>> in november of 2016, california voters passed proposition 64. the adult use of marijuana act. san franciscans overwhelmingly approved it by nearly 75%. and the law went into effect in january of 2018. [♪] >> under california's new law, adults age 21 and over can legally possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis and grow up to six plants at home. adults in california can legally give up to 1 ounce to other adults. >> in the state of california, we passed a law that said adult consumption is legal. if you are an adult and in possession of certain amounts, you will no longer be tried. you will not be arrested or prosecuted for that. that is changing the landscape

dramatically. [♪] >> to legalization of cannabis could bring tremendous economic and social benefits to cities like san francisco. >> this industry is projected to reach $22 billion by the year 2020. and that is just a few years away. >> it can be a huge legal industry in california. i think very shortly, the actual growing of marijuana may become the biggest cash crop in the state and so you want that to be a legal tax paying cash crop, all the way down the line to a sales tax on the retail level. >> the california medical industry is a 3 billion-dollar industry last year. anticipating that multiplier as 20, 30, 50 times in the consumer marketplace once adult use is

really in place, you could go ahead and apply that multiplier to revenue. it will be huge. >> when that underground economy becomes part of the regular tax paying employment economy of the bay area, it not only has a direct impact, that money has a ripple impact through the economy as well. >> it is not just about retail. it is not just about the sensor. is about manufacturing pick a lot of innovative manufacturing is happening here in san francisco in addition to other parts of the state as well as the cultivation. we should be encouraging that. >> there is a vast array of jobs that are going to be available in the newly regulated cannabis industry. you can start at the top tier which a scientist working in testing labs. scientists working at extraction companies. and you work towards agricultural jobs. you have ones that will require less education and you look towards cannabis retail and see traditional retail jobs and you

see general management jobs. those things that are similar to working at a bar restaurant or working at a retail store. >> we are offering, essentially, high paid manufacturing jobs. typical starting wage of 18-$20 an hour, almost no barrier to entry, you do not need an education. >> that means that people who do not have college educations, working-class people, will have an opportunity to have a job at cultivating cannabis plants. there's a whole wide array of job opportunities from the seedling to the sale of the cannabis. [♪] >> last year, they said 26 million people came to san francisco. >> the tourism industry continues to be very robust here and the city and county of san francisco is about a billion-dollar industry. >> if we use a conservative cannabis user adoption rate to 15% that means 4 million tourists want that means 4 million tourists want to purchase cannabis.

and we need to be ready for th them. >> in 2015, as adult use legalization efforts gained momentum in california, the supervisors created the san francisco cannabis state legalization task force. this task force offered to research and advice to the supervisors, the mayor and other city departments. >> we knew that adult use legalization was coming to the ballot and stat that would bring with it a number of decisions that the city would have to make about zoning and regulation and so forth. and i decided at that time, at a know it was a great, that rather than have a fire drill after the ballot measure passes, as suspected it would, we should plan an event. so i authored a task force to spend a year studying it and we made it a broad-based task force. >> we prepared ourselves by developing a health impact assessment and partnered that

with key stakeholder discussions with washington, oregon, colorado, to really learn lessons from their experience rolling out both adult and medicinal cannabis. >> within days of the passing of the proposition, ed lee called on agencies to act decisively. >> he issued an executive order asking the department of public health, along with planning and other city departments to think through an internal working group around what we needed to do to consider writing this law. >> we collectively, i would say that was representatives from g.s.a., as well as the mayor's office, met with a lot of departments to talk through what prop 64 and the implementation of prop 64 it meant to them. >> the mayor proposed an office of cannabis, a one-stop shop for permits allowing operators to grow and sell cannabis. >> he wanted a smart structure.

