the next bus our arrival information is also transmitted to bus shelters around the city equipped with the next bus sign. riders are updated strictly about arrival times. to make this information available, muni has tested push to talk buttons at trial shelters. rider when pushes the button, the text is displayed -- when a rider pushes the button. >> the success of these tests led to the expansion of the program to all stations on the light rail and is part of the new shelter contract, push to talk will be installed. check out the new technology making your right easier every day

>> good afternoon, and welcome. this has to be the coldest and windiest. i want to thank san francisco for your hospitality. i often feel i have one of the best jobs.

every spring we get to work with communities putting in green spaces, and this is what this is all about, helping communities benefit from green spaces in urban areas. we could not have done this without partners. gerwe have the park conservator, and we have volunteers from lows and fresh and easy today. you really are the reason we are in the rain and cold during this great work, so we were talking about partners co., and we stard

talking and realized we have added them as a partner, so i would like to introduce jocelyn to say a few words about our program. >> good afternoon. it is living up to its reputation of rain. we are thrilled with our partnership says. many are committed, and we join with our partners for our gardens and green space program, and we are recognizing the moral leadership and the development of green spaces across the nation. we are honored to present the

award for outstanding leadership in this area. >> thank you. first, i think they huge grant we are getting today is of a recognition everyone has participated in. i want to thank the neighbors and volunteers a. it has been in the works for so many years because of the love in the community, and i know that for a fact because i was here years ago, and we said to ourselves and we need to not looking at this community in a negative way, to see what is positive, and not only is this garden appreciated by our

community, but it is recognized by the u.s. conference of mayors and by scots miracle grow, because we are one of five cities being recognized with this award. is very special. they really wanted to express support for people taking seriously the movement around healthy environments. gooyou are going to find there a little kid living the dream by helping to grow edible things, someone we are going to recognize as a special person as well, and as someone who has

been in city government for 23 years but started dpw days right here aunt knew how hard it was for people to generate a positive feeling, but they did it using a garden, so people could say, what is wrong having a garden that represents us, and having the youth center establish alongside the neighborhood, so there are so many stories to tell about how the community has come together, and now i think we are in historic times where there is a sense of community that has not been felt for many years.

i knew there was fear that drove a lot of decisions, and these gardens, there is a special thing we are getting. we are using opportunities everywhere weekend. richard -- everywhere we can. you see that it is now being recognized as a national model for everyone to follow, so i want to say thank you, community. thank you to our young people for sticking with us, for example of buying your -- for exemplifying your faith we have

a community way to green ourselves into success. i get to drive. this is my first year as a member of the conference of mayors. i get to say we have not finished the first year, and we have a national award because our communities are strong. thank you so much. >> this is the kickoff year as well. i would like to introduce a gentle man who had a huge part in putting the garden on the map. jeffrey, where are you? [applause] >> can i do this?

thank you. this is quite today. this does not happen every day, and i love it. if the spirit moves, feel free to move out. did there are so many people to thank. know you would not be here if you were not part of the solution, but there is one person i would like to acknowledge, and that is annette smith, who needs no introduction. of one of the founding gardeners 10 years ago, who started planting on the median strip and doing the outrageous thing of shaking hands and hugging people they did not know.

>> hi, everybody. thank you all for coming out. it gives me great pleasure to stand before you and say welcome to our neighborhood. it has been a lot of work, but it has been a lot of fun. it has been helpful to me mobility-wirese, so the neighborhood is a much better neighborhood. people come out to talk to one another, where they did not in the beginning, and i am not going to say anything else but thank you. >> you can see why we love her. thank you, stocks miracle gro,

and who am i forgetting? franklin county, my hometown local gardens curator -- my botanical gardens. this is an amazing example of what it takes to turn a community are round. it takes leadership from the public sector. we have two community challenge grants and the department of environmental justice grant, and that has kept us afloat. we would not be here if it was not for that. mendoza from the mayor's office is here. she would tell you she is first and foremost the mayor. she is on the school board.

good we are blessed. it takes a lot of bridges with the community sector and the corporate sector to do things like this, and we feel like we have derived region we have arrived. and we are moving into the future because of you guys. thank you so much. good >> we would like to present a sharcheck. >> it does not look like it will fit in the atm. >> no.

>> thank you. >> we have john murray who is here. we also have lynn here. we also have nicole riviera from leader pelosi's office, who is going to read a proclamation. >> are usually say the leader is in d.c. working, but she is in ireland, but she did want to send a letter.

congratulations to the gardens initiative as you celebrate your wheen award. so many of you represent the health and are underserved neighborhoods. it has created a beautiful haven in neighborhoods that will only continue to flourish. they demonstrated community partnerships can create extraordinary work zeroth. all of this demonstrates the power this garden will have on the community. this would not be possible without the volunteers who have made it a reality. congratulations and best

regards, nancy pelosi. >> i feel like and billy crystal at the oscars. good eveninthe next person i woo introduce is stephen. steven is going to talk about our grow 1000 program. goo>> i get the best part of the presentation, which we will get to in a little bit, but frankly i prepared some comments. this is our inaugural kicked off a. rather than try to explain, i thought a show of hands might be more oopprobrium.

