>> [applause] it is a wonderful day touk% here. when we do these kinds of programs, we have to have folks that will take care of them. the neighborhood taking care of it is important to us. stunning to see all of this cooperation. as we rebuild our water system in san francisco, we cannot just build bigger treatment plants. we need permeable pavement. 400,000 gallons of water a year will be going into the ground, as opposed to the treatment plants. if we can do that, we can provide water, provide a good environment, as well as provide good water for the people of this city. [applause] >> as the other speakers have indicated, this could not have happened without the leadership and direction from the residence on this block.

speaking on behalf of the residence, sandy. [applause] >> i am also bringing the core that is important to this project. members of the newcomb avenue block have done a great job and we want to clear up some misconceptions about what happens here. i have been a resident in the bayview for 25 years. i have been here a very long time. very few have preceded me. this project originated with redevelopment. redevelopment a star and our eyes, and we were wondering if they could ever came out. they came out with this project, and it was their idea to help redevelop our street. with the neighbors on the spot,

we were able to win the award. with all the neighbors, and redevelopment, -- and i also want to thank one whirled designed -- this project came to light. we were able to get it on paper, and from there, it went to reality, with the help of the other departments. i also wanted knowledge the core members of the group that worked on this project. mardina, nimichelle, juan fuent, anna smith. we met with various residents on the block, at my house, month after month, to make this project work. there is so much love that goes out to redevelopment again, for all of the effort we put forth. it took six years to do this.

some people said that it would never happen. in my heart and soul, i knew we were going to get this done. today is the day, as sunny as it is, you can see the wonderful and beautiful result of all the neighbors that have backed us through all of this, as well as the other departments who have helped us out. we want to thank you. this community built this block and it is a tight neighborhood now. we not only what can pick up litter with each other, we go into each other's homes, each dinner, drinks, have a great time. we have now become a family. thanks again for those that burn able to see this to be able to come through. [applause] and i want to thank the

residence. this block has been torn up for a long time, especially since we found the main sewer line needed repair. the residents have endured with little complaint, having to work around dirt, pot holes, trenches, without a little complaining, and we were able to get through this whole thing. thank you. now we are going to learn how to take care of it. you will not see cigarette butts in the planters. no litter on the ground. thank you caughto everybody. i want to introduce juan fuentes now who will talk about the things that you do not see. >> i am a resident here. my wife and kids have been here, over 25 years. i am an artist.

one of the things that the model block has done, we talked about how it has put us closer together as a family. it has empowered us, as a community, to rebuild our block. i have been bargaining with ann -- our houses are side-by-side, so i have been doing a vegetable garden in her garden. i started out with 1 barrel that mardina gave me, from the puc, they gave me a 55-gallon drum. i now have over a dozen drums, 250-gallon drums. i collect over 1,000 gallons of water that i harvest from the rain. this summer, i watered my whole garden with the water from the rain harvest.

that is another thing that has happened. i have also watered ann's garden with that same water. another thing -- karen is not here. she is in that nice, gray house. she has been an advocate, working with the environmental things in this community. she was one of the people responsible for pg&e getting us some solar panels, the phillips solar panels. we have solar panels, mardina, ann has solar power. it has cut our energy costs down. the other thing we are trying to emphasize in our blood, in our community, to the young people, to respect the block and to keep it clean, and to learn how to

recycle. we have green, blue, and black bins. we need to figure where everything goes because it is part of saving our environment. thank you for coming out. [applause] >> thank you. as juan indicated, this newcomb greeting project shows how community involvement and empowerment go hand-in-hand. there are a large number of redevelop the staff who are here. perhaps it show your hand if you were involved in this. the project manager, along with many others. as well as the staff of other departments, thank you very much. we appreciate it. [applause] with that, let us get to the

ribbon-cutting. >> ready? 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [applause] >> thank you all for coming. please stick around for some sweets.

>> let me start out by saying, from the get go, last night, i was talking personally with pg&e. we continued the discussion this morning. before coming here, i had a chance to speak to the ceo. we agreed, all the engineers, from his division, with the city's public utilities commission, rec and park, as well as the california public utilities commission, are all coming together to review the outages that occurred last

night. there were two outages. the first one appeared. we are going to get the confirmation this afternoon. it appears from this morning's conversation, it resulted from a down the wire -- downed wire that was providing power to the stadium. the secondary power outage occurred as a result of bringing the power back up and using secondary circuits. that is still under investigation, as to what caused the second outage. obviously, the city was embarrassed. we apologize to the 49ers for this happening. the primary thing that we did, though, that we did well, we declared public safety the most important thing. and i need to thank all of that and that were at candlestick last night.

