Then the long moment of what are we going to do, what are we going to do . Heres what were going to do, were going to develop 108 units of Affordable Housing in this wonderful neighborhood. There are a lot of people to thank. Im not going to thank them all today. Im sure youre happy to hear that. Theres a long list. Just know you are all thanked and some of the speakers will acknowledge all of you, no one is to think theyre being left out on purpose. When we step into the completed property in 18 months or however long it is, well do the official and proper thank yous. This is a village obviously and we acknowledge that. This is a great legacy of our former mayor, ed lee. And we all have been shocked by his passing and you cant start an event like this, which really does, you know, its a statement of his legacy without starting by acknowledging him and i wants to start with just a few moments of silence before acting mayor breed steps in and speaks for the city. Lets have a moment of silence. Thank you. There couldnt be a better person to be talking today than acting mayor london breed who is a champion for Affordable Housing throughout the city, for those most in need and those just in need. I want to thank london for being here today in her busy schedule. Please welcome acting mayor london breed. applause thank you all so much for being here today. Today was on the schedule for some time and i was supposed to be here with our mayor, mayor ed lee to really just welcome in what we know is going to be an amazing project. He and i worked really closely together on Affordable Housing. We know this was near and dear to his heart. What is so amazing about the project, 108 units of family housing. For not only low income residents but extremely low income residents. A lot of our homeless families that the mayor and i worked so hard to get off the streets into permanent housing, they will live here. They will live here when we get the project done. And im so excited about that because its moving forward as you can see behind us, all of the amazing people are already on the ground working to get this done. And so many people have played a role and i just want to thank mercy housing for working on this project for the services that will be here, the childcare, the residential support, all of the Different Things that are going to help to make this not just a home for families but a community. And we couldnt have done this project without the help and support of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and you will be hearing from its president in a little bit. But the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, the group working on developing this area after tearing down the freeway. I grew up not far from here and i remember entering right here on to the freeway and i was here when the 89 earthquake happened and this freeway closed down and look how long its taken, 1989 and its 2017 and were finally, finally just doing so many Amazing Things in this community where the boulevard is now this beautiful place for people to enjoy. This is one of the final pieces thats going to complete this area. Thats going to continue to allow it to continue to be a thriving and amazing community. And i could not be more proud to represent you as supervisor and as acting mayor in mayor lees honor and get this project going so the families can move in. This is so amazing, this is what we do best as a city. And i will definitely be here, supervisor, mayor, whatever the heck im going to be at the time, cutting that ribbon and helping those first families move into that place. Everyone here, the financing we received from the state, bank of america, Mayors Office of housing, there are so many things that go into making this a reality. Thank you for your work. This is so amazing. Im so proud and happy today. This is what we do best. These are the kinds of things we have to shine light on to make sure people know all the amazing work our mayor helped us to do in our community and all over the city. Thank you for being here today. applause were going to move through the speakers relatively quickly because afterwards we want to toss the dirt, which is an important picture for all of us. laughter obviously. I want to welcome the ceo, president and ceo david sobal, thank you for being here. Thank you so much mayor breed and whatever title you have going forward, were so thankful to have you. Im going to be brief but i want to hit a few key points. Founded in 1988 by a group of Community Leaders focused on ensuring that African Americans and other people of color have a chance to stay in San Francisco. Unfortunately that mission is still very much an issue in San Francisco and not to bring us down today, but it is unacceptable to us as im sure it is to all of you that we have a city with fewer than 50,000 African Americans as we stand here today. Its unacceptable to us as im sure it is to you that we have lost half of our artists in the past 20 years in San Francisco. Im sure its unacceptable as it is to us, that we have thousands of Homeless People still on the streets and im sure its unacceptable to you as it is to us that we have thousands of working families that cant afford the median rent of a two bedroom apartment in San Francisco, which requires an income of 120,000 a year to be affordable. And with things going on nationally out of washington d. C. Present additional challenges obviously. That said, we are extremely fortunate to live in a city that is so supportive of Affordable Housing, that love to see