7:30 at night. >> nice to me to condemn the -- nice to meet you. >> it was a pleasure to share this with you. i hope that the bay area will descend upon the plaza and go through these arts and crafts and by some holiday gifts. >> that would be amazing. thank you so much for the hard work that you do. [applause] >> thank you. first of all, i want to welcome everyone here today to this

great event, the final papers to really implement our new treasure island. all of the people behind me, i want to spend the time thinking them and everyone involved. when you have a project that has lasted decades, where you are working with federal agencies, the navy, all the funding that we did not have, developers that we had to make sure were together time and again with us, residents and had the confidence that our city could not only treat them well but also plan for their future, with them, working with them. groups such as the homeless, those on the lower end of our housing affordability. all of that has come together over decades of hard work. right up until last week, that

work continued at the highest level in order to make this happen. i need to spend a moment thinking the people who have been before me in this position and other federal positions. they have their history marked in many years of essential contributions to this plan, and to the workings of the island, to the vision that is being presented today. first off, senator feinstein. i want to thank her deeply for her contributions. [applause] leader pelosi for giving us the funding. [applause] former mayor willie brown. his vision for the island. [applause] the only thing i have to apologize for is the casino idea. [laughter] lt. gov. gavin newsom. my predecessor. thank you for his wonderful

contributions. when supervisor and now still helping us with this, former supervisor tom ammiano. thank you very much. [applause] i only carried these cards because there were so many people to think. i want to begin with the incredible city staff team that has worked for many years on this project, starting with rich ellis. [applause] michael temoff and john from the office of economic development. [applause] the incredible and ongoing work of our city attorney's office that has been wonderful in crafting a good language that people are not only living with on the island, but the delicate

legal issues. eileen molly, charles sullivan, john malamut, andrea esquita, our city attorney's office. [applause] thank you also to your boss for giving you the time to do this. from city planning, john ram, i do not see him here. kevin guy, rick cooper, city planning, thank you. from the mta, i want to thank matt ford for his staff. [applause] from the puc, ed harrington, thank you for allowing us to work with mark -- michael carlin.

doug schumacher, thank you for the great work you did on the office -- from the mayor's office of housing. then there are great members of our board of directors. they include, for many years, claudine chang. larry delcarlo. larry mazolo jr. lord richardson. john paul samaha. [applause] to members of the treasure island citizen advisory board, countless hours from our citizens involved in every way, especially the president, karen knkowles pierce. [applause] she has worked so well with the other island residents including becky hoge, john conners, and

bnetty lettington. we have our organizations on treasure island, who have been working so hard for us, and of so many other important things ever present our city. including the director of the homeless initiative, sarah. [applause] thank you. member organization that are included in this initiative have been the boys and girls club of san francisco, catholic charities, community housing partnerships, mercy housing, rubicon, tool works, and walden house. thank you for your cooperation. [applause] and to our development partners who we have come to know, cherish, lived with, talked out

a lot of issues, at the state level, local level, and of course, the treasury -- a treasure island community development. chris, thank you for being here. [applause] have i gotten everything else? i know we have other speakers here. we have a number of the board of supervisors that i want to thank each and everyone of them. we have jane kim, carmen chu is here, scott wiener, mark farrell. they are here as well. there may be more coming. i want to give a special thanks. i know not only gain, but her staff, has worked hard to spend the time necessary to explain to

everybody but this is all about, and to also make sure the commitments that were made by the city family are actually carried out. whether they are affordable housing or transportation, or open space, parking challenges that we will face, or whether they are simple communications of what this is all about, i want to invite supervisor jane kim appeared to speak. -- up here to speak. >> thank you, mayor lee. i got to come to the end of a really long process, close to 14 years, of the development project, the last six months, and it is amazing how much can happen. so many people were involved in the process for many years. mayor li the enologist many of them. -- lee acknowledged many of

them. tida, the citizen advisory committee. i look at developments with a careful lens because they have a huge impact on the city of san francisco and shape of our city looks like. one thing i am proud about in this project, which i cannot take credit for, is the immense community outreach and input and process them and through this development, and to talk to folks who were formerly homeless who felt like their input was heard and taken into account into with this new neighborhood would look like. up to 2400 units of affordable housing for the city of san francisco, something that our city definitely needs. something to be clapped for. [applause] an unprecedented number of units going to formerly homeless communities as well. sherri williams and many of the community-based organizations will continue to not only

