>> we're going to bring lynn and carina up in a brief second. why don't you speak now. that will work, right? but i also wanted on behalf of the department to thank you both of you. lynn, since you've been the lafayette champion a long time, there is your official lafayette park sign and your picnic blankets. carina, you've been our playground champion, lafayette park playground sign. >> thank you. (applause) >> why don't you guys say a few words right now. >> okay. the only thing that i want to do is to thank all of you who have been -- hundreds, it took literally hundreds of people to do this. and i have a couple of names to -- we want to make sure we mention these names. but i'm leaving out hundreds of people and i know it. so, and there's plenty more chances. we're going to continue our cleaning and greening days the first saturday of every month,

july 13th is our first day but we're not allowed to actually maintain it yet at that point. >> yeah, we are. i already talked to -- >> oh, we are. [laughter] >> this is how we work, very collaborative. [laughter] >> so, okay. i want to thank some of these people are here, and some of them are not. if you are here, try to make your way up towards the front here because we all want to hug each other, okay. kim barnes, our founder of friends of lafayette park. we wouldn't be here today without kim barnes. (applause) >> art persico, a moving force, our second president of friends of lafayette park. our fourth, mi stefan franz, shila clement. (applause) >> our gardeners who have been here throughout helping us on our clean and green days, out on saturdays. if you're here, marianne

bertacelli. supervisor farrell. phil has been here every step of the way. this started with -- this started with two organizations that have now merged into a really wonderful one organization. those two former organizations were -- brought us two great people to work with. they were isabelle wade and karen kid well. i don't know if either one of them is here today. ~ now we have matt owe grade i speaking to you from the merge park trust. i'm sorry, san francisco parks alliance. ~ we can't forget that, they're doing so much. this is our parks -- citizens parks group. okay, lizy hirsch, please come up. we want to raise hands with you. (applause) >> mary hobson. jeff miller. [cheering and applauding]

>> okay. and carina bonamo who was -- this incredible playground in the most beautiful park in san francisco, we've already heard that online. it is now officially the most beautiful park in san francisco. [cheering and applauding] >> with the most amazing playground. and this was a dream that carina had. she moved it from a dream. there were splinters in this little wood playground that we had, and carina got a group together, did this in the most democratic way possible, and just has done a fabulous job. thank god. i hope you have many more projects ahead of you. >> thanks, lynn. and i just want to make sure that everyone knows this is not my thing, it was a big group of us. dee-dee cramer and stacey scott

and ann simon and debby kay were with me the whole time. we got together. [speaker not understood] goes out to jeff miller for being so amazing and having such a great vision after all those community meetings. (applause) >> and i remember one meeting someone said they didn't want the playground redone because they knew everyone that was here already and it was so intimate. well, i hope you all get to know all your neighbors because there's a lot more of them that are going to be here now. thank you for everything. (applause) >> thanks, carina, thanks, lynn. >> this is something we all wanted to do. >> wait, i'm going to add to

your certificates of honor to lynn and carina. from the entire board of supervisors we have certificates for all of you. so, thank you for all of your hard work. (applause) >> i want to bring up my colleagues, i have two great colleagues from the board of supervisors here today, supervisor scott wiener and supervisor john avalos. if you guys want to come up and say a few words. but before i hand the mic over, just real quick, nobody say a word for a second. that's the best sound in san francisco right now, families playing in our parks. (applause) >> and my little boy jack wanted to wave hi to everyone. hi, jack. all right. supervisor wiener. >> thank you. hi, everyone. i'm scott wiener from district 8 and i'm really just thrilled to be here today. this is just amazing. we dot a brand-new playground in dolores park and this is right in the same claytionthv. so, it's a new generation of active recreation for our kids. ~ got and i just want to say thank you to the voters of san francisco for repeatedly investing in our parks in an

off the charts way. and you know, last year we had another parks bond and there were some people who got a little grump pi about it ask started campaigning against it. guess what? we got a higher percentage of the vote in 2012 than in 2008. [cheering and applauding] ~ grump py >> that's because this parks department is like the little engine that could. over the years city hall has cut and cut and cut from the budget of this department and the department keeps finding new ways to move our park system forward. and now the voters, you've done your job. it is now our turn to do our job and make sure that we're investing in the maintenance of our parks, so that we have enough gardeners and park patrol officers and rec directors and making sure we're doing our part of the job. and, so, i look forward to working with supervisor farrell and phil and everyone else to get that dub. ~ done. so, congratulations, everyone. (applause) >> thank you, scott. it's really great to be here. i actually have three kids.

