>> good morning, everybody. welcome to our america's cup center here at pier 80. i wanted to make some further

announcements in light of the discussion that has been happening in our city on our america's cup event happening, starting this year, and will definitely have been in 2013 as well. i am here with stephen berkley, the head of the event authority. thank you to you and to jim and mike and our team for working intensely for months on the last few weeks, putting together the development agreement that is part of the investments on the america's cup, which oracle and others have been working on. the last couple of weeks, i have been a key participant with members of the board of supervisors but also engaged between our staff and the abet a party and corp. team staff, to try to get to all of the complex

agreements that have to do with the investments. i will say, in light of those discussions, some of which have been written about extensively from all of you, i started to get the feeling that people were for getting help on this race is going to be for our city and started talking about not only the complexities of planning, permits, investments, returns on investments, i even have people start mentioning lawsuits that have started to creep up. i wanted to get back to the focus. the focus has always been that we would work with our event authority, with the oracle racing team, to present one of the best, most interesting, and dynamic international races this country has seen, and to get back that excitement and not get so bogged down in all of these

conversations that we have been having, particularly in the last couple of weeks. we have been working intensely to make sure the event and the purpose of the event continues to go forward. we are announcing today, in light of the complexity that presented themselves, drawn-out discussions over that, we have worked out some agreements, some changes that will make it less complex and therefore get back to the origins of it. the race is still confirmed here, but we also want to let you know, we have agreed, piers 30 and 32 will no longer be in the immediate discussions for development. we will consolidate all of the

teams here at pier 80 for this event beginning this year and through next year. i think that will help with the conversation. certainly with the level of investments that have been anticipated to repair 30 and 32. we will not be needing those, and we figured that out over good conversation that we had this weekend. that will bring us back to the origins. i want to emphasize, in this decision not to have 30/30 to be a part of this at this time -- and i emphasize, at this time -- consolidation will take place with all the teams but we will still have -- and i am promised, tomorrow, some of the walls around the shed will be coming down as part of the investment in building the james herman cruise ship terminal at

pier 27. that will continue forthright in that timeframe. i want to get back to the time bring the new want to have for this year and next here on the races that will happen. we are committed to those time frames. we did not want any further disruptions from that. we will be working with our report, members of the board of supervisors who have been notified about this recent change, and give ourselves some adequate time to adjust to those changes and focus on the things that have to be done to get this race ready. mr. ellison and i were in conversations about an hour ago. he is as enthusiastic about getting the race started. he expects to win, i expect him to win the race. we will look at other parts of our report to see how we can do future investment and entice

private investors to come in and make sure we can repair some very valuable parts of our pier. i want to again say thank you to the members of our event authority. i know lucy is here. carey is here helping us raise private dollars. again, thank you to steven barkley and you're wonderful team for working with us. this wonderful event, with the books that we are starting with, we will start and continue on that time frame and as you have seen here, even though i cannot let you into the secretive rooms that our housing the larger boats, their technology, we will continue on those posts. we will continue to announce that. the time frame that we meet.

that is the immediate news. i want to reconfirm, we expect to have these races continue. we expect to draw an hour large people around the bay area to see this race. it continues to be a race that will blend of technology of how you view the race, how the votes are outfitted with information and technology coming from the race itself and welcoming in the new generation that will be able to see this for the first time from the shore, waterfront, in new ways that have yet to be announced. not getting ahead of ourselves. it will also involve a new generation of people that will appreciate the fast sailing sport, the youth that we think will be excited about this race and future races to come. this is where we wanted to be.

this is where we want to confirm the excitement that this gives to our city, a city that is not only dependent but thrives on tourism and events of international stature, as the america's cup is all about. i look forward to getting on one of those ac-45's. i think you have convinced me. i need to feel the speed on that. that will happen shortly. i will make sure i have my insurance in place before i do that. otherwise, i wanted to give mr. barkley a chance to comment on the change and to reconfirm the things we are doing to make race successful. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. the thing that i would like to get across from the amendatory point of view it is, the timeframe we are working to was always aggressive. we had a year-long construction

project on pier 30/32. we compressed that into nine months. when we looked at where we were at, where the city was at, ourselves, we collectively came to a decision that maybe this was the best way. for those that no the intricate details in the planning for the america's cup, you know that pier i-80 was always the contingency plan for teams to base themselves here in 2013, just as they will do so here in 2012. with this behind us, we can focus on having a fantastic sailing event in the san francisco bay, first time it has been done before, and we are really looking forward to it. [applause] [applause] >> we are going to take a few questions and then break. the mayor will be available in smaller groups.

a couple of questions? >> are you scaling down your expectations on economic benefits? >> no, i expect the race will continue to draw what we were expecting. 5000 people on a daily basis coming in. the races are still planned the way they are. we expect the bay area to receive a billion dollars worth of economic impact from the races. we are building on that. still, the complexity of the transportation plan, the housing of people here, even to this weekend -- i was working on the taxi hackathon, making sure that they are servicing all the different visitors we expect for the event. we are fully expecting the

economics to be as great at it had been. >> could you follow up on those potential construction jobs at pier 30/32 that will be lost? >> i do not have all the details there. obviously, the immediate development of 30/32, there will not be those jobs there because we will not be developing. does that mean it is forever lost? i do not think so. those piers are very attractive to future development. we will have the discussions in the future. they are planning for this. it is not forever removed, but for this race, at this time, i believe it helps with going forward with consolidating everybody here and making sure the race is the primary focus and timeframe that we want to have to have a successful race.