he wanted a regulatory structure that ensured that kids didn't have access and community's were safe and that consumers were safe. and he wanted to ensure, more importantly, it was a regulatory structure that encouraged diversity and inclusivity. >> this is an office that will be solely charged with a duty of wanting not only the policies that we create, implementing and enforcing them, but also executing the licenses that are needed. we're talking about 20 different licenses that will put us into compliance with what is happening on the state level. >> this is a highly, highly regulated industry now, at this point. we have anywhere from 7-10 departments that will be working with these industry participants as they go through the permitting process. that is a lot of work at a loss of coordination. we are creating a permitting process that is smart and is digital. it is much easier for the user

and for community input, and is less mired in bureaucracy. >> for the first time ever in san francisco history, standalone licenses are available for all aspects of the nonretail side of the cannabis industry. now, a cultivator can go in to the department of building inspection and to the department of health and say, with this first registered and temporary license, and then what will eventually be a permanent license, this is the project, this is what i am going to do. >> very rarely in city government do we interact with industries that are asking to be regulated. these guys want to be regulated. they want to be compliant. they want to work with the city. that is rare. >> san francisco has created a temporary licensing process so that the pre-existing operators here in san francisco can apply for a temporary state licensed.

>> we have taken teams of up to 12 inspectors to inspect the facility twice a day. we have been doing that with the department of building inspection and the department of public health. and the fire department. >> it is really important for the industry to know that we are treating them like industry. like manufacturing. like coworkers pick so that is the way we are approaching this from a health and safety and a consumer protection network. this is just the way practice happens with restaurants or manufacturing facilities. >> because there are so many pieces of industry that people haven't even thought about. there are different permits for each piece. you have to set up a permitting system for growing, for manufacturing, for testing. for delivery. for retail. you have to make sure that there is an appropriate health code. certainly the regulation of alcohol in terms of restaurants

and retail it's probably a model for how this industry will be regulated as well, both on sale and consumption. >> it is completely uncharted territory. there is a blessing and a curse with that. it is exciting because we are on a new frontier, but it is very nerve-racking because there's a lot at stake. and quite frankly, being san francisco, being the state of california, people are looking to us. >> we hope that cannabis does become more of an accepted part of society in the same way that alcohol is, the same way coffee is. >> it is a very innovative fear, particularly around manufacturing. san francisco could be an epicenter. >> san francisco can be a leader here. a global leader in the cannabis movement and set a bar just to other communities and cities and states and this nation how it is done. [♪]

>> all right, hello, everybody! >> hello! >> you know, there are days like this when being mayor is absolutely amazing. this is exactly why myself and our aseptemberably man phil tang, this is why we do this work, to make a difference in the lives of people who need us to make sure that we make the right investments. thank you all for being here. i'm glad to be here to announce

the grand opening of the division circle navigation center. clear cheer [applause] [cheering] this navigation center will help so many people transition off the streets into this place, into permanent housing. the opening today is a result of a collaborative effort between the city, the state partners like our assembly member phil tang and cal trans. we are working together to help address this homeless crisis. many of you know my top priority as mayor is to make sure that we're moving our homeless population out of tents, off the streets and into permanent housing. navigation centers go beyond the traditional shelters by allowing individuals to bring their partners, their pets,

their belongings with them, which are often barriers to getting into our shelters. once they are there, the centers provide the care and services that people need. health care. services around social workers and possibly, hopefully permanent housing. this particular navigation center will serve up to 125 individuals at a time. the opening today is the result, as i said, of a collaborative effort and there are a number of difference people who made this possible. and it is a reflection of what we can accomplish when we work together for a common goal. phil tang helped to secure $10 million last year in the state budget to help with two navigation centers in san francisco. [applause] [cheering] and that is not all he did.

his legislation, aba-57, allows the city to lease underutilized property that is owned by cal trans at a very reduced rate. we wouldn't be able to national -- to make this happen without his leadership and we're so grateful for what he has done to lead the charge in just a minute toe. -- in sacramento. cal trans worked in partnership with our state and local representatives to involve the hurdles in leasing the land and i want to thank laura berman from the cal trans director here today. ams want to thank the departments of public works who helped move this project forward quickly. jeff kaczynski from the department of homelessness and the city real estate division, countless other folks who made it possible and especially our homeless outreach team who consistently are out there on the front lines trying to identify folks who are in need and bring them into our

navigation centers to get them the help and the support that we know they need. i'm commited to addressing this humanitarian crises that we see in san francisco and all over our state. it is going to take a consistent and sane effort to open navigation centers like this one all over our city. together, we know we can bring noticeable changes. i have met some of the people personally who have been in our navigation centers, who are now permanently housed. but i also met people who have been in our navigation centers and who have come back time and time and time again. what i appreciate about the work of so many of the city employees and nonprofit agencis that work to help folks who are struggling on our streets that we have not given up on folks. and we won't give up on the people that we know need support and services the most. that is why navigation centers like thiss are critical. they change and they save lives.

