working on the walkway to other parts around the area, i thought it would be of interest for me to bring in whether it be chain link around different corners so people would know there is a part that has to do with the main entrance to the pool area, and i thought if people know ahead of time and see the corners like chain-link fences, corners of it, then everybody knows it is dog play area. i was standing there waiting around looking at the people looking at the soccer game. there wasn't too many people at the dog play area. this is not quite the right time to talk about it. there is something that might be

able to be done considering there the other construction around thattic area. thank you. >> thank you. [please stand by]

(in progress). >> we are now on item six, the san francisco zoo. >> i'm going to give folks a mint t minute to exit the roo, and then we'll...

>> okay -- oh, no, wait a minute. i thought they were -- okay, we're ready to move forward. >> okay. >> chairwoman: or not? >> thank you, commissioners. we also have a power point accompanying this reporter. i'd like to start my report recapping our zoofest celebration, and thank you, commissioner harrison, for your comments about zoofest, and thank you commissioner minucommissionermcdonald for at. this was a great event. we particularly highlighted our 90th anniversary. we had 400 people in attendance.

we celebrated our long time board member ted oaks and his wife, and we celebrated tonya peterson's 10 years at the zoo. and we had supervisor yee issue commendations, and mayor breed declared zoo day on april 12th, so it was a great event. one of the highlights in the next slide was our live auction and our animal nameings. namings. they raised about $200,000 for animal care and conservation of the species in the wild. and we're hoping that the sumattran tiger will breed soon, since there are only about 400 left in the entire world. his new name is is princeton. in april, we are recognizing many spring breaks and families coming to the zoo, with a special

discountediscount for family reunions, for anyone who books ahead of time to come to the zoo. we pride ourselves on being affordable and accessible, and this is another way to do that. we have our first orangutan coming in many, manys years many, many years. this syears is anine-year-old m. and there are only about 50,000 lester in th,000 left in. we're hoping he will become the patriarch at the zoo himself. i was pleased to hear about general manager ginsburg comment about the support for families with disabilities. on march 30th, we welcome that same organization to the zoo for family access day. as i mentioned our joint zoo presentation earlier, we really pride ourselves in providing accessible facilities for people with special needs. and for the family's access day, we created an

early opening to reduce sensory stimulation, for those with needs in that area, and our area designed for people with visual disabilities was available to them. pomroy works with adults and children with disabilities. because of our next door neighbor, we invite pomroy participants to come to the zoo. it includes veterans, make a wish participants, first responders, as our zoo mobile, which goes out to many community groups. i wanted to finish up with "earth day." we will be celebrating earth day at the zoo this year. we have partners like ecology, muni, and others

sharing what they're doing in that area. i'm hoping it is indeed a earth day celebration, and not a 4/20 celebration. i'm taking off my zoo hat and putting on my tennis coalition hat, and thanks to commissioner doll and aly andall of the other who's made that work. >> chairwoman: is there anyone else who would like to be heard? >> good morning, again. last month tonya peterson, the executive director at the zoo, spoke about the breeding. the sumatra tiger, and the fellow who is going to be doing the breeding, his looks like a young, healthy animal. i think he'll be out of quarantine soon -- i'm not sure. but i had kind of second thoughts about it, and i couldn't help but recollect at a different

time, they had all of the noise to attack, carbon dioxide gas going into the lockup and the breeding. i wanted to add it wasn't here, it was somewhere in the southwest. with this type of breeding, i was hoping to decrease any accidental mauling over the tiger breeding. that to be included if something, if possible, a temperature grade. i think women know more about it than men do. and doing the graphing, and possibly to project a better access to breeding temperature and the time when the breeding actually happens. when the breeding actually -- it's something that is animal husbandry, and when i look at it, it doesn't have much to do with

