celebrate the acquisition of two very important buildings here in the tenderloin and mid-market for two organizations that have held strong in the mid-market area for a long time and that's leading and -- luggage store gallery, i want to recognize mr. smith and jessica from counter paul. it's so fun to be able to kind of switch roles as our arts community grows. i remember going to the intersection of the arts and now they are here a block away at 5 m and dr. cohen is now the director of yerba buena center for the arts. that is community begins to evolve, we are here growing the job sector here in mid-market. in 2011 when the mayor held a press conference

across the street, we had the highest vacancy commercial rate in the city. what we are seeing now at mid-market is that everyone wants to be here now. of course what that means that everyone wants to be here, what does that mean for the arts community that has always been here. this is going to keep artist and the artist organization here. it was great to work with the california community loan funds and the office of economic development to make this a reality. over the past couple of year with hard work and procuring money and property owners we were able to procure these sites to ensure the arts remain here permanently. this is a huge effort. it's not just the elected officials that get to stay here. it's the main market

community that holds this together. whether it's the collaborative that continues to advocates for public safety and all of you that make this a viable and dynamic and exciting community and diverse. that's the challenge here. we are trying to revitalize this area and still remain diversity. it's not going to happen easy. there is going to be a lot of challenges. but what's exciting is that everyone here from the mayor's office is committed to making that the reality here on market street. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, supervisor. and to talk about the incredible entity that has been created to help us celebrate today is the

president of cast and also a board member of the foundation. that is eric roaden back. [ applause ] >> hi. i would like to thank mayor ed lee and supervisor jane kim. it's incredible to be standing here with them. thank you. we appreciate the commitment the city has shown forecast and for the arts community. i have lived in the tenderloin for 10 years and this is a warm spot in my neighborhood. this used to be a cool neighborhood in san francisco and it's great to be back on track. as the mayor said, this is the greatest place for economic development for the community and it's also important educational resource and help us transcend barriers

across these communities. these dynamics are as the mayor and supervisor said are seriously impacting the art and we need a permanent solution to address the displacement of our organization. we collaborate with local government agencies, businesses, and civic leaders and artist to purchase and lease space for artist in the organization and to develop and expand their facilities and purchase their own facilities. we are developing this with the can an foundation and we fund arts in san francisco. and it's with the city's key artist the need for space which forms a huge challenge. it doesn't matter how much we provide if we don't have a place for

performance art. we are providing $5 million in seed funding over 5 years to cast. [ applause ] northern california community loan foundation has extensive experience working with arts organizations and they helped us identify these two key properties so we can start doing something about it. they also understand the concept of buying new property in this neighborhood and that adds to the investment in the neighborhood. if you invest 100s in $100 in the neighborhood you get $20 back. we look forward to working with them in the future in concert with the mayor's central market economic strategy. so our first major undertaking, this includes two pilot projects in the district focusing on

supporting counter post and the luggage gallery. as a board member over the years we've awarded these project grants and given some organization to put on the project. my co-board member is engaged in multiyear capacity building grants. an organization that we can help create their own capacity so they don't have to continuously rely on us and this was in someway that we heard over again what they needed mostly to be successful was affordable space. this is a step in the multiyear effort. we are proud to announce these two projects. with your help we can move this further. we need foundation and individual investors to help us expand this work. we know that we can expand our role. we honor the reliability and we

invite you to join us. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, eric. now to the beneficiaries of this incredible outcome. first we stand in front of the luggage store today so i want to welcome darryl smith. >> thank you, mayor lee and supervisor kim, the focus that you are bringing to this project. i want to thank all of you for being here. looking out at you i see the diversity that is reflective of what mid-market and tenderloin encompasses. i wanted to bring your attention to this structure that local artist

dustin made. it's kind of a scrapie recycled construction of the buildings that are to symbolize our home, our continuation and to be able in mid-market and to be able to do what we do which is to support artist and their formative early careers and to also to support the notion of affordable living for those artist. there are several hundred artist that moved here and began migrating to central market during the time of the dot com that forced them out of the mission. this is where they came here. we moved here in 1991. we had a beneficiary who rented our top floor for $600 a month. purchasing a building wasn't even an idea or

