giants are. we have had the longer running until they secure day. we've been doing lgbt night longer than most teams. i enjoy that i work for an organization who supports that and is all inclusive. that means a lot to me, and i wouldn't have it any other way. i wasn't sure i was going to get this job, but i went for it, and i got it, and my first season, we won a world series even if we hadn't have won or gone all the way, i still would have learned. i've grown more in the past four years professionally than i think i've grown in my entire adult life, so it's been eye opening and a wonderful learning are going to speak --

>> hi everybody, i'm the general manager of your san francisco recreation and parks department. i'm thrilled to be here with all of you and our honored guests. we have our mayor, our assembly men, supervisor mandelman, our new assessor, our commissioners. to all of the honored and elected guests, we have a ribbon cutting for all of you today that is right up your alley. this is actually the ninth ribbon cutting of let's play sf. this happened -- let's play sf, none of us remember where we were in 2012 but if you were a voter here, you passed a parks bond in 2012 that allowed a community of your peers

including some of our representatives i'll introduce in a second, to identify the most needy playgrounds around the city for public and private investment. we're also joined today by drew becker, the ceo of san francisco park alliance, the recreation parks department and our commissioners and elected family here have worked together to make sure each of the 13 most deserving playgrounds is funded and neighborhoods are revitalized through a combination of play, creativity, of connectivity and if you look at this space, you can see the potential of this project. this project is also the beneficiary of the open space acquisition fund that goes back to the 70s. the city was smart enough -- this used to be a rail line, many who live in the community

know this. look what we have been able to do with it. it's really quite special. this particular 1.7 million renovation includes something that is near and dear to my heart and to the hearts of so many children in san francisco, a nature play area. part of our san francisco children and nature initiative. to give every child in san francisco a nature-based experience every day. it is little projects like this that really make the difference. so i'm really thrilled with that. we also have a lot of ada accessibility features in this project so we can all get out and enjoy our parks and play. we even have green space on that end of the alley for dog walking and exercise equipment and all kinds of fun stuff. this project was a mix of funding services from the let's play initiative and we also have funding from the 2012 community

opportunity fund and some will speak to that in a second. let me just say a few thanks and then turn it over to our mayor. first to all of you for being patient. these projects take time. it seems 2012 was a really, really long time ago but in playground time, it was like a blink of the eye. special thanks to dave who leads the jury commoners. i believe dave is speaking in a bit who wrote the application and dr. michael lindsay, i don't think dr. lindsay could be here today, but the school was very involved in the cof application and design and certainly they're going to enjoy the space. quick shout outs to our partners. the san francisco parks alliance, we wouldn't be able to do these projects without the caring, generous support of the

parks alliance. the san francisco children and nature network, our city family from public works. there are several here. thank you dpw, you guys are awesome. i see rachel gordon in the background i think. and everybody has a mask on. i shouldn't be calling out people by faces because i can't see them. again to our commission. to the parks recreation advisory committee, the committee of citizens that works with us to help develop these projects. i know karen and steven are here. thank you for your presence. to my own staff for their hard work. lisa is here, she has been the captain of let's play sf. i see nick here, thank you nick.

michelle who leads an amazing crew. james, robert, i know i'm going to forget somebody. these are the people who so lovelily and talently care for the space. our commission president likes to say victory has many parents and this is another victory with many, many, many parents. thank you to the entire team of people who have worked on this. in the interest of time, i'm going to turn it over to our mayor. mayor breed. (applause) >> thank you. we want to just extend heartfelt thank you to the people of this community, especially. it was your work, your advocacy that made it possible. people ask me in the last year and a half, isn't it hard being a mayor. we just went through a global

pandemic. it has been tough. yes, it has been tough but being here today makes it worth it every day. i'm here with community. i'm here with people who care about san francisco. and who want to create these amazing opportunities for our children, for our neighbors. that's what this city is about. the same thing happened when the pandemic first hit our city. we all came together like never before and yes, we are one of the densest cities in the country, which is why creating spaces like this are so important, but we also saw despite a global pandemic, we saw one of the lowest death rates anywhere in the country and seeing the highest vaccination rates anywhere in the country. so -- (applause) we should be proud. but i'm not surprised. it's what we do best. when an opportunity presents itself, we don't see just a problem. we see a solution.