embriology -- these are wild animals. i haven't come up with a way, to attach on it -- i don't know if you can put a temperature gauge on her, but if it works, you might still prevent the killing that happened not too long ago in the southwest. i'm just hoping we can get some way of measuring the receptive of our female sumatra tiger. thank you. >> chairwoman: is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on item number six. seeing none, the public comment is closed. commissioners, this was discussion only. we're now on item 7, the echo centre at herring park, approval of memorandum of understanding. >> good morning. my name is brenda, and i'm with the volunteer

division with the recreation and parks department. i just want to say that we did present this on the april 4th operations committee meeting, and at that time we hadn't received approval from the port commission, and so we are here on the general calendar to present present ando over the m.l.u. >> so like we're proposing to enter an m.l.u. with the port, the eco-center is located in the southeast sector of san francisco, in district 10, inside of a park called parents head park. the eco-center is a special facility because completely off the grid. it has solar powers, it has a waste water treatment plant inside that treats its own water. it is a really cool

environmental, sustainable building, that serves as a community classroom. and it actually was constructed about nine years ago, and it was opened to the public in 2010, in april, which is why we'll be celebrating earth day event on sunday, the 21st. it was advocated by the literacy for environmental justice, approved by san francisco. rec and park will be operating the program, and has been operating programs at herrington park since 2010. we actually have several programs there. and i'm going to slide over -- actually, can i use this mic? okay. actually, i'm going to backtrack here. the m.l.u. agreement terms that we have is with the port, which is to continue to provide public access hours, at least five days a week, including one weekend day, track and record visitors and usage of the facility, and send monthly reports to the

port, work with community stakeholders and develop programming and events that interest the bay view hunter's community. and provide two staff to provide operation of the building. and stored the landscape area adjacent to the eco-center. provide our own services to keep it clean to the public. and share it with the hunter's bay community organization to use for community workshops, and provide free programs at the eco-center to local communities, and over all events. like i said, we have been working at herrington park for about nine years, from a work order from the port. and we've averaged about 3,200 hours of service. we served about 9,000 youth, and facilitated over 80,000 total hours. and with this proposal being at the eco-center, we expect to increase our

stewardship along about 2% the first year. and so a lot of those programs that we do, our green program, which is an internship program for high school students, and we hire students from the southeast sector. we have our youth stewardship program, and we're in our 2n 22nd year. and it is a dual program where you provide interchips for adults. so we hire about five to six s.c.a. interns to run the program. and so we're serving two different avenues. and we have our youth development collaboration, and we work with more structured programs through the j.v.k. vocational service program. we've been placing interns throughout the park for years, and we also have an arts collaborative, literacy collaborative students from downtown

high that come out and dive deep into the education and resttation arestorationat herrington park. and we have national coastal cleanup day. we work with a lot of corporate groups and non-profits to come and restore the land and learn about the birds and the history of herring tonton park. and we've had healthy walks at herrington park for the lost four years. so we're already involved at the eco-center, so it is not a big change for us to come over here. it will be a natural ral fit fofitto come here and work h the programs to continue to expand the opportunities for district 10. so there are four new activities that we do plan to implement our first year. one of them is sunday engagement program. it might just be the weekend program over all. and so that's an opportunity for us to engage with public users

to learn about birds and nests, and we'll have some specimens. it is more like a mobile museum we plan to take on to the trail. we're going to be conducting surveys to get a real understanding of what brings them to the park, so we can use that information to develop programs and build different events that will help, or that meet their interests. we're currently actually implementing a third public saturday workday through our newest partnership with the probation enrichment program. and this summer we'll be hosting our summer camp from the joelia rec center from 10:00 to 1:00. a lot of this work is made possible through our partnerships. and we'll continued with our partnerships and build relationships with the organizations that are serving the population we want to reach. the port has been a huge

supporter for years, and the green usage is in collaboration with the port. they have supported literacy program, and so justice is a staple in district 10. and they help us a lot with the work scope and understanding of some of the wetlands' features. a.p.r. has been a big supporter in helping to recruit youth, and we'll be working a lot with them in developing new programs at the eco-center. the student conservation association has been a supporter and why we have interns serving in our youth stewardship program. the parks alliance has been big supporters for both of our programs, and parks in general. and that's our green usage program. thank you for your time. and that concludes my presentation. >> thank you very much. >> chairwoman: do we have any public comment on this item? come on up.

