north beach from all sides of library and it's going to be a very, very beautiful building. i am very proud to be part of it and i'm sure you will enjoy it. big hand to the architects. [ applause ] . the contractors who prepared the event for today,cl w, we have worked with them on many of the rec and park and library projects and they will be delivering this project. i'm just so happy, because they have done great work with us. i want to extend my appreciation to them. big hand forclw, please. [ applause ] and of course, where is dennis oats? this guy is going to be here everyday making sure that the project is done well and built to spec. dennis oats, please let everybody know and if you have questions about this library, that is the man to talk to, dennis oats. [ applause ] >> lastly, i wanted to especially thank luis and his

staff. luis in so many meetings had the opportunity to change the course or do something different and he stuck there all the way. he continued to encourage us. this is what i want. we need to get it and all the battles that we went through, luis was there and made good, sound decisions along with the library commission and that is why we're here today with that great project. big hand for luis and his leadership and the library. [ applause ] and of course, the project will be a library and a park and we need to do more projects like that in san francisco. so joining everybody, i'm looking forward to this groundbreaking and i'm looking forward to coming back for the grand opening. thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ] thank you, mohammed. we definitely have a mutual admiration society among all department heads. our next department head, he and i take the show on the road to promote literacy and to promote parks. i will let him tell the story,

phil ginsburg. [ applause ] >> thank you, luis. his alter ego, what we call each other, he is before mr. books and i am mr. park and this gentleman is mr. clean. [ laughter ] >> it's such a joy to be here and such a celebrate tory week. there has been a lot of talk this week about team and putting team before self and that is not just happening on the ballfield at at&t park, but it's happening in your city and we're so incredibly blessed to have the leadership that we have in mayor lee, board president chiu and supervisor wiener. in no time that i have been involved in the city has both the mayor and board worked together to focus on helping families thrive, through better

parks, through better streets, through better libraries and our city leadership deserves such a big round of applause fortaking these steps [ applause ] i also really want to single out our partnership with mr. parks and the library. this is how cities are supposed to be. i don't know if many of you had the opportunity to come and join us at the west sunset ribbon-cutting, when we jointly opened the ortega public library and playground in this beautiful space on a beautiful sunny day just like this we celebrated a brand-new hub and we did it actually out in the sunset and this might just be the crown jewel of them all. if proposition b passes, it's

$5.5 million to at long last rebuild joe dimaggio playground and create for this space all of the incredible potential that it has. my very, very first day on the job, my very first day as s as rec and park director i met with luis and my staff and said there are only six words that you need to know. that is it. do you remember them in a? there are only six words that you need to know and that is, "the library belongs on the triangle." [ laughter ] and here we are on the triangle. [ applause ] so my last big thank you and before i give my last thank i want to recognize recreation and park and plan commissioner cindy wu is also here.

thank you, cindy. [ applause ] my last big thank you is to you. is to the friends of joe dimaggio playground and the neighbors here who have fought and fought and fought. the giants actually opened up at at&t park in 2000 and it took 12 years or it took 10 years for our first world championship, right? it's taken ten years to get to this spot right now. thank you friends of joe dimaggio playground and thunk lizzy and thank you all for your persistence and thank you for putting the community interest above your self interests because quite frankly, the kids are in college now since the project started this. is an amazing inspired project and thank you to all of you for making our city great. yes on b! [ applause ] >> thank you phil, what he didn't complete the story we go

out to school and do reads and do the poet in the pocket once a year. our next leader gives many, many hours of dedicated service to leading the commission, leading the vision for the library, not only the branch library improvement program, but the array of services and programs that we provide. it's my honor and pleasure to work side by sigh with their, our commissioner president julegomez. [ applause ] . >> thank you so much, what i want to do today in addition to thanking my fellow commissioners teresa and michael, and thanking the mayor and our supervisors. [ applause ] what i usually like to do is to remind all of us that this is sacred ground. the people who came before most of us, the native people who came before us believed that this ground was sacred and no one is an owner. we are stewards of this ground.

