>> this has been a dream in the making, especially for our general manager, for many, many years, to be able to allow residents of the tenderloin and western addition to be able to walk and skate at civic center plaza and experience a little slice of an east coast winter. >> it truly was a one-of-a-kind collaboration between willie b. productions and the city departments. he said i want to challenge you to come up with something bigger and more fun, and something in such a historic location right here, right in

front of city hall. this is amazing. >> we starting off by leveling the entire plaza. it was about a two-week process to get the area brought up to a dead level because the ice risk itself is not tolerant of any change in slope, because the water would build up at one end. then, we brought in these refrigeration panels that we can circulate a brine solution in to bring the solution down to colder than 32°, and then, start spraying water on it, which, for the last two days, nature has taken care of that for us. and then freeze it, and it becomes ice that you can skate it. >> as you can see, the ice is about an inch thick, and it'll

get up to 1.5 inches thick. with that, we can control the ice. most people that do outdoor skating rinks make a big sand box, and they lay these tubes in it, cover it with sand, and then, the ice gets to be about 6 inches thick or 8 inches thick. well, with that thick, you're not going to control the surface. it gets wet with the sun. that makes it unique with our 1.5 inch thick ice, with the panels. >> this year, we're bringing a unique feature to san francisco. it's a skate track that runs down through the trees. it's over 400 feet of track. this is sort of models after -- modelled after the city hall in austria. you can make a narrow skating

path and get that experience. >> what we are doing is working with the san francisco unified school district to bring any kids who go to school in the tenderloin to skate here for free. the operators have been wonderful in making that possible, and we have been -- we, the recreation and parks department, have been the people connecting schools to this ice rink. >> there has to be well over 100 people that have either been married or proposed to on the ice. in fact, they have this club that gets together once a year, and they go down to john's grill, and they celebrate and drink and eat and dine, sometimes before, sometimes after skating. they go to union square, and they relive those magical moments all once again. so who knows, with city hall being right here, we could see an increase in proposal and marriages on the ice. i don't know, but i've been on it.

it's not just about you coming and getting on the ice, it's about you coming and skating successfully, skating safely, and creating those holiday magical >> you guys ready to light a tree? it's that time. all right. so good evening, everyone. my name's phil ginsburg. i'm the executive director of your san francisco rec and parks department, and i want to welcome you to the 89th, let me repeat that, 89th annual tree lighting right here at mclaren lodge. so let's start with a big round of applause for the young teen people musical company, and its

director, on their recent first place win at san francisco's youth arts summit. they are an amazing, amazing organization, and i'm particularly grateful for the hanukkah song. so i'm so honored to be joined tonight by our amazing mayor, london breed. [applause] >> and our rec and park commission president, mark buell. [applause] >> and so i want to start by acknowledging all of the special people who are here with us tonight. these are folks that make this event happen that makes your parks the best park system in the united states, so they deserve some acknowledgement. let me start with senator -- state senator scott wiener, who's here. state assembly man phil ting. city college -- they're on their way. if not, they should be behind

me. city board of trusties, john rizzo, chanel. on their way are trent rohrer, and the department of environment deputy chief jennifer katz, and a very special shoutout to a person who's come to every tree lighting since i've been general manager, but this is her last tree lighting at our fire chief, a big, big, big round of applause for our fire chief, joanne hayes-white. [applause] >> our amazing rec and park

commission. i mentioned our president, mark buell. also here are commissioner cat anderson, gloria bonilla, tom anderson, eric mcdonald, and commissioner larry mazzola. i want to thank them. they -- the citizen members of the park recreation open space advisory committee. they help you make our park special. our president, stephen franz is here. i want to thank our amazing partners who make this possible. supporting us today is kaiser permanently, illuminate, our conservatory of flowers. all right. let tease talk about the tree we're supposed to light.