>> good morning, commissioners. my name is carol bock, i'm the environmental affairs manager for the port of san francisco. and i am here to urge you to support execution of this memorandum of understanding with the port. i made an informational presentation in march and they voted on april 9th in favor of staff executing the memorandum of understanding. we have worked with rec and park staff for almost 10 years at herring's head park, and we are just 100% confident, and also what we've heard from our contingents, since this agreement was proposed, has supported that confidence that rec and park is really the best entity to make the -- to get the best public benefit that the eco-center facility has to offer. i'm really excited about working with them, and the

opportunities that are presented by having them be able to bring all of the work that they've done outside into the park and expand it into this unique facilitymenfacility. thank you. >> thank you. >> chairwoman: next speaker. >> good morning, commissioners, general manager ginsburg, good morning. >> chairman: can i get you to speak into the mic. >> does my clock start over? >> chairwoman: yes, but you need to speak into the mic. >> can you hear me now? >> yes. >> good morning. my name is kirk rhymes, and i'm with the program in san francisco. i'm also a district 10 resident. and for the past six years, i've been very much involved in the eco-center. for the interest of time, i want to be short and brief and to the point

because the eco-center has a lot of history with my community. there are thousand linear feet away t-a community, a commm trying to engage in in this space. i'm in support because i hope that the opportunities and histories and relationships that have been promised will be fulfilled. i'm very much looking forward to working with our p.d. in doing this as a resident and as the a.p.r. i. program manager. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> chairwoman: next speaker. >> good morning commissioners. my name is jackie flynn, i'm the executive director at the a.philip randolph institute in san francisco. the eco-center is a hub for innovation and education for all. it was a commitment to the bay view hunter's point community that has

suffered enormously from ahs of neglect and planned racism. the eco-center was a programs and commitment to environmental and social justice, through education, retaining our history, engaging the community, creating local and green jobs, and a space for life-inspiring students. for the last six years, my team at apri, has worked hundreds of hours, poured in sweat, equity and love into the eco-center. our hope is we get to see the vision of our supervisor sofia maxwell, green actions' marie harrison, and tessy ester from hunter's view, who fought tirelessly to provide social justice to our community. so we are in support of the transition and m.o. u., and we're committed to continuing to be a community partner. i want to take a moment to think folks, like kim

kiefer, who is not year, alongside brenda, one of the biggest green users' fans. phil, you're so genuine when you provide opportunities for our community, and i recenter appreciate. and also thank carol bott from the port because we have worked on this for years. i'm very much happy to see the efforts of leadership. so in closing, we're hopeful with the right leadership, our community can fulfill this commitment together. i thank you guys very much. >> thank you very much. >> chairwoman: is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this item? being none, complic public commt is closed. >> mr. ginsburg, did you want to weigh in on that? >> very briefly. it is mostly gratitude, beginning with carol and elaine forbes and the port for your long-standing

partnership along the southern waterfront, and your confidence and faith in us. we really appreciate that. it is very meaningful. to brenda, for your initiative and drive and really taking green agers, and our stewardship of the eco-center to the next level. this has been a real passion project for you, and that's very obvious, and that's why we have the right person at the helm. and, just lastly, to jackie and curt, but to the community more broadly, thank you for your trust in us as well. and we are very humble and aware of the important history of this site and both the actual and symbolic promise of environmental justice that this building holds. and we will do our best, in partnership with you, to make good on our commitments. >> thank you.

