>> good morning and thank you all for coming out today. it is a beautiful sunny friday in san francisco. we are very excited to be here to talk about a big part of san francisco, the public rights of way of our city. 25% of san francisco is taken up by the public right-of-way. when they were designed many years ago there was a distant -- different design sensibility in place that was about moving cars through the public rights of way rather than designing them for people to be in. fortunately, that is changing,

and that is changing a lot to because of the people behind me. we have a different sensibility now embodied in the better streets plan, the budget plan, and many of the things in the city's general plan that is changing how we think about the public right-of-way and our city. it is manifesting itself in a lot of different ways, through streetscape improvements, we are changing the look and feel of our streets, we are turning parking spaces into parklets, we are opening up our streets and a lot of different ways, one of the most exciting of which is sunday streets, which is what we're here to talk about. sunday streets exists because of the leadership and partnership of the folks behind us and the person of the front of the line, facilitating that leadership and that partnership is a guy that knows the streets of san francisco better than just about anyone else, going back to his

days as our public works director. he is now our mayor, edwin lee. [applause] >> thank you, everyone, for coming today. we are here to make one big announcement. we are not doing the kentucky derby on mission street this weekend. we are doing sunday streets. it is a great pilot program for the summer. for the next four months, the first sunday of each month will be testing it out all of mission street, testing out how it is weekend utilize the successful event to incur more participation and to test out how we can do it on a more regular basis. i want to thank the partners that have been working closely together, at the mta, bicycle coalition, various departments,

public works, others, and the private sector. i wanted to give special thanks to bank of america. they have allowed us to think creatively in helping to fund this as a pilot program, to test out the ability to do this more regularly. i also want to thank the bank, along with wells fargo, for participating not only in this, but also for our summer jobs program. they stepped up with the chamber of commerce, a number of other tech companies, to create 5000 jobs. that is a huge complement to what we are doing with sunday streets. as we mentioned, sunday streets is an invitation to use our streets differently, to represent the kinds of things that we can do to have been even -- even healthier society. i am excited to get out there. i know one of our speakers will get me on roller skates soon. i do not know what the interest

levels in our city are, but one of these days, i will have enough energy to do that. i also want to thank supervisor campos, the other supervisors for supporting this. supervisor campos will be our host for all of the sunday streets this summer. we are not only walking our commercial corridors, but even as yesterday, we are hoping to pick them up as well. i know that some of the store fronts that were hurt by the vandalism recently worked quickly restoring, getting volunteers, working with our community, because they were excited to recover quickly and they were also excited to welcome not only city representation, but their own neighbors, coming together to help out to restore their effort. they are excited about this, we are excited about it, and i think we are going to have great

success with all the different partners that we have, and certainly, mta is going to look at all the data and make sure we can do this better. i am also proud to make sure that all other communities get the great benefit of sunday streets. as you know, last year, we experimented with getting sunday streets out to chinatown and the north beach. we are looking forward to a ping-pong tournament and will bring people out. thank you for this wonderful opportunity, thank you to bank of america for helping us lead this effort. [applause] >> thank you. it is about leadership, and sunday streets is a city-wide program, but sunday streets really realizes it's full potential when it is in the mission. while we love every event that happens across the city, the

mission really brings the most energy. it is for that region -- reason that we are increasing the frequency of these events starting this sunday and for each of the success of three months we will have the events there. the mission district happens to be represented by a supervisor who is not just representing his district, but has come to the fore in terms of transportation in the city. i am ed reiskin, the transportation director here. it is great to have that leadership, in his role as the chair of the transportation authority board, and also at the regional table with the mtc. it is with great pleasure that i welcome the representative from the mission district, supervisor david campos. [applause] >> >> thank you for the work you are doing to make sure we have the best transit system we can

have. i want to echo my gratitude to all the partners, mta, city agencies, dpw, the bicycle coalition, the sunday street staff that has a unique ability to work closely with the diverse communities we have. when it sunday streets started, there was apprehension in some neighborhoods. we felt that in the mission i want to thank the residents and merchants gave this project time to unfold. you have seen a neighborhood has come together to embrace this project. i do think the mission is a perfect place to expand this concept. we are excited we will have this

for the next three months. it is appropriate we are beginning the expanded pilot on the heels of cinco de mayo. open space is important in san francisco and the mission. you have the ability for diverse communities to gather and share their background, history, culture, food, and music. you can see we have so much to be proud of. the mayor mentioned we have an unfortunate incident happened in the mission. we had a peaceful demonstration infiltrated by people who proceeded to engage in vandalism. that is unacceptable in san francisco. i speak as someone who recognizes the importance of

making changes in the system. you do not change the system by hurting the people you are trying to help. small businesses hurt by the vandalism are trying to stay afloat. i spoke to a woman who had been laid off. her tires had been punctured. you have this unemployed woman who had to spend hundreds of dollars to replace tires. in the mission, when something negative happens people come together. it is appropriate we're doing the expanded program because it shows we have a community that is united and unified. i am so proud to be a representative of a community that is so diverse. it is quintessential san francisco. i hope to see all of you out there on sunday and for the next three months. i look forward to continuing to work with you.

