>> ok, i'm going to hop around like this, it is cold in here. that's dirt. this is a ground breaking. there is a big banner and if you've been involved in the project, you know that the banner has been up for a long time. it says the future of the neighborhood starts here. at long, long, long, long, long last, the future of the

neighborhood starts here. applause line. [applause] 116 years after this building opened, 116 years. we are on the precipice of just an amazing transformation of this space. commissioner, can you -- this is just recent history back in the day when, i don't know what we were doing here, but trying to keep the thing still standing. so that in i think it was 2002 or 2003, mayor brown and then recreation and park general manager, elizabeth goldstein and i'm not who was running mta at the time -- dan? michael burns. so we were able to transform --

well, this property was given to the recreation and park department and, boy, were we happy to get it, sort of. [laughter]. it's what i would call a fixer upper. and it has taken the last 16 or 17 years of sweat and desire and push and pull and push and pull. and leadership, which you're going to hear from today. and community leadership to get to where we are today. this really genuinely is the little project that could. and so here we are, it's just a joyous moment. mark buell, who is not here today. here's our mayor, but i meant to go over here to the commissioner. mark buell is president of the rec and park commission, and

says it takes a village. this takes an entire city to pull this project off. and there are so many people to acknowledge and thank. i'm going to that and then turn the microphone over to our mayor. there are a lot of people who have had some skin in the game here. let me read off the beginning of a list. obviously, let's start with the late mayor ed lee. who was here for -- [applause] our current mayor mark farrell who has been a park champion from the get go and helped make stuff happen. representing assemblyman phil ting. he delivered a total of $6.5 million of state funding, including $3.5 million for this

project. our recreation and park vice president allan lowe, who has given this project all kinds of leadership at city hall. we have representatives from the performing arts workshop here today. the community arts stabilization trust. you're going to hear from them. todd. joachim and amy, thank you, thank you, thank you. equity community builders who did the financing and historic preservation financing. officially the most complicated project in recreation and park department history. it makes the soccer fields seem like a cake walk. the san francisco community investment fund, sf, todd wearing two hats there, for the new market credit financing. darling design. former district 11 supervisor

john ablows. let's give him a round of applause. your district 11 supervisor, safai. the head of the arts commission, tom dekaty. department of public works, rob bot construction. i don't know if she's here, but our city attorney, she earned whatever she billed to this project, which was a lot, adira tailor. and two special people that i want to take an extra second to thank. there is a lot of other names i'm going to fill in over time. i want to thank two members of my own team. reama. and then nicole. come here, step up.

this woman right here. [applause] she started this project -- where is dan weaver -- working for friends of the geneva car barn. i stole her which made them -- you guys very upset. but you know, sometimes you can bang on the door from the outside and it takes somebody with nicole's talent to make it happen from the inside. this project does not happen without nicole abele. more thank yous to come, but let me turn over the microphone. the guy behind me has been all over the city, parks, parks, parks, there is other stuff to do, but all he cares about is parks, parks, parks, parks.

mayor mark farrell. >> i think phil took care of the thanks, but let's give a round for phil ginsburg, our general manager. thank you, phil. and to the entire rec and park staff, thank you for all the work you've done on the project. to assembly member phil ting, i know we're here in large part because of his efforts and want to thank supervisor safai. this was something he talked about when he was running for office. we talked about it in the board of supervisors. such an amazing advocate for the neighborhood. it was about 5-6 years ago that as a district 2 supervisor, weaver came to our office enough that we came here and went on a tour of this place a number of years ago. and so this has been an issue and project that because of the advocacy of so many of you has been in the forefront of

peoples' minds. who here is a neighbor? give yourself a round of applause. this is grassroots, built from the neighborhood, with a lot of support. but to cass and all the people making this work. i want to say thank you for everything you've done to get us to where we are. i'm curious about what is buried under the ground, looks suspicious to me. but this is phase one. advocacy does not stop in terms of the entire project, but thank you all for the work you've done, the leadership behind me. but really for the neighbors. and you know, continue to make sure that everybody knew this was a priority for you and what this will do for the neighborhood for years and generations to come is incredibly exciting. proud to be here today. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> so before i bring up the next speaker, i also want to give a

