>> ladies and gentlemen, the esteemed guests, welcome. to introduce our program today, i'm honored to introduce greg of the saloni people who worked to preserve his heritage for over three decades and he's the culture director, the people indigenous to the san francisco peninsula, mr. castro, welcome. [applause] >> [foreign language] greetings to everyone. welcome to the ramaytush homeland. this area we call for thousands of years, yalama, it's different now,

especially where we're sitting. but it's still our homeland, we're still here, we are still dedicated to taking care of the land and the people on it in partnership with the representatives of the people that live here now. so, welcome to nancy pelosi, mayor london breed and it's intimidating to follow the singers who took us to church, hallelujah. but it is traditional for us to do a prayer and for us prayer is often a song. and so i'm going to sing, i think something that's appropriate for the beginning of the subway system here. a good luck song. so, this song is from our rumson cousins in monterey bay. the sad history of the ramaytush people is their culture was taken away from them. even though they managed to survive, we're reviving our

culture, in the meantime we borrow from our cousins and relatives from other peoples of in-- in indigenous california so this is a song that my cousin taught me that's used for good luck. [singing]

thank you! [applause] >> thank you, gregg for honoring this occasion with song. it's now my honor to introduce mayor london breed under whose leadership that the site has been able to deliver, places one or two of the rabbit projects and the (indiscernible) way and finally, the full t-third line into the central subway, mayor london breed. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, jeff and thank you everyone joining us here today. i just want to thank gregg for

blessing this space and my hope is that this is a transformative space for so many people who will be using it for generations to come. i want to thank the c-notes for their amazing gift of song, to all of us to celebrate an incredible milestone here in san francisco. one that has a long extensive history and i know we have a number of speakers today, but i do want to touch upon a little bit of that history to provide some level of perspective. back in 1989, we know that the famous lomar earthquake created real challenges for san francisco. but it also created some extraordinary opportunities. we saw our city go from devastation to transformation. when we talk about the resilience of san francisco, we only point to so

many of those examples where we experience challenges and out of those challenges, some extraordinary opportunities. october 5th y'all boulevard, the freeway -- octavia boulevard, the freeway came down and it became a community. we saw the freeway come down at embarcadero, but as a result of the decisions that were made, the folks in china town were not very happy with the impacts on the community. people like rose pack who led the charge to confront the city and expect the city to do better to ensure that visitors, that people who came to china town especially the increasing chinese population in the southeast sector of san francisco, that they had a vehicle by which they could travel to this particular destination was very important to this community. and so, even though it created an extraordinary opportunity, it challenged our city like never before, in terms of equity and

access, to public transit systems to ensure that neighborhoods like visitation valley and sunny dale and bay view hunters point and other communities had a system that worked more efficiently for people to travel throughout san francisco. and former mayors like willy brown, and ed lee, they led the charge, they were instrumental in the t-3 lines and the central subway and in the bay area rapid transit and providing these opportunities for not just these new systems of transportation in our city, but the job opportunities. in fact, this project alone developed almost 40,000 new jobs that were created over the creation of this project. [applause] so, today we're here to celebrate an exfreud troid natury -- we're here to

celebrate an extraordinary milestone and so many folks that was instrumental in providing this opportunity for the subway but let me tell you, it takes community, it takes vision, it takes hands and work and so many layers to get here, all the workers, all the construction workers, the project managers, the operators, the people is sf mta, the present and previous leaders, the county transportation authority, the board of supervisors, so many layers to make this happen on a state, federal and local level. but i must say there's absolutely, absolutely no way that we would be here today, that a project of this magnitude would have been able to happen, where it not for the extraordinary, extraordinary leadership of our speaker nancy pelosi.

