thank you, san francisco rising. v-day is a welcome place and i spoke to the representative from congo. and i want to thank every person in the mayor's office and the d.a.'s department and every single agency that works on this issue every day. from the bottom of my heart, and eve sends her love as well. you have made this happen. on that note i would like to welcome mayor edwin lee. thank you. >> all right, how are y'all doing? well, anita and i came together to join vascone and the fabulous fablioa, isn't she fabulous. and david chu and all the board of supervisors are here, and the committee on the status of women. and the president and susan swan, give them a great hand for organizing v-day in san francisco. we support the one billion rising because it empowers the rise of women, girls and all the residents of san francisco to take a stand against violence in our home, in our city and throughout the world. and just think, if women were equally included in decision-making around the world, there would be no econom

francisco, where the puc lbe discount would affect the ranking of a san francisco lbe, that the puc lbe would not get that discount. so we felt that was a good way to sort of strike a policy balance of making sure that lbes in san francisco first get the benefit of this program, and that they would never be disadvantaged in potential future projects. so happy to answer any questions that you might have. thank you. is regina dick-endrizzi here? oh, chris schulman is here. >> very briefly on january 14th, 2013 the commission heard this ordinance and recommended approval by a 7-0 vote. while this ordinance primarily benefits small businesses outside of san francisco, the commission still weighed in strong support and the commission appreciates the protections put in place for san francisco lbes. the commission would like to thank supervisor chiu and the puc for working with the commission over the past month. as we heard this ordinance and made our recommendation. thank you. >> mr. chair, do you want to open this up to public comment? >> with that, i would like to open up public commen

san francisco are we ready? are we rising? let's show the world that san francisco can be counted on. just think about it for a moment. one out of every three women will be sexually abused or assaulted in their lifetime. that has to stop. and we here in san francisco are going to show no tolerance for abuse against young girls and women. are we ready? are we rising? i have to take a moment to thank some people. first i want to thank my beautiful wife. who is just an incredible woman. she's the anchor in my life and someone that i appreciate so dearly. and i want to thank you very much for everything you do. and for your commitment to ending violence against women. i also want to thank mayor lee, because when he was approached with the idea of doing this. he immediately said yes. thank you, mayor lee. and thank you to the lee family. i want to thank the organizers who very early on came together and said, san francisco will stand out and be counted. and i want to thank our board of supervisors. i want to thank people on my staf

it sends a message for all student in san francisco. you know that this city's future don't understand on the education we provide for all our children. it's with great pleurisy introduce the mayor of the city of san francisco. good morning thank you laura republican for that kind introduction and thank you for opening your divorces to me this morning. i want to honor david and all your supervisors and to our two newest supervisors. mayor brown thank you for being here and taking the time to join us this morning. you have done so much in this county >> and since this is my first city address i'm hoping you'll cut me some slack if you chose to write about it in the newspapers. to the department heads and consistent leaders and education leaders to all of you who are online and thank you all of you for joining us this morning. and, of course, to my wonderful wife, mother and friend thank you for being here and pitting up with me for all these years >> a year ago i stood before i and score my term of office pledging to seize the year of th

after nearly seven years on the police force san francisco police officers john coffee and david san's mission state and is gang enforcement officers became frustrated by the cycle of violence they witnessed permeated in the gang culture of san francisco. the officers developed an outreach program in 2010 to help secure jobs for young men in an effort to chem then from participating in gang life. so now, i'm going to tell you a story that will relate to me that shows the special kind of individuals i'm talk about and how they helped a young man named carlos. the officers have seen carlos hanging out with gang members and suspected that he might be involved in a elicit activities around the mission areas after warning him that he was headed down the wrong path carlos was arrested is six months later when he was relevancy released from jail, the officers approached him about taking up a job as an alternate form of lifestyle with the approval of the captain officers cathy and san put together a contract securing a job for carlos if in turn he would stay away from gang members if he took t

