Benson here, and so many others, that its now become a place for families and people to really enjoy the entire city, and our signing today, because of supervisor cohen, because of jack sylvane, because of all the others, allows us to do something that often times we dont get to do. You know when you go down to pier 70, views and access are basically blocked by abandoned historic buildings, and that blockage has not been very good for us, and i know a few years ago when jack was working with kenneth matz, he got me down to a concert of all places, some music concert down there, and then, we walked around the area, and we got excited with made in sf and some of the other events we held down there, we finally for ourselves was discovering how beautiful it was and planning. And thats why were here because the role of the port and planning working alongside for the city and jack, by the way, wanted to praise him, we worked with Treasure Island for many years, but hes in that spirit that we really wanted to get things done here that finally opened up access for everybody, and pier 70 project is all about that. Its about rediscovering what San Francisco is and bringing all the people in that area together to enjoy nine additional acres of parks and rebuild with a lot of respect those historic buildings, make them useful. Theres a lot of quiet artists out there because nobody paid attention, and so we want to bring attention to the fact that theyve been out there, and were going to work with forest city and theyve committed to make sure that theres an arts center out there, Community Center will be built. And of course as part of my agenda, along with supervisor cohens agenda, were going to building a lot of housings in that area, 30,000 units of housing. A lot of commitments that were made by forest city, let me take the opportunity to thank kevin ginter and forest city, making sure that if we were going to introduce a project of this magnitude, its r had to have the amenities that we all enjoy. Theres a really basic commitment that were going to see through, and that is a lot of residents of district 10 are going to get to work on this, just like were getting the work on the chase arena center among others. This project is not only going to be great for housing, for land use, for art, for open space, but it also will create the kind of jobs that we want. Itll also create revenue to contribute to the Sea Level Rise challenges and the seawall. In fact, i think were estimating maybe over the ten years, probably 1 billion of contributions to the seawall, and i think theyre going to support us on another Ferry Service at the end of 16th street. These are all wonderful, wonderful attributes that i have to attribute to the people that have been working on this for over a decade, and i want to say thank you because this is why it was fairly easy for supervisor cohen to get a unanimous vote, because all she had to do was get in there, get the benefits. You know, its easy, like all the proms that she does, so i want to say thank you to her, because everybody does get the benefit from this, and i feel strongly about this because we havent opened up a lot of this area of the southern waterfront to everybody. Its been closed out, you know, you know, later on after this and of course, were looking at Treasure Island, as well, but we also have other projects that will open up the waterfront. Theres mission rock, the potrero power plant to the south, the parklands that were beginning to identify with the bluegreen trails that will dot it all the way through. Youre going to see multiple transit opportunities for people to access, along with the housing and the jobs, so were very excited about this. Theres a lot of great benefits, but it took a while, and it took a while to make sure that everybody respected the historic buildings, that everybody used them. It takes a while tor Historic Preservation to also catch up with development, and in this area, its not only catch up, were going to pay a lot of respect because that is our citys history, and to respect that also means to reuse these buildings and respect the architecture and design of that history. I mentioned jennifer matzs team intentionally because she was part of the team on the port that worked so well and brought so much enjoyment to these projects. Jack had a good time working with her on the same team, and thats the team that ken rich came from, all of that Team Continues to do wonderful work with the port, so theyve given me a list of names that i make sure i mention, because i should, as the mayor, to recognize people who have minimally, six to ten years, working on a project and brought to it the final conclusion that has not only the unanimous vote at the board, but a continued for the next ten years, Phase Development that i think will be honored by not only the immediate residence debts, but the entire city will be welcome to come down here and enjoy all of the assets that have been associated and be part of it. Elaine forbes, christine maher, ken matsuda. From the office of Economic Development workforce, ken rich, sarah dennis philips, cat daniels, mark majors, patrick mitchell, john ram, of course, beg dan siders, job switsy, melinda cooper. City attorneys office, theyve been working a lot on language. A lot of things had to be balanced, a lot of things had to make sure, and in fact, i want to thank them because they just got some lawsuits on this, nothing to delay us, everything to go forward, and so thank you to the City Attorneys be there with us and working on drafts. People like andrea ruiz, kriss tom and kate stacey. They had a whole host of other agencies who assisted them. Our Public Utilities agency, our public works, and of course our Contract Monitoring Division all had dedicated staffers that contributed to this project. All in all, the