the dirt that you are going to play in and plant in is the legacy that those people have left us. it's really appropriate, i think that we have gone to all corners of the city. we have gone east and south and west and we conclude here in the north with our final blessing of this land here in north beach, the home of so many wonderful poets and authors, writers, who bring great honor to this land. and there is nothing that i can think of more honorable than a library that will bring together all of the worlds that we know and many worlds that we don't yet know will all be on this land for all of us for years to come. thank you so much for your support. we're going to continue to need

it as we go forward building. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, jule. i see another former library commission president and former commissioner charles. thank you for your great service as well. [ applause ] when we talk about partnerships, there is no other group that better defines partnerships for the city and support and the public-private partnership than the friends of the san francisco public library and have provided the funding for all of our furniture, the fixtures and all of the equipment. it truly owns our library in that regard. it's my pleasure to introduce of the executive director of the friends of the san francisco libraries scott. >> [ applause ] . >> thank you. it's a pleasure to be here. as luis said we had this fantastic public-private partnership for 23 branchs and now is your opportunity if you want to join 4400 other san

franciscans who raised $12.7 million for other branchs we invite you to join us back at tent and catherine is waving her arm where's you can join us in the north beach campaign. we have john briscoe, our honorary chair, who will lead that along with our board of directors, camilla, john. steven. carol goodman. we have haven't done this alone. i would like to quickly acknowledge our partnership organizations. friends of joe dimaggio, russian river, the committee for better parks and recreation for north beach, the community youth center, telegraph hill center. sherman elementary. the francisco middle school pto.

states peter and paul school. john parker elementary and garfield elementary and thank you victoria pastry cake donated the cake and make sure you eat some cake and join us for our campaign in north beach. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, scott. we're almost there. oh, former commissioner lonnie chen. thank you lonnie for being here [ applause ] we're almost there. one more individual. she has already been mentioned. it's a perfect tribute, a capstone, julie christiansen. >> thank you >> can i get my team up here? i have been fielding all the thanks, but it doesn't really belong to me.

it belongs to all of these people. who else is here from our group? come on up. who am i missing? >> the whole village, come on up. >> so we have a couple of city folks. where is greg scott? gret get up here. greg, get up here. i want to point out jill, karen. jill is the deputy chief librarian and karen, these two women are the fairy godmothers of this project. we would not be here without all the people that you heard from, but we would not be here without them. give thermometer a big round of applause. [ applause ] >> we have also got on city staff our aquatic director greg scott. [ applause ] >> and let's see, who else did

we get up here? huh? mindy. mindy is on my list. i am the last speaker. they are going to try to limit me to the public hearing three minutes and i'm going to try to stick to that, probably not. [ [ laughter ] after i'm finished we're going to turn some dirt. we have a food truck because we deposit want anybody hungry. you guys patronize them if you will. mel sharp and his band are going to be back playing after the speeches. so hang around and party down. i just have a few people that i need to thank. [ laughter ] i will do the short list. of course the mayor. mayor lee has had a lot of celebrating to do this week. we're really grateful here is here. our district 3 supervisor david chiu and his staff. they never pick up the phone or answer an email without saying,

"what do you need and what can i do?" our head librarian, luis herrera. we were the first library on the list and we'll be the last one in the current branch library program to be completed. a lot of hard decisions and he stood with us. phil ginsburg, rec and park director. our dpw director mohammed, the last time i saw o & m mohammed he was pushing a wheelbarrow. our department heads have stood with us. jill, karen, besides them, gary, who was at the time capital planning manager for rec and park.

