badly as those renters were also growing cannabis illegally and the upstairs portion of the building caught on fire, threatening the janitorial building. after that, he decided to retire and completely retire completely and sold the vacant building to joey and family. since then, he has run a business repairing and renting arcade machines and hosting the occasional special event. there have been four generations of native san franciscans which include my family and friends that have enjoyed these games during my children's birthday parties at joey the cat. we all grew up in the neighborhood and most of us still live in the neighborhood or close by. we are not in the high-tech industry. we are blue collar workers ourselves. and have even invited the st. charles church to play the games with us. joey the cat is fun for both

adults and children and more

we have at any given time, go in on a sunday morning and you'll

see everything from toddlers to people my age there, and they are indeed playing mini golf, ski ball, basketball and they are eating, because it's a full service restaurant, and they are drinking either alcoholic beverages if they choose to and of course there's nonalcoholic beverages. we have kids until 8:00. and we have many of them. so i'm going to talk a little bit about the economics of the situation. and i can tell you very clearly there would be, no, you are ban putt if we didn't have a restaurant and a bar. we only charge $12 for miniature golf. we have a full maintenance team that has to come in every morning to do work on it. it would not be financially feasible for us to have that. so, in fact, having food, and it is a full service restaurant, which is important. i have two kids. and they are there quite a lot.

i've lived in san francisco, it will be 30 years next year. i live in vernal heights so i know about this. i can also speak to the issue of crowding and uber and everything else. you know, once you check the records, we've had no literally no complaints about this, no police incidents, nothing like this, no alcohol-related incidents that have come up in the five and a half years that we have been in business. we do have a door person. we don't think of them as a bouncer because it's meant to be friendlier than that. but we have door people that are there every evening. and that actually also really helps in keeping everything safe and neat and making sure there are no incidents. joey can speak to how he wants to handle that, but there is a

model here that he may well use. >> sir, your time is up. >> okay. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. i live near this project. and i'm a real estate agent. i work with a lot of small businesses. and i'm shocked about how hard it is to start a small business, just being an entrepreneur is incredibly difficult. the odds are so against you. and it takes so much persistence and so much courage. to take a game like ski ball and turn it into your business is even more impressive. and to do that in san francisco, to raise a family, takes an incredible amount of responsibility. and a person that takes on these odds and that has the responsibility and persistence and passion is somebody that i want doing business in my

neighborhood. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is vincent. i live on 20th and treat. i lived on mission for about six years now. and i live at my family house my grandfather was born in. i approached joey about three years ago to start an art program in his arcade to help use his walls as canvass and create a system for a few artists in the neighborhood to get together and paint some murals. that's just part of the reason i'm here though. a few years later we were in a bind and a friend of mine had two daughters and one was sick and we needed to have a fundraiser. there were very few places that could aaccommodate and he lent his space to us. the point is not the sob story.

the point is that he gave me and my wife and my friends a community center that we needed at the time. and allowed us to use the space to raise $4,000 for a charity called madeline's movement that we believe and participate in. thank you. >> thank you, sir. next speaker, please. >> good evening. my name is matthew. i'm the owner of a small bizarre cade. it's just me. i do arcade repair around the city and do event rentals with my arcade games. i've known joey for a couple years. i work for him on a contract basis fixing his games. i do some design work for him. and when he mentioned this project about a year ago when this first started dreaming about this, he mentioned in the

plans there a mezzanine which is like a second story that would be created in this which hopefully would contain some of my games, miniature games i make. they are 40 percent size. [off mic] they are literally child-sized games. [laughter] so i make those games. and i've lived in the mission when i first moved here at 21st and florida. i lived in the upper hayes the last ten years. there's an arcade in the upper haight which again echoing the economic concerns is both a print shop, they make screen print t-shirts which is how they support the arcade. i work there on the weekends and if i had to encourage you to go there any day, it's full of kids

playing my games, specifically parents showing their kids the games and the kids being approachable for the kids as well. i'm a blue collar worker. i repair arcade games. i need clients like joey to be able to live in the city. so i would encourage you to approve this request. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, there. my name is dan baldwin. i'm an employee of joey the cat as the events manager. i'm tasked with the rental sales and delivering the arcade games throughout the bay area to private events of all types. i have a part-time team of two event assistants that help out with the delivery of the games. i've been a resident of the mission for about five years now and have enjoyed working with joey in supporting a business that is owned by somebody that lives in the mission. and a vote for this discretionary review may jeopardize my position as well

