, and next time, lister is going to win. [applause] i'm so happy to be here today with this group of people up here and out here. the culmination of almost two decades of very hard work has come to pass today as the navy officially transfers treasure island to the city and the people of san francisco. we owe an absolute heartfelt thanks to the people who have worked so hard to achieve this goal. two of the people who have worked the hardest, and two people that it has been my privilege to work closely with, are sitting here today. speaker nancy pelosi, mayor gavin newsom. the mayor said some mighty nice

things about me, but i tell you -- this would not have happened without the speaker and the mayor. i had been navy secretary about 10 minutes when the speaker called and said, "can we do something about treasure island?" i went up and talked to her, and and i talked to the mayor, and it was a group effort, a team effort, and we stood on the work that other people have done, and a couple of those folks are here today. mayor willie brown, and my predecessor as secretary of the navy, both of whom were here when this process started, and both of whom live the groundwork for what we are able to do here today, so thank you. united states navy in association with treasure island

began 70 years ago, right after the completion of world expo, 1939-1940. the navy took this over, and from these shores, tens of thousands of sailors and marines left the fight in the pacific in world war ii, and a lot of those sailors and marines who left from here, this was the last time they saw america, and they made the ultimate sacrifice for us. as we transfer this treasure, this island, from the navy back to the city, i hope that all of us will remember the service and sacrifice of every sailor, every marine, living and dead. [applause]

and the people who left from here and the people who serve today, risking everything, so that we can celebrate today. that legacy lives on in the young men and women who wear the cloth of this country and who are deployed around the world as we meet here today. when the famous or infamous bates 3 aligning closure process started in 1988, a final result of any individual base closure and transfer could not have hoped for a better ultimate outcome than what has been achieved in treasure island. the navy's charge is to dispose of property in a manner that promotes economic development. that has been done.

the transfer of treasure island is a win for san francisco. it is a win for the state of california, a win for the united states navy, and a win for the american taxpayers who paid for this base and all the infrastructure that was here. because of this transfer, the american taxpayer gets fair market value for treasure island. because of this transfer, hundreds of millions of dollars of economic development will flow into the city of san francisco and into this whole area, and because of this transfer, treasure island will bring thousands of great jobs right here. first, as new buildings are built, and then, as this island more and more and this new development becomes an ongoing an integral part to the city of san francisco. for our part, the mayor said the navy is going to get significant

rewards by sharing a portion of the revenues, which could in turn be used to make sure that our sailors and marines have the tools that they need to do the mission that they are being sent on. i am incredibly grateful to two fine public servants -- mayor newsom and his staff, speaker pelosi and hers, and the entire california congressional delegation for their commitment to resolving this transfer. speaker pelosi has been working on this issue since her very early years in congress, and over the years, even though negotiations have sometimes been difficult, the speaker has always had the best interest of the city, of the state, of the navy, and of the nation at heart. what we have achieved here can

serve as a template for future transfers of military bases across the country. i am also very grateful to the speaker for her leadership on energy and on energy legislation and for her commitment, along with the president, to change the way we use and produce energy in the united states and building toward a new energy economy. it is of tremendous importance, the way we produce energy and the way we use it, to the navy and marine corps because how we power our ships and our aircraft fundamentally about national security, just as energy reform for the country at large is about energy independence, national security, as well as about economic development and job creation. here on treasure island is -- as the mayor so eloquently pointed out, there is an opportunity to demonstrate what happens when sustainable development and

sustainable usage is considered from the very beginning of a project. here on treasure island, there is an opportunity to build a working model of the president's new energy future, and because of the leadership of the public servants who stand here today, i look forward to seeing that model become an example for the rest of the country to follow. thank you so much for being with us today. it is my incredible honor and pleasure to introduce to you your native daughter, the speaker of the united states house of representatives, nancy pelosi. [applause] >> thank you, mr. secretary. thank you all. thank you, mr. mayor. what an honor it is for us to welcome the secretary of the navy to treasure island for this

very important occasion. he is a live long public servant -- governor, ambassador, and secretary. he has focused on critical issues facing our nation's education and national security, currently leading our efforts to restore the gulf region, but as an ambassador to saudi arabia, governor of mississippi, person committed to a better future for america, he sees the connection of all of these issues. i appreciate your leadership. i thank you for acknowledging that the military is one of the biggest users of energy in our country. and thank you for your leadership in connecting the military with energy efficiency. it is a national security issue for sure. i want to join you in welcoming one of your predecessors, secretary dalton, here today. we stand on your shoulders and those of willie brown, for the

foundation that was late for us to go forward. when we finally got a president, i will be frank, who finally understood the city of treasure island. it should not have been so hard to explain, but for some reason, it was. we were ready with new leadership to capture the opportunity. thank you for your work under mayer brown, and now, mayor news of. mr. mayer, you know that when we started these meetings, we were practically writing to each other on stone tablets. it seems it was that long ago. and i leading up to our teleconferencing. when the mayor was not in washington advocating for the city of san francisco and this initiative in particular, i would walk into the room, and there he would be. there he is on the screen, advocating for san francisco and these issues in particular. because, as the mayor indicated,