new projects built that serve formally homeless as this project will. That we have a Mayors Office of housing and board of Supervisor Team and Mayors Office that supports all the work we do and mercy housing does. We are truly fortunate to have the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association that came out in full support of this project immediately. And so we have a lot of positive things behind us. We have a Wonderful Team of architects thats going to make this project absolutely gorgeous. And as mayor breed said, 108 families will be housed here permanently in Affordable Housing that is beautiful, fits in with the neighborhood and will be a joy and source of pride for all of us, including ground floor retail space and community garden. For that said, our lenders are going to speak in a moment, we want to thank bank of america and state housing of development as well. And i cant wait for 18 months from now, we want to do it faster and better, well see what we can do on that. Thank you for being here, we cant wait to celebrate and keep the legacy of mayor lee going. Thank you. applause thank you david. We all know that the city is an important partner financially and in every way possible but there are also other financial partners, the state of california through housing and Community Development is one of those partners. Craig shields is here to represent the state. Good morning. Last summer i had the great honor of breaking ground at an Affordable Housing development in the tenderloin with mayor lee and i think he would be very pleased to see whats happening here today. We know it takes a lot of devotion and determination to get the fancy shovels in the ground on a day like today. The California Department of housing and Community Development are so pleased to see this project moving forward. Together we implement Affordable Housing and sustainable communitys program. Thats a big name for a focused goal, to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions in the state of california. We encourage people to get out of their cars and walk, bike or take transit. And by placing Affordable Housing near key destinations like grocery stores, childcare and job centers. This combines all the great features in one awesome location. This mercy Housing Project was the recipient of one of the largest awards in the second round of funding, over 16 million. For many years this site was devoted to moving people past the neighborhood. Now its being reimaged to house over 100 housing units. The residents will have great access to several new sidewalks that will be improved as part of the program. We are so thankful to be here today and we are really excited to see this moving forward. Thank you. applause thanks craig. You always have to have a banker. They always come to these events. And today is no different. But were really pleased, we have a great Banking Partner in bank of america. Our guy, he takes care of us in many, many ways and if you im not going to tell you the numbers but theyre staggering, a lot of bank of america money is going into this transaction. Were pleased for arie to be with us today. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you jane. So its a pleasure to be here today. And first i would like to thank all the other great partners who are part of this great project, mercy housing, San Francisco housing association, california housi housing Growth Council and the Mayors Department of housing and acting mayor breed and late mayor lee. Obviously there was a huge loss when we lost our partner in crime mayor lee who has been the Affordable Housing mayor. Its hard to go to these events and not see him here with us. And not know that he is just he is missing the event hanging out with michelle obama, which i think happened a couple weeks ago. We invest over 4 billion last year in Affordable Housing. When we make decisions on where the money is going to go, the numbers are important. We are a bank. Whats more important than that are the people we do business with. Organizations like mercy housing and cities like this, like the city of San Francisco and mayor lee. A couple years ago, there was this crazy plan to rebuild all of Public Housing in San Francisco. And i took it back to the leadership at bank of america and washington d. C. And i said i want to talk with you about this plan, ignore the fact that this housing has been neglected for the past 40 years, that its very difficult housing that theres going to its going to be very complex. We need to do the right thing. We talked about it and every time something got difficult and we were trying to decide is this something we really wanted to do, we went back to who was behind the project, mayor lee and the fact that he grew up in Public Housing, the fact that he worked as a civil rights attorney protecting Public Housing tenants, because we knew he was going to stand behind the project thick and thin made the difference. Its the reason why bank of america was able to invest over 2. 