zurich and ten years of friendship between our cities, it was then that willie brown and mayor gerber, did i say that correctly? signed the original mlu which created the special bond of friendship between the great city of zurich and the city of san francisco and we are honored to have mayor machere and i am mark chan ler director of international trade. first of all everybody knows mayor lee and corinne bach our guest from zurch and james and the co-chairs of the sister committee and mr. general andreg and we like to recognize juliana muler the mayor's partner and thank you for being here >> mayor has been in office since 2009 and great success during her time as mayor and as

americans we can kind of claim a part of her because she was born in iowa city, iowa. so she is actually a good midwest girl. >> here on the west coast of the united states and we welcome you as a joint citizen of switzerland and the united states. >> i would like to turnover to the mayor mr. ed lee. >> thank you, mark. >> thank you, good morning, everyone and thank you for being here to witness this extension of our fantastic relationship with zurcih and with switzerland and we just finished the good introduction and you will find that mayor mach has not been back here for over 43 years to san francisco so, we have to talk about things like chocolates and swiss bank accounts and before we got on to the things that we

have been creating in the last 40 years. but, i want to just personally welcome mayor mach and her partner and to san francisco, and again, thank our counsel general for being a wonderful counsel general to keep this relationship strong. and again, thank our sister city leaders, lucas you have been wonderful as many of you know, in pass pronouncements i have taken great pride in this city's efforts to establish our sister city, relationships. and zurich is one of the most important cities in the world for many different reasons and i want to thank all of you for being here and i want to thank our fire chief, and of course, pat haze thank you for the counselor corp and the members that are here as well and the official family commissioners for being here too. and you know, zurich is a special city, it has been one

for many years and we have established way back with mayor brown for the international flight between zurich and san francisco and i think that was one of the immediate benefits that we had but on an ongoing basis we have always enjoyed the cultural exchanges very fabulously and our symphonies and our music and now, with the reflection of some of the great art that is going on here, we are wanting to establish for each other the appreciation for things like jazz that keep our cities vibrant. and a part of a good culture in zurich as well. and many of you know that we have recently opened up the new jazz center in san francisco and so i have invited mayor mach to make sure that they sees that. she obviously recall hearse visits here with the golden

gate bridge and i explained to her a minute ago of the great celebration that we had a couple of years ago with the 76th anniversary and i explained to her that the bridge is still there and it will be there and we had a chance to talk about another piece of artwork that i hope that she will have a chance to visit tonight and any night she is here and that is of course the bay lights that establishes the other bridge and artwork collaborativive artwork with the infrastructure and these are the things that are quite representative of our success in our city and the technology rise of our companies and they also have similar technology rise in theirs that they have a lot of good exchanges in our proximity, of course in the silicon valley but in our own right, many of the companies are moving here and to innovate the way that we serve the public as well as new jobs and

ideas of how to improve the life in general and i think that will be of great interest on this visit. this mlu and this memo of understanding of course, outlines the things that we want to work on and we will see reflected in here an appreciation for things that we have done in the past but going forward with the bi.. o technology and with the life sciences and the arts, and with educational exchanges. a constant theme of moderizing ideas that we will exchange with our friends in zurich to our city sister and of course, i look forward, mayor, to my first visit to zurich. and we will obviously enjoy that hopefully with your presence there being the great mayor that you are. with that i would like to of course, take this opportunity to introduce the mayor of zuric

h switzerland, mayor mach. >> thank you very much. >> [ applause ] >> thank you very much for your very kind words, representatives of the cities of san francisco and of zurich, ladies and gentlemen. it has been, you heard it, quite a while since i was here, so i will do my very best with my english. it is both a great honor and a great pleasure for me to be opening the anniversary week of our city partnership here in san francisco city hall. sister cities i am absolutely delighted that we are sister cities. and particularly since we are not blood relations, as it were, seems the pleasure gained from having children, one another and is really what

gives a relationship weight. what i find particularly pleasing is that in this relationship that we have chosen to enter into, the distance between us is having a positive effect. if there is a sense of competition, then it is one that is driving business. what i also find particularly attractive is that those who have chosen one another demand proof of love, as it were. and there is more family networks stretching over it that makes the relationship a matter of course. instead, we reflect one another's common grounds, we assure one another and we strengthen each other by consistently renewing our relationship. providing proof of love is easily done in san francisco. i like courting and to be