big shoutout to beth ruebenstein who has supported this project wearing a variety of hats. thank you, beth. so, this project has benefitted from the great leadership of two district 11 supervisors, but i am very, very proud to bring up the current district 11 supervisor, whom frankly we could not have asked for more from. he's helped power up our balboa park pool, scored funding for a dog play area, he just joined us last week at the opening of the geneva community garden down the street. which is amazing. he participated in the planning and design conversation to make the playground better. he was there to celebrate the bike project. this guy really fights for district 11 communities and

parks and green space. ladies and gentlemen, supervisor safai. >> all right. i'm going to take a minute to give a little bit of history. when i first was involved in this project, it went back to the geneva car barn, that's what we called it at the time, with marion harris, dan weaver, some of the folks and we met for hours and hours and hours. and every time we'd have an opportunity -- and steve courier -- and every time we had an opportunity, and sharon, i know i'm going to forget someone, linda, linda lighthizer who won't height lighthizer back then. and she would say you don't want to get involved, you do want to

get involved, you don't want to. but every opportunity dan weaver had, no matter who was in the mayor's office or the general manager was, he said i want to bring folks down to the car barn and we have to do a tour. and we have this amazing asset and resource in our community. it's one of only two historic buildings in our district. balboa high school and the car barn. because of the tenacity of that man and all the people i named and folks in the community, we're standing here now with phase onefully funded. let's give it up for phase one! [applause] and then we had an angel investor from the state assembly who knows his assembly district very well. and as he said, he was the parks champion of 2017. and that was assemblyman phil ting who came in with $3

million. and our former supervisor who was able to go through the outside of the budget process and push really hard and got the attention of his colleagues on the board, and with the tenacity of beth ruebenstein and we got an add back for this. take the advocacy of dan weaver, assemblyman phil tinge and then the leadership of the wonderful parks and rec manager, phil ginsburg. and phil pulled it all together. i can tell you my first week in office, i was standing there and i met tom and he said the people that you need that is going help bring this project to whole and bring it to fruition is cass. and i was like, what do you mean, what is cass? i've never heard of it? there you are tom. and we engaged them. phil is not exaggerating. the amount of time and effort and energy with the tax credit

and the new market tax credit and the historic tax credit and all that to be said, the financing and the layers that go into this project are tremendous. so rheem, nicole, phil ginsburg. he took this on as a baby. one of his projects that he has a lot of children, but he was not going to let this go until we got it done. and the wonderful city attorney taylor and all of them got together and were able to bring this to fruition. now, cass is charged with helping lead the effort for phase two, so we're excited about having them involved. excited to have moism, steve oliver and their entire team. this is not just a building. this is a place where we believe it will be the premiere performing arts facility in the

entire city and county of san francisco. [applause] so performing arts workshop is going to work with all of the different people in the arts community. and i want to recognize a special guest, david, from the conservatory of music. he's standing in the back. they have committed to be an initial partner here working with the performing arts workshop. and that is also as a result of reverend brown's leadership. so david, give a wave back there. thank you for coming out today. [applause] conservatory of music is going to be a big part of this, along with performing arts workshop. we're so happy that district 11 is no longer treated like the forgotten part of san francisco, but a rising tiger in the city. and thank you to our mayor for supporting us.

[applause] >> a couple of other quick shout outs as i see people in the room. equity community builders, john clawson in the back, here's the genius of the tax credits. and then john is pointing at his colleague, kim nash. kim, john, thank you very much. supervisor safai used the word tenacious to describe dan. i'm going to describe another, that is amy cohn who helped to make this project happen. i got to introduce rheem and nicole, but i see kara and koch who helped to run the capital program that is responsible for building these amazing parts.