best projects are the ones where theres a tremendous amount of collaboration, a good trusting relationship with the developers so they know were not trying to rake them over the coals and take money that isnt from there deservingly, but they will be honored from this project. We cant get projects done without a supervisor whos going to champion it along with the mayor, and let me introduce our supervisor, malia cohen. Thank you. Oh, my goodness. Todays wednesday morning, which means that yesterday was tuesday, which means we had a Board Meeting. Im still in shellshock right . But good morning ladies and gentlemen. Its good to see everyone today. Weve really come to celebrate and kind of pass ourselves on the back. Its been a tremendous lift. This project has been in development for ten years, and i have been a part of it, certainly in earnest for the last three years. Everyone looks good. You look good in a suit. I love it. And but i really wanted to tell you what youve heard you know about the economic benefit to San Francisco, and were really fortunate to live and to work in San Francisco, but i really want to talk a little bit about the community impact, what a project of this magnitude actually means. It means, coming from a native San Francisco resident, that we have an opportunity to interface with a beautiful shoreline that really has been locked away. When you go into the dogpatch neighborhood, its almost like youre relegated to just the 3rd street corridor and maybe one block, block and a half, did he fe depending on what side of 3rd youre on. You can see the water and the bay in the distance, but you cant touch it. Youre not able to bring your kids to experience it, and this project begins to breakdown those man made barriers and open it up, and the significance of pier 70 is its going to be connecting where we are in the embarcadero all along the southern waterfront past the Bayview Project into the community. This is a tremendous project to get through, and i want to recognize the mayor already gave the names called the names cause we remember, but i dont think you guys understand how many hours of public comment, how many hours of neighborhood meetings, and then, just right before you get to a vote, you literally spend the weekend with the City Attorney drafting amendments, making changes, and then, thats when you begin to talk to the colleagues excuse me, youre incident being with colleagues prior to this because you need to bring them along to make sure theyre nothingable about the project so that they will vote for it, and that is where the challenge really lies, balancing your colleagues perspective and what they want to see with the reality of what can actually be done, with the reality of what your constituents want to see, and i think that is where the rub is. Im very proud to be on the team that has steered this ship to make this come to fruition. This is a significant accomplishment. Pier 70 will deliver. This project will deliver a tremendous asset in public space, open space, office, retail space, Affordable Housing, i mean, you name it, and ive got to admit, i wish there were more Development Projects that got it. This team got it right out the gate. They got it correct. They went to the constituents that were affected in the area, and they said, what do you want to see . How can we help you what can we develop thats complementary to your neighborhood . Everything from drawing figures, which was an interesting way to take notes, but its a new fad, to beating back an appeal. If you all most of the people in this room have dealt with development, and you know how challenging it is. I dont want to belabor the issue, but i just want to come out here and to pay my respects because many of you have lost a lot of time in your life on this project. Its the truth. This is this was not easy, and i dont know where kevin is. Wheres kevin . Is he somewhere around here . Okay. I spent a lot of time on the phone with him as the project lead. The port, entire team and family is phenomenal. Elaine, you have a Phenomenal Team here. Mr. Mayor, you have a great team with the city, not only the planning department, but your Economic Development thinkers and workforce builders, and we need this. This change is moving and changing and we need to make sure we dont leave people behind. That is a fear that people have, particularly a little south of this project, and i think the mayor and team in this project has demeonstrated that were not going to leave anybody behind, were allowing everybody to speak and be heard on this project. It gives me great pleasure to be able to come out and to celebrate, to christen this project. Its been an incredible, incredible contrary to what the mayor said, he made it sound easy, and im sure from his Vantage Point it was, but im here to tell you this stuff was hard. Its hard. Its difficult, but you know, when you have a team of professionals, it makes it a little bit easier, so i wanted to just say thank you to everyone who worked on this projects, from the lobbyists on down to the person that was at the neighborhood meetings. Thank you. Thank you so much, supervisor, you said so many important points, and you led a process that was not appealed at the end, an Actual Development project of 28 acres that did not have opposition, so it was hard getting there, but my goodness, we certainly got there, and thank you so much for your leadership. So to do this, we certainly had our vision and our plan, but we absolutely needed our partner to do it, someone put at risk capital up, to find private investments, to endeavor with us through all of those hard meetings and plan a benefits package that i really think is bar none, Something Worthy for other projects to see, and i say its a 20 year process because we did the planning process first, but ten years ago we selected forest