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 your there. thank you. mayor lee: thank you. >> thank you for hosting. >> now, what we have all been waiting for. i think we are ready to play. mayor lee, are you ready? are you going to play? ok, great. and this is a veteran of the 1971 exhibit. [applause] >> we are going to add the doubles. [applause] yes, you, too. this is the future now. the future and the past. >> [inaudible] [applause] [cheers and applause]

mayor lee: thank you, everyone. i wanted to be here to welcome the prime minister from new zealand's. i know he is here. he is on a stopover in preparation for the america's cup, on his way, of course, to meet our president obama and talk about our two countries' mutual support and help. i would like to think that the prime minister was here primarily co view the competition -- was here primarily to view the competition that will be between us in 2013, with washington being a stop over. i want to welcome him here. i know he is here to not only speak for himself, but knowing that team new zealand has won the america's cup twice before, and in 1995 and 2000. they are going to be a very helpful. i am very excited about the america's cup. it will bring in some 8800 jobs to this city. it will really result in $1.4 billion of economic in come for our city, and that is why we're working very closely with michael thompson, are america's cup authority, as well as the president of our rec and park commission. and we work as a

mayor lee, the show is all yours. [applause] mayor lee: thank you, everyone. welcome to city hall, and welcome to our celebration of the 40th anniversary of ping- pong diplomacy. i also want to welcome supervisor eric mar. thank you for being here. i know he has a wealth of chinese residents and residents in the whole district that want to play ping-pong this year. i want to welcome everyone here. our counsel general in china, the head of the table tennis association in china. thank you very much for being here. the wonderful guest from our bay area sports organizing committee and the united states table tennis association. thank you for being here as well. 40 years ago, i was studying really hard in college. i was actually studying about china and wondering where my parents came from and what they were doing in those years and what caused them to come to america and give birth to six kids and start us on our journeys in our own education. now, 40 years later, i find myself year as the leftist mayor of any great city in the whole united states, being the mayor

[applause] >> hello, mayor lee. it's my pleasure to present the recommendations of the new century transportation advisory panel. our organization is concerned with the san francisco transportation sector. we are writing to express our support for the city and county of san francisco greenhouse gas emissions control and specifically for the transportation actcy's climate action strategy for the transportation sector. we recognize that the transportation sector is responsible for 30% of san francisco's greenhouse gas emissions. it will be crucial for public transportation is prioritized. because human mobility is essential to our economy and to the life of every citizen, it will take organizations like ours working with the city to realize m.t.a.'s vision for the future transportation of san francisco, a safer, more efficient and lower carbon vision. we remain committed to advocacy, communication and developing existing and new businesses to support the transportation infrastructure of the 2 sst century. -- 21st cent

lee, the mayor of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee: thank you.nk you for that wonderful introduction and thank you for being here. it is the seventh annual celebration. sydney already explained our history, what president carter did for us, and what we are doing for ourselves, joining the whole city and region in celebrating asian-pacific portage month. i am so grateful to the board of supervisors for this whole four months of leaving this great city. i will 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 c

we are in good hands with mayor lee. he recognizes the importance of this kind of structure and it is always great to work with the city of san francisco and the mayor's office. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. just in time, the son has come out. mayor lee will lead us in having the crane operator bring a the beam up. >> everybody, on three, we are going to have frankie bring it up. we are going to say frankie, bring it up! >> frankie, bring it up! [applause] ++ >> i am the deputy executive director for the sfmta. i am pleased to welcome you to the celebration of the completion of the california and power line cable car projects, which saw the california cable car line down for six months this year. in spring, the power lines were down for three different shut down -- shutdowns. the project was a comprehensive line upgrade. the project was a collaboration with department of public works and the san francisco public utilities commission, both of which made multiple improvements to the infrastructure of this street in co

