the bayview branch library for being such an important part of the branch library improvement program and for your dedication to keeping this community intact and understanding the great power and promise of each of our branch libraries. linda? consider this and i know you. -- an iou. >> i just want to take the opportunity to thank ed eiskin -- riskin for his efforts. as well, good luck in your teacher endeavors at the mta. [applause] >> thank you. a couple of folks representing representative fiona marrow.

[applause] where is the energy? there we go. next, we have our board supervisor from this district. she is the envy of other supervisors because she has three new libraries in the district. with that, let us welcome supervisor malia cohen. [applause] >> hello, everybody. good morning. it is a new day. do you believe? i am so humble than excited to be here. i have personally spent time in the library, growing up with mrs. jones' daughters studying

here. here we are on the corner, the process of a new day, a new beginning. i say that optimistically but also cautiously. it is a new day because it is a ground-breaking ceremony and we are moving forward, but we're also continuing the work that many have done before us for this part of the community. [applause] and i highlight particularly our matriarch leaders because they will have a special space in the library. right? just making sure. when you think about a community in transition, like ours, when you put it in context with the challenges we are having, today is symbolic. today is the day that we break

ground, to plant a new seed that will bear fruit. that is exactly what a library does. it houses our culture, traditions, way of life, and it preserves it, and it preserves it for future generations so that they know where they are going and they will also remember where they come from. so when ms. saw the young women here dancing, paying damage -- homage to what i consider sacred land, it is fitting that we come here today. we also come with the knowledge in the reality that we are a community in transition. when you are in transition and growing, you are moving forward. it is important for us to remember continuity as we move forward and continue to build for our future. so with that, thank you to my colleague scott wiener. i also like to thank my colleagues that came to the

bayview, at the town hall meeting a couple of days ago. it is the city family that is going to help us move forward. i specifically want to thank the mayor. this is the man that is unabashed about his support. he is with us 100% of the way. his walk and talk are in unison. i hear him downtown at the chamber of commerce and when he is making presentations to the community. it is consistent, thoughtful, compassionate, and it is real. it is a real talk. he mentioned honoring some of the promises that were made in the past. now here is the day. it is coming. and we will usher in, collectively, as a community. we have in business leaders here to help us guide through this

transformation from point a to point b, and beyond. so with that, this is a positive day. we will continue to take this momentum and move forward and continue to build. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor. indeed, a positive day. i also want to take a moment to acknowledge the terrific support we have had a leading up to this groundbreaking. former supervisor sophie maxwell. she may be here later on today. she was fantastic to secure funds. supervisor cohen alluded to the support from other mr. supervisors. it is my pleasure to introduce supervisor scott wiener. [applause] >> thank you and congratulations to everyone on this amazing progress. all the three branch libraries

in my district were open before i took office, so i like to live vicariously through my colleagues to help celebrate something so important. in a time when we all get down on our city government for not doing as well as we want them to do, in terms of services, what our government has been able to do with renovating and opening libraries, helping to build communities in the neighborhoods is critical. i am optimistic for third street. this is a big part of moving this entire corridor forward. i also want to reiterate something the mayor said. i have the fortune of working with malia cohen. we sit on a land use committee together. she is a tenacious advocate for district 10. she is doing a great job and i am proud to call for my colleague. congratulations, everyone.

[applause] >> thank you. my next introduction is someone bittersweet. i know mark leno already did knowledge then risk and -- ed riskin. it is dpw's loss, but it will be mta's game. i know that i will be able to call on him for ongoing report -- support. so with that, it is my pleasure to introduce ed riskin. [applause] >> thank you. it has been a long time coming. the people in the bayview hunters point has it been patient as this project has taken its course. we are delighted to be here today to celebrate a great neck step in this project. the department of public works has the pleasure of working with the library management and commission, and with the

community to help envision what the library is that they want. once that is done, our job is to get it done and to work with all the people to get it designed, built, stalked, staff, and opened. this is where the rubber really hits the road for us. we have been engaged in this project for a long time, but now we need to make sure that you will get a library that you want and deserve. in doing so, it takes -- to use a corny cliches -- it takes a village to build a library. it takes a lot of people to come together to make a project like this happen. our commitment to you is to build a library that you want, that is safe and secure, that is inviting, functional, modern. a place that you want to be. a place where you want your kids to be. and that will be done on every

