>> 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.

♪

>> this unique neighborhood, we noemie know miguel's over there shaking his head like, yeah. [laughter] we know there is something special about the city and something special about the neighborhoods and to have everything to do with the people who are part of these amazing neighborhoods. and i'm just really excited about some of the other things that we've done and more of what we will do to make sure that we are protecting affordable housing in the mission for generations to come. [applause] now we all know the sad history of rewoment in our city. the community that i grew up in the western addition and what happened to that community. a lot of propsses were made. a lot of housing was built. but when the time came, for

example, in the public housing that i grew up in, 300 units torn down, 200 units built and the difficulty of so many of us being able to move back to the community. you remember this joyce armstrong, what happened in the western addition and how it really sadly destroyed a very vibrant african american community. and we look at this as a lesson learned and we have to think of the challenges that existed back then and what we have to do to change that for the future of san francisco. and we are going to protect our diversity and our communities. we have to start making the right kinds of investments. it's why, when i was on the board of supervisors with this community, roberto hernandez was there and we stood proud to fight for and josh arsay, we stood proud to fight for neighborhood preference so that

when we actually build the affordable housing in these communities, that the people who live in these communities have right of first refusal to access those units. [applause] and also when we have revenue this this city that we make the right kinds of investments that will make a tremendous impact for a community. i got to take a tour. in fact, it was a low-rider tour with roberto. yes, it was a nice day and the sun was shining and yes, we were bouncing up and down in the mission and people thought i was having a good time and i wasn't there working. i was working. i was working. i was on a fact-finding mission to really see what opportunities exist in this community so that we can build more affordable housing. and so we were standing out here on 26th street talking to a number of folks who grew up

here, some who don't live here anymore because they can't afford to. and others who were just trying to hold on and they talked about housing and their children and their future. i'm really excited because government sometimes takes a really long time to make things happen. and we were really lucky that we got this windfall money that you heard about. and the first thing i thought about were all these sites in the commission and whether or not we would be able to acquire these sites for 100% affordable housing. and today that's what this announcement is about. 1515 south van ness will be acquired to potentially build 150 new family units sglfp [applause] and i have to tell you -- it wasn't necessarily fast for this community because this community had been working so

hard to really identify locations, coordinate and work together and really address what we know has been significant dig placement. with the accusation of the site along with the four sites that we broke ground with, for affordable housing, with more to come, in the mission neighborhood, we would have preserved and built over 1,000 new units for this community. now we know this community has a goal of getting to 2500 and i definitely want to make sure that we get there. but i will say that this is a step in the right direction. and i just also would like to put in a plug for the housing bonds. $600 million without raising property taxes for affordable housing.

woe have the money to buy the site, but we need the money to build it. so i'm going to be counting on the voters in san francisco to support the upcoming housing bond so that we can get this housing built for this community right away. and more affordable housing throughout the city of san francisco. [applause] so i want to thank all of you and so many of the community members that have joined us today. it just really is not only a beautiful day in san francisco, but an exciting time for this community. i've been to four ground breakings in the mission since i've been mayorment we look at other sites and we have been acquiring property. we've been looking at ways on small sites and making tremendous investments. and this is really just the beginning of what i think is going to be an incredible future for this community. but it won't be that way unless we work hard for it because we have to also make sure that the investments happen, we have to

make sure that the resources are there to make this investment happen and we'll continue to do everything we can to make sure that the community is a part of this process every step of the way. before i thank all the folks that are responsible for this, besides, i just want to give a special shout-out to kate hartley from the mayor's department of housing for all the really hard work that she did to make this possible -- [applause] along with a number of city departments to help and jumpstart s.f. and the m.t.c. or m.t.a., which one is it? m.t.c. we have somebody from one of those transportation agencies. so, thank you so much for that and thank you to all the community members and everyone who's with us today. and to acknowledge so many incredible people from this community.

including herself who myrna milgaard has been an incredible resource and incredible advocate. [applause] and just working with young people and staying focused. not only is she the president of the planning commission of san francisco, she runs jamestown community center, an incredible space for young people in this community. myrna melgar. >> thank you, mayor. so i was appointed to the planning commission by then president of the board of supervisors, london breed. [laughter] and people ask me why -- why are you doing this? [laughter] so muchwork! it is a lot of work. but i'm doing it because i, in addition to running the jamestown community center, i'm a mother of three girls who were born and raised in san francisco. and i want them to have a life

in san francisco. i want my family close by and my community all around me. it's what makes my life worth living. like many of you. and i think there is no more important thing that we're doing right now than building affordable housing. and when then president of the board of supervisors breed asked me to do this, i was on it because i believed in her vision. so when i saw that she went to h.u.d. to advocate for neighborhood preference despite decades of people saying no, it can't be done, people in affordable housing saying it can't be done, she took her advocacy and got it done. and i was so proud of her. you know? because that was a game changer for us in san francisco. and, you know, i think that the

