mostly locals. the commuters in the morning, i see a lot of the same people. we don't have as tourists. we are coming up to street to chinatown. since 1957, we are the only city in the world that runs cable cars. these cars right here are part of national parks system. in the early 1960's, they became the first roles monument.

the way city spread changed with the invention of the cable car. >> people know in san francisco, first thing they think about is, let's go [ applause ] >> we are back, i think that the mayor will speak to this, but we are back coming back, very strong from a deep

recession that the country experienced the last few years, san francisco has come back strong. we have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, you can see it by all the cranes represented in the sky these days. and the out look is bright and sunny for anybody in the construction industry. the contractors are the employers, the web corps the turners, the kay hills, and without them, we could not employ our students, so with that strong support, that is how we have 23 students already placed. so a strong shout out for them as well. [ applause ] and the last partnership that makes the goal are all of the colleagues within the city family that help us in a number of ways including funding, support, and we work with them to identify the projects, that places the students on to just about every department that has

anything to do with construction is involved in city build. the port, the airport, the public utilities commission, muni dpw, parks and rec, they are all vital contributers to city bill as well and make this thing go and additional and a new relationship that we started that we hope will be fruitful is our relationship with the san francisco unified school district. as we continue to look for ways to encourage young people to get into the construction industry. so all of that partnership is what makes city bill go and brings us here today for our 16 cycle. so i have been here since the beginning and if someone would have told me seven years ago i would be here saying 16 cycles i am not sure if i would have thought that because it took a lot to put this together. we have definitely gone through the highs and the lows, but 16 cycles where 1,000 graduates into this thing and that is saying something with the commitment of the

administration that we have now and the former administration with mayor newsome and so i want to thank everybody for all of the support. lastly i have a special and kind of for me, heartwarming announcement for city college, and a particular individual. i would like to acknowledge city college who has been with us from the beginning, city bill started as a 12-week program. we now go 18 weeks and one of the primary reasons for that is so that the students will leave with credit. and a big push and a part of that we could not have done without phillis mcguire who is retiring and i would like to give my thanks to the city bill program and to her for all of the effort of making this thing what it is today and we are a national model in this particular industry for what we do and so with that, i to give

certificate of honor, presented from the city and county of san francisco through the phillis mcguire endorsed by mayor ed lee,. thank you. [ applause ] >> so i changed my mind. yes, i do want to say something. and that is that i have been with city build academy from the beginning as well. and it has been one of the proudest pieces of work that i have had the honor to be a part of. and i'm so glad that i am here for your graduation, congratulations and i am so glad that there are 28 cranes up there for all of you. i know that you will do really, really well and it has just been a delight and this has been one of the best things that i have been able to be

associated with in my career, so thank you all. [ applause ] >> without further adieu i get the pleasure of introducing my boss, mayor ed lee and just to say a few words about mayor lee as he walked up. he said 16 and i said yeah, 16 can you believe it? >> and so mayor lee has continued the support of city build and all of the academies that we do in my office, hospitality and technology and healthcare. he is a strong supporter of every san franciscan getting a livable wage job and puts his money where his mouth is in budget times and every way including coming and supporting us at these graduations. i would like to introduce mayor ed lee.

thank you, rhonda. todd, and is everybody ready to work? >> yeah, that is what we came down here for. well, let me say, congratulations graduates. you have a lot to look forward to. in fact some of you already got your job offers. in fact half of you have your job offers and so this is kind of a special graduation because when you just are going to school and you graduate, sometimes you don't know what is going to happen. but here, at the academy, that we have created we build true expectations and skill sets and attitude and then we back that up with real jobs. and in fact, i want to update you, there are 35 cranes in san francisco. 35. [ applause ] and as rhonda and others will continue saying, and i will say this also, you know, it is a whole village of people that

participate in building this movement of expectation that when you do get educated, when you get the skill sets, there has to be a job as a reward for that. there were so many years in the past and i have lived those just a few years ago. and when we did have some graduates rhonda and they looked up and some of these buildings that kind of said well who is building that, and how come i can't be a part of it. you know? and years ago, we saw that happening all over the bay area and then, it went really silent on us. there were no cranes. there was layoffs. there were just reductions of workforces. and so, a very serious discussion went on with contractors with labor leaders to our city agencies, the way that we do business in the

