but the anniversary of the great earthquake was remembered. >> i would like to ask for a minute of silence.

>> let's have a moment of silence. >> they meet for the annual reflating ceremony. he was joined by winnie for an afternoon celebration. we are here to commemorate all that it signifies.

at each anniversary the leaders meet to prepare for the next great quake. bob welcome everybody to the anniversary. i got to say, the mayor gets it done. gooa round of applause for our e

chief's wife. you look terrific. do we have sydney close five? -- close by. we will pass the microphone to the mayor for a couple of quick words. we have a fire chief and the police chief. >> good morning, everyone.

106 years since our earthquake. we do have a grandson? she was with us in 2009. goopublic works is here.

this reminds us of the 3000 people but passed away in 1906 from the devastating earthquake, but the rebirth of our city is with us. i have been in all of these other positions where we are always prepared. and we are already engaged in recovery efforts. we were there with a whole staff.

we have six we assure you that when the next big event happens, that water system will be there for us to deliver water with that 24 hours. a huge change from depending on this fountain. we are handing it off to generations of youth in the city to understand -- make sure they're prepared. go to our website, it tells you all the things there. iti is about having those items prepared.w we will survive. that is how we get ready and celebrate and honor the people who left us and make sure our city is ready. thank you for being here.

congratulations to our survivors. >> very nice job. behind me is a good friend and a great firechief. you go back 106 years. braxton morning. -- good morning. one of the survivors could not be with us. those are amazing changes. it does give us the opportunity to remember what happened. we commemorate those who suffered losses in their lives and hardships. we also celebrate the city that was nearly swept from the map.

the fires raged for three days and caused rates -- great devastation. we take the opportunity to educate everyone. it is a pleasure for me to work under the direction of mayor lee. he is a public safety championship. he is a prepared as champion. he lives it. i have seen his kids and his workplace. it is all about teamwork. i am proud to be working with chief suhr. and scott weiner, it is a pleasure to have you out here. we appreciate it. it is a great team. thank you to the people who are out here. and also our partners with the american red cross.

who are here this morning. thank you for being here. it has been a tradition for many of us out here. i hope you have a great day and you remember what happened 106 years ago. it is great to be a san franciscan. >> a nice hand for the chief, everybody. i have seen this other chief speaking in the last couple of times. a nice hand for chief suhr. >> good morning. our fire chief said it. we're lucky in san francisco. we have a mayor who has moved through the tears of prepared as an goddess ready to go. we get a little more prepared every day. god bless to the survivors. >> thank you. >> it is a minute of silence at

5-11. -- 51:11 p.m. let's have a moment of silence for a minute right now. [siren]

>> i think the fitting way to end this germany first of all, -- this ceremony first of all.

there will be playing. everybody have their words right here? i will give the countdown. as we hang the reece, i will give you a count here. have a look at me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1. ♪ [singing] ♪ ♪

>> a great day, everybody. thank you. the san francisco chornicle. and the history association. and the neighborhood emergency response team. the american red cross.

and thanks for making this happen. i want to invite everyone to go to 20th in church or -- and church. and we will meet up. we may skirt the law and serve something before 6:00 a.m. the bookmobile, where are they? >> i have my cheat sheet here which i cannot find. the library has been here after great disasters. there has -- is a special book that won an award this year. here is the book. i downloaded it on my kindle.

it can check out copies of the book mobile. nex>> thanks for being here. start walking slowly. welcome to san francisco, everyone. ♪

>> a great man, is that what

you called me? she has to be reminded. -- would you tell that to anita? i congratulate you and thank you for coming to san francisco. hopefully you also become a disaster --- we would be glad te to open up our minds and communities to receive ideas from across the country, if not the world as to how we can improve it. it never is about what just san francisco is doing.

