multi-purpose rooms for all kinds of activities, including basketball, line dancing, playing ping-pong, and arts and crafts. >> use it for whatever you want to do, you can do it here. >> on friday, november 16th, the dedication and ribbon cutting took place at the sunset playground and recreation center celebrating its renovation. it was raining, but the rain clearly did not dampen the spirits of the dignitaries, community members, and children in attendance. [cheering and applauding] ♪ ♪ >> good morning, everyone. i'm tailor stafford, president and ceo of pier 39 and on

behalf of our grateful water front family, it is my privilege to extend a sincere thank you to the port of san francisco for all that you have done, and continue to do to build the best water front in north america. pause plause [ applause ] >> from at&t, home from the world champion san francisco giants to the building, to the new exporatorium, and new cruise ship terminal to pier 39 and all of the restaurant and businesss in between, we are all proud to wish you, the port of san francisco a happy, 150th anniversary. today, project such as the new warriors arena establish the port as a world class destination, due for large part to the vision of mayor ed lee and monique moyer and as well

as the dedication of the port commissioners and staff. it is now my pleasure to introduce honorable ed lee, mayor of san francisco. [ applause ] >> good morning, everybody. happy birthday. i just want to make sure that you know that if you combine the ages of myself, or president chiu, and monique moyer we might get to 150 years, maybe. but i'm down here to have fun, today, get out of city hall, go to bubba gumps and make sure that i spend it with other people who love to have fun like our port commission and hers directors and the staff and the rec and parks here and i know that the fire chiefs had to lessen her fun time and go to a three alarm fire and thank you to her for being vigilant

for the city. and we would rec and park they have discovered yet another great partner to find water front open space that we can all enjoy, both in terms of getting our public to understand our bond program better, but also to create new spaces. so thank you, phil for being here as well. our port commissioners extend not to present but to past for commissioners and he knows that and i saw mike and others, because it takes generations of people to create things along the water front. it is incredibly expensive to restore a lot of our piers and monique is the first person to know that intimately and historically but we do have persons and entities that want to continue this fabulous water front experience and to make investments, where there is

jefferson street, brandon wharf and pier, 30, 32 and the exporatorium this wonderful opportunity. i want to thank, past and present port commissioners, and i see them here now. that they have earned the title of being the greatest stewarts of our water front and so thank you for your ongoing effort to do this. [ applause ] >> and the work incredibly well with the other agencies. i know that because this is pier 39 and one of the most iconic travel destinations, i understand that is why, john martin was here, because while he flies airplanes he is part of an incredible transportation center and we all know that and we all share in that wonderful experience with being clearly, the best nation for so many, millions of people, every day.

and as we do this, we reinvent and reinvest and find other reasons for people to enjoy themselves here. and those projects like the exporatorium and like the bay lights and renewed effort to create more water-base theds transportation to compliment the bridges that we build. we will create more bridges on the international level for our city. so, all of that in the context of a great anniversary, 150 years, there is going to be throughout this year, more stories to be told about what this 150 years means to our city, because, there is a lot of generations of people who came to this city, many, many years, built communities, built their small business and their livelihood and hopes and helped us to establish the fisherman's wharf and help us to establish all of the maritime that they have created life times of

reasons of why people want to continue visiting our city and we need to acknowledge all of that history. and all of it has not been easy, there have been difficult things and we have had fights over what is proper, and what is not proper, but we have always had in our sites in all of these different struggles, the success of our city, the golden gate bridge and the hope that it brings to many generations of immigrants that is what our city is built on and the honor that we have with all of our labor partners who also jimmy herman and the cruise ship terminal that they are honoring and built it through years of generations of struggle but also great celebrations that we have. and so this is wonderful year, and 150 years of history. let's learn it all and continue to appreciating, but let's look forward to the next 150 years, because we are building the

infrastructure to do that. we are laying the foundation to do that. we are creating partnerships among the agencies, but also public, private partnership to create it, because i will tell you that someone who is going to invest, $250,000 to $200 million on the piers it is an incredible to the faith that they have in the city and it is about investing confidence and why we exist in such a great wonderful city and so thank you monique and the port commission and to all of your wonderful partners and staff for working so hard with the entities like pier 39 and others who will continue to invest in the confidence here and along the water front and thank you to the labor and all of your partners thank you to all of the other agents for being here, happy 150th anniversary, to our great city. >> thank you, we wish to

