media. go ahead. >> the question was, the lottery system is very unpredictable. you cannot plan. it is all about lot -- luck. i am a strong candidate for neighborhood schools. i would like to work out a long- term change so that we can get strong neighborhood schools at all the different levels, every neighborhood. i do not know if you know this. i have been around for about 22 years. part of my job was being dpw director. i did that for five years. i got to know, pick up trash, see every neighborhood in san francisco. one of the things i felt strongly about in my administration was building strong communities. part of that is to have those schools so that you are not cutting across town to get to the school of your choice. you have good abbott -- good academics there. we are working with the school board and getting the resources to do that and create more schools. in fact, we are working with some great philanthropists to create a great school in mission bay. there were some big grant writer is to try to get that done. is it thispbox? any questions you have about quality of life here, what we can do, the ideas we have shared? the question was, more about bicycle planning and dedicated roadways for the city. i am a member of the bicycle coalition. they are talking with me all the time about how it is. right now, we have been focused on making sure that everybody is safe on the roads, pedestrians, car drivers, bicyclists. having said that, we are going to expand more of the lanes. we have a great chance of doing that. last year, the voters, with your help, passed a great bond they gave us $248 million to redo and resurface a lot of our bad streets. you will have a lot smoother lines to ride on. riding a bike, some of the worst thing is hitting all of these utility trenches and things that pop up. having said that, we are working with both the coalition and the transportation administration to figure out where all of the key commute lanes are and to work with you. i would love you to send my staff your opinions about the best routes to get to work and get home from work. coming down here to the area, from all over parts of the city, would be a great way to do that. there is a lot of traffic coming down here. we have to figure out where the safest, most efficient routes would be to get over here. we are always very open to those routes as we create a central subway and some other modes of transportation. we are very open to that. i cannot tell you exactly which streets, but i think we are a few weeks from opening the new jfk route. we have a dedicated green line with in golden gate park and it will follow jfk. it is neat because we segregated the bike route from the car lang. if you live on that side of town, in a few weeks, you will be very happy. yeah, as you know, the numbers that came out about the initial estimates to do a bike lane on our side of the bridge is something like $100 million. that is very frustrating because i would like to see other engineers design something that might be more palatable financially. i do not think we have figured it out yet. it is going to be pressure building as we get to the opening of bay bridge. i would think, since we are talking about increasing ferries for the rebuild of treasure island and america's cup, i think the ports with love more ferry service. -- would love more ferry service. we could have treasure island get more dedicated ferry service. it would be great if we could do that. meanwhile, we will try to figure out if there could be something else that could be engineered on the existing bay bridge. >> thank you again for joining us, " mayor lee. very excited to celebrate this with you. [applause] is graham here? we have a little something that we do to close these things out. >> 1, 2, 3, dropbox! >> i want to thank everyone for coming. i am the general manager of the recreation department. it is a pleasure to serve as the emcee today and i want to recognize our commission president. joining us all with our other dignitaries. there are a lot of special people gathered around. for those of you who do not know, a little bit of background about this beautiful garden before i turn it over to our mayor. the garden is the oldest japanese american garden in the united states. it is a historical japanese- style garden, originally billed as a village for the 1894 midwinter international exposition. after the exposition, a japanese-american partner along with john mclaren converted the exhibition into a permanent park. he over saw the building as the teagarden and was the official caretaker from -- until 1925. he requested the people of japan 1000 flooring cherry trees to be imported and other plants and birds and goldfish. his family lived in the garden until 1942. when under executive order 906, he was forced to relocate to an internment camp with thousands of other japanese american families. this barden was renamed the oriental tea garden and it fell into a state of disrepair. in the 1950's, we had moved forward and the rec and park renamed it the japanese tea garden. the first concessionaire was jack -- who many here had the incredible opportunity to honor. and we're very incredibly pleased to be planning -- planting a cherry tree from the consul general. the cherry blossom tree planting has become a tradition that allows us to reflect on the legacy of exchanges and importance of relations between the united states and japan. this is where families, a century old pract oice of picnicking underneath a tree. we hope many families for more generations will have the opportunity here in this beautiful garden. my great pleasure to turner with a microphone to our 43rd mayor of san francisco, celebrating diversity and cultural harmony and he has been focused on the economic revitalization of our community. jobs, jobs, jobs. this mayor does not brag about it but he is about parks, parks, parks. it gives me great pleasure to introduce mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. if i may think you and your leadership and the commission. this is a very special place. history but it is cultural and one of the most beautiful places you can ever be proud to visit and also be the honor of. i am proud at our rec and park staff and the public-prey relationships because that is the only way to keep these beautiful institutions going. we have to have that imagination to get people involved to fund and support it. you have some of the most beautiful things you can see and touch and feel. i am happy to be here and i also want to celebrate because this is a moment, the first time we have been together here as well. at the garden. -- t garden -- tea garden. i want to welcome you here as well. and congratulate all of us for working so closely together and certainly our relationships are valuable. this is one of those reasons why not too many other consular general offices -- it is country to country and people to people. the council general and staff has offered yet another the supporting symbol of the relationship, the planting of cherry blossom trees throughout our city. we had awe have been celebratine cherry blossom festival. they are very peaceful, a relationship that we keep in mind always and we have done so for over 100 years. since the cherry blossoms are arrived as a gift to washington d.c. while we have gone for many years of that relationship, it is a requirement to know the san francisco enjoys 55 years of that relationship, many members of the district-city community here today to enjoy that. a member of the chamber of commerce is here to enjoy that as well. we have this relationship with you because we know san francisco's international status does not stop simply at having the offices here. we are out there working on everything from cultural exchanges, student exchanges, constant communication. more and more, examining opportunities to keep livelihood. both of our countries the more trade and communication to face the challenges that are facing us. it is my great pleasure to be here with you, counsel general, in the very beautiful garden we have here. also to know that it is in good hands with rec and park. at the same time, continue to bless it with our proclamation, our celebration of the u.s.