they have chosen to invest in the excelsior neighborhood. so we are bringing some of the solvency that you mentioned to make sure there is continued investment. we hope to continue community development, planning, work force districts. it is really that third s that you mentioned, and the community coming up with a stronger platform. thank you very much. [applause] thank you, terry, for your presentation. next, we have the district 11 council. stephen currier will become forward. he is also the president of the power -- outer misson district. >> thank you for being out here. there are almost 15 organizations under this umbrella organization. we have met a couple of time to talk about quality of life issues in district 11. not only in district 11, but in surrounding communities. i am going to enumerate them. there are five that i would like to talk about quickly. supervisor avalos, mayor lee, you all were out here three times. our first issue is, back in 1998, our neighborhood started working on the balboa park bart stations, which is the busi

i'm also a member of the excelsior district improvement association. of course, you know about the coalition, you consider an organization of note. so at this point, i don't think i can offer anything else that anyone else has offered to object other than the fact that besides the foot traffic, the parking issues, this is really not even a commentary on the gentleman who is proposing this business. it's really about the ability to be able to sustain another massage parlor. it's about the location which is right ajunt staircase that leads all the way down to a street that's -- unable to basically monitor or supervise. it presents a safety hazard. it presents a lot of different issues and more importantly, the person who brought -- the business owner, the three businesses he mentioned and like i said i'm sure he had a very prosperous business up until the point where he couldn't fly back and forth to idaho. but all those things were occurring in a mall. and a mall setting where there was foot traffic and a protected environment where basically he could no

gradually she decided to pursue her new career and to contribute to the excelsior community. the position at mama art cafe provided the opportunity to promote products and events on the radio and to network with bay area professionals. she continued her education through private training, business consultants and classes at various organizations in san francisco. she is on the board of directors for new eat-in projects that facilitates projects that benefit youth by fofters creative arts and education. please give applause to the mother and son. [applause] >> our next category is the category of education. our presentser is our esteemed city librarian, luis herrera. please join me in welcoming him to the stage. [applause] our first honoree is someone who recently stepped down from the mission campus of city college, dr. carlota del portillo. [applause] you know, she's had a lot of firsts. [applause] she was the first latina president of the hoover mi firs president of the hoover middle school p.t.a. she was one of the first latinas to gain a doctorate in education from u.s.f.

i'm here to support the excelsior family connections. [applause] i have two kids. one is 2 1/2, and the little one is five months. with two kids, and working, i have a lot of stress from kids, from my husband, from my work. and financial stress. so the staff at the excelsior family connections some crying, and they came up to me and asked if i was ok. they are just like my family. i go there every day, and i see the staff there more than i see my siblings. they have therapist's there to help me solve my family problems, my stress, and they are the ones who told me that i have the postpartum depression. so i am so glad they found out my depression. and i am able to go to my doctor. i did not realize. without them, i think i would have gotten a divorce from my husband already and have a broken family. i really hope that -- please, do not cut the funds. and i really hope that they can continue the service that they have provided to me, and i really want the service to be able to provide to fit people like me and families like my family. thank you. [applause] >> good ev

i just think like some of the people here are proposed to massage parlors in the excelsior and i can understand that, all right. but i don't think this is the mechanism of a person who's played by the rules, has nothing personally negative against in the record, and we tried to check out that reference for the online thing. as far as i know, there's no reason that he contributed to it, commented on it, so it's hearsay over hearsay, and that's been handled as a crediblecation of some kind of adverse thing. i think that's unfair to the proponent. he can't be following every rumor that sprouts out. i think it's an unreasonable request for him to conform to. thank you. president olague: thank you. you can start coming up to the mic. >> i'm within a 300-foot radius so i got a notice a few wiecks ago -- weeks ago. basically our neighborhood is marginal. we had tons of burglaries, all kinds of crimes. the proposal i got from mr. wang really emphasized this is for the neighborhood and neighborhood needs us and it will serve people mostly in the neighborhood, maybe provide a few jobs for peopl

