[ ] [ ] [cheers and applause] wow. Wasnt that phenomenal . Lets give it another round of applause for the Christmas Tree tappers. They can really dance. Before we keep going tonight, we would like to give a big special thank you to tonights sponsor. Redwood credit. They have a beautiful new branch a few blocks away from here. And we have a number of redwood folks here tonight, as well as the banks mascot. Thank you for sponsoring tonight s festivities, especially santas maker village and our next acts are the poet athletes of america scores. These students usually come to civic centre in their soccer jerseys to play in their weekly soccer game, but not today. Today they are wearing their finest holiday sweaters. They made them themselves. Our young poets come from americas scores program. The Civic Centre Plaza is there homefield. They usually play for gold, but tonight is all about poetry and spreading christmas joy. Please welcome america scores [cheers and applause] my name is elin and i am from reading elementary. My name is hannah and im also a fourthgrader. My name is jordan and i am in the fifth grade. We are poets from reading elementary. [cheers and applause] we wrote personification poems. It is a type of figurative language. It is when writers turn non human beings into life forms. With these poems, we become emotion. Two emotion say or do if they were human . Let us show you. I am guilts. I wonder if people will ever forgive themselves. I hear your regrets and your doubts. I see you hiding your tears behind a fake smile. I am sorrow. I wonder if i can be cured like the flu. I hear your tears dripping on the floor as loud as ocean waves crashing onto the shore. I see you trying to i hang on to your heart. I am empathy. I wonder what would happen if i did not exist. I hear with whispers but feel them for myself so you dont have to. I am guilts. I keep you up at night. I pretend to be fine but i am not. I feel your embarrassment coursing down your veins. I touch your sorrow across your heart. I worry if i will be forgotten. I cry for you. I am sorrow. I feel your misery every second. I touch the broken heart in your body and it feels like a cracked phone bone. I worried you will abandon me just like grief. I cry because you might replace me. I am empathy. I see your cries as powerful as the ocean. I feel like i will absorb it. I hear laughs seeping into the air and you breathe me in. I want tears but smiles as well. I am guilts. I fester in your body, spreading slowly and control your being. I will not stop you from feeling me. I try to tried to stay but i cant. I am sorrow. I know you dont like me, but try to understand me. I say you should focus on sadness as much as happiness. I dream i am loved by you. I try to make myself part of your life. I am empathy. I care even when you dont. I feel your pain through the toughest times. My hands trembled when you are disappointed and my heart bursts when you are excited. My eyes widen and people grow when you feel love. I hope you remember me, but secretly i want you to let me go so you are free. I understand that you dont like me, but i will always be with you. I am sorrow and i want you to know that you need me to feel alive. I touch your sorrow and try to transform it into happiness. I cry every time you lie. I am empathy. I understand how you feel and i know how you feel and hope you depend on me for everything. We are love and we live inside each other and each of you. Emotions make you feel deeply and we make your hearts fuller. Happy holidays. We wish you to embrace this. Love, the season, and spread us all around. Thank you. [cheers and applause] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [singing] [indiscernible] the twin going twinkling lights on the tree type of lights. They filled our streets. Once we get hit, let the fiesta begins. Food and family, culture, everybody wins. [speaking spanish] those are the lyrics to the city jingle. Can you hear it . Can you hear our song . It sounds like babies laughing and joining along. [indiscernible] bay bridge to golden gate. Everyone saying our song. Can you hear us . Like the sound of cars honking. From one block to the next, we sing with everyone from everywhere. [indiscernible] whether you wear an apron, a brown hat or a hardhat. Come on and sing with us. The city jingle will have you jingling and mingling. Can you hear it . It is pretty catchy. [indiscernible] the city jingle makes you move. Can you hear it . You can. Singalong. This city jingle can never go wrong. [cheers and applause] lets give another big round of applause. They play soccer and write poems how cool is that . All right. They are hosting an event this friday. All are welcome. For more info or to rsvp, go to their website. And now we are pleased to introduce six fabulous performers from move school. The theatre education program. They perform a medley of timeless holiday classics by classics by ervin burling. I love that one. Now playing through december 22nd at the gateway theatre. Welcome to the stage. [cheers and applause] [ ] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [ ] [singing] [singing] [singing] [cheers and applause] lets give another big round of applause for moon school. [cheers and applause]. Werent they wonderful . They were so wonderful. I love all of those songs. Our next act has appeared on national and international television. They have toured internationally to england, argentina, and mexico. Ages seven, 10, 11, and 13. Here they are. The most musically talented siblings, stars aligned [indiscernible] [ ] [ ] [cheers and applause] [ ] [ ] [cheers and applause] [ ] [ ] [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] all right, it is a very, very special time of night. Are we ready . I