mayor, we've been liethsing tre -- lighting trees around the city, but this is our official industry. this is a cypress that's over 131 years old, and despite losing a limb or two over the years, it stands super tall and super strong, and tonight, it's supporting over 550 lights. let's give it up for uncle john's tree. [applause] >> and then a few special people. i want to welcome the boys and girls for hamilton recreation center, who are here. let's give it up for hamilton rec. [applause] >> and none of this would be possibly without the hardest group of city employees. all my respect to our amazing department heads. madam mayor, your san francisco

rec and parks department putting this on and they're amazing. i also want to give a big shout out to our tree toppers, all of our struck ral staff and deputy maintenance staff who make this possible. let's give it up for the rec and parks staff. [applause] >> we have the holiday train that is just over to my right that has been painted every year for decades and decades, and the last several decades, by our painting supervisor, joe padilla. the theme of tonight's event is world peace. may tonight's tree lighting shine a bright light in all corners of the world and provide peace to those in need. and speaking of peace, leading the way and bringing peace to our amazing city, please give a

warm welcome to our mayor, who's going to light tonight's tree, mayor london breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, phil ginsburg, and the folks at the rec and parks department for keeping our parks green and beautiful. thank you all so much for being here tonight. when i was a kid, i would get my toys from station five, the firefighters. thank you, chief hayes-white and the firefighters spags tiev fire department. i used to go down to the emporium cat well. you remember the emporium cat well? tonight, as we light this tree, we are creating memories for the next generation of young people growing up in san francisco. it's something that i'm so excited about, and in fact, at

city hall, in our front yard at civic center, we have an ice skating rink. we have incredible, beautiful playgrounds and activities and things for kids to do during the holiday season. this sunday, i hope you consider joining me in city hall. we'll have santa and face painters and hot chocolate and cookies, things that help create tomorrow's memories. so i want to thank all of you for being here tonight, and i want to ask for some assistance in lighting this tree. you guys want to help me out? come on over. come on, help me out. all right. you guys excited? you want to count with me? going to hold the switch? all right. here we go.

ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] >> the hon. london breed: magic! thank you, ladies and gentlemen and happy holidays. [cheers and

>> everything is done in-house. i think it is done. i have always been passionate about gelato. every single slaver has its own recipe. we have our own -- we move on from there. so you have every time a unique experience because that slaver is the flavored we want to make. union street is unique because of the neighbors and the location itself. the people that live around here i love to see when the street is full of people. it is a little bit of italy that is happening around you can walk around and enjoy shopping with gelato in your hand. this is the move we are happy to provide to the people. i always love union street because it's not like another

commercial street where you have big chains. here you have the neighbors. there is a lot of stories and the neighborhoods are essential. people have -- they enjoy having their daily or weekly gelato. i love this street itself. >> we created a move of an area where we will be visiting. we want to make sure that the area has the gelato that you like. what we give back as a shop owner is creating an ambient lifestyle. if you do it in your area and if you like it, then you can do it on the streets you like.

candlelig . >> i am mohamed nuru, director of public works, city and county of san francisco. i want to thank everyone for coming out today. today is a very special day. we are going to celebrate the ground breaking of our ambulance deployment facility. how about a big hand for just a new facility. [applause] >> i want to start by saying thank you to the voters because in 2016, the bond was passed, the public health and safety bond in the range of $350 million, and as part of that bond, $50 million was dedicated

to build this new facility. and this new facility will replace the old facility, and many of you know what the old facility look like. but the new facility will be four stories, will house the city's fleet, will be able to provide training, will be able to provide a place where the paramedics and firefighters can really use to respond to the people of san francisco. you know, the people of san francisco have been passing these bonds because they have faith in us being able to deliver these projects, and we will deliver these projects on time and on budget as we have done in many of our projects. but today's very, very special because this facility is very, very important in the infrastructure to support our city. and with that said, there are quite a number of people. we will thank them as we go through the various speakers, but i will begin by thanking our mayor, london breed, for all the leadership that she has

