I think it is fun for them, they see our work process, our discussions, the decisions we make. It is good for us. We kind of behavior little bit when we have people in the audience. Msk music we are rehearsing for our most expensive tour; plus two concerts here. We are proud that the growth of the orchestra, and how it is expanded and it is being accepted. My ambition when i came on as music director here it was evident we needed absolutely excellent work. Also evident to me that i thought everyone should know that. This was my purpose. And after we opened, which was a spectacular opening concert about five weeks after that the economy completely crashed. My plan and im absolutely dogmatic about my plans were delayed slightly. I would say that in this very difficult timefor the arts and everyone, especially the arts, its phenomenal how new century has grown where many unfortunate organizations have stopped. During this period we got ourselves on National Radio presence; we started touring, releasing cds, a dvd. We continue to tour. Reputation grows and grows and grows and it has never stopped going forward. Msk music the bay area knows the orchestra. You maybe take things for granted a little bit. That is simply not the case will go on the road. The audiences go crazy. They dont see vitality like this on stage. We are capable of conveying joy when we play. Msk music any performance that we do, that a program, that will be something on the program that you havent heard before. String orchestra repertoire is pretty small. I used to be boxed into small repertoire. I kept constantly looking for new repertoire and commissioning new arrangements. If you look at the first of the program you have very early, young vibrant mendelson; fabulous opener and then you have this fabulous concerto written for us in the orchestra. Is our gift. Msk music and then you have strauss, extraordinary piece. The most challenging of all. String orchestra work. 23 solo instrument, no violin section, now viola section; everybody is responsible for their part in this piece. The challenge is something that i felt not only that we could do , absolutely could do, but i wanted to show off. I cant tell you how aware i am of the audience. Not only what i hear but their vibes, so strong. I have been doing this for a long time. I kind of make them feel what i want them to feel. There is nobody in that audience or anywhere that is not going to know that particular song by the fourth note. And that is our encore on tour. By the way. I am proud to play it, we are from San Francisco. We are going to play that piece no matter where we are. . Oo hi, im holly lee. I love cooking and you are watching quick bites. San francisco is a foodie town. We San Franciscoans love our food and desserts are no exceptions. There are places that specialize in any and every dessert your heart desires, from hand made ice cream to organic cakes, artisan chocolate and cupcakes galore, the options are endless. Anyone out there with a sweet tooth . Then i have a great stop for you. Ive been searching high and low for some great cookies and the buzz around town that anthonys are those cookies. With rave reviews like this i have to experience these cookies for myself and see what the fuss was all about. So lets see. While attending San FranciscoState University as an accountinging major, anthonys friend jokingly suggested he make cookies to make ends make. With no formal culinary training he opened his own bakery and is now the no. 1 producer of gourmet cookies in the biarea and thank you for joining us on quick bites. How do you feel . I feel great. So i want to get to the bottom of some very burning questions. Why cookies . It was a recommendation from a friend. Hard to believe thats how it all started. Why not pies and cakes . What do you have against pies and cakes, anthony. I have nothing against pies and cakes. However, that was the recommendation. You were on the road to be an account apblt. Actually, an engineer. Even better. And it led to making cookies. In delicious ways. Delicious ways. This is where the magic goes down and were going to be getting to the truth behind cookies and cream. This is what is behind cookies and cream. Where were you when the idea came to your mind. I was in my apartment eating ice cream, cookies and cream ice cream. How much fun, cookies and cream cookies. Their cookies and cream is not even it took a lot of time, a lot of fun. A lot of butter. A lot, a lot, a lot. But it was one of those things. All right, now behold. You know what that is . What is that . Cookies and cream. Oh, they are beautiful. Yes, so we got to get. All right, all right. We treat the cookies like wine tasting. I dont ever want anybody to bite into a cookie and not get what they want to get. Were Training Staff because they can look at the cookie and tell if its wrong. Oh, here we go. You smell it and then you taste it, clean the plat palate with the milk. I could be a professional painter because i know how to do this. I can tell that its a really nice shell, that nice crunch. But inside. Oh, my god. So you are going to cheat a little bit. I had to give you a heads up on that. Whats happening tomorrow . These cookies, theres a lot of love in these cookies. I dont know how else to say it. It really just makes me so happy. Man, you bake a mean cookie, anthony. I know. People really know if they are getting something made with love. Aww you know, you cant fool people. They know if you are taking shortcuts here and there. They can eat something and tell the care that went into it. They get what they expect. Uhhuh. System development and things like that. Sounds so technical. Im an engineer. Thats right, thats right. Cookies are so good, drove