mindy, lenu chen, the manager for the project. michael from planning, john from the city attorney's office. michelle and mary, michelle is with the library and mary is with the friends of the library and put on this event today. our commissioners, rec and park, planning, library, who have voted unanimously. some of them more than once for this project. our board of supervisors, who stood with us. the architects, marsha and a special thanks to erin who has done so much to help us on though this project. you know? that is the city side of this public-private partnership and i have to be fair in saying that this project has lasted through the term of two supervisors, two head librarians, three mayors, and four rec and park general managers. the heart of this project, the constant thing has been the heart of this neighborhood. has been our volunteers and our people. [ applause ]

>> so i want to introduce june. [ applause ] , liz diaz. amy miles. bill collins. martha mahoney, who also does our halloween. terry. i saved lizzy. this is lizzy hirsch. she has been there. one of the founders of the friends of joe d in 1997. what started with planting a little grass on the children's playground has greatly expanded. few people know that the movie "thelma and louise" is a highly fictionalized account of lizzy and mine's adventures. [ applause ] >> most of it is overstated except for the driving off the cliff part. we have done that more than once. [ laughter ] the so yay lizzy.

[ applause ] where is tan? he won't come up here, but there is tan hiding in the back. [ applause ] of the chinese town community development center. tan is one of the hardest working neighborhood activists and one of the smartest political operatives that i know. i learn something every time i talk to him and we have really used his help on this project. tina of the russian river neighbors wasn't able to be here, but her colleagues were and we thank the russian hill neighbors for standing by us, our sister organizations, all of our schools. nester from the telegraph center. we're honored by the number of people who have stood by us on this project. a special shutout to our families, to the spouses and the children that have had to work around and make due for so long while we

were away doing something else. a special thanks to my husgreg husband greg smith. [ applause ] greg let us cut his birthday trip to hawaii short by a day and fly back on his birthday, so i could be here today. so if you wouldn't mind saying happy birthday greg. happy birthday greg! so this is a threshold, a beginning, a start. we're going to build a new library. there are a couple of other starts today. today is the start of the effort to raise money to furnish and equip that library. the friends of the library have done an incredible job of doing that with 23 other branches. we're the last. we don't want to tiredly limp over that finish line. we want to show them what our neighborhood can do. so you are going to be getting the asks. the ask is to be able to help

with that effort to furnish our library and equip it to make it the best library in the city of san francisco. so stay tuned, we need your help again. one more and that is prop b. how many people are going to vote in this election? can i see a show of hands? how many people will vote for prop b? >> yes. >> how many of you can think of at least two or three or four people in the next couple of days that you can talk to to make sure that they are voting for prop b, because that is it what it's going to take. we are within one or two percentage points ever victory. the people that you talk to could be the people that make the difference in that election. i want to thank the mayor and our supervisors, and phil ginsburg for putting us on that bond. let's get prop b passed, shall we? [ applause ]

so we're going to turn some dirt and we're going to start a library. thank you all for being here today. you made this happen. [ applause ] >> thank you, julie. well-done, julie. thank you. thank you. mr. mayor, will you have the honors. district supervisors, mohammed, phil, julie, come on down here and grab yourself a shovel and we're going to have a countdown. are we ready? let's have a countdown. on the count of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6,

5, 4, 3, 2, 1! north beach branch library! [music] paratransit is specialized transportation for seniors and people with disabilities who are unable to use the muni system. in san francisco, we're proud

that we've had a paratransit program since 1978 long before it was mandated by the americans with disabilities act in 1990. san francisco is a unique city and our paratransit program reflects this. we have a network of services, including sf access van service, paratransit taxi, including wheelchair accessible ramp taxi and group van which serves groups of individuals going to a single location like a senior center. [music] >> i'm elsa scott and i'm a retired federal employee and i'm a native of san francisco. i use paratransit because, i've been using it for about six years because six years ago i had to start dialysis treatments at cpmc. so i'm very dependent on paratransit three times a week, coming and going..

my current driver is brian berquist.; he's just such a friendly, sort of a teddy bear kind of a guy. i don't know what it is about brian, but all of us old ladies want to feed brian. [music] >> hi, my name is fred lein. i'm most proud of driving a ramp taxi since the beginning of the program in 1994. [music] >> fred, you are the absolute best! thank you fred for providing transportation for me and opening up my social life, and taking care of medical appointments, taking care of my mother [music]