as my part-time assistants so i would ask that you reject the discretionary review and support the arcade. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello. my name is josh morris. i work at joey the cat as well. i also live in the neighborhood. and have for seven years now. i repair arcade games in this warehouse and also at other locations. we have our arcade games and i would like to be able to keep my job because if we don't have more arcade games, then there's nothing for me to work on. the best thing about this is that when you see people playing, if you share the experience. we are in the business of creating champions. we are here sharing the board walk experience that really can't be achieved any other way than playing arcade games.

and i want to continue making people happy by sharing that winning feeling with them, because i'm not olympic athlete but you get that sensation when you succeed and when you win. thank you. [laughter] >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is ryan. i'm bay area born and raised, been a business owner in the mission district for two decades, lived in san francisco for about the same. i'm also a member of the mission merchants association and that's how i found out about this project. i feel like there's a lot of obvious tension in the mission district over gentrification and tech use use coming in and having a blast. and to be honest, it pisses me off when i see crappy behavior by people that aren't from here and whatnot but i think blaming joey for that and having him be

the punching bag for that kind of anger isn't quite fair. i don't feel it's fair to characterize this as it's going to be strictly a techy hangout. i think we know that techies live in san francisco and people with money live in san francisco. but there's nothing about this that has that nasty smell of money. it just doesn't. this is a place that i would -- if i could afford to have a kid, i would bring a kid to hang out there and play ski ball or whatever. but this doesn't have an elitist stink to it. and i know there's some people that have a drive and i respect what they are protecting. but i think that maybe this particular project should maybe get a little more slack and think about someone as trying to open an honest, independent, hard-working, working-class business and i know there's been some past and i don't know about

that but i know his plan sounds good, and i back it. i think independent business is what san francisco needs, i think it's what the mission district needs and providing jobs, kids, sounds good to me. i back it. so that's it. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners. thank you for your time tonight. my name is pete. i am a resident of the block where joe is proposing to operate this business. i also have been in the neighborhood probably somewhat longer than mr. ortiz has been on the planet. i was the president of the mission merchants association back in the '90s when there was a lot of discord about the tech

boom back then. and it seems silly, not really realistic to continue to vilify the industry that drives the economy of our city today. in terms of all the different reasons why folks are brought up that we shouldn't have alcohol on the block, i can tell you that they all, every person that opposes every project that i've listened to kind of uses the same stuff and hides behind the same stuff. i can tell you having lived on the block for quite some time that the only places where the hookers aren't hanging out and the pimps aren't hanging out are in front of the bar over there on the corner of shotwell and 20th. that's the only spot. so having more nighttime activity that doesn't revolve around the sex trade would be

fantastic. having opened a dozen or so different businesses, all over the city, i can tell you that alcohol makes things viable. it's not always a bad thing. in fact usually it's a great thing. it's very, very difficult to make a business go without the help of alcohol sales. i'm trying to -- yeah, i mean all the different things, the no alcohol, the closing at 9:00. these are folks that have never operated a business. they just don't care. they are naysayers, and that's not what san francisco is about. i've been here 40 years. i've heard a lot of this stuff. and it rings as hollow now as it ever did. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good evening, commissioners.

steven bus. i want to say congratulations to commissioner diamond on your appointment and confirmation. i hope future meetings don't go quite as long, because i know this must be grueling for all of you. so i would like you to support joey the cat and reject the dr. you know, i feel like we have the opportunity to start having a higher bar for drs and we should not take such frivolous drs just on principle. it should be reserved for exceptional cases. and clearly that doesn't meet that bar. so, you know, it's hard for small businesses in san francisco. it costs anywhere -- it could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. it could be several months until you get permits. we've made a system that is

difficult for anyone without connections, basically anyone who can't organize 20 people to come out to a hearing to open a new business. and that's not a healthy city. so, again, please reject the dr and let the small business owner continue to flourish. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i'm joe. recent graduate. i'm speaking in favor of joey the cat. i think that direct -- discretionary reviews should only be used for extraordinary and extreme circumstances. and it seems a lot of things have not met up to this standard, and this case

