pockets to support this particular building. this has had many infusion of dollars through the years. i agree with don. they probably will not need any more for 30 years because we really gave it to them this time. it is all a partnership that we have to trust each other in order to do these transactions well. finally, we were pleased to be involved in this. i just want to congratulate the tenants living here. what a wonderful opportunity to have this great housing. thanks [applause] you very much. -- thank you very much. [applause] >> please join me in welcoming the wonderful elijah glassberg,

tenderloin tenant and tndc board member. >> hello, my name is eli. i have been a resident here at tndc since march 20. that was a wonderful day for me. being homeless, i came here, and i was able to work with other seniors -- ok, i talk too much. anyways, i am pleased to be here, being in which to meet with these folks. i am glad to see that don has helped to enable seniors to get

together. this is a community on which we all hinge. i am glad to see that they remodeled the place. i do not know -- i am pleased. i am happy to see these board members, and then working with the people here. especially for the seniors. since i have been here, i have been with seniors organizing seniors, an organization we put together to help as many homeless people as pecan -- we can. helping to teach skills and what not with the senior action network. i enjoy being a part of this group. i want to thank everyone here

that participated in helping to remodel the place. it is wonderful to be here now. i have a roof over my head that is solid. thank you very much. [applause] thank you, don. [applause] >> now please join me in welcoming the project manager of civic center residents, serena sheller. [applause] >> wow. so i am not really the public speaker. i take a lot of notes so that i can stay on script. i am quite verbose and i can just get off script. i will be what keeps you from

lunch. good afternoon. as the final tndc manager to work on this, i have the honor of concluding today celebratory events. this project has had a very long shelf life, from initial meetings in 2004, to construction completion in late 2010. as a result, this project has touched many people's lives in multiple ways. it is with great pride and appreciation that i today work for an organization -- i'm not going to get emotional, i promise. it is with regret pride and accretion that i work for an organization with a mission to provide safe and affordable housing. when i was 5 years old, my family was surviving on welfare, and we lived one step away from homelessness. my mother eventually found safe

and affordable housing. it was this intrinsic step that stabilized my family and allow for our dreams and aspirations to take root. nearly three decades later, i now have the opportunity to be here to show my gratitude towards an organization, like tndc, and to those who contributed building cr. while the thank you list is quite long, it is easy for me to identify the list of people who deserve the biggest thing to today. the residence and the on site staff who lived through all of our efforts, and patty boyle. residents and on-site staff experienced among the following inconveniences', and i'm only naming a few. early morning jack cameron, fire alarm testing, roof fumes, planned blackouts, and of

course, sharing an old, rickety elevator with subcontractors. who knew that it would take 50 minutes to ride an elevator just eight floors, but we all did. in all seriousness, i want to thank the ccr residence and the on-site staff for allowing us to piece by piece transform this building into what it is today. later on today you see pictures of the tndc residence, and representational snapshot of those who were here during the rehab. an artist has installed a permanent piece of work to moralize is building in history. now i want to thank the people who were a part of this journey. thank you to attend -- tim. dorian.

scott alan. mandy grossy. emily lynn, my supervisor. and the director of housing developments at cnbc. i have now added 5 new tool to my project manager tool kit. number one, always be patient. number two, never panic. the problem is really not that bad. number three, always trust your team to find the answers. number four, try to find humor and irony in every situation. no. 5 -- which is pertinent to today -- take time to celebrate the miles talents and recognize the achievements of others. i would also like to take a moment to highlight our founder's spirit without their financial contribution and support, ccr would not have had the opportunity to be

revitalized. they did to the city and county -- county office of separate discovery development agency, enterprise, our tax credit investor, a wells fargo bank, our construction lender, the federal home loan bank of san francisco through its affordable housing program, far east national bank, a program that sponsor, the california financing agency, the state of california department of housing community development, and finally, -- one more -- j.d. morgan chase foundation. looking out into the audience, i see a lot of familiar faces, including my fiancee. [laughter] that was totally impromptu. i recognize the difficulty of interrupting a work day and taking a pause for a moment of recognition and celebration. i am so happy that this is done.

this is beautiful. so thank you all for being here today. and thank you to julie and jeanine, who put together today's facilities. we have organized two self- guided tours. unit 204 and around the corner, on their way to get in line for food, we have a lovely court erred in the back and you can visit unit lo5. it is great to be here. thank you. [applause] >> and to conclude, can we give a big round of applause -- easy part of this project is now done. the hard part comes in operating it for the next three decades. so could be put it together for

property management and social services staff? [applause] thank you, everyone, for coming. we are done.