programs as healthy san francisco. so please join me in welcome can mayor edwin, lee. . >> thank you crystal and may i give you your value tine. >>> thank you. >> mayor khan, made in san francisco ... all right, good morning everyone. okay. i'll try not to isn't that correcty. and i isn't that correct isn't that correct key. and [spelling?] and so i want to thank all of you for being in san francisco and webcore and others who have been such a great part of the success in this city and i want to thank my great friend mayor khan for coming over here and later on, later this year we are going to be traveling over the new span of the bay bridge and joining each other with governor brown as we celebrate in september with largest construction project in the history of the bay area and we talked about it last year when we were thinking about how to celebrate this bridge crossing and we made some cultural connections. and something about our ancestors helping to build the railroads here in the 1800 and is now two chinese amer

i'm the cochair of plan c san francisco. we're the group that has led the fight for these first time homeowners and renters who want to be homeowners some day to achieve condo reform. you have heard already, and will hear more from many people about why this is good for san franciscans, why this is smart policy. if ever there was a fair compromise piece of legislation, this is it. helping hundreds and hundreds of your constituents, hurting no one, and providing 20 million, 25 million perhaps for affordable housing in san francisco, this is truly a win/win/win situation. but i'm not going to talk today about why this is good policy because you will hear that from others. what i'd like to talk about is why this is good politics as well. if you can get that on the screen. they say a picture speaks a thousand words. and as soon as this shows up -- >> chair wiener: one second. sf gtv needs to actually broadcast that. if you could pause the clock please. thanks. why don't we go on to the next speaker and when we get this fixed we

san francisco unified continues to be the hive urban development are high. we've seen double digit high-grades among our latin and africa kids >> results are being recognized for our achievement we received a federal grab the to bring job training in our mission neighborhood. the supervisor knows about this. these gains are possible because reforms are underway the partnership are in place. for our kids to succeed in this economy we must do more. that's why this year i will propose in my budgeted more resources more than $50,000,000,000 and $25 million for preschool activities. i view education as an be investment not an expense. the folk in the road for many kids and many families the point at which they decide they're though stay in san francisco or leave. you're going to hear me talking about this layoff a lot this year. i want our middle squirrels to courthousess choose the road to success notes the road that leads to trouble or and is the one of the 3 san franciscans who went there know we must continue to preserve our colleges decree - it's important t

to what makes san francisco -- what makes people want to come to san francisco and live in this city. it is important to what we do and many of the businesses that exist here on an ongoing basis. we have 16 million visitors a year. that is in no small part due to the activities associated with the night life and this city. that is not lost on all of us. one of the things that i think it's important to the mayor and myself as i sit here today, and i know that you guys are going to be focusing on, i looked out and i see so many pieces of the city family here engaged in this conversation. i think it is really a measurable thing that you have the chief of police introducing today's conversation and today's forum with you in addition to having the board of supervisors as civil the understand the work that you and why it is so important. having individuals like -- one of the board members spoke earlier about having oewd focusing on this. all this matters when you're trying to work collaborative late. part of the problem in the past has been people working in individual silos and not sharing

so, ideally, using the san francisco rec and park, the future san francisco arts app, using our mobile commerce to manage that is creating jobs, revenue, and efficiency for the public and tourists to be able to navigate san francisco in a way that hasn't been done before. thank you. >> all right. (applause) >> so, we're going to show another application from motion launch, the founder and ceo, john, will be sharing some of the work that they're doing. they're based here out of san francisco and they've got a great announcement to make. >> i am jon mills. i'm ceo of motion loft. we started about three years ago developing sensors that we could place around cities that would give us some analytics on how people move around cities and how vehicles drive around cities. so, currently we have 16 neighborhoods -- 18 neighborhoods covered in san francisco, and we get real-time data back that shows exactly how many people go by some of the busiest areas in san francisco. so, you can see here san francisco, on average total, i think we had 150 people cross our sensors on average for every sensor