a lot of our ideas are homegrown. the ideas are transplanted and that is the greatness of our city. we're an international city. we want to show what ideas are coming out of the far east, china, malaysia, the philippines, singapore as well as all over from europe. perhaps from africa and south america. we can learn from that just as we have done with concepts like sunday streets where people take back the streets and start having fun in our urban communities and bringing out the children to enjoy the environment. this is our future generations so we have to have the best ideas. how to keep our environment and our strong. i want to tell you that there are a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for keeping our city grain trade we have at least

three different projects that we have been focused on for a number of years. i have had the privilege with working with mohammed and our city engineers to accomplish this. most importantly with our community leaders and volunteers throughout every part of our neighborhoods. i hope that you do you is your time and take advantage of our wonderful weather to go out and do as many doors as possible of all the -- tours as possible of all the community gardens. we have a committee challenge program, one that i am proud to have headed up when we were at public works but also the city administrator. this program today funds almost $900,000 this year in programs that are all committee pushed. it is attacks checkoff for

corporations and individuals. the fund this through the tax system to provide almost $1 million every year and is put into a community-driven process where community leaders will apply on behalf of themselves or their own streets or gardens and they can get grants of up to $100,000 or as small as $5,000. they could be groups that have never done anything except to start talking to each other about how to increase their neighborhoods's interest in reading and the environment. we have associated ourselves with the parks alliance and the clean city coalition to provide administrative support to any group that forms. as well as those groups that have school -- school themselves and gotten well organized and know what they're doing in their communities and

want to increase their gardens. there will be gardens and a small ones, a few hundred square feet to those that are thousands of square feet large. i am taking over -- and taking over alleyways and the median strips, taking over long- abandoned areas and blighted areas. community groups and volunteers will form those alliances most of the time in concert with either dpw or our public utilities commission or our parks, recreation and parks department and we're open to those kinds of collaborations'. the committee challenge grant is an excellent model. without anybody's knowledge, i still call the director and say what is going on. dpw tried to keep out of their

business. now our city [inaudible] i am reaching in to find out, what are those great things the neighbor rwanda to do and i would like to go out there and visit them. i signed off last year in 2011 the urban agriculture " ordinance. the ordinance for us was another reflection of city policy with the board of supervisors that we wanted to increase the opportunities for folks to grow crops. to grow agriculture, to be able to sell it if they so wish to to so we could have folks that already have that experience, but not necessarily at the corporate level. our urban agriculture is important to us. we have identified a number of abandoned lots all over the city and we would love to again excite volunteers and people who

are interested in urban agriculture and the ability to distribute fresh produce to people who are in need. allow that to happen, working with our school district to see what can happen on their lots so the urban agriculture ordinance is something that you might want to take a look at. and finally, with our recreation and park department, the community gardens program, another broad program we have. taking lots, whether they are a few hundred square feet or thousands of square feet and activating them and hosting volunteers to be able to build community gardens. we now have 35 and growing established community gardens in the city. and again, all run by volunteers. some of them that our individual lots and individuals will grow in them and there are lots that are shared responsibilities and shared

neighborhood responsibilities to grow crops and to grow agriculture there for not only eating purposes or flowers or any of the things that individuals wish to have. and they are happening in our golden gate park as well as in our neighborhood parks. we're excited that you hopefully, you can see those as well. those are three small examples of hopefully things that you can visit while you are here. i understand you are going through my home time, seattle next year -- my home town. seattle next. i was born and raised there. and of course, if that is not enough for you to do while you are here, you should talk to mohammed about getting tickets to the giants, the 49ers, or outside because that is -- outside plans because that is happening this weekend. that is the fun we have in our

great city. we are a large city. i get to talk and write about the things we're doing, and i want you to know that the internment -- and permit, our commitment to greening are parts of what we're here to do because of the advocacy that you do across the country, keep of that work, keep reminding mayors like me and everybody else we have an obligation to take the greening ideas and put them into the urban setting. give our kids the chance to get dirty with their hands, but watch things grow as they grow. this is the only way i know how to run the city. i have worked in this alleyways for many years. worked in the dirtiest smelling streets of our city. i come out loving our people

even greater. whenever graffiti we have is our challenge. whenever illegal dumping that goes on. it is the ability to excite and organize our communities around these issues that bring out the best of all of us. the investment in our neighborhoods is one of my number one priorities as the mayor of the city. and to have example after example of how we can unite more of our neighborhoods to make that investment, too. not just with money but with their skill sets. with their spirit. -- spirit of volunteerism. every other thing we can do to build strong communities. i know the guard association has as its core our own collaboration and education of folks to build that spirit out. n