project. so i am so honored to be here celebrating this milestone with all of you today. at the trust for public land, we believe that the parks are essential for healthy communities. and parks should not have a nice-to-have amenity for a few, but a must have for all. we see that what is happening here in india basin, we see it as a national model for how we should do parks throughout the nation. this project is not just about building an amazing park, which it will be amazing, but it is much more than that. as you have heard, it is about equity, it is about investing in this community that has been suffering this investment for decades. and it is about renewal and environmental justice. we're cleaning up, and giving it back to the community so they

can have access to this beautiful shoreline. every time that i come here and i look at this view and it takes my breath away. so we need to make the shoreline better so that everyone can enjoy this. this project is about opportunity, it's a -- it's about giving opportunity to local businesses, workforce and youth. it is about celebrating and honoring the bayview hunter's point community and the rich history and the culture. and it's about resilience and hope. this community fought really hard for change. they faced many injustices. and we are here starting to build the park they fought so hard to have. so this wouldn't have happened without all of you, without the many partners that have been mentioned. i want to acknowledge a few. phil ginsburg and his staff, and the rec park commission, amazing

partners throughout this. drew becker, mya rogers with the san francisco parks alliance. also amazing partners. jackie flynn and the apri staff, having worked tirelessly, you know, you have seen them operating the tech hub and really fighting hard for this community. and then the many other groups -- there are too many to mentiog support for this. of course, our elected leaders. without you, mayor breed, supervisor walton, without assembly member chu and phil king and senator wiener we wouldn't be here. as you heard, there's a lot of investment in this project. also our funders -- john fritzer and his funds for taking the risk and the same with the public funders. you know, they took a risk.

they invested. they believed in this community and last, but not least, i want to acknowledge again the bayview hunter's point community for their resilience and advocacy. without you we wouldn't be here thank you very much. [applause] >> thanks, ali. i made a quick mistake in the program, we always have different updates last minute, but i forgot to mention someone that has worked fearlessly in this community, and i don't know how i can miss him because he's probably one of the tallest folks out here. but i would just like to welcome up our state senator scott wiener for a few brief remarks on behalf of the project. thank you so much for bearing with me as i adjust and thank you for -- >> thank you, jackie. they didn't like to bring me up because i mess up the microphone for everyone else. sorry.

so i'm just -- i have been a huge fan of this project for a long time. and i remember early in my time on the board of supervisors, some community folks asked me to come down and i came down and they're like, okay, we know that it doesn't look awesome right now and there's a lot of sort of neglected areas, but we have a vision. and i am just so proud of this community for coming together and moving that vision forward. and then also i had an opportunity to have involvement when i represented the park area on the board of supervisors and we wanted to buy what is now the noe valley to turn it into a park. and working with noe valley and rec and park we decided, you know what, we don't want noe valley to just move forward but we want to make this about various parts of the city and we want bayview to be involved and our southeastern neighborhoods to be involved because this is a part of the city that has been neglected for so damned long and we need to be there for all

parts of this city and lift everyone up. so we were able to acquire not just the noe town square but at the same time that parcel right there as well as a parcel delta market. and it's just amazing. and noe valley town square is a much smaller, simpler project, but it is done. and it has added so much to that community, but that pales in comparison to what india basin is going to add to our southeastern neighborhoods and we talk about it being like the marina. let's think about embarcadaro, and taking a neglected part of the city, in piece of a piece of land, and turning it into an inspirational place for people to be, and i know that is what this is going to be. and we have a lot of other work to do around housing and making sure that we can connect with transportation so that people can get in and out of our southeastern neighborhoods more easily. but, boy, having a world-class

waterfront beautiful park is just going to be a game-changer so, congratulations, you will have my -- i know that assembly members chu you will have our support to get this project going. so thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you so much, senator wiener. a few more acknowledgements to my community. my friend, and her organization "from the heart" has been doing a significant amount of work here on the shoreline and connecting families to health resources and housing access. i just wanted to say thank you guys for your commitment on this project. and i've gotten her on our leadership committee as well so that the voice of the community is truly heard on the project. so i do have one last speaker, did you want to make a few remarks? i will ask her to come up for

remarks before i bring up our last speaker. come on. [applause] >> hello, everyone. i'm mieka pinkston, i'm the founder of "from the heart" and it's been a pleasure to work with arpi. i'll tell you that i don't trust many people, so it was -- [applause] it has been beautiful. it has been -- phil, david, everyone has been really, really, really helpful to me and to our community and i truly appreciate it. i know that this is in regards to a park, however, we have so many other things to address here. and i thank everybody -- i thank the mayor, david -- everybody. we are all going to be a part of this, because it's not just about this park. we can't have a park and people homeless. so, you know, we -- i just want to say that.

