cakes to choose from. [ laughter ] but also, besides leader pelosi has been a miracle worker, there is another miracle worker in our midst for another 30 year. the corette foundation i knew as a young attorney and filling the gaps where government couldn't make it happen. and we went to the corette foundation time and time again to ask for money to do housing advocacy, when we were doing education for tenants in public housing, the corette foundation was there. the last 30 years, the corette foundation has been there for the st. anthony's dining hall and in the last year, another

$1 million in contributions from the corette foundation to make sure this dining hall go its chance to be rebuilt. [ applause ] >> so st. anthony can increase their space by 42% in the land use and also build the housing. and while we are reminded there is still $2.5 million and i know we're going dig deep in our pockets to help get that done, because it will get done. miracles happen completely, not just partially. that i want to thank and recognize susan, because i know the transition from who we knew to be the face of the corette foundation happened years ago. she has picked it up with the greatest spirit, the greatest honor that can possibly be produced, the spirit of the corette foundation lives today through susan and her con stant donations. she was one of the very first when i was interim mayor and i said i need some of the

philanthropic aid and i talked to william helman and what he did and with the fischers and sorensteins and all the great families that were part of our history and i want to create the next generation of philanthropic san francisco-loving people that we can continue the miracles for everybody. susan has been at that part of our philanthropic san francisco lovefest for many years and with that i would like to introduce susan corette, the corette foundation, the great miracle worker. [ applause ] this is wonderful.

this is really exciting. it's really important to introduce the koret foundation family. first of all our executive director mr. jeff, would you stand up please. [ applause ] . hiram, also. and then the next to you, that beautiful lady, gabrielle and my niece, kim. [ applause ] thank you. good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to participate in this great milestone. i am happy to be here.

st. anthony's has a special place in my heart, because it represents the vision of my late husband, joseph koret. joe was born in poverty. he -- his wish was for no one to go hungry in his beloved san francisco community. joe would have been so proud to support this wonderful building that will provide so much care for so many people in our city. for me, st. anthony's also represents the three c's. care, community, and continuity.

i bring you many congratulations from all of the members of the board of directors of the koret foundation and our very best wishes for continued sucrose in -- success in the future. thank you. [ applause ] >> i saw merl and larry, if you want to join us. as we said, this building is complex. and it starts with the funding. it will get more complicated with the construction pretty soon, but it has really been an unbelievable group effort to pull together the different funders of this work. we heard about the koret's foundation amazing con tributionss and i know there have been so many amazing contributions on the st.

anthony side. for an affordable housing project for this it takes incredible people and we start with hud, who supplied over $20 million to make this project possible. larry ferguson is here, the director of the hud 202 programs that gets the senior housing funds and an important thing to know about the hud 202 programs not only do they provide capital, but a rental subsidy. so seniors on social security, or even less income don't have to worry about whether they can make a $1,000 rent payment. they pay 30% of whatever they can pay and the federal government helps us make up the difference, so we can keep people housed. there are folks out there who understand why this is not such a great investment. so i want to take one second to tell you about this. we know there that we can save money to medicare and medicaid

by housing seniors in this setting. so it's an unbelievable investment and one that i hope we'll keep on doing. [ applause ] i don't have time to thank you everybody at hud, but without your commitment to make these things real we couldn't get them done. we thanked the mayor, but the mayor's staff at the mayor's office of housing, one of the humblest public servants you will ever meet -- olson has been doing this i think since 1906. [ laughter ] olson has been doing this forever. and along with a lot of other people in the city, we not have the history of affordable housing in san francisco without olson lee. he has been tireless. he worked harder to make this happen than anyone that i know

and committed than any human being i have met. i want to thank olson and the rest of the mayor's office of housing and the staff for their work on this sfwater. [ effort. >> [ applause ] >> again in the obscure world of affordable housing, leadership pelosi has been a huge champion with senator feinstein in preserving the program. we know we have a huge champion in you as we look at tax reform, we're confident that you will be with us on that issue. we get investors to buy the tax credits and that helps to pay for the building. it's a very complicated

transaction and todd is here representing the foundation. they have brought in equity investment of over $1.2 billion. to give you a sense of how important they are and how important the program is. thank you. [ applause ] you know in san francisco, everything is green, but liz helps us go greener. and so they have provided an important pre-development grant to help us understand how to green this project and make them the most environmentally sustainability program. they are a huge partner with us nationally and with all the communities and the work that they do across the country. so thank you stephanie and liz. [ applause ] we have two different banking partners on this project that

have combined to lend over $22 million to the construction loan on this project. citibank and silicon valley bank. merl is around. former mercy employee, also wonderful human being. merl is also hiding in the background because he is also humble. these two banks have been huge up the supporters of affordable housing over the years. [ applause ] silicon valley bank i think we want to mention also the silicon valley bank has been instrumental in helping us secure affordable housing program grant for this project from the federal home loan bank system and thank the federal home loan bank and anita adams and her staff and still con valley bank for making that possible. it's a huge grant and a huge part of closing the gap. so thank you. [ applause ]

