present on this item. >> i am speaking here in my individual capacity and not as your legal advisor as the contracts before you pertains to the firm that i am currently affiliated with and the firm that i will be affiliated with starting next thursday. our firm that has been providing legal services to you is splitting. the firm will be splitting into two firms. a new firm is being created called renne public law firm, and that is the group that i will be affiliated with, starting on march 1. we will be located in the offices that are currently located in, and have a similar name, but it is a brand-new firm. in order to allow me to continue to provide legal services, we have made the request that the lafco agree to an assignment of the existing contract with the existing firm under the same terms and

conditions without any additional extension from the old firm to the new firm for services beginning on march 1. any services that are provided between now and the end of february , including, for example, my attendance here today, will be provided on behalf of the current firm, and the current firm will eventually submit a bill for those services for anything between now and the end of february . and so with that, i'm going to go ahead and defer to your interim administrative officer for any additional questions, but if you have any questions about the split of the firm or how that is going to work or what this means for you, i'm happy to provide that information. but as far as from my perspective, you will not see any change. the only change will be the name of the firm that i'm affiliated with. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. yes, miss calvillo? >> yes, thank you, miss

stricker. the other point that i wanted to make is we had the city attorney's office review the terms of the assignment agreement, and they have signed off on all of the language. we're happy to provide that to you, as well, members of the commission, and that beginning march 1st, the assignment agreement will take place, and we will have all of the files transferred from the hyde, miller, owen and troste to the new renne law group. >> supervisor fewer: okay. colleagues, any questions, comments? okay. let's open this up to members of the public. are there any members of the public wishing to comment on item nine snoo seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion to approve the contract for renne law group, llc. great. moved by commissioner ronen,

seconded by commissioner pollock, so approve the contract for the renne law group, llc as our law group. madam clerk, can you please call item ten. >> item ten is public comment. >> supervisor fewer: this is the time for members of the public to address items on the panel's jurisdiction and not on the agenda. are there any members of the public that would like to speak. >> yes. eric brooks. this time i'll speak on behalf of our city, san francisco and the san francisco green party. as you move forward and start working on affordable housing, there's a desperate issue that's not being addressed in san francisco and that is small businesses, local small businesses. they are going out of business as if there's a wildfire going through the city. the costa hawkins repeal bill and ballot measures that are in

planning are not going to solve the problem. in my neighborhood, we've lost micano's possibly the best greek restaurant in the united states. polk street produce went out of business because of increased rent. the gangway bar, one of the most historic bars in san francisco for the lgbt community is going to have to go out of business or move. in commissioner fewer's district, she knows there's a natural food business that's being driven out of the district because of the decision by the building owner. we are losing key businesses so fast in this city that san francisco's not going to be recognizable in the next decade if we don't do something about this. so as you move forward on supporting affordable housing and the homeless, we also need

to think that some of those homeless may be small business owne owners that went out of business because no one can cap their rent. and that in turn is replacing all of our businesses with formula retail. it's just -- we're not going to have san francisco unless we solve this problem, so i'd urge you to put that on your future agenda. thank you. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much. seeing no other public speakers, public comment is now closed. madam clerk, can you please call item number 11. >> item number 11 is future agenda items. >> supervisor fewer: are there any future agenda items that my colleagues would like to comment on or discussion. seeing none, let's open this up to members of the public. are there any members of the public who would like to comment on item number 11. seeing none, item 11 is now clerk. madam clerk, are there any other items of business before

us today? >> that concludes your items of business for today. >> supervisor fewer: there being no further items of business, we are adjourned. i want to thank everyone for coming here, all of the guests and leaders standing behind me. we're here today because history, earthquakes and climate change compel us to protect our city. history. over 100 years ago, the 'em sea wall was built and we're fortunate it lasted this long. it was built at a time when they

didn't know how to stabilize against earthquake risk. we know the big one will strike us at some point over the next three decades. and if it does, we'll see flooding along the water front. climate change, despite climate deniers we know that the estimates of sea level rise by the end of the next century are 4-10 feet. we need to fix this sea wall. what is it that we're trying to protect? millions of san franciscans and californians who live work and play along the waterfront. we see 24 million tourists visiting our waterfront every year. it's imperative we protect this asset not just for san francisco, but the bay and the california economy. i want to again thank everyone standing behind us, our mayor, board of supervisors. when i was on the board of supervisors, i served on the