city, our community-based organizations who saw years of frustration and graduated five or six people and couldn't find a job. we are with those degrees, what was the coming together on it and we worked really hard to bring everybody together and this is what the academy has meant to me and now, we see the fruits of it. not only are we bringing the workforces together, we are bringing your families along with it because they support you and they support the sacrifices that you make. and you will make more sacrifices just like i do in this job that i have. and many of those sacrifices will have to do with how you use your money. how you use your time, and how you help one another out, to be successful. and how you work with unions and your supervisors to make sure you are safe on the job, with everybody else's safety as a primary consideration. because we are not going on very flat ground these days. if you are going to be involved

in a project you are going up. and you going floors or you are going deep down to build the fount daysings for things and this is the infrastructure that we have. we are doing the right things in the city. we are investing. we got a general hospital that is already over halfway built and we just started over a billion dollar tunneling project for the central subway and we have got and we finished a cruise ship terminal and we are on the way to develop three or four major properties along the water front. and we have got a public safety building under construction in mission bay. we have got 4,500 residential units under construction today on just three blocks along market street and we have the private sector technology groups working with us and so there are jobs out there. are we ready? do we... are we ready? >> yeah.

yeah. there are jobs. and the reason why there are jobs, is because companies who have been in these bidding wars for many years, companies that we know of, web corp turner, swinerton and consolidated engineering have struggled for years and now winning the bids and putting through the promise of local hire, of first, source hiring, and then we have got companies moving in, and the first thing that we talk about is yeah, we would like you to build here, but we would also like you to use local labor and then the unions have been there with us creating the training jobs, sacrificing some of their union moneys to make sure that they worked with public works and public utility commission and the port, and the airport, and the mta, and the school district, and the city college and everything that we build got to have local folks on it. this is the promise that we made and we are going to carry it through because i don't know

if i know of any other way to build a city than to build it with the people that live there. this is what we should do. >> so as you experience this graduation day with your friends, your family, the people who supported you, think for a moment of the people around you and how that this is day forward you are going to get those jobs. it is really what you do with that job, what you do with your first paycheck, you blow it? some of you might. and you will have to think about the second paycheck. but somewhere along the way, you do what all of us do in our economics, you save it, you build a family around it, because you earn it, and whatever you earn, it is your investment, and we talk a lot about that these days. about investment and being an investment friendly city because that is how we are able to get contractors to work with developers, and to work with

the unions to create at jobs. and it is all about investment. and i want to say today, that we are graduating our investment with you. you are our investment, we invest a lot in you and i am depending upon you not only to build the great structures and the great roadways and the great housing, i want you to build great lives, because that is what san francisco is all about. it is about building lives, and it is about supporting each other to build communities. and then we turn around and we invite everybody who wants to come to this great city, all that you got to do is work together and have a sharing economy and support each other, and i think that is very simple and so with this graduation time, i want to thank you for being our investment and we have got a lot invested in you and i want you to be successful for that very reason and just ask you one thing, when you become successful, you turn around and you invest in somebody else. and eukarotickry the spirit on.

this is the strongest spirit that you ever see in san francisco. and we are strongest in the whole bay require right now and our economy is the strongest and everybody believes that we have it. and i am going to keep it going but we have to share it with everybody else. this is the time to show that we are not the san francisco of 25 to 50 years ago where the haves and the have-nots and the have, one over the have-nots, but this is about a sharing economy where we invest in other each and this is the way that we can sustain our economy for everybody thank you and congratulations. [ applause ] thank you, mayor lee. good evening, my name is zelda saly and i have the pleasure of working with the city build team and we are going to move on with our program this evening. i would like to acknowledge the presence of supervisor district

