Francisco and ireland i obviously am thrilled to have our core sister city and remember the floeshz time i had being or being think grand mary in the city thats where i met the people wonderful people and again, thank you to mark naerl for his leadership in being the rock on our board of supervisors so with that, ill be ready to raise the flag what a day, huh . You do it with such eloquence clapping. okay, here we go. Now were going to be led out to the in okay top of the morning to you. Going to say it back to me. Sure. Good morning. I see all the wonderful faces out here bring back great memories were going to talk about and some not tell you; right . Because 2 hundred irish americans on our first trip to ireland this was 31 years ago lets here it for cork clapping you you know irish have been making history in San Francisco for many, many years the first irish americans that came here in the 17 century early 18th century came here they came here and bought Los Angeles Police departm
Of the most memorable trips anyone can take because of the celebration of our city in the stiff cork has a special relationship and, of course continue to ask the board of supervisors through mark why cant i think the lord mayor of San Francisco laughter and then, of course, being the grand mary at the stewardship parade in cork was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity then that we asked to reignite ourselves with nerld a special way and we came back and shortly thereafter a request granted with another direct flight between Dennis Herrera listen and San Francisco another great accomplishment clapping. at the there at the time i met the youth of ireland through their program at that magic castle found a way to ask them to come over and had a week of celebrations and the advice cork came over to if the not only education but a nomination with the people relationship pchs a wonderful time and again a lot of things wonderful things happened when we exchange those wonderful exchanges i want
Story program. What is it . Its a program the mayor signed into law about a year and a half ago and the whole idea behind it was to help homeowners strengthen buildings so that they would not collapse. Did you the soft Story Program apply to all buildings or building that were built in a certain time frame . It only applies to buildings built in the time frame of 1978 and earlier. Its aimed at wood framed buildings that are three or more stories and five or more units. But the openings at the garage level and the street level arent supported in many buildings. And without the support during a major earthquake, they are expected to pancake and flatten ~. Many of the buildings in this program are under rent control so its to everybodys advantage to do the work and make sure they protect their investment and their tenant. Notices have gone out to more than 6,000 owners of potentially atrisk properties but fewer than onethird have responded and thousands might miss an important deadline in
He just told me i had five minutes. What do you think of this program . [applause] it is about time. I want to thank francis and fong. I think this is the very first statewide heritage month held with the mayor of San Francisco. Let me Say Something about heritage month in San Francisco and your mayor. In the old days, you remember San Francisco was known for passing all of these anti chinese ordinances to limit the movement, the productivity of chinese in the city. We know two things. Change happens. Maybe the state of california is the state of golden opportunities, where we have a chineseamerican mayor of San Francisco. 35 years ago, Congress Members passed similar resolutions in both house and the senate to formally recognize the first 10 days of may as asianpacific heritage week. One year later, president jimmy carter signed into law a joint resolution to officially designate the annual celebration. 11 years later, president george bush extended the weeklong celebration to an enti
If you look around you tonight, you will see poster board. Celebrating, acknowledging, the first Asian Americans. We have the first asianamerican actress in hollywood. The first asianamerican nba player. The first members of congress. These interns are the future of our community. They are the reason why we are here today. Were also here to celebrate and recognize one of the greatest members of our community. This year it is the first year we are giving the Lifetime Achievement award. The Lifetime Achievement award this year is going to secretary norman manetta. He is a trailblazer. A man who paved the way for many of us. He was the first asianamerican mayor of a major city. He was elected to congress 10 times. He was the first person to serve two president s in a cabinet. First as secretary of commerce to president clinton, secretary of transportation to president bush. It was on 9 11 that secretary mineta showed us what he was made of. He made the call to ground all of the planes. It