capital planning committee, where we planned for how we took care of tens of billions of dollars of assets. this is at the top of the list. i want to thank my current colleagues in the legislature. you'll hear from scott wiener. in 2005 they established the financing district we're talking about today. she had drafted the legislation to ensure we're investing in infrastructure as well as historic resources, the bill we're discussing today is to ensure we're expanding what it is that we're protecting. protecting our shoreline, ensuring we can rebuild our seawall. before i introduce our next speaker, i want to say two things. we're here in part because we have to come together as a community. you'll hear about the efforts at the local level, as well as at the state level and what we had

hoped was going to be the federal level, but despite what donald trump is saying what he is doing about infrastructure, none of us are holding our breath. so san francisco and california need to act. we're here for our kids. and our grandkids. none of us are going to be around when the next century turns. but my hope is my son and his friends and his next generations, will look to this day as a day that our city leaders came together to care for and steward the assets of our city. our next speaker is someone who has children of his own, and i know that he cares very much about ensuring that the future of our city is in good hands. i'm delighted to help introduce the mayor of the city and county of san francisco, mayor mark farrell. >> thank you, david. i am proud to be here as the mayor to thank -- [horn honk]

i'm going to start off. i want to thank mr. chu along with assembly member ting, but specifically on this issue here. leadership is critical to the future of our city. critical to the future of the waterfront and proud to be here at this announcement today. our waterfront is one of the most iconic parts of san francisco. it always has been. subjects of pictures, it's why tourists come here. it's one of the most beautiful parts of our city. and holding up the waterfront is our seawall. these are the buildings, the waterfront, the restaurants, the small businesses, but it's been holding back the bay to make sure that our tunnels are not flooded. holding back the rising tides of our san francisco bay to make

sure we can walk along the waterfront in front of us here today. it is critically important to san francisco today and to the future of our city. we need to do everything we can as a city to make sure it survives and it's strong for the next generation. this project is not cheap. i want to really thank elaine for her leadership and the entire port commission for making sure we plan for the future. it is a $5 billion project that we have to plan for. the voters of san francisco will have a bond on the ballot going toward this effort. and the bill is going to play a huge start in kick starting the project. and let's be clear, this is about planning for the future of the city. it's about infrastructure and making sure our city is resilient when the next earthquake hits. the next earthquake will hit.

it's not a matter of if, but when. we need to be strong and ready to respond and make sure our infrastructure is ready to protect the residents of our city. proud to be here today and really want to thank assembly member chu for his leadership. thank you, everyone. >> thank you, mr. mayor. some 13 years ago in 2005 when they established the legislation to take what were known as public trust lands owned by the state to turn them over to the authority of our port department for stewardship, i want to thank elaine and her department and commissioners for bringing this to our attention for so many years. i championed the earthquake safety emergency response bonds. there were two of them over the years. unfortunately, we were not able to the bonds to develop or create the assets to protect what we have here at the port. with that i'd like to bring up

elaine forbes to tell us where our seawall infrastructure needs to go. >> thank you so much, assembly member chiu. i'm representing the port staff. we have the port commission president by my side and she'd she's been a steward of the waterfront for 20 years. i can say this is a dream come true day for us. it's remarkable to see the leadership behind me embracing and supporting the need for investment in the waterfront. as our mayor and assembly member has said, this seawall is a work horse for the city. so much economic activity. the infrastructure. and there is other things, too, that the seawall does that goes unseen. it's going to be the place of emergency response. we expect people to go out by water in the event of a major earthquake and goods to come in by water.

this has to hold up. if we're preparing and preventing disaster, it will be five times less to do so proactively. this represents how we can get this done. how this daunting task of a $5 billion effort will come to fruition because the leaders behind me are making this a priority. we start with the $500 million phase, laying out the improvements for 20-30 years and then tackling the most critical pieces first. i want to give a huge thank you to naomi kelly behind me. she pole vaulted this project along with mayor lee by identifying it as a critical piece of infrastructure for the city. so we're so -- port staff, port commission and i are so excited for the day, so thankful for the