they were very good at keeping themselves calm. police and fire at candlestick was excellent. we got information out to everyone in the stands through the various radiofrequency is made available to the security, including officers, rec and park staff. in a matter of seconds, those that did not understand what was going on, who may have initially thought it was a surprise is that that was going to occur, they were informed to remain calm. no evacuations were called, but we immediately went into planning mode, in case that was necessary. everything was safe, and that was the number one concern. having said that, obviously, we all experienced a national embarrassment for this

happening. we were on the phones last evening, during and after the game, and this morning, to make sure that this does not happen again. we expect another playoff game in january. the failed splice line has already been repaired by pg&e, but we will be going through protocols with them, with the public utilities commission, and our staff, to make sure we cover every base to make sure this does not happen again for the foreseeable future, for all of the playoff games that may occur. we want to make sure that all the 49ers play are successful, as the result indicated, but also successful for the fans, so there is no interruption. we are doing a full investigation, having all of the engineers compare notes, and the offices of the puc and our

public utilities commission. we are getting some cooperative oversight from everyone, california puc as well. there is cooperation and every point. we are not blaming anybody for this accident that occurred, but we are all going to make sure that this does not occur again. we are all on the same page. i lead that effort, talking to the ceo of pg&e this morning. >> [inaudible] >> we are going to go through that. there were some bomb threats that were well-handled yesterday by the police department, but there was no indication, right anything other than an accident. we will continue to compare notes with everybody to determine whether or not there were any external events that would have caused this. so far, we do not have any

information that suggests this would have been tempered by anyone. that is with the concurrence of our police and fire chief as well. >> [inaudible] >> again, this was an electrical service to the stadium that failed. our offer is separate, to build a brand new stadium, along with santa clara, with new linkages to power, and new lights. these lights take some time, when the power goes out, to re- fuse. the newer lights, which we would have in our stadium, it is given the opportunity, would be instant. it is a separate issue. >> [inaudible] :xb 4ro>> you will have to talk. york about that.

we have a strong plan b to build a stadium for them. if you look and other new stadiums across the nation, especially in major league baseball, even new stadiums having challenges as well. they are separate issues. >> [inaudible] a city-own a switch that failed. do you know anything about that? >> i spoke to city officials. they confirm that the original of which was a failure of their line, what they call a splice failure. that was evidenced by the recorded arching. we thought it was a transformer explosion. it was not. it was up main feeding circuit line that pg&e owns that somehow

failed. they confirmed for us this morning that the original outage was due to that splice failure. how the outage occurred is under investigation. pg&e, our own puc, sfpuc, along with others, are going to confirm that as well, by our own engineers working coope>> [inau] >> i have faith in everyone doing the best job they can. i have faith, going forward, that we are going to work in a deliberate fashion to make sure that this does not happen. our city has systems that have been here for a long time. i was sad and embarrassed to have this happen on the night of our only monday night football game. everything was on the line. i am very glad we won.

i am going to support the 49ers by doing the best job i can as mayor to make sure going forward everything is respected, additional particles are in place -- protocols are in place to guarantee this will not happen again. i think we have everyone on the same page ensuring this does not happen again. it should not happen. we do not want it to happen. yes, i was. the 49ers will talk about thiat this afternoon, about plans to increase cell phone use of the park. i was concerned for the fans. public safety is our number one

concern. the police department, fire department, recreation and parks, alongside the 49ers security, they all acted well. everyone was safe. then the communications with pg&e engineers were occurring all night long into the early hours. we started this morning to make sure everyone was working together. my apologies to the nfl and 49ers. i know they joked about it and took in good spirits and were prepared to go forward. that is what professional athletes do. that is what the business of football is. we will make sure this does not happen again. i assure you we will be on top of this to make sure it does not happen.

i am sorry. >> [inaudible] >> this has to do with cell phones. some fans the return to communicate inside and al felt challenges. i had challenges of my own when i was at the stadium trying to get out. that is what i meant about communications that could be increased. i know the 49ers are working on that with us. they will make some announcements on that. that will be this afternoon. >> [inaudible] >> i keep this hat with me in the car. i am a big 49ers ban. i want to make sure the 49ers have a successful season, are into the playoffs. they're well on their way to the super bowl. i will make sure they have every

game successful as much as i can. thank you very much. ++ >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you for coming out this afternoon. we're very excited to be here today with the mayor to announce the completion of the central market economic strategy and to launch the community ambassador program on market street. i am the director of the mayor's office of economic and workforce development though it is under mayor lee's leadership that, for the past 10 months, we

