And now here we are not only celebrating the completion of i know what was probably a challenging time for all of you, the renovation of over 200 units here at rosa parks, but so far over 3,600 units throughout San Francisco of Public Housing. [applause] it is so amazing and i see a lot of the folks who live here that are here today. Im so happy for you. And im so grateful to you for trusting us, for your patience, because i also know that it was very challenging to go through this renovation process. We know that that can be difficult. But i really want to thank the partners that we have and you will hear from some of them today. Tndc, thank you so much, don, who is here with us and your team at tndc, for your understanding and your sensitivity to the fact that we have people who are seniors, who live here on fixed incomes. We have people who have disabilities. We have people who work here every single day and being considerate towards the folks who occupy this space on a daily basis. And thank you to many of you may know bethel. A partner in providing and working with the community to help with Affordable Housing. Pastor shaw isnt here with us today but we will have someone speak on his behalf. And, again, thank you to this incredible community. The Mayors Office of housing. Dan adams is here as the acting director. So many people worked so hard. And we wouldnt be able to do this without the appropriate financing and so thank you so much to bank of america for continuing to work on all of these incredible r. A. D. Projects. Its like were like the dynamic duo when it comes to getting this work done and we appreciate the partnership that comes from bank of america. So here we are on an amazing day, celebrating an amazing milestone for San Francisco. And i am reminded of, you know, because ed and i worked together closely and im grateful to him for working with me to make Public Housing a priority. He knew how important it was to me but also truly important to him. And one of the things that he said on a regular basis is that its not it cant just be about making new promises. It has to be about fulfilling old promises. This community has been promised so much over the years and now today is a great example of a promise fulfilled. Thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] thank you so much, mayor breed. This truly is a fulfillment of a vision and its hard to understand or recollect eight years ago what was in your mind and mayor lees mind and to see this come to life is really amazing. So please next join me in welcoming sister stephanie. [applause] good morning. Thank you mayor london breed for coming. My name is sister Stephanie Hughes and i wanted to take a minute just to share a little bit about myself and what this build in the Community Means to me. I was born and raised in San Francisco. And i grew up here and i knew this area but the pink palace, but i dared not come over here. I was so afraid of the space. My mom was like, she was killed if we would come over here. It had such a Bad Reputation and so much danger and so many things happening in the community that were just traumatizing if i shared it with you. But i moved to bayview when i was 18 where i raised my five amazing children. Nine years ago i had the opportunity to and back to the western edition. And when i moved into this place i actually got a little scared because it was so quiet. I used to walk down the hallways and literally i was so not used to the quietness, it scared me. And me and my mom we would laugh when we were walking down the hallway. We both going, somebody behind you know, teasing each other about it, because its so different from what we knew growing up in the community. But i love this community. I love my community family. I call them all family. My asian family and my russian family, and my rosa parks family. My neighbors call me sometimes and try to speak to me. And i dont even know the language and its just funny. But somehow some kind of way we still communicate. We still communicate because theres so much love. You know, amongst us. And the staff here have been very supportive, we do an array of programs here. I do field trips, barbecues, and art therapy with the families here. And they the staff has just been amazing and the Tennis Association has been amazing and very, very supportive. And trying to provide things to bring us together as one family and loving and nurturing one another. Since the renovation, i love my space. So im now in a two bedroom. When i moved here i was in a one bedroom. And me and my son, and my dog, keeva, cant leave her out. So now were in a bigger space. And im just enjoying it. I am right there so i can see the courtyard, on the second floor and i can yell out of my window, hey, what are you doing today. Hey, come here. You know, i can holler out your name and, you know, i love it. I love being able to see what is going on over here at the center and the parking lot. You know, i dont have to come outside and i can get sunshine ancoming into my apartment. And then i can walk my dogs. Its easier for me because i can go down the stairwell and im right by the stairwell, a couple doors from it, and i love it. But im a little nervous, you guys, i dont know why. But i am. So let me finish. For one thing that i do like the