whether it is our friends at north beach or people here in chinatown. in talking with the merchants all over china town, chinese chamber, the stockton street merchants, the chinatown merchants association -- we wanted to capture a little bit more improvement this year on pedestrian safety. there was an idea that was created and talked about for several weeks where it began by a few years ago when i was public works director, that we expanded some of the sidewalks for the benefit of pedestrian safety. we worked very closely with the traffic division of mta. we worked with our health department. we worked with chinatown neighborhood groups and the businesses to expand those sidewalks, and it has actually become quite a positive thing. then, we had sunday streets this past year in the summer where we literally took over grant ave. that became a very positive thing. in fact, we started the first ping-pong tournament in chinatown as a result. more and more, there has been an interest that more of the sidewalks and potentially maybe even a strip of the parkin

and all the community groups from chinatown, i want to thank you all. it has been a great working relationship, and another is a lot more work that we will do together. and we will be here cleaning up graffiti, making sure everything is clean. we will be watching the tunnels and the next few days, and we will be doing more work. i want to thank everyone for coming out today, and happy year of the dragon. thank you. [applause] impossible. announcer: when you open a book, you can explore new lands... [bird screeches] meet new friends, and discover new adventures. there are amazing possibilities when you open your mind to reading. [roar] you can log onto he library of congress website and let the journey begin. >> is this working? all right. let me start by thanking everyone for coming out today. as everyone knows, there are several city agencies, several community groups, and i will get to the city family and leadership who is out here today. every chinese new year, all the departments all get together, and we all work very hard in making sure that the ch

she advocated for more community services in chinatown. she is someone we knew as a courageous and relentless activist. i am honored to have known her as a friend and to have an opportunity to work with her. something she often said was that nothing comes easy, but nothing is impossible if we put our hearts and minds to achieve what we believe in. she reminds all of us that we need to do more to help those in need. many of us are going to remember her for that for a long time. i also want to acknowledge supervisor mar. supervisor mar: she was a wonderful, warm person, and very generous not just a community- based organizations like -- but organizations from the richmond district. she was very generous to the people of the richmond district as well. president chiu: i would like to ask if we could adjourn the meeting in her memory. the rest of will submit. supervisor elsbernd: i will submit my items, save one. that is an in memoriam for diane perez. for five years, before she retired in 2004, was the executive assistant of gloria young. dian

like this picture of lee poe in chinatown. is this a bar. >> so me it's similar to a theater entrance where there is a big box with no other ornament and the entrance is the entire focus. the show begins in the streets and in order to get people in, you have to present them with something exciting so they would be attracted to it and this is a perfect example to that. >> i like the fact it's so mysterious inside and dark and very come in here and it's almost opening its giant mouth. >> and in a sense it's the opposite of what you would do in most restaurant entrances, where the way to encourage people to come in is to show what is going on inside, or even to let what is going on inside, the activities spill out on to the sidewalk as you see in north beach. and here, in fact, it is a mystery inside on purpose and exactly what you are looking for in some bars. >> lee poe, how much more mysterious could you get? and also on grant avenue. san francisco >> say similar example. >> the buddha bar, buddha lounge, once again dark insid

and all the community groups from chinatown, i want to thank you all. it has been a great working relationship, and another is a lot more work that we will do together. and we will be here cleaning up graffiti, making sure everything is clean. we will be watching the tunnels and the next few days, and we will be doing more work. i want to thank everyone for coming out today, and happy year of the dragon. thank you. [applause] >> the meeting is being called order. please turn off yourself funds and put them on silent. we would like to take an opportunity to thank sf gov tv for all of their constant support. roll call. commissioner adams: here. commissioner clyde: here. commissioner dooley: here. president o'brien: here. commissioner o'connor: here. commissioner riley: here. >> item two. approval of the november 14, 2011 meeting minutes. kraft november 14, 2011 meeting minutes. president o'brien: can i get someone to recommend approval? >> i motion to approve the november meeting minutes. >> second. president o'brien: that was december? november? thank yo

