get $185 million of park bonds, a portion was made available to the port and used for the blue green way projects. that partnership has lead to ongoing partnerships specifically to the eco center and like the mayor said we are working together in 2012 to get will additional park bonds and with they would like to introduce phil ginsburg director. [applause] >> good morning everybody. so i haven't been able to let it go either. so yesterday our city celebrated a huge victory in the world of sports; right. and today we're celebrating another victory and for the waterfront, for nature and you can feel it. yesterday after the noise and

the craziness -- breathe; right. like today -- you can feel it. it's slower. it's calmer and if you look out there you absorb the place, and we are in one of the most special and beautiful parts of the city and to celebrate an incredible project. san francisco's waterfront is more than just simply the border of our city. in its edge lies san francisco best recognizal opportunities, our most engaging parks and enormous potential to have one of the vibrant waterfronts of the world and in partnership we are doing this along all sides of san francisco for all san franciscos to enjoy. these projects as the mayor and monique said are made possible by the parks bond. four years ago it was approved by 72% of

city voters and allowed us to address more than a billion dollars worth of deferred maintenance needs in our parks and to cultivate what once was an industrial waterfront into something such much more spectacular and if you have been around town you have seen all of the fantastic changes happening to the park and the new recreation center in chinatown, new play grounds and athletic fields and one of the special projects at mission play ground around 24th and valencia. yesterday we had the great pleasure of cutting a ribbon in the richmond. here in district ten there is a park renaissance. we are seeing incredible things happening thanks to the parks bond and we have a new play ground at mclaren park and new restrooms at bay view hill top

and mclaren and the improvements here. since 2010 the port has been an incredible partnership and promoting our youth stewardship program and our program and we have the inaugural class and kids products of this neighborhood and learning environmental education. they are getting paid. it is work and helping to steward the land and learning leadership skills and i want to name a couple of folks from that program. kimberly who runs the vote tear programming and zoey and brenda from green acres. where is brenda? she's not here and carolyn from the port who we have worked incredibly close with. [applause] just to conclude there has been a lot of talk about team

lately. chris bochy said it yesterday and the mayor said it yesterday and this morning. this is a team and great things happen when we work together and looking around the room there are so critical members of the team and putting our parks and rec and open space, the quality of life for san franciscans ahead of self and that includes the port. it includes department of public works. it includes public utilities commission and the local unions and the park alliance and friends at bicycle coalition and the rand off institute and center for environmental yesterday. there are so many incredible partners contributing to making this city better and it's a special day so go team. [applause] >> just wanted to mention a few

other partner who is are key to what the port tried to accomplish here along the waterfront, both here in bay view and throughout, so one of those key members is the coastal conservancy. they contributed $500,000 to the construction of the park back in 1999. in 2010 they contributed another $400,000 toward the construction of the eco center and played a role in the development of the bike way with additional $70,000 so i wanted to introduce amy hudzel from the coastal conservancy to talk a bit about these projects. [applause] >> thank you and thanks for including me and the coastal

conservancy in this event. we are honored to play a role in the work going on here at heron's head and i am also reporting the san francisco bay trail, a close partner of ours. the coastal conservancy -- we are a state agency and our vision is a beautiful and accessible coast line and i think this project really epitomizes what we're trying to achieve in our vision. the passage of park bonds at the state level most recently proposition 84 in 2006 has allowed projects like this to take place around the state, in the city, in the bay area, and along the coast of california, and it allows local organizations and agencies to leverage their local funds, and make those funds go even further through the application of state

bond dollars. the conservancy had a great interest for a long time in improving wildlife habitat and public access to the san francisco bay here in southeast san francisco. we partnered with the bay trail, the port of san francisco, literacy for environmental justice, and many other organizations and agencies to develop the heron's head park, to build the heron's head eco center, and now to plan and construct the bike path and this really grand entrance to heron's head. it's completed a really critical gap in the san francisco bay trail which is a regional trail that circles the entire san francisco bay. it's about 300 miles of it are done of a planned 500-mile loop. for this project really fits perfectly with our vision to

