gentlemen, is a lifetime achievement award winner. please, please welcome her to the stage. (applause) >> i can't think of a more deserving woman. thank you. come on in. jeffery, i love you. >> i love you, too. >> hello, neighbors. good evening. you know, first i have to say that i "heart" the portola, i really do. [laughter] >> this is an amazing win frankly for the whole southeast sector, from progress park down, and it's a wonderful night. great to be here with all of you. my name is jeffery betcher. i am the executive director of the organization that emerged 10 years ago from annette young

smith and carl page's work on the block where i live. annette lived across the street from me and started planting flowers here or there around the block. and that changed everything mysteriously. and we figured out over time what it was that really created the change, and it wasn't the garden. it wasn't the plants. it was that annette was unafraid to cross the street and give a hug to someone she didn't know, who was radically different from her, and she started to build a personal relationships that have become cusada gardens and now a network of people and places and projects that are really shaping the culture and life in bayview hunters point. it was -- it's been the distinct pleasure of my life, frankly, to careful where you move, it can change everything. but if you're going to move to a new place, annette young smith is the neighbor that you

would pray to have. and i can tell you that she has been a terrific friend and mentor, too. she is still the chair of the board of the cusada gardens. we know it's quesada. [laughter] >> she is still the board. she is still very much at the heart and soul of everything we do. she is our spiritual mentor, and we love her. we truly, truly adore this woman. and i'd like to introduce her to you and i think you'll understand why. congratulations, annette young smith. (applause) >> first of all, i thank god for being here and i thank god for all of you being here. >> amen. >> and i'd like to thank

jeffery for nominating me and i accept the award. thank you. that's all. [laughter] (applause) ♪ ♪ (applause) >> what a fantastic way to end this evening. a standing o. that's fantastic. (applause) >> and a woman who obviously practices actions speak louder than words we need here in city hall. without further a do, we

conclude this year's nen awards. i want to acknowledge my partner michael pollack back there. (applause) >> not only does he make me look old and fat, but he's an incredibly talented young man. these amazing videos, we'll get all this up on the web for you to share with your friends in the years to come. look forward to future announcements. with that i'd like to conclude the fifth annual nen awards. we'll see you next year. and now we invite you to join us in north light park for a fantastic of food and wine for you to enjoy. thank you all very much. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> good afternoon. thank you for being here. i just wanted to acknowledge how momentous occasion this is. i want to thank all the members of the board of supervisors for being here, to join me in this announcement along with california pacific medical center officials and, of course, our extraordinary volunteer mr. girardo. i'm happy today to sign this legislation to approve the california pacific medical center's hospital rebuild project and development agreement that the city, through its board of supervisors, just passed this last tuesday. this historic agreement ensures that two brand-new seismically safe hospitals for our city are going to be built, while

guaranteeing important health care and other benefits that san franciscans will enjoy for years to come. i want to thank everybody in this room, in particular all those that are standing behind me for getting us to this day that we can sign this agreement. and, yes, it's been long, it's been arduous, but i believe that we all agree it was definitely worth the effort. together and through our consensus building approach, we made it possible to build two seismically safe hospitals, advance the state of medical care in our city, and put thousands of san franciscans to work. i also want to take this moment and mention my personal thanks on behalf of the city, if i will, and i know the board will join me. i want to thank cpmc for their deliberate participation with some 10 other bay area

hospitals to respond in the highest professional fashion to the critical emergency needs that we had this past weekend. you were one of many hospitals that took care of very seriously injured passengers on the asianic flight and i want to personally thank you. i want to be doing that, and happily doing that in the weeks to come as we celebrate our heros, whether they were the emergency responders or working in the hospitals and volunteers and the nurses and everyone in those hospitals. but i think it's very timely that since we're doing this to give a special shout out to cpmc as one of the great bay area hospitals that responded effectively. that is why we have so many of the passengers and the crews that are surviving this big crash that could have been ten times worse. having said that, that's just an example why we're doing this