five, breed, i i appreciate you coming this evening, supervisor, thank you. [ applause ] >> the success of city build has only been possible due to the support of the many partners we have. rhonda spoke to that earlier. and one, our next speaker is one such partner. he was a third generation laborer, who rose through the ranks of the labor's international union of north america and served as secretary treasurer and business manager of labor local's 261. in 2009, delatora was elected business manager of the north thener california district of labor and in 2010, appointed to the general executive board as the vice president as large. he is responsible for the non-profits and serves on the boards of the san francisco planning and urban research association, and mission housing, development

corporation and the institute. he serves the laborers through his work on several labor boards as well as the joint apprenticement training committee. please join us and welcoming our partner, oscar delator. [ applause ] >> good evening. thank you, zelda for that kind introduction. and thank you mr. mayor, just made his remarks for being a mayor that invests in the youth of this great city. it also, supervisor breed for being here taking the time from your busy schedules. my remarks will be limited but, first i would like to congratulate all of the graduates that went through a successful in the city build academy. i know that you guys went through a tough course and now

you have the means to be successful whether you pursue the industry by being electrician, a plumber, a operator a carpenter or a laborer. when i think about the industry i think of a lot of words to describe the construction. it could be very satisfying when we see a building that you worked on and gives you satisfaction that you worked in that building that you have something to do and you contribute to build that building. pride, quality, hard work, all of you know that it is hard work to work in the industry. and very dangerous. and so the qualities of the experience and the qualifications that you are experienced in the academy will give you the basic fundamental awareness to make sure that you stay safe and return back to your families. for the employers, it is very important that they are competitive, that is one of the things that they look at. and make sure that they are on

time, and number one, that they make a profit. we all know that employers get in business to make a profit, and if we can't deliver that, and a good employer or any employer are one job or two jobs from being bankrupt, if they have two bad jobs, they are done no matter how big they are. for labor management we look at other things. we look at quality, member/workers, being safe and being productive. and making sure that we are productive is key. there is no entitlement out there, we got to earn for what we do. and in the last thing which is the most important thing is attitude. it is how you go about yourself, how you treat others, and your co-workers, your bosses, anybody else that will make you successful. and you can't obtain all of the

knowledge and skill, and be bitter about what you do. you got to be grateful, love what you do, that is the key of being happy. pursue what you want to pursue. and take pride of everything that you do. the attitude. if you are the most skilled individual and you hate what you do, nobody is going to respect you and they will lay you off. you guys all know that. you could be best and the most qualified individual, if you are kicking tools around and acting like you don't care, and you are upset at the world, people will lay you off. you will not be successful and so those are, you know, just words that i would like to use and share with graduates and somebody coming through a preapprentice program. you guys posses the qualifitations to go enter any apprenticeship program, waint to congratulate all of the graduate and thank the city build academy and thank everybody that works for the

program. pat mulligan zelda, rhonda, and the board of supervisors this mayor and all of you. thank you very much. and whatever path you decide to be i wish you the best of luck, thank you very much. >> >> thank you, oscar for your educational and inspiring words. i have a few more acknowledgments that i would like to make of people who are here, paul anderson from the mayor's office. the entire lyman family here, ramon, jesus and joseph scott. and eddie, from bright line, where are you? >> you talked to me earlier. and let's see, dave teritan with operating engineers. [ applause ]

>> and anthony arebina with the sheet metal workers. i saw him around here earlier. >> and all right, and oracady standing in the doorway over here. and the next person that i would like to introduce is gary capa. he is the president and chief and executive officer of consolidating engineer laboratories. he has been a long time leader in this industry. for more than 25 years, basically they called gary in when the things need to get done. so with further adieu, no further adieu, i would like to introduce gary. >> well, thank you for that eloquent introduction. first of all, congratulations to the graduates in this room. and it is really exciting to see some of you guys walking around with vests on already.

