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>> connect is so important. every quarter we have a chance to come together to get so many volunteers and so many providers to provide some hope for people who are homeless and you guys are the most precious people that we have ever assembled. all right! [applause] so i understand this is the 40th event. i was 40 19 years ago. but i feel younger every day. but the city has so much to offer, and when we concede to this idea -- and i know we're going to honor a great leader,

robert garcia today for her wonderful leadership on this whole idea today, and she's so much deserves it, but you know guess what? this idea has not only resonated here in our city, we have not only helped over 22,000 people for medical services, with mental services, with housing referrals, but we've caused some 220 other cities in our country, in canada and australia, to model their approach similar to what we're doing here in san francisco. so we've got a great idea. today we have a thousand volunteers. you're part of a great force. [applause] we have over 200 providers and, of course, lead sponsor i want to give a thanks to blue shield. thank you! thank you, tom epstein for being here today. in our corporate citizens are

joining us because they know this is a way we can touch a lot of people. since 2004 there have been over 12,000 homeless people that have gone through the program not only project homeless connect but housing first. got in touch with people who cared about them. talked about what they needed and now are in long-term permanent housing. isn't that wonderful? that's the way to do it. it's not good moving people -- about moving people off the street or shuffling them from one corner to another, it's about care. it's about humanity. it's about how they do if right. and that's how we get people to look at their long-term future. if they're not caring about themselves and they don't think anybody else cares about them, we're lost. we're going to increase our homeless population. so we're doing it right. we've got to plan, the plan is in place. ten-year, plan and reflects our

policy here in san francisco that is permanent housing, long-term care for people. that's how we involve ourselves as better human beings. thank you for being part of this great, great cause in our city. thank you for producing the wonderful hours you're going today. thank you for volunteering your work and also thank you for changing people's minds about who our homeless are. there are people right on the edge right now. i know there are fantastic protests going on on wall street and so forth because they're hurting our. financial causes in our whole country is hurting us. causing a lot of people to become homeless. we have to lead with our humanity. that's the way we should conduct not only social services but business this a more humanitarian way. getting people jobs, finding houses for folks on a daily basis, not to just be up to project homeless connect. but we have to lead the way and lead with our hearts.

i want to thank awful you for being here today celebrating the 40th day event. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you. that gets me excited. what is, is is a collaborative effort. you didn't have to come out but you saw the need and said it's rainy and cold but i will be there. that's what makes this group so exciting. give yourselves a hand! this project would not work without a collaborative effort. and so we want to thank you but we also want to thank some of the founders. gavin newsome who couldn't be here today was very influential and many other people that we want to thank. but sometimes we don't even see. you guys all know judith was very important from the very beginning. let's give her thank you for all that she's done. and also the next thing today i will honor one of the other people who believed in this and who said we have to do something.

and we're together going to come as a community and that's barbara garcia. [applause] so she does not know this but today we would like to celebrate her. as -- she doesn't even know i'm connected to her and in the '80's, she worked in watsonville and worked in getting people who didn't have food, food. and for a very short time, i was a child teenager, let's say. i was a teen in the early '80's and we didn't have food. we were there a few months doing migrant work and i was there hungry. because of a project she had done as a child she didn't even know, my family had food. this is the type of person i can believe in because for all of these years, she continued to say, you need food. let's get you that. you need health care, let's get you that. so today i'm going to have one of our other volunteers for the garden we have. how many of you know about ph.d. garden? a few of those. this is one of my favorite things.

another thing barbara believes in is sustainable food, having a safe place people can come to every single day and being in a space, be comfortable. we have home grown foods. we eat together on mondays. one of our volunteers from the garden who is now one of the staff is here and he's going to talk about what the garden has meant to him and honor barbara with a basket of goods of things we have from the garden like tomato and apples. so, welcome. [applause] this is ty. thank you, ty. go ahead. >> well, yeah, i work at the garden. i'm the garden educator. if you didn't know, it's a garden on lily and octavia, which is right off near page and oak. and everyone is invited to come by and check it out. it's a great garden. it's just a place for homeless people and recently housed people and just all types of

people, any people, people in the community, citizens of the city to just come by and enjoy a time in nature and just be at peace and also learn job skills and, yeah, it's been a great experience for me. i just appreciate it a lot. so everything in this basket was grown in our garden and we have some mental health herbs and plants that are good for making teas. people say tomatoes don't really grew in the city but we grew some. if you want to learn about those plants that are in there, just come by to the garden octavia and lily. thank you very much. appreciate it. [applause] >> thank you. >> so thank you to barbara and all of the other founders that we get to celebrate today and we look forward to our 50th event. and 60th and 70th because as

