welcome to union square. one of my favorite places. you may know this, but two- thirds of our annual visitors make their way down here to union square. that is why 10% of our annual sales tax revenue comes from right here. people love coming here, and why not? why not link the historic cable car stop on market street, and make the experience of making up here -- making it up here and the rest of the city and experience. one of the things that i love is we get to collaborate between our planning department, mta, department of public works, working with the private sector. working with some fantastic designers, like walter, and his fantastic design studio. and gaining the confidence of the people who protect this gem of the city, the business improvement district in union square. i want to thank everyone for coming together and blessing, with the contribution from audi of america, coming together to make these couple of blocks even better, to modernize it, make it even more welcoming, and to make sure that it is people-friendly in every

union square. the replacement of the failed light fixtures in the pavement has been planned out. the department has, at the request of commissioner harrison, identified an alternative funding source. the downtown park fund can fund this work, rather than having it come up for a meet its budget. work will proceed from the downtown park fund, so that money will fall to the available balance as well. terderloin recreation center is open to the public. that is the update on the projects you had authorized for us in the past year. we are close to completion on all of those, with the two editions of the new square project and the park. the available contingency budget is about $213,000. if you add the drop in vero funding to that, union square funding, that will bring -- assuming there are no other draws on the contingency for the remaining projects, between $600,000 and $700,000. now to the matter before you today. 11-12, the total allocation of the open space contingency reserve currently is $1 million. half of that per your action is $500,000 for this year's deferred maintenance all

>> in the opening page of the report -- union square. >> generally speaking, commissioner, any amount that the department is going to spend on the union square project, the lighting project, the entire amount would be covered by the downtown park fund. >> ok, thank you. the other question i have was, since we passed this in 10-11, do we need to amend that in order to use this downtown park fund? >> i do not think so, commissioner. i am not sure that you need to necessarily take action. certainly, as part of your motion for approving this item here today, can note that you would like us to make that change to the funding source. but from a legal standpoint, i do not think you must. of course, here i am offering legal advice and i am not an attorney. >> well, we all do that. i am curious about this downtown park fund. i do not know about it, i do not know a lot about it. i would ask, with the deference of the president and chair of the capital committee, that we get a full report, what has been spent in the past year, how we get the money and so on. perhaps at our next half august capit

now i want to introduce david, the group president of the business improvement district, here in union square. again, sincere thanks. >> thank you, scott. on behalf of the union square business improvement district, property owners, and the businesses, i would like to thank mayor lee, supervisor david chiu, the city departments, the san francisco municipal transportation agency, and audi of america, and a special thank you to those who supported this trend for this project. when we embark on this new project, it reminded us of where we have been and where we are going in union square. 164 years ago, jasper overall, who has a street named after him one week away, was commissioned by the city to lay out a design for its streets and parks, including union square. the park's design was designed to be infighting, accessible, beautiful, and memorable. today, architect walter put has applied those same qualities beautifully to the powell street promenade with a contemporary landscape design with features and heard of, like solar technology and wi-fi. o'farrell may not have imagined at the time that

the next project is the union square right away accessibility improvements project. these improvements stem from a lawsuit against the lawsuit against the say that we must provide accessible sidewalks surrounding the park and also access to transit stops. the scope of work for the first phase of the project the size and phase of work which the baby needs to receive funding for. the intersection of stockton and gary will be completed in the future as part of the central support project. all of the improvement the to be completed by june 2012 with the exception of the stockton and every street intersection. the general fund for the mayor's office prop k funds for the construction of phase one. there is an associated 5ypp amendment to the curb ramp allocation for the allocation of 2008 to make money available to this project. the third project is for street cleaning and equipment to replace assets that have reached the end of their useful life. i am here to answer any questions. commissioner campos: colleagues, any questions for staff? just a question on the improvement

they can go in and around union square.e have space is now up in the castro, in fact. >> how many are there? >> we have about 420. >> are they here all year round? >> out of the 420, i know 150 to sell all year round. i mean like five-seven days a week. >> are they making their living of of this? >> this is their sole source of income for many. >> how long have you been with this program. how much has it changed? >> i have been with the program since it began 37 and a half years ago but i have seen changes in the trend. fashion comes and goes. >> i think that you can still find plenty of titis perhaps. >> this is because the 60's is retro for a lot of people. i have seen that come back, yes. >> people still think of this city as the birth of that movement. great, thank you for talking about the background of the program. i'm excited to go shopping. >> i would like you to meet two street artists. this is linda and jeremy. >> night said to me to print them -- nice to meet you. >> can you talk to me about a variety of products

