neighborhoods together and so all of these projects the public spaces that the development and the orton development site as well and the city site are all about bringing the neighborhoods to the water and vice versa and i want you to know that we are working closely with the port on all of these projects to make sure that the plans are implemented the way that they were intended ethank you. >> yeah, i wanted to second some of the other comments that were made and to say that a lot of park designers have a fear of kind of industrial sites that they want to make them all pretty and not erase the investor heritage and i appreciate that that heritage is being kept and that but i would also encourage you to get rid of that wharf that might be gone and i don't think that you need it and will help as well with the budget. and i would encourage you to simplify that perk >> i have a couple of comments as well. it is just stunning and there

has got to be one of the only shipyards that you have turned into a park i don't know. obviously this will be an example for the nation as well as honestly probably anywhere in the world. and one thing that i already have the port folks here is that i would love to make my pitch and i made it to ram before and it is not just in seattle, they have a pocket park and a beach. and you get away from the traffic and you hear the water on the beach and it is fantastic and so i love seeing the water meeting this park. but i would love to promote it in more spots along the wharf downtown and stuff so you can drop in and where that new park is down at brannen and i would love if we had a pork ket beach, otherwise, i would agree, anything interrupting your access to the water i would love to see not there. slip way two and three and that would be great if it that was open. >> anyone else. >> no. >> and fantastic, thank you

guys very much. and any public comment on this? to be official? >> no. and great. we are done. and we are adjourning in the memory of alice kerri and all of the work that she has done in the buildings and also for the movement in preservation, the movement in preservation, and again to alice kerri.

the movement in preservation, and again to alice kerri. aah! i'm a lion! yes, you are. come here. let's see how this looks. hey, how's my little horse? she's a lion. yes, she is. grrr! ha ha! announcer: you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent. when you adopt a child from foster care, just being there makes all the difference. >> it's a pleasure to be here. i'd just like to say thanks to the city of san francisco and the mayor and all of you great people for keeping the legacy of otis redding alive. and a quick thing about the song. my mother said my father was in

california and done some shows in los angeles. and he came home and he told her he wanted to be a new otis redding, not the begging and pleading, he wanted to do something totally different. he came home and started putting bits and pieces of a song together. it goes like this. ♪ ♪ >> you can sing along if you want to. it goes like this. ♪ in the morning sun i'll be sitting till the evening comes watching the ships roll in and then watch them roll away again yeah just gonna sit on the dock of the bay

watching the tide roll away ooh-ee sitting on the dock of the bay wasting time... ime i left my home in georgia headed for the frisco bay i have nothing to live for and look like nothing's gonna come my way so i'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away ooh-ee sitting on the dock of the bay wasting time ah-ah look like nothing's gonna change

everything still remains the same i can't do what people tell me to do so i guess i'll remain the same sitting here and this loneliness won't leave me alone 2000 miles i roamed just to make this dock my home i'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll away ooh-ee sitting on the dock of the bay wasting time... ah

>> whistle along with me, y'all. ♪ [whistling] yeah [whistling] >> thank you. (applause) [cheering and applauding] >> other than that, how about a san francisco welcome? [cheering and applauding] >> now, a few words about otis redding and that absolutely gorgeous song. can you think of a better song for this great wharf? as you probably know, otis redding was in san francisco to perform at the fillmore in the summer of 1967 and he found himself for a week on a

sauselito house boat. on the bay came the inspiration for this incredible song. a couple months later he recorded the song and tragically passed 2008 way in a plane crash in 1967. this song became the last recorded song by otis redding. it is an incredible song, it is so befitting and it is something we thought would inspire everyone who comes to this wharf, not just today, but ongoing. and the otis redding family has graciously allowed us to use some of his famous lyrics here at the wharf. they will be permanently engraved at one of the markers down at the far end of the port. i'm sorry, of the park. and they will be here to inspire visitors and locals alike as they come to this place on our amazing bay. and otis redding left a legacy

greater than just his music. he left his wife zelma and his wonderful children, four of whom are still with us. and this is otis redding iii also known as a genius. (applause) >> and he came all the way from los angeles to help us christen this wharf with that tremendous song. so, please, join me in welcoming otis redding, jr. (applause) >> thank you so much. i'd like to say thanks. this is a really beautiful thing. and our family, my mother sends her love, my sister carla and dexter, my sister dee-dee. we all send our love here. we really appreciate this opportunity to, to keep fulfilling and continuing the legacy of otis redding. we have the otis redding foundation and our mission is simple. it's progress through education and enlightenment through music.