we talked about assemblyman ting who couldn't be here today, parks mvp of 2017, so accepting the award on behalf of assemblyman ting is his aid alex walker! >> thank you, phil. good morning, everyone. it's great seeing so many friends and neighbors here today. my name is alex water, here on behalf of phil ting. i want to say myself personally, i've been a neighbor of the project, at mission terrace, i've been a neighbor here 7 and a half years and it makes me so proud to see this coming to fruition. i know we had a lot of people to thank, because so many people with the hands in our project. i want to recognize the surrounding community leaders. al harris here from the omi and thinking about all of the children and the people this is

going to serve, i see joel from the outer mission merchants and residents association. i see mel from the excelsior district. and you know, we're also going to be seeing across the street, housing built by mission housing. so it's great to see a transit hub building here. as mentioned earlier, we were proud to get $3.5 million in the budget to help get the first phase started. on his behalf i want to say thank you. one more shoutout, i see genesis is here, from david chiu's office. and a connection with david

chiu's office, a shoutout to judson, who is the chief of staff, but used to work for sandoval and it goes all the way back. so it's so great to see years and years of work by dan weaver, so many people come to fruition. we were so proud to get a little bit of money to get things kick started, so happy to see the process. thank you for having me, thanks to phil, the commission, the supervisor and the mayor, great to be here today. can't wait to see the first phase when it opens up. thank you, all. >> thank you, alex, a couple more shoutouts from the design here is what takes your breath away. from darling design, we have josh, able and nicole here. can you raise your hands? thank you, josh. and by the way, the design, much

of it it was in-kind contribution to the project which makes it even more special. thank you, josh. and alex mentioned mission housing across the street. sam moss is here? sam is not here. never mind that. i was told sam was here. moving along, so i have lots and lots of bosses. last count 890,000, but within that, i have this boss and then i have seven bosses on the recreation and park commission. i also have 11 on the board of supervisors and lots of others. but the -- it is really a pleasure to work with the rec and park commission. they are the people's voice and that's a really important thing in parks. but there is very much a shared mission of trying to steward what is the best park system in the united states of america. and it is a great joy to work with the vice president of the commission who blocks and cheers

for parks like the best of them. my pleasure to bring up allan lowe. >> thanks, phil. just wanted to tell you this morning i was sitting on my kitchen room table trying to think of something inspirational, motivational about patience and waiting. and i just said screw it, let's just build it. speaking of patience and waiting, i really want to acknowledge dan weaver and the friends of the geneva car barn. that was a long community advocacy. it's gone longer than my marriage and louder than my wife. glad to have this happen. i want to acknowledge all the civic leaders, in particular the

late mayor ed lee, who really wanted to put this into execution. and the mayor's office and their staff. joachim, when i first joined the commission told me about the geneva car barn and i said, i don't know where that is. i want to thank the tax credit investors, the financing to make this possible. a big shutout to the department staff who pulled this together. our general manager who held our hand and explained to us what -- inside tax credit investor joke. but thank you. rec and park, we have the saying let's get out and play. when this opens up, i think we're going to have to change that to go to the power house and create. thank you. [applause]

>> all right. so, the city folks have done their thing. now we're going to transition to community past, present and future. so i'm first going to bring up the chief on the project, tenacious, but dan, it is truly an honor given the length of the journey to invite you to speak. you all know him, ladies and gentlemen, dan weaver. [applause] >> thanks, everybody. i'm just the face of a board that has been from the beginning together with us and we've been working and moving and dealing with whatever happens. by order of a rival here, al

harris. [applause] if i say your name, would you raise your hand if you're back there still? alex? over here? neil ballard. tom? over here. mel flores. sharon everhart. i'd also like to acknowledge two of our former board members. one of whom has moved on, or both of whom who moved on. steve courier. and supervisor safai was on our

board. and one more acknowledgment here before i say a few words about the history of the project. marry harris at the district 11 council was always ready. [applause] and also advocating for this project. even when i wasn't there, she was working on it. lots of times. thank you, mary. let me go back to the beginning how this all happened. one more person. christie. who took over when al adams left the school and has been carrying on as well as he was carrying on in the beginning. they provide us with all kinds of meeting rooms and classrooms and offices over the years.