the chair would entertain a motion? >> moved. >> seconded. >> all those in favor? >> yea. >> so moved. >> chairwoman: we're now on item 8, the synthetic turf replacement project. >> good morning, commissioners, an i'm general manager dan morrow with the capital improvement division. i'd like to read the agenda for the record and then i'll go into a little more detail on why i'm here. what i'm requesting today is discussion and possible action to authorize the rec and park department to negotiate a construction contract with the silver sympathetic turf replacement project, as required under the san francisco administration code 6.23c, subparagraph two. i have a clerical error,

it is actually 6.23, not 02. about a week and a half ago, i came to the capital committee and gave a brief discussion only on this item, to replace some worn-out, sympathetic turf at these facilities, with new synthetic turf, and do some upgrades, replacing fencing, fixing the bleechers, adding a drinking fountain, and making some a.d.a. im movementimprovements that are necessary. we didn't have bids in at that pointer. we weratthe point. we were waiting for the bid period to close, which was the following day. unfortunately, we only received one bid as a part of that process, and it was substantially higher than our budget for the construction work. with that we scratched our heads a little and tried to figure out what our next steps were. we went to the city public

works office, and we saw when you receive one bid over the estimate or no bids, it affords the department to move forward with a negotiation process with a qualified contractor. as part of that process, it also requires that we get the general manager's approval to move forward before we ask for your permission. so in your packages, jewel you'll see a letter that commissioner ginsburg signed. my goal is to move forward, find a competent contractor, and negotiate a bid price that is lower than the bid we received. and more in tune with the project budget that we've identified for the project. with that said, we obviously stretched the time out a little bit here because once that negotiation process takes place, i'll have to come back to you for the standard process of a contract approval process. so my goal is to enter isn't a negotiation

scenario, get a price that is reasonable and appropriate for the project, and then come back to you, hopefully next month, with a proposal to award a construction contract. what that may mean is the construction duration may shift a little at our first project, we were anticipating starting that on june 1st, and completing in october. but because of this sequence of events, we'll probably have to push that construction process to july and negotiate a shorter construction window for that particular project. coleman will follow that, and start construction in december and finish in april-ish. i'm happy to answer any questions. >> commissioner harrison. >> today we're voting on to allow you to go into the negotiations process? >> yes. the administration code allows us to negotiate with either the bidding contractor who submitted the bid, see if we can get

to an appropriate place, or go to another contractor who meets the qualifications of the original bid process. >> and then you'll come back to us? >> and then we'll come back to you with a name and number and a contract request award. >> secondly, as i mentioned at the capital committee the other day, i want to thank you and congratulate for you due diligence and finding a new in-fill on this turf. it has been kind of a touchy subject for a while. thank you for your work. >> i have a question, but let's do public comment first? >> chairwoman: is there any public comment on this item? >> richard? [laughter] >> good morning. i had a little chat with mr. amar earlier, and i concluded that it is good for the commission to approve of the right to

negotiate. that is not the main gift of whagistof what i want to talk about. it is the use of the legal ballpark -- i was hoping that they would be able to find a way varying the size of the ball field. i want to introduce women's softball, so that's recreation and a larger field than the little leaguers. so of such planning, is there a way you can make adjustments, where it is used by both the little guys and little gals and women's softball? i think it is just adding on different pieces of synthetic turf and moving the bags around,and then there will be a higher degree of recreational usage of such area. other than that, i like the idea they're going to have good stuff in there. it is not that black

rubber thing that i didn't like. it was -- that's about it. i hope they can get that softball-sized, and maybe some of the gals here might want to swing a bat. i think you'll get better park usage because there be league guys on most of the weekends. >> thank you. >> chairwoman: is there anyone else who would like to make public comment? being none, public comment is closed. >> thank you. >> i just wanted to say i'm glad that we did this demonstration, that our experiment worked, and that we have some options to the traditional sympathetic field. and so the question i wanted to ask is that going forward, i know it has been pretty standard procedure that we replace our fields,lik, like every 10

