commissioners for the city and county of san francisco. thank you.

>> thank you for comment. i am with the office of economic and workforce development, but i am representing quite a broad swath of the city and redevelopment staff who have spent rallying cry around this project. and i am here with a member of

community folks who have been absolutely instrumental in putting this together. i wanted to start by introducing mayor ed lee to speak a few words on this exciting day in bayview, which has honestly left of me breathless when i walked in. [applause] >> everybody, welcome to our bayview. welcome to third and oakdale. we are proud to be here today. a lot of good things happening. we want to announce yet again a collaborative effort that has been going on for some time. but it begins with people who have dreams and we have one of those people here who have been working in the neighborhood, building a community garden, and decided that perhaps it was time to be less and nomadic about his skill and to establish himself

in a neighborhood that i know well not only welcome hands in, but there are employment opportunities here as well. certainly, there is healthy and very vibrant food menus that will be displayed at a radio africa and kitchen right here. i want to begin by it and looking a lot of the entities that have been around to this together. i know our office of housing has worked in collaboration with the redevelopment agency. tiffany is here. the redevelopment agency put in a lot of good work to get the tax increment dollars involved in this site. the work with the loan program with the mayor's office of housing. they got together with the housing developer and coordination that owns the house and around this area and packaged its together what some small loans from our office of economic development, and collaborating about his dream

and putting the financial package together. we all collaborated, and we have not ever, ever had a feeling of giving up in anyway to any part of their street. so you know that i was out here a couple months ago with a supervisor at malia cohen, who is here today. thank you for welcoming us to your district. malia and i have been focused on its third street continuously. we're not going to give up. there's no reason to give up. there is investment in people to be had here. wonderful people who live here want mendell plaza to be more successful, the bayview opera house. we open up a couple other storefronts along third street. we're going to continue doing that with the personal investments that people are making on housing. i want to continue thanking

the former commissioners of our redevelopment agency. leroy king is here today. along with commissioner dar. thank you. [applause] i want to thank the bayview merchants association. thank you for constantly working with us here and making sure we do the right thing and communicate with all the people and not let go. i want to thank our police department. the captain is here. he is working with everybody thank you for being here. [applause] askinder is very worldly. he knows what is happening in our city and in this neighborhood. he is investing in an neighborhood he knows very well and investing in people. that is what makes a great menu, if i can put that connection together.

a menu that will be reflective of the health of this neighborhood. it will get us involved. it will get the contractors involved. some are down here working in the bayview, along with the contractors and vendors throughout this corridor. he is working with mohammed nuru who is here as well with dpw. he is working with our city administrator noami kelly, who is also here. we're all here in collaboration to make sure that you know city hall is going to continue putting resources in. we are reinstating the revolving loan fund, putting more money into it. we will have more of that decision making with the budget committee, the board of supervisors coming in the next week. then we will be walking through teraval this afternoon, touching

all the aspects of it, in every district. you have supervisors like malia cohen who are no longer worried. they know we are working together. what they're worried about are the people's negative attitudes, which should not creep in. we are confident with the merchants in the city. we are going to continue discounthis positive outlook ane will continue to do it with neighborhoods, to make sure there is job creation and economic opportunity for everybody. thank you for being with us today. i look forward to an intriguing menu here starting with eskender. thank you for your leadership here. [applause] >> he cannot talk get. he is at the very end. [laughter]

i just want to thank -- then davis from the san francisco housing corporation. she helped to get this bill. i also wanted to introduce supervisor cohen to state a few words. we are all one family and we were together but i also wanted to thank every development staff, especially andrea baker for helping to manage this project. [applause] supervisor cohen? >> thank you, mr. mayor, for once again and leaving me with nothing left to say. it is good to see our city partners and a special thank you to the agency formally known as the redevelopment agency. thank you for your guidance in getting us here, to this ribbon- cutting ceremony. it is an exciting time. we are starting to go through a rebirth, as we focus on how we

are reprogramming mandel plaza, continuing infrastructure programs as well as structural improvements to the bayview opera house. i am putting everyone in their area on notice. this will be the spot. the third street merchants corridor is coming back and it will be bigger and better than ever. this bill be the new spot for international cuisine. we have a peruvian restaurant down the street. here we have eskender. this is mediterranean, modern african, very bayview. we have some fantastic asian cuisine along the corridor, along with fantastic taco places. this place captures exactly what san francisco is looking for, bringing people and communities together over a wonderful meal.

i want to thank the city family for being here, the friends and neighbors, those who said that it could not be done, those that said it would not be done. hero -- here we are celebrating the ribbon-cutting of a fantastic restaurant that will be opening up. i look forward to being a faithful patron. al norman, thank you for your leadership in the bayview merchants association. [applause] and if we have any aspiring business owners in the house today, there will be funds available for those people that have a burgeoning of entrepreneurial spirit. i am very excited to be here and welcome you all here to this fantastic opening. [applause]

