Million parks bond, Neighborhood Parks bond and the 10 million invested into Lafayette Park. I used to live at hyde and geary my first four years when i moved to San Francisco, now 36 years ago, and this was my neighborhood park. And ive loved it ever since. The combination of the palms and the pines and everything in between, this is a jewel of a park. And when i saw the fences go up i got a little nervous because, well, it was going to be closed for a while. And i saw on some of the signs that some trees were going to come down which always makes me a little uncomfortable. But now seeing the result, it is magnificent. And, so, i want to thank all the folks who have invested their time and their efforts to make sure that the Tennis Courts got their renovation and the pathways were upgraded, the ada improvements, of course, this extraordinary playground for our kids, the improved lighting which will make it all safer. And im glad, phil, that you mentioned the fact of this epidemic of C
Already and this is yet another great draw and we have the great investers and they are all rebuilding on the ends of these blocks and mind us, and not only building, but they are also utilizing the programs that we have to ininvolve the local neighborhoods and be great neighbors to be involved neighbor and to be engaged with us. This is going to be a lot of stories about this establishment and while we say that it is temporary, gosh, there is nothing, temporary looking about this and actually it looks like exciting to be here and almost like it is already belong that we are just kind of unraveling this present, for the rest of Market Street to enjoy, and this is literally like a present, and so, i am here to say, thank you, and to also know that myself, and anita when she gets better will be down here eating. And i invite the friends to be here and enjoy the food, and establishment, but also, get a sense that this is part of what we always said Market Street was all about and it is re
Supervisors who lead the charge every day to make San Francisco a better place. Ive got proclamations for all the folks i just mentioned. Thanks again for being here and celebrate this Beautiful Day here at Lafayette Park. applause so, mark, we have a little parting gift for you to commemorate this great day. And to encourage you to get out here and take this and play with us. We have a Lafayette Playground sign and a rec and park picnic blanket for you to enjoy. Congratulations. applause thank you. Next time we need a park bond. While you go to the voters, im going to call sean parker. [laughter] thank you, mark. All right. I mentioned there are a variety of city departments here. I want to give a shout ought to battalion chief williams from station 38. Where are you, chief . There she is. applause and i think we have some activities going on over there. I also want to give a big thank you to fire commissioner and Lafayette Park champion don. Where is don . applause hes actually playi
July 13th is our first day but were not allowed to actually maintain it yet at that point. Yeah, we are. I already talked to oh, we are. [laughter] this is how we work, very collaborative. [laughter] so, okay. I want to thank some of these people are here, and some of them are not. If you are here, try to make your way up towards the front here because we all want to hug each other, okay. Kim barnes, our founder of friends of Lafayette Park. We wouldnt be here today without kim barnes. applause art persico, a moving force, our second president of friends of Lafayette Park. Our fourth, mi stefan franz, shila clement. applause our gardeners who have been here throughout helping us on our clean and green days, out on saturdays. If youre here, marianne bertacelli. Supervisor farrell. Phil has been here every step of the way. This started with this started with two organizations that have now merged into a really wonderful one organization. Those two former organizations were brought us two
So, at rec and park, were encoloneling people to get out and play. Thats our tag line, get ready, 1, 2, 3. Get out and play. We say that because of the importance of keeping our families active and healthy. This is a real serious issue. According to the center for disease control, Childhood Obesity has more than doubled in our children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 2010 more than onethird of our children were overweight or obese. It is important that we get our kids outside. Our children today average over 71 2 hours behind a screen. Listen to that. 71 2 hours behind a screen, less than 30 minutes a day outside. That has to change. And this playground helps get it done. And i wanted to just offer a quick quote from richard lu who is the author of a book called the nature principle which encourage uz us to reconnect with nature and create a balance between nature and the ever evolving world of technology. ~ he says imagine a world in which all children grow up with