trans communities of color, trans women of color, and black trans women. and we're making sure we're addressing the barriers of the access to health care and mental health services and we're supporting our seniors who've done the work and really be able to age in place and have access to the services and resources they deserve. so there's so much more work to do, but we're really proud of the work that we've done so far. [♪♪]

madam mayor, commissioners, u.s. coast guard, chief scott, mission high school. [cheers and applause] welcome to the new home of the legendary phoenix the guardian, the st. francis, your new fireboat station 35. [cheers and applause] this is only one of two floating fire stations in the entire world. it is a clear symbol of our enginuity and our importance we place on the resilience of this city. my name is carmen chiu and i serve as san francisco administrator. one of the responsibilities of my job is to make sure we continue to plan for the investments we need in our infrastructure. whether it is our public hospitals, our utilities, our fire stations or this station right behind you.

we know that when the time calls when there is an emergency, we are better off as a city when we make these investments. and so i want to thank all of you for being here today to celebrate in this wonderful and momentus day. i want to thank all of the voters in san francisco who have made possible investments like this. we know we couldn't do it without them. and, of course, we could not do it without our mayor, a person who formerly served as a commissioner of the fire commission and now our mayor, she understands firsthand the importance of supporting our first responders and public safety. mayor breed. >> thank you, carmen. and i've got to say it's great to be here with each and every one of you. this has been a long time coming, chief.

in fact, when i served on the fire commission, i had a few specific goals and tom o'connor was the head of local 798 and he asked for a lot of stuff at the time. on a regular basis. but there were a few things that peaked my interest. number one, station 49 and we got it done. and number two, station 35. and we finally got it done. and i am so excited and happy for the success of this project because the voters of san francisco, they understand that when we come to them and ask for financial support of the sea wall, those don't seem like they're really exciting topics to talk about when you start talking about utilities and under ground and all of these things, you don't always see the nuts and bolts of

infrastructure, but the voters understand the need to invest in public safety because the former station as we know was built after the 1906 earthquake in 1915. the city we know in 1906 after the earthquake, neighborhoods burned to the ground and we didn't have sufficient support in terms of our infrastructure to help deal with those challenges and we didn't just shrink and say oh, well and throw up our hands, we built. and we built that station in 1915 and it served its purpose well. but now, as our city begins to grow, there's a need for something new. because this fire station, in fact, the phoenix, the guardian, and what's the other one named? the st. francis. those boats are the ones when there is a fire like there was

down at the pier at pier 45 i believe, our trucks couldn't necessarily get to every corner of that fire, but you know what, are the phoenix was there. and the fact is when there is an emergency on the water, yes, we are fortunate to be close to the coast guard, but we are usually the first on the scene to help save lives, to help protect the water. to protect our city along the bay. that's why this is so significant. this is going to be a game-changer for public safety and i can't be more proud and grateful to the men and women of the fire department who 24/7 at station 35 continue to put their lives on the line. yes, it's cool to be on the boat all day having a good time and being out here in the water, but let me tell you, when it's windy, it's nothing to play with.

when it's a need out there on the waters, it is really challenging the would, that they do and so i appreciate not just the fire department, but the department of public works for being the lead on finally getting this project done and it was not easy, carla. it was not easy. chief, but we got it done. i'm looking at these two ladies and the third lady here elaine forbes and her port commissioners kim brandon and others, they were like well, we don't know if we want to give you guys this property or not for free. they didn't want to give it to us for free, but we got it done. and here we are because we all work together. we worked together because we understood the bigger picture and the significance of what this means not just for the city but for the port and everything that exists here. and on top of that, an art

installation to remind us of our history of what's important because we can't forget the past, we can't forget the challenges of what existed in the city along the bay, we have to remind people of that so they understand the importance of this infrastructure and the need to continue to build in san francisco. we have a growing population, but at the end of the day, we know chief scott, chief nicholson, our firefighters, our police officers and our other safety personnel, our paramedics, we know that they will be there for us. and as we begin to re-open after two very challenging years of a global pandemic that none of us saw coming, i'm hopeful, i'm hopeful that the next generation, the folks from

mission high school that we are doing the work to lay the foundation so that these young people growing up in our city, learning about what it means to serve and protect the residents of san francisco. i am hopeful that we do our jobs in building a pipeline so that they become the men and the women that you see here today. that's what san francisco is all about. opening the doors to opportunity building, evolving, and making things stronger and today as we celebrate the opening of station 35, we are reminded of that hope more than ever. so we appreciate you all coming here today and we look forward to cutting the ribbon and getting this station open. thank you all so much. >> thank you, mayor breed. you're always a tough act to

follow. and thank you sister m.c. car men chiu. i want to say a special thank you to the voters again who voted for this bond but we couldn't do it without you, but greetings and salutations to everyone here. elected and department heads, our fire commission, port commission, i am your fire chief, jeanine nicholson. now, we love our old fire house, don't we? we love that old fire house and the history and the memories it contains. all of us have at least one story about working there. some of us many more. but she's been so good to us over the years, but she's tired. she is tired. so she's still going to be in service with our fire engine,

