(applause). . (applause). . . >> thank you guys so much for that beautiful performance can we give them another round of applause?

(applause). all the this time if i can ask mr. joaquin torrez to join us again on stage, joaquin will be introducing the mayor and if i can ask my fellow committee members to also join us on stage. joaquin. >> thank you very much i have to say as director the mayor's oches of neighborhood services it's refreshing to have a mayor so dedicated to couldn't and it makes my job easier when our people in the community want to feel our elected efficients make our needs and it's in physical presence and i have had the great pleasure of serving under our mayor lee who i would like to make a invite to make a few remarks in honor or

of arab heritage month here in san francisco. >> thank you, thank you joaquin, thank you, welcome to our orange city hall. i want to welcome everybody here this fourthth animal america arab month of separation and it's my pleasure to join us here and many of us know that we are such a lucky city, and we are lucky because people around their world make their way to fraction, find hopey until the city they know that we celebrate our diversity and find strength in the different cultures that pretend together and now, i ask you also to bring me talent from the arab america communities to make me and help me lune run the city. yes, it's incredible. union, i think i can talk about how wonderful diversity is, but we have to

get the talent from our communities to represent all of the different thing that we do in the city. and you know, tonight, even though there is something called a baseball game out there, but these wonderful events that we have in the city whether it's america's cup whether it's fleet week, whether it's the 49ers playing or the giants playing, even eventually when we land the superbowl it all board of trustees all of us, i know that what i'm doing as a mayor and making sure that i support smallbitions in the city is helpful to the america arab community because all of us whether we are chinese americas hal teen know arabs is a starts for us to make our life a little more pleasant and own our business and is make sure that our kids get the best education possible and this is a story about immigrants in our great city. and so why not you have

the first chinese mayor inviting immigrant community to really identify the talent in our community and allow me to give them appointments in the various moo commission and the city and i want to announce my newest point to the aging commission because per not getting younger i want you to know doctor sham meret tan knee has been selected to be on our commission on aging and yes, he is going to help us because there is a lot of you that want to be in our city and you want to make sure that healthy nutritional unusuallile programs and housing are constructing wisely and so i have asked him to step forward and i have asked john paul s ema h a who has been on our treasure island and watch what he is going to do because that is a new part of our city and it's one where

if he conducts all of the work that he is going to do as a commissioner on treasure island, he is go to get a lot more treasure island to serve the that you saws of small residents that are a part of it and so we are seeking more fault and please step forward and represent our communities proudly and i'm very willing to work with all of you and on behalf of our city and on behalf of this wonderful celebration that we have, i call upon on our coaches for the arab heritage celebration, jeff who's here as well as l u b n a to please come on up and receive and just again, thank you very much for your work in the film festival and l u b n a for the wonderful leader ship that you have and devise that you are giving to he to run a vibrant culture center and i hopey that you are able to get a larger cultural center is because the

population is going and i hopey that we are able to get you a larger cultural center and get you the resources that you need to run the cultural and art programs and so on behalf of the city l u b n a and jeff this is our arab heritage month celebration proclimation. (applause). and go giants: enjoy everybody.. >> thank you mr. mayor. (applause). . >> yeah, mayorly thank you very much for the letting us use your

house here tonight and letting -- we really appreciate it we know that you ran from the game to get here and so we really appreciate your commitment to our community and we are happy that you are here to celebrate this momentous day with us. we have an awesome community here, we are here to celebrate the awesomeness of our community the dedication of our community and, you know we are hebe here to serve all of you so really this award should go to everybody here in our community. thank you very much. (applause). and i just want to echo jeff's words and say thank you for having us here today and thank you all for joining us and we look forward to many more arab heritage month celebrations and as well as our bigger community center and you know, through all of the different work that we do in different arab organization, different community organizationings it's about

strengthening our community and contributing to the amazing cultural land scam of our city and we are very thankful to here today. >> and thank you shad deand the committee for putting on such a great show and where joaquin. thank you very much also for all of your dedication and work. okay thanks a lot:. >> so please everyone, join us for the reception, for the following if he is activities we have a fashion show, as well as some food and accommodations and so please follow us into the hall. thank you. ♪ ♪ thank you for coming out

