[♪♪] >> hello, everybody. my name is matt dorsey, your district 67 supervisor and i'm thrilled to be here is to open this long overdue extension of mission bay park. [applause] it gives me great joy to stand alongside mayor breed and my former boss deny ir herrera. it will serve the mission bay

community for generations to come. this is kind of -- it's -- this is important to me because 22 years ago i worked at 185 berry during the dot-com era when there was a golf driving range and nothing. it was a lot of industrial unused land. two years before i was appointed to the board of supervisors, i worked at the public safety building but still in mission mn bay. at that so exciting to see this neighborhood come together. having open spaces like this is a part of what 21st century urbanism is poasd to be. i think san francisco will look more like district 6 in generations could tomorrow and 24 is getting it done right.

the opening of the fark is a long time -- park is a long time coming. the fencing began to come down and families and workers and kids were welcomed inside. we want to welcome kids from the dahlia school. welcome, kids. do you miss the fence? i don't see any hands. housing has been at the forefront of priorities in mission bay. this is especially for families of chern here today and that's why the opening of these public spaces in this neighborhood is so important. our rich park system provides an avenue for people to come together and celebrate the beauty of our city and mission bay parking is no exception. we have an amazing view here. giants play visible over here. we have views of citro tower.

the mission in creek, i know myself leaders beside me can't take credit along. i want to make it sure you know all the people are thanked. thank you to the engineers, architects and city planners and laborers who built this park, we thank you today. i do want to say i know there are folks and i don't want to dwell on it, but i can't avoid the elephant in the room, there was a fence here. i remember actually at one point saying if you're going to finish the park ask leave the fence up, could we get a backhoe here so it looks like you're doing something? dennis herrera was a long time city attorney. there are important is to be

dotted and t's crossed and important things to happen. there was a little bit of bureaucracy that held things up, but i said, mayor, let's get this park opening on the calendar and then ply my recommendation is that we'll come down with bolt cutters or sirses, it's your decision. i will say it's going to be scissors. if i'm being honest, i if i this we had taken down the fence with bolt cutters, it would have been better television. with that, let me introduce the real hero, mayor london breed. >> supervisor dorsey is right. i was prepared to come down and take the fence down in the middle of the night myself and

hide it somewhere. who knows where. and this is really a testament that even our parks are not immune from city bureaucracy. it has been very, very challenging and i know really frustrating for this community which we know consists of our seniors, our kids, our families, i remember when i served on the san francisco redevelopment agency commission when this neighborhood was starting to take shape and conversations around the decisions of what will happen to mission bay. and when you think about it, just 25 years ago this was an under-used railyard. not an area you came to unless you were going to the golf driving range. that was popular by the way. i know that. but the fact is look at what we were able to create as relates to this neighborhood and providing not only open space but also housing and child care.

we've opened up the park and other parks in the area. we're opening up a school in this neighborhood. chase center is here with the national nba champions, the golden state warriors. you have the giants there. this is real san francisco at mission bay. so the thought that we're here celebrating the opening of this park is just really icing on the cake. we know at that there were some challenges, but i'm so grateful to not only supervisor dorsey who harassed me more for this park than i think anything else, and i appreciate the support of our puc director dennis hararea. he's running the public utilities commission. i appreciate that we w rked together to come up with a solution to get this open for the community krld i know many

of you are anxious. that's why you're all here toe celebrate this milestone. this is what happens when we partner and work together and make great things happen. 7-acres of park space and brand new and all these, you know storm drain things around the environment that dennis will explain. ultimately, i want to gift credit to the community for coming together and wanting to see this happen. i know many of you had an opportunity to know your neighbors in the process because mission bay is a real neighborhood. it's a great neighborhood. i love the gus market. i want to thank some of the departments. thank you to oci dispirks thor the director is here with us. and justin true who helped to expedite this project. this is more challenging than

getting housing built in san francisco san francisco. i want to thank puc and dennis herrera and the port of san francisco and everyone from the mission bay community and all the work they were able do to get this done and the developer who helped to build this park and now we have the responsibility to work with rec and park and phil ginsberg is here. we're going is to keep it green and we're going to make sure the community loves on this park like nothing else. thank you for being here today. [applause] >> thank you mayor. o now it's my privilege to introduce my friend ask former boss. >> thank you, matt. any delay here was the fault of the city attorney's office. since i'm not there any more, go after them.