they're playing in the playground. they're having a blast. what a gorgeous design this playground put together, this entire park. thank you for supporting our parks. thank you for supporting our bond. thank you for the partnership you created to actually help this park. it's a great example for the rest of san francisco how we pulled together to support the best of this city. so, congratulations. i'm going to go find my kids. this is a wonderful asset we have here in san francisco. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor. and, mr. treasurer, come on up for a brief second. he's been sitting there very patiently. come on up. >> thank you, phil. hello, everyone. in the treasurer's office we bring in the money that make all the city departments able to do their work. we also keep the bond proceeds safe. for all the good work the city departments do, we can't do it without communities. so, i'm honored to come here and give my respect to the friends of lafayette park and all the community groups around the city to make places like this beautiful place possible. thank you very much, everyone. (applause)

>> thank you, jose. all right. we're moving through. we are almost done. next up i want to bring up the rec and park commission is made up of 7 people, citizens, volunteers like yourselves, who support our park system, make very tough policy decisions, listen for hours and hours and hours and hours of public input and they do that because they love their parks. so i'd like to welcome up the vice-chair of the commission alan lowe and megan levinson to say hello. you look surprised. >> the last thing you need on a glorious day like this is yet another speech. so, just congratulations to this tremendous community and to everybody that's been mentioned already. i have a child somewhere in that playground and i have got to go find her. so, congrats. (applause) >> commissioner, it's good to see that you can go left and use your left hand. maybe do it more often, right, supervisor avalos? anyway, it's great to see everybody here. it's a great showing of what can happen when everybody comes

together. and under the 2012 bond, there's more to come, but you've heard enough speeches so let's shut up and get out and play. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you, commissioners. all right. just a couple more speakers then we're going to cut that ribbon. but they're playing anyway so it doesn't -- we're good. all right. so, this is a team effort, right. it's the community, it's government, it's park avenue katz, it's everyone. but our capital bond program is a success because of our partnership with the department of public works, plain and simple. we have a really, really super partnership. we work together on improving our communities and improving our neighborhoods. and we have a man at the top right now, we call him mr. clean, mohammed nuru, mr. park. he's mr. clean, that's our road show, who is so, so, so committed to making this city park sparkle. i want to bring him up so he can say thank you and let him say a few words. talk a little about our joint

giants sweet program. once this event is over we're going to work together to keep this place sparkling. so, mr. clean, come on up. (applause) >> thank you, mr. parks. what a beautiful day. (applause) >> so, i'm very happy on the partnership that we have with the recreation and parks department, from the department of public works, all these bond projects. thanks to the voters, thanks to the community. we've been all working together and this is the result, what you see is a beautiful park. from dpw, lizy hirsch, our project manager making sure all the details, all the visions of the community had when the park was being built, the benches, all the nice stone work, all the plants, that they all came together to make this beautiful space. a big hand for lizy, please, and her leadership. (applause) >> on the construction side, i was making sure we met all the goals that were set by the board of supervisors. one of the things that the bond has done for san francisco is it's allowed local residents to

actually get jobs and work. and that is the leadership of the board and the mayor and we made sure that we fulfilled and exceeded all those goals. and, so, i'm very happy to report that we are having a good day today and as we go on to further parks, we'll continue to do our best to make sure it's great. phil talked about the giant sweep. you might have seen some of these ads on some of the buses or billboards. it's our latest campaign to instill pride back into our city. we're going into our schools, working with neighborhood groups -- there you go, phil. we're working together to make sure that san francisco continue to be clean and green. we have the park it in, park it out campaign in the parks. we have the pick it up on the street. and next week we'll be bringing in new buses into san francisco and we're working with the mta to make sure that when you ride the bus that the buses are clean. so, we have a booth over there. please visit our booth. we have lots of information, a bare minimum, sign the pledge that you want to see san

francisco be a cleaner city. thank you for this event. congratulations, and i know we're all going to see many more of these parks all across san francisco as nice and beautiful as this one. thank you. (applause) >> thank you. when i say pack it in, you say... pack it in. pack it in. >> pack it in. >> if you pack it in >> pack it out. >> thank you. all right. our final speaker before we cut the ribbon is matt o'grady, the parks alliance. it is our nonprofit partner. they are with us every step of the way advocating for better open space, for more funding for open space, for better play grounds, for more parks, and we can't do it without them. so, i want to welcome matt. i also want to call out kelly knight who is a vice president of the parks alliance board who has joined us today. i don't know if there are any other park board members here.