and that is what we're committed to doing. one person at a time. and with that, i'd like the introduce our leader in this effort, assembliman phil tang. [applause] >> thank you so much, mayor breed, for your leadership on this issue of homelessness. i know that we had an opportunity to work together when you were president of the board and i have no doubt that you're going to be working on this issue every single day as mayor. i also wanted to thank supervisor hillary ronen who had approached my early on to talk about how we can fund navigation centers in her district and also in san francisco. and i would be remissed not to thank late mayor ed lee who brought me aba-57. it was really a team effort where the citied that idea of

we need to work together to solve this problem. this is a state-wide problem. we have 134,000 homeless people in the state. it is a state of crisis. we have 7500 people here in san francisco. but these people aren't numbers. they're lives. they're lives that missed different paths, that have taken very challenging directions. but we as a city have not given up on them. we as a state have not given up on them and only by working together and solving this problem together can we really move this issue forward. cal trans has been great because cal trans told me they spent, i believe, almost $10 million last year or the year before to just move homeless people off their property. homeless encampments up and down the state were under freeways. everywhere. i would drive under the 101 and the chavez interchange and drop off my daughter at school every

day and you would see a line of tents. so, cal trans said, hey, instead of us using all this money to move people off, figure out another way to be part of the solution. it doesn't help when you move people off the lot and they come back three days later and we have to move them off. it doesn't get them any closer to housing. by cal trans, myself and the legislature, appropriating $10 million for two navigation centers, working together with mayor breed, with mayor lee, with supervisor ronen and the city family to really solve this issue, we have moved one step closer. and other people are taking notice. because navigation centers aren't just happening here in san francisco. they're happening in santa rosa. they're happening in seattle and happening in austin. because it is not about housing. it's about people. it's about making sure that people are getting help with their addictions. with their mental health. s with helping with their job training. it's all about how we are

assisting each individual, each one of those 7500 people that have families. they come from somewhere. they are going somewhere. and this city and this state is not going to let them fail. so w that, again, i want to thank mayor breed for her leadership on this issue. so excited to see this navigation center up and running. i want to thanks, again, supervisor ronen, late mayor ed lee and it is my pleasure to bring up the new director of cal trans, larry berman. because their agency played a critical role at making sure that this happened by working with me on aba-57, cal trans has worked out a deal with the city and county of san francisco to lease up to 10 properties at far below market rate. this being one of them. and they again have stepped up to the plate. not being part of the problem, being part of the solution. so thank you, laurie and thank you to cal trans. [applause] >> thank you.

good morning. i want to start by saying congratulationss to our new mayor of san francisco. mayor london breed. [applause] >> yeah! >> i am really honored for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the california department of transportation. to express our appreciation for the collaboration with the city of san francisco, with homeless advocates, with private donors and community members to address one of the greatest crises of our day and that is homelessness. cal trans and the city of san francisco share a commitment to public sthafs predates all of us here today. but it is good when we can continue to work together to solve big problems. we are really proud to work with the city of san francisco for today's ribbon cutting of the division circlele, navigation center which is also dedicated to the memory of homeless advocate brian quinn who passed away in april. we are proud of our commitment to develop sustainable transportation solutions in san francisco and we appreciate our great partnership with the city of san francisco to sustain

vibrant communities. in the next few year, cal trans has many repaving jobs that will be delivered through dedicated transportation funds from senate bill 1, the road repair and accountable act of 2017 and this year, senate bill 1 is paying for projects that are revamp several bridges and overcrossings along highway 101, including wider six-inch striping to increase visibility and safety. the department of transportation is planning for the growths of california's population, economy and emerging technologies that will be used on the state highway system to transport people, goods and services. we are also working with our local partners throughout california to help address an issue facing many californians and that is homelessness. this project, the san francisco navigation center, along with the site at 5th and bryants, represents a step in the right direction. the van nuys center is an

