>> just a few steps away from union square is a quiet corner stone of san francisco's our community to the meridian gallery has a 20-year history of supporting visual arts. experimental music concert, and also readings. >> give us this day our daily bread at least three times a day. and lead us not into temptation to often on weekdays. [laughter] >> meridians' stands apart from the commercial galleries around union square, and it is because of their core mission, to increase social, philosophical, and spiritual change my isolated individuals and communities. >> it gives a statement, the idea that a significant art of any kind, in any discipline, creates change. >> it is philosophy that attracted david linger to mount a show at meridian. >> you want to feel like your work this summer that it can do some good. i felt like at meridian, it could do some good. we did not even talk about price until the day before the show. of course, meridian needs to support itself and support the community. but that was not the first consideration, so that made me very happy. >> his work is printed porcelain. he transfers images onto and spoils the surface a fragile shes of clay. each one, only one-tenth of an inch thick. >> it took about two years to get it down. i would say i lose 30% of the pieces that i made. something happens to them. they cracked, the break during the process. it is very complex. they fall apart. but it is worth it to me. there are photographs i took 1 hours 99 the former soviet union. these are blown up to a gigantic images. they lose resolution. i do not mind that, because my images are about the images, but they're also about the idea, which is why there is text all over the entire surface. >> marie in moved into the mansion on powell street just five years ago. its galleries are housed in one of the very rare single family residences around union square. for the 100th anniversary of the mansion, meridian hosted a series of special events, including a world premiere reading by lawrence ferlinghetti. >> the birth of an american corporate fascism, the next to last free states radio, the next-to-last independent newspaper raising hell, the next-to-last independent bookstore with a mind of its own, the next to last leftie looking for obama nirvana. [laughter] the first day of the wall street occupation set forth upon this continent a new revolutionary nation. [applause] >> in addition to its own programming as -- of artist talks, meridian has been a downtown host for san francisco states well-known port trees center. recent luminaries have included david meltzer, steve dixon, and jack hirsch man. >> you can black as out of the press, blog and arrest us, tear gas, mace, and shoot us, as we know very well, you will, but this time we're not turning back. we know you are finished. desperate, near the end. hysterical in your flabbergastlyness. amen. >> after the readings, the crowd headed to a reception upstairs by wandering through the other gallery rooms in the historic home. the third floor is not usually reserved for just parties, however. it is the stage for live performances. ♪ under the guidance of musical curators, these three, meridian has maintained a strong commitment to new music, compositions that are innovative, experimental, and sometimes challenging. sound art is an artistic and event that usually receives short shrift from most galleries because san francisco is musicians have responded by showing strong support for the programming. ♪ looking into meridian's future, she says she wants to keep doing the same thing that she has been doing since 1989. to enlighten and disturbed. >> i really believe that all the arts have a serious function and that it helps us find out who we are in a much wider sense than we were before we experienced that work of art. ♪ closed. >> good morning. thank you for coming to our celebration to recognize the start of the construction for the intrastate a 80. i have the prim for the contractor i've been breathing this for the last five or six year. this has a timeline there's a program in the back that gives a timeline and talk about the people that have made that a reality. it started in 2007 effort spearheaded but our form director and cowen to go ahead and get the state funding in the field 163 thank you for your effort. over the years we've day and night with hoof process approved and back in the 2007 timeframe the person that lid it was gak jack but if the early days in 2007 and i've had the pleasure of working with jack you get a process report we quota it in december of 2007 that helped to us start the process and to get it approved by december of 2011 in about a 3 year period we've got to approval and i want to give a special thanks to affidavit from a e coming and his staff and surging and from caltrain's. they were structurally in us getting the environmental approval and it can take some time. we went through our design effort this takes over 2 thousand plan sheets go into that for the advertising and bids and thanks to the folks at e come and particularly sam from 2007 also. we were lucky enough to get approved for right-of-way certification and a lot of you don't know about this that's itself part where the engineers don't know about the real estate end so we hired spectacular from the social from folks who led the effort for the federal land transfer it maples a transfer of land from the first-degree to the local agency we got a lot of pope hope from caltrain's and mark and others from the transportation authority. the coast guard is had a aphasia a basis and they own the island and we've about that working with the coast guard 81 thank you for helping us goat the license if the coast guard you need the appropriate license agreements that's part of the agreement. by july of intuitively we got the construction funding approved and allocated which for us what a happy at a we started up new year's attorneys in 2013 we got the folks from the golden gate bridge we're happy to be with them. i want to recognize the construction transportation team their here in the audience and managing the efforts and overseeing the team and >> the subcontractors we're happy to have them here special thanks to the consulting group in particular paul payroll everything has been r0ir7bd and cooperated through paul and his staff and also barbary coast staff thank you in terms of the hard work over the last week. i want to get to acknowledge some very special the treasure island team bob is working as the new director we've been working with him and city and counties his staff and some of the former staff the office of workforce and development michael and others. they were all part of the effort in terms of us coming together as locals to work and strategize how to get this work in high visibility in terms of obtaining the funding. a sincere thank you to caltrain's and h f w they had a lot of the folks thank you both for working with me in a manner be that was the best project management team i've worked with. and jeff was a big support his project is 96 prts funding. we have a number of key individuals you'll hear from but let's talk about itself history the island itself in particular the name of the island it had a interesting name it was called wood island and even goat island if you can imagine that the gold rush days there were a bunch of goats on accident i'd like and that's why but it was chingz changed in june of 1981. that was the original name the connections to the past is important but the connection to the future is a lot more important and the other speakers will discuss that and i have the pleasure of introducing our first speaker who's the mc for the event chang is the