about the renovated spaces though is that i like the way they did our cabinets. I like that the curtains are gone. Because that was costly to have to take your curtains to the washroom for me. But its nice and its neat. The shades that we have now, its nice and neat and all you have to do is just dust them off a bit. But what this space means to me is more than about cabinets and courtyards and my dog. Its about safety. My safety, the safety of my community, and the safety of my sons who come to visit me. My children of color who visit their mom. Its not easy finding a space where you can feel safe with your young men of color in the city. But here in this particular community, my children can come visit me and i am very happy that they feel safe and i feel safe allowing them to be able to come to see me. And for that i am very grateful. So thank you all on behalf of the residents and the Tenants Association of rosa parks and thank you for making this all possible. [applause] thank you, sister stephanie. Reverend shaw was unable to be here this morning because he was called out of town. And he is the pastor of Bethel Church. So here to speak on behalf of reverend shaw and the church, please welcome mr. Bobby sisk. [applause] i was given a 24hour notice, so i wont be long with you. Madam mayor, thank you for being here and to our partners, thank you. And to each of you and certainly to the residents. The Bethel Church has a 167year history in this city. 47 years ago they sponsored and built freedom west. Nearly 400 units that are situated around the church. Once that became 97 occupancy, the church moved out and the board of directors took over. But bethel didnt stop there. It went on to buy several other Affordable Housing properties in this city. When this whole notion came with the San FranciscoHousing Authority selling off its inventory, our church became very concerned as to what would happen to persons, particularly in this community. We needed to find someone who would listen to us and have an appreciation that were a faithbased organization. Were interested in people. Were interested in people having safe and Affordable Housing. Although we own several buildings our mission is clear, that we want safe Affordable Housing. So speaking the others at the Neighborhood Development community, i always get that wrong but, anyway we decided that we would forge a relationship and we would do two properties together. So kennedy and the rosa park. We are delighted to have that relationship, that friendship, that allows us to have a say as to what is happening in this community with respect to Affordable Housing. Reverend shaw is about two years new to the San Francisco bay area. Prior to him being assigned, we had a pastor by the name of reverend jay egabor who was here for 22 years and was very instrumental in our housing portfolio. I believe that if reverend shaw was here today he would be overwhelmed by seeing a sea of individuals that are here, seeing this beautiful building, knowing that millions and millions of dollars were spent to get it to this level. And all of you that are here today. I want to thank you for letting us to be partners in this venture and say to you that anything that we can do, we are just situated there on the corner of golden gate, and we are here to serve, we are here to do all that we can to see that particularly division Affordable Housing is a priority in this city. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. [applause] thank you so much, mr. Sisk. Bank of america has been a partner not only here at rosa parks apartments and throughout much of the Public Housing reenvisioning that mayor breed referenced that has been a longtime partner in many different projects. Please welcome joy mccarthy. [applause] thank you, everyone. Thank you for having me today and its such a privilege and an honor to be here. The mayor and i have done some of these grand openings together and i will tell you that her passion runs deep. She doesnt miss a grand opening and thats a true commitment to the work that we started, but that she continues to carry out on a daily basis. So, again, bank of america, you have heard that has financed a lot of these projects and its called s. F. Ready. And i rad. And i want to make you understand that 2. 2 billion is the number that bank of america committed to and its only out of 4 billion nationally. So San Francisco is a very important part of what bank of america stands for. And they started in 1904 and financed projects like the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay bridge, the Ferry Building and our commitment to San Francisco has never been stronger. So this is our purpose. Our purpose is to help, where help is needed, and whether asked by our city to step up, we make sure that we find the resources to do it. I see smiles on faces today and we know that no matter what we do to build a building, it doesnt matter except if it matters to the people who are in it. And im so happy that so many of you are here today. What it means is the relocation happened for a good reason. Like, you were able to come back. I know that theres gardens and i know that theres extra spaces and i think that i saw an elliptical machine over there. This is a place that you can call home. Its safe. Its for