years? that will continued to be the case for both fields? >> the lifecycle for these fields is approximately eight to 10 years. i think we have some experience with the fields lasting a little longer than that, but, yeah, we do expect to have the same lifecycle with this alternate in-fill. commissioner, it has been a long road on this program. as you'll recall, what we said when conversations about the original in-fill material caused concern, we said, (a) we stood by the date tan the belief thadata and the beliefthat the . we knew this technology was going to evolve over time, and alternate in-fills were just beginning, but we didn't want to just jump in. we didn't want to be the ones to go out and purchase them not knowing

how -- you know, how resilient they were going to be. and now we have enough experience, and a lot of the manufacturers are also using alternate in-fills, and this is the way of the future. you have to remember, these fields don't require any water, don't require any herbicides, much lower maintenance costs. and more importantly, in a dense city like hours, they afford more opportunities for play. it's that simple. >> having lots of family members that play soccer, i personally want to express my appreciation and thanks for this special effort. >> thank you. >> dan, the cost, or the bid, seems so much higher than the budget. [laughter] >> with that experience that we're getting of getting better products, we don't seem to be getting better prices. what's happening there? >> um...i'm still scratching my head a little bit on this one. not to get into the weeds

on this, there are a few contractors out there that have the experience on putting synthetic turf fields in. it requires kind of a unique skill set and some experience doing it. some of our standard contractors in the city that do terrific work in our park system, don't have the experience to do the section of synthetic turf that is required. it is not just the green stuff. the more important element is the base below that. and getting that correct and the drainage and the material correct is the backbone of the system. with that, as part of the outreach process, i talked to and did some outreach to four or five different contractors we worked in the past, a lot of them in the bay area, and lot of them are not city contractors. little interest from some, and little response from others. i think folks are two busy. so we only ended up with one bid on this. since receiving the bid,

we sat down with the architect and the contractor and tried to line crawl through where the deviation was. we found some items -- and i'll use this at one example. we had some minimal painting work out there on some concrete walls, painting from our standard khaki green to a more bright and joyful color. the contractor wanted half a million dollars to do painting. and that's after the contractor reaching out to 15 different painting subcontractors, and only receiving one bid from them. so that is an example of why their bid was higher than anticipated. it's just a difficult climate right now with subcontractor it'ss, and the local hiring goals, which increased some of the bid prices. i'm hoping looking at different subcontractors and doing a little more

outreach, we can hone in on a price we can afford and get this project moving. >> good luck. i don't see any other questions. entertain a motion. >> motion to approve. >> seconded. >> all those in favor, so moved. thank you. >> chairwoman: as mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, item nine is off calendar. item 10, is there anyone here who wishes to make general public comment that did not comment on item four. come on up. >> thank you commissioners. thank you, general manager. this is my first public comment. i'm a resident of pratr pratrao hill. my family lives across from jackson park, on arkansas street. my child goes to live oak school, and i have an office on 17th street,

next to the parkside. so i spent 24 hours a day around jackson park, to be honest. i'm also a coach in the sfydl, and my child plays there as well, and i'm a coach in the junior warriors, and we play soccer as well, but not through the city directly. we love jackson park. we love everything about it. we love hearing the softball players come at the end of the day. today we'll have our windows open, it is a beautiful day, and we'll hear the sounds of the game coming in. but it needs some love and care. it is a park that is a little closed off to the residents of the neighborhood, there are big fences that surround it. we can't quite use it as a park. it is a baseball field, a softball field. i love hearing about the plans to renovate it, to put some t.l.c. into the park. we're hoping you support that. there has been a lot of development in our neighborhood over the past five years, there are

some, i think, 30,000 units opening within a two-mile radius of the park, and we don't have really any unprogrammed space to hang out in that is not devoted to sports, which, again, i love, i'm also a softball player. what i'm hoping is that the commissioner will support the full funding for the park that is going forward. and that's that. >> thank you for coming to see us. >> thank you for having me. have a good day. >> chairwoman: is there anyone else who would like to make jen publi general public comment? seeing none, this item is closed. item 11, commissioners, any public comment? >> defense attorney: public comment is closed. item 12, new business agenda setting? public comment? being none, it is closed. item 13, communications?

