this type of safe routes to schools in 213 schools all over san francisco. we're working hard to change all of the signs out and when the signs get changed, we're going to make sure everybody knows about it so our public health department and thanks to anna and her great work, she is helping to coordinate the education around the schools with the school districts and we're going to make sure of the education and then we have to have enforcement because there are going to be so many individuals that don't pay attention. our police department is going to be out there and they're going to educate first and remind people. when they see somebody exseeding the speed that isn't paying attention, guess what the police have to do? they have to issue a ticket. the ticket will be expensive but they're going to make sure people are educated around how to slow down when they see kids around schools. so we're doing everything we can

to make sure our schools are safe. and when you have safe schools and safe routes, then we're going to have healthier kids. and i saw -- did everybody get their banana? that's what anita tells me my wife says i have to have a banana every day. that will keep me healthy. but i also think having safe routes to schools will keep everybody's health. i want to thank everyone working together, collaborating. the theme is collaboration. everybody working together to make sure we have safe routes. i want it thank all of the parents for joining us today. the best schools are the ones that are involving our parents. i want to thank you for doing that and having join us and all of our agencies here to keep our schools safe. thank you very much.

[speaking spanish] >> i don't want to forget our great rec and park director and he's the one who let us exercise here this morning on the mayor says, thank you very much for waking us up today and keeping us healthy, rec and park! [applause] and here's victor. >> buenos dias. [speaking spanish]

>> he loves coming to school and walking to school with his son and daughter. >> thank you supervisor to give a special recommendation for marshall elementary. >> thank you, anna. >> ba went dios. -- buenos dias. i feel lucky to be here this morning with marshall elementary school. previous for being able to represent you for the city of san francisco, i used to also represent marshall elementary

school on the school boards with our president mendoza. and marshall elementary has always been one of my favorite schools in our city. thank you for welcoming me here today. we're also very lucky because today is international walk-to-school today. all of the schools in the city, marshall, got our mayor, director of park and rec, director of muni and m.t.a. and president of the school board along with the entire community here today. another reason why marshall is special is because this neighborhood around marshall school -- marshall elementary is also going to be the first test site of the home program that will work to make all of the streets and alleyways along marshall elementary school safer for you to walk to. so i'm really excited about that. last night in our board meeting to be voted on this roughly

around 9:00 p.m. last night. all 11 board of supervisors voted to make today officially october 5, 2011, walk-to-school today for the city and county of san francisco. and i'm going to quickly read accommodation, where as hundreds of children to be safe each year nationally by taking steps to make safety a priority. driving students to school by private vehicles worsens traffic, and that's due to safety and climate change. and protect children from health and environmental risk. shape-up san francisco, who's here today, including department of public health, san francisco municipal transportation agency, presidio ymca, san francisco bike coalition, have secured funding to implement stay safe at school and has declared october 5th as walk to school day for the city and county of san francisco. thank you to all of the family

members and parents and, of course, teachers and principal for making our school so great. thank you for all of the advocates that put us at city hall for working on making streets safer for you. thank you. [applause] next up, we have the director of m.t.a. ed rifkin. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. our job at the m.t.a. since we're the transportation agency for the city and it's our job to make sure that everybody can get around san francisco and do so safely. whether you're riding muni, whether you're in a car, whether you're in a cab, whether you're on your bike or whether you're walking, we want you to be able to be safe. particularly we want you to be safe to get to school.

the last thing we want parents and teachers having to worry about is getting you to school. we want you to be focused on learning and on developing your skills and on being safe and healthy. as mayor and supervisor kim mentioned, we're doing things such as lowering speed limit, calming the streets, doing everything we can do working with our partners and the police department, pauble health department, rec and park and school district to make it so you can all get to school safely. when i saw all of those hands still up, when you were asked how many of you walk to school, it warmed my heart. this is a model of a neighborhood school in san francisco. we want more schools like marshall where people, where parents and students feel safe to walk to school. congratulations on the great job you're doing here at marshall. we want to take that replicated step in the city. thank you very much and happy walk to school day. [applause]

>> next, we have -- he's been working to help make your streets safer. >> buenos deuse! -- dios. thank you very much for being here today. i'm with walk san francisco. we work to make it more safe and more fun to walk it school. not just today but every day. so i hope this is the start of a walking year for all of you. so i just want to say thank you so much for working hard on the 15-mile-an-hour speed limit around marshall and all throughout the city. we're so excited to have that moving forward. thank you so much mayor lee, supervisor kim. for all of your support making the street safer to walk on and now i believe we have a certificate from the mayor from marshall.

