>> good morning, everyone. i'm jennifer mats. i'm director of the mayor's office of economic and work force development. i'd like to welcome you here this morning to the grand opening of pearls and for announcement regarding our community ambassador program here on central market as well as some increased public safety measures. without further ado, i'm going to introduce mayor ed lee and then a few other speakers to talk about the initiatives and talk about pearl. so mayor lee? >> thank you. thanks, jennifer. >> good morning, everybody. can everybody hear me?

all right. well thank you, everyone, for coming to the new pearls delux burger here at sixth and market. thank you. [applause] i want to thank silvia, the owner. jim is the manager here. thank you for managing this place. and also congratulate all 16 permanent employees who have just started here today. that's been a theme of ours. i know david chui is here. kim is here. jennifer with thank you very much, supervisors. tiffany, director of our redevelopment agency. thank you for being a great partner on this. our chief of police, who is making sure -- because he just signed a lease right next door down the block for the sixth

street substation. we're getting that bill! [applause] that is coming onboard next year and it's on its way. he signed a lease. the construction documents are getting in place. we just have to get past the little freeze the governor put on us on redevelopment. but that's not stopping the redevelopment staff from doing their work. thank you very much. all of you for the redevelopment staff, thank you for being here today. we did -- i just rode down here, we did that on the green bike lanes. we hope everybody gets the chance to do it. we'll have a meeting the next couple weeks to find the patches to smooth over even more of the green bike lanes so people can stop by right here, get their burgers and the shakes and the real shakes, not the ones on the bike. thank you, leah, for a wonderful ride down here as well. and i also want to thank the bicycle owner, whose bike i got

to rent this morning, huckle berry bicycles. thank you very much. zack sender. there he is. we're opening up his bicycle repair and maintenance shop, right up the street by the end of the month. they're going to really have a great partnership. i want to thank zack and everybody because they've been offering free bicycle tune-ups for all of the bicyclists that come down market street for many, many months. thank you, zack, for being here. look forward to opening up your place. you need to ride a bicycle to get here because these burgers are so good that you're going to want to really work them off. i know i'm going to do that as i pick up my burger and go back to my very, very long meetings this afternoon. i want to thank jen, amy co-en, her wonderful staff. they've been working together with our redevelopment agency with the market street, the

c.b.d. thank you for being there. carlin diamond from our market street association as well. the c.a.c., i need to thank them. where's john and terry bow guard? thank you. the owners of the building. thank you for being here. thank you for the construction work as well. thank you. you've all been very patient working with us, working with our mid market, our cultural district lone fund with the oewd, with redevelopment and their funding. there were many months of that when gavin was mayor to put that all together. they had great faith. just like ralph lee does. because he's the owner of a nice hotel up there, the hotel, and he's known that this feeling of the transformation of mid market is really coming, and it's come with today's opening and a lot of people's hope continued to

make sure that my office, working with the boozer, continue the positive transformation. so we have two announcements today and i want to get to them. thank you so much for being here. market and tenderloin, randy sharbg tenderloin housing. thank you for being here. we look forward to working with you on the grocery store and museum and everything else for the tenderloin. thank you very much. with that, i wanted to just brush with you alittle bit of the history here. as i said earlier, it began over a year, year and a half ago in 2010 to really look at this corner, and when silvia and young decided ok, if we've got a little help with redevelopment,

oewd, with our cultural district loan fund, all the positive things that are going on here, they made a long-term commitment to being here and they put forth a plan to open up their forth -- at least their third that they manage here right here at sixth and market, and we are embracing this opportunity because it complements show dogs, it complements all the other businesses that have benefited from the loan fund. it also complements and supports the wonderful arts organizations that have started all around here that have been the great catalysts. all the others that have been taking a little bit of risk but knowing there's going to be a big payoff. the payoff is the constant transition here. i want to thank zendesk for being here. mikhail, thank you for being here. the substation is going to be here.

