mean. thank you. i want to say is an honor to share this platform with so many accomplished people. i feel thrilled to be among you and to speak to this assembly today. more than that, it is a joy to represent the residents. i am thrilled that you have allowed me to be a voice for some of their feelings and concerns. and i want to tell you a bit about us as residents. we came from all different walks of life in the city. we have had jobs having to do with construction and bus driving, and we have had white collar jobs, and we have been independent artists and writers. the full spectrum have come to laguna honda.

and in our day we were great participants in all of the city life. difficult circumstances, sometimes crushingly difficult, have brought many of us here at last to laguna honda. not at last for some of us. despite all differences, we need the healing that laguna honda is famous for. some people who come will be rehabilitated and will leave sunday. others will need 24-hour care for the rest of their lives, and so they will look forward to spending time in the spending -- in this building for years to come. it is exciting to have a new building. it is even more exciting to receive a new model of care, care that is resident centered, care that honors each person as

an individual instead of a body in a bed. care that involves talking to us, and more important, listening to us, hearing our voices. so many have worked so hard, has you have been told -- as you have been told, to bring the state to pass. and now we have a dazzling new setting to present to you. when you leave today, you will be going home. but laguna honda residents will not be leaving. this is our home. and it is very important to us. we are already here. but please come back and visit us frequently. this wonderful new laguna honda would not exist without you. i just want to add a personal note. my younger sister, emily, was a resident here for many more years than i have been. she was greatly loved.

we lost her recently. i would like to dedicate this speech to her and remembered her, as many of the residents do, with great fondness and affection. thank you all. [applause] >> i would like to invite you all nowi that good enough? this is a participatory ribbon cutting. it requires nothing more complicated than this. i will ask you to count down, not up.

upon conclusion, we will applaud the great works of turner construction, the dedicated men and women who are still toiling inside to get this project completed, which begs the question when will the residents be moving in that? there is an easy answer -- soon. [laughter] [crowd chants a countdown] [applause] go ahead in an orderly manner.

♪ >> it is has been quite a few weeks here in san francisco. mayor newsom: we balanced the budget and celebrated we did not lay off police officers. we expanded our universal preschool program. we did so without raising taxes. we got our budget on time. we did not borrow a significant amount of money. we were able to address significant concerns of the school district by using dollars from the rainy day reserve and transferring them over. we are proud of that. then we kicked off 12 pieces of

legislation i signed establishing the framework for the southeast sector redevelopment deal. [applause] supervisor maxwell and other community leaders established the framework where we will provide 10,500 units 30% below market. we will provide hundreds of thousands of square feet of new retail with acres of open space and new parks, literally kne millions of feet of space for r&d, areas for outdoor amphitheaters and an outdoor stadium, we hope that is for the san francisco forty-niners. the artist colony was preserved. we will be rebuilding the ellis griffin public housing site. -- we will be rebuilding the

alice griffith public housing sites. it is 30 years of hard work coming to fruition. we are marking the economic development of this part of san francisco and marketing at the economic development of san francisco for the next 30 or 40 years. that means tens of thousands of jobs and all kinds of infrastructure improvements. if that was not enough from the budget to the hunters point deal, we were also an extraordinarily proud to have had speaker nancy policy out here, senator barbara boxer out here, and countless others celebrate our groundbreaking at the terminal. we will be developing a world- class grand central station on the west coast of the west coast. i call it a grander station. it is a new intermodal facility

creating a regional transit hub. 11 transit agencies will feed in from 88 area counties into this world class hub. there will be ground-floor retail. there will be 2600 new units of housing. 30% of them will be available below market. there will be the ability ultimately to connect the high- speed rail from san francisco to l.a. and ultimately down to anaheim and eventually to sacramento. to have the key terminus there at the terminal. the speaker was there. she has been extraordinarily helpful for decades. she was disproportionately influential with the great support of secretary lahood who was also of the press conference. they got $400 million of the

stimulus money. $400 million will be going to this site to create this framework, a train box will allow for the terminus of a high-speed rail and extension into this new terminal. it will be the heart of the new downtown of san francisco. it is a $1.6 billion first phase in terms of the new frame. then it will be $400 million for the structural frame for the new train box that will allow for this facility to truly be everything we are hoping and imagining it will be. this is something will also anchor our economic future.

we will be doing that for the economic future of our city and for the entire region. at the end of the day when jobs and the economy continue to grow, we will see congesting. people forget that in the 1990's when we saw job growth, we saw commensurate transportation congestion of roughly 200% as a consequence of the job growth. when our regional economy comes back, the key differentiator will be transportation, alternative means of transportation. we cannot build enough freeways, highways, bridges, and roads. it has to be public transit. the buses and light rail will affect the economic fate and future of the region,

particularly in san francisco. tens of thousands of jobs, some estimate up to 48,000 jobs will be created over the life of this terminal and a new neighborhood development and redevelopment. both of those projects are of such magnitude and significance that if we do nothing else in the city, that should give people confidence about our future in terms of the ability to set the course for revitalizing our city and being competitive on an international basis. it is not about nations and states now. it is about cities and immature regions -- metro regions. these metro regions will be competing with others around the globe.