any public comment. being none, public comment is closed. item 14 is a adjournment. >> moved and seconded. >> seconded. >> thank you very much. >> chairwoman: thank you, commissioners. >> we're here today because the let's play s.f. initiative is committed to building new opportunities for childhood creativity and play. let's play s.f. is a public-private partnership

between recreation and park and the san francisco parks alliance give them a big round of applause. [applause]. >> which led to a citizen task force that unanimously recommended 13 playgrounds to be renovated all across the city as the first step in inspiring community creativity and wellness for 20,000 children. we are breaking ground today on not one, not two, not three, but five playgrounds. i skipped number 4, but 5 playgrounds. [applause]. >> we are breaking ground right here at panhandle, we are breaking ground at alice chalmers, at mclaren, in merced heights and in sergeant mccauley in the tenderloin. we are here today in the panhandle because these types of partnerships, in this kind of investment in parks takes leadership. we are joined today by not one,

but two elected officials from this community, from this neighborhood. both of whom have served on the board of supervisors. one of whom has graduated to a different office. so it is my incredible pleasure to introduce our mayor, london breed, and we want to thank her for keeping equity. [cheers and applause]. >> we want to really thank her for keeping equity at the center of what we do here in parks, and what we do in our city. from playgrounds, to access to more open space, these are all incredibly vital to the health and welfare of all san franciscans, and we are so grateful for mayor breed charge at leadership. it is your turn at the microphone. >> thank you. thank you. welcome to the panhandle. you know, i am so excited to be here because this project specifically, and in this

particular playgrounds right behind me, it has been a long time coming. this community has fought to really improve playgrounds throughout this district, and we are doing it one playground at a time. i grew up not too far from here in the western edition. i spent my whole childhood at margaret hayward playground, and i'm so excited because we just broke ground a few months ago, and that place is going to be transformed to something that's absolutely unbelievable, and will serve young people for generations to come. the work that recreation and parks department continues to do to invest in our recreational assets all over san francisco is critical to ensure that we have a healthy san francisco so that our kids grow up and stay have the opportunities to enjoy themselves in these incredible

play structures. now we've spent a lot of time playing, but we also spent a lot of time messing around in the parks. you know what i mean, hanging out, talking, swimming on the swings, when the swing would break, we would figure out creative ways to put the swing back together again. we were resilient in our parks back then and we will continue to be resilient in our parks now this is an incredible opportunity made possible not just by the support of the parks department, but because the voters, time and time again, continue to support initiatives that allow for us to invest in these parks and playgrounds is why we are able to really transform parks all over san francisco in such an amazing way we do it also because of our private partners, and we are so grateful that the parks alliance and the work that they continue to do to fund raise more parks in san francisco is critical to

our ability to do projects like this. i know that the family foundation is here today. thank you so much for your investment and so many incredible opportunities, as well as jeff here from the foundation who continues to really make these incredible investments. it means a lot, it is so great to have an incredible leader and phil ginsberg and the members of the commission who time and time again bridge those gaps with those partnerships, so that we can do everything we can in this city to make sure our recreation and parks space, our facilities, are the best anywhere, because we love our parks, whether it is running through them, whether it is playing basketball at them, whether it is swinging in the swing set, whether it is playing checkers like i used to do, i don't know if anyone still plays checkers, but i played checkers and chess in the recreation

centers and monopoly. whatever it is, to ensure that these safe, great spaces are available to young people is so critical, and that is why san francisco is such an amazing place, and i am just so happy to be here. it is a long time coming." congratulations on this part here in the panhandle, and so many other recreational spaces that we know are going to be transformed so that these young folks can visit parks all over san francisco and have an amazing time. thank you all so much for being here. [cheers and applause]. >> our other district five champion has been an advocate and commute -- and community member in this neighborhood for 25 years. she is the heartbeat of district five and is continuously fighting for what's best for residents, families, and children. supervisor brown has worked hard to ensure that playground play is accessible for all ages and

