they used to be a time when the city could go it alone and do it by itself. but that time has long gone. week are a complete region. sent this sculptor san francisco post's future is tied to oakland, berkeley, as it is to silicon vallie and san jose. our region has to work this way. we need to step up and sat -- sacramento and that is what we do every single day. i am proud to chair the bay area caucus and we are a caucus but we are fighting for the critical resources at the bay area. because if we don't, we will know there is an economy at stake and lives at stake and there's a quality of life at stake. we have seen what happens in washington and pelosi is fighting the good fight out in washington and we see what disastrous decisions have just -- occurred in the last 16 months. decision after decision is attacking the environment and attacking california. attacking everything that we

have fought for as a safety, as a state, everything that we believe in. our legislature, we are sitting here and we know we are the tip of the spear infighting and leading that resistance against what president trump is doing. we are not scared. we have amazing leadership. we are going to continue to represent this region and fight for projects like this and fight for our quality of life. fight for our economy and to make sure that we make good. if this is any evidence of what can happen when the feds, the state and the city can work together, we will make good on that for the coming generations. thank you was paul's -- [applause] >> as each decision is made in san francisco, and this board of supervisors and other boards of supervisors, you always have to

acknowledge the members who have done just that. unfortunately, there is only one of them here today who has done just that. the other two are newcomers. we want to be nice to them because they will have to vote accordingly. in the not too distant future. clearly, their introductions would be far more generous once they have performed. i'm speaking of course, of the recently appointed supervisor vallie brown who is here as part of the cooperation and former deputy city maternity dish attorney in oakland and now supervisor in our city, raphael mandelman. they will be of great assistance. and the person that will be calling upon them initially to do great assistance, as she did so carefully, so cleverly and so precisely with her other ten members during the course of the

last several years, is the district supervisor, from here in this particular district, the sixth district. she also became a member of the board of directors that orchestrated the joint powers authority and orchestrated this entire project. she has gone through all the steps of being able to help produce what you see today in a most dramatic fashion. i'm speaking of course, of the supervisor from this district, jane kim. [applause] >> when i joined this board, the board of supervisors and the transbay joint powers authority, in 2011, as many of you remember, we were in the depths of the recession. many of our construction workers hadn't seen a job for years jake i still remember the day that we

celebrated our groundbreaking with our director and our mayor ed lee, as we welcomed workers back to the job site for the first time in years. i think it would have been difficult for any of us to predict what would follow in the years following. even with the economic cycles and swings that we are all familiar with, i think the economic growth that this area and region has seen over the last seven years has truly been extraordinary. and as a representative of this board in the city and in particular, representing a part of the city that is absorbing close to 80% of san francisco process development, it has been my honor to oversee such tremendous growth here in san francisco. i do want to recognize, and this is quite a long program, because it has taken us close to two decades to get to this milestone. many people were involved in making not just this terminal

possible, but also this neighborhood possible. they have been recognized by state senator john burton. i just want to thank him because he not only fought to make sure that we were funding this terminal and the regional transportation network that would follow, we fought to ensure that this neighborhood would exceed any type of affordable housing standard that had ever been achieved before, which is 35% of low income working in class and middle class housing in this neighborhood. it is so important that as we build, we build a neighborhood that includes all people from those who were formerly homeless, to middle-class families and to the many workers in this region today. it is also been mentioned several times, but i want to thank our leader, nancy pelosi who has never missed a milestone in the center. she may not remember this, but at the cement pouring, i made the mistake of wearing high heels to the event.

i tripped, not only once, but twice on the walk over to the podium, in front of all the t.v. cameras. i still remember the one advice that she imparted on me to that date, about attending construction site openings. she turned over to me and she says, wedges, jane. [laughter] >> i have since taken that advice at future groundbreaking set i have attended. i mention all of these things because this was a huge project to bring to fruition. over 20 years. many partners, and i also sit on the san francisco county transportation authority. at our director is here. this authority has brought in over $200 million and sales tax to this project. of course, our state delegates,

to mtc and i -- i see our chair is here. to the multiple regional and federal transportation agencies that made this possible. i also, as a representative of the district want to thank the residents and our workers. i want to recognize our tjpa citizens advisory committee and our east kutch community benefit district. our director is here, for really working alongside this project for all of these years. and shoring it is one that not just would serve the region but serve our neighborhood workers and residents as well. i want to thank our residents for their immense patience over the many years as this neighborhood has become ground zero of construction, literally 24 hours a day. add to thank you for investing in this neighborhood, choosing to live here, and patiently living through the noise, the night construction can't get all of the traffic and continuing to advise the terminal in terms of