certainly is one of them. joey has been here for 11 years. he has gone through the permitting process. it's not an easy task. it takes about 86 days according to a census report, about 26 hours of processing permits. he has dotted his i's acrossed his ts and added a couple of objectionford commas and at this point he's faced a roadblock. i think about my mother who has always wanted to open a business and how if she was in this position, you know, she doesn't have the best grasp of english. she didn't come to this country with a lot of resources and connections. if she was in this position without this host of great supporters and host of people who know her, she wouldn't be able to defend herself. i don't think she would have a

chance of succeeding through a dr. i think that is broken. i think joey is doing great things for the neighborhood. i really think that you should accept this dr and set a standard that drs aren't supposed to be used for something frivolous but extreme situations that haunt the neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. my name is daina. and i like small businesses. small business is dying. a lot of outwardly successful businesses are barely hanging on. there are places that are packed every single night and still they haven't been able to pay rent in months. and without a liquor license you can't begin to think about it. the businesses i talk to are

terrified of dr. if you are thinking about opening a business it's like a sword over your neck. if it can happen to someone as awesome as joey, it can happen to anyone. and that's what potential business owners are thinking. our small business community can't afford to pay. please show your support for small business and please don't take dr. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i'm jeremy, also from indy neoliberal. so recently san francisco was ranked the number 77th best city to run a business in north america. and that probably sounds pretty bad, but it's actually even worse because all of the business -- all the cities underneath that were in mexico. we are the absolute worst city

in the united states and canada to run a business today. and this kind of process is a huge part of that where anyone can come up to the works of a project for any or no reason whatsoever, causing a business owner to have to pay rent for months potentially for a business that they can't operate. they have to go and tell their investors they have no idea when they are going to be able to get a return on their investment. maybe a big corporation can afford this. in fact most big corporations can, because they can use revenues from other locations. but small business owners, they don't really have that option. it creates a fundamentally unjust and unfair system for small businesses who just don't have those kinds of advantages. obviously we can't really solve that process here today. but you can help us by swiftly rejecting drs that are in places

where the businesses already principally permitted. as a conclusion, i'm another small business owner. i've lived here 15 years. i hope to someday wake up in a a city that is only the second worst city in america to run a business. >> thank you. any other public comment in support of the project sponsor? okay. dr requester, you get a two-minute rebuttal. >> can reasonableness consistency start my -- can we restart my time? so i'm hearing a lot of things. so he brought this property for $1.5 million in 2014. this is not your mom and pop local i'm just trying to make a

buck and have my business survives. he comes from a very wealthy family. this is not about an arcade using alcohol. this is about changing use so we can sell control. the mission has the highest number of alcohol-related arrests and ambulance rides in the city. we are taking the cost in the neighborhood. these private events are 25$00 an event. joey refused to continue the discussions after the fact that alcohol was a nonnegotiable which is right away had we knew that all his intent was. so i would ask when not against the ski ball repair shop or ski ball is family-friendly space but we would ask for a community benefits agreement that gets up held unlike urban putt which has not been up held because they are not following that agreement. the whole point of having community benefit agreements is to make sure this is being mitigated and are having effects to make sure our folks cocome in

and use these spaces. since the private event parties are $2,500 an event that you limit the event to five a month. so that way he's recouping a little bit of that. we don't need a private event destination spot where it's going to be private events all the time and no families are going to be allowed to be in there at this point in time. i would ask the commission to look at shotwell as a whole because there's a lot of conversion that's happening from pdr into tech office space so that's a big concern, because we are talking about what's legally allowed and that's correct. but the fact is we are losing our pdr spaces and we are in the process of trying to preserve that through map 2020. thank you for your time. >> thank you. you get a two-minute rebuttal. >> so i just want to reiterate , this arcade is not going to hap. i think that's crystal leer so

there's not a concession to be had. the only thing in the discretionary review i agree with is kevin checked the box on no, he didn't reach out to the in the neighborhood notification. when he says multiple opportunities, he backtracked to no we can't have alcohol and now he's trying to tell me hours to open my business. he's using data of how much a private event cost when this wasn't open to the public. [off mic] >> you are out of order. >> my pricing is that's what was happening in the past so we are nonprofit events. he's not hiring those. that's a mischaracterization i'm only going to cater to techies. you saw steve walk up here and