courted, and more importantly this is something that helps us make progress. we are here to work on behave of our cities to establish with you a network of contacts for businesses, universities and for culture and to set up an exchange for start ups. and in terms of common ground, the reason that we need the common ground, at first glance, you may also find some of the well dressed and well fed business-looking bohemians that oscar wild came across in san francisco and of course the cool summers which mark twain as the coldest winter that i ever saw was the summer that i sent in san francisco. coming from zurich we can certainly identify that. >> i am not here to adorn

myself with borrowed plants, however the size difference between the two cities alone and the concerns that go along with it makes that impossible. but i would like to underline a few traits which are entirely not alien to us in zurich. the attractiveness of the tee is the economic location, the innovative spirit and the creative minds, the fact that the city is a renowned center for research and the home of a number of reputed universities or the fact that those cities are home to almost every language in the world. and where we are cap able of having both psycho paths and holding the super bowl. in your case, or building a brand new soccer stadium in ours, we hope so. one of the questions that we have all asked ourselves is how can a city emerge from the crisis?

and another is, will the economic success of one part of the population prove to be the expensive, or too expensive for some of the other inhabitants in the city? mayor lee? you recently summarized the situation very well. we need to promote economic growth and at the same time protect the traditional qualities of the cities. this is no small matter. and one that we definitely need to exchange experiences about. in our memorandum of understanding we are signing and committing to new resolutions and we will continue the exchange of information regarding sustainable city development in particular, in turns of mobility and waste disposal and environmental protection, and the healthcare system and the multicultural influences.

we are supporting the dialogue on life sciences and it researches so laouses and hoping to learn from your come pencies. >> cultural exchange projects in it is field of music, design, film and photography under score the creative potential of the two cities, and artistic program has been set up in conjunction with the city of zurich's culture department as well as a artist program for dancers. they go to both comedies which are supporting and breezing, fresh to the urban relationship that our two cities have chosen to maintain. the san francisco comedy with lusa and james bridge man and benjamin, george, friger mark

chan ler and matthew, and the zurich comedy, with kevin, oliver, rick, richard frank, ralph, dony, and ervan. >> we would like to thank swiss nick as ambassadors for the city partnership in the advisory capacity and as a point of contact chris johnson and his team mate and ideal and very tangible contribution to the ten year anniversary that we are celebrating as sister cities. thanks also to the swiss general con so late and the representation from greater zurich area. mayor ed lee we are very grateful for your generation and auspicious invitation and for your commitment. we look forward to engaging in further dialogue and exchanges

of experiences, with you. thank you very much. for your attention and thank you very much for your commitment. [ applause ] >> i would like to recognize a few people that were mentioned our fire chief and our police chief thank you for joining us, the council general of germany is here, thank you for being here counsel general it was mentioned kristin, i saw them back there they are one of the most innovative international organizations in the city and we are honored to have you here. and there are members of the swiss american chamber of commerce which is a great organization in the city and the members of our zurich sister city committee along with other government officials. i saw jose earlier and the art commission is here along with many other people and we are

honored that you were automobile able to join us this morning. >> i would like to introduce lucas who is the co-chair of the sister city committee. >> good, morning, thank you for your great remarks. and it was in the fall last year that i got a call from the city of san francisco, to come to a meeting about the sister city relationship and it was and kind of unexpected and i was wondering what is this? this is interesting, let's go. and so that did a lot of other people and we met a couple of times in the city hall. and we talked about the relationship that the two cities have, and what was happening over the past ten years. and that it would be about time to breathe some fresh air into the relationship and plan this

week. so, we started sitting together and thinking about what we want to do and what we should do, and what are the strategic things to do and what are the tactics and we are here now and to think that a lot of effort went into the last two or three months to prepare for this, and really excited to kick off this meeting here with the signing of the new revised memorandum of understanding that has some great potential for really, really cool programs in the future that we can work on. and over the course of the week, we are going to look at the broad stroke of innovation, and innovative companies, of crafty companies and we look at the beauty of the city and we also strategy about what we will do over the course of the

next years. so i'm very happy to be here and i would also like to thank the whole staff the mayor lee to have been an awesome support over the past month. and to pull this off. and including all of the people at the san francisco airport to make this entry for the whole delegation and that was really great. so what we would like to do next is ask the sister city committee, we are interested in building awareness for the committee that people in zurich and people in san francisco actually know that this thing exists. that they know what it is for. and that they are happy or get curious about the exploring the other cities. and come here as tourists and as business people, and do great things.

so, this is our immediate plan of action that we would like to move forward to create a program for the next one and two years. and so, yeah. that being said, i'm, i would like to hand back. >> thank you very much. >> we must really emphasize that our sister city relationships are driven by citizens and it is people like lucas and james and all of you out here who are members of the committee who make the tinings happen and make it real and dedicate the time and resources to the relationships. we thank you for your time and resource and for making it a fulfilling relationship >> would like to ask mayor mach and lee to have a seat and we will do the signing. >> chief haze, up here? >>

>> and we will have the others and, please come behind. lucas and james and counsel general. and we have two mlus and they will sign and then exchange them and sign them so there is one for each city. congratulations thank you.

