dpw. >> good morning. or good afternoon rather sorry. thank you very much for coming today, we're her to honor our first responders from the mission bay 511 bay fire last month they're standing behind me i wanted to introduce starting with mayor ed lee thank you for being here (clapping)

chief suhr, chief joanne haynes-white (clapping) edward reiskin head of mta and mohammed head of dpw and rebecca kate's rebate can animal care and control (clapping) so san francisco prepares for and cooperated and plans for disastrous everyday we're good at it we do it to practice our life saving skills so we know how to communities with one other but most of all to protect our public and residents of san francisco and to protect our first responders. today is also the one hundred and 8 anniversary of the 1906 san francisco earthquake. we went to lotta's fountain this

morning to remember those people who came before us who were brave and worship reliant that made san francisco come alive but it made us remember the great fire over after the earthquake and the biggest it threat today is the fire that's going to happen afterward so in 1906 we're better prepared today with better plans and we are prepared with better infrastructure. we a that's why with the mission bay fire last year because of the all of the the work we did with the infrastructure and planning with our response that's why we were able to respond so successfully it was that investment we made over the years to insure that san francisco is present for the next big earthquake and fire.

it's a huge honor for me to be surrounded by our first responders that are the heros of san francisco. you'll met them but first mayor ed lee who i feel like the luckiest be able manager in the country because mayor ed lee understands what we do and he's a huge advocate so mayor ed lee thank you >> thank you very much (clapping) and thank you for your leadership we were there at the lurngz practicing for a potential earthquake with a sue anonymous and that's how valuable it is to have a department of emergency management that trains trains trains and anticipates thinks out of the box pee has all of us as emergency people from the city practicing how we do it better and better and we learn

something every time we come together. we learn from other disasters and international disasters prosecute other countries we we bring that back home and think about more. i'm proud to be in front of the of so many people who decade all their professional lives being a great team of first responders to the city i'm proud of what you do not only on the hours you spend many the office at auditor sites and stations but i think as emergency people you're also thinking ahead and planning for the unaccepted the mission bay fire was totally unspeeded as we're creating all the new housing that a fire would occur there we're ready and thank you

from the top of the city's management from our chiefs to the department head and thank you to each and every one of you how you responded and take care of things and the way you handled the people's calls and every agency including our animal care and control we other than duo don't think about that. we prevented injuries it could have happened in the worse occasions and we dealt with the traffic and all aspects of it. that's another highlight of our city working with the people that value their profession. many of the individuals i've worked with for 23 years i'm proud to be the mayor. we're going to keep on doing

that and take opportunity to learn about every event not only in our city with this particular fire but with what about oakland and jose all of the thinking expected things naegsz to disasters we've got to be prepared this is what i know people who want to live in our city the companies that want to come here they depends on us and anticipate what could happen. that's what he do with the opportunities we 0 get with the public. i ask the public to please support of the emergency bond program in june we're trying to look around the corner and see that our police departments and fire department's are seismicly safe and we'll have the crime lab and all the other

professionals. we have those bonds are representations of things to our public if you support those things we'll take care of you and anticipating the things we don't know what's going to happen. in order to do the bonds and do them right and keep the property tax low we have experts from the public works and can we make sure that we do this in phases and not cause behalf on behalf of cost and honor them and finish those projects on time and within budget so the public confidence of how we used money can be repeated over and over to take care of things. the emergency response needs money and investment and need our communication with the

public. so i an opportunity to say thank you to all the people who worked on the fire to save lives and hopefully we won't have the accidents. we go on to the other things we need to do. i think you're going to see through the summer it's going to be hot we need the infrastructure supported and see us demonstrating what we, do with more use of our high pressured water system. i'm going to be on the west side of the city walker and educating people how we use our other infrastructures we have to pay attention to so later on when we ask for support of the water systems they can help. same thing i've worked with the

chief to have additional classes and all the investor have a good result and a good discussion that that ann thank you and keep on educating us and training together and to all the departments thank you for your reaction to the event and thanks for being there for other events you'll be there for you. appreciate it (clapping.) thank you very much mr. mayor it's now my pleasure to ask the very best fire chief in our country chief joanne haynes-white to say a few words >> thank you and good afternoon, everyone thank you for coming out it's fitting that we're alm what happened one hundred and 8 years ago and that was the 1906 san francisco