innovative approach to help address the homelessness crisis. this project required commitment from local and state governments, private donor, grassroots organizations and countless volunteers. we must all think outside the box to address california's homeless epidemic and that is exactly what this project has delivered -- a fresh approach. we are commited to helping in every way that we can and we are proud of what we have achieved with today's project and i want to particularly thank the innovative thinkers in the city of san francisco and cal trans who worked together to address the challenges of delivering this project on state right-of-way. and i also want to really thank cal tran staff who worked very hard on this project. this is not what cal trans normally does with our right-of-way. but i wanted to especially thank our senior right-of-way agent who was our point person on this project. and thank you to the staff at san francisco department of housing and public works and san francisco's department of

homelessness and supportive housing. i look forward to our quonlted -- continued partnership with the city of san francisco to xraet a transportation system that enhances california's economy while also working with communities throughout our state to make every california city a better place to live. working together, we can solve big problems. thank you. [applause] >> good morning. i'm the executive director of st. vincent depaul. we have been a long-standing, nonprofit in the city and county of san francisco since 1860. our mission is to offer hope and service on a direct person-to-person basis, working to the break the cycles of homelessness and domestic violence. we want to thank our partners today for the beautiful navigation center and what we are able to accomplish with 125 clients that are with us. at this time, i want to

introduce representative ronen's representative from her office, carolina morales, considered a bridge builder and political organizer, advancing domestic si. she has over a decade of experience in community health, services and community organizing nicker tiffs. she has built and managed programs, wrote and managed grants and restructured an organization. she has been our key person from the supervisor ronen's office. [applause] >> hi, everybody. good morning. i'm catalina morales with hillary ronen. so, six years ago, when the district nine office began our work to build this first ever navigation center in san francisco, we immediately recognized the division circle site as a perfect place for another navigation center. last year, when the supervisor took office, and our tent

encampment crisis was at its worst, we have about 250 tents concentrated in the mission as ground zero for our crisis, we knew that we had to do a lot more. we started work with the neighbors to ensure that we could open a navigation center. we worked with ed lee very closely to ensure that all of the partners were really working together. and in that partnership, another very important department was the san francisco police department. our chief, chief scott, our commander lazhar, and our captain have been important partners in ensuring that those homeless residents and house residents feel safe as we share spaceing to and make sure that everybody gets dignify housing. so i want to repeat the words that mayor breed and assembly

member tang have repeated. this has been unprecedented collaboration that has been very, very effective. we think supervisor tang for partnering with us and granting us this massive amount of money to ensure that we are serving our most vulnerable people in the mission in ground zero for the tent encampment crisis and with that, i want to once again honor the memory of ed lee and his commitment to building more navigation center, those in the mission and in our city. this is our way forward. this is the way that we will solve the tent encampment cry theys we? -- that we have in san francisco and make even california. thank you for your time. [applause] >> so, we've had many successful stories from those who have visited with us at the navigation center. so, i'd like the introduce you to anna. she has been a long-time member, resident of san francisco. and due to her life

experiences, she recently became homeless and we just worked with her and she is now housed. [cheering] [applause] >> good morning, everyone. and thank you all for coming out here. i want to thank the navigation center and mayor ed lee and now our present mayor. thank you to staff. i -- i'm an ex-postal employee and i never thought i'd become homeless. it's sad, but thanks to the navigation center, i'm now housed and i'm living at 6th street. i'm very happy. i was there 35 years ago. and so i feel that i've made a complete circle. i'm back and it is a good feeling because i know that i'm where i'm supposed to be.

thank you all. [applause] >> are you going to do the robin? >> and now we'll cut the rick bonn. -- ribbon. >> ok. now we're going to cut the ribbon. afterwards, if anyone is interested in a tour, let me know and we'll do a nice quick little tour through the navigation center. >> here we go! five, four, three, two, one!

