The architects, marsha and a special thanks to erin who has done so much to help us on though this project. You know . That is the city side of this Publicprivate Partnership and i have to be fair in saying that this project has lasted through the term of two supervisors, two head librarians, three mayors, and four rec and park general managers. The heart of this project, the constant thing has been the heart of this neighborhood. Has been our volunteers and our people. [ applause ] so i want to introduce june. [ applause ] , liz diaz. Amy miles. Bill collins. Martha mahoney, who also does our halloween. Terry. I saved lizzy. This is lizzy hirsch. She has been there. One of the founders of the friends of joe d in 1997. What started with planting a little grass on the childrens playground has greatly expanded. Few people know that the movie thelma and louise is a highly fictionalized account of lizzy and mines adventures. [ applause ] most of it is overstated except for the driving off
Friends of joe dimaggio, julie christinsen, lizzy diaz and lizziehurst, thank you for all you have done. [ applause ] and i also want to take a moment and thank all of the parents who are here of all the different schools that we have. Yes, franklin middle school, garflied, st. Peter and paul, what am i missing . Sherman, Telegraph Hill. Thank you all for what you are doing. I also want to thank those who have been advocating for our seniors and disabled, our parks advocates, our library advocates and of course our city staff. We have a lot of acronyms, dpw, ruark, our mayor, planning, thank all for what you have done. [ applause ]. Let me just close by saying that our work is not done. And if you remember we had opponents who fought this library. Who delayed our being here by years, by millions of dollars and by lawsuits. Is some of them may be running to be supervisor of district 3. And some of them are opposing proposition b. Boo. Boo. They are fighting our kids. They are fighting o
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
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
As our librarian just said, the very first meeting i took, even before he was swornin, after i was elected was about this library. And i got to tell you, that was only four years of a tenyear struggle. There have been hundreds of meetings coming together. There are High School Students today who were preschool students when we started this conversation. And i have to tell you as we all know, it takes a village to raise our kids, but it has taken many villages to build this library. I want to start first and foremost by thanking three mothers, who helped to lead friends of joe dimaggio, julie christinsen, lizzy diaz and lizziehurst, thank you for all you have done. [ applause ] and i also want to take a moment and thank all of the parents who are here of all the different schools that we have. Yes, franklin middle school, garflied, st. Peter and paul, what am i missing . Sherman, Telegraph Hill. Thank you all for what you are doing. I also want to thank those who have been advocating fo