summer -- in fact, in the month of september, there will be sunday streets in san francisco's chinatown north beach. through the great work of our program and rose and the chinese chamber, part of the sunday street on september 18 will be a dedication to a citywide ping- pong tournament that each district of our city will field a team of people to play, and we will pick up in an alleyway in chinatown. there will be 11 ping pong tables, and we will determine the best ping-pong player from the city and county of san francisco. how about that in september? [applause] >> now, we are going to play. before we do, i would like to ask peter to come up from the united states table tennis association. they have a gift for you that will help you maybe this afternoon. so peter, can you make this quickly? mayor lee? >> on behalf of usa table tennis, we would like to present to the mayor this anniversary paddle. 40 anniversary ping-pong diplomacy, july 1-8, 2011, milwaukee, san francisco, richard nixon library from usa table tennis and suitable for autographing on the back so you can get some signatures while yo

it encompasses north beach and chinatown. we have the city's famous hills.e have for the world comes to work, the financial district's, where the world comes to shop in union square, where the tourists spend time on fisherman's wharf , and the wonderful polk street neighborhoods. my district encompasses the ethnic and economic diversity that exists throughout the city. i think my district is emblematic of the entire city. you can find every political perspective you can possibly want in district 3. oftentimes, the interests of my district and the city are aligned. i do not have to think about those differences quite as often as some of my colleagues may have to. >> let's talk about the budget situation. we have been faced with some tough budget decisions again, including where to make cuts and whether or not to increase taxes. how will you approached these hard choices? >> our budget is one of the very top challenges facing city government right now. over each of the years i have served, we have had to balance budget deficits that were around $500 million. t