today because san francisco will enjoy two brand-new hospitals, 120 bed state-of-the-art hospital at st. luke's will be built. a brand-new hospital, of course, at cathedral hill that will have anywhere from 2 74 to 304 beds depending upon the circumstances. but our residents in the bay area will receive guaranteed levels of charity care, medi-cal treatments at these hospitals, and of course with all the other parts of this wonderful agreement we've got innovative improvements to our neighborhood medical clinics, much needed affordable housing, transportation improvements and pedestrian safety for all of our neighborhoods. the list will go on and on and the agreements reflect all of that. but i am happy that we all got through to this day. and, again, i will repeat, given the mass casualties that occurred, this is one of the

reasons we want our hospitals in a seismically safe built environment. i will also say that almost a year ago we were all at a different place. an impasse had cast some doubt as to our ability to move this project forward. and at this time i would like to thank and acknowledge several individuals that have been instrumental in bringing us back to the agreement, back to the table and building the consensus we needed to get this done. three members of our board of supervisors spent an extraordinary amount of their personal time as well as their city time to get this done. board president david chiu, supervisor mark farrell, and supervisor david campos spent an extraordinary amount of hours and i personally want to thank them for doing that because i know that those early morning hour meetings that occurred, the weekend phone calls, sometimes the phone

calls were from lou to get them back to the table after some doors were slammed. and we know that because i've been through that myself. yet i would say that dedication and leadership persevered through our supervisors, and they made it happen. this could not have happened without a local businessman's participation as well, and of course i'm speaking about lou girardo. he agreed to serve as a mediator, gave a huge amount of his personal time to this effort. and while i know he didn't realize what this would take when he first volunteered after we asked him, i also know that he worked through a lot of frustration to get this agreement happen. and it wasn't just the meetings that he had between cpmc officials, sutter officials, and the board of supervisors. he took those extraordinary steps and all of us usually ask

of each other. he worked with labor. he worked with associations of nurses and others to apprise them and keep them updated about what was going on. he worked with community leaders to make sure they knew about the things they negotiated, whether it was through their supervisors, through the mayor's office or through their direct contact with cpmc and sutter, that they were also -- their needs were being honored. he worked with housing advocates in the community to make sure their needs were heard and that this additional effort wasn't going to necessarily sacrifice a lot of things they had felt were of utmost importance to them. so, i just want to make sure we give a big shout out to lou girardo as well for his efforts in bringing everybody together. last but not least, i want to give a big thanks to mike co-hill and dr. warren bronner

representing cpmc and sutter for them being able to take another look ~ when supervisors called and when we got a mediator back together. i know it's hard when you think you have an agreement and then doubts are cast and things have to be relooked at, and they had to go back to their hospital administrative officials and their board to assure them that a deal could be had. and that's not easy in these times. by the way, i want to remind everybody, during these last year and a half, two years, all of the questions around the federal affordable health care act were also trying to be understood by everyone. that takes great toll on people who are spending millions of dollars on a hospital and not knowing what the future needs might be and how affordable care act would impact that. their past models had to be challenged and reviewed so that they can take care of folks for

the next 10 to 50 years. so, i know and understand that there had to be a lot there. going back to lou, he's often said that he's just a businessman, a baker, if you will. i think lou got the right recipe on this one. [laughter] >> and i think the recipe was all the things i just said about what he had to do to get this done, and the recipe included some main ingredients from our board of supervisors to add to that. so, brown the bread. lou, i just want to let you know that not only have we appreciated your work, but we all appreciate this wonderful approach that you did. and it was unique, but it was something that was absolutely necessary to get everybody out of their positions and into an agreed upon posture. with that, i'd like to bring board president david chiu to the podium because i know he

spent incredible amount of time on this. and, again, thank you, president chiu. and thank you, mark farrell, and thank you, david campos. david chiu. (applause) >> thank you, mr. mayor. and for the record, my recollection was there was only one door slammed, and i can't remember exactly who did it. [laughter] >> this is a great day for the health of san francisco. this is a great day for the future health of our city. i'm so delighted to be here. and let me also say that it was about a year ago that a couple of us at the board, including supervisor cohen, we held a very different press conference over on the board side and i am just amazed and so grateful that we have come as far as we have gotten to where we are today. it takes a village to build two hospitals and i want to take just a brief moment to thank everyone who has been part of that village starting first and foremost with the community.