jury commons is a solution for the community. it created an old rail yard, a place that this community knew about for many, many years and used for many, many years but had a vision to make it into something that can be extraordinary and that's what you created. all the greenery, all the plants, all the play structures and yes, the advocacy it took to get it done. reaching out to apply for fund ing with the city. you know how difficult the city can be and how difficult it can be to get funding from the city as well. i want to thank the parks alliance stepping in with the last bit of cash to get it over the finish line. it takes a village to make incredible things happen in san francisco and the village of jury commons has been instrumental in making this happen for the community around

us and the entire city. this is an amazing accomplishment, one we should be proud of and one to take us to the next level for economic recovery. we know during the pandemic, our parks were everything for us. our open space and parks, they brought us closer together. i don't know about you, but i didn't know a lot of my neighbors. during this pandemic, going outside, meeting folks, walking around, going to parks, you get to know people you never knew lived in your neighborhood. that's what this jury commons will continue. as we begin to open and recover and go back to our lives the way we knew it once before, this will still serve as an important gathering place for this community to make sure that our kids, our neighbors, we continue to know one another, support one another and get through any challenge that comes our way. thank you for being here today. (applause) i'm like to introduce

assembly member chui. (applause) >> thank you madam mayor, particularly for your leadership during these times. i'm a former musician and i usually don't verbalize the songs in my head but i have to at this moment. the song going through my head is the one that starts with "it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood". i'm going to stop there. it truly is a beautiful day here in this very spot. the mayor has thanked so many folks from her perspective as our incredible leader of our city. i'm going to thank so many of you as a parent. as someone who has a ritual with

my 5-year-old son every weekend of trying to find a new park to play in. and what you have created here is not only going to be the destination this coming weekend, you have given not just kids a slide to slide on, adults something to play on, but just another place for us to bring community together. when i'm in sacramento, my colleagues ask me, hey, you represent san francisco, san francisco seems to have a lot. why are you such a park advocate. i explain to folks that in our amazing city, seven years ago when i was first elected to the legislature, i would tell folks in chinatown, you have immigrant kids kicking soccer balls on top of housing projects and in the mission, you have latino immigrant kids kicking soccer balls down alley ways and a few miles away, the bayview, african american kids from time to time

kicking balls on top of formerly toxic contaminated sites. this is why we do the work we do. we need to make sure our next generation of kids have the opportunities that every child should. the opportunity to play, to thrive, to learn how to be in community with each other, to grow strong and to grow to become the next mayor of this city. i just want to thank all of you who are part of this amazing community. this village, whether from the public sector and from rec and park and with the commission, whether you work with rec and park, from the private sector helping to construct the spot. whether you're from the nonprofit with your vision, it takes all of you coming together. in particular, i want to ask, how many are jury commoners? raise your hand. you guys are the ones who really made it happen. let's give it up for them. thank you so very much. with that, it is my honor to

introduce someone who represents this section of the mission, my good friend supervisor mandelman. (applause) >> thank you. there are a lot of politicians to speak today. i will try to be brief. i do want to say three big thank you's. first to jury commoners and the neighbors. this was a project that came out of the community. i think i remember back several years folks in the neighborhood, dave and others were taking care of this park even in its prior iteration. the vision for what this park could become came out of the community, grant applications were done by community. even until the very end in figuring out that this park needed garbage cans god damn it. the neighbors stepped forward and e-mailed us and we forwarded e-mails to rec park and they figured out we need garbage

cans. tremendous thanks. and to rec and park for both providing joy during the pandemic for finding ways to keep us safe, i remember phil put in the dots around in delores park in early days thinking about social distancing and delivering a service i think people love, constantly our controller studies show people love our parks and grateful for the management they are getting and they really love it when we have beautiful new or renewed parks like this. and to the parks alliance, drew and the alliance, thank you for your partnership with rec park and the work you do in district 8. we were doing a movie night which was fantastic and lovely and delightful. but the mayor and i were out for a ribbon cutting for christopher