to echo what the mayor ask matt talked about, the vibrancy of mission bay, i'm your neighbor, i lived in dogpatch since 1993 when dogpatch wasn't even called dogpatch. i used to take my walk and i could come down this route down third street and back in the old days, i used to keep my keys in between my fingers in case i had to defend myself. i know i'm not going to have toe did that any more now that we have this beautiful park here servicing this neighborhood. i have gust's at one end and newfield if he other. i'm excited to be here now to share in this sell braitionz because we're prude to be part of the open space at the heart of this park. not only to serve mission bay families but be environmentally

sensitive as weld. and ecologically help save the bay. you see, we have can a centralize storm treatment facility which is a big part of this facility. it's a centerpiece of it. the rain gardens and stormwater will filtrate water that will be clean asked treated before it's discharged into the bay. more specifically, we have about stormwater that will treat nine acres of public right-of-way land here in mission bay. we have 5500 square feet om bioretention and vegetative swells that will collect the stormwater and allow it to facilitier into the ground. we have about 2,000 square foot of pervious concrete to allow water pass through. and when combined with the pump

station that's going to be built at the end right -- we're going to get that done -- at fourth and channel, we'll be able do 800,000-gallons of stormwater per day. that will be discharged in a can clean bay after it's treated into the bay. he we all saw what happened to the algae bloom this summer. we know we have a responsibility toe not just make sure we're serving the residents but taking care of the bay. in an era of climate change, it's foreign that we at the puc we take seriously to be good stewards not just of this neighborhood but of the san francisco bay. what we've constructed here in partnership with seth who you'll hear sphwr in a minute, is going to ensure that we don't just take care of our neighborhood, we take care of the environment and provide habitat for wildlife that hopefully you'll have the

opportunity to sees you walk --s you walk through this poork. we're happy to play a small role in bringing this to fruition. we look forward to the community enjoying it each and every day. thanks so much. have a great day. >> thank you, dennis. next i want to introduce seth. >> thank you. my company is the managing member of the master developer for the mission bay project. and i am here today to speak to two things, one, the parks at mission bay a don't often get the full recognition that they should. there are a lot of great things happening in this neighborhood, but i want us to pause and recognize this a neighborhood where a 6th of the acreage was

dedicated to park asks open space at the girchght project. that was a decision made at the beginning and what does that translate into? that translates into every single building here -- every resident and worker, every visitor to the hospital, everyone who comes to a game, they're within one to two blocks of a park. can you imagine a city that says that? that is special. everything else in mission bay is worth sell baiting. celebrating. this is a precedent-setter for the city. we have the beauty of parks access to open space. it's important to thank the people who helped make this happen. i want to actually start with the implementers, the people on the ground who are out here designing and engineering and building this, we have landscape

architects cmg. the civil engineer firm, our construction management team and then our contractor hosely who removed the fences to do our celebration today. on the implementation team, the mission development group that oversees the construction of this project. and park live open space management the individual and team who will be taking on the management of this park until it #km■]qe handed . i want to thank the city family. the city family -- there are allusions to battling it. the reality is everyone we work with at the puc at the port, the extended city a family, even the

army corps of engineers, a lot of hands that touch a park like this. is it plays an important role in protecting the bay and feeds to last for community. even though it's painful to go through the permitting process even though you hear me on an off day complaining about this or that, the reality is people care deeply and that is what adds time to the process and hopefully the end product is worth it. i would be remiss not to thank specifically supervisor dorsey and the mayor's office and ocii for stepping in. [applause] they stepped in at a moment where we were at a an impasse. everyone was in the weeds struggling and arguing and it was thor at oci what pull immediate aside and said when the elephants fight, the grass gets trampled out.

whm you argue, it's account community that suffers. we got right on it and made sure this opening happened today on time. i finally "want to thank the community. community. it's a weird thing, you have your official bodies that helps give input on the parks and open space. they're the local businesses. we've had three here that provided eyes andability vaition. eyes and ak at this vaition. eyes and activation. i want to say that new belgium brewing company has been kind enough to welcome everyone in after this for refreshments. if you can come in, come and join them. they're towards the corn there are. that is a generous offer.