>> my biggest take away is that you can always find a way. most people who go into public policies really want to make a difference and have a positive impact on the world, and that's what i love most about my job. i feel like every day at the sfpuc all of the policies that we're involved in have major impacts on people's lives both here in the city and across the state and the nation. in 2017, california senate bill 649 was released. it would have capped the fees that cities such as ourselves would be able to charge telecom companies for the right to use or poll for their cell equipments, and it also would have taken away city's

abilities to negotiate what the equipment looks like, where they could be placed, and potentially we could even be in a position where we would not be able to stop them putting equipment especially on our light poles. my name is emily lamb and i am director of policy affairs for the sfpuc. i really am involved with a team of people and building a strong coalition of a team of folks. we are working very closely to get this bill defeated and ultimately vetoed by governor brown. >> emily is one of those people who is a bright star with regards to her passion, her commitment, her tenacity and she's just a great, fun person. she's all of the things that you would want in an employee and an ambassador for our organization. >> my biggest take away is you can always find a way,

especially when something is important and worth fighting for, if you put your heads together with people, and you collaborate, that usually you can find some solution to get to your goal. in this case, it was a bill that most people considered politically difficult to complete, and we didn't have a chance of doing it, but with a lot of strattizing with a lot of different partners, we got it done. my name is emily lamb, and i am the director of policy and government affairs, and i've been with sfpuc for 2.5 years. >> when i open up the paper every day i'm just amazed at how many different environmental issues keep popping up. when i think about the planet i want to leave for my children and other generation, i think of what contribution i can make on a personal level to the

environment. ♪ clean power sf is san francisco's key way of fighting climate change by renewable energy and offering it to san francisco customers. i'm from the san francisco public utilities commission. the program came about with state wide legislation in 2002 to enable people to take more control over supplies. i first heard of the program when the organization was advocating to launch clean power sf. what i'm most excited about, it's going to bring 100% renewable energy to my home and reinvest into renewable energy infrastructure and jobs. i had gone to a lot of street

fairs and heard from the staff at the san francisco public utilities commission to sign up for clean power sf even before it launched. >> we learned about clean power sf because our sustainability team is always looking for clean operations. linkedin is the largest online network. there are about 530 million members using our site. in this san francisco office there's about 1400 employees working in roughly 400,000 square feet. >> after signing up for the program we heard about the san francisco program and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. i'm the co-owner of the new wheel electric bike shop. we opened this store in 2012 and the new wheel sells and services

electric bikes. 11 people work here in san francisco and our store is about 2,000 square feet. electric bikes are fantastic for transportation in the city, they're clean and green and you get places faster than any other form of transportation. it amplifies the power, it doesn't replace it. it makes it easier to get places by bicycle and it's so enjoyable and environmentally friendly way to go and more convenient in san francisco. >> clean power sf requires two products, green, 40% renewable and competitively priced with pg and e. for those who want to fight climate change more, 100% renewable at $0.02 per kilawatt.

>> i decided to go with the super greens, after finding it only to cost about $5 more a month to have super green, that's a no-brainer, i can do that. >> we were pleased that clean power sf offers the super green 100% for commercial entities like ours and residents for the city of san francisco. we were pleased with the package of services for linkedin and now encouraging our employees who have a residence in san francisco to sign on as well. >> clean power sf buys its power from renewable plants that feed the energy directly into the grid. >> there's a commitment to sustainability throughout the entire organization and this clean power opportunity reflects that. >> one of the wind farms we use is the shilo wind farm and that is large enough to be able to

provide energy for up to 200,000 homes. >> our mission is sustainability, even though our bikes are minimal energy use, it still matters where the energy comes from and part of our mission in sustainability is how we run everything -- run our business. having the lights come on with clean energy is very important. >> the sunset reservoir has solar panels that take up about four city blocks covering the reservoir and the solar power generates energy for city resources and clean power sf for residents participating in the program. >> it was easy to sign up for the program, i went online to cleanpowersf.org and i started getting pieces in the mail letting me know i was going to be switched over and it just

