our town of san francisco our golden sun will shine on new -- you ♪ [applause] mr. bennett. ♪ it only takes a tiny corner of this great big world to find a place that you love you have brought us so much joy

you are a golden boy we love to have you here in our great towner of -- town of san francisco open your golden gates san francisco here is your wondering words singing other places only make me love you better you are the heart of all the gold in the world san francisco welcome me home again i'm coming home

♪ [applause] >> keep the applause going for the fabulous lisa malone. that was just terrific. [applause] i almost wore the same thing today. [laughter] would have been so awkward. [laughter] no, she was fantastic. now, everyone, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our host, the 43rd mayor of the city and

county of san been cisco, the honorable edwin m. lee -- the 43rd mayor of the city and county of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee: wow, welcome to city hall. and thank you, beach blanket babylon. what a wonderful performance. let's give her another hand. that was just fantastic. when i started being mayor of the city, i turned to our protocol officer and said, "you know, charlotte, we are going to do a lot of work this year, but these years forthcoming, as we work hard, i want to also have fun. isn't this fun? all right. [applause] this is our 50th anniversary of the wonderful song, "i left my heart in san francisco."

tony, it is wonderful for you to be here and grace us and honor us with your presence. your 17 grammys are just so unprecedented. you just won two more this past week, and what a wonderful career. congratulations, tony. i want to thank our school of the arts. i want to thank our boys and girls choruses. thank you. wonderful performances. it is a fitting tribute that our boys and girls choruses and ouryouth -- our yout are here today to perform because they reflect tony's dedicated career to ensure the future of arts education. we have seen what he has done and seen what his support is, and he is encouraging youth to be leaders on and off the stage,

to make sure they grow up with the values and the shared values that he has. this is such a wonderful opportunity. i also want to thank some of the school kids especially here today. we have kids from our tenderloin community school. thank you for being here. [applause] all right. we also have, for the first time, at the request of -- the idea ofcesa -- that cesar chavez elementary school wanted us to webcast this live, so we did it for them. wherever you are, welcome. [applause] tony, for 50 years, you have helped us not only remember a great song, but whenever any of us leave our town, we always come back and call san francisco our home. i know we talked a little

earlier and tried to recall that wonderful initiation where in 1961, you first sang that song in the venetian room up at the fairmont. little did you know at the time that then mayor george christopher was in the audience with joe alioto. it was such a marvelous performance that when joe became mayor, he adopted that as one of our two official anthems. thank you for performing first in san francisco. [applause] tony, you have helped us celebrate so many milestones in our city. you have helped us after earthquakes to come back and revive the spirit of our wonderful city. you have designed the wonderful art pieces to raise funds for

those who need that service. you help us to reopen. after earthquakes, you have helped us climb -- not half way, you have helped us climb all the way to the stars with the -- a nation of our cable cars. you have just -- i in your career, you have generated more love and more nostalgic for our bay area -- more nostalgia for our bay area than all the songs and all the movies and all the television shows associated with us combine. for that reason -- it is really for that reason, tony, that it is my pleasure if you would please come up, to declare today, valentine's day, february 14, 2012, as tony bennett day in san francisco. [applause]

and also, on behalf of all of us and with all of our love and with all of our hearts together, to present to you the key to the city of san francisco. [applause] >> would you like to say a few words? you have 45 minutes. [laughter] >> well, i would like to thank mr. ralph sharon, my great

friend and musician, for finding this song. i was in little rock, arkansas, and we were on our way for the first time in my life. he found a song, and he said, "why don't we do this in san francisco?" i said ok, and i have no idea, but there was a bartender who said, cassette and i don't mean to interrupt your rehearsal, but if you record that song, i'm going to be the first customer -- "i don't mean to interrupt your rehearsal, but if you record that song, i'm going to be the first customer." as i started singing it, the people came up and said, "you