and i am here to help our community to better ourselves, so to educate our community on living a healthy and natural lifestyle. you know, i come with healing so that we can boing some of that good energy in. and i just try to keep us all on a positive page. if we can stay on a positive note we're going to be all good, y'all, that's all i want to say let's all just stay positive, let's heal together. and let's remember that it's going to take all of us -- no matter what color we are -- no matter what we do with ourselves, it's going to take each and every last individual here in this park and outside of this park to make everything that we want to happen look like the marina. it ain't going to just take a park, okay? so that's what we need to remember is that it's going to take everything that we have to rebuild hunter's point. i'm born and raised here. so we got this.

let's do it. thank you, guys. >> and that's just one of the examples of making sure that we make a commitment to this existing community and involve our residents every step of the way as we go. there's one last speaker that i'd like to invite up and i have known this young man over the last, i want to say six or seven years that we have been doing this work. darryl watkins came up in one of our youth programs, and he continued to come back and serve with our organization, volunteering for events, going door-to-door to pass out fliers for voting. and when the opportunity came around with our resource development firm, c.c.s., they were happy to bring on a fellow and they said they wanted to make sure that we made a commitment to this local community. and i was very proud when darryl applied and he actually scored one of the highest scores through the application process and at the end of the day, i wanted to make sure that that

opportunity went to someone that understood the legacy of what it was to grow up in this neighborhood. the generations that have served many years before we got here, and i really am proud that i think that he is going to be a great model for all of the young people that you guys saw a little earlier, but he will be serving with our resource development team, really helping to figure out how to come up with a strategy to fundraise, not just for the park, but equitable development, really investing back in this community. so without further adieu, i know that his parents are here and his sister is here, really excited. darryl watkins, please come on up. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. thank you, thank you. my name is darryl watkins. sorry. my name is darryl watkins and i'll i'm an incoming junior at

the university. i'm excited and honored to accept this position, to be a part of this community and to be a part of this u.c.s. project. i want to first thank the apri for the leadership development to prepare me for this opportunity. next, i want to thank my family for always being here and supporting me. [applause] this park is a symbol of hope. it starts with us. i really want to help this community in different ways and it starts with this park. thank you, thank you. i want to encourage all youth of all ages and all races to help this community. so together we can change how the bay view looks. it starts with the youth, so

when we get older we can be in the same position that everyone else is. but thank you for your time. [applause] >> all right, thank you so much, darryl. and, again, that's just one very small example of making sure that we invite our young people to participate on this project and build equity from within. so we're going to just acknowledge a couple more folks from our mohcd, eric shaw, and thank you so much for coming. from oewd and city build, ken nim, our trades workers over here. and i want to say thank you for jessica fontanelle from our success center. thank you so much. and so we are going to go ahead and do the shovel ceremony. just remember that like our shovel ceremony, it's really a way to honor, you know, not only the gift, but this is an opportunity for future

prosperity and success on this project. so i've got a few folks that are going to be coming up to get a shovel in the ground. >> are we ready? okay, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... [cheers and applause].

>> good morning, everybody. my name is carmen chu, and i serve as san francisco city administrator, and i am so, so, so glad to be with you here today. when people were saying, well, all of the units are going to combine, get stuck, i'm like huh? how is that going to happen? when i came in here, how amazing is this facility. in my new role as city administrator, i look forward to making sure that all of the san francisco firefighters continue to have the equipment for the jobs that you continue to do. again, i want to thank you and commend you for your service. you're going to hear from our

mayor, mayor breed, is here today. i think our president of our board of supervisors is going to be joining us, shamann walton, chief nicholson, and sandra tong. so i'd like to welcome the first speaker today, which is our very own mayor breed. i think as everybody knows, she doesn't need very much in terms of introduction but someone who has been a long supporter of the fire department from her time on the fire commission, on the board of supervisors, and now as mayor. mayor breed? [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you so much, carmen. it is so great to finally be here. this project is a long time coming. clearly, it's important because we have a quorum of thefire

commission joining us here, and we'll get to you today. station 49, tom o'connor, when i was on the board of supervisors, i remember tom coming to my office and harassing me about the need for changes to station 49. not just rehabbing the existing facility, but the fact it is an absolute need of what our e.m.t.s and paramedics deal with every single day. we're talking about over 90,000 calls a year to respond to people who are in need in san francisco, and the fact is, that's a large volume. but the fact is we know all the work that goes into that. whether it's staffing up with fuel or supplies or resources or what have you, it's a lot of work, and not to mention the shifts and the long hours and the need to have a place to go to just basically sit down for

one minute to relax after going through maybe a tough call. this is a long time coming for this city and this department, and i am so excited that we are able to do it right here in the bayview-hunters point community. in particular, what i'm most excited about is not only is this a brand-new facility, but it is seismically safe, so we can feel safe when we are using this particular place. thanks to the voters in 2016, and thanks to many of the members of the san francisco fire department who helped to campaign for that ballot measure, $50 million invested into this new facility. state of the art, for food, for fuel, a place to relax, a place to park the vehicles and everything that's needed, and everything that we need to keep