>> [inaudible] >> and the scope of the project at 30/32 was to repair -- refurbish those piers. i think the estimate was $30 million. what we have done here, a couple million dollars already spent here. there are 80 people working here. at last count, 24 local hire people from this neighborhood that are here with one team. i personally see this being replicated along the pier. we will also need to look at -- i do not think this will fit for all the teams -- but we may need to look at putting some teams on the end of pier 27, 29.

that was always the plan. from the authority point of view, we see little changed other than moving the teams from 30/32 down to here. the biggest chain would be if someone wanted to walk from the village to pit row, they will now need to get on muni or something. >> [inaudible] international part us alart fesg on at the same time as the america's cup. have you made any inroads with that? >> i do not think we have ever rejected any idea. i think we have been quite excited about the integration of art throughout all of our events. i do not see a stalling any discussions around it. if they feel that way, i will

get in touch with them, but i do not see it as a barrier to the race. >> [inaudible] >> when everybody asks me for funding, i take more time to respond because i do not have a whole lot in my pocket. >> we are going to break and we will be available for questions. >> thank you very much for that kind of deduction. good morning, everyone. i want to thank john, wade, steve, and the entire chamber for the invitation to address

you. i know i am the last speaker, and after that panel i am eager to have to go back to work. sarah, thank you. cady, and george, very appreciative of the dialogue. as you can tell, when you hear about all of that, i could spend hours going through all of the tech companies what they are trying to do. ultimately, it is about job creation, and i get excited about that. it does keep me getting up very early, murder this of how i get there. if i can create one job every day for somebody here in san francisco, that will satisfy me greatly. guess what? there are hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake. i will continue to make this my mantra because i think it is the right thing to do for a great city. i want to also acknowledge the members of the board of supervisors here today. they were announced earlier.

we all work as a team and it has never been about the mayor, him or herself, and i have learned that working in concert with the board that we have clear tones of communication, making sure that we speak more and more in the language that is important for this city. language and policies and ideas that create investor confidence in this city. that is what i have been talking about more and more. we have got to have a city that is investment-confident, that one -- that one does not have doubt. if it is your family, small business, someone joining another one's business, we have got to have that level of confidence to see things through for you, so your investment is one that is positively welcome, taking care of, and prosperous. that is how we get to the theme of today's breakfast of

prosperity and sharing of that prosperity. i want to take a moment to thank my friend john. he has been at the helm of the chamber for the past few years. he has been an important aspect of the work that i have done over the years. as you know, i started at the human rights commission and then i went to purchasing, which was the most fun i have had. who could not have fun buying a billion dollars in supplies every year? then the former mayor brown gave me the heart to work in public works, engage in conversations with everyone about what was wrong with our streets and making them right. it was in that toughest job that i had that i have a lifelong friends, people who care enough

about the city that picking up somebody else's trash is nothing when you can work together and dream about how better the city can become. i want to recognize john because he is one of those few people who i can properly engage in trash talk and still talk about the city in a positive way. thank you, john, for your wonderful service. [applause] when i came to all of you a year ago, san francisco's on the planet rate was 9.5%. we just heard a fantastic presentation by j.p. morgan and their analyst as to how we come about in making that change. at the time, we faced a $380 million budget deficit, and we were struggling on how to meet the increasing cost of our pension and health-care obligations. remember that discussion about our pension? we have come a long way.

it is not even mentioned anymore but it is still prevalent, and so are our health-care obligations. one year later, our city, the supervisors, mayor, elected officials have all come together with the help of great city department leaders that are also here today doing everything we can to make sure that we tackle the pension issues and make sure that our budget is balanced. more importantly, we put people back to work. that is the most important thing all of us have joined together in doing. in the last 12 months, guess what we have done? we created jobs for an additional 17,300 san franciscans, bringing our unemployment rate down from 9.5% to 7.6%. that is in just one year. thank you for your help on the [applause] at. -- for your help on that.

