really give them the pride for working for the great city. ongratulations for making it on the wall. lee, john, to have this tradition, welcome our great chief. [applause] >> since you are the last one that has been hung on the wall previously, you two work so closely together, could you say something? >> i am no where near as good looking as joanne. kind of down the line there. joanne and i have been friends forever. i played football with city college with her brother dan who was the coach. talk about a great person to be able to follow. she has been so supportive. i have learned so much in my short time on how to be a good chief. she is modest, gracious, everything that you would want to have. i just hope someday people will think of me the way that i think of her. [applause] we have a surprise hear from senator mark leno, who i believe has not made an endorsement yet. would you like to make an announcement? >> speaking of better looking -- >> it is my pleasure to join mr. mayer and our chief on this auspicious occasion. i think all the kin

i am very excited to do that on behalf of our great city. it is a city of diversity and strength.s as we talk about how to really give celebration. i know there are a couple of people that i wanted to help recognize on their behalf. we had a moment earlier this year with the passing of maurice vela. i wanted to recognize him by providing the proclamation to his family who is here today. >> carlos, eddie, rose. [applause] >> thank you. >> carlos, eddie, rose, i want to welcome you to the stage and express our great appreciation for the family of maurice vela. we are working to preserve and improve the mural at bernal heights in his name. we're doing that with the love of the city for his leadership. please accept the proclamation declaring latino heritage month celebration day on behalf of your father and husband. thank you very much. [applause] we also want to honor another great leader in our community. i have had a chance to meet him and see the product of his work. the family of eric, please step forward. [applause] please welcome loreno and his mother carla to the stage. on be

proud americans and we are very proud that we are a descendant of a people -- people who greabuild great citiesnd much more. we are here in our city hall to proclaim that we, as arab- americans, have a lot to offer. we are ready to go towith everyt of all the residence for our beloved san francisco. thank you, sir. thank you, mr. mayor. we're looking forward to work with you to make this wonderful city even better. [applause] >> [speaking foreign language] i am ross mirkarimi. thank you dearly for bringing me up. i have been in office since 2005, but long before i was elected, this is a commemoration, a recognition that i am very proud to be a part of for many years, because i am iranian-american, the first iranian-american elected to office in san francisco. said there is a great affinity between our communities and one that i have not lost sight of since taking office when we were the first city hall in the united states and opening our doors for the persian new years. many in our community have celebrated together. this is not an occasion i would miss. very proud to be here. [speaks for the

now, turning our attention to the annual conference, the reason why we're all here in this great city what's ahead for the conference this week. the program is designed to provide you with information and resources that you can take back to your cities and put directly into action. we are here in san francisco to learn from the experts and each other over the course of the conference. both the on-site program and the conference-at-a-glance page you received at registration will help you navigate the sessions, meetings and events. look for an expo map to identify the 240 companies exhibiting in this year's expo. i know you won't want to miss the expo tomorrow and friday where you'll find many products and services that can help your city. if you'll permit me to to make a shameless commercial plug, please look at page 34 in your conference program and circle booth 908. here's the reason for that. we're plugging this booth because it's ours and all of yours. it's california communities and u.s. communities. these organizations provide important products and services to cities at a great

i am so grateful to the board of supervisors for this whole four months of leaving this great city. ll say once again as i have said through many corners of the city, whether it is a town hall meeting or just your regular family association dinner, the hundreds i have been too -- i really feel proud of our asian community as a whole for allowing me to serve this great city and for all the years of struggle and coordinating and push to keep the doors of government open and to keep opportunities for many generations of asians to serve this wonderful city. thank you. i continue to thank the board of supervisors for this historic vote that happened in january. saying that, i want to kick off the celebration by doing the appropriate thing, signing the declaration that declares this month asian pacific american heritage month. i would like you to join with me the fantastic group of council generals here. if i can call up to join me -- the council generals from canada, china, japan, korea -- please join me. please come up. if i may, i would like each share of our apa volunteer committee to