san francisco safe. this station is critical to public safety, but more importantly, it's critical to protect people's lives on a daily basis. i'm grateful to the critical response team and the response of everyone that responds when we need them. it's a great celebration. i know it's a long time coming. starting years ago, when i was on the board of supervisors and tom o'connor was head of the union, and now changes to the department. we have a great new chief, we have a great local leader in 798, recognizing there's work that needs to be done. we appreciate your work and your dedication and being here to celebrate this milestone. we should be so proud of what

we've been able to do, and i want to say congratulations to the men and women specifically of station 49 who have long suffered over the years at their aging facility which i think is not too far from here, and now they have the opportunity to be in a great space so that they can continue to do this important work. what i mentioned earlier, we're in the bayview-hunters point community. joining us today is the president of the board of supervisors. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome shamann walton. [applause] >> president walton: thank you so much, madam mayor, and first of all, i just want to say welcome to district 10. it is always amazing to celebrate something like this in your own community. i apologize. i was sitting in the car because i was actually on budget right now, but i

couldn't miss this opportunity to say thank you to our community and thank you to our first responders. there is nothing more important than having the ability to save lives, so this state of the art facility right here in our backyard is one of the most important things that we can provide for members of san francisco. so i am happy to be here for the ribbon cutting. as the mayor said, it was a long time coming. i want to thank station 49 for putting up with all the construction, with all the changes in shifts as we went through the process to get here, but this is a beautiful place. now we have the state of the art facility to be able to do the things that we need across the city. as i look around and see all of our firefighters that are here, i just want to commend you for your service and dedication to saving lives here in san francisco. there's nothing more important than being able to do that, and

i want you to know how much we appreciate you, how much we support you, and how much we will continue to work together to give you what you need to provide the service that you provide here in san francisco. thank you all so much. it's a great celebration today, and i apologize that i'm going to have to rush off and get back to budget, but i want you to know that i appreciate you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, president walton. yes, it is the busiest time of year for our board of supervisors and president walton's office. commissioners, appreciate your being here, and i just want to acknowledge that we are missing our -- one of our commissioners, who died last week, tony rodriguez, so if we can all just take a moment and

think good thoughts for his family. i also want to take a moment to acknowledge sean buford, the president of the board of supervisors -- sherman tillman is here, as is the president of our rescue captain, paramedic rescue captains, kevin choker. if i've left anyone out, i humbly apologize. i'm terrible at thanking anyone. one person i really want to thank, chief dewitt from our support services stepped in in the middle of this project. she wrangled this together, and she's just done a great job. she's super organized, and i want to thank my sister, kathleen, the project manager.

all the way through, kathleen, we felt like you had our back, and thank you for seeing this through all the way from 2015, 2016, something like that. it means a lot. and thank you to all the e.m.t.s and paramedics and 49ers who have -- just keep on going out and doing the work that needs to be done. and i know this is a great step in the right direction for e.m.s. in the san francisco fire department, and i can't wait to see what more we can do, and with that, i want to introduce assistant deputy chief sandy tong, who is the assistant deputy chief of e.m.s., and i couldn't have picked a better person for this role, and she actually came out of retirement to do this, so i appreciate her like no one, so chief tong, would you like to say a few words?

>> honorable mayor breed, board of supervisors president walton, president of the fire commission feinstein, fire command staff, and members of station 49, well come to our new station 49. 146 years ago, the city of san francisco created one of the first ambulance services in san francisco that brings us to this benchmark today. after 126 years, the practice of bringing service to the

streets is no longer novel novel. but it has evolved over the years providing services. with on going commitment, we look forward to not only having the ability to maintain this service but to have the capacity to protect the vulnerable, respond to the unthinkable, and providing top quality services as a leader to the nation. while much of the world was put on hold, we asked our members to do more. right now, the men and women of station 49 are out there serving the people and doing the work. right now, a 49er is holding a patient's hand as they face sadness, injury, or disease. right now, they're racing across the city to face a shooting, a choking, a childbirth.

they are bearing witness to sadness, grief, and loss in the most challenging of circumstances. they are on the streets bringing order to chaos, comfort to fear, soothing to pain, and calm to tension. so while we are here to celebrate with gratitude the opening of the new station 49 which represents a commitment of the city and county of san francisco to emergency medical services, it's the community medical services who have shown up to give action to the mission. thank you to all of our city partners for making this station possible and for your on going support of these public servants and the mission we serve. [applause] >> thank you very much, deputy chief tong for really sharing the day-to-day details of the men and women of the fire department. and now i really want to unveil

the ribbon that's going to come forward. before, i want to recognize our commissioners. commissioner covington, commissioner and judge feinstein, commissioner cleaveland, and commissioner nakajo. thank you so much for joining us today. >> the hon. london breed: are we ready? okay. five, four, three, two, one. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: it's official.

>> welcome you back to the regularly scheduled san francisco police commission and my name malia cohen and i'm chair of this body. to my right is commissioner cindy elias, and i'd like to recognize john hamm and our talented commission staff. with that, i'll turn to the commission secretary and please call the next item on the agenda. >> clerk: we have roll call today.