[cheers and applause] i don't -- i don't know if there is a bigger champion for san francisco than speaker pelosi, because of her leadership, this project received a billion dollars, more than half of what it took to get it completed. this was a very expensive project. $1.9 billion and she single handed was instrumental in ensuring that we got a billion dollars from the federal government to see it to this point. so, madam speaker, i know you have a new title but you're always going to be madam speaker to us. [cheers and applause] we love you. we appreciate you because it's not just a big project like central subway. it's the community centers. it's the roads. it's all of the things that make such an

extraordinary difference. she constantly fights for us and constantly delivers for us. and this is such a tremendous testament to your work, your deeds over the years and your legacy, so thank you so much, madam speaker, nancy pelosi. [cheers and applause] and i can't be more proud. i spoke to mayor art agnus and spoke to willy brown and talk to them about the work and they wanted to make sure i didn't take all the credit for delivering this project but usually mayors won't acknowledge previous mayors. but i will say that it does take really strong leadership. it does take persistence. and it takes people with vision. and so i do want to thank those mayors and thank the board of supervisors and others who have been instrumental in helping to focus on transit and i want to really callout

senators scott wiener as a tremendous transit advocate. [applause] for not only delivering on the dollars here at the local level but at the state level as well. when i think about what this project is going to do, can you imagine four new stations, taking someone as far as china town all the way to sunnydale, not the city sunny dale, to advise -- visitation and taking people to work and people taking muni from different parts of the city to enjoy a game at chase center, at oracle park, people who are going to have an opportunity to use transit in a more efficient way like never before. this is really what happens when you -- you only see something like this once in a lifetime. something this transformative. yes it cost lots

of money and takes meets of community input and it takes a lot of dollars to be raised on so many levels and yes, a few hiccups along the way. but you know what, the delays don't mean denials and we're here after a challenging couple of years delivering for the people of san francisco. when i think about my good, good friend, my -- i call her my grandmother because she treats me like her granddaughter, my wong and she lives in selma. she spends time on the 30 stockton going from her area of the selma to china town and she covers a lot of ground in san francisco because she's very active. and now the fact that she'll have one line where she can go at any given time to any part of the neighborhood that she frequents, it feels my heart with so much joy, what this project is going to do for so many people who rely on our public

transportation system and so many people who want to be a part of our public transportation system as we see new neighborhoods created, mission bay, coming alive with thousands of new people, as we see the dog patch, which has been highlighted as the most hip neighborhoods in the world. as we see all these neighborhoods in san francisco transform like never before, we have a state of the art transportation system that is going to take us into the future and i can't be more excited and proud to be here to celebrate with you here today and i know that we should be focused on the central subway and the four new stations at moss connie, fourth and brandon and china town and rose pack station and right here at market and union square, but i'm, i'm holding out hope, madam speaker, for one more station and taking us to fisherman's wharf. i'm

holding out hope. [cheers and applause] because if anybody can do it, san francisco can do it. we are proof positive with this project of what we can do when we put ourselves together. we could be proud, we could take this moment to enjoy ourselves. thank you everyone for the roles that you played. it took a village to get it done, the village is here today and others who can't be here, thank you for delivering this incredible project for the city and county of san francisco. [cheers and applause] >> next up, we like to introduce state senator scott wiener. [cheers and applause] >> wow, it's always fun to follow the mayor. [laughter] so, i'm so excited today. i'm excited as a state senator. i'm

excited as a former chair of our county transportation authority and former mtc commissioner, but i'm most excited as a 25-year rider of muni. and for many, like -- yes, let's hear it for riding muni. [cheers and applause] and like many muni riders, i sometimes describe muni as my friend-enemy. it's my friend who gets me to where i'm going and we have the moments where we're ripping our hair out because it's not working as well and i am so optimistic about what's happening with muni. when we look at van ness, vrt and getting on the 49 and quickly and immediately get all the way up van ness or being able to hop on the 14 mission and because of those red lanes, quickly get down mission street. and now this morning, i hopped on a castro street, my muni station, and took it down to pal and had a really short walk to the

