tv Recreation and Park Commission SFGTV May 18, 2024 10:00am-12:06pm PDT
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>> thursday, may 169, 2024, 10:06 a.m. ashley, call the role. >> hallisy. >> jupiter-jones louie-here. >> commission anderson and commissioner moaz la have excuses today. the san francisco recreation acknowledges that we occupy the home hand of the original nal inhab tans of the insula. we honor them with their traditions, they have never ceded.
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lost or lost their honor. we honor the ohlone through thoughtful and informed interpretation of inses tral land. we acknowledge their sovereign rights and wish to pay our respects to their community. good morning and welcome to the recreation and parks commission. we ask you that close any electronic devices. public comment will be available for each item on agenda. each person will have two minutes for public comment on each item. comments are opportunities to speak during the public comment period are available in room 416 and remotely. neerpt the commission nor staff will respond to any questions during public comment. the commission may ask questions of staff after public comment is closed. generality public comment is reserved for the jurisdiction of
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the commission. public comment may be submitted via e mail as well as the u.s. postal service. please note this commission meeting is being recorded. we're now going to the president's report. >> thank you, ashley. i'm going to talk briefly about one of the great programs we have in our recreation and park department. that would be the green-agers program. it started in 2012. it connects teenagers to the open green spaces of their neighborhood. tales a six-month longs program. it's quite a commitment for these teenagers. many weekends are involved. it fosters camaraderie, team work, and a love of their community. it's very physical work. they learn to use tools during the course of this six months.
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for the gardening pirpses of their community. last saturday, commissioner louie and i attendedded teenager graduation for a group from the tenderloin. their focus was owe bowe decker park in the tenderloin. it was a great ceremony. friend and family were present to witness this celebration. we had a great day. it was a great time. it's an amazing program. green agers were teenagers. i want to recognize the leaders of this program. they're not here in person today, but i would like to mention their names in an open forum here. that is trailsy phan, afterra az streedo and he have lin ramirez.
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we congratulate this group from the tenderloin. i also want to recognize someone else here today. it's bittersweet to the announce that our great intern anna lee alvarado is here for her final meeting for her tenure. anna lee we thank you. that is the substitute president's report for today. >> now we'll call public comment on the president's report. is there any public comment on the president's report ?r. okay. we have one raised handed on our webex. gl ahead and unmute the first
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caller, you'll have two minutes. are you there? >> i'll wait for the report. >> public comment is closed, we'll now move to item 3, general manager's report. >> good morning. first of all, acting president hallisy, thank you very much for the summary of the green agers presentation. it's one of the things i'm most proud about during my tenure of launching this program. it's hard to believe it's now in its 12th to 13th year. it's a beauty. thank you for acknowledging our staff who are terrific and do a wonderful job of making it happen and thank you to you and commissioner louie for attending. i was in the bayview for an event for our candlestick state
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park and as i'll comment on later, i was at another event for paddle, yet another emerging racket sport. i wanted to give a shout out to all the moms in the house and all the women who have blazed trails trails at the recreation department over the years. testimony is also asian american and pacific islander heritage month. it serves as a reminder and celebration all the contribution made to this city over generations. it is interesting to reflect on the fact that so many of our park and park futures hold as much to the aapi community and are named after some prominent aapi pacific leaders. these include most recently hahn
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peace and friendship part. willie wong playground park. our japantown. golden gate park. victoria, an olympic medalist, we have a massive amount of investment coming stoon port smith square. we have our golden gate pavilion park. the neighborhood play park and playground and many, many other wonderful places. so all over -- all throughout the month, there will be wonderful celebrations all over the city. including next thursday, may 23rd, our annual rec park aapi
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heritage month luncheon. i have not been eating for the last week in preparation for it. because it is impossible to get out of that lunch without stuffing yourself. it's a fabulous event and i look forward to seeing several of you there and happy aapi month. last monday, i am proud to report, we unveiled -- we celebrated the unveiling of 10 thu child care expernts family child care homes that have been renovated with new outdoor play spaces. this is a very quiet but fundamentally important initiative. san francisco was honored to participate -- maybe it was 2014 or 2015 now.