happened. when i pay my bill, i still go to pg and e and i don't see any difference between now and a year ago. >> sign up online, just have your account number ready and it takes about two minutes and there's nothing to install. no lines are getting connected to your home. all the power goes through the existed power grid. >> we haven't had any problems with the switch over to clean power. >> it's super easy to sign up. our book keeper signed up online, it took about 15 minutes. nothing changed but now we have cleaner energy. >> we see clean power sf as a key strategy to meet renewable energy goal, we have a goal of 50% renewable energy by 2020. currently we have enrolled about 86,000 customers across the city. about 20% of what we hope to serve in the future and in the next two years we'll offer service to all san francisco

electricity customers. >> an easy way to align your environmental responsibilities and goals around climate change and it's so easy that it's hard to not want to do it and it doesn't really add anything to the bill. >> joining clean power sf is one of the easiest ways to fight climate change, receiving cleaner energy at low and stable rates, you're helping to support a not for profit that helps influence the energy grid and produce more production. >> i would encourage any business to seriously convert to the clean sf service. it's good for environment, business and the community. >> you can sign up online our call and the great thing is, you'll have the peace of mind that you're doing your part in your household to help the environment. ♪

♪

>> good morning everyone. you guys sound as excited as i am. i am so happy to be here today. this is a project that so many people, who came together to make it happen, the masonic street scape improvement. how about a hand for the beautiful plaza. this project is a transformational redesign of what most of our streets in san francisco will be looking like. so many beautiful amenities. you can see the plaza back the nice stonework. you will hear about that today.

you can see the new cycle track which is raised for cyclists. you know, it is beautiful. the street design itself. all the landscaping. all the beautiful things that our city is evolving into. this is a model street. we have been doing these projects all around the city. a few weeks ago we were on broadway. we have done in the mission and we have many more of these projects to come. all of the agencies involved, you will hear from them. the beautiful art behind me. how about some applause for the san francisco arts commission. all that beautiful work. we will hear from the m.t.a. and we will hear from planning, you will hear from p.u.c. at all of us. this is a way that a project should be done. all of the agencies working together, along with the community and the community, most important, on behalf of all of us, i want to say thank you

for all the patients. all of those phone calls, all those concerns that we went through, you know, today all that is over and we will be enjoying this beautiful street. i can also tell you that the leadership has always been involved. sometimes when you call me or you call one of the agency heads, when you don't get the answer you want to, you always go to the top person. and the person i am about to introduce to someone who is very familiar with this project. someone who was the supervisor of district 51 this project was active. and now our mayor, london breed. welcome her. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, mohammed. first of all, let's give it up for the sombre band which is led by public works employees. thank you so much for being here. they don't just deal with

infrastructure and clean the streets, they are artist too. how cool is that optically let me just tell you. when i was supervisor for district five, and i first started in 2013, i got so many complaints from my constituents, probably throughout my entire career, more complaints about this masonic boulevard street than any other place else. and i am so -- i am probably more happy than anyone else besides the people who live on this block that it is finally, finally done. how exciting is that? i want to be clear. this project is about safety. we no kak sadly, this was one, and probably still is, we are hoping these improvements will change that, one of the most dangerous streets in san francisco. and part of getting to vision zero, where we don't have any

fatalities as a result of the conditions of our roads, is making the hard decisions to make the changes necessary to make our streets safe. this is about making sure people who are walking the streets feel safe. this is about making sure people who are bicycling feel safe. this is about making sure people who are driving and being safer. this is about bringing the community together for the purposes of creating a road that hopefully will lead to less problems than before. the number of challenges, the number of complaints, we hope that this will lead to the kind of results that will make this a safer and better street for all to use throughout san francisco. throughout the process, i want to thank so many people who have been actively engaged and patients.

especially the people who live here. the people who have businesses along masonic. those are the people who have had to endure many of the challenges that existed. i also want to apologize to many of the drivers who consistently complained about their wheel alignments to me. this smooth road with clear direction will make it possible to avoid that on this particular street, at least. this project includes separated bike lanes along the corridor. i know there are some concerns about protected bike lanes and it is something that we will address. newly paved roads, sidewalks and curb ramps. leiter sidewalks and pedestrian lighting. which is absolutely amazing. but this project also included much-needed infrastructure improvement. a new water main. on both sides.

