here and feel much safer. so those eyes and ears will be kind of what we feel is an escort, they'll watch folks, guide them. if somebody says hey, i have a bunch of groceries, i feel a little unsafe, it's a little dark during these winter months and they need maybe an escort to their cars or hopefully the bicycle racks or to where the ultimate park. i want to thank the community ambassadors because they know that working alongside our officers, they're community folks. they want their they're wrong folks that they live with feeling safe as well. they will be multi legal. multi-cultural. they will be extra sensitive. those announcements i want to make today along with the opening of pearl posted the luxembourgers, and hopefully, all of you will get a chance to have a burger if the lines are not too long.

when you get it, you can either each year or join all of us at the latin dance. it starts at noon. you can walk with the ambassadors all day long, too. they get a good work out as well. those are the things we are announcing today, but there is a lot of fights. these are just milestones of things that have been in place. i want to thank all of the residents who have been here. they continue to be patient. they see the changes coming along. they are with us on all those changes, and this transformation is real. it is one that i have personally committed to. i am going to be down here and tell everybody wants to be down here locates here. congratulations, everyone. thank you very much. [applause] >> as the mayor said, it certainly takes a village to do

the work we are doing, but it also requires leadership, and we are lucky to have the leadership of supervisor kim to help us. [applause] supervisor kim: thank you appeared almost exactly six months ago, the mayor, president chiu, and i stood across the street to announce the spirit we talk about a vision we had, which, as many of you know, mid market has suffered the highest commercial vacancy rate of any court or in san francisco for over 50 years. we talked about the hope we had for pearl's deluxe burger moving in across the street, the hope for twitter. six months later, we have a company that has already moved in across the street. this women of color-owned business has opened on the corner of sixth and market. three things our office has been concerned about.

one is public safety. we are happy to say that the sixth straight substation leases science. we have our community ambassador program, and we're working closely with community planning and development to but more crosswalks on sixth street. something residents have talked a long time about. how we make sixth street safer to cross. second is economic revitalization. we want to see businesses come to mid market. that is what market street corridor was created for. we are finally seeing some of it happening. some of it was policy we passed, but a lot of it is a real commitment the city has seen, and we have so many amazing community partners that have dedicated years before we came to this point to develop plans to bring people here. i want to thank redevelopment. the soma pac chair who is here.

it is amazing to see people talking about what we can do to revitalize this area. of course, i want to thank the mayor's office of economic workforce development. as urgent as the process is, they understand we need to listen to the community and neighborhoods that have already existed here to make sure their input is included in this revitalization effort. [applause] last is that this corridor does belong to the city of san francisco, but we have two historical neighborhoods here that surround it -- the tenderloin and the south of market. it is a community that has struggled but also has made a ton of achievements in this neighborhood without the support of the city. we want to continue to make sure that the changes we are making are for the city but also the residents that have been here a long time -- the families, the seniors, the youth. i know many of the senior members of market said that are clapping in the back were there

as well. i sought asian neighborhood design. central city sro collaborative. side david addington outside, urban solutions, so there are a lot of folks here. this is really an example of how many people have been part of this process to make market street work, and we are really excited to continue to work with everyone here to make this the street that everyone wants to see it. thank you. [applause] >> as supervisor kim said, central market does belong to the entire community. we have been blessed to have the commitment and energies of the board president helping us as well. [applause] supervisor chiu: good morning. anybody hundred? i know as an elected official not to get between people and

food, so i am going to be very brief. six years ago, i ran a technology company that was located half a block from here. my employees asked me to move from this neighborhood. the reason for that was they did not feel safe. second, we did not have a community of innovators and creative folks all around us, and third, we were getting tired of eating doughnuts and vietnamese food. so it is wonderful to be here as part of this mid-market community, moving our community forward. i am delighted to see all of these yellow jackets behind me. when there were issues of crime in the neighborhood, the city administrator and our head of our community affairs office -- we came together to think about this program, and it has been a great to see the work they have done in the southeast neighborhood, but you're sort particularly happy to see them here in south of market, so let's give a hand to our yellow

jackets who will be patrolling every night of the week. [applause] like other speakers today, i cannot believe that it was barely a year ago, jennifer, when you and i started conversations about what we could do to revitalize this area. the conversations are around quarter were just starting, and it took all of us coming together [inaudible] what we needed to do here. i have on my telephone a robocall that was put out to tens of thousands of san franciscans that was trying to explain to people why we should not invest in the mid market area. i want to thank all of you for coming together as a city, as a village to say that we are -- [inaudible] example of 21st century development in san francisco, of microphone systems that will work steadily, of making sure that we are bringing not just 21st century companies that