that's a great contribution to on organization trying to put together a space. let me go back to -- actually this sign is historic. it was put together by muni. in the year after they stopped trying to demolish the buildings. in 1989 to be exact, this complex was red-tagged. muni pursued a 10-year process which resulted in an eir, saying there are bricks that might fall from this brick structure. and therefore someone might get hurt, so the buildings have to be demolished. we persuaded them, or explained

to them at historic preservation advisory committee that we could repair the bricks and the building wouldn't fall apart and it wouldn't hurt anybody. and we could use it for a community center. it took until january of 1999, when mayor brown issued an order to muni to stop their efforts. and work with us to fix the building. in 2001, this being san francisco, muni proposed and carried out a neighborhood celebration for the 100th anniversary of the geneva car barn. so in 2002, the nonprofit friends of the geneva office building and power house was

formed. in 2003, we partnered with rec park informally, because rec park didn't own the building then. we worked with the two agencies a little bit. and muni readily agreed to give it up for $1. so it was a bargain. [laughter] in 2004, we started working on the project. the office building over there was stabilized, with a new roof. this one wasn't stabilized at the time, it didn't need a new roof, but now it does. >> this is why we want to move -- >> yes.

that's true. [laughter] the 2012 parks bond was the perfect opportunity to get this thing funded. it didn't happen because of the bureaucratic situation our organization was in. we couldn't participate in it. so that opportunity went away. 2015, the arts commission and oewd jumped in again to try to move the project forward. the proposal was to do it in phases. this is phase i. we're celebrating the ground breaking of the beginning -- or the phase i effort. i want to thank, acknowledge mary murphy from gibson dunn,

architecture services by aidan darling design. we've already met. [applause] >> finally, the message of this message is phase i, great as it is provides only 3,000 square feet and one room. we also need phase ii, which is that side over there, with i has 17,000 square feet, many rooms and spaces of different sizes to multiply the number of events and activity we can have here at one time. thank you. [applause] >> ok. we're going to keep moving.

but one brief correction, this project actually does have $3 million in 2012 clean and safe neighborhood park fund money. so lots of funding from lots of different sources. so we're very proud of that. now, let's turn to the future. we've talked about the past. let's talk about the future. i'd like to bring up tom, from the arts commission, to introduce cass and the arts performing workshop to talk about what comes next. >> thank you, phil. it's so exciting to be here this morning. i have the privilege of being part of this project for the last six years and as a neighbor, i can't thank my community neighbors enough for this fight over the years. i know we have plenty of work ahead, but i'm committed as a partner at the arts commission to making that happen.

this is a neighborhood with one of the highest density of children, youth and families in all of san francisco. it's also a neighborhood that lacks a cultural facility like many of the other neighborhoods in san francisco, so it is overdue that we finally have a premiere cultural center in district 11. [applause] and it's exciting because it's not just this facility that is happening, we are also about to break ground on the art center with our partner art span. and we continue to work with incredible partners like youth art exchange, art span, performing arts workshop and all the arts and culture organizations that service and work in district 11. it's also the home to a growing number of artists as it's one of

the last remaining affordable neighborhoods. so, before i get to introduce our tamazing arts partner, this includes a public art project as part of the build-out and we have three incredible finalists. hank willis thomas, allison peb worth and they'll be putting together proposals for art in the building. we look forward to sharing that with you and getting input. i am so thrilled to introduce our partners at the community stabilization trust. we were hosting the deputy mayor of london and colleagues from london who are here to host a

summit this november. one of the things they've been so excited about in san francisco is the community arts stabilization trust, otherwise known as cast. cast was founded through a grant from a foundation and work with the office of economic and workforce development in the community loan fund as a holding company. they've helped save a number of arts in san francisco and have been critical partners in making sure the arts remain a critical part of san francisco. i'm sad that their executive director can't be here this morning, she's not feeling well, but so honored to introduce their director of real estate and partnerships and i'd like to welcome her up to say a few words about the project. >> thank you, tom. good morning, everyone. friends and long time supporters