hand library that we work on in this city. additionally, what we want to do -- and this is that the direction of the mayor and supervisors, former supervisors, and the community, we want to leave a legacy of not only a beautiful library, but of opportunity. that opportunity is in the form of business, for small businesses in this neighborhood, jobs for people in this neighborhood. so not only do we get out of this at the end of the day a great library but we did people who have been put to work who have built their skills. we did businesses that have grown at as a part of this process, and we are working extremely hard to make sure that we not only did a great library built, but that local businesses, local residents -- and i mean very local residences -- getting the benefit of the library being built. that is a very important

commitment of hours. we will continue to do everything we can to make that happen. there are a number of people in the village that i would like to thank. so many that i had to write them down. first of all, the people that work with the community to come up with the design that you ultimately approved. we have caring and maria from the architecture design company. [applause] it will be a beautiful library. the mayor already made reference to these guys, but we went through a competitive process to find the very best folks we could find to build this library. we are very fortunate that the winners that emerged from that process or bayview kck

contractors. freddie carter is not only the vice-president, superintendent on this job, he was our first local higher on this job. he is -- this is his local library. i will not tell you what his address is, but he can walk home after this is done. if anybody is going to get this library done right, with people from the bayview benefiting from it, it is going to be freddie carter. what we did is rather than award one big contract that other folks could be competitive for, we broken up into a lot of pieces so that we could maximize opportunity for local business. we have a large number of local businesses. i think we already have tens subcontractors from the bayview who are going to be working on this project.

one of them already started and cleared the space here. we want to give a shout to oliver transbay. another great firm benefiting from your tax dollars. derek has been making sure that we do the out reach so that we do not miss an opportunity for companies to participate. and then we are working with our partners within the government. one of the mayor's former departments, romulus, has been working with us. we have odierno rodriguez, ken, and others making sure that we maximize opportunities. one of their big partners when they're working in this neighborhood is abu. we are working closely with

them. i want to give a shout out to them. we want to see more local residents getting work. [applause] and then the rest is up to us, dpw, working with the library. the guy that will be working day to day with freddie, our resident engineer, garland wong. he will be living here and will not sleep until this library is done. he is supported by several wonderful people. lina chen is managing all of these projects. [applause] i also wanted knowledge of our other local hire, deputy director, muhammed nuru. always working for the baby. we are honored to be able to work on this for our community,

who is so deserving and has been so patient. we are going to get people to work in the process and we are all going to be very happy here at the ribbon cutting and a little bit over by year. [applause] >> i think you can all see a pattern. this is all about local ownership. thank you for making this happen. i want to acknowledge and invite to the podium the leader of our library commission. no one demonstrates leadership better than jule gomez. [applause] >> thank you. it is my honor to serve the citizens of the city as the head of the library commission. i got lost on my way here. i asked two people. you ask one person and then you have to ask the second person to make sure the first person knew what they were saying.

everyone knew where the library was. i took a wrong turn on silver and they set me in the right direction. that says something about the community. people know where the library is. this community has suffered a lot of loss, feeling a lot of sadness. but this is all so a very full community. it is full of families, full of pride, full of hope. it is very full of possibility for what will happen in the future. and you are going to need a lot of community togetherness to get to that future. in the beginning was the word. the library will have the words you will ever need. come on down when it opens.

[applause] >> thank you so much. also, michael brier, thank you for joining us. we're almost there, folks. but we have an important person i want to invite to the podium. the friends of the library to an amazing job of raising funds at the community level to ensure all of the furniture, technology, and everything else is in place. let's give a round of applause to the executive director of friends of the library. donna? [applause] >> good morning, everyone. so pleased to be here. not only not but last me -- not but -- last and not least, but last but most important. this community has done such a beautiful job envisioning this library, what is important, how

it needs to work into the priorities of their community. i want to thank all of these kids in the red t-shirts. [applause] they are here, exemplifying why the rest of us are here. we are so excited to see the day when you come rushing in and pick up those brand new books off the shelves. it will be a great day. so many of you have participated and given your wisdom and vision. we want to thank everyone of you. we have a great committee working on this project. you may know that we are raising money to provide all of the furnishings, the things that feel -- fill the building to make it feel like home. so i would like to ask all of you who participated, who are part of the committee, who have been helping us along with the vision, to raise your hand so

that people can know. thank you. [applause] i want to encourage everyone, it is not too late to be part of this. when we are back here cutting the ribbon in one year, we want to be able to have everyone feel like they were part of this, that they had a hand in it. many of those folks can let in know how to participate. i want to recognize a couple of local businesses that have helped. lowe's and brought over a carpet so that our young ladies could do some dancing. one of the great part of being in this part of the city is wendy's cheesecake. before you go, make sure you get a wonderful slice of that delicious cheesecake.

