>> what a glorious day. welcome to the library. it is my pleasure to be here for today's celebration. i would like to thank our people from the opera house. in particular i would like to give the executive director of the opera

house a round of applause here. where are you? how about that wonderful &m. music. they are led by mohammed bhangra. let's give them a round of applause. it wasn't too long ago that we had our wonderful ground breaking ceremony and at that ceremony we were led in a beautiful invocation by the past or oral yus walker. he's back to lead us. with that, pastor walk er. >> to our distinguished leaders and city officials, brothers

and sisters. before i do the invocation i would like to talk real quickly, a young man in the greek culture, he wanted to be wide and was determined to gain wisdom. so socrates, he said i want wisdom. socrates walked down to the beach, walked to the water and deducted him in the water and said what do you want. he said noble socrates, i want wisdom. when he came up, he said, i want -- i want -- he said when you want wisdom, you are going to get wisdom. that's why we have this great facility here today to change the image of this community from violence and killing and all those negative things to positive wisdom for the glory of god.

would you be so kind to join me in the word of prayer. we are here today in the community. we want to this you forgiving the city officials, the people, all those responsible for beginning this process and you have completed, that's the joy of completion. and you said like wisdom, let him ask you give us all men -- wisdom is more precious than gold and silver. god we claim that and thank you for this neighborhood and for those responsible in thy name we pray, in god, amenen. >> thank you pastor walker. and we would like to thank pastor bailey from the church and for

an allowing us to have this construction site on their parking lot. thank you to baptist church for today's celebration as well. thank you very much let's now take a moment to hear from our library neighbor. it's always wonderful to celebrate with poetry. i would like to introduce alejandro -- >> thank you. you cannot imagine how happy i am here today. i remember whether the opera opened and what a day with the community and with the bay view opera house and the bay view library here, anchoring this community with our young people with hope, with poetry and literacy, that

this will be the new creative center of san francisco where poets, artist and musicians are welcomed and can find to spirit to change the perception of the neighborhood as the reverend said . i want to offer a program, the initiative to create murals with poems of your people all over this neighborhood and that will be one of the projects i hope to launch in the coming months. now full permit me i will do a poem in on of the bay view library. >> "today i'm going to wear a hat. wave hello to the world or maybe a mysterious fad era brim down low. i would investigate

the missing brown buffalo. or perhaps a greek fisher man's cap in honor of the sirens and mermaids rocking me or a big mexican so sombrero would do, or i could make a crazy cat hat with balloons and then i stroll down third street or a brown berate and shout power to the people and other slogans i forget. i could try a cloud with a blue ribbon wrapped

around it like a song or none of that. today, in honor of the new brand new bay view library, today, i'm going to wear the sky as my hat and then i will pass it on to you so you can wear it too thank you alejandro. power to the people. he wants to make the city of poets. this is indeed an honor and pleasure to introduce our mayor, mayor ed lee. [ applause ]

. >> morning, everybody. welcome to our bay view. as our poet said, he's about to wear a hat, so i was looking for a hat this morning. and i have a trunk full and i was looking for something that was representative, a world series type of hat because this is a world series event. when you look across our neighborhoods, you know it's probably one of the best examples of building a community center. and you know as much as this brick and mortar is beautiful, it's got a communicate center community center that is useful when the library is not even open. it has the library with double number of computers and importantly how we put it together. it took longer and the reason it took a little

longer was because people who lived in this community wanted the input they hadn't had in a long time. they wanted this building representative of them. it's more than a library. it is a community center, it is an example of how you get a contractor like freddie carter, [ applause ] to become romantic after 50 years of struggle. how he and working with public works and the architects and the library and the commission were able to get some 68 percent local businesses involved, 25 percent from bay view alone." is this what we mean by invest in our neighborhoods? absolutely. so, when you look

at this library, think of the people that put it together. think of the hours, think of the many hours that the kids and families will spend here safely learning, increasing their knowledge, improving themselves. think of the friends of the library that will continue to raise funds to keep the computers running, keep furniture and modern and keep the rooms active with the little study halls and the gardens. it's a community effort that what makes this library. now we are asking louis what's next. that to me so important. with the supervisors here, david chew,

the presence here, thanks to malia, we are investing some $800,000 more along the corridor to make the whole neighborhood involved. if it takes longer, we'll do it because the quality will be about. that's what a world series library looks like. so i want to thank you for all joining us today like mayor's get to do. i got a proclamation. i want to present this to our new librarian, beverly. thank you. to honor your leadership here and to declare this day to be bay view branch library day in san francisco.

>> thank you, mayor. so eloquently stated about what this library means to us. when we began planning for this library about six years ago, it's amazing how this community told us loud and clear that they didn't want to settle for a modest plan. they wanted a new library with more space for books, media, they want a library that had spaces for young people to hang out after school so they can learn. they wanted a space to provide dedicated areas for the teens to create and contemplate and to be engaged. they also wanted a state of the arts place of technology. a 20th century library that no on the celebrates the community but looks towards the future. we have 19 computers. laptops, digital media throughout and

the community room as the mayor stated is going to be wonderful for civic engagement and for the community to come together for lectures and programs for celebration. all of that has happened. this is your library. when you go inside, you will find a welcoming space that is going to serve many many generations to come, but it does take a wonderful and strong partnership. i'm very proud of the fact that we worked very closely with the community, but also very closely with the team of wonderful hardworking people between the department of public works, and the library. i want to take a moment to acknowledge the terrific work that the blip program manager has done throughout the project. elena. where are you? it's a large team. i want to acknowledge my colleagues and

department head mohammed, freddie carter. they were true partners in this endeavor. our deputy librarian, linda, linda is an institution in our neighborhood. we love what she does here. ed, where are you? he's back here. he's done a terrific job and elsie who has worked very diligently throughout. let's not forget some very important people are going to be here to serve you and to do a wonderful job in community building. you have already met beverly hayes, who has done a great job here. our branch manager. the team is behind me. i'm going to call out their names, naomi jones, addison and

rachel brooks. let's give them a round of applause. they have done a fabulous job for all of us. i wish you could all see the beautiful panels. when i talk about the community ownership. one of the highlights you will see is the culture and the history that is reflected on these art panels. we have an amazing architectural team that uses the history center for this library and it's reflected there to help us celebrate what a beautiful community this is and it captures the spirit, captures the identity of what the bay view neighborhood is all about. i want to take a moment to acknowledge the architectural team from tom and associates, we have nick homg ,

carry, thank you for the fabulous work. that is the dream team as i call it that made it en ppworking hand in hand with the community. with that i would like to now introduce, i see that our supervisor is still not here. our board president is here. david chew. i now you have a wonderful opportunity throughout the day with chinese new years. >> thank you. good morning. the sun is shining on the bay view today. when i was in grade school, in first grade, second grade and third grade. my chinese immigrant mother every sat morning would wake me up and say we are going to the

local public library. this is where i read the children's book about abraham lincoln and caesar chavez and mahatma gandhi. this is what inspires who we are as a people, as a city. i want to thank you today. look around at this crowd today. we represent the diversity, the mows mosaic, not just of san francisco but the world. it's a library that gives us the knowledge and culture of what our world is about. i want to thank you for being part of this village that is not just the bay but san francisco. i want to thank the city staff, our mayor, our local supervisor for coming togeth