people. [applause] with these employees aboard, we are able to focus on within the time frame they have been aboard, we have tripled our customer base. we have extended the library. we are starting to gain traction. this would not have happened without them. we are launching several marketing programs, including the social media campaign. we will have to tie that into twittering about jobs now. a revenue share program with schools, where we get 5%-& back to the schools. this is a very important thing. in closing, we want to thank jobs now. we would not have been able to do this without their support. we want to thank the city of san

francisco. we are grateful for the opportunity to employ these people and help their families. we look forward to growing a world-class company right here in san francisco, and helping kids read more. [applause] since we have some representatives of small business, i do want to recognize someone. that is scott. scott has provided the agency and the city -- there he is. great feedback and streamlining processes. it has been helpful to reach out to his partners to hire folks in the small-business community. be patient. we have two more speakers, and then we will take the big picture. we are on the employee side. we have colin and bruce, representing skytech solar. if you could come on up?

>> hello, everybody. i am the founder and ceo of skytech solar. our mission is to install solar at absolutely no cost to low- income residents of san francisco. it is paid for by the city and by california. the rebates are paid directly to us after the installation is up and running. the payback is immediate to fixed-income residents finding a typical to in these times to pay bills. we have over 170 household customers and counting that qualify for our free program. i have installed three solar 442 households to date. we acquired five people from the jobs now program. it has helped us tremendously. the business was started after the banking crisis and no bank would accept applications for loans unless you had at least

two consecutive profitable years in business. this would prevent any startup from getting a loan. with the program, the funds received help us expand our business and hire new employees. we use these funds to provide training to jobs now employees. the employees learning graduate -- a valuable new skill that gives them experience to be successful in the industry. each employee is an asset to the company brings something special. bruce brings 30 years of experience as a roofer with the skills to make sure we feel the penetrations of the roots will work on. carlos brings electrical experience to assist with the wiring. we expect our jobs now employees to continue installing for us with or without the extension of the jobs now program. [applause] thank you. however, if the program is extended, we expect them to

train the next group of jobs now employees. [applause] thank you. >> good morning. my name is bruce, and today i am an employee at skytech. before that, i was unemployed for two years. i had to turn in the keys to two cars to the bank because i could not pay for them anymore. i could not support my daughters, could not get welfare, could not get unemployment. things were really bad. i have been with the company for about eight or nine months. i am hoping this program gets extended so i can continue to be there. short and sweet, i am glad to be back in the work force again. thank you. [applause]

>> like our implementation of jobs now, we went quickly. we are flying blind times. i overlooked tamara rivera. i would like her to come up. >> hello. i am a single mother of a 10- year-old girl. previous to discovering jobs now, i was unemployed for four year. money was extremely tight and i spent the majority of time looking for a job, posting my resume, and going on interviews, instead of spending time with my daughter. as you can imagine, i was frustrated and very unhappy. i needed a job to cover my expenses and give me purpose. i heard the about this for jobs now and i thought my experience volunteering at my daughter's library was great. fortunately, they agreed. i'm in charge of receiving inventory, processing orders, packing books, shipping, making sure customers get the books

that kids want. i was trained on how the operation system worked and challenge to make it more efficient. it is great to be part of the timor my role really matters. i get to provide a valuable -- valuable feedback to help our service. in addition, i have made -- i have been given the opportunity to assist in the production of marketing materials and develop graphics for the website. these are skills i hope to build upon in the future. having a job means a great deal to me. i have grown in confidence and a happy to get up in the morning as my life has purpose and meaning. [applause] i am able to pay my way and provide for my family, which has had a positive influence on our lives. i am able to spend time with my daughter and do the things with her instead of looking for a job and constantly worrying about money.

this past month, i was able to buy her a bike and enroll early summer camp, which made us both very happy. [applause] i am now a positive role model for her, and to benefit from my improved attitude to life. finally, as a bonus, we get to use the service. i never knew how much she loved reading prior to working year. she read several books per week and we have for friends over for book review parties. it is hard to stop her from wanting to read all the time. [applause] i was amazed. this reiterate to me how important my job is. in closing, i would like to thank the jobs now program. the program has affected every part of my life in a positive way. i am thankful to be able to be

part of an exciting start of business. thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thanks. i did see a face in the audience a want to recognize, the president of san francisco human services commission. dr. paul avalos stuart. -- pablo stewart. about 800 of the participants in jobs now are helping out the public sector in trainee positions, contributing to the public good, with a recreation and park, public health, department of environment, and human services agency. i'm happy to introduce the next person. she works for is that the human services agency as a receptionist at the front desk. i get to see her smiling face every morning. her name is carla garcia. carla, come on up.

