>> good afternoon, everyone. i would like to begin by thanking all of you for joining us here today. today, we celebrated a number of

things, among them, that we completed demolition of the old transbay terminal and that our foundation construction work is well underway, as you can see, from the surrounding site. i would like to thank and acknowledge our congressional delegation that was extremely instrumental in helping us fully fund phase one and get the $400 million that is allow us to do the construction work that you see here today. i want to thank nancy pelosi, senator dianne feinstein, and senator barbara boxer. i would also like to thank and acknowledge our mayor, mayor ed lee, who is here with us today. since mayor lee's early days in city hall, he has been a strong supporter of the transbay project and everything that the transbay represents. housing, improve air quality, the alleviation of congestion, and a better quality of life for

all bay area san franciscans. i would also like to add that since coming into office, we have created over 1000 jobs for this project. so, thank you, mr. lee. in addition, i want to thank our border directors. jane kim is here today. you will be hearing from her. i do not know if mayer brown is here, but it is important to it knowledge him. after all, he started the project many years ago. you will be hearing more about that in a moment. it will include thousands of new residential units, parks, open space, shops, retail, restaurant, and so forth. you will be hearing a lot about

that from the mayor and jane. in addition, the men and women working on our construction site. you can see some of them here today. they are very dedicated and have been working hard on the project. i want to thank them for their hard work today. i am thrilled to report the project is on budget and on schedule. with respect to the demolition, over 55,000 hours of work completed without any accident or injury. so thank you for such a great job. in addition, we recycled over 92,000 cubic yards of concrete. that is enough to fill 28 olympic-sized swimming pools. in addition to that, we recycled 200,000 tons of steel. so we are really doing our job. when we reopening, we will be lede gold certified.

without further ado, i want to introduce district 6 supervisor jane kim. [applause] >> thank you so much for inviting us to this great event. as the district supervisor for the south of market, i know that my constituents and myself are particularly interested in the impact that the transit center will have for district 6, and for the city of san francisco, and the bay area. i want to recognize mayor willie brown. come on board. -- for board. -- foward. rward. people have been working on this for decades, but i get to comment for the fun part. it is truly exciting. a reappointed and many of the things that will come out of

this, including jobs. something that our city desperately needs. two issues that i care deeply about, which is affordable housing and pedestrian safety, two things that our office is taking on. this will produce 4000 new units of housing. it will run a transit center in which will host the ac transit, bart, muni, and hopefully high- speed rail. along with that, we are including many plans for increasing pedestrian safety in the area as well, which is something that has been a large issue for our district. i want to thank the tjpa, and one of the members that are here today, gabriel metcalf. as well, the staff of the tjpa. and they give to the help of our director, maria i-80-kaplan.

also recognizing our many partners because this project would not be possible with just one entity. i want to recognize john ramp of the planning department, fred black from the redevelopment department. many people are coming together to make sure this transit center will not only create open space, affordable housing, pedestrian safety, business and jobs, but will be something that the city of san francisco can be proud of. in the not too distant future, these five blocks on both sides will be bustling centers of activities for neighbors and residents alike. as maria has also pointed out, this project is projected to add over 145,000 new jobs by 2030. locating these jobs directly adjacent to transit not only

grows our economy but also reduces congestion and improve the environment by making transportation easier and more convenient. at this time, i want to introduce our mayor of san francisco, one that i have the distinct honor and pleasure of representing our city with, someone who has had a long history of public service, and understand the many develop lovell is of -- that our city provides, from dpw to contacting, many of the things that are involved in this project here, mayor ed lee. >> thank you, supervisors, maria. thank you so much for being here. i got nervous when a saidlede gol lede gold.

why thank you, everyone, for being here. fred blackwell, jenn, ken, john ram. the planning department has been doing all of the planning with the different agencies, the different challenges that are here. there are a lot of challenges that have been presented by this complex, futuristic, a beautifully designed building. there is just going to be such a transformation of the whole downtown and community because of this project. but it is also because of a transit center to replace what was here was the center, and their times, a transportation hub for the bay area when the old terminal was here.