brought to the city and especially just making sure that every day people can enjoy beautiful san francisco. welcome, mayor london breed. >> the hon. london breed: thank you. good morning, everybody. i am so excited to be here today because this project is a long time coming, and i want to thank especially many of our paramedics who have waited so patiently for a facility that adequately meets the needs and the challenges that they deal with every single day, and i know that many of them are here today and they are excited and looking forward to this project, which we know will be completed in hopefully 24 months, on time, and on budget because we understand how important it is. the ability to respond quickly in an emergency situation in san francisco is one of our primary functions. and i'm proud to say that 90%

of the calls that we get are being responded to in ten minutes or less, which is the national standard. the fire department has put a lot of work into getting us here as just a few years ago, many of us know, we were struggling with meeting that standard. back in 2014, we learned that due to a steep increase in the number of 911 calls, we were not meeting our ambulance goals in a timely manner. as supervisor at the time, i worked with our late mayor, ed lee, and we secured more than $47 million to invest in the fire department, which i was really proud of and thankful to mayor ed lee for his commitment. that money was invested in not only hiring more e.m.t.s and paramedics, but hiring more firefighters and t911 dispatchers. i also made sure that went

towards investing in new ambulances and fire trucks, investing in new infrastructures and facilities. and in the past four years, we have definitely seen an improvement in our response time. the new facility will have the room to restock more than one ambulance at a time. i know the folks that do this job are really excited about that. it will also include a kitchen, training room, dining rooms, and lockers so our first responders are rested and ready for any emergency. and of course, most importantly, it will be seismically sound. all of these qualities will improve our emergency response time and help us with our first responders, help them do their very best job for the residents of our city. and i want to really thank so

many people who brought us here today. tom o'connor and local 798, as well as the patient of our paramedics who serve our city all over san francisco with patients and treatment of the people they serve. i want to thank our fire chief for all the work that she's done in helping to lead this department and really focus on the necessary improvements and things that we need to do in order to make public safety or top priority. and i am just really excited because this was a promise made years ago, and now, this is a promise as a city that we're keeping, and it will definitely allow us to respond to emergencies in a more timely manner so that we can keep all residents of our city safe. thank you all so much for being here today.

[applause] >> chair nuru: thank you, mayor. and now we'll hear from our district supervisor. this part of san francisco, we have standing right behind fire station number 9, but many of the city projects that have been coming to this neighborhood really improving the quality of life. just down on gerald, we have the new crime lab, we have the new shops there. p.u.c.'s building a facility down on evans. and the change is really good. so malia, welcome. >> president cohen: thank you. good morning. first of all, i want to take a moment on a somber note to say thank you to the first responders who are putting their lives on the lineup and down california. i know our own san francisco fire department often goes on the road to offer stance to neighboring counties, and i just want to say thank you. i also want to recognize the e.m.t. drivers that are driving the ambulances and responding

to emergencies and unfortunately sometimes non-emergencies, but that's another conversation. i just want to say thank you. i feel like you can never say thank you enough, and i know that this department is very near and dear to the mayor's heart, mayor breed, as a former fire commissioner, is that right? so i also want to recognize all the people that volunteer their time to serve san francisco, the fire commissioners that are here, thank you very much. and of course, the department of public works, where would we be without the department of public works? my heart is just overflowing, as i stand before you, winding out my ten years on the san francisco board of supervisors, i am excited, and i'd like to formerly introduce you to supervisor-elect shamann walton, who's here. you should rest assured that

he's thoughtful in his approach to policy as well as many social justice issues. i want to, again, recognize that in july of 2014, we learned that only 76% of ambulances were on-scene within ten minutes of life threatening emergency medical calls. and since learning this, i can tell you that i've personally had to call on an ambulance for one of my family members that became ill. and i mentioned this to the chief at the time, but i will mention it publicly, the service was impeccable. kindness, generosity, and thoughtfulness, professionalism all the way through. i'm grateful. yeah, shout out to the fire department. and as the mayor mentioned, there is a ten-minute national standard. as san franciscans, we can say that we can be doing better, don't you agree? san francisco's seven square miles. we can get this in a little bit faster fashion, and i think

