Transcripts For SFGTV2 20111207 : vimarsana.com

it is great to be here. it is a pretty impressive crowd. i want to thank speaker pelosi. for us, she will always be speaker pelosi. the mayor, and a number of those from the ntc. thank you. on behalf of the ntc, of like to take think the best take this opportunity to thank the u.s. housing and urban and sustainable development. i want to think a very diverse bird of nonprofit partners that were very hard to make this possible. that includes the san francisco foundation s great communities caliber to, equity groups, including the council would community housing organizations. mission development agency, chinatown community development centers, as well as business interest including the silicon valley leadership group and the bay area council. this grant will allow our region to connect very important elements that are all connected. jobs, job training, and housing with our transit system this will allow us to give families a chance to catch me by transit. it will support the development of new housing that is close to transit, as well as the jobs that are close to transit, and in the process to help prevent existing workers, housing, and provoked promote the development of a strong regional economy for bay area residents. we re working on planning the area. the 25-year gestation and land use a blueprint, which will be adopted in early 2013. as our population is expected to grow by from about 7 million people to 9 million people in 2014, we need to start making, housing, and land use decisions that sustain the bay area s high quality of life for current and future residents. planned bay area is working to keep this goal by supporting projects that focus growth near existing transportation infrastructure. the bay area sustainable communities grant will allow us to support those goals, while also integrating economic and workforce development. transportation and infrastructure development, to create more opportunities for all residents of the region. this grant will provide over $4 to bay area cities and local non-government organizations, to create more housing near transit. is this a lot to take this opportunity as a san francisco supervisor to thank carol lautner partners in san francisco, the community partners at work so hard to make this grant a reality. without their efforts, without their work in contributions, this would not have happened. thank you again to hud for this opportunity and to our partners for the great work. it is my honor to introduce protest patricia, the hud director of field policy and management. pat, good to see you. [applause] good afternoon, i am delighted to be here. it is is a great to get out of washington, d.c., and get back in the field, where i belong. i tell people that when i started in this work some 30 years ago, i was 6 foot 5, blond and blue eyes [laughter] now i am shadow of my former self, but i cannot think of a better profession to expend at that height and energy on. i want to congratulate all of you for the extraordinary work you have done. this $5 million grant is part of $100 million in grant initiatives that is ordered by hud and our other federal partners. i have to tell you, you re so excited that week in this administration, under the president s leadership and various cabinet secretaries, are working federal agencies together. this is pretty cool stuff, where we are actually talking to each other and elaborating. with epa and department of transportation, we re happy to make this joint award. we also want to thank all of the members of the community. it is estimated the people in this metropolitan area are spending 52 cents of every $1 on housing and transit in this metropolitan community. it is important that people understand that we need to connect jobs and work. sociologists have been telling us for decades now that zip code is unfortunately a determinant of economic survival, your education level, your longevity, your health, accessibility, and more. so this agreement, along with the vision of the partners, will allow us to move people near jobs, put people in transit, and improve quality of life for everyone around the as a particularly pleased to know that this is a partnership of federal, state, and local people, nonprofits in the private sector, which is the way all of our problems in our committees will naturally be solved. part of this economic opportunity strategy will give everyone who seeks work a better chance to try to gain access to that. i also want to thank commissioner candidates mentioned the association of bay area governments, the san francisco foundation, the silicon valley community foundation, the great communities collaborative, the bay area council, a community housing organization, and the non-profit housing association of northern california, and the urban habitat. on behalf of our hud secretary shaun donovan and our system the abilities officer, i am so proud to represent, and our regional administrator, to represent hud here. i want to ask you to please give a very, very warm reception to the regional administrator from epa. please, sir. [applause] thank you to leader pelosi. most of the things that you look around and see in san francisco would not have been done without the amazing amount of work that she does for the city and county of san francisco. it is an amazing privilege to be on the panel with her today congratulations to mayor lee for his recent appointment and to everyone else here on this exciting day. i used to work just next to city hall and run my bike down mcallister every day for nine years, so i saw this place going up. what it really tells us is that you can do all the great