out a few, bob pelosio who organized tonight's event. and i also want to single out loranie bamford whose team put this on and our entire recreation staff. and i want to thank our tree topers who get all the way to the top of this big tree to hang all of its lights. i want to thank our electricians who make sure that the lights go on and i want to thank all of the crews and there are so many people that have a hand in planning the for tonight and give a big shout out for the hardest working team your rec and parks department staff. [ applause ] >> so we got a lot of special people here tonight, and i really want to single out a few who may or may not be here, i want to thank the rec and park

commission, commission vice president tom harrison is here. [ applause ] commissioner page erata is here, glora buna is here and commissioner levatin is here and commissioner allan lowe is here and martin is here and give a shout out to mark who could not be here. and i saw supervisor mark ferrell and his entire family in the house and give him a shout out for him. i want to give... let's give a big special thanks to scott weiner for all. he was out campaigning for the bond every night. thank you scott. [ applause ] >> i saw tom ewy the director of the department of building inspection who is here and i want to thank him and i want to thank the san francisco parks alliance who is here and the trust for public lands and most of all, i want to thank all of you, all of you for helping

make this happen. [ applause ] >> oh, yeah. it is his last official tree lighting as a supervisor. where is he? come on up. yeah, we have already forgotten up here, you have got to come up. a big... our loudest, loudest round of applause for supervisor sean elsbern and his son michael who is here. look at this guy who just showed up in the left-hand part of the stage, our former mayor willie brown who is here. [ applause ] all right. now, would you... thank you. so now, i want to introduce the city's park champion and chief and of course he shares our

vision for making our parks, better cleaner, safer and more fun. he also loves to be in our parks and loves sports and he loves to play and pretty darn good at a game of ping-pong among other activities let's give a big san francisco welcome to our mayor, mayor ed lee. >> thank you, phil. how about another round of applause for phil. >> i am so happy to join you with the supervisors and sean thank you again for all of those wonderful years that you have served the city thank you very much for being here. to all of the other supervisors, scott weiner and mark ferrel, thank you for your leadership on infrastructure and open space and parks and on supporting families in this city and to the hardest, most effective commission rec and park commission, thank you very

much. all of your leadership there. but there is many other people to thank, we have got a lot of things to be thankful for this year. i mean it is not just prop b, we have so many other things that compliment proposition b and our open space, we have a renewed commitment to build infrastructure and see that supports a lot more things because the most thankful things that we have, i think, are the very people that are standing to my sides and in front of me. these are the folks that we are most thankful for because they give us purpose, and focus for this city and where we need to take it. that is why we build more parks and we invest in our open space. it is for all of these children and the families. i also want to thank all of the sponsors i know three of them are big sports sponsors in the city. and the reflected by the toy train that you see on the side. you will see the caboose, led

by golden state warriors. followed by the 49ers. [ applause ] and then two-time world series champions, san francisco giants. [ applause ] >> they give us all of this inspiration and i know that we are looking at some of future players on these teams right here in front of us. so thank you everybody. if i may, during these happy times, when we are thankful for the things that we have and giving thanks for it, please remember the victims that continue to suffer on the east coast. and they are having a hard time it is veryryry over

>> it goes back to the 18 50s fisherman's wharf, meg's wharf which was the place in san francisco to enjoy yourself. eventually fisherman's wharf moved into youctionv to where the explore or yum is and it moved back up here. but in the 1950s, the port was coming out of world war ii, was trying to understand what container station was going to look like, and they commissioned a study that looked at the economic impact

of the port to the city. * that sounds familiar, does continue, mr. mayor? and particularly to how the port could participate in the city's tour and commercial industries as well as their cargo industry, and specifically that report found that this area, since we were moving into containerization, were no longer really needed for cargo, that cargo would be better off being in the southern waterfront. and we would have this area devoted to more commercial activities, entertainment, dining, et cetera. and, so, in the early 1950s, the port moved forward and had the franciscan restaurant built. as part of that. and this area we are standing on was an old timber wharf that supported parking for the fisherman's wharf area, of course, all the other restaurants developed over time. * and this old wonderful car ferry slip used to move railcars on and off of the pier

