every aspect of history, or even if you go to a place that you see nobody of color -- i went into an insurance company two days ago and the pictures on the wall was from 1937 and 1951. there was not a black face, there was not a woman and there was not a latino in the picture. that's the myth of absence. and if you see it long enough, you will believe that that is how it's supposed to be and for many of us, we've swallowed the pill, o.k.? we've swallowed the pill and i'm going to close right there, i got one poem and i'm going to get off of here so al can get his program back. me and this boy go back 100 years so we can talk like this, you understand. all right, here we go, do it anyway. people really are unreasonable, illogical and self centered,

love them anyway. if you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives, do good anyway. if you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies but succeed anyway. the good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow but let's do good today anyway. honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable but let's be honest and frank anyway. the biggest ideas with the can be shot down by the smallest of minds. what you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. let's keep building anyway because people need help but they attack you when you help them but let's keep helping them anyway and give the world the best you got and you'll get kicked in the teeth, but guess what, give the world the best you got anyway. thank you very much.

♪ >> i'd like to welcome everybody here today, october 25, for the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of coit tower. [applause] to begin our production today, the san francisco fire department is going to perform an official ladder-raising ceremony. to explain specifically what the activities are is retired captain jack mccloskey. >> thank you very much.

this ladder's been in use in the san francisco fire department for many years, predating area ladders. this particular one is built in 1925 by our central shops and they do a fantastic job out there. the foreman of this ladder crew is larry mcdonald with the american flag on his back. as the ladder goes up it weighs 550 pounds, takes 10 people with the ropes and can reach a height of six stories the >> to sing the national anthem we are very honored to have andrew bidlock, an adler fellow from the san francisco opera. >> ♪ orgse say can you see by the dawn's early light what so proudly we hailed ♪ at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars ♪

♪ through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ory the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ oer the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪

>> good afternoon. what an exciting day for san francisco. when we can all come together to be reminded of our traditions and the courage of our first responders. i'm so excited to be here with the fire chief. he's been remembering how the fire department helped us out of the earthquake some few years before coit tower was built and also of course with our fire chief remembering the important role that the first responders play. telegraph hill has always been a place that our citizens gather in san francisco, the beautiful vantage points over which christopher column buss

looks out. as an italian american i take special pride in the fact that columbus is here. and over the years i took my children and more recently visitors and members of the congress to telegraph hill to see this incredible monument to love of san francisco. to see the murals inside which are a tribute to the working man. some find that controversial. i don't and i think it's time to remind ourselves of that at this time and to remember that those were projects of the w.p.a. but they were also projects of the arts projects encouraging artists to be part of the infrastructure that we were building. i'm delighted to be here with mayor newsome, who takes such special pride in this city shall this great city of san francisco, and every aspect of

it, its beauty, its history and its future and i thank him and senator feinstein, another former mayor, for being honorary co-chairs of this event and making it such a success. and i want to thank the chairman of the board of supervisors, aaron peskin, for being here as well. it's great to be with you, aaron and state senator leno who is with us as well. so many distinguished leaders in our community. it's also great to be here with ken nelly, who is so responsible for making today important. and ann hallstead. you probably think i'm going to name every single person who is here. it probably feels that way. i want to just acknowledge jarrod. the acting head of the parks and rec who guarantees that all this will be as beautiful as

ever. but let me tell you on a personal basis what coit tower means to me and special gratitude to the coit family here today the coit tower when i am in san francisco, and it's not as much as i would like to be, is the firstsite -- first sight i see in the morning and the last sight i see at night. since i work in a bicoastal way, i'm up early and see the sun come up and the first thing that comes into view is coit tower from my home and the sun, when there is sun, glistening off coit tower, is a beautiful, beautiful opening of the day and a reminder of how blessed we are to live in this great place. honoring our history, enjoying our present and future. and then at night, at night when the city goes dark, coilt tower shines from its own lights, not a reflection of the sun. but when it gets to be 12:00,

