>> my name is mark buell and i have the pleasure of being the chairman of the america's cup organizing committee. nice to see you today. a number of distinguished guests in the audience and on the podium, and i will do my best to knowledge most of them, so do not get your feelings hurt. today, we are presenting one of the conditions in the host city agreement. when mayor newsom and i signed that agreement, we committed to doing certain things to enable the city to put on the best of it possible. one of the most -- i cannot imagine a more critical element to this plan than how we move people during the event. if san franciscans care about anything, it is traffic, parking, movement, and i think today's press conference at the

beginning of this effort acknowledges how seriously we take this situation and how much we want to get it right. there is a provision that by march 31, we begin this with a document, and it will continue until the environmental impact report is finished. there will be plenty of chance for people to comment on it, contribute to. we want that. it is really important for this process to get that. with that, it is my pleasure to introduce to you our newest, biggest supporter of the america's cup in san francisco, our mayor, ed lee. [applause] mayor lee: have the opening day at the giants. [applause] -- happy opening day. i want to give our -- a shot up to are daniels. i wanted to again thank him. right here, we are enjoying the

beautiful sun, and maybe a few decades ago, we would not have been able to do that because of some freeway. but i wanted to thank can because he has been a big supporter and a great advisor of mind and someone who early on enticed me to join government rather than throw stones at it. as markets unveiled earlier, one of the most important plants that will not only have to do, but we must do, if we are going to invite 200,000 people a day to come to our border share along the waterfront and view one of the most spectacular races, the america's cup 34. as i began my -- a couple of months ago, i was forewarned as we made the initial announcements of how already we are, i had gotten some phone calls from quite a few friends, both new and old, who reminded me that the big challenge is

going to be if we are successful in getting this and if it works, how are you going to move people around? how are you going to do its motley? those people came from very good friends, who spent their lives not only dealing with the interactions in our city, but transportation issues as well. so i am unveiling to you today what we have dubbed the people plan, which is our initial draft. and it is just the initial draft. it allows you to see how we are going to take care of these big challenges. i want to thank president chiu, ross mirkarimi, all of the supervisors here in the front row for working with me. all of the mta. with the court, the public works. all the city agencies that have come together. the department of environment as

well. working together with the even authority that formed and with mark and others to help give the initial launch of this draft plan. this plan is a framework, has quite a few details, but it emphasizes how we will approach moving some 200,000 people on a daily basis to the waterfront to view this great race. and it is important that we begin with this draft plan that talks about transit and talks about how we can work with our friends in the bicycle coalition, our friends that are pedestrian-oriented routes, as well as municipal transportation routes. we want to emphasize those modes of transit, just as we just did as we came down from city hall on our municipal railway's. this draft is important, and it

is so important that we do it right, that it is the first plan that we initiate, that we launch in the public. it is one that will be on our website, on the office of economic development workforce development web site. it is there now as we speak, and it talks to you from at least the initial groupings of the apartments that have worked together in concert with the event authority and the organizing committee in anticipation of how we move people. it reflects some very strong principles and some policies. the first one is we have got to have energy efficiency reflected in this plan. the second is it has got to be environmentally sustainable. the third -- it has got to be strategically adaptable, that we can use this plan in a very adaptive way to all the events that happen. finally, another principal

reflected in this plan is it has got to be a positive legacy that we leave with the america's cup. by "positive legacy," we mean that whatever we do, whatever we build, whatever we improve has got to beat an improvement that benefits all san franciscans for generations to come. we're looking at the infrastructure we invest in with a future that not only will handle the 200,000 people a day, the millions of people to come here, but it will benefit our city in the long run, and that is the smarter way of doing it. the reason why we are doing it early is because we know transit is already a challenge. even with the myriad of events that we hold today. they are a challenge, and they will be a challenge again this fall when the giants take on the world series. again, it will be a challenge for us, but a positive challenge. one that we welcome.

america's cup 34, all of the challenges it presents are all challenges to our city, and it is really the kind of event that san francisco was created for. charlotte is saying yes because we know how to handle these kinds of events, and it will take earlier planning. this plan will be posted for at least two months for public comment, for interchange, for all of you transit fanatics, all of the members of the community who want to know how we are going to handle this. please, we are inviting you today to engage with us on this plan, to give us your best ideas. how are we going to utilize our bicycle population to transport people. how are we going to utilize our municipal railway's and the best lines we have, how do we improve them? how we make sure pedestrians, both ones that what get to where they are going in different

modes, but i also want to make sure that we take care of our disabled community as well. i just had a meeting with disabled advocates, and they want to be so much a part of america's cup. how do we have a chance a plan that invites everyone who wants to be here to feel warm, feel well, feel that they can get to all the places they want to view this great race? there is momentum building in this race already. i cannot announce some of the things because staff tells me that i can paste this thing as it goes on for months. but i am already excited by some of the new international teams. they are already registering themselves to join in this historic race. so we have got to do it right. i think we have started with one of the best plans. we will deal with things like waste management or marketing or security as well as other plans that will hopefully engage the public as well, let everybody

know that we are handling this the best way possible, and it is what we have always touted. we are handling this plan in the most san francisco way possible. it begins with the best line of the departments we have, the people responsible for the plan, and i want to say thank you again to the department's that have been working well together, with their enthusiasm, their excitement, to work with all of our key agencies to produce an initial draft with our partners, with transit experts, and not be afraid. the reason we're putting the plan out there on the website is we want that engagement, certainly for the next month, two months, and then we will meet our deadline. with both the authority and organizing committee, we will meet that deadline. we are setting ourselves a

deadline for this transit plan to be adopted by the end of september, and it will, of course be -- many parts of it will be part of our ceqa -- our review and ceqa tests as we build all the other elements together. i want to let the public know we are still at it, let everyone know this event is the most possible event possible, and inviting everyone to do it with us, so please pay attention to this plan. let us know your ideas. let us know your cautions, if you will, and let us know your solutions. we are not just adding more problems to this plan. we are also going to find solutions. i love the fact that the plan is initiated with a western- oriented ways to get here, how we can support that, along with the bicycle that we can use, along with public transit that we can use, and i thank you and invite you to be paying attention to all the other plans

that we will be unveiling in the next few months. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much, mayor lee. before i introduce the next speaker, i want to acknowledge some people that are here. perhaps first and foremost is the president of the america's cup event of 40. thanks for being here. can i tell them how many boats are in and how many you might think might get into this? thank you. he is the guy who knows. i was told about five minutes ago the 13 entries -- no, 12 entries? 13? 14? 14 entries -- it has gone up since i talked to them. that is pretty spectacular. now, we will all hold them to the fire that they get to the starting line. let me acknowledge, and if you hold your applause, i'm going to read a list of distinguished guests that are here today. you are all distinguished. but supervisors

wiener, supervisor eric mar, supervisor mark farrell, thank you for coming. jonah's minted from the planning and conservation league. our port director. dpw director. the of director of the office of economic and workforce development, with the project manager for the america's cup. a round of applause. [applause] she is my boss, too. mike martin, who is heading the city effort to coordinate all this. critical role at this point. thank you. christina from the golden gate yacht club, which is the owner of the contemporary, but we hope long-term owner of the america's cup. and lazarus from the port commission is here. charles schulz --