i have been given the inevitable task of thanking everyone. the department of health, they understood probably earlier than any other health department in the country that housing is health. and so they have been a huge part of the solution to homelessness in san francisco. here as they do in other buildings around the city, they are providing operating and service grants so that as people come into this building off the streets, we're able to help them stabilize, afford the housing that they are in and move on and reconstruct their live as tyrone mentioned. again i want to thank the department of public health. [ applause ] i'm almost there. we have lots of neighbors. if you have ever been next to a

construction project, you want to make sure you thank your neighbors at the beginning. they may not want to hear your thanks, but the boyd hotel, st. boniface, hibernia bank, the academy, senior action network, san francisco action ministries, cc y, and tenderloin district and father harden. [ applause ] since i'm up here i want to thank the mercy staff. i think there are probably 25 mercy staff distributed throughout the crowd. we do everything together. no one person is responsible for any one project, but some who have played extraordinary roles in this project. i want to thank the mercy staff who did so much.

last, but not least, nothing happens in san francisco without dedicated community advocates. for this building to be here for st. anthonies to be here and for the work that mercy does there are people over the years that make a commitment to making stuff happen. they are the voice in the back of the room and remining you over and over again that we have a commitment to make something better. mercy doesn't often name your buildings. sometimes they have glorious names like 122 golden gate, which was the name of this building up to now. it's very poetic. but we really wanted to do something to commemorate the incredible contribution the tenderloin community and we want to name this building after vera hale, who is here on stage.

this building, once it's opened will be named the vera hale building. for over 20 years vera has been a tireless advocate around senior issues, around economic security issues. she has worked at curry senior center and i have a list of the boards and commissions she has served on. i will read them to you because it's a longer list i heard many in my life. advisory council to aging and adult services, the mayor's long-term care coordinating council, the san francisco interim support task force and coalition of agencies serve the elders, and i'm sure will there are a hundred other that vera sat on. the list of things that she has worked on goes on and on.

to me vera symbolized what san francisco is about. her work and the community she fought so tirelessly for and on top of the dining hall, this corner will forever be st. anthony's dining hall, but the same piece that is mercy housing will be known as vera hale housing. [ applause ] so close. i have a long list. i'm on page 3 there is only seven more. [ laughter ] i'm kidding. i'm kidding. it does seem that way. i know. we want to thank our events sponsor, our general contractor. [ applause ] the hilton, citibank, banc of america, and barry will say more about them in a second. i'm sure i have forgotten

something and i apologize in advance, but in the interest of time i will turn it over to barry. thank you. [ applause ] >> yes, to wrap this up here, two lendors on st. anthony's side, the low-income investment fund, nancy andrews is here and the bank of america elizabeth shooten, i believe is here and we want to thank them both. because st. anthony's helps the low-income housing fund get started back in the '90s, we were going to have nancy say just a word or two. nancy. [ applause ] >> thank you everyone and it's just fantastic to see so many san franciscans turn out for this groundbreaking. i am nancy andrews. i'm the president and ceo of the low-income investment fund. we are a san francisco-based community capital non-profit

organization and our role in this project was to provide a $10 million allocation of new markets tax credits. you heard leader pelosi speak about the importance of this program. every year the new markets program provides billions of dollars to projects similar to this one. and it's a very important part of the fabric of what moves communities toward in today's worldful. we're incredibly proud to have had the chance to support this program, to support st. anthony's in providing meals, services and hope to san franciscans. but it's especially heartwarming to us to be able to collaborate and to bring housing and services together and the collaboration between mercy housing and st. anthony's. we would like to thank banc of america, who was our capital partner in the new markets program and again, we're simply thrilled to be part of this. it speaks perfectly to the vision that many of us share

for how to move families and communities forward. i have to say that i for one, if this is what the groundbreaking is like, i am incredibly excited to go to the grand opening celebration. thank you all. [ applause ] >> thank you, nancy. i would like to make sure that we thank the staff of st. anthony's, who is here in force today. raise your hands and thank them. [ applause ] a couple of other grantors to st. anthony's, thanking jack fitzpatrick, who is here. stephanie and the koretfolks that have already been

mentioned. we're actually going to do a groundbreaking. so i would ask those involved on that, that is everybody on the stage pretty much to start moving into the pit. so if you can stand up and start moving. >> there has been an acknowledgement of the special places around san francisco bay. well, there is something sort of innate in human beings, i think, that tend to recognize a good spot when you see it, a spot that takes your breath away. this is one of them. >> an icon of the new deal. >> we stood here a week ago and