and it was founded in 2007 and we're doing very well. and you can always go to otis redding.com to learn more about our foundation and thank you very, very much. this is a beautiful thing. thank you very much. (applause) >> thank you, mr. redding. truly, it is such an inspiration for all of us. seeing all of you here today is also inspirational. so many of you have made today possible. i wish i could name and thank all of you as i look around this amazing crowd. unfortunately i can't. i would be here all day. i do want to take a moment to recognize some of the folks standing behind me. of course, our honorable mayor, mayor ed lee. (applause) >> president of our board of supervisors, david chiu. board supervisor jane kim. representative from leader pelosi's office, dan bernau. (applause) >> larry bobans, director of the bscbc.

the port commission president, doreen ruho, port commissioner and former supervisor leslie tack. dbi director tom huey. san francisco fire chief hayes white. fire and port commissioner [speaker not understood]. planning commission president rodney fong, and aloe ons and aloe ons of vips among you out there. so, thank you all for joining us today. ~ in the 45 years since that beautiful song was written, our own san francisco port waterfront has transformed. so, nothing has stayed exactly the same, we're proud to say. and just like sitting on the dock of the bay is a jewel among otis redding's collection, the new braniff street wharf is a jewel among the port's park open space collection, and we are so amazingly proud of it. it has taken a very long time and hundreds of people. the transformation of this kind of a waterfront doesn't come easy. for those of you who know it

keenly, it was a thousand feet of failing edge, dilapidated pier and a tried but true seawall. and today as you look around, it is a thousand feet of public space, a place where we can walk along and experience the bay peacefully, playfully, we can gather here, we can work here, we can recreate here and we can celebrate here. and i am so pleased and thankful to all of you who have made this moment possible. i want to take a short second to recognize some truly deserving port staff. first and foremost, planning project manager dan hodep with byron red, dianne, linda, several interns and a whole planning division. (applause) >> engineering project manager stephen real, lead architect wendy proctor. architect alan jen. i'd like to know the architectural work was done in-house at the port. we're very, very proud of that.

and the entire engineering division. our dedicated real estate staff led by susan reynolds, our maintenance staff led by tom carter who has made this place look just amazing for all of you today. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. our maritime staff led by peter dealy, and our finance and administration staff led by elaine forbes. so, it is now my honor to welcome the man who has dedicated his life to transforming and improving our city, mayor ed lee. (applause) >> thank you. thank you, monique, for that wonderful introduction. and mr. redding, thank you again. welcome back. >> thank you. >> for a moment i felt how it is to waste some time. [laughter] >> don't do that very often these days. and i'm sure my colleagues at the board of supervisors also don't know how that feels very much. but i want to thank and welcome everybody here to our waterfront. this is the kind of event that

we're happy to not only engage in, but to bring more people to our waterfront. that has been the purpose of the port for so many years. and i want to just congratulate the port, its commission and the staff, because this is in fact 150 years of celebration of our port. and what a way to celebrate with all these wonderful things that are happening here. it's taken 15 years for this project to get done, 15 years. that's a 10th of the history of the port of san francisco. and there's a lot of people to thank and monique's already thanked them, but it's worth repeating. i think the big conservation development commission, the port commission, our port staff, public works, all our departments behind me, rec and park, our federal partners have certainly been extremely important. thank you to everyone for getting to this point. and thank you for the contractors as well, because this has been one of the most

visible projects where people along the waterfront have traversed this project for quite sometime and did not experience any public safety challenges along the way. so, i want to thank them for that high level of safety. 840 feet alongside our embarcadaro promenade, really blessed to have two beautiful acres of open space to welcome more people to enjoy our waterfront. that is what our city does, especially in these times along our waterfront. you've seen all the things that we've done literally in the past year. brannon street wharf today. last june we had the privilege of opening up just up north jefferson street promenade. february earlier this year, we did the james cruise ship terminal, the cruise ship terminal at pier 27. of course, last november we all did a lot of great celebration just a little bit more south