>> we have a small - >> of course, in hour of your invite we want to give you something we think you will use and also represents the land. this is a bracelet similar to one i have and it's a jaw bone it allows you to calculate your body steps and your movements

and it records them on your ipod or iphone so you can take a calculation of what you need and i need to do by the way, exercise. >> thank you. this is a great - chocolates

>> they're the young creativity idea and it's the same as development i would like to offer you that. and, of course, i couldn't come to the city of san francisco without bringing swiss chocolates. this is at the best shocks o chocolates i would like to offer you. and you will run so.

thank you, very much. (clapping) >> i don't know if we're going to have a chocolate taste off. we now have a reception and thank you all on both sides for enriching our communities and welcome to san francisco. we hope you have a very successful thank you for comin today on this beautiful summer san francisco morning. it's a little windy so bear with us. i'm with the s fm t a. i'm so

excited to have you here, to have these folks behind me here but most of all to have these vehicles here. as i think about why we are so excited to have these new vehicles hitting the streets of san francisco. the first new vehicles to hit the streets in six or seven years. it's not just that our riders will have a smoother nicer ride on vehicles that are cleaner and neater and easier to access. it's not just for the operators and the mechanics that will have vehicles that are easier to maintain, it's not just for the agencies to have increased security in the buses and better features from everything from the fuel to the light bulbs, what it's really about is when munis is working

well, munis is such and important part of the city's economy that all city of san francisco benefits. all of the people who ride these buses are really benefitting everybody because they are not out on their own vehicles in the road causing pollution and congestion. they are getting around san francisco in the cleanest way possible and really contributing to what makes the economy strong. we are super excited about these vehicles for us and for our operators and mechanics and they are really a great benefit for all san francisco. i want to acknowledge some people. i have been a member of my board of directors, my bosses,

chairman to director jerry lee, ramos, i don't know if anybody else is here. mohammed the director of public works and we are going to hear a little bit about how these buses are part of the public space. just like these are clean, we want to keep these clean. the buses here from input, from our operators, transit workers union local 258. the san francisco transit riders union. the mta advisory committee. a lot of folks working together, our fleet engineers, mechanics, supervisors, operators, most of whom are under the leadership of john who has been the driving force of getting these here. the one person who was so

excited about this is our mayor. he kept saying when are we going to get to ride those buses? i'm happy to say this day is here. i would like to introduce you're san francisco mayor,ed lee. [ applause ] >> thank you. some of them have arrived and all of them will arrive by july. i want to thank the commission and ed riis skin and the staff for investing properly. this is what we talked about for a number of years. when you realize that many of the buses that we have are over 13 years old in the city and you realize on how not only how run down they are but

we keep replacing the parts over again. we have learned the lessons of fuel economy, of ergonomics and designs and free coating on there and material that won't absorb the moisture that sometimes is spilled on there. these are going to be great vehicles, not only for the drivers to drive through our cities safely and for customers for residents who need a more modern fleet of vehicles to serve them as we attract more customers. this is where the economy has picked up and certainly the financial situation from munis is improving as they make more investments. these are the proper investments to do. they

are cleaner and hydro electric. we are using the money responsibly matched up with local monies. these are great investment. this is just the beginning. these bids take a long time, the manufactures take a long time in delivering these buses. but we'll see in the near future, the replacement of some 60 trolley cars that will bring street cars into the similar level of standard that we want. we are reif refurbishing as we speak. you see not only a modern aspect to them. you see the bike racks in front because munis is about multi-ways of transportation. it not just stopping at destination to other destination. they can

take other forms of transportation. these vehicles have arrived in a timely way. we have major events that will bring thousands more people into our city whether they are going to the concerts in our golden gate park or they are going to america's cup beginning next month all the way through september -- or they are making game day trips to the park. this will get people all around the city where they need to be and these will be the standard that we have for the future beginning now. i'm proud for munis and the commission and they are working with dpw. speaking about dpw, muhammad and i worked together and we literally saw pe