powerful speakers. they have said some things that is the truth about government. what is government for, and what is that money for? government is to help the youngest, the oldest, and those who cannot help themselves. we are talking about families. we are talking about you if. we are talking about transportation that brings people in and takes people out. we are talking about all of these things that people need. you are going to hear more because we have some speakers who will want to come up here. two minutes each. they will come up and ask their questions or give their opinion. first -- i hope i read this right -- linda from district 1. >> mayor lee, supervisors, thank you for inviting members of the richmond area to speak today. i want to say something about seniors in the district. i manage the senior center on a daily basis. we have our programs, music, billiards, we have a drum circle month -- once a month. hippie hill in golden gate park inspired our drum circle. i want to tell a story about two of our seniors. we have one gentleman who was born in korea. he came to the united states as a young man. he was born with cerebral palsy. he is wheelchair-bound. he has limited use of his two hands. he comes to the center twice a week and does part with us. he draws pictures of his church. his church has stained-glass doors and palm trees. we have several hundred pictures of this church because he draws it again and again, he loves it so much. his state is so great. his friend is roberts yip, a san francisco transplant, a merchant seamen. he had lived in the richmond district for 30 years, owns a house about two blocks away from the senior center. he takes care ofinsun. insun takes medication. robert helps them. he always make sure that he has a chair and makes sure that he has a napkin and silverware. this is how the two men take care of each other. it is a lovely french ship, and it happened in the senior center. that is what your money does. thank you. [applause] >> we have a person from huckleberry house, patrick. i want to tell you, huckleberry house save my family, so i really want you to speak. >> my name is patrick. i am a case manager at huckleberry house, in the fifth district. i am a resident of the first district, so this works out nicely. i want to talk about the cost of living adjustments that we were hearing about. i do not think either one of you were in that committee. to talk about why there are important, i first need to talk about huckleberry house itself. we are an emergency shelter for a 11to 17-year olds in the city. we are open 24 hours a day. we are open 365 days a year. we work with children and families in crisis. if there is violence in the home, if there is a kid running away -- we get kids from all of the country and the world running away from different situations. we work with kids who are having drug abuse issues, alcohol abuse issues, we work with kids who are suicidal, any kind of crisis that the youth might be going through in the city. because of the work that we do, a lot of the city agencies and a lot of the not-for-profit in the city are dependent on us or them to be able to their job, child crisis, the police department -- i have a list. schools, a juvenile probation, therapists, community-based organizations. i understand you have a lot of difficult decisions to make when it comes to this budget, but you need to understand what kind of decisions -- what your decisions are. you can either give us the money when it comes to these increases, so we can continue to do the job we need to do, or you will still have kids in crisis. so you will end up spending more money in the long run. otherwise, you spend money putting kids into foster care with course outcomes. he will spend more money having kids on the street. you are going to spend more money -- god forbid having kids in hospitals from abuse or because of suicides. i'm out of time, but i appreciate it. i would love to meet with you afterwards. [applause] >> now we have sarah, who will be talking about seniors and a dull day programs. when i work with seniors, i know how important that is. . >> thank you, good evening. my name is sarah chan, the director for the self-help for the elderly adults services. i am here to talk about seniors and their families. really, representing the frail seniors to attend our adult day services center in district 1. because we are so grateful to mayor lee, supervisor mar, supervisor chu, olague, for your continuous support for the adult day services in the adult community. as you know, providing services to the seniors, providing an opportunity for them to continue to stay with their family, spending quality time, instead of going to a nursing home or other institutions. as you know, in the last year, we have been in this big battle with the state. we almost lost our program. thanks to mayor lee for helping to save our program so that seniors can continue to come to the center. it has been a tremendous impact for their family and their life. as we know, in 2010, the census, in district 1, about 10,000 seniors and 65 and older. 1500 over 75. in our center in district 1, we have about three centers. we are taking care of about 400 seniors. that is only about 4%. preserving these services is important. mayor lee is asking about innovative solutions. we are saving money and we are much cheaper than going to a nursing home. so we continue to thank mayor lee and your team, to remember us when you do your budget, continue to be sensitive to the seniors needs. thank you so much. >> it should be noted, when the state said they were going to cut adult day services, ours was the only city that said, we will help. it is the only city that i have seen in this state that stepped in. caroline goodman. she is here to speak. ok. the next speaker will be ann chung. >> good evening, everybody. my concern -- i am in district 5. i am going to say this. we need to ensure we provide young people with jobs and internships, opportunities, but we also have to make sure that we prepare them with life skills that allow them to be successful in their position. another thing. we want to make sure that the youth has behavior and technical training when they enter the workforce. many of you in district 5 are disconnected from job opportunities, even unpaid internships that allow them to gain valuable experience. so i am speaking for the youth in district 5. we need help for our youth. [applause] >> ann chung from district 1. >> thank you. good evening, mayor, supervisors. i am from self-help for the elderly. i want to share with you this associated press article that came out on april 19. the title just says "census statistics show older asian and hispanic populations growing at a rate of three times higher than that of the white and black population." specifically for california, between 2000 and 2010, asian seniors over 55 grew about 74%. hispanic seniors grew about 73%. the white seniors grew about 18%. 