yeah. thank you, guys so much. everybody, everybody. come on. come on. dance, dance, dance. let's go. let's go, everybody.

let's go. come on. move, move. don't you want to dance with me man with somebody who loves you. with somebody who loves me. [cheers and applause] >> give yourselves a round of applause. thank you all. thank you so much. >> great job, tonight. >> thank you.

>> good morning. i am mark buhl. i have the pleasure of vice chair of the board of the trust. on behalf of the chair, current board and our past board, i welcome you today to a long journey and celebration of a vision, a dream that actually

came true. you will hear from other people who have been on that journey about how we got to where we are, but is this not the most spectacular setting in the world? (applause). i was thinking as i was coming here today. this is part and parcel to a bigger dream and there are people here who were participating in that many years ago. the result of that dream was a renaissance in building really wonderful open space for the people of bay area and people around the world. chrisy field began and the parade ground, then be the tunnel tops which we open in july, battery bluffs. in san francisco we have francisco park opened in two weeks. we are working on an enormous park in bayview at indian bays

sin shoreline. these are terrific projects that represent the spirit in san francisco about open space and people enjoying it. if you think about it 75% of the people in the city are renters. this is their backyard. we have a responsibility to give them the back yard we can. now as some of you have heard me say over the 25 years that i have been barking about parks, victory has many parents and defeet is an orphan. today we celebrate the parents who made this possible. there are a combination of government entities and as important philanthropy from generous people who care very much about i would say because parks really benefit everybody. philanthropy is a way to make a difference in people's lives. you will hear more about that later, too.

on behalf of past trust board members and the current ones, we welcome you and appreciate you being here. my job is to simply welcome some special guests. you will hear from them speaking in a minute. if i find it we will be in business. the wind is not cooperating. let us start with a woman who will arrive in about 10 minutes. normally runs about 15 minutes late. that is because she is busy doing her job. that would be mayor london breed. we have michael alexander, chair of is spur task force and leader of the effort to have the plan adopted by caltrans all the way from vancouver to join us today. thank you very much.

alisha, president and c.e.o. spur and long time champion of the parks. supervisor mandelman, chair of the san francisco county transportation authority. one of the civic partners who made this happen. david abbule, chief district director for caltrans which built the parkway. thank you, david. i would like to welcome supervisor stefani. connie chan was to be here. catherine toy from the california natural resource agency. phil ginsburg, general manager of san francisco recreation and park department. shout out for phil. representatives from the offices

of senator. i know dan burnell is here for nancy pelosi. we have a representative from senator weiner's office. special welcome to susan painter, spouse of late michael painter who inspired us to think about the redesigned companyial drive. susan is here with her children melissa and josh. thank you for being here. that is the heart of this really. also, i recognize current trust board member nicola minor. thank you for being here today. former trust board members janet riley, collins and the last one i will mention if they gave me 15 more minutes i could address this just to her, amy meyer is

here. give her a hand. we would not look at open space had it not been for this woman and arm twisting of phillip burden to draw the map and put that also clause in there that said if the army ever leaves it goes to the national park. thank you, amy. (applause). to our wonderful partnership for the presidio laura, superintendent of national recreation area tiring in a few days from 32 years of service. laura. thank you. i am going to miss that talent. chris leonard, c.e.o. of golden gate national park conservancy. let me say over the 25 years of their existence they raised over $500 million for the golden gate national parks. that is the gold standard in the country.

no one comes to a close second. thank you for what you do. [applause]. c.e.o. greg moore who had a lot to do with that $500 million. he twists arms almost as well as amy does. do we have board chair stacy slaughter? not here. more importantly, i want to recognize two families here. mark and jane perry are here. i believe amy and gordon ritter. are they here? this is how you get things done in parks. i know mark and laurie jane helped not only here but in other parks. that little one across from where they live. for all you do. thank you very much.