how it can continue to serve the neighborhood. the san francisco police department will also be a huge partner and making sure this terminal remains a beautiful centre for this neighborhood. i know our captain will be shepherding many of his resources here and his deputy chief will ensure that he will get those resources. i also want to recognize our commander who will ensure that have the proper community relations to make sure we are serving everyone in this neighborhood and that everyone is welcome here. it is quite extraordinary to see this no longer in a two dimensional piece of paper. but actually in real life. i should note that we are still celebrating phase i of this immense project. so we still have at least two more phases to go. i just want to thank, as mayor brown has, in advance, all of the many partners who will not

only ensure the caltrain downtown extension but high-speed rail to ensure that san francisco and this terminal remains a major hub for the bay area and for the state of california. thank you very much to everyone involved. congratulations. thank you also to maria for shepherding this project. [applause] >> thank you very much supervisor jane kim garrick whenever such projects of this nature are envisioned, and in which it takes them to into account people from the entire region, joint powers authority was created for that express purpose. that joint powers authority has a responsibility to choose someone to guide them. that is before there is any dirt turned, that is before there's any selection of a person to

design the project. that is before before there is any selection of persons to build the project. in each one of those steps, somebody has to do the guidance. that guidance starts, with the feds ones that individual has been selected and it goes to the state and then it goes regional and then it goes local. believe me. and the challenge that you face in order to do that. you better select someone who can survive in every way back in every chance, and every opportunity that is presented and produced. i have the great pleasure serving as mayor of san francisco, to open the office on saturday mornings at 7:00. anybody could come in for ten minutes and talk to the mayor. one of the persons who came in for ten minutes and talk to the mayor was a young lawyer working

for one of the local companies here. the cut -- in the conversations with her became clear. she did not belong in the province sector. -- private sector, she belonged in the public sector picture became a staff member of my office and then she got stolen by the joint powers authorities to become the executive director, the first executive director of this effort. believe me, it was a great challenge. at every turn, as usual, in the public world, it was always underfunded and slow pay, great decisions that had to be made, acquisition of real estate that had become, sometimes, at the assistance of the city attorney. all those things had to be negotiated. nobody did it better and nobody executed more appropriately and got all of us to the point where we are celebrating today then did the first executive director

of this project. loblaws. >> -- [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, leader pelosi, mayor breed, distinguished guests, good morning everyone. it is a pleasure to be here at the inauguration of the salesforce transit centre. for nearly 20 years, i have been visualizing what the new center would look like, feeling it, thinking about it, having a lot of sleepless nights. but i have never experienced the joy that i feel today. i have finally seen it in its full grand jury. it is really a wonderful feeling and i am very happy about it. it is also very humbling to have been a part of creating such a timeless landmark and i am honored to have worked alongside and thousands of men and women

in the public and private sectors, across the entire united states who contributed to this historic achievement. i envision millions of visitors who will pastor the new center. many will be young people with hopes and dreams. it is these young people that i think about today. as i think about them, i reflect on the little girl that i was when i came to this country as an immigrant. immigrants can achieve great things when given the opportunity. mayor willie brown gave me this opportunity when i was entrusted to lead this project in 1998. for that, i will be eternally grateful. i hope my contribution to this center will inspire young people to learn about the meth and science -- learn about the mathematics and science behind this and appreciate arts and

nature and marvel at the engineering and technology behind the structure. i do want to make the world a better place and leave a lasting, positive mark. most of all, i hope these young people will learn what it takes to make their dreams come true. to have faith in yourself and have faith in your vision. to have curiosity, passion, uncompromising integrity. decisive leadership, and above all, this is the most important. above all, to have courage. speaking of leadership, i want to recognize and thank the countless people who work with me -- worked with me over the many years to make this dream a reality garrick leader pelosi was our angel investor. she was the person who believed, from the very beginning, that this project was worthwhile and it was worth pursuing. she gave us the first funding of

close to $10 million to get it off the ground. remember, this is a project that has been studied and debated since 1967. i have a picture of them looking at a model of what a new transbay terminal could look like and it wasn't until willie brown and leader pelosi, that we were able to get the first money to start the studies. of course, there was senator feinstein and senator boxer who were all by my side throughout all those years. senator burton deserves special thanks and recognition because he made this project possible by working to convince caltrain to transfer the 19 acres of land step built this project and the surrounding neighborhood. which of course, includes the iconic salesforce tower. we can all be grateful that he also helped us secure with the help of leader pelosi, senator feinstein and boxer, the