>> gracias. >> all right. well, we are so happy, so happy to establish a safe zone around marshall school and we are also very happy to get the full cooperation of the school principal and everybody involved with our schools. we're so happy we're going to give a big proclamation at marshall elementary school. so principal avalos, please come up and receive the city's joint collaborative certificate of honor presented to marshall elementary school on this day october 5th, 2011. thank you very much. it's such a great school! [applause] >> check is in the mail! >> check's in the mail! thank you. are we ready?

>> thank you, everybody, for walking. and buenos dias, marshall. thank you, everybody!

$40,000 of this will go to 20 existing businesses. it's this is like a dragon house. -- businesses like dragon house. [applause] others that have been identified. i want to thank ellen and debt been played -- that the little. that is right. al harris and others that have worked in the exocet ashcelsiorn group for so long so that we can make a difference. we want these grievance to make a ground level difference. that is why paying attention to

everyone here. it is a struggle of a lot of our commercial corridors right now, so that is why the work we have been doing in mid-market, the experience we are bringing out there with the arts programs and business loans we want to do right here to help out as well. i also want to thank mary and flemings from family connections. thank you for being here. -- maryann flemings. i also want to thank beth rubenstein from out of sight. thank you. you are in our collaboration. you also know as well as we do before we do anything, we have to work with existing business in people already out here. that is why you have been such an instrumental part, because if we do things right it is because we listen first. they did not want us here to invest $50,000 in one shop that

may not make a difference. we spread that out to everybody. everybody feels the city is paying attention. i think that is why we're doing it well here. i also want to think marcihank . the corporations out here guide us as to what we can do better. i know you've been out here with the community challenge grant doing all of the small business improvement stuff. we're just the beginning. $40,000 in the grants and for the businesses will help go along way. we're making our business mark with llamas cafmama's cafe. they have been successful in mid-market on clemens. and irving streets and all around. when you create these park?

klets people come out and use the sidewalk and a more productive way. using our sidewalks in the most creative way, that is how we get more positive attention on to these areas. i am gl's cafe create a more exciting sidewalk in these areas. these are things we can do in all of our commercial corridors so the businesses cannot only sustain themselves, they can create local jobs to sustain all of our neighborhoods, and that is how we are creating my vision for the rest of the city. we have to work to revitalize every part of our neighborhood. that is how we work together, and i am one to continue doing that and bringing out the expertise we have at city hall. get them out to neighborhood out here. we will walk these corridors with each of the elected

officials so they know we're working together, and we're going to keep city hall in communicating with every one of our neighbors. thank you very much. amy, think you for your great work out here, and thank you for everyone joining us together. -- thank you for your great work out here. >> thank you. gardner speaker iour next speaka gilete. it is through the mayor's office, the cities targeted effort to improve commercial districts, particularly in this more struggling area. the idea of the door front cleaning project, the beautification project is really just additional go on a lot of projects that have been done over the years, really exciting ones, including the good will

tower, which you can see it. that was restoration that was a partnership between our office and the excelsior action group. >> hi, i am a member of excelsior active group's steering committee, co-chaired fort excelsior beautification. of the excelsior action group mission is to revitalize excelsior corridor. these funds, which support the local merchants, will go along way to enhancing the vitality and appearance of the excelsior corridor. we welcome the opportunity to partner with local merchants on behalf of the excelsior. with those of you -- for those of you not familiar, we are a community action group that was founded in 2002. one event we sponsor each year is that the excelsior music and arts festival.

we celebrated our ninth anniversary last sunday, and we had a great festival. it was a great community event that celebrated diversity through music, art, and food. excelsior action groups to support local merchants. this past year excelsior action group completed 10 murals, partnering with local merchants and artists that were installed with lighting. it does not only beautified the corridor, but also serve to make it safe at night. we are also engaged in a community process to recondition the overpass near roll over 2mu. excelsior action group will continue to work together with our community to identify ways we can support local merchants, attract new businesses coming in beautify the corridor.

