[horns honking] [siren wails]

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would like to introduce the mayor of san francisco and the newly elected lieutenant governor of california, gavin newsom. [applause] mayor newsom: is that me? supervisor, i'm not ready for this. welcome, everybody, and thank you all very much for coming out today on this special ribbon cutting. supervisor maxwell and i were colleagues on the board of supervisors when this project was first brought up. i remember the controversy like it was yesterday. originally, as you know, this was supposed to be home depot. exactly. i knew it would be like saying

the dodgers of san francisco or something. people immediately started to align themselves up in tents, those that just could not imagine a home depot, could not imagine a big box retailer in the city and county of san francisco. i remember all the community meetings of on the hill. all over. we were all over the city having community meetings about the basic future of san francisco and what kind of city we wanted. were we a city of neighborhoods, or were we just going to find a suburbanized san francisco as our future? that was the debate, and home depot had to come to the table, spend a great deal of time with supervisor maxwell. the other supervisors wanted nothing to do with it at the time. but supervisor maxwell was open and wanted to make sure if there was ever going to be a retailer

like that or a big box like this, that there had to be some strong commitments to the community, and they needed to take shape in a private meeting. they needed to be on paper. they needed to be in writing, and we needed to make sure the attorneys were there so that all those commitments were enforceable. then, home depot, out of nowhere, decided to take off, just like sirens on that engine, and all that work, the macroeconomics of the world started to change, and they decided they had gone through the entire process, those arrows, those slings, and they went through all of that, and we had this incredible untitled project. every single thing approved. all those commitments. and the supervisor -- i remember the day after that announcement. we were on the phone talking

with michael cohen, saying what do we do? and we got this call from lowe's saying they might be interested. i remember that conversation. we said, "can you believe this?" we were pinching ourselves saying, "this is too good to be true if." there were a lot of disappointments because of the commitments that were made and the negotiated agreements, and we had gone through all the politics of this, and we finally -- the community was very supportive out here. not unanimously, but overwhelmingly supportive. we thought it was time to follow through on our commitment to the people of bayview hunters point, particularly 94124 area code. days became weeks and weeks became months, and folks in the mayor's office, my office, and supervisor maxwell's office, and lowe's said they were willing to

accept all the commitments that previous books made. we thought they would say they would commit to everything, but then we thought they would start to unravel, and they would pull back. but the reality is they said they would commit and they committed. and here we are, and they did exactly that. the local hires i think are without precedent of any big project in this city. this is real on the destruction inside and the permanent jobs that are being created. that is a pretty extraordinary thing. 211 or so jobs. 88% are just from in and around the area. it is an extraordinary story. i'm really proud of lowe's.

we are not jumping up and down four big boxes. we will be candid. we love the sales tax. this is a big deal. but we are sensitive to what big stores do. because you guys are so good that some of the little guys can be threatened by it, but this location was the right location. this boulevard needed the economic stimulus, the anchor. look at all the fresh paint across the street. it did not always look like that. you are going to see in the next few years this boulevard take shape. if lowe's continues to be the employer they have proven to date, a lot of families will benefit because of the jobs created because of this, so thank you for following through on all your promises. so far, you are one of the good ones, and we want to keep saying that for years to come.

i thank supervise the maxwell for getting in the mix and holding strong because it was not easy. i was watching those votes, and, man. [applause] all the commitments on the work force training money, the day laborer program, all those new trees we were going to get -- thank you for holding steadfast. michael cohen and all the folks in my office that helped make this possible. we are on our way out. we have had the best dam year. this is like 1998 and again or something. there's so much to be proud of or thankful for. with that, your supervisor,

supervisor sophie maxwell. [applause] >> thank you. i remember like yesterday those five to six votes, but what made a difference was the community. what made a difference was young community developers and hard hats and yellow vests lining up the walls. 60, 70 of them, and each of them speaking about the opportunities that they wanted to become working people. they wanted jobs and they wanted a leg up, and that is what this was about, so that is what i remember. i remember 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning, but it was all worth it. i can hardly find a parking place this year. i'm really excited, and this boulevard -- you are right. we are working on becoming a home improvement district with lowe's being the anchor, so i think you are going to find a

lot of fascinating things happening in this area, this district, so i want to thank the mayor and all of my colleagues. the so-called progressive -- they do not relate like economic development that much. they like programs. so aaron said that it was going to be rough, and i told him to represent the people standing here, and he did. i want to thank all the people who are going to come here and the 50% from 94124 and 93134. thank you for that. >> and thank you to look of 22, local 261, to rsr construction. thank you very much. now, we are going to hand it

back to lowe's and have the ribbon cutting. thank you. >> with all of that, we just want to thank everyone. first from the city of san francisco for welcoming us. we opened the doors, and it has been wonderful hearing all the comments from the customers about how excited they were to come into lowe's and how they look forward to come into lows. i want to thank the community and neighborhood for welcoming guests -- welcoming us. i want to thank the honorable mayor of san francisco and sophie maxwell for welcoming us. i would like to thank rhonda simmons and her wonderful and entire staff for her guidance

and support, and i would like to thank everyone for the partnership. i would like to thank derek smith for his guidance with this whole project. without your advice, i think we would be wandering through, wondering where to go. i would also like to thank my district manager for his support and guidance, but most of all, i would like to thank short construction and the storm voice and their families for the hard work and dedication and the hours away from home that they spent building this store. it was a wonderful experience to bond with our group that were from this community. [applause]

i would like to cite -- to thank malcolm x academy for allowing us to do a super heroes project at their school where we repainted and unified their school and planted for them and help them with their nutrition project, but i would like to present the thurgood marshall high school a check for $1,000. from cost to you, -- from us to you, thank you so much. [applause] we would also like to present to san francisco city coalition at

$5,000 tool donation. [applause] now, lowe's would like to have the mayor and district supervisor do our board cutting ceremony.

[applause] mayor newsom: congrats, everybody. worked out. worked out for the neighborhood as well.

>> i work with the department of environment and we are recycling oil. thank you. we can go into a refinery and we can use it again. they do oil changes and sell it anyway, so now they know when a ticket to a. hal>> to you have something you want to get rid of? >> why throw it away when you can reuse it? >> it can be filtered out and used for other products.