don't want to do too many thank you's, but i want to introduce phillip stone, who is the treasurer of the board. phillip and i came in here at the same time when this place was falling around. and when you opened the doors, they fell off their hinges. >> yes. >> he even got threatened by one of the staff people at booker t. who threatened to beat him up and grabbed him by the collar. so that's what it has been like. but the three of us, including larry griffin, who is our board claire, have been around this project for a long, long time now. what we really ended up doing is having great supporters like alice barkley. where is that girl? alice represented us legally pro bono for years and years and years.

[ applause ] outside of saying, "pat, shut up. you don't know what you're talking about. just do what i'm telling you to do, and you'll be all right." phillip just wanted to say a brief word before we introduce our incredible mayor, mayor edly. >> thank you. welcome to all of you and thank you for coming. i just want to -- larry will introduce the board of directors but i just want to tell you what the program's going to be. we're going to introduce the board of directors and many, mayor lee, willie brown, london bree and kevin killburn will give a few statements. after that there will be a ceremonial ribbon-cutting outside. so for those of you who want to take pictures of the ribbon-cutting, before it starts, you should go outside. it's a better pick from outside than inside. the other thing is that there

are people you see with these name tags that are typed. that's part of our staff and that's part of our board. if you have any questions whatsoever, talk to them. pull them aside and test them. okay? i hope they read their cheat sheets. okay. and i give you larry griffin, president. >> yea. [ applause ] >> good afternoon, folks. and thank you, everybody, that is here. this whole project was a community effort. it wasn't just one or two people. it was a lot of people led by phillip and by pat, so. our board members that are here today, our vice president is carlos reid. carlos. >> whew. [ applause ] >> he's also the athletic director for drew that uses our gym quite frequently and andrea

patton-housely is in the house. >> she's here. andrea. [ applause ] and there is one person i cannot forget to mention and that is ferris mackris. yes. that's an incredible member of our board. we do have a couple of people missing today. however, we have a couple of folks here. >> and ugee is here. ugee worked here for a long time as a youth counselor. this is ugee tom, right here. [ applause ] ugee has been absent for a while now because she's in medical school at u.c. davis and she will be coming back to us as "dr. tom" one day. >> that's right. >> yes. the adam is not here. that, i think -- >> eric is here. >> oh, eric sapphire. where is he? >> yea! >> [ applause ]

oh, eric. my god. come on up here. eric is -- this is really a good thing to see eric, folks. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> how are 'ya? [ applause ] >> okay. >> no, no. you still have shelly. >> oh, my god. shelly bradford-bell. do i need to say anything about shelly bradford-bell? i don't think so. i think most folks know the bell. okay. folks, according to my speaker, i have the honour of introducing someone behind our project 125%, and that's mayor ed lee. can we get a round of applause for him. [ applause ] >> thank you, larry patton, phil.

i remember being here when we turned the spade of dirt. it's been a long, long time. but you're all still here for the ribbon-cutting. i remember art agnos, john and willie brown. we're still here to turn over the dirt. yeah. [ applause ] it's taken a while. it's taken too long for the purpose set out by the community, for people working with board president, london breed, for way too long waiting for this. because some of the youth we wanted to serve, they're adults now. we still have got more to do. this is only 50 units. but it took a long time. and it's one of those examples where when we have got something important, we ought not to have lawsuits stop them. >> yeah. >> we have to do a better job as

a community if we are going to serve them. and booker t. has been there since day one. and i want to say, booker t., thank you for doing all of the work, all of the good work. [ applause ] so -- so before someone accuses me of being too long, i'm going to say thank you to everybody. i know it was a barrage of different sources of money, not just the city, not just equity, not just john stewart, not just the state. not just raymond james, not just cit ibank. -- citibank. all of them putting together youths, the service center. i'm looking forward to the young people who come through whose lives will be touched and changed so, when they say they're part of booker t., they're part of the city, they're part of the future. this is san francisco. love and compassion for everybody. thank you.