you. And we are so happy that it happened. Pretty much on schedule. I think that it was mostly on schedule. But, again, it is a wonderful project and there are 29 of them in the city and were so happy to keep doing this time and time again to make sure that folks have the resources they need, but, more importantly, to have a community they can depend upon. I heard your words when you say said that its safe to come home and maybe its not quiet but that its peaceful and you and your dog can have a great time here and meeting other people in the community. Its meaningful to us. Bank of america really tries so hard to make sure that we are part of everyday life in community of San Francisco, helping those who need it most but we want to continue to reach out and to continue to work hard on the projects that are yet to come. We know that we can provide financing but we know what we cant do and we have Amazing Community partners. So when we reached out to don and emily, we reached out to so many people to help us with things that we maybe are not thinking about when the financing came to be and we were so lucky to make sure that our Community Partners worked with us in lock step to make sure that this happened. So thank you again. Were so happy to be here today. I cant wait to keep touring the buildings and i look forward to our next project. Thank you again. [applause] its hard to convey the complexity, and the difficulty and the number of problems involved in undertaking a project this vast. And in these kinds of projects, one person is at the center of all of it and that is the project manager. I hope that people will give a warm welcome to emily van loom. [applause] thank you all for being here to celebrate the rededication of rosa parks. Ive had the pleasure of seeing this building through construction from 2016 to today. You know that theres a long list of folks who contributed to the success of this project and we couldnt have done it without you. Theres a couple of organizations that id like to call out for their invaluable efforts here. The Mayors Office of housing and community development, as well as the San FranciscoHousing Authority. Hud as well as bachtio bank of. And our partners at bethel a and e. Our contractor kay hill. Los angeles as our architect, leevy Design Partners and the residents here at rosa parks. These folks were here every step of the way and they were great teammates. I also cant pass up the opportunity to thank my colleagues at tndz, past and present, for their hard work here. Thanks for your support. Your advice. And for trusting me to get this job done. Id like to focus on a couple of the big successes that weve experienced here at rosa parks. All of which you should check out today. First is the webster street Peoples Garden which was added to the plans during construction and paid for out of savings. It produces 100pounds of food every two weeks and it is home to the only greenhouse which provides plant starts to all of our nine gardens and farms. [applause] yeah. Rosa parks also has a Fitness Center that was upgraded during construction with help from residents and we chose Fitness Equipment that works for seniors here, including a treadmill that operates at lower speeds and the seated arm cycle that is perfect for folks in wheelchairs. And there were also a few traces of rosa parks past that were softened during construction. We have redesigned the entry lobby and reception desk, removing floor to ceiling security glass and creating a warmer space to welcome our residents home. And as don mentioned, an occupied rehab can be really be difficult on residents. We have an active construction site here for 24 months with 50 units under construction at any given time. This was a really big project. And theres a certain amount of noise, dust and stress that cant be avoided during a project like this. But despite this, the team here at rosa parks worked really hard to minimize the impacts on our tenants. My favorite example of this was when kay hill installed doorbells at each end of the long hallway under construction so that our residents could signal when they needed to pass through to get to and from their homes. It was creative and it kept everyone safe. And it also provided some laughs when residents ding dong ditched our contractors from time to time. [laughter] it was it was a great pleasure to work with the residents here at rosa parks. Thank you. [applause] thank you, emily. I want to take the opportunity to share just a few closing remarks. And i want to start by asking all of those who live here at rosa parks, the tenants heres, please raise your hands if you live at rosa parks. Would you raise your hands. Yeah. [applause] so we entered your homes. And i want to thank you for being so gracious and so helpful and for suffering the way that people suffer when youre undergoing a renovation. You are truly our partners and we could not have done this without you. I wanted to do another raise of hands as well. If you participated in the development in any way, if you touched rosa parks between 2016 and now, will you raise your hand for people. Can i ask all of the people who worked on the project to raise your hands . Right on. So thank you. [applause] so its just really important for me to recognize explicitly that it