phil ginsberg. (applause) >> illustrious? thank you, john. illustrious? it's a great day for parks and for park users. so, we're thrilled. we get to be the beneficiaries of all this hard work and all this partnership. and it is appropriate that we're here at balboa park. mark, john, and the mayor all talked about the improvements that have happened in this really, really important piece of open space. it's a dense neighborhoodv. it's in a transit corridor. and thanks to partnership and thanks to community support and thanks to the leadership of our elected officials we've made some incredible improvements here in the last few years. behind us, our new playground thanks to the support of the trust for public land. behind all of you is an incredible new skateboard park which is both a public -- another public-private partnership partially funded with bond funds. behind us even further is balboa pool which thanks to the 2012 parks bond will be renovated with a state-of-the-art swimming pool in a few years. the theme here is meeting evolving community needs.

thank you, phil ginsberg and the hatchery for hosting us. i use open data. our company was founded three years ago using open data. we are one of the first sustainable companies to use open data and be sustainable innovation, meaning we can generate revenue and keep mobile applications for government going. we are really excited to be here today. this is our official launch of apple-liscious. i would like to thank our team, kevin, rick robbins, moment of all [speaker not understood] for my cto and co-founder. this was a very long, long journey with the city, but we had the help of leaders like phil, mayor lee, jay driving behind the scenes, the efforts for business to work with government. and i think we've accomplished that with this unique partnership moving forward. we're excited now there's cross-department collaboration with the san francisco arts, with the san francisco public art which has now been thanks to sean working late last night, putting the public arts into golden gate park. this is providing access. it's providing efficiency, and it's provid

phil ginsberg. (applause) >> it is a real pleasure to be with everyone here today. it takes a village and the village is out. it's not often we get to say the words "our tax dollars at work" with a smile on our face. but we're doing it today. because voters really knew what they were doing a few years back when we passed that $185 million parks bond, neighborhood parks bond and the $10 million invested into lafayette park. i used to live at hyde and geary my first four years when i moved to san francisco, now 36 years ago, and this was my neighborhood park. and i've loved it ever since. the combination of the palms and the pines and everything in between, this is a jewel of a park. and when i saw the fences go up i got a little nervous because, well, it was going to be closed for a while. and i saw on some of the signs that some trees were going to come down which always makes me a little uncomfortable. but now seeing the result, it is magnificent. and, so, i want to thank all the folks who have inve

phil ginsberg. (applause) >> i don't think we appreciate how amazing phil is and how lucky we are as a city to have him. but today how lucky are we to be san franciscans standing here today? (applause) >> you know, today i have a number of thank yous i want to go through. but first i really want to comment about our parks and our support for our parks not only in city hall, but with the voters of san francisco. you know, we fight that battle every year in city hall with our budget and we're going through it right now to make sure we prioritize our parks for our families, for our children, for our seniors, for everyone. and the voters of san francisco have done it year in and year out. and parks are for everyone. they're for young people and old people. they're for large people and small people. they're for dogs, they're for everyone that we care about here in san francisco. i see a number of seniors here today. i know one month old emma is here today. this is for everybody and my three children are p

you're going to be hearing a little bit from the director of that department, phil ginsberg about the new application they have helped us with. i'm very proud of what rec and park is doing. this is something i've been discussing with mr. ginsberg for some months now. but in addition to the information that you can now get about where our parks are, i think we need to take this one step further. we need to allow folks to do the online transactions that allow people to make reservations at the barbecue pit or at that picnic table. these are three of hundreds of ideas that i have heard over the last few years. my guess is you in your heads have the solutions to them today. and mayor lee and i are looking forward with this legislation with all of you to figuring out how to make our city government the best 21st century city government that we have in the entire world. so, thank you for being here, and it is my pleasure to introduce our mayor's budget director kate howard who in addition to helping to balance multi-billion dollar budgets every year, she will tell you about our plans around

phil ginsberg. (applause) >> illustrious? thank you, john. illustrious? it's a great day for parks and for park users. so, we're thrilled. we get to be the beneficiaries of all this hard work and all this partnership. and it is appropriate that we'rhe

