>> i am the executive director

of the san francisco redevelopment agency. thank you for coming. we are here to celebrate and acknowledging the spirit of this block of kucom. -- nucom. we have a close collaboration with the mta, dpw, and leadership from our elected officials. thank you. the investments that we can see here today in the public realm, incredible streetscape improvements, and then in the private rel., through the local -- low-cost loan program for homeowners on this block to update and maintain their homes, demonstrates the mayor's commitment to revitalizing our city's neighborhoods, starting here in the bayview hunters point community.

in doing so, creating local jobs for san francisco residents. thank you, mr. mayor. with that, i turn it over to you. [applause] >> thank you for the introduction, tiffany. thank you for coming down to our brand new nucom avenue. for supervisor cohen who was with me, our public utilities agency, redevelopment agency, public works, environmental protection agency, as well as others, if santa claus has a choice on which st. he will visit first, i think he will come to nucom avenue first. it is a well-designed street,

one that we started -- 16 of these all over the city. this became one of the most important ones, where we are getting the blessing of our planning department working in close collaboration with our model blocks program to design these streets to make sure that we do the most environmentally friendly but also resident- family types of things. you will notice some of the good treatment here, and some is hard to see, and of course, it is going to rain. instead of going into our storm sewers, this will help to feed into the plants here. whether they are on islands or the new, permeable landscaping. this will slow traffic down,

increased the beauty of the street, make it much more engaging for our residents, and also helps with the trees that have been replanted here to increase the beauty of the street, but making it that much more enlivened with greene streets. at the same time, it took a few more months than anticipated. it was expected to take four months. when dpw dug into the main sewer line, they discovered some major work that needed to be done. they wanted to make sure that the sewer line would work perfectly, as well as each of their feeds into homes. while infrastructure is sometimes hard to imagine or see, you will be -- you are standing on the street that will probably be the best for decades to come.

you will have an unstoppable sewer. no longer those backups. the fire chief will have a pleasant time going down the street to make sure that the services are there. as i said earlier, this is a beautiful project coming in, not only the designed for infrastructure, but the work force that was put together. i want to thank the contractors that worked so well with our citybuild program. 18 of that group are president spirit within that work force, they completed 43% of the work hours on this street. that is a very good standard, the highest standard we have had. we made that commitment at the beginning that our local folks would be hired, san francisco residents will be hired, and

they did very well. of course we can do better, but with the 16 beautiful streets -- we have eight of them already completed. that includes van ness and we have five under construction. three or four others under planning, like market street. from the puc to redevelopment, planning,vs department, police department working gear along with the contractors, they all have to be thanked. the most important people i want to acknowledge today are the residents who live here on the street. thank you for your cooperation. q were working with us on day one to embrace the idea that we could use infrastructure to

enliven our streets. i see a lot of smiling faces. you want to see santa come here, too. you are not displaced. this is your home. you what this street to reflect the duty of all of san francisco. thank you for working closely with everybody, thank you for your patience, thank you for welcoming us in to share in this new street. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. supervisor malia cohen is a staunch advocate for her residence, as well as the residents of district 10. we thank her for her leadership on this project and we are pleased to partner along with her and the residents. >> thank you, good morning, everyone. seven months ago, many of us were standing here doing a

groundbreaking ceremony. here we are making sure that our walk and talk were in line with each other. i told you that this was the beginning of a rebirth for a new neighborhood. here we are along an infamous street. those of us that know this area knows that there had been good and bad activity. here we are one block off of third street, celebrating the work of san franciscans, a shining example of our local hired initiative, and i want to the knowledge the public partners that make this a reality. we have new roads, and everyone is here, a physical manifestation of the partnership, not just on the city sought but the

contractors, private citizens, working to make san francisco better, one street at a time. i am very happy to be here. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor. infrastructure is the backbone of our city. we could not have done this incredible project without the hard work of our partners at dpw. [applause] >> let me join the mayor and supervisor for thanking everyone for coming out. i do not know how many of you know what the street used to look like, but this is a huge change for the community, a victory. streets around san francisco, we will continue to make sure we have sidewalk landscaping. these gardens you see, when it