thank you san francisco. >> secretary lahood. thank you very much for that wonderful news. >> [inaudible] >> it's a really truly a great day for san francisco. great cities need great public transportation systems, and you know what? you know what makes our city great with all these leaders? they listen. they listen to our communities. they understand -- because for years our communities pleaded we need better transportation systems what makes our leaders so great they listen and they act. that is so wonderful. that is what standard that we have for all of our public officials. secretary lahood if you could thank president obama from all of us. yes. [applause] because i know today we're going to spend a lot of precious moments thanking leader pelosi and congress women fine 79 and boxer and. >> >> we're going to thank all of our community members and from china town and all of them have worked very hard. these are not easy projects. they're very complicated and people had to work at the highest levels to make sure that every aspec

san francisco reflects the world. we provide services in over 65 languages, woman are currently turned away because we don't have enough services so thank you for the funning board of supervisors and i'm proud to announce that san francisco has also received funds from the federal government. president back barrack obama and the department of justice has recognized the great events that san francisco has started and want us to continue to acted indicate violence here in san francisco and start a global movement. (applause) everyone here is touched by domestic violence. if you say you do know, it may be your co worker it could be your sister who doesn't want to speak out it could be your mother or grand mother. i do this in memory of a fellow co worker a fellow public sector attorney laura sweat who was murdered by her husband and in that moment, two young children were left without a mother. i do this in her memory and in hope that her children will no longer see anymore violence and i do this in the hope that the wor

and her work just spans way beyond san francisco. statewide, as has been mentioned, she's been involved with other issues throughout the united states. so, i will be fully supporting her. so, he i guess we will take this without objection. * thank you. madam clerk, can you please call item number 2? >> item number 2, motion approving the mayor's nomination for appointment of aaron hyland to the historic preservation commission, for a term ending december 31, 2016. >> i believe mr. hyland is here today. please make your statement. >>> thank you, supervisor yee, and good afternoon supervisor cohen and supervisor breed. it's my distinct pleasure to be here today and i'm excited to have this opportunity and would be honored to serve on the historic preservation commission. i moved here over 20 years ago. i live in the castro on 16th street with my partner of 12 years and our two jack russells. san francisco is our home. we're grateful to live in such a wonderful city. i'm an architect and have been with arg architectural resources group

this is a great day for san francisco. this is a labor of love. we know the economic and transit values of this. as an agency we are committed and not only committed to bringing this fruition on time but under budget as well. is that good? and we will continue the vil against of all of our assets and focusing on the priority number one is safety. this day is possible because of so many people that did so much work here. senator leno is here and the assessor. we have a wonderful working relationship with fta regional leaders and mtc and lazarus from the mtc board and the china chamber of commerce and the san francisco chamber of commerce and the market street association and the business improvement district and joe an hayes and mike from the building and trades construction council. anytime i get a chance to speak on the mta board i say i am so proud of what we do and we move 700,000 people in the city and it's a difficult task. we have a wonderful staff. we are privileged to have the talent of ed of course for his leadership and i couldn't tell y

beer here in san francisco. and it's my great honor to introduce entrepreneurial spirit. mr. gregor was born and raised in the united kingdom. he then moved to singapore at the age of nine. he's lived in amazing cities around the world. so he brings with him an international spirit. but also a passion for san francisco. he and his partner, tony foglio are known for building up the best brands and keeping them both emerging but honoring their roots. so i can't think of a better tenant and partner for this historic pier 48 than anchor brewers and distillers. join me in welcoming keith gregor. [applause] >> thank you. is everyone warm enough? this is great weather for making beer. anchor is one of america's oldest breweries. with origins back to the gold rush. by 1896 the famous brand emer emerged. a real san francisco icon and only 118 years old at the moment. not that many years pass easily. earthquakes. fire. and prohibition and bankruptcy all stood in the way. but they would not end our history. anchor brewery