i want to thank phil ginsberg, katy, so many people from the rec and park team that really brought this project forward. we selected locations throut s francisco oa first of all, we wanted to make sure that we continue to bridge our digital divide that exists not only throughout our country, but here in san francisco, to place free wi-fi networks in under served communities and across different parts of san francisco. but also to make sure that we provide wi-fi access in some of the most heavily trafficked parks and plazas in our city so we can have the greatest impact throughout our great city. i want to thank sf city for their strong partnership in this project. we started working together a little over a year ago. they are not only the leading effect knowledge jai voice in san francisco, but they really stepped up to the plate to be the project manager here who are going to oversee the installation of this project. and i want to thank in particular alex turk for his leadership during this effort. i certainly want to thank our department of technology and its new leader mark tuitu for

so, that led me to phil ginsberg who is very enthusiastic and he arranged the tour for me to look around all their wonderful sites. and it was kesar triangle that really took my heart. so, there was something about it, it's kind of under loved and a little scrappy, didn't seem to interrupt any activities that were going on. what i really love was that you could not only experience maybe something artful on the ground, but it is as well when you drive by, maybe there was some way you could catch people's imagination. ~ as well when you're up in csf looking down there is an aerial view from [speaker not understood] hill. and i love that. fortunately, i met sam bower. he's been invaluable. together we saw this whole little park should be treated as art, and we have, you know, seen that it needs to be healed and kind of brought back to life. and, so, i hope that this project can in some way be an example or a precedent that other people could, you know, who are park lovers and donors, that they could focus on one spot and the thought they could partner with rec and park and bring it to its m

lastly, coming up on august 21st at the random museum, our general manager phil ginsberg will be chuck of the san francisco chronicle to discuss how rec and park is using innovations and partnerships to ensure access to open space as well as how groundbreaking youth education programs are training the next generation of environmental stewards. this interview will be included in the commonwealth club of california's nature 2.0 series. that concludes my portion of the general manager's report. i didn't see if linda is out there if there is a prozac report this time or not. >> [speaker not understood]. >> okay. so, we'll dispense with the prozac report and with that and turn it over to our videographer jamie hopper who will show you yet another month in rec and park. >> [speaker not understood]. powerpoint. powerpoint. ♪ >> it's been a labor of love and we're proud to be providing this gift to the city [speaker not understood] organizations and individuals. and to the city of -- or to the children of san francisco. and i'm very proud that our neighborhood finally has a playground to call

(applause) >> and, so, for a few thank yous, i mentioned phil ginsberg. i want to thank all our other elected officials, leno, wiener, cisneros, we have so many commissioners here as well. but i want to thank you in particular and i think we need a big round of applause. you realize the people here past 10 o'clock last night cleaning up. our recreation park department staff that made this happen today. (applause) >> these are the unsung heroes that don't get recognized very often, but they are what make our parks work and look the way they do and we are so lucky we have one of the most beautiful parks now right in the middle of pacific heights. but there are two people -- i want to thank a few folks. stefan franz as well, and our friends from prozac that represent our parks department and represent all that we believe in in our neighborhood. thank you for all that you do. and i really in particular today want to single out two folks. phil mentioned the friends of lafayette park and we have certificates of honor for them. but this playground behind us woul

francisco, but we want to also encourage, examples we're going to be announcing yoyo working with phil ginsberg to provide data where are small parks or where the events are happening. what is the cost? how to get there in the hours that they're operating? a smart phone application for all of our events in recreation and park department, that to me is going to be invaluable to visitors and to our neighborhoods. bronwin who is working with us on data information from neighborhoods in our city, growth trends, that kind of data certainly is going to help a department like city planning who is trying to kind of figure out where the new neighborhoods in our city, what do we do from a planning and zoning effort, prioritizing. is it small businesses now in pier 70 area or do with we go high-rises downtown? what kind of people trends and business trends and constituent trends are happening in our neighborhoods * ? that data is there to be shared with our city planning. so we can plan for the future and make sure when we're not planning to limit the kind of growth that we want to encourage. >>> and then

let's hear it for parks cheer leader and chief phil ginsberg. (applause) >> it is a real pleasure to be with everyone here today. it takes a village and the village is out. it's not often we get to say the words "our tax dollars at work" with a smile on our face. but we're doing it today. because voters really ne