businesses in our downtown, and our soma, are growing. we've seen those companies from the valley so we moved to an extent in san francisco. we have seen this as a positive thing. there is amazing success stories of not only those that have grown here but now those that have started here have become tycoons in the business community. salesforce twitter yelp and so many others. you know this amazing story also says to us that we are excited and i'm excited because it isn't just one sector. this is the thing that i will keep over and over again. industries like healthcare, click biotech, tourism, construction, manufacturing and more but we also see technology very strongly woven into all these different industries. this is the excitement that i continue to share with our chamber of

commerce, without sf technology companies with all the different sectors. is that it isn't just one, it's all about. and that gives us a tremendous opportunity because all of these sectors have helped people get back to work have created the revenues that we can invest right back into our neighborhoods into our small businesses, into infrastructure, into the people to create this city to become a continuing attractive city. because without that investment , you're going to quickly see that the very talent that the companies have recruited here, and one of the greatest assets that we have is our count -- but that don't won't be here unless we continue thrusting forth a diverse city. a city that's exciting to them that keeps their minds focused on

being successful and being integrated and being a world-class city. so, when i say that were not sitting on our success, i also saved we are building upon our success. you know, we raised the minimum wage. that's a excitingly good thing for people really feel that they can't afford to be here. we are investing in transportation. we are implementing a very serious tax reform. how could you have a tax system that was literally taxing jobs when you're saying i want those jobs in our city for everybody? we are investing in our city's youth and families and education system. in unprecedented level. i was with the school district the other night as they swore in the school board members that were just elected and i spent the entire evening with the school district. i wanted to demonstrate how important education is to the entire city. we are building housing. you are going to hear me, this year and any other year, whether i'm elected or not, it's going to

be housing housing housing for middle income for workforce housing, convertible income lovers. we are going to make sure that the resident benefit from a successful city. you know, san francisco is proving and it will continue to prove that you can have a strong economic growth city and still be a socially progressive leader for the nation. this is important i think to the conversation, to the rest of the country. i'm going to be talking about that over and over again because we can take care of a lot of people who have struggled in the economy was bad, but it's good practice to where investments should be. the two simply are not mutually exclusive and we can and will continue to support not just economic development, but our people. our families. our youth. our homeless. are kids who didn't get the attention and now they got our full attention. we want them to

succeed and all of our residents 60. so, with this story i just want to add value to that you'd were not sitting on the success just because your number one, we need to be number one in many other categories in particularly, what sort families and our youth and that's were going to continue to get with that, got to participate in the panel discussion and thank you very much. >> [applause] >> >> you're watching quick bites, the show that is san francisco. and today you're in for a real treat. oh, my! food inspired by the

mediterranean and middle east with a twist so unique you can only find it in one place in san francisco. we're at the 55th annual armenian festival and bizarre. this is extra special not only because i happen to be armenian, but there is so much delicious food here. and i can't wait to share it with all of you. let's go. armenia, culture and cusine has had much cultural exchanges with its neighbors. today armenian food infuses he flavor from the mediterranean, middle east, and eastern europe. >> this is our 55th year and in san francisco we're the largest armenian food festival and widely recognized as one of the best food festivals in the area. we have vendors that come up from fresno, from los angeles showing off their craft. we really feel like we have something for everyone in the neighborhood and that's really what it is, is drawing people to see a little bit of our culture and experience what we experience weekend in and weekend out.

>> we are behind the scenes now watching the chef at work preparing some delicious armenian kabob. this is a staple in armenian cooking, is that right? >> absolutely, since the beginning of time. our soldiers used to skewer it on the swords. we have a combination of beef and lam and parsley. and every september over 2000 pounds of meat being cooked in three days. >> after all that savory protein, i was ready to check out the fresh veggie options. >> this is armenian cheat sheet. it's tomatos and mint and olive oil. that makes summer food. and what i'm doing is i'm putting some nutmeg. it is kind of like cream cheese. in armenia when they offer you food, you have to eat it. they would welcome you and food is very important for them.

