>> i am not a big speech-maker, but i relish the idea of coming here today to share with you a very special graduation. i want to begin by saying it has been a wonderful, exciting time being the mayor of san francisco for these first seven months. i have had the privilege of working with the chief and his wonderful staff and the fire

commissioners. i know they're here to celebrate this unique opportunity. we're joined by supervisor carmen chiu. the last time there was a firefighters graduation class was 2005. it has been a long time. i understand that over 5000 people applied for these positions. those 5000 people along with you know that these jobs are precious, meaningful to our city, and hard-bofought jobs. i am here to congratulate those of you who have been part of this class. i want to recognize and thank the trainers. each and everyone of you have now departed and in printed --

imprinted on these recruits, skill, attitude, commitment. i want to thank you for the professional hand-off in training. i know that is not easy to do. i want to say to your recruits that you are joining a world- class department. i know that having been part of the city for 22 years. i know that right after this event, you will be sent to your fire houses and engine companies. but for a moment right now, and visualize that you are joining a world-class department, a department that has served the city so well and has its own history. it is a department has provided

the city with its own heroes. i want to congratulate you for working really hard getting to this point. i know that you come from so many diverse backgrounds and disciplines. i understand there is a bartender among you. there is an accountant. there are people who worked in 911, people from all walks of life. now you get to work as a team. you have gone through this 14 weeks of rigorous training so that you can be part of a world- class firefighting team call the san francisco fire department. i also want to let you know that you are also joining me and 26,000 other people who serve the city well. you are part of delivering a world-class city of services.

whether or not he will be jumping into a fire, rescuing a cat from a tree, or maybe being with me when disaster hits the city, i want you to know that you have my personal appreciation as you begin your careers. every day on the job, we serve the public and do the best the weekend. everything you do by way of sacrifice is worth it all for this great city of san francisco. no they will be backed up by this mayor and administration, -- know that you will be backed up by this mayor and administration and board of supervisors. your friends, family, the residents of san francisco hold you number one in the

appreciation that we have and the wealth -- love of the city family. you are joining a great department. we want to make sure we do our best. you are joining a world-class department of firefighters, paramedics, and all the other wonderful things that we do. i want to impart that i am personally appreciative of the sacrifices you have made thus far. i will also appreciate everything you do from here on. i will do my best to continue leading this city and making sure we recognize all of the contributions made. we want to keep this city family close so that we can depend on

each other whenever we have times of need. i want to signal to the public and your families that this is a day we want to remember as one where we celebrate your entry to this department, how you got here, all of the sacrifices, and make sure that you know that you are serving the best city in the world. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. [applause] >> good morning. thank you all for coming today. this is a beautiful looking group of people. give them a hand. they have been through so much

in this training facility. i am so happy to be here today. it has been a long time coming. i am hoping we can make this an annual thing where we are bringing on even more firefighters for this great city. we have people retiring, leaving the department in large numbers. we are truly going to need them and more to come. i am hoping that is something we can start talking about. this is such an amazing city. every single day when you hear the fire trucks and see the firefighters saving lives, i cannot be more proud to be a fire commissioner then i am when i see this great department saving lives. you are coming into a wonderful department. there are people here representing the department whether you are in or out of uniform, you are always a

representative of this great city. i am so proud to be here on behalf of the commissioners who are here and those who cannot be here. we're here to serve and work with the city. we are here for you. thank you so much for being part of this great department. we're looking forward to meeting you and working with you in the future. [applause] >> thank you, fire commissioner. the chief of the department, joanne hayes-white, would now like to say a few words. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. welcome to our beautiful division of training 21 years ago, i sat in those seats and was a proud member of the 1978

recruit class. we're here to celebrate your hard work and successful completion of the rigorous 14- week recruit academy. this the first recruit academy we've had in nearly six years. you now have the skills and ability to enter the field on your assignments and provide firefighting and emergency medical services to our community to fulfil our mission. i remember your first day here on may 2, 2011. i spoke about the importance of teamwork, getting to know one another, and working together to build on strengths to help those who might be struggling. teamwork serve you well throughout our careers. your ability to do that and be successful has paid off. the staff at the division of trading has provided you with an excellent foundation -- at the division of training has

provided you with an excellent foundation. each day, you will gain new insights and experiences you will carry with you throughout your career. hopefully someday you will train other firefighters like yourselves today. whether it is responding to restructure fire, medical,, making a presentation to the community, you are now part of the official san francisco fire department family. i am very proud of each and everyone of you. [applause] the profession you have entered is more than just a job. it is a vocation. it is an honorable and noble vocation. there are tremendous rewards and satisfaction that go along with a career in the san francisco fire department. along with this comes great risk and responsibility. as firefighters and medical

service providers, we put our lives on the line daily to carry out a very important mission. this is painfully present in our minds with the tragic loss of firefighters in june, heroes who made the old and sacrifice in fulfilling the mission of the san francisco fire department. i know vince and tony are looking down and giving you the thumbs up today. you are to be commended for the work over the last 14 weeks. you have formed a strong team. the bond will always be with you. each and every member of the class i graduated with is a lifelong friend because of the experience, bond, and teamwork reform here at the division of training many years ago. i encourage you to continue those relationships as you move