abilities. she has become one heck of a park champion. it is my privilege to introduce supervisor vallie brown. [cheers and applause]. >> thank you, thank you everyone for being here today. thank you to the donors, all the children that are here, because this is going to be -- you will be here in the next couple of years having a good time, but i also want to thank the neighborhood groups because i remember, as a legislative age going out and starting to talk to the neighbors about doing this. i remember some neighbors said you are going to take away our park? our playground? this is -- we use this all the time, but what was really amazing is how the haight-ashbury community, north of the panhandle community, we have lilo gail and charles here from north of the panhandle community, and others who said yes, let's do this. how can we help? and that is how we create these amazing parks. i've been around a long time.

i've been a legislative aide and it has been so much fun to watch these different parks and recreation centers open up, like hamilton. hayes valley playgrounds. now the panhandle park. we are actually standing in one of the oldest parks in the city. this area of the park is 100 years old. isn't that amazing? and to think that it is beautiful, when i ride my bike through here on my way to work back and forth, i love seeing this park active. i love hearing the kids yell and scream and laugh. it actually brings me up, especially when i've had a hard day, and to have this park, into have the kind of playground that we will have is so amazing, and to be able to have kids get out, and we all know that when kids go out and they play, they are

actually, they are smarter. they actually solve problems easier, they get their vitamin d , all the great things that you need to become an amazing adult, and we are going to see that from these kids who come and play. i want to thank everyone for coming today. it is atypical haight-ashbury day. we all have our jackets on, and thank you, and let's play. [cheers and applause]. >> the let's play initiative would not be possible without the incredible partnership with the san francisco parks alliance they help provide opportunities for all children to have safe, imaginative, welcoming places to play. through our partnership, and through their work, generous donors have contributed nearly $10 million towards our collective 14.5 million-dollar philanthropic goal. the recreation and park

department simply could not have a better partner than all of the hard-working staff and board members in the san francisco parks alliance speaking on behalf of the san francisco parks alliance today is the chair of the board of directors, liz farrell. [applause]. >> thank you all for being here. on behalf of the parks alliance, i would like to thank me or breed for your support, and for being such a champion of parks and public spaces, and for continuing to make that a priority. thank you. thank you to our supervisors for your support, intercourse thank you to recreation and park, you without your partnership, let's play s.f. would not be possible. playgrounds are one of the most equitable things we have in our city. these playgrounds will help transform the lives of over 20,000 kids, and some of our most high need neighborhoods.

playgrounds are a wonderful place for kids to create, play, and explorer, and as a mom of three kids myself, i know how important playgrounds are for both physical and mental health. i look forward to these playgrounds and all playgrounds in our city being a wonderful place for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect and celebrate what truly makes our city so great together. thank you. [applause]. >> all right, now you get the pleasure of hearing from two neighbors and community members. they are involved in organizations whose kids use this space every day. first up, i want to welcome rodney chin to the microphone. rodney has been a key panhandle community leader. he is involved in the ymca afterschool program at new elementary schools and the ymca

has been a great partner in our system. together we worked to work to make sure our kids have healthy and safe places to play. rodney? [cheers and applause]. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. it is a great honor to be here today as a resident of the ymca, we let you know that we do run two afterschool programs in the panhandle area. new tradition school has over 200 kids in that school, and also the chinese immersion school which is here. so this panhandle playground falls right in the middle of both sections that we operate our programs in. it is so important for our kids and their families to have a place to come together and recreate together. growing up in san francisco, as a native san franciscan, and no current resident in d5, there are not very many places where kids can just come on their own and play it like i used to be able to do growing up.