provide affordable housing but actually support the community as well. we are looking at a mixed income neighborhood in treasure island. treasure island will have an impact on the city. i want to think ross mirkarimi and david chiu for introducing some changes to the development agreements, which will help to mitigate some of these impacts. of course, the mayor's office, for being a really good partner on this project, working with our office. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jane. it does take a lot of teamwork. i think we are resurging that team work in city hall. i know the work of david chiu has been instrumental in doing that. i want to get david appeared to say a few words and also to signal, and we do not get -- often get an 11-0 vote.

i can remember one other -- [laughter] david, you have been working so hard. come up and say a few words. [applause] >> it takes a village to build a village. i want to thank the village behind and in front of us. over the past year, we have put 10,000 units of new housing in the southeast part of the city with the shipyard project. [applause] we are putting 8900 new units of housing on the west side of the city with the approvals we did at parker said -- park merced. and with a much more comfortable 11-0 vote, we are moving forward with thousands of new units of housing on treasure island. i cannot say how proud we are of our city for coming together. we have been talking about for years how important it is to build new neighborhoods, develop new affordable housing, make

sure we have transit-oriented, sustainable, green development that is worthy of the 21st centuries the san francisco. what we are doing today and this year will have impact on the city for decades to come. thank you all for being a part of this. i look forward to the ribbon cutting. [applause] >> any others? ok. chris mini, on the development team, you excited us. one of the greenest developments that you might see. the city continues to be excited because of the work you are doing, to be environmentally friendly, to have a residence that the city can be ground up route -- proud of. [applause] sf ++ my partners, we

want to say thank-you to the city family. on this happy occasion, i just want to recall how we began so many years ago with the discussion in this building that at treasure island we could not only create a new neighborhood for san francisco that set a national standard in and sustainability, but that we could do it in a new and different way than land use had been practiced in the city, and that we could come together and craft a plan together. the happiest part of the situation today is we stand with a terrific plan that was not our plan. it was a collective plan that was crafted together and in public. that long process, thanks to the

leadership of supervisor kim, supervisor chiu, in this 11-0 vote. it think it to the staff and everyone who participated -- thank you to the staff and everyone who participated with us. >> finally but most importantly, you can have the greatest plans, best designs, but if he did not connect with the people who live on the island, the people who need a place to live, a decent place to live, but also be a part of this great city, i want to thank cherie williams of tida. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. i want to thank the mayor. i guess he is the fourth mayor that we have worked on on this project. he pushed us over the finish line and we are grateful for that. the treasure island homeless development initiative started in 1994. this is a major milestone for us.

this is really unique in san francisco. it is not just a portable housing, but it is affordable housing for people with the lowest or no income. formerly homeless families and individuals. there is also an enormous amount of opportunity for homeless people to gain jobs and job training opportunities. we wanted to acknowledge the work of supervisor kim. her and her staff worked hard over the past few months to make sure all of the goals and the plan that we have worked hard to achieve are going to be real and meaningful. thank you for the work that you did. [applause] and over the years, we have had a really great community partnership with the treasure island development authority. the board has been amazing. they have had the vision of including low income and formerly homeless people from the ground up, from the start, so i want to thank the treasure island development authority for

all of their leadership over the years. i also want to thank the director of operations. [applause] really, i know supervisor chu said that it takes a village to build a village, but it has really been that kind of story. that is why you had the 11-0 vote. it is not just city government doing something or developers doing something unilaterally, one group be more represented than another. it has been an iterative process where we have all work towards a common vision, one that will serve all san franciscans. i want to thank the developers, too, for the integrity they brought to the table, the citizens advisory board, and all the members of the tidhi commission, residents of treasure island that have been a part of this. so really from the ground up,

everyone has been a part of this to create a new san francisco neighborhood that represents all seven systems. thank you. [applause] >> i want to make sure that you know anybody can come on treasure island. right now, we are about to see that sculpture dance. are we ready to party? let us get this done.

be[applause] >> sherri, this is for you. [applause]

>> 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.