>> thank you so much for the inspiration, words of wisdom, and the help that you will share the next few days. i am the executive director of the san francisco bicycle coalition. we're thrilled to be cosponsoring this event. for your support, enthusiasm, commitment, bringing fantastic talents. we will work hard in the next few days. huge thanks to the political

family at the support. this would be an exercise in vision and dreaming. if it weren't for the fact that myself and so many others have the faith that we will actually produce results in the next few days, this will not just be draining envisioning. we will take many, maybe all of your ideas and to move forward. because we have such tremendous political support. i want to recognize and the mayor in the last 67 months of working with him, i can't tell you the difference. we're thrilled to have such a partner. i want to thank you for the support and enthusiasm. i want to thank you from the police department, the port, and we really have the commitment we needed to move forward. that is why i am very optimistic. i want to say thank you to the

teams that put this together. big thanks for jennifer with the dutch consulate. i was fortunate to spend eight months in the netherlands, and we got to test ride the thing that many of you have been working on for some many years. we have this idea, a belief that san francisco can be a great bicycling city, internationally recognized. sometimes that vision gets challenged and that belief and waver a bit, i will be honest wit. my time in amsterdam, i could

test that vision. is if all i make it out to be when i talk to folks. what i saw and what i experienced let me feeling without a doubt that you have succeeded in a way that is amazingly admirable, and in a way that we should be striving for here in san francisco. and most importantly, that i know we can reach. that was my biggest take away. there is a wonderful presentation of all of the elements, many of the elements they are using to make the netherlands said world-renowned bicycling environment. i saw that san francisco has some many of these elements already in place. we are so far down the line, what we need is to bring it together. what i saw were similarities, and it was impressive to learn the meeting with dutch planners

and local city officials that amsterdam and san francisco -- i will focus on amsterdam because that is where i spent most of my time, but these cities are very similar. similar populations, similar population densities. they are laid out very similar in terms of residential density. we're centers for strong regional economies, similar in economic drivers. tourism is number one. viking is part of their tourism. also big finance, creative technology, that as part of the economic driver. also big similarities in terms of cultural or political persuasions. we are a population that values environmental sustainability. it values and social equity.

we are cities that understand the benefit of the greater good , and are places where sometimes we are out lyras for the rest of our country. there are places that can be models for the rest of our country. in our cities, i can't talk about it without addressing the flat this issue. as flat as amsterdam is, when you are riding on a really heavy by with no barriers over countless little bridges, he really start to feel that on your knees. it is not as flat as i expected. of what we have going for us, we have years. thank you to the bike makers in the room. we also have great public transit to accommodate bicycles. we also have great routes to get us around the hills.

as we showed our dutch friends, most of us know how to get around those hills. the weather is another major difference. this one we have going in our favor. they do not slow down with the snow. with howard gorges temperate climate, we are several steps ahead of the netherlands and where we can go when bicycling. what i learned most of all is what i think many of us already know. when you build it, they come. when the government has done, what the community has done is invested in great bikeways. when you create a dedicated to save space, this man and his kids ride. this woman and her dog variety. this man and his daughters ride. this man and his daughter ride. there is one on the back, you can barely see her foot sticking

out. it was difficult to not get photos of multiple children on bikes. three people with kids loaded on the bikes. grandparents picking their kids up from school, their grand kids from school. this is a typical traffic jam outside of the school. we struggle with traffic congestion in our city, this was the traffic jam outside of a local amsterdam school. they have made investments, they have seen the fruits of that labor payoffs. again, even in the snow, even when the little hills were a little bit slippery, they pushed that have the bike up the hill. because they made this the easiest way to get around, the most convenient way to get around. in the beginning of my stay, i

started talking to folks, why you bicycle? they look at me with these crazy blank faces as if i had asked, why do you put shoes on in the morning? whitey you eat? literally, there was no answer because, of course they bicycle. just like we get up in the morning in eat cereal. it wasn't a political choice for a social choice, it was the easiest way for most people. not everyone, but for most people that i talked to. you saw the numbers she shared, but it has not always been this way. the biggest lessons, number one, it is true that when you build it, they will come. it is not just a committed person like me. it is all the families, the children, the kid riding alone,

the teenagers. i was impressed with the number of teenage girls riding alone, the independents. the kids riding the school or with their parents. the number of senior citizens, you are seeing children and senior citizens in a way that i don't see them. they are here, but they are out in the community, interacting more because they are more welcome. they are able to access more in the city. it wasn't always this way. the great history that i learned, after world war two, the netherlands craft backwards and started to emphasize the car as many of the communities did and did that at the expense of bicycling and walking. a little secret part of me was really happy to learn this. now for your harm, but it made me feel better that it hadn't

always been this way, because when those of us that fixate on these things think about the netherlands, denmark, all of these great countries, it is in their blood, they somehow mixed into the heavier and the bread and this way of life, this spirit must be in their blood. we can never learn this because we are from america and we weren't raised that way. i learned it is wrong. they have invested in the last 30 or 40 years. this was a great picture. the very center of the city. i believe this is the latest 60's. it is a seventeenth century old way house. this is where the ships would come in and check their goods before they went out to sell them. over the years, it began a public gathering square, public

market, i believe there were be heading is there, all sorts of grand things in the public square. after world war two, in these days of the automobile encroaching and pedestrian amenities, it became a parking lot. right outside this beautiful building, a very central and community oriented face. this was, at the time, the highest of good that the government sought. i was shocked to find this photo. it made me happy inside because i saw how they could change. all of that area that was back 40 or 50 years ago is now public space. every day, there is a public market, people are walking, biking, shops are thriving. it is one of the most central places for tourists and locals alike.