government worked out the kinks, twists and turns, bombs in the road, to select its new interim mayor, ed lee. san francisco's first asian- american mayor. >> this has been an unprecedented and historic transition of power here in san francisco. i am so happy the board of supervisors came together to select an outstanding choice along many outstanding candidates to lead us over the next several years. >> over the past several months when this issue has come up, it had been agonizing. the board has been put into a difficult situation. there are a lot of differences of opinion on how to run the city, how to mass make a decision, who should be in place, 11 people to agree on that is a challenging thing. i think we have done the best we can do in the process, considering the difference of opinions. >> the people of san francisco can now choose their mayor, the direction they want to go. that is why this decision was so appropriate. >> the other big shock is that the moderates seem to have won this round. people thought, progressives have themselves on the board. there is no reason that they will

mayor lee: thank you, supervisor. that is probably one of the most challenging questions that we receive, and it is certainly one that i have been carefully considering in response to this. as you know, it is the responsibility of the mta board to select a new director, but i also know our role, and our role is to review with them in the goals of the agency and all of its aspects. first, the new director must implement the new labor agreement with twu local 250a, the operators' union, said the agency can continue to put the public first in everything they do. of central importance to our riders, one of our new directors made tasks is to improve reliability and on-time performance. muni is only there when you expect it 71% of the time. this needs to increase with a voter mandate 85% on-time performance. mta has already made some important safety improvements, but much more needs to be done to improve the safety system. on-time performance and safety are important operational priorities, but we also have a number of cap

it is because we have leadership like mayor lee who understands the role of libraries. u for your wonderful testimonial. with us here as well from the mayor's office, the education adviser and school board president. [applause] next on our program, it is my honor to introduce several state senators. leland yee is first on the order of business. he has been supportive of the library, not only in sacramento, but at this time in the city. [applause] >> i went over to mark lino to congratulate him. maybe he can make that announcement. mark lino and i really have a passion for libraries. libraries, for us, is, in fact, a community center. it used to be that you could go read a book, read a newspaper, but i know libraries are a key element to any community. to some extent, it is a place where our children get to do their homework. they come and sit in that room, and do their homework, and in the course of doing their homework, they will browse around, and then they will start reading, and then they will start dreaming, and then they will start plotting against us parents. [lau

[applause] mayor lee: now, we have our board of supervisors. next time we do that, i would rather do it on a bike. that would be a lot more fun. supervisor chiu: good morning. and would like to work today? is anyone a member of the amazing san francisco by a coalition? thank you, and thank you for showing the world how we roll. 15 years ago, i started to bite -- bike to work for the first time, and i have to admit, it was a lonely experience. i do not feel alone anymore. last year, the board of supervisors set a new goal for the city. by 2020, we want to have 20% of all trips throughout the city on our bicycles. in order to do this, we need to imagine. we need to imagine a bicycle network from the bay to the bridge, from the east to the west, from the north to the south. we have to imagine separated bicycle lanes, finally getting bicycle parking for all of us, finally having bicycle signals. we have to imagine sake of conditions for our 8-year-old's and 80's -- 80-year-old's to go to work. i want to thank my two great tour guides. we had a grea

this here in city hall for six years now, and i cannot tell you how proud i am of our community, of mayor lee for helping co-host this event, or the many people working with her, a staff of the mayor's office who really helped us put this on. my colleagues who are here today from the board of supervisors. i see the director from dpw here. there are commissioners, elected officials, real advocates for a wonderful san francisco and bay area. that is why we have been able to put this on, and i thank everybody for their support and confidence in introducing to the rest of the world what nowruz means to all of us. let's hear it for those people. [applause] i do not think it is my imagination, but i have to say, in the last few years, of the many nowruz events that i have been dissipated in and witness, i see a wonderful outpouring of people from the iranian american community -- the many events that i have participated in and with this. with regard to how we first come second, third generation are beginning to integrate in california and in the united states, how as our community is a very accompl