think we are ready. Oh, boy. Time to light the Christmas Tree . Are you ready to light the Christmas Tree . [cheering]. We have to get some special guests up here tonight. Are special guests include phil ginsberg, general manager of the San Francisco recreation and parks department, Naomi Campbell and walking torres. And our San Francisco mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause] [ ] [indiscernible] all right, everyone. It is time for a christmas countdown. Here we go. Loud and proud. We have to get our special Christmas Tree lighting plunger. It is my first time. I forgot about the plunger. Thank you so much. Dont drop it, dont drop it. There we go. For you, miss mayor. [cheers and applause]. All right. Lets get a countdown started from five,. Here we go. Do you want to come up and help . We need some people to help the mayor. Come on up. Oh, boy. We are all here. We are ready. You have to help me now. Are you ready . Are we starting from 10 . Weve got it. Lets do it. Countdown from 10. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] [ ] thank you so much for all your help. Thank you for so much for all your help, everyone. Hi, how are you . I went through a lot of struggles in my life, and i am blessed to be part of this. I am familiar with what people are going through to relate and empathy and compassion to their struggle so they can see i came out of the struggle, it gives them hope to come up and do something positive. I am a community ambassador. We work a lot with homeless, visitors, a lot of people in the area. What i like doing is posting up at hotspots to let people see visibility. They ask you questions, ask you directions, they might have a question about what services are available. Checking in, you guys. Wellness check. We walk by to see any individual, you know may be sitting on the sidewalk, we make sure they are okay, alive. You never know. Somebody might walk by and they are laying there for hours. You never know if they are alive. We let them know we are in the area and we are here to promote safety, and if they have somebody that is, you know, hanging around that they dont want to call the police on, they dont have to call the police. They can call us. We can direct them to the services they might need. We do the three one one to keep the city neighborhoods clean. There are people dumping, waste on the ground and needles on the ground. It is unsafe for children and adults to commute through the streets. When we see them we take a picture dispatch to 311. They give us a tracking number and they come later on to pick it up. We take pride. When we come back later in the day and we see the loose trash or debris is picked up it makes you feel good about what you are doing. It makes you feel did about escorting kids and having them feel safe walking to the play area and back. The stuff we do as ambassadors makes us feel proud to help keep the city clean, helping the residents. You can see the community ambassadors. I used to be on the streets. I didnt think i could become a community ambassador. It was too far out there for me to grab, you know. Doing this job makes me feel good. Because i came from where a lot of them are, homeless and on the street, i feel like i can give them hope because i was once there. I am not afraid to tell them i used to be here. I used to be like this, you know. I have compassion for people that are on the streets like the homeless and people that are caught up with their addiction because now, i feel like i can give them hope. It reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i where i used to be and where i [applause] let me begin by thanking you all for joining us this morning right here in the heart of San Francisco, right in front of our famed and beloved turnaround. We are here today to announce a very Exciting Initiative that involves the downtown and waterfront neighborhood here in San Francisco. And what people can expect to see during the Holiday Season. I would like to begin by introducing our mayor, london breed, who is providing our city with the leadership and the investment that are helping us keep San Francisco clean all your own all year long. Just this past spring, the mayor announced nearly 12 million in dedicated funding to street cleanliness initiatives and programs. These new investments are critical in our efforts to keep San Francisco beautiful, sustainable, and a clean city. Join me in welcoming our mayor, london breed. [cheers and applause]. Thank you, mohammed. Thank you to all the ambassadors , to the people who work with pcw, to urban alchemy, to downtown streets, to all of the amazing nonprofit and city organizations that work every single day tirelessly, every single day to keep this safety green and clean. Thank you all so much. [applause] today i want us to have an honest conversation about what we need to do better to make sure that people understand how much we love our city. We want people to make sure that they are cleaning up after themselves, that they are not trashing this amazing and beautiful city and the people that are here today are the folks, who every single day, they do the work. They are out there cleaning up the streets, but they are not your housekeeper. We all have to take responsibility for cleaning up San Francisco. Everyone. Everyone who is out here, there are garbage cans, there are places to dump trash and i know that its important to make sure that this city is green and clean for all of. It matters. It matters that we care and it matters that we show that we care by making sure that we are cleaning up after ourselves and taking care of the city, but we also know there are real challenges. What that means is we need to make the kinds of investments that will make sure that we