i think it has hurt midmarket and the tenderloin, in general. i hope that if i can do anything to turn that around, i would be interested in doing that. supervisor kim: thank you. can you talk about some ideas or thoughts you have on how some of these that are coming into the area can work with the neighborhoods, and not just bringing jobs that kind of enhance the current needs of the neighborhood as well? >> well, i do not know the company's that are coming into the area. supervisor kim: well, for one, it twitter. which will be the first agreement we will be working on. >> i do not know how that is going to -- i mean, these people that work at twitter, they do not necessarily live in tenderloin. supervisor kim: right, but ways that twitter can partner with the neighborhood to address existing needs in the neighborhood, whether it is the jobs are other resources like local purchasing. >> i think that by bringing in companies like twitter or any number of other companies, that is going to increase local small businesses. cafes and any number of o

i know you are also very active in the the midmarket pac and a central market. however, this committee is not so focused on vacancies. it is really on advising on community benefits agreements with companies that are coming into the area, think the focus is slightly different from your interests. but i really do want to work with you on ensuring that we're doing the best that we can to bring businesses into the neighborhood and fill up a lot of the open space that can be readily used by businesses. so i do have a leaning towards putting in jesus perez and linda pierce in seats 10 and 11. are their objections to that? >> i will say that i agree with you and appreciate the thought on diversity. there are lots of ways to get there. again, we're blessed with a ton of great applicants for different seats. the were in person that i would be most excited to have would be mr. michael zonta. i think there's a danger here that we try and squeeze to much at of businesses before they come in here. i think having his voice on the committee would be a great addition, and i th

that is why we passed a week ago the midmarket payroll tax exemption. we wanted to welcome new companies into the city and understand what it was blocking their ability to stay and to grow. to hear a company -- not just from the cfo, from the president. when i visited twitter, i closed the door and they allowed me to speak to their engineers, to their workers, to the people doing the engineering work atwitter. as we closed the door, i laid out -- ok, kids. what do you really want out of the city? in very plain language, they said, "mayor lee, we like the culture of the city. we like the local restaurants. we like that we can work here for an odd number of hours and we wanted to be safe. we want to make sure we can ride our bikes to work. 25% of them ride to work. they have bike racks on every floor of the building. they also said they wanted us to expand the experience of bicycle riding, to make sure the city was green. all the young engineers -- they, too, said they loved the diversity of the city." that gave me a clear indication that is for the next

you pay your payroll tax base, but if you move to midmarket and create jobs, we will not tax you on those jobs for six years. for the next six years, you are a community partner with us, partnering with us to revitalize neighborhood and then, if you are successful in six years, hopefully and the midmarket become successful, you come back into the tax system. i do not have an interest in expanding it. it was not about corporate welfare to companies. that was not the purpose. the purpose was to help revitalize the area and make it the use is supposed to be for large businesses that have an incredible number of jobs for santa insistence. with 18 muni bus lines that -- for san francisco. we have 18 muni bus lines that run through it. that is what this legislation was carefully tailored to have that type of outcome. i am happy to concede we should monitor the legislation and make sure it is doing what we wanted to do. >> talk about the role of sports and in the city's future. you have thoughts about the america's cup, the 49ers? supervisor kim: i am a fan of the forty-niners and are giants and

reported this new light rail service would cut the travel time between visitation valley and the south midmarket area by five to 10 minutes. have we achieved that time savings of 10 minutes? >> i just want to understand the question? >supervisor cohen: sure. >> my apologies. i wear hearing aids. supervisor cohen: i apologize. i did not turn up my volume. do you hear me ok? i can speak louder. when the t-line, the proponents of the t-line were pitching the idea, they said it would increase the efficiency by 10 minutes, meaning it would take, if you are arriving at visitation valley down to the south of market area, that would decrease the right time by 10 minutes. i want to know whether or not he met that goal. >> i guess i would submit that it has met that goal, in terms of that. i guess for the following reasons. the roof of the existing t- line, and the 15 were a little different, but the ridership in that corridor is up from the transportation perspective. furthermore, we're also position, because of the investment made in infrastructure, along the permanent infrastructure, to support growth

the midmarket payroll tax thing has caused other businesses to come forward. i have a group of technology companies talking with us about how we can help them. that has led to another group of businesses who came forward. i have talked with them. these companies have been here for a long time. they want to make sure they continue to have a great connection. they are still contributing. this last weekend, i was participating in a program that used to be called christmas in april. it is now called rebuilding together. they were doing 100 projects on saturday throughout the city. 39 of them were in district 11. i had to be there. i went around to some of the projects. there were hundreds of volunteers from wells fargo, adobe systems, all of these companies that have volunteered. they are corporate center since -- their corporate citizens. they have been around a long time. i hope to continue working with the established companies that have been here sacrificing and being part of the city and in welcoming in a new generation of companies that i would also call san