anyone living here, raise your hand. the work and you started fostering the community through gardening efforts, things you have already started, that is what it is for us, providing more support, providing more opportunities for the relationships to strengthen and continue to develop. for us the means finding more opportunities like this, hopefully to participate in 1000 of these throughout the u.s., canada, and europe, so this is one of five major ones we have chosen this year, so thank you for the opportunity. i have not gotten to shake

everybody's hand, but mary, tom, jeff, i have gotten to shake a lot of hands today, and linda has an almost 1-year-old. that has an older brother in kindergarten, but it is not only about community biaseut about hg a nice place to go and a community spirit of the third- generation davey resident, just thought a house here. that is what is about, providing opportunities for kids to grow, so that is what it is about, and it is not about us doing the work, and we just want to provide the help to do that. thank you for the work you have already started. now for my favorite part of the

presentation superior -- presentation. we are giving a give back to grow award. the students had to write an essay and tell why they like gardening, so i have the honor of introducing serenity williams. i have been told serenity has a green thumb herself. she loves to water the plants, so she is going to read a little from her essay. strikes and my neighborhood garden, we are planting food for everybody in our community. the garden is colorful and has

healthy snacks. the healthy snacks include fruits and vegetables like strawberry and squash for people who do not have much to get healthy food. goothis is shaped like a rectangle, and is outside of my home. inside our garden, there are stones to walk on and different levels. the role i play in the garden project is planting seeds and watering everything in our garden to keep plants healthy. i spent an hour and a half an hour community garden every week.

the good thing our garden has done, it has grown healthy food and we have eaten the reagan region we have eaten. environmental education is important because natural food is really good for the body instead of candy. it helps care for the environment because people can walk through our garden instead of using gas to go to the grocery store and spend money. [applause]

>> great job! one second. louie, i think we may have a future employee. when she came here, serenities said she was very nervous. she read them pretty well. they have a couple of words and gibsofts. >> thank you for making such a great effort inspiring people

around you. you will have some tools so you can get started this season, so congratulations. >> you did that so well, i need someone to do the next question answer. you want to do that for me? all right. >> congratulations, serenity. [applause] >> i know everyone is freezing, but i would also like to say

thank you to the members who have been out here weeding, carrying heavy stuff. i would also like to thank my other colleagues. i think that is the end of our program. we have a sign we would like to officially unveil.

>> 1, 2, 3, there we go. very nice. beautiful. >> i think a lot of times we look a community and we say, there is this one and this one, and we all have our own agenda, when our agenda is to create great work. if you're interested in that, you are part of our community. >> it is a pleasure to have you here tonight. >> we are trying to figure out a way to create a space where

theater and presentation of live work is something that you think of, the same way that you think of going to the movies. of course, it has been complex in terms of economics, as it is for everyone. artistically, we have done over 35 projects in four seasons from presenting dance, producing theater, presenting music, having a full scale education program, and having more than 50,000 visitors in the building almost every year. a lot of our emerging artists generate their first projects here, which is great. then we continue to try to support figuring out where those works can go. we have been blessed to have that were produced in new york, go unto festivals, go on to the warsaw theater festival. to me, those are great things, when you see artists who think there is no or else of someone being interested in me being a

woman of color telling her story and getting excited about it. that is our biggest accomplishment. artists becoming better artists. what is great about surely coming back to brava, we have this established, amazing writer who has won a slew of awards and now she gets an opportunity to direct her work. even though she is an amazing, established writer, the truth is, she is also being nurtured as a director, being given space to create. >> and the play is described as ceremony and theater meet. in the indigenous tradition, when you turn 52, it is that the completion of an epic. the purpose of this ceremony is to celebrate. whenever you have been caring

for the first 52 years, it is time to let it go. they have given me carte blanche to do this. it is nice for me in the sense of coming back 25 years later, and seeing my own evolution as an artist and a thinker. the whole effort even to put the indigenous woman's experience center stage is very radical. because of the state of fear, it is a hard road to hold up an institution. it really is a hard road. i am looking at where we're 25 years later in the bay area and looking at how hard it is for us to struggle, to keep our theaters going. i would like to think that i am

not struggling quite as hard personally. what i mean by that is that in tension, that commitment. what i see is that we're here to really produce works of not be produced in other places, and also to really nurture and women of color artists. i think that that is something that has not shifted for me in 25 years, and it is good to see that brava is still committed to that kind of work. you know? ♪ >> happy birthday to you happy birthday to you ♪ >> windy will talk about the reflection of the community, we can only go with what we have on our staff. south asian managing director. african-american artistic director. latino outreach person. to us, aside from the staff, aside from the artists that we

work with him being a reflection of oz, yes, the community is changing, but brava has always tried to be ahead of that, just that sense of a trend. i tried to make about the work that shows the eclecticism of the mission district, as well as serving the mission. that is what i feel brava is about. ♪