the burgers that will be here as well. but i want to thank just the acumen, the faith that people have about continuing the contribute to the positive changes on mid market. everybody wants this area to succeed. everybody knows it has to succeed. for the benefit of the tenderloin, benefit of soma. and then market. we have a lot of things we want to do here. i'm going to continue moving that effort as much as we can. every week we have something else, whether it's the union on united nations plaza this afternoon. i want to thank everyone for constantly contributing to keeping the creative ideas flowing and the commitments that we want to make. it isn't just money, it isn't just public safety. it's all of us working combined. it's having the employees walk these streets and spending their precious dollars on supporting the small businesses.

it's making commitments and keeping to those promises, however long they have been made, to make sure we deliver on them. all of the community who's lived here for many, many years, deserve us fulfilling our promises. that's what we all want to continue doing. we made a lot of promises in the past. i'm going to keep fulfilling the old ones that we've always wanted to make. we're going to keep bringing more people down here, keep this lively, keep it safe. i want to thank silvia for being here, all the employees. we're creating jobs. 16 permanent new jobs right here on this street. they signed the papers quickly enough, they'll get the payroll tax exemption. just like sven did. there are 80 employees today.

by early next year, there will be 150 new employees, so that difference will take advantage of that payroll tax. thank you very much. the second announcement i want to make in this excitement is that we talked about how to make this area safer and cleaner. while the substation is being constructed and built and the chief's already made that commitment, we've already made the commitment that will keep the mobile van right here in front of the sixth street site, so that the officers know the commitment is very strong and you're going to see officers walking this beat very visibly. at the same time, we're not just content with police. community policing is not just about them. it's about how the community responds.

there's a program i was responsible to help create, when there was some degrees of violence in the third street corridor last year, and we responded with a very positive program called the community ambassador program. and we've taken that idea, working very closely with my very good friend and department head adrian pawn, who heads up the sisk engagement division. she's brought here the current staffing of the community ambassadors program that works on our third street corridor, they're wonderful people. we personally hired them from the community in d-10 and now they're going to also add d-6 residents to their work force and they're going to start the market street community ambassador program with all of you here. and they're going to go for 10 employees working alongside d.p.w., working alongside the community shines program, the community guides that are already here who actually helped

clean the streets and they're part of the c.b.d. program here. they're going to work with everybody here, but they're going to be trained through the police academy to be additional eyes and ears for all of the visitors, all of the work force located here, and everyone who wants to be here and the feel -- it's not just being safe, it's also feeling safe. and having additional eyes and ears that are trained very, very well by our police acadny, and thanks again to the police department for training them. they're going to be here from -- i think it's like 10:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, just making sure -- 11:00 to 8:00, making sure that three zones from fifth street all the way to 12th street along market is covered, that people feel safe, so if you're preoccupied with your headphones or other things that you're doing, they're going to watch out for you and they're going to be here in the hours in which the employees want to be

here and feel much safer. so those eyes and ears will be kind of what we feel is an escort, they'll watch folks, guide them. if somebody says hey, i have a bunch of groceries, i feel a little unsafe, it's a little dark during these winter months and they need maybe an escort to their cars or hopefully the bicycle racks or to where the ultimate park. i want to thank the community ambassadors because they know that working alongside our officers, they're community folks. they want their they're wrong folks that they live with feeling safe as well. they will be multi legal. multi-cultural. they will be extra sensitive. those announcements i want to make today along with the opening of pearl posted the luxembourgers, and hopefully, all of you will get a chance to have a burger if the lines are not too long.