he said the city is 47 square miles. tiny city. my district is 32 square miles within the city of san francisco, and all three, mr. secretary, of those military bases are contained in this 32 square miles. the presidio, the hunters point naval shipyard, and treasure island. naval shipyard has long been on the closure list, but the presidio and treasure island came in the late 1980's. first, we fought the closure, and then we accepted our fate and had a transition, and i appreciate the secretary saying that the model a country on how we go forward. the mayor, his leadership has been relentless on behalf of this project.

there brown was similarly relentless, and that is why when we had a new president, we were ready. michael, thank you for your leadership. thank you for your work and your leadership as director of drug development of san francisco, because that -- zap worked so hard to make all of this possible. i wanted to make sure that they were recognized, but there are so many other partners who have not been acknowledged, and i associate myself with the remarks made in praise of them. from the beginning of world war ii, treasure island served as a critical base for the united states navy. hunters point, presidio, treasure island -- how proud san francisco has been with our

association with our men and women in uniform and the role they all play make us the home of the brave and the land of the free. but when the closure commission came along and decided our fate -- as i said, at first, we resisted, and then, we use our imagination. we wanted to be respectful because during the war, this is a center for receiving training and deploying members of our military serving in the pacific theater, as the secretary said so beautifully. some see this as their last view of america after they went off to war. in the decades that followed, the navy continued to train service members here as this facility became a crossroad for sailors and marines, those on their way to the cross pacific, and those coming home. when the base was set to close,

leaders of this city and its representatives in congress recognized the potential for treasure island to remain a vital piece of our region poses success and future. today on the basis of this great history, treasure island officially entered its next chapter, this time as a center for jobs and economic development. thanks to the agreement, we can now move forward on plans to build essential infrastructure, open space and parks, hotels and housing for local residents, and very respectful of the residents who are already here. thank you for being with us today. remaking treasure island will mean significant contributions to indiana sets -- industry central, san francisco's economic vitality, tourism, retail, restaurant, and entertainment, and

manufacturing. this project is of innovative practices to extend our leadership and sustainability. the mayor and secretary have already mentioned them. green building standards, congested management, innovative storm water treatment, and infrastructure that the uses energy use, and it marks another step forward in our drive to transform former military installations like the presidio and hunters point, into centers of commerce that generate jobs and strengthen our community. perhaps most significant of all, this project means critical investment and benefits for our city and our region's economy. more than $5 billion in public and private investment. nearly 3000 permanent jobs, five times the number of the 1 billion jobs that existed when the banks close.

just before the banks closed, it had 1/5 of the number of civilian jobs it will have as we go forward. 2000 temporary jobs per year during construction, and up to 8000 new residential units, 30% of which will be offered at rates affordable for low and middle income families. all three of us have touched on this. we want you to know that is the commitment. in the wake of a deep economic crisis that took a toll on so many in san francisco bay area and across the country, these forthcoming economic benefits could not come at a better time, and they will provide a welcome boost to our city's economy and the entire region. this transfer of the space took a team effort between all of us -- to a team effort. all of us wanted to have the best possible agreement, not

only for san francisco and the bay area, but for the u.s. taxpayer, which everyone here is, so this is about your money and your community. let's do this in the best possible way. it is a low priority for all of us in the office here, and i want to commend senator feinstein and boxer for all of their leadership to help procure an agreement to help transfer this land. partnered with mayer brown earlier, and now with mayor newsom, to keep the city's interest front and center. they were great leaders. and with the governor to engage key republican members of the house on services committee. i do not know if anyone was here from the state, but i thank the governor for the help with republican members. those republican members joined

our chairman to include provisions in last year's defense bill to expedite overdue based transfers, collaborating with the house armed services committee to add flexibility regarding compensation for land value to start the process of igniting economic growth here and in communities nationwide. again, in what we were requesting, not only did we benefit because we had the legislation, but it benefited other communities around the country. treasure island's routes have remained firmly planted through our nation's navy. now, those routes will go deeper, providing a foundation for growth, prosperity, and opportunity for our economy. today, i'm very honored to be joining mayor gavin newsom. again, without his leadership, this would not have been

possible. he was relentless, as he always is. using all the new technologies to make sure that we were never off the radar, grid, or any other screen in terms of moving this along. again, as i said, the foundation that was led by previous scenarios. now, these roots go deeper, and it is a sign of signing this endorsement agreement today, we ensure that this site will remain a source of jobs for our community for decades to come. all of you who played a role in this should take great satisfaction that part of your legacy of public service went to something that the mayor calls a big deal, a very big deal for our community, for our country. in closing, i just want to salute the navy for keeping treasure island safe for us so

that we could come to this day of transition to civilian use that is also a sign of the strength of our country. thank you all very much. [applause] >> thank you. i would also like to acknowledge the tremendous partnership that we have had in the department of defense. the folks in the navy's office that we work with on a daily basis, some of whom are here, some are not. i would now like to invite you to the table to my left to commemorate with your signature the historic agreement for the

transfer, formal mail station trichet -- treasure island for the city and county of san francisco.