without it, the chinatown station would not be able to be located at this site. there have been numerous approvals from the board of supervisors. thank you for the continuance for allowing us to finalize a couple of the amendments. a few of them are just technical and corrective with the exception that i will read as follows. section 3 is up and codified -- uncodified . a memorandum of understanding between those units shall be presented in substantial conformance with the terms contained in the central subway 's relocation impact study in the last resort housing plan adopted by the board of supervisors located in file 101210. 9. this was to ensure the finalization of an mlu. my understanding is that the mta is getting close, but we wanted to make sure that there is this in place so that the tenants who are going to be displaced will be taken care of. unless there are any questions, i am happy to open up to any public comment. supervisor mar: we have accepted and adopted the amendments. president chiu: the amendments on in front of you. -- ho are in front of you.

our organizations have collaborated closely on chinatown's public arts program. arts in store from, central soya, a nickel project. in this process, cindy is always there. not only has she been a strong advocate in a team player, but her inside, expertise, knowledge of public policy, particularly the understanding of the nuanced cultural, economic issues always provides a valuable resources and leadership in our collaboration. with our work by manalich and will immigrants to establish artists to youth in the committee mentored by the artists, together we're making a difference storefront by store from, block by block, and utilize our dozen engine to revitalize the economy and the vibrancy of the neighborhood. i want to reiterate our strong support of cindy's appointment. we look forward to continuing to work with her, to build and energize the city of san francisco through art and cultural innovations. supervisor kim: thank you. >> commissioner moore is in an intense discussion. supervisor kim: she can always get the line. i apologize commissioner. i would have c

without further delay, i would like to introduce our mayor, who is no stranger to chinatown and who is really spearheading this idea. thank you. [applause] mayor lee: let's see if everybody can occupy the parking space. exactly what we want to do is make sure people use the sidewalks as much as possible. first of all, how the new year, everyone. i know that as we celebrate the traditional new year, as soon as i finish with one new year, i get ready for the next year, because chinese new year is also a huge celebration not over chat -- not only over chinatown, but all over the city. the city really makes a lot of money with a lot of tourists that come in. the department of public works has already started

viewers in china and taiwan can see jeremy lin viewers in new york's chinatown cannot. >> blacked out on time warner for seven weeks. >> there have been no meaningful decisions between time warner cable.... >> two million people can't see the knicks play. >> reporter: one chinatown resident described the oppressive living conditions he is forced to endure. >> in my building we can't get direct tv or any other service like verizon. i just feel like a prisoner. i can't watch jeremy lin play. >> time warner comes without msg. sometimes i see it written in the menu. but it's not always... you don't always know. >> i'm pretty sure no msg. >> reporter: it has forced people to risk their lives just to get a glimpse of the lin-sanity. >> he's been kind enough to lead us. jeremy lin against the direct orders of time warner. >> reporter: they crammed together watching a smothered signal in an underground restaurant. and to think this was happening in america. i knew i had to try to help them. so it seemed few tile against such a powerful and far-reaching organization.o1fma maybe i could reason

in terms of chinatown, we have now taken possession of the stockton street building, which is on the site of the station. we have moved successfully everybody out, and we have now hired someone to basically clean up the inside of the building to seal the outside of the building to make sure that in the interim, until it is removed, that is not only does not become a polite to the neighborhood but that is attractive -- does not become a polite -- blight to the neighborhood but that it is attractive. that should be in place by mid march and will be there for the balance of the year until the building is taken down. this past weekend, as everybody in the bay area knows, the bridge was closed. your stmta played a role in making sure that was moved from our end. we had our traffic engineers working with caltrans to provide notice. we have officers and supervisors on a cost recovery basis, you will be happy to know, managing our heaviest corridors, van ness, south of market to direct traffic, and we also met some people, since it was moving 24 hours, to move people, and the project was fin

