>> it has been a pretty good week. became lieutenant governor, the

giants won, and now we have a bocce court. i will save all of the thank you's for when we get into the program. i will let mayor newsom kick it off. >> trust me, we have a lot of press conferences when we break ground on billion dollar project, and we have half the number of people amount -- that come out. i want to thank everyone who took the time to be here and help support the project for putting it together. this was perverse, and i say that in an enlightened cents, a labor of love. for years and years, for anyone who lived in this city or anyone who worked downtown, you wonder what the heck is going on down there. why is this piece of grass under-utilized?

why have we not created energy around this area? we were vexed by some very big plans that were going to be difficult, including trying to rematch in this entire area. this is a look when it was the freeway. this would be high on my agenda. the next mayor will get about four or five files we put together on real imagining the fountain area. i want to figure out a way of turning that thing back on. the pumps are costing us a fortune. they are keeping them going. we want to try to get this space activated and create energy around here until we figure out the more permanent vision. i love bocce because it is so

easy, not to be great, but you can think you are pretty good if you're doing it against your little cousin or little sister. your little cousin can come out here and feel pretty good about being good at bocce. it is a sport for everybody. you don't have to be an expert. it is easy to put this together as long as you have people who will support you. a little granite, a little crushed oyster, and we can put this up in a couple weeks. exactly. this is a lesson in politics. under-promise, over-deliver. we thought we would engage some of the businesses in the area because they always say, what will you do about the park?

folks across the street for saying the same thing. get some money together because i don't have the courage to do it in the board of supervisors. he was kind enough to come out and get some businesses together. we connected with our friends and others of local 261. they said they would contribute. the mayor apprentice program, they say they will step up and step in. we had some fun with this. a lot of folks came together. they all said they would help, which was great. somehow, a good thing is never easy to convince at city hall. they have to create some controversy. that is san francisco. that elevate of the project and that is why you are here. otherwise, you would never know

we are doing this. here's the controversy over the little things. i am grateful to everyone is here. thank you for your support. i don't know who will sign for getting. the bocce federation. this is a world-class court. this is not one of those 1965 -- this is the highest-quality court out there. we will have world class tournament here, right? all right. that right. we will bring bocce back in the forefront of sports in san francisco, right? we're excited. where is thebocc bocce champion? this is the face of bocce.

sponsored by adidas. bengie is back out here beating the italians. bengie is now the new face of this. supervisor avalos never thought he would be doing something like this, but thank you for your support in the budget committee. you know, that is all i've got on this great day in san francisco. thank you to rachel gordon for writing all of the articles in "the chronicle." i don't think she ever thought she would write as many darn articles. phil frank would have done 10 cartoons on this bocce court. let's get the recreation and park director -- director and thank his commission for all of the work. thank you, sir. there are a lot of ways to describe our mayor and

persistence is one of them. i worked for the mayor in a couple of rolls and this has been on your list for how long? we are thrilled to be able to pull this off. like many things we're trying to do, we cannot do it alone. i want to thank all of our partners, local 261, who we have an incredible relationship with, we just want to the first apprenticeship program, and we are very excited. bocce federation, peter, where are you? peter, so you know, was the driving force but the region behind the renovation in golden gate park. -- was the driving force behind the renovation in golden gate park. supervisor chu, supervisor avalos, thanks to all of you for being so enthusiastic.

so, thanks to everyone. we are absolutely thrilled. we will be -- we will be back out here when, chris? in three months, we will be out here to play some bocce. >> let's think bill ginsberg for letting us get away with this. it was not easy. communities in san francisco are passionate. they are passionate about however you touch these great spaces. without his team, we never would have gotten out of the starting gate. thank you. as far as a construction schedule, this could be done in eight days. >> i want to send some thank you's to the companies that have been mentioned before, but did all of this work. had we not had your support, this project would have never

