In lieu of last year's bizarre YouTube State of the City address, Mayor Gavin Newsom returned to form last night during his 80-minute speech at the Asian Art Museum.

During last night's speech, Newsom called for a biotech tax credit extension until 2014; a 2-year payroll tax exemption for new jobs; tax credit for businesses that provide health care to employees; calling for an "innovation fund," which would provide $11.5 million in loans to new businesses (e.g., biotech and clean tech); reducing truancy rates among school students with the start of the Truancy Abatement Resource Center; and $11.5 million for redeveloping the mid-Market Street area in San Francisco to return it to "a shining retail and entertainment district" with affordable housing and "transit-first policies."

Newsom also called for an "aggressive approach" toward the homeless by increasing existing services."I will not leave office until we reduce the street population by half, and reduce the overall population by a third," he said.

Supe Board President David Chiu thinks we might be too poor for some of these plans, what with half a billion dollars already cut from city services.

Newsom finished his address on a hopeful note, saying, "If we can remain hard-headed, but at the same time big-hearted, then I promise you, the best is yet to come."