here at head park, 22 acres of open space. we're literally honoring our open space obligations and doing it the right way. this particular project is impressive not only for its beauty and opening up more space, but it does in a seismically safe way and in a sustainable way accommodate some 75 years of projected sea level lies for our city. and that's incredible because we always are having to pay attention to all of our environment around our city. we're three quarters the bay. and, so, that's a respectful thing. we do it on ocean beach. we do it on the long golden gate. our maritime. of course, here in our waterfront. it's all also about history, not just with otis redding iii, not with the 150 years here,

but the history that's represented by the panels you see, the interpretive art panels that are on display here. eight panels in total, but they will run the gamut of explaining some important history not only for our waterfront, but our whole history of our city. when it talks about the maritime history of the waterfront, it will also talk about the history of asian immigration and the challenges of a certain family member who lived through generations of the history here. i'll talk about that family. it will talk about the labor history of our city and particularly the hard history of our waterfront labor struggles. and that international long shore and work house union, yes, very important part of our city's history. (applause) >> are reflected in these wonderful artistic and historic panels. and that will just give us even much more of a deeper sense of

appreciation for what our city does with this. then this opens up a viewpoint that i know you know that i personally share because it's not just the history. we're also going to be opening up this area for even more people as we establish and get going on piers 30-32 and transform what has historically been dying piers into the hopeful new entertainment and waterfront arena. i know in less than five years, an additional 13 acres of open space will had. more of that will be open more and more to the public. i want to see -- see gail hunter, viethv of the warriors here. i want to thank you for your commitment to working with the city to try to make this happen. ~ vice president i think this will be a wonderful great entertainment sports center for our city. but again, the purpose is to bring more people to the waterfront and enjoy what our city has.

we're already starting to enjoy an event that everyone has been working on very hard for quite sometime, and i know i have with the board. and that is our 34th america's cup. and the jobs and benefits are starting to materialize even more deliberately and we're celebrating again more open space. that event has allowed us and caused us to accelerate. this project was worth every dollar of the $26.1 million that was spent on this project. it's worth it. projects along the waterfront are not inexpensive. as everyone here behind me can attest to, because they have to do with the challenges of water, dying piers, and all our infrastructure work that has to go with it. and, so, it is not only appropriate. we are blessed with four very contributing great resources that we use to fund this $26.1

million. the federal water resources development act of 2007, you have to recognize that. the california coastal conservancy. federal appropriations. and, danielle, again, thank our leader pelosi for her wonderful support. (applause) >> always, always there for us. and then i think constantly what i always enjoy in addition to thanking our federal support is our taxpayers of san francisco. but for the 2008 clean and safe neighborhood parks bond, this would not have happened. and that's a big shout out to all of the taxpayers in san francisco. thank you, everybody, for coming and to celebrate. thank you for enjoying with me a brief moment of time wasted and remembered all in celebration of this great waterfront. thank you. (applause) >> thank you very much, mr. mayor.

i really appreciate all those remarks, and i'm glad that you are as happy about it as i am. of the great features here is the fact that underneath where all of you are now standing is a fairly robust and rebuilt seawall. so, that was an important cadence of this project as well as a lot of great seismic features we are piloting here at the park and piloting a response to sea level rise. so, we're very, very proud of everything you can see and a lot of what you can't see. and we'd also like to thank our partners at our other city departments starting with our dedicate and had hard working board of supervisors. the department of city planning. especially chelsea ford ham. department of public works [speaker not understood]. rec and park, and don, calem and nathan who helped us get this far. and i want to thank in particular president of the

board, david chiu for always being there for the port when the waterfront has needs. and we look forward to a long future with him in that role. please join me in welcoming president chiu. (applause) >> thank you, monique, and good morning. so, when i was invited to come and participate at this event, i suggested that the elected officials, mayor lee and supervisor kim, that the three of us do a rendition of sitting on the dock by the bay. [laughter] >> and i just want to say thank you, otis redding, for sparing us of that. one of the things so special about that song is it refers to otis reding's experience of coming from thousands of miles away. i suspect it is true for all the officials here, we all came from other parts of the country to this very sacred space called san francisco. and my guess is everyone here, you either came from somewhere else, or you are the child of the grandchild of someone who decided to pick up from another dock from another part of the