sh it is my pleasure to allow the people to say a few words. we will start with michael bolin. >> hey, happy earth day everyone. what more spectacular way to celebrate earth day than a new park over a freeway. how often does that happen? it is not bad. it is gorgeous. we are so excited and grateful. my job is to tell a little bit of a story. that story starts in 1989. it is a really important year. i will not go year by year. this will be quick. 1989 is important in the history of the presidio. in january the army didn't need

the land any more and thanks to phil burton and amy meyer this land was going to transfer to the national park service to become part of this system of 410 national parks across our country. that is an important moment. the park service began this process to work with thousands of members of the public to create a vision for this place as national park. that started a public conversation. what could this place be and what does it mean to be a national park? later in the year come october was the world series. i remember it well. there was a little shake called the earthquake. that started a different conversation because we realized the elevated highways around the bay were vulnerable. this one which carried over 100,000 people each day was especially vulnerable.

caltrans began a public conversation about the future of this highway. these two intertwined but parallel conversations began. the result is a world class vision for a parkway rather than freeway that as mark mentioned has allowed us to do some of the things we aspire to do at the presidio to reconnect waterfront with the heart, to transform the center, take an area that a reporter this morning said to me i wish that chrissy field wasn't part of the presidio. i wonder if that is because doyle drive used to be such a wall. it is great to have independent confirmation from a local. doyle drive cut the park in two.

now what the presidio park has done is allow us to pull it. we have one presidio now. one visitor experience, new gateway to the presidio and to the national parks all over the country. that is the reason for the park to be the national park for all. what an incredible vision that michael painter had. so many people pushed forward. so many of you took the notion and transformed it into reality. thank you all for being part of that journey. you know, my mentor, greg moore said to me many times a dream without resources is hallucination which i love. i use that with my staff all of the time. i am a landscape architect. we are notorious for

hallucinations about places. what is so inspiring this was a big bold vision. you all came together to find the resources to make it reality. thank you for that. today is a celebration of all of you. today is celebration of everyone that is not here that came together to make this vision reality. really the purpose of today is to both honor you and to give the key players that played an important role to bring this vision to life an opportunity to tell their stories. thank you for being here. thank you for everything you have done to make the parkway a reality. [applause]. it is my honor to introduce a good friend. michael alexander.

>> thank you, michael. we started with two conversations and how they were brought together. when the earthquake occurred it was clear that the drive which was many decades old not in the best structural shape was going to have to be replaced. the san francisco board of supervisors. thank you, supervisors, formed a doyle drive committee and as signed it the task of bringing together the various elements of san francisco and reporting back on what we wanted.

this included caltrans. a lot of neighbors. the sierra club, the spur. all sorts of people. i was elected vice chair. we got to work. it was tough. caltrans came in with 26 different designs. they said choose one. we didn't like any of them. the problem was that we knew what we didn't like. we had no idea what we did like, what we really wanted. this went on for months. we were meeting at the golden gate bridge district offices. months and months, getting nowhere. until and we always asked at the end of each meeting was there

anybody from the public who wanted to comment or ask questions? nobody ever did until one day this one guy stood up and said i would like to speak. michael painter unrolled a hand colored and hand drawn drawing of the presidio from the perspective he had seen it which was, believe it or not, on top of the dome of the palace of fine arts. that is where he got his vision. he brought it to us, a road that thatnescled into the main post d was hidden with two segments.

in that minute, 10 minutes, we knew what we wanted. that was it. it was that clear and that simple. it was not easy from there on. we had a lot of debates, caltrans decided that it was what michael wanted to do was not feasible. their engineering group that was hired echoed that. i went to spur. i said we have a problem here. fortunately jim chapel had a brainstorm idea. he said let's get the great engineering firm that had a san francisco office involved and let them decide whether michael's design is feasible or not.