rains, they will absorb water and reduce the amount of water that will end up in our sewer plant. the papers will also collect water. as much of -- as half of the rainfall will be a absorbed into our landscape and continue to sustain a healthy street and help the soil and reduce the amount that goes to our sewer plant. the design had been changed. the lights are human scale, they are not the tall ones that go overhead. they are designed to fit the neighborhoods. the plans are also from around the area, so they will do well, low maintenance, but with the newcomb avenue residents, they will help to make sure that they do well. this is a victory. i want to thank the staff from

dpw, the project manager, and all the landscape architects who worked hard to make this a huge success. i am from the neighborhood, so i am looking forward to seeing many of these streets become more sustainable and enjoyable. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. the sfpuc is a leader in environmental stewardship, at the forefront of environmental practices, pushing us to adopt stormwater management guidelines, clean energy. this street is a physical manifestation of the hard work from the residence and a great partnership with city departments, including sfpuc general manager ed harrington. >> [applause] it is a wonderful day touk% here. when we do these kinds of programs, we have to have folks that will take care of them.

the neighborhood taking care of it is important to us. stunning to see all of this cooperation. as we rebuild our water system in san francisco, we cannot just build bigger treatment plants. we need permeable pavement. 400,000 gallons of water a year will be going into the ground, as opposed to the treatment plants. if we can do that, we can provide water, provide a good environment, as well as provide good water for the people of this city. [applause] >> as the other speakers have indicated, this could not have happened without the leadership and direction from the residence on this block. speaking on behalf of the residence, sandy. [applause] >> i am also bringing the core that is important to this

project. members of the newcomb avenue block have done a great job and we want to clear up some misconceptions about what happens here. i have been a resident in the bayview for 25 years. i have been here a very long time. very few have preceded me. this project originated with redevelopment. redevelopment a star and our eyes, and we were wondering if they could ever came out. they came out with this project, and it was their idea to help redevelop our street. with the neighbors on the spot, we were able to win the award. with all the neighbors, and redevelopment, -- and i also want to thank one whirled

designed -- this project came to light. we were able to get it on paper, and from there, it went to reality, with the help of the other departments. i also wanted knowledge the core members of the group that worked on this project. mardina, nimichelle, juan fuent, anna smith. we met with various residents on the block, at my house, month after month, to make this project work. there is so much love that goes out to redevelopment again, for all of the effort we put forth. it took six years to do this. some people said that it would never happen. in my heart and soul, i knew we were going to get this done. today is the day, as sunny as it

is, you can see the wonderful and beautiful result of all the neighbors that have backed us through all of this, as well as the other departments who have helped us out. we want to thank you. this community built this block and it is a tight neighborhood now. we not only what can pick up litter with each other, we go into each other's homes, each dinner, drinks, have a great time. we have now become a family. thanks again for those that burn able to see this to be able to come through. [applause] and i want to thank the residence. this block has been torn up for a long time, especially since we found the main sewer line needed repair. the residents have endured with

little complaint, having to work around dirt, pot holes, trenches, without a little complaining, and we were able to get through this whole thing. thank you. now we are going to learn how to take care of it. you will not see cigarette butts in the planters. no litter on the ground. thank you caughto everybody. i want to introduce juan fuentes now who will talk about the things that you do not see. >> i am a resident here. my wife and kids have been here, over 25 years. i am an artist. one of the things that the model block has done, we talked about how it has put us closer together as a family. it has empowered us, as a

community, to rebuild our block. i have been bargaining with ann -- our houses are side-by-side, so i have been doing a vegetable garden in her garden. i started out with 1 barrel that mardina gave me, from the puc, they gave me a 55-gallon drum. i now have over a dozen drums, 250-gallon drums. i collect over 1,000 gallons of water that i harvest from the rain. this summer, i watered my whole garden with the water from the rain harvest. that is another thing that has happened. i have also watered ann's garden with that same water. another thing -- karen is not

here. she is in that nice, gray house. she has been an advocate, working with the environmental things in this community. she was one of the people responsible for pg&e getting us some solar panels, the phillips solar panels. we have solar panels, mardina, ann has solar power. it has cut our energy costs down. the other thing we are trying to emphasize in our blood, in our community, to the young people, to respect the block and to keep it clean, and to learn how to recycle. we have green, blue, and black bins. we need to figure where everything goes because it is part of saving our environment.