central subway to this station and that just warmed my heart and it makes me so optimistic for the future of san francisco and for the future of public transportation in san francisco. because we know that we need our transit systems to work for our city and for our region. this region is only going to succeed if people are able to get around easily. if people are able to get within san francisco, back and forth to the east bay, down to the south bay, we don't have a choice. we have to make it work and this is going to help make it work. the central subway is going to be a new spine right in the middle of our public transportation system and that is why i'm so, so excited about today. i will say that this is great. this is such a fantastic day, but this can't be the end. and we have to recommit at the federal level, the state level,

locally to supporting our transit systems, not just the capital but the operations too in making sure we always, always have robust systems. [applause] we're about that a little hiccup at the federal level and it's fantastic we have all this money coming from the federal infrastructure. thank you, madam speaker for making sure that happened. [cheers and applause] the next couple of years might be a little rough but i know it's going to be positive after that. so, here's to a great future for transit, congratulations, everyone. [applause] >> and next up we have state assembly member and budget chair, phil ting. >> thanks, jeff. it's exciting to be here. we heard from our mayor, our state senator, we're

going to have our speaker talk, but this is just an amazing moment. just demonstrates that if the city can put its mind to something, we can achieve anything that we absolutely want. but again, i think the mayor put it well. this was 30 years in the making. this was all about, all the past leaders who have the foresight to know that we absolutely had to invest in our transportation infrastructure, we had to invest in our city, that the only way for our city to grow is through transit. we're a city that is amazing. we'll welcoming people into downtown, we're welcoming people into our neighborhoods and we continue to grow but the only way we're going to have and guarantee the economics vitality for our city is if we can expand our public transportation. this investment, i think back about the state investment that started in 2000, 2002, $600 million in state money started but that was for many elected officials many years

ago. for us this last year in our budget, we made sure we did a future investment, $12 billion for public transportation for projects not just in san francisco. [applause] not just in san francisco, but all over, all over the state because we know that this is the key for our state to keep growing, for our state to keep thriving, for our state to make sure -- make sure our economy can grow. we're the fourth largest economy in the entire world. there's three countries larger than our economy and yet at some times, we still have such major issues that we face. and today is a day of celebration. but we cannot forget the future. the future is about investing. and this is critical investment in transportation. it's a critical investment for our future and critical investment for our economy. thank you for getting this done.

>> we have former district three supervisor and current city attorney, david chiu. >> good morning, san francisco. who is excited about the central subway. [cheers and applause] i'm going to ask jeff to come back for a second to showcase what he's wearing. if anyone can take a look at this and i want everyone to know that i told jeff that on monday, i'm going to ask my deputies to craft a charter amendment to require any department head who has a multi-year project to wear a schematic of the project on their body until the project is done. thank you, jeff. [laughter] so, each of us were asked to speak for two minutes about a theme. the theme i have been asked to talk about is the theme of endurance. the endurance of thousands of san franciscans who have waited for the density neighborhoods in the west coast to finally be connected by the central subway. the endurance of small business owners and

merchants here in union square, in china town and north beach who endured this project. the endurance of the sf mta, city staff, architects, engineers, builders, laborers, and of course, policy makers, our mayors, mayor breed, thank you. i want to relay a message from governor newsom and a number of us was with him yesterday and he wanted me to say how disappointed he was that he couldn't be here today and of course the endurance of someone who i believe is truly a bionic woman, the speak of the house, nancy pelosi, thank you very much. [applause] as a chinese elected official, i want to also thank the endurance of china town. the endurance of thousands of residents, of tenants and of families who came to hearing after hearing for 30 years. i've been involved in the project for 20 years. when i served on the central subway citizen advisory committee and

carried the approvals at the board of supervisors for this great project to move forward. it took the village of everyone in this room and thousands of folks beyond, including many lawyers in my office and thousands of hours of legal work. so, with that, one final thought which is, i'm a resident of the bay view. i come off often to china town and i'll bring my six-year-old son from the bay view to china town. i look forward to seeing all of you on this as we share the story about how generations before made it possible for generations after. happy central subway. thank you very much. [applause] >> next up, district 8 supervisor and chair of the san francisco county transportation authority, raphael mandelman. [applause] >> um, hello, everybody. you

