please welcome assembly man mark leno. >> good afternoon everybody. mo magic rocks. this is so great to be here this afternoon. congratulations on your second anniversary. we have a lot to celebrate and let me thank supervisor mirkarimi for your extraordinary leadership and making this happen and following in our public defender jeff and mo magic in the bay view -- >> our inspiration. >> and upon which it is all based and ross said all of the words and i want to ground what we're doing here a little bit in some facts and figures. we know that children, students that study art and music and dance and poetry and spoken word test better in reading, math and science. no big surprise to us that these students have higher self esteem and lower rates of dropping out, and that is so very important when we are talking about the context of the safety of our communities and the wholeness of our family, and we also know that if a child doesn't graduate high school they have a seven times more likelihood in finding their way into our criminal justice system and all of the pieces

mayor, mark leno, aaron peskin.rec and park department to be the home of this incredible department. as you heard before, this is an inspirational symbol to the world. the mayor often talks about beacons on a hill. this is really a beacon on the hill that speaks to the world about the values san francisco has. one of those values is really preservation of things, making sure that when they're built, they're built to last, that they're beautiful, that their aesthetics are great. this is 75 years later and it's never looked this good. i really want to thank every single person today, i particularly want to thank rose dennis and her team. i want to thank the park rangers and the police department and the fire department and every single city employee who worked so hard over the last few days to make this work today. yesterday we were at the california academy of sciences unvietnamming an incredible sculpture by the artist maya ling. and to me, san francisco has this her i tange of art. we don't want to just put things

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez shows us why mark leno thinks these prisoners aren't a threat to you. >> reporter: if you do the crime, the law says you've got to do the time. but what if a prisoner becomes so sick they can't possibly pose a threat to anyone? >> they're not capable, many can't swallow, none of them can turn. none of them, and so bowel or bladder functions. >> reporter: yet these bedridden prisoners are costing the state tens of millions of dollars a year to care for and guard. that's why senator mark leno and others are pushing to release severely ill inmates from prison by granting them medical parole. >> someone in a comatose state, you want to waste all this money on guards standing by their bed as we increase class sizes and cut back on the number of teachers? >> reporter: if the state releases the sickest of the sick, it estimates huge savings. up to $50 million right off the bat. >> these people are not aware that they are incarcerated. these people are not aware that they're being punished. the only people we're really punishing with this continued scenario are t

nbc bay area's jodi hernandez shows us why mark leno thinks they're no longer a threat. >> reporter: if you do the crime, the law says they've got to do the time. but what if a prisoner becomes so sick, they can't possibly pose a threat to anyone. >> they're not capable of eating independently. many can't swallow, none of them can turn, none of them have the capacity to dress themselves, have bowl el or bladder functio. >> reporter: yet these bedridden prisoners are costing the state tens of millions a year to care and guard. that's why mark leno and others are pushing to release severely ill inmates from prison by granting them medical parole. >> someone's in a comatose state and you want to waste all this money on guards standing by their bed as we increase class sizes and cut back on the number of teachers. >> reporter: if the state releases the sickest of the sick, it estimates huge savings, up to $50 million, right off the bat. >> these people are not aware that they're incarcerated. these people are not aware that they're being punished. the only people we're really punishing w

senator mark leno has been very vigorous in trying to get restoration of vehicle license fees to try to make it possible for our city and county to vote to restore that. that path has been blocked consistently. i respect president to come also as a member of the board of supervisors, advocated for a. still, we have the opportunity to put a measure on the bill that would allow us to fund programs that include repairing local streets and roads, improving liability, pedestrian safety improvements, smart traffic signal technology to prioritize transit, and manage traffic incidents, programs that encourage people to use more sustainable forms of transportation, transit bicycle carpels, and all of the programs have to have some benefit to those individuals paying the fee. the expenditure plan contains printable among other objectives focused on funding smaller-back products that will coakley provide tangible benefits, provided their geographic distribution that takes into account the various needs of san francisco's neighborhoods and insure accountability and transparency every year. the a

senator mark leno has helped us on a bill to make sure that people who need help in a community and want to stay in the community can do so. we are very proud of this new building. at the same time, we want to make sure that people who want to stay in their homes will be able to do so. and so the senator has carried a bill that will enable us, if someone has medicaid, to use those medicaid dollars to increase the number of in-home hours that person has so that we can use those federal dollars instead of hospitalization, instead of long-term care here, in the home. our goal is that the person always has the choice as to what is the best setting for them. with that, should we do it all together? >> i have a resolution. this is my district. senator leno is an interloper. it is ok, because he is going to bring us a lot of money. together, we want to make this presentation to the executive director, the new head of laguna honda. i have known her for years. she is small in size, but she carries a wallop. thank you very much. [applause] >> good afternoon, everybody. it is not often you get to s

the office of senator mark leno, assemblyman tom amiano and speaker of the house nancy pelosi. i'd also like to thank helen walkasou of friendship house, john ben with a of the american native -- john ben with a -- jonbenet, lindo brian from kqed and mark espinosa from the native american health center. and i'd like to now introduce mark espinosa, executive director of san francisco native american health center. >> good evening, everyone. welcome. i'd like to congratulate all the winners tonight as well as thank all the sponsors for this great event. native american health center of san francisco was started in 1972 to provide health services very much needed for natives who are relocated to the bay area. we are still located in the mission district. we provide medical services, dental services, h.i.v. services and behavior health services. we're open to all city and county residents of san francisco as well as our native population. we are a safety net clinic and we do support the city and county in terms of providing health services for the city residents of san francisco. a