This unique neighborhood, we noemie know miguels over there shaking his head like, yeah. [laughter] we know there is Something Special about the city and Something Special about the neighborhoods and to have everything to do with the people who are part of these amazing neighborhoods. And im just really excited about some of the other things that weve done and more of what we will do to make sure that we are protecting Affordable Housing in the mission for generations to come. [applause] now we all know the sad history of rewoment in our city. The community that i grew up in the Western Addition and what happened to that community. A lot of propsses were made. A lot of housing was built. But when the time came, for example, in the Public Housing that i grew up in, 300 units torn down, 200 units built and the difficulty of so many of us being able to move back to the community. You remember this joyce armstrong, what happened in the Western Addition and how it really sadly destroyed a very vibrant African American community. And we look at this as a Lesson Learned and we have to think of the challenges that existed back then and what we have to do to change that for the future of San Francisco. And we are going to protect our diversity and our communities. We have to start making the right kinds of investments. Its why, when i was on the board of supervisors with this community, Roberto Hernandez was there and we stood proud to fight for and josh arsay, we stood proud to fight for neighborhood preference so that when we actually build the Affordable Housing in these communities, that the people who live in these communities have right of first refusal to access those units. [applause] and also when we have revenue this this city that we make the right kinds of investments that will make a tremendous impact for a community. I got to take a tour. In fact, it was a lowrider tour with roberto. Yes, it was a nice day and the sun was shining and yes, we were bouncing up and down in the mission and people thought i was having a good time and i wasnt there working. I was working. I was working. I was on a Factfinding Mission to really see what opportunities exist in this community so that we can build more Affordable Housing. And so we were standing out here on 26th street talking to a number of folks who grew up here, some who dont live here anymore because they cant afford to. And others who were just trying to hold on and they talked about housing and their children and their future. Im really excited because government sometimes takes a really long time to make things happen. And we were really lucky that we got this windfall money that you heard about. And the first thing i thought about were all these sites in the commission and whether or not we would be able to acquire these sites for 100 Affordable Housing. And today thats what this announcement is about. 1515 south van ness will be acquired to potentially build 150 new family units sglfp [applause] and i have to tell you it wasnt necessarily fast for this community because this community had been working so hard to really identify locations, coordinate and Work Together and really address what we know has been significant dig placement. With the accusation of the site along with the four sites that we broke ground with, for Affordable Housing, with more to come, in the Mission Neighborhood, we would have preserved and built over 1,000 new units for this community. Now we know this community has a goal of getting to 2500 and i definitely want to make sure that we get there. But i will say that this is a step in the right direction. And i just also would like to put in a plug for the housing bonds. 600 million without raising property taxes for Affordable Housing. Woe have the money to buy the site, but we need the money to build it. So im going to be counting on the voters in San Francisco to support the upcoming housing bond so that we can get this housing built for this community right away. And more Affordable Housing throughout the city of San Francisco. [applause] so i want to thank all of you and so many of the Community Members that have joined us today. It just really is not only a Beautiful Day in San Francisco, but an exciting time for this community. Ive been to four ground breakings in the mission since ive been mayorment we look at other sites and we have been acquiring property. Weve been looking at ways on small sites and making tremendous investments. And this is really just the beginning of what i think is going to be an incredible future for this community. But it wont be that way unless we work hard for it because we have to also make sure that the investments happen, we have to make sure that the resources are there to make this investment happen and well continue to do everything we can to make sure that the community is a part of this process every step of the way. Before i thank all the folks that are responsible for this, besides, i just want to give a special shoutout to kate hartley from the Mayors Department of housing for all the really hard work that she did to make this possible [applause] along with a number of city departments to help and jumpstart s. F. And the m. T. C. Or m. T. A. , which one is it . M. T. C. We have somebody from one of those transportation agencies. So, thank you so much for that and thank you to all the Community Members and everyone whos with us today. And to acknowledge so many incredible people from this community. Including herself who myrna milgaard has been an incredible resource and incredible advocate. [applause] and just working with young people and staying focused. Not only is she the president of the Planning Commission of San Francisco, she runs Jamestown Community center, an incredible space for young people in this community. Myrna melgar. Thank you, mayor. So i was appointed to the Planning Commission by then president of the board of supervisors, london breed. [laughter] and people ask me why why are you doing this . [laughter] so muchwork it is a lot of work. But im doing it because i, in addition to running the Jamestown Community center, im a mother of three girls who were born and raised in San Francisco. And i want them to have a life in San Francisco. I want my family close by and my community all around me. Its what makes my life worth living. Like many of you. And i think there is no more important thing that were doing right now than building Affordable Housing. And when then president of the board of supervisors breed asked me to do this, i was on it because i believed in her vision. So when i saw that she went to h. U. D. To advocate for neighborhood preference despite decades of people saying no, it cant be done, people in Affordable Housing saying it cant be done, she took her advocacy and got it done. And i was so proud of her. You know . Because that was a game changer for us in San Francisco. And, you know, i think that the advocacy, that community and this Mayors Office is doing in terms of building Affordable Housing, of just thinking outside the box with small sites, with different ways of getting to where we need to go is amazing and groundbreaking and im so proud to be part of this. So i think that for the first time im looking around at all of my colleagues in nonprofit and all of the community, instigators and collaborators and this is the moment that i feel like in the whole time ive been in San Francisco where the subMission United. [applause] the first time. Were all on the same page that we are building Affordable Housing. Not only preserving our community, but getting it back. Those 8,000 families that have been displaced from San Francisco that are part of our schools, of our churches, of our community organizations, were getting them