say a ton of different kinds of people all have events in his space and enjoy his space and enjoy food and beverage. so we bought this building because we know that it could be a public arcade and public restaurant that could provide community benefit. and i think that is the reason we bought it, for $1.5 million, the price doesn't matter. this is part of a dream to open an arcade to the public. and a space that we could stay in because an arcade without alcohol and food and beverage, they don't exist. so i urge you to reject this dr, because i want to open this business to the public i want to put transparency on the building. i want this to be a public space. this is not going to be a private event space anymore. this will be a public space. >> okay. thank you. commissioner richards. >> so it's late and i'm really

cranky. for those of you that don't like dr i give you two pieces of advice. one, get six members of the board of supervisors to put a charter amendment on our ballot that repeals the right to do dr on our business and tax code or get the signatures yourself to put the thing on the ballot because i'm tired of hearing about why san francisco is so bad. do something about it. secondly, mr. joey, can i ask you a question? can you come up, please? so, these other locations you have, are they repair and arcade? repair and restaurant? what are they? >> they are restaurants, bars, . so there's a brewery, street food, places that have my machines in them. we don't have enough time to go into the whole side of my business but i restore arcade

games, i put them in bars and repair them because they break when kids use them. >> so you are the only joey the cat there is. you are the only joey the cat location. >> this is the only joey the cat location. >> have you ever been to silver ball ranch? >> no >> i'll get you an introduction. they have about 5,000 pinball machines. it's in sonoma. you need to go see it. >> definitely that's my question for now. >> back in the day when i was growing up in merced, a crazy day out for me was taking the 17 to san francisco state and playing video games. $5 to me was a world of money and i couldn't have been happier. later graduated to the cliff house arcade. there was a couple of them on market street as well if i wanted to really take in the train ride downtown.

but i don't think this is businesses that bad. i really don't. i'm recalling commissioner ben from the entertainment commission just came out with an article saying it's almost impossible to open any businesses here in thi in this . this is coming from a commissioner here in san francisco. so i'm not in support of the dr today. >> commissioner johnson. >> thanks. so there's so many things to say. i'm struggling because it's late. so bear with me. yes, it is important to protect pdr space. actually think this is a great pdr use space. we have had multiple conversations about how hard it is to even when we have protected pdr space, keep and fill pdr space and this feels like a next generation pdr space that's there.

and it feels like the intent of that. and it is principally permitted use. what i'm hearing when i hear the concerns of the dr requester and community members that spoke out against this business is really wanting a space that if it's going to exist there is open to the community, that really respects and responds to the needs of the community. one of those issues is thinking about how this benefits the community, how can it be an open and welcoming space to all people who live in the mission and the city, understanding the neighborhood context, understanding maybe you do a community night or discounted rentals for local nonprofits. wanting to see a plan in place that shows that you understand those needs and are really open to responding to those. i think also so much stuff was

brought up about alcohol in the mission and the fact that that community is actually working to put together policy around the fact that the community is rialing from an oversatchuation of alcohol. so if there is going to be alcohol here in this business, what can you do to put a plan into place? maybe you give a phone number contact to community members who can call you if patrons are coming out of joey the cat and being disruptive. what is your plan to not call the place police but find a way to mitigate the impact of the business. and how can you work with the surrounding community to actually implement that in a way that integrating your business into the community. but overall, i would say i think the move to open up the space to the public to create a restaurant in this space that can truly be serving of all different interests and members of the community is actually a

step in the right direction. and so i would move to not take dr and approve the project. >> thank you. so i will also be not supportive of this dr. let me just add to your wise words, commissioner johnson. you are always so on point. that i think, you know, we have seen all kinds of changes in our neighborhoods. resulting from income disparity. and, you know, it's hard to see sort of the effects in terms of displacement, loss of cultural space and accessibility. i don't believe this project does any of these things. i also think that there's been a

real shift in the last ten years in terms of what's viable for restaurants and retail. i think there's been a sort of seismic shift. i wish we lived in a world where having pinball machines and an arcade was economically viable. but we don't live in that world. and so i am somebody who has spent a large part of my career doing technical assistance for businesses in the mission, doing, you know, building support for folks to make a living, mostly immigrant businesses. and i know how tough it is to be able to survive, to be able to pay your employees, to be able to pay your mortgage. and so i think coming up with innovative business plans that

