mark buell, who is not here today. here's our mayor, but i meant to go over here to the commissioner. mark buell is president of the rec and park commission, and says it takes a village. this takes an entire city to pull this project off. and there are so many people to acknowledge and thank. i'm going to that and then turn the microphone over to our mayor. there are a lot of people who have had some skin in the game here. let me read off the beginning of a list. obviously, let's start with the late mayor ed lee. who was here for -- [applause] our current mayor mark farrell who has been a park champion from the get go and helped make stuff happen. representing assemblyman phil ting. he delivered a total of $6.5 million of state funding, including $3.5 million for this project. our recreation and park vice president allan lowe, who has given this project all kinds of leadership at city hall. we have representatives from the performing arts workshop here today. the community arts stabilization trust. you're going to hear

mark buell. >> thank you, commissioners. it's nice to be here again. my name is mark buell, and for 14 years, i've served on the board of the golden gate national park conserveancy, 12 of those years as the chair of the board. i watched over those years as the conserveancy raised in those particular years over $300 million for the national park. i think they're up well past 400 now, and some of the projects you'd be familiar with are crissy field and some of the improvements you're familiar with, the warming spot at crissy field, the golden gate bridge visitor center is a collaboration with the bridge district, and there's seven book stores around the bay area, and all this material is presented by the conserveancy. i mention it because they take great pride in how they edit what they sell and make sure it's of the highest quality. they make sure what they build is the highest quality. the lands-end visitors center got an architectural award for the building that stands there. so coming down to the harbor to make an improvement for this embarkation, i