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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

QUESTION 5:

PANELIST: This is a three-part question. All of you are or have been important elected officials in San Francisco. What have you done to address the needs of the youth in the Mission District? How are you as mayor going to address these issues better or differently, and what resources will you allocate to accomplish this goal? Start, please, with Supervisor Ammiano.

TOM AMMIANO: Thank you. You know, my daughter was born here in the Mission. She lives at 22nd and Bryant with her daughter and her partner, and they both work in youth organizations, one is LOCO BLOCO [phrase inaudible] and they have identified to me the kind of moneys that are needed to fund the programs that work for youth here. You know I was a public school teacher at what used to be called Hawthorne and now is Cesar Chavez when they wouldn’t even allow Spanish to be taught or spoken, in 1968. We’ve come a long way since then. I have proposed a $60 million set-aside from the city for the schools in San Francisco, particularly those that are underserved like those here in the Mission. I’ve worked with a number of organizations (inaudible) with Supervisor Gonzalez, Supervisors Maxwell and Sandoval about getting more money for gang prevention and for peer education so we can get a handle on these issues. In terms of jobs, I recently had a hearing from the Youth Commission where they said, “We’re only sixteen, we’re only seventeen, we’re only eighteen but guess what, we’re working in sweat shops, we’re working for below minimum wage.” I did propose a living wage legislation a few years ago which was successful. Supervisor Gonzalez has now proposed a minimum wage which I have supported from the beginning, not just a little bit later like some Supervisors. These are all interconnected and these will help us solve these problems and listen [inaudible] not just give them lip service but listen to them, because they’ve got a lot of shit to share. [applause]

SUSAN LEAL: I’m very proud of my record working for the youth of the Mission District. And you talk about [inaudible] and they said Franklin Field couldn’t get redone, we got it redone; when they said that police overtime money should be used for putting more police in the parks I said, “No way. What we’re going to do is take that money and hire youth directors in the parks.” When they said you can’t have another soccer field we made another soccer field. When they said that Mission Girls wasn ‘t going to be funded again, I fought for their funding, for their after school programs and their career programs. When they said there wasn’t going to be money for 23rd and Treat, I stayed with it, persisted, we got that money for it. We need--and there’s another long list of my commitment to youth in the Mission District, and I won’t stop as mayor because there are a lot of children living in the Mission District--- and we need to invest [in} them, including after school employment opportunities. That’s a number one thing I hear from you. They want employment opportunities. We need to make it happen. I believe that even in these tough financial times, to jump to the third part of your question, even in these tough financial times we have to make an investment in our kids. That’s why I’ve got a preschool initiative on this ballot, Prop I; that’s why when I was on the Board of Supervisors I expanded preschool opportunity for our youth. Because even in these difficult financial times we have to set aside money for our children. They are our future. Thank you. [applause]

GAVIN NEWSOM: I agree a lot with what Treasurer Leal said. I think that, to be objective, San Francisco has really stood up and I want to thank all of you for supporting the baseline funding for children’s services.....this Board of Supervisors, the previous Board of Supervisors, that understands the need to invest in the next generation. It shouldn’t be lost on any of us. This city now, collectively, has more dogs than it has children. This is the city with less than 14 percent of its population eighteen and under. We are not particularly children-friendly. But we have some of the best community based programs in the nation. People come from all over the country to see what San Francisco is doing right, but it’s still not good enough. When you’ve got ten year olds, eleven year olds, twelve year olds involved in gangs, you know clearly we’re falling short. Disproportionately, we know that kids are getting involved in crimes at four o’clock in the afternoon to seven o’clock in the evening. We clearly need to target our resources in a much more strategic way, and we need to organize our resource allocation to make sure the money’s going to the people that need it most. I’m very proud of the record of accomplishments, particularly around the issues of mentorship. I believe very strongly in mentorship. Accordingly I’m proud to have sponsored that $110 million Parks Bond to revitalize our 226 neighborhood parks and recreation facilities each and every year. And we have the resources to add,. to continue to make investments and add-backs, in recreational opportunities. It’s one thing to have a great park and rec center: you’ve got to have the resources to staff it and engage our kids. [applause]

TONY RIBERA: To answer your question, ‘What have we done personally to help kids in the Mission?”: well, first of all, I have coached youth baseball in San Francisco, including many kids from the Mission, for twenty-five years, a job which I never received one cent for. I have supported, financially, St. Peter’s Elementary School at 24th and Alabama, since my days as a police officer here, starting in 1968, and I continue to do so. And if you think I’m blowing air, talk to Sister Mary Rose, talk to the Principal, Vicky Butler. I have supported that school all these years. I’ve also taught at City College and I’m teaching at USF. The young people of San Francisco are very important to me. Drug addiction is something that I am extremely extremely concerned about. It’s something that... I want to work with the youth, I want to work with Coleman Advocates, I want to work with the different youth providers in this city, and I certainly want to work with Dr. Ackerman and the school board to see that the kids have after school programs, to see that the kids have athletic programs which have been cut dramatically in recent budget cuts. We have to really make a serious commitment to the young people of this state. It was brought up in one of the gubernatorial debates, about the governor’s giving higher salaries to prison guards than he was giving to school teachers. We have to reverse that. We really have to reverse that. [applause]

MATT GONZALEZ: Two things come to mind. When I was first on the budget committee when I joined the Board, the Board for the first time was able to fund the Healthy Kids Program, trying to deal with the inequity in our society of nine thousand low and moderate income children without adequate health care, and we were able to dedicate four million dollars to start providing health care at a cost of four dollars a month to those children who qualify. We’ve only registered about three thousand of that nine thousand population, so there’s much work that needs to be done. I’ve also worked on trying to reduce the Juvenile Hall population. I think if we incarcerate kids we socialize them into accepting incarceration, and I think that bodes badly for their adult lives. The Hall population has been declining the last two or three years, but we are building a very large facility, a hundred and fifty bed facility: I think we should be committed to not filling it. To Supervisor Newsom I just want to say, I appreciate your acknowledgement that there are less and less children in the city, but I really think we have to step back and say, “To what extent has government favored business in developing ( inaudible ) instead of residential family housing, and why can‘t we get support for minimum wage?” The cost of living has gone so high...$6.75, that’s fourteen thousand dollars a year: surely everybody here tonight can support raising it. [applause]

ANGELA ALIOTO: As a member of the Board of Supervisors, I did many cutting-edge pieces of legislation that affected the youth of San Francisco, that then were adopted in other cities, and I have to say I could not have done it without the different groups of children or youth throughout the city and county of San Francisco, and without Coleman Advocates’ help. I tried to get by the Board of Supervisors, though Tom Ammiano was with me, but nobody else was, the Youth Commission, that today has a huge budget, and that today addresses all of the issues that address our youth, especially legislation that addresses them. I lost at the Board of Supervisors. I never give up...and I never win the first time, either. I never give up. I went to the ballot and won with 73 per cent of the vote to create the Youth Commission. After that I created, much to the chagrin of many of my colleagues, the Children’s Budget. Everybody said, ”No , no, you can’t set aside special money for youth, you’ve got to set aside for this group and that group.” I said, “No. I am setting this aside and if you guys don’t vote for it I’m going to go to the ballot,” and we won that vote, and that has been essential for funding all of the programs it is within our ability to fund, whether it’s art ...you’ve got to give children the art...let me just say one other thing, I see my time is about up: I wrote the first smoking ban in the United States of America, and it was a group of young Latino girls who helped me kill Joe Camel! [applause]

MODERATOR: Just one comment: in the Mission District we have the highest concentration of youngsters in the city, so this is a really urgent issue here.