think mayor brown made it here this evening, i don't see him, but he did love mayor lee, he was very instrumental working with steve kavanaugh and our former governor, our governor and former mayor gavin newsom. jason elliott just had a heart attack right there. [laughter] >> but in having and become the interim mayor when mayor newsom went on to run for lieutenant governor, so he has had wonderful things, and was a wonderful advisor, and a good friend to all of a sudden, to mayor brown, and to mayor lee. before i conclude, i want to give you a few more next steps on what the committee is working

on. we plan to make the book digital so that we can post it to the san francisco public library's web -- webpage and to the edwin m. lee foundation website. we are working on translating the book into chinese, spanish and tagalog, we, it has been almost 18 months since he passed away, and this would be the natural time that he would have been thinking about his accomplishments and creating the book, so this month is asian-pacific heritage month, it is also the month of his birthday, so we worked in a very short time frame to turn the book around. we only have a few copies here tonight, but there is a list on the table back there for everyone to order one if you are interested, but it also will be digital. with that, this concludes our program. thank you all for attending, it was really nice to just be around everyone in this room tonight, and today we have food

and beverages, let's all have a toast to mayor ed lee. thank you. [cheers and applause] [♪] >> growing up in san francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and it's still that bubble that it's okay to be whatever you want to. you can let your free flag fry he -- fly here. as an adult with autism, i'm here to challenge people's idea

of what autism is. my journey is not everyone's journey because every autistic child is different, but there's hope. my background has heavy roots in the bay area. i was born in san diego and adopted out to san francisco when i was about 17 years old. i bounced around a little bit here in high school, but i've always been here in the bay. we are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. we don't turn anyone away. we take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. the most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you don't seem like you have autism.

you seem so normal. yeah. that's 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. i was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. they split up when i was about four. one of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. very queer family. growing up in the 90's with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. i was bullied relatively infrequently. but i never really felt isolated or alone. i have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. the school that i went to really had no idea how to

handle one. one of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what it's about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. when i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. i was a weird kid. i had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. when we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when i'm looking away from the camera, it's for my own comfort. faces are confusing. it's a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. at its core, autism is a social disorder, it's a neurological disorder that people are born with, and it's a big, big

spectrum. it wasn't until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. i was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. i didn't like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. i was very difficult to be around. but the friends that i have are very close. i click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. in experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. i remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldn't cope. i grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i

got development cal -- developmental psychology from all sides. i recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybody's in a position to have a family that's as supportive, but there's also a community that's incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. it was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what? i'm just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. i have a two-year-old. the person who i'm now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasn't sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well,

testosterone is basically birth control, so there's no way you can be pregnant. i found out i was pregnant at 6.5 months. my whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. i think i've finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. i think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. when i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. we have a place where children can be children, but it's very confusing. i always out myself as an adult with autism. i think it's helpful when you know where can your child go. how i'm choosing to help is to give children that would

normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. how do -- speech therapy. how do you explain that to the rest of their class? i want that to be a normal experience. i was working on a certificate and kind of getting think early childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in san francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i don't really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight person's perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and i'm like absolutely. so i'm now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. i love growing up here.

i love what san francisco represents. the idea of leaving has never occurred to me. but it's a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. what i've done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that we're still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a resource center, and this resource center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. i would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. so many things that i would love to do that are all about changing people's minds about certain chunts, like the transgender community or the autistic community. i would like my daughter to

know there's no wrong way to go through life. everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. >> [inaudible] i'm a illustrator by day and a [inaudible] composition teacher. right now i'm practice by transscribing [inaudible] that is what i have been doing the past couple years, teaching myself. california college of

the arts, illustration there has really great teachers. robert hunt, vance story taught me a lot. what i'm working on is a portfolio [inaudible] riding a donkey unicorn in the process. >> my name is dawn richardson and musician, drummer and drum teacher. i guess i would say i started my professional path quh i started playing in bands and teaching drum lesson when i was in college. they were definitely not that many women that would do what is doing. in 198 8 i graduated from cal state los ang and studied mostly classical percussion and music education but at the same time i was in hollywood so played at night in rock bands so was doing two

different things. >> the reason i'm [inaudible] the people. there is a extremely vibrant art community especially arounds the red poppy art house [inaudible] as a artist in the past 2 or 3 years there is a event called the [inaudible] every 3 months a free art music festival that i usually play at and just met so many people. >> i was teaching a little bit and doing odd jobs like waitressing and going at night and playing in bands and meeting a lot of people. i chss in ban that had cool break jz get parts on tv shows or things like that. a friend of mine, we had mutual friends that got signed to a record deal in san francisco call