mentioned it before, but i really want to stress how important it was when we lost $7 million in federal money in prevention and care money. and let me tell you, i remember supervisor campos and i sitting down and looking at each other, what are we going to do? this is a disaster. and we went and spoke with the mayor. mayor lee didn t even blink, and he restored in his budget all of that money. some mayors may have restored half of it and let the board scramble to find cuts or other readjustments to make up for the rest of it and mayor lee did 100% no game. mr. mayor, we are eternally grateful for that. (applause) and i think this, what we re doing today, is also incredibly important because for those of us who were there when it wasn t such a foregone conclusion that we were going to be able to come out of this epidemic and even see the light at the end of the tunnel, there are a lot of young people who weren t there. and who maybe don t understand what it was like and wha
i just want to say thank you to the department of public health for being a great partner with dpw. we ve had a good opportunity to be able to renovate many of our health centers. we are building the new hospital and today this very, very great project. the project from dpw, we provided architectural design. we provided engineering and construction management. and i d like to thank the team that worked on the project real quick, the project s architect, lamont and banito, please give them a hand. (applause) from the engineering james ing and ray louie, give them a hand. (applause) and for construction administration jose gordato. (applause) and, of course, from the public health side, mark primo from dpw, [speaker not understood] who both led these projects. a little quick note about the project itself, the building is over 100 years old. and while all this work was going on, nobody in the building and all the people who work here, they were not disrutctionved. they wer
(applause) thank you, thank you. and i want to wish a very happy birthday to my colleague supervisor david campos. (applause) it seems like just yesterday that we were here and we had our hard hats on, and we were breaking the wall there when some friends of mine saw the photos, they told me i should not be wearing a hard hat. [laughter] it was a learning experience. so, you know, 30 years ago san francisco, we had to start going it alone. we had the epidemic break out here and we weren t getting a lot of support from the federal government and the state government. and this city did what we often do here. we pulled together and we got it done. and we took care of our community and we developed innovative ways for prevention and for treatment and for making sure that people living with the disease had access to services. and fast forward 30 years, and this city continues to lead. and continues to be innovative and continues to be a beacon frankly to the rest of the worl
wasn t such a foregone conclusion that we were going to be able to come out of this epidemic and even see the light at the end of the tunnel, there are a lot of young people who weren t there. and who maybe don t understand what it was like and what can happen and maybe don t always take it as seriously as we need to take it in terms of prevention. and when i came out in 1990 as a 20-year old, one of the first things i did, i went out to the bars of my lesbian cousin who was 14 years older and her partner, they said to me, you really need to start out with gay guys. you shouldn t just be hanging out with lesbians. my cousin s partner said to me, you know, i really wanted to bring out some of my gay guy friends tonight, but they re all dead. for me as a 20-year old, that was permanently seared in my memory. you know, i ve been careful ever since. but for a lot of younger guys in particular, didn t necessarily go through that. but this is so incredibly important that we continu
dear friends, thank you for invieedthing me to participate in the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the san francisco department of public health s new bridge hiv research facility. while i am unable to be with you in person, i joan you in celebrating the opening of the state-of-the-art research center which was constructed with federal funding through the national institutes of health and the american recovery and reinvest act. i would like to recognize two outstanding leaders in our fight against hiv/aids. your executive director dr. susan bookbinder and director of public health barbara garcia. also please join me in thanking mayor ed lee for his leadership in assuring that san francisco ans living with hiv/aids continue to have access to the care they need. (applause) the fight against hiv/aids has been one of my top legislative priorities for 25 years. as one of the earliest and hardest hit cities, san francisco has also been at the forefront of responding to the cr