$400 million to build the rail levels which will fulfil the mandate of the public to bring commuters and high-speed rail into the salesforce transit centre. i want to acknowledge all of them. there's too many people to thank you. i think all of you for all of your support. in closing, when you visit the new center, give yourself time to experience all it has to offer. reflect on the words circling the beautiful light column in front of me. walk-through the floor garden. can you identify the cultures represented by the patterns found in the florida? can you find the hidden key? make your way to the rooftop park. brief in the varied and lush plants that come from all over the world. have fun observing the whimsical water fountain as it announces the arrival of the buses below. stroll along the parks pathway. relax in the amphitheater.

the possibilities are simply endless. the dawn of a new transportation era has arrived. embraced it. treasure our new jewel in the city. protect it for the next generation. most importantly, make it something special and memorable to you. thank you. [applause] >> as the process unfolded in the newsom administration, as mayor of the city, it was totally and completely necessary at all times to have the talented person sharing the responsibility with mohammed nuru, to give guidance to this project, from the capacity of the person who does the bus on the transportation assistance and most of the roads that we

use in our city. as soon asthma mayor lee became mayor of the city, he tapped a friend of his who had participated in recruitment to come here from chicago and participate in running this city. he accepted this responsibility and one of the assignments was to be one of the board members of the joint powers authority that which completes this project it to this day. the director of the san francisco metropolitan division agency, ed ruskin. [applause] >> thank you mr mayor, madame mayer, madame leader and everyone here. it is great to see so many people here on this occasion. i see so many faces out here representing people and organizations and institutions that came together to make this center a reality, i can tell you

that the director of transportation for the city and county of san francisco, i could not be more thrilled that we are here at this milestone today. from a transportation standpoint, and i think we have heard from the speakers, this facility is about much more than transportation. from a transportation standpoi standpoint, this facility on the start of operations is a game changer for our city and for our region. the ability for people to get in and out of our downtown and particularly for those coming from the east bay, will be a significantly better and more pleasant experience. that is exactly what we should be doing. that is of course, as we heard, the first phase pick the next phase, when we have below us the normal -- the northern terminus of california high-speed rail and of caltrain, that will be yet another game changer for people going to end from downtown san francisco and to the peninsula, to san jose and

on to los angeles. i guess, eventually to san diego and to vancouver, as well. i guess that is phase four and five. i was fortunate to be able to join the board of directors of the tjpa in 2011, along with supervisor kim. it has been amazing to see this facility come from both visions that maria spoke about, too than the architectural renderings that she would bring to the board of directors. they look exactly like this. it is really amazing to see that this facility has come into being. it is an amazing facility. from my perspective, perhaps a biased perspective, we should be providing amazing facilities for the transit riders and the transit systems and our neighborhoods pick we certainly have done that here. the speaker mentioned that you

can't spell community without unity. you also can't spell community without muni. [laughter] >> this is, after all, a transit facility. it is at the heart of our community, but what makes this facility special is the integration with all of the other transit providers or with many of the other transit providers in the region. that is what makes this facility special. i do want to acknowledge my fellow transit agencies who will be providing service out of the center. we work very closely together throughout the region to make transportation ace seamless -- as seamless as possible. in addition, we will be served here by greyhound, west cat links, golden gate transit, amtrak and of course, the big dog in the center, a.c. transit

who will be serving thousands of people each day upstairs with the bus stops. i also have the honor to thank our funders. we have heard some reference to them, but it took a village from a funding perspective to make this happen. i do want to acknowledge, thanks to the leaders of support. the united states department of transportation has been a great partner in this project. the federal transit administration, and we are joined by the acting regional minister got the federal railroad administer and the bureau of finance working together to support the funding for this building. the state of california, the metropolitan transportation commission, the san francisco county transportation authority, the san mateo authority, a.c. transit, not just the user but also a funder and of course, the city and county of san

francisco. i want to thank everybody who had a hand in this. it is a lot of you. all the folks who bonded us and all the folks providing transit service here. i look forward to the ribbon-cutting for phase two ottawa. thank you. [applause] >> speaker pelosi, just reminded me, ed, as you are rolling out all the funders, just say we put our hands and everybody's pocket. [laughter] >> no pocket, however was bigger and no pocket was greater then the man i met for the first time today. he came up and had on a beautiful pink tie and he said, my name is jake mckenzie. how does my tie look? [laughter]

