Supervisor Eric Mar: Budget priorities

This month, please join our office in promoting healthy living, our small business community and public education. On Saturday, April 18, my office, Sen. Leland Yee, Kaiser Permanente, RAMS, Compassionate Community Care and Self Help for the Elderly will be hosting the fifth annual Richmond Health Festival. Last year, approximately 1,000 residents participated in the festival. We expect an even larger crowd this year. With more than 30 community health organizations participating in this year's festival, the focus is to promote a healthy lifestyle.

There will be free health services, including bone density testing, dental check up, Hepatitis B and spinal screenings, medication review and much more. There will be fun activities for children and live performances. In this time of economic difficulties, many families, especially immigrant families, do not have the necessary access to healthcare. The free testing will alert those who may have life threatening illnesses to seek immediate medical care. We hope that families will attend the Health Festival and get free information on preventative care and healthy living. Our health festival serves a diverse community and bilingual volunteers will be able to provide assistance in Chinese and Russian.

We hope to see you on Saturday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Richmond Recreation Center (251 18th Ave).

Small businesses keep San Francisco such a unique and wonderful place to live, visit and work. We are lucky to have so many vibrant commercial corridors throughout this City, two of which are right here in the Richmond District. Clement Street and Geary Boulevard provide residents the option of supporting local merchants to do their daily shopping. In these tough economic times, I want to be particularly sensitive to the needs of our small businesses and do what we can to ensure their stability.

On April 29, I will host a Neighborhood Merchant Summit at Yet Wah Restaurant in conjunction with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to address concerns from our Richmond District small business community. The summit will give Richmond District merchants an opportunity to discuss their concerns with representatives of city departments and agencies to learn about topics relevant to their businesses.

We will have staff present from various departments, including the SF Department of the Environment, SF Department of Public Works, SF Police Department, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, SF SAFE, Human Rights Commission, PG&E, Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, Office of Small Business and Healthy San Francisco. If you are a small business owner, I strongly encourage you to attend this event.

I also encourage you to fill out the online survey that we have crafted with the Chamber of Commerce. The results of the survey will help us develop an agenda for the summit as well as get a better idea of the challenges that your business faces. You can fill out the online survey at www.zoomerang.com/survey.

I want to thank Yet Wah, at 2140 Clement St., for hosting this summit which will take place from 8 - 10:30 a.m. The San Francisco Unified School District is creating a new student assignment system to support the goals and objectives of its strategic plan. The Board of Education has convened an Ad Hoc Committee on the issue of school assignment to provide a regular and public way for the commissioners of the Board of Education to discuss the redesign of school assignment and obtain input from the community.

The Ad Hoc Committee will meet on the first Monday of every month at George Washington High School, 600 32nd Ave., at 6 p.m. The next meeting is April 13.

Eric Mar is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 1.