thank you for being here. matt come on up and say a few words. >> thank you, phil. (applause) >> bear with me a second. if you're sitting, stand up. everybody do a quick 360. turn around very quickly and just look at the view from this park. just walk around and look at this view. we live in the most beautiful city in the world. today this city becomes just a little bit more beautiful. thanks to the incredible hard work that has made this new renovation a reality. the parks alliance is the independent partner to the entire city for everything having to do with parks, recreation, and open space. we have more than 100 different community groups called park partners all across the city. each of them working in their own way to make our park system a little better, a little more beautiful, a little more usable. today this is the day for one of those groups, the friends of lafayette park.

this is a shining example of how a few neighbors can come together, bring together their friends, and make an incredibly beautiful thing happen in a public open space. this park was renovated with bond dollars, but friends of lafayette park brought in hours and hours of hard work over four years to do visioning and imagining what this park could really look like. they raised over half a million dollars of private fund to augment the bond dollars so that this kind of a playground could be added to this park. it's been that kind of selfless generosity, and hours of giving to the city that is just an incredible humbling experience for us at the parks alliance. let's have another round of applause for carina and lynn and all of the volunteers who have made such an incredible contribution to this effort. (applause) >> and now i think phil, ready

to go ahead and do the ribbon cutting. >> thank you, matt. all right, we're getting there. so, a couple things. i want to give a big shout out, ron davis is here, the founder of the lafayette park or san francisco mime troop, right, ron? give a big shout out for ron. [cheering and applauding] >> that's for you. >> i have the honor of being arrested in this park in 1965. [laughter] cheer cheers >> under different management, i can say, had we performed for this guy we would not have been arrested. >> i'd be in it. >> he'd be in it, right. he's almost as good as we were. 1965, it was a very different commission and they took away our permit. we had done three shows. they didn't like the play. it was an aclu issue, it was called free speech. so, we've declared that the little park over there where i was arrested is going to be a free speech area called the mime troop area.

(applause) >> free speech, you can come and do anything you want. >> awesome. >> no fees. >> thank you, ron. the interesting thing about a free speech area for mime, it's pretty quiet. [laughter] >> all right. hey, a big shout out, one last shout out to the rec and park staff that really pulled this together. (applause) >> i want to start with the people that organized the event, jamie hopper, alex randolph, [speaker not understood], they worked hours and hours to make this event today very, very special. but one big final shout out and thank you to our project manager, mary hobson who worked tirelessly to pull this off. [cheering and applauding] >> and, mary, you get your very own lafayette park sign. congratulations. (applause) >> all right. now it is time to cut the ribbon. if you are a kid, come on up. and if you are -- had a hand in this park, come on up and we're

going to be right here behind the ribbon right here. and do we have our big scissors. electeds, join me. if you are a kid, come on up. and what i will do with the kids is together we will use the big scissors. why don't you guys come on in here. all right, hold on, we're not there yet. let's not do it yet. be careful. all children with scissors, please be careful. all right. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. yeah! ladies and gentlemen, lafayette park is officially open! >> yea!

>> hello, i am with the recreation and parks department. we are featuring the romantic park location in your backyard. this is your chance to find your heart in santa and cisco with someone special. -- san francisco with someone special. our first look out is here at buena vista park a favorite with couples and dog walkers. both have a significant force. a refreshing retreat from urban

life. the romantic past that meander up and down the park under pines and eucalyptus. hang out in this environment and you might see butterflies it, fennel, and then the lines. -- dandelions. is ada accessible. public transit is plentiful. we have conquered the steps we have watched the dogs, and we have enjoyed a beautiful view. this is a place to take someone special on a romantic stroll and enjoyed a beautiful look out. welcome to corona heights located in the heart of this district. it offers a view of the downtown

skyline the bay bridge, and the east bay. it is one of the best kept secrets in the city. it is hardly ever crowded. on any given day, you will run into a few locals. bought a 37 bus to get there without any parking worries. for legged friends can run freely. there is also a patch of grass for the small box. >> it is a great place. it is a wonderful place to have these kinds of parks. that dog owners appreciate it. >> take time to notice of the wildfires that are on the grassland and keep your head out on the lookout for hawks and other bird life. be sure to take your camera and be prepared to take a view of the city will not forget. it has a beautiful red rock formations. you could watch the sunrise over

the bay. this is another one of our great lookouts. we are at mount davidson. 928 feet. this is the place for you to bring someone special. to not forget that dogs and enjoy all of the pathways and greenery that surrounds you. it provides a peaceful oasis of open space and great hiking trails. the spectacular view offers a perfect place to watch the sunrise or sunset with someone you love. >> it is a good place to get away from the hectic life of the city. come up here and listen to nature, i get some fresh air. that view is fantastic. >> where sturdy shoes .