>> in every armenian community we feel like we're a "smallville"age and they come together to put on something like this. what i find really interesting about san francisco is the blends of armenia that come together. once they are here, the way people work together at any age, including our grandmothers, our grandfathers, skewering the meat, it's fun to see. fun to see everybody get together. >> we call it subarek. it's a cheese turn over if you want. we make the dough from scratch. we boil it like you do for la san i can't. >> the amount of love and karin fused in these foods is tremendous. they come in every day to prepare, cook and bake bread, all in preparation for this big festival. >> nobody says no. when you come them, they have to come tomorrow for the feast. >> what a treat it is to taste a delicious recipe, all made from scratch and passed down through generations. it really makes you appreciate

the little things. >> it's one of the best festivals. it's outstanding, a marvelous occasion. >> we're outside checking some of the food to go options. i grabbed myself a ka bob sandwich, all kinds of herbs and spices. i'm going to taste this. looking fantastic. one of the best i've had in a long time. you know it's delicious b i have just enough room for dessert, my favorite part. we're behind the scenes right now watching how all the pastries get made. and we've got a whole array of pastries here. honey and nuts and cinnamon, all kinds of great ingredients. this is amazing. here's another yummy pastry made with filo dough. oh, my god. really sweet and similar, it's lighter. this is what i like.

we have a lovely row here. looks like a very delicious and exciting surprise. i'm going to bite into it. here we go. um. this is great with armenian coffee. now we're making some incredible armenian coffee. >> we buy our coffee, they have the best coffee. they come from armenia, specially made. and would you like to try it? >> i would like to try. >> would you like sugar or no sugar? >> no sugar today. i'm so excited. really earthy. you can really taste the grain. i think that's what makes it so special. really comes out. i hope you try it.

we're having a great time at the armenian festival. we ate, we saw, and we definitely conquered. i don't know about you, but i have to go down to the food. check out our blog for so much more at sf bites at tums abler.com. until next time, may the force be with you. ♪ ♪ >> first of all, everybody is welcome and we ask two things when they get here. one, that they try something they've never tried before. be it food or be it dancing or doing something. and if they feel like it was worth their while to tell one person and bring that person, that family member, that friend down the street to come with them. >> we're going to have to do a lot of eating so get ready. >> get ready. and you diet tomorrow. harry truman

says the buck stops here and think they know what it means running cities, establishing budget and setting priorities and we'll make sure be hear about the priorities today. issues arond innovation funding partnership and maybe we'll get into hot topics like dog walking. i introduce our mayors panel i would like to thank landscape structures for thore support of the greater and greening conference and todays forum. they are a leader in play ground manufacturing lands scape [inaudible] enhance childrens lives by foster and creating

inspiring play experiences while haun aing the environment. please welcome pat [inaudible] prez dntd of landscape structures >> thank you mark. ee are proceed to bree a silver sponsor of greater and greener 2015. as this conference brought together leader professionals, advocates, funders and inovateers to discuss something near and dear to our hearts at landscape structures, parks, green spaces and communities. as the president i had the tubt to meet with many professionals arounds the cuntsry and learn about what they are doing to create great communities. i'm happy to report that like you using parks and playgrounds to improve the quality of life fl their stit phrns. as champions for park and play ground these

spaces help foret economy, public helths and environmental sustainability. by working with all of you we have seen how building parks and playgrounds trullly builds community. individuals from all waurks of life, all ages, all abilities and all culture come together in parks for exercise and recreation, slbrasion, community meet squgz more. farks and play ground are a medium for friends, families and neighbors to meet and connect. with creative design incorporated into your park environments, that connection goes even further with the community. well thout out design can turn parks and playgrounds into a space that teaches viz iters btd the historyf othe community, sends them on a seek and find adadventurer for [inaudible] or engages kids imagination with a

one of a kind play pm ground design. your meaning m design deliver a sonesf pride. i look for wrrd wrd from hearing about this group and learning about the opportunities for todays urban parks. even more i'm excited to weg welcome to my home state of minnesota for greater and greener. while you rib the twin cities check out the parks and playgrounds throughout the metro and connect with us to see the corporate head quarters just west of minneapolis in del naul. thank you. >> they think -thank you pat. it is now my pressure to introduce my boss. if you wanted a resume to be a can do mayor, you can't beat the one that we have. mayor lee