the lights go down in the city and the lights go off on coit tower and we all know the day has come to an end. so it is a beautiful reminder of the -- all that goes on here morning, noon, and night and probably beyond, that is, it is a reminder to anyone who sees it that it is a symbol of san francisco and it's thrilling to see this great symbol of san francisco. so as we again come here to observe the 75th anniversary of the personality and dynamism of lily coit, we pay tribute to her family, the spirit of san francisco that she so exemplified and the courage of our first responders which we are constantly reminded of. so on behalf of my colleagues in the congress of the united states, waint to congratulate san francisco and the mator and

the officials of our city on this beautiful, beautiful occasion and when congress comes into session again i will be sure to tell them of this wonderful day as a matter of public record of the pride we take in san francisco and of our people, our monuments, and of today, of coilt tower. thank you for allowing me to be part of this special event. >> all right. it's all right. only the speakev of the house of representatives could compete against this. so thanks again, speaker pelosi. and to everybody. how many fomings here are -- folks here are from out of town? and how many of this it's first time you've been up here? you have chosen wisely and picked an outstanding day. welcome. i want to thank obviously all

of you for taking the tame -- time to be here and be part of this rather extraordinary day and i know we say that often. we tend, though, to only say it around the end of september and throughout the month of october when the weather actually cooperates. so it's appropriate and wise to do that. but this is an extraordinary moment because it marks an extraordinary moment in time in the history of san francisco some 75 years ago. in so many ways reflective of the challenges around the world today as it relates to credit crisis, relates to the economy. this was built in the midst of the great depression. this was a gift from someone who passed away just months after the infamous stock market crash that led to that great depression. this was parted of the renewal and rebirth of not only the city and county of san francisco but that commitment to this new deal and investing

in people and workers and investing in our communities and rebuilding the infrastructure of not only our great city but this state an the nation and so much of that is reflected in the leadership of nancy pelosi and the leadership that we are looking forward to in the future come this november adds we vote for real change. -- as we vote for real change in this country. i can't help myself. you know, i'm a little bit biased on the topic. it's also a celebration of our community in san francisco that is a living example of lily coit's contribution. the stew ards of our community, the people like ann halstead, ken bailey, the friends of pioneer park, who oftentimes have stepped up when government cannot and kept this place

maintained, vibranted -- and kept the elected officials focused on the importance of coit tower to the life of the city not only in its picturesque back drop but it's also a very proud symbol for san franciscoans and a very vibrant part of the life of our city so i want to thank all of friends and neighbors that helped not only today but every day are organizing a contribution to coit tower. a big round of applause to ken and ann and the entire team. thank you. thank you. this was not speciesed to happen. -- supposed to happen. when lily coit bequeathed one third of her will to the city and county of san francisco she didn't necessarily have in mind the structure you see behind me. she just wanted to give something back to the city she loved and it was up to the board of supervisors at the

time, 1931, to determine when -- what they should do with the money. the first idea and the one that was promoted in its day was some asphalt and a road to be constructed around lake merced. now, we love lake merced and we're proud of lake merced and it certainly needs a similar type of investment today. but clearly it was like nothing we see today. but it was the witness dovepble the park and recreation commiss, -- commission -- wisdom of the park and recreation commission at the time that said no, we need to do something more substancive, more significant and they decided to reach out got a that built the city hall and the opera house in that great beaux-arts style. for those of you visiting, come down 8:30 to 5:30 monday

through friday to city hall and enjoy one of the most remarkable civic institutions anywhere in the united states. it was done by arthur brown. designed by arthur brown, who came up with this concept. people thought for years that this, and i kid you not, and i know the chief will talk a bit more about some of the legacy and the hysterics and a lot of the rumors about what this was purported to be designed on behalf but i'll leave that -- and no, it's not what you were thinking. that is shameful, really. just not right. but the fact was there were a lot of rumors about this, including the rumors that it was filled, i kid you not, this is a true story, and if san francisco, all of you that love those san francisco stories will probably believe it, they thought it was filled with tomato sauce. it was a big part of the rumor

