beautiful for spacious skies over amber waves of grain for purple mountain tent majesties above the fruited plain america america god shed his grace on thee and the crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea o beautiful for patriots a

dream that season be on that the years thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears america america god shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea ♪

♪ [applause] >> thank you very much. my name is mark buell, the dow had the pleasure of serving as president of the recreation park division. -- and i had the distinct pleasure of serving as president of the creation of the recreation and park division. we would like to welcome you here to a very special and appropriate event. as someone said to me, this looks like the beginning of summer today. just perfect. and we will hear from her letter, but we honor a woman today for 25 years in congress. and what could be more appropriate and to name a major artery in one of our most beautiful assets, where you can

reach the aids memorial grove, you can reach the academy of sciences, you can reach the japanese tea garden. all of these things reflect the passion and the wisdom that nancy pelosi has brought to the congress, with her sense of social justice, i particularly like thinking that she is science-based in the legislation that she reports, and we had the science academy. [applause] thank you very much. there are so many things she is done for the city. i know there are representatives from the national park today. and the presidio trust, she is the author of that legislation which said that pristine piece of property. [applause] i could list them forever. some of them have been intimately involved in, but that would take too long. i would say, one of the grade honors i had was being in the balcony of the united states congress the day she was elected speaker in the house, the

highest elected women in the history of the government. [applause] with that, i am going to ask a few people to say a few words here today. before i do that, and you'll enjoy this, i was given a list of the vip's to introduce. well, if i look at everybody sitting here, you are all vip's. yay, exactly. so you'll have to swallow a little hard when your name does not get mentioned, and i will give you the list that i have here. we're honored to have ambassador jim hormel here today. i have about 10 of them. city attorney. the police chief, greg suhr. puc. jose cisneros, our treasurer. sophie maxwell. former supervisor, a member of the america's cup organizing committee. we have megan from the

recreation and park commission. larry from rec and park. we have mimi, the vip of all vip's. and i see a lot of friends out there, and i know you all hold titles. leroy king, redevelopment agency. jane morrison and i could go on and on the but here is where ioh stop where, and cicil williams. bless you, cecil. with that, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the first speaker of the day, and i have a few things to say about him, john burton. here is what is officially. widely considered one of the most effective and experienced legislative leaders in the state of california if not the nation. let me tell you a few things that john has done. he began his career is to be attorney general, served as president of the young

democrats, won election to the central committee, served as state assembly member, president and the california democratic council, a chair of the california democratic party, which i believe he is today, and u.s. congress member and president pro tem of the california state senate. my favorite story about john is one that willie brown told me. he said one of john's constituents lived a message and john called the constituent back. the constituent made her case. then she heard from john. at the end of the conversation, she called willie brown and said, i just got the worst conversation from john burton. he we -- he used words whenever use. and he said, you should be thrilled he called you back. [laughter] with that, i would like to introduce to you the honorable john burton. [applause] >> does anybody ever believe

anything willie brown ever tells them? [laughter] i do not. anyway, thank you, mark. anyway, it is a pleasure and honor to be here as a guy who grew up in the sunset and spend an awful lot of time in the park. and have nancy pelosi in between john f. kennedy and martin luther king, jr., is not a bad place to be. i would like to say that. [applause] and that is, for those of us that follow hockey, that is a real hat trick, but 25 years ago, a little bit more, when we were involved in a congressional campaign. i think we all thought we were going to win, but i do not know if we ever thought that 25 years later we would be naming part of golden gate park after nancy. but if we look back on the 25 years, everything that she did,

everything that she stood for has just been a blessing for all of san francisco and actually for the country. i do not really want to 1-up mark. but you know, when he was so proud to be up there on the balcony, i got to be on to the floor. [laughter] anyway, nancy, it is a real pleasure and honor to have so many of your friends here, and a lot of them i see that rather 25 years ago, and they're still there with you. we're going to be with you as long as you want us to be. again, congratulations. [applause] >> thank you, john. [laughs] and the next gentlemen i would like to introduce, i had the pleasure of introducing him once in washington when nancy helped