there is the commitment now from the federal government that we will have the resources to development this infrastructure and transportation hub that will give us the anchor into san francisco in terms of job creation and the like. those are two significant things in addition to the balanced budget. this week, we are celebrating a third. none of this was easy. all of this came together in the last couple of weeks. this came together just a few days ago with treasure island. >> signing this endorsement, we ensure that this site will remain a source of jobs for our community for decades to come. >> 8000 hhousing units to be developed with additional space for open space. there will be the ability to

create a new town center and ferry service to the island. there will be a new strategy in terms of the straddle is age -- of the usage of wind, water, and solar. all of these things are remarkable planning. it is a visionary plan to take an old navy base that was literally a wpa project that was sand and rocks them into the bay for the world's fair. it was to eventually become the san francisco airport. it never did, thankfully. the navy had it for over 50 years. they began the process in 1993. it was in 1994 that things started in earnest. mayor willie branown and mayor

frank jordan worked hard on this. we created this new framework of profit participation, the first ever in the history of this country where a news polity like san francisco, a private developer, and the navy came together. each one has a stake in the other's success. this is why the secretary of the need avy was here with speaker pelosi. it will not officially be executed until the environmental review is done next year. we signed an agreement, the three of us. again, this is all about jobs. this is all about real imagining our vision to include jobs, housing, and a light to focus on taking an old property that is not servicing a lot of good in

terms of what it produces economically and creating a framework where we think we will be doing something that will be in the -- envy of cities around the world. it is something to really celebrate. even if you feel pessimistic about your city and that there are a huge amount of challenges, i think people will mark this moment in san francisco history as a really proud moment as we look forward to replicating the success that is now taking shape in mission bay and replicating the best we have to offer in terms of sustainable values as opposed to situational values. we're thinking about how the city will look imagine how we will look as people in the next 20 or 30 years. i wanted to mark this week' and

this message in light of those extraordinary projects that have all gotten to the next phase and level. now it is all about application and implementation having a framework where we are creating jobs and opportunities and revitalizing these areas. that is it for the week. i also wanted to note that we had some success in the central part of market street this week. we're down there with the partnership. it is a more modest redevelopment strategy and new business just opened down there. we will be doing these arts markets at u.n. plaza. it will be happening on august 19. in a couple of weeks, i will be announcing that we will be doing dance, music, and theater.

we will be bringing it out on the streets and sidewalks around the central market area starting at the old navy plaza. this will be happening in late september. we will use it as a catalyst for revitalization and change in the central market area. as we look big, treasure island, hunters point, trans bay terminal and redevelopment. we're going to look small at fifth, sixth, seventh, eight st. and began storefront by storefront -- and began storefront restaurant to look for change. the national endowment recognized our efforts. we hope to do to market street what they did to times square in new york. large and small, but a lot to be thankful for and excited about as it relates to the future of this area.

♪ >> the most important thing abuot this decision was the decision itself, and the words that would matter most are in the 138-page document that are processed in thea ppellate court. they did not just set out to win a lower court decision.

they set out to withstand scrutiny at the appellate level, successfully and unsuccessfully, understanding what the court is up against. judge walker set forth rules that became the foundation to which this will, i believe and hope, be appealed and adjudicated at the supreme court. i'm not a lawyer. i'm not going to profess to make the legal argument that has bee n made.

the most important thing is to get a solid decision out. not a win, but to get a decision where the arguments made are validated, and my understanding was that the points they made that they emphasized were advanced in this decision, and that is a significant thing. so i will leave that to legal scholars, but the next phase of analysis would be the argument, not just the win at walker's court. >> in terms of going ahead with preventive measures, have decisions been made? >> we have always abided the

rule of law. when courts said start and stop, we said we started and we st opped. no one was married today. no one was able to get a certificate or license. there were couples that were quite disappointed. some had come with the impression they would be able to get married this afternoon, and obviously that was another blow. those hopes, nonetheless, are not dashed, and we will see what happens in subsequent decisions as processes of the courts. [unintelligible] >> it's an important point. we had adjudication in california and elsewhere on

state grounds. this is the first court on federal principle, and it is the principle of our founding fathers here. it has been used to expand people's rights, not deny them. to the extent this is a constitutional challenge, this is very much a narrative we have lived with in this country. it is a narrative that is familiar to those in virginia, and the last major constitutional challenge. when we look at the issue of interracial marriage. this is a fast-tracked

narrative, so i am hopeful. i would not have imagined it. we have had good days and bad days, we have seen success advanced around the world, and i don't think anyone could have imagined a more optimistic setting. we have had setbacks in other states that have given us pause and caution. this is who i am, my last breath. this has never been about

politics. you look back in your life and you are staying in principle. you are given a moment in time to do the right thing. i said this to my father about the issue. good people i love disagree. but whether you agree with me or not, you know it. i have a big propblem voting for

people i don't trust, because they are telling me what they think i want to hear, not what i believe. this is what i believe, and my cards are on the table. i saw that as a student of history. in 1967, 70% of americans opposed interracial marriage. there is a fundamental principle here that has been used over and over and over again, for women's rights, racial and ethnic rights. it makes sense. you have a minority of people being oppressed, you need the courts to do that. that's why there are distinguished and separate

branches of government. it's not surprising this has taken the course that it's on. >> the meaningful decision, it was crystal clear that they did not want to just win the decision. they want to win it in the right

way. what i believe is they won it in the right way, which is why this is a more significant victory. but the arguments are compelling that it is positive and successful. justice kennedy, for better or for worse, seems to be the one based on his colorado decision that would be put in the spotlight. he was wright in lawrence v. texas.

it will be interesting to see him argue this, because in so many ways he was prescient. look. personally, this is an extraordinary moment, because real people's lives have once again been affirmed. at the same time, you temper your appreciation because you recognize the work that's been ahead. this is another step in a very long process, but perhaps the most historic and compelling, because this is a federal decision based on the u.s. constitution, and i should remind people, bush wanted to change the constitution for a reason, because he thought there

was something wrong. we think there is something right, that there is nothing in this constitution denying equal protection in due process.