state leadership for assembly member chu, ting, getting us $250 million for the project, should this be approved, we'll work hard to get it done. we're so thankful the leadership has heard our call and is going to prioritize a safe and vibrant waterfront. thank you so much. >> i'm grateful to my colleagues for representing this effort. phil ting, as well as our next speaker, senator scott wiener. >> thank you, david, i want to thank assemblyman chiu for his leadership. when we served on the board of superviso supervisors together, we all care about infrastructure, but

david took so much leadership on not just the sexy infrastructure, but on the infrastructure that we depend on but the people don't see. and the seawall is certainly part of that. i want to thank the port. i am really trying to work and support the port's effort to move this bond to the ballot. i want to thank elaine, my neighbor, and the entire port staff for its leadership on this critical issue. this is really about two realities of life. sea level rise and earthquakes. and as much as we want to wish them all away, we can't. the big earthquake is going to come and unless we take radical, radical action today around reducing carbon emissions and fighting climate change, we're going to continue to see sea level rise. and sadly because of the disaster known as washington d.c., there is no bold action

happeni happeni federally to address climate change, and we're doing what we can but this is a national problem we have to resolve. we're going to continue to see significant sea level rise. our downtown is so at risk of inundation, we're doing what we can to reduce carbon emissions. doing what we income the bay area. just a year ago we passed a tax to start restoring the wetlands destroyed in the bay area 150 years ago, because that will help us to mitigate sea level rise. but with everything we're doing, we have to have the seawall. it has to be intact, has to be able to with stand an earthquake and be able to protect us from the bay. we love the bay, but the bay is going to cause us problems when it floods the muni subway tunnel and downtown areas. we need to get this bill passed.

this is just one step. we need the bond. we need this bill and a lot more work to fund this project. i look forward to collaborating to get it done. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, senator wiener for reminding us we're putting the sexy back into infrastructure. i want to thank everyone for coming together. i want to invite the next speaker, someone who has been a champion for infrastructure in our city, supervisor london breed. >> thank you, everyone for being here today. you know, it's easy to talk to residents of san francisco about the need for more housing. the need to address challenges with public safety and homelessness and things we can see. what is harder is trying to help people to understand the significance of the things that we can't see.

the infrastructure needs that hold our city together. we know the consequences when we don't do what is necessary to protect our infrastructure. we only look at new orleans and what happened with the levies and how that devastated that particular city. and so we in san francisco, we must be proactive, we must take these kind of bold moves and creative solutions. i want to thank assembly member david chiu for finding a very creative way to help us pay for it. i want to thank the voters in advance, because this fall, we're going to have a ballot measure that is going to help with $350 million to help in this effort. we know that there is so much work to do in san francisco. and as the president of the board who now serves on the unknown capital planning committee, the needs of our infrastructure are at the top of my list on a regular basis.

i want to thank not only noemie kelly, but also elaine forbes. she would reach out and say, supervisor, i want to meet with you about the seawall, i say, wait a minute, i have to work with this challenge. she always brings it back to how important it is not just to protect my district, but to protect the entire city. her leadership along with port commissioner president kimberley brandon that been outstanding. they've been in sacramento, in d.c., they've been all over the place trying to put together the money for this particular seawall and i know with their leadership and the work of all the policy behind me, we're going to get this done for the people of san francisco. thank you so much. >> thank you, president breed.

our final speaker is someone who represents the district we're currently in who knows that it is her residence and businesses that could be flooded if we do not invest in the infrastructure. please join me in welcoming supervisor kim. >> thank you, assembly member chiu. as someone who represented your sister district when we both served on the board of supervisors, we understand the importance of strengthening our seawall, shield that prerkts our residents and workers and many of the tourist attractions up and down the waterfront. mayor mark farrell, myself, supervisor cohen and peskin represent the districts that are along the boundary lines of the seawall lot that we're here about. so much of what we love about our city is just along the waterfront, our housing, offices, jobs, transportation, the giants who i see in the audience today. it is important to make prudent

investments today to strengthen the seawall shield and strengthen the unbreakable bond between the city of san francisco and the waterfront we love so much. i want to thank our san francisco delegation in sacramento, for making sure we're prioritizing the very infrastructure that will keep the city beautiful and running, thank you very much. [applause] >> that concludes today's press conference. again, appreciate everyone coming together around a plan to protect the future of our city and our seawall. any final questions? we will end the press conference and open it up to folks to ask individual questions. thank you very much.

>> 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