mayor lee said, this is a pioneer project. which what makes it pioneer isn't the city or just me, it's all of us. it's you, it's the city, it's the leadership of this city. it's all of us coming together and saying, we're going to do something today. so thank you so much. blue shield has been a sponsor since the very beginning of project homeless connect. today we have tom epstein, here from blue shield, who will say a few words. we have a lot of volunteers today. i see a lot of blue shield cares. so thank you! tom has been helping people for many, many years. he served in the clinton administration. he's worked here in this city with blue shield. so it's a pleasure to have him here today and he's going to talk a little bit what it means for blue shield to be part of homeless connect. >> thank you, and it's an honor to be on the same program with

mayor lee. he's showing outstanding lordship on this program from the very beginning and it's very exciting. wow, look at all of you. so many people, awesome show of commitment. it's really great. anybody who spends time in san francisco realizes there's a great need, a lot of people who need help out there and the people lined up outside, of course, are a reflection of that. what's needed is a collaboration between government and the community. that's what homeless connect is all about. it's led by the city but we couldn't exist without all of the people involved here today. it's really an amazing show. the blue shield of california has been in san francisco for more than 70 years and we're a not-for-profit, based on admission of serving community. so we have always been very involved in activities trying to help the community. we have shield cares program that we have talked about with over 1,400 employees involved in

that. i believe 125 of them are here today. and we're proud. i want to thank jennifer murray and rhonda will kin for putting that together. shout out to all of the blue shield people for being here. thank you. [applause] more important than that, all of you out here are going to fan out on this huge arena and really help people all day. glorious thing. i thank you and congratulate you. [applause] >> so again i just want to end by thanking mayor lee and barbara and all of the volunteers and blue shield and thank you and all of the other people we weren't able to celebrate today who have been here for the 40 -- all 40 events or have really put in their work. so thank you. this could not happen without you. i will say that at every single event but it's so true. thank you today. i'm looking forward to an amazing day. what do you guys think? let's do it. ok, thank you.

have a good day. >> thank you for coming. this is a culmination of a two- year journey being in stealth mode and finally you releasing our game to the world. i would like to address our ceo, jeffrey hunt.

>> thank you, mr. mayor peter i am the ceo of title games. it is an honor to have you and everybody here today to welcome you to our new home. also, today is a very great day that we're celebrating, we closed our latest round of financing of $10 million, which is an exciting milestone for our company. it is a startup founded on a simple principle that quality, creativity, and originality rules all. to us, quality and creativity is reflected in the art, technology, and the entertainment that we craft. our goal is nothing short of revolution many facebook games, but to achieve this, we require the right people and the right environment. when thinking about where to establish our headquarters, our top two concerns were the ability to find top talent and the desire to surround ourselves with like-minded companies. simply put, san francisco is the

nexus of technology and creativity. creative individuals, be they engineers or artists, love living and working in san francisco. what is more to recruit -- recruiting talent from neighboring counties, let alone at countries, is an easy sell since working in san francisco is a lifelong dream for many people we want to be the next great technology success story for san francisco. san francisco deserves more companies like twitter, zynga, a pivotal last, companies that are high-paying at a time when other cities and countries are trying to reinvent themselves. other city in the world competes with san francisco when it comes to the people that live here. san francisco's vibrant and creative culture makes it the ideal environment for innovative start-ups like this.

when you combine san francisco's people with the forward-thinking policies and efforts of mayor lee, there is simply no other choice for a company to call home. thank you very much for your time, mayor. >> thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jeff. now i would like to introduce edward hyatt from pivotal labs to migrate south for company, that will be moving into the building in [applause] a few] >> thank you in shatila for inviting me. we have just least the floor above this, the fifth floor, the whole floor, and we will move in in january. very exciting. we're currently in the bankrupt building over on market street. we have been there about four years. we're busting at the seams right now. there are about 85 employees in that office. about 150 worldwide. we have seen huge growth over the last two to four years. we were actually founded in san francisco in the late 1980's. we have helped hundreds of local

clients, start-ups, small names and big names. we have seen this acceleration in growth in the tech seen in san francisco, especially south of market. we needed a bigger space to move into. the interesting thing about us is that our growth depends on two things. one is enough clients locally to support the growth. in of tech startups. and the ability to hire quality people locally. we are our people as a consult the alleged insolvency. we have seen amazing growth in the tech industry. silicon valley has always been a great place to be. san francisco seems to have really taken off, especially in the local start-ups seecene over the last few years. it will continue to grow and will continue to exist for five plus years.

in terms of hiring, i want to echo the previous statements about the quality of people that we find in san francisco. there is a war on talent with software developers. we continue to find amazing and motivated people. experience and passion you do not see anywhere else. we're confident and comfortable in signing a long lease like this. we used to be in the flood building and then the bankrupt building. and now here. it is an obvious step in our evolution. we're very excited. thank you. [applause] >> thanks, at root canal i would like to introduce victor coleman, the ceo of hudson plaza the, the developer of this great building. >> thank you. good morning, and welcome. thank you, mr. mayor. as a landlord in san francisco, we're very active landlords. to sit here and have the ability to have time as tenants is pretty gratifying.