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we were selected to be part of a cohort of cities sponsored by an organization called "the league of cities" and another organization called the children and nature network on which i now sit on their national board to explore ways that we can improve nature access for kids. this program, the point of the endeavor was that this is not just a parks issue. this is not just a parks issue. so to be a participating city, we had to have representatives from san francisco tune fied school district, from the mayor's office, from the parks department and from the non-profit community. can. out of that cohort and training, we founded san francisco
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children in nature expp we hired a basically an executive director maria durno who will you call know who is technically a rec and park employee, but she serves the collaborative which has now probably over 34040 participating organizations. and we identified base on some analysis in a study what our most pressing nach gaps were that they thought we could address. we thought to focus this particular phase on improving nature access for preschool-age kids. we have a number of both institutional preschools and family owned and family operated preschools throughout the city at that provide a very, very important role and focus, but their outdoor spaces are
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landlocked. for those of you who spent times as toddlers or young ones are currently a parent of a young toddler, it will is no easy task even given our 10-minute proximity to parks. it is no easy task to move the 2 to 5 set a quarter or hafer a mile to a beautiful outdoor space so we've brought parks to kids. and so we have now renovated a total of 21 preschools in partnership through san francisco children in nature with rec park leading the way. but also with the low-income investment fund lift that has been a wonderful funding partner and adopt thises their mission too. and we most -- at all of these
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spaces, not just play spaces but they're vibrant learning environments for kids. the transformed areas are new planting areas in gardens, logs, tree stumped for climbing, mud kitchens and all kind of natural loose parks. education for the children in nature efforts involves working with childhood educators in outdoor education. this is -- i know there was something on bravo or whatever when you make over a house, renovate a house, that's what this is like. the before and after pictures are funny. we've done 2 # and have 4 to go. but we are -- 21 and have four to go.
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i was joined by well over a quorum of the board of supervisors which included melgar and mandelman, safai and chan that all attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. this is also a wonderful effort and partnership with the office of early childhood education and the low income investment fund. we'll probably come back and do a more robust dive into the san francisco children in nature initiative but we're leading the way in this across the country. it's one of those quiet and sweet ones but has a tremendous amount of important impact and i'm proud of maria and all of the participating part fers which include the school district, the office of early childhood education, the ymca, the presidio and academy of sciences and many
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community-based projects that are contributing. while you were celebrating our green agers, i attended with the mayor and state park officials a clean-up event on gilman avenue deer gilman playground and candlestick part. the neighborhood struggles a little bit. we're stuck waiting for investments on infrastructure and development. candlestick state park is the only one in san francisco. we have ss links, a wonderful civic and volunteer greep who was out doing a robust cleanup all along gilman avenue and from there, i went off to a big event
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for paddle in the park at embarcadero plaza. paddle is a cross between squash and tennis and while pickle ball is the largest and most intensively growing racket sport in the state, it's bomb becomes the most popular in the world. i participated and did not pull a hamstring. this was a wonderful effort. a shout out to dana and her team for working with the paddle folks to find some space. they are the first public paddle courts in california so we're a bit ahead of the curve and
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significantly we view this asen important activation strategy for the downtown embarcadero and downtown area. down down has to become a place where -- it's no longer a place where people have to be so we have to make downtown a place where people want to be. this goes a long way in doing that and we're grateful for the paddle folks for their interest in this particular space. back to golden gate park. if you're near skate and place at golden place park and forgot your skates, don't sweat it. weekend skate rentals have washed. we're proud to be partnering with the legendary david miles otherwise referred to in san francisco as "the god father of skate" to provide skates for youth.
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rentals with 20 bucks an hour and five bucks for every hour there after. skating is historic part of the culture in golden gate park and we're proud to deliver this new amenity for visitors. the first superintendent -- codesigner, first built a roller rink at the children's playground in 1891. roller skating has a long and proud history in golden gate park. skate in place was created in 1986 and now gets skaters from all over the area sim briezing fun and self-expression and futuring many people who used to skate there regularly who have gone on to great things including our mayor who used to skate at skate and place quite a
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bit. i recommend heading there on sunday. that's when the fay plus disco roller party happens, a san francisco tradition. while you're there, rite on the edge of the jfk prom nod, wish it happy birthday. i'm proud of everything the promenade has accomplished in its short life as a permanently people first space. since its closing to cars in april of 2020, it's seen 12.6 million visits. making it san francisco's most frequented open space. there was an average of 8,000
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visits on weekend and nearly 6 of 6,000 visits per weekday. that's a lot. once on the high injury network, jfk is a hub for interactive art, walk, dancing and rolling. them pedestrian-friendlial is enhanced with upgrades. today there is a free-shuttle piano, live music and art installations and i want to give a shout out to a i luminade. it's been a fantastic partner. they've raised private money and they're out there steward the space. you've seen the yellow chairs. the promenade and for people who spent time in san francisco or
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people who vont been to golden gate park, they're blown away. it's been a lovely thing. new things on the promenade that i want to highlight quickly. there is a new exhibit on the promenade called nature's future is our future. it's in coordination with earth month and will run in november. it features 12 california historical markers from the future. highlighting the importance of nature-based climate solutions. thanks to -- this is a partnership with the nature conservancy and the explore-aer explore-atorium. this has you flashing forward a hundred years and reflecting on all the good decisions this country made over the next 1 shun years. to save our planet.
