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 would speaking foreign language. shop and dine in the 49 promotes local biz and challenges the san franciscans to do their shop and dine in the 49 within the by supporting the services we help San Francisco remain unique and successful and vibrant so where will you shop and dine in the 49 San Francisco owes itch of the charm to the many neighborhoods people coma greet and meet it has an personality these neighborhoods are economic engine seeing the changes is a big deal to me especially being a San Francisco native and it is important to support the local businesses but also a lot to over here it is nice not to have to go downtown i think that is very important 0 for us to circulate our dollars the community before we bring them outside of the community for the time we have one dollars in the community is the better off we are it is about Economic Empowerment by apron ingress the businesses that are here. Shopping local cuts down the cyber foot youll find cookies and being transported the world where everything is manufactured and put on the Assembly Line having something local is meaning more the more we support our local businesses the more i can walk down to where i need to be. Bridges contingency bye like west portal it is about city and San Francisco may have a big name but a small city and a lot of small communities shop and dine in the 49 highlighted that and reminded people come outburst and i love that about this city ill always be a well, it gives us great pleasure to be in San Francisco for the coverage or our flesh tour. I would ask you to all to join me welcoming our host, dr. Kitka from 360. Thank you all for coming. Health care is a right. Now, normally, we shout this from the roof tops, but covered california kind of took care of that for us because they actually painted it from the to have tops roof tops, so on behalf of the 35,000 clients from roof tops 360 [ inaudible ] its not a very big room, so on behalf of the 35,000 Health Care Clients of health care 360, i thank you for this gift. When we took the leap to move into this new building, 50,000 square feet of welcoming integrated health care services, it was for one single reason that we knew without any reservation that health care is a right and not a privilege, and having this message emblazoned on our building empowered us not only as service providers, but every person who passes by, which is a lot of people. Theres a three way off ramp right there. So peter lee and the amazing cover california team, thank you. We are so proud to be a canvas for your beautiful work. Mayor lee, supervisor breed, mayor kim, thank you for being here today and for your unending support for the communities you serve. And to everyone, covered california is going to have a long open enrollment period. Dont wait. So sign up for coverage now. Thank you. Thank you so much, and its such a pleasure to be here in San Francisco, but in particular, its a pleasure to be here in health right 360. I think some of you know some of the members of the health care 360 family have very deep roots in San Francisco and california. Two i want to call out, the haightashbury client in, is part of the oldest is the oldest Health Care Clinic in San Francisco. And del martin, one of the oldest communities established for the gay and Lesbian Community and serving us for more than 30 years. The reason were doing this program here, health care is a right, and this billboard is going to be here, because like the clinics, we are woven into the fabric of this community and this state, so this has been something of a wild ride in washington. All this talk about repeal and replace, sometimes people are confused about whats happening in washington. We in california are not confused. The Affordable Care act is the law of the land. We have provided coverage through medical in Southern California to 5 million californians, and while it is a roller coaster in washington, it is not a roller coaster in california. Were not taking people for a ride. Were making sure that people get kompl, and that its affordable coverage. One of the reasons we have coverage in california, we have hard working people in washington and in sacramento, and i want to appreciate representatives of Congress Woman nancy pelosi, and youll hear it from several people, including mayor ed lee. There is some confusion in washington, but lets be clear. Here in california, 1. 1 million neighbors get coverage through covered california. For them, their Health Care Costs will go down on average in 2018. Were making a difference in millions of peoples lives, so how do you do that . People are financially eligible, get that financial leg up. Without getting that financial leg up, many would not be able to support coverage, and were trying to get the mess amg out, open enrollment, short period, but here in california, its three months. Its gone through the end of january , but we want people to sign up by the middle of december, december 15th, because if you do, youll have coverage for the entire year. You can go to our website, and in two minutes, you can find out if youre eligible for financial help, and the back news is theres 700,000 californians that are eligible for financial help who have not signed up. They are one minute away from finding out if theyre eligible for health care that may cost them 50, 100. They have people that will help them sign up, some of the the hundreds of organizations, there are thousands of people ready to hem them enroll, and that help is there today. So with that, im very please to introduce first mayor ed lee. Hes taking the initiative to make sure we truly dont leave people behind. Mayor ed lee. Okay. That was a great introduction. Blown away. All right. Welcome, everybody. I am so thrilled to join peter and covered california, of course, president breed, who is already Pretty Healthy because she was at the exercise room this morning before going to work, and she was talking on the phone while she was doing her exercises, so i know shes keeping healthy. You know, it is ten times better so have insurance than to not have insurance, and while its been a challenge to get the Affordable Care act, while we have it, peters absolutely right. Lets take advantage of the affordablity that all of the wonderful people at covered california have done in partnership with us as a city, but also with health right 360, because they dont just work by themselves, they work with Community Based organizations. Peters described some of them. I happen to know chinese supporter health care i happen to know blue cross blue shield, high numbers, 36,000 people enrolled, and not only do we want all 3700 to reapply and to do it comfortably in the next few months, we want more people so that they come out of the unsured category. Weve done a pretty good job. In fact our uninsured number of people is less than 5 because of covered california. It is also less because we werent just stopping covered california is a wonderful thing, and its so good that we even added our own program to it, our San Francisco health plan to make sure additional people can be covered. This is how much enjoyment and how serious we take peoples health. In our Chinese Community and asian community, if you dont have good health, you cant help anybody else, and this is why covered california is a principal part its something that we not over fought for, but lets not confuse, as peter says, that because theyre having the debate and ups and downs in washington d. C. Doesnt mean we cant get the Health Care Coverage for people right here in california, and i want to also address my thanks to apexer because i think youve got to have the branding with it, and with the buses that covered california are going around, youre not going to be able to miss it even if it gets to you late. Okay [ inaudible ] i want to make sure it gets to all of the destinations. I understand, peter, youre going to go to some 22 spots and make sure, not just at these speeches, but the visuality of making it easy for people to enroll, making sure that people take c