know who didn't take 15 ballots to get elected speaker, who didn't have to degrade the office and how owe hue mail ate her several. i'll the chair county of the transportation authority. i'm going to talk about our sales tax and the art. so, and we -- you like sales taxes? you like art? [cheers and applause] so, i want to acknowledge our phenomenal executive director telly chang who is here. director chang, our vice-chair aaron peskin and district supervisor and district 7 supervisor, milgar is here. this was the most transformative project in our half cents sales tax program. creating a direct

ride from china town to the light rail. the ta was a key partner from the beginning. identifying this line in our 1994 four corridors plan and providing more than $500 million in sales tax and other ta funds or about 20% of the full investment and that in turn leverages the money that speaker pelosi was able to get us from the federal level and that senator wiener was able to get us at the state level and thanks to everyone and here we are and i want to thank the voters and i want to thank speaker pelosi again for the role she played in helping us get that transportation half cents sales tax passed back in november. people said it couldn't be done and we got it done. we got it over the finish line. thanks to everyone who helped us that's generating $100 million a year in funding for transportation investments like this. [applause] thank you madam mayor for your help as well and everyone who

worked on it. on behalf of the transportation authority, i want to extend our tremendous congratulations to the entire sf mta organization and the china town community, malcolm young, i want to acknowledge reverend norman fung and my constituent and the former head of cdc and mayor breed and past members of the mta board. they deserve applause too. thank you for your work. [applause] and now that is the sales tax piece and acknowledging piece and i'm going to talk about the public art. made possible through san francisco's $0.02 for the arts program that places public art in publicly funded capital projects. and through this program the city's commission, ten works of art by 12 artists at four stations, crews installed eight of them with the final two to be installed later this year. and i want to thank some incredible talented artists, tomy and yumu

and claire and stark walker, jim campbell and warren, you are win, and roxi pain, and kathy. let's give it up to the artist. of course, i want to thank the work of our san francisco arts commission and their staff and now i am introducing to sing, right. okay. i'm doing it. so, these stations are indeed beautiful but the t-cert isn't about the new rail stations but connecting communities throughout san francisco from china town and bay view and beyond and that's why i'm excited to introduce to sing, parker, the senior executive director at the bay view hunters point ymca to sing to dedicated work and seniors in the hunters point neighborhood and i'm going to get off the stage and introduce tacing.

>> good afternoon, everyone. oh, you can do better than that. good afternoon, everyone. >> good afternoon. [audience] >> my name is tacing parker and i'm the executive director of the bay view hunters point ymca and i'm excited about this station and the opportunitys that the t-train, connecting our communities will provide to youth and families and the central subway station is a launching pad for us to connect our communities and for families to be able to find and actually see each other with their own eyes. being at the bay view ymca and like other community based organizations here in san francisco, our work is all about strengthening community. we want to ensure our family, that our youth and adults have access to the resources and the services they need to thrive in this city. and we also want to ensure that they have opportunities to

experience the enrichment that happens in these communities. and the central subway station is going to make way for us to do that. literately, it is a pathway to connect our families. and this means that in district ten, our children will be able to hop on the t-train without taking two or three hours to get to china town and be able to see the richness of that community. it means that families from china town will be able to come to district ten and explore some of the outdoor and nature engagement opportunities that we currently have and that are on the horizon. i, as a san franciscan and someone who has worked in this city for many, many years am excited about what is to come from the central station and i'm looking forward to getting on the train myself and getting to and from this city. thank you very much and at this time, okay. thank you, thank you.