2 billion in this city and it shouldnt be overlooked. People really do matter and having a mayor like mayor lee really mattered when it came to institutions like bank of america investing and putting our money in this city, something as crucial as Affordable Housing. I think its its fitting were here today to build more units. We look forward to building many, many more units. Mayor lee and i joked wed have 26 more parties, hes not going to be there but i think well all enjoy being there and every time someone walks into a unit, every time someone can live in the city, its a tribute to our great mayor, mayor lee. Thank you. applause thank you arie. Today we have Randall Winston with the california strategic Growth Council. I had to ask what their role was, they said capandtrade. I get it. Were really pleased to have randall with us today. Randall. Thank you. Thank you again. It really is an honor to be here mayor breed and other partners and ill be brief. Craig my partner here touched upon most of it but as a mobile agency body we bring together all the state agencies led by the Governors Office and invest 20 over a billion dollar capandtrade fund into Affordable Housing in sustainable communities. This project shows the types of investments we need to make to continue to link housing with transportation and achieving a host of our Community Benefits to achieve our states climate goals. Lets not forget we have the most Ambitious Goals not just in the nation but in the world. And so while were continuing to build projects like this, that advance sustainable communities, were thinking about our Larger National and Global Impact to lead the way. It really is an honor to be able to contribute to this project and we look forward to continuing to do so. So thank you. applause thanks randall. And finally, our last speaker today is probably one of the most important in many ways. This is hayes valley neighborhood and we all know what has been going on in the neighborhood for the past 30 years since we started dealing with this freeway, the central freeway. And were just so delighted to have a Neighborhood Group led by gale, led, am i correct . Youre the lead present lead that really is involved in this development and has welcomed it and is part of making it happen. With that, i would like gale to speak on behalf of the neighborhood association. Thank you. Hi, im president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and im going to end on a positive note, bear with me, the mission of the Hayes Valley Association is to present Friendly Association and Community Involvement throughout hayes valley. Preserve and reinforce cultural and economic diversity. Restore character, and architecture and make sure our communitys participation in the governmental process. Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association has learned when attempting great change, no is just another way to say yes. Yes to creating community that was lost. Yes to taking out a freeway that slashed community apart. Yes to finding safety for our family and children and especially our young black men. Yes to parks and green spaces and living alleys. Yes to morel meantry and middle schools. Yes to building more Affordable Housing, over half the freeway parcels are devoted to Affordable Housing and marginalized groups, such as mentally disabled and formerly homeless and lgbtq elders. A big yet to be amended yes to current legislation to allow subsidized hoa, yes to local artists installed in temporary settings for all to enjoy. Yes to maintaining and expanding our infrastructure that reflects 21st century ways of living in a dense urban environment. I stand on the shoulders who came before me. Over 50 of our freeway parcels like this one are dedicated to Affordable Housing. I can shout over that one. Bmr should be located on site to ensure economic diversity. Local businesses and artists ink baited to grow. Embracing all for the benefit of the community is our goal. We hope to see these new residents engaged in their community. To repeat what was said to me, welcome to hayes valley. applause nice gale. Thank you. We feel welcomed. Very well comed. Delightful. Okay. Im going to say one more thing about all the other theres a lot of people involved in a lot of financing of this development which is very expensive as we know. But then someone has to figure out how to build it, what it ought to look like, they have to do it, thank you to all the doers out there, some of you are obvious because you have the orange hats on and the little outfit. Some of you are not. Just so you all know, we recognize, we started, you finish it and make it happen. Thank you. You are acknowledged and adored actually for all your hard work and now im going to end this ceremony and were going to have those of us who have spoken put on hard hats and grab the shovel and take the important picture. Theres coffee, please drink the coffee and eat whatever they have over there to eat and thank you for being here. Ready . You have to throw it up. No way. Everyone look at me, please. Good morning everyone. Thank you for being here today. I just want to thank all of you for coming and give a special thanks to the va who is here joining us, theyre important partners in this project. The owners of the site, there they are. Thank you for making this site available and for being partners with the city on this and other sites to help address homelessness. We want to thank the nonprofit providers running the site, everybody from dish, if you can raise your hand. Many dish staff are here and providing services on site. Everybody from the Mayors Office and their staff. Thank you very much. This is an important day for sorry and dell seymour. I forgot my other boss, the local chair of the coordinating homeless board along with ralph peyton who couldnt join us today. This is the opening of a new Supportive Housing site in San Francisco to serve chronically homeless veterans, that adds to the 70 units we have, and this is important in mayor lees desire and hope to get i shouldnt say desire and hope, his