>> hey, everybody. welcome to portsmouth square. i am director of sustainable streets with the sfmta. once again, we are very pleased to be the lead agency in sponsoring the sunday streets

program for 2011. it is one of a series of very healthy and family-friendly events to take place in san francisco to promote walking, biking, and just generally taking advantage of the streets that are open and car-free, but it is more than that. i think it is also a chance for the residents of san francisco to reconnect not only with themselves, but the rich, diverse neighborhoods that connect our community. we have been very fortunate to have this program embraced by both residents and merchants, and the rapid spread of the program is a testimony of how popular it has become. this program would not have been possible without the cooperation from our fellow city agencies as

well as the mayor's office and all of the private partners we have the i will get into a in a little bit. speaking of the mayor's office, i would like to introduce mr. edwin lee, mayor of san francisco. mayor lee: good morning. i'm happy to be here, joining our supervisor from district 3 and president of the board, david chiu. sunday streets has been around for about three years. in 2008, we began with a couple of events. we were learning from some great cities throughout the world, particularly bogota, colombia, where we have learned from that mayor and from international leaders how wonderful that event was, in terms of not only taking over the streets, but connecting up with our neighborhoods. if you know anything about me, having been a former dpw

director and city administrator and now mayor, you know i have a passion for linking up all of the neighborhoods in the city as much as possible. and i will talk about that later because it becomes invaluable to events like what we have seen in japan to really have strong neighborhoods. but what i want to announce today is next sunday, march 20, is the first of eight planned sunday streets kickoffs. next sunday, we began in the embarcadero. it will be linking up fisherman's wharf, and it will have links to all over from france wobble of are all the way up to our first, and we will have one every single month for the beginning of winter. i want to thank our sponsors this year. bank of america is a big sponsor of wall with our traditional sponsors.

at&t, the bay area quality district, which will streets -- they have all been great sponsors. this year, i want to announce that we have a brand new route. in addition to 7, which we will do all over the city, we are going to add chinatown and north beach to our city streets -- to our sunday streets. that is going to be wonderful. it is one i have been trying to oversee as city administrator, working with our liveable streets and our chinatown chamber of commerce, our chinatown merchants association -- they are all very excited, and we will be looking at the way we have been using grant avenue, all the way through north beach, from california, across broadway, so we will have more details about that, but we do not have a date announced for that. we are working out the details, and we will listen carefully to all of the needs and concerns of our merchants along the area,

residents, to make sure it is successful. the nice part of sunday streets -- it is not just the physical closing of the streets. it is really the way we work with all elements of our community to make sure we bring out things that are great for kids, for families, and the merchants will have an opportunity to read prioritize the way they welcome their traditional visitors and buyers. we are not selling this as another street fair, if you will. it is very different. its emphasis will be on the use of the streets and the use of our alleyways, particularly in chinatown, and how they can be opened up for different, creative uses. we will be creatively working with our school districts, with our public health departments, our social service departments, and rethinking how we can use the streets to do everything from exercising, for introducing new ways of playing on our streets, and to make sure that

they are safe, that there are new people that want to look not solely at traffic and react to it, but look at new ways of using our streets. that is what we are trying to do. i know the people behind me are committed. they are excited about working with the city. this is an official sponsorship that we do with our neighborhoods. i said earlier, what i'm all about in terms of my year being a mayor here is i want to make sure that we have even slight sunday streets, have events like our clean teams that we do on saturdays, where members of the community come out and work with all of us together to kind of know who they call on 311 every day. it is people that really want to connect with the neighborhood. if you have strong neighborhoods, if you have our mta working with public health, public works, fire and police

officers, working together with president associations, the associations, the environmental groups that have sprung up over many years of concern about our environment and our climate change and the use of our oceans -- when you have us working together to celebrate things like different uses of our streets, you start building a stronger connection, so that when even do challenge us, we are stronger for that very purpose, that we are already working together, that we are no stranger to breaking down bureaucratic walls, whether it is our libraries, our police departments, our fire departments. we are used to doing all of that, and that makes us a stronger, more connected city, and ultimately, it is about making a city connected all the way. i'm excited that our bicycle coalition has been working with me on opening up even more of our streets as we introduce companies whose workers want to ride to work every single day. that is exciting. i want to announce today that

