minutes and i'm going to try to stick to that, probably not. [ [ laughter ] after i'm finished we're going to turn some dirt. we have a food truck because we deposit want anybody hungry. you guys patronize them if you will. mel sharp and his band are going to be back playing after the speeches. so hang around and party down. i just have a few people that i need to thank. [ laughter ] i will do the short list. of course the mayor. mayor lee has had a lot of celebrating to do this week. we're really grateful here is here. our district 3 supervisor david chiu and his staff. they never pick up the phone or answer an email without saying, "what do you need and what can i do?" our head librarian, luis herrera. we were the first library on the list and we'll be the last one in the current branch

library program to be completed. a lot of hard decisions and he stood with us. phil ginsburg, rec and park director. our dpw director mohammed, the last time i saw o & m mohammed he was pushing a wheelbarrow. our department heads have stood with us. jill, karen, besides them, gary, who was at the time capital planning manager for rec and park. mindy, lenu chen, the manager for the project. michael from planning, john from the city attorney's office. michelle and mary, michelle is with the library and mary is

with the friends of the library and put on this event today. our commissioners, rec and park, planning, library, who have voted unanimously. some of them more than once for this project. our board of supervisors, who stood with us. the architects, marsha and a special thanks to erin who has done so much to help us on though this project. you know? that is the city side of this public-private partnership and i have to be fair in saying that this project has lasted through the term of two supervisors, two head librarians, three mayors, and four rec and park general managers. the heart of this project, the constant thing has been the heart of this neighborhood. has been our volunteers and our people. [ applause ] >> so i want to introduce june. [ applause ] , liz diaz. amy miles.

bill collins. martha mahoney, who also does our halloween. terry. i saved lizzy. this is lizzy hirsch. she has been there. one of the founders of the friends of joe d in 1997. what started with planting a little grass on the children's playground has greatly expanded. few people know that the movie "thelma and louise" is a highly fictionalized account of lizzy and mine's adventures. [ applause ] >> most of it is overstated except for the driving off the cliff part. we have done that more than once. [ laughter ] the so yay lizzy. [ applause ] where is tan? he won't come up here, but

there is tan hiding in the back. [ applause ] of the chinese town community development center. tan is one of the hardest working neighborhood activists and one of the smartest political operatives that i know. i learn something every time i talk to him and we have really used his help on this project. tina of the russian river neighbors wasn't able to be here, but her colleagues were and we thank the russian hill neighbors for standing by us, our sister organizations, all of our schools. nester from the telegraph center. we're honored by the number of people who have stood by us on this project. a special shutout to our families, to the spouses and the children that have had to work around and make due for so long while we were away doing something else. a special thanks to my husgreg husband greg smith. [ applause ] greg let us cut his birthday

trip to hawaii short by a day and fly back on his birthday, so i could be here today. so if you wouldn't mind saying happy birthday greg. happy birthday greg! so this is a threshold, a beginning, a start. we're going to build a new library. there are a couple of other starts today. today is the start of the effort to raise money to furnish and equip that library. the friends of the library have done an incredible job of doing that with 23 other branches. we're the last. we don't want to tiredly limp over that finish line. we want to show them what our neighborhood can do. so you are going to be getting the asks. the ask is to be able to help with that effort to furnish our library and equip it to make it the best library in the city of san francisco. so stay tuned, we need your help again. one more and that is prop b.

how many people are going to vote in this election? can i see a show of hands? how many people will vote for prop b? >> yes. >> how many of you can think of at least two or three or four people in the next couple of days that you can talk to to make sure that they are voting for prop b, because that is it what it's going to take. we are within one or two percentage points ever victory. the people that you talk to could be the people that make the difference in that election. i want to thank the mayor and our supervisors, and phil ginsburg for putting us on that bond. let's get prop b passed, shall we? [ applause ] so we're going to turn some dirt and we're going to start a library. thank you all for being here today. you made this happen. [ applause ] >> thank you, julie.

well-done, julie. thank you. thank you. mr. mayor, will you have the honors. district supervisors, mohammed, phil, julie, come on down here and grab yourself a shovel and we're going to have a countdown. are we ready? let's have a countdown. on the count of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! north beach branch library!