now, mayor lee, if you'll forgive me, i was told there would be a teleprompter. so i'm not that good of a speaker. just off the cuff, so i've got a couple of notes. and basically i want to make this brief because i want to get on to the performances but there are three things that i would like you guys to remember or to address. one is sort of why me? why s.f. cat? and why carnaval? so the first question, at least some people are asking, is why a half-white, half-lebanese guy from ohio heading up this organization? and i'll tell you, it was pretty easy, it just took 20 years of participation and commitment to the mission district and to the carnaval community. i've been involved, my first -- i took part in 1991 and i performed as a dancer, a d.j., a drummer. i became king and i also performed with over a dozen groups including aqra rela who are going to perform today. i guess could you say i'm culturally curious. and fortunately for me san francisco is, in my opinion, and i've traveled quite a bit, this is the best place to be culturally conservative. i'm sorry,

we are in good hands with mayor lee. he recognizes the importance of this kind of structure and it is always great to work with the city of san francisco and the mayor's office. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. just in time, the son has come out. mayor lee will lead us in having the crane operator bring a the beam up. >> everybody, on three, we are going to have frankie bring it up. we are going to say frankie, bring it up! >> frankie, bring it up! [applause]

mayor lee: thank you, supervisor. i watched very closely and read a lot of the coverage about the very keen debates around the trees in the city. i know this to be a very difficult problem that we have. since our city has over 100,000 street trees and the department of public works, as the maintainers of our street trees, is responsible for maintaining about 35,000 of them, and property owners already are responsible for some 65,000. while these numbers may sound vague, reports show that our city ranks 21st out of 22 major u.s. cities in the street tree canopy, so we are pretty behind on our ability to do tree maintenance, and it is not going to get any better in the near future. the answers are not immediate. they are long-term, and they do have to incorporate the fact that the industry standards that are recommended have to be improved. right now, the industry standards recommend that street trees have to be pruned every three to five years. in reality, for this fiscal year, dpw has about a nine-year maintenance cyc

it means we will put together [inaudible] [applause] mayor lee: thank you. finally, i would like to invite up to the podium lorenzo tomayo, who just turned 13 this week. he is going into the eighth grade and plans to go to lowell high school. he enjoys playing basketball with his school and with his buddies. he plans to attend camps. he is joined by his father. >> good morning, mayor and board of supervisors. san francisco students should be proud to live, study, and learn in one of the best cities in the world. when students come to graduate from high school or college, they should be able to stay right here in san francisco. that is what happened. our city has to have jobs for people like me, people who grew up here in san francisco who want to stay here in san francisco. businesses from all over the world want to come here because they know this is where the best workers in the world come to work and live. to be a successful city, it goes beyond just keeping businesses here. san francisco needs to work hard to keep families here and make the city a place

it really is my pleasure to introduce to you the great mayor of san francisco, edwin lee. [applause] mayor lee: everybody, thank you very much for coming out to the artery of arteries in san francisco. i want to also acknowledge the wonderful work that the arts foundation is doing. they were the first agency that we were able to fund back when i was city administrator, when we were thinking, how could we start changing the street? we had that old theater that was and did already, but it still look like a porn theater. we were all reminded of how vibrant arts was. we started looking at the site, and they were looking at it, and we finally were able to give a little grant called the community challenge grant, and we emphasize the word challenge. the gray arts foundation took up that challenge, and now they are expanding, and now we have fantastic murals open tonight, and they were the first, but they led the effort after the arts commission and grants of the arts went to work along with the mayor's office. i know north dakota is there, and she is working very hard because no

[laughter] mayor lee: ok. thank you, everybody. >> thank you. grex good morning, ladies and gentlemen. my name is tom nlan. i am very happy that i am joined by my colleagues here, the vice chair jerry lee. cheryl brinkman and bruce oka. the director would have been year, but he was away on business in oakland. thank you, directors, for being here. we really appreciate the input we got -- over 650 responses to the questionnaire, which we put through the citizens advisory committee and other interest groups, and we are very pleased. we believe we of dawn and else standing at job. -- we believe we have done an outstanding job. [applause] i think that was the honeymoon right there, guys. [laughter] before we talk about today's event, i want to meet -- i want to mention debra johnson, who unfortunately had a medical appointment this morning. she wanted to extend our congratulations. ms. johnson has served this agency so incredibly well. particularly, our work with the union negotiations recently, successfully completed. she is an outstanding, dedicate