and welcome to the san francisco board meeting. we are joined today by community member supervisor norman and joined by one of our colleagues. the clerk of the committee is evans and we want to acknowledge the following members of s f g tv staff who are covering the meeting. mark bunch. >> do you have any announcements? >> yes, sir. please silence all devices. files should be submitted to the clerk. items may appear on the agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you very much. madam clark can you call items no. 1. >> item no. 1, prohibit sales of law enforcement ammunition. no. 2, police code require reporting 500 or more round >> these two items have been introduce by mayorly and supervisor co-hen. >> thank you very much. thank you. as many of you know i have joined with chief and other leaders to announce this legislation late last year. this has built upon to take on gun violence. ammunition, lethal ammunition. what the law doesn't restrict is it's possession. now we also have existing regulation that require anyone selling amm

office up and running here with san francisco data. so, it's great to be able to do that. just one note of caution of how do you prevent kind of third-party data integrators from owning that data. i think jay was talking about it earlier on. it's just a note of caution for you guys. >> how do we prevent vendors from holding the data? >> yes. >> we're still working on this piece with our legal department. we're looking to do and this is very exploratory right now, really looking at the contracting process itself and how we can use that as a mechanism. basically we want to do business with you if you're willing to share your data. as jay mentioned we don't want to be held hostage. we don't want our data to be held hostage to the companies. as we figure this out, we'll continue going about it and providing updates. yeah, i think that there's actually a lot of companies out there that are being powered right now with our open data program. so, if there's any that aren't represented here today, please let us know. we would love to feature y

it was members of the san francisco board of supervisors who came to ask them to open san francisco general hospital, which they did. they ran it for four years until a very familiar thing happened, and that was the county board of supervisors had a dispute about how to pay health care bills. the sisters said we've had enough of that and went on to create st. mary's hospital. as you can see, very familiar with how the city works. even then, over 150 years. it is an important issue. we're glad to be able to provide it. we're glad to be able to be here and to recognize some super creative people and the super creative programs. the committee which reviewed folks and review projects had a tough time picking who should be chosen and who should be recognized. the list is fantastic. spur, of course, has worked for years and sponsor of this good government awards for a long time to make sure that the folks that work so hard that do not get recognized every day -- you do get recognized. firstly, from the business community, i want to say how proud we are to have you and how proud we are for the wor

san francisco is no different. and i have shared that emotional experience with the supervisor and everybody here, in our law enforcement, and in our health department as well. the question for us, then, is what do we do about it? and not only can we share in this tragedy and signal our sympathies to the families as we've done, but we've got to do something more. and this is where i want to make sure i recognize all of the people that are in that effort of doing something about it, including the officials in san francisco. and some have been at this longer than others to try to do something about it, have reached limitations. yet again, i think this tragedy at sandy hook reminds us that we've got to keep trying and we've got to keep doing more about it. and, so, i want to first of all recognize that senator feinstein, in my conversations with her, and the tragedies she's experienced as mayor of san francisco as well as her attempts to ban assault weapons and had done so in the past, and that her federal assault leg

he is a san francisco resident now. we are all very proud to call him a san francisco resident. has had a very long and very distinguished career. working for delta airlines, bp, and i think most importantly as i've gotten to know michael, it's been a real advocate and long-time dedication for nonprofit work here in san francisco. that's something, michael, i admire so much about you. michael is now the secretary of the board of directors of the olympic [speaker not understood] foundation which does an incredible amount of good work in our city. provides grants to various nonprofit groups for sports, under served children throughout our city. michael is also a member of the board of governors commonwealth club which is as we know the nation's longest and oldest public affairs forum. has 400 events annually, 16,000 members. more recently, as we start to work on our neighborhood school yards project, there was really one couple to be quite honest with you, but also one person we were hoping would really play a leading role, and that's michael. and serving as a project manager for