>> we have what we call the third street corridor program here. it is a collaboration with the baby business resource center. is sharing here? it is a collaboration with them and redevelopment and a couple of city offices. over the last few years, we have been able to do improvements on 25 businesses on third street, which is no small feat. [applause] technically, this is part of the program. i just wanted to report from our staff, limon was standing room only on saturday night. [applause] comintern in over now to tiffany for a couple of words from the four redevelopment agency. [applause]

>> thank you. it is a pleasure to be standing here in this building. there are affordable homes here. this is a manifestation of the ongoing investments that mayor lee and others have spoken about, in terms of the physical and economic investment in the bayview. too many people are here to thank but this was truly a covered a partnership, both at the state level, to build these homes, from community development, redevelopment funds, to stimulus funds, the mayor's office of housing, up front equity. we are truly pleased to be able to continue to invest in ongoing vibrancy of this third street corridor. and number of months ago, you saw the city's investment.

we are investing in food for soul here through eskender's vision. i am pleased to be here today and i welcome you all. thank you very much. [applause] >> a couple of words from al norman of the baby merchants association. >> you want to welcome everyone here for this wonderful opening. keep your suits pressed because we plan to have many more openings like this in the bayview. we have a tenfold job here in the bayview. we want you to join us because we have big plans in collaboration with our mayor, supervisors, but the other merchants in other districts here to make this one of the safest neighborhoods in san francisco.

we want you to feel that you can come down and shop and eat and have a good time, as if you were going on union street. our job is to make sure that you are safe, having fun when you come to visit us, and make you want to come back and bring people with you. thank you so much. [applause] >> first of all, i want to thank you, mayor lee, andrea baker, for all of your hard work. [applause] from the bottom of my heart, i am very excited to move to this neighborhood. also, this is a long-term dedication. it may not happen over a year. it will be a solid, simmering good movement that will change the way we eat around here and

the way we live. for example, i do not know if you saw the garden over there. we are growing some vegetables and grains. some of did you will probably be eating today. i am so excited. i have something in the oven, so i cannot speak too long. i am so happy. i want to thank all of you, including the neighborhood. enjoy. there is plenty of food. thank you again. [applause] >> i believe there is a special table for the mayor and naomi kelly, tiffany, a couple of other department heads. thank you all for coming. we really appreciate it. congratulations, eskender.

>> good morning, everyone. my name is naomi kelly, city and minister -- city administrator. welcome to the portola neighborhood. we're celebrating the successful efforts to revitalize san bruno

avenue. this city has had a great partnership with the portola never its steering committee, where some of it's never the investments include streetscape improvements, from planting trees and leaves to utility underground in and fixtures and to install office saw improvements and much more. today, mayor edwin lee will talk about launching the investing in iran initiative. joining him is supervisor malia cohen, robert ramirez from the portola neighborhood steering committee, and many department heads, including jennifer from the office of economic and workforce development, ed harrington from the san francisco public utilities commission, regina from the small business office, bevon from sf hope, and revitalizing our commercial

corridors has been near and dear to mayor lee's heart since his days as director of dpw and as city administrator and down as mayor. whether it did the dpw community corridor program, ambassador program, or the challenge grant, the mayor is always asking us how can we strategically deploy our resources to revitalize these aboard commercial corridors in areas that need it the most? with that, i would like to introduce mayor edwin lee. [applause] >> thank you, city administrator. good morning. welcome to the portola neighborhood. that is the pronunciation that i learned many years ago when we were picking up garbage in these little pockets all over this san bruno avenue. and we learned that very quickly, because the neighborhoods fell that we were not door to make investments in our neighborhood, and if we did not, it would go downhill very

quickly. so we started with a number of debra agencies to work together along this corridor. guess what, a few years later with that kind of investment, we have trees alive here. we have got sidewalks that are not only clean, but they have been redone. you have got signage at both ends this a welcome to portola. as a result of that investment, there is a vibrancy that i have not seen in other corridors comparatively. one of the statistics i want to make sure you know is that during the years where this great recession that hit all of us, i think the city's self tax -- maybe we did a little better than other years. maybe 3%. this corridor along san bruno experienced an 8% increase in sales tax, just because people believe in this neighborhood and continue to come in here, not only for the coffee shops.

