mayor, mark leno, aaron peskin.c and park department to be the home of this incredible department. as you heard before, this is an inspirational symbol to the world. the mayor often talks about beacons on a hill. this is really a beacon on the hill that speaks to the world about the values san francisco has. one of those values is really preservation of things, making sure that when they're built, they're built to last, that they're beautiful, that their aesthetics are great. this is 75 years later and it's never looked this good. i really want to thank every single person today, i particularly want to thank rose dennis and her team. i want to thank the park rangers and the police department and the fire department and every single city employee who worked so hard over the last few days to make this work today. yesterday we were at the california academy of sciences unvietnamming an incredible sculpture by the artist maya ling. and to me, san francisco has this her i tange of art. we don't want to just put things up

and i want to thank the chairman of the board of supervisors, aaron peskin, for being here as well. state senator leno who is with us as well. so many distinguished leaders in our community. it's also great to be here with ken nelly, who is so responsible for making today important. and ann hallstead. you probably think i'm going to name every single person who is here. it probably feels that way. i want to just acknowledge jarrod. the acting head of the parks and rec who guarantees that all this will be as beautiful as ever. but let me tell you on a personal basis what coit tower means to me and special gratitude to the coit family here today the coit tower when i am in san francisco, and it's not as much as i would like to be, is the firstsite -- first sight i see in the morning and the last sight i see at night. since i work in a bicoastal way, i'm up early and see the sun come up and the first thing that comes into view is coit tower from my home and the sun, when there is sun, glistening off coit tower, is a beautiful, beautiful opening of the day and a reminder of how blessed

former member of the board of supervisors, former president of the board of supervisors, president aaron peskin. welcome back. thank you for being here. >> thank you, chair campos, president chiu, supervisor farrell. it's an honor to be before you. it is rare i get to come back to these chambers but i did have the honor of presiding as president of this body when the hcso was passed unanimously and even though there may be myth that's we were all on the same page, actually, we had a very politically, ideologically diverse body and all 11 of us voted for it and it was supported by the mayor. i think the only fight that we had was who's going to get the credit for it and who got the credit for it. but the good news is that san francisco got the credit for it and i think we are all very, very proud years after it's passage and implementation. i say that in the context of the federal situation where right now obama care is under attack by the republican party as we speak. and if there is any right time to strengthen the loopholes in our system here, let us continue to be the leader that san francis