[applause] i want to caught out and end with a thank you to the community. i don't think people recognize what it means to be a community member in mission bay versus other parts of the city. this is a neighborhood that has been under construction -- under construction for 24 years. can you imagine what it would be like to come to work every day or come home and in the background pile drivers going in the background? this is the most patient group of individuals i've met and we are blessed as a city to have them as the people who said, you know what will? i know it's not done yet, but i'm going to live here in mission bay and work here because it's because of you this is feasible. we're a looking forward to

delivering more. thank you seech, everyone. thank you so much, everyone. he. >> thank you seth.when i was a s tell people, i know what i was signing up for. if i hand somebody my business card, i'll say, if you have any issues, things to complain about, get in touch with me. if i don't hear from you, i'll he assume you're good. hearing from everybody helps empower the mayor and me and everybody to get this all together. this is really all a credit to you and next i want to introduce dora fleedo who is the director of learning and development at the preschool. dora. >> hi, good morning. on behalf of head start, we want

to thank mayor breed, supervisor matt dorsey and everybody in the city who has been involved in creating the amazing spaces. we're excited about our families having success to parks. readily accessible from heir theirhome. we serve children zero to three months to five years of age and many live in this community. they don't have yards. directly outside of their homes, but these amazing parks in mission bay are their yards, they'll come here and ride their bikes and explore and see nature. as we walked here the children pointed out the flock of birds flying by. children need open spaces to thrive. they need open spaces to develop a sensibility and appreciation

for nature and even more important, just physical well-being to be able to run long stretches. our children don't have place do that accessible in their homes. we know that clean outdoors support children's development. and program list. access to this new stretch is even more important for families to thrive. when children run, jump, throw balls and building gross motor skill, they develop a healthy habit of being active along with their familiarity list. a playing outdoors is a great model for physical activities. the natural landscape will invite children to learn about science. at school, we read books will at

birds and trees and animals but at parks they'll be able to see t7f!t butterflies s and birds flying over there. condemn this is show the value of the natural world. we believe opening this new stretch will enhance the quality of life for children, families and all of the residents of this beautiful water park community. thank you. [applause] >> thank you dora and everyone at the staff for helping support the growth and development of so many children in san francisco. i hope we can all enjoy what this park has to offer and now the moment we've been waiting for. this will -- it will be the scissor, not the bolt cutters.

mayor breed, here we go. >> are you ready to open the park? [cheers and applause] >> join me with the count. five, four, three, o two, one -- [cheers and applause] ♪♪

>> good afternoon, everyone. happy monday! that was funny. i'm san francisco mayor london breed. it's great to be here with each

and every one of you to talk about exciting programs that we plan to launch today. i know there are a lot of people here. people from our ambassador community, folks from various companies and entities and i had a lot of meetings over the last couple of months. after coming out of this global pandemic and what i've been hearing especially from many employers and employees who make san francisco so vibrant and great is that they want us to do more to improve safety. they want to make sure that when people are catching bart or munithat when they move around e city, they feel safe. another thing i hear from folks in the community and people who visit san francisco is how great at the feel when they're down downtown when they run into a

nem an orange jacket and when they're in the tenderloin and help someone find the right path of travel. this is a challenging city. we know it's a major city and a city that so many people want to be in. when people catch bart from the airport, they get off here and go up the escalators with their suitcases to go to check into their hotels. people who visit and come visit san francisco for conventions, that's a big part of our economic engine. that's a big part of how we're able to afford to pay for the city services in the first place. today when we talked about safety, we talked about a desire to have people return to work in the downtown area can. we talked about how people who work in the downtown area in general want to feel safe and secure. so today, wa we want to announce is a significant investment in

our ambassador program that will change not just what happens downtown, but will change and support communities all over san francisco that we know are in desperate need of it. [applause] you know, i'm proud of this city because safety we know is not just about our police force even though we have a need for police officers. we are looking at ways in which we can have alternatives for what exactly we're talking about specifically downtown, having eyes and ears on the streets and those who welcome visitors and even folks who live and work here with a smile on their face. we're going from an ambassador program that includes attendance at the bart station -- love you too.