reflect the very best of innovation here in san francisco, not just the very best of creativity represented by an organization and theater organization, and [inaudible] but what are the diversity that is san francisco. i want to thank you for being part of that. thank you for working together. thank you for moving this city forward. thank you for being here, and let's get some burgers. [applause] >> we had a few more speakers that i think it is important to hear from here when we think about doing public safety in this challenging neighborhood that it has resisted a lot of changes over the years, we are incredibly lucky to have the leadership and the knowledge and long-term understanding of the police chief, and i would like to ask him to say a few words. [applause] >> i certainly do not want to take a lot of everybody's time

because i have ever on order. when i came to the police department, right across the street was the tenderloin section of the tender station, and that was might be. i can tell you that the area has changed so much over the last 30 years duty all the things the prior speakers spoke to. i wish there had been a burger place like this done because i would probably weigh about 30 more pounds. we are committed. we have signed the lease. there will be more officers. the neighborhood is changing daily. we are absolutely committed to making the mid-market corridor a safer place. i can tell you firsthand, having been a cop in a baby station, how critical the program was to our success in making the third street corridor a safer place. without further ado, i will give it back. cheers to sylvia and pearl's.

>> redevelopment efforts on sixth street have been intense for years. without redevelopment efforts, pearl's would not be here today, i think it is safe to say. like to recognize redevelopment and have tiffany, the director, say a few words. [applause] >> thank you, jennifer. the opening of pearl's here at the corner of sixth and market st. marks a major milestone as the mayor and our community partners have indicated. what was once a vacant and blighted corner is now this incredible, beautiful store where we can all enjoy burgers and then some. that history dates back many years. since 2003, the redevelopment and the city have invested in this area. more than 30 businesses and tenants, ranging from great community partners -- they are

all here due to our sixth street economic revitalization loan program. without the partnership of folks like urban solutions, and jenny mcnulty is here -- we would not have been able to achieve the success, even though we had the strong backing of our mayor and our chief. we are excited that this is just one of many great changes that are happening here, and we look forward to many more on sixth street. so thank you all for coming. [applause] >> i would like to invite adrian to say a few words about the community ambassador program and the commitment he made to expanding the program here at central market. >> thank you, everyone. i want to say that when the mayor comes to you and says, "please start a safety program and we do not have money and no resources to hire a new staff,

and you will just have to make it work" -- it is amazing. we got so much from the mayor's office, from the board of supervisors, and you see the result of our efforts. our community ambassadors program is a street smart safety program. not only do we keep the peace out in the streets, but we also educate the public. everyone deserves safe and clean streets, and that is including our employers, our businesses, our workers, our visitors, and every resident of san francisco. thank you so much. we look forward to working with our businesses and community in the area. [applause] >> i would also like to invite jenny to say a couple of words. we need private sector partners to help with technical assistance, and also give us a little kick in the pants.

>> this is a great day for central market. i would like to thank and acknowledge the staff of urban solutions and in particular, tracey were all the work she did to bring pearl's select burgers. they did everything from reaching out to the owners to tell them about the opportunity to handling the lease negotiations to helping secure financing and managing construction of the restaurants. sylvia ann young are amazing people and amazing business operators, and we are thrilled that they are here, and they have created 16 jobs with health insurance right here in the neighborhood. [applause] >> and by far the most important speaker today is

sylvia, and i would like to invite cilia to say a few words and said afterwards, we are going to do a ribbon cutting, so i would like to invite everyone to come outside, and we will come back in for burgers after soviet is done speaking. -- after sylvia is done speaking. >> i want to start by saying that we're particularly excited to be on this corner because i am a san francisco native and i grew up in the tenderloin and my aunt and uncle used to have efficient chips placed but he appeared my sister and i used to run this neighborhood all the time. for me being here, it is kind of like coming home. the project could not have been possible without the financial help from the mayor's office and the san francisco redevelopment agency. we are forever thankful for all of your help and for urban solutions, who held our hand through every step of the way and still continues to be a huge help to us here. finally, the community here. i cannot tell you how welcoming

sixth street and central market have been. everyone from the merchant and the neighbors -- we tried to have a soft open last week. had lines out the door. i just want to encourage other merchants out there to come on down. change is not going to happen here. it is here. it is happening now. if you take the risk, i tell you, you are going to have lines out the door. thank you, everyone, for coming today. [applause] them all right, everyone. outside.

>> it has been amazing. the people have been so gracious and so supportive of what we're doing. the energy here is fantastic with so many couples getting married. it's just been an absolutely fantastic experience, so wonderful. >> by the power vested in me, i

declare you spouses for life. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> to actually be able to get married and be a part of this time in history and time in our history is amazing. >> this is a momentous occasion for us to be able to actually have this opportunity to have equal rights. >> we have been together for 14 years. everyone is so welcoming. it's been all set up and people have guided us from step to step. it's been easy. there was live music. people are so friendly and excited. so excited for us. >> it's really great. >> yeah. >> and salvador is party a here to known as party a. >> on the out it looks pretty simple. you come in, you made your appointment. you pay. you go here for your license. you got there to get married.