thank you for making sure this happens in the mission. it is the appropriate place for the expanded program to take place. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor campus -- campos. this has been in the making for a while. one of the early supporters of sunday streets is now on the mta board as one of my bosses and making sure the agency does what it needs to do in working with the partners is the vice chair of our board of directors, cheryl brinker. [applause] >> thank you for being here. i was thinking back to five years ago when we were riding around the city on our bicycles trying to get support for this. we are so lucky we have two mayors in a row better strong

supporters of open space for the people. mayor knew some -- mayor newsom and mayor le a been very supportive. we would not be here without their hard work, the supporters, and the sponsors. it is a fabulous program. i look forward to going forward and continuing. when we were talking about the vision for sunday streets five years ago, one of the initial thoughts was bringing the part to the people. we wanted a mother with children to be able to go out to play on the streets about not having to worry about get to golden gate or another park to play. now we are seeing that. this is the realization of everything we were looking forward to. thank you all for your support. thank you for all of the hard work that has gotten us here.

>> thank you, director brinkman. a lot of effort and energy is required. it also takes money. while we see huge returns on the investment for the city and neighborhood, somebody needs to step up and put the money for word. we are pleased to have as our presenting sponsor for 2012 the bank of america. they have been a great partner. we are excited to have them on board recognizing the importance of this for the city's economy. i want to ask the senior vice president and a small banking manager to come up and say a few words. [applause] >> first, i want to say thank you for being here, mayor lee, thank you for the hard work and the team that helped to organize it. it is such a wonderful event. bank of america is truly excited

and proud to be sponsoring sunday streets. mayor lee indicated how important this event is for him. it is important to us as well. we believe this event will not only help the local economy by stimulating neighborhood business, it will also help make this beautiful city of san francisco even more vibrant. it will attract more tourists and more neighborhood businesses. we believe it will bring us even closer together. we will make our city more enjoyable to local communities and attract visitors and enhance the experience of fabulous san francisco. we are delighted and proud and thrilled to be asked to participate and contribute.

thank you for all of your hard work. we will see you there. [applause] >> it is a broad array of corporate partners we have. bank of america is our presenting sponsor. i also want to acknowledge our sponsors for the season. that includes at&t, the air quality district, blue shield, united health care workers, kaiser permanente day, shape up san francisco, and clear channel radio. let's give them all a big hand for stepping up to support us. [applause] anybody who has been to one knows that there is one person who is the driver to make this happen. if you are out at sunday streets, you will see that bicycle up and down the streets.

this is the person on the ground that makes these things happen. she is the mother or queen of sunday streets. susan king. [applause] >> thank you for embarrassingly. i appreciate it. i am humbled -- thank you for embarrassing me. i appreciate it. i am humbled by the support of the community and how quickly people have embraced it. it is a team effort. i am a team player. i am the man behind the curtain. we can be whatever we want to be for a day. i really wanted to acknowledge some of our people. i would be remiss not to point out our fabulous and hard- working staff people beth and bo. [applause]

they are the reason we're able to get the various pieces moving. i wanted to talk about our other partners, financial supporters, and city agencies that bring their a game out every sunday. we have now had 28 of these events since august of 2008. the department of public works for whom both badly and both . did the department of public works whom both ed lee and ed risken headed up. the san francisco examiner, there is the map in the program guide. they have been doing that for the last two years giving as a free full-page ad. i see people carrying it around. i know people look for it.

our bicycle programmers, sports basement the city's official bike vendor brings out free bicycles for people to use. i do think people loose -- who have an opportunity to ride are more likely to stay active and keep bicycling. we will highlight some of the benefits. the professor has been a driving force behind capturing what sunday streets is. the san francisco bicycle coalition, the outdoor roller board association, the godfather of skates who invented recreational asphalt, happy hound pet massage, dance connection, are some of our

regulars. who might predicting? a couple of community sponsors. buy rite markets, lennar, and the university of southern california's san francisco have also provided resources and funding to keep the program going. thank you. [applause] >> you can see it takes a village to make these things happen. part of that village is a partner. presents the change in design sensibility i spoke of. we're thinking of our public rights of way for not just one mode of travel. we're redesigning them for pedestrians and bicycles. bicycles are a big part of sunday streets. you will always see the orange bicycle down there. that is written by the leader of

cycling, the executive director. >> thank you. happy fifth anniversary, the streets. supervisor, you talked about the hesitancy in the beginning. there is no hesitancy today. you can see the full family of city hall here. i want to thank the community leaders who have fully embraced sunday streets and advanced it. they have made it much bigger and richer in the neighborhood. i live in mission. it is exciting to hear people say i have never been to lower 24th. you hear this every time. we love the physical activity and open space. we love the recreation. one thing i love most is inviting people into different neighborhoods they may have never experienced.

