talks love art, especially when they died into the creative process -- dive into the creative process. at the end of the classes, they have cleaned and washup. of.com great way to get out and play. for more information, visit sfrecpark.org. that out and play and get into the groove. rec and parks offers dance classes for seniors. first-time beginners or lifetime enthusiasts -- all are welcome. enjoy all types of music. latins also, country and

western. it is a great way to exercise while having lots of fun. seniors learn basic moves and practice a variety of routines. improve your posture, balance, and flexibility. it is easy. get up on your feet and step to the beat. senior dance class is from sf rec and park. a great way to get out and play. >> for more information, >> my nave is jeffrey and i'm the director of the san francisco municipal transportation agency and i am so excited to be here and to inago rate the restart of the san francisco subway system and

our f-line. it has been a long 14 months and we are not out of the woods yet. i am so grateful to my hard-working teams. everyone who has been work to go try to get service restarted. muni is the life blood of san francisco. it's how college students get to school and it's how people around and how we function as a place and brings service back is absolutely essential to san francisco's economy so with no further adieu, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breed. [applause] >> thank you, jeff. first let's give it up for the official band of san francisco! the gay and lesbian band.

i don't know about you, but i'm excited to be here. we're listen to go live music for a change. san francisco is truly coming alive. and one of the things that happened at the beginning of this pandemic, so many of us basically said, i hope san francisco will do a better job at some of the construction projects so that they don't interfere with my commute to work or to school when the city begins to reopen. well, in some cases we couldn't necessarily do that. but the good news is, we have an incredible leader in jeff tumlin and an amazing department m.t.a. and the commissioner who is joining us here today. they knew this was an opportunity and an opportunity to make significant improvements to muni. because let me tell you, as we begin to open our city and begin down the path of recovery, having a good public transportation system is going to be critical.

now, some of the nuts and bolts, mostly don't sound really exciting to people, but they're exciting to the people who ride muni, who for example, want to access the internet when they're underground, this is something i've been work on since i was supervisor and scott wiener was helping for this cause. here is the good news, a lot of the work we were able to do is making it possible to make muni more efficient than ever. it was a struggle, yes, but we are in a very, very good place. we're asking for people to be patient. so here is what we have planned. first of all, the f-line, the historic cars, the museum, that's over there that talks about the history of rail in san francisco and just how important it is, bringing those cars back is really important, not just

for transportation but for tourism and the f-line that goes from the castro to fisherman's wharf, those with the open covers and the closed covers, those lines are starting back tomorrow. [applause] under ground. i know we missed the different underground trains to take us from downtown all the way to the west side in rapid speed when it's working right, right. muni underground is coming back in effect tomorrow. we did a lot of the underground work and you know how sometimes you get stuck in that tunnel at church street, and you are like, man, and all the trains get backed up because our system wasn't necessarily equipped to handle the number of riders that we see and jeff had the

foresight to look at this along with a number of experts in transportation and we're going to combine the t and the k line and we're going to make that line more efficient but let me tell you, i'm most excited about this because this is something that i've been working on, again, since supervisor. they will have two car trains in every instance instead of one for all those folks who wait where i used to campaign at when i was supervisors at the early stages of my political soft involvement, it was providing better service for then june a. i'm excited about it. just imagine being late to work and school all the time because of then june a. the other thing that will happen, which is really great, i think, is we'll have wifi

underground and publicard and better mow efficient service so i can tell you this but you are going to experience it. you will fee. i was listed a a celebrity announcement and your mayor welcome you you back to san francisco muni train and that includes the voice of renelle brooks moon and jerry rice and there's also one other person ledge on dar tee actor bd wong

so great voices including mine so this is a good day for san francisco and we have a need to make sure our transportation system is up and running and getting us from point a to point b. i want you all to return to muni and i want you all to be patient with us we're keeping our cars clean and keep service working more and i want to take this opportunity to especially thank many of the drivers of our trains and our buses because let me tell you, this pandemic has hit our city hard and when you look at the city data for those impacted by covid it was many of our drivers who were on the front line and they put their lives on the line to continue to make sure our essential workers and people got to and from work and i really want to thank them and thank you all so much and

thank you for the work that you continue to be there for the people of san francisco and make sure you treat your drivers with kindness and respect because they go through a lot in this city trying to get people around. all the staff and all the parking control officers and all the of the folks who have been out there trying to direct traffic and do all the things that make sure we can efficiently get from point a to point b. there's a new day in san francisco, i appreciate you all being here and we're here with a number of officials that will speak and i've went on for way too long but at this time i want to introduce someone who has been a true champion of public transportation for this city. i miss him when he was in san francisco fighting the good fight but i'm excited about his fight in sack ra men co and it's why the government is making a

big announcement about a significant increase in support for transportation no one is aggressive and support, calling financial support for this city and this state for public transportation to make it better and more efficient for all of us than our state senators, scott wiener. [applause] >> thank you, madam mayor. i have to say, i do miss when the mayor and i were on the board of supervisors together and we were probably a little irritating to m.t.a. at times because we were pushing and pushing but in the end, we were all able to work together to make muni run better and so thank you madam mayor for your leadership and thank you to jeff tumlin, who i was so excited when he agreed to come in at the m.t.a. it's an exceptional leader and

