and simon bertrand from the tenderloin community benefit are all here to say thank you. congratulations for those who are willing to take on a leadership role to make benefits happen in our communities. but it also takes merchants. as well and their support to make this work happen. so, ray baird supported this benefit district idea early on. providing refreshments at community gatherings. ray, we want to say thank you so much. invite you to come on up and say a few words. >> i'm no politician. i'm not great at doing this. i'm just humble merchants with a beautiful store back here. it's great we have the back drop of my store in the back there. whoever masterminded that did a really great job. thank you to everybody who came out today. there's a lot of sharp-dressed people from the city that are here. i feel a little under dressed. i'm excited for the opportunity that the c.b.d. brings us. i kind of wanted to relate it to some stories that were in the news recently. there was a horrible story about some crime that happened in the tenderloin and the footage from the camer

i have simon bertrand. thank you, simon. >> good afternoon. my name is simon on the executive director of the tenderloin community benefit district. for property assessment direct representing 30 blocks in the tenderloin. including the area that the tenderloin lighting project is underway. i just wanted to show up here today to let you know that we are very excited about that project because of the quality and scale of pedestrian lighting that's been brought to the neighborhood. however, we're very disappointed it has taken so many years. we still do not have that pedestrian lighting. so the point i would like to make is that, for the businesses that need the additional lighting to remain open at night and for patrons to vis et them , and especially for pedestrians making their way around the streets, in term of safety. the tenderloin of full of high-injury corridors where most of our cities incidents between vehicles and pedestrians are concentrated. for the people who live in the tenderloin and want to just make their way safely during the n