we have this curious situation around union square. you have got, i don't know what you call at. the academy thus, the tourist bus, the open air bus. they are all using your lanes. and this means slower service for buses. i watched a study that showed, if you could increase the speed of your buses by 50%, partly by eliminating bus skills, you would transform the entire service. but what you don't seem to realize, these same things affect taxicabs. every year we get this whole thing of lamenting, i can't get a taxi. but the simple example i would give you is, a few years ago, in the morning, a taxicab could readily which the four commuters. what i mean by that is four different commuters in the peak time hours in one hour. the cut at pacific heights and taken to the financial district. [chime] now they can pick up three. this is because you don't have priority lanes. chairman nolan: thank you. >> i would like to comment on limousines and the city. nobody is doing anything about it. they've eliminated the out of town taxis, the other day i picked up someone, and a flag to me to tak

soon after the killing there was a ceremony at union square to honor all the slain officers in the city's history. 92 of them. san francisco opposing political elite and hundreds of others were there. -- san francisco's political elite and hundreds of others were there. i held a sign, those who were killed by the police. there would never be a ceremony like that for them. there are two sets of opinions. one is the police are always wrong. one is the police are always right. of course, that is ridiculous. [bell] however, in the situation and this is from several weeks ago that i held this opinion, kenneth harding. i feel sfpd at sutta properly and correctly. thank you. -- i feel sfpd acted properly and correctly. thank you. president mazzucco: thank you. >> i want to address the bayview shooting incident. it is clear that there are some training issues that need to be addressed. we only have the chronicle and that had five different stories. i went out and took a picture bride by the rec center and by the shooting. -- a picture right by the rec center and by the shooting. the individual wa

. >> union square, traditional and modern dances featuring korean culture on saturday. >> he has a smooth style that merges several styles, harrington captivates and catch him in mill valley. >> palo alto theater of the arts shows 300 fine artists in downtown palo alto. >> pete escovedo comes to george's nightclub friday and saturday night. >> good guys, west coast nationals shows more than 3500 custom cars. art on four wheels at alameda county fairgrounds. >> caribbean, first reggae festival, gentleman make can cuisine, fillmore center plaza. ♪ >> american tabor celebrates latinos in popular music. a major exhibition at the san francisco public library. >> that looks like fun. from all have us, thanks for joining us. >> "who wants to be a millionaire" is coming up next. >> put up with the mist and drizzle. >> we'll have more tomorrow but sunshine around 2:00 around the bay. >> see you later.

you know, one reason tourists go to union square, and they go to a public place where they can belong without knowing anybody. every city needs space like that. we realized at our scale, we needed a civic plaza. we thought about bands, but as soon as you put them up on stage, you have these consuming crowds listening to the band. the longer they stood there the more beer bottle they drop on the ground. that did not seem attractive at all. we do not leave a trace after the event. we do not want a stage. if you want your own, build it, which people did. so we turned to copy. it affords you a social place. you can stay there all day, we do not care. we are not doing it to make money. we lose money. we do it for the sake of public interaction. to create a civic environment that led to communal feelings. that seems like an exception to the dogma, but what did emerson say? a speech of consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. >> i was just thinking that. [laughter] going the other direction, as fast as possible, one of the things -- a pattern that has arisen over the years -- a lot of t

we are so grateful to hilton san francisco union square for hosting this event, and i would like to recognize the key members from those who tells -- those hotels are also in the room with us today. let's take a closer look at the program. ♪ be >> hilton has been an industry leader ever since our leader opened his first hotel more than i did two years ago. he believed in the power of travel and tourism to bring people together. today, we continue his legacy of filling the earth with the brightness and warmth and hospitality. this important program welcoming chinese travelers from around the world is led by our flagship brand, hilton hotels and resorts, and it is available to all hotels across our brand. for generations, hilton hotel and resorts has welcomed guests from around the world. with tourism from china growing exponentially, we are introducing a new program that provides consistent amenity and service standards at participating properties to meet the needs of our most important chinese travelers abroad. hilton is growing at record rates across asia pacific and china in particular. equ

sf chefs 2011 is a must eat in union square. ♪ ♪ >> one of the biggest selling albums of all time.restages frampton comes alive in the entirety. the bill graham exhibit continues at the fillmore. christianson shows his fascinating document about the festival on friday night. ♪ ♪ >> top belly dancers show case their talent. plus, international bazaar with food and comic book. >> what is the secret? >> medication. >> for blueray or dvd entertainment, check out  >>> today at 3:00 on 7 live, a new survey that runs the gamut from sex to your smart phone. which would you give up? then at 4:00 and 5:00 trapped under sand for half an hour. beach toys became lifesavers for a money in southern california. the las vegas conviction, california correction officers are going to attend on the state's dime. those stories and more on abc7 news today at 4:00 and 5:00. >>> well, the vegas convention california -- that is not right. roll that up. okay. president obama will celebrate the 50th birthday with a white house toast with members of his staff. tonight, a more traditional birthday party

