for being here today to commemorate this beautiful new strut. -- street. this is a

wonderful area of san francisco and we are happy to mark this completion of this project. what a great new place for the city of san francisco. i'm mohammed, from the dpw. you think of places that are inviting, welcoming, spacious, contemporary, while maintaining it's heritage. you think of easy access for visitors to enjoy themselves and make plans to come back again. fisherman's wharf is a world class destination spot. today it is even better. there have been lots of hands-on this project, many many hours and meetings to

put together. besides the strategies for making it work here, creating an updated top notch public space. these improvement were driven by the fisherman's wharf community. without the support of all the businesses here, we wouldn't be standing here today. today we have the opportunity to recognize the individuals and groups who played a part and then we'll officially reopen this beautiful vibrant new corridor. now, i would like to introduce our first speaker. you know, our mayor has earned a reputation as a leader who brings people together and gets things done. as a former city administrator, he gets it. all the city infrastructure is

paramount in creating jobs. our mayor is a great coordinator of these complex projects. the dozens of departments and community groups and businesses that are lending their time to give input. when you have someone who cares that much and dedicated to fostering a collaborative networking environment, public spaces get done. they get done in a timely manner and the city gets to reap the benefits for many many years. we are glad he's here today, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our mayor, mayor ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you, muhammad. >> well, truth be told.

somebody said, mayor, it's a sunny day. would you like to go down to celebrate something and it's in front of an ice cream parlor. of course i said yes. you know, i have to count. it's june now. it's middle of the year. i think we are part of the 5 million 500 thousand. that's the midway point because every year fisher man's wharf has over 10 million visitors. [ applause ] . we know there is a good connection as to why. there is a connection to our city's infrastructure as to why people want to visit fisherman's

wharf. thank you and the merchants association for putting together a fantastic six year effort of collaborating with public works and making sure landscaping was able to do it's job so i can have my ice cream cone today. it takes a huge amount of effort to do this, but we are doing it right. we rushed it and i know supervisor and board president david chiu, he knew that we had to get this done for our great celebration this year which is america's cup. that forced us to have this exciting first phase done. we will talk about a second phase later. i know supervisor chiu is going to welcome you all to his district. he's working very hard with me. we meet every

week and he is constantly reminding me about the second phase of this and that, all the investments we have to make. i have already heard it, three times in fact last month and we are working together for the next phase. we have to take this moment to celebrate because without this recognition of how we got here already. it shouldn't take six years but it did. i need to thank a lot of people for that effort. six years of planning with the planning department and working out so many inclusionary meetings with everybody to make sure all of our agencies, the mta and office of economic development and the staff have been wonderful, but it takes a long time for something incredibly potentially interruptive to everything we were able to work

through it. sometimes things take a little longer, but it's sensitive. we are a sensitive city and sensitive to all the investments that have happened. it's an incredible balance. we'll do it better, we'll do it right and we'll do it with a lot of input from everyone. that's the way we do things in san francisco. this part of the city is very valuable. it is $80 million of revenue. it is of 65,000 visitors every single day. it has 10 million visitors. we have to honor that as a big investment to our city. we are going to make these improvements because these will generate more investment down the year because we have visitors who want pedestrian safety and

vehicles and large buses of people and cable car experiences all balanced to have not only a safe experience, but one that is honored by everyone in all the different agencies working together. we need to have even more pedestrians down here celebrating all the wonderful and liven experiences from the ice cream parlors to the great attractions and hotels. it's my pleasure to recognize names that are very familiar to you, that is david burrby, thank you for your leadership as well, troy campbell, thank you for your leadership, daniels, thank you for being such an on the

ground person working with all the contractors. as i mentioned the planning department has worked really hard to get this jefferson street under way. that's why we have such collaborative efforts going on because they have led planning very well. hopefully we don't have to do that much more years of planning because we have phase two already in mind. i know that supervisor chiu is going to have some comments about that. i want to thank the jefferson street merchants for your incredible patience. everyone along this route deserves an applause because it could have been very disruptive for everyone. we got the word out and because it's happening we are going to welcome america's cup because there is going to be thousands more people out here because of this. i look forward to being here on the 4th of july. when

