Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced his plan for universal health care, programs to better education and a new science and technology academy in his annual State of the City address on Wednesday at SF State.

“It is unorthodox, I admit, to deliver a State of the City at a state university, but the choice was made on purpose,” said Newsom from McKenna Theater to a packed house. “It is on our university, community college and high school campuses that our future is taking shape.”

“Never before has the State of the City address been given at San Francisco State University and that’s a big honor for all of us,” said Sam Rodriguez, director of government and community relations.

One of his most ambitious plans for his second year in office is to provide health care for all San Franciscans. His four-part plan includes auditing public health systems to understand primary care delivery in order to know what is working and what is not, shortening visit times from 90 to 45 minutes, keeping clinics open on weekends and evenings and hiring a new chief operating officer for the Department of Public Health to guarantee universal access.

“We recognize that we can neither thrive nor compete if we don’t first fulfill our obligation to take care of those living in our city,” Newsom said. “At every level, we are investing in a health care system that will sustain us through this new century.”

Newsom also said he has plans on improving his commitment to schools, students and teachers.

“Livability is determined first and foremost by the quality of our public education system,” Newsom said.

His administration plans on bringing teachers into difficult to recruit and hard to staff schools, expanding early learning by making sure that every child goes to pre-school by 2009, and setting a goal to make after school programs available for all elementary and middle school students. He also is working on creating an initiative that will allow the city to pay back student loans for math, science and special education teachers and creating a first time home buyer’s program that will help teachers buy a home.

“We can still do more to improve our schools and to encourage families to stay and raise their children in San Francisco,” Newsom said.

Newsom also said that San Francisco is destined to become a central hub for the biotechnology industry and announced the formation of the Science and Technology Academy, a new high school in Mission Bay that will focus on “this dynamic industry”.

Everything outlined in his address will cost $4.5 million, Newsom said after his speech.

Former Mayor Willie Brown was in attendance, as were Supervisors Fiona Ma, Ross Mirkarimi, Aaron Peskin and Sean Elsbernd.

When asked why Brown never came to SF State to make his State of the City address, Brown said,“The State of the City address is usually best held at city hall which is where I held it.”

“I wasn’t doing campaigning,” he added with a laugh.