many of us share mr. wongs love of the special neighborhoods cht i hold its protection ooze important task. we are lucky to be able to see china town through the eyes of mr. legalland wong. congratulations. >> just my simple academy award speech. thank you supervisor christensen and boardf supervisors whom [inaudible] i am going to take this opportunity to thank my father [inaudible] he was ininstrumental as my development as a artist and he was a artist at heart and i guess i inherited that side of him. i want to mention the facebook group and started in social media. i don't think i would be here if it were not not for that. it gave a plat form to express my view jz show my art. since i'm standing in front of the supervisors lately there is concern china town is dying and i was concerned too and hoped that china town will continue to be a viberant community and as well as a self sustaining community. this award shows-remind me how important my work is thank you again and just a little blurb for the artists. s

mrs. nagle i see none. cary shulman coulden be here, but from grants from the art is con wong >> as mr. wong is being set up i know our city attorney probably has advice for us about hotel tax fund resources and how the city allocates those resources and i'm wondering if mr. [inaudible] could give a comment about that >> sure. [inaudible] the office advised the board a cual years ago about various law suits involving the hotel tax. the specific answer for arts funding is the hotel tax isn't specifically allocated for arts funding. that funding comes from the general fund and as howard mentioned the amount of the fundsing is a discretionary decision for the board and mayor. it is based on a large number of factors including the amount of revenue coming into the general fund >> thank you mr. wong >> thank you for having me. good afternoon supervisors and chairman. my name is con wong and senior program manager for grants the arts. i would like to acknowledge a few of my colleagues here. [inaudible] pointing them out because should a question be posed i don't know the answer to one of them

. >> mr. wong can i ask do you think there is preferential treatment based on the big 6 organizations? >> no i do not. i can see that point, but i don't believe it is preferential >> in looking at race, gender, ethnicity and national origin preferential treatment to me might not mean if you change the funding formula to make sure that large size versus smaller and medium organizations get a fair shake and i'm trying to ask you to think out of the box and not use prop 209 every time different dissempowered communities try to raise a question of justice, but that is just my urging to you to think out of the box and not hide behind 209 >> i take that point. >> mr. chair, through the chair i wanted to add to that because it really bothers when this issue comes up consistently as it relates to these grants, but this wasn't a issue when we talked about lgbt housing and how we be creative and provide housing to seniors at 55 laguna street. we make accommodation when we want, but hide behind 209 when we ha

seeing none then we will have our rebuttal starting with mrs. wong. >> so i -- i just want to say that first time that pat told me about the size of that deck, that's when i realized how big it is. and that's when we met him on our own free will. he never sent any information to us. and was very upset at the meeting, along with his west-side adjacent neighbor who is a widow and was going to appeal with me. but she is concerned and nervous, and wants to be a good neighbor and because she's by herself, her inlaw persuaded her not to do so. and i want to speak up for myself and it's a total invasion of my privacy for a deck to extend that far out. and even if he cut four feet he says he is being a good neighbor. that is still 56% of my rear lot. and i will be lookinga -- he will be looking at my interior living space. >> i want to address his concern about supporters our supporters consist of direct neighbors and a personal community of friends and friends of friends who heard of this build out wanted to support our appeal. it's my opinion that these ty

>> i think other staff are saying mr. wong is not done >> i feel we covered a lot of this already in this conversation that just ensued. we do look forward to receiving the results of the san francisco foundation research project that is getting underway and we'll be happy to work with you on steps going forward to kaess this >> thank you so much. >> okay, supervisor yee your name is still on the roster is that left over? we'll open to public comment. hold on a second. if anyone wishes to comant please step forward. you have 2 minutes and if you would like to comment line up [inaudible] >> this guy is talking about [inaudible] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon budget and finance and please give them grants for the arts. give it is a great brand new start. give them please a grant, for the arts [singing [. please give them grants the arts, give it straight from the art. please give them grants for the arts. please give them a great brand new start. please give them grants for the arts, give it straight from

mr. wong has an office that does that. we are very much plugged in with technology they do. all kinds of programs are not in to the environment and in some cases to support operations. very extensive. >> we do have extensive collaboration. dod has taken to want us to buy systems. before excess military cases were passed for use in homeland security, now we have to purchase those. >> are you getting warmer prices or saks fifth avenue prices. >> it is not saks fifth avenue. there is then everything on the dod site. >> one more thing on aircraft and how that is working our blood. amazing the right term? >> there are two systems. the system i work with this guitar system, high-altitude 15,000 feet works very well. needs to be recapitalized and also i will let her talk about the systems. >> the lower altitude systems that we borrowed from dod in iraq and afghanistan distinguish. we have five of them in texas. they are relatively expensive. has been extraordinarily effect. we are now in the process of deciding at that cost how often we should use them. >> is that the item itself f

wong? >> yes, just to respond to mr. grace's comment. you know, you are certainly invited to the muni advisory committee. that's how we find out other information about the future buses and the trains that is coming out too. so we can invite you to those meetings and it's held on every third thursday of the month from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 1 south van ness avenue. i can get your information, i think i got your contact information. i can send you the information about when the next meeting is. okay? >> thank you. so we are going to item no. 13. to adjourn. thank you everyone for being here today and have a nice weekend. [ meeting is adjourned ] >> >>

mr. speaker to say a few words about american heritage month because the truth is america the beautiful is a more beautiful america because of asian americans and pacific islanders. one such beautiful american was wong kim ark. wong kim arc -- ark, was in the united states and born here and in 1894 he decided that he would travel to china. upon returning from china in 1895 he was denied entrance into the united states. wong kim ark. he was denied interest into the once because of the chinese exclusion act. this act was one that was passed to prevent chinese americans from having ingress and egress into this country. if you are not a citizen of

mr. kerry basically had a message to china and it was this: show restraint. >> i urged china through foreign minister wong, to join in helping reduce tensions, and increase the prospect of a diplomatic solution. and i think we agree that the region needs smart diplomacy in order to conclude the asean china code of conduct and not outpoachts and militaryoutposts and military strips. >> adrian the fact that united states is disputing this construction how is china reacting to that? >> china is saying it is defend its sovereignty. it's accusing washington of knee jerk diplomacy and ignoring the philippines and japan's building up but the building is not as blatant and china's. i think both are testing each other's reserve in this area. >> thank you adrian. >>> burundi president pierre nkurunziza says peace has returned to the country. but doctors accuse police of entering hospital and shooting fighters. malcolm webb has the story. >> after the coup leaders announced it had failed, doctors say police came in and shot three men. >> we had patients, here, after that moment, we see a group of policemen arrive he

mr. ark who was the denied citizenship for a brief moment but finally the supreme court ruled that wong kim ark was a citizen of the united states of america. . so as i close today mr. speaker, i'd like to say this. there are many contributions that asian american, pacific islanders made to this great nation to make america the more beautiful america, and i think we should not limit our thoughts to things such as dance which is wonderful. the great food which is great. to the beautiful clothing, which is a great thing as well. i think we have to go beyond these things and remember the transcontinental railroad that was instructed by the labor of tens -- constructed by the labor of tens of thousands of persons of chinese ancestry. i think we have to go beyond this country if we're going to take a global look at the history. and i think, mr. speaker that america the beautiful is a more beautiful america because they are here. god bless you, mr. speaker. thank you for the time. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. courtney, for five minutes. mr. cou