that community and city leaders came together to establish a working group to assist us with troubleshooting and most importantly to discover ways that we could improve. and since the establishment of this group, the ambulance response time has improved more than 25%, and i am so happy to hear this -- excuse me, more than 26%. and what we have done is we've been able to maintain a high average of about 90% since 2017, and you know, i think we're going to only increase our response time from this as we move forward. and the new ambulance deployment facility comes as a fulfilled promise that i believe we as electeds have made to the overall san francisco community when ed lee was still with us. and he committed to funding more e.m.t.s, more paramedics, firefighters and of course the important 911 dispatchers, in addition to the equipment, in

addition to the vehicles. these people are needed to carrie ocare carry out the heroic effort. we're putting out $47 million -- as the chair of the budget committee, that's a lot. mohamed is also reminding me, it's plus interest. it is close to 50 million, but we won't quibble about that. i'm proud we are hosting this in this part of san francisco, a community that's shareholdering a lot of the responsibilities. it's important that we build in the fabric of our city the infrastructure that we need so that we can continue to be successful. and i will leave on this note, and i just want to again say thank you to all of the men and the women that dedicated their life to assisting us and being a first responder. i'm forever grateful. thank you.

[applause] >> chair nuru: and now we'll hear from the president of the fire commission, mr. ken cleaveland. >> president cleaveland: thank you, mohamed, and thank you to our next member of the board of equalization, so congratulations, malia, on that. good morning. everyone, it's a pleasure to be representing the fire commissions. i have a couple of commissioners i'd like to recognize. michael hardeman and commissioner francee covington. it's been a long time coming to get this from planning to where we are today. i know some of my fellow commissioners have been on the commission up to 24 years, and it's been a discussion all that time. how can we improve our e.m.s. because that's obviously one of the biggest facility -- one of

the biggest services that we provide to the city's residents and visitors, so it's a really proud moment for us today on the commission, for the fire department, and certainly for the department of public works to get this launched, and so i'm very proud to say congratulations on getting it done. congratulations again as mohamed said earlier to the voters. thank you for passing the bond that made this possible, and we're going to need another bond down the road so we can have another new training facility, so let's get that word out. so thank you very much, and i'm pleased the rain has held out. >> chair nuru: thank you. thank you. and now, a good friend of mine, good partner with public works, not just today's event, but many of the improvements to many of the fire stations and police facilities all over the city, welcome our chief, joanne

hayes-white. >> commissioner hayes-white: thank you, mohamed. good morning, everyone. thanks for being here. as president cleaveland said, we're blessed with good weather. i don't know for longer, so my remarks will be brief. we're all very excited to be here today to envision what will be a state-of-the-art ambulance deployment facility. i'm very proud to mayor breed for her vision and leadership. as was alluded before, mayor lee, who was a champion of this facility. certainly president malia cohen, also keeping us on our toes in terms of response times, and making sure the whole city is served, especially her district, and congratulate is the supervisor elect shamann walton. i would say thank you to all the commissioners, the two that aren't here, in addition to

president cleaveland and commissioners hardeman and covington are commissioner joe alioto veronese, as well as commissioner steven nakajo. thank you to the commission. certainly my commission is here, mark gonzalez, jean nicholson lieutenant t nicholson, lieutenant tom murphy in the back. section chief tony malloy, thank you very much for all the hard work. this is a facility that's very unique, nearly one of its kind in the state of california. we're building without a whole lot of blueprint or other facilities to look at. so that's why it took a lot of time and attention to detail to make this facility the great facility that it will be and that our members so deserve. public works, i will say i do

consider director nuru a partner of mine. we come together. we have two other projects hopefully looking forward to being delivered soon, hopefully, before i retire. i know it's a top of your priority list as it is yours. thanks, mohamed. brian dahl also helped with this today. we brought good weather. also we look forward to holding accountable the contractors. i heard they're going to be off to a good start, s.j.amoroso. we also look forward to -- we had to work with the stararts commission, and that was an interesting process, but also a very educational process for us. i think we're most grateful, and i say we're grateful to the