the mayor mentioned the development team managing the construction of the project is ccdc, chinatown community development corporation. the project manager is kim. she gets to the day to day work to shepherd this through. one of the greatest challenges of affordable housing is that it is difficult to finance affordable housing and get it constructed. it is even harder to keep it running. the organization that will be keeping a running -- it running and serving the residence for many years is swords to plowshares. they will have the heavy lifting over the long time. to really change the lives of those residents of this particular development. they have had a long and successful track record in doing so and deserve all of the support that we can give them going forward in the future. the whole notion of it takes a village, it usually takes a whole district to do a project. in some cases, it takes the delegation in washington, d.c., also to help. there are many people to thank. i would like to thank the leaders office. i see dan and nicole, also the d.c. staff, bob edmonson, i want him

, the rebuilding of the chinatown recreation center, which is under way as we speak, -- unfortunately she will not be here to see the opening. i just wanted to adjourn in her memory. we are very grateful for the years of service that she has provided this community. commissioner buell: let the record so reflect. second to that motion? moved and seconded. unanimous. the biggest issue in america today? segregation still exists... racism... the repression and oppression of women the educational system stem cell research homeless people cloning government health care taxation announcer: so, is there anything you're doing to help make a change? i'm not really doin' anything. ummmm [sighs] got me on that one... >> this is one of the museum's longest art interest groups. it was founded by art lovers who wanted the museum to reflect new directions in contemporary art. it has been focused on artists in this region with an eye toward emerging artists. ♪ it is often at the early stage of their career, often the first major presentation of their work in a museum. it is very competitive. only a

and all the community groups from chinatown, i want to thank you all. it has been a great working relationship, and another is a lot more work that we will do together. and we will be here cleaning up graffiti, making sure everything is clean. we will be watching the tunnels and the next few days, and we will be doing more work. i want to thank everyone for coming out today, and happy year of the dragon. thank you. [applause] [gavel] supervisor mar: the meeting will come to order. this is the land-use and economic development committee meeting for this february 6, 2012. with me is supervisor cohen and supervisor wiener. ms. miller, please read the instructions. clerk miller: items will appear as on the agenda unless otherwise unnoticed. please turn off all cell phones. supervisor mar: ann i want to thank sfgtv. please read item number one. clerk miller: item number one, public infrastructure improvements, mission bay south. supervisor mar: thank you. and we have barbara from the department of public works. >> thank you. this is for public infrastructure

supervisor mar: if i can just add for some other residents from chinatown that have raised issues, i hope that we threw mou's -- through mou's we can address the people being displaced. >> that is the intent, but and we will perhaps be able to confirm more clearly for those who have those concerns, but that is our intent. we are working with the mayor's office on housing to make sure that that happens. supervisor mar: great. set to continue for one week. president chiu: to do public comment? supervisor mar: yes. is there any public comment? seeing none, president chiu, to continue this. president chiu: and to have as a committee report. supervisor mar: as a committee report to go the following tuesday. [gavel] thank you. and that was for items two and three to be continued. ms. miller, could you please call item number for? clerk miller: a hearing on improving the taxi service. supervisor mar: thank you, and i think this one is sponsored by supervisor wiener. supervisor wiener: thank you, mr. chair. but think our goal is to have a city where not everyone wants to have their own autom

a memorial for richard chen, a longtime leader in a businessman in the chinatown committee that passed away on february 5. i want to take a minute to acknowledge and thank his family members who are here in the chamber today. he was born in a humble village in canton province in china. he proved over the course of his career to be a man a significant talent. after burying his wife in 1929, he began a remarkable military career with the chinese national party as a lieutenant colonel, later with the united states army, where he supported the famous flying tigers air force. soon after that, richard retired from his well decorated military service. he moved to san francisco with his wife and children. despite a modest start in the food industry, his hard work and dedication allowed him to build several successful grocery and restaurant businesses in chinatown. richard was highly respected in the community as an entrepreneur and business leader. in his story epitomizes the american dream. i want to thank him for his love for his wife, his children, his family, his compassion, and dedication