but we are really excited to be making new memories and new history with our new floating fire station. our members live in our building we want to ensure there is the proper environment for them so they can do their jobs to the best of their ability. i want to say thank you to everyone who worked on this project from and contractors on down to every person swinging a hammer, putting in a floor, putting in electrical. thank you for your diligence and your care in getting this done. much appreciated. also to walter hood for the incredible artwork that brings our history forward. i also want to give a quick

shout out to the man with the hair, tony rivera who had a big part of this back in the day. thanks for being here, tony. so in our history from well before loma prietta, our fire boats have been really important is and now we've seen a call for services in the bay whether it be fire or people in the water. and this station will enable our members to continue to bring the best service to the people in san francisco because that's what the san francisco fire department does. that's what we're here for. we are here for you. so this station will serve the bay, the water, as well as the streets because we have our fire engine here, engine 35. so as always, we stand ready to help wherever we are needed.

i know that about all of you. every single one of you in uniform over there and thank you. to the members of great station 305 this is your baby now and i know you will take care of her. thank you again everyone and if you have not been inside, it is pretty amazing. you need to get a tour. it wants me to quit my job as a chief and demote myself back down to the caption and have my last year through there. not going anywhere right now all right. and now i would like to introduce my sister partner at public works. it's all you know.

>> thank you, sister chief nicholson. good morning everyone. i too want to take a moment to thank the voters as everyone has said, we could not do these projects without your support. we have the ferry building, the bay bridge, the beautiful bay, and now we have a new iconic image to add to that postcard, the new fireboat floating behind us. as carmen said, this fireboat is what makes san francisco a world class city. our ongoing strategic commitment to strengthen our resiliency. you have all heard this project was no easy under taking. it needed the approval of no fewer than nine regulatory agencies. anyone who has worked with a regulatory agency knows that's not easy. at the local state and federal

level. it was built on two different continents and constructed during the peak of a pandemic that affected both supply chains and labor. and yet despite these challenges, here we are today to celebrate this tremendous achievement. i do want to take a moment to publicly acknowledge the team from public works that helped deliver this beautiful project. our city architect run alameda, charles, project manager, pona ray, sean o'brien, kelly griffin. their dedication was crucial to ushering this project through to the end. and this was a designed build project with private partners. so a quick thank you to ska, swinerton, power engineering, lift tech and ghd and all the men and women in the construction trade who built it.

i also want to thank mayor breed, city administrator chiu and our partners at the fire department. sister chief nicholson. together, we are one city working collaboratively to create a better stronger city to serve san francisco today and into the future. one last plug for the beautiful piece of artwork, it is so amazing. it has the history. it's shaped like the bow of a ship and i want to acknowledge ralph remmington here from the art commission and allow me to introduce our executive director of the port, elaine forbes. thank you. >> thank you, carla. i am elaine forbes, the port breshgt and the first thing i want to say to the mayor is we didn't do it for free. it wasn't exactly a free agreement. yes. but we so enjoyed working with the fire department to see this through. the phoenix actually was the

port of san francisco's vessel. our state harbor of engineers saw importance to bring fire protection from the water way back when the fire department took over. we gave the phoenix for $1. so that was a very kind and since that point we've had an excellent relationship with the fire department protecting our piers and commissioner brandon is here with me today and she will remember we've had many fires. pier 45, pier 29, and pier 48 and that's just in recent memory and these fireboats were here to protect us. and now i'd like to say a few words to the students at mission high. we have an existential threat of sea level rise and your generation is going to deal with it even more than we are. the leaders here today are being innovative. so she'll be here to stand the test of time and we at the port

under the leadership of march breed are working on our seawall and city assessor carmen chiu is going to make sure that we get it done over time, but it's a generational investment and i want you all to hear that today because we are preparing you to take it on and this harbor will be changing and will be resilient and strong. all the thank yous were given already. i don't want to repeat them because you know them. but i do want to say thank you again, we're honored to be here and get us to the ribbon cutting and the tour of the facility. thank you so much. [ applause ] and i turn it over to assessor carmen chiu. >> thank you very much, elaine. with that, i want to thank all of our honored guests for being here today. i think all of us are ready to go cut the ribbon, right? that doesn't sound enthusiastic. are we ready? all right. i want to make sure, of course, to recognize the folks who are

here before we head over. of course, commissioners thank you for being here. chief scott thank you for being here. remmington, director of arts commission. why don't we head over to the port. >> can you help me count? >> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

>> when i open up the paper every day i'm just amazed at how many different environmental issues keep popping up. when i think about the planet i want to leave for my children and other generation, i think of what contribution i can make on a personal level to the environment. ♪♪♪ clean power sf is san francisco's key way of fighting climate change by renewable energy and offering it to san

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