over to tiberon and to richmond and other parts of the bay. so, for the last 50 years or 60 years if you're really doing the math, the port has been trying to keep regenerating our area and making it more of a great magnet, not just for tourism which is our core industry, but for locals alike. so, we really believe this promenade which, by the way, is a seawall. and you'll be happy to know that the old wooden seawall underneath has been repaired after over 100 years. so, all of you who own property across the street have another 100 years of safety to go. and all the rest of us get to enjoy that. and we truly are coming to where the land and the water's edge meet and enjoying it in a great new way with vistas of alcatraz, new year's eve and america's cup. it is my great honor to welcome all of you and to introduce our wonderful mayor who has been such a catalyst for projects

such as this. mayor ed lee. (applause) >> thank you, monique. thank you for being such a great historian of all the space here. that's wonderful. well, welcome to $10 million of great public investment. [laughter] >> even, even the skies parted a little bit for us. but i'm glad to see port president david chiu here to join us, our rec and park commission, mark and phil ginsburg from rec and park, doreen, thank you very much, rodney from the planning commission, thank you, rodney for your leadership as well. to present and past commissioners of our port as well, you've all been part of this legacy of history building down here. and i also want to say thank you to vortex, the contractors who are here. they represent all the powell drivers who have been working really hard. and the great personal thank you to public works and he's

the city engineer. he kept everybody together working with monique and the rec and park and everybody else to make sure that the workers, all 75 of them, working hard to get this done, along with our local contractors, matt hughey, thank you, mh for being part of this wonderful work as well. it's been long in coming. it's another example of how we use and how we have responsibly used our recreation and park open space bond from 2008. our clean and safe bond program. i know phil is delighted because we got another one passed this past november. it's a great part of our history. (applause) >> but this was one of those early projects that we started out. we wanted to reconnect. we saw the very piers and the underlying part of it decaying. as moe meek so eloquently said, we have to nourish it, we have to reinvest in it.

we got a good look at what we needed to do when the bcdc came out with the planning part of this, their contribution to this $10 million of investment. when we started planning with them, the bcdc, we honored that with, again, completing this wonderful project. so, i'm here not only as a cheer leader, but to thank all of the different elements that come together that are required to come together for successful project. and even as a few months ago, i know monique was saying, god, we've got to keep pushing, keep pushing on this. and we did. everybody came together and we pushed for it. we're grateful that the contractors worked with us to do so and they stepped in to make sure things got done. even frankenstein is here to help celebrate this. (applause) >> our street performers, and i've been talking with monique, i've got a new invested role with our street performers that we're going to have working with public works and all of

our great san francisco agencies. everybody is here today. i know what it means to really complete these projects, to keep them going. and this is, while it sounds like a lot of money, it's actually a small part of our whole capital planning that goes on and continues to go on. we honor all of our public because they do allow the city to invest their money properly, get these things done, honor them with completed projects. this is $10 million which released from general obligation bonds to go on to another great, another capital planning that we're doing. and now i know the port is going to celebrate because they got $35 million invested in -- 195 million in the next bond that we have to create even better and more own spaces that we have. right around the corner is jefferson public realm. we're going to get that done as well. we're going to honor what rod has been reminding me about it,

all of the great institutions we have in the fisherman's wharf. we get to recreate a new vibrant street that blends vehicle traffic with pedestrian and bicyclists. all on the eve of welcoming america's cup, continued every year with fleet week. it's wonderful, wonderful time to be part of this great city. i want to thank all of you for coming and joining in this great celebration. it's wonderful to be in san francisco, to be a part of it, and to create more excitement for future generations, and to lead the city in much better shape than when we first started working with it. * leave thank you for being part of this great celebration. (applause) >> thank you, mayor lee, very, very much. next i would very much like to introduce another of our key supporters, our district 3 supervisor president of the board of supervisors and one of

our two representatives to the bcdc commission, with commissioner ann, and critical to successes such as these. please join me in welcoming president dave chiu. (applause) >> happy holidays, everyone. i was thinking of inviting mayor lee back on the stage to sing along with this band a rendition of sitting by dock on the bay. what do you think, mr. mayor? [laughter] >> but instead what we thought we wanted to do is, of course, sing the praises of our community. mayor lee has thanked all of the amazing city departments that have come together between rec and park and the port and, of course, our dpw department. i want to thank the mayor and your commissioners for really helping to see this through. and i want to take a moment and thank the community. so many of you here are our merchants, are our members of labor, are our neighborhood leaders who have really come together. we see representatives from our hotels, folks who represent every type of business along in waterfront big and small.