all other thoughts out of my head. Thank you for taking time out it talk to us about what you do and the love with which you do it. We appreciate your time here on quick bites. I hope youve enjoyed our delicious tale of defendant 93 and dessert. As for me, my search is over. Those reviews did not lie. In fact, im thinking of one of my very own. Some things you just have it experience for yourself. To learn more about anthonys cookies, visit him on the web at anthoniescookies. Com. If you want to watch some of our other episodes at sfquickbites tumbler. Com. See applause good morning, everyone. Were going to get started now. Thank you for attending todays announcement. My name is adrian, im with immigrant affairs. Let me first start by introducing the other partners for todays initiative lunch. First of all, the San Francisco foundation, dr. Sandra hernandez and tessa rivera, [speaker not understood], Senior Program officer for immigrant rights and integration, walter and alise fund, also known as the haase senior fund. Pam david, the Wallace Alexander gabode foundation, stacey ma and thomas, concerned with immigrants and refugees represented today by felicia barto, deputy director. Also present today are commissioner canali vicechair of the San Francisco immigrant rights commission, city librarian, luis herrera, [speaker not understood], and clementine of the african advocacy network. So, let me provide first of all just a little bit of background on the initiative. In 2008 while serving as city administrator, mayor ed lee created the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs, one of the first such offices in the nation. The intention was to better communicate with and engage our City Residents while providing opportunities for meaningful participation and particularly for under served and vulnerable communities. In 2009 the city had the pleasure of collaborating with Business Community and Philanthropic Partners for the 2010 census count. We learned a lot about applying relevant street wise, street smart approaches to outreach and supporting community stewardship. This successful outreach effort and ongoing relationship evolved into a new model of engagement and collaboration. Last year under the leadther ship of mayor ed lee and dr. Sandra hernandez of the San Francisco foundation, ~ planning began on a citywide citizenship initiative, a total of five philanthropic foundations, a National Grant makers organization, and trusted Community Partners are working together with the city on this effort. We will be starting the pilot phase of the initiative after todays announcement. We hope to include more partners as the initiatives progresses into full implementation over the next three years. So, mayor lee will now announce the initiative. And as a longtime civil rights champion and leader, mayor lee has infused San Franciscos City Government with a new sense of inclusive collaborative leadership effectiveness and boundless energy, creative innovation and energy. So, mayor lee. applause thank you, adrian. I dont know about boundless energy. [laughter] but i do i am inspired by our immigrant community. Weve done so much that i think the city is its dna is really about our diversity. Let me thank adrian. Shes been a wonderful leader at the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs, leading an effort not just with the immigrant rights commission, but a good strong relationship with our communitybased organizations that do all of the great on the groundwork with our immigrant families, people who are coming here as refugees, adjusting, people who come here, permanent residents, people who have come here seeking their future, their hopes for themselves and their families. Also people who often came here by different ways and stayed, and maybe overstayed their status, or are escaping from wartorn or impoverished countries. We will be a sanctuary city for many years for people who want to be here. Having said that, i am glad to be here this morning with adrian, dr. Hernandez, and also, again, teaming up with board president and supervisor david chiu who i got a chance to work with very early as we prepared back in 2010 with all the Community Groups and with the board of supervisors. And then i was the city administrator tasked by the mayor and the board with this big challenge of how do we go about of the census, knowing that every census in past history and those brief partial census efforts that go on in between the 10 years always under counted our folks and people who have been here. All the groups that i just described and the folks that we have tried to serve and knew that they were living sometimes in the shadow, sometimes without a lot of help and support. How do we count them in as residents of this city . And, so, we began on a very strong Outreach Program that depended upon service providers, to be quite candid. Not just government agencies, but providers that sacrifice much of their time in the nonprofit world, surviving on very, very much foundational grants, foundational leaders who oftentimes were the only ones that heard the voices that we need help to really identify these folks because if it wasnt for them, we wouldnt have people coming out and telling us what diseases were causing them problems, what was spreading, what were the fears in our immigrant communities that were preventing them from participating, from not getting licenses, not accessing themselves to job opportunities, being perhaps caught up in underground economy. And you know what that leads to oftentimes is many problems that also may have challenges in our criminal Justice System as well as our economics. But we wanted all of that to change. We for many years kids of immigrants, we