we do have -- they've said san francisco a small city. geographically it's small, but it's very dense city. we've got probably 900,000 people living in san francisco or close to it and another over 100,000 in daily city. we've got people who are close by and i think there's a lot of potential business here. * so, see what the other commissioners have to say. >> commissioner sugaya. >> yes, i wasn't around for the home depot fight originally, but i understand what it was all about. i don't shop there. my wife and i have gone occasionally to look at products there and frankly have not been very satisfied, but that's beside the point i suppose. just to repeat commissioner antonini's point, i think if people really looked at their purchasing experience and looked at what they purchased, they might find that it isn't that much cheaper to go to a big box store. costco might be a little exception, but i do -- i know that one of the advantages of local hardware stores is that you don't have to buy 15, you know, nails in a package in order to get

francisco and 10010 merchandise sale least back of it's san francisco 5012 head quarters san francisco projects represent or 200 million square feet. in pre-leased to single user ice tenants while 2,222nd and five thrive mission are scheduled to break ground later this year with escalating represents triggering new office instruction construction in san francisco oakland's turn to build is around the corner now fraction's mid market is part of the city's most significant public transit corridor in 5012 the building at the edgy intersection of sixth and market and also hometo mayor lee's election head quarters was leased by benchmark capital from the not to edgy sand hill road in pal low alto we have seen mid market morph from michael douglas and carl mailed den chasing bad guys to twitters 2012 move into 10th and market and now, onto doll bee sounds one million dollars acquisition of ninth and mark along with squared 250,000 square foot least at 11th and market new apartment construction continues as well this crescent heights high rise at the tenth and market and one money hundred van

a song for san francisco. and i am delighted that you are considering rebuking our fed who are the nbaa but that come at the end of this. so, i don't want to have too many bells before that. (applause) >>> an increase in homelessness [speaker not understood] because benches were removed elsewhere. why remove benches to take seats away from people who live and breathe in san francisco? and make sitting or lying on the streets an offense? send the homeless to different neighborhoods like playing [speaker not understood]. people need to sit somewhere out of sight cannot be out of his mind and for the car owners who seek a sunday, 1800 citations for parking on sunday, $72 for the city coffers for each offense. bike theft increased and remind me why i bike no longer. three box stolen from me by lock cutting, that was in europe. gangses, violence, theft is universal. neighborhood courts with volunteers, unpaid judges earn money for cities with restorative justice for first offenses. pay a stipend for those administe

san francisco. welcome me home again. i'm coming home to leave no more. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> did you all enjoy that? let's go mustangs. that's right keep that energy going. of course, the cheerleaders are right in there. keep that energy your enthusiasm and your applause going now. it's with my honor i introduce to you the mayor of the san francisco the honorable east lee. let's give her a big hand and if you want to see what a world series ring looks like ask her she's got it on her finger. hunter is waiting for his. well, i'm so glad to be out here with the mustangs. you are world class students congratulations for being at lincoln high school. we've got a lot of people here today. i asked as many of our staff and city departments to join us. i want to thank scott wiener he's in the house. we've got our public works, we've got both our fire chief and police chief here. we have our transportation director here. our port director is here our park and recreation director. we have environment director here. yes, we of our mayor's

last week many of us celebrate the new san francisco jazz center. the house of moment will break ground this year and in center market the arts and the theater are the great event there that were and there's a shop theater to other a v ts opening of the theatre. and we're we've proven that we have the unveiling of the apple product and there's other events like the fleet week or sports focused event like the craft of fight of the hungry bowl, the 2013 cup and, of course, the america's cup this summer. and with all of your help in may of this year we'll be making the case that san francisco is the best city in america to host the super bowl sunday in 2013. but friends you know what still mother - i'm concerned that some folks are still not involved in this great city. i'm proud that working with the trades units and we have consistently meet and exceeding our goals of placing people on projects. thank you commissioner. last summer we provided more than 5 thousand summer jobs for young people in partnership with the united people in the bay. we also w

