Very unique. She classified it as a third i. Will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of San Francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. I believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. The board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. Jeffrey heller, the city and county of San Francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. To impart to the history of this building is remarkable. To see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you Start Talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. With children, and i do mainly all of the childrens tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from, how it was developed, and you can Start Talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of San Francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. At times, my clothes make me feel powerful. Powerful in a different sense. I am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. Usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. I have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit . Retirement to me is a very strange words. I dont really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the peoples palace. You want a longterm career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something youre then yourself. Follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along for the first time in nearly two decades fishers have been granted the legal right to sell fish directly to the package right off their boat to the public right off their boats in San Francisco. Its not only helping local fishers to stay afloat but its evoking the spirit of the wharf by resurfacing the traditional methods of selling fish. But how is it regulated . And what does it take for a boat to be transported into a Floating Fish market . Find out as we hop on board on this episode of whats next sf. Were here with the owner and the captain of the vessel pioneer. Its no coincidence that your boat is called the pioneer because its doing just that. Its the first boat in San Francisco to sell fish directly from the boat. How did you establish your boat into such a Floating Fish market . Well, you know, i always thought that it would be nice to be able to provide fresh fish to the locals because most of the fish markets, you would have to do a large amount of volume in order to bring in enough fish to cover the overhead. When you start selling to the public that volume is much less so it makes it hard to make enough money. So being able to do this is really its a big positive thing i think for the entire community. A very positive thing. As a thirdgeneration fisherman joe as his friends call him has been trawling the california waters for sustainably caught seafood since an early age. Since obtaining a permit to sell fish directly to the public he is able to serve fish at an affordable price. Right now were just selling what a lot of the markets like, flat fish and rock fish and what the public likes. So we have been working for many, many years and putting cameras in them. Theres the ability to short fish and we have panels that we open and close so we target the different species of fish by adjusting the net. And then not only that but then the net sort out the sizes which is really important. Joe brings in a lot of fish, around 20,000 pounds per fishing trip to be exact. We had one day one time that we sold almost 18,000 pounds. Its incredible. I know, its hard to imagine. But this wasnt always the case for joe. The markets that we have left in california, theyre few and far between, and they really are restrictive. Theyll let you fish for a couple months and shut you down. A lot of times its rough weather and if you cant make your delivery you will lose your rotation. Thats why theres hardly any boats left in california because of the market challenges. My boat was often sitting over here at the dock for years and i couldnt do anything with it because we had no market. The ability to go catch fish is fine, i had the permits, but you couldnt take them off your boat. That was until the Port Commission of San Francisco rallied behind them and voted unanimously to approve a Pilot Program to allow the fish to be sold directly to consumers right off their boats. The purpose of the program is to allow commercial fishers to sell their fish directly from their boats to the end consumer in a safe and orderly manner for the benefit of the overall Fishing Community at the port of San Francisco. We have limited the program to certain types of fish such as salmon, halibut, tuna and rock fish. Crab is restricted from this program because we did not want to interfere with the existing crab sales on Taylor Street and jefferson street. So this is not meant to favor one aspect of the fishing industry more than another. Its to basically to lift up the whole industry together. And if joe the program has been doing just that. It was almost breathtaking whenever i woke up one morning and i got my federal receiver, my first receivers license in the mail. And that gave me permission to actually take fish off my boat. Once we started to be able to sell, it opened things up a bit. Because now that we have that federal permit and i was able to ppetition the city council and getting permission from San Francisco to actually use the dock and to sell fish here, it was a big turning point. Because we really didnt think or know that wed get such a positive response from the public. And so were getting