public that in 2016, envision saw the need for this facility, so it goes without saying it's the city voters that got it to where we're at. and before i save the best part for last, and that's our members, i do want to acknowledge we have p.d. presence, mike redmon, thanks for being here. under mayor breed's leadership, there's an expectation that we don't just work and fulfill our responsibility, but that it's it's cross collaboration. mostly, i'm thrilled to be here because of our members. the hard working men and women of the san francisco fire department. when i became chief in 2004, there was much needed

reconfiguration. the fire department left d.p.h. there was a lot of stops and rt starts, we learned a lot, we reconfigured over and over. the facility you're currently in at 1415 evans has done a good job for us, but it's not nearly what you need, and we really appreciate as mayor breed said, your patience, your dedication, your hard work. every day, you put your uniform on. the workplace isn't great. i will look forward in retirement coming back when we cut the ribbon on this facility. i want to know that we placed a high emphasis on your health, your well-being, and your safety. not to mention the public is going to be better served. it's going to be a much more efficient model. so thank you for being here celebrating with us. i believe we have our

department chapman lalain, ande we break ground, we'll ask the father to give a blessing. >> chair nuru: thank you. so if the commissioners, mayor, board president, if we would come over to where the shovels are, i will hand the mic to the chaplain, and in two years, we will be back here enjoying the new facility. >> i'd just like to ask a great favor of you if we could have a moment of silence for one of our paramedics, mike kirk, who died the day before yesterday, and hopefully we can remember him and his family. thank you. we're very proud of our e.m.s. division and of our fire rescue division, and we know those men and women constantly give of themselves, especially those

who are in need of medical attention. so we ask for a blessing on all of them, a blessing on all those who are in need, and we ask that this new facility would help them in the performance of their duties. amen. >> amen. >> chair nuru: thank you very much. and we're going to count from five to zero and then just a little thing right there. all right. five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

>> all right. good afternoon, everyone. i am paul yepp. i am the kmonding officer of the central police station. and i want to thank you for being here today.

irts to thank o . i want to thank our supervisors for being here today, first of all, mayor london breed, supervisor aaron peskin, and on cue, the chief of police, bill scott. executive director of sf safe, kyra worthy. park and rec commissioner allen low. park and rec area manager zach taylor. chief of the park rangers, mike celeste. president of self-help for the elderly, annie chung. from the chinese benevolent association, charles chow. and from the san francisco police department command staff, deputy chief ann mannix, commander dan perea, commander

david lozar. oh, and -- i'm sorry -- oh, and i'm sorry. reverend malcolm fong -- the latest commander for the san francisco police department, darryl fong. congratulations, darryl. this is about you. [applause] >> and of course the executive director for the ccdc, malcom yo. i am proud to share with you the grand opening of the san francisco police department public information drop-in center, and it was quite a collaboration between city partners and our community leaders. and i can't be more proud to have got this done with

everyone in this room, so thank you for that. and let me go ahead and introduce our first speaker, the honorable mayor london breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, captain. i'm really excited to be here because this is a really incredible opportunity for the chinatown community. what we ultimately want to do is make sure that people are safe, and part of making sure that people are safe is not only a police presence but it's also people feeling comfortable with reporting crimes. when i first became mayor, one of the first thing that i did was to add additional beat officers here in chinatown, and we're continuing to add more beat officers in civic center and other parts of the city as those new academy classes continue to graduate. thank you supervisor peskin and members of the board of supervisors for supporting the additional academy classes which will ensure that we are able to get more officers on

the streets. but we know that police presence alone can't address some of the challenges that exist, and in particular, in communities where people speak different languages, there are often times, you know, just really a disconnect between the crime that happens and their ability to report those crimes. and so this drop-in center will be used as an opportunity for people who are a part of this community to basically come in to develop relationships with the officers here and to report crimes if they occur. and so i'm excited about that because i know that captain yepp has done an outstanding job in this community with building good relationships with the people in this community and also commander lozar who was the former captain of this station has also been instrumental in continuing to bridge that gap. this is just the next step in