now, sometimes it is the things we do not see that are the most exciting thing is to complete a project and make a city where it could. a new sewer line that now runs on both sides as well. also, this new and beautiful public plaza. applause for everyone to enjoy. i want to thank so many people who made this possible, and clearly, you see that there are so many trees. more trees than we probably need. but i want to thank the public works department for the work that they did in doing this project but also the future work that they will do in maintaining those many trees along masonic. i want to thank the public utilities commission, the san francisco m.t.a., the san francisco planning department, the county transportation authority, and when i was on the

board and the county transportation authority, i hope to leave the efforts to secure the additional funding we needed to get this project on. i want to thank the san francisco arts commission and so many that have made it possible. this project, overall, improves public safety, creates new open space for our community, and strengthens our infrastructure for years to come. when i was supervisor, high, michael, one of the leaders who basically helped move this project forward, thank you so much for being here and your advocacy of getting this project done. when i was on the board of supervisors, one of the persons in my office to help deal with many of those complaints and challenges from the folks who lived here and work here was, at the time, my legislative aide, vallie brown. she is now the supervisor to represent this district. ladies and gentlemen, district five supervisor, vallie brown. [cheers and applause]

>> thank you, mayor breed. i was told by someone, when i am riding my bike and i have photos, to put my helmet up front so everyone knows that yes, i too wear a helmet when i'm out there. kids, where your helmets. i just want to thank everyone for coming today. this is amazing. i started working on this masonic boulevard at the issues that we were having, to safety issues we were having, in 2005. there was a group of us, michael, dug, a bunch of us who came out at night when it was rainy and cold. we had our signs up to reduce the speed to 25 miles. because if you remember before then, it was a lot faster. it was our little mini freeway. we were out here it, day and night, going across the street, up and down masonic and working on the state level to reduce it

to 25 miles an hour. and then that happened. we are excited about it. we knew we needed to do more. and then we had the tragedy of a bicyclist getting killed. he was riding riding his bike in 2010 and he was killed by a car. it made everyone sad, furious, and also, gave us the power to keep moving. we needed to make sure that we needed to change masonic. needed to be changed not only for people who rode their bikes on masonic, not only for the kids that are at san francisco day school that walk around masonic, and the people who live here. they were also complaining that the noise and the pollution of the way masonic was was across a freeway. so we worked on that and we have these amazing community meetings. and michael and doug and tim and the others were at these meetings.

we had 80-100 people at a planning meeting for masonic. we had m.t.a. who would lead to them. they were amazing meetings. we were there, probably, we had 6-8 meetings that we had the community, everyone coming together to work on what will make masonic safe and what we felt good on whether we are walking, biking, driving or coming out of your home. and then back the next phase was funding it. and then mayor breed, who was supervisor breed at the time, puts the funding funding through t.a. so we could get realization that we have this beautiful boulevard. but we are not done. if you are a cyclist, we have a few blocks that need some work. as mayor breed said, we are going to do that. i was at first, a little bit where each. we will be celebrating a

boulevard that we are still working on? and then i realized, and i actually called my og, michael and others, to say why kate do we support this as it is now? and we really do. we support it because it is absolutely beautiful. when we first did -- name to the bike lanes on bell and oak, we had to change those. at first we put the bike lanes and nsa move forward we realized we have to tweak it this way and we have to tweak it this way to be safe. that is the way i look at masonic now. i want to thank everybody who has been here for the last 15 years, really working to change this. at all the departments that are involved. d.p.w., m.t.a., p.u.c., that came together and said, we will change this boulevard, not only for the people who live here, but for the people who walk, visit and bike here. thank you and i will bring up my colleague, supervisor catherine