have been working through a community-based process to create an economic strategy for this corridor of central market street to help revitalize and stabilize this community. as a result of many, many community meetings, business surveys, resident service, focus groups, talking to a broad range of stakeholders, we now have a road map for how to stabilize and revitalize the market street. while much good work has already been done over the last 10 months, we now have a document that will help guide efforts to come. without further ado i am going to introduce the mayor and let him talk about some of those initiatives. the mayor. [applause] >> thank you very much. and to our united nations plaza, also home of our off the grid food truck every thursday here, as well as our arts festival here as well. these are two examples of how we

have reactivated united nations plaza. it has been a plaza that i remember for a very long time, and know my good friend who is now heading up public works, he and i spent many occasions here, as we become a cleaning, brushing, and reece leading. we know that the secret is to activate our committee, activate other people to come and help us with good positive activation spiller that is what our arts festival here is doing. that is what our of the grid food market is doing as well. as you all know, i have been actually spending my second home here along market street for about the last three months. specifically at 6th and market street. i have had the pleasure of really knowing, snelling, thinking, and hearing all this sounds of our central market and paying attention to every detail of what we need to do.

and talking with all of the residents, the social service organizations, the arts organizations that have come here to help us, and the new businesses that have joined us. we all need to work together. i am is so enthusiastic about the fact that we have a very active community benefits district. we have a great merchants association that has formed. we have a very active redevelopment agency that really has gone beyond what their decades ago reputation is, working with the city very closely, working with all of the agencies to help us revitalize this whole neighborhood, and particularly, this midmarket corridor. you all know that what we have done with the board of supervisors and the mayor in terms of our relationship with the technology companies and the new businesses, through the leadership of the office of

economic and workforce development, we have made a solid step to make sure that businesses are welcome here at the central market. at the same time, we need to do more. that is why we worked hard with the redevelopment agency, with all the different nonprofits, the community residents, to work hard to put together strategic and not -- economic development plan that serves as a roadmap for what we need to pay attention to and how we need to do that. i want to say to you, and will continue repeating this, it is not just physical improvements that you will appreciate on this corridor. it will also be a transformation of lives, of people who have been here for years and decades, asking for the city's attention. people who are living in the sro's north and south of market street. people who have wanted a grocery store, wanted more museums,

wanted just the simple vitality of the city reflected in the middle of their neighborhood. we want to bring that in the way in which it is sensitive, a way in which we're going to have a very equitable development and of limitation of this plan. i invite you to study this strategy. i invite you to look closely at how we're going to be asking the city and our own government to fund it, to make sure we encourage funding for it. the financial institutions as well as the company's and nonprofits and the grand foundations. all of them will be participating at many different levels, along with private investment. the resurgence of this is to really encourage the investment confidence that this is a really great place to invest. with those investments, you're probably see right off the bat some sort of employment and training model, because i think

that is what everybody told me as i was running for this great office in this great city. please develop the jobs. that is what gets us into this announcement today. because behind me, these very bright yellow packets, is our ambassadors, our midmarket, central market ambassadors that i want to introduce you to today. as you know, over a year ago, when i was city administrator, we had to respond to some levels of violence along third street and in visitation area. so we responded with the help of the board of supervisors, with then-mayor gavin newsom, and with a number of social groups and crime fighting groups with our youth groups all over, to say that maybe we can do is something different here, something special. we came up with this idea, and hit has resonated in visitation valley and among third street

with these ambassadors. these -- they live in our city. they want our city to succeed, want to work with the agencies, and are trained by our police department's own academy, and now they will be introduced to the beat cops and all the other players that have been here intending to help revitalize. there will be introduced to the new small businesses, like huckleberry bikes, show dogs, like the incoming, moving in, dottie's cafe. these are names of companies you are already committed or are already here on market street to these ambassadors will be here on a daily basis, beginning at 11:00 a.m., and it will go all the way through 8:00 p.m., different shifts. they will be working with people who live here and work here, and they will be an additional eyes and ears not only looking out

for the people who work and live here, but helping to provide basic information about where things are at, about who to contact, and they also have emergency cell phones on them that are provided by at&t for free, so in case they need some backup, they have that instantaneously. they have all been trained to do that. most importantly, i have emphasized their title. they are community ambassadors, the best of the best. they came through our dpw corridor training program. they have, like me, swept our streets, picked up everything there was to pick up. now they get to have this opportunity to be employed on a full-time basis. they get to work with adrian, who has been our civic engagement director through the city administrator's office. she put together the program at the first of last year, a year ago. and her staff is also not only

improved on that program, i also want to thank the redevelopment agency. i want to thank the arts commission. tiffany is here, those from the redevelopment agency. the arts institute, byron chung is here, he has been a great supporter. kurt is here. shannon is with farm table. that is another great new entity that is coming on market street. coerce, mohammed as -- of course mohammed as i mentioned earlier. zandesky is here as well. all of the arts organizations, whoer going to spend hours not only in the mornings, but