To spec. Dennis oats, please let everybody know and if you have questions about this library, that is the man to talk to, dennis oats. [ applause ] lastly, i wanted to especially thank luis and his staff. Luis in so many meetings had the opportunity to change the course or do Something Different and he stuck there all the way. He continued to encourage us. This is what i want. We need to get it and all the battles that we went through, luis was there and made good, sound decisions along with the Library Commission and that is why were here today with that great project. Big hand for luis and his leadership and the library. [ applause ] and of course, the project will be a library and a park and we need to do more projects like that in San Francisco. So joining everybody, im looking forward to this groundbreaking and im looking forward to coming back for the grand opening. Thank you very much. Thank you. [ applause ] thank you, mohammed. We definitely have a Mutual Admiration Society am
The city. Even more important, this project, this fight about the north beach Branch Library, about joe dimaggio, fundamentally was about whether we were going to be moving forward as a city. Whether we were going to focus just on the past or also on the future of our city. Whether we were going to focus on what recreation was like 25 or 50 years ago or what needs to happen today and in the future in San Francisco . And we won that battle and we sent a clear message that that city has a strong future for everyone and were going to make it happen. Thank you and congratulations. [applause] thank you, scott. Appreciate it. I did mention that the library is thriving . Did i mention that last year we had 7. 2 million visitor to our libraries . Its exciting to know that and its the only larguishan library that did not suffer any reductions or cutbacks during the economic downturn. You provided that Stable Funding and thank you, again for all of your terrific support. With that i would like t
Battle and you all stood with us and were here today to break ground on this great library, big hand for all of those who put that effort in. [ applause ] this project is the 24th library that our agency has been involved in. We have renovated 16 libraries, and we have built 6 new ones. The 23rd is in the bayview in my neighborhood and that will be ready for groundbreaking in january and for completion and opening in january and now were groundbreaking on this project. As part of this project, you will be getting a twostory library. It will be designed for led silver or greater and sustainable and as opposed to the old library it will be ready for the big one, seismically fit. Something mayor lee has put forth in his leadership as mayor is that it will bring a lot of jobs and this library will be the First Library to undergo the new local hiring law, meaning that 25 of san franciscans will be working on this project. Big hand for mayor lee and the board of supervisors for their leaders