but for your support over the years, we wouldn't be here today. when i came in office four years ago, i was told by the constituents of these neighborhoods that we needed to invest in our waterfront. and four years later we're on the eve of cutting the ribbon for the explore atorium. * we just passed a bond measure that will bring two waterfront parks a few blocks from here. this won be possible but for the vision and the foresight that we all have about what we want a 21st century waterfront to look like. i want to thank you for that. i don't see any of my colleagues here. i'm going to say the following. i think this may be the most beautiful vista vantage points not just in san francisco, but in the entire world. and thank you for being part of it. (applause) >> thank you very much, president chiu. and now it is my honor to introduce the president of our port commission. here today with former

supervisor and current port commissioner leslie katz, president doreen has been a great inspiration for our port. she sits on a number of very important boards in the city, and yet has worked tirelessly on our behalf. and, so, please join me in welcoming president doreen wuho. (applause) >> hello, good afternoon. and i'm really here to thank everybody on behalf of the port commission. i haven't been on the commission that long. i know this project started many, many years ago. but as i've learned on the commission, these projects do take a long time. there is a lot of money involved and there is a tremendous partnership. and you heard all the departments that are mentioned. but i'm also here to thank i guess the previous leaders besides our mayor here. we had mayor brown, mayor newsome, but we also want to thank for their vision that has led us here today. i also want to recognize a couple previous port commissioners. ann hall stead and rodney fong. i learned we all work closely as a team to get to the vision

you heard everybody mention. i'm really excited today to be on the port commission because there is truly a renaissance going on up and down the waterfront including projects like this which will provide beautiful public access and all the other things that are going on. i can't think of a more exciting time to be involved with the city and the waterfront and to be on the port commission. so, i just want to recognize and thank also the port staff. there are many of them here today, monique and her staff, and we have members in the development and real estate and i think again it takes tremendous amount of teamwork to make these things happen. and i think again, that is my message to thank everybody. thank you very much. (applause) >> i'd like to also point out former commissioner fx crowley who is here, thank you president for your kind remarks. now, the mayor mentioned this wouldn't have been possible without the generosity of the voters of san francisco in approving the first general obligation bond that had something in it for the port.

and leading the charge on that was our very own general manager of rec and park phil ginsburg joined with the president of the rec and park commission mark beale. (applause) >> good afternoon, everybody. it's such a pleasure to join monique and our port commissioners and the mayor and port staff and the department of public works celebrating this incredible investment in the port, which is such a significant part of our treasured open space portfolio in san francisco. but most of all, mark beale and i are here to thank the community, to thank all of you for supporting park bonds, the 2008 clean and safe neighborhoods park bonds provided almost all of the $10 million of investment in where we are standing today. and thanks to the 72% of san franciscans that voted yes in november of '12, we have another couple million dollars that will work on a little ways

down the south area. you can see it. we'll be able to renovate the next piece of this incredible vista and open space. so, we just want to celebrate our tremendous sister agency. here's to open space and here's to recreation and here's to vistas and congrats, everybody. thank you. (applause) >> thank you very much, phil. now, keep an eye out behind me. the vessel has been out of range. before you get too much of their competitive advantage. also i notice the fire boat is going to be coming in to help us celebrate shortly. but next i would like to introduce to you our former port commissioner president of the department of city planning's commission, president of the wachs museum here in fisherman's wharf, a fourth generation san franciscan, somebody who grew up here in fisherman's wharf, please welcome rodney fong. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you. thank you, monique.