>> he is the chair of the metropolitan transportation commission. [applause] >> you all are wondering how i am just how this gig just how long this gig will go on. i was told my part was about two minutes. i appreciate the introduction and i appreciate your complement on my tie. my wife was very careful to say jake, don't wear one of your hawaiian shirts to this gig this morning. i did my best. but i really did it in honor of another man who is not here today. he is vacationing and he is retiring as executive director after 18 years in that role. and he says, don't say anything about me when you are speaking to dave. that is like when the stock gives me speaker notes as well. they should know better by now. anyway, a big shout out to steve up there in the wilds of oregon.

i used to commute into this building when it was old, on the golden gate bridge buses, and on the a.c. transit buses out of alameda for a couple of years. it was a miserable sort of place. [laughter] >> this is not a miserable place. this is cool. this place is cool. [applause] >> you will have gathered by now i am part of the entertainment section of this program. in any event, we are proud to -- i am the chair of m.p.c., by the way i have been five time mayor of the city. if i had worn my kilt today, i would have had a problem and then you would have said everybody will put up your hands in your kilt. [laughter] >> no, no, it is a purse. the staff did not write that part either.

we go way back with this project. in 93, m.p.c. authored -- this is in my notes. the original transbay terminal and the study. that was 25 years ago. goodness me. and then and then the commission adopted the improvement plan to the transbay terminal in 2001. here it is. it has a weird roof on it. it does not have a beautiful park. something must have happened in the design phases. but when you look at this thing and who signed off on it, mayor, willie brown, 2001. your fingers were in every pie. anyway. [laughter] >> that's not in the script. >> that is in my purse. anyway. [laughter] >> anyway, all of you out there have done well. i speak to you collectively as

citizens. you have put your hands in your pockets and you voted at the ballot box and as m.p.c., we also, this is the part i am supposed to say since 2004, m.p.c. has granted more than $350 million in voter approved bridge toll funds to the salesforce transit centre and provided $100 million in other financing to close, a funding gap. here we are. this is good to. this is great. but the guy whose remarks i was listening to today was assembly member to. because we are talking about the future here. this is phase one. it is gorgeous. you will love the park. ththe venue should be thinking about this two stories down. i was down there last friday. there are going to be trains there. it may not be in my lifetime. you have a 2-year-old son, it

better be in his lifetime. [laughter] >> because california has got to come into the 21st century. it has got to. [applause] >> the challenges are in all of us but is also a challenge to our successors. my term as m.p.c. chair finishes up in eight months. i will be sad because i will not be coming to gigs like this. on the other hand, i will have more free time. remember the future. the future is below us. the present is above us. commute on. [applause] >> i will have to have some conversation with him about when this is all over. something is going on with him. [laughter]

>> i must tell you that m.t.c., the metropolitan transportation commission, we have to acknowledge how significant they really were and therefore we ask the vice chair to come over and say a few words as well. representing all the rest of the board members, other than those that jake spoke about. come on up and say some words. [applause] >> all right. thank you. >> this is my program. [laughter] >> this is your program, i'm sorry. he is such a busy mayor. he was doing a wedding ceremony at city hall. such a busy, busy man. thank you everyone for being here today. as a representative of the board of directors, it has been an honor to serve on the transbay joint powers authority. as you heard, i want to go back

even further and say thank you to the dreamers. thank you to the dreamers. thank you to the people who had the vision of what could be and where we are today is where -- what that dream was, for two years later. as you have heard, the salesforce transit centre is a major milestone but the hard work is not done yet. the next phase, bringing caltrain and high-speed rail to the salesforce center is critical to the region. today as we take time to celebrate, explore the transit centre, is a celebration time. but as we know on monday, we have to roll up our sleeves and get hard to work and bring the train to the train box two stories below us. my role today is to acknowledge, not only the thousand men and women that worked there, by the many partners that have been part of this vision and this dream. i will read a whole bunch of names, and at the very end we

will give them a round of applause. our face two operators who will be here by the time your son is 16, before, caltrain and high-speed rail, our contractors and designers, adams and associates architects, pwt landscape architecture, w. s. p. era, this is a funny language we speak. these days. turner, joint venture mcdonald, and gelati construction. give it up for some of our partners here player . [♪] >> again, thank you and congratulations to everyone that is part of the transbay salesforce center family. let's bring on the trains. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> ed ruskin mentioned a number

of organizations on the transportation front -- from the transportation world that will find this center there home. as of sunday, two and a half blocks up the new road, there will be the opening for the real anchor tenant coming from across the bridge. [laughter] >> that is a point of reference. [laughter] >> it is not just me. come across the willie brown bridge, will be something that says, a.c. transit. when i walked in here, i was accosted and stopped by a lot of bus drivers and some other