things we heard at the beginning. for 120 formerly homeless people, you can do it in a way with no additional parking. it followed a green point rating system. it internalized many of the values that san francisco holds tier, which is bringing transportation planning, housing, and the environment together in one. that is our president and congress, with the speaker s leadership at the time, asked us to do. how can hud, department of transportation, and epa work together? this is a different way of doing business, and it is a way that we are very proud of. i want to thank ophelia, as well. should not be here today, but she is the regional administrator. and leslie from the department of transportation today they re all sitting down together in some very large infrastructure projects. this is a $5 million project to develop a prosperity plan for the bay area. if you think of the billions of dollars that were spending on everything from highways to public transportation systems, the opportunity to come together and it rethink those as a sustainable communities package is with this partnership is all about. and it is a different way of doing business. it is needed at a time when we have less and less funds. it does it better for less money. we re proud to be a partner, along with hud and the department of transportation, and we want to thank them. i also want to thank and invite up mark green, president of the association of bay area governments, and the mayor of union city. thank you. [applause] i wanted to go on record here, said in a bit too upset, because i heard the words ophelia, and she used to be the lme the county housing authority director. i once said she was the most competent executive director i ever sat with on many executive board. take my records back to of zalea when you get a chance i want to say, merely, that the rams are in town this week, so if you have any tickets, let me know. i am ready for them to get slaughtered again in my presence. it is agreed to be in san francisco. the supervisors, mayor, everybody here. this is a great complex that opened up in september and is the already full. it is a great testimony that was needed here and in terms of affordable housing. we know the success of the bay area s innovative the economy is critical to our nation s prosperity and global competitiveness. i want to thank the speaker and hud for giving us the $5 million that will be put to good use. we understand that we will only be truly successful if we are able to create a middle class jobs and affordable, accessible communities that provide a path of upward mobility for all of our working families. this grant will provide a regional prosperity plan to do just that. abag, which is working for the nine area counties, is in partnership with mtc, and they both will be working and producing a sustainable communities strategy, which needs to be approved over the next year. we re looking forward to working with the bay area consortium of local government agencies, organizations, foundations to provide innovative ideas to the regional planning process but include the economic or gratuities strategy, as well as housing the work force strategy. we do have seven of our nine bay area counties and cities, at least cities, represented in this grant, and over a dozen nonprofit organizations from san francisco, the south bay and north bay. this is truly a bay area program. we look forward to working with staff. abag has been doing the heavy living heavy lifting. have i said abag five times it? he will not put me on his christmas list for this year but at this point, i would like to introduce mayor lee. mayor lee spoke at our abag general assembly in san francisco in october. i am sure that was critical to his reelection success. [laughter] mayor lee [applause] yak yak, i think we re going to try to announce the banning of plastic bags peter thank you, everybody, for coming today. leader pelosi and i just finished a wonderful visit to the roof garden, and if you can actually feel prosperity, you should have been with us, because this is a wonderful project, and it is a partnership with so many people. later on when you have an opportunity to ask her, asked about the private financing that went into this. it is very remarkable that the public-private partnership that went into this project is very unique. i want to join supervisor campos as well as supervisor wiener and our mtc representatives, also abag and all of the agencies that work together, particularly the federal agencies. hud, dot, and epa coming together to work with all of our communities. all of the community organizations have been identified. i already know that there are probably several more that we forgot to mention. i know that spur was working with us as well. individuals spend some good quality nights writing the application, making sure it reflected the strong collaboration. because i think that is leader policy, that is what makes san francisco so special to you know that as much as i do. when people come together with a good cause and then they speak to everybody and they get the best ideas, and collaborate, there are no boundaries as to what we can do. i am excited because it is not just the $5 million that we are getting. it is what that money will leverage with everything else. in fact, it immediately will leverage the local dollar is pretty awesome making the commitment that we re going to use this money and the rigid with other monies that we have to make the planning process even more vigorous, more complete, more inclusive, so that we can get the best planning ideas and balance all of these issues. because we are always going to be challenged by the lack of