mission where it is always 55 degrees even when it 20 in the marina, we can bring tables and chairs out because we have a wider sidewalk and folks in the mayor's office said we will be happy to support that because there is plenty of room for seniors to walk by and we can add more bike racks to encourage people to get on the road with alternative transportation. to allow somebody to walk through a street and see a butterfly because there are beautiful trees and there is something else happening in terms of urban environment. we put all of that in this plan, which finally got down called the better streets plan and this will anchor the future of this effort for decades and decades to come. s caesar chavez is. leyland avenue is next and though the next mayor will take

the credit 19th avenue is next and that is long overview. this is what this represents. we told these ideas from all across the country. portland was doing some of this. but we don't like being second place to portland. so, eat your heart out, portland. we took a little bit from bloomberg in new york and that was the idea of payment to park land but we don't like to be second place, we are now doing more on that and we took the ideas from chicago. and i will say if there is any father or mother of these ideas it is mayor daley in chicago who is on these things years and years ago. i went out there when i first became mayor, got so jealous going down michigan avenue i said we have to do something so we stole their greening director and brought her out here and tasked here with putting these plans together and i want to specifically acknowledge astrid

and her hard work and collaborative effort with all of you as well. i'm excited about this. i'm proud of this. this is a special day for me. thank you for all the hard works. this crease jobs, increases -- this creates jobs, increases values of property and increases the likelihood that people will come down and stay longer. it creates a sense of identity and place so we can marked our neighborhoods so it doesn't look like anyplace, u.s.a. so everything has its own unique character. that is why we are celebrating and why i'm honored that all of you took the time to be here and work so hard to get us here. i have nothing more to say, thank good from your perspective, except again to say thank you and particularly to the planning department for all of their work and to c.p.w. for

their stewardship of this process and just get ready, caesar chavez is going to be exciting and leyland and you are going to see on 19th a similar effort very soon. thank you very much for coming out. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. speaking of businesses like this, being in the midst of a construction project for many months can be challenging for small businesses, and i think all of the businesses up and down this stretch of valencia can attest to the fact that it was challenging and we worked hard to make it as smooth and quick as possible so they could be the beneficiaries with the rest of the neighborhood. i want to again acknowledge mike gillotti the contractor who built all of this. they did a great job. given the conditions we had they got done faster than we thought

they would. i pt want to acknowledge our buu of construction management and public affairs, alex mario who worked hand in hand with the folks up and down here to make this as smooth as possible. so, you are not just hearing from us, interto ask our host here today -- i tonight ask our host here today and i can attest to the fact they make great margaritas. she will talk more about this project today.he fact they make margaritas. she will talk more about this project today.o the fact they m margaritas. she will talk more about this project today. >> hi, everyone. i'm not a regular public speaker i spend most of my team working so i have my notes. i represent my family here and i'm also part owner with other family members. i have been invited to speak for the merchants at the corridor. we have been here over 40 years.

we are celebrating our 40th year this year, so, stay tuned, october some time. in those 40 you years we have s lots of changes. but this one was one long awaited change and we are all excited and pleased to have valencia street scape come here and beautify our corridor with these beautiful trees and the lighting and the posts and just the safer bike lanes. so we are all pleased and excited about all of this. we have many shops. we have furniture stores. we have book stores. we have clothing stores. we have these great restaurants, one of them you are right in front of right here.

valencia street has been a little secret and unless you have been here and heard from other people you wouldn't know that it existed. despite this, it has lots of people around it. i will put this here so i two shake so much. there are lot of people here.wo shake so much. there are lot of people here.o shake so much. there are lot of people her shae so much. there are lot of people here.d shake so much. there are lot of people here.o shake so much. there are lot of people here.n shake so much. there are lot of people her' shake so much. there are lot of people here.t shake so much. there are lot of people here. we have seen people from all over the world, the wider bay area and our neighborhoods. actually, with everything that we have here, i think that what we will be able to do is be more inviting neighborhood. i think mostly we have been having their businesses inside. but now with the expansion of the streets and lighting and everything else i think we will be able to create more of a community and be able to expand outside and bring our community not only to our businesses but to our neighbors and to our homes.

some of us live here. we are excited about these changes and feel that everyone, merchants, customers, neighbors and people who live in the area will greatly benefit. it is my pleasure to be one of the many ministeerchants and i' excited about the new transition we are getting to see. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. happy merchants is definitely one of the things we hope to get out of this project. in addition to happy pedestrians, cyclists and shall else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our cit else who uses this part of our cit who uses this part of our city.e who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our cite else who uses this part of our citr else who uses this part of our city.y else who uses this part of our city. everybo else who uses this part

of our citd else who uses this t of our city else who uses this part of our city. it takes a lot of the city working together and it has been a hallmark of the mayor's administration to compel the parts who appear to have different interests to work together to achieve things like this project. i want to acknowledge some of those folks. one of our biggest partners was the san francisco municipal transportation agency. the manager of the streets. thanks dan. anita watson. we heard kudos for the planning department. we are joined by john ram and david for their work. the mayor's office of disability. susan misner is here with us. our director of cultural affairs and there is a significant public art component of this. luis cancell is here. some of the funding was made possible through the county transportation authority and i want to thank jose luis most

co-very much and their directaz. >> a few different organizations, spur, the bicycle coalition and people for public spaces come together and formed the great streets project. and they did what the mayor did and imported talent from chicago and led that. i want to bring up the leader of the great streets program now. >> thank you. what a beautiful day. the great streets projects facilitates this and we this is a great place. the street is a wonderful wide place to be. you want to bring your friends and family repeatedly.

congratulations to the many agencies who have participated in making this possible. many community members and businesses participated along the way and it couldn't have happened without everyone rolling up their she was and coming together to make this possible. congratulations to everyone. i also want to point out this is a harbinger of things to come. it is a wonderful step forward for san francisco, the culmination of tremendous hard work by many people in the agencies and in the communities. i want to particularly acknowledge adam for his leadership on this. i want to acknowledge the m.t.a., p.t.w. m.o.d. and c.t.a. apnd departmet of public health. a lot of acronyms but they stand for a lot of great people in the city working together to make this possible and are working with community members and folk to bring together ideas that

will make better streets possible throughout the city. congratulations to everyone and i look forward to enjoying valencia street and many other corridors around the city for many years to come. [applause] >> thanks to all much the organizations working with the city to make san francisco a better place. a few more acknowledgments. i did mention the deputy general manager is here for a significant part of the process and more significant part when we get to caesar chavez. we had a support from the better streets, league of conservation voters, state department of transportation, cal tran and many others and the merchants around here were wonderful to work with. i also want to acknowledge i mentioned our director of cultural affais