come on in and join us. we will all be celebrating again soon. [applause] >> thank you, donna. guess what, folks? we are almost there. i also want to point out this is multi generational. thank you, mrs. fuller, who is seated right here in front. she is the wife of the late mr. fuller, from the pharmacy here in the bayview. talk about wanting to see this come to fruition. thank you for being here today. also a shout out to the footprints, the community organization. thank you for your engagements and involvement in making this happen. here we are. we are going to ask the dignitaries to grab a shovel. we are going to have a countdown and then we will get this done.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [applause] >> in this fabulously beautiful

persidio national park and near golden gate and running like a scar is this ugly highway. that was built in 1936 at the same time as the bridge and at that time the presidio was an army and they didn't want civilians on their turf. and the road was built high. >> we need access and you have a 70 year-old facility that's inadequate for today's transportation needs. and in addition to that, you have the problem that it wasn't for site extenders. >> the rating for the high

viaduct is a higher rating than that collapsed. and it was sapped quite a while before used and it was rusty before installed. >> a state highway through a federal national park connecting an independently managed bridge to city streets. this is a prescription for complication. >> it became clear unless there was one catalyst organization that took it on as a challenge, it wouldn't happen and we did that and for people to advocate. and the project has a structural rating of 2 out of 100. >> you can see the rusting reinforcing in the concrete when you look at the edges now.

the deck has steel reinforcing that's corroded and lost 2/3's of its strength. >> this was accelerated in 1989 when the earthquake hit and cal came in and strengthened but can't bring to standards. to fix this road will cost more than to replace. and for the last 18 years, we have been working on a design to replace the road way, but to do in a way that makes it appropriate to be in a national park and not army post. >> i would say it's one of the most ugly structure, and it's a barrier between the mar sh and

presidio. and this is a place and i brought my dogs and grandchildren and had a picnic lunch and it was memorable to use them when we come here. what would it look like when the design and development is completed. and we are not sure we want an eight lane highway going through this town. and it's a beautiful area in a national seaport area on the planet. >> the road is going to be so different. it's really a park way, and it's a parkway through the national park. and they make the road disapeer

to the national park. >> and the road is about 20 feet lower, normally midday, you go through it in two minutes. looking back from the golden gate bridge to presidio, you are more aware of the park land and less of the roads. and the viaduct will parallel the existing one and to the south and can be built while the existing one remains in operation. and the two bridges there with open space between them and your views constantly change and not aware of the traffic in the opposite direction and notice the views more. and the lanes of course are a foot wider than they are today. and they will be shoulders and if your car is disabled, you can pull off to the edge. and the next area, the tunnel

portal will have a view centered on the palace of fine arts and as you come out, you can see alkatrez island and bay. and the next area is about 1,000 feet long. and when you come into one, you can see through the other end. it's almost like driving through a building than through a tunnel. and noise from the roadway will be sheltered. and the traffic will be out of view. >> when you come out of the last sort tunnel and as you look forward, you see the golden dome of the palace of fine arts and what more perfect way to come to san francisco through that gateway. >> it will be an amazing

transformation. now you read it as one section, the road is a major barrier and then a wonderful strip along the water. all of those things are going to mesh together. >> right now the road really cuts off this area from public access. and with the new road, we will be able to open up the opportunity in a new way. >> this bunker that we see now is out of access for the general public. we are excited to completely rework this side and to open up the magnificent views. and what we want to do is add to this wonderful amenity and restore this coastal bluff area and respect its military

history and the doyle drive project is allowing us to do that recorrection. and this area is not splintered off. >> and we can see how dramatic a change it will be when doyle drive is suppressd and you have a cover that connects the cemetery to this project. it's historic on the statewide and national basis, but you could rush the project or put thought and time to create something of lasting public benefit. >> we really want this, for everyone to feel like it's a win situation. whether you are a neighbor that lives nearby or a commuter or user of the park. that everyone will experience a much better situation than they currently have. >> the human interest to me is

how people could work out so many challenging differences to come to a design that we believe will give us a jewel. landmark of a place. >> i am sure it will have refining effect like embark did. and there were people about that and no one would think of that today. and when you look at growth and transformation of the embark, the same with doyle. it will be a cherished part of the city and a worthy addition to what is there. >> it will be a safe and beautiful entrance to a spectacular beautiful city. it will be the entry to golden gate that san francisco deserves.