transportation authority person she fester the local sales tax and they're the congressmen management agency for san francisco so, please well billy chang (clapping.) thank you very much i need to grow a couple of photo for this job. thank you for you're opening remarks you and our deputy directors have done magic and the expanded partnerships on this project it's made smooth and rapid movement so i want to recognize our hard work in bringing this to this today let's give eric and his team a round of applause >> thank you paul for this fantastic weather and your team for really helping us with the beautiful event. so good morning, everyone on behalf of the agencies it's my pleasure and how were you to welcome you and to thank you for taxing the time. i don't know who us who had the least of this project to be here but i'm permitted for the honored. i want to recognize special gifts if nancy pelosi's office we have her person. we deeply appreciate elapse pelosis long partnering and helped with our plan. hose not here today but caltrain's director i'd like to thank him and recognize his support in the $9 million of state prop 1-b those were not easy to come by and thanks caltrain's and the director representing cltsz we'll her in bejohn today. from the metropolitan transportation commission i'm not sure if randy is here and andy we want to recognize their partnering and caltrain's allowing us to hook into the san francisco bay bridge. we have the honor of the president of the board of ida we'll hear from and, of course, current and past project directors as eric mentioned and michael kelly from the beginning when michael cowen was trying to make this work and we were led through the entire process and now bob we're lucky to have worked a strong team at the it'd district attorney now from the corporation we have other gentleman you may not know about the treasure island development project included a management program that the transportation authority will be proud of. and from my tropics authority board supervisor avalos supervisor in district 11 and supervisor jane kim be couldn't be here she had to leave for the domestic conventional but we have sunny anglo from her office so thank you sunny for being her. i'd like to recognize other folks grateful to dianne feinstein who led at this constitutional right i critical area and senator leno and have the support of governor schwarzenegger and other is in the past who helped us move through the project development process and, of course, thank the cpc. finally the mayor's lee and past and present always board of supervisors past and present deserve our thanks for the overall treasure island development. i'd be remiss if i didn't thank the former executive director for the original sponsor for this project. because of their and your efforts we're here to celebrate those projects as long as the east side project so as a colloquy project we recognize that couldn't have been made possible without the help of the people in this beautiful event. as with most projects of this field those days that's a product of a host of projects. the next few speakers will talk about the projects and the partnerships that made it possible with caltrain's and the treasure community members as well. the w b i east side ramps project is a $50 million project that's part of a larger overall one hundred million project that will enhance the safety for the tdr and the promise will replace the development of the island and we'll also insuring that the ramps are radio grateful addition and with the investment felt $50 million we'll be creating 14 hundred jobs in our local economy. suffice it to say for the caltrain's folks as well. i want to say thank you to the folks who get our project duplicate. for the golden gate bridge team dave we're happy to have other folks thank you, brian for your leadership. the golden gate bridge will construct a new ramps to the san francisco bnl and we've been on time and under budget through the design and phase and confident they'll continue. we're thrilled and grateful that the golden gate bridge company has pledged to finish this we want them to know we're they've for their proclamation. we look forward to hearing from mayor folks. by the way, all the trucks were bought by one or more of our dbi firms. many of you are here from the dbi side of the house. thank you very much. this is what economic development looks like a so thank you and paul i don't know if there's a way to keep all the machinery here i think my four yearly and others would be ecstatic to look like this. now without further ado, let me electro a champion our leader at the transportation authority and that is supervisor avalos (clapping) thank you, kelly. >> it's great to be here. i live in a land log district of san francisco the excelsior district we don't see water but we can see the top of bay it's great to see the new city and the bridge and the ramps go up and the equipment that will be doing the work. and it's an amazing site for the tropics. as chair of the transportation authority i want to thank you all for being her and want to thank you for your efforts so far in bringing up in project to fruition we have a ways to go but i'm happy to know we're on target. the construction of the westbound ramp simplified this the yerba buena island development. 17 years ago the u.s. navy closed it's basis and since then we've worked to approve 0 responsible and thought fulfill plan that will meet the needs of this area as a city as a whole. the future plan we at the board of supervisors approved hours for 20 thousand residents and new and upgraded roads including ferry terminal and extend bus services. this will expand the number of resident who will go live here. there's a planned transportation hub that is 15 percent walk and getting around and spending time here about will be different like with bused and ferries and so on. we're proud that the treasure island will be for the city and beyond a great benefit. with our many partners claiming the treasure island authority and the 0 deprivation and the workforce development have come together it's because of this collaborative effort we're on schedule to make our target will construction date of summer of 2015. i thank you all especially eric and other for their leadership in getting the job done and done well, with sensitivity to the community. those west rams will provide access and improvements and act as a bridge across the bay. we also create jobs. i am proud that we're critiquing prevailing wage jobs with san francisco companies and retained with those investments. i want to recognize the golden gate bridge company and thank them for the 12 percent dbi contempt on this project. thank you all for being here. i'm happy to be working with the transportation staff and my colleagues to make sure we have the fund to go forward and making sure we deliver n this project on time and thank you to all the staff. we're seeing great connections between the east bay and san francisco and yerba buena and treasure island and the future generations can look at as a model for achievement thank you very much. >> thank you sxhooflz for your leadership and promoting this cross the country. now, it's my pleasure to recognize suzy representing supervisor kim's office and the treasure island folks. they created inclusive investments in our neighborhood. welcome sunny (clapping.) and thanks also supervisor avalos. that's a pleasure probation officer to work with your office. my apologizes for supervisor jane kim not being here but i'm i'd like to welcome you to the east side of the neighborhood. this is when i was working with supervisor jane kim in 2011 this community i