hikers get the feeling of being in a rain forest. mount davidson is also a great place to escape the noise and the bustle of the city. take the 36 bus and it will drop you at the entrance. it is quite a hike to the top but the view is worth every step. this is the place to bring that someone special. golden gate park's largest body of water is an enchanting place. is a popular spot for paddling around in boats, which can be rented. created in 1893, it was designed for these your boating -- for leisure boating.

it is named for the wild strawberries that once flourished. there is also a waterfall, two bridges and trails the climb to the summit, the highest point at more than four hundred feet. you can catch glimpses of the western side of the city that make this hilltop a romantic look out. for public transit, i take the n train. the lad the ad -- lake is ada accessible. watch many ducks swans, and siegel's. -- seagulls. it is a great place to stroll and sail away.

many couples come here to take a ride around a lake going under the bridges, passing the chinese pavilion and the waterfall. for a quiet getaway, making for a memorable and magical experience. located on 19th avenue this growth is the place to where you're hiking boots, bring the family and the dog because it has so much to offer you and your loved ones. it is a truly hidden gem in the city. the park is rich with eucalyptus trees. long paths allow you to meander, perfect for a dog walking in a wooded environment. >> i enjoy the history. the diversity of nature that exists in such an urban city

concrete streets cars we have this oasis of the natural environment. it reminds us of what the history was. >> there is a section for dogs and plenty of parking. transit is available on the 28 bus to get you very easily. the part is ada -- park is ada accessible. it is also a natural lake. this is your chance to stroll around the lake and let the kids run free. it also has many birds to watch. it is a place to find and appreciate what you -- a wonderful breath of fresh air. come and experience in this park

and enjoy the people, picnics, and sunshine. this is a lovely place to take a stroll with your loved ones. in the middle of pacific heights, on top of these hills, it offers a great square a peaceful beauty, large trees and grass and greenery. it features tables and benches a playground, restaurants, and tennis courts. there are plenty of areas for football and picnics. it is very much a couple's park. there are many activities you can experience together. stroll on the pathways bring your dog or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all that it has to offer together. many couples find this is a perfect park to throw down a blanket and soak up the sun. it is a majestic place that you

can share with someone you chairs. lafayette park is also easily accessed from the 47, 49, and 90 buses. it is ada accessible. we are here at the historic palace of fine art in the marina district. originally built for the 1950's exposition, the palace is situated on san francisco's number waterfront. it is ada accessible and is reached by the 28 30, and 91 bus lines. set against the reflecting waters of the lagoon and eucalyptus trees, the palace is

one of san francisco post most -- san francisco's most romantic spots to relax with that special someone while listening to the water and gazing at the swans. a beautiful to view from many locations along the mattoon, an ideal place to -- all -- lagoon, an ideal place to walk with a loved one. reservations for weddings are available at sfrecpark.org. discarding contains plants referred to by william shakespeare's plays and poems. welcome to the shakespeare garden here in the famous golden gate park. located near the museum and the california academy of sciences the garden was designed by the

california spring blossom and wildfirlower association. here is a truly enchanting and tranquil garden along a path behind a charming gate. this garden is the spot to woo your date. stroll around and appreciate its unique setting. the gorgeous brick walkway and a brick wall, the stone benches, the rustic sundial. chaired the part -- share the bard's word hundred famous verses from a shakespearean plays. this is a gem to share with someone special. pack a picnic, find a bench, and enjoy the sunshine, and let the

whimsical words of william shakespeare and floats you and your loved one away. this is one of the most popular wedding locations and is available for reservations. take a bus and have no parking worries. shakespeares' garden is ada accessible. located at the bottom of this hill, it is a secret garden with an infinite in captivating appeal. carefully tucked away it makes the top of our list for most intimate pyknic setting. avoid all taurus cars and hassles by taking a cable car. or the 30, 45, or 91 bus.