they came back and it is here and some of the other guys came back and said not only is it feasible. it fits much better into the park. it will cost less than any of the caltran designs. there was the magic moment. i will leave it at that because others will describe what went on from there, but it was wonderful. i just want to say one other thing here. i have a photograph. i was a magazine photographer. i have a photograph of this little chung of concrete 10 feet long and 3 feet high covered graffiti. the only picture i took of the batteries because that was all

that was to be seen. i came here today having seen none of what is exposed now. i said to bolan where did this come from? he said we uncovered it. it is fabulous. it absolutely blew me away. it tells the history of world war ii at the golden gate. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you for being the invisible hand behind the presidio parkway project. always by michael's side to make this happen. thank you from coming down from vancouver. it is great to see you. i will now introduce this community's fearless leader. our mayor, the honorable london

breed. [applause]. >> mayor breed: i am wearing heels in the park. i am in awe of the view and the magic of what i feel today. when i think about conception of projects that take place in san francisco and then seeing the results of the work the hard work of so many people who have a vision for what something like this could be, it is really amazing. it is not surprising. we are always thinking outside the box. thinking about new innovative ways to make the city more

beautiful than it is. what an amazing testament to michael's legacy. thank you, susan for being here today. his work here and vision along with the doyle drive task force and people who care about the presidio and wanted it to be this place where we know these views have existed since the golden gate bring was -- bridge was built. it is amazing. it is something we all can cherish. when i traveled all over europe to talk about san francisco and what is new, i talked about battery bluff, the tunnel tops, the fireworks, fort lauderdale -- fourth of julyand the thingsd

with the feeling of comfort and excitement from the golden gate bridge to the beautiful water and all that that entails. we know the city is special. we know that when we make spaces like this. waterfront spaces like this available and open to all people, it has a tremendous impact on our mental health, on our happiness because we saw during the pandemic just how important parks and open space really was. they were so crowded and so heavily used. as we began to reopen and our economic recovery, of course, is important. also, what is equally important is how we continue to beauty fiand support and uplift our parks, open space, residents and

all of what that entails. i have been really fortunate to go to a number of these park renovations, park open space, downtown in the middle of the high rises, the sales force park, new space we opened at 5mwhere the chronicle building is. what i also appreciate more about these projects is the support from the private sector. the public private partnership that exists where san francisco and people who care about the assets say we are going to contribute the resources to making this happen. you have people like our fearless leader nancy pelosi fighting in congress to bring in resources to make it a priority. thank you, dan, to be here to represent our speaker. you have people like jim from

spur and others who are looking at innovative ways to make our city an urban city more functional for all of us and the national park service and presidio trust and rec and park department and phil ginsburg is here to create this space so it is not just a place where freeway passes, a place where cars drive. it is a place where people walk and picnic and bike and throw balls around and hang out and just enjoy life. i am really grateful to be here to celebrate this milestone in our city's history. i look forward to coming here to enjoy this space. i really look forward especially to what happens when we opened the tunnel top. together these two spaces provide open public park space of over 50 acres of san

franciscans to enjoy. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. thank you for making sure that san francisco is the most beautiful, innovative and most livable city in america. it is a miracle. i fly home from traveling and look at the golden gate from the air every day. thank you. it is my pleasure to introduce alisha john baptiste c.e.o. and president of spur. alisha. >> thank you. hi everybody. looking at where we are today, i have been having a hard time remembering the old doyle drive.

it is also a little hard to believe that there was a moment in time when this vision seemed like it might not be possible. it is true that there was no guarantee at the beginning of this effort we will have a rebuilt doyle drive anything other than 8 lane highway. the process started with a task force which is very san francisco and it was a classic task force, a ton of stakeholders, very few shared points of view. everybody was very certain their opinion was the right opinion. they were all valid. we needed to come together toward something that is whole community could rally around. it really was when michael painter came to the room to say here is a vision for a parkway that people have something to start to generate common cause around. even with that galvanizing

vision it was still an effort. it took extraordinary perseverance and courage on behalf of all people involved to make that vision a reality because we know that to get to something transformative we start with the vision but we have to work through all of the messy reality to get to the end of the road. speaking of proverbs i heard a japanese proverb that said vision without action is a daydream. action without vision is a nightmare. we have all experienced that. i am proud of the work my press deassessors did in this. the spur roll was to keep the stakeholders together. keep that group focused on the vision but really to support the professionals in their work so that what they were delivering

for the community was the best for the community. i do want to note we are in this moment now where we have another opportunity to really make enormous investments in infrastructure. thank you, nancy pelosi. think of this as an example of infrastructure in partnership and done in a manner that puts a bold vision at the center. for us at spur we will continue to tell the story of the presidio parkway. it is so important to recognize what we can do when we come together around bold vision, with courage and with perseverance. before i sign off i want to acknowledge a couple of people who just were instrumental in the spur work or realizing this place where we are today.