[applause] >> please excuse me. i'm a little bit nervous. i am a single mother. until july 9, i was a jobs not participant. in march, 2009, i was laid off from a local real estate brokerage because of the market meltdown. i was out of a job with very little income and a family to take care of. i tried applying everywhere, answering ads, attending job fairs, but only came up with a part-time job outside the city. i heard about the jobs now program from as ramona torres, who encouraged me to be placed as a public-service trainee with the city and county of san francisco. i interviewed and was placed at 170 otis as a public-service

trainee performing administrative duties. [cheers and applause] after being employed -- after being unemployed for what seemed an eternity, the program gave me a new sense of being and i felt like myself again. my kids seemed happier and told me they were proud of me because i never gave up. working as a public-service trainee, i was able to brush up on my asman skills, attend staff trainings, and become a part of the team within the human services agency. it is good to bring home a paycheck i finally turned. all along, we understood this was a federally funded program that would last until september, 2010, unless it was extended. my supervisor at that time, john murray, encouraged us to look for permanent employment, requiring us to apply to least five jobs per week. in december, 2009, received an alert for a job opening with the city and county as a 2903

eligibility worker. [cheers and applause] i applied and because of my experience in the human services agency as a trainee, i was notified that i met the minimum experience and qualification requirements. [applause] my family and i were ecstatic. i actually had a chance of becoming a permanent employee somewhere. later, i took the civil test and was notified that i had not only passed the test, but i ranked number nine. [cheers and applause] in june, i interviewed for the eligibility worker position. as of july 12, i am a permanent employee of the city and county of san francisco. [cheers and applause] it has not been an easy task,

but if it were not for the jobs now program, i would still be trying to survive. my kids and i have gone full circle, and i am grateful for the jobs now program. i've worked with great people of the human services agency. this has truly been an amazing experience and i feel truly blessed. thank you all. [applause] >> thank you. thanks for your patience. we are almost done. i want you to recognize the employees have gone back to work and the employers who stepped up to hire them. give them a round of applause. [applause] i have to thank you for your enthusiasm, for coming here today. a couple closing remarks, i will bring mayor newsom back up and we will close. thanks. >> again, thank you all for

coming out. now we have to do our family photo, of a group photo. then i will ask all of you -- i know this sounds like we are back in school, we had to write our congressmen and women, but i will ask, we will get the photo back to all of you, and we will start a real, concerted effort. here is the good news. congress comes back from recess in august. there is a real opportunity we have in a very short time, a small window of opportunity. and that is why every spare moment, i don't want to take you off the job, every spare moment we need to organize and keep building the capacity, keep building this framework so we can make that powerful argument to get this extended. i am still hopeful we can make this happen. what do we all want? when we want it?

what we want? when do we want it? where are we going to get a photo? let's go out and get it.

>> good morning. i am the executive director of

the transportation authority. your emcee for the event. it brings me tremendous pleasure to welcome you all, notable visitors, elected officials to the event which is the groundbreaking for a contract 4 on the presidio park where project which will deliver the southbound battery tunnel and detour road that will bring everybody who uses the oil and dive into safety by the middle of 2011. we are delighted to be able to use this opportunity. back in october, we had a ground-breaking ceremony for the project as a whole.

we had the speaker of the house nancy pelosi with us. the mayor was here, other dignitaries. at the time, we were looking at the oil drive -- doyle drive. we now have a different project for the 21st century. it is an example of what partnership and inventiveness and the full participation of the amazing community of san francisco residents can do to create a project that is really worthy of the amazing natural setting of the presidio park, the largest urban park in the park system. let me start by making some acknowledgements. we have some speakers who i will

introduced in a moment, but i am very pleased to welcome to the event, dan representing the speaker's office. i would also like to have very much thank christine from senator feinstein's office, as well as mega miller, a field representative team for senator boxer. in that knowledge and then come i want to the knowledge and leadership of both senators and their vision for how important this project is from the first moment, they have been a steadfast force in washington, d.c. for us. together with the speaker, they have been a formidable set of champions for this were the project. i also want to it knowledge the chief operating officer of the

presidio trust. a major comeback indispensable partner in the product -- execution of this project. we have had the pleasure of working with him for several years and look forward to working with them and the future until the project is completed. i also want to acknowledge the first vice-president of the golden gate bridge district team. i also want to thank the chief engineer. of course, the study on doyle drive. mary curry, the leader of public affairs. let me take a moment to introduce the administrator of the federal highway administration. we are simply delighted that he has been able to take time from his busy schedule, which he

spent reshaping the way we think about transportation, to come to san francisco to be here with us. when he leaves today, he will take with him this memento. it is a little shovel. we are giving you a paper shovel made right here in san francisco that has embedded in it native plant from the presidio. take them to your house, put them in a pot and you will have a piece of the presidio park with forever. it may even bloom.