when you get it, you can either each year or join all of us at the latin dance. it starts at noon. you can walk with the ambassadors all day long, too. they get a good work out as well. those are the things we are announcing today, but there is a lot of fights. these are just milestones of things that have been in place. i want to thank all of the residents who have been here. they continue to be patient. they see the changes coming along. they are with us on all those changes, and this transformation is real. it is one that i have personally committed to. i am going to be down here and tell everybody wants to be down here locates here. congratulations, everyone. thank you very much. [applause] >> as the mayor said, it certainly takes a village to do

the work we are doing, but it also requires leadership, and we are lucky to have the leadership of supervisor kim to help us. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you appeared almost exactly six months ago, the mayor, president chiu, and i stood across the street to announce the spirit we talk about a vision we had, which, as many of you know, mid market has suffered the highest commercial vacancy rate of any court or in san francisco for over 50 years. we talked about the hope we had for pearl's deluxe burger moving in across the street, the hope for twitter. six months later, we have a company that has already moved in across the street. this women of color-owned business has opened on the corner of sixth and market. three things our office has been concerned about.

one is public safety. we are happy to say that the sixth straight substation leases science. we have our community ambassador program, and we're working closely with community planning and development to but more crosswalks on sixth street. something residents have talked a long time about. how we make sixth street safer to cross. second is economic revitalization. we want to see businesses come to mid market. that is what market street corridor was created for. we are finally seeing some of it happening. some of it was policy we passed, but a lot of it is a real commitment the city has seen, and we have so many amazing community partners that have dedicated years before we came to this point to develop plans to bring people here. i want to thank redevelopment. the soma pac chair who is here.

it is amazing to see people talking about what we can do to revitalize this area. of course, i want to thank the mayor's office of economic workforce development. as urgent as the process is, they understand we need to listen to the community and neighborhoods that have already existed here to make sure their input is included in this revitalization effort. [applause] last is that this corridor does belong to the city of san francisco, but we have two historical neighborhoods here that surround it -- the tenderloin and the south of market. it is a community that has struggled but also has made a ton of achievements in this neighborhood without the support of the city. we want to continue to make sure that the changes we are making are for the city but also the residents that have been here a long time -- the families, the seniors, the youth. i know many of the senior members of market said that are clapping in the back were there

as well. i sought asian neighborhood design. central city sro collaborative. side david addington outside, urban solutions, so there are a lot of folks here. this is really an example of how many people have been part of this process to make market street work, and we are really excited to continue to work with everyone here to make this the street that everyone wants to see it. thank you. [applause] >> as supervisor kim said, central market does belong to the entire community. we have been blessed to have the commitment and energies of the board president helping us as well. [applause] supervisor chiu: good morning. anybody hundred? i know as an elected official not to get between people and

food, so i am going to be very brief. six years ago, i ran a technology company that was located half a block from here. my employees asked me to move from this neighborhood. the reason for that was they did not feel safe. second, we did not have a community of innovators and creative folks all around us, and third, we were getting tired of eating doughnuts and vietnamese food. so it is wonderful to be here as part of this mid-market community, moving our community forward. i am delighted to see all of these yellow jackets behind me. when there were issues of crime in the neighborhood, the city administrator and our head of our community affairs office -- we came together to think about this program, and it has been a great to see the work they have done in the southeast neighborhood, but you're sort particularly happy to see them here in south of market, so let's give a hand to our yellow

jackets who will be patrolling every night of the week. [applause] like other speakers today, i cannot believe that it was barely a year ago, jennifer, when you and i started conversations about what we could do to revitalize this area. the conversations are around quarter were just starting, and it took all of us coming together [inaudible] what we needed to do here. i have on my telephone a robocall that was put out to tens of thousands of san franciscans that was trying to explain to people why we should not invest in the mid market area. i want to thank all of you for coming together as a city, as a village to say that we are -- [inaudible] example of 21st century development in san francisco, of microphone systems that will work steadily, of making sure that we are bringing not just 21st century companies that reflect the very best of

innovation here in san francisco, not just the very best of creativity represented by an organization and theater organization, and [inaudible] but what are the diversity that is san francisco. i want to thank you for being part of that. thank you for working together. thank you for moving this city forward. thank you for being here, and let's get some burgers. [applause] >> we had a few more speakers that i think it is important to hear from here when we think about doing public safety in this challenging neighborhood that it has resisted a lot of changes over the years, we are incredibly lucky to have the leadership and the knowledge and long-term understanding of the police chief, and i would like to ask him to say a few words. [applause] >> i certainly do not want to take a lot of everybody's time