and our downtown ambassadors, union scare ambassadors, we're going from 200 ambassadors and adding on top of that a whole additional 150 ambassadors that will not only support this downtown area, but will support important communities like thelma, like the mission and other places where we know they are so desperately needed. this is just one step forward in hoping to address our public safety challenges in san francisco. we know it's complicated and we know we have a lot of work do, but what i appreciate about today -- today is about community, today is about people who work here. today is about business, today is about our city workforce. today is about bart. it's about our partnership and working together to make san francisco a safer place for awful us. safer place for all of us.

so many things happy as a result of the pandemic. now the pandemic is almost preempty much behind us. how do we roll up our sleeves in order though move the city forward? how do we roll up our sleeves to make san francisco the place we know and love? i hear people talk about san francisco and how it's such a beautiful city. we know it's a beautiful city but how do we keep it that way? we fight for it. we keep it that way by making the appropriate investments. keep it that way by working together. today is a testament to that. i mentioned the need for additional officers. and i want to thank members of the board of supervisors including the budget chair, hillary ronan and mike dorsey and supervisor mandelman because we wouldn't be able to just get our additional resource toses backfill positions in our police

department, but the work we feed to do for ambassadors and our crisis response team and wellness team and all of those things go hand in hand in making our city a safer more vibrant place and i wouldn't have been able to do that without their help and support throughout account budget process and the work we do here today. i want to thank fem for joining us heerd today as well as staff members and people are various communities, it takes a village, but we won't give up on the city because it's too magical. the city is a place of opportunity. people come to san francisco for opportunity. let's make sure as people come here for opportunity or to work or visit, that they have a great experience that they walk away and tell their friends and family how amazing san francisco is. we're going it fight for this city every day and i hope you'll join news that fight to make san

francisco a safer city for every person who is a part of it. with that, i want to introduce our chief of police, bill scott. >> thank you mayor breed and good morning, everybody. i'm going to start off with just a little quick history of it program. and when mayor breed sat with me in her office and this vision was being inspired, i saw the gloom in the mayor's eye that it's something not only that they wanted do but wanted it right now. this was over two years ago. and about a week or two after that meeting with the mayor, we were at a luncheon being hosted by the union square bid and the mayor announced that the the amr

program. and i knew she wanted to get it done. it was just a vision at that time. we took that back with our team and made it happen. and here is the result of that vision by our mayor. the program started as a pilot about two years ago. this was during the global pandemic when we were constructing the program and doing everything we had to do. we had to get the support of all these wonderful elected officials behind me to get it funded. but within pretty quick amount of time, we started with 10 ambassadors assigned to union square right where the mayor made that announcement. so she delivered and we driferred on that -- delivered

on that promise. the goal was to hire a retired police officers not to replace but support our 50 officers in the union street area. we were intentional with piloting this program in union square. i'm happy to say that we met those expectations of the mayor and i firmly believe we metropolitan the expectation of everybody in that room when the mayor made that announcement. today we have 50 ambassadors. and we have a list of retirees who want to be an ambassador. in addition to union square, we have ambassadors in chinatown, fisherman's wharf and haight. mainly what they do is help us reduce harm to our community. the harms we see day in and day out. the harms that we get complaints about,mthe harms we get demanded

to do something about. the harms that we as a city can make boater. better. they increase visibility and presence. they are an arm of the san francisco police department and free up personnel so they can focus on policing. ambassadors have police radios. they know how to communicate cuss. wust. they are a force multiplier in a time when our staffing has been reduced to critical lows. i'm going to read to you an example of this ambassador's program.

this was an e-mail sent to me by a man who doesn't live in san francisco. my wife and i along with close friends tasselled to your city this past weekend for a vacation. we spent the first day traveling through the city in a cable car. we got off in china down towrn and metropolitan by two ambassadors. after retirement they were hired by ambassadors. they explained their job to us. this is an outstanding program and i hope it helps. they were professional and courteous. they made our time in chinatown more pleasant. i spent 48 years as a first responder in the fir service and a part time police officer. i retired from both but i miss the job. i would definitely work as an ambassador in our city if i had the opportunity to do so. this is an outstanding program and you have two outstanding

officers working this assignment. i'm sure this program helps keep things a little safer. thank you. this story can be repeated over and over again. this is not the only message of thanks that we get from our ambassador program. with you that typifies what this is about. people visiting our city having a better experience and feeling safer. that is what they do. and that is why the mayor's vision was so important. in closing, i want to say a few more things connecting people and need to services. our ambassadors do that very well. again, i can tell story after story where that has been done. they're trained in first aid and deescalation and they have a direct line to our on-duty officers which means faster response times which equates to better service.