i have liveded are around the world in london, new york, paris, all cities with great subway systems.is what this city needs. it is only going to get more expensive. i do not know where the opposition have been, but everything is going up, and the longer we wait, the more expensive it will get. and the city -- it is the economic powerhouse of northern california leading us out of this recession. this project means thousands of quality jobs going up in chinatown and north beach. i like to go over there with my kids. it is really difficult right now to park. all the mechanisms are in place to monetize and manage the project -- a monitor and manage the project. there is no reason to hold it up at this time. the report talks about increased costs. the longer we wait, the more expensive it is going to get. supervisor campos: thank you. next speaker. >> the transportation solution's defense and education fund. we are transit advocates working primarily on the regional and statewide level. we have opposed the central subway for years because instead of being a well-designed, cost- effective

exciting to be here as council general of san francisco in this beautiful city, especially on a day like today. it's really great. you've been in amsterdam. in 1969 i learned and have reason for you to come back to that beautiful city soon. i'd love to work with you on a relationship between amsterdam and san francisco because there's so much in common between the two cities. and a lot of things that san francisco can learn from san francisco and the other way around. and my hope for these two days is that we will have something out of it as well and i'm sure we will have something out of it as well. and you probably will not remember amsterdam in the 1960's and the 1970's. i'm old enough to remember amsterdam in the 1970's and it was all different at that time. there was a lot of congestion, a lot of cars in town and it changed. it changed by changing the culture, changing policy and implementation of policies with hard work and i think hillie talens will show some figures and numbers about the travel that we did in the nether land as well. and about the economic benefits that investing in bicycle infrastructur

city. we can be a great bicycling city. we look forward to your help. i want to invite everyone here, please come and invite friends to tomorrow night's closing ceremony. as hille mentioned, we're now going to lock these good folks in a room for two days to help us come up with exciting and doable, that's important, implementable plans for mid market street, for polk street and the wiggle route through the lower haight. they'll be coming back miraculously tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. to share their design ideas with all of us. this is open to the public. 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night at the war memorial building in the green room just across the street, across van ness avenue. please come, and you will learn what the dutch experts and what our local experts and stakeholders think we need to make san francisco a truly great bicycling city, which i am sure we can do. thank you so much for coming today. we appreciate your enthusiasm and hope to see you tomorrow night. [applause]

and he was tailor-made to lead this great city. as a former city administrator, he knows the city inside and out. he has spearheaded sufficiency measures, moved towards greater government services, prepared for emergency management in times of disaster, and work toward inclusion of all people in this multi-cultural city. he is so well-respected that the board of supervisors unanimously appointed him. this is quite a statement in the tumultuous political times. with that, let us all welcome and a yearly -- well, mayor lee. >> thank you. good morning. we're honored to was the asia- pacific economic cooperative cooperation here in our great city. i want to welcome you to san francisco, which was recently named the greenness city in north america. this gathering is the perfect opportunity to renew our push for the future that is independent from foreign oil, and to take the steps necessary for a more secure, sustainable, and prosperous future. we're doing our part here in san francisco. san francisco is proud to be a transit-first city.

but we are so fortunate to be situated here in the city of innovation, with its rich resources of the magnificent waterfront. many ties to asia, our great educational and research institutions, and just a wonderful entrepreneurialism, inventive culture here, a true city of dreams and ideas. with all of the complexity in some of its politics, certainly. many things you will hear about, i do not want to reiterate during the headlines so much. but the announcement from salesforce about its mission de kamp last year certainly have a trigger effect, a big impact, followed on by the america's cup announcement -- the america's cup announcement. we will hear more about that in the wide-ranging attack. there is a twitter of fact and renewed look at revitalizing the market. the wrecking ball tipped around the transbay terminal, and there is work in progress, significant progress has been made there. that is a whole new neighborhood within the city that will build up. announcements of the moma expansion, the ucsf cardiovascular center at mission bay completed this year, and a hospital under way. the master developer announced great strides with tr

