>> will dampen this is it's very special day. -- welcome, everyone. this is a very special day, our day tuesday thank you. it is wonderful that we get this opportunity to thank and i want to give some special acknowledgements to some of our guests today we're joined by the honorable mayor, ed lee. commissioner leslie katz. public works director mohammed nuru.

stafano. general manager of turner for construction. i want to thank all of you for being part of our program. we're also joined by the ceo of the america's cup event authority. i cannot find him that i know he is here somewhere. the ceo of the america's cup organizing committee. the board of the directors of the committee. our very own naomi kelly, city administrator. [applause] the commissioner of the golden gate bridge district. i saw him a minute ago. there you are. our city engineer. mike galt and adam, project managers of america's cup. our architects. our city project team, kim and cindy, ed, edgar, and oscar.

all the employees of turner construction and the 32 sub- contracting firms. our cruise terminal volunteers to meet the guests in the coming in. our port community advisory committee members. i saw several of you here today. our state regulator partners. members of city planning, the board of supervisors, our maritime commu the international longshore and warehouse union members. thank you all for being part of this momentous occasion. [applause] this is a very special day, and i know many of you who follow the mayor of around have been to a lot of these ceremonies, and you're probably wondering why this is such a big deal. this is such a big deal because it represents the first time in 45 years that the board and the city have funded our own and

topping off ceremony at the port of san francisco. and 45 years is a very long time. i resemble that time frame, so you know that it has been a very long time coming. it has been a true citywide effort. i want to run through how important that has been. we have tried many times to get a cruise terminal project going. they started trying back when art agnos was mayor, and this time it finally stuck. i think there is a key. it launched off with an 11- member blue ribbon cruise terminal advisory committee, which was comprised of a lot of very busy and dedicated people who have a passion for having a cruise terminal here in san francisco. the project received key endorsements early on from the iowu. metro cruises. several large cruise lines including princess cruises and holland america.

input and support from our community and advisory committees. city departments including the department of city planning. numerous regulators including the bay conservation development commission. the state lands commission. the regional water quality control board. corps of engineers. i could go on and on. in the fourth quarter of our quest, something miraculous happened to us and we cannot be more grateful. that is that we got a huge push over the finish line from our partners at the america's cup event authority. thank you so much for that. [applause] i want you to take a good long look at the bones of this facility. the structure is built to last a lifetime. it will last for generations. hopefully some day you all well cruise out of here as well as your children and grandchildren. i want you to look at that and feel the pride.

mr. mayor, this facility has already won its first award from "cruise insight" magazine for been designed with the most amount of consensus and input. we are extremely proud of that. it was a new category created just for this cruise ship terminal and it cannot be more fitting. this site is really being transformed. the pier 27 facility opened in 1967. it was part of the pier 27, at 29, 31 cargo facility coming out of world war ii and into the global logistics supply chain which had moved to contain theiri -- containerization. as you can see behind me, it is long as part of the waterfront, whether it is port property or federal property. it is 1100 square feet. and the ships are headed that way as well.

behind us is a brand-new facility which will handle our passengers more efficiently as they come off the bigger ships. our current cruise ship terminal, pier 35 was built in the teens, and it was built for ships that carried 500 passengers. these ships are are tearing up to 5000 passengers which is as many or more than some of the largest hotels here in san francisco. as our bidders' circuit -- visitors are getting off the ship, they will land here at the pier gateway of one of the greatest cities in the world. stand here and think, what would be like to be a first-time visitor to san francisco? you get to see the gorgeous bay, bay bridge, alcatraz, and as you turn around, the coit tower and transamerica building. it does not get much better than that. we are really excited and we

thank you for your effort. when this project is complete, where all of you are standing will be a 2.5 acre park. it has been planned for over 20 years, so it is very gratifying to be able to move forward on the long-awaited project. thanks to the influence of our partners at the america's cup, at the end of the pier is another new plaza where you will have about 270 degree views, your first use of the ac-72's as they start and finish here. cruise terminals are an interesting facility in that they are designed to be vacant as much as they are designed to be fully impacted. one day it is overflowing and the next day there is nobody here. with the help of our blue ribbon committee and partners at san francisco travel, we also designed this area to

accommodate the events. we are very proud that our first event here at the pier 27 cruise terminal will be christened by the 34th america's cup as part of the america's cup village. i just want to say thank you again to stephen barkley, larry ellison, for your vision and dedication and partnership for a lot of us to host this year and leave a tremendous legacy for this city and neighborhood. it is my honor to again thank you and all the generations that will be able to participate in your work. i hope you will come back many times and i hope one of those times you will actually be a passenger, so welcome, everybody. now it is my honor to introduce a man who needs no introduction,

our very own mayor, the honorable ed lee. as you may recall, the mayor has a 17-point jobs plan. we have heard a lot about how he is doing on that plan because it seems weekly he is welcoming a new business to san francisco, and i think it is important that we have a city and mayor embracing people coming into the city, including our visitors. our cruise lines are very appreciative of having the mayor himself be part of that. mr. mayor, this cruise terminal hits 16 of your 17 points. it tracks and grow jobs, it hires san franciscans, it invests in infrastructure jobs, it invests in transportation, and it expands tourism and international trade and creates financial stability. it will be named after the late james firman, president of the