initiative and order for us to get 1,000 people off the streets during the winter and this is 70 more units of housing to help achieve that goal. We have a few people who are going to give remarks today. First i want to invite beth stokes, the director of community services, beth as many of you know has been long time activist and leader in homelessness and used to be the executive director of Hamilton Family center that i used to be the director of back in the day and has done work in Southern California and here in San Francisco. She is new to her job and were happy and blessed to have beth stokes here. Beth, thank you. applause thank you jeff. As jeff indicated, im new to my position and im here to express my gratitude for all of you who have helped us get where we are today. Welcome to the auburn, the new home for 70 u. S. Veterans. applause cheering it is truly an exciting day as jeff indicated. Were deeply grateful for mayor breed for being here, we know its been a challenging time for the city and the city family. So thank you. I want to thank all our partners in the room this morning, there are many. To those who are not with us, to get us where we are. Where we are today in addition to the 70 homes is closer to ending chronic homelessness to veterans in San Francisco. We have 11 veterans who have moved in and one moving in today. Thats great progress. I wanted to loosely quote something i heard from mayor edwin lee that i heard not long ago that was u. S. Veterans fought for our country, they shouldnt have to fight for homes. I was very moved by that and its something i wanted to share. I wanted to acs is proud to be part of the team effort to provide solutions to homelessness in the form of Supportive Housing and ecs will continue to partner in Supportive Housing in San Francisco. For this project, the Master Tenant and lead Service Provider and proud to be part of what is a collaborative effort. With the finish line in sight, in all of our collective efforts to end chronic homelessness for u. S. Veterans and moving closer to a functional zero number is a remarkable accomplishment that requires Great Partnership and the auburn has many. I would like to begin, you know, the planning actually to thank a variety of people, i wanted to start with mayor edwin lees former office of hope and acknowledge that effort and how that started. That has been carried forward with great determination by the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. I say new but i know its been over a year and a half. Ecs would like to thank the Numerous Community members that helped to make it happen, many in our city family, our city supervisors for support and great effort, veterans administration, thank you. We would like to thank the department of housing and urban development. Hudd has truly been a partner, particularly with the obamas administration, the efforts of the president s wife and call to action to end veterans homelessness. And we would like to thank our local San FranciscoHousing Authority and of course San Francisco local home for efforts collaborative. And their work to hold us accountable to get to the zero number. So thank you. And the San Francisco association of realtors. In these partnerships new people step forward and step to the table and were grateful for their efforts and they help us turn a building into a home with their welcome home project so thank you to them. Last but not least, ecs would like to thank dish and their codirectors and their team. The operations of the auburn is a Collaborative Partnership with dish. And with dish, were excited to have the opportunity to work with them. This is our first effort in working with them. Were very excited, we thank them for their continued excellence and continued effort to get us where we are today. Thank you. Our board of directors and the remarkable team at ecs. Along with dish who rolled up their sleeves and worked hard to ensure u. S. Veterans had keys in their hand before the start of the new year. This includes our director of Housing Development and Asset Management and her team. Liz is here in the front row. Anna cooper, and i would like to thank scott ecker, and others leading the Supportive Housing team and i want to invite everyone afterwards, we invite you up stairs to room 302 to look at the accommodations at the auburn. With that, i want to turn it back over. Thank you. applause thank you beth and thank you for acknowledging this is sort of a bitter sweet moment. Many of us are mourning the loss of mayor lee but were grateful and lucky to have the leadership of london breed who is currently our acting mayor and mayor breed has picken up the tradition that mayor lee had of calling me at least once a day laughter when theres a homeless person on the street and needs help. That gives me great comfort, because like mayor lee, mayor breed is leading our city and has so many things to deal with, i cant even imagine but takes the time every day not saying move this person out of here, but hey, i see someone suffering, i see someone struggling, could you please get your team out to help that person. Please join me in welcoming and thanking acting mayor london breed. applause thank you. Thank you jeff so much. Im so excited about being here today. I was with mayor lee when he made the announcement after our First Lady Michelle Obama basically challenged cities all over the country to end homelessness for our veterans. And mayor lee took that challenge very seriously and has really stepped up and pushed aggressively to make