into the field. always challenge yourself. be a sponge when it comes to learning and knowledge. ask a lot of questions. treat everyone the same way that you would want every member of your family to be treated each and every day, even when you have been up for hours and hours. always wear the uniform with pride as you are today. nothing is worth doing unless you do it 100% all the time. i am proud of the diverse makeup of our class. it truly reflects the community we are serving. all of you came very well- prepared. you were all emergency medical technicians. this is the first time we have had a class that we made that a requirement. it is great to have real estate appraisers, people who have worked in construction, personal

trainers, people will have worked retail, 911 dispatchers. that is all important. each of you bring something to the team. i am also proud that collectively, there are many languages that you speak in addition to english. we have speakers fluent in spanish, cantonese, italian, french, russian, and vietnamese. all of that is value added for an employee of the san francisco fire department to serve our diverse city. many of you have advanced or bachelor's degrees. with history majors, sociology, i.t., psychology, civil engineering. all that is impressive and important as you build a team and contribute to the san francisco fire department. to the family and friends of our recruits, thank you very much. it has been a sacrifice for the

recruits and family members. it has not been an easy 14 weeks. you will find that there will be missed holidays because they are serving the city. we're so proud to have them. we're thankful to you for your continued support throughout their careers. i will also like to acknowledge the division of training staff. it is challenging and rewarding. it was one of my favorite positions. we're able to impart our knowledge and experience and make our imprint on the new recruits. under the direction of frank costa, they are all to be commended for the work in building the foundation upon which the class will continue to

grow. we have many new faces. we had some tiretirements last month. i could not do my job without a good team of people to work with. i would like to acknowledge each and everyone of you chiefs recommend -- representing the department today. i want to thank the commissioners for your support. we're very proud to work with the commission that challenges us, works with us, and expects us to be our best. we appreciate your presence today. of like to acknowledge local 798. thank you for continuing to advocate for our department, to give the recruits over our class working. supervisor chiu, i would like

technology. -- i would like to acknowledge you. i really appreciate your presence and support of the san francisco fire department. the supervisor was chair of the budget committee. it was not an easy task. we appreciate her diligence in that role and how she understands the importance of continued funding for public safety. last but not least, to mayor lee. he is -- i am proud to be achieved for almost eight years. i am so proud to be working under the direction of mayor lee. he is a colleague and friend.

i am so proud he is with us in good times like promotional ceremonies and graduations and in difficult times like in june with a loss of vincent and tony. thank you so much for being here. i will be back to give you your oath of allegiance to officially welcome you into the department. i look forward to seeing you grow. congratulations. you have our support 100%. all i ask is that you give your 100% each and every day you come to work. [applause] ♪

>> this is where it techs started and this is where we lead from. it is with great pleasure of publicly announce -- i publicly announce the expansion into an additional 50,000 square feet of offices. [applause] we have quickly proven our ability to build a thriving and profitable ecosystem of some of the best tech startups in the world. these are our next generation of

stars. this will be the center of epicness in san francisco, the place for tech entrepreneurs to build their dream with the support that san francisco has to offer. i was greatly encouraged when the mayor came to meet the company's. it would appear in the industry -- any industry is in need of support and lack of disruption. your support shows needed political support for the technology industry in san francisco. thank you for that. ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce our mayor, ed lee. [applause]

>> thank you. congratulations. it is a wonderful building you have here. it is more than just a building. this building houses some of the smartest people you could find in technology. that is what san francisco is trying to do. we're trying to attract the best talent in the world to come here. whether it is from u.s., canada, or spain, the companies are coming here because they know where the talent is to be found. this is a tech-friendly city that will do everything it can to support technology growth because the real challenge is our future. we're still very strong as a city in tourism from all over

the world. we will continue being strong in that because of our natural beauty, the commission of tourism and travel. there is another reason why people are coming to this city. a lot of other cities have build them in terms of creating jobs and having a stable economic foundation upon which to grow. for me, that is what i have been all about in my administration. what began with a conversation earlier this year with a company called twitter about their needs have us sit down with them. i went to their offices. i chatted with their seceo and cfo. the managers left the room and

let me speak to the engineers, people such as yourselves. i asked what they really needed to stay here. they said they loved the diversity and culture. they wanted more biplanes -- bike lanes and infrastructure to support their lifestyle. they wanted help with the challenging payroll tax. they gave me input at the engineering level and from the management level. we went on to make a pretty historic decision to make sure a company like twitter would grow from 250 people to the expected up to 3000 people in the next two and a half years.

that is the vision we shared at that moment. it is beginning to happen. it is the same thing with zynga. we were one of the only cities taxing stock options. we dealt with that. we have been demonstrating we want technology companies to grow. this is the innovation ecosystem we want to create. we will do everything possible here. as duncan announced earlier, a rocket space is one of a number of technology companies locating here. over 4.5 million space of office -- over 4.5 million feet

of office space has been leased this year. of that 4.6 million square feet, 1.6 million square feet have been leased by technology companies. tech leasing has become our basic business in san francisco. it is the bundling of services that come with the space. it is the smart way of doing things. if cities are going to survive, they have to be smarter about it. they have to reach out to new technology. i have to keep changing government to make sure we are business-friendly and doing smart things. rocket space has an earthquake-safe building. then you start seeing the

technology businesses. everybody is innovating in this building. they are innovating with great ideas. whether it is travel, financial , were just better ways of doing business all over the place, we have so much innovation going on. i have gotten innovated and inspired. i am happy to be here and congratulate you for a great offering of this building and the expansion that is coming on. i want to thank all of the ceo's for the innovation you are bringing to san francisco. my next visit is going to be in the bayview. tre