the kickoff for our sunday streets, announcing additional ones, that we are having them every single month. there will be a sunday designated. dates will be set, and we will be adding more, so we will have a total of eight this year. we are not beating 2009. i think they have nine events. in 2008, we had, i think, six events. we are actually building upon all of our experiences, getting more people involved, different people, people of all walks of life, so thank you very much. [applause] >> as mayor lee mentioned earlier, the first event is going to be march 20, next sunday, and the venue is the central and northeast waterfront. it's communities are represented by our president of the board of supervisors, david chiu.

he would like to say a few words. supervisor chiu: thank you. good morning, everyone. i would like to echo how excited i am about the event we are about to kick off. in particular, i want to talk about the very special neighborhoods that will be included in sunday streets this year. most of you know that the neighborhoods of san francisco are the densest neighborhoods west of the mississippi, and the two neighborhoods being added to sunday streets today, north beach and chinatown, are the densest neighborhoods within the densest neighborhoods west of the mississippi. chinatown and north beach are not just the most historic and oldest and some of the most important neighborhoods that we have here in san francisco, but these are neighborhoods that have very little open space, and both north beach and chinatown, we do not have front porches. we do not have backyards. we do not have many places for people to play, for young people

to run around, and was on the streets is going to mean for the residents of chinatown and north beach will be an opportunity for all of our generations to join the rest of the city and plate. for our young people, our families, and seniors, and this is why it is so wonderful to be here as part of this kickoff announcement, but also, for this new announcement about the inclusion of chinatown and north beach. these are two neighborhoods that have been in recent years working in close partnership, and i want to thank the neighborhood association, the resident groups, and the merchant groups who have come here today to partner with our city government, our city agencies represented here, as well as our wonderful nonprofits -- livable city, walk sf, the bicycle coalition, that have had this vision for many years, and i want to thank our corporate sponsors, without a home this event would not happen. i want to see all of you playing on the streets. in coming months, i will be

riding on my bicycle, and i expect to see you guys enjoying the sun or enjoying the occasional cloud. thank you for being here. [applause] >> the supervisor mentioned the importance of partnership. one of the major partners we have in this effort is livable cities, especially susan king, who handles the day-to-day operations of this program. without her, things would be a lot more difficult to manage, so i appreciate all the help she has given us. susan, would you like to say a few words? >> thank you. i would like to introduce myself as the man behind the curtain. obviously not a man, but there's a lot that goes on to make sunday streets happen. it is a wonderful collaboration between city agencies, nonprofits, social service agencies, and it is a truly wonderful collaboration, and

livable city is proud to be at the center of that, helping to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. we try to address any concerns. we are not responsible for the weather. i put in a call, but i have not heard back. we will have to see how that goes. nonetheless, this is an exciting opportunity for people to get out and explore new neighborhoods, explore their own city, meet their neighbors. we mentioned a few of our partners, and i really wanted to give a shout out to some of the groups that have played a really important part by providing resources that make this free event really possible. one big change this year is the event is going from 11 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. this change was precipitated by people who wanted more -- the event to go longer in the day, but also, because we are reaching out to religious institutions and churches, and for many of them, sunday is a day of worship. by moving it back an hour, this gives those people an

opportunity to carry about with their morning worship and still have time to come out and enjoy the day. this evolution is really going to help reach more people than we have been. a couple of our major sponsors. this year, bank of america is our lead partner, and we thank them for their leadership. at&t, another strong sponsor, both of whom are really pitching in. the bay area air quality management district is one of our long responses from going out to 2008. the department of rec and park. all of the park's that the events take place on our rec and park property. shape up, san francisco. the california pacific medical center. the american red cross provides all of our emergency medical. the san francisco bicycle coalition runs our volunteer program. california outdoor roller sports association provides the fund on