and folklore around coit tower and that it had secret pipes -- this is a true story -- secret pipes that would be pumped into all the restaurants in the north beach area. >> that's not true? >> that's not true. >> see, the italian speak've of the house is -- speaker of the house is shocked to hear that may not be true. but it's again part of that narrative of this great city that makes us very proud to be members of the community and it's in that spirtd, the spirit of lily coit, the spirit in which she contributed so much of her life's work to give us this remarkable symbol of the passion and the love she had for our city that makes our city so special and so great. happy 75th anniversary and thank you all very much for being out here.

>> it is my great honor to introduce to you assemblyman mark leno. >> thank you. it is a real pleasure to be here with speaker pelosi and mayor newsome, board president aaron peskin. let me welcome all our local visitors as well as our out of town guests. i want to thank them for choosing san francisco and joining us on this historic 0 caverings and for your sales tax dollars we especially need at this time it's a wonderful san francisco day to recount some of our local history. imagine lily coit having over $100,000 in 1929 to leave to the city and county of san francisco as a bequest. i can't wait to see what bill

o'riley does when he recognizes that san francisco is celebrating the philanthropic legacy of a cigar-chomping, card-playing, fire engine chasing, cross-dressing victorian lady. i'm sorry, madame speaker,, but lily coit is the original queen of san francisco values. so i want to -- thank you -- present a little bit of love from the california state assembly. one of the last times i'll be able to do this from the asemplifment i'm about to be turned out. recounting the wonderful history of coit tower. i'll spare you the witty and wonderful whereases but the resolved clause, thanks the pioneer park project, all the leader of the telegraph hill community, vetica and all your leadership and hard work.

it really does a -- take a lot of commitment and effort and tenacity to do all that you do to make coit tower that which it is. congratulations on your 75th. >> ok. we also have with us today the district supervisor for this supervisorial district, number three. who is also the president of the san francisco board of supervisors, mr. aaron peskin. >> thank you, rose. madame speaker, mr. mayor, assemblyman leno, our fire and police chiefs to the commissioners from the recreation and parks commission, visitors and residents alike, i'm here to say words of profound thanks. thanks to the state -- he state of lily hitchcock coit who are

here today, thanks to the united states of america and the works progress administration and the public art works projects 75 years ago. thank you to our recreation and parks department and a number of agencies, our municipal transportation agency, our department of parking and traffic, department of public works, who actually all came together and in an unprecedented piece of cooperation withly. ed -- with limited funds in monday -- honor of the 75th anniversary, have put new panes of glass in, restriped the parking lot and so we actually have some more things to celebrate today. thank you to all those agencied and thank you, mr. mayor. i think there is no more appropriate time to celebrate the 75th anniversary of this icon because it is also an icon of the in deal -- the new deal 75 years ago. this neags -- nation embraced

the new deal in difficult economic times. it was a legacy of art work and creativity and jobs across this country and this is the first example of the public works of art project and that was the first organization under the new deal and so we should celebrate that as we stand on the precipice of change on november 4. thank you and happy 75th. >> ok. as the mayor alluded to, he was referring to. flyshacker at the time in the 1930's who was involved in the decision making process for coit tower. today the president of the recreation and park commission is mr. larry martin. please welcome him. >> thank you, thank you, thank you. i'm honored, i'm so honored to be here with all uven today for such a special moment.

