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] ...

>> [applause] >> wow. thank you very much angela. let me say -- please, please sit down. all right. that's for my has ratty. >> no, that's mine. >> angela we really miss you here. you have been such a force and i enjoy working -- we will get that done. i assure you. that's a wonderful addition. not just north beach and another attraction for visitors from around the world as part of the international community and i honor that so thank you. thank you for working with me on ending homelessness as well and thank

you even for being your civil rights attorney and you are still representing people in need and i appreciate that. i know angela represents again the kind of contributions the italian community has made to our great city and continues to make and i am here to tonight to wish you a great year of italian culture but to kick start it. it was really just a few months ago that the ambassador ofity italy came through and talk about this wonderful thing they were to do to celebrate year of italian culture but transfer that to our country of the united states so i know they're going to start those events in washington dc with their celebrations but let us san francisco celebrate -- mayor

aleato and our wonderful history here and allow us to do a preliminary launch and so that's what we're attempting to do tonight and celebrate with you this launch of italian culture. it's very meaningful for us to did that year. we have a lot to celebrate. let me just say that painters, scrptdures, poets, musicians, designers, mathematicians, great architects of the italian country have come here to san francisco. we have experienced so much of the italian talent here in san francisco. that's why we wanted to be celebrating here and i am so glad to be joined not only by senator leno and assembly man amaino and david chiu and scott wiener as well. they all want to get in on this great celebration because it's wonderful for our city. i have

often said our city and our strength is our international status and we do that with all the sister cities, with all of the flag raisings, but this is kind of new. what i said to our counsel general it's special because it's kind of bringing forth the things that we have done and the things that we enjoy doing and placing it into a recognized celebration that goes for a long time, so i am proud to launch this here in san francisco, and if i may to not only let you know that it's a great honor to have the italian ambassador here in the united states. it's a great honor for it to be proclaimed italian culture day in san francisco. if i may present this to the counsel general. [applause]

>> thank you and one more word of italian that i could do is gracia because i do have a mazatti waiting for me. >> it's right out in front. >> i won't ruin your language but we're proud here to be hosting this and we're going to be of course doing more in celebration and then i will get to have a chance to visit washington dc on the experience they have as well, so thank you very much everybody. [applause]

>> it's a real pleasure to be with everyone tonight. mr. mayor, counsel general, of course the president of the board of supervisors, david chiu and my colleagues and our distinguished quest and half of which is our heart and soul of san francisco angelo aleato and to kickoff the year of italian culture and mr. mayor you mentioned the different varieties but we shouldn't

leave out the sciences as well so a lot to celebrate. when i was first introduced to our relatively new counsel general by angela he said "he's one of us" and angela said "i'm not so quite sure counsel general" but i shared with him when i took my seat on the board of supervisors i got a call from jay leno. true story. he called me to congratulate me on my public office and glad to know that other lenos were fairing well and asked if we had family in common and he laughed when i said i was part of his russian jewish part of the family so i left it with that. this is

particularly appropriate to do this in san francisco and san francisco is a italian city and always has been and will be and to get things going i have seen you put in some years of service in telea eve and familiar with israel's politics you can get into san francisco's politics and i brought this and i know senator will say something as well and we want to congratulate you and all of our italian american community as we kickoff the year of italian culture in the united states and we look forward to joining hands with you to make it as successful as possible. >> thank you very much. [applause]

>> all right. and please consider me one of "us". >> thank you very much. and bona tale. i asked senator leno how do you think they say happy chanukkah in italian? and he said mozel tough and i am glad to be here and i am proud to be an italian american and it's been an important part of my identity. i believe i have the soul in my heart. [applause] . so there you are. and i remember my grandfather saying when he came over on the boat

he was told the streets of america were paved with gold and found out there were no streets and he had to do the paving, and i think the strongest part of our culture is "the family". we may have our dysfunctions but our families never dessert us and my family didn't know much with the lgbt issue so when i came out of the closet i thought they would be so upset i would lose them. wouldn't happen. once my son had a sign that said "i love my gay son that never calls" and that is it and i want to welcome the counsel general and his partner and actually we share a

vice, and it's called napoli. i think i can say it right. (. [speaking foreign language] . we don't want you to do that but want to work out programs to share our fabulous culture and again thank you. [applause] >> hello. i am honored. i am david chiu president of the board of supervisors. i fall in a long line of succession of italian presidents at the board of supervisors. i am here honored to be supporting our board and my colleague scott wiener and representing the oldest italian neighborhood here on the west coast and i know you have heard from leno and amaino i want you to know my italian

friends introduce me as david chiu o. 20 years ago like every elected that didn't grow up in san francisco and i know we are all from different areas i came here 20 years ago from the east coast and in part i was fascinated by chinatown and it's next to the old italian neighborhood of north beach and in the great cities like boston et cetera and when i walked around that neighborhood it was the neighborhood that drew me to the great city whether being reminded of great baseball players, the joe migage i don't play ground. >> >> or the fisherman or the piazza that i look forward to work with angela to lobby the

mayor to adequately fund it. there are special quarters that come from the community that are represented tonight and i am happy to come and raise a glass to all of you and look forward to cel celebrating the italian. >> american history. thank you. >> good evening. i am verna patty. i am coming from congresswoman pelosi's office. she is celebrating in washington dc the italian culture with the minister. "dr. friends greetings as you. >> >> gather in san francisco to celebrate italian culture in the united states. thank you for the opportunity to join so many friends, guests and