park opening, there's a lot of great work happening through the partnership. as a neighbor, i live like a block away. and very grateful to have this as a supervisor, i'm grateful for it. speaking of people who helped get us through the pandemic, the former head of the office of economic and work force development and now our assessor controller. >> thank you supervisor. it is a pleasure to be with everyone today, especially when you step away from the evaluations you have to do being your assessor-recorder here in san francisco but most importantly, i wanted to say thank you to dave, to mary for your leadership in making this happen. ensuring we could get the work done and investments in place. i know how important it is to wake up in the morning and know you have greenfield equipment to do exercise on and i'm happy to

see you here in jury commons and to the department of recreation and parks and all of the work you do to make sure the spaces are open, healthy and safe for our communities across the city. whether here, at jury commons, in delores park or all throughout special places, nooks and allies to enjoy each other, breathe fresh air, be safe and be in community, i'm so grateful to all of you and the parks alliance doing this in so many places around our city. it is needed for all of us of every age. and i'm grateful for drew becker and continued work he does to make this happen. with that, drew becker. (applause) >> thanks. i want to bottle that. thank you so much. really appreciate it. so happy to be here today in this amazing new space created

by the neighbors for the neighbors and for this great community. this is part of our partnership with rec and park the let's play sf initiative. basically it's crowd sourcing for playgrounds that will impact about 20,000 children when they're all open in a few short years. we have raised over $12 million for 13 playgrounds throughout the city. i want to thank the board and donors for making that happen. we are lucky to live in san francisco that prioritizes parks. in the past year and a half, we have realized how important they are to our life, specifically playgrounds. if you remember back in the day, a year and a half ago when playgrounds were closed. there was the outpouring of support to open our playgrounds and i think it reached the state house actually. it was amazing to see. it's really the community like you is what changes that. you change this space with that

as well. the san francisco parks alliance is a proud to support the rec and park department and happy to support all of the amazing things it does. it is by no big issue that the rec and park department is one of the best in the city and county of san francisco. people love rec and park department and under the leadership of phil, thank you so much to him and what he has done for the department. phil, thank you. (applause) investments like this are the reason why -- this is amazing, timeout magazine called san francisco the number one city to live in in the world because of great spaces like this all over the city. you're within a 10 minute walk of all public spaces. new playgrounds and parks and

allies that have come alive. that's the san francisco we know and we're proud of. i'm proud to be a part of it and the parks alliance is a part of it and the rec and park department is part of it and proud to be working for a great mayor like london breed making sure her dream is reality. i want to give a shout out to the capital team. (applause) it's under new leadership. stacy, congratulations on that. and then tara and alex, great job on all the work you do. sarah and suzanna and team, thank you so much. we appreciate being a part of it. (applause) >> thank you. >> i live around the corner on san jose avenue. (applause) i've led the jury commoners as we call ourselves since 2009

which literally means i buy the coffee. i'll stay on the thanks train or describe more parts of the thanks elephant. number one, laura who couldn't be here, who started the jury commoners in about 2004. and started the organization that led to the work that led to us all being here. number two, in i think 2014, eric anderson, the park services manager of this area at the time got me to write a grant for the community opportunity fund, which was unsuccessful. a couple years later, mary who is right there in the purple mask wrote the grant that succeeded and that's why we're here today. (applause) super thank you to mary. and then number three, i want to

thank smart folks at rec and parks, i don't think i fully know how it works but assembled with a community opportunity fund grant money from the let's play initiative and it turned into a more substantial project and that's why the whole park is in great shape now. so what that got us, i want to point out a couple of things i'm personally super happy about. anyone who lived in the area used the old park remembers what it was like. the paths were the crater of the moon, you couldn't get through here even with wheels. it is all great now for everybody to get through here and use the whole park. and number two, a new irrigation system, the things we plant will stay alive for a little while. (applause) as a volunteer, i'm super happy

about that. one more thing. if -- for everyone who is here and interested, this is not an end, this is the beginning of the next step. for everyone here interested helping keep this park in lovely shape it is in today, find me before i go or google meet up jury commoners and you'll find us. join the group and we'll start coming and cleaning up and keeping it in good shape. thank you. (applause) i don't know who's next. >> now to the business of this thing and cut a ribbon. >> okay. are we ready?

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