continue your success. also, here with us today is the president of the board of supervisors, and the supervisor from our very own district three, david chiu. [ applause ] >> thank you, tailor. mr. mayor, if it is okay, could you and i just declare it a city holiday today so we don't have to go back to work and hang out here on pier 39? >> i want to thank all of you who are the incredible diversity of the community that is the port. the community that our water front peers and our wharfs. this is the story of our city. our port has really defined our past as i think that we all know, the first 49ers came right here to this spot to build this city, during world war ii, our military ships were recommissioned, right here from our port. we know that our friends from labor as the mayor said, built

our city, starting here with this water fort and this is the story of our city and we also know that the water front in the port defines who we are and it is amazing in 2013, if you just walk along the water front in my district, you will start at the fisherman's wharf street scape improvements and to the cruise ship terminal that we just cut the ribbon for and you walk down to the terminals and the ports where america's cup will entertain a million, international visitors within a few months. walk down a couple more blocks to piers 15, 17, where we are going to see a half a million kids come to go all the way down to what we know that will be the next site of the warrior's arena and down to the ballpark and the water phone and the port is our city's present and it is our city story. but we also know that this is a story that is going to continue

and one of the things that we love in pier 39. if you come here any day you will see the boys and girls playing with their parents who will come back a few years later as teenagers and young adults. and young men and women, flirting on the peers, dating each other, who will come back a few years later for their honeymoon, who will come back a few years later with their kids. and so, the cycle of the story of our city continues and that i know that in 50 years when we are celebrating the 200th birthday of this blai, when monique's grand daughter and ed lee's great grandson, are helping to run this city, they will look back on to the city leaders today, who are represented by all of you. and say, you know, in 2013, our city forefathers or city foremothers thought it appropriate to invest in our port and make sure that we are building a 21st century port to last, happy birthday. thank you.

>> i think that we all look forward to that moyer lee, administration. and finally, our good friend and dynamic leader, the executive director of the port of san francisco, monique moyer. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> okay, so raise your hands, how many of you would like to be me today? i am so humble and honored, what a great fortune to land my term right on the 150th year because the one thing that i will tell you about being 150 years old if you realize that your time is really short and insignificant, and if i were to dare to count how many port directors there have been before and how many there will be after it will become more of a second time, but, i get to be here with all of you and so many of you who have been here at this water front for decades, all of you from fisherman's wharf thank you for

coming today, because of you it is our water front that has evolved ahead of everywhere else in the world this is a perfect place to celebrate. because here we have a little bit of something of everything, in fisherman's wharf. it has been part of the port since its inception that is how we ate, and how we did commerce and how we paid for the fish we ate with gold but nonetheless we subsifted on fish and the agriculture that was born around the bay and san francisco to feed the miners who were farmers and to create a new economy for san francisco and haven't we brilliantly and completely made new economies and so many knew that we have to name the latest new economy of the economy of invention and creativity and isn't that what we were doing in the gold rush and so it was stunning to be here with all of you who have made this possible. in 1900, the community worked with us to move up here in this

area of a water front, and more of a lagoon area where we could congregate better and save the area where fisherman's wharf had been for the commerce that was needed to sustain our city. as the most of the logistics changed and as the needs changed as a community it was fisherman's wharf that helped us to envision what could be the future. in almost 50 years ago, the discussions began, how to enlifen our water front and how to keep it a working water front as we have here with all of us, as visitors, as those folks who are enjoying the great suit that they have to offer and the wonderful open space and also the working ferries that are helping to transport us around the bay and are here for us in times of emergency and celebration and so that is bha we stand for in san francisco, and this is a terrific place for us to celebrate, and i could not be more honored to be here with all of you, to celebrate those generations that went before us. and as mayor lee, and president

chiu said so eloquently, those generations that will come after us, it is a tremendous honor, and i thank you for being here to share in that honor and please happy birthday, to all of you, and to the board of san francisco. [ applause ] thank you, monique. >> and now the moment that we have all been waiting for. the birthday cake. >> i would like the speakers to gather on the cake and lead us all to sing happy birthday to the board of san francisco. ♪ [ applause ]