have to record the song immediately." i always thought it would be a local song in the area, but the fact that it has become such an international song throughout the world -- everybody loves it, and they love this city. it reminds me of one time when i was playing the fairmont hotel, gorbachev from russia with here and travel throughout the whole united states and in front of the company could tell, i was listening to him speak about san francisco. he said, "i traveled to every city in the united states, and i was disappointed with what i saw. there was not one city that i liked, but as far as i'm concerned, san francisco is so beautiful that i would like to design 15 cities in russia that look like san francisco." [laughter] and he was right. [applause]

my wonderful wife, my family is here. i'm thrilled. thank you very much. i must say -- excuse me, i have to mention one thing. i have never seen anything in my life as beautiful as these young people. [applause] you stand so beautiful. [applause] -- you sang so beautiful. [applause] >> it is tony bennett day in san francisco. [applause]

just fantastic. now, before we leave here today, just one more time, let's hear that special song one more time, now performed by the talented san francisco gay men's chorus, who will be joined by -- yes -- who will be joined by all of our performers here today and then all of you. you can sing along by following the lyrics on the screens. ladies and gentlemen, the san francisco gay men's chorus. [applause] ♪ >> ♪ the loveliness of paris seems some house sadly -- somehow sadly gay the glory that was rome is of another day

i've been terribly alone and four got 10 -- forgotten in manhattan i'm going home to my city by the day -- city by the bay ♪ >> and now it is your turn. >> ♪ i left my heart in san francisco high on a hill it calls to me to be where little cable cars

climb halfway to the stars in the morning fog may chill the air i don't care my love waits there in san francisco of of the blue and windy see -- above the blue and windy sea when i come home to you san francisco your golden sun will shine for me ♪

[applause] >> very nice job, everybody. well, as we close here today, mr. bennett, you have always had the key to our hearts. now you have the key to our city. we hope to see you back here soon in your city by the bay. thank you for this wonderful gift you have given us all these years and thank you so much for letting us honor you today. tony bennett day in san francisco. once again, for the man of the hour.

[applause] thank you all so much for celebrating with us today. happy valentine's day. we will see you at the ballpark.

>> which celebrated the electric vehicle charging stations and facilities in san francisco today. i am the deputy general manager for the san francisco public utilities commission and i am joined today by mayor ed lee, fiona maw, mila nutter and barbara hale. this has been sort of a team effort, it has taken quite a while to get here. we are thankful for her help on 631 that paved the way for putting in these stations. as we go through this presentation today, i hope you take a chance to look at some of the electric vehicles today. i would like to thank several people that are here today, especially barbara hale's

staff. our colleagues at the metropolitan transportation authority as well as the colleagues had reckoned harper installing these. at the department of public works colleagues. with that, i will turn it over to the mayor lee for a few comments. >> thank you, michael, and a thank-you for your stewardship. you and barbara, ed harrington, you have done a great job. when i was city administrator, asked mayor newsom if i could do the ev's. i liked working with our department of environment, with melanie, with bob and others. they sat down and spend some good time talking about innovation for the city as to how we can get off of oil.

i am glad the day that -- today that the chairman is here. a year ago, we announced that we wanted 100 of these charging stations placed throughout all of the public garages. that was the strongest signal that we could give that we were going to pave the way and be supportive of the national movement and be the bay area leaders of the ev revolution. we have 49 of these stations placed. does a wonderful goal. before the end of this year, we'll have them -- an additional 33. we see that the private sector has also joined in. we have hotels, parking garages that are privately owned and

other public areas where private interests are saying that they would like to install these ev chargers for their customers. in fact, one of my favorite hotels down near chinatown, a have a charger there that is in use. people are proud of driving their vehicles in there for that use as well. the label themselves as a green hotel precisely because of these ev charging stations. these chargers, because of their newness, they had to be introduced to interrupt the culture, i have had the pleasure of working with eight apartments coordinating themselves together from our office of disabilities, public works, mta, puc, fleet managers. and including our own fleets, we can make sure that we transition. the weather is the chevy volt

