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 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 parks and our citizens told 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 dwrour dollars go firth aer. thank you for being interesting in the health of your citizens and the heth of the nation as a whole. >> hang on one minute here and i'll get the resume out for the next speaker and introduce him. i had a chance to meet mayor murray from seattle before the show started. he was in the state legislator for a long time and i asked him how does he like being mayor and he lit up. i said you that means

you are going to run for the next time and he said the next time and next time. he is having a good time and i'll tell you a little about him. he is the mayor of seattle sinss jan 2013 and served in the washington state senate from 2007-13 and before that 11 years in the washington state out of representative. he has bichb around a while and has inovateive programs he starlted to institute. we are interested in hearing how seattle approached all this. mayor murray >> it is good to be here from the land of sea hawks in san francisco. mayor lee started it. it was just after the election just over 15 months

ago we had a issue we had to face in our family. i'm married to someone who works for the seateal parks department and the question came up whether we can biltd parks in seattle and my husband said it will be my career before yours. i want to introduce someone who is a? credible committed person to the public parks and is the first gentlemen of the sitdy of seattle, michael [inaudible] where are you michael? on a serious note, mayor lee thank you for the hospitality and the city of san francisco. without the history of this city i wouldn't be here today. seattle parks created by the mome ked in 203 to do 2 things.

to represent the bulf natural environment of the city. the reason those born there stay and the reason people move there. secondly, as mayor lee referenced, these are the great places of democracy. these are the places where people come together. as a kid growing up in a namly of 7 kids in a working class neighborhood west seattle was then working class neighborhood, you don't go on haveication when you come from a familyf 7 kids, you don't go to restaurant with that many kids, so parks become the opportunity to experience the out doors. it was [inaudible] and lincoln park and [inaudible] where my sibling and i paid and had picnic jz today that is more important in every. today as we take approach to the park systematize is those valis we try to move for wrbd on. wree the fastest grouding city in

america [inaudible] expedia announced last week they are moving to down town seat al. this is a incredibility period as we grow, but it made the issue of inequality greater than before ask that is where the m and community centers come in. not just fl the union people, but for the seniors. we have 465 parks, 26 community centers and in a city-we are talking about the size of the [inaudible] in a city of 89 square miles, 564 acres of parks and open space. we faced a challenge. if you are from the west coast you understand this, we had a series of state wide nish tchbs thatd degraded our ability to dinns city service because of a the tax structure [inaudible] responded to that with the series of lev squgz the citizens voted for

those. fwroget maintenance and expansion of open space in the sitdy. the problem with levies is they are only 6 years and not on going sourceoffs rev new. what we were facing is a growing system where the maintenance and programming was significantly behind. we had about 300 million dollars in maintenance back log over 300 project throughout the park system when i became mayor. there was a discussion in the city how to approach this. one of the ways to do it was to continue to do levies every 6 years and that would have been easy and bleechb it would have passed. the other is create a permanent revenue source. in a city like seattle the internal politics don't look like the nation t. is the left [inaudible] and in this case it was part of the population spushs how we spend the money if they don't approve it every 6 year. we won the argument

that we can have citizen participation and establish a steady revenue stream so we can plan for parks over the long run. routh now 50 million dollars every year forever and unless things change and the voters do away with it, will come to the seattle park systems allowing to establishize programming for the community centers and inmaintenance and activation of the parks and allowing us to into into innovative program with the private sector. it is a great thing. it xhss back to isatey growing very rapidly and economy expanding rapidly. but a city that has to get growth roit thmpt city of seattle not only said yes to parks, they

also said yes to new taxes for the largest increase in bus service and for the first time in seateal new taxes to start prek for 3 and 4 year oltds, so i think my city is getting it. thank you. >> i'm looking forward to the q and a and the discussion because i think funding and how we do it is probably one of the most issues facing cities and parks in particular. now let me introduce to you nob nab white, he is a attorney in his native greenville sourth carolina that served as the cities 34 and current mayor since december 11, 1995, a longer tinnier than any mayor of greenville. from 1983 to 199thry the at large member of

the greenville city counsel and goes up for reelection this november and assume he'll win it again, mayor max white >> thank you very much. i didn't know we were getting into my political history. it is great to be here and share something that is very exciting if anyone doubts about the transformative power of park squz what it can do for the city. greenville south care rolina to get your geography is located half way between atlanta and charlotte. the economy changes thoferb last couple years and began a test och transforming or reinventing the local economy and also reinventing down town and after about 15 or 20 years we have

done that. we have a great down town t is walkable and pedestrian friendly and all the eminties of mixed use, lots of retail. all the things you want. about 8s or 9 years go about doing all that wasn't enough, there is still something missing. you want a city to be a place that you have a heart for. it is authentic and unique and a place people may want to go back again and again and what may that be? parks and green space. we had a asset that was over looked, we have a river called the rete river going through the city and have something remarkable-don't think the picture is up there-we have a water fall. believe it or not a 40 foot natural water fall that is only a few yards from main street thmpt story goes like this, the river was once the main stay of

the community, the center piece of the community in the 19th century but during the 20th century with industrialization the river became polluted. the river becomes fluted and the city turns its back on the river, forgets about it and believe it or not sort of the ultimate disgrace, in 1960 the state high way department put this on top of it. a 4 lane high way bridge on what uns was the birth place of the community. over time in the 1980's the water became less polluted and cleaner and we began to talk about the publt possibility of reclaiming the falls. that was a very tough sale because when this bridge went up that was 1960, that meant for 40 years people who live said in greenville all