we have the excelsior, our mission, like mile, all the neighborhoods in between. it is exciting to see all the neighborhoods here this evening. tonight, we want to take you on a tour of our district. our tour guides include some of our neighborhood leaders, including young people, parents, from my staff, community organizations. we are all represented by many of the collaboration's in our district, including the omi community collaborative, communities united for help and justice. a first thought on our tore his desperation. -- stop on our tour is desperation. we know that low income communities are hit first and worse when economic problems it. our families are experiencing troubles from the immigration and customs enforcement, and are having trouble finding jobs. but we are resilient spirit and that leads us to the next up on our tour. the people in our district are doing amazing things every day, working hard, raising families, helping neighbors, a volunteer at school, celebrating culture, and there are doing it and develop, spanish, chinese, and over 70 other

we're here with supervisor john avalos, from district 11, which includes the excelsior, and will sign, our mission, and crocker amazon neighborhoods. supervisor avalos was elected to the board in november of 2008. we are going to get to know him and talk about the toughest issues facing the city. welcome and thank you for joining us today. tell us a lot about your background, where you grew up, went to school, the job you worked. >> i was born in a town called and los angeles. it was a lot of working-class folks. my father was a shore worker, my mother was an office worker at usc. my parents were divorced when i was 10 years old, and i moved to the east coast for six years before going back to california after high school. i went to school at uc santa barbara, graduated in 19988 -- 1988. i have lived in the excelsior since 1999. i have had lots of different jobs, but my main job is doing social work force and a disco, i have been a community organizer, i worked at a labor organization supporting janitor's working in our high- rise buildings. i was a legislative aide before .wr. i got

communities that i would not have been if i was stuck in my community, and just my upbringing in the excelsior district as a working-class community. similar to joel ramos, who we just heard from, and i'm so glad you guys are recommending, my focus has been of the latino community, on youth, on seniors. basically, on community that have not been represented throughout urban planning. development issues. i cut my teeth on helping develop the eastern neighborhood plan. i spent 10 years on it. got my first gray hair is while doing it. had four kids. so i feel like using my role is preparing and organizing people to take part in these opportunities. but i feel it is my turn, and i feel that i owe that to my city and to the people, the thousands of people that participated in developing the eastern neighborhoods plan. specifically to the constituents i work with in the mission district. we spent thousands of hours, many, many nights, you know, breaking down of urban planning. what is an urban planning? when you talk to the professionals, they say every day people cannot understand these concepts, b

i have been in san francisco since 1989, have lived in the excelsior since 1999. the difficulty is, muni often sees it as an industrial area, not a neighborhood. we have to figure out how to make it work as a neighborhood and as a place that can service the light rail vehicles. i have had lots of different jobs. my main job has been doing social work for san francisco state university. i have been a community organizer, a social worker, but i have also been a legislative aide. i worked mostly for community- based organization supporting kids and families, working for labor. i got to see how city hall could be an effective tool to create change. i looked at running in 2007, 2008, and somehow i made it. i have been in politics for so many ways, doing work around central america, supporting people in central america against u.s. imperialism, their right to live, self determination. i did a lot of work on that on campus when i was in college. a bit of work on apartheid when i was in college as well. >> i never got involved in supporting a candidate. i never thought a c

supervisor avalos: plans were in place by the excelsior action group a couple of years ago to do some improvements, switching the bus stop from one side to the other, but nothing has happened since then. i thought that something was in place. >> i am not prepared to talk in detail, but i can send you any information we have. yes, that intersection, there are three that were going to be constructed at that intersection. the other major improvement is the career right hand turning lanes for a pedestrian area in the northwest corner. those are the three or four major improvements, including moving overhead lines and upgrading the pedestrian signals at the intersection. but they are pretty comprehensive. >> good to hear. if there is anything else that can be tackled in the process, especially on the southeast side of geneva, it could use a lot of work. we will make sure that happens. supervisor campos: thank you, commissioner. supervisor wiener: if i could just make a request, since we will be voting on the next month, between now and then could you provide a breakdown, listing the projec

we are talking about a working- class community, the excelsior, the bayview, all of these different neighborhoods are smaller enclaves. we still see the same kinds of challenges. when the schools begin to perform a stellar academic programs, businesses will continue to relocate because the employees will want to live in san francisco and want kids to be educated here. it is a cyclical and symbiotic creation ship. another challenges that we have the highest unemployment rate in this part of san francisco. san francisco before, the numbers are starting to come down a little bit. we have high rates in the latter part of last year, but it is starting to -- it is starting to normalize. it goes back to education. what i would like to see our pathways. not everyone will become a doctor, lawyer, or journalist, fantastic tv host. what can we do? we live in a society where we need engineers. we need sound engineers. we need graphic designers. there are people who prefer to learn with their hands. they like mechanics. we need to bring back some shop back in schools and allow people an opportunity for a diff