improve access to the san francisco bay and to the california coast, to restore wetland throughout the state and complete the trail in the bay area and i want to thank a few individuals. lara thompson and maureen gaffny at the san francisco bay trail. [applause] and anne buell at the coastal conservancy and those that work with the port of san francisco. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. i mean as we have said there are a number of partners that were necessary to get together to make this happen. the bi-directional bike way as part of the blue green

project as we mentioned and it's an important connection from the bay view community to the heron's head park, and to 3rd street and to the gateway park that we will be building next. hopefully we will start that in about a year or so. a key player in making that by way happen was mta. they were involved in every step of the process from design to funding to construction, and i want to introduce damon curtis a senior manager with mta who is representing them. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. i think i just got a promotion but that's great. on behalf of my colleague at the mta. in particular our director ed risin and those in the street

division and my boss on liveable streets and thank you for coming and i appreciate in talking about the importance of the bicycle facility that you see behind you. before i begin i want to acknowledge the cargo bike way manager who is sitting back there. [applause] so i would like to start and i am proud to start by reiterating the fact this is the first -- san francisco's first physically separated two way bike facility so that is a very big thing. it's something to be proud of and i think it deserves a round of applause. [applause] but in addition to being novel it also includes some innovative design features. we have acwaited bicycle signals along the corridor and guiding cyclists at one of the big

intersections down there. so as many people have stated the importance of this project -- it can't be under stated. it closes a gap in the bike network, provides a connection for the southeastern neighborhoods, the trail here at heron's head park, connects them with the 3rd street corridor and illinois street and it's also a great example, as has been mentioned, of a great partnership between mta and our partners at the port and rec and park and dpw. so i would like to close really by saying really that our experience here locally as well as a lot of research has been done both in the u.s. and throughout the world has shown that building bike facilities like this, ones that are

connected and ones that are convenient and for people of all ages and abilities is important to increase bike mode share and that will help ensure the goal of having 20% trips by bike by the year 2020 so thank you very much. [applause] (train horn). >> the port manages the seven and a half miles of waterfront, and for planning purposes the area is divided into a number of subareas. we are in the southern waterfront sub area and within each subarea we have a number of stakeholders but we always have an advisory committee that we work closely with, so the southern waterfront advisory committee has played a

key role in the creation and development of a blue green way project, and has been an active participant in supporter of these two developments, the expansion of heron's head and the bike way on cargo way and i want to introduce the long time chair of the southern waterfront advisory committee, karen pierce. [applause] >> good morning. today is my day off. i didn't expect to be speaking, and so i came ready to hang out at the park, but i'm telling you that because there's been a theme going here and on my way over to the park i was thinking the same thing about team work and partnership. okay. the piece that hasn't been really emphasized this morning except by the train going back and forth is that this is the part of the park

that is a working maritime port and it's important to keep this part of the port that way. so the waterfront committee made up mostly of residents of bay view hunter's point and the surrounding area and port tenants. they provide blue collar jobs for many people in san francisco. if we don't have this waterfront working as a maritime waterfront we would lose those jobs and we would lose a significant piece of the diversity that we all celebrate so i just wanted to point out to you that i don't know if they made sure that the trains were moving back and forth this morning, but when i saw the train out there, i almost jumped for joy. so my thoughts on the way over here were really about the fact that in 1997 or so if

you came out here to this area for community residents this was an eye sore. it was an old dump. for the port it was a headache and eye sore because it was a dump and literacy for environment brought a group of their students out to check out what was going on at the power plant and those young people came out here and saw a park and a wetlands and they went back and they said "we want to work with the port to clean that up because we want to learn how to build a wetlands" and what you see today is the vision of those young people that was supported by community members, the tenants on the port, the industrial activity on the port, as well as the port, and all of the other city agencies that were required for this happen, so i want us to really