it is unrecognizable from this. this is the museum in the back, a beautiful granite building, one of the most beautiful museums and the world. at a very wide street running and write down the middle of that grassy plain. it went right through the middle of the museum, there is a big archway. under the archway, cars drove through. it is unimaginable to me to think that. the side of a road, it is grassy. this is where people picnic, play soccer, football, throw a frisbee. you can just barely see the archway, that as a bike way. it is a way for people to connect through neighborhoods throughout the city. this was the choice up until the 1970's. the place that we really look at as a model of bicycling was not

very much so just 40 years ago. they have made choices, i am happy that you referenced in the local business aspect, because i think it is something that we can learn a lot from. the value that more people bicycling brings the business in san francisco. as we think about how san francisco can stay, a regional focus of the bay area, how we can keep jobs, businesses large and small, how we grow with 100,000 new residents, we will need to think differently. i am glad for the mayor to be unleashing secrets. i think the secrets can be found in the other cities doing it right. we need to look beyond our own city borders at national borders. this used to be a regular street for cars and was made a priority streak. you can see the silver in the

front, those are lower at times when needed for deliveries. it is primarily a biking and walking the streets. these are the busiest streets in the city. if you go to the streets with lots of car traffic, those areas are just popular. they don't seem as busy or successful. these are the streets that are thriving. whether they are doing it just with paint, some of them are simply paint, or if you are doing it with full separation, that is the way that we need to be moving on many of our streets. if we are to reach the 80-year- old, the grandparents, will need this kind of infrastructure. this is our goal. when these folks are not making

a conscious choice. it is just about what is the best way to get the little guy to preschool. it is mindboggling at how the verse the number of users were. you don't have an image of bicyclist. you have an image of people, and sometimes they ride a bike. i hope we will learn a lot from that and steal it, but they are not shy about their love of bicycling. this is the 10,000 by a station in front of the central station and in the center of amsterdam. you see the amsterdam of the viking posters all over the city. very proud of the strong black culture.

-- bike culture. and how increasingly proud we are of the bike culture that we are building. hopefully, we saw it yesterday in chinatown and north beach. we saw it in a western addition area. i think it reference a 60% increase in the last four years in the number of bicycle trips. most of them are saying i want to bike more. there's our opportunity. there's where we can grow and we can learn. some folks are coming out for special events like sunday streets. more and more are riding every day. more and more are riding because we're making it easier and more convenient and more comfortable for them to ride. i want to thank the city family that helped deliver the separated green on market street. we've seen huge increases here on market street and we know

this is what it will take. when we build it, they will come. we know we need to start at a younger and younger age. i'm proud of the safe roots program we're part of along with the city. we know that the appetite for bike suggest there when we're young. how do we cultivate that and keep it going and how do we make sure that our traffic jams in the future are bike parking log jams. we know we need to invest. the important bike routes along oak and fell streets, a key route from the bay to the beach, connecting a complete crosstown bike route so folks ages 8 to 80 will feel safe, comfortable, welcome riding. and it was thrilling to ride with the mayor a few months ago on oak street and as soon as we finished that few blocks on oak street he turned and said, why don't we have a bikeway there? it's a great idea. fantastic. let's work together for this. similarly, market street, we

have huge opportunities as market street is going to be repaved and we look forward to working with the city agencies to make sure we take the opportunity to put it back better. we know it can be done. we have such opportunity to put it back better. our vision at the bicycle coalition, and we shared this with many of you, is to help the city meet its official goal. the mayor referenced 20% of all trips made by bicycle by 2020 to meet climate change goals, public health goals, our liveability goals and economic viability goals. we cannot accommodate 100,000 more residents the same way we've been doing business. we've got to change and think differently and our hope for that is to have your help in building out 100 miles of bikeways by 2020. we're not asking the dutch to help us with all 100 miles. i think we've given you three or five miles or so. we will take it, we will take the five miles. and this is why we're doing it.

