my name is ben robertson. i'm from first place for youth. i would like to make a few points. one is that as first place for youth we house former foster youth. san francisco youth are currently being housed in alameda county and think it's a disservice children of the community can't grow and find residents in their community. the second point i would like to make is that any reduction in the size of the building would also reduce the amount of units served, and we're looking, you know, at this in terms of feet, but there's individuals, there's lives being helped. so when you reduce four units, there's 25-30 fewer youth that are going to be served at this location you could have an impact. that's all i wanted to say. thank you. >> thank you. >> michael sessage, followed by winston parsons and phillip stone. >> my name is michael sessag, 2609 post street, around the corner from booker t. i agree, booker t. has done a wonderful job with the programs it's done. my problem is it you built this building 10 stories high it wouldn't solve the problem. so ask me to come within the un

morell green, evan cambridge, loren tom followed by ben robertson. >> good afternoon, commissioners, my name is morell green. i come here in many hats but one of those hats is from the executive committee of the n aacp and another hat is from the city of san francisco where i serve as counseling faculty. i want to talk to you very briefly about two things. one is what booker t. has done and what booker t. can do with your approval. the first is i'm a product of booker t. that was my first summer jodge through the marist youth employment program when i was 14. that was 20 years ago. i'm still at booker t. working with the high school kids today. my mother and mother-in-law were both products of booker t. in the 1950's and 1960's. because of some of the things that booker t. has done for them, they have been allowed to raise children who are doing positive things in the city and county of san francisco. my mother-in-law raised my wife who is now a doctor, a foot and ankle surgeon. it's because of some of the things her mother learned at booker t. and my wife learned at booker t. she's

nic robertson will be joining us. we'll check in with benah and fouad ajami is live here in "the situation room" from the johns hopkins school of advanced middle eastern studies, excellent views and analysis of what's going on. jimming zogby will be joining us as well with a book on arab voices. a full two hours coming up. >> the a-team lining up now, wolf blitzer. we'll be watching, and still to come here, how secretive is the obama white house? remember they promised not to be? they just won an award for being transparent. there's actually a hitch to that. joe johns explains what we're talking about in the "political pop." stay there. we could've gone a more traditional route... ... but it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable. ♪ >>> so president obama recently received an award for transparency, you know, the idea that of open government, but that meeting was completely closed to members of the media. joe johns with some "political pop" for this friday. joe, transparency, closed door, transparency, closed door. explain. >> reporter: you