celebrate partnership. there are many times when we're at each other's throats. every everybody who is a city employee around here knows that i am really happy to let lose and complain and criticize. all of that is part of making sure that what we wind up with is the best for the city and this is an example of that. we worked hard. we fought with the bike coalition because we want to make sure whatever bike path went down cargo way, cargo way okay was going to make sure cargo could go down cargo way safely. we worked hard with everybody who wants to come on this port and work here to make sure that they understand they have to be a good neighbor because they are part of this community, and the port is part

of this community as far as i know, and i do quite a bit of environmental justice work and work with a lot of organizations around the country that are focused on port activities because port activities have a huge impact on health whenever -- wherever they r as far as i know this is the only port known as a good neighbor and i want us to celebrate that fact and you can't do that unless you're working together[applause] >> finally we wanted to highlight an example of the variety of activities that happen at the eco center. there is a chip called the alma that was constructed in 1891 and managed by the national park service and recently sailed

back to the hunter's point area where it was originally constructed. there is an all day celebration that is happening at the eco center today to acknowledge that history, and that celebration is being sponsored by a number of entities and i will just mention them. the california historical society and the stanford university and others and i wanted to invite someone up to speak on behalf of stanford university and the celebration of the alma. [applause] >> welcome folks. it gives me great pleasure. i have the honor of serving as the

executive director in 2007 and pleaded to introduce you to this area. the alma came by just now and john was going to announce the project and year of the bay with america's cup as well as the opening of the bay bridge and lots of other interesting things happening. we actually want to have a ferry terminal here in the basin so we can have taxis to outside areas and may our visions come true, and i wanted to share you with as was point out and california historical society and other partners have come together so we have the whole day at the ego center and we welcome you to come check it out. it's a beautiful building and off the grid. we have our own wastewater treatment inside. we will have tours of the boat and

in the basin and walk along the trail and get on to the location so with that i thank you and the board is going to go back. we have been trying to get youth on board so if any young people want to get on the boast . -- boat and you're welcome and it leaves at 4:00 o'clock and congratulations to everyone. thanks. >> thank you. with that we are ending this part of the program but i would like to invite you to join the mayor for the envailing of the sane for this new project. >> on three, two, one -- [applause] >> all right congratulations.

>> okay, good morning, everyone, and welcome to this press conference today. as you can see, i'm honored having the mayor here with us who is tremendous partner in this process. as well we have dr. morassi from the department of health and women. and we have behind me a group of advocates that have tirelessly worked with our office and the community to make sure that domestic violence victims in our city are well treat and had provided with the services that they require in order to recover, in order to be able to move on. today we're also announcing a grant. we were given a grant of $650,000 from the department of justice. this is a grant that my office applied for with the assistance of casa de las mujeras. i don't know why i keep saying that. [speaker not understood] the issue of women's shelter and other organizations. the goal of this grant is to be

able to enhance our ability to deliver services, especially for the most vulnerable victims of domestic violence. as many of you know, this year -- this month we celebrate domestic violence month. and every year my office has an event that we do in order to educate service providers and the public about the things we can do in order to enhance our services. and we're so fortunate today that we're also getting this grant. the reality of domestic violence is a serious crime and don't let anybody else tell you otherwise. one in three households in the u.s. are impacted by domestic violence. around 22% of every women report having been the victim of domestic violence. if you walk into any of our prisons, you will find that the majority of the people that are in custody, that are in prison for violent crimes have themselves been either the victims or witnesses of

domestic violence in the home. this is a real problem, and i think that we need to ensure that we focus on the victim and that we focus on the family and that we make sure that we continue to do everything that we can to protect the victims of domestic violence. this is not a personal issue. this is not an individual issue. frankly, this is not a political issue. this is a public safety issue and i am so honored that our mayor is here to say a few words and then we're going to turn it over to dr. morassi and then we'll answer any questions you may have. >> thank you. let me begin by thanking our district attorney george gascone. he's been a wonderful leader, a very, very solid collaborater on this domestic violence challenge that we all have. you know, the month of october has been incredibly exciting, and whether we announce its a the innovation month or the orange month, we also have always committed it to being domestic awareness month.