michael painter in whose memory we are here. amy meyer and the recreation area and jim cappel and michael alexander and the whole team bringing about this outcome. to the san francisco county transportation authority for your efforts. to caltrans. the work to prove the validity of the payler plan -- painter plan was instrumental. to the many thousands of people regular residents of san francisco who said we want something more. they gave their time, energy, commitment to making this dream a reality. grateful to all of you and thank you so ever.

[applause] >> thank you. this is a project that only happened because of a very unique partnership. one of the hallmarks with the interesting partnership between local, state and federal agencies working with the private sector and the community to secure resources and deliver the project. one of the key players is the san francisco county transportation authority. it is my pleasure to introduce our next speaker. supervisor mandelman, chair of s.f.c.t.a. welcome. >> what a beautiful day. i am the supervisor for district 8. all supervisors think their districts are the most beautiful and best. supervisor stefani up folks in the northern part of the city do all right.

it is such a pleasure to be here to represent the transportation authority and decades of work for which i am not responsible. i am happy to bask in the flow on behalf of those decades of transportation authority staff and board commissioners. i want to congratulate again the presidio trust and jean frazier and michael bow lanfor extraordinary work for the city and for the presidio. i want to echo and this is said before. dan bernal, please thank your boss on behalf of all of us. she recognized and knew that this had to be a park and came up with the way to do that in very hostile conditions with tough republicans making it very hard along the way and her

mentor phil burton and amy meyer thank you for all you did to create this regional park that we benefit from throughout the bay area. i had the opportunity to see this a few weeks ago. to see this work in progress almost done. i was stunned by the views. i want to thank all people who did so much work. landscape architects and plants and all of the people who delivered this here. i think my special role is to talk about the transportation project, too, big transportation project. it is a gorgeous park. there was a roadway running through here not too long ago. it used to divide the six acres of natural beauty and they are reconnected to another public

space to enjoy the shoreline. presidio project was carefully designed not only to improve safety for motorists but also improve access to the golden gate national recreation area. transportation authority as cosponsor allocated transportation sales tax funds for planning, design and construction that were matched by major investments with the state's, federal government and private sector. more than $2 of outside funding for every local doll laare in the project. thank you to the voters who approved the prop k sales tax in 2003 for support of safe reliable transportation and accessible open spaces like this one. the voters are going to have, we

think, another opportunity to vote on the extension of the prop k sales tax this fall. projects like this will make it easy to convince the voters it is a good investment. i want to thank the people who did the hard work. executive director chang for everything you are doing in transportation in san francisco. really the prior executive director who is here louise and your mom is here. wave. you did such a good job. you gave us louie. jose louise led the parkway through the early stages of planning and approval. tilley called him the master strategist for making it a

reality. sometimes those transportation planners do amazing things. thank you. thank you to michael painter whose vision design enabled the battery bluffs. thank you for being here. i want to thank projects and cosponsors on the project caltrans, current and former directors, whose partnership was instrumental throughout the project. thank you, of course, to the many workers, designers and contributors who helped with the project. it is the work of many hands and demonstrates the excellence and design and results in public infrastructure to not only serve needs of residents and economy but something beautiful that reflects and respects surroundings and serve and

inspire our region for generations to come. thank you everybody. enjoy. >> thank you, supervisor. next it is my pleasure to welcome representative of the other key partner in the highway project, david ambule. she director for caltrans. welcome. >> i would like to congratulate you for hosting today the beautiful park to celebrate dieio diversity of the bay area and honors the history of san francisco landmark. since being founded by the spanish in the late 1700s. it has undergone several major transformations. caltrans, $1.1 billion redesign