sure we as a city not only end homelessness for our veterans, but we do everything we could to provide the Wraparound Services they need to be able to live with dignity. And thats whats so amazing about this incredible place here. 70 homes with supportive services. I know theres been support for veterans for so many years and mr. Simpson, im excited to welcome you today to your home. You served our country and we are now here to serve you. Its the least we can do for people who have put their lives on the line time and time again. And im just really proud of San Francisco for stepping up to the plate and providing the services. Over 150 homes already provided for veterans in the city. We are well on our way to making sure that we end homelessness for veterans. But we cant stop there. We have to make sure that we stick to mayor lees pledge of getting 1,000 Homeless People off the street. Its cold outside. Just imagine what its like to have no place to go. Just imagine what its like to have no bathroom to use on a regular basis. The struggle that we see on our streets are struggles that so many people deal with every day. Its why we have expanded our shelter system and adding 75 new beds to our system so we can accommodate more residents. The creative ways we have to provide more creative ways to get more people off the streets and part of what im so excited about in the work that jeff is doing and the Mayors Office, yes, we have to have shelters, yes, we have to work with different organizations and Navigation Centers and all the options we have but our goal ultimately is to make sure we find people affordable, stable, permanent housing so they can live in our city in dignity. That is really the end applause of where we want to get to. So ill tell you what im really most excited about. Our emergency Navigation Centers, our Behavioral Health sites, the Interfaith Council winter shelter, our heading home campaign, which specifically i have worked closely with with park police station. They have done an amazing job in helping us work with people and connecting them with loved ones and returning them home to other places throughout the u. S. We will utilize every resource possible to work with the folks in the streets to make sure theyre cared for. Just this past week we cut the ribbon on the respite center, people who are out on our streets who are maybe dealing with Health Related issues, where they go to the hospital and then put back on the street and they cant get healthy, when you think about even our own personal lives and you think about when we get sick, we have a home to go home to to get better. Just imagine if youre living on the streets and you get sick and you cant take care of yourself and you dont have the support and you cant stay in hospital for the extended period of time you need. All of these things, all of these things are going to help make our city a better place for all residents and make the quality of life a better quality of life for all residents and as jeff said, its not just pushing people from one end of the city to another, its about trying to find out specifically what is going on with that individual person and what we need to do as a city to wrap around those services to make sure they get the help and support they need which is what people like dell seymour continue to push for every single day. Im picking up the mantal to continue the work that we know mayor lee cared so much about, and here today is a testament to all the blood, sweat and tears to get this job done, 70 peoples lives will be forever changed because of the project. I want to thank every organization and group thats been a part of it. I have a list because it does take a village. It takes a village. And i want to start with the department of veterans affairs, the department of housing and urban development, the San FranciscoHousing Authority, delivering innovation in Supportive Housing. Community services, homes for heros collaborative, brilliant corners and the patels basically working with us to allow this space to be used for this particular purpose. Its been amazing, i know its been in your family for generations and you both grew up here. This is an amazing testament to your family to allow us to use this for this particular purpose. Its going to change and save lives. Thank you so much everyone. applause thank you mayor breed. Good thing about being the emcee, i get to come back and say what i forgot to say. laughter its not out of a lack of love and gratitude i forgot to thank my own staff from the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, margo, randy, emily, chris, thank you for all of the work you did to help make this project happen as well and help the 70 people who will be moving in to the site. We are blessed to have mr. Simpson here today, one of the new tenants of the site and i think mayor lee and many others have said it well, people who have fought for our country shouldnt fight for a place to live. Every individual deserves to have a roof over their heads, certainly the people who have served our country so well, he served in conflict in vietnam and were so happy to have him be part of the auburn community. Thank you for joining us today. applause im elden simpson, being around all you great people its good to meet people who put this all together. And i thank you. applause thank you very much for being here and for your service to the country and for saying a few words. We appreciate your presence here. Im going to close it out with the person who will be managing the