>> thank you very much for coming this morning and welcome

to the rededication of the reservoir. we are happy to be here today. this represents one of the milestones in our project. we are happy to share this with you. this reservoir has been empty the last two years and today, you will hear the sound of water rushing to fill it again. it makes the city safer, provides water for customers, for firefighters, for after an earthquake. we will be updating our systems. this was originally built in 1885. 125 years old. it takes care of a good part of san francisco, places lower than this. it is an incredibly important part of our system in san francisco. it was a $39 million project and it came in under budget. we are doing it effectively and efficiently. we do appreciate the folks who worked on it.

it is part of the $4.6 billion water system improvement program. this is about a half with point in that program. it is the last major project in san francisco that has been completed. there are a few more projects to be done. this is the last major one. san francisco is more safe than before these projects were done. there are a lot of projects that happened in district 11. the first was a tank replacement project that started a number of years ago. it is fitting we are in district 11 because we're finishing the major work on our program in district 11. we're happy to be joined by supervisor john avalos. he has been supportive of all of our programs and was a leader on having local jobs for people who need them. the work is happening to provide

those jobs. in fact, at the end of this week, we will have six kids out worth $18 million that will help the new local hire ordinance legislation. we are certain the pilots for how to expand local hire. supervisor avalos? [applause] >> thank you. i want to congratulate you and the public utility commission, san francisco water, power, so were for your great work on this project and throughout the head ceci -- throughout the improvement program. we have projects being done across northern california and it speaks volumes about the puc staff, being able to bring these projects to fruition. these are paid for by our tax dollars. we owe it to the ratepayers to make sure that our public

investments are made efficiently and a sound way for the budget. congratulations. i am excited about the track record of the puc on hiring locally in san francisco. for this project alone, we have 60.5% of the residents who are around the area working on this project. we have 6.5% -- it is 27.5%, sorry, much better. 27.5% of the workers are local residents. that is above what our current mandate is for the local hire ordinance that we passed last year at the board of supervisors. i wanted to congratulate you on that effort. 54.5% are from the bay area. 60.5% of the workers are apprenticeships workers, new workers, who are getting new jobs into this industry.

the project helps to make that happen. congratulations on that. we are hiring carpenters, cement workers, and landscape professionals. we know we are providing employment opportunities for this project. i look at this as providing so many benefits to san francisco. we're providing reliable water. we are making our water system safe. we are also improving the process for many san francisco workers and businesses. those workers will go and spend money for their basic needs in san francisco. congratulations to the puc. i look forward to more of the work being done on our local monuments. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor. don't we love this almost summer weather? it is a wonderful place to be, isn't it?

this is part of a larger improvement program and it is good when you have these ceremonies to have somebody who knows what is happening in back of us as opposed to those who come for the celebrations. julie is the head of the program and she will be talking about what we're doing here. thank you. julie? >> thank you. i am thrilled to be here this morning to commemorate the completion of this key retrofit project as well as to celebrate the construction completion of 29 other projects here in the city of san francisco. the university mount reservoir is the fifth to be retrofitted as part of the water system improvement program since 2003. i think it is important to remember that every time we complete a project like this, we are a step closer to making our system completely seismically reliable and to ensure our 2.5 million customers have drinking

water, and that we have an adequate supply to fight fires following a major seismic event. how did we seismically retrofit this 125-year-old structure? we installed a number of super frames to support the roof structure. we added multiple sheer walls and stained -- and frames. we also drilled 500 miles through the bottom of the reservoir to anchor it to the bedrock to prevent it from sliding. we completely sealed and waterproofed the roof. with all of these upgrades completed, this reservoir will be possible of heating be -- feeding the entire city following a major earthquake. be completed some improvements to the inlet-outlet piping of the reservoir that will allow us

to backseat our transmission system so that customers in the upper peninsula do receive water following an emergency. i am really proud of the hard work of our project team. there to be commended for successfully delivering the project and also for their dedication to the program. i also wanted to highlight the pretty impressive track record of the regional project manager, howard fung. job well done, howard. [applause] thank you. >> thank you. just to make sure we understand, this is a partnership of a lot of folks. the general manager of the puc, the general manager for infrastructure, the assistant manager for external affairs, and a lot of you who have worked

hard for the puc, we appreciate it. we also have the leadership of the puc, the commissioners to make the decisions. we have the president and the vice president of the commission. francesca is here to make another announcement today. [applause] >> i am so happy to be here to celebrate this project. i think it is appropriate, the weather we are having, as we dedicate the reservoir. it is a little strange to be getting this rain, but we appreciate every drop of it and we are happy to have a big reservoir. i am excited to announce that we have plans to install three small hydroelectric generators here on site. that is a clean, renewable energy source, something that we are committed to. it will replicate on a smaller scale of our large scale hydro project up that hetch hetchy dam . we are thrilled that will be on

line. that will be done by 2013. 200 kilowatts per day will be generated by those three facilities, those three generators, enough to power approximately 200 homes. we are excited about that as part of our efforts to move away from dirty, empowered -- imported power sources in san francisco, and an example to our commitment to a clean, renewable energy future. we are excited about that. i want to congratulate the power enterprise staff for this project. they are doing everything they can on the efficiency front to make us a clean, green city. i want to acknowledge them as well. it is a team effort. not only the water enterprise, but the power enterprises making this a success. thank you to them and to everybody at the puc for making this happen. [applause]

>> now we have a few gifts for the people who are speakers. then we will walk down and turn the valve. when it is totally open, it will bring in 2.5 million gallons a day into this reservoir. it holds 80 million gallons. it will take a month to fill up completely. you are welcome to come down. watch your step. we will make the last turn of the vowels. you will start to hear the rush of water going into the reservoir. [water rushing] >> many hands make light work. [water rushing]

>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities.

with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain.

milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context.

so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up. >> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by