endeavor. today with the conditions that are in play now, as been expressed by the mayor and supervisor are very vital that we protect through acquisition, not only buildings for the arts organization but the residents who live here. yeah, that's what i want to say actually. when i moved here, my mentor was richard from the theatre. there were only seven arts groups. the community arts program was one. on one hand i can count the active arts group. today there are over 30 arts group throughout central market and the hundreds of artist who are here and that make work and struggle to live

here and make work through their domiciles. i look forward to the language that you expressed that so very well for that kind of support. the way we can partner with the it community. i think they were here, they were attracted to the language of the emerging arts district. it's real. i think that it's on us to sort of pave that way for their integration and support and securing sustainability of arts in the tenderloin and central market. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> i want to give a big thanks, i want to do a couple big thanks and one is to my friend alvin padilla who showed up here 3 years ago and i have to say that he's been an inspiration to me and all of us

have touched hands with alvin and the tenderloin economic development project. so, it's all of us working together, the non-profit housing group, the arts community, that we should be as our show is titled the whole pie. thank you. [ applause ] thank you very much, joe. before we bring up our final speaker, i want you to know the whole pie is a function of our people. i want to thank amy cohen, our staff from economic enforcement and to the san francisco police department, especially captain for all the extraordinary work they do. to laurie from the luggage store. laurie, at work and jackie from

the hospitality house and director to ensure the programming is available here for folks. to mary' from the california community loan fund and of course to the godmother of the arts kerry schulman and the san francisco arts commission tom mccaneey. now our final speaker, i would like to make sure we give a special shout out to you robin love who hands out a huge effort of accountability. which will have it's new home. jessica, thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you so much to mayor lee, supervisor kim and the amazing folks at cast and clf and owe. it's an exciting thing for a grass roots oration to

-- organization to get out of central market and building a new home. this builds community. what that means in practical terms is that we find dance and theatre artist whose voice haven't been heard yet. we give them support and freedom to create new work and we form with grass roots and non-profit to form that. we are only moving 5 blocks and that gives us a chance to partner with the tenderloin rich organizations. we are excited to be in this journey with the luggage. we are going to fund raise a major campaign to purchase a new home. we are looking for leaders of that campaign to share with the power of art. i recognize many of those leaders are here today. i see colleagues from

the 950 project who will be our neighbors and arts partners and organizations and collaborators from the tenderloin community and sisters and brothers in social service and social justice. i see building owners who have the ethics and foresight to invest in our community and those seeking to positively impact their new neighborhood and of course the rain an san francisco foundation who has been working on this issue for a very long time. thank you all. [ applause ] as the other speaker said, this is a milestone and time for celebration but also just the beginning. we have a lot of work to be done. we have work to do as a community because counter post and the luggage are the two that need stability and we need to help our organization to be able to stay in this city. it's been quite a while to be here in this

moment. i want to thank the staff. and our board who have each made a deep personal commitment to this project. without their support, i wouldn't even consider doing this. we are only one organization, but we are part of a larger ecosystem. that's why we have been in conversations over the last 9 months with neighborhood residents and businesses to think about how can we leverage the transition from one building to an entire community. we are building theatre and a cafe. we ask for your help with the physical transition but more than that, we invite you to be part of the dreaming for a larger organization that this room is possible. we are a space for possibility. we have a sign up sheet going around because we want to invite you. we couldn't

do it today but we want to invite you at our new home and talk to you about your vision for the neighborhood because we are all in this together. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, jessica. i want to make sure we acknowledge the rain an foundation president and ronnie fung. and in addition to the services we have available we want to make sure we announce the technical program to ensure those organizations that want to be here can be here and we have the resources available to do that work here in the central market tenderloin. for more information visit our website and follow us on twitter. thank you for coming. congratulations. [ applause ]

>> >> first of all, i'd like to start out before we get started with our ribbon kci terminal cemetery actually, we have a congratulate message it's what they say in japan it's a congratulatey message we've received from the deputy administrator from japan who i think you can see on the screen. i'm going to read it in japanese

and then in earning >> (speaking foreign language.) >> so i'll read that briefly necessary english. it says i'd like to congratulate you on the opening of our new facilities in san san francisco. i look forward to the center

becoming a focal point for united states and china. to further their research to open up a new era in business 13 from the japanese folks. thank you very much >> (clapping) >> okay. so now i'd like to ask an important dpoifts to please come to the stage for a brief speech. i'd like to ask mr. mayor ed lee give him a round of applause >> thank you, my japanese is not as good as yourself. i'm glad to be here as the mayor of san francisco and joining jane kim in welcoming the first

international incubator right here on market street the innovation capital of the year. i want to thank the general for being here per he's here because he knews we're an international city. we host some 72 foreign consulate offices here. we're host to 18 sister centralize and one is in japan. i'm delighted that today on this wonderful announcement of digital garage 707 is in the heart that combination of the digital garage incubator headquarters in the innovation corridor. i was talking to some of the media they know this is part of our commitment to market street.