always felt it was our duty to take up what maybe our parents and our friends were not able to out of fear or out of the lack of Government Action or accountability, or even a safety net for people to be able to speak freely. Taking all of that immigrant life lessons and now placing them in effect i have culturally competent programs was our task. And, so, back in 2010 we tried to do that, and i think we did very well in the census count by bringing forth so many groups to be counted and not to be afraid and not to be experiencing consequences. But the census was only the beginning. We knew that. And in our followup conversations with dr. Hernandez who helped lead a lot of the communitybased efforts as well as conversations with foundations and grants, with people like annie chung and others who are community leader, with different ethnicities, and i mean all ethnicities. Not just ones that dominate, immigrants in San Francisco like asians and latinos, but our african community, our Eastern Europe committee, our middle Eastern Communities are all engaged in this effort. And our goal was always beyondv just being counted, how do you participate fully in American Society . ~ how do you get to a david chiu as the supervisor or ed lee as the mayor and register your heart felt viewpoints on how your park should look like . What kind of education level your schools should be in . What kind of Community Safety plans would make you and your family feel safe . What kind of level of health care, which is a big, big challenge for us these days, that you need in order to keep healthy . All of these kinds of issues, including input in the government, weve always wanted to improve. Well, today there is over 100,000 permanent residents in San Francisco who are not fully engaged yet in everything that they can be doing in registering their voice. And, so, we want to announce today a new initiative, its the San Francisco pathways to citizenship initiative. Its job, its focus is to work with all the communitybased organizations in the publicprivate way, work with the foundations with historically supported these efforts to bring voice and communication to hidden communities and unannounced communities, and to bring them to a path of citizenship, and to talk in culturally competent ways what the benefits of full citizen participation are, and there are many. If you are becoming a citizen or if you become a citizen, youre going to have a lot more fuller rights. For one thing, you get to vote in San Francisco. You get to vote in america. And that voting right is so precious. And we saw just a month ago or less than a month ago how we revisited how valuable that Voting Rights is, and all the sacrifices that heroes of this country had to protect that right for everybody. We want everybody to enjoy that because that gets you a voice and all the things we initially talked about. We want citizens to have a proper rich orientation and Training Classes that will conduct that will be conducted through this initiative, nonpartisan voting, the rights to vote, the right to be educated around every ballot measure that we have, whether it costs you more money or it doesnt cost you anything, or how do we improve muni, whether it costs you more or doesnt cost you anything. How do we do all of that in a much more involved way . Education, outreach, more engaging new citizens to mentor and help other eligible immigrants navigate the citizenship application process. We think this is our next big challenge, but opportunity just beyond the work that we did which was groundwork to get people counted. And i said earlier, our diversity is not just to be tolerated. It has to be celebrated in every way, and full participation is the goal. Well, i want to thank wonderful historic and new Funding Partners that through their leadership and generosity in this initiative, certainly Sandra Hernandez and the San Francisco foundation have been longtime partners. Shes been so helpful in many other things and many of you know shes helping me on hope s. F. , provide housing opportunities for some of our worst dilapidated housing. Now shes also again stepped up with additional partners. And i want to just signal to you some of these historic partners that are working with us. The [speaker not understood] foundation, the haase junior and senior foundations, as well as the Asian Pacific fund amongst many other foundations that are assisting us. This is a 1. 2 Million Initiative over the next three years with the city providing about half of the funding and the foundations stepping up with the other half. But the real work is going to be done at the community level. The Community Organizations that are going to be working with us on numerous and they reflect all the different ethnicities that i just mentioned. But i want to mention a few to give them some special thank you because theyre stepping beyond what theyve traditionally done and going into the mold of going beyond just the citizenship count and now into services into this new orientation and training, and that is [speaker not understood] for the elderly, one of the lead agency. Thank you, annie, for leading that. Youve been a wonderful collaborater with us. The asian caucus, Asian Pacific islander outreach, Catholic Charities cyo, International Institute of the bay area, jewish family and children services, [speaker not understood] Community Resource center. As well as the african advocacy network, the arab resource organizing center, myob which is the [speaker not understood], the Southeast Asian community center, [speaker not understood] media, of course San Francisco immigrant rights commission. Well, ive often said in many speeches that our immigrant population is important. Wel