plays a role and we are only one of many. These developments do not happen but for an entire community of people who are working together to achieve a vision. And in many ways these events that we do to celebrate are events of gratitude. So i want to thank you all who worked on bringing this to fruition for your efforts. And then i guess that i want to also reflect that dndz in many ways were not only guests here in your homes but we are guests here in the western edition in rosa parks all together. And im just so grateful for the way not only that bethel and the entire community here has welcomed tndz to be a part of bringing our competencies and our resources in order to make something good happen. And for me that is what i see as part of the role. We are a part of a much larger important ecology to make the city and county of San Francisco better for the people who live here and im just so grateful for the opportunity to play that role. Finally, i want to invite you not to miss the opportunity that there are units open on the second floor and the 10th floor. And you can see the not only the garden but the urban farm outside. And enjoy the food afterwards. Thank you for coming. [applause] 3, 2, 1, yay [applause] this is a huge catalyst for change. It will be over 530,000 gross square feet plus two levels of basement. Now the departments are across so many locations it is hard for them to Work Together and collaborate and hard for the customers to figure out the different locations and hours of operation. One of the main drivers is a one stopper mitt center for permit center. Special events. We are a one stop shop for those three things. This has many different uses throughout if years. In 1940s it was cocacola and the flagship as part of the construction project we are retaining the clock tower. The permit center is little working closely with the Digital Services team on how can we modernize and move away from the paper we use right now to move to a more digital world. The Digital Services team was created in 2017. It is 2. 5 years. Our job is to make it possible to get things done with the city online. One of the reasons permitting is so difficult in this city and county is really about the scale. We have 58 Different Department in the city and 18 of them involve permitting. We are expecting the residents to understand how the departments are structured to navigate through the permitting processes. It is difficult and we have heard that from many people we interviewed. Our goal is you dont have to know the department. You are dealing with the city. Now if you are trying to get construction or special events permit you might go to 13 locations to get the permit. Here we are taking 13 locations into one floor of one location which is a huge improvement for the customer and staff trying to Work Together to make it easy to comply with the rules. There are more than 300 permitting processes in the city. There is a huge to do list that we are possessing digital. The first project is allowing people to apply online for the a. D. U. It is an accessory dwelling unit, away for people to add extra living space to their home, to convert a garage or add something to the back of the house. It is a very complicated permit. You have to speak to Different Departments to get it approved. We are trying to consolidate to one easy to due process. Some of the next ones are windows and roofing. Those are high volume permits. They are simple to issue. Another one is restaurant permitting. While the overall volume is lower it is long and complicated business process. People struggle to open restaurants because the permitting process is hard to navigate. The city is going to roll out a digital curing system one that is being tested. When people arrive they canshay what they are here to. It helps them workout which cue they neat to be in. If they rant to run anker rapid she can do that. We say you are next in line make sure you are back ready for your appointment. We want it allinone location across the many departments involved. It is clear where customers go to play. On june 5, 2019 the ceremony was held to celebrate the placement of the last beam on top of the structures. Six months later construction is complete. We will be moving next summer. The flu building the new building will be building. It was designed with light in mind. Employees will appreciate these amenities. Solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the basement levels, benefiting from gray watery use and secured bicycle parking for 300 bicycles. When you are on the higher floors of thing yo of the buildt catch the tip of the Golden Gate Bridge on a clear day and good view of soma. It is so exciting for the team. It is a fiscal manifestation what we are trying to do. It is allowing the Different Departments to come together to issue permits to the residents. We hope people can digitally come to one website for permits. We are trying to make it digital so when they come into the center they have a highquality interaction with experts to guide then rather than filling iin forms. They will have good conversations with our staff. All right. With our staff. Good afternoon, everyone. Im london breed, im mayor of San Francisco. And today we are joined by the department of emergency management, director