thank you for coming out. [applause] >> thank you. as juan indicated, this newcomb greeting project shows how community involvement and empowerment go hand-in-hand. there are a large number of redevelop the staff who are here. perhaps it show your hand if you were involved in this. the project manager, along with many others. as well as the staff of other departments, thank you very much. we appreciate it. [applause] with that, let us get to the ribbon-cutting.

>> ready? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [applause] >> thank you all for coming. please stick around for some sweets.

>> let me start out by saying, from the get go, last night, i was talking personally with pg&e. we continued the discussion this morning. before coming here, i had a chance to speak to the ceo. we agreed, all the engineers, from his division, with the city's public utilities commission, rec and park, as well as the california public utilities commission, are all coming together to review the outages that occurred last night. there were two outages. the first one appeared. we are going to get the confirmation this afternoon. it appears from this morning's conversation, it resulted from a

down the wire -- downed wire that was providing power to the stadium. the secondary power outage occurred as a result of bringing the power back up and using secondary circuits. that is still under investigation, as to what caused the second outage. obviously, the city was embarrassed. we apologize to the 49ers for this happening. the primary thing that we did, though, that we did well, we declared public safety the most important thing. and i need to thank all of that and that were at candlestick last night. they were very good at keeping themselves calm. police and fire at candlestick was excellent. we got information out to everyone in the stands through

the various radiofrequency is made available to the security, including officers, rec and park staff. in a matter of seconds, those that did not understand what was going on, who may have initially thought it was a surprise is that that was going to occur, they were informed to remain calm. no evacuations were called, but we immediately went into planning mode, in case that was necessary. everything was safe, and that was the number one concern. having said that, obviously, we all experienced a national embarrassment for this happening. we were on the phones last evening, during and after the game, and this morning, to make sure that this does not happen again. we expect another playoff game

in january. the failed splice line has already been repaired by pg&e, but we will be going through protocols with them, with the public utilities commission, and our staff, to make sure we cover every base to make sure this does not happen again for the foreseeable future, for all of the playoff games that may occur. we want to make sure that all the 49ers play are successful, as the result indicated, but also successful for the fans, so there is no interruption. we are doing a full investigation, having all of the engineers compare notes, and the offices of the puc and our public utilities commission. we are getting some cooperative oversight from everyone, california puc as well. there is cooperation and every point. we are not blaming anybody for

this accident that occurred, but we are all going to make sure that this does not occur again. we are all on the same page. i lead that effort, talking to the ceo of pg&e this morning. >> [inaudible] >> we are going to go through that. there were some bomb threats that were well-handled yesterday by the police department, but there was no indication, right anything other than an accident. we will continue to compare notes with everybody to determine whether or not there were any external events that would have caused this. so far, we do not have any information that suggests this would have been tempered by anyone. that is with the concurrence of our police and fire chief as well. >> [inaudible]

>> again, this was an electrical service to the stadium that failed. our offer is separate, to build a brand new stadium, along with santa clara, with new linkages to power, and new lights. these lights take some time, when the power goes out, to re- fuse. the newer lights, which we would have in our stadium, it is given the opportunity, would be instant. it is a separate issue. >> [inaudible] :xb 4ro>> you will have to talk. york about that. we have a strong plan b to build a stadium for them. if you look and other new stadiums across the nation, especially in major league

baseball, even new stadiums having challenges as well. they are separate issues. >> [inaudible] a city-own a switch that failed. do you know anything about that? >> i spoke to city officials. they confirm that the original of which was a failure of their line, what they call a splice failure. that was evidenced by the recorded arching. we thought it was a transformer explosion. it was not. it was up main feeding circuit line that pg&e owns that somehow failed. they confirmed for us this morning that the original outage was due to that splice failure. how the outage occurred is under investigation. how the outage occurred is under investigation.