>> this project wouldn't have been possible without our partnership with the federal government, i'm honored to introduce deputy administrator, veronica. >> good afternoon, transit openings are a deal deal. what an honor to be here with our speaker, madam speaker pelosi with our mayor, london breed with jeff tumlin and his team and senator wiener. we're delighted to be a federal partner this this transit. you and your team at sf mta did work to complete this work during a pandemic and with supply chain issues, not an easy task. certainly, i would like to recognize our ta staff. this project, these sorts of openings takes years and years ever

dedicated energy. our staff at region nine based in san francisco, amy and -- they are deputy admin industry tors supported with technical assistance, guidance and energy, effort and encouragement, so i want to shout them out. for some, these events are about cutting a ribbon. for many more, these events equate to lives that are transformed. with the completion of the second phase of the t-3 light rail line, we're connecting people to jobs and housing and each other and opportunities like the -- you'll get a pin if you haven't gotten one, connecting communities. that's what we're here to celebrate. the extension measuring not just quite some miles maybe a small part of this system but through the connection to allow a big impact. this one seat ride will take people downtown without bus transfers or having to rely on a car. and with the connections to

caltrain and bart, it will mean seamless travel around the bay area. i'm extremely proud of the federal administrative -- $1 billion worth of federal funds from our capital investment grants program and another 23 millions to the american rescue plan. again, thank you, madam speaker for your support. you should be proud of your commitment to transit by supporting a better life locally and raising $500 million in infrastructure bonds. under the biden/harris administrative, equitable access is a priority and for the department of u.s. department of transportation and federal transportation. 79% of households in china town lack access to a car. think about the impact of this subway on those lives and on community living and society that's inclusive, equitable and affordable. i

would like to congratulate everyone who got this project over the finish line. this is a city where 80% of residents use public transportation, we're listening and responding to the needs of the local community. in this year of the rabbit and someone born in the year of the rabbit, we're reminded that the sign of the rabbit is a symbol of longevity and peace and prosperity. 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope. today's celebration is a strong 1i78 bowl of our hope for the future -- here in san francisco and through out the nation, thank you. [applause] >> thank you, veronica. next up, we have president of the china town community corporation, mr. malcolm young. [applause] >> all right. first of all, let

me just start off by saying that and i think supervisor mandelman mentioned it earlier, the reverend norman fong who you know and is the spirit of china town and ways the city, he couldn't be here because he's under the weather. but i did want to kick this off, reverend norman style. i'm going to ask everyone to look to their left and look to their right and tell their neighbor, you're beautiful. [laughter] i know. you're beautiful. i know. the mayor just told me, come on. you got to amp it up a little bit. yeah, i know. i get it, i get it. let me just say for china town, the central subway means many things and the only way irk sum it up, for china -- the only way to sum it up, for china town, this is our important gateway. the first gate is the physical gate on grant and bush just a churchle of blocks from here and the

second gate is ports of the square with garage underneath but now finally, we have our gateway at china town rose channel. that's a big deal. [cheers and applause] as many folks have mentioned this newest gateway is a connector between san francisco communities from the sunny dale and valley bay view to the pings in china town and i really, really appreciate the stories from te sing and the mayor highlighting the impact the subway will have because it's connecting communities but connecting families and people most of all and we have to remember that. thank you so much. it's a connector for visitors and tourists and i just want to put a gra tude plug in there because we have -- i'm hoping this can be a connector for folks hungry and thirsty before games, grab them some, maybe a drink or two in china town and hop the train down to oracle and chase and feeling

happy from that point on and enjoying the game from that perspective. we love to work with you guys on that stuff too. just fyi. but also to senator wiener's point, the subway is a connector to a greener and more sustainable future. we all need to be getting out of cars and taking the train to china town and now we finally can, actually. that's amazing. it took more than a village to get here. seven mayors including champions like mayor willy brown, mayor ed lee and now the mayor who has brought it home, london breed. [cheers and applause] three district supervisors, aaron twice and city attorney david chiu who brought this project through so many different approvals. frankly, sorry jeff, too many mta directors to count, but jeff, we are here and you led the mta team to the finish line, so