ilwu, as well as the port commission, most famous and our commission for spending well over one hour of a commission hearing chastising the court staff and other commissioners for not making maritime jobs be the cornerstone of our ports. it is really terrific that you are doing that. i know he would be extraordinarily proud of you. without further ado, please welcome mayor ed lee. >> thank you, monique. thank you for recognizing all of the partners that have been part of this. i would like to reiterate my appreciation to monique, her staff, the partnership with the port commission, their willingness to share in the leadership of this with so many agencies, dpw, the rest of the city, in building the consensus implementation phase of this. i also want to reiterate my

appreciation. we have talked long and hard about what benefits the america's cup would bring to the city. this is one of the great opportunities where the physical aspect of that promise is more than just talk. the organizing committee, events authority, with your leadership, we can be sure that the promises of economic benefits are real to this city, reflected right here in this moment. has monique said, it is kind of like that gust of wind we will see in the race. this is continuing to be the competition we have in the world. we are in competition with london, shanghai, paris, on whether or not we will be that international city that competes at the highest level, for business, attraction, an investor confidence. i want to thank the port.

their vision of having a world- class cruise ship liner station right here, which i look forward to in 2014, you and i will be welcoming thousands of passengers with our crew ship terminal. we will look back and say thank you to the designers and everyone else that has gotten us this far. i love these top of ceremonies because all of us want to see whether the delivery is as real as the promises that were made, and this is real. this is one of those topping off ceremonies, like at the general hospital, with our financial partners, whether they be the general public or the combined public-private partnership, for a reflection of our implementation of the 10- year capital plan.

i know this is very dear to monique. i have had those discussions come as i was a city administrator. even our current city administrator gets in those prolonged discussions on whether we can really deliver on things or not. at the end, we have these moments where we can say we are delivering on those promises. i know this is the third time that we have tried to get a cruise ship terminal to the pork. not only are we finishing that cruise ship terminal which is so now able to future generations, $40 million to protect business every year after this is constructed, 300 ongoing new jobs, but this is also designed with the northeast wharf plaza, another invitation to our waterfront. it is so important to our state land, our partners on the waterfront, that we honor the

lifelong commitment that we have that a port should bring more people to the waterfront to experience things, and that we have done it in the right way with the right investments. so many reasons to celebrate this moment. again, it is an opportunity to thank everyone involved and to remind folks, when we make a commitment like the 34th america's cup, there is more to it than just the race. it is really the excitement, the economic that can connect with it, and how we're doing it smartly. we are laying out not just the race but the opportunity to share in a world-class event with world class structures with the invitation for more jobs, participation of so many agencies. i also want to thank the general public and all the volunteers, all the people that have invested personally as well as their time, that they know this is more than a dream that can be delivered on, if we continue to

build the consensus, a focus and i have been trying to do at the board, in the mayor's office, with all of our community partners and agencies. we can get a lot more done if we build consensus around the vision and if we get people's roles intact. i am here to celebrate and think everybody but also to put in perspective, this is another promise delivered. a great partnership that we have. we will put this beam on the top, and how fast is this going up? even as we speak, it is appropriate to hear the banging, the connecting, the welding that is going on. we are not allowing anyone to stop our time frame on this because it is about jobs. keeping the promise. men and women in labor, we are

honoring them, of course, with the naming of james herman cruise ship terminal. i am so proud of the work of san francisco. now it is their moment in concert with the america's cup, to celebrate this momentous occasion. thank you, everyone for your dedicated leadership. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. it is now my pleasure to introduce supervisor leslie katz. she began at the board of supervisors in 1996. she has chaired six committees, including the land use committee and finance committee. you can imagine how valuable her assistance has been to us. she is a senior attorney advocate. please welcome commissioner leslie katz.

[applause] >> nothing highlights today more than hearing the list of people that made today possible. as director monique moyer stated, in her thank you's, it went on and on. that is a demonstration of how we do things in san francisco. i also want to thank you and others. i cannot begin to think the court staff for all the hard work they had put and to get us to this day. as a former supervisor, i remember a couple of those failed attempts. it is wonderful to see how far we have come and what is going on behind us. i also want to thank our executive director monique moyer, whose stewardship got us to this point. it is no easy task to bring everyone together. of course, turner construction for making sure that we stay on time and budget.

the architects as well. i also want to thank mayor lee and borrow a bit of a moniker that has been applied to him. he gets it done. what better example than what we are seeing today. thank you, mayor, for making that a reality. [applause] those of us who knew jimmy herman new habra -- know how proud he would have been to see this. he was one of the people that embody the best of san francisco, bringing people together and making sure that we do things as well as possible, that we create jobs can bring people along as we move forward. this is such a fitting tribute to a man that embodied those goals for all of us. you have heard about all the wonderful things here taking place. job creation, we have exceeded goals in terms of local participation. another thing that is near and dear to me