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Question 1:
Saving Theaters
Question 2:
Community College
Question 3:
Rezoning
Question 4:
Drug Dealing
Question 5:
Youth
Question 6:
Day Laborers
Question 7:
Visitor Attraction
Question 8:
Appointments
Question 9:
Commitment

GAVIN NEWSOM: Thank you very much. I want to thank all of you once again for convening with us and thank each member of the audience for being here this evening. I've been very involved in neighborhood preservation in fact I've taken a leadership role with the Board of Supervisors as relates to neighborhood theater preservation. In particular we've been fighting as cities across America have been fighting to keep what's left of single screen theaters. Increasingly people and the have obviously moved to multiplexes and as a consequence we're losing those anchors in our neighborhoods. Now in my district, in District 2, we've been successful in keeping Rite Aid out of one of our theaters, we kept Walgreens, currently we're fighting with Cinema 21, and we were able to successfully allow the Presidio Theater to continue. It will be a quasi-independent theater later this year. We were able to keep Gorilla Sports out of that theater. I convened in fact with three very successful hearings on the subject, one that actually incorporated the best practices across this country and adapted them for use. We looked at best practices from Boston to Washington DC, over in the East Bay we looked at combinations, some as distasteful as brew pubs with screens, others more successful such as the Victoria theater. I also directed recently and I really expect my colleagues to vote to pass the resolution asking the planning commission to consider the economic impacts of losing our neighborhoods theaters as it relates to the anchor that they provide the city, I can stand as an area of interest more than an area of demonstrated leadership and I'll continue to fight as mayor to preserve our neighborhood theaters.

MODERATOR: Mr. Ribera?

TONY RIBERA: Well first of all I want to thank you Anita, and I want to thank the Hispanic Chamber and the Mission Merchants for including me here tonight. I spent a large part of my police career here in the Mission District as an officer and then as a captain, and I have to admit to you that when I was a young officer out here the Victoria Theater was a burlesque. Not that I ever came in here though, only on official business… [laughter]… Perhaps you know I'm a member of the Mission Miracle Mile. I grew up in this neighborhood and I have seen the tough times this neighborhood has gone through, and I certainly agree that the current mayor has neglected not only the Mission District but the Hispanic community in San Francisco terribly. You know, what's his contribution, the live-work lofts that have chased blue-collar Hispanics out of this neighborhood? Is that his legacy in this neighborhood? Well, I certainly don't feel that it had any positive impact. I think we have to protect our neighborhood, We have to protect blue-collar San Franciscans. As far as preservation of the theaters go[es], anything that we can do to strengthen the Mission, I will commit to. The Mission will be a high priority for me. It's a place where I have loved working and love the people. Thank you.

MODERATOR: So that's the end? And what kind of suggestions would you have for resourcing?

TONY RIBERA: Well I think we have to restructure our resources so the Mission gets its fair share. We don't need to start spending more money; we have to start being fairer about how we spend it, and this community has been neglected. [cheers]

MODERATOR: Thank you. Can we hear from Mr. Gonzalez?

MATT GONZALEZ: Thank you, Anita. My answer would be yes, I think that the fact that you hear a number of different candidates saying essentially similar things speaks to the fact that I think every neighborhood in San Francisco, at some level, appreciates the significance these single screen theaters bring to the community. There is not only the public benefit of having the historic places and the cultural benefits of having particular events in these places, but I think we have also become an important outlet for programming in an age of movie consolidation, where you have a greater chance of seeing alternative kinds of films in a program… and I think, for that reason, it is an important public benefit. If we look at how City College has been able to fund their new campus, it's been a combination of local and state funding through bonds. Supervisor Peskin recently brought forward a measure asking the office of the legislative analyst to inquire as to what kind of funding opportunities might exist; and, I think, ultimately that's the challenge. One thing I propose is possibly the real estate transfer tax that was repealed, let's try that again. That's 30 million dollars we could apply to land acquisition. [cheering]

MODERATOR: Ms. Alioto?

ANGELA ALIOTO: You know, I have to say one thing that I've just got to get off my chest. I am a born and raised San Franciscan, and there's not a neighborhood in this city, not one neighborhood in this city, that I wouldn't go to -- alone. So while I appreciate all the police officers that are here tonight, it isn't necessary! [applause]…All right, now that I've got that off my chest, to hear Mr. Newsom say that he has been successful in saving movie theaters is an absolute joke. San Francisco has lost just about every single theater that there is. Where there is a will there is a way. I don't want to hear about future money: "We're going to get it from here, we're going to get it from there." We didn't have to get it before we lost it. We have to be preventive. We have to stop it in its tracks -- you don't let Walgreens move into Cinema 21. You don't let them take over the Coronet---that's about to happen. The Coliseum has been boarded up and made into some type of housing. Communities need their single screen theaters. San Franciscans grew up with single screen theaters. Where there's a will, there's a way. You elect me Mayor of San Francisco, and we will reopen the ones that were already built in! [cheers]…

TOM AMMIANO: We missed you at all the other debates. I have performed on this stage for many years in a variety of events and I've really got to thank Anita and her husband Robert for maintaining [it] because it's been a hard hard road for them in this city. Even with people like me helping, we haven't done enough. We tried to help the Theater Rhinoceros, we tried to help the New Mission Theater--- you know I just recently got the endorsement of the Preservation Society -- because, you know, when there's older institutions like me they really need to be saved. [laughter] Around the New Mission there was a lot of contention, you know, "Should we save it, should we not save it?" There was a lot of cultural fighting about it, but we were able, with the neighborhood activists and the preservationists, who sometimes are the same people, in convincing City College to go for the land that the San Francisco School District originally said that they could not have. And I helped broker that deal. So recently I have been meeting with a group of people, Nancy Chelada and others, about how we're going to save the New Mission Theater They have wonderful ideas about preserving it, about having a little retail there, perhaps a little education, a lot of cultura there, and it's the same for the other theaters. We've got to save our single screen theaters, and we can do it through creative ‘thinking out of the box’ ideas, and the money can come from many places. As Angela said, the money is already there. We should have a business tax -- I agree with Supervisor Gonzalez. The tourism potential for the Mission is really great. I just don't want it to turn into (…inaudible…) I want it to respect and honor the people. [applause]

MODERATOR: So I guess that was a yes?

TOM AMMIANO: Yes!

SUSAN LEAL: Thank you, Anita. Thank you for sponsoring this; and the answer, to start off, is yes. And it's going to take some creative thinking, Tom's right, there are some community folks who have come together with some great ideas to bring back the New Mission Theater and that's what we need. We need creative thinking, we need public-private partnerships. Anita, thank you for what you've done keeping this theater open. I was very active in making the Brava Theater really a reality. It took some public money, it took some private money, and it took a lot of fund raising and some creative thought… and that's what we need. We need a Mayor who has got the financial skill, who has the creative skill, to pull it together, and make some of these theaters revitalized. With all respect to Mr. Newsom, the New Mission Theater is not in the same condition as the Cinema 21. We have a lot of work to do. [applause] It's going to be a hard road to bring back one or two of these theaters. It's going to take some creativity, but we can do it. Thank you. [applause]

MODERATOR: The only thing we really need on that question is grit. Thank you.