that's amazing. and i'm glad you're wearing that suit. [applause] numerous fta directors including secretary pee who kicked this off in november, but i would be remised if i didn't mention secretary norman who was the person who brought the ffta to the finish line. that was a big deal. [applause] but through it out, there was only one congressional representative throughout this entire period leading that village and i have in my notes, representative nancy pelosi but if the mayor wants to call her speaker, we're calling her speaker, speaker nancy pelosi. [cheers and applause] i'm grateful to our neighborhood allies and union square, marissa, we're bringing it home finally and i love your station and i love ours more. sorry saying that. our neighbors in north beach and south of market,

the struggle for the subway brought us closer together and i know we're going to work on those bonds in the future. i'm especially grateful to the generations of china town leaders who fought for this. it was a true multigenerational effort. so i really need to acknowledge gordon chin and norman fong from my china town community center and acknowledge -- phil, landy, will, harvey louie and the leaders from the chinese leaders of chamber and the president is here today, i don't know where you're at donald but he looks good in the back and the benevolent association. if i have one regret, one community leader who inspired and unified china town to fight for this project isn't around today to enjoy this moment. and i'm of course talking about rose pack. [applause] rose, it's finally here. and i swear when i woke up this

morning, i could hear your infectious laughter from heaven, so rose thank you on behalf of china town and san francisco. we love you and miss you and this one is for you. [applause] thank you. >> i was supposed to introduce to sing, and i had words talking about how our communities have been connected in the central -- and the central subway will connect them more but i guess i'm not doing that and i'm introducing brandon snyder from the warriors and again, we love to work with you on bringing folks to china town and the stadium. [laughter] [cheers and applause] >> thank you. so thank you so much. this is such a great day for the golden state warriors, for chase center, for san francisco and for the entire bay area. thank you to mayor breed and speaker pelosi and everyone who had a hand in getting us here. from the time we started

designing chase center years ago, we knew it was important for it to be a transit first building. and in the central subway is a critical part of that. we're obsessed with creating the best possible experience for all of our fans. and obviously getting to and from the building is a part of that. it's going to cut 20 minutes in travel time for those going to events and games at chase center. awesome. you think about people coming from all parts of the city and coming from the east bay, they will be able to take bart, to the pal street station without going above grade, they will get on the central subway and it will drop them off at their front door. from day one, we have paid the fare for all attendees to be able to ride muni so your game ticket, yeah, clap for that. thank you. [cheers and applause] so your event ticket or game ticket doubles as your muni ticket so take the train. so we view as with our privately financed arena, we view our

investment in the city's transportation ecosystem as being foundational to our commitment to san francisco. and i can't wait to see tonight, thousands of fans getting off the central subway to watch us beat the orlando magic. [cheers and applause] thanks again and now i get to introduce my friends and ceo of the san francisco giants, larry baer. >> in baseball par learns, madam speaker is on circle. i believe she's next. we'll be brief. just want to say, thank you to everyone involved, mayor breed, speaker pelosi. senator wiener. it has been an incredible journey. the last 23 years, muni has been a vital link to oracle

park. it started as pacific bell park as you know and then for 65 years, muni has been serving giants fans. we had, i remember as a child taking the old ball park express, anybody remember the ball park expresses? yeah. there you go, yeah. the mayor was on the ball park express. i took, which line did you take? i took the 19th avenue line with my dad. yeah. and it was, muni has been so vital to giant fans creating a link that on any given night, we have 40 to 50% of our fans, somehow accessing the ball park by, through muni. going forward, i want to do a quick shout-out, mayor breed mentioned, the mission bay area. and later this year, we have a project called mission rock which is opening. and it will be five hundred housing units of which 40%,