>> hello. welcome to "culturewire." we are here today with bay area artist jody chanel, and we are here to see the plaza where your piece has just been installed. >> i have been doing large-scale paintings in the galleries and museums, and the idea that in the future, i could do something that would hang out a little bit longer than the duration of the installation the kind of appeal to me. i quickly found out about the san francisco arts commission school and realized there was a pre-qualified school you had to apply to, so i applied to the. >> how long did it take you to

develop this work for the plaza? >> this was a fast track project. design development was about a month. >> let's look at the beautiful mural. i have never seen a mural created on asphalt. >> the heat of the asphalt, a new layer of asphalt. then, these wire rope templates that were fabricated for the line work get laid down and literally stamped into the asphalt, and then everything was hand-painted. >> maybe you could talk about some of the symbolism, maybe starting in the middle and working out. >> [inaudible] the flower of industry. >> it is like a compass. there's an arrow pointing north. >> within the great bear

consolation, there are two pointed stars here. they typically lead one to the northstar, otherwise known as polaris. so i thought it has a layer of theme. >> let's talk about some of the other elements in the peace. we are walking along, and there is a weather vane. there's a sweet little bird hanging on the side. what kind of bird is that? >> [inaudible] the smallest of the gulf species, and it lives around the bay area. >> you want to talk about the types of flour patterns that you send? >> [inaudible] around 1926 or so by the dahlia society. >> what is this bird here? >> that is the california quail.

>> coming up here, we had a little blustery theme. what is this area here? >> this is supposed to be the side view, the expense of the golden gate bridge. >> there it is. >> there are really beautiful elements of architecture still around, i would say that it gives that feeling over to the work. >> what are your hopes for it? >> that in a way it just becomes part of the area. i think it is starting to have that feeling. people utilize it. they sit and, and have their lunch and play on -- they sit and, and have their lunch and play on that -- they sit and come and have their lunch and play on it.

>> all right. i'm mohammad nuru from the department of public works and i want to first begin by thanking all of you for coming out today. it is a very, very great day in san francisco. yeah? >> yeah. >> all right. [ applause ] >> i remember about 16 months ago when we were here, we broke ground on this site and today, we are here for the topping ceremony. it is going to be a very, very great event, but i would like to first of all just thanks san francisco police department, fire department, dpw and everybody who has got us to this point. as we all know, public safety is a number one priority in this city. and it is the number one priority for our mayor and so, today, is a very, very great day as we take this step in topping this public safety building. before i introduce our mayor,

as many of you know, when mayor lee ran for office there were three very important things that the mayor said that he was going to do. and one of them was he was going to create jobs. and we all know, all of these projects, we have ordinances, that make sure that we have people on these jobs. and he also is an environmental stewart ship that we would do everything that we can to project our environment and build the green and lead buildings. >> this building will represent that and as i said earlier public safety was his number one priority and without going further, let me introduce the man who has worked very hard to get us to this point, our mayor, ed lee. >> thank you. good morning, everybody, welcome to mission bay. you know, in 2010, the board of

supervisors and the mayor did everything that it could to create a dialogue with our voters. and asked them to pass a very important bond, the earthquake safety and emergency response bond of 2010. 412 million dollar bond and should they pass it we would honor it with the best thought and planning process that the city could proviet and of course all of the agencies came together, our law enforcement agencies and i am glad to see our police commission here, fire commissions here and of course our two chiefs are here working in concert with the capitol planning group, with public works, and its architectal divisions of city engineer and its construction managers working with the private sector of panco, and hok to put together this bond

program and particularly, this public safety building to be the first gem as i say, of public safety buildings that have so much catch to it so many promises, and that we are we were not just willing to deliver, we are delivering this. on time, on budget with all of the highest levels of cooperation. because we know how important it is. i don't just want to talk the talk about being earthquake sensitive, we have to do the things to make sure that we are ready and this public safety building represents years of planning, a lot of struggle, with finance people, and the controllers office and others about bringing this in because we also made a promise that these bonds would not increase people's property taxes. and that we would retire the old bonds in order to create the room for these bonds that would not increase the property tax burden of our residents, and so we are doing it.