thirty% are san francisco residents that is 500 san francisco residents working with their hands to build the brand new hospital for our future generations. they have done it right. it's on time, $63 million to local businesses as a result of the construction of this hospital. so i'm looking forward in 2015 to join all of you in opening this hospital, making sure we are doing everything to keep people healthy in the city and congratulations to the foundation for your wonderful work congratulations to all of us nobody has got it better than us in san francisco congratulations everyone. (applause) . i don't ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage grace davis, director of california corporate affairs intell corporation ... >>> okay with today being valentine's day we are thrilled to help present 13 new heart art works we see these hearts all around san francisco, reminding us that the general is the heart of our city these hearts generate we have a remarkable roster of artist and is this year is no exception and please join me in welcoming to the stage this year's heart artist and

and washington in san francisco. san francisco police just confirming with our newsroom that one person has life-threatening injuries but in all five people are involved in this cable car and car crash in san francisco, powell and washington. >> once again, five people injured. total one life-threatening. we'll keep you posted on the accident at powell and washington. we'll have more information as it comes in. >>> three men are dead and a killer is on the loose following a triple homicide in sonoma county. the sheriff's department says the bodies of those three men were found inside a cabin on rogs station road. this is near iron horse vineyards. this happened yesterday. this is also in the town of forestville. all three men were shot to death in a back bedroom of a home. officers have not released the men's identities or how they are related. they say it does not appear to be a murder/suicide. >>> also new this morning, an overnight fire in san leandro has now turned deadly. firefighters arriving at a home on neptu

francisco businesses start and grow here in san francisco. our first speaker is mayor lee. he has been a strong advocate of open data, both in his current position and also historically as the city administrator. and he's going to be sharing with you some really exciting announcements and his vision for open data. mayor? (applause) >> hi, good morning. welcome again to innovation month in san francisco. it's great to be here. as you know, i've been working really hard with organizations like sf city and code for america and others to make sure that we keep being leaders in technology and celebrating our status, but also implementing the programs to help us continue that very nice title we have, the innovation capital of the world. and i am here today in collaboration with board president david chiu and so many others from our committee on information technology, spur, our different various city departments, really trying to improve on what we've done already. back in 2009 then mayor gavin newsome to the light of all of us had introduced that

francisco, i'm happy to report that i've lived in san francisco for over 25 years. >> okay, thank you, any questions, supervisors? seeing none. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> next person, eddie chan. yes. >> good afternoon, supervisors, my name is dr. eddie chan, i am the current president and ceo of northeast medical services, northeast medical services is a non-profit federally qualified community health center which serves the medically underserved population, we've been in business for about 45 years now, we operate 9 health centers, 7 of them are within san francisco, two are outside of the county and we currently serve 30% of the healthy san francisco population within our 7 clinics. any questions, i could talk about what's happened in the past few years. i am also in a reappointment seat. we've really been proud of what we've been able to serve in terms of expanding access within san francisco. the -- with healthy san francisco, with the seniors and persons of disabilities and also the transition of adult day health services into the sea bass program recently. quality, we've in

on the 25th anniversary san francisco declared the band to be the official band of san francisco. that was founded years ago. the band was founded in response to anita paul's program. the first public appearance was behind harvey milks convertible. they performed the nut cracker big and small venny's. they had the high honor of mark in president obama's inaugural. as we continue to fight for our community it's important for the nation to see how many positive forces are in our community and especially the band. orchids that build bridges with their performs. the san francisco lesbian and gay band is a wonderful ambassador to our community. so we have members here who marked in our parade and i'm incredible proud that you represented our city with some much honor. and particularly with the inauguration of our president of marriage equally in our nation so i'm proud to honor i today. congratulations. >> thank you supervisor wiener. do hope next time we'll get a performance in the chamber. i want to recognize supervisor mar who was a commendation. thank you today, i'm honoring an inc