and the people that are standing to my sides and behind me really are to be congratulated because one of the reasons why district attorney gascone and the commission on the status of women are recognized by the department of justice is because we have a solid, solid community-based level of organizations that touch literally every one of the survivors that come in to the services, reach out to them, making sure we're taking care of them, making sure we have community-based processes as well as services to help survivors and help the families. now, it's in the context of some very serious data that will be reviewed by everybody here, sobering data. 17% increase as reported by our adult probation on cases involving domestic violence. 47% increase in the crisis

hotlines that we're receiving, whether they're nonprofits or coming through directly with the da or commission on the status of women, compared to last year of 47% increase. in child support cases, over 200% increases in those cases, they're reporting increases in some form of family violence associated with the child support cases. so, these are very sobering challenges that we have as a city and county of san francisco. and, so, it is within this context that the d.a. and the commission on the status of women went to and proceeded to get a grant application with our department of justice. and i will first and foremost thank president obama and the department of justice for recognizing a big gap that we have, a gap that is reflective of our multi-culturalism. and, therefore, this specific

$650,000 grant is really to fulfill a huge gap that we had when we are looking at immigrant families. we're looking at particularly latino and asian families, but immigrant families who, for many years, we knew that we were not getting the right level of reports, the right level of services because of the cultural gaps here. so, this is targeted and aimed at that gap. and it is, i think, very telling that we have our immigrant families stepping up and feeling confident in this city that they can work with all the community agencies that are involved here, and really try to help us end domestic violence because that's the goal of all these agencies. it isn't really to tolerate or just provide a service. it really is to end domestic violence. and that's been the goal of this city. and that's why we work so hard. george and our office. it is part of my new program as well, the interrupt, the predictive policing, the interrupting the patterns. the most important part of that

is community organizing, dee anna and my office is doing, is really organizing our communities eastern better. and i think that with this emphasis on our immigrant populations, that oftentimes don't get the initial treatment and word out because of the language blocks or the cultural barriers and the strong, strong cultural barriers here that really have a dominance of the male side of things and attempt to kind of squash this and make it other than what it is. * even we need to bring this out in the shout and making sure that all of our services are available, that there's reports and ultimately every agency here today wants to hold the abusers accountable at the highest level. we need to make sure that accountability is visible so that we can offer a preventive nature of these programs and stop domestic violence from ever happening. that's obviously the very strongest goal that we have to

have, but we have to do it in the right way, holding people accountable, having multi-cultural services for the victims and survivors and allowing their voice to be heard, and not suppressed in any way. this is the goal of this grant, and it will i think help in the next two years with every single agency. so, i am so happy for not only the department of justice and president obama seeing this to be important, but that all the family of agencies that we have are can you having together very strongly to prevent this from happening. so, migratefulness to especially the community-based agencies because without them we would not have the model programs that we have. * we wouldn't be able to penetrate the barriers that exist, or to offer hope to victims and their families for overcoming this very, very strongly challenged area of our city. and i want to continue making sure this city is very strong in this and makes it very visible as part of our public

safety approach to everything that we do. thank you very much. (applause) >> next i'd like to invite to the podium dr. morassi, the director of our department of health. >> thank you very much. i'd just like to take a minute to introduce who we have behind us today. esta solo futures without violence, cathy black. (applause) >> from the casa. from asian women's shelter we have orchid, [speaker not understood]. (applause) >> from mujeras juan a flores, and my commission on the status of women vice president nancy rodriguez, president julie sue, and commissioner andrea shorter. (applause) >> so, thanks to the work of the people behind me, i'm happy to say that despite the fact that our