>> we are ready to begin. welcome to unico i'm albert and i'm very pleased that today we have a number of distinguished guests joining us from the ribbon cutting ceremony, so allow me now a few moments to introduce our guests first of all please welcome san francisco mayor mr. edwin lee. [ applause ] >> >> next please welcome singer,

song writer and unico cast member, quopola. [ applause ] >> we also would like to welcome the director of the san francisco zoo, miss tania peterson. >> and now, ladies and gentlemen, let's please welcome unico, ceo mr. tabashi yani. [ applause ] >> and last, but not least, please welcome unico usa chief operating officer, mr. pani... [ applause ] >> at this time, i would like to ask unico ceo, mr. yani to give us a few opening remarks. >> mr. yani please. >> good morning, everyone. yeah, i am now so much excited

because of for the opening soon and also i would like to express my personal experience 45 years ago i was 18 years. i passed 15 this usa, in san francisco, is my past experience to around here. and also, i much say, i am a 49er. [ cheers ] >> because i was born 49 year, and also, for each century, do you know, today, today is a

day, you know, today is steve jobs passed away, one year ago. i give steve jobs so much and this is a place of innovation, i try to make innovation here for us today. thank you very much for listening. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, very much. >> may i now ask mayor lee for a response, please? >> thank you. and mr. yuni thank you and welcome to san francisco, welcome unico for to the square it is a great place to be, this 30,000-square foot flag ship for the west coast and i have been wanting to tell you that i have known about your store to my daughter for quite some

time, who have been religiously shopping for their affordable and very well-designed clothing for quite some time, and of course, i'm very intrigued being the next model to follow joe montana. but, i'm happy to be here and joined with, of course, tania peterson our zoo director and so many friends. i also had to wake up to my wife saying, we are going to the store today, are we not? so she is there already, we are already focused on the orange section of the store to get ready for this weekend. but i want to not only congratulate unico for locating here in our very exciting part of our city, the international part where so many millions of visitors come every year. in fact, last year in 2011,

over 16.3 million visitors came to san francisco and most of them found their way to unit square to the best shopping in the world. this is the center for arts and culture and of course it is our innovation capitol of the world and we are doing all of the right things to continue our success in the city. part of that success, is to work with great corporate citizens like unico and their efforts to make sure that they give their best effort to hire san franciscoans. today we celebrate not just a flag ship store but a store that has made corporate responsibility at the helm of their friend. there is over 500 people that they have already hired in this store. that is a fabulous contribution. they have worked that magic with our office of economic development, having spent weeks to train people who may not

have gotten this opportunity. but for their out reach in this store, and then, they created a buzz and excitement in our city. i know that people will not only appreciate the fabulous fashions here, that you just look at these prices, for the kind of quality that they have. and i know that we have smart shoppers like supervisor kim who will be here in a minute and others who look for that casmere brand and also are very affected by the price sensitivity of the quality store. and then i want to just give a shout out. there are people so excited here in san francisco for this store to open. paul english from the richmond area of san francisco was here at 5:00 a.m. and i have to give a shout out to her. she and her friend michelle were the first two people in line here. i want to welcome you to the flag ship store in san

francisco. congratulations mr. yuni and kenny, thank you for your wonderful work in setting this up and working with us so well. >> thank you, very much. yeah, you are very, very good serviceman, and the whole san francisco. thank you. thank you very much. >> and i think that we are, yes? >> by the way, when you get in there, you have got to see the magic mirror, that is something that is going to blend technology with your fashion. mr. yuni on behalf of the city in a way in which we are so proud, so thankful for this opportunity to welcome the flag ship here, we would like to declare this unico day here in san francisco. [ applause ]

>> thank you, very much. mayor lee and thank you very much everyone. i think that we are ready now to spread the unico ribbon for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, yes? if we could have, here we go, just underneath, yes, please. yes, i think that everyone has, yes, thank you very much. so, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to do it on the count of three. we will go, 3, 2, 1 for our guests and for our executives, obviously we have a number of very interested photographers here so please give us your best unico smile possible. ladies and gentlemen, so if we are ready, 3, 2, 1, all right? >> 3, 2, 1... [ cheers ] >> thank you very much, everyone. and i think that we will be

opening in probably... >> yes? >> we will be opening very, very shortly. one moment please. >> san francisco mayor lee is here to join us. this is especially special for us. about 14 months ago when we kicked off our first program lee was here. he helped cut the ribbon and launch with our first companies about 14 months ago, and i one thing i will say before you get up we thought long and hard where we wanted

green star located and we knew we wanted it in silicon valley and we wanted to know where they were going to and we believe san francisco is on the way to being the heart and hub of silicon valley and where the heart and the leadership is and we will exciting where it's going and please welcome mayor ed lee. >> thank you mitch. thank you so much. you know innovation is infectious. it's as infectious as giants fever. how about that? so let me tell you i have been excited ever since i came here and cut the ribbon with mitch a year ago and want to the get back here and see how everything was progressing and guess what? just over a year and a half ago when we first