visionary and jeff and i actual low road muni from castro and market today. it felt like the old days when we would get on muni and take the f-market down market street and now that's going to be the new days because the f is coming back and that is so exciting. so, i have pretty long relationship with muni. i've been a regular daily muni rider since 1997. obviously in sacramento i'm not riding it. it was how i commuted and i didn't drive my car, i took muni. thank you again to the muni drivers who have gotten me around for 23, almost 24 years here and who have stood with us during this terrible pandemic. and so, this matters to me personally but it also matters to my community. so many people in this city are dependent on muni. they don't have a car.

muni is how they get around. it's how they get to work and to the doctor and it's how they go shopping. and so the idea, when we were starting to hear things, during the pandemic, about would -- there we go. [ bells ringing ] i'll wait a second. >> i'm compete against the bell. so, when we were hearing during the pandemic, that what would muni be like after covid. would muni still be around in the same way? were we going to loose lines? what bart going to be around in the same way. for a lot of us, it was really scary because san francisco would not be san francisco without muni. san francisco won be the transit

oriented climate change friendly place that we are without muni and it's part of not just our life blood but our core values as a city and as a community and so i am so excited that muni will come back as strong as ever many of the subway, the f-market and we'll keep these bus lines riding because so many people rely on the buses as much as we love the subway and i am optimistic about where this agency is going to heaved. i want to really thank congress and our federal government for throwing repeated life lines to muni, to bart, to all of our transit systems and had congress not stepped up and dramatically funded transit, multiple times, we would not be here today. i don't know where muni would be. i don't know how we would get reopened. how do you do that? where would bart be. so what the federal government did, was absolutely life saving for these transit systems. and we are working very hard at

the state level toll make sure that this amazing budget surplus that we have, because of income tax and because of our stimulus relief, that we're using a portion of that for transit and other sustainable transportation. and the governor just made a big announcement today and i am very, very excited about what we're going to be able to put in as a state. thank you to everyone. thank you muni for helping get us around and let's keep fighting and making this system as amazing as it can be. thank you. >> i am so grateful to have a state senator who i can randomly run into on my morning commute on muni. i am so grateful to mayor breed and scott keener's support and helping us come back and also to the federal government because we would not be here today. we're also going to be grateful to the state for using some of their surplus on capital investments because while we've made a lot of progress in the

subway over the last 14 months, we still have a jenky system that runs on floppy disks so things will be better tomorrow but they're not going to be perfect. what i can promise you is we will continue to be honest with the public about the state of our conditions and what our service is like and what you can do if things don't work as well as we moment and that has been my over all strategy as director sfmta. we're grateful for community partners who have helped us come back and continue to advocate for our success. one of our port post art partners is market street railway and so i would like to

introduce. >> thank you, jeff. isn't it great to be vaccinated. let's all thank the mayor in her leadership in bringing us through the fog of this pandemic. [applause] you have been a great light to this city, mayor breed. thank you to jeff and julie and the entire muni team, mta team. from the very top all the way through the ranks to the front line people who made this happen. you know, a famous leader in america, another great woman leader, said it takes a village. that's what made the return of the f-line possible. it was all up and down the mta pulling together with operators taking the initiatives to say we want to come back and how can we help? they helped design the protective barriers you will see in the street car as it pulls

up. in the all the street cars you ride on the f-line, you will be able to be safe and this is a very positive development. it was a real collaborative effort and the shop team put them in at an unprecedented pace. i have never seen such collaboration in my 40 years around muni so i want today hear a shout out for the operators and the maintainers. [applause] also i want to give a shout out to all the business leaders and the neighborhood groups, the cbds and bids and all those alphabet agencies that bring our businesses, our small businesses together to make their neighborhoods a better place to do business and they stepped up, they talked to their district supervisors and they talked to jeff and they got results and the folks in castro, and andrea yellow the people up in the wharf, randel scott and on and on and on, they've all done a great job. are there any neighborhood

representatives here? and robbie silver from downtown. and karen flood from union scare. they were all here. you guys were all great. one more shout out is to michael dellard, an old friend who has been a stalwart businessman here at one market restaurant for a long time and he stepped up to us and said what can we do to get the f-line going and by the way, we would like to give you a merge of every proceeds from every ruben we sell in our new newdeli. you help us when you help yourself to a ruben. it's a brooklyn sandwich but it's a san francisco generosity. we appreciate that. it's all part of our san francisco village. it's a city that honors its her tige while it strives to correct mistakes we've made in excluding

people, denigrating people and keeping people down. we work to make this city better all the time and that's what our future is. that fits right in with our organization's motto, which is keeping the past, present in the future. and we are glad that these street cars are going back to work, helping to rebuild our economy, and helping to carry people where they want to go and helping to draw visitors back to our city. we're going to be riding on this wonderful boat tram and that vehicle was brought by our non-profit along with a second one to san francisco years ago and our board is led by our chair carmen clark, who is here and i want to shout out to. carmenwho used to run muni. and our board members, ron fisher and cat siegel are here. we are proud to have done that