the leadership behind the elected leaders here who ensured that this is a deal that's not only good for health care, but ensures that we are meeting our local hiring needs, our housing needs, our transportation needs, our neighborhood needs around the city. and, of course, i want to thank family of labor, both from the trades as well as our health care workers and our nurses who are very instrumental in making sure we get to the right deal. shout out, of course, to the entire lee administration starting with mayor lee, but i want to just take a moment and single out ken rich who i think really has birthed the baby that is represented here. [laughter] (applause) >> of course, we have to thank cpmc. i want to single out dr. bronner and mike cohill and just say we will be meeting you guys at boudine's bakery tomorrow. [laughter] >> a.m. and p.m. two days ago we took a moment to thank a true hero in our

community, and everyone knows who i'm talking about, a man who -- whose own organization starts with the letter b, i refer to him as our batman because we put up a bat signal in the sky next time there is a need in san francisco. lou girardo. and i thank my colleagues and their support. every one of our colleagues lended perspective to help make this deal better. thank you to katie tang who are here and eric mar. of course the three a ~ amigos, david and mark. we come from slightly different places but each of us like everyone here in the room, we wanted to make sure that thai 21st century health care system is created here in the city and this balances out what we need to make san francisco great. so, with that it's my honor to introduce the second of the three amigos, supervisor mark farrell. thank you for being here. (applause)

>> thank you, david. it's really great to be here today. we are so fortunate as we come before you, signing legislation to build two brand-new hospitals here in the city of san francisco, to upgrade two other hospitals in our city, and that being the cpmc campuses at davies and supervisor wiener's district, as well as the pacific campus here in district 2 where i represent. and i do want to thank cpmc for their incredible leadership and their involvement, for sticking with it, dr. bronner and mike cohill, thank you so much. to mayor lee and his team in particular ken rich. enough cannot be said about ken's leadership and really quarterbacking this project throughout the process. and to all of the leadership, to president chiu, supervisor campos, and all the board members that helped during this process. it was truly a team effort. and i also want to take a moment to thank the members in district 2 where two of the existing cpmc hospitals are

being housed right now in the california campus and pacific campus. and across the street will be from district 2 will be the new cathedral campus. and to all the neighborhood groups in district 2 who came together to work with cpmc, to work with my office, to work with the mayor's team, to make sure that all the neighborhood needs were met, to make sure that as we build these hospitals we build them in a way that makes sense for our neighborhoods. but in particular, in a way that we can deliver that health care into the next century for san francisco and really make sure that we continue to be at the forefront of health care delivery, not only here in our city, but across the country. we're extremely lucky in the city. we are the envy of other cities and states in our country. we add two new hospitals. we're product to be here today. i want to introduce one of my colleagues that played such an integral role in the process where one of the brand-new hospitals are going to be built square in his district. he was the biggest advocate for t. he needs to be congratulated for all of his work, supervisor david campos.