. >> union square, traditional and modern dances featuring korean culture on saturday. >> he has a smoothtyle that merges several styles, harrington captivates and catch him in mill valley. >> palo alto theater of the arts shows 300 fine artists in downtown palo alto. >> pete escovedo comes to george's nightclub friday and saturday night. >> good guys, west coast nationals shows more than 3500 custom cars. art on four wheels at alameda county fairgrounds. >> caribbean, first reggae festival, gentleman make can cuisine, fillmore center plaza. ♪ >> american tabor celebrates latinos in popular music. a major exhibition at the san francisco public library. >> that looks like fun. from all have us, thanks for joining us. >> "who wants to be a millionaire" is coming up next. >> put up with the mist and drizzle. >> we'll have more tomorrow but sunshine around 2:00 around the bay. >> see you later. honey...? [ mom ] yes. honey, i can't find my internet cord. oh, i'll borrow hailey's. you're downloading movies. fast! from here? where is her cord?! we switched to at&t high speed internet and got wi

that's in union square.to livermore where downtown this weekend there is a taste of downtown, more food, more wine, it's well worth your money. so livermore, san francisco, food and wine all over this weekend. >>> look at me. both days in livermore this weekend. finally the motown diva touch me in the morning -- sorry, diana touch me in the morning ross -- >> that's a big mistake. >> she is coming to san francisco for one night only. it's friday september 16. but tickets just went on sale for this unbelievable event. her first time here in 40 years. >> really. >> how old is she now? >> about 25. >> i have no idea. >> does it matter? her voice is like velvet. diana ross in concert? a must-see. >> i saw her at harrods years ago. she is fabulous. >> great hair. >> all the information at cbssf.com click on the link there and, of course, eye night my self, thuy and brian right here at 7 p.m. cbs 5. >> thank you. shameless plug, we appreciate it. enjoy weekend. good luck with the cookoff. >> thank you. it will be

about 100 protestors marched from union square to the wells fargo building in the financial district. they are demanding what they call corporate accountability. they say the government has focused too much on helping big business at the expense of the poor. >>> it's every young baseball lover's dream, following the hometown team on a road trip for an away game. that's how it started for a philadelphia family visiting the bay area. but it ended last night with the family's young son injured in a hit-and-run crash at mission and new montgomery. linda yee is in hayward with more information on the suspect. >>> reporter: elizabeth, it started out after that hit-and- run an all-points bulletin was issued and police here in hayward were able to locate the suspect and the suspect vehicle. that he rested him several blocks away from -- they arrested him several blocks away from his apartment and officers said he was driving drunk. damaged cars littered the streets by mission and new montgomery in san francisco. what started out as a family vacation for 9-year-old ryan white turned into a nig

we have for the world comes to work, the financial district's, where the world comes to shop in union squarewhere the tourists spend time on fisherman's wharf , and the wonderful polk street neighborhoods. my district encompasses the ethnic and economic diversity that exists throughout the city. i think my district is emblematic of the entire city. you can find every political perspective you can possibly want in district 3. oftentimes, the interests of my district and the city are aligned. i do not have to think about those differences quite as often as some of my colleagues may have to. >> let's talk about the budget situation. we have been faced with some tough budget decisions again, including where to make cuts and whether or not to increase taxes. how will you approached these hard choices? >> our budget is one of the very top challenges facing city government right now. over each of the years i have served, we have had to balance budget deficits that were around $500 million. this year, we're facing another budget deficit of almost $400 million. fortunately in recent years, we have ha

two in san francisco, financial district and union square. one at the international airport and one at santa clara. >> one yeng. >> the program is aimed at tourists from china and focuses on the visitors' arrival, room and breakfast. at arrival, a staff person will be available who is fluent in mandarin. breakfast important for chinese will feature food visitors are familiar with. and displayed at the roll-out. >> when you welcome the chinese visitors for business and tourism, and you give them a good breakfast because you know at the end of the day they are going to say hey, we also want to visit napa. what is this american steak all about? give me to north beach for some of the pasta you got. but the breakfast will be the traditional thing. >> a woman who brings chinese tourists to the united states says attention to the room, that is to say the authentic chinese tea and slippers is important to the chinese. >> the hotels are different in china than here, because they always will ask if it's a five-star hotel why they don't have slippers? i