All of you have created today. And i want to say that while were here looking at this amazing playground which, by the way, has the worlds im not kidding the worlds longest monkey bars. Woohoo and as the father of a daughter who has broken not one, but two arms on monkey bars, im extremely fired up about that. applause but this park is more than just the playground. For those of you who are here with your kids and youre here for the playground opening, make sure you take a stroll up the hill. The view corridor that has been created as a result of this incredible park design, lindsay, and this incredible work, mary, its stunning. You can see all the way today you can see all the way into marin. You can see the entire bay. The Tennis Courts, the area, the amphitheater where the mime troop historically performed, the offleash dog area, the benches on our hillside. We have created together a park that is truly extraordinary. It is a piece of art. And we are just also proud that weve been a
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 Childhood Obesity and type 2 diabetes. You know, one in eight of us today will experience type 2 diabetes, but a generation from now that means kids here today, if we dont change course, 1 in 3, there are predictions in every californian will have diabetes by 20 50 which will completely overwhelm our already taxed health care system. So, get out and play is more than just some words. Its something we must do. Its for us to make sure that our little ones have the benefit of parks like these all over the city. So, to carina jones who led the fundraising for the playground and lynn new house seigel who led the fundraising fo
Our great operations staff, zach taylor, judy auberry who is here, and everyone else who has contributed to this incredible project. 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 cr
applause so, id like im going to get back up and introduce some other speakers and we have some gifts were going to present in a little bit. But im going to start im going to kick the program off by bringing up our state senator. Everybody here knows mark leno. But what you may not know is how committed and how tireless mark is to fighting for kids and families and parks and open spaces. Its not always on the front page of the paper. Hes often doing it behind the scenes in ways that not everybody knows. Mark is a true advocate for families. He is a true advocate for parks. A true advocate for green space. And it is my great pleasure to bring him up now. applause thank you, phil. Lets hear it for parks cheer leader and chief phil ginsberg. applause it is a real pleasure to be with everyone here today. It takes a village and the village is out. Its not often we get to say the words our tax dollars at work with a smile on our face. But were doing it today. Because voters really knew what
Believe in in our neighborhood. Thank you for all that you do. And i really in particular today want to single out two folks. Phil mentioned the friends of Lafayette Park and we have certificates of honor for them. But this playground behind us would not have happened without one of the best friends of parks groups in our city of San Francisco, and thats the friends of Lafayette Park. They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. The plaques are around here and all the people that contributed to it, but there are two people that had the biggest leadership in this, and i want to bring them up. So, lynn and carina, come on up. [cheering and applauding] these are our neighborhood leaders for Lafayette Park. applause and there is not enough applause that we can give them, but we need to give it up in a very big way. Thank you so much for all that youve done and please know that all of us are so thankful for your individual efforts. And we wouldnt be here without you. So, thank you so much