[ applause ] >> supervisor breed has reminded many he we have not told everybody what this project is. we have 50 units of housing, half for young people that have aged out of foster 0 care or are at risk of homelessness. so those 25 units, more than half of them are filled now. we also have 24 units and 50%, 60% -- at 50%, 60% median income. that means it is, the rent is about $50 a month. i just had someone ask the city to buy that for $800,000. >> it was rick. >> that's right. that's exactly who it was. so we have -- for those 24 units, we had 1,300 applications. >> wow. >> so the housing situation

here, particularly for young people and for poor people is really acute. and i will definitely be on hand tomorrow when mayor lee signs this sequel legislation because it's absolutely needed. and there's nothing else i can say about it. we have to cut through the red tape so we can create more housing for the people who live here. our kids can't afford this. >> yeah. >> yeah. i want now to answer. >> yes. >> what? the community center london is on me again for not explaining stuff. we have a community center that now has youth radio studios, so we'll have a san francisco radio over here eventually. right now we have a media and tech center. we have childcare. and jimmy john is organizing the

childcare. they were here two weeks ago. it is great to see these 2-year-olds running around this place that we've never seen before. we've got another playground that was built by the parents and the children. they designed it. it was built with the help of lucas film and disney. we have a full nba gym that can be divided into two smaller gyms. we are in partnership with drew school. drew school came to our rescue because we had to have an unemcouple bettered site to build this. we had a half a million mortgage at 10% interest and drew paid it off. [ applause ] >> whew. so we've continued to do what we've also done which are programs for young people and after-school programs for those young people between the ages of 5 and 18. we have a mind/body

health center now in addition to the gym, and we have a music studio. so we're ready to go. the other thing we do, is we teach cycling. and we have 50 bicycles. and we have a cycling center downstairs. we teach kids how to navigate the streets of san francisco. and we teach them how to do minor repairs. you will notice that the two principal things we have, cycling, which is -- which is one of my passions, and radio, which is another one, are here in this center. i'm sorry about that. but that's -- that's how that happened. yes. yes? >> okay. >> we wanted to also point out that we have some elected officials here today. and other than the president of the board of supervisors, we have supervisor jeff sheehy here with us today. [ applause ]

and we also have state senator, scott weiner. thank you both for joining us. >> all right. it's hard to introduce a man with blue suede shoes, but it can be done. i'd like to ask the former mayor, speaker of the assembly, the honorable willy "blue suede shoes" brown to join us. [ applause ] >> let me thank you who have waited so long and put in so much time and energy. i think that the evolution of booker t. washington community center in to the facility that was described by pat a moment ago and including, clearly, the

50 units of housing. the ad vent of john burton being as dedicated as he has been for multiple chores. he assumed the responsibility a long time ago on behalf of all of the elected types to do something about kids who reached 18 years of age and who were then free allegedly, but without the kind of support and services needed to allow them to grow into full adults. john's undertaken all of that. and to acknowledge that here at booker t. washington is a good thing. some of you may or may not know, but booker t. washington community center was exactly two blocks from where i lived. i lived at 2547 sutter, apartment 326, right here in the west side housing, public housing. that's right down the way. my uncle had the rental

arrangement and, in those days, nobody checked. and so he had -- he had some other relatives living there with him and i was one of those other relatives living there with him. and booker t. was where you'd go. and then, of course, you know, over the years, i morphed in to being a participant and lots of things around the city. and i started to coach a team, a little basketball team. we called it the globetrotters. and it was -- i mean, it was a great team. we, clearly, won games at every community center, whether we played at booker t., whether we played the ones at woo cannotin, whether we played the ones at cannon kip. we would do what guys do. i'd go to washington and get the best player out there. i'd go to mission and get the best player out there. i would put together all of the

best players. leroy doss was the best player. he was the number one center on the team. john will remember and probably agnos as well that the only alive black republican in the world ran booker t. center. his daughter and his son and it was amazing how this was designed and people participated. jim stratton was here and he was the booker t. washington executive director. a mean son of a bitch but in every way and when in college london the organizations called -- i guess you would call them alpha,