in addition to the ambassadors, pair breed is asking for additional police service aid with the same kept to free up the very, very critical under-staffed police department so officers can do more critical work. and i support at that whole heartedly. i know that her vision to do that will work like her vision to implement this ambassador program. there is more work do. we can't make up 500 officers that we're short, but we are era darned sure to be innovative and creative to make things better and that's what this ambassador program has done. again, i want to tharchght mayor for leadership and guidance and thank supervisor dorsey and roan and mandelman and the entire board. i want to thank kate and her team. i can go on and on.

fire chief, this is a all a partnership. if you don't hear anything else, i want you to hear this. this city is a family. just like any family, when we face hard times, we kol together and make it happen. with the leadership of the mayor, that's what we'll do. this is a bigger issue than the latest new thing. what we're building here is capacity to reenvision and change policing in our city. by being creative. thank you, mayor and board and thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. i'm bob powers and i'm the general manager at bart. nice to be here. first, let me turn to my left and thank the mayor for her leadership on this prioritizing this initiative with including

public transit. there is nothing more powerful in the bart system if you're taking bart to work or taking your family into the city or out, to see two ambassadors in the train walking through the train or on the platform to see two ambassadors walking by, it means a lot. when i'm in the system, that's what i hear first and foremost. madam mayor, thank you for your leadership. we know at bart, nothing goes further than having ambassadors in folks like crisis intervention specialists in the system. i'm joined here as the bart general manager by two bart directors. billion a year ago bart -- maybe longer -- bart embarked on a placing bureau. really it is so complementary to

the vision that the mayor has right now. it has ambassadors in attendance and crisis intervention specialists partnered with sworn officers. i can attest about the concept of a force multiplier. that is what is happening in the bart system right now. and expanding this madam mayor, is going to be transformative. not only to the city and county of san francisco, but all of the bay area. so i compliment your leadership on this and i have numbers here. we just started our elevator -- restroom attendance. since march when we started adding restroom attendance right here, there is an attendant right here. we had over a hundred thousand forecloses using the restrooms and not one call for a sworn officer at those restrooms. talk about a force multiplier,

it's very, very powerful. [applause] and our elevator attendance. you want to take the elevator from the street to the bart platform, there is an attendant if there. families coming and folks with mobility challenges. there is somebody in that he elevator, it's safe and clean and convenient. again, i look forward to the partnership, madam mayor, and i think we're on to something here. thank you for your leadership. with that, i'm going to introduce district 6 supervisor matt dorsey. >> thank you so much. i want to thank you. mayor breed, thank you for your leadership. chief scott, my former boss and i remember being part of the announcement of the program. i was moved when the chief talked about the e-mail he got

from a retiree. it reminded me, 20 years ago i went to work for the city attorney's office in san francisco. there is a program where retirees come back. as i get closer to retirement eaj myself, just because premier done with their public service careers doesn't mean they're done giving back. that's one of the things i love about this community program. that is why people respond to positively to it. this is something that's going to add 150 new ambassadors ask attendants all around town town, tenderloin and tourist areas and high twrask areas. it's going to combine a combination of safety ambassadors, welcome ambassadors and the psas or public service aids that free up staff. i want to give a special shout out. i live in mid market maibd e

neighborhood and i think the most popular public servants in the neighborhood is urban alchemy. i say it like -- it's good to have you here. it's not just eyes on the street, it's the welcoming smile and a feeling of safety. only complaint i hear about urban alchemy is we want more of you and 24 hours a day. we are requesting to do everything to empower you and get more of you for longer hours. thank you to everybody for program we are announcing as the force multiplier of giving back to our city. with that, i'll hand is it off to supervisor mandelman. >> i want to thank the mayor and the chief and each of their teams and all the other folks who w[ñ$/q to make this happen. we foe we have a significant