all the punch list is here so we can celebrate our great american celebration on the 4th of july and really kickoff america's cup. with all that, let's celebrate today and have a great anticipation of phase two and keep this project going and welcome in whole 10 million plus visitors to san francisco. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, mayor lee. i would like to recognize some special guest here today to be with us. from the port commission, mell murphy is here with us, from the mayor's office of disability, carla johnson and her staff, from the

port, a number of deputy directors, tom carters, susan reynolds and elaine. and from dpw, our city engineers. next, we are honored to have a city representative who has given us a great deal of support to this project and many improvement projects that the city enjoys. he's also someone who values partnerships and works to seek out ideas from san francisco residents, business owners and entrepreneurs and community leaders. he's the president of our board of supervisors and supervisor for this district 3. please welcome supervisor david chiu. >> the sun is shining on jefferson street. everyone excited to be here? let me

say, we proved them wrong today. i came to san francisco as a tourist. i want to thank all of you who are part of this incredible community. mayor lee and i talk about how important it is for folks to come together. this is a project that for years has involved a lot of community conversations and some community debate but i really need to tip my hat to all of you from the fisherman's wharf, thank you and congratulations. [ applause ] >> of course, we have to thank all of our partners from city departments. i want to take a

moment to single out from planning i want to thank neale, and david for planning for the vision of what this amazing street is going to be about and i of course want to thank mohammed and to his staff for getting this done on time and on budget. i want to thank the port staff for helping moving this forward. i want to thank mayor lee for putting up with many of us who have been asking him for a couple of dollars for getting this project done. mr. mayor, i want to tell you that we are going to bring you ice cream every week until we get phase two of this project. what do you think about that? are you ready for that? [ applause ] >> let me say one final thing, many of my friends around the city ask me why this project is so important. as we know

fisherman's wharf bring over 10 million people here. it because of this project, we increase that by 20 percent, that's going to mean dividends for everyone. i want to thank you for being part of the vision that will bring tourist here to this special city. we have not only the exploratoria that opened up. we are making sure that we are putting our stamp in this city. we are ensuring that we are putting our stamp on what fisherman's wharf is and many people can leave their hearts here in san

francisco. thank you so much. >> yes, thank you supervisor chiu. we have worked with many colleagues in city departments in bringing these improvements to light. perhaps our closest partners on this important project are friends of the port of san francisco. the port is making large strides up and down the bay. we are happy to have the port planner dan to come up and say a few words. [ applause ] >> thank you. it's all about the fishing industry. fisherman's wharf is here because this industry has thrived for a hundred years and people want to see and understand it. every improvement the port commission has directed in fisherman's wharf have met the needs of the

industry. whether it's dealing with the earthquake or the harbor or adding a police boat or new harbor master's office or hoist, it's about the fishing industry. every improvement must consider that and this is no exception. today we are celebrating a project that enables all of people in san francisco to come and enjoy the fishing industry. it's a treat that dares to say that you should be a pedestrian to do it. it puts the pedestrian first. it works with how that industry comes and service the wharf and how they move through it. it's about the fishing industry. there are many to thank in the city. this effort was led by the wharf, troy campbell and we thank all of you very much again. [ applause ] >> as mentioned leadership was

then handed over to the department of city planning led by neale and went to every tenant to understand their needs as well, tenants on the adjacent blocks to make everything possible and then it was handed to department of public works and martha the head of landscape and architect. all work that you see has come to a reality today. and all the merchants in the area, again, the port wants to thank them as well for all of their efforts understanding the project and working together and coming to agreement, not coming to agreement on everything but then deciding to go forward to make this project happen. thank you. >> almost there. so this project would not have been possible without the hard work of many of our partners. you

have heard many of their names. from the mta i see jerry roberts. from city planning we heard from david and neale. they have been a big part of it, from d p w, john thomas, our manager. a big hand for john, please. the design team arlene, david flores and wong. the construction team that actually was here and delivered the project on time lee and flip e. they got us to the finish line. i know a lot of you ha