that we want this to be the incubator innovation for the whole year. i have sincerely announcements one is the recognition that innovation isn't done locally we're part of on integral market the talent is here and technology interest is here and we make a long-term commitment to discover better ideas in business or comfortably the quality of life better. the acknowledging other announcements is to thank the digital garage because they've begun in the very kind of value oriented way we also wanted to see good businesses start and they follow in the tradition of

many tlaevented japanese companies that have come here per not only do we want them to be successful we want to share. this is the story of san francisco. supervisor kim and i are not about business success but success for everybody to share in that success and that's why i'm so moved that when the d g 717 starts here thief chosen 3 entities to receive the sporp, the grants that they have to start here. this is so asian in my opinion because i've wanted to do that with every successful effort with our success we bring others aboard

hospitality house is a well-known community based artists project that helps the homeless are getting a grant from digital garage. also the asian law caucus they're getting a grant. someplace pits close to my hearty used to work that and jane as well. and then something dear to my heart which is the mayors cup and the commitment to the first key program is also getting a grant as a result of this opening. so those 3 entities are being supported by digital garage. so on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, in fact, on behalf of all of technology companies d g 717 now becomes the 1 thousand 8 hundred

and 23rd technology company in san francisco. i want to congratulate them and thank you. on behalf of the city i want to present this to this gentleman. if you come forward to present this the proclamation from the city declaring today to be digital garage day in san francisco. thank you (clapping.) thank you very much. mr. mayor ed lee mayor of san francisco. now i'd like to ask the district 6 san francisco supervisor ms. jane kim to please come to the stage for a response

>> thank you justin. it's actually a good reminder it's important to support our language schools in san francisco being bilingual and transitional is an important part of our city to be able to compete in an economy. so the mayor and i have the honor of going to all the ribbon cuttings participate in the south of middle market. this is the first incubator space we're coming to which is an international collaborative workspace. i was speaking with some of the employees how many of us came to san francisco 13 years for the first dot come boom.

many folks went from the colleges to the hot economy at that time. of course, we had the bust will cycle that followed and we're seeing something that's exiting the diversity of the economies and the businesses are incredible. this is excited about this step we're seeing on international collaboration this notice not just in san francisco but in asia. i'm sure you're aware it's been the mayors responsibility to collaborate to share ideas together. that's how innovative business and products are going to be created and brought together for our people. so i'm also here on behalf of the 11 members of the board of supervisors to welcome digital garage d g 717 to the south of

market. i have an accomodation. i want to say one last thing. both the mayor and i came from a background of advocacies so we know how important it is to have relationships we're not a dividend city. we often have to kind of negotiate and really push companies to consider investing and giving back from the git-go but there's none of that digital garage came and immediately said how do we invest back into the city. you don't have to convinces this city. asian law caucus and it was a wonderful organization. we have some members from the

asian caucus here. where are you? we have some of our youth leaders from asian caucus that have done work to support immigration reform. we have so many young people that came to the i see at a young age from a convolute process don't have the same access because of their jobs in the country. they've been courageus about how they can access higher education. and i want to recognize hospitality house jamming i didn't changing is our executive director. when people ask me how we're addressing homelessness in the center it's by hospitality house. one that people go to and they

have an arts center. by supporting those organizations it's going to be a wonderful partnership. and seeing people how to golf is a wonderful wonderful thing thank you. again and i want to present this accomodation on the part of the board of supervisors to the d g in our start up incubator where you're beginning our start up we what to thank you for this opportunity for the ribbon cutting (clapping.)

thank you very much >> thank you and welcome again. >> thank you (clapping.) thank you very much. okay. now moving on i'd like to ask an important guest to come to the stage he's the acon suicidal of japan welcome him to the stage >> (clapping) >> good morning, everyone. it is a great privilege to be here to celebrate the opening of the incubator system in san francisco. i want to say thank you very much to mayor ed lee for making his time availab