people. all a.c. transit. this button i am wearing, it they consist -- they insisted i put it on. therefore greg harper, as a member of that joint powers board, and as a person who does the things for a.c. transit, our tenant who will use the facility more than anybody else, because everybody that comes over here by a.c. transit will be put off the bus near second street, no matter where they're going. they will have to walk back down although shops and things. we'll be taking money out of the east bay forever. [laughter] [applause] >> you need an anchor tenant. i have to admit. the nice thing about this as you can almost open this up with a park. there won't be anything in it but this is beautiful on the

park is beautiful. we are proud to be here. it is a wonderful time. it has been a long time coming. i have been on the board for many years now. but this date wouldn't have been possible without the stewardship of our general manager and board president. they really -- [applause] >> they came into this and mayor breed said, you know, if you missed the bus because you are looking at the artwork, don't blame her. if you missed the bus because it left me to be early, blame them. [laughter] >> i would like to talk about something here that i really appreciate. it is hard to appreciate in this setting was such a huge, beautiful place. that is the temporary terminal that is going away. but it worked really, really

well. and no writers had any problems with it. compliment after compliment would come and. there which two people in particular i would like to recognize. anthony and robert, they worked for easy -- a.c. transit at the time. they designed that thing. and designed it very very well. and i would like to recognize -- there is a tremendous amount of effort that went in from a.c. transit employees of all sorts. over the years, -- raise your hands if you are from a.c. transit. see? it takes a lot. [applause] >> they really did a great job on all of this. i think i was here in 2001 when it started on the tjpa board. i would also like to recognize maria.

when she came in, i don't know if it was the first thing she ever did, but i think he was one of the best. she brought in a woman named nancy weyland as a financial consultant. sitting up there is a board member -- when you knew you didn't have any money to start with, and you wanted to hire the great architects in the great engineers and all that, but you needed something, she was great. and we really did benefit from that. she now runs transit and they are fortunate to have her pick another one i would like to recognize is ken who is our general counsel who put together the paperwork. there is a lot of it. and the organization joint power agency and how a.c. transit would work was in it. already, we have 13,000 east bay riders commuting to san francisco on a.c. transit. the difference this makes is

that we are going to go from 13,000 a day and we have the capacity to do 24,000 riders per hour. that is the future. [applause] >> if you do the meth on that, you wonder how it works out. one of the ways it works out is if there is a city across the bay called oakland, and it is growing like crazy too. there is going to be a lot of people who live within three or four blocks of here that will appreciate the fact that they can get on a whole lot of buses at their doorstep and go the other way. it is going to work. it really is going to work. i think that -- to give you some idea, a lot of our writer said they left their cars originally to get to transit and then they found that the transit was getting very, very crowded. bart, at first and now even our service. this center is so important in

relieving that. and we, at a.c. transit intent to do our best to make sure that is relieved. thank you, very much. [applause] >> just so you no kak somebody did succeed and there is a director, currently of this whole facility, and he is seated right down front. market, stand up. let the people see you. [applause] >> now i know why mr harper kept referencing the temporary facility. the rent over there is a lot cheaper. [laughter]

>> you better up the fairest at a.c. transit. we are charging a lot more that now that we've got you real close. there will now be a countdown. there will be a countdown now and mohammed nuru is going to take over, and i am sure glad that most of you tolerated my participation to the limited extent that i can. mohammed nuru! [applause] >> is so, market, would you come on up? we will go through a countdown. -- where is that little -- mayor breed and later pelosi, will you all come forward? and the rest of the team could come around. and so, both of you, after the

countdown, you press the green button and what you will see is our display boards that will actually show commuters exactly where their buses are and what time they are and how to connect around the city, but also to the east bay and every bus that is coming through here. are we ready? >> five, four, three, two, one. there we go! all right. [cheers and applause] >> ok. we have one more quick process. where we actually are going to do a ceremonial ribbon-cutting. hand this over. all right. here we go. the big scissors. yes. [♪]

>> the small ones. there we go. will the board members come up? yes. nadia, come on up. come on up, please. i will make this a little shorter. everybody ready? >> three, two, one. gay! congratulations -- yes! congratulations. we have tours of the centre. if we have not seen the park over the buses will be running through, stay behind and we have people who will take you around. enjoy. starting scent a, hundreds of buses will be coming here. enjoy. thank you, again. thank you. [♪]