it's our pleasure, and as the mayor of our great city -- i know it is felt at the board of supervisorslebrate that. that is our strength in san francisco. that's why we have these wonderful celebrations. thank you to the ensemble for sharing your music here and creating a cultural connections. [applause] thank you. we have a wonderful city of san francisco. i know that we pride ourselves in being an international city. begins with celebrating all the diverse cultures and making sure everyone is recognized, that we have our education institutions reflect that, our cities, official events, reflected that but i know i have benefited greatly, not only as an attorney, but as someone who has worked in the city to have worked with so many leaders of the arab-american community. the business leaders have done very well here. knowing, also, the challenges that you face -- i also know there are so many examples of arab-american leadership in the technology world. just look at silicon valley and see how successful arab- americans have been. we are now recruiting those very companies to come to sa

but great cities regret not building subways. i happen to think we should not just do it in chinatown. i hope someday our vision is to continue on, to connect the entire city. we know that in 15 or 20 years, traffic on our streets will double. when we are all sitting in gridlock in 10 years because of decisions that may or may not be made today, i think we're going to regret that. [applause] >> all right, thank you. >> should we let everybody weigh in on this? >> yeah. >> yes, i would like to -- [inaudible] oh, ok. what are you going to say to the people in the southeast of the city? quite frankly, people in the southeast of the city are going to be worse off. they will lose the direct connection that the t made to market street and bart and muni. there will have to go to union square and then walk back through a tunnel three football fields long to get to the station. i would say to the people of the southeast of the city that they are really going to lose with the central subway. the truth is that the mta's own statistics on ho

a city with transit so great you don't need your car. ses every 10 minutes, truly save by claims all over the city. let's make really magnificent every effort -- every underground station covered with murals and mosaics, every bus shelter a work of art. transit so great you don't want your car. now, only the rich can afford to live here. but another city is possible. let's declare a moratorium on building houses for the wealthy. we have 24 billionaires'. that's enough. we need housing for poor workers, middle-class families, artists. these people are the backbone and soul of san francisco. they deserve to live here. where will the money come from? a few ideas -- one, a municipal bank of san francisco will get the interest on its own pension funds instead of giving it to bankamerica. second, dumppg &e to have public power. that would give us lower rates. 3, the rich must pay their fair share in taxes. money is being sucked upward as i speak. let's bring it back down. taxes the rich. duh. in this era of white -- right wing at renters and pa

i am pleased that i am joined by very important members of our great city family. anted to take this opportunity as we're coming closer to our first of many holidays, i wanted to send a message to all of our city and the rest of the bay area that there is easily going to be a lot of bad news in our lives. it may be economics or jobs. in san francisco, we think differently. we believe in ourselves, we believe in our faiths. we take up the challenge that in times of bad news and economic hurt that we do things differently in our city. we bring our residents and visitors together closer. to declare this season of giving is important for us to send a different message as we're sensitive to messages that may not be about hope. i want to thank our religious leaders. i want to thank our wonderful social service providers, the intra-faith council, st. anthony's, and so many others, a salvation army, the united way of the bay area. all of them are coming together including the food bank. we will be working hard together. i started this week with our department heads. in the

wanted to say that the superintendent as i mentioned earlier is in boston for the council of the great city schools, i want you to know that we are honored that we will have the two presentations that this national convening including san francisco unified staff. from the research and accountability department, they will be presenting on our partnership with stanford university and our counsel. we will be presenting an immigration issues with students. we are honored to have this representation. commissioner fewer: i would like to make an announcement that the budget committee will meet this thursday, october 27 at 5:00 p.m. in this room. we are inviting everyone to attend. we will have an exciting discussion about the state but the engine support services. >> is always really thrilling. >> adjusting case not all the commissioners , in every department, we have students go out once a week to middle schools to a guest who teach middle school kids about the arts that we do. that is one way we are recruiting students. >> and you're doing this in san francisco middle schools? [laughter] commiss