and so, in the vision of our city, and when maria took this up, she knew, because she had worked for a number of different mayors throughout the process, envisioning what this would mean to the future of our city, that we do need a brand new transit center that is not only modern, not only has all the amenities that you heard, whether it is housing, office, so forth. that it represents the future of our city. because at the center of it, the box for the high-speed rail. that is where we ultimately want to land. i want to make sure that this is the center hub for all of northern california. that is where the high-speed rail will end. it will also represent, as supervisor kim said, 145,000 jobs. take a look at the covers and mason workers behind me. they know they have a job for a

long time and they cannot afford to live in the city without a good paying jobs. and we have more jobs to come as a result of this. this is part of our economic engine. it is also the story we will tell as to why the federal government has to -- they just have to pass the transportation authorization extension plan. without that, this would be challenged, and doral drive would be challenged. every major transportation mode of any significance in the bay area would be challenged. we're already hearing from caltrans about the nervousness they have if that transportation reauthorization is not done quickly. so we need that on the national level. that is why we're continuing to use this as an example of how we as the city can work together with city agencies, community- based agencies, our friends in labor and business, to promote

one of the most beautiful, very challenging complex, but it will be a beautiful addition to the old downtown skyline and functionality. so today we are celebrating this milestone where all of the demolition has been completed. that is the finished phase one. it has been remarkable. not one word-related accident has happened in all of these thousands of hours put together. by the way, of all the work our that were mentioned, over 80% of those jobs went to nine county residents in the bay area for these jobs. all the demolition, carpentry work, removal of terror. now we begin these pilings, these five games. there will be 500 of these going in. so this is more than just a beautiful project. it is job producing. it is the most important thing

we can be doing while we look at and shake our heads as to why other cities cannot do this or why the state is not promoting more of these types of transit- related projects. that is our future of the city. that is also why we need to continue talking about and making sure we make sure that not only does the high-speed rail and appear, but we promote the completion of the central subway. despite some political shenanigans, as i call it, for creating more doubt, we do not have out in the city family, nor in the state family of agencies. time and again, they have approved the central subway as part of our future that links north and south. you have to ask one simple question. where is all the new housing being developed in our city? it is in visitation valley, hunter's point shipyard, mission bay. how do you connect everyone through the city? from the subway.

and in and around this transit hub. so we have to connect everybody. we have to make sure it is done right. we would so be regretting any doubts that we cannot complete the central subway. there is no doubt in my mind and we will get that, grant agreement going by the end of the year. so for anyone to challenge that at this time, i think it is political shenanigans and really ticks on kind of a challenge to our future that i would think would be disastrous. so with that, i want to congratulate everyone here for finishing this space, and also to announce that we have for your handouts today, the district plans -- transit plan, the plan that will detail something that i know john ram and the whole team has been working really hard on in detail, is to present this plan, and for you to see all the buildings, all the 300 acres of open space and parks presented

here. the difference basis both privately and publicly invested in. again, this has been part of the redevelopment approach to this using tax increment to provide investment funding and using our public dollars in the most maximum way to make sure there is private dollars invested in the buildings, not only in the district, but surrounding it. you will have thousands of new homes that will be built right here along with the open space. it is a wonderful design. i invite you to get a copy of this. i hope there are enough copies to go around. it is the transit district plan that you should focus on. that is the design that we are building right here. i look for to put my initials of immortality on to this beam in a few minutes. [applause] >> again, we do have copies of the district rent-a-center plan.

-- center plan. we will be releasing the plan which will allow the development of many high rises in the neighborhood, both in the transbay and in surrounding neighborhoods, that will bring funding to the tjpa to continue funding which will bring railroads in, infrastructure that is badly needed in the neighborhood, funding for parks and many other amenities. i invite you to look at this transit district plan brochure that was put together by the planning department. now i want to invite mayor lee to sign the eye beam that will be coming in as part of the shoring wall. mayor lee. >> should i leave room for anybody else?