we will see how the relationships go. but we hope we grow. we hope that we are attentive. i mean to have ideal tenants like this in our portfolio. we're active and aggressive in san francisco. we're a huge landlord now. we believe it. it is only here in soma. we believe in the marketplace and the people. we believe that is why we're here. it is a great way marketplace. our portfolio expertise is throughout california. this is a place that we see the most amount of growth. when we have pivotal tenants like that that want to grow in our portfolio, and makes guys like us to have our day-to-day jobs pretty easy. the fact a san francisco today is seen the evolution of growth from social media, technology, media entertainment right here in our backyard is really a positive sign for the future growth of employment growth,

development growth, and future successful companies coming here. hudson is that it is here for the long haul. we're proud to be the owner of this building and many others in the marketplace. we hope you continue longstanding relationships and bring your friends down here and these more space from us and our properties. the mayor and i would be happy to see that happen. thank you very much. it is a pleasure. welcome to our property. [applause] >> before i entered as the mayor of our great city, a well-liked and let everyone know we will have a brief q&a following his grief talk. if you have questions regarding today's announcement, please feel free to ask. if you have questions regarding anything else, please save that for later. i would like to thank the mayor for coming to our office today. it was very exciting and a huge deal. it means a lot. our mayor, edward lee. >> thank you. [applause] thanks for being here. you know, jeff, what you're

talking about, and edward and victor, this is a reconfirmation that our policy in san francisco is really working. almost on a weekly basis. we have another tech company coming in, taking up space, and creating jobs. our practice has been and our policy in the city that -- has been that we want our tech companies to start here in san francisco, stay here, and to grow with us. we're growing those jobs tremendously. take the gaming company, for example. if you months ago, you were in 5000 square feet summer. here, your 33,000 square feet. you have 63 employees. in 18 months, is what i understand, in the next 18 months, you're going to grow from 63 employees to 185. that is exactly the type of growth that we need and want to have here. some of the other ones, whether it is play haven or pivotal labs

or kiva, which will be able to see because they're knocking out walls already and doing stuff. it is kind of funny, because i was here about a year-and-a-half ago and my favorite pasta place downstairs. we were actually looking at this space when the aquarium was going to relocate back to the academy. we were looking at this as a possibility for our medical examiner's office. because it had laboratories but ultimately, the determination was it was not enough space here. i am glad, because the location is absolutely perfect for technology companies. it is located very close to all the main thoroughfares. people can bike here. the have the public transportation. the have access right across the street to all of our large conventions when they're in town. it will be easy for them to access as well. i think the tech companies are becoming the largest conventions that we have in the city.

it is one of will to see this here. this whole building is going to house some 93,000 square feet already with space up to 625 technology jobs right here in this building. i am excited about this building. but i will tell you, our real- estate experts have told the city there's 40 additional technology companies looking for 1.9 million square feet of space right here in the city. that is equivalent to four trans america buildings put together. so we have in front of us a very big need, but it is one that we're glad to fill. i am so happy that we signaled it would companies like twitter and others that we are a willing city to accept our technology starters to start up here. and we will revamp the payroll tax, to make sure that as you grow, we're going to be job- inducing, rather than job- punishing. we signal that with the board.

we signaled that we're willing to also get the exemption to companies that were just turning ipo to make sure we were not punishing their growth as well. these are reflective of the very business-friendly, very big incentive for investment into our city. that is what the other cities need to learn. if you're going to get these jobs and of these companies here, you have got to be investment-friendly. you have to have policies reflect that. and you have to do the help that our of is that economic development is doing what hutton properties. working together to support not only the real estate part, but i know the technology companies want to focus on their business, focus on the development of their products. so the more help the the property and a real-estate companies can do by way of connecting them up with great spaces, spaces that can be interactive with the other companies, the more ingenuity their engineers are going to have. this is an exciting time.

our policies are working, and i am excited that this is another example. next week, we will probably have another company name it -- moving in that we will get to announce enthusiastically. the social gaming irina, technology, those are the new jobs, along with bio life sciences. they are the first -- they're the 21st century jobs. i'll be working hard with our educational institutions to get our work force is ready. part of my 16-point plan is to also allow people in their mid- career is to be able to learn the skills and make sure they take advantage of our city colleges and change what are underemployed now to new employment opportunities at the technology field will offer. we're doing everything we can to support this. you see the results here. i know that idle games and pivotal labs will stay here for a long time. there will be hiring great talent, and we are here to

support them. thank you very much. [applause] >> as i said, if you have any questions pertaining to today's announcements for either the mayor, jeff, victor, or edward, please ask away. anyone, anyone? do not be idle. [laughter] if not, i guess we will proceed with a tour of the office and check things out. thank you for coming, everyone. really appreciate it. >> 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