thousands of people coming down here buying fish every week and so thats pretty cool. They like the fish so much that they take pictures of it when they cook it and they send us all of these pictures and then they ask us, you know, constantly for certain types of fish now. And when they come down here the one thing that they say is that theyre so amazed that the fish is so fresh they could eat a little bit during the week and its still fresh all week in the refrigerator. So thats really cool. The fish is very fresh and the price is super. I dont think that you can get it anywhere in the bay area. I can see it, and i can stir fry it, wow, you can do anything you want. I just can say this is a good place to shop and you have a good experience. This Program Supports the Strategic Plan in terms of engagement, people being connected to the waterfront, and also economic vitality. Because its helping the fishermen to make ends meet. They have no guarantees in their businesses, not like some people, and we want to do everything that we can to help them to have a good and thriving business. How does it feel to be able to sell your fish locally kind of in the traditional way, like your grandfather probably did . When i was a kid and i used to work in my dads fish market, a lot of the markets that we sell to now are second and third and fourth generation markets. So i remember as a kid putting their tags on the boxes of fish that we shipped out of monterey and ship down to l. A. So its kind of cool that were still dealing with the same families. And this is probably about the only way that anyone can really survive in california is to sell your own fish. One of the advantages of this program is the Department People that pull in the fish, they can find out where they caught it and find out more about the fisherman and that adds to their experience. The feedback from the fishers has been very good and the feedback from the customers have very good. And theres a lot of people coming to the wharf now that might not have done so. In fact, theres people that go through the neighboring restaurants that are going to eat fish inside but before they go in they see the action on the dock and they want to kind of look at whats happening on the boat before they go in and they have a meal. So its generated some conversation down at the wharf and thats a good thing. As you can see by the line forming behind me getting ready to buy fish, the Pilot Program has been a huge success. For more information visit sfsport. Com. Supporters of the eagle plaza. [cheers and applause] this morning, i was honored, my Business Partner, mike leon. On this historic day. I want to take the warmest welcome possible to the honorable mayor london breed, supervisor haney, supervisor mandelman. The greatest community, members of the leather and lgbt cultural district and the friends of eagle plaza. Were all here today after a long road. Great accomplishments. Eagle plaza started as an idea. Six years ago my Business Partner and i met, built and have a conversation about breaking ground for construct, where we floated idea of the construction of the plaza. Between the San Francisco eagle bar and the construction. A plaza unique to the world that will honor the leather and lgbt communities, serve as a focal part for them to have events. And now this idea is about to come true. Its fitting this was elected for the first public plaza dedicated to the Leather Community. Its been the home for this community for decades. A special thanks to supervisor haney and mandelman for introducing and pushing forward the legislation to permit the construction of eagle plaza. [cheers and applause] without their efforts, eagle plaza would still remain as an idea. I would like to thank all of those who contributed financially to eagle plaza and to my eagle family for their support. And, of course, the most special thanks to mayor breed, who removed road blocks, constantly moved the project forward to where were here today at the groundbreaking of eagle plaza. I would like you to extend the warmest welcome to our mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] mayor breed thank you so much. I am so excited to be here today. Were going to have one of the most beautiful plazas in San Francisco. I remember when it first became mayor and i knew that this idea had started over six years ago when state senator scott wiener was on the board of supervisors and i know a lot of the work he did helped to get us to this place. But i was really frustrated over the two years of bureaucracy. We already had the support. We already had the plan. And the city bureaucracy continued to delay this project. So two years delay was just really unacceptable. So when i first became mayor, i made this one of my first directives and we got the approvals done in three months. So im really proud [applause] that we were able to Work Together to accomplish that goal. In addition to that, because this was such an amazing communitydriven project, 200,000 from the Community College grant was made possible to help fund this project. The work from build inc. And i want to thank Lauren Seguin for being here, as well as the folks from the Park Alliance and the friends of eagle plaza, you all came together to make this incredible project possible. And i also would like to say a special thank you to senator scott wiener who put 100,000 in the state budget so we can have the Additional Support that we need. But heres the good news. We know that there is still a 