>> want to thank you all for coming out on this beautiful san francisco winter day. we are delighted to be here in chinatown. thank you to all of you who came out. there's going to be some noise during this event. this is a very busy street. that's one of the reasons we are doing this project.

we are here today -- i am transportation director with the sfmta. thank you, boss. we're geared today to mark yet another important milestone and the steady, continued progress that we are making for the future generations of san francisco in this critically important project criticallyphase 2 of the light rail, otherwise known as the central subway. it is a project that is very important for building capacity, to move san francisco in the future. it also has benefits for current generations of san franciscans. the benefit comes in the form of jobs. you cannot mention the word jobs these days without thinking of our great mayor lee. out further ado, i want to ask mayor lee to come up and say a few words. mayor lee: thank you.

thank you for your great leadership. we would be dryer if the subway was built. we would be right here. i'm looking forward to it for the work that is about to happen. right behind me, you see this. i cannot be prouder of our mta. they're moving on this with the funding, with the schedule. they have been working hard with the neighborhood. we have the president of the chinese society here today. she has artist and a sense of old and new and it is reflected behind me. a vision of what the station will look like, and also the sense of history that this represents, only in transportation, but for this community. david represents the modern san francisco as the board president and also as a our supervisor in

this district. of course, clearly, the chinese- american supervisor for this district 3. very thankful to him. working with the chairman and making sure this continues to happen. we have some challenges with central subway. we have straighten them out. we step forward and continue to get really good news from our partners in the federal government. today, again, we earn the highest ranks with this central subway and all of the different federal and state agencies. right up to president obama's administration, to have set $150 million in his budget for this station, the central subway. that adds to the green light we

have gotten through the notice to proceed with the tunnel contract that is essential to this. today, the unveiling here. this will be geared towards the end of this year. you also need to know the little story behind this. how well our mta has been working with all the elements of the community. there's a little story here that i fit a lot of attention to, simply because my background is an attorney representing low- income tenants in chinatown. living above this building -- some eight small businesses that used to be in the front. while they're physically gone here, what does not go unnoticed is the way in which there was a solid communication with those businesses, those business

owners, the employees, those 19 households to get them to understand and agree that they had to temporarily relocate themselves. they have done that. they have done that without lawsuits, without protest, because we've taken care of their needs. i need to thank mta for this. we've had other projects in our city's history where the relationship with the impacted community was not as smooth. this is really to the credit of the whole mta family, working in concert with our community- based agencies, all these wonderful agencies that came together at a very early stage, identified resources that had to happen to make sure that the quality of life was going to be treated as importantly for people who are going to be displaced temporarily. we are going to find permanent homes for all of 19 households.

they are in temporary places right now. we have assured them and they trust us to find them permanent homes. we're going to do that. we've gotten temporary relocation for all the businesses. that is as important as announcing that we are forging ahead with a $235 million new subway station anin chinatown. then another station at union square and another at fourth. all part of a project that will be invaluable to connecting the whole city. i am here today to not only revealed the latest chapter, but to kind of congratulate everybody for doing it really well to this point in utilizing our federal relationships. i need to thank president obama, a minority house leader nancy

pelosi, senator boxer, all of our leaders who have been with us from the beginning. i'd like to say there's no stopping us now, but we have to get reviewed every step of the way. we are glad to do that. we've had the team together. we've done everything right. we are moving forward on it. the bid for the station is already on the street. there is a bidder's conference that will be held next week. the rest of the three stations that i just announced -- those bids go on throughout the year. i think every three months. every two months. we are on a very good pace to complete this. this is the moment i have been waiting for. i think this is the strongest indication. it gets stronger every time we are out here to announce it. today, it's about thanking the

community. they have never lost faith. i want to thank the board of trustees, the board of directors, the mta. thank you for your great leadership on this, as well. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mr. ma. yor. he has been a steadfast supporter of this from its inception. the board president who happens to represent this the district has also been a strong supporter of this project from the start. i want to remind folks that every single action that the board of supervisors has ever taken with respect to the central subway has been approved on an 11-0 vote. there's not a whole lot of things we could say sail through with that type of track record. it speaks to the city wide importance of the central subway. it brings very specific benefits and very specific