>> hi, my name is ann bailey and i've driven for luxor for almost five years now. i drove for desoto cab for 10 years prior to that. i drove in 1976 for the old, old yellow cab. this is frances mecchi and i've been driving her for about 11 or 12 years to her alzheimer's day program, which we call the memory club. every day when we drive through the presidio she'll say, "oh goody, you're taking me through the enchanted forest." [music]

>> my name amr a.mahmoud. i am like 49 years old. i have been driving cab more than 13 year in general. then i drove a ramp more than 3 years. this is my fourth now. i have been enjoying doing the job. i like every moment of it. >> thank you amr. [music} >> hi, my name is peter and i'm a paratransit driver for medsam, and this is north and south of market where i pick up my group and drop them off at home. >> thank you , peter! [singing] you are my sunshine.

very good driver. she says driver is very good. number 1. [music] larry mingo, mobility plus driver, san francisco paratransit. >> thank you, mingo. >> you're welcome. >> hi, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. >> thank you, mingo. thank you. [music] >> thank you, larry mingo. >> hey larry mingo, you are awesome. thanks for a great, great job you do for us. appreciate it. >> thank you, mingo.

[music] >> hello, my name is james fells i've been working with paratransit for 13 years now. i get a kick out of the job; i like helping people you know when they need help to go shopping or getting picked up at the medical building. i really like helping people and that's why i've been working so long. >> hi, my name is kalani. i'm a driver with mobility plus. i love my job! and i've been working, i've been a driver since may and i'm pretty satisfied with the company. so, two thumbs up, hope you guys have a nice day. >> sandra johnson and i've been working for mobility plus for about 4 and a half years. i love it. this is my job and i love it. it's very rewarding for me. one of my proudest moments is one of my clients left his cane on the bus and i've been picking him up now for about three years so i know that that cane was important to him.

and i had dropped him off and i noticed the cane later on that day so i kept it with me and when i went back down to la play, when i worked my way back down there on a break to give it to him, he kissed my hand, 'cuz he can't talk. so he grabbed my hand and he kissed my hand. it just made me know that that was an important thing for him. so that was my proudest moment. [music] >> one couple who were riding with us, morning and afternoon, mr. and mrs. lee. mr. lee was the dialysis patient and he's probably in his 80's and every time we would drive up to buchanan street, the hospital, mr. lee would say, "good job, fine driver, number one driver" and he would go like this [thumbs up gesture]. and then as brian would be helping him off the van, mr. lee, i heard him so often say, "brian, if anybody gives you any trouble you send them to me

and i'll take care of them." and here great big old brian would say, "henry, you're the first one i would try to get help from." and he says, "the second one is elsa." [laugh] so we knew that we were being relied on by brian. a few weeks back, mrs. lee called brian early in the morning to tell him not to bother picking them up because they were already at the hospital. mr. lee was ill and she had taken him to the er. the next day or so, brian, on his lunchtime, found out that mr. lee had been admitted to the hospital and he went up to mr. lee's room and just stuck his head in just to say hello. and the minute mr. lee saw him he went [gesture thumb up in the air] like that. and mrs. lee said, "he's telling you again you're number one driver. so brian really appreciated that; he thought that was really sweet. but he could see mr. lee wasn't doing so well so he left really quickly.

and unfortunately, mr. lee passed away that evening. that had a great impact on brian and me. it was very sad, but it was so touching that he had seen mr. lee and mr. lee had confirmed that brian was "number one driver." >> this is san francisco paratransit. it's not perfect; we have our ups and downs: late trips, frustrated customers, stressed out drivers. but at our best, we get our riders where they need to go on time and with a smile. and when we pay attention real carefully and notice what's happening on the van, taxi, or at the senior center, we notice that our drivers make a that our drivers make a difference in the rider's lives