that i have had the pleasure of writing in or the nissan leaf that is the newest coming out in the market very soon, i believe that these are the cars of the future. while we embrace transit first in the city and it will be forever our number one priority, to the extent that we must use vehicles, at some of us have to to get around in different schedules, that we do so in the most environmentally supportive way. it is a reminder that we can get off of oil. the reason why i think the popularity of these charging stations are coming at such a fast pace is because people like the assemblywoman have done what they can on the legislative side. she has passed a very valuable law that allows these stations

not to be considered as utilities. that incentivizes the private sector to join the public sector. i want to remind everybody, i know that they have this on his mind. hydroelectric power is the cleanest power you can possibly have has a source. for us in the bay area, the strongest source of that has the dam. it is the one that we value the most because it produces clean and efficient energy. it is transmitted throughout the bay area. it preserves and generates the cleanest energy. it is not only the present use for the charging stations, i believe it will also be considered to be of great part of our future for electric

charging. again, there are efforts in and outside of our city that suggest what i have considered to be an insane idea to get rid of our hech hechi dam. i believe that is misleading and false advertising. that is our future. i think that they need to understand the hydroelectric power is the way forward along with solar and the other sources that we are creating and the united states to be independent from oil. i enjoy working with the department of the environment. all of the different entities that have come together to make sure that this works, how to make sure it works not only as an environmentally friendly system, but it has to work for every day people, persons with disabilities that are parking in

our garages and ordinary folks that are trying to use or come to the fantastic art events. it works for a real thing that we do. this is one of my priorities, one that i am very happy to continue working with the various agencies and welcoming the new auto industry, one that complement's transit first. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. it is nice for the mayor to remind us that we have a guess- 3. first, we need to a knowledge -- acknowledge fiona maw. she paved the way for --

>> one of the best part of my job is that i can work on things that i care about. i am on my fourth hybrid, and i am waiting to get an electric vehicle so i can save money on gas. as gas prices rise, i think the pressure is on to try to figure out how to get people around economically. i do want to thank the mayor for his leadership. he has been the head of many departments over the years and he knows how to bring people together to cut through the red tape and get things done. when advocates came to me in the community about 8631 saying that we have a problem, the problem is we don't know how we're going to be regulated as electric vehicle charging stations, if we are going to be subject to the puc and calls to sacramento every time there is a change in

leadership or commissioners or ideas, or whether we can operate like a free market similar to gas stations. we worked very hard for two years, which gives certainty to the electric vehicle charging station market that they will not be regulated as a public utility and will be able to have certainty and invest in these long-term investments. i do want to recognize the city and county as we are working on this bill. he told me about their ambitious project of putting in 100 charging stations in public facilities. they were leading the charge, and the city and county in california that is as aggressive or as visionary as a san francisco. hech hechi power is so important. it was the vision of our

forefathers, the engineering marvel that created that our system. it powers many or all of our city services in the city buildings, and i want to thank the mayor's leadership for not charging the public for a whole year for using these charging stations in the public facilities. he said it is going to be free until 2013 to encourage people to try at and to get used to it and demand more. i want to thank the mayor for his leadership and applaud the city team for working together on this very visionary and aggressive project. >> last but not least, my colleague from the department of the environment. i would also like to recognize that staff person for their involvement as well. >> i was really pleased to be

standing with the assemblywoman almost a year ago today to announce the city report. as you heard, this really is a critical piece of legislation for the state of california to enable electric vehicle infrastructure. that is what you need to address with legislation and that is exactly what assemblywoman maw did. in san francisco, it is a really critical project for environmental protection. about 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon emissions come from cars and trucks. finding an alternative for people that need to use a single occupancy vehicles is a critical project. i am hoping to get people out of the cars, walking or biking.

having an electric vehicle was a great option. all of our city chargers are powered through carbon-free power. mirren newsom did set a goal of our city being 100% renewable power in the next 10 years, and mayor li has in forethought with the task force looking at how we are going to get there. goomaking sure that is part of r system is going to help reach that goal. good when other elements i wanted to mention, the electric vehicle chargers, this is also another critical element of our infrastructure, and the cars and infrastructure, and the cars and plugged in are also helping