resources. planning and planning better and better with everybody is going to be really the way to succeed. if you look back, you ll see the wonderful beaufort beautiful mural that i think reflects the prosperity that we re talking about today. you also know and appreciate that every time leader pelosi comes into town, and i think that is every two months, there is a very special announcement. she will tell us some of the bad news and will not happen. but then she will sprinkle it with some things that are always going to be heartfelt, evarts that she has personally made that have generally been almost always successful in getting the bay area to reflect our success. as long as the key collaborating, planning, and including everybody in the process, i think we can keep that coming. and a leader pelosi has a tremendous challenge. we are all backing her up 150%. we need to back up our president, president obama, as he is challenged with our economy. i certainly want to thank senator feinstein and senator boxer for joining in. leader pelosi, i just want to thank you. every effort is so precious now. we want to really appreciate every moment that we can, especially at times like these where resources are so limited that we can leverage this with so many opportunities. she will talk to you about the challenges with the funds. all across the country, we re trying to use those monies and the most demonstrative way. the best thing we can do is bring more people about. that is what i have been all about. i am so glad to take this opportunity to introduce our leader, leader pelosi. thank you very much for coming. [applause] thank you. thank you very much, mr. mayor. and this program we re introducing, and want to return the compliment back to the mayor and thank him for his leadership, congratulate you on your recent election and for the successful first year. again, thank you, mr. mayor. let s acknowledge the mayor. [applause] as i listened to patricia, to jared, mayor green, abag did i say it? and our mayor, and especially, with all due respect, to everyone, to gail gilman, as executive director, to talk about what is happening here. as i heard all of you speak, i was thinking about what the president when he was elected, he took office, and in one of our first meeting, he said we re going to do things differently. it was really only a matter of months after his inauguration that this collaboration was formed with hud, the department of transportation, and the epa. so i want to acknowledge secretary donovan, administrator jackson is that the word we use? administrator. and of course, secretary lahood, as well, for their responsiveness in getting this going. it was not long a time after, san francisco can be the beneficiary. but it is no accident that we would be a leader, an adult a model to the country, having an initiative of national significance right from the start. collaboration, regional collaboration dave is gone but i am not taking attendance, but i was referencing him. but, steve, you know that early on if the mtc said we have to think regionally. we have to take our best shots. we have to help each other. and that collaboration among the bay area has served us very well. it was actually written into one of our into the transportation bill, a long time ago. so the san francisco bay area, once again, in the league. in the private sector that the mere reference, the low-income housing tax credit, has been a priority for our office for nearly 25 years. because when i went to congress, it was iffy. then it was we had to approve it every year. then we wanted to make it permanent. that was a way for the private sector to visit a low-income housing tax credit to exploit, and the best possible way of using that term, the other community resources that were available. but what is really important about this is, of course, that the president took the lead, had an idea, appointing the people that can make it happen very quickly, and the fact is the most important people involved in this are the people who are served here. all you need to do is look around here, visit the apartment of the continuum of care, where the needs of the residents are met. the roof garden, being outside right here, to know that this is about them, that they are the important ones. they are our vip s. the dignity they reserved and deserve, at the respect that they are receiving is really the success story. it is a very pleased to join i want you to know that this $5 million is very significant. it is part of almost $96 million for cities and regions nationwide. and more than $115 million in matching grants across the country with close coordination of the epa, transportation, and hud. it is about sustainable communities. and isn t this just the perfect example? location near transit. like you said, no parking needed, because of the smart way that this has been thought out peter it is pretty exciting, and it is very helpful to me that i go back to washington, d.c., to say to my colleagues that this works.but community-based soluts are a major part of it, listening to what the residents would want. it is michael here? thank you for what you re doing for our veterans and probably some of them will be taking advantage of the housing here. in this month of november, we thank our veterans for their service to our country. we had an event with the mayor and the salvation army some weeks ago leading up to veterans at day, and in the same month, we thank god for our blessings. among them are our veterans. again, we owe every person the respect that our veterans a fight for, a future worthy of their sacrifice, and this is a shining example of all of that. so i want to thank