you know what, how many fisherman's wharf people are here? raise your hands. so, everyone is very excited here. but i think for all of us, we have to be extremely excited because we -- i can't think of a better word. we actually have a new front yard here at fisherman's wharf, a place to gather to have music, a place to celebrate things. for millions of people who come to the wharf every years, they'll have the ability to enjoy the spot. i'm looking at dan. from your pencil drawing is what this space can be and working with rec and park to fix that idea. congratulations to you and all the port staff. monique, thank you, measuring engineering staff, you guys got a lot done. this is an exciting day for everybody in san francisco. extremely exciting day for folks at fisherman's wharf. i thank the mayor. we will use this well. thank you. >> all right. (applause) >> thank you very much, president fong. our last speaker is one of our best partners in san francisco.

he represents the department of public works. he is the city engineer. without the department of public works, cruise terminal project at piers 27-29 would not be possible. they are probably working on about 40 projects with us right now. we are very much in their debt. and to say a few words, please help me welcome, rod, city engineer. (applause) >> give us $4 million and we'll show you how fast we can spend it. [laughter] >> this is how much we spent on this project since october of this year, in the last 2, 2-1/2 months. so, back in september monique and i sat and discussed this project and we agreed to set a very aggressive deadline, which is completing this project before thanksgiving and opening the promenade to hundreds and thousands of people to enjoy during the holidays. so, this is what -- the result is what you see today. we managed to do this through sound project management with

strong collaboration between port and dpw and through the -- using two procedures, that's our mayor has been promoting for the last 12 months. one is broadening of construction projects and the second is prompt payment. so, when we started in early october, we gathered the entire project team. the contractor his subs, suppliers, the port staff, the consultants, dpw and we agreed on a plan to move forward. we agreed on the deadline and on a weekly basis, we met to hash out every single detail so we can meet this deadline. the contractor told us if you want to move fast, you need to pay us fast. instead of the 230 day city policy that we use on other projects, on this project we managed to pay the contractor within five days. so, and like i said, this is what you see, you know, today. i want to thank mayor ed lee

for his vision and leadership and for his directive to make the partnering on construction projects and prompt payments and to make it much, much easier for small and large contractors to do business in the city. i want to thank monique and the port for their confidence in public works and for the strong relationship and partnership that we forged through completing this project. i'd like to acknowledge the hard work of vortex, [speaker not understood], john miller and alex with vortex. i'd like to thank matt hughey with [speaker not understood], and i'd like to especially thank my public works team, ray louie, laura lombardi, [speaker not understood], and tim o'sullivan. with them i can tackle the most complex project in san francisco. thank you all. (applause)

>> so, as you enjoy this space, first of all, please come back. bring your families. bring your friends. we're proud to have another new space for all of the residents and our favorite dogs who walk along here, as well as the many visitors. as you've heard mentioned today, it has taken a huge community of people to get this done. i'm very pleased to see representatives of the fisherman's wharf community benefit district, the fisherman's wharf restaurant association, all three of our ferry excursion operators, red and white, blue and gold horn blower, colleagues from the u.s. coast guard, [speaker not understood] colleague, many of the restaurateurs, hoteliers, could you bev, i could go on and on and on. * council i do want to say a very special thank you, though, to the fisherman's wharf group who spent years and years and years thinking about what this might be, which included our very own ann and many of our port staff. it also included the late port commissioner sue beer man,

commissioner denise mccarthy, and members of our planning, engineering, and maintenance crews have all had a part in this as well as our real estate and finance division, as mentioned the bond was a city-wide effort. the permitting process was a federal, state and local effort. and, of course, we had just a fabulous cadre of consultants, [speaker not understood], vortex, [speaker not understood], and m.h. construction. and then of course our friends at dpw. so, please give yourselves all a great round of applause. (applause) >> and thanks, and keep pushing along with us. it make take us decades, but it's long worth the wait. and to celebrate that we are going to cut the ribbon and the three performers, there they are, are going to perform for us. so, i hope you will stick around for that. only in san francisco treat and a little vision accompaniment from our favor fire boat. so, thank you all very much.

please, please, enjoy this day. thank you. (applause) >> all right, 3 2,, 1, go. [cheering and applauding] ...