(applause) >> thank you. thank you, santa ferv. thank you, mr. mayor, to you and your amazing staff, and ken rich who has done an incredible job navigating this complicated process. i don't want it repeat some of the things that have been said, but i do need to thank the people who have made this possible, beginning with the coalition that has included a very broad and diverse group of folks from the community, from labor. they have truly been the backbone of this effort. ~ supervisor farrell and they are the ones that deserve the largest credit for this history. i also want to thank cpmc and stutter. ~ sutter. it's been a difficult process. i'm very appreciative to dr. bronner, to mike cohill that you kept an open mind and that you were willing to sit at the table with the three amigos and lou girardo and the mayor's office. it was not an easy thing to do.

let me say that for me this is a very personal thing because one of the things that will happen because of this deal is that we will have a new, larger, viable world class st. luke's hospital. it's a very personal thing. i talked about how, you know, my mom was rushed to the er at st. luke's, and, so, i know that this means a lot for so many different families. i also want to thank my colleagues on the board of supervisors and i want to thank supervisor wiener, supervisor tang, supervisor wiener for being here. they put a lot of trust in us and in this process. i know that they have their own issues and their own constituents. so it meant a great deal to me that you would put that kind of trust in us so it is greatly appreciated. and now it is my honor to introduce someone who, you know, one of the most rewarding things about this experience is that i had the opportunity to get to know one of the most

remarkable people that i've had the opportunity to meet in government. there is something about bakers. my grandmother was a baker and she's one of the most amazing people that i have ever met. and lou girardo, i have yet to meet a finer individual, a finer public servant, someone who not only has the skills to mediate something like this, but who is brilliant, who has a great deal of integrity and, of above all, who has a big heart, a real hero of mine, lou girardo. (applause) >> thank you. thank you very much, david. i simply want to say that it was a privilege and an honor to have been asked and to have been able to serve in this capacity. i want to thank warren bronner and mike cohill for turning this into a transparent process and allowing all of us to be educated. they are both very good professors. i want to thank ken rich for the job he did for the mayor's office.

ken kept us all alive and moving throughout the process and was the man who was better detailed than the rest of us. the three supervisors, i've said before and i'll say again, i've read about in the newspaper. i hadn't known them very well. i've not been involved in politics much in the last few years. and came in somewhat skeptical about who they were, what they were, and what they could achieve. but i would like to say that san francisco is very fortunate to have the 11 members of the board of supervisors that we have. they are all wonderful people. and i came away knowing that they believed in common good and that they were able to drop their political narcissism if they have such a thing, they de politicized and they put their ambitions aside to make this work. and at the same time, i think that the coalition of coalitions ~ needs a big thank you because they were a great educator as well. they kept us all informed as to what their issues were. but they weren't just giving us

opinion, they were giving us fact. so,s we learned a lot from them as well. so, here's to san francisco. we're lucky we've got such a great government. we've got a wonderful mayor, a great board of supervisors and now we're going to have two wonderful hospitals to take care of everyone. so, thank you all very much for the opportunity. (applause) >> i better sign these before the political narcissism steps in . [laughter] >> lou, thank you. thank you very much.

supervisor farrell, thank you. supervisor campos, [inaudible]. [laughter] >> dr. bronner, thank you. mike cohill, thank you very much. and this is a special one for somebody who has been working pretty hard, ken rich. (applause)

... we are celebrating the glorious grand opening of the chinese rec center. ♪

1951, 60 years ago, our first kids began to play in the chinese wrecks center -- rec center. >> i was 10 years old at the time. i spent just about my whole life here. >> i came here to learn dancing. by we came -- >> we had a good time. made a lot of friends here. crisises part of the 2008 clean neighborhood park fund, and this is so important to our families. for many people who live in chinatown, this is their backyard. this is where many people come to congregate, and we are so happy to be able to deliver this project on time and under budget. >> a reason we all agreed to name this memorex center is

because it is part of the history of i hear -- to name this rec center, is because it is part of the history of san francisco. >> they took off from logan airport, and the call of duty was to alert american airlines that her plane was hijacked, and she stayed on the phone prior to the crash into the no. 9 world trade center. >> i would like to claim today the center and the naming of it. [applause] >> kmer i actually challenged me to a little bit of a ping pong -- the mayor actually challenge me to a little bit of a ping- pong, so i accept your challenge. ♪

>> it is an amazing spot. it is a state of the art center. >> is beautiful. quarkrights i would like to come here and join them