stefani because this area, we have three different districts that intersect. we cross all the time. i would like to bring up catherine stefani. supervisor stefani? >> thank you supervisor brown. it is so great to be here today. i love that we shared this area. san francisco faces many challenges but we know that we can solve the dangers of the roadways and the city vision zero mission to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024 is a vital one to every resident. i don't think many people notice about me, but before i was appointed supervisor, i was training for a triathlon. i was training for the escape for -- from alcatraz and i biked all over the city. one of the scariest moments on my bike was on ocean avenue, or actually, on the grey highway. i was riding my bike, at the car started to come into the lane as they were turning bright and i

had to pound on the side of the fan so as not to get run over. i understand how important bicycle safety is and how important it is to make sure we are implementing changes in our roadways a cyclist feel safe and pedestrians feel safe so that our kids are safe. so to see this unravel today, to see all of this today is a very -- it is a long time coming. we have to do more of this all over the city. this project enhanced safety for pedestrians, cyclist, motorist and transit riders and it made it more beautiful. we have a newly planted -- wanted median and street trees in a public plaza which will be great to. especially for the target shoppers over there. and i think residents will also be able to walk safely down the streets and enjoy this new area. i just want to say that the collaboration of all the departments has always said we are all of the table. i want to thank public works planning, the sfmta and of

course, all the residents and businesses that endured. in the end, everyone is truly proud of what has become here and we want to thank everyone for participating and creating this beautiful new space. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. now we will hear from our m.t.a. director, director risk in. he is responsible for making sure that all the walkways and bicycle lanes and transit works around here. all right. welcome. >> that's right. thank you, mohammed to be a good morning, everyone. it is so great to be here at this point in time. i think the mayor and the supervisors said it well. this has been a long time coming. but do very well worth it. it is really a great success story from my standpoint. you heard from the mayor and supervisor brown. this really started from the community. before the city adopted vision zero on before we identified the high injury network, we had

people from this community come forward and say this street is not working for us. it is not working for people who drive on it and not working for people who ride a bike and for people who walk, for people who are getting on and off transit and driving the bus is. the street wasn't working well for anyone. we were having close to 20 traffic crashes a year just on masonic avenue alone. we had two fatalities and we came together as a community, with the community and city agencies and said we can do better than this. we can redesign the street to make it work better and make it safer and make it more inviting and that is what we have here today. we have taken what used to be a mini freeway as someone said that was really dividing the two neighborhoods in our city. at dividing the neighborhood in the city and replaced it with a beautiful safe, inviting street, that mixes together the community, and as the mayor

said, we will make it much much less likely that anyone would be hurt or killed on the street. it is now truly a neighborhood street. that happened because we had leaders like michael and others in the community that work with the then it supervisor aids, vallie brown, and with the support of the den supervisor breed tact to bring forward this planning process at -- it culminated in a recommendation for a project that we brought to the board of directors in 2012. i want to acknowledge the great leadership of the vice chair of the board and now chair of the board of the sfmta who has been a staunch advocate for safety improvements in the city. with their approval, in 2012, we got to work with public works and planning and with public utilities and with the arts commission. all working together to design

and build and implement this project. i think it is a great transformation of a city street and as mohammed said, is one of many that we have seen and will be seeing in the coming months and years. it is a great day for this neighborhood. for everybody who uses this street. whether they live here or travel through here, they walk or bike or take the bus or drive here. is a much better street and a great lesson for all of us on how to do things. we need to figure out how to do it a whole lot faster. i will acknowledge, we have heard from supervisor brown some concerns. this project is not perfect. we will continue as we do with every project to evaluate how it is performing at identify ways to make it even better. we will work with supervisor brown and the community to make sure that we make the street work as well as it was intended from those first days of protest back in 2005 and 2006.

thank you to everybody. the leadership and support we have had from the mayor and the supervisors, pass supervisors, by particularly the leadership from the community to make this happen, in partnership with the city agencies. it brings us to where we are today. congratulations to the community on making this happen and getting this done. >> thank you, edge. we will now hear from the public utilities commission, as the mayor said, some of the important things that go and a project that a lot of us don't see, but have to be part of a project are water, our power and our sewer. come on up. >> so, mohammed, i want to thank you for inviting us. as you say, out of site, out of mind. we actually have about 70% of our infrastructure is 70 years or older, especially the sewer and water mains. we are trying to prioritize them based