impacts to this neighborhood here. the board president and his role as district supervisor has been very focused on making sure that we do do the right thing, that we did the right thing in relocating tenants. i just want to acknowledge our real estate director, the city attorney's office, and our program manager. they all worked very hard to make that progress as smooth as possible in a way that meets the expectations that president chiu has set for us. without further ado, i want to invite our board president and district 3 supervisor, david chiu. >> i want to welcome you all to a warm day in san francisco. first of all, the mayor has thanked many of you who have been part of this tremendous effort. i want to thank ed l foee

for the work you have done. years ago, i served on the citizen advisory committee for the central subway. i remember having conversations with mayor lee when he was just a department head about the birth that we needed to do together. it is amazing and wonderful. i want to take a moment to say how excited i am because of my transit trip to get here. about 40 minutes ago, i rolled out on my bicycle and i put it away because of the rain. i then waited for a few minutes to try to catch a bus that did not come. i then waited for a few more minutes to catch a cab that did not come. i ended up walking about 16 blocks over the hills to get here today. i realized that if the central subway was in place, we'd have a much more dry and quick ride.

we know that when the central subway comes, rather than the 3 mile per hour trips that folks have to take down stockton street, we will be able to get here from all parts of the city much faster. we know that central subway will connect our communities all over the city, all over the bay area, not only bringing millions of tourists, but making sure our families will be able to be connected to folks who live here, not just in chinatown, but north beach, and fisherman's wharf. i know there have been a lot of thanks. i want to take a moment to thank the community partners that helped to make this happen. we spent a lot of time working with the residential tenants and the small business tenants who are here. thank you to ccdc and your advocates for working with the mta staff and others in making sure the transition will be a

smooth one. the reason we have this beautiful our work behind us is because of the work of the chinese historical society. thank you. i also want to thank the chinatown ymca. the young people helped to create the minerals. from left to right, it tells the journey from our past to our present and really to our future to a beautiful new structure that will be built. this structure is being billed with the generations of struggles and advocacy represented by all of us here and by the good work of the city, working with the private sector, working with our community. thank you for being here today. look forward to future announcements as we go to our milestones. thank you very much. >> thank you, president chiu. >> the other parts behind this project is the mta board. the maker referenced -- the

mayor referenced some of the work they have done. we have issued two notices to proceed. that is under way. next, the $235 million chinatown station the mta board has authorized us to advertise. that will be followed by another $600 million or so of construction projects, all of which will be awarded in this calendar year. this is a big year. this is a big year for the project. that's a big responsibility that we are asking of the mta board to authorize nearly $1 billion of construction work to make this happen. the leader in shepherding this project along, both as a board member and as chairman of the board, mr. tom noland, who we are very happy to have here. mr. chairman.

>> thank you. thank you very much. i have the opportunity to be in washington, d.c. earlier this week. everything the mayor has said is exactly right. to be able to represent the officials in the administration and in congress that this city has united the entire political leadership of san francisco -- totally behind us -- that means so much. they all understand that. on behalf of the board, i want to say how proud we are of the board of directors and the entire agency of mta. we've had a number of critics through the years to have said -- do it some other way. my question is, have you ever been to chinatown? what is another alternative? the alternatives were considered. this is clearly the best one. i look forward to the day of the dedication. when this is done, 35,000 more people per day will be able to take this system. it will be better for the entire community all the way around. on behalf of our board, i am very delighted to be here.

i look forward to the grand opening. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. you've heard a lot of talk about partnership. the board president and knowledge ccdc. i want to thank the reverend and the planning director. great partners in working with us. andy, the associate director of the chinatown ymca. i think they were going to bring a bunch of kids out, but given the weather, -- oh, it is a furlough day. my kids are home today. i forget about that. that's where they are. ymca. we have a lot of great community partners. the mayor mentioned we have a pre-bid conference and meet and greet. we also want to bring jobs to the community. we want to make sure the community access has jobs.