you go there if you want to purchase a certified copy. behind the scenes, there was just this monumental just mountain of work, the details into everything that we had to do and we quickly realized that we were not ready to issue the numbers of licenses that people are anticipating that we would need to issue. we definitely did not want people waiting in long lines. this is somebody's wedding. you want to be able to plan and invite your family and friends. know what time you are able to get your marriage license, know what time you're going to have your ceremony. >> thanks for volunteering. >> we got city volunteers, we got members of the public volunteering. we had our regular volunteers volunteering. we had such an overwhelming

response from city employees, from the members of the general public that we had way more volunteers than we could ever have hoped for. we had to come up with a training program. i mean, there are different functions of this whole operation. you were either, you know a check-in person. you were a greeter. you were part of the license issuing unit. you were deputy marriage commissioner, or you were on the recording side. each one of those functions required a different set of skills, a different oath of office if they needed to be sworn in as a deputy county clerk to issue marriage licenses or as a deputy county recorder if they were going to register the marriage licenses or the deputy marriage commissioner if they were going to be performing ceremonies. >> donna, place the ring on her ring finger. >> the marriage commissioner training was only about a half hour. it was very simple. very well run, very smooth and then we were all sworn in.

>> they said we would get our scheduled sunday night and so 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, you know, i got it at 11:00. this person who was orchestrating all of the shifts and the volunteers and who does what, you know, said from her office sunday night at 11:00. they are just really helping each other. it's a wonderful atmosphere in that way. >> have you filled out an application? >> not yet. you want to do that. >> take this right over there. >> all right. >> take it tout counter when you're done. >> very good. >> congratulations, you guys. >> for those volunteers, what a gift for them as well as us that they would take up their time and contribute that time, but also that they would in return receive so much more back because they're part of the narrative of someone else's love and expression of love in life. >> this isn't anything that we had budgeted for, so it was basically we asked our i.t.

director to do the best you can, you know, belling, borrow, steal if you have to and get us what you need to do this. and he knew what the mission was. he knew what our goal was. and, you know, with our i.t. grids and our software vender, they really came together and pulled it together for us. it made it possible for us to be able to serve as many couples as we have been. >> so once you're ready, you and your husband to be or wife need to be need to check in here and check in again, ok. are you also going to get married today? >> yeah. >> let's process you one by one. do your license in, exit and re-enter again check in at that desk. >> our wedding is at 3:00. >> as long as we get you in today. >> we're getting married at 2:30. >> don't worry about the time line. we're greeting people at the doorway and either directing them to the services they need on this side which is licensing

or the services on this side which is actually getting the ceremony performed. >> this is an opportunity to choose to be a part of history. many times history happens to us, but in this case, you can choose to be a part of it. this is a very historic day and so i'm very, very proud to be here. >> i have been volunteering. last monday i performed 12 different marriage smones. the least amount of time that any of the couples that i married have been together is two years. most of the couples have been together eight, nine, 10, i'd say 70% have been together at least that long if not longer. >> there is a lot of misconception about who gay and lesbian people are. it's important that people see that we love our husbands and wives to be and love our children and have the right to have families just like

everyone else. >> it's important that we have experienced our own families, our own friends, and the excitement of the volunteers when we get here has made us feel wonderful and accepted and celebrated. >> there is a lot of city agencies, city departments, divisions that offer up their employees to help us out since overwhelming response, it's unbelievable at how city government works. this is the time that san francisco city employees have really outshined san francisco's clerk's office didn't need to hear from the mayor to say what's your plan. they offered a plan and said here is our strategy. here is what we can do. we can add all of these computers here and there. we can connect our databases, we can expand our capacity by x. we can open up early and stay late and stay open on the weekends. it's unbelievable.

we can coordinate all of the training for our volunteers and them in as deputy marriage commissioners and make sure it's signed and certified. that's an example and a model for others. this is -- what happens is when people prove that things can be done, it just raises the bar for what is possible for everyone else. >> it kind of went cooled plan and this is what we planned for. in some respects, people have kind of commented to me, oh, my god, you were a part of history and how many couples did we mary? how many families did we start? how many dreams did we make come true? the whole part of being part of history is something that we are here and we are charged with this responsibility to carry out.

[laughter] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> meeting called to order. >> roll-call. >> [takes roll]

>> item #2, the approval of the minutes of the september 27, 2011 meeting. >> so moved. >> second. >> item #3. public comment on executive session. is there a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> council >> we move that will not disclose anything discussed in closed session. >> so moved. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> item #six. please be advised that the ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers and similar sound

producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person responsible for the ringing of or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound producing electronic device. please be advised a member of the public has up to three minutes to make art and public comments on each agenda item. item number 7, the executive director's report. >> thank you so much with a great turnout today. i have a number of things, happy and sad, on the agenda today. first, i want to start out with terrific news about the port -- copra crane project. we have long had a goal of saving and refurbishing the copra crane. it is located between the third