calpa, all of us. this is where we played when there was a fraternity league going booker t. is where we did exactly that. we didn't know about all of the people living out in hunter's point. they were foreigners. we didn't bring them over here because we had a black community that was incredible and booker t. was near the center of that black community. and it was just a wonderful thing. and to now have it redone to seat it this day in age, it is a godsend and -- and to have it redone in this day in age, it is a godsend and as said, you can look to do with the right kind of resources, the right kind of leadership and the right kind of

dedication in a city that is dedicated to facilitating. and booker t. suffered through all of those years and all that approval and all of the other places can learn from booker t. and do it with greater speed. >> mm-hmm. >> but not with any more love. thank you. [ applause ] >> as most of you know or most of you don't know, this center is broken into two parts. we have our community center on the far right here. and then we have the housing complex which is where everybody is over here. we're where the 50 units of housing are. and that housing is named after a gentleman named john burton since i've known when i was knee high. he was knee high, too. he wasn't an adult yet. this was the john burton housing

complex funded largely by the john burton foundation. and we'd like to have john come up and say a few words. please, sir. [ applause ] >> whew. >> and while john's on his way up, i'd like to mention that rick moriono is here who is the president of the board of directors of the john burton foundation. >> whew. >> [ applause ] >> thanks a lot, larry. i would first like to thank our board members, rick and mariono who played a big role. because he knows development and trying to help pat through some of this snake pit stuff that they go through, including the fact that one of the city agencies was not going to elect -- it wasn't the mayor's office. he told us that that's giving it to him. but they would not let us park cars

because there was a little piece of paper that hadn't been signed. and pat's very polite. i would have said, screw them. tow the mayor's car away and see how he gets there. but rick mariono and -- there she is. who? who else is here? who? >> tammy. >> oh, yeah. tammy and i had a stroke. i don't remember. [beep] and this is us talking. i was a ymca kid. we were playing in the tenderloin. we were playing basketball at booker t. probably the most troubled guy was jones and willy will remember. this was west side that had a

church and gym. first united presbyterian had a gym. a lot of churches had gyms where young kids could play. and it doesn't happen anymore. in the rebirth of this, it's just a really great thing. and i'm so happy that we could be part of it. because this is going to be a real community center. and i believe after the neighbors around here and pat will tell you how many were supportive and how many weren't. no, i don't know that much. but people will see what can happen when a community gets together and does something for young people. it improved the community. and as the mayor goes, they could build homes not for people

that do not have homes. so there is a big difference. i'm proud that we were part of this. i've known larry, you know, worked with pop herman and willy going back to the corpses -- the corps days and senator weiner who took over my district, twice removed i think i was. so thank you for being here. you've been introduced. jeff? all right. i don't have to introduce jeff sheehy again. thank you, larry and pat. you went through a lot to make this happen. let's hear it for them. [ applause ] >> folks, there was one former elected official that i'm sorry i forgot top introduce, but we have mayor art agnos with us

today. [ applause ] >> talk about going through beep beep we had to seriously deal with a lot of bureaucracy and policies that didn't necessary conform to what i saw happening. so i had a lot of dogfights with a lot of different people and one i had a dogfight with and i just saw him, olson lee. there he is down there. i'd like to now introduce our supervisor, supervisor london breed, who is also president of the board of supervisors. >> good afternoon, everybody. today is a day of celebration. and i've got to say, this feels like a coming home to me. when i -- not too long ago when i was 14, this is where i came

when you were, woulding in the mayor's youth training and employment program. so my first job, i had to come here in the gym and do my orientation to get paid. and what's interesting is you learn about the city because they're paying you, so you have to sit there and listen. and you learn about people like willie brown and john burton and art agnos and their history here in the city and trying to change policies in order to make our city better. and i never thought that here today we would be celebrating something so incredible that you all laid the foundation for us to do. so i just want to pay respect that you've done your entire careers to make this happen for the city. it's amazing. it's beautiful. and what is even more amazing about this place is we have been able to use our neighborhood preference legislation for the affordable housing here. i have