34% is for the black seniors growth. with this kind of alarming statistics, one would think that we need to do something with all of our city services, from health care to human services, social service, transportation. other speakers have also talked about how you need to make them culturally competent. if we do not, then these vast population of immigrant seniors who do not speak english at all or fluently are going to put a strain on the system. i am here to urge you to take a look at the statistics and the growing trend of immigrant seniors in all of our city services and hope that you will provide language access. one way, -- thinking osha for the translation services. set aside some money for the department so that they can really provide services for the immigrants and refugees, particularly, those who do not speak english fluently. thank you very much. [applause] >> we have, from district 5, irvus. >> good evening, mayor, supervisors, city staff. district 5, unfortunately -- fortunately, i went to washington, so i made of also. i could talk about every service hear from business to four redevelopment, to housing, to work force, public housing -- i could go down the line. as you guys do the private- public partnerships, let's do a community partnership. let's partner with our small business agency in district 5 and around the city. let's start with public housing and do some more training. not just for the youth, but for the adults. this is my third funeral in the month of april, in three weeks. we do not need just a job training for young folks to we need adults also. i want to ask christina, if we can have a representative from every agency to meet with us monthly in the western addition to develop this partnership -- not just during the budget season -- but after beard we need to deal with this monthly. -- we need to meet monthly to do with this crisis. [applause] >> the next speaker is vera. she is talking about dos. >> i am a member of the advisory council to the department of aging and adult services, and immigrants rights commission. i worked with senior so long i actually became one. that can happen to you, too. [laughter] i think nick covered what i wanted to say about the department of aging and adult services, but i want to give you an overview of exactly how many seniors there are. there are 154,700 for seniors in san francisco, and that is 19.2% of the population. 45,000 of them are on ssi. that is a program for low-income elderly and disabled. then we have about 27% of the population -- has an income less than 50% of poverty. so we do have rich seniors in town, but the majority are on fixed incomes and are struggling to get by. they notice everything that you do that affects them. i go to meals programs in the western addition, and the richmond, and i would like to talk to seniors. i know that every time you raise something, it affects them, and a notice. one thing that they will notice is the $2 a month increase that muni is going to have, which they call part of indexing. well, that will be hard, and we will hear about it. i have said this to muni, but they show no signs of knowing about any way to change that, so i'm hoping somebody will help do that. we are also exploring the 5 fulton extension. i live on the edge of the ocean. you should know, to go out there, it is not just making it harder for seniors, because you have four blocks to walk. if you have alternate ltd's and locals, it would be an ideal way to make things better in the richmond. [applause] >> we have kristen evans from district 5. she had to leave? ok. dennis from district 5? >> hi, mayor, supervisors, city staff. i am a native san franciscan, went to public schools mostly in district 5, more than 50-some years. you know there was no district 5 where i was born. there are a couple of things i want to say. i will not be as specific as some of the prior speakers, even though i have appreciated what i have heard tonight. i look at this and i can tell a lot of folks in san francisco, having served for many years, many decades on the labor council in san and cisco, having chaired the law and legislative committee, being involved in this particular district for the last 38 years, i can tell you what some perception of the public are about the budget, this $6.8 billion. 52% enterprise money, 48% general fund. that is a huge number for the general fund, yet, the parks budget, if i'm not mistaken, will get $33 million this year. and i as a stand it, it was good to be cut by $3 million. but at the same time, our administration felt very comfortable giving larry ellison pledges of a huge amount of money for the america's cup regatta race for the billionaires, when in fact, there are a whole lot of people that will not show up for that. most of the money would be a trickle-down money that would come in from taxes and so on. the reality is, there is a perception that i certainly share, which is that we, as a city, feel comfortable giving money to wealth, and are really cheap when it comes to things like parks and the poor, as several speakers here have already said, to the people who are residents of the city who are in great need. i would urge that you look at that value system and reevaluate it. the money needs to go where the residents of san francisco need it to go, not just to those -- like twitter and larry ellison -- who are really not in need of our money. [applause] >> we are going to do two more speakers. then i'm going to have to rush you, mayor lee, because i have another meeting at 7:30. what can i say? it is the teacher in me. i cannot help it. pam lee from district 1. the next person is carry patterson. all the rest of these are