are doing Power Washing and all the other Amazing Things that will enhance the beauty of this already beautiful city. I want to thank mohammed and the department of public works. They have been the leaders in the effort to get creative around taking care of San Francisco in ways that sometimes go unnoticed and unappreciated. I want you all to know that we see you out here every single day doing the hard work. [applause] we are truly grateful for our partners. The San FranciscoPolice Department are out here every single day keeping people safe. The folks who are part of our Community Business districts who raise private funds to invest in more big belly trash cans. To invest in more resources so that we can do everything we can to keep San Francisco clean. We will go a step further. We decided that it is clear that during the Holiday Season we have so many people who are visiting San Francisco, where shopping in San Francisco, and we want people to have good experiences. Lets be clear. The way that we pay for the services that we provide, whether it is munimobile, whether it is street cleaning and all these other things, whether it is shelters and services for our homeless community, a lot of how we generate revenue depends on our economy. It depends on the shopping and the things that people do to help to generate the revenue necessary to keep San Francisco going. So we have to do a better job of creating a better space, a festive space, and exciting space. And the new program that we are providing will do just that. Eco blitz, i dont know who came up with that name, but why not, it is an effort to invest even more resources into cleaning and greening the downtown area so that people who visit this area, so that people who shop in this area and people who work in this area have a clean, safe, green place that they can enjoy their experience in. Today is about the enhancement that we need in order to make San Francisco a better place. I dont know about you, but im tired of people talking trash about our city. It is time that we continue to do whats necessary to create a different environment, a different way in which how we take care of our city and it starts with more investment in areas where we know we have lots of people who are walking, who are catching munimobile, who are working, who are shopping. We are going to make San Francisco better now during the Holiday Season and in the future because of our new investment. We are excited about what this is going to do to enhance the experience in our downtown community. Thank you all so much for being here. At this time, i want to introduce our city administrator , naomi kelly. [applause] thank you for the love our City Campaign. Thank you to mohammed and the public works crews and teams. It has been 20 years since we have been doing this. I cant tell you how important it is that we love our city and keeping it clean. Thank you to karen from the Union Square BusinessImprovement District for partnering with us. I go out once a month with my family to the Community Clean team. We hit different neighborhoods. I cant tell you how important it is because a, not only are we upping our loving our city and giving back to our city, but im bonding with my family. I am meeting different neighborhood associations, merchants associations, different public works crews, different downtown streets, everyone is coming out. It brings everyone together for common cause keeping our city clean, keeping it sustainable, and giving civic pride. This is why these events are very important. I also oversee the citys 311 call center. It is a 24hour operation where we have folks taking phone calls from different residents and many of the phone calls are about graffiti removal, illegal dumping, downed trees and encampments. Theyre very much a part of working with everyone here so that we know where the areas are that we need to focus and keep clean. I want to thank everyone again for being here today and taking pride in keeping our union square, our Market Street corridor and all of San Francisco clean. Thank you. [applause] all right. Before i introduce our next speaker, theres quite a number of people to acknowledge. The echo blitz is coming together of everybody. It is like a village. It brings all types of city departments, the community, the businesses and everyone together so that is what an eco blitz is and rec representing the port is byron matz. Please give him a hand. Tom maguire from m. T. A. Is here. The Police Department, chief bill scott, all of the officers making sure we are safe. Recreation and parkas here. The department of environment is here. Give them a hand. Our fire chief is here. Give her a hand. Our office of Economic Workforce Development and our partners at recology. [applause] we are also joined by several Community Leaders and these are partners that we are working yearround year in and year out. They have stepped out for the Holiday Season. They have been part of this campaign. A few weeks ago we went to all these various neighborhoods and we did a punch punchlist. Now we are all out of work with all the agencies and community works, making it able for the city to shine. I want to thank Randall Scott from the fishermans wharf, captain marvin from the Community Benefit district, Andrew Robinson from the east coast Community Benefit district , and speaking on behalf of all of those Community Groups , i will ask karen to come up and say a few words. [applause] thank you, mohammed. Good morning, everyone. I am the executive director of union square. As mohammed mentioned, we are here at the historic cable car turnaround, also known as the gateway to union square and to San Francisco. Here in union square all of our merchants and hotel owners are getting ready