eight wheels and also a lot of the sound equipment that we use at these events. city car share, bike and roll, blazing saddles, they city bikes all provide necessary resources. the port, san francisco federal credit union. the exploratorium. you will hear later about the fisherman's wharf looks joining us march 20. thank you. [applause] ms sunday streets is all about biking, walking, and getting there by transit, so these are all very healthy activities. speaking of health the activities, we are pleased to have the department of public health as one of our major partners. i would like to introduce christine from the health department. [applause] >> good afternoon. shape up san francisco is so

excited that we are once again doing sunday streets. it is the perfect epitome of what shape of san francisco is about, creating environments that make it easy and fun for people to get out there and play, be physically active. liveable streets is incredibly important to this. i'm grateful to the city as a whole for offering this fun, safe places for people to get out and play. that is all i have to say. thank you. [applause] >> as susan mentioned earlier, one of our major partners and nonprofits is the bicycle coalition. they are responsible for helping us organize all of the volunteers, and we are totally indebted to them. we would not have happened without their support. i would like to introduce the executive director of the bicycle coalition. [applause] >> good morning. thank you, first of all, to all our friends in chinatown for welcoming us back. my first sunday streets started

out back here. was it three years ago? it is amazing it has been that long and we have grown so much. i want to echo and really recognize what mayor lee said. this really is about connecting our neighborhoods. when do we see folks from neighborhoods across the city coming out on their bicycles, their skateboards, their strollers, on their two feet, and walking, enjoying linking neighborhood to neighborhood. i love to come here and sample some of the amazing food, to go to fisherman's wharf and the they're not as a tourist, but as a local, go to the mission and check out the flavor of 24th street, to connect to ocean beach at golden gate park. this event is about displaying the best of san francisco, for those of us who live here. it is not only healthy and great for the environment. not only a great way to give the family activity at a low cost, but it is a great way to increased -- to appreciate our city, and that is what i love. i want to share also that we are really thrilled that we are seeing the spirit and lessons

learned in sunday streets come home every day to regular lives. i know several families whose children learn to ride their bikes during sunday streets. sunday streets was their back yard, their front yard, a place that their kids could learn to ride their own two wheels, and those kids are writing to school some days, to golden gate park, in joining the city on their own. it really is an event that keeps giving on regular life, too, not just on event days. and it would not happen, of course, without all of the amazing city leadership, the amazing general sponsors -- generous sponsors. it also would not happen without hundreds of volunteers. i'm going to ask right now, everyone threes' spread the word. we still need hundreds of volunteers. jack l. sundaystreetssf.com. -- check out.

join us and enjoy what is i think one of the best activities in all of san francisco. thank you all so much. [applause] >> as you know, this year's lead sponsor is bank of america. we are very pleased to have them on board and would like to introduce michele from the b of a. >> thank you very much. we are looking forward to coming down to sunday streets and taking advantage of all the help become a wonderful outdoor activities that this event will have to offer. we know that private sector support is critical in bringing these events to the community, and we are happy to be able to support these events this year. neighborhood excellence is very much a philanthropic focus for the bank, our support of these activities makes a lot of sense for us, so if you want to find out about more of our neighborhood activities, i invite you to visit our web site and find out more about neighborhood excellence

initiatives. thank you. >> another major sponsor is at&t, and we are very glad that they are on board for the last several years. >> good morning. on behalf of a native san franciscan and resident raising my family here, i can say that my five year-old learn how to ride his bicycle during our sunday streets last year. this is -- i want to thank the leadership of san francisco, our organizations, our nonprofits, our public and private sector, and i do have to thank president chiu because it was a day i was sitting in his office when tom walked in, and we started walking -- talking about sunday streets, and a couple of days later, he secured the sponsorship. certification it is about working together and connecting, and it is a great opportunity. so thank you for bringing all of us together for this wonderful

event and to help us celebrate the beauty of san francisco. thank you. [applause] >> we have both new and old partners, and one of the oldest we have in the program is the fisherman's wharf community benefit district. representing them here today is kevin carroll, the executive director. the first event is in his back yard, so he would like to say a few words. >> thank you very much. i grew up playing on fisherman's wharf, so to have an event in our back yard as exciting. fisherman's wharf wants to thank the mayor and president chiu for their support and our partnership. we started with sunday streets when it began, and we are pleased to welcome san franciscans and people from the bay area back down to fisherman's wharf this sunday. it will be nice out, and we will