going to be given to the proper people so that we have everything you wanted to say. >> i have a couple of things i want to say, so i will do it quickly. i am a teacher at city college. the students are in serious crisis. my students are coming up to me, telling me they can no longer stay in school. because there are not enough classes, and also because the price per unit is so high and the books are too expensive. what i am seeing is, my students are leaving school and going into low-wage jobs. we have to find a way to save city college. we're one of the wealthiest -- my son has helped to build three condominiums, places for the will to live, so i know they are here in this city. we need to find a way to take care of our children. the second thing is, i drive through golden gate park every day. there are all these bike lanes. i would like the public health department or some entity to be able to do a public health-kind of education on how to share the road. i do not think cars know how to make a right-hand turn when there is a bike lane on the right. i see by sneaking left-hand turns like they are cars. there are all kinds of other violations that are going on. i would like to see some kind of public education around this comment in the newspaper, on tv or something. we have to learn how to share the road. thank you for your attention. [applause] >> terry patterson? if a elizabeth jones could get right behind me, i will give you half a minute peters you will be talking about something that is important to me. >> i am terry patterson, a resident of district 5, a member of the sap system mental health board. as the last speaker, i am glad to be able to express my concerns on behalf of cuts to the mental health budget. as you all know, mental health affects every area of city life. and as many of the eloquent previous speakers spoke to senior centers, used shelters, community centers, public transportation, the people who are not getting our corporate mental health care are often hidden in homes where families have to deplete their budgets and take care of them. i am talking about the people with bipolar and other serious disorders, who, if their immediate situation does not rise to the level of going to cite an emergency, as many of you know, or become hospitalized, they do not get services. so, i want to urge the city not to be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to preventive services and sustained services for people who need them in the city, not only to protect public safety, but to bring our families together to function adequately. thank you very much. [applause] >> this is the reason i wanted this laid to speak about summer programs. -- lady to speak about summer programs. >> good evening, mayor lee, city officials. my name is elizabeth jones, president of the west sacramento tennis association. i am standing here hoping to receive funding for the summer arts camp. i started the program last year in the summer of 2011, and it turned out to be a huge success. i founded the program, which was an out-of-pocket expense from a part-time job. i have made numerous attempts in try to obtain funding for the west side courts summer camp. it is just unfair that west side courts children are once again being left behind. there is enough funding that can be divided equally where west side courts can receive a portion of the proceeds. why can the children of west side courts receive equal treatment as the other developments? i understand some of the kids wanted to speak, but they are shy. thank you for listening. [applause] >> the residents of district 5 and district 1, this does that make your job any easier. they were eloquent, talked about the problems they see, where we think the minute should go. now it is time for you to answer back, right? you do not have much time, but that is okay, too. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. first of all, thanks for your input. you know, tonight, we emphasize from the start of our time would be focused on listening to all of you. so, we have done that. obviously, some of you deserve answers right away, but we cannot do that because we, the supervisors and the mayor, and all of these departments, have to get together to decide, after hearing from all of you, what are those things that we must pay attention to? so we have kept our minds open. there has been no decision on the budget as of yet because we wanted to make sure we heard from everybody about what you think priorities are. having said that, we can at least give some of you a feeling of what direction we are headed in. some of you tonight spoke very eloquently, and i wanted you to know there are some answers on the way. for example, that washington, did you know we got 5000 jobs this summer for kids -- matt washington. to thousand 500 of those jobs are with city agencies, and another 2500 jobs are from private companies, and all join together with united way to create jobs for our summer youth, age 16 to 24, aimed specifically at disconnect the use and use in poverty. in other words, youth from our public housing. these are paid internships jobs the would begin in very short weeks. everybody is participating. so that is part of the answer. i just wanted to let you know that because we knew that having positive outcomes for our youth was going to be very important because we pay in the short and long term if we do not do that, so that is on the way. we are focused on -- in fact, we've got some proposals already. you heard hsa has already submitted a proposal to not cut some very valuable funding that we had for seniors. we are listening to our director tonight to make sure we pay attention to that. he is watching us like a hawk, make sure we do not say anything different, but at the same time, we will try to figure out other things that we need as a city. we need to invest in public safety. all of us have been around. i'm not getting any younger. neither is our police force. captain goldberg, thank you very much for being here today. his cohorts are younger. they will be here, but we need to move on, so we've got to make room for classes for our training. we also are paying attention to families. we are working very hard to create family-friendly policy that will lead to good investments in our city. by the way, i know you said may be giviwa