challenge in san francisco in terms of the chief staffing. we're short more than 500 officers. that number is not static. it's growing as officers retire. i think that's one of the biggest challenges that the mayor and board of supervisors have to address in the coming years. the mayor has begun to in the last year's budget. in the meantime, we have public safety challenges now. what i appreciate about the announcement today is that we are not waiting years to recruit new officers, we're figuring out how to use the offices that are we have now most effectively and how to find other people who maying able to do those jobs and get them out. if your home is broken into, bet getting someone who is not a sworn officer to take the report more quickly so the officer can be on the street in the castro or mission or soma and addressing the needs ever constituents and making residents and tourists feel

safer is all for the good. this is smart. glad to be here and express my support and thanks. i'm going to introduce a colleague who i know works every day with her office on some of the challenges that have emerged in the last few years around illegal vending, drug dealing, drug use on the street. awful the challenges that we hope this announcement and drug use -- that we hope this announcement is going to try to kreas. to address. i want to call up supervisor ronan from district 9. [applause] >> thank you so much. i want to say right now as we speak conditions on the street in the mission district are unacceptable. i want to shout out and thank a couple of people, ryan is here from mission merchant soargs. the small business commission they have been working with us

and we have been working with the mayor's office to change that fact. i want to thank urban alchemy -- give them another hand. providing a model along with the mayor that we want to replicate in the mission. we want to return the vibrancy, the beauty, the healthy feeling of the streets of the mission. but we want to do that without criminalizing poverty. without making it more difficult for people that are poor to survive in the most expensive city in the world. we believe the community ambassador program is the way to do that. bringing people from the community to walk the streets and make sure that the communities are safe, clean, healthy and vibrant is exactly the right strategy. thank you, madam mayor for creating the strategy and

investing in more and adding the mission to this important effort. ask thank you urban alchemy and all the incredible workers doing that work successfully every single day. thank you. [applause] now it's my pleasure to introduce orlando white from lincoln. >> good afternoon, everyone. i'm orlando white and i head up community development. at linked in our vision is trade economic opportunity. for us to reach this ambitious vision we work alongside the community organizations to demonstrate that we're living this vision locally in our own neighborhoods. we've been proud to work alongside mayor breed to support programs for the opportunities that connects young people for employment and job opportunities

to learn. we're proud to be a part of this community. the feedback that we have received from our employees is that they love the energy, the vibrancy and atmosphere of this city. they want to have a safe and efficient commute into san francisco. we appreciate mayor breed's commitment today to expand the city ambassador programs. these are a key presence in the city and are an invaluable asset for our employees who live and work here. they're city-owned that this city cares and wants to ensure safe commutes for all of us. i know that we ats at linked-in are are not o lone in our commitment to the city. we hear from other businesses that they're excited. we're proud to be a part of this great city's future. thank you so much.

>> as i said, this is definitely a collaborative effort. it's us coming together to try to address some of the most challenging issues facing our city. but i also want to say what i especially appreciate most with urban alchemy and the downtown ambassadors and union square ambassadors and attendance in bart and retired police officers, from my own personal observation, seeing how they engage with the public and try to be so helpful whether it's giving someone's direction ors restaurant recommendations or helping someone foo treatment and sadly in some cases helping to reverse their overdose using narcan. these ambassadors are the eyes and ears of the streets, the guardians of the city, they're

here to support and protect the public, whatever that means and it it involves a variety of things whatever necessary to keep people safe in san francisco. i'm excited about the opportunity not only to expand it in the downtown and tenderloin but neighborhoods like the mission and west porten and other communities that need it. we ever a great city and a lot of people that want to be a part of it. nothing makes me feel better than when i see one of our ambassadors with love for san francisco talking to someone else and that smile on their face about telling them about their favorite restaurants or favorite places to go in san francisco. that's the kind of city we're trying to create after coming out of a challenging time of a global pandemic. i want us by wrapping it up, to remember who we are as san

franciscans. we've been through challenging times. we are a resilient city. we're at a point where we're getting to zero new h.i.v. infections in san francisco. we've seen freeways collapse and turned them into neighborhoods on the waterfront and community. this is o no different after coming out of a global pandemic. we have an opportunity here to transform our city to make sure that it is clean, that it is safe and that it is vibrant and thriving for everyone who wants to be a part of it. safety has to be at the forefront of the work we do to get there and i'm so excited and proud to be working with all of the people here joining us today to make that commitment, to make san francisco what we know it can be. thank you all so much for being here today. applause plaza.