[applause] two weeks ago, we got another piece of positive information, news on the economy. our revenues became $129 million in greater, than projected in the first six months of the fiscal year. that is wonderful data for san francisco because, guess what? for some years now, it has been deficit, deficit, deficit, no increase, no revenue, and all of you know how wonderfully negative that discussion has always been. now we have some positive light. i stand before you today, just a year in office, in my first year as mayor, to say that the

economic recovery is under way, it is a real, and economic policies and strategies we have pursued are working, and they are working well. our city could not do this without the partnerships of many of you who are here today. san francisco is back on track and but we must stay the course. what i mean is, even though our revenues have surged from the economic growth that our tech companies have provided, a traditional companies that have been here for so many years. by the way, let me do this. i have been known as the attack may year -- tech mayor. how one thing that i have come here with, puget you have always been excited for the city. we come to you.

you helped us on a tremendous number of thing last year. i want to thank all the members of the chamber as well. whether it is a wells fargo, a pg&e, recology, the numerous sponsors that continue to come here, you have been part of the life blood as we welcome in the clean technology and biotech. you want to make sure that we are growing a family steeped in tradition of people that love this city, that love every neighborhood, and who have experienced all the great positive dialogue, but have also been concern about negative dialogue, sharing in every aspect of the city has. i know many of you have joined with me some weeks ago when we celebrated the 50 years of tony bennett and his wonderful song. we have much more to celebrate in the coming years. i hope you all join the chamber

in making sure that we share this prosperity. having said that, knowing that our economy is improving, i want to make sure you know i will be at the home with the board, making sure we are not tempted to return to spending habits and short-term choices that got us into trouble in the first place. we have two-year budgets, a renewed sense of obligation and responsibility, talking about our infrastructure, things that allow our tech companies to be successful. we have to solve some serious transportation issues in the city, and that is why at risk in and i spend hours saturday morning at a technology hackathon. not trying to create a new application but try to solve some traditional problems with our taxis, making sure that someone can get a taxi, rather

than waiting in being frustrated, another aspect of our transportation issue that we would try to get solutions to. more than ever, we have to double down on reform, on innovation, an investment. that is why i will continue to announce we are the innovation center for the whole world, right here in san francisco. soon enough, there will be cited to reflect that in the city. we had to break with some traditional things from announcing that in the most broadway, letting everyone know that this is the center for a lot of things to happen. reebok to keep that innovation strong, keep the dialogue, as the panel has been talking about, keep salesforce growing, twitter growing here, keeping us all engaged as technology helps us to solve many of our problems, and finding solutions that we have not thought about. once and for all, we must treat

government and our responsibility as mayors, as families do, find savings where we can, reduce unnecessary spending, and importantly, in best. invest in our people and our infrastructure. as said earlier, i will continue to talk about jobs. i do not care if i'm called the most boring guy that got one thing. i will repeat. i come here every day to the office asking whether or not i created another job for somebody else. when you learn about the statistics that sf city is sharing with us, if it is jobs for seven siskins, it is worth to get up early for, sacrificing late-night meetings, working on the weekend -- except my golf. [laughter] we are attracting tec, biotech, clean tech.

we are supporting local manufacturing. we are going to be making more things. fashion is coming back. technology with passion will be an exciting areas that we can hopefully unleashed soon. i will also tell you this. there are areas that we do not pay attention to that are not only stable, increasing, and wonderful when you hear this, but did you know -- and i got this from the recent reports from our hospital council recently -- did you know that our health care industry in san francisco generates economic impact of over $15 billion a year? our own health care industry. 99,000 jobs. that is a huge contribution to our economy. i do not want them to be silent any more. our health care needs are

important, and we will be getting that cpmc job done very shortly, wade. [applause] with our elected officials and board, we need to continue to reform the peril tax. we have got to incentivize businesses to create those jobs. -- payroll tax. the conversation in the board has been very good because we have not forgotten those that are not skilled as well as others. we have got to get that employment training center up, we have to invite those who are living in the tenderloin, amid market, south of market, the traditional groups that have struggled, they have identified issues in the past, the digital divide. they were not caught up to the lunch alt -- level of education and technology they needed to be. we have got to help our returning veterans get those skill sets. people who are in the middle of

their careers get those skills sets. that is why employment training is so important. we need a stronger training partnership. we also need private and more public investment in our schools. i will be talking a lot about that with the new president of our school board norman yi, carlos, organizations at the school board. i will be talking about how our schools can participate in this employment training and make sure there are generations of kids who do not lose hope in this city, do not look elsewhere when the best jobs are created right here. all i have to do is do their part. when they do that and complete their job education, that will be there for them. i want to say one thing about our infrastructure, something that i want you to remember as you leave today.

i just want to mention something about hetch hetchy. some people out there are suggesting we can tear down that dam and still survive as a city. i want to let you know, as insane as it is, it is, in fact, insane. [applause] there will be some leaders that approach you, others around the city that suggest tearing down hetch hetchy is a good idea. they will start talking about water sustainability issues. but know this. not only do we have the cleanest water, not only have we spent serious amounts of money upgrading seismically the whole system to deliver that clean water, but it is also one he