and told the story of how for transit built a livable city and keeps renewing it. we're open, go in and get a free calender from us because the rest of the year is going to be a lot better than the months we've had. thank you to our mayor, thanks to this team. thank you all, very much. [applause] >> thank you, rick. well, many of us spent the pandemic behind our computer screens at home and in our pa jam a. the entire sfmta front line crews have been out there everyday during the pandemic getting essential workers to work. i am so grateful for their resilience and hard work through all of this. they're why i work the hours that i do. and so i would like to introduce one of our operators, alena galloway who worked at agency for over 25 years with 19 years of safe driving experience and someone whom we rely upon for

her direct advice. >> good afternoon. there's some expressions of gratitude in order. thank you to london breed, union, roger moranko, market street railway, rick lobsher, president, engineer body and pcc shop for their craftmanship when building the operators safetien close you'res. san francisco board of supervisor, citizens advisory committee, thank you to sfmta for placing the f-line back in business it takes a village to get our float rolling again. from castro and market to the west field shopping center past

the railway museum and down the embarcadero to pier 39 and on to fisherman's wharf. the f-line transporting a diverse ridership in our diverse city on a uniquely diverse historic street cars. from all around the world, our cars are so unique, that people travel far and wide to get photo ops or a ride. now along with san francisco's resilience, and survival instincts, that is something to be proud of. it's an honor and a pleasure to be a operator in the city of san francisco. ladies and gentlemen, please help me help you a arrive at your destination safely by wearing your mask and practices all cdc guidelines.

thank you and i'll see you out there. [applause] getting through the pandemic has required all sorts of new partnerships. it's required a depth of pippa cross almost every city department and so, i would like to introduce the director of the ports, elaine forbes, who is here along with our key policymakers. including sharon lie who is on the sfmta board and of course, member of the board of supervisors ahsha safai. and in order to introduce our last speaker, i want to say while the sfmta is mostly about mobility, we are about so many other things as well. our vehicles are a symbol of san francisco and support the visitor economy. we're also a primary driver of supporting small business success which is why we have been such staunch supporters of the shared spaces program from the very beginning and one of the many reasons we're so happy to be bringing back the f-line

the way it supports small business recovery and so now i'd like to introduce joseph who is the owner of a restaurant here at the ferry building to say a few words. [applause] thank you, mayor breed for in inviting me to speak and forgive me if i sound a little nervous, i'm a baker not a speaker. i also want to say thank you to the sfmta for reopening the f-line. i run a bakery line and it's a charge. i can't imagine running a whole transit line. my name is joey and my wife and i opened in 2008 and which started at farmers' markets which led us to a spot in the ferry building. in that time, we've been in the

ferry building for 10 years, in that time we've enjoyed the crowds shoulder and shoulder crowds of international travelers, bay area commuters, and then also experienced charges more recently of of course the last year with the pandemic. with the ferry building being opened during the whole time, you know, it gave us and our colleagues in the marketplace the opportunity to continue to service our communities and to give our ploy's a place to work and really was a lifeline to keep and stay open. so, with that, with the farmers market and the marketplace, i've been firsthand witness to see what public easily accessible transportation does to a small economy and it not only brings

more traffic into the areas but it also brings more diverse crowds. i think some of our customers would probably not make it to us without places without the f line. i think right now, as we see san francisco and the bay area seeing air recovery, it's a great time to be opening up the f line. not only is it a beautiful streetcar, it's also a need that allows bringing people into the area. i think the cable cars are the world, the world can have the cable cars but the street cars are ours, they're very san

francisco. i'm really looking forward to welcoming back our customers and really want to saw thanks to everybody. thank you, very much. [applause] >> thank you so much, everyone for being here. i just want to take a moment to say how excited i am to see elaine a here today and i didn't recognize her because she still looks the same since i was a kid. her grandmother, miss redman, used to press my hair and all the kids' hair in the neighborhood in the back of her house. you can get a press for $8 and if you didn't have enough money, her grandmother would let you slide and that was, her grand mother was less than 100 pounds, the cutest woman you want to see but the toughest woman you want to meet. those hands were brutal. she would get your hair straight as i nails. i'm so excited to see her,

someone who has been working for muni for so many years. along with so many people who have an incredible history in this city. and that same history that is existed for some time are resilience and how we've been able to look back and use the examples and the mistakes and the challenges that existed in the past to bring us forward towards a future is exactly how we're going to recover as a city. i'm looking forward to it. i'm excited about it and let me also just sigh, it's small business month in san francisco for the month of may, stop buy some of the small businesses and provide support and go to a restaurant and different places all over the city. hop on muni to do that and smile and say hi to your muni driver and enjoy and be patient as we continue down our path of recovery for our city. thank you all for joining us here today.

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