[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our program. thank you so much for being here today. we hope that you will join us for a reception, which is in a building just to our right. it is a short walk. this says there are staff from the mayor's office who will be along the way to help you get there, and we hope to see you over there. thank you again for joining us on this wonderful day. [applause]

when a resident of san francisco is looking for health care, you look in your neighborhood first. what is closest to you? if you come to a neighborhood health center or a clinic, you then have access it a system of care in the community health network. we are a system of care that was probably based on the family practice model, but it was really clear that there are special populations with special needs. the cole street clinic is a youth clinic in the heart of

the haight ashbury and they target youth. tom woodell takes care of many of the central city residents and they have great expertise in providing services for many of the homeless. potrero hill and southeast health centers are health centers in those particular communities that are family health centers, so they provide health care to patients across the age span. . >> many of our clients are working poor. they pay their taxes. they may run into a rough patch now and then and what we're able to provide is a bridge towards getting them back on their feet. the center averages about 14,000 visits a year in the health clinic alone. one of the areas that we specialize in is family medicine, but the additional focus of that is is to provide care to women and children. women find out they're

pregnant, we talk to them about the importance of getting good prenatal care which takes many visits. we initially will see them for their full physical to determine their base line health, and then enroll them in prenatal care which occurs over the next 9 months. group prenatal care is designed to give women the opportunity to bond during their pregnancy with other women that have similar due dates. our doctors here are family doctors. they are able to help these women deliver their babies at the hospital, at general hospital. we also have the wic program, which is a program that provides food vouchers for our families after they have their children, up to age 5 they are able to receive food vouchers to get milk and cereal for their children. >> it's for the city, not only our clinic, but the city. we have all our children in san francisco should have insurance

now because if they are low income enough, they get medical. if they actually have a little more assets, a little more income, they can get happy family. we do have family who come outside of our neighborhood to come on our clinic. one thing i learn from our clients, no matter how old they are, no matter how little english they know, they know how to get to chinatown, meaning they know how to get to our clinic. 85 percent of our staff is bilingual because we are serving many monolingual chinese patients. they can be child care providers so our clients can go out and work. >> we found more and more women of child bearing age come down

with cancer and they have kids and the kids were having a horrible time and parents were having a horrible time. how do parents tell their kids they may not be here? what we do is provide a place and the material and support and then they figure out their own truth, what it means to them. i see the behavior change in front of my eyes. maybe they have never been able to go out of boundaries, their lives have been so rigid to sort of expressing that makes tremendous changes. because we did what we did, it is now sort of a nationwide model. >> i think you would be surprised if you come to these clinics. many of them i think would be your neighbors if you knew that. often times we just don't discuss that. we treat husband and wife and they bring in their kids or we treat the grandparents and then the next generation. there are people who come in who need treatment for their heart disease or for their diabetes or their high blood

pressure or their cholesterol or their hepatitis b. we actually provide group medical visits and group education classes and meeting people who have similar chronic illnesses as you do really helps you understand that you are not alone in dealing with this. and it validates the experiences that you have and so you learn from each other. >> i think it's very important to try to be in tune with the needs of the community and a lot of our patients have -- a lot of our patients are actually immigrants who have a lot of competing priorities, family issues, child care issues, maybe not being able to find work or finding work and not being insured and health care sometimes isn't the top priority for them. we need to understand that so that we can help them take care of themselves physically and emotionally to deal with all

these other things. they also have to be working through with people living longer and living with more chronic conditions i think we're going to see more patients coming through. >> starting next year, every day 10,000 people will hit the age of 60 until 2020. . >> the needs of the patients that we see at kerr senior center often have to do with the consequences of long standing substance abuse and mental illness, linked to their chronic diseases. heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, stroke, those kinds of chronic illnesses. when you get them in your 30's and 40's and you have them into your aging process, you are not going to have a comfortable old age.

you are also seeing in terms of epidemics, an increase in alzheimer's and it is going to increase as the population increases. there are quite a few seniors who have mental health problems but they are also, the majority of seniors, who are hard-working, who had minimum wage jobs their whole lives, who paid social security. think about living on $889 a month in the city of san francisco needing to buy medication, one meal a day, hopefully, and health care. if we could provide health care early on we might prevent (inaudible) and people would be less likely to end up in the emergency room with a drastic outcome. we could actually provide prevention and health care to people who had no other way of getting health care, those without insurance, it might be