involve different things, you know, events, pinball machines, hours during which kids can come, hours during which techies can come, things that can be flexible uses that will allow you to have a business that's viable and at the same time as commissioner johnson suggested, i hope you -- i saw you writing down her suggestions, which was excellent, which contribute to the community and are respectful of the community life. i think that's the way to go. so i think that i commend you for having so much support. i think that's great. and i also want us to think about that issue of flexibility and spaces. i think umu designation is the perfect designation to be trying out flexible business models, having something going on during the day, having something else going on in the evening, maybe

something on weekends, something on weekdays. i think because it's meant to be that in between pdr and residential, it is the perfect way to be trying out new business models in this world that we are living in of amazon and grub hub delivery where it's so difficult to have restaurants survive, even with alcohol. and so i think just for planning staff, i want to see some of these things and explore some of these things, especially in umu, because i think it's important to preserve jobs. and i also will say that the pdr designation is exactly what we thought of, the repairing of the machine, that's the exactly what pdr is and if having this extra income with this new business model allows you to employ all

of these folks, fixing up ski ball machines and other places, i think that's exactly what we want. so thank you so much. and i will not be supporting this dr. commissioner richards. >> just a couple thoughts before we vote and hopefully go home. i would love to see -- we talked about equity before. i would love to see on this project or dr, the applicant and the project sponsor and staff, if we so desire, actually put the project through the equity lens and see what the sausage is at the end when it comes out. so that would be an interesting one. i love going to detour in my neighborhood. they have children's afternoons 12 to 5, saturdays and sundays. i hope you are able to do something like that for kids. the only thing that troubles me, and the reason why i will vote yes is indeed you had an events

there afterwards. it looks like you did. if you didn't, then now is the change to say. with social media it's hard to disprove these kinds of things. i love pinball. >> second. >> thank you, commissioners. seeing nothing further, there's a motion that has been seconded to not take dr and approve the project as proposed. on that motion. [roll call vote] >> i vote not to take dr. >> the motion is to not take dr. [roll call vote] so moved, that motion passes 4-1 with commissioner richards voting against. [applause] >> it's a weird spot.

i struggle with -- [end of meeting] >> i wanted to welcome everybody i am going to do an abbreviated version of the agenda, so speakers, please cut your time. and once this is over, we will go upstairs.

you will see the building, and you will be invited for some appetizers and we will continue to have our speakers upstairs. so it is with great honor and pleasure, and i'm very humbled to stand here in front of all of you guys to say that we are here [speaking spanish] there are so only people to think. i don't have enough time to thank everyone but i wanted to start off by thinking mayor breed for her support and through all of our ordeal. the board of supervisors, where here today. supervisor walton, safai, supervisor ronen, they all have been instrumental in the support of us, the save the building coalition, the partners of the consortium, mehta, jamestown, i wanted to thank san ruiz for

doing the last-minute last minute negotiation when i gave up. i want to think -- i want to thank so many people. you are welcome here. this is a place where -- we are organizing, and forever we will carry that legacy of advocating for the citywide. thank you for joining us today. i wanted to bring up our mayor to give us a few words. thank you mayor breed. >> thank you, tracy. first of all, there's nothing like having a place in your community to call home. when i grew up in the western addition with the african-american culture complex , those were the places that were safer we had an opportunity to be part of some amazing programs. and m. lvs has been that

community space for over 40 years here in the mission. it started with the help of my mother's union and the labourers and the work that they have done [applause] to open the doors of opportunity for people who need a place to go to feel safe and feel secure and develop the skills and develop the language and do so many amazing things, but most important, to have a community. this place represents so much, not only to this community, but to this city. and so they're what -- it wasn't even a question as to whether or not we needed to make sure that we provided the necessary money to help secure this facility. it was not even a question with any member of the board of

supervisors. it wasn't even a question with the officials who work for the city. it was really about what the community wanted and deserved deserves to have in this neighborhood. [applause] i want to start by thinking assembly member david to who you all know came together with the folks from mehta, mission neighborhood center and jamestown and through that, those discussions early on, we developed this consortium which stayed consistent and persistent in its pursuit to get the job done, led by this incredible lady here, tracy brown, and the work that she did. [applause] it was absolutely amazing. and so to all of the folks in the community, you made this