in conclusion, the reason i know that we can do what the netherlands has done, perhaps even better, is we have the same kind of investment. we know we're doing it for the next generation. we know that we need to do these things to make sure we're leaving san francisco a better place than how we've found it. i want to say we have all the elements in place -- the political support, the city leadership, the public enthusiasm has never been greater. the economic need has never been greater, whether it be a need to drive tourism greater in our city or a need to accommodate the population growth. we have the urgency in front of us, as well. i will end by saying i am thrilled and proud that san francisco is such a good bicycling city. we can be a great bicycling city. we look forward to your help. i want to invite everyone here, please come and invite friends to tomorrow night's closing ceremony. as hille mentioned, we're now going to lock these good folks

in a room for two days to help us come up with exciting and doable, that's important, implementable plans for mid market street, for polk street and the wiggle route through the lower haight. they'll be coming back miraculously tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. to share their design ideas with all of us. this is open to the public. 6:00 p.m. tomorrow night at the war memorial building in the green room just across the street, across van ness avenue. please come, and you will learn what the dutch experts and what our local experts and stakeholders think we need to make san francisco a truly great bicycling city, which i am sure we can do. thank you so much for coming today. we appreciate your enthusiasm and hope to see you tomorrow night. [applause]

>> we are going to start today first talking about the data and then after that, we want to actually put some faces behind the data, so we will hear from some of our district leaders as

well as a school principal and a student here at washington high school. we will try to make it sink, and we will stick around at the end to answer questions, of course -- we will try to make it sink -- we will try to make it succinct. >> thank you so much, and welcome to our press conference. i have the opportunity to present these wonderful results. we see an upward trend for this year. the students were tested in the month of may. as you can see, they have moved in english language from 47.5% to 57.4%, so you do see a double-digit increase from 2006

to 2011 in an english-language arts. we have seen over these years a 10% -- approximately 10% -- increase. come on, let's hear it for san francisco. [applause] and our spectacular students, outstanding teachers, and greek leaders. let's move on to mathematics. the mathematics test is given from grades two to seven, and after that, they start taking algebra, geometry, algebra ii. you see that the scores have gone from 56.6% to 66%. again, an upward trend every single year. again, let's hear the joy.

[applause] ok, when we look at other content areas like science and social science, we do see similar patterns. especially in science, both at the middle school and elementary school -- grade five and a grade 8 -- you see almost 60% of the students performing at advanced. in social science, both at the middle and high school levels, you see the students performing at proficient or advanced, more than 50% of them. ok? those are the other content area scores. the other thing the district has been charged with, and it is always focusing itself around, is narrowing the achievement gap. here are the results for our targeted students. we say we are narrowing the achievement gap if the student groups as a whole showed greater

improvement than even the district. ok? so, they have to show greater improvement than even the district. this year, for the third year in a row, i am proud to announce that the african-american students in english language arts and the latino students in math and samoan students in both are narrowing the achievement gap. come on, let's hear it. [applause] ok, so those were some of the results you have seen charted in here. if you picked up the press release, some of our school- level successes are also included in there, so i would ask you to look at those. as compared to the state, we are higher than the state in ela and math. we look at the results for our program students as well, both english language learners and

math, and we saw similar success is where they are going -- growing at a great rate. last were our superintendent zone schools in both the mission and the bayview. successes as well, and i think that deserves a mentioned. with that, i will turn it over. >> thank you. she brings all the good news. first, i wanted to recognize a few of our board members who are here. emily, grace, joe, and dennis, one of our partners, president of the teachers association. welcome. this is really exciting, not only because it is the first day of school -- you always feel like a kindergartner all over again because you get a chance to start over again -- and

running around our schools makes you realize how lucky we are to have such a dynamic, great teachers that are doing a fabulous job -- to have such a dynamic, great teachers that are doing a fabulous job -- to have such dynamic, great teachers. you are wondering how we can do all this when in reality, if you look at our funding, it would be a steeper decline in terms of how much money we get, and yet, we are improving student achievement. especially in a school like this that took it upon themselves. the staff here -- they had some assistance by different groups. what is the name of the group that helped you guys quite a bit? yes, national urban alliance actually stepped up to do a lot of training. it makes people realize that if we really do want to close the achievement gap, it will not

happen by accident. nothing happens by accident. we have to be strategic and ask ourselves what we can do better. if we cannot do better, we ought to get out of the way and let somebody else do the job. the reality is teachers here in san francisco, principals, staff can do it better. i am really proud when we took on a strategic plan that we adopted in 2008, we said that we would make a priority to have african-americans, latinos, and pacific islanders to show some growth. unfortunately, they have always kind of been at the lowest levels, and that has been unacceptable to the board and, i think, to our community. everybody stepped up and said that it was a social justice issue, and modern-day apartheid, having an achievement gap. who is affected by it? the neediest people in our city.

we made a point, and every school convened with their staff and community and say -- and said, "what can we do about this? this is a civil rights issue. what difference can we actually make?" everyone got together and started thinking differently. we noticed in some of the schools, some of the kids did not have access to things that ought to have access to. we started thinking about what an equity-centered school will look like. what you see is the dreams and aspirations of a great community like san francisco with the school board, the teachers' union -- everybody, administrators, classified workers saying this is a civil rights issue and our children deserve a better education. and they are doing it. that is a tribute to the folks out there.