us with the america's cup. we have to get legislation through the congress, which she did very ably. i introduced him by saying if you had his resume, you cannot help but be one of the great mayors of san francisco. he began his career representing those who cannot represent themselves in the community. he went on to the human rights commission and went on to a head just about every department in the city and then become city administrator. now elected to a full term as the mayor of san francisco. he is passionate about jobs. he is passionate about neighborhoods. he is passionate about parks, which i love, and is making great strides in the city in bringing us back to where we belong, the honorable at least -- ed lee. [applause] >> thank you, mark. i am also passionate about our leaders. i want to thank everybody for being here. named vip's and unnamed vip's.

thank you very much for joining all of us today as we recognize and celebrate the work of a great san franciscan, one who has represented, advocated, and fought for san francisco, its citizens, and really for all of america. during her 25 years, nancy has really earned her title as leader, as pioneer, doing everything from saving american jobs to our health care to driving our country towards energy independence. and i am is still and feeling today, after we go through all these different transportations and infrastructure projects that we have been so lucky to start in the bay area, really a lot of it goes back to nancy and her leadership on the american recovery and reinvestment act for our country and helping us get back on the move. we have taken full advantage of these things come as we should.

i want to thank all of you for being here to celebrate with us on that. and, you know, she has been such a mover of our country, and we know that. we felt the direct impact here as citizens. i know for myself, when i was faced with these huge deficits in our local budget and knowing obviously the right thing to do would be to fill some of these gaps that perhaps the state and federal government is unable to bid up i know this, a particularly these last two years, as hiv funding was getting cut and a number of programs were dismantled, i just had to remind myself to look at the leadership that nancy pelosi has provided with so many strong advocates. it was much easier to say a balancing our local budget here, that we would do the right

thing. and we will make sure that the funding for people living with aids and hiv get that protected funding, whether or not the federal and state programs are there. and thanks -- that is again another complement to nancy's leadership. [applause] from the bayview to bernal heights, chinatown, the caster, to the mission, marina, north beach, and the valley, congresswoman nancy pelosi has transformed san francisco all throughout her 25 years. it is really the strength to see some much of her work reflected in everything that we do. i think just the margaret -- marvelous job she has done to handle the presidio and the natural trust and how many thousands of more people and other generations are welcoming that preservation, right down to cleaning up hunters point naval

shipyard, and now look, it is on the very verge of just coming back and free inviting and keeping as many families there to welcome in success for them as well. again, all of this do to her wonderful leadership. so it is my pleasure to on their leader nancy pelosi today with the renaming of little drive to nancy pelosi drive in san francisco. [applause] and i know johnny said it earlier, i also think it is very fitting that nancy pelosi driver also runs past our national aids memorial grove. [applause] obviously, she has been a driving force in congress for

aids funding. she has educated the summoning leaders across the country about this disaster is a disease and how we can help so many people recover from it. she has created the housing opportunities for people in aids, and of course her support for the right and right -- ryan wright care act. as mayor, of course, it is always my pleasure, because, you know, when you give somebody their own and drive, they're going to have to pay for parking somewhere. this will help her get past that. nancy pelosi drive day in san francisco. her own in day here. [applause] and if i may, on behalf of our recreation and park department, it's wonderful commissioners, but really on behalf of all of us here who have been lifelong friends, supporters, people that

have served with nancy so much, it is our pleasure, nancy, to provide you with a replica of the signs that will go up on behalf of our city. congratulations. here it is. [applause] >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. this is a highly emotional moment for me to see this. when i heard about it, i said, no, please do not do that, i am embarrassed. until i heard it was between jfk and mlk, jr., drive. then i thought, i would like to go there and bear witness to the greatness of those two men and bring all of you with me. here we are today to thank you, mayor lee, for your tremendous leadership of our city. it is an honor for me as the first -- lots of firsts around

here. first woman speaker of the house to be receiving this honor from the first chinese-american mayor of the city of san francisco. a source of great pride to us that only begins to tell the story of what the mayor means to our city and the progress he has made in already a very short time. you're honoring me with this award, and i am forever grateful to you. i look forward to continuing our work together for the government of the city. san francisco leads the way. what we do well here, as franklin roosevelt said, if you want to do something well, do it in san francisco, or words to that effect. [laughter] i would like to thank john burton for being here. just on a personal, official, a political note, john, my dear friend -- my dear friend, who was the chairman of my campaign 25 years ago -- that was really an experience.