happen. you came together. you put aside any differences, any issues with the sole purpose of ensuring that this facility is here now and for generations to come, roberto. for generations to come. so i am so honored to have played a very small role in supporting these efforts. i'm looking forward to seeing the culinary program grow. i'm looking forward to the tutoring and a lot of the other things that you have done and will continue to do for so many people who would need the programs and operate right here. so thank you for this great opportunity. but before i walk off because tracy told me to keep my comments to a minimum, i just want to really recognize the

work of tracy brown, especially, and myrna melgar, who first of all, two phenomenal women who are relentless in their pursuit to take care of their community. i just want to present a small token of appreciation for the work that you all did to make this possible. in bureaucratic years, i actually said this happened fast once we got going. faster than most things happen in san francisco because we understand the importance. these two ladies were instrumental in making sure it got done. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, thank you for your work, your tireless commitment to the community, and everything that you have done and continue to do to be such a blessing on so many lives in our city. thank you so much. [applause]

>> okay. thank you. thank you for coming. i also wanted to shout out the chef who prepared things upstairs. the staff of oewd, you are amazing. thank you for believing in us and also to our legal team. victor marques is here and the staff of the legal team. thank you again. now i wanted to bring up david to. >> good afternoon. are we ready to celebrate? all right. this is a very special day.

thank you for being part of the community that made it a special day. we are on hallowed ground. it was in this spot 51 years ago that latino immigrant workers came together and said, we need a place to call home. i know we have a lot of labourers here. this is also a space where we are under a guardian angel. her name is russ audio. -- name is rosario. we can feel her. because of her and because of all of us who are here and part of that spirit, we carry on. it was a couple years ago that if you community leaders came to me and said we want to you to be part of a movement. tracy brown, all of you saved mlvs. there are so many folks who i

know have already been recognized and i want to thank the mayor of the mission for recognizing so many of these folks. let me take a moment and recognize another person who play recognizes a bit of an unsung hero. i remember you night after night after night, along with mike, the board, so many of you who are part of this and angels often come in three, as the charlie's angel movie tells us. there are three organizational angels that came together with their leaders. jamestown, led by mirna, thank you. saint-louis is led by -- our m.n.c. led by sam or wheeze and we have louise here from mehta. you came together in a way when i was frankly asked for those who are possible. it took a village.

it took not just community leadership and nonprofit leadership, but it took a mayor and an oewd department the said, yes, we will put our money where our values are. thank you. thank you, mayor breed. it also takes the private sector i know we have representatives. thank you so much for a four and a half million dollar loan to be part of this. let me just say and conclude with three brief opera -- observations. it takes a village. it takes all of a sudden together. this is how it gets done. the second thing i want to say is at a time when our latino community, the immigrant communities are under assault from a so-called occupant of the white house and from economic forces that are looking to push us out, we have to stand up. we have to come together in coalitions with families to say, we are not going away, we are here to stay and no one is kicking us out. [applause]

but the final thing i want to say is, what is so important for all those here is we know this is a building, this is an institution where tens of thousands of immigrant families and workers are kids and kids are going to walk through. and because of the work we're doing here, we are going to be raising not just the next mayor of the mission, but the next supervisor of district nine, the next assembly member representing eastern san francisco, and some day, long after mayor breed is gone, we will elect a mayor of san francisco likely from a community that was nurtured by mlvs. that is why this is so important this is why i'm honored to be part of it. long-lived mlvs. [speaking spanish]. [cheers and applause] >> thank you to the mlvs board. i know some of you guys are just

arriving. i wanted to also shout out my family for putting up with me during this year, and now i wanted to bring up supervisor hilary ronen who has supported our capacity building for the past few years. without her, we really could not have survived this ordeal. thank you, supervisor ronen. [applause] >> this feels so good, doesn't it? this is truly nothing short of a miracle. aside from the money that david was talking about, for those of us who took a look at the tangled legal mess that this building was in, i didn't know how we were going to get out of it. i honestly didn't. i had just come into office when this whole thing exploded and

bob and some of the mlvs board came to me and said, we have asked david to help us try to figure this out. and i said please, do. keep talking to him because i have no idea how to fix this mess. but what happened is we got together, or i should say some of the strongest and fiercest and sometimes the most difficult personalities in the mission -- [indiscernible]. [laughter] [applause] they even brought in victor marques. they got together and stuck it out together to unravel this nightmare that had happened. and if it wasn't for their tenacity, their willingness to stick it out when times got