advocacy, that community and this mayor's office is doing in terms of building affordable housing, of just thinking outside the box with small sites, with different ways of getting to where we need to go is amazing and groundbreaking and i'm so proud to be part of this. so i think that for the first time i'm looking around at all of my colleagues in nonprofit and all of the community, instigators and collaborators and this is the moment that i feel like in the whole time i've been in san francisco where the submission united. [applause] the first time. we're all on the same page that we are building affordable housing. not only preserving our community, but getting it back. those 8,000 families that have been displaced from san francisco that are part of our

schools, of our churches, of our community organizations, we're getting them back. and we're all working really hard for it and this project is going to be a part of that story. we also have a supervisor who is on the same page with us. she has made affordable housing her priority. when she ran and also during her office and i am so glad that she is working with us hand in hand. and with that, i'm going to introduce supervisor hillary ronan. [applause] >> thank you so much. what an incredible, incredible day. i don't think there is anything that energizes all of us more than breaking ground on an affordable housing site or acquiring an affordable housing site. there is nothing that manges us feel like the work that we do in the city so important. when i was running for office, i made a goal and a pledge to

build 5,000 units of affordable housing in district nine in a decade and i'm counting each and every unit and right now we are at 1182 units! [applause] and that is because the mission is united. and not only is the mission united with itself, the mission is united with city hall, with our mayor whose priority is housing and affordable housing for this neighborhood, with the supervisor whose priority is housing and affordable housing for this neighborhood, with the director of the mayor's office of housing and community development whose priority is housing and affordable housing. we're truly, truly united and we have two extremely strong organizations. affordable housing developers right here in the mission district. mission housing and economic economic development agency. [applause]

anja emphasize how important these organizations are. the executive director of one of those organizations because there was a decade, a decade when we didn't build a unit of affordable housing in this neighborhood. and part of that reason was because we didn't have affordable housing developer organizations who were at a stage that they could build housing. now we don't even have one. we have two. we have two and we have a community that is not going to stop for a second fighting for more affordable housing. and i just -- before i hand it over to roberto hernandez, i wanted tos also thank the former supervisor of district nine, david campos. because part of the funding to acquire the site, $5 million, was the first time ever david campos got that money from the m.t.c. it's a regional transportation body that i now sit on that has

never financed affordable housing in its entire existence. but david made the point that you can't talk about transportation and jobs without talking about housing. you can't talk about housing without talking about transportation and jobs. he married those two and this is the first pilot project for the m.t.o. that they are investing regional dollars in affordable housing. so, that is a major milestone as well. so thank you, david campos, for your hard work. and now i wanted to introduce roberto hernandez who has been on the frontlines of this fight from day one. roberto hernandez. [applause] >> buenos dias! [speaking in spanish]! come on. let me hear you say it! [speaking in spanish]!

[crowd repeats] >> a very wise, elderly man taught me at a young age that we write our own stories. every day when we get up, it is a page that's written and we have -- we can decide how that story is written every day. and then we write chapters and, by the end of our lifetime, there's a book written about us. that we write. we're the writers. because we're the creators of our own story. but i take it to another level and say we as a community here in the mission have been writing not one book, but many, many books because this story doesn't end here. it's a story that began back many, many years that actually started mission housing development corporation. it was a story that started off by a group of us who banned together called the mission

coalition organization. the m.c.o. and aim glad to see that my compadre, my brother santiago reese is here because he was part of that. and michael nolan and pete gallegos and many others here in this space today. and speaking about my compadre, happy birthday, feliz cumpleanos because today is your birthday. this is your gift, my brother. this is your goift. this is your gift. there's senior housing that is being built right down the street and i know you're getting ready to retire. if you need a spot, there are applications given out. you can apply with them. you have it, brother? all right. we have a little spot. you want the top? penthouse? ok. all right. all right.

then i want to be on top. [laughter] all kidding aside, our mission no eviction was created by jose carasco and myself because we picked up after the dot-com boom. we recognized when we started getting people calling us up and saying hey, am i getting evicted? and within a period of 90 days, 56 people we knew were getting evicted. you know? and so we formed our mission which iss a -- what did you call it? instigators? we are revolutionaries, you know? really. that's what we are. we're not funded by anybody. we're not incorporated. we don't have bylaws. we don't have a structure. we're just a group of people that band together and have

been fighting. it is a beautiful end of the story, right? [applause] we didn't need no more luxury units. we needed 100% affordable housing, you know? and we tried working with them. we told them build 100% affordable housing. they say it doesn't pencil out. oh, really? i guess you won't make that much money, right? then we said build 100% affordable housing for teachers. because teachers need housing and they make a decent salary so they can pay a little more than somebody who's a dishwasher, right? is and they said it doesn't pencil out, right? and then we said just give us the land back. just donate the land back to the community because you're a major corporation. everybody knows lennar, right? they're a major corporation. and this is like to me like a