plastic? no, it is recycled american paper. american trees. there you have it, the ultimate sustainable gift. victor mendez is an extremely good choice as the highway administrator. he has been on the job exactly one year and three days. victor was here in october to help us kickoff the project. he oversees almost 3000 employees at the highway administration. it is no stranger to overseeing things. as director of the arizona highway department, he had a challenge their. he is a civil engineer. i always like to say -- since i

am a civil engineer, too -- we can actually manage, and many of them do. they can think big. there is another example of someone not buying the traditional idea of what a freeway is, how people should move, and in doing a tremendous job to change the thinking in washington. that has been recognized by professional organizations around the country. he has been the president of many organizations. it is an honor for me to introduce him today as the first speaker in the program. victor mendez. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. how are we? nice and risk.

i came from where it is hot and humid on the east coast, to hear. it surprised me. it surprised me, everybody wanted to accompany me to san francisco. one lucky person got the assignment. thank you for all of you for being here today. it is brisk but i am enjoying it. thank you for creating this. mayor, great to see you again. many of us were here to kick off the project. a lot of you were here as well, and i am glad you are back to continue with us. as i continue to talk to the people hear about this project, and beyond this, i have to say to all of you, as a region, congratulations. you have an incredible partnership here.

it is clear that you all are working together, as different organizations, larger organizations have to fund balance on the big issues, you are doing that, and that is allow you to move forward and turn vision into reality. so congratulations to all of you. as i mentioned, i was here nine months ago for the kickoff. speaker pelosi was here. mayor newsom once here. level of support you have from your elected officials is incredible. speaker policy has been, on the national level, been helping us, as well as our committee chairman senator boxer. as well, senator feinstein has been very supportive of our transportation initiatives. we are here today to celebrate the continuation of doyle drive. it is important for me to

recognize the importance of the recovery act. what we are doing today is try to maintain this by the land so that we can stand up to a potential earthquake in the future. but that is just part of the story, if you think beyond that parameter. across the nation, from the recovery act perspective, many similar products are occurring. we are rebuilding the economy as we rebuild the infrastructure. to run the nation, there are a lot of contacts on the shelf that would not become reality now if it was not for the recovery act. that was a major infusion to pay with to move transportation colon and has been very helpful. of course, lots of men and women like the ones here today that would have not had a job without the recovery act. if you think about where we were one year ago in the economy, the recovery act was the primary purpose to create jobs. so i and phase here to celebrate

not just the project but the rebuilding of america. president obama has called this the summer of rebuilding. we are going to have more than 11,000 projects under way. we are improving 30,000 miles of road with this summer. if you think about it, that is 10 round trips between here and washington, d.c. we are improving safety, the infrastructure, and at the same time, creating jobs. it is also about making our communities more livable so that parents can have a stiffer ride to their kids' school. people can travel from point a to point b and spend more time with your friends and families and less time stuck in traffic. as i mentioned, of course, we are creating jobs.

local suppliers come all local stores, restaurants, will benefit from this investment. overall, the recovery act is responsible for 2.5 million jobs throughout the country, with and the thousands of towns created solely with and transportation sector. while the recovery has not reached every business and home, we believe strongly we are heading in the right direction. doyle drive is one of the largest recovery tax in the country -- or cover act projects in the country. california will receive more recovery act funding than any other state. almost $2.6 billion. the money is committed to 943 projects with hundred and divide the summer. 122 of those proud of are

already complete. as the work shows here, those products are being done with an eye toward enhancing safety, respect of the environment, and making california more livable. i also wanted to move this project for another reason, which is important to u.s. dot. that reason is we are involving a number of small and disadvantaged businesses, a key goal of u.s. dot. you see the new equipment here. that is simply because of the investment small businesses are able to make because of the recovery act. it is critical that small business is also a part of -- not just sharing in the economy -- by helping us to recover from an economic standpoint. let me close with a few words about our main priority as u.s. dot, and that is safety. we have many projects across the country that are underway and we

need to be extra careful when driving through work zones. we want to make sure that men and women building the infrastructure are safe, and that is important for all of us. i would ask you to please keep that in mind. whenever you are behind the wheel, please turn off your cell phone and pay attention to your driving. i were transportation secretary ray lahood is leading a national effort to bring attention to the dangerous act of talking while driving. in closing, i want to say thank you for being here. thank you for being part of this great regional partnership, your ability to move things forward. once again, from a safety perspective, please buckle up, put away your cell phones while driving, and drive safely. thank you and congratulations. thank you. [applause]