[applause] ♪. >> my name is kathy mccall. i'm director of san francisco national cemetery here on the presidio of san francisco. this was designated as the first national cemetery on the west coast in 1884.however its history dates back to the

1850s along with the us army presence on the presidio itself. we have 26,300 gravesites that we maintain and thereare 32,000 individuals buried in this cemetery . the veterans who are buried here span all the war period going back to what we call the indian war, spanish-american war, world war i to korea, vietnam and then as recent as operation iraqifreedom . we have 39 medal of honor recipients. more than 400 buffalo soldiers buried here who are the african-americansoldiers who served with the ninth and 10th calvary . there's so many veterans buried here, each withtheir own unique history and contribution . one of those individuals is all equipment prior. that's not her real name, that's her stage name and she was an actor during the civil war and while she was working

she was approached by sympathizers who offered her a sum of money to cost jefferson davis on stage she did this but she recorded it to a union marshall . she was fired for doing this which made her a sweetheart to the local confederates and made her a good spy for the union. she gave information to the union until late 1863 when she was found out in order to be hung by confederate general braxton bragg of the union troops the town . no longer any good she even wrote a book. she was given the honorary rank of major president lincoln and her inscription reads union spy. >> memorial day is a day of respect and morning for our

veterans who have given their all five presidential proclamation it became a national holiday to beobserved on the last monday of the month of may . originally memorial day was called decoration day during the civil war to recognize the veterans whogave their lives . memorial day and veterans day getconfused because it involves veterans .veterans day is on november 11 is a day to honor our veterans who are still alive while at the same time we pay respect to those who have passed but memorial day is a day to show our respect to what was said and honor ourveterans who have passed on . >> lieutenant john david miley was a graduate of the united states military academy atwest point in 1887 . he was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the fifth artillery regiment with the outbreak of the spanish-american war in 1898 he was assigned an aide-de-camp to

major general william shatner, khmer and commander of the expedition to cuba.he was highly trusted and when the general staff fell lieutenant miley was designed to coordinate the attack on san juan hill in his place and would ultimately be the one to give the order that led to the charge of lieutenant colonel theodore roosevelt and the roughriders . a few days later he served as one of the commissioners who negotiated the spanish surrender of santiago july 17. in 1904 miley in san francisco wasnamed in his honor.we know that today as san francisco va medical center . >> as a young man i grew up in south san francisco right next door to the national cemetery so when i became a cub scout we used to go over there in the 50s and decorate the gravesthat

were there. when i got out of the service i stepped right back into it . went out with the boy scouts and put up the flags every year and eventually ended up being a scout at golden gate cemetery for many years. one day a gentleman walked upto me with a uniform of colonel retired . he grabbed me, i wasin uniform and says i need your help . from that day on i worked with cardinal sullivan doing military funerals and formed a group called the volunteers of america who brought in other veterans to perform military service and the closing of all the bases we got military personnel to do all the funerals. to this day i've done over 7000 funeral services and with my group we supplement the military, all branches. i'm honoring a fellow comrade was given his or her life in service to this country. and the way ilook at it , the

last thing the family and friends will remember about that individual is the final service we give to them. so we have to do a perfect job. so that they go home with good memories. >> our nation flies the united states flag at half staff by presidentialproclamation as a symbol of mourning . also in va national cemetery flags are flown at half staff on the days we haveburials . is lowered to half staff before the first burial takes place and ray is back to full staff after the last arial has been completed . on memorial day weekend we have hundreds of scouts veterans and volunteers who come out and placed individual gravesite

flags on every grave throughout the cemetery transformation from when they begin to when they conclude and to have that coupled with our memorial day ceremony is very moving and suchappointment reminder of the cost of our freedom . it's a reminderto us not to take that for granted , to be truly grateful for the price is paid not only by those who given their lives but those will have served our country and still pay the price today in one way or another and it's so meaningful to be to work in the national cemetery and see the history around us and to know this is such an integral part of our nation's past and present. >>

good morning the meeting will come to order the thursday october 27, 2022 meeting of public safety and neighborhood service. supervisor mar the chair and i'm joined by stefani and melgar and joined by supervisor mandelman this morning. thank you to stefani cabrera for staffing this meet and like to thank matthew from sfgovtv for staffing as well. madam clerk do you have announcements.