40% are affordable below market rate housing. [cheers and applause] for the mission bay area. as well as a 7-acre park, as well as visa's headquarters up to one thousand employees and it will be a new neighborhood in san francisco and we will have, thanks to everybody at mta and we have been designing it with them, a mission rock stop right at the mission rock neighborhood and we're very proud of that. [applause] today is a great day for san francisco. congratulations for the village that we are, coming together to make today happen. thank you very much. see you at the ball park. [cheers and applause] >> finally, with no further or do, it's my deep honor to introduce somebody whom i consider one of the greatest american heroes of my generation

and the savior of the republic. speaker nancy pelosi. [cheers and applause] >> thank you very much, jeff. i accept every compliment on behalf of my colleagues in the congress who had the courage to fight for all those things. it took no courage for me because san francisco is san francisco and on the forefront of everything, save our planet, have fairness in our economy, advocate our children and respect our seniors. you name the subject, san francisco is in the lead. jeff for being in the lead in all of this. i was so looking forward to coming here. we're in session until very late last night, late our time and the time in the east. get on the plane, come here and i said,

this is a family affair for us. official family affair. madam mayor, thank you for your great leadership bringing this to fruition, senator wiener, our assemblyman, i know we heard from phil ting and someone from haynie is here as well and to our -- where is he? where did he go? david chiu. and so many of you. and then our sports friends in our community. let me put this into perspective because the mayor started us with the earthquake. we had an earthquake in 1989 during a world series game between the san francisco giants and oakland a's. and a decision had to be made. we would get the federal funding. we went to the floor

within 24 hours of the earthquake to understand we would have what we needed but what did san francisco want to do with it? mayor agnos was mayor and the question is, is the money that the federal government would put it into repair the embarcadero or the freeway or would it be used to be transformative, to let there be light just to open up that whole area of our city. and that really began that transformation as the mayor used that world rightly. we have been together on issues related to transit and i would thank larry and brandon, we were talking sports and the day after martin luther king day, the mayor, well, i'm not going to announce anybody's plans, the warriors will be in washington, d.c. at the white

house to be honored as basketball champions and we're excited about that. [applause] anyway. so, mayor -- he orchestrated where we went from there and actually, willy brown and gavin as mayor, so not just as governor but mayor, mayor lee, we love him. we miss him. and now our mayor here. i thought willy was going to be here, but i don't want to hesitate to not acknowledge -- willy brown was mayor when -- we're trying to switch our sports leaders there. we're at the groundbreaking. i think it was raining that day too. and somebody is speaking and i started cheering and he said i'm not finished and i said i'm not cheering you. i'm cheering that the giants just won the ability

to go to the, wow, the world series, so that was, as you could tell the time of the year in the fall when that happened but again, unity, connection, community, all of this connected and now actually, physically connected with all of this. yeah, billion dollar federally, but it's a model to the country, understand this, i left the congress last night just as we got a new speaker. so my first public appearance here as the speaker of america is for this project, which has probably occupied -- [cheers and applause] has occupied so much of the time of so many of us here. you've heard from some. every piece of it was necessary. because to get a billion dollars or more, and

we want more, we have to show that there's community coming together in support of how we go forward. and in other words, when we fight for the money, we have to make sure that dirt will fly. that it will happen and as i talk about dirt flying, i want to acknowledge our friends in labor. i don't know if any of them are here now but they had been at our different events, gonzalez, and the rest, because they had been strong advocates for us to get these projects funded and funded, prevailing wage, all those things but as mentioned and scott emphasizes this in his work but in his comments, with our president, with president biden, veronica, thank you for representing -- veronica from the federal transportation administration, we've got to be thinking of

where we go next. this is wonderful. we celebrate. aren't we all great. this is fabulous. with this president, there's more to come road -- regardless what happened in the house. there's more to come because it's in the pool already. secretary butaja was here and we celebrated the carved art and bringing all the elements we're talking about here, but we have more that we want to see happen here and mentioning norma, he taught us and he was the chairman of the transportation commission when he was there and he taught us when we were making our pitches for things to think regionally and we have -- we talk about what this means here,

but what it means beyond -- into the san francisco bay area, to have people come to town and be able to move around in a really important way. but okay. we have an earthquake and are we going to put that back up and take it down, the decision was made not to put it up and cause ease in china town and so, here it is, all these years later, finally going in. now, i have to say because we're talking about all these stations, i have to say some people really weren't as enthusiastic about having a station until they saw what was going to be happening in china town. and it was, why can't this just go on and on and on. and that's what we want, what we want to happen. but it's about what the president -- what the president is about and president biden, when you talk to him about this, he says why are you telling this. i know this. this is who i am. i took the train to work everyday.