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it's very powerful. on top of that, we have new and refurbished public pianos out there for people to sing and play. we have our pop-up beer and wine garden which is going to relaunch saturday may 25th and dana, i believe it's called "the rail tail" which identifies its location next to the wonderful piece of pop-up art on the promenade, the whale. it will debut memorial day weekend and in addition to the pop-up beer and wine garden, there is fls that space music and seating and games. it's become a fun, fabulous community space. moving on. the alis mose area they won the
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merit award with their work for us reforesting alimos square. the teudio envisioned a tree planting implemented over time. the goal was to gain a resilient ego system that will last for generations. since 2016, more than 27 o trees will be planted at the square include locally native and drought tolerant species. thank you to the studio for the partnership and thanks to the neighborhood association for their excellent stewardship. a quick shout out to the
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interactive performance. we're now back in golden gate park. adventures happening now in our beloved golden gate park. this is put on by replayers and marked the company's 13th collaboration with the rec department and company's third residency in golden gate park. they are brilliant female-owned and operated. they theater classic interpretation in nature. can. you follow the characters to different scenes in nature. if you haven't seen this, commissioners, go and see it. in this particular performance, i saw it last year and it was so
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good i made sure they came back. alice's adventure in wonder land, it's extraordinairey. it gives you a one mile tour through the park including a scene in a space that i had never been to. it's fantastic. last year more than 2,000 people got to experience the performance. check it out f -- check out the website for more information. sf live in association with illuminate presents this star-studded event right outside on fulton plaza which as you know we've been doing a ton of
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work at u.n. plaza and fulton to integrate the work to make city hall's front hard and this critical piece for livable and joyous and happy and healthy. this is one of the biggest events we put out there. bill ortiz is renowned for his work with santanaa and other artists. right outside, today -- today! at 4:00 and -- beginning at 4:00 and going on to 7:00 at fulton plaza. this is one of many events hosted by sf live.
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we've got free shows in the area. all kinds of good stuff. go out and see it today. it's special and can completely free and that concludes the general manager's report. >> thank you. >> we'll now move to public comment on the general manage's report. this is just public comment on item 3. is there anyone in room 416 to comment on the report? seeing none, do we have any hand raised on our wb eye? no hands raised there so public comment is closed. we are now on item 4, general public comment. this will be 15 minutes and go to item 10. you may introduce the items that do not appear on the agenda today. you will have to address the
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commission for the agenda items when it's reached in the meeting. >> i know we have members of the tennis and pickle ball community here today. we welcome you. just to remind you of the parameters of public comment. we're here at item number 4, you are comment, make statements on your specific sport whether it be tennis or pickle ball or anything else. if you're here to address fees, we'll then take those comments at item number 5, the consent calendar. i hope everybody is okay with that. >> all right. >> proceed. >> i have four cards for item 4. and so i'm going to call all of your names. i have mary, brandon, kiss and
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peter. >> good morning -- >> can you move the mic down to your mouth. >> good morning, commissioners. my name is mary devries. >> put the mic closer to your mouth. slide over a bit behind it. we want to hear everything you have to say. >> this is my first time. mary devries, i'm a pickle ball and tennis player. we're here to talk to you about planning. we're a small team delivering tu this morning because we need to get deeper information to you which we're unable to doll. we initiated tap with the first meeting in april. while the planning process started, we want to talk to you
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about how to improve it. i want to convey key points and positions about pick the ball. pickle ball is exploding. there are 36.5 million pickle ball players. s that a 23.5 growth rate over the last three years. the annual growth forecast is 77%. there are 23.8 tennis players with a growth of 23% only adding 1% in the last year. tennis growth has plateaued. 2, san francisco ranks 33 out of 93 citieser it pickle ball. it ranks first in tennis. that suggests an oversupply of tennis courts may exist. "the cities that have good park systems tend to be the ones that have a lot of pickle ball
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courts. those are all the same cities that are the healthiest places to live." the point is that these park systems have engage effectively with their communities. what does pickle ball want? it needs to be confirmed by research. we want more courts. san francisco demand is 120 courts. almost double from the current count of 69. this would put san francisco the top 20 u.s. cities. >> thank you mary. >> thank you mary. >> brandon. >> okay. i'm brandon and i'm a pickle ball and tennis player as well. falling off on mary, we want more courts. our analysis shows san francisco demand trance arthritis 1220 courts. that puts us in the top 20 cities on a per capita bailsis.
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we want we want call access to tennis in neighborhoods. no sf neighborhood should be without pickle call if a public tennis court exists. we want equivalent quality in surface, nets at every court. we finally we want a plan to codevelop with our incentives so the pickle ball community has carrot on how to turn a have into reality particularly when it comes to getting funding to execute the plan. a plan with rpd and pickle ball community separate the forest
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from the trