our laurels and continue to make this great city of san francisco even better. aside from that, are there other opinions or comments the other commissioners would like to do during my present statement here? commissioner murphy: i would like to make a few comments. i have had a wonderful six years on this commission. parting can be such a sweet sorrow. two years as president, and long before i was appointed as a dbi commissioner, my business took me to the building department very often, and i always felt like i too was very comfortable. it was like being around family, and i knew everybody. notwithstanding, i had many ups and downs and many ros -- rows. becoming a commissioner was exciting, and i was delighted to serve. so many dbi they that easy for me. i want to pay special tribute to ed sweeney, who has always stepped up when asked to. -- so many in dbi made that easy for me. joe duffy, tom huey, niel free -- neil freeman. they've contributed so much to making changes that make it easy or easier for the stakeholders to do business. when i started, i had this

proud americans and we are very proud that we are a descendant of a people -- people who greabuild great cities, have a lot to offer. we are ready to go to

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

proud americans and we are very proud that we are a descendant of a people -- people who greabuild great cities 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 language] >> thank you, mayo

please welcome the 43rd mayor of this great city, mr. ed lee. [applause] mayor lee: good evening. thank you for that introduction. welcome to the third tech awards in san francisco, the city of innovation. i want to welcome you here. i understand there are 20 awards, $100,000 each. i think there will be 21 awards. i slept in one nomination that you might recognize. i want to thank the hosts here, techcrunch. a little over a year ago, they invited me to their media center and announced me as the first non-politician office holder. i want to thank the founders and the founders fund, our partner, and new enterprise associates. thank you for being the host of this great event. i am also very excited to hear all the nominees. so many of them are part of san francisco bay companies. i am proud to see their names pop up. they are all great companies. every week, i do not know if you know this, but part of my schedule every week is i get to visit a new technology company and find out what is behind the name i do not understand. i was trying to understand that. look out. of course, i had a

>> i support having elected mayors and our great cities. obviously, it will be for those cities themselves to choose. bristol will have the chance to make that choice. i think what people and not entirely unnoticed is that they have gone through some devolutioned in terms of the powers and the money that we are prepared to offer them so they can build their own. if you think and how they need manchester, liverpool, how these great cities actually build themselves up in the fourth place, it was the great city figures that did it for them. >> on tuesday, the education secretary said the prime minister's decision to set up the leveson inquiry was having a chilling effect on the freedom of expression. >> it was a decision fully supported by the entire government, and i think my right honorable friend is making an important point, which is even as the inquiry goes on, we want to have a vibrant press that will call a powerful into account. we do not want to see it chilled. there can be an advantage to having a chilled, but that is not what we wan

kelly is an extraordinary woman with a great contribution to the city and county of san francisco in administrative capacities. we have the pleasure of working with her and the city administrator, ed lee, when the society was engaged in working to have the city adopts a slavery disclosure ordinance, which the board of supervisors did adopt. it is on the book. the ordinance would require certain entities that do business with the city to disclose whether their origins -- where they have their origins historic plea, and whether they are in any way related to slave trade. we worked closely with ms. kelley in that regard. the skills, expertise, and commitment she brought to that challenge was unswerving in terms of its implementation. at the board of supervisors last week, we were there when the announcement -- when she was before committee with regard to her nomination to become the next city administrator. i got up and made a few comments. somebody got up after me. i said to that after him, "i wish i had said what he said." he said we talk about the fact that naomi kelly, hopefully nex

. >> i support having elected mayors and a great cities. obvious it will be for the cities themselves to choose but i'm hugely encouraged by what has happened in liverpool recently. we will be having these referenda and people in bristol will have their chance to make that choice. at the same time what people haven't entirely noticed is the government is going to huge devolution to cities in terms of the powers and the money that were prepared to offer them so they can build their own futures but if you think of how bristol leads manchester, liverpool, has a great cities actually build themselves up in the first place, it wasn't order and instruction by london that goes to great city figures that did it for them. >> on tuesday the education secretary took the decision, having a chilling effect on the freedom and expression or does the education secretary speaking for the government? >> the point i make is this, it was right to set out the inquiry, that is a decision foes supported by the entire government. but i do think that my right honor

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

. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to welcome you all here to our great city.e here to mourn our loss, but to celebrate her life. >> god is in heaven, and with him is one of our angels, whitney houston. ♪ ♪ >> as the heavens reverberate in joy and gladness may we understand, weeping may endure through the night, but joy -- joy cometh in the morning. we thank you for gathering here, and i again want to say we love you, whitney houston. thank you. ♪ ♪ >> would everyone please rise. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> as asleep in the morning. they're like grass which grows up, in the morning it flourishes and grows up. in the evening it is cut down and withers. for we are consumed by thine anger and by thine wrath are we

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]

i love san francisco, it is a great city. this is a civil rights victory but it is also a human rights victory. we have a right, just like everyone else, to be married, divorced, to walk down the middle of oklahoma openly queer in the middle of the day and not be harassed and persecuted for who we are. i believe this is a wonderful day for all of us that are not just lgbtq activists, but human rights activists. we want to be treated in a humane way, it is just that simple. i want to thank all of the activists that fought so hard to make sure that this day happen, maybe we will catch up with spain and other parts of europe. it is such a catholic country and it has been legal there for many years. we will get there. i am confident of that. >> i want to thank the supervisors. we have everybody here. and before we open it up for questions, i know that there are representatives here from senator leno's office, members of the equaly california. thank you for being here. there is another elected official i like to give the opportuni

[laughter] as the next chief elected law enforcement officer of the great city and county of san francisco's so great that i always have a smile on my face as i'm traveling between san francisco and sacramento listening to kcbs and they talk about some horrific crime and they want comments from the district attorney and of course, i'm always like, did we respond and i realize that is george's job. but it really is a great job, george. you get to work with wonderful people like, of course, our now newly elected and soon to be inaugurated mayor ed lee. you get to -- [applause] >> you find that when you're the district attorney of san francisco, you definitely want to have friends in sacramento, in particular in the legislature because we have a very active office that is often finding ways that we can improve the laws and so we have found a great leader in senator mark leno who is here, of course. [applause] >> it's always helpful when the president of the board of supervisors was a former member of the office and that of course, is david chiu. [applause] >> and then when you got someone lik

and the great city and county of san francisco. but first, i just wanted to recognize because it's utterly appropriate, susan, come on up here. these two very talented artistic directors that have done so much and so well. we just -- we wanted to thank them for all their hard work. and all their sacrifice. and all their -- the commitment they have made to work with all of you. and to be here with you. not just on moments like this. and moments like tuesday. but those quiet moments, practice stress and frustration and anxiety, where ian and susan were there, just keeping your spirits up and enlivanning your senses and making you believe you can do more and better. and reminding you what it's all about. and that is working together across your differences and uniting a common goal. and that's really the spirit of what a chorus is all about, isn't it? it's the sum of its parts. and there's something special in that as well. so it's in that stead and that spirit and that light that we have two certificates of honor. one recognizing our