started here and when i started as mayor san francisco unemployment rate was 9.6% and last week six-point 9%. what a flip and a lot of it has to do with all the job creation you're doing right here and i want to congratulate you green start and all the companies starting out here. i like to be next and involved with all of the innovation going on. that is really infectious and i really like that with this city. because there are 208 clean tech companies in san francisco and there are 83 investors and i think they're all here today. i think we earned the title of north american clean tech group and part of my administration that we support you and we engage with in how to do it

better and you're part of my 17 points of job growth in the city. i ran on that as the new mayor in town. by the way i never have ran for public office before so you need to help me look good. i know they're going to work and as mitch said we are the ecosystem. this is how things are happening. this is why people are coming into san francisco. in addition we have a tourist sector going on, life sciences going on. everybody is innovating in the right places and doing it here in san francisco and there is a strong spirit and we will continue growth and jobs everybody. we want to help everybody out and support each other and that comes to what we do here in san francisco. today i am announcing a new initiative and clean tech sf initiative which we launching with all of you. there are three part it is of

this. the first part is we're working with the california clean energy fund. i know jeff anderson is here today as part of them and he's going to be partners with us, and he's partners in every branch that we doing. the first thing we're doing as clean tech sf we will establish innovation zones in san francisco. what does that mean? we asked last time when we were here in san francisco and how can we help? perhaps we can help with the resources that the city doesn't use to the highest use. let's take our space. we have a lot of assets under utilized. how can we allow the demonstrations that you're having today have a real field test for what they are, and if we could allow ourselves to be very flexible with our leases, our spaces we will

allow ourselves to do that with partnership with green start and incubate some of the demonstrationos our property, let's take what we're doing specifically. with our sfpuc, with the department of the environment and melanie is here today and doing a great job with our mos connie center and i know we have a lot of panels up there already but doesn't fill all the roof tops and there is new technology coming out all the time. we have been challenged in the solar technology arena because traditional technology has heavy weight technology that always challenged the integrity of roof tops, and moscone is the one we found and let that be for one of these companies and light ultralight technology and use,

cheaper way of getting solar out there and we're going to allow them to demonstrate their product on top of our mos connie roof and that is an example we're doing in utilizing all of the agency's cooperations and make sure the start ups can use real testing sites in the city. that is thanks to the hardand kelly and the manager at puc and barbara hale and the second thing we're going to do is take a page out of what we're doing with clean tech and biotech life sciences. you see what mission bay is doing. they have for the last ten years building up a ecosystem of pharmaceutical companies and san francisco medical center and integrated around with the research teams to form a very strong research center and because of that center more and more companies

around the world are locating there because they want to be next to the laboratory innovators. they're sharing laboratories, sharing scientists and collaborating and all with solutions about the future of medicine. taking a page out of that why couldn't we do the same thing with clean tech? we want to invite institutions like our california puc, our san francisco puc, our department of the environment, organizations and private institutions like sun run or pg&e to potentially create the network of their innovative sites and their innovative divisions to work together and potentially in a physical location or just begin networking first, and start working with the major universities and their research entities on their sites so we can start anchoring these institutions within san

francisco and create another ecosystem of anchoring institutions. that proved successful in the delivery of pharmaceutical answers to medical challenges. i think it will prove to be helpful here to have them focial exciting center to come and look at and draw the attention i think of even more start ups, and the third part of this clean sf initiative is make sure that we do everything possible to support clean tech start ups. we can do that with partnership with the clean energy fund and our departments and their funds for grants and help green start with all of these start ups and make sure they know we're supporting them in every way possible, and through that partnership we will come up with even more ideas. this continues to be the innovation capital in the world and i will put that in context

and melanie asked me to remind all of you. there is no other city in the united states if not the world that can say they accomplished goals of 80% of all of our garage is being repsyched in san francisco. we will get to 100% in our lifetimes and this i grant you because we have innovators here and people committed. we have investors here to help us with the new ideas. this last 20% of recycling is going to be the hardest but the most enjoyable. this city will continue to innovate. we will embrace clean technologies. we we will certificate green start and demonstrations that we will see today and october is innovation month and gratifying for those and happy clean tech day in san francisco. thank you very much.

[applause] >> it is awesome to have the mayor announce that right here at green start. we are thrilled to be a part of that. it's true a year ago mayor lee asked "what can we do to help?" and we said we have lots of companies that want to test pilot things and deploy things and how can san francisco be a part of that and to see this come together so quickly is incredibly rewarding and testament to the leadership you're providing and san francisco is lucky to have you as our mayor. thank you