graduated from the university of california [inaudible] law school. he ran asian law caucus and became executive director of human rights followed by [inaudible] then director of public works. that culminated in 200 fifen by becoming the city [inaudible] the board of supervisors in san francisco uninanimously appointed edas the acting mayor and recognizing a opportunity to get a lot of good things done, he ran again for election and won. it is my pleasure to introduce to you a park chaimpian, mayor ed lee. >> thank you very much for

that introduction. good afternoon everyone. welcome to to the 3 time world series champion and county of the city of san francisco. i'm not [inaudible] mayors at all. i want to welcome you to san francisco and to celebrate the greater and greener parks and open space conference here. it is a wond rbful time in our city and i love these conferences where international, regional and national intelligence and innovation and people getting things done all over our cities and all over parts of the cuntsry come together and evaluate how we can exchange ideas and innovation and find out the latest and gratis. who is doing what in the public and

prives sector and all of this is happening in our city. i want to give a special welcome to our 3 additional mayors, mayor price, mayor white and mayor murray. the mayor of my city i grew up in. i just came from celebrating my mothers 90th birtday in seattle and it is wonderful to see their parks. growing as all these cities grow. this is a great time to have this conference in san francisco. i'm proud to host it here and proud of the reck and park and commission and parks alliance and trust for public lands and all our private partners working together with us to not only expand, to maintain, to reutilize and refresh open spaces in our city. just this weekend as you were here opening we had sunday streets

over in the bay view and it is exciting to always find out how people are celebrating those sunday streets. i know the other cities do that as well and it isn't just enough for us as a city to have the parks that we do have. we have to kick over streets once in a while and make sure those streets exhibit the kind of friendliness for at least a sunday to imagine and have our kids and families imagine how it is to play in open spaces without the challenges of the congested traffic. in our city we are growing rapidly. you see a lot of cranes as you come in. there is a bit of congestion on the streets, just a bit. we are growing and we are growing at a pace where our unemployment rate is 3.8 percent. some of the analyst believe that is close to 0.

not sure i believe that, but i do say that causes other challenges. our city and that is quhie i spend a lot of my time trying to build a goal of 30 thousand new homes by 2020. we are making sure we do that with the public private partnership. we are putting on a housing bound for san francisco to the tune of 250 million dollars. in a city like san francisco that might not be a lot of money, so we'll comp lment with that that with a private venture with the foundations fulaenthpist and bank to fry to mac with private funds that can accelerate the building of the housing. park squz open space are no different infrastructure necessities of the city than the transportation and businesses, than our water sewer systems, all of this

works to make our city success flt. i understood that through the many goals i had that have been able to play insuch, but i know full well that if you got a good infrastructure and have parks that center och that you will take care of a lot of families and with our parks it isn't just the physical aspeblths. as challenge as it may be, it is how you program and engage the parents and families and school districts and neighbors into making sure those park represents activities that could also take care of a lot of health challenges as well as be link tooz education, links to support sw after school programs, links to senior programs that are upmost necessity for a growing city. it is also critical to our young people. today san francisco boasts over 220

parks. we have 180 playgrounds. 6 golf courses. i played all 6 of them 3 times. 38 community gardens and growing. i think not unlike all the other cities, our urban parks and urban gardens are growing at a rapid pace. people want to be able to grow their own food and flowers and we have a lot of philanthopy that identifies that as the next great space if you will for investment. i don't know if you knew this, we are only 49 square miles, 15 percent of our city is open space. they of course reflect such iconic names as golden gate park, chrisy field and if tonight you visit quoit tower it will be

laden in orange for a good reason. 98 percent of our city lives within a 10 minute walk of a park. 98 percent. we are going to get to 100 percent. mark, we are get toog 100 percent and commit to that in a very short space. we have over 370 million dollars in parks bond to spend just this year we'll spend 15 and a half million dollars to go toward rehabilitation and refreshing 6 play grounds in san francisco. it is true that the private, the fill philanthropic, the city government, the state and the regional partnerships are very strong in our parks and that collaboration is absolute late essential not just for the maintenance of the parks and refreshing, it is for the