a winning one. i am so honored that john it took the time. he does not go that many places, right? the very idea that he is here in the middle of the afternoon and dressed for the day -- [laughs] i am going to be in big trouble. more on john in a moment. i want to thank phil ginsburg, thank you very much. for your leadership and for making this all possible. i know that megan is here. i used to bring her bacto the pk with my daughter all those years ago. and larry. please extend my thanks to the other members of the commission as well for this great honor. so here we are. 25 years later. i will talk about that, but this relationship of our family and the park goes back more than 40

years. but over the past 25 years, working with six mayors, now senator feinstein, agnos, jordon, willie brown who may be joining us, with mayor newsom, and now with our great leader, mmirror -- mayor lee, i have had the privilege of working with these mayors. that would not be possible without the work of so many of you here. some of us were on a trip to liberia for our colleague who is newly deceased, but this was several years ago. he was being honored. there were a barrel -- building a library in his name at the african methodist episcopal church in monroevia, liberia. it was boiling hot. there must have been 18 or 20

speakers. everybody that got up named every speaker before him and everyone else in the room. one of the people got up there and said, to all of the distinguished people who are here today, on their granted. everybody cheered because that meant he was not going to mention all the names. but i am is a wonder that so many of the official family of san francisco are here. i am delighted to see my sister in a friendship and my sister in congress is here with us today. thank you, anna. as she knows, and one of the things we were able to accomplish, what ever you name, without the work of our colleagues from the bay area, from california, on these issues. jim hormel and leroy king or cochairs come along with

madeleine. john was the chairman. we all took orders from john. i am so glad that so many of our friends are here. the head of the san francisco labor council, thank you. [applause] let me say that some of you know -- again, i could name every one of you in reference to the issues that have been discussed, and you probably think that i will, but i told you that story. here is the thing, let's go back 25 and a half years ago. i had no thought in the world of running for congress. i did care very much about the city. i had the position that john is now holds but without all of his credentials as chair of the california democratic party. but i never thought in terms of running for congress. it was because of a woman who decided that a woman was going to follow in her footsteps that i decided to run. at the time the issues were,

what you think about health care? i would say, tell me what you think about health care for all americans as a right, not a privilege, and i told them. they wanted to know what we do to fight for more funding for hiv and aids, and i told them. the issue at the time is marriage equality now. but then it was domestic partners. someone said to me, i have one question, do you support domestic partners? i said, yes, i do. that was his litmus test. we have come a long way since then because of the work of so many people. but again, phillip did so much for the parks and our country. he was a hero in that regard. some say he did more than anyone. maybe he and teddy roosevelt or something like that. anyway, it was a proud tradition to follow him. the whole point was that we could go to washington, d.c., and succeed with some of the things the mayor mentioned because what we were doing in san francisco was a model to the

nation. it was of national significance, because it was community-based. what ever happened to be, whether it was about hiv and aids, about a fourth of housing, about transportation, what ever it happened to be about of job creation. when i first went, i said i will take a map of san francisco and e how many jobs we can breed. cecil, remember, we looked to see where we could create jobs. housing, transportation, whatever the issue happened to be. nature and the federal government gave us two opportunities. one was the earthquake, which provided an opportunity for change and some resources that would otherwise not have come for us to make some significant improvements in san francisco. you know, the freeway and the restoration of city hall, geary, the list goes on. he was a part of so much of that, too. and then the closures. we have 30 two square miles in