and so topping off means that you bring all of your contact paraphernalia with you because we are going to do a lot of these in the years that i am mayor to make sure that these projects are completed and i am glad to see, again, the top of the steel beam, some one of 6,205 pieces of steel that began their erection in january and we are here topping it off. it is important to know that the steel goes up because the building that is on the way of completing, the day of completion is november 14, it will house station four of our fire department [ applause ] >> yes. it will house southern station of our police department. [ applause ] >> and it will be the next command police head quarters for chief and his command staff as well.

i was there at dpw for years, we were struggling about how we were going to replace 850 bryant street and obviously with the financial rec mifms that we we can only do it in phases, only when we do this part, could we work on the courts and the jails and all of the rest of the agencies that are housed, the da and others that are housed in that very old building. today it is about the new public safety building, 700 construction jobs, thank you. union. maus plause [ applause ] for all of the contract unions. panco, and all of the designers that work on this and i notice that the police unit and the fi unit are here as well to celebrate this because they know that the workforce will be housed in more safe buildings and we mean to do that for every police and fire station. we will have to do more eastern bonds in the future, but this

particular bond has at its main gem, 239 million dollars dedicated to the public safety building and we are also using that bond to work on the water system and some of the fire stations that are in worst shape and we want to continue doing that. and it is a commitment that reflects today. we wanted to top this off and it came as a very, nice compliment to today's 107th anniversary of our 1906 earthquake as we did this morning but also what happened this morning about discovering a suspicious package, just goes to remind us both that we are vigilant and that we have to do these things and keep our city safe and i want to thank again, the men and women in all of our emergency response and our law enforcement for their dedication, today it is about celebrating the contractors and all of their great work that they are doing and working with, all of our dpw folks and

everybody in the construction. because of topping of is so significant to suggest more than suggest and confirm that we are on time and on budget. you know, the confidence that the public has with us handling these bonds is very important. and i value that. i value that relationship. because for supervisor kim, and board president chiu, this is what we live for, right? supervisors we live for that public trust and we earn it to make sure that these projects are done right and on time and with that we know that we have other bonds that we will talk about more. but this is really important because it is earthquake safety. and it is today, this morning, again, with the board's help, we signed off on the soft story, seismic retrofit program to suggest that 3,000 other soft story buildings in our city will get the attention, and get firmed up, with the soft story bond.

while we take care of the low income tenants that are living there to make that affordable for them as well. so i want to celebrate and thank dpw for the leadership here, for the ten year capitol planning group that has their focus to on honoring the public's wish and for all of the different, some ten different agencies coming together to make this public safety building happen. and again, to honor everybody here and by the way, 700 construction jobs, 20 percent were committed to local hiring, that is how smart we are doing this. and it is going to be a lead gold building that we are putting up and so we are honoring the environment at the same time. again, with the wonderful collaboration that goes on with all of the designers being sensitive to how the energy needs to be efficient and everything is being done right on this and i need to be thankful to everybody who is working together. congratulations and we are looking forward to the flag and

the tree being on top of this when it goes up. >> all right. another big hand for mayor ed lee and his leadership. also joining us today there are many community groups and contractors along with all of the other people that the mayor mentioned. the next person that i am going to ask to come up and say a few words, someone in 2010, when the bond went on the ballot, really went out of his way with the leadership to make sure that the bond passed and that is why we are here today. when that bond went to the ballot, every four out of five voters voted a yes for it. and that signifies the importance of why public safety facilities in san francisco is very, very important. leading that effort, in 2010, was our president of our board of supervisors, david chiu, would you please come up and say a few words. [ applause ] >> thank you, and thanks to all

of you, and i want to just take a moment to talk about where we are in the history of our city. this morning, as the mayor mentioned, at 5:00 a.m., in the dark we got together to commemorate the 107th anniversary of the great fire. and the great earthquake and i want to say for those of you who are here you look a little different in the sunlight, but 100 years ago, our city burned down for the 6th time, and part of the reason for that was there was a lot of partying