happened. if we could of got in the money, it would have been $200,000. a lot of people put a lot of time into this. the original study was done that said bocce was a good idea and give us the path to go down. value engineering made the plans affordable and doable. without your help, we never would have gone anywhere. we have put hundreds of hours into designing the very first championship-size, wheelchair- accessible courts-- championshir accessible courts anywhere in the world. [applause] i want to thank our partners in boston properties who manages this space in a public-private partnership, and they are going

to keep this square in tiptop shape. i want to next thank the folks there really make it possible. mark and the fabulous employees from salesforce came in with a $50,000 cash grant. we would have never have gotten this done without that. >> thank you so much. we are delighted to be part of this project. it is amazing to see the community rally around something that is so exciting. and we get to benefit from it here, with a nice view from our headquarters. salesforce.com started here 11 years ago in a small apartment in telegraph hill, and now we are all over the world. we want to have a new model for

business and philanthropy. we always wanted to be part of the communities we are part of, and that is so important to us. when we think about our next decade in san francisco, as we are building our headquarters in mission bay, we are excited to be part of san francisco and all other projects like this. thank you so much for everybody that made this happen, everybody putting in the hard work. [applause] >> thank you. speaking of hard work, this impressive project is actually a class room. i'm going to invite ramon and courtney and theresa up from the labor training foundation. here are five students who started at -- you got here at 6:30. that is early. they are going to build these

courts and learn how to get out and work on these types of complicated projects. i could not have imagined how complicated but to ball -- bocce ball courts could be. ultimately, this is giving real jobs to real san franciscans. so with that, i want to bring up ramon, court may, theresa, our partner at dpw -- courtney, theresa, our partner at dpw. thank you for doing this. >> thank you to all of you all for being here, helping to make the project going forward.

thank you from all the companies who are here. webcor, thank you for helping us. amd, all the unions that are here. janitors, carpenters, laborers and operators are here, too. thank you to all of you. also to the mayor, he is the one that started the jobs program, here in san francisco. i want to let you know how the program works. the program is done september 30. now we have these four guys coming out of there and we have to give them a chance to go forward. they want to do something good. that is why we have these three

apprentices here. more than 50% of these guys are san francisco residents. i do not know about the rest of the projects, but this one we have more than 50% from san francisco. thank you for helping us to make this project go forward. >> thank you. [applause] ok, benji, let's talk about community support. i did not know there was such a robust community of bocce players in our city. we talked to our partners, neighborhood groups, i see the folks from the barbara coast,

and jerry crowley, one of the great leaders of san francisco, and they showed us the way to put the community support you need to put a project like this together in a public space. the most fun community, though, has been the bocce community. we have all heard of tenants come, -- tim lincecum, but benji has an even better record in his career. we have a former american champion here, too. they are really elevating this came to a world-class sport. we are going to have some great games here. thank you guys for having so much fun, helping us design this court, making it the right way so that we can have your cake

and ship -- championship. >> thank you to everyone who has made this possible is really great. there is a big tradition here in san francisco. it started with the immigrants that came here 50 years ago. the use to be a lot more bocce ball courts back then but they started to disappear because space is a premium. this is great, to be able to replace some of those courts that have disappeared over the years. just another example of san francisco's commitment to supporting the cultural diversities of the people that make up this great city. i am the president at the aquatics bocce ball club, the oldest in the nation, and we are always having to turn people

away because the courts are so busy. this is just another outlet for people. this is open to the public but we look forward to having international-style tournament here, -- tournaments here. there are plenty of courts in the area, but there is definitely a shortage of world class, regulation courts. so here we go. thank you. >> thank you. before we put the shovels in the dirt, i want to thank tom harrison from the wreck and park commission, who has been so supportive -- rec and parks commission, who has been so supportive. they did so much work. thank you all for doing this. our hats off to you. finally, i want to thank my

partners, jacqueline, duane jones, the community at home, my wife, for putting up with three years of obsessive bocce talk at home. with that, i want to invite people up, mayor, people from webcor, there are troubles for everybody. -- shovels for everybody. [applause]