we know this funding will help leverage other much-needed resources and support for the excelsior. we would also like to thinake this opportunity to thank supervisor avalos. we would be remiss in not acknowledging our all outgoing director, ellen googvenele. , who has demonstrated a real investment in making sure the project led by excelsior action group has the input of excelsior residence. we look forward to partnering with out of sight on the project, and we know this public space will benefit all. i would like to take this opportunity to introduce the new manager of excelsior action group, nicole. [applause]

nicole is a san francisco native and a native of the excelsior district. she graduated from ucla with a degree in international development and in our mental systems. she has worked with multiple bay area's small businesses on environmental business development, as well as construction management. her dedication to the community where she grew up will be the heart of her upcoming effort with the excelsior action group, and thank you so very much. [laughter] [applause] [applause] >> next, we would hear from the owner of the business hosted the event, jong lo. >> hello, everyone. first of all, thank you to everyone for showing up. thank you for the mayor being here. it kills your action group are fantastic. dragon house has been in san francisco for over 15 years. we've been located in excelsior

my fourth year. anall of these nice gardens basically put down by the excelsior action group. they are awesome. i am hoping to see them keeping the funding from the city, keep doing great things for the neighborhood. all the neighborhood people will keep the teenagers coming down here and keeping them out of the street, keeping them say. for the past four years i have seen this neighborhood changing dramatically. people are nicer. nighttime is much safer, and is much greener on every corner. i would like to see the excelsior action group doing the the great work and keep being funded. thank you for coming down every day. thank you. [applause] >> we have one more speaker from

mama art cafe. the number one thing people said many years ago was we need a gathering place, at cafe, a place that people really want to come. it has become more and more of an opportunity for people to gather, and i think the parklet will really add to that. [applause] >> i have to tell you i am very nervous because the mayor is next to me, and i would like to tell you i am very proud to be the owner of the mama art cafe. i would also like to say thank you to beth for making the youth so eager to work to create the parklet. i also would like to say thank you to all of the businesses --

most of them i know. i really feel inspired to be part of the community of its ulcer. and i am very proud to continue to create businesses. i would also like to say my mother is not here right now, because she is making the best coffee, and i really hope all of you come and see her, because she is a beautiful smile and shake it tugs for free. thank you so much. [applause] >> i think that wraps up our speakers. i think that there is time to walk down to the cafe, if that is okay? that has been proposed. in

>> the san francisco cons tri of flowers in golden gate park is now showing a new exhibit that changes the way we see the

plants around us. amy stewart's best-selling book, "wicked plants" is the inspiration behind the new exhibit that takes us to the dark side of the plant world. >> i am amy stewart. i am the arthur of "wicked plants," the weeds that killed lincoln's mother and other botanical atrocities. with the screens fly trap, that is kind of where everybody went initially, you mean like that? i kind of thought, well, all it does is eat up bugs. that is not very wicked. so what? by wicked, what i mean is that they are poisonous, dangerous, deadly or immoral or maybe illegal or offensive or awful in some way. i am in the profession of going around and interviewing botanists, horticulturalists and plant scientists. they all seem to have some

little plant tucked away in the corner of a greenhouse that maybe they weren't supposed to have. i got interested in this idea that maybe there was a dark side to plants. >> the white snake root. people who consumed milk or meat from a cow that fed on white snake root faced severe pain. milk sickness, as it was culled, resulted in vomiting, tremors, delirium and death. one of the most famous victims of milk sickness was nancy hangs lincoln. she died at the age of 34, leaving behind 9-year-old abraham lincoln. he helped build his mother's casket by carving the woodallen petition douche the wooden

petition himself. >> we transformed the gallery to and eerie victorian garden. my name is lowe hodges, and i am the director of operations and exhibitions at the conls tore of -- cons tore of flowers. we decided it needed context. so we needed a house or a building. the story behind the couple in the window, you can see his wife has just served him a glass of wine, and he is slumped over the table as the poison takes affect. a neat little factold dominion about that house is actually built out of three panels from old james bond movie. we wanted people to feel like i am not supposed to be in this room. this is the one that is supposed to be barred off and locked up.

>> the ole andersonner -- oleander. this popular shrub is popular in warm climates. it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths. children are at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. a southern california woman tried to collect on her husband's life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. she is now one of 15 women on california's death rowan the only one who attempted to murder with a plant. >> people who may haven't been to their cons tore or been to -- do serve tore or their botanical garden, it gives them a reason to come back. you think let's go and look at the pretty flowers.