their lives didn't know or remember we had a water fall. we lost the entire institutional memory that the fall existed, the falls that was once the center piece of the city so it was a tough sale. we basically said to people we propose to spends 13 million dollars to build a beautiful park and public garden around a water fall you have never seen, trust us. and they didn't. mr. may,or, i waited until i was reelected to take this on. it was a tough sale because people didn't know the water fall was there. we were tibel remove the bridge and i have the next picture and created falls park. you only

see a slice of it here, but the is a beautiful pedestrian suspension bridge where there was once a 4 lane high way. there is about 20 acres in the park t. is a lush guardsen and what you don't see and do see people and they enjoy it all the time, it is the center piece, but what you don't also see in the picture just a few yards from main street is wep spent 13 million on the park and within a year and a half we had 180 million dollars invested 1 plauck from the park. hotel, condoes, retail, office. we also had launched from this section is 18 mileoffs bike and walking paths

from the water fall. 18 miles up river and 5 miles the other direction. we have tourism now. huge tourism trade. people from the greater at lanlta area come to? joy the rest jaunts down town and the park. the iminties are coming all the time. economic development, tourism, governor school for the arts located, but most of all it is something of tremendous pride for people in the community t. is the identity of the city now and the scepter piece of the city as it was 100 years ago. not bad for a park. thank you very much. >> i want you to know that wasn't too bad for 4 elected officials who were given 2 to 5 minutes each. that is a record right there.

>> it is a important subject we are talking about >> mayor price i won't go up against you, you have done amazing things as have all these mayors, but i want to chat about the elephant in the room when it comes to park and public perception qu that is funding. you joined chicago and minneapolis in doing independent funding for your park system which seems like a bold move. can you talk about the debate around that issue? >> sure, the independent funding is not independent district, it is still the mayors system so i still run the park system and the counsel is still the counsel, but it is con strict in state law that allowstuse do something outside the general fungd. the center of the contversey is could we be trusted to make the right

decision. we are given a blank check is what the aopponentants called. we would spend the money and the parks won't improve. the same constituents beat me up about not raising the taxes and people beat me up for trying to raise taxes. difference in local government. the key moment after the election i met with the citizens group looking at deing the parks district, the funding source. and they were pretty much unkwideed and probably leaning against it. this was the first opportunity for me to learn what it was like to be mayor. i said i'll put this on the table. if you don't come windup the recommend i respect that but i will put it on the table because we need to have the discussion. they went back and thought and recommended to the couns uland counsel pass

td. again, there was a huge fear that somehow bureaucrats are getting the mun a. we have a parks [inaudible] appointed by the mayor and conformed by the counsel, we have a overvite group of citizens that review the expenditure plan for the new revenue source so that is how we reach thd compromise and one about 55 percent >> may get other mayors opinions about the fundsing of your s and park squz is this something that is attractive to the rest of you? >> i don't think that is a mechanism we will do. ours are funding in several different stringsism fort worth was at the heart of the [inaudible] drill, the first of the urban drilling and whether you are a drilling fan or not, the fracing brought millions of kls in and why we never allowed drilling in the parks a lot of the gas is gathered from under

the park lands through off site fracing and that money goes into the endowment and trust that generated millions of dollars we can use for the parks. the other piece we leviageed very significantly is public private partnership. we have incredbly generous citizens who love their parks and just recently we accept ad3.1 million dollar grant to redo our rock garden and botanic garden from a family whos parent have been in fort worth forever and took a 80 year old golf course who had seen better days-you know how the golf courses are. it couldn't be habed and wasn't being played and turned it into a community and dog park and one of the families raised all most a million for the park and the city matches it. the state

of texas has grants. with leverage the land and water conservation fund matching our dollar significantly and i'm cochair of mayors for parks so that sign will be funded and due [inaudible] if you mares are not a member of that, there are 40 of us members and encourage to join. it is critical this fund be refunded because all have land and water consurivation costs: the other tool that we use on parkicize a new development going in. i mentioned we are a very sprawled out city, good or bad we just are and growing, but our dwechers have to dedicate 3 acres of park for every thousand of population and have to dedicate a certain amount of money up and to help program it >> we would kill for 3 acres

in san francisco. >> i had a question for mayor murray, it sounds like you didn't have to go to had voter tooz change that stream of revenue >> we did, it went to the balt last august and won by 55 percent. >> 55 percent. how long was -how long did it take to have that conversation so you felt more comfortable in presenting it to the voters >> i sent the recommend in january and think the sounsal sent it to the had balt in may and passed it august. over basically a 8 mujt period of time >> had it ever been lifted before? >> not in seattle, had t had in other cities >> i ask that because we started a conversation here with the parks alliance about a steady stream of revenue fl parks. we had great success in

the 4 year anniversary of our parks bonds and have done very well in the parks bonds and those bonds produced very high quality parks and thing this is where i think the billings of the public trust happened because everyone watched what you have din in the past to complete all these projects and then when you do invite, as i know mayor price talked about, when you invite philanthropy the first thing is how to hold you accountable because if we put money in it from the private sector accountability is delivering on those results and we have done ver wale in restoring the privest [inaudible] so we can have this conversation. one of my concerns of course is the same concern is how are we trusted with this ongoing stream and whether or not it requires a

update. we are open to that discussion, but i will say this, people will look at that today precisely because wree a very strung economicically strong city. they wouldn't look at that stream if our values of the land were up and down up and down so whatever we end up doing is going to require that we continue to be an economically strong city. if we falter on that it doesn't matter what stream you have, it will go down whether it is land prices or the value of housing in san francisco. >> i was sitting for some of the work shops and a lot of discussion was about money and budget and that is always the concern, one thing mayors do is look at the city hol istically and this is a great conference of parks and great to see families and people enjoy, but