we want to make sure everybody has some of the benefits. the beautiful work behind you was put up by a local contractor. we want to thank them for putting up that wrap. and then the chinese historical society. i want to thank sue lee and ask her to come up and say a few words. >> hello, everyone. a pleasure to be here and an honor. the historical society will be 60 years old next year. this mural is a mural that was made in 1952. on the occasion of the opening

of what we would describe as one of the two significant transformational projects of chinatown. it was commissioned for the opening of the public housing in 1952. it depicts 100 years of chinese american history. it reads from left to right. the original is donated to the historical society. it was restored by the historical society. it hangs in our wells fargo learning center. members of the public are welcome to visit the actual mural. what i said about transformation is so important. we are standing in chinatown which was rebuilt after the earthquake and fire. virtually every building in

chinatown except for old st. mary's church was rebuilt after the fire and earthquake. there have been few sites that have been we developed since that time. one exception is this building right here. it was truly transformational in that it constructed decent affordable housing for china totwon's overcrowded citizens. the advocacy for that housing took 20 years. advocacy for public housing in chinatown started in the 1930's. we are pleased that the artwork has always been a part of major public projects. this will be the new central subway station for chinatown, which is also transformational for chinatown. not only will it bring visitors, workers, shoppers to chinatown.

it will provide much-needed transportation connections for chinatown residents to go elsewhere in the city. it is transformational because it will transform this corner. this building was built after the earthquake and will become a new gateway for chinatown. really positive things for the future of chinatown. we are not a stagnant community. history is not stagnant. we are really proud to be part of this transformational project. thank you. >> thank you. i could not have said that better. we really appreciate and acknowledged and respect and honor the history of chinatown, of our city, and by celebrating the installation of this wrap today, a big step forward in the progress of this project. we are honoring that. we are keeping the site looking good in the process. we're doing our part to keep

chinatown as strong and vibrant as it has been for 100 years. this is a transformational historic project. we are honored to be able to participate in it and bring this great change to chinatown and to san francisco. with that, and we are concluded. there's more information on our web site. i want to thank you all and are dignitaries for joining us today >> when stephen de staebler died, he was working on one of

the biggest shows of his career, matter and spirit. it is a retrospective look at the many faces and faces of the life of an innovative artist from the california clay movement. stephen de staebler's developed in an area dominated by abstract expression. even his peers saw his form. >> he was able to find a middle ground in which he balanced the ideas of human figuration and representation with abstraction and found it even more meaningful to negotiate that duality. >> another challenge was to create art from a meeting that was typically viewed as kraft material. his transforming moment was an accident in the studio. an oversized vertical sculpture

began to collapse under its own weight and spread onto the floor. he sought a new tradition before him, landscape sculpture. >> you feel this extended human form underneath the surface of the earth struggling to emerge. eventually, it does. it articulates his idea that the earth is like flesh, and the archaeology and geology in the earth are like the bones, the structure of the earth. this tied in with his idea of mother earth, with the sense that we are all tied to nature and the earth. >> a half dozen bay area museums and private collectors loan the massive sculptures to the museum for its matter and spirit retrospective. but the most unusual contributions came from stephen himself. a wall of autobiographical masks and hence from the early decades of his private study.

>> he had one of the most beautiful studios i have ever been in. when you walk in, your first impression is of these monumental figures that you see in the exhibition, but if you went into the back corner of his studio, there was a series of shells with these diminutive figures. he told me, these are the heart of my studio. these little, and held intimate study is that he referred to as his sketchbook. a painter might make drawings. stephen de staebler made miniature sculptures. >> during the 1970's, he was inspired by the monuments of egypt. he assembled a large rocks of clay into figures that resembled the ancient kings and queens. he credited a weathered appearance by rubbing glazes' into the clay while still wet. the misfires from his killed were brought in his backyard in his berkeley home. he called it his boneyard.

in the last year of his life, he dug up the artifacts from his own history, and the bones were rearranged, in the were slimmer figures with wings. >> even if you knew nothing about his life or career, you sensed there was an artist dealing with this fundamental issue of life and death, the cake, netting back together, and you feel there is an attempt to deal with mortality and immortality. there is a seeking of spiritual meaning in an existential stage. >> during his 50-year career, stephen de staebler worked to form and out of the clay of the ground and give it a breath of life. matter and spirit gathers the many expressions of his meditations. and gives the viewer and insight into the artist's life. learn more about the retrospective on line at