- japan centennial on this wonderful occasion. if i may, i present to you, counsel general, are proclamation at the u.s.-japan cherry blossom centennial here in san francisco. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. we have a few more introductions to mate. our counsel general has had an experienced international career. i believe bangkok and london and seoul. no doubt san francisco is your favorite assignment. [laughter] it is not often the departments get to work so closely with the council general's office. they have done a great job planning this event with you and your staff. they have had a lot of fun doing it. there is a great report between our offices and our staff. it has been delightful. >> thank you. i did not know that you were such a good mp. i am pleased to be here. at the tea garden. i want to thank mayor lee. as always, for your support. also, creating a park. we are here for the planting. cherry trees are near and dear to the hearts of japanese people. japanese people curate cherry blossoms each year. there are festivals to stick together with family and friends. i am sure most of you have enjoyed the cherry blossom -- the cherry blossom festival the past weekends. we are planting one treat today here and two more. these trees symbolize, are part avail long legacy. also obama these trees -- also, these trees, since 1912, we have donated them. planting these trees all over the united states. thank you again for coming. i hope this tree, the cherry tree, will further blossom in the years to come. 6 trees we have planted in the square. and nine trees in golden gate park. still more in san francisco. more than 150 years of history of cultural exchange. this is really a great place. i cannot think of a more fitting location to plant a tree. thank you for coming and i hope you will enjoy it. [applause] >> one other short, special ceremony that i want to acknowledge. we're joined by our fire chief. we are joined by our director of public works. we are joined by our director of the department of the environment. human rights commissioners -- we are joined by the state department. i do nothing we have ever met. we do -- i do not think we have ever met. our human rights commissioner is here. and our school board is here. john from our city administrator's office. also, john from the park's alliance, who has been a great story of this site. -- steward of this site. we have a number of staff. the chief gardners of this area have played a significant role. and the supervisor is here. why don't you come up here and make a brief presentation? >> i do not want to take any more time, but in recognition of this dedication and your work, we will keep this mutual garden. i would like to present this commendation to the three of you. this is written in japanese. the council general's office extends its deepest respect for your achievements and contributing to mutual understanding. >> thank you. >> that is not what it says here. [laughter] >> thank you very much. [applause] this is for you. thank you. [applause] >> if you are with me, i wanted to ask for the golden gate park crew is very tight. we have gardners assigned to the concourse area. in the last couple of months, we lost one of our beloved gardner's who loved this place, incredibly special. i would ask that we take a brief moment of silence for carter. thank you. ok. let's plant the tree, shall we? i will do the heavy lifting. [laughter] >> turnaround and face up. i am sorry. >> good advice. >> 1, 2, 3. mr. mayor, mr. coughlin general, if you could -- mr. counsel general, if you could -- >> yay! [applause] >> i wanted to make sure that we recognize carol. thank you for your incredible stewardship of the gift shop and teahouse. thank you all for joining us. i encourage you to patrons are beautiful gift shop why you are here. otherwise, enjoy our incredible part. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. i'm the president of friends of mclaren park. it is one of the oldest neighborhood community park groups in san francisco. i give a lot of tours through the park. during those tours, a lot of the folks in the group will think of the park as very scary. it has a lot of hills, there's a lot of dense groves. once you get towards the center of the park you really lose your orientation. you are very much in a remote area. there are a lot of trees that shield your view from the urban setting. you would simply see different groves that gives you a sense of freedom, of being outdoors, not being burdened by the worries of city life. john mclaren had said that golden gate park was too far away. he proposed that we have a park in the south end of the city. the campaign slogan was, people need this open space. one of the things that had to open is there were a lot of people who did a homestead here, about 25 different families. their property had to be bought up. so it took from 1928 to 1957 to buy up all the parcels of land that ended up in this 317 acres. the park, as a general rule, is heavily used in the mornings and the evenings. one of the favorite places is up by the upper reservoir because dogs get to go swim. it's extremely popular. many fights in the city, as you know, about dogs in parks. we have 317 acres and god knows there's plenty of room for both of us. man and his best friend. early in the morning people before they go to work will walk their dogs or go on a jog themselves with their dogs. joggers love the park, there's 7 miles of hiking trails and there's off trail paths that hikers can take. all the recreational areas are heavily used on weekends. we have the group picnic area which should accommodate 200 people, tennis courts are full. it also has 3 playground areas. the ampitheater was built in 1972. it was the home of the first blues festival. given the fact that jerry garcia used to play in this park, he was from this neighborhood, everybody knows his reputation. we thought what a great thing it would be to have an ampitheater named after jerry garcia. that is a name that has panache. it brings people from all over the bay area to the ampitheater. the calls that come in, we'd like to do a concert at the jerry garcia ampitheater and we do everything we can to accommodate them and help them because it gets people into the park. people like a lot of color and that's what they call a park. other people don't. you have to try to reconcile all those different points of view. what should a park look like and what should it have? should it be manicured, should it be nice little cobblestones around all of the paths and like that. the biggest objective of course is getting people into the park to appreciate open space. whatever that's going to take to make them happy, to get them there, that's the main goal. if it takes a planter with flowers and stuff like that, fine. you know, so what? people need to get away from that urban rush and noise and this is a perfect place to do it. feedback is always amazement. they don't believe that it's in san francisco. we have visitors who will say, i never knew this was here and i'm a native san franciscoan. they wonder how long it's been here. when i tell them next year we'll get to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the park,k,

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