earthquake and the fires that raged for 3 days after that. as was mentioned earlier we were commemorating and celebrating and putting up the reminder with the community members to be prepared. the dp m before i said many times before has done a great job they're the glue that holds the entities together and i applaud the dpw. i applaud mayor ed lee it's a privilege to work with him he's the challenge and having been a head of the public works he gets it. he expects teamwork not only with the fire department but across all departments and behind me we wouldn't have been as successful he without the great teams across all agencies

starting with the dpavpz that worked with with us to get our crews to the scene and dpw and puc and animal care and control our police officers and so many people working together to chief the goal of containing the fires. obviously my hat is off to the men and women of the fire department after this event we're going to do a democrats we were very challenged only thing march 11 and used many of the tools in our toolboxes this put us to the test and it was a perfectly executed example we had windy conditions and no fire protection systems in that building weaponry able to contain just that building threatening neighborhoods and so

i was very grifd to see the response and capacities of all the departments we all rose up you shoulder to shoulder to get the job done. we're appreciative of the community for the investment they've continued to make 90 in our infrastructure. some of the systems are aging they need investment we're glad for the easter bonds the earthquake bonds it has put valuable bonds back into our infrastructure and city to so question, get to the scene. it's important to acknowledge all the people the men and women behind me for the work they did only in mission bay but everyday we're appreciative of our public being so supportive of public safety. the mayor said we'll be there it

takes about 3 to 5 minutes but like the day in october 1, '99 we're going to need the public's help it's not going to be the 3 to 5 minute response the more everyone is prepared we'll be able to get into our recovery phase. the dp m has is sf 72 website we're proud of our response team it's 18 hours of free training we ask everyone to check that utility it's in english and spanish and cantonese. we're proud to partner with all the agencies behind me. we're glad that was notice loss of life are major injuries it

would have been different had we not made the efforts in training and equipment. we have members here from the san francisco fire department so show you a demonstration of one of the options we used the low pressure and the domestic water supply and the emergency water system and also put into operation in front of me and behind you our portal water system. because of the drought condition none of the water is going wasted it's coming from the bay over here so please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones, mayor it is a great example and illusion of the investment that a has been made in our infrastructure and the investment that continues to be made. so this is good in the event of

a disaster, however, the water system people think that the emergency water system is only used in large-scale emergencies that was a focused emergency in mission bay we used the higher pressure system in any occasions with that, i'll turn this over to my colleague and thank you, mr. mayor. and mta your huge you're the unsong heros we get a lot of acknowledge but a lot of corporation that day. even for me to see the parking control officers to guide me in make a difference because every minute helps in an emergency. thank you (clapping.) thank you chief joanne haynes-white.

we're going to take a second i need my two people just honoring the unsong heros as the chief said working everyday to keep us safe the fire department they extinguished the mission bay fire (calling names) holly and others from engine company b representing all their colleagues (clapping) as you've heard many other city agencies respond as with most responses it begins with a call to 9-1-1 a dispatch called for the units on march 11 and the dispatches play a huge role they're the lifeline for the

responder we have safe dispatch responders (calling names) thank you very much for the work you do (clapping) access to high pressure water systems is also critical that's the public utilities commission p they were the gatekeepers that day thank you (calling names.) (clapping.) we talked about no loss of life there was no loss of pet lives thank you animal control. today, we s have officer and the other law enforcement official. thank you very much. of course, coping our residents safe is what the police department doesn't everyday the

mission bay fire the san francisco police departments had control around the area we have officers and captain here from the bay area station representing all their colleagues. thank you (clapping) lots of people from mta helped us. the fire shut down the muni metro line and left people scrambling. our team officers

(calling names) are here representing their colleagues. thank you (clapping) so let's have other round of applause and i'd like to invite the irons to stay for a picture with mayor ed lee and i hope you'll stay for the demonstration with chief joanne haynes-white the demonstration of the water system. of the water system. thank you all so much for do you like this top? that's so gay. really? yeah. it's totally gay. you know, you really shouldn't say that. say what? well, say that something is "gay" when you mean it's bad.