because i have ever on order. when i came to the police department, right across the street was the tenderloin section of the tender station, and that was might be. i can tell you that the area has changed so much over the last 30 years duty all the things the prior speakers spoke to. i wish there had been a burger place like this done because i would probably weigh about 30 more pounds. we are committed. we have signed the lease. there will be more officers. the neighborhood is changing daily. we are absolutely committed to making the mid-market corridor a safer place. i can tell you firsthand, having been a cop in a baby station, how critical the program was to our success in making the third street corridor a safer place. without further ado, i will give it back. cheers to sylvia and pearl's.

>> redevelopment efforts on sixth street have been intense for years. without redevelopment efforts, pearl's would not be here today, i think it is safe to say. like to recognize redevelopment and have tiffany, the director, say a few words. [applause] >> thank you, jennifer. the opening of pearl's here at the corner of sixth and market st. marks a major milestone as the mayor and our community partners have indicated. what was once a vacant and blighted corner is now this incredible, beautiful store where we can all enjoy burgers and then some. that history dates back many years. since 2003, the redevelopment and the city have invested in this area. more than 30 businesses and tenants, ranging from great community partners -- they are

all here due to our sixth street economic revitalization loan program. without the partnership of folks like urban solutions, and jenny mcnulty is here -- we would not have been able to achieve the success, even though we had the strong backing of our mayor and our chief. we are excited that this is just one of many great changes that are happening here, and we look forward to many more on sixth street. so thank you all for coming. [applause] >> i would like to invite adrian to say a few words about the community ambassador program and the commitment he made to expanding the program here at central market. >> thank you, everyone. i want to say that when the mayor comes to you and says, "please start a safety program and we do not have money and no resources to hire a new staff,

and you will just have to make it work" -- it is amazing. we got so much from the mayor's office, from the board of supervisors, and you see the result of our efforts. our community ambassadors program is a street smart safety program. not only do we keep the peace out in the streets, but we also educate the public. everyone deserves safe and clean streets, and that is including our employers, our businesses, our workers, our visitors, and every resident of san francisco. thank you so much. we look forward to working with our businesses and community in the area. [applause] >> i would also like to invite jenny to say a couple of words. we need private sector partners to help with technical assistance, and also give us a little kick in the pants.

>> this is a great day for central market. i would like to thank and acknowledge the staff of urban solutions and in particular, tracey were all the work she did to bring pearl's select burgers. they did everything from reaching out to the owners to tell them about the opportunity to handling the lease negotiations to helping secure financing and managing construction of the restaurants. sylvia ann young are amazing people and amazing business operators, and we are thrilled that they are here, and they have created 16 jobs with health insurance right here in the neighborhood. [applause] >> and by far the most important speaker today is

sylvia, and i would like to invite cilia to say a few words and said afterwards, we are going to do a ribbon cutting, so i would like to invite everyone to come outside, and we will come back in for burgers after soviet is done speaking. -- after sylvia is done speaking. >> i want to start by saying that we're particularly excited to be on this corner because i am a san francisco native and i grew up in the tenderloin and my aunt and uncle used to have efficient chips placed but he appeared my sister and i used to run this neighborhood all the time. for me being here, it is kind of like coming home. the project could not have been possible without the financial help from the mayor's office and the san francisco redevelopment agency. we are forever thankful for all of your help and for urban solutions, who held our hand through every step of the way and still continues to be a huge help to us here. finally, the community here. i cannot tell you how welcoming

sixth street and central market have been. everyone from the merchant and the neighbors -- we tried to have a soft open last week. had lines out the door. i just want to encourage other merchants out there to come on down. change is not going to happen here. it is here. it is happening now. if you take the risk, i tell you, you are going to have lines out the door. thank you, everyone, for coming today. [applause] them all right, everyone. outside.