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 people who realized the second the bus arrives they can't eat on the bus. so where do they toss it? if they weren't looking or realized there was a trash can next to them as most bus stops do have them. they were irresponsible. we literally saw people tossing things as they got on boarding the buses. that's not good behavior. obviously we need to do a lot more education. we need to end that practice and we need to keep and attitude, a very spirit of keeping our public assets clean and beautiful as you see them today. this is what these buses ought to look like a few years from now. we

know they won't, but we need to keep that attitude in the city, not only with our youth but everybody in the city of all ages we see them discarding waste material onto the streets. we have a crew of people picking these up and reminding folks. we wanted to change things. that is part of using the giant sweep in the world ferries that we can use that spirit. i want to thank rachel gordon and the whole public works for using the giant sweep theme. today we have over 10,000 kids who signed that pledge. that pledge means they will personally take responsibility for their actions. so think about it. they will involve their families and talk to people. this campaign, larry said it's one of the best campaigns they have seen because they love all

the players that associate themselves with the giant sweep. of course today we have somebody that i felt, when we connect up and this is where muhammad and ed riis skin is doing to connect everything. we love our arts and we are engaging some of our street artist to be part of it. sweeping i believe is here today. he's one of our sales people for this pitch but he's going to be with us and i think you will find at some of the bus stops that we encourage some of the street artist to perform in they are going to find a medium without a word of negativity and they will point out why are you doing that?

they will have an attitude for our assets and bus stops and all the other places. i want to thank dpw again for the giant sweep campaign that they are doing and again reminding people we are a world class city. we ought to have that world class attitude. you look at some of the cities across the country i have had the opportunity to travel through. the streets are very clean and get reminded that we all have to contribute in every part of our city. that same attitude in every city is the last point i want to make today. june 6, almost 10 days ago, there was a very bad incident that occurred. a shooting occurred of someone firing into one of our buses. as horrible as that is, and we can talk all day

long, everything from gun violence to violence in itself to youth violence, we are doing everything we can to prevent that. while we are doing that in the community, there are individuals that want to cease the moment and make our community safe. on that particular day, rather that run away from the incident, there was concern for a passenger on one of our munis buses and the driver acted very responsely that they got out of harms way and drove to the hospital to get attention to one of the passengers that was strayed by a bullet. this driver is a san francisco resident, 14 years

experience in the city, has demonstrated year in and out with her fantastic driving record. button this moment, she acted way beyond the call of her daily duties and demonstrated heroic effort in making sure everybody on that bus was safe and getting that particular injured passenger to some services. i want to today to take a moment to not only recognize the buses in the city, but to take a special moment to recognize and thank the good samaritan for this year and that's phylica anderson. you are really are a great demonstration. not only a

loyal employee but one that has act out of very good concern for the public. it's something that we hope we have the guts to do when the moment happens. you do have the guts. you have a love for this city and i want to give you this good samaritan award for your heroic efforts. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> i just want to thank god that no one was seriously hurt. thank you. [ applause ] >> she says she wants to be the first one to drive one of these new buses. >> thank you felicia, an

extraordinary act that shows incredible courage and quick thinking and compassion. one thing i have come to realize in this job is that munis bus drivers and train operators, all operators have an extra extra ordinary difficult job, with what's going on in the bus and the traffic with the streets and with events like you just heard about, it's a very difficult job and the great majority of them do it extraordinary well. we have professionals like felicia that do this when we have that kind of professionalism and excellence. thank you again for your great work. [ applause ]

>> so, the mayor referred to these buses as investments and that's exactly what they are. they are investment in the transportation system. while everybody has lots of ideas about what munis should do and mta should do and we all want great things to happen, it's about a community investment to direct where the funds are going to go and according to rules and that leadership comes from the mta board of directors. they are the ones allocating the resources to best serve the needs of this city. now i would like to introduce the great member of the board to come and speak on behalf of the board. >> mr. mayor lee, good morning. i want to thank my colleagues

here this morning. we've all been together on this and we work very well together to keep the whole city moving. i want to thank the director of transportation. lots of things are happening in this city. a lot of things are planning for the future. but this is so exciting because this is something that people can actually see. they will see it and ride it and enjoy it from the moment the service begins. thank john hailey for this experience. i'm glad to be part of the mta. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mr. chairman. i had the pleasure of working with him. we are very grateful to have his partnership in

helping us keep these buses. i love the mayor's challenge at least i heard of the challenge that years down the road we should look at these buses to look as good as they do today. we have support from all of san francisco to keep these great investments to continue to look good. the other one is our transit director john daleey who has spent a lot of time to get these buses to hit the streets as soon as possible in a way that they will be providing great service for us for the next decade and more. to tell you a little bit more about the specifics of the buses i want to welcome job to -- john, to say a few words. >> thank