it's insulting. what if every time something was bad, everybody said, "ugh. that's so girl wearing a skirt as a top." oh. you are. ha ha. shut up. those are cute jeans, though. >> what if you could make a memorial that is more about information and you are never fixed and it can go wherever it wants to go? everyone who has donated to it could use it, host it, share it. >> for quite a great deal of team she was hired in 2005, she struggled with finding the correct and appropriate visual expression. >> it was a bench at one point. it was a darkened room at another point. but the theme always was a theme of how do we call people's

attention to the issue of speci species extinction. >> many exhibits do make long detailed explanations about species decline and biology of birds and that is very useful for lots of purposes. but i think it is also important to try to pull at the strings inside people. >> missing is not just about specific extinct or endangered species. it is about absence and a more fundamental level of not knowing what we are losing and we need to link species loss to habitat loss and really focuses much on the habitat. >> of course the overall mission of the academy has to do with two really fundamental and important questions. one of which is the nature of life. how did we get here?

the second is the challenge of sustainability. if we are here how are we going to find a way to stay? these questions resonated very strongly with maya. >> on average a species disappears every 20 minutes. this is the only media work that i have done. i might never do another one because i'm not a media artist per se but i have used the medium because it seemed to be the one that could allow me to convey the sounds and images here. memorials to me are different from artworks. they are artistic, but memorials have a function. >> it is a beautiful scupltural objective made with bronze and lined with red wood from water

tanks in clear lake. that is the scupltural form that gives expression to maya's project. if you think about a cone or a bull horn, they are used to get the attention of the crowd, often to communicate an important message. this project has a very important message and it is about our earth and what we are losing and what we are missing and what we don't even know is gone. >> so, what is missing is starting with an idea of loss, but in a funny way the shape of this cone is, whether you want to call it like the r.c.a. victor dog, it is listen to the earth and what if we could create a portal that could look at the past, the present and the future? >> you can change what is then missing by changing the software, by changing what is projected and missing. so, missing isn't a static installation. it is an installation that is going to grow and change over time. and she has worked to bring all

of this information together from laboratory after laboratory including, fortunately, our great fwroup of researche e-- g researchers at the california academy. >> this couldn't have been more site specific to this place and we think just visually in terms of its scupltural form it really holds its own against the architectural largest and grandeur of the building. it is an unusual compelling object. we think it will draw people out on the terrace, they will see the big cone and say what is that. then as they approach the cone tell hear these very unusual sounds that were obtained from the cornell orinthology lab. >> we have the largest recording of birds, mammals, frogs and insects and a huge library of videos. so this is an absolutely perfect opportunity for us to team up with a world renown, very

creative inspirational artist and put the sounds and sights of the animals that we study into a brand-new context, a context that really allows people to appreciate an esthetic way of the idea that we might live in the world without these sounds or sites. >> in the scientific realm it is shifting baselines. we get used to less and less, diminished expectations of what it was. >> when i came along lobsters six feet long and oysters 12 inches within they days all the oyster beds in new york, manhattan, the harbor would clean the water. so, just getting people to wake up to what was just literally there 200 years ago, 150 years ago. you see the object and say what is that. you come out and hear these intriguing sounds, sounds like i have never heard in my life. and then you step closer and you

almost have a very intimate experience. >> we could link to different institutions around the globe, maybe one per continent, maybe two or three in this country, then once they are all networked, they begin to communicate with one another and share information. in 2010 the website will launch, but it will be what you would call an informational website and then we are going to try to, by 2011, invite people to add a memory. so in a funny way the member rely grows and there is something organic about how this memorial begins to have legs so to speak. so we don't know quite where it will go but i promise to keep on it 10 years. my goal is to raise awareness and then either protect forests from being cut down or reforest in ways that promote biodiversity. >> biodiverse city often argued

to be important for the world's human populations because all of the medicinal plants and uses that we can put to it and fiber that it gives us and food that it gives us. while these are vital and important and worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars, the part that we also have to be able to communicate is the more spiritual sense of how important it is that we get to live side by side with all of these forms that have three billion years of history behind them and how tragic it would be not commercially and not in a utilitarian way but an emotio l emotional, psychological, spiritual way if we watch them one by one disappear. >> this is sort of a merger between art and science and advocacy in a funny way getting people to wake unand realize what is going on -- wake up and realize what is going on. so it is a memborial trying to

get us to interpret history and look to the past. they have always been about lacking at the past so we proceed forward and maybe don't commit the same mistakes.