tough, because yes, times got tough and number number of times , without the support of mayor breed, we didn't hesitate for a second and said, i'm here for you, i'm with you, i've got you, none of this would have happened. it is part miracle and part a testament to the strong leadership that this community has. and their tenacity and unwillingness to give up until there is justice for their community. congratulations. i couldn't be more proud of you all. [applause] and victor wanted me to correct the record and say the bank of san francisco, not the bank of america. [laughter] and i, too, have the certificate for the two organizations that are currently occupying this beautiful and historical building. i will give this to tracy. she will probably want to say it is someone else's responsibility now.

[indiscernible]. [applause] >> okay. let's move quick here. i wanted to introduce the jamestown community center executive director me or no melgar. she is here representing the consortium which we share. i also just wanted to shout shot out dr. garcia who serves on my board. i wanted to bring them up. [cheers and applause] >> thank you for being here with us to celebrate this historic occasion. i feel so honored to be part of this club. it is amazing. i want to recognize firstly our mayor.

[cheers and applause] many folks don't know, but it was her brainchild that jamestown get involved in this. that this collaboration of agencies could save this building with the city's support not only was it her idea that jamestown move here and get involved with this, but she also but the city's money behind it. making sure we saved this important community assets. thank you for your vision. and also for your commitment to keeping our community in place and our cultural and nonprofit institutions strong. i also want to recognize the individuals who put this together. first to tracy brown. [applause] her persistence, her tenacity, or leadership and commitment to the community has led not only to the success of mlvs, it is on

a different foot know because of you, but also to the success of this collaboration. tracy, i have always admired your vision of one mission and of latino unity and collaboration. these are the fruits of your labor. thank you very much. and thank you to michael and santiago. it is your intelligence, your connections, your keen strategic mind and your long-term planning that has led us to the anchoring of the mission neighborhood centers is one of our most important community institutions in the mission. and today we celebrate your legacy, your contribution to the reclamation of this space, but also to your support of others, especially me and tracy. thank you for doing that. thank you for your support of others in the community. also thank you to since about --

to for all of your work that you put in this deal. [applause] and for being here for mlvs when they needed you. and last, and certainly not least, i want to express my vast appreciation for luis and also to caroline. luis has led the mission economic development agency through a transformation from a small business development support nonprofit to a national leader in the work for the civil and economic rights for latinos. they have been at the forefront of unapologetically holding ground for our community, for our culture, for our people, with a community that we created thank you for your vision and for your support and for your incredible leadership. [applause] and also to caroline, whose hard

work was with serious diplomatic skills and have enabled not just this acquisition, but the development of the community real estate development and savings the home of thousands of latinos in this city and stabilizing nonprofit space here in the mission, which we definitely need. now to the crew. i want to thank kelly, karen at community vision, thank you for all of the time, energy, and support in technical assisted opportunities and investment you provided for this collaborative and also through your stewardship with the nonprofit investment fund. you made magic happen. thank you. and also to stefani for shepherding jamestown and the consortium through all the technical issues. last but not least to walking, to the incomparable josh, for

all of your support and assistance. [speaking spanish] thank you to patrick valentino for your support, advice, and also for pushing us. thank you so much. and i would lastly like to thank the bank of san francisco for stepping up. [applause] for providing the financing that we needed to support this effort thank you for being truly a san francisco bank and for the access and personal attention you provided. also thank you to cars a permanente for providing the funding -- thank you to kaiser permanente for providing the funding to complete this. we are so grateful for the support. i will leave you with this from my people. [speaking spanish] thank you. [applause]

>> i am going to have my closing remarks. i wanted to shout out our building people. and all the people who have invested in us. let's get to the ribbon-cutting. i have someone from mlvs. let's do it holding one side and someone from jamestown holding the other side. this is a nontraditional ribbon-cutting because in the mission, we can't just do one person, can we? we are going to all come together to do this. thank you again to all the mission. i will call up the consortium members and call up the mission leadership, the save the building committee, and anyone else who feels invested. please come up. we will be cutting this ribbon all together. supervisors, please join us.

board of education, thank you for joining us today. come on up. [indiscernible] >> community, anybody who wants to come up here. [laughter] >> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause] [applause]