[laughter] i understand about mass transit. its role in protecting the environment. its role in having clean air for our children to breathe. its role in having good paying jobs, 40,000, you say, so many jobs to create this, but also the commerce creating the jobs that it will in gender and the president is concerned about unifying community. this money didn't have from the infrastructure bill, other money we're getting, we're getting $400 million for the golden gate bridge and we were supposed to announce that but between rain and inclement weather in the congress, we didn't -- [laughter] we didn't do it yesterday. but there's a big, shall we say, incentive for us to keep applying for resources that are

there and now. and it's about bringing people together and in the infrastructure bill, veronica knows this all so well, there's $60 billion for the purpose of unifying community, the projects that bring community together, not divide them, that there will be justice in how the community and the mayor emphasizes over and over again, how the community helps to decide what projects and how and when they will develop. it's about inclusion, it's about diversity. it's about justice and environmental justice, transportation justice in a whole different way and that was in the infrastructure bill, so also in the rescue package and all passages so we're perfect

for this, right. we think community and we think in a way that's of national significance, as an example of how to get something done that meets the president's standards and not only his, ours, but also for our children and their future. and the other part of it is that so important is that it is -- it has to address past concerns that people have. i have been to many communities around the country where something went through a neighborhood, divided it horribly, people are suspicious of new infrastructure. we have to make sure they know how different it will be. so, again, san francisco, we talk about the t-3 line, we were able to get into the law that the money that the city put up for that would count against a match for this.

[laughter] it's a matter of interpretation. [laughter] because it is a local commitment to mass transit and we wanted that, so it's all connected, whether it's financially, it's almost the least of it although we need the money, but also the value that it brings to community and the rest. i always say to our folks who are engaged in all of this, our hopes are riding on you because it is about unifying community, it's about creating jobs, it's about cleaner air, healthier communities for our children, more environmental justice, social justice, economic justice. and nobody does it better than san francisco to be a model to the country about how to get it done. aren't you

excited to be here. [cheers and applause] isn't it a great thing? [cheers and applause] at last, we're finished but i want to acknowledge the local community people who is involved and i want to add one more in china town and that's florence chang on my case for a long time on this, but i want to acknowledge the patience of the people of union square. karen sled is on the unofficial leader of keeping peace in all of that and i wanted to acknowledge her as well. so everybody works hard to make this happen. we elected officials glory in it but it would not happen without the people who built it, people who conceived it. the communities who agreed to it and it would not have happened without all of you. so thank you and it's cause for celebration. thank you so much. [cheers and applause]

>> five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

i'm currently an h2 firefighter for the san francisco fire department. i served active duty in the navy. i wanted something that was going to be in the medical field, but not necessarily stay in a hospital setting and i didn't want to stay in an office and this job kind of combines everything i was looking for. everyday's different. there's always something new and to learn. and my first introduction to the department was being

surrounded by people of the lgbtq community. and so we were able to get, you know, it just made things a little more comfortable that you could talk to people about things that people necessarily wouldn't understand. i've had to hide myself. able to come out. being able to understand many his and being able to do things in had that sense, it's very liberating to be able to speak like this, this city in particular, it's a mecca for the lgbtq+ community. you know, there's so much history behind it and being part of this community that now accepting us for who we are and what we do, we're able to just be ourselves. any time somebody finds out i am a member of the gay community, i don't get anybody talking about me, nothing at all. it's just oh, cool. you have a partner? like yes, i do. they start asking about that and how my life is. you become part of the family and here in the san francisco

fire department it really is just one big family. you know, it was my dream to be a san francisco fire department member and i'm here.

>> i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> like to take roll. [roll call] >> president elias you have a quorum. (inaudible) department of police accountability. line item 1, ra