host a great family event. all sorts of activities for people and families to enjoy. and our partners on pier 39 are also going to have activities at the front of their location as well as music for people to enjoy. we want to thank you and invite you to come down and enjoy sunday streets and fisherman's wharf next sunday. thank you. [applause] >> as we conclude, i would like to thank our media partners, also, for helping us get the word out, and i also see, in the audience. he is the executive director of liveable cities, whose major nonprofit partner. lastly, i want to find all the partners from our city sister agency -- agencies.

and last of all but not least, the sfmta staff for getting this program together. i want to thank every one of them for their contribution. so we will see you this sunday, and looking forward to biking, walking, and if you can make it, get there by transit. [applause] >> this concludes the press conference, but i did want to invite you -- we have the president of the north beach merchants. >> welcome to culture wire. we will look at the latest and greatest public art project. recently, the airport unveiled the new state of the art terminal. let's take a look.

the new terminal service and american airlines and virgin america was designed by a world- renowned architecture's firm. originally built in 1954, the building underwent massive renovation to become the first registered terminal and one of the must modern and sustainable terminals and the united states. the public art program continues its 30-year legacy of integrating art into the airport environment with the addition of five new commissions that are as bold and dynamic as the new building. >> this project was completed in record time, and we were able to integrate the artist's early

enough in the process that they could work with the architect said that the work that is completed is the work that really helps complement and instill the space as opposed to being tucked away in a corner. >> be experience begins with the glass facades that was designed with over 120 laminated glass panels. it captures the experience of being under or over clouds when flying in a plane. depending on the distance or point of view, it can appear clear for more abstract and atmospheric. the subtle colors change gradually depending on the light and the time of day. >> i wanted to create an art work that looks over time as well as working on in the first glance. the first time you come here, you may not see a.

but you may be able to see one side over the other. it features a couple of suspended sculptures. each was created out of a series of flat plains run parallel to each other and constructed of steel tubing. >> it is made up of these strata. as the light starts to shift, there is a real sense that there is a dynamism. >> it gives the illusion that this cultures might be fragments of a larger, mysterious mass. >> the environmental artwork livens it with color, light, and the movement. three large woven soldiers are suspended. these are activated by custom

air flow program. >> i channeled air flow into each of these forms that makes it move ever so slightly. and it is beating like a heart. if-0 when as of the forces of nature moving around us every second. >> shadow patterns reflect the shapes of the hanging sculptures. the new terminal also features a children's play areas. both of the market the exploratory n.y. -- exploratorium. the offer travelers of all ages a playful oasis. using high quality plywood, they created henches shaped like a

bird wings that double as musical instruments. serving as a backdrop is a mural featuring images of local birds and san francisco's famous skyline. >> in the line between that is so natural, you can see birds and be in complete wilderness. i really like that about this. you could maybe get a little snapshot of what they are expecting. >> it is an interactive, keck sculpture that is interacted with by the visitor. >> they are a lot about and they fall down the belt. it moves the belt up, and if you turn that faster, the butterflies fall in the move of words.

>> the art reflect the commission's commitment to acquiring the best work from the bay area and beyond. in addition to the five new commissions, 20 artworks that were already in the airport collection were reinstalled. some of which were historically cited in the terminal. it includes major sculptures by the international artists. as a collection, these art works tell the story of the vibrant arts scene in the early 1960's through the mid-1980s's. the illustrate san francisco's cultural center and a place of innovation that is recognized and the love throughout the world. one of the highlights is a series of three left tapestries. they are on view after being in storage for 20 years.

these tapestries representing various gardens. from his years of living in san francisco. hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and whilst dahlias in rich, deep shades as they make their way to the baggage area. they can access behind-the- scenes information and interviews with the artist through an audio to work. it features archival audio as well as interviews with living artists. he can be accessed on site by dialing the telephone numbers located near the artwork or by visiting the commission's web site. the public art speaks volumes of san francisco as a world-class city