just got to say, ron cane, my buddy here born and raised in this community now lives in this community. and i can't be more proud for the work that we've been able to do to make that happen. [ applause ] you know, it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears. i want to thank everyone for the mayor's office for the hard work you've done and the $10 million and the tax credits. i want to thank jeff krzyesnski who is here from the mayor's homelessness office and that we support the most at-risk people to get the opportunity and to get the services and opportunities that they deserve in this community. i mean, this center is amazing. i did a walk through and was almost in tears thinking about this next opportunity for the young again rage of young people, and how this place will

continue to change lives for generations to come. and it wouldn't have been possible for two people that i've got to point out. first of all, phillip, and i don't know where re went. there you go. phillip stone. his family. his family and i don't know where he went. there you go. phillip stone. his family has been part of this since years ago. he is still doing all he can to take care of this place. so, phillip, on behalf of the city of san francisco, the mayor and i -- i took the mayor's proclamation and decided to put my name on there. oh, wait. too soon? too soon? okay. and the city and county of san francisco, i just want to commend you and thank you so

much for your support and love for booker t. washington community center. thank you. >> yeah. [ applause ] and last, but certainly not least, if i get another phone call from this woman and every time the call would be always about the children, always about booker testimony, always what she needed to take care of this community. you know what, pat? people doubted you. i don't know where they went. they doubted that you would get this project done. you went. you shook money off of trees. you contacted everybody under the sun. you made magic happen over the years to get this thing done. and, pat, we love you. we appreciate you. we thank you. >> whew!

[ applause ] [ applause ] now, pat said, as soon as i'm done with this, i'm going to retire. you know what, pat? there is still work to be done. pat has done an amazing job of creating the next generation of leaders to make sure this community center is working for this community center and thriving. jerry and lakiesha, they're here still after many, many years being groomed by pat for the next generation. so i just want to say thanks to each and every one of you. the work and the love that has gone in to making this place happen is a realty. this is what we can do when we come together as a city to make beautiful things happen. this is what is going to change the next generation. this is what is going to change our country. thank you very much for being

here today. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> i am, obviously, going to miss a lot of people to thank, but i do really need to thank the team that put this building together. the architects, we started out -- steven perry, are you here? and derrick worked on the project and religiously went to all of these meetings and changed things and took the blame when things didn't work and will take a lot more blame when we are done working around to see what is not going to work. >> the punch list. >> yeah, the "punch list." at any rate, equity builders has been the developer of this project and have worked tirelessly to make this happen, even though kim -- kim nash, would you raise your hand, please. >> whew. [ applause ] so kim's got one of pat scott's

hanging up on you because something didn't actually work right. it has been really phenomenal to work with folks. fisher development came in when our developer quit on us. >> whew. >> and they've been there with this project. so we still have a lot more work to do with fisher, too. so this project isn't complete. but we will have it complete very soon. right now we're going to do a ribbon-cutting. and then i want you to explore this new facility. our staff will take you to see some of the apartments. you're free to roam around and look at what is going on here. particularly, take a look at the playground and jimmy john's because now we can fill a really great need in this community for childcare, for those 2 to 5. it's great to look out the window and see these little kids climbing all over everything. so the story is we are a community now. we saw this as a

community that needed to come together especially with the hovering list of 3%. when i came to school here, it was closer to 15%. what we have left is a very vulnerable population. we have to fix that. that is our responsibility. we have to make our young people whole so they can survive in this society. that's where we are with this. so, with that, let's go through to the ribbon-cutting and then can you get to tour the facility. thank you all very much for showing up. [ applause ]

>> so move.] >> second. >> all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> opposed? >> item three, comment on the executive session. >> is there comment on the public session? we're here and the public isn't. can we put that in the minutes? all in favor say yai? >> aye. >> i move to reconvene in open session. >> second. >> all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> opposed? >> i move to not disclose anything discussed in closed session. >> second. >> all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> opposed? madame secretary, next item. >> pledge of allnc