city, and that was the moment where everything really got going, and we began to see what was in our heads to something that could be real in the ground, and were so fortunate to have selected forest city at our development partner, and id like to introduce jack sylvan who has led the development project. Jack . This is really happening. Thank you very much for all the kind words for our team. Where weve gotten to, this really is a special opportunity, and the chairman of our board, james ratner tried to get out here from new york last night, but he wasnt able to, but when i asked him, what do you think is really important for you to communicate from you, he said please pass on that we think this is one of the greatest projects, the greatest opportunities in the country. They see some projects as theyre traveling around. Its been said, just the the amazing amount of people and energy and time that goes into getting the project, a project like this, just to this point. The collaboration, the dead indication, the commitment, the the fighting, the haggling, the finding Common Ground as we get to a place like this, and mostly, i just want to pass on from forest city the gratitude that we feel for being at this point, the opportunity to to jump in and take what has been on paper and turn it into a reality. That started, really, with the mayor, thank you for your unwaivering support from the beginning of the process. Its crucial to get to this point. It will continue to be crucial as we start implementing the project. Supervisor cohen, youre right. It was a lot of really challenging work, and youryour commitment and your leadership along the way was crucial, and it actually, i woul coffee. How many agencies does that take in order to convert a parking lot into Affordable Housing in the middle of the tenderloin . Well no longer 7, of course, tndc of course, the Mayors Office of housing, of course, the incredible financing organizations that came through the department of hud enterprise came in indicating to construction their compressed be contracted so all the agencies came together with tndc working with the community making sure at least one and 13 unit get built all accountable jobs are another stake and certificate of preference and having the schools and community theyre all at stack if we cant get in housing built im here to thank everybody for putting this together and making sure wear on our way to do more housing that by the need and build the kind of Housing Housing for everyone but in particular the hardest thing to build 100 percent even if a parking lot so many fencing mechanisms to meet the champion clapping. sew mr. Mayor i think what is really special about this project the fact over 60 percent will think two bedrooms and three bedrooms apartment we know there a sdaerth of Family Housing no inform has an incredible impact on the economy and, of course, on the communities if you cant have families that work here afford to live in the city they living live and work we have much, much more to do across the country to make sure were housing the middleincome and workingclass this supplement will help to solve the problem thank you for making that neighborhood healthy and congratulations to tndc for the groundbreaking this good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to city haul. My name is london breed. Im president of the San Francisco board of supervisors, and i represent district 5, the amazing district that houses the incredible 3rd Baptist Church, which we plan to make official landmarking status today. Arent we excited . I just want to say one, praise god, right . Praise god, thank you for being here, thank you for supporting this ceremony. We are honored here to have the mayor here to perform the ceremony who will speak in just a little bit, but i want to thank my colleague, aaron pes k kin for sponsoring this legislation, and thank you for supervise cohen for joining us here today, as well as our city administrator, naomi kelley. This is a wonderful day today. Im so excited. Remember when we celebrated with reverend brown and lady jane brown at the celebration with bill clinton, and i told you we would make this happen, and we made it happen, and look how quickly we made it happen . Well, i didnt have a choiz because reverend brown was calling me every single day, every day fighting for this community, every day fighting for this community, and one thing i want to say about 3rd Baptist Church, which is my church, my home, thank you for welcoming me. Thank you for continuing to a beacon of light in this community, who need a place of sanctuarn, who need a place to call home, who need a place to feel welcome. 3rd baptist has been doing this longer than almost any other place in San Francisco. It is an unappreciated institution because of its advocacy for being on the front line for anything related to challenges with our community, the displacement of our community, the issues with our children in the public schools. Every single occasion when there has been an issue in the city and county of San Francisco related to our community, 3rd baptist is at the front lines, trying to make sure we speak truth to power and we change the city for the better, and so it is only fitting that we come here today in city hall, and we celebrate our community, our accomplishments, and all that we have done to make San Francisco a better place, but more importantly, we leave a Lasting Legacy with the changes in San Francisco making 3rd Baptist Church a landmark location, make sure that the next generation of young people, and the next generation know that we are still here, we have left a lasting impression. We have built this city, and we are not going anywhere. And so so with that, id like to turn it over to our mayor to speak a few words, and then, well get to a few other comments from som