 our city continues to grow cap it it's growing faster than perhaps some of us would like and I now realize that we just passed Detroit and are now the 16th largest city in the country I think that's good in one sense in another sense I think it also has got to remind us to stay grounded to realize how important facilities like the one we are fixing to cut this ribbon on today is to not just this community this this city but to the entire region I need to acknowledge that this new facility is a credit to the city's bond program and to our crime control and prevention district both worked extremely well and I think you would agree this is a real-life example of your city tax dollars at work improving the quality of life the people who live here many of you remember but there was a time when Fort Worth had the unfortunate billing as one of the most dangerous cities in the country however thanks to our officers our employees new police substations like this one in our neighborhood policing programs ccpd the tides have turned and those chimes signify that turn just want to see how we work that into it in fact when it comes to crime in Fort Worth we have indeed done a complete 180 I can't overstate this morning friends how much it means to me to help celebrate this grand opening of the new polytechnic Heights neighborhood police center with all of you in recent years we have been witnessing an extraordinary renaissance of neighborhoods across southeast Fort Worth and a renewed sense of community the city of Fort Worth has stood right there along with us and I can't thank my council colleagues enough and I'm so pleased that Danny and them and the mayor are here with us today and of course our police force who is rated so very patiently in that awful building next door for this beautiful sunny day to arrive I want to take the opportunity if you don't mind Captain Jones to please introduce Ralph Helmick the artist when I came over here after a really long day of council you know you're weary you've gone through a lot of meetings and I think Ralph thought I was kind of bizarre because I walked in I just started tearing up when I saw this beautiful space that the public art is I might be biased one of the most beautiful in the city there was kind of a dual inspiration for this on two sides you know one was the neighborhood itself and we'll talk about that in a second but also the architecture of Perkins and Will you know in the very early before this building with ground was even broken this site was called the beacon of justice and it's kind of an unusual site tall narrow and it was it was a lantern essentially and one thing you'll notice if you hang out here both during the day and the night is that the artwork has two very distinct presences during the day it's more of an interior piece and after today's ceremonies I'd encourage you to go and look up from underneath which gives kind of a mandala effect of all the profiles and you're right all the profiles are drawn from people in the neighborhood and there's a few in there from the police force as well which is all part of the community today when this was planned it was originally slated for 13,000 square feet I am so pleased thank you Kathleen and everybody else it's over 30,000 square feet and with our ccpd and our partnership investment we found the funds long before I was lucky enough to receive this job they worked hard to get this as a real plan a real building and what you have now is a state of the art environmentally friendly and a professional location for such a professional organization and I'm absolutely honored to stand before this facility