time and time again, we hear people say i went to third street for the first time. we hear this on lower 24th and parts of the tenderloin. people come and experience different parts of the city. that is a success story. i was at the embarcadero last month. an older gentleman pulled up with a million questions about sunday streets. i describe it. he was from out of town. i asked if he just happened upon sunday streets. he said he came into town last week for a conference and wanted to try it so he extended his trip two days. he is stuck around for the whole weekend. i assume he is paying hotel rates and tax, spending money on food, and experiencing our city. the tourism and economic benefits are there.

if you have not volunteer, is not too late. we're proud to be a volunteer organizer. we're still looking for folks. look up sfbikes.org. again, happy anniversary, the streets. -- sunday streets. thank you. [applause] >> she represents a larger wheels. next thursday, she will have mayor lee on a bicycle. we also want to honor those who get around on much smaller wheels. the other person who will try to get mayor lee on to those wheels is david miles. >> i am david miles, the exec director of the california outdoors sports association. my life revolves around recreational asphalt. when you remove the cars, you create recreational space for

the 21st century person. sunday streets embodies all that. there have been a lot of things i have been involved with over the years. when you liklook at sunny stree, when we first started this, they did not like it. they gave us scenarios of how things would not work out or be good. people were not going to be able to come. traffic was snarled. when you look at what we are now, you are looking at probably the most successful recreational situation ever created for the masses of san francisco. it is a fantastic thing. if you have not been there, get out to the mission district and get out to sunday streets san francisco. [applause] >> both davids made reference to the fact that there was some apprehension when it was first rolling out. folks were nervous, maybe did not get it. now we have a lot of people who

get it. this is about neighborhoods. the mayor has made the support of neighborhoods a priority for his a administration. sunday streets is an important part of that. we have support for the mission events, the mission merchants, the mission cultural center, the community music center. one of the biggest supporters who gets it and has been around a mission for a long time advocating for residents and merchants is the co-founder and president of the lower 24 st. merchant and neighborhood association. i am happy to invite up eric. >> i am the president of the lord 24th association. on behalf of the merchants, we want to thank the mayor, a supervisor campos, susan king

and her staff for collaborating with the neighborhood. thank you for helping to make these events happened. at the beginning, the merchants were unsure of how this would turn out. now we do have strong support from all of our merchants. sunday's streets has been positive economically with the merchants in the neighborhood bringing in flux to the corridor and creating visibility economically and physically. people can walk and exercise. thank you. come on out. [applause] >> thank you. we have seen a lot of change on valencia's street. the city invested a lot of movie improving valencia from

15th to 19th. they have done signal timing to facilitate bicycle travel and have put in bicycle lanes. valencia has had a difficult time in the past week. supporting our valencia's street merchants and the rest of the mission merchants is even more important now. we are happy to have one of those small businesses that are the lifeblood of our neighborhoods, the owner of glamarama salon. [applause] >> thank you so much for giving me this podium to speak. i am the president of the valencia corridor merchants association and founder. i am here to speak on behalf of valencia merchants. i would like to share my experience with some the streets. a and as a merchant working with

traffic flowing, there is a certain vibe to the corridor. it is a classic urban experience. something magical happens with sunday streets. the first thing you notice is the quiet. you year the sounds of children playing and music region you hear the sounds of children playing in music. -- you hear the sounds of children playing and music. it is transformed into a happy village. uc neighbors on the streets mingling with merchants, hanging out, playing ball, what have you. is very refreshing. camaraderie is what we need. especially as the city changes and the attack on the corridor on monday. i want to say a huge bank to to

susan king -- thank you to s usan king for her efforts. everyone has input. that lends even more camaraderie to the folks in the mission. i would like to say thank you san francisco for being innovative and providing us this unique opportunity. i am looking forward to a fun summer with sunday streets. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. sfmta is the lead agency on the city side to make this happen. we cannot do but without support of partner agencies, the san francisco police department, traffic division, department of labor and services, office of risk-management, entertainment commission, fire department, board of san francisco, planning department, department of elections. a lot ofeo