my district. the whole city -- 32 square miles in my district, three base closures did you think that in the country they could average it out differently. hunters point, treasure island, and the presidio. so that gave us an opportunity to think in an innovative way about public-private partnership, in a way that san francisco once again led the way, taught the nation how to do things in a different way. and now that goes on. every initiative we have in the american recovery and reinvestment act was something that works here because we are a model. we know how to get things done. we not only helped ourselves, we helped the country. about this park. this is a very personal. i look at the academy of sciences, and my kid christine will tell you, who is here with bella. and paul pelosi, jr.,

over there. they used them as toddlers and run through the halls of the academy of sciences, the planetarium, the japanese tea garden. all of that. little did we know that 40 years later this would be happening and there would be grass growing on the roof of the academy of science for the thermal management of the planet. science, science, science. we came here to learn that the academy of sciences. we came here to play in the park. we came here to smell the flowers. naomi, she is to put out the word, the rodos are here. that met the road no danger blossomed. anybody that knows this park, they know that is a beautiful location when those flowers come out. now listen to the music. over time, it was wonderful, never as wonderful as when warren hellman it left us with

his strictly bluegrass and then it hardly strictly bluegrass. thank you, nancy. isn't it wonderful that warren hollow is near by? we can to learn, play, listen to the music, smell the flowers. we came to recreate. to my friends, all of that, to recreate. that is a very important word. and your assignment, your role is such an important one. but think of that word, to recreate. said another way, re-create. it is important to the life of a person and community that people renew themselves and restorer, re-create as they recreates. this is so important to the life of our people in our city and our community. so wonderful that we're near the national aids memorial grove, national. [applause]

when that was established, anna was there. she held us. some people said, i do not haveh for one ellis, one disease. others would say we should not do it here but in our district. some did not want to have it. the others did not want it for themselves. we went out. we put it on the same bill, the presidio trust bill was leaving the station. i am not sure they all knew they voted for it, but -- [laughter] that is how we got here in the first place with the presidio. again, i have pictures that i brought when my kids were really small -- i mean, really small, nearly 40 years ago. we hired someone to record our family of the time. he said, tell me with the most beautiful place is in san

francisco. of course, we brought him to golden gate park. so some of the pictures are there from that long time ago with my five children. then we have some from just a matter of months ago when my grandson's were here for the growth -- grove's anniversary. and then a matter of weeks ago when we had our work did the national aids memorial grove. right, jack? jack was there. i wanted you to see the time going by, how long our relationship is here and what this means. imagine, imagine -- imagine, it is hard for me to grasp, that this would be between jfk drive and mlk, jr., drive. i was at john f. kennedy's s inauguration as a student. i heard him say on that freezing cold day, much more freezing cold than this, what he asked us to do. ask not what he can do -- you

know, the whole thing, that is not what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country. the also said after that, but people do not know, his next sentence was cut to the citizens of the world, ask not what america can do for you but we can do working together for the freedom of mankind. that sentence is something that has been really a began -- beacon in addition to the original part of it. my father was part of the administration. so i am honored in the name of all of you in the people of san francisco to bear witness to his work and martin luther king, jr. i was at the margin in 1960. guess what, i had to leave. i cannot stay for speeches. i had to leave because i was going home to get married. paul and i will be married 49 years at the beginning of september. there was ample 28, but guests are coming in, and i had to get

going. but i did see the march come in, and it was meant as a. and my brother tommy later became mayor of baltimore. he worked with martin luther king, jr., on equal accommodations, whether it was housing or restaurants or whatever it was in the transition time. so this has a lot of history in making this a very emotional day for me. it is a wonderful honor. it is a wonderful honor. it is just unbelievable and staggering, and i am only now beginning to accept it. mark buell, thank you for making this possible, for making such possible in our community over and over again. that that was -- that is why i was so honored that you ed sees the were in the gallery that day as we made history and now we make progress. i want to see why. every good thing that happens, you have a hand