of the geneva car barn project. i am so excited to represent cast as the director of real estate and partnerships and on behalf of the executive director, our staff and board of directors, we're so honored to be a part of this long-coming project. and we're excited to be part of the activation of the geneva car barn and power house. today is an important day and we're here to celebrate the ground breaking. let's give it up for the san francisco, the rec and parks department and the wonderful members of district 11 for whom this building is going to an instrumental part of the neighborhood. [applause] just to share a bit about cast work. we're a nonprofit in the business of cultural place keeping, through keeping arts and culture here in san

francisco. we've done so through the support of a cohort of vision airs, generous funders and completed our first two projects with luggage store gallery and, stabilizing two nonprofit cultural centers in the central market and tenderloin neighborhoods of san francisco. we can't wait to do more. we're excited to do so through the rehabilitation of this phase. a culturally rich and historic asset we've all known has been vacant for a very long time. our role is modest as cast. we've entered into a long-term lease with the city's rec and park department and we're looking forward to participating in the redevelopment and long-term operations of this space. as phil and a number of others have mentioned, we joined the chores of leaders for -- chorus of leaders. we're fortunate to be working

closely with performing arts workshop, a nonprofit organization that has over 50-year history of providing youth oriented arts education programming and we're excited to have them be the anchor tenant of this space and look forward to the reactivation of the building. i want to say how proud cast is to share this moment with all of you and we're eagerly anticipating the reopening of the geneva car barn and power house for arts and culture in our community. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. so next it's my proud honor to introduce emily, the executive director of performing arts workshop. for those of you that don't know, i have the honor of serving as executive director of performance workshop for nine years. i see my predecessor, jessica, who is a district 11 neighbor,

who is now program officer with the foundation which has been a long time funder of workshop, this project and a number of other cast projects. so please welcome emily garvey. >> thank you, everyone. i want to say first of all, what an unbelievable honor it is to be taking the baton along with cast in this final lap of the marathon that the renovation of the power house and car barn has been. when i walk into this space with folks, which i've done a lot over the last 11 months, everybody's breath is taken away and they comment on the light. i say, yeah, i know, but can you imagine what it's going to be like when the windows are done, there is going to be three times

the light in here. that's not going to hold a candle to how bright and alive this place is going to feel when it's renovated and filled with community members and children. the light and power generated by our youth engaged in the arts is going to rad yat past these walls out into the community and supervisor safai said, draw the district 11 community and beyond into this space and into district 11. we are so honored to be part of that process. when the power house programming is in full swing, we look forward to working with an additional 2400 community members and youth a year. we will be activating this space constantly. there will be young childhood programming in the space during the day, after-school programming, we'll be working with a variety of community partners talked about today, acting as a convener for the

assets that exist to run adult programming, family arts programming. activate this space as a performance venue. it's going to be a rich and vibrant facility. currently we work with 4200 kids a year, around 90 spaces. public school, preschools, after-school, transition housing for homeless families and we're excited to come to district 11 to put down deep roots in this community that we've been working in for 40 years. we're thrilled about that. it's fitting that the doors are wide open. when we come into this space, usually we walk in through the back and it's incredible to see the open door there. it is metaphoric in that when we are here as residents of the geneva power house, there will always be an open door.

we're so excited to fill this space with arts and culture and the incredible energy of young people. thank you. >> so mayor lee used to say, i'll keep it short. because i am. it's too late for that. but i'm going to put the microphone back. all right. here we are. i would ask everybody to come up and grab the group assembled here, you're all welcome. grab a piece of the shovel. we're going to turn some dirt. and then we're going to welcome you all back in early 2019 to the geneva car barn and power house. thank you, everybody. [applause]

three, two, one! [cheers and applause] [ ♪ ]

>> commissioner: i'd like to call this meeting to order. welcome everyone to the tuesday march 20th meeting of the san francisco entertainment commission. i'm bryant tan the commission president and before we start the meeting put your phones on vibrate, commissioners and members of the public. second, if you're a member of the public and would like to speak during public comment we have speaker cards up front which you can fill out or come up when i ask for public comment and finally, thank you to sf gov tnd