so this is a great place to bring family together, families feel safe, and just part of the community. we are so thankful that the parks alliance and the park and recreation departments have come up with this great plan for the panhandle. thank you very much. [applause]. >> and now you get to hear from a long time panhandle resident, father of new traditions and an elementary school student, and in his spare time, not only is either involved in the san francisco parks alliance, but he was actively involved in the community process to redesign this playground. welcome tim sieber. [cheers and applause]. >> longtime residents. i'm starting to feel like an o.g. here in the panhandle, i guess. it is really great to have all of you here today surrounded by friends and community members and folks i know from school and longtime neighbors. we have lilo gail and london

breed and vallie brown, this is exciting. i'm really happy to see it, and drinking is incredible. if you haven't seen the plans, you really have to take a look at this, but it is already starting to come into shape here i have no doubts that the next generation is going to enjoy this park is not as we have. we have had events from pacific primary preschool going back a few years to new traditions, as was mentioned, to all kinds of gatherings of friends and students and what have you. i'm very excited to see this here, and very excited to have you all here today. [applause]. >> thank you, tim. before we get to the business at hand, we don't do this alone, there are a number of acknowledgements we want to make i want to start by thanking some of our additional elected leadership you're here today because of their incredible support, supervisor safai from district 11 is here, you might notice that he is one heck of a

park advocates. you might notice two of the five are in his district. thank you for all of your work. i also want to acknowledge the vice president of the recreation and parks commission who has helped guide the entire let's play process, and has made sure that our funding is in place, and that the process has been transparent. it has had a significant amount of community input. thank you commissioner alan lowe [applause]. >> the mayor acknowledged a few special people who are here, but we could not have done this without our incredible, passionate donors who really care about kids and parks. so let me also acknowledge jeff farber, the chief executive director of the foundation. thank you, jeff. [applause]. >> jody pritzker. [applause] which one are we from?

they have been incredibly generous neighbors and involved in not just this project, but also the tennis center project in golden gate park. thank you for all of your interest in parks. amy rubino, the director of the foundation family fund, thank you to amy. staff from san francisco for sports and recreation. thank you for your entire grapefruit stepping up here. anna, you have been amazing, i also want to acknowledge a captain from park station. [applause] i want to acknowledge jim elling from kaiser, they have been an incredible partner with us and supporting the playground, also present today our energy and robert from the parks and recreation open space advisory committee, thank you to prozac for all of your support and involvement. we have our construction and

design team here. i want to thank contracting and rha landscape architecture. thank you for this. i also want to thank the city staff that's been involved in the design process. i saw albert from public works here. thank you for your incredible partnership. to my own team, to caribou prior to is not only involved in the panhandle project but hoping to drive the entire let's play initiative and our general of the let's play initiative who keeps his -- this whole thing moving, our director partnership , lisa branson. [applause] , and lastly, we have community representatives from all five of the sites here today, so again, let me run through and acknowledge the sights. thank you to steppingstones

preschool and all of the kids for being here today. [cheers and applause] thank you, guys. here to break ground at merced heights, and i think we get to do a couple times, but edna james. one of the city charge of most enduring park advocates. aerial, the sports director of jamestown community center who will help me break ground and supervisor safai at allis chalmers right now. we have representatives from north the panhandle neighborhood association in addition to tim, and rodney. we have charles and lilo. thank you for being here. north of panhandle neighborhood. and then i always referenced anna who is also here representing the central city s.r.o. collaborative and sergeant john mcauley, thank you to all of you for being here and caring about kids and our playgrounds and our parks.

let's break down -- ground and get these construction projects started, so the mayor will lead us in a countdown and what i would love is for aerial to join me in front of allis chalmers and supervisor safai, you get to hit both spots, liz farrell and the kids from steppingstones and captain bailey in front of the mclaren playground, edna and supervisor safai at merced heights, and then mayor breed, supervisor brown, kids from steppingstones, charles, tim, lilo here at panhandle, and commissioner lowe and anna g. at sergeant mcauley. >> everybody ready? let me just make sure. are you already?

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