50,000 funding gap and so that we can focus on the work and not on the resources needed to get the work done, i work with supervisor mandelman to come up with the 50,000 that we need to get this project done. [cheers and applause] mayor breed so to the folks of the leather and the Lgbt Community and this cultural district that was made possible for the purposes of celebration coming together. And in the spirit of pride month here in San Francisco that celebrates inclusiveness and love and all great things we are here in our great city, i would like to say congratulations and thank you all for your hard work. I know when this plaza is completed, its going to be used by so many people, to hang out, drink coffee, read, and celebrate and all the great things we do that make San Francisco such a unique and special place for people to visit and live here. Thank you, all, so much. [applause] now id like to present a very special award that the San Francisco eagle bar to a very special person. This is called the leather feather. And its given in recognition of someone who not only has supported the Leather Community in a special way, but performed Extraordinary Service in doing so. So for making eagle plaza a reality, eagle bar is honored to present the leather feather to the San Francisco mayor london breed. Mayor breed thank you. Thank you so much. Mayor breed thank you. [applause] i want to have you guys now with bob, the chair of the leather and lgbt cultural district. [applause] i am proud to be here for this historic event and the leather district is delighted to have the eagle plaza in our district. And we look forward to its use as a gathering point in the district. I have the honor of introducing rafael mandelman, the District Supervisor and native san franciscan. He supported the Leather Community even before he ran for supervisor and can be seen in local venues periodically. [laughter] now hes reaching out beyond his districts boundaries to take real action to help make spaces like the eagle plaza come into being. His actions to make spaces for leather communities will keep this neighborhoods historic vibrant which will help perpetuate the city as a city for tolerance and acceptance. With that, i present to you rafael mandelman. [applause] supervisor mandelman good morning, everybody. This is such a wonderful morning and as i look out at this crowd of gorgeous people who are doing Amazing Things in our city for so many causes and communities. I see race bannon. Race always deserves a round of applause. [applause] San Francisco is a city that does not forget its history. We build on our history. We celebrate our history and make new things happen next to old things and that is part of the magic of the city. And im so pleased that this plaza is as the mayor said, it took a little longer than would have been ideal, but it is now finally happening. I want to say just a few maybe a year ago, or a couple of years ago, we were worried about whether there even would be an eagle, right . More than a few years ago, but the Community Came together and city hall responded and now not only is the eagle still here, its still a place to enjoy on sunday afternoons and all the time. And thank you so much, lex and mike, but now we have not only the eagle, but this amazing plaza coming here. So thank you, all, for coming out. Thank you all for coming out. But have a very, very happy pride. [applause] thank you, supervisor mandelman. I now have the proud honor of introducing district 6 supervisor matt haney. I met matt when he reached out to the leather and lgbt district when running for office. He expressed support for our community then and is following through with his action. Its these spaces that form a community and those spaces for the leather and lgbtq communities are under constant threat in this neighborhood. Matt haney is not only talking about preserving the culture here, hes sponsoring legislation to preserve the spaces that make soma a destination for people across the country and around the world. The fact that he is here today showing support for the eagle plaza is one sign of his commitment to the communities. With that, i present to you supervisor haney. Supervisor haney thank you, bob. Well, i want to say this one more time. This is going to be the worlds first public plaza dedicated to the Leather Community. Isnt that incredible . World first. And not only is it the worlds first public plaza dedicated to the Leather Community, it is in the worlds first cultural district dedicated to the lgbtq community. Give it up for that as well. Bob, tremendous leadership. I want to thank all of you who worked hard to make this happen. Sf parks alliance, mayor breed, supervisor mandelman, senator wiener. This is an extraordinary effort that made this happen. Far too often the things that make this city wonderful, the things that built this culture, created our identity, the institutions, the businesses, are the ones that are constantly under attack. And sadly thats been the case here in western soma as well for the Leather Community. And with what were doing today, the city is finally saying, not only are we going to preserve those institutions and that culture, were going to celebrate it, have a permanent home for it in our city and were going to do it in western soma. There is no west soma without the Leather Community. Im excited about the future of this plaza for a number of reasons. Also because we need more open space in this part of the city. Soma and west soma has