good afternoon, everyone. if you would take your seats for this incredibly happy occasion. i am the director of the san francisco department of public health, and i want you to think back 13 years, because that is when i began. and when i started, the very first crisis i had to deal with is what shall we do about the laguna honda hospital. it has always been known for the incredible care, the loving nurses, the fantastic physicians, the energetic volunteers, the courage of our residents, for all of the things that made the care great. but we had a problem. and the problem was the building. we were in a building that had long outlived its usefulness as a place for residents to live. it was no longer consistent with any medicare or medicaid rules. we were the only facility left in the country running open wards. we were told we would not be allowed any longer by both the federal and state authorities. it was a place where, while the care was wonderful, the building did not fi
francisco department of public health, and i want you to think back 13 years, because that is when i began. and when i started, the very first crisis i had to deal with is what shall we do about the laguna honda hospital. it has always been known for the incredible care, the loving nurses, the fantastic physicians, the energetic volunteers, the courage of our residents, for all of the things that made the care great. but we had a problem. and the problem was the building. we were in a building that had long outlived its usefulness as a place for residents to live. it was no longer consistent with any medicare or medicaid rules. we were the only facility left in the country running open wards. we were told we would not be allowed any longer by both the federal and state authorities. it was a place where, while the care was wonderful, the building did not fit any modern earthquake standards. where privacy was insufficient to support human dignity. where people did not have a pl
everyone has friends. there s on-line friends, friends to go out with on a saturday night, friends to hang out with and do nothing, friends who show up on moving day, and then there are the friends who will be there if someone is dealing with a mental illness. are you one of those friends? the public wants to access particular information about your house or neighborhood we point them to gis. gis is a combination of maps and data. not a graphic you see on a screen. you get the traffic for the streets the number of crimes for a police district in a period of time. if the idea of combining the different layerce of information and stacking them on top of each other to present to the public. other types of gis are web based mapping systems. like google earth, yahoo maps. microsoft. those are examples of on line mapping systems that can be used to find businesses or get driving directions or check on traffic conditions. all digital maps. gis is used in the city of
hospital in california to be built. i think that really speaks to his commitment to environmental issues at a time, 12 years ago, when it was not so popular, and it seemed like a quixotic kind of adventure to be talking about it. he said it was real. he was right. now people talk about it as a day to day economic reality. mr. mayor? thank you, doctor, and thank you all for taking the time to be here today. to begin with, i would like to recognize a couple of people. one person whose spirit is here, but whose sisters took the time to come out here. that is his sister and his kids that are here somewhere in the crowd. there you are. thank you karen, for coming out. john was a special diet and so many ways. we would not be here had it not been for his constancy, his faith in the notion of this project and his love of every one of the residents, many of whom are here today. it is good to see you guys. and all the caregivers here, john loved. i want to take that moment and refle
because he deserves it. [applause] for the last seven years, he has been a steward of this city, helping us to overcome many of the challenges that we have faced, as you will hear throughout the program. part of what makes today so sweet is it was not easy to get here. it was really hard. there were a lot of bumps on the road to this fantastic moment, many things we could not have anticipated, many things we did not know. throughout it, the mayor has always supported it, help us to solve the problems we face. i think the biggest part of the to be to him is the fact that this is the first leed building the environmental certification the first leed hospital in california to be built. i think that really speaks to his commitment to environmental issues at a time, 12 years ago, when it was not so popular, and it seemed like a quixotic kind of adventure to be talking about it. he said it was real. he was right. now people talk about it as a day to day economic reality. mr. ma