for the giver and clubs, at the activities, youth activities, -- for the different clubs and activities, positive activities and the neighborhood investments. i could talk all day long about job creation. as you know, cougin recent weeke have been announcing the big leases with a successful technology companies. that is excellent for the city. it is very much in downtown and south of market and in our mission area. but i want you to know that we're paying just as serious attention to our neighborhood corridors throughout the city. yesterday i walked with carmen chu, supervisor chu throughout the teravelle district and got a good sense of some of the challenges and listened to the copy shop owners, the insurance company owners, some of the other areas where they are

giving us and put about how we can improve all along that commercial corridor. this morning, i got the and breakfast with supervisor malia cohen just a block away, and we talked about the different sections of san bruno, how wonderful of an emperor of man that has been over years of effort that has been a collaborative -- how wonderful of an improvement that has happened over the years of effort. this is the kind of framework that we wanted to continue establishing throughout all of the commercial corridors, the merchant corridors throughout the city. as we walked along third street yesterday with the opening of the kitchen, that was exciting. we commented on how positive the feeling was. it is a framework that wanted to make sure that you know as we discuss things like the revolving loan fund at the board of supervisors, as we discussed

programs were we're linking an technology challenges with our neighbor minutes. we wanted to do it in a framework in which the public knows we're bringing together all of the different departments in all of our neighborhood corridors, to make sure you know we are going to take care of a lot of things. this is just an announcement here or there, it is an announcement in concert with everything else we are doing. the most important thing is that you know we are working with neighborhood leaders when they come into the corridor. it is not about a parklet that is going to be isolated. it will be embraced by the residences and businesses that will use that. make sure that it is a part of the vibrancy. that they have input to the leadership in developing. every one of our corridors, and we're going to look forward to not only teravelle, noriega. supervisor of a los -- avalos

wants is to pay attention to the geneva corridor. bernal, as well as the traditional corridors. we're going to be working on ideas about a small business loan and what it means to get resources out here where people feel, maybe they're reading the paper every day and see that we're paying attention to the downtown and south of market interest. we're not and inlet. we're just going to be as investment-friendly to our merchant corridors throughout all of the city. even as we set the agenda for the old redeveloper over subcommittee, we are going to be paying attention to all of the kind of commercial corridors that they pay attention to as well, whether it is midmarket are outlining areas like san bruno avenue. that is the framework in which we wanted to make sure the discussion continues. it is the portola, the neighborhood that has been out here. the neighbors that want to continue investing, want us to

invest in debt. it is a coordinated and collaborative effort. today we begin identifying the key partners and leaders. so i wanted to announce that noami kelly is the city administrator and will be working with jen matts as kind of the two leaders in this initiative of the neighborhood investments. the neighborhood investment initiative is going to reflect collaboration of all of the different elements that made a san bruno successful. in an addition to the small business loans, we're going to have a lot of other ideas. where do we bring more of our community ambassador program as we invest in that? where do we bring in the collaboration with our police department here today, where they can have more visibility so people can feel safe? how do we get our office of

small business -- regina is here today, to get their programs out where needed, and to lecture the commissions are paid attention to all of the different corridors. this all has to do it collaboration and a coordinated effort. when we announce the $1 million this year and the $5 million small business loan program, it is in the context of a very good collaboration that we have from agencies like the puc. ed harrington is here today. dpw, community ambassadors program, muni, our police department, and cdbg, our mayor's office of housing. it is all part of the way in which we should do business, getting collaboration as well. so that when we meet with neighborhood leaders here, they know they have got connections to every single agency. when we work with sf ci5tty and

quarter and eight permits online. when we do things like an event parklets and make those successful and accessible. or use money to create an even better coffee shop that will come here to san bruno. it is going to come very soon. we have leadership in place. we have coronation. funding is in the works. -- we have coordination. we're on a positive scales in our economy. i am going to use the additional revenues we see coming into this city. make sure we do it and use it smartly. we are going to invest in our community challenge grant program that has been so successful all along this corridor. they have worked magic with the

neighborhood groups that want to see greening and better programs. the murals in place of grafitti have been wonderful. it will be replicated throughout the city. thank you very much for joining us. [applause] >> coldiron, we have some more people -- hold on, we have some more people. there will be questioned. next, i would like to invite up supervisor malia cohen. [applause] >> good morning. i think today is another example, as was yesterday, of the physical manifestation of what happens when thoughtful people and thoughtful leaders come together. i like to publicly to thank the portola neighborhood steering committee. thank you for your leadership and commitment to san francisco

and to this little cove that recall the portola. my home. i was raised here. my parents still live here. this corridor means a lot to me personally. it is a very committed to continue to support the merchant corridor, as low as the neighbors, and continue to improve our efforts to beef up and maintain the safety as the number-one priority here on the margin corridor. thank you to our community leaders. [applause] >> , thank you, supervisor. next, i would like to introduce reporter wrote rivera's to speak on behalf of the portola neighborhood steering committee -- i would like to introduce roberta ribble -- roberto ramirez. >> good morning. we recently went through and name change. we're not the portola neighborhood association. i am making