of doyle drive has played an integrate part in the latest trap importantmation. -- transformation. design for 21st century. for battery bluff caltrans invested $50 million in land scape improvements of the it is money well spent. i am certain future visitors agree. people forget it was built in 1937. it wasment to be nothing than a utility roadway from the golden gate bridge. it was designed to not interfere with military activities of the presidio and keeping public out of the base. we moved on from that design and with forward thinking vision of late michael painter they worked to develop an open space that celebrates the beauty of this area while making it accessible

for everyone. it is truely striking. the engineers teams at caltrans and the county transportation authority certainly had challenges. rebuilding the retraining wall for the national cemetery provided opportunity for engineering team to create design that honored the veterans while celebrating the beauty of the area. in addition, dedication to the project helped provide many of the yous everyone is enjoying today. i would like to thank some of the individuals who helped make this project a reality. our depdeputy for design. chief of the design team t.project management. jonathanen inc. project honoring the past and future is

commendable. thank you for the efforts. they will appreciate your work. i would be remiss if i don't say the long-term project manager and director who is here to help celebrate the opening of the park. for us the leadership and foresight. it made this reality and it made us work to be better and do better things. i would like to thank the people of san francisco for supporting this wonderful project and without your support and understanding for the inconveniences that construction brings we wouldn't have a project like this today. finally, i would like to encourage every one to take a moment before they leave to remember the past and think about your future when you come

to visit battery bluff. thank you. appreciate it. [applause]. >> it is my pleasure to introduce the final speaker. friend and boss. fearless leader of the presidio trust. >> i am rarely known for being speechless. i really am. >> thank you very much. i thought it was going to rain. then i thought what better way to celebrate earth day with rain

in san francisco. it is beautiful. this project like everything we do in the presidio was collaboration. you have heard of many people who participated in this. >> in closing i would like to thank those not mentioned. i have been in public service all of my life. i have been in government service. i believe that government in if hands of the right people with the right ideas is the greatest force for good human kind has ever created. [applause]. as we see the problems that government can create. celebrate the people not mentioned. all of the people who toil for

low pay and in obscurity to make projects happen. i would like to have every person who has served at any time whether you have been elected, appointed or you are a staff member in any level of local government, city and county of san francisco, rec and park department, municipal transit authority, county transportation authority and all of us at the local level please rise to be recognized for all of your work. [applause] >> they may being sure the streets are clean and parks are beautiful and hospitals are running. thank you for keeping us moving, healthy and keeping parks beautiful. we have also colleagues at the regional and state level who toil in obscurity often because

they are further away from the people they serve. i want to give a shout out to caltrans. this is not an easy project. i personally was not so easy to deal with on this project. all of our colleagues. if you ever served at state level as elected or appointed or staff member in the metropolitan transportation or caltrans, golden gate bridge district, please stand up to be recognized for your work on this project and everything else you do to keep this state running. [applause]. to my colleagues in federal service. we are honored to be a small but mighty part of the golden gate national recreation area, which is one of over 400 units of the unbelievably magnifcertainty

national park system. i would like to honor everyone on the federal level with the federal highway administration who helped with the project, national park service, united states park police which provide security and law enforcement in the presidio. if you have ever been elected, appointed or staff member of the federal government including all of my colleagues at the presidio trust please stand and by recognized for all of your work. [applause]. >> here together is an example of government doing something wonderful for ourselves, colleagues, friends, neighbors, children, grandparents and for the entire world. thank you for everything you have done to make this project a

reality and for everything you do to keep government in the united states something we can all be proud of. [applause]. >> thank you, jean. now, i would like to invite the speakers susan painter, supervisor stefani, chris and laura to join me at the garland to formally open the battery. >> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause.]

the tenderloin is home to families, immigrants, seniors, merchants, workers and the housed and unhoused who all deserve a thriving neighborhood to call home. the tenderloin initiative was launched to improve safety, reduce crime, connect people to services and increase investments in the neighborhood. as city and community-based partners, we work daily to make these changes a reality. we invite you to the tenderloin history, inclusivity make this neighborhood special. >> we're all citizens of san francisco and we deserve food,

water, shelter, all of those things that any system would. >> what i find the most fulfilling about being in the tenderloin is that it's really basically a big family here and i love working and living here. >> [speaking foreign language] >> my hopes and dreams for the tenderloin are what any other community organizer would want for their community, safe, clean streets for everyone and good operating conditions for small businesses. >> everything in the tenderloin is very good. the food is very good. if you go to any restaurant in san francisco, you will feel like oh, wow, the food is great.