site and doing the hard work of keeping the building going, denise works for dish and will be here her staff will be here 24 7 making sure this facility is a decent, safe quiet place for people to live. Shes going to say a few words and then take those interested on a tour. Thank you very much. applause hi everyone. I wanted to welcome everyone here. I did want to say thank you to our fiscal sponsor for being here and supporting us through the project. And i want to thank the ecs collaboration, which is extremely critical and important and that dish is fiercely committed to ending homelessness and the case managers, desk clerks, janitors, people at the ground level to welcome our veterans home. We have 11 veterans were going to wrap this up, i have a movein a little later. Well make it 12. And happy holidays to everyone and thank you for all of your work and collaboration and i am extremely, extremely grateful that the auburn is here. And were looking forward to having the building leased up by the end of february is our goal. Thank you. And whoever wants a tour, well be there. Thank you. applause welcome home, man. Good morning. Its such an amazing, wonderful, wonderful morning. Thank you for coming to this incredible event. Im the director from the office of the mayor. I want to do a few House Keeping notes beforehanding it over. I want to thank the office, our incredible leader here who made the event possible. And the partners at jon stewart company. I know i see kathryn back there, the amazing people. Thank you for your leadership. applause and the community of infrastructure and investment, nadia, you are somewhere here. Thank you so much for the investment in the Amazing Development and the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development. Thank you for coming here. So without further adue, we want to start the celebration this Ribbon Cutting, this amazing moment, we have our Supervisor Malia Cohen and mayor london breed here. First, i want to bring up our director to kick us off. applause thank you very much for being here this morning. This is a really, really important time for me and for all of us. As a child growing up here in Hunters Point, i actually played on this very spot where were standing. Which is a surprise, that our Childcare Center is now here. We lived right there in the building right there in the place right here we were playing as children, my sister and i, who is the cofounder and there was a lot of housing in this area here. When we opened up the center and my Program Director tracy and i was walking through and i was telling the story, she said gladys its here, the Childcare Center. And i was very moved but it couldnt be done without all of you helping and supporting us. Im not going to be up here long but i really want to quote a saying by Myriam Wright elder man. Children must have at least one person who believes in them, it could be a counsellor, a teacher, a preacher, a friend, it could be you. You never know when a little love, a little support will plant a special seed of hope. One of the things that we work very, very hard to do at frandelja that has now been open 17 years, is plant the succeed of success to ensure that all children have an opportunity to succeed in life, as well as their parents. Again, i thank mayor london breed and Supervisor Malia Cohen for being here this morning. Thank you so very much. applause we will now hear from our mayor. Thank you everyone and good morning. Its so excited to be here today. I grew up in the western Edition Community in Public Housing there and we were fortunate, the childcare facility i went to as a kid was just right across the street. Mary lee would pick me up while my grandmother was working and we had a community, we had a lot of support. We would walk to school together, we grew up together and thats what being a community is about, making sure that our children have these incredible opportunities to start off in childcare to grow and thrive in our communities. I want to take a moment to acknowledge our mayor, mayor ed lee who constantly was an advocate for making sure we were fulfilling the old promises that we promised decades ago to the residents here in the bayview Hunters Point community. This is a promise fulfilled today, its an opportunity for our young people to grow and thrive. This is an opportunity to make sure that every single child here succeeds and going to preschool is just really the first opportunity any kid gets to grow and learn and thrive. And so im excited to be here, 70 slots. 70 slots. Childcare applause childcare just like healthcare should be a right, not a privilege. Every child in our city deserves this Incredible Opportunity and thank each and every one of you for being a part of this wonderful event, actually this is really cool, this floor is really soft and im kind of melting in it. We didnt have that, we had to play on the concrete. These kids are lucky, they have toys and new equipment and great stuff to play with. This is absolutely incredible and im so grateful to be here and im grateful for the amazing leadership of supervisor cohen who represents this district. Shes a hard worker and cares about the community and steadfast, constantly pushing to make sure were headed in the right direction and i think about ed lee again today, often times supervisor cohen and i would be the main persons going into his office talking about our districts and what we want and fussing a bit about what we want. And the mayor would just tell us, look, im going to take care of it, and he did take care of it. He took care of it and malia cohen has been a fierce advocate for making sure the community is taken care of. Ladies and gentlemen, supervisor cohen. applause thank you. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. So today really is a celebration no doubt. But this is truly a combination of all the work that started almost three years ago, frandelja has had a fantastic story that is rooted here in our community, started at gilman at true hope with the vision of a few Community Members that recognized there was a gap in service right here in the southeast. People should be able to walk their kids to school or drive a few minutes to drop their kids off. So thats when the leadership of frandelja got together. Now, years passed and they came to me about three years ago and said were in jeopardy of losing this, we need to move and find a site. I dont know if you remember that conversation, it was difficult to have, but its true, ed lee was at the table and neighborhood and campaiommu partners as well as the developers of this project that assisted us in moving from one location to another so we dont lose any services. But lets be clear, we still need more quality Early Education opportunities here in our neighborhood just as we see across the city. This is a fantastic day we have come to celebrate this resource were pouring into our community and the childcare facility that will make it a little bit, just a little bit easier for moms and dads to go to work, knowing that their child has a safe place, not only are they playing, but theyre also learning. I think its property to highlight theyre learning basic fundamental principles that will put them on the pathway of being successful for education and then ultimately a Career Opportunity and who knows run for supervisor or mayor. We have a good track record right here. applause youre looking at two products of the Public School system before you, good things do come out of San Francisco and working class communities and i think thats a very Important Message we need to speak out over our little ones. So im proud to stand with the women that founded the high Quality Learning Center and you know whats really beautiful is that it started with a vision and tenacity of Community Members that saw the need and they just took action. They werent elected officials, they werent appointed to anything, they felt the urgency and the call to action. They felt that urgency of now. And they stepped up. I want to give my humble gratitude to sandra and gladys for their leadership. Theres Many Organizations here that help us with the funding of such an endeavor. So we as a city are proud to be part of working together to make sure this facility and others are successful. I want to say congratulations, its a big victory for all of us here and i hope we can take a few moments in the early parts of 2018 to recognize this and celebrate. Congratulations everyone. applause thank you supervisor cohen. Madam mayor breed. Im looking over to gladys, i believe we have some special guests, i see some amazing little ones over there, a special treat for the mayor here. But first, i think im to bring up miss ariana smith, miss smith is a parent of a child enrolled at frandelja. Welcome. Good morning. Come on mama smith. Dont be nervous. Im not really a speaker but i want to say thank you to frandelja for being accessible to me as a single working parent and you guys have been so helpful making my child feel shes at home. Its been very helpful to me. I thank you for everything. Thank you. applause miss gladys would you like to introduce the special performance or Ribbon Cutting first . Special performance first. As you come up, we have a few elected officials here, our school board president. Thank you for coming. Miss gladys. They are very excited, maybe a little nervous, so if you know the songs, i would like for you to help them along. Heres our performers. Round and round the wheels on the bus go round and round all through the town the baby on the bus goes wahwahwah the baby on the bus goes wahwahwah all through the town the mommy on the bus goes shhshhshh the mommy on the bus goes shhshhshh all through the town the bus driver on the bus goes move on back move on back all through the town applause were going to stop at three, is that enough . 3, 2, 1 we did it hello, im the Deputy Assistant manage and project manager for the control system bureau i consider any department as my extend family i know every member of my department the folks are that that talented and skilled and have their credentials since the people in the site are coming to before theyre put in operation its a good place to visit we share information and support each other the water system is a program we got 26 National Level with regards because of the dedication of any team the people are professional about their work but their folks they care about their community and the project i did this is a Great Organization with plenty of associations in you work hard and if you really do your job not only do you enjoy it but the sky is the limit we had a great job good afternoon, everyone. A call to order of the meeting of the San FranciscoPublic Utilities commission for today, tuesday, december 12. Madame secretary, roll, please . [roll call] and we have a quorum. So, before we get started, today is actually a very sad day for the city and county of San Francisco and in honor of our late mayor, ed lee, id like to ask everyone to stand if we can observe a moment of silence in his honor