to be here with all the great leaders and to be here with all the great workers that did all of this. this is a great, great historical situation and i'm happy and honored to see this and we're honored to be here with something that looks so fantastic. i am just happy to also, you know, as you know, we do so many things, but this is a great today and all my commissioners that are here with me that's part of that, lazarus and harrison right here, tom harrison, who with the commission and we've been working hard to try to make sure that everything is going on. but you know, i was here 50 years ago. and to see it now is great history, what this looks like today and it is really fantastic and i think it is something of a greatness for

everything. and i'm honored to be here, to be with this and to see it today and the most important part is, we're taking about, is the coit's tower 75ths anniversary. that is fantastic. so i'm honored to be here and so today we're also here with our, you now, our general manager now, our new general manager of the rec and park who's now doing a fantastic job and is on his way doing fantasticness for us today. it is my honor, our new general manager. right here. >> thank you,. martin. thank you speaker pelosi, mr. mayor, mark leno, aaron peskin. we are thrilled in the r.e.c. -- rec and park department to be the home of this incredible department. as you heard before, this is an inspirational symbol to the

world. the mayor often talks about beacons on a hill. this is really a beacon on the hill that speaks to the world about the values san francisco has. one of those values is really preservation of things, making sure that when they're built, they're built to last, that they're beautiful, that their aesthetics are great. this is 75 years later and it's never looked this good. i really want to thank every single person today, i particularly want to thank rose dennis and her team. i want to thank the park rangers and the police department and the fire department and every single city employee who worked so hard over the last few days to make this work today. yesterday we were at the california academy of sciences unvietnamming an incredible sculpture by the artist maya ling. and to me, san francisco has this her i tange of art. we don't want to just put

things up, we want them to be beautiful i go fishing with my kids every weekend. when we're out on the bay this is the symbol we look back to. it isn't the golden gealt bridge, it isn't the trans america building, it's coit tower. and we really feel we've arrived home and hopefully you will feel the same. finally i want to thank the volunteers. the recreation and parks department. you a -- these are difficult financial times. you don't need to hear it from them. you see it on the paper every day. we were not -- would not be able to manage all the parks in san francisco, 242, without incredible people like ann and ken and others here today. so thank you and a big round of applause to the volunteers. right now i want to give a certificate of appreciation first to ken maily. vemplet tica.

thank you. and ann halstead. thank you so much. thanks to you -- back to you, rose. >> one of the major components of this day being a success was the tremendous and spectacular support we received from one of our sister agencies, the saverp fire department. it is -- san francisco fire department. it is our great honor to introduce to you the chief of the san francisco fires department, miss joanne h air. kwhite. >> thank you and -- haiswhite. >> thank you and good afternoon. i would like to say thanks for the great coordination effort. rosie did a great job and the director plinlal.

-- blumenthal. it's a great honor to be standing here before you,, a native daughter. what did you think of the 65-foot ladder race? pretty incredible. i would be certainly remiss if i didn't introduce personally each member. most of them are not working today and they volunteered their time to come here. just like the sheriff's department and police department that play a large role in the city, we're part of this -- the fabric of this great estimate so engine company 41, operating a rig under the direction of o'neill, and i would like to introduce each and every one of the members. it's a 10-person lift that made the demonstration. first, ramon simone.

kevin walsh. julio delucchi, dave cites. doug menguay, pat moran. sasha grande. marco lopez. jonathan ashbrook. down to two. daniel mccloskey. and the person that called the ladder and bravely climbed the ladder and flew our beautiful flag, larry mcdonald. i'd also like to acknowledge paul barry in the red shirt. paul is president of our san francisco fire historical

society and there are many members today, including the huggins, that are up here with me. i'd like to ask donna and chuck to step forward. donna is press -- dressed in the period costume of lily hitchcock coit. >> hello, everybody. great to be here! >> we also have retired captain jook -- jack mccloskey as well as phil egg anl -- eggan. we -- egan. we love being part of this city. our halt is off to lily hitchcock coit. i stand here today with ian, a descendant of lily hitchcock coit. i must say even though i don't smoke cigars or gamble, my hat is off to lily hitchcock coit. she was a visionary person. . maybe a little ahead of her time. i know