we heard all of these dignitaries talk about the symbol that coit tower is for san francisco. it's interesting for those of us in the pioneer park project is trying to make the point that not only the tower, not only this man-built edifice here is a symbol of the city but also the green space on which it sits and the hill to which is rests. to understand them, you have to understand the topography of san francisco. early days of the city, the city grows up in what is the financial district on the edge of chinatown. everything they rely on for existence is the golden gate. it's of massive importance to the people what comes in and out of san francisco bay. they can't see it where they are. they get the idea to build a giant wooden structure. the years that it was up here, it gave the name telegraph hill. it survived although the

structure is long gone. come to the 1870's and the city has growed up remarkably. it's fueled with money from the nevada silver mines and the gold rush. it's trying to be the paris of the west. now the beach is the suburbs, the we will their people lived on the bottom and the poorest people lived on the top because it was very hard getting to the top of telegraph hill. it was mostly lean-to sharks and bits of pieces of houses up here in the beginning. and a group of 20 businessmen decided that it would be better if the top of the hill remained for the public. so they put their money down and they bought four lots at the top of the hill and they gave them to the city. lily hitchcock coit died without leaving a specific use for her bequest. she left a third of her estate for the beautify indication of the city. arthur brown, noted architect in the city, wanted for a while to build a tower. he had become very interested

in persian towers. it was the 1930's. it was all about machinery and sort of this amazing architecture, very powerful architecture. he convinced the rec park commission that building a tower in her memory would be the thing to do with her money. >> it was going to be a wonderful observation place because it was one of the highest hills in the city anywhere and that that was the whole reason why it was built that high and had the elevator access immediately from the beginning as part of its features. >> my fear's studio was just down the street steps. we were in a very small apartment and that was our backyard. when they were preparing the site for the coit tower, there was always a lot of harping and griping about how awful progress was and why they would

choose this beautiful pristine area to do them in was a big question. as soon as the coit tower was getting finished and someone put in the idea that it should be used for art, then, all of a sudden, he was excited about the coit tower. it became almost like a daily destination for him to enjoy the atmosphere no matter what the politics, that wasn't the point. as long as they fit in and did their work and did their own creative expression, that was all that was required. they turned in their drawings. the drawings were accepted. if they snuck something in, well, there weren't going to be any stoolies around. they made such careful little

diagrams of every possible little thing about it as though that was just so important and that they were just the big frog. and, actually, no one ever felt that way about them and they weren't considered something like that. in later life when people would approach me and say, well, what did you know about it? we were with him almost every day and his children, we grew up together and we didn't think of him as a commie and also the same with the other. he was just a family man doing normal things. no one thought anything of what he was doing. some of them were much more highly trained. it shows, in my estimation, in the murals.

this was one of the masterpieces. families at home was a lot more close to the life that i can remember that we lived. murals on the upper floors like the children playing on the swings and i think the little deer in the forest where you could come and see them in the woods and the sports that were always available, i think it did express the best part of our lives. things that weren't costing money to do, you would go to a picnic on the beach or you would do something in the woods. my favorite of all is in the staircase. it's almost a miracle masterpiece how he could manage to not only fit everyone, of course, a lot of them i recognized from my childhood -- it's how he juxtaposed and managed to kind of climb up

that stairway on either side very much like you are walking down a street. it was incredible to do that and to me, that is what depicted the life of the times in san francisco. i even like the ones that show the industrial areas, the once with the workers showing them in the cannery and i can remember going in there and seeing these women with the caps, with the nets shuffling these cans through. my parents had a ranch in santa rosa and we went there all summer. i could see these people leaning over and checking. it looked exactly like the beautiful things about the ranch. i think he was pretty much in the never look back philosophy about the coit.

i don't think he ever went to visit again after we moved from telegraph hill, which was only five or six years later. i don't think he ever had to see it when the initials are scratched into everything and people had literally destroyed the lower half of everything. >> well, in my view, the tower had been pretty much neglected from the 1930's up until the 1980's. it wasn't until then that really enough people began to be alarmed about the condition of the murals, the tower was leaking. some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality

of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership.

it was the citizens who came together to buy the land to keep it from being developed. it was lily hitchcock coit to give money to the city to beautify the city she loved of the park project worked to develop this south side and still that's the basis of our future project to address the north side. >> we did not expect the house to be so packed tonight, so i apologize for lack of seating in the back. i am inspector john wrote a and chief inspector secretary. -- john monroe. i would like to welcome you to the 2012 middle of valor ceremony.

can we all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america. into the republic, for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. you can have a seat. i would like to acknowledge and introduce some of the people we have on the stage with us. first, at the police commission president, thomas mazzucco, commissioner kingsley, paul henderson from the mayor's office as representing because the mayor was unable to come tonight. also, we have commissioner loftus. also, the command at steep.