back. And were all working really hard for it and this project is going to be a part of that story. We also have a supervisor who is on the same page with us. She has made Affordable Housing her priority. When she ran and also during her office and i am so glad that she is working with us hand in hand. And with that, im going to introduce supervisor hillary ronan. [applause] thank you so much. What an incredible, incredible day. I dont think there is anything that energizes all of us more than breaking ground on an Affordable Housing site or acquiring an Affordable Housing site. There is nothing that manges us feel like the work that we do in the city so important. When i was running for office, i made a goal and a pledge to build 5,000 units of Affordable Housing in district nine in a decade and im counting each and every unit and right now we are at 1182 units [applause] and that is because the mission is united. And not only is the Mission United with itself, the mission is united with city hall, with our mayor whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing for this neighborhood, with the supervisor whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing for this neighborhood, with the director of the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing. Were truly, truly united and we have two extremely strong organizations. Affordable Housing Developers right here in the mission district. Mission housing and Economic Economic development agency. [applause] anja emphasize how important these organizations are. The executive director of one of those organizations because there was a decade, a decade when we didnt build a unit of Affordable Housing in this neighborhood. And part of that reason was because we didnt have Affordable Housing developer organizations who were at a stage that they could build housing. Now we dont even have one. We have two. We have two and we have a community that is not going to stop for a second fighting for more Affordable Housing. And i just before i hand it over to Roberto Hernandez, i wanted tos also thank the former supervisor of district nine, david campos. Because part of the funding to acquire the site, 5 million, was the First Time Ever david campos got that money from the m. T. C. Its a regional transportation body that i now sit on that has never financed Affordable Housing in its entire existence. But david made the point that you cant talk about transportation and jobs without talking about housing. You cant talk about housing without talking about transportation and jobs. He married those two and this is the first Pilot Project for the m. T. O. That they are investing regional dollars in Affordable Housing. So, that is a major milestone as well. So thank you, david campos, for your hard work. And now i wanted to introduce Roberto Hernandez who has been on the frontlines of this fight from day one. Roberto hernandez. [applause] buenos dias [speaking in spanish] come on. Let me hear you say it [speaking in spanish] [crowd repeats] a very wise, elderly man taught me at a young age that we write our own stories. Every day when we get up, it is a page thats written and we have we can decide how that story is written every day. And then we write chapters and, by the end of our lifetime, theres a book written about us. That we write. Were the writers. Because were the creators of our own story. But i take it to another level and say we as a community here in the mission have been writing not one book, but many, many books because this story doesnt end here. Its a story that began back many, many years that actually started Mission Housing development corporation. It was a story that started off by a group of us who banned together called the Mission Coalition organization. The m. C. O. And aim glad to see that my compadre, my brother santiago reese is here because he was part of that. And Michael Nolan and Pete Gallegos and many others here in this space today. And speaking about my compadre, happy birthday, Feliz Cumpleanos because today is your birthday. This is your gift, my brother. This is your goift. This is your gift. Theres Senior Housing that is being built right down the street and i know youre getting ready to retire. If you need a spot, there are applications given out. You can apply with them. You have it, brother . All right. We have a little spot. You want the top . Penthouse . Ok. All right. All right. Then i want to be on top. [laughter] all kidding aside, our mission no eviction was created by jose carasco and myself because we picked up after the dotcom boom. We recognized when we started getting people calling us up and saying hey, am i getting evicted . And within a period of 90 days, 56 people we knew were getting evicted. You know . And so we formed our mission which iss a what did you call it . Instigators . We are revolutionaries, you know . Really. Thats what we are. Were not funded by anybody. Were not incorporated. We dont have bylaws. We dont have a structure. Were just a group of people that band together and have been fighting. It is a beautiful end of the story, right . [applause] we didnt need no more luxury units. We needed 100 Affordable Housing, you know . And we tried working with them. We told them build 100 Affordable Housing. They say it doesnt pencil out. Oh, really . I guess you wont make that much money, right . Then we said build 100 Affordable Housing for teachers. Because teachers need housing and they make a decent salary so they can pay a little more than somebody whos a dishwasher, right . Is and they said it doesnt pencil out, right . And then we said just give us the land back. Just donate the land back to the community because youre a major corporation. Everybody knows lennar, right . Theyre a major corporation. And this is like to me like a little cucharacha, you know . Its so small compared to all the big projects that they do. But at the end of the day, we lost and the Planning Commission approved it. The board of supervisors approved it. We appealed and appealed and after appeal after appeal and i want to thank scott weaver who is an attorney who volunteers his time for us and has done so much work. [applause] for free. Pro bono basis. You know . And like him, there is so many other attorneys and so many other people who volunteer their time to give. And so this story ends like right here. And i want to thank mayor london breed from my corazon for going on that cruise with us. [applause] you know . And youre right. You dont know how many hits i got on facebook and twitter and everybody was blowing me up. Oh, you were cruising with the mayor . Think that we were having fun. Ive been telling the story working yeah, we were working and in fact there is a picture somebody gathered of me driving and showing her. Sorry i shouldnt have been doing this. But im showing and explaining to her and it was like magic. You know . For her to go and get this done with kate thank you, kate. Thank you very much. [applause] for doing all the work that you did. But for getting this done. You know . Because this gives a lot us a major victory, more different than the other ones that weve gotten. But this one i believe in my corazon it will make a difference and give people hope and understanding that the times have changed. We have a mayor who loves and cares for the mission district. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you i will say im just really excited to see my portrayal hill folks out here. [applause] supporting the mission. Thank you all so much for coming out. Thank you to our artist community. Thank you, deborah and tammy. Tammy from the fillmore. Thank you, sam moss and all the people who are here and the work that you do to make San Francisco a better place. And i just want to