little cucharacha, you know? it's so small compared to all the big projects that they do. but at the end of the day, we lost and the planning commission approved it. the board of supervisors approved it. we appealed and appealed and after appeal after appeal and i want to thank scott weaver who is an attorney who volunteers his time for us and has done so much work. [applause] for free. pro bono basis. you know? and like him, there is so many other attorneys and so many other people who volunteer their time to give. and so this story ends like right here. and i want to thank mayor london breed from my corazon for going on that cruise with us. [applause] you know? and you're right. you don't know how many hits i got on facebook and twitter and

everybody was blowing me up. oh, you were cruising with the mayor? think that we were having fun. i've been telling the story -- >> working! >> yeah, we were working and in fact there is a picture somebody gathered of me driving and showing her. sorry i shouldn't have been doing this. but i'm showing and explaining to her and it was like magic. you know? for her to go and get this done with kate -- thank you, kate. thank you very much. [applause] for doing all the work that you did. but for getting this done. you know? because this gives a lot -- us a major victory, more different than the other ones that we've gotten. but this one i believe in my corazon it will make a difference and give people hope and understanding that the times have changed. we have a mayor who loves and cares for the mission district. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you! i will say i'm just really excited to see my portrayal

hill folks out here. [applause] supporting the mission. thank you all so much for coming out. thank you to our artist community. thank you, deborah and tammy. tammy from the fillmore. thank you, sam moss and all the people who are here and the work that you do to make san francisco a better place. and i just want to end it by saying that we have to be aggressive when it comes to getting more housing in this city. and, yes, the housing bond is significant. it's the largest housing bond ever introduced in this city's history and it doesn't raise property taxes, but we have to fight to get that bond passed. let me also say there two other measures that i'm proposing and i'm asking all of you to contact your supervisors for my proposed charter amendment. that charter amendment will make it possible so that all

100% affordable and teacher housing can be built as a right. so when meta and mission housing, when they're trying to go through this process to build housing and they have sadly sometimes people who are trying to stop it and they're not asking for anything other than what's already required by the code, they need to get it built and get it built faster. [applause] and there are people who don't want us to do that. they say they want affordable housing now, but i'm proposing policies that will get that affordable housing delivered now. so contact wherever you live, contact your members of the board of supervisors and express how important it is to pass this charter amendment out of the board so that we have no more delays around affordable housing. [applause]

our future is depending on it. i don't want what happened to so many of us who actually grew up in this city, born and raised, and then we turned around and we looked and we were wondering where's our community? they couldn't afford to live here because we have not built enough affordable housing. yes, everyone wants affordable housing. yes, everyone wants to make sure that san francisco remains diverse. but it's going to take work to make it happen. it will take work. it will take changes to policy. it will take bold and brave leadership. so i'm asking for your support to get this done. the other thing i'm proposing is an ordinance, which i don't have to go through the board of supervisors, thank goodness.

because the property is not zoned for housing. but the community wants teacher housing. i want teacher housing. and so it shouldn't take an additional two years to rezone the property. [applause] this is how we are going to create a better future. we're going to have to do things differently. we're going to have to make the right investments and, yes, we're going to have to come together because if we don't want san francisco to continue to change so significantly,

where neighborhoods are neighborhoods that we don't even recognize anymore, we're going to have to make an aggressive investment in affordable housing. that is what today is about. it's an aggressive investment in affordable housing. it is the support from this community that has made it possible. so i plan to do everything i can to put housing at the forefront of our decisions, at the forefront of our discussions. at the forefront of how we invest our dollars and so i ask each and every one of you to continue your advocacy, to make sure that we not only acquire this property, but we get it done in less time than it typically takes us to get a project like this done. [applause] thank you all. thank you anne cervantes. thank you so much for being here, the mission community. now let's get it done. thank you. [applause]

>> everything is done in-house. i think it is done.

i have always been passionate about gelato. every single slaver has its own recipe. we have our own -- we move on from there. so you have every time a unique experience because that slaver is the flavored we want to make. union street is unique because of the neighbors and the location itself. the people that live around here i love to see when the street is full of people. it is a little bit of italy that is happening around you can walk around and enjoy shopping with gelato in your hand. this is the move we are happy to provide to the people. i always love union street because it's not like another commercial street where you have big chains. here you have the neighbors. there is a lot of stories and

the neighborhoods are essential. people have -- they enjoy having their daily or weekly gelato. i love this street itself. >> we created a move of an area where we will be visiting. we want to make sure that the area has the gelato that you like. what we give back as a shop owner is creating an ambient lifestyle. if you do it in your area and if you like it, then you can do it on the streets you like.