and that tells me that you work today, and you earn a living and you are doing what this whole program is about. and so i think that is just fabulous. i want to tell you a little bit about consolidated engineering laboratories and i promise not to make this a commercial. but we are a little different than many of you other participants we are really not a contractor. we are an inspection and testing laboratory and so we do special inspection of reinforced concrete, welding, fire-proofing, soils, geo technical work. all of the things that make a building stand up and we test all of these materials in our laboratory as well. we test the concrete and we pull the rebar. we do all of these things that sort of makes sure that the buildings are constructed as they were intended to be constructed. and that they perform as they

were intended to perform in a seismic event. >> the work that we do is important, and i am very proud of it. and excited about what i do every day. but, enough about what we do, let's talk about you guys. so, as a testing laboratory, by the way, our guys push pencil and they don't push wheel barrows you want to come and see me with the job, those are the guys with clip boards writing things down and making sure that things are done properly, they are working hard and make no mistake about that, the responsibility and the pressure can be enormous. but the work is generally not too physical. our employees are operating engineer, local three. and i heard some gentleman from

operating engineers get recognized earlier. our employees make a good living, the top wage employee in our business is making about $40 an hour, plus about $20 in benefits. and that is good money, right guys? does that sound pretty good? >> but this is about real people. and you know, you guys are new to the program and you are just getting out there in it. but i got some successes to tell you about. and ultimately, this gets down to real people having jobs and being able to support their families, and that is what this is all about. we have four people that have been through our program, they are and maybe somebody could tell me how to pronounce this name, could you just call him hugo, but i think that we say hugo and he answers to it and so that works for us and he has been with us for go and a half years and doing special

inspection and he is on a major hospital project, a 400 million hospital project in santa clara and performing great. >> johnson who has been with us for about a year, supporting his family working on a one billion dollar project the oakland kiaser project. cyrus ned in our office and there is a guy that goes through quite a bit of effort just to get to work every day. he takes three buses to get to bart and he takes bart to dublin and bus to san ramone and it is a two and a half hour commute and the guy is there every day with a smile on his face and i am really excited about him in particular, because the few guys that i don't get to see every day, but

the office folks i do. and i have seen his confidence grow and grow by having a job, by feeling part of a team. by coming in and joining us when we have sandwiches brought in and initially he would shy away. but now he is part of the team and the effort and it is exciting to see that. i really believe that this program has impacted his life in immeasurable ways beyond having a paycheck. i will tell you that i am a native san franciscan and i was born in this city and over my 58 years on the planet there have been types that i have been very proud of this city and there are times that i have not been so proud of this city. but i am very proud to be participating in this program to see the support of the mayor and the rest of you in this room making this program a reality, because 58 people are going to get jobs. this is doing things right where it counts in your backyard.

it is a dramatic success story. finally i want to share a quote with you. this is from a very famous actress, helen haze and some of you are too young to remember her and she lived to be 93 and so she did some things right. my mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. she said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is within you. success is being praised by others. that is nice but not as important or satisfying always aim for achievement. >> and as you embark on your careers i wish you tremendous good fortune and wish you success in your business and personal life. and i wish you growth and confidence, and development as a human being and a member of

this planet and a member of this city. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> wow. thank you, gary, that was great. just a couple more shout outs. we have mark ferar the consultant and the mission hiring hall board president here. [ applause ] >> travis brown of the labor's apprenticeship is here. from local six, ibew, steve powers and tim donovan. >> flores from the local 22 of the carpenters. [ applause ]

>> and for our next speaker, jess peterson. >> jess managed corporate and campus projects in southern california before joining web corp builders in 2000 and oversaw the construction and as vice president he led the web four team on the $500 million california academy of sciences a combination of aquarium, research institute, planetarium, and science museum. mr. peterson's sphere headed web force transition for a company focused on private development to a company with robust, private, public, and infrastructure divisions. i am pleased to introduce a great partner and supporter of city build, jess peterson.

>> thank you. >> what a large crowd. graduates it is a time to savor the feeling of accomplishment and to turn the page in the next chapter in your lives. for graduates' family thises is a time to be proud. and for all of the faculty and staff, thank you for all that you have done to really prepare and educate the graduates for today. and dignitaries and hosts, thank you for your time which shows how important city build is to the city of san francisco. and you know, it is really energized to be a ceremony like this where it is the end of one journey and allows you to take that next step and what you just completed is a really practical program that you can have truly a significant impact in your life and i know that because i'm familiar with the path that you are about to start. as i too started my journey in the trades and i have been lured to the benefits that you get from construction and you know that you try to plan and