all of you who were part of this come into our official family in san francisco, board of supervisors, abag, mtc, and all that in congress, we talk about the lists that have been given and expanded upon. but this is something that puts people first. i cannot tell you how exciting it is to see it go from the expression that the president used at the beginning i have some new ideas about how this should happen and how we can make things work faster and better for people. it is also really wonderful to be here at richardson in hayes valley, because julian and ray richardson, the oldest black african-american bookstore in the country, and they were involved in education. so this is about community. it is about honoring our responsibilities to each other. it is about regional collaboration. it is about national cooperation among agencies. it is about the american dream that the president has always spoke so much about. and for these people for reigniting the american dream to give them opportunity to reach their aspirations and their own fulfillment. so i thank all of you who were so much a part of this. it is an honor to be here with each and every one of you. as i look out there, i see leaders in the community. low-income housing tax credit, every aspect of what makes this a tremendous success. so let it be a model to the nation. it is a national significance. we want more, don t we now, mr. mayor? and mr. director, to all of you. happy thanksgiving. congratulations . let s gail again let s applaud gail again. isn t she remarkable? [applause] on behalf of community housing partnership, on behalf of the 120 individuals who are no longer spending their nights on the streets of san francisco or in institutional care, and want to thank all of you for attending today. i want to say that without good planning and good policy makers from groups like the council of community housing organizations, meta, spur, and others, it would not be possible for us to build this kind of housing in communities that provide a platform of driving for our tenants. i want to thank all of you for attending today. and welcome to richardson. thank you. [applause] thank you. let s hear it for the band. [applause] thank you. let s hear it for the band. [applause] welcome, everybody. once again, i have the honor of being your master of ceremonies for the annual lighting of the snowflakes on market street. great event. i love being part of it. good to have you with us. i should point out that we just saw a spectacular light show under the dome over west field center. you probably have not seen it because we are the first to see it. you should get over there and see it during your holiday shopping. tonight, we have the dancing snowflakes from the san francisco ballet school. they are currently preparing for the annual performances of the nutcracker at the san francisco opera house. here s something you may or may not know san francisco was the first city in the country to premiere the nutcracker in 1944. the san francisco ballet is america s first professional ballet company. how about that? [applause] in a few minutes, we will have the snowflake lighting, but first, i want to bring up to say a few words someone who has been instrumental in putting this event together. he is the director of the department of public works here in san francisco. [applause] thank you all for coming out. we are very happy to join all the businesses along with all the other city agencies to continue to improve and improve the quality of market street. four years in a row, we have been adding a few blocks in a time, and step-by-step, we will get all the way to the castro. i am very happy for this event, and i look forward to all the lights coming on. happy holidays. don t you love short speeches? i did the best? another instrumental person in putting this together is the public facilities commissioner. thank you. this will be short also. we do the street lights in san francisco. it is wonderful to join downtown and like the street up and be part of the community. it is great. hetch hetchy green power lighting up the street. have a wonderful holiday. thank you. [applause] thank you. now, joining us i think for the first time for this event is mayor ed lee. mayor lee: thank you. i will be short, too, because i am. happy holidays, everybody. i want to especially thank these beautiful snowflakes. aren t they wonderful? i wanted to be on time because i know i have a lot more closing than they do. i wanted that iqbal dpw and our puc director i wanted to thank our dpw and puc directors. we have increased this netflix by an additional 20. there s a total of 162 snowflakes on our wonderful market street. we have some 81 leptos that are covered. we re going to continue expanding this every year we get more participation. i want to especially thank market street as well. we also want to signal that we are seeing changes along our market street happened. this is a commitment that i have made. not only the campaign, well before running for this mayor ship, i was proud to participate in all the changes the former mayor did to signal that we want our businesses here on market street as well. you are going to see in the next few months twitter. you re going to see zendesk. you are going to see burning man come aboard. the companies we have asked not only to start here but to stay and grow. all these wonderful companies creating fantastic jobs will join the events we have all along our great market street. you will see united nations plaza with its wonderful market parts arts festival starting out through mid december and there will be joined by so many events. i want to thank everyone for coming tonight.