world to be where we are today. and, in fact, over 160 years ago, this was the embarkation point for thousands of immigrants, particularly the first asian immigrants to this very spot. and i think it's very, very special that we are rededicating it as a community space. it takes a village for us to build a park and i want to very much add the thanks to the so many city staff that came together who monique and mayor lee have already mentioned, but i want to thank in particular the port for your leadership over the many years, all the departments, mayor lee. i also want to thank an agency that i had the pleasure of serving on that many members of the public don't know much about, the bcdc, the bacon certification development commission. (applause) >> thank you, bcdc. so, those of you who don't know, bcdc is the commission that is responsible for protecting the bay, protecting the access of the public to the bay, protecting the fact that our bay had for many decades

until bcdc came along, been encroached by developments that not everyone thought was appropriate. and i think it's so special that we are focused today on making sure that this very spot and spots around the entire bay are protected. one of the interesting design aspects of what we stand on right now is that this is built to withstand sea level rise because we know over the next 50 years, it's estimated anywhere from 18 to 55 inches worth of sea rise will happen because of our environment. so, i want to thank bcdc for that. i also, of course, want to add and echo my thanks to the voters of san francisco for approving bond measures in 2008 and 2012 to get this done. we know that this spot for decades to come will allow us to celebrate the history of our city, allow us to celebrate the very best of the present of our city, and allow us to continue in making sure that san francisco is the most amazing destination in the entire world for the 21st century. thank you so much. (applause)

>> thank you very much, president chiu. i really appreciate your kind words on behalf of all of us at the port and the other city departments. you know, this work was scheduled to be done by 2020. it's 2013. it's a really good thing. and it could not have come as quickly or frankly as inspirationally without the work of all of our partners at the community advisory committees and our neighbors. and i want to say a special thank you to all of the volunteers who have dedicated themselves so tirelessly. i want to start by thanking our friend mimi for her leadership and tenacity on this. (applause) >> michael sweet who i saw in the crowd somewhere. [speaker not understood], and ellen in particular. karin woods, isabelle wade, [speaker not understood], and redmond. they have passed on but they left us something really beautiful and we're pleased about that. i just want to say a special

word of thanks to all of the community that live here. thank you so much for your dedication to this project, for your patience, for your tolerance as we close bike lanes, we close passage through lanes, we close the sidewalks, we drove piles, we poured cement, we laid grass. it was all worth it, and we really appreciate how tolerant and patient and the cheer leaders that you've been in doing that. so, thank you so much. and a special thank you to the district 6 supervisor who has remained equally vigilant, but also very tolerant and patient, our very own jane kim. please help me in welcoming supervisor kim. (applause) >> first of all, what a treat to have otis redding iii here with us this morning. i am a huge fan. and as an elected official, as a politician, many of my role

models are musicians and otis redding is one of them. and he sang my favorite version of the sam cook song, a change is going to come. beautiful, beautiful rendition. and it is amazing to have you here to bless this site where he based his last song before he died too young. as a district supervisor for this area, i am genuinely excited to welcome a new park into our district. many of our residents know this. we have the fewest parks and we have the smallest parks in the city. and compared to residents of other parts that may have 25 acres per residence, we have less than one, about .7. so, this park is a very important addition to completing the neighborhood that we live in. an active waterfront helps address this deficit and i'm excited to see 57,000 square feet of a park and 400 foot

expansive green go up in this neighborhood. and monique said it, that this neighborhood really lives through that. and, so, i want to thank our residents. we fielded many calls as people lived through the building of the neighborhood around them. but i want to thank this neighborhood because planners and architects and developers, we can build a neighborhood, but people have to choose to live here. and the residents who chose to live in south beach and rincon hill and mission bay knew they weren't just come tog a place where they could call their neighborhood home. they knew that it was a place where the neighborhood would continue to build while they invested their lives here. and it also meant they would have to continue to be engaged and active around the neighborhood planning and future of their neighborhood. and so many of our residents are here. i'll name a couple that have been incredibly active working with our office, working with the port, working throughout the neighborhood.

katy lydel, rincon hill neighborhood. robert mans field. alice rodgers from southpark improvement association. mimi filbert, you were here way before many others were here with delancy street foundation. you experienced the brunt we're experiencing today. it is a beautiful new addition to this area connecting to the blue greenway which will be a 13-mile corridor along san francisco's southeastern waterfront that started here. karin woods, already mentioned our citizen bay advisory committee. many these folks are advising us on an equally noncontroversial project on the waterfront. [laughter] >> which we'll hear more about in the next year and a half. i also want to welcome the relative of the late wong fu yen who is with us today.