engagement of how these parks will look and are maintained. i was most excited when recently in the middle of the most impover rshed city called the tin loin area, we have a 9.3 million dollar investment just opened, reopened [inaudible] park with a strong strong collaboration. in fact, i think it was a year and a hamp of planning and meetings with neighborhood organizations, people use the parks, parents, kids, public and preeuvt school parents and their chaern engage with recreation and park and supervisors over the quality of the park and what it met. what it meant is 9.3 million investment and the sources are the state parks that invested and our own recreation park bonds, it was grants if the fill philanthropic foundation

all amassed in this investment and it come out with one of the best designed urban parks where i you have the 25/7 club house, a basket ball court and home grown flowers and reuse of water treatment and artificial tougher so more and more use can be had. thats a great investment and invite you to take a look at that park as our most reebt example of this collaboration. these kinds of investments in the park help the city become more successful, more inviting and more inclusive. parks are just like transportation and just like education, they are the great equalizers in citys that sometimes become more reflection of inequality. our parks have become at the

center, the effort to equalize things and with the philanthropy we are proposing along with city investments, we can fake care of a lot of low income families to participate more and more in the great programs. i will have more to say to that when we interact with the panel. it is now my pleasure to introduce from the great state of texas, a mayor in a very fast growing city, the city of fort worth, she is cochair of mayors and parks coalition and great parks champion herself, let me introduce betsy price, the new champion of parks. my question for her is, is it fort worth or fit worth texas? >> it is fit worth texas >> mayor price

>> thank you. first off i think we ought to take a minute and thank mayor lee and his team for this conference. they have done a incredible job. we have tr opportunity to get out and walk and i will tell you what, fort worth is very flat compared to san francisco. i'm a cyclist lie nature and someone said you are a biker and i said i'm a psycholer. the difference is i [inaudible] i would haet to cycle here. the hills we call challenging are like that. it is great to be with you, fort wort is a rapidly growing city with a population 792 thousand, 17 largest in the nation and with that like your cities we face major challenges. we add 65 new residence a day mpt. we

must be doing something right. the anticipate is be a million people and still growing. fort worth is fortunate in the parks program. we are a city of 352 square mails 550 miles of [inaudible] our population has druimateically changed just dh last 4 to 5 year jz that has changed how we look at our parks. our population has gone much lunger. we are a average age of 35. we were voted the best place in the nation for union millenniums to find a job, but also have a huge [inaudible] of senior citizens [inaudible] we have to figure thew program what they need and i'm 1 of them. how do we engage them and get there? for us it is the city, parks are a

incredible assetd because they bring that extra tool, engaged cities are more resilient, stronger and vibrant and more out spoken, which as a elected official is what you want. for economic development the ability >> student increase our helths of the community is directly tied to the parks programs. he mentioned it was 4 or 3 and a half years ago we started a program called fit worth to engage our kids because we were so worried about the growing epidemic of obesity, but to engage their families too. they have to track their eating, their exercise, water intake and sleep and they have to get their parents to commit. the first year alone 25 thousand children joined us in the effort and in 2 and a half year, we had a 4 percent

reduction in obesity rate in the children who are participating. our parks are a big piece of that. they serve as a easy way for us to get people engaged. we are in the midolaffbillion dollar river project to reclaim our river and open it up. last year we started a issue called rocking the river and the trinity use today be pretty much looked like a draij ditch. it is a southern river, a very warm river, not like yours. people get in it and they float on the tubes and last year alone 300 thousand people joined us on the river for day of exercise, a day of music and chance to get out. we passed a 290 million dollar bonds election recently and started out talking bts our bond elections because of our growth and who we are and rapid growth mpth we

need transportation infrastructure and started out with very little in parks, about 12 million in ld us as we went to sell them they wanted that change. we are willing to sacrifice transportation to have more park frz the family, particularly inner city parks rchlt we reduced trarnz portation and they passed the proposition for parks by 79.9 percent for 40 million dollars in parks. if citizens are not tells us they want parks, i don't know what that is and fort worth is in a midst of 5 year blue zone program which will engage all the citizens in improving the health. we are looking forward to what we can do. we levologs the public, private partnership to make