the goal is to open up san francisco park on the weekends. for me and what is involved in this project is to allow our children places to play and build community in our neighborhoods. it's gone well so far and we have a lot of work. our mission as we have laid it out is to create more safe places for our children and families to gather throughout san francisco. this will coordinate through all districts. and the san francisco unified district and pta's and sponsors and ngo's and ceo. we envision a safe place for every children to play in this district. and let me thank a number of pta's involved in many schools. and i have been out speaking and hydra and phil, and to have buy-in is viable in this project. we want the pta's and as well the principals that the school will be in the same condition than when they left it on friday afternoon. if we could flip the page. a few things to highlight benefits for school sites. every pta is given $1,000 to use at their discretion to support physical education. they have used in tha variety of ways, to h

i can only fix san francisco. san francisco is fixed. i can't fix cal doj. >> let me try to clarify and i will pass the mic. seems like our numbers for hispanic arrest numbers are low and not consistent with other counties and it's not just cal doj but how they're reporting san francisco numbers and it's not like every county has this problem and i think it will be remedied in the future and how the numbers compare and does it make sense with the other counties? >> do all of the counties collect the dat at same way as san francisco? >> my guess is no. >> if you're going to comparein and i know some other county doesn't collect it like this. i mean you have different processes. i am talking about county by county comparison. i'm know not dealing with the feds and if everyone was using the same process. >> it emseemed like there were differences between the county scption how they collect data and with local pressures or whatnot but the cal department of justice has the expect 19 ethnicities that they do collect and the same ones in the sh

been in business for over 100 years in san francisco. orchard supply and these chains in the short period of time will further destroy the things we have come to expect and rely on from our local family home improvement industry. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >>> my name is david peterson and i own the property on the end of kate street, 52 kate. and i have the largest piece of property on kate street as well and i have not been contacted by anybody from orchard supply. i have two issues that i want to discuss, and one is the use of the loading dock and another is the traffic issue. i'm sure you guys are aware that 88 brannon has reorganized their main entrance to their parking lot to decatur street, there will be a much larger volume on brannon and [speaker not understood]. one of the biggest problems with kate street using it as a loading dock is the street is very narrow and along that street is everybody's driveway and entrance to their building. in the past sfpd has recognized anybody using that loading dock is bloc

. * he's making sure san francisco remains san francisco. and, so, morgan, please come on up to the stage. (applause) >> thank you very much. my name is morgan fits gibbons. it is one of my favorite organizations here in the city. it is the third year in a row i'm nominated the winner. last year was divisadero corridor. that might help us get one of these awards in the future. what do you think, daniel? [laughter] >> this year we're proud to give the award for best merchant association to lower haight merchant and neighborhood association a.k.a. lo hamna, rolls off the tongue. [laughter] >> it's truly a great organization. we in our capacity, we work a lot with different neighborhood associations, different merchant associations. and far and away the lower haight merchants association is one of the best we had the pleasure to work with. that holds for always, but this past year was a really remarkable year for the organization. they dealt with some challenges, notably the water and fire, some public safety concerns. and they also had some su

this is an exciting time for all of us here in san francisco. and as i stand before you on this day, we celebrate black history month in san francisco. this is a day on which we acknowledge the being at the crossroads of equality and freedom. celebrating the emancipation proclamation as well as the march on washington, as well as the 100th birthday of our dear sister rosa parks. as our country continues to celebrate the beginning and as our country continues to celebrate the beginning of the second term of our great president, president barack obama. now, it's easy to take for granted the progress that we've made as a country because we are forever looking to solve today's problems and as we continue to meet tomorrow's challenges as we shape our future. but what it is, it's definitely worthwhile to take a look back at the great works of our predecessor and the brave men and women who have paved the way for progress that we enjoy here in the 21st century. and if you look around, many of those men and women are right here with us in the rotunda to