the people are nice. >> it is a place where it embraces all walks of life and different cultures. so this is the soul of the tenderloin. it's really welcoming. the. >> the tenderloin is so full of color and so full of people. so with all of us being together and making it feel very safe is challenging, but we are working on it and we are >> (clapping.) >> in san francisco the medical examiner performs the function of investigating medical and legal that occurs with the city and county of san francisco from a variety of circumstances

in san francisco there is approximately 5 thousand deaths annually i'm christopher director for the chief mr. chairman the chief my best testimony a at the hall of justice on 870 drooint street that is dramatically updated and not sufficient for the medical chairman facility i've charles program manager public works should a earthquake of a major are proportion occurs we'll not continue to perform the services or otherwise inhabit the building before the earthquake. >> we're in a facility that was designs for a department that functions and in the mid 60s and friends scientific has significantly changed we've had significant problems with storage capacity for evidence items of property and

also personal protective if you're doing a job on a daily basis current little storage for prirjs are frirnlsz we're in an aging facility the total project cost forever ever commercial is $65 million the funding was brought by a vote of go bond approved by the voters and the locations is in the neighborhood the awarded contract in 2013 and the i'm the executive director we broke ground in november 2015 and that started with the demolition of existing facility we moved into the foundation and january so pile foundation and then with second construction of the new facility. >> one of the ways that we

keep our project on time on budget and we're having quality to have regular meeting and the variety of meetings with construction process meeting as well as cost of control meeting and i'm a project manager for public works the office of chief commercial we want walk the project site when we sign up and also with a contractor insinuates for a change over we need to verify what or what was instead of. >> the building is 42 feet tall so it is two stories and 46 thousand square feet roughly we're that's a great question to be on time and budget have the roof complete a the exterior moving with the site work. >> and as you can see we've got a lot of the interior finishes installed. >> in an effort of an differentiate the facility that

designed to work for 72 hours. >> not taking into account there was a lot of structural updates made into this building not seen in other construction throughout san francisco or other barriers we have friday morning examiners from 8 to one public comment monday to friday because of air circulation we literally have to shut the doors and so the autopsy is done without staffing being able to come and go or exit the space and literally lock down the autopsy in the new facility we have bio build one door opens and closed behind you you can gown up and go through a second seizures of doors that has its own independent air supply and

now in the exterior opt space having that middle space have greater flexibility of staff as they move in and out of the area. >> in the current facility investigative unit has small tiny, tiny place in the area of the new facility is almost doubled in all divisions from the current facility and the new facility. >> the planning we have here gives them the opportunity to have the pool needs to complete theirs jobs in a much more streamlined fashion. >> we're looking forward to have secured parking to minimize the egress of you know visiting and the members of the public but really to minimize the investigators remaining remains from our advancing and so the

facility. >> we have a new visitors area we're building that is a little bit more friendly to families. >> one thing you may notice in the room no windows there is no natural light not good for most autopsy but in the new facility at new hall we made that an objective they want to insure we were able to look up in the middle of exam and see the sky and see natural lights. >> that's one of the things the architect did to draw in as much light as possible. >> we have staff here onsite we insure the design of the new design enables the investigators and other investigators skiefksz to consider to house on site this meant we needed to design

and plan for locker room facilities and shower rooms the ability to sleep. >> third of the construction going into the building has been by contributions of small businesses. >> part of the project is also inclusive to the sidewalk have all new sidewalks and new curve cuts and landscaping around the building we'll have a syrup in front of the building and rain guardian. >> the medical examiner's office has been a several if in their contributions of the understanding the exception and needs. >> it's a building that the chief medical examiner has been looking forward to quite a few of the. >> it is extremely valuable contribution to the, neighborhood address san francisco as a whole. >> the building will allow is to have greater very much and serve the city and county of san francisco and the neighboring

>> good morning and welcome to the rules