appreciation for the funding we did receive through the block grant program, particularly our work in the excelsior neighborhood, serving over 15,000 filipinos, documented and undocumented. in the last year, we have seen a huge increase in the number of people who need our services. being able to come to a place that is centrally located in the community with a lit where we have been able to put people to work, help people find housing, address their needs around immigration and domestic violence, and this is because of our ability to provide culturally competent and neighborhood-based services. we know this is a difficult time and have had to readjust our programs and focus on the core strategies that are most in need in our community. while we have in the past increase resources around a point of support services, we are refocusing our program to address that difficult need in these difficult economic times. because of the funding decrease from the federal level, we're doing what we can to support increased funding from that level and doing advocacy work to make sure that these resources are avai

[applause] >> i'm jacki cash, president of the excelsior district improvement association. i'm going to say this wrong. we just need to get that out there ahead of time. the main thing i wanted to talk about when i got up here -- for one thing, yes, youth. anything for kids or for seniors. those are the most vulnerable populations we have. the people in the middle, the people who are able-bodied, the people of working age -- we will muddle through, but to take care of our most vulnerable population is the top thing because when you allow that to disintegrate, you end up with calcutta. you end up with these really creepy conditions that nobody wants to live in any way. people will just leave the city in droves if you have to look at old ladies lying on the street, which, by the way, i have to do. that comes into another thing, which is code enforcement. there is a lot of congestion in my neighborhood, and a lot of it has to do with people who are taking advantage of people of color, people of low income, dividing up their houses as much as possible, putting 18 people into a f

planting trees in the excelsior, recycling bins 3 homelessness impact in environment downtown, so i wish could support us, and i have been doing this for three years without pay, and i feel a little bit tired. but i believe in peace, and i hope you can help me. thank you very much. supervisor chiu: thank you. next speaker please. >> president chiu, members of the council, mark dyce has been appointed best color and to talk shows. he really gets under their skin. he is called the coup, net case, and other names, and is quickly hung up on because he speaks the truth. you can hear his calls if you google that. but you know who really gets under your skin? is the lord jesus christ. go to luke 13. there is a story, how these guys come up to jesus and mentioned that there were some jews offering sacrifices, as they ought to, under the law of moses, for their sins, and pilate murdered them and mixed their blood with theirs. and they told jesus that and ask that the worse than anyone else. and that these men, even though they were jews, were lost, and the wrath of god was going to fall on them,

did that myself here i was able to say appeared after 15 years, and managed to buy a place in the excelsior. i think that is a key issue. you have to have the steppingstone, those steps toward home ownership in all districts of san francisco. you cannot just say, "not in my perfectly designed neighborhood ." you can provide new housing. you can provide new housing in all different districts. i have spoken at many meetings, and we talked about this numerous times. but to state that they are in support of parkmerced plaza development and not in support of building along the empty areas along their neighborhoods -- [bell rings] supervisor mar: [reading names] >> good afternoon, supervisors. draft 3 of this housing element, which is before you, spells of the city's character for money in the form of grants were going the extra mile in establishing a policy to densify a city that is already denser than any other major u.s. city other than new york. you ought to exercise your power to protect your city and its residents from planned degradation by refusing to accept this housing element and sendi

what transcribed in the last few days, namely a week and a half, is that there was a meeting at the excelsior action group a week ago monday where the project owner was to speak to some members of the community. what i found out was this was not a normal massage studio, that it was going to be a foot-only massage. i didn't think anything of it. i figured, well, that's fine. i heard some concerns from members of the community that were opposed to it for whatever reason. but last night one of my board members sent me what i'm passing around to you a website from citrus heights regarding this massage parlor. i decided to contact my board and my board oked me to write you a letter. unfortunately, commissioner sugaya, you're the only name i misspelled for all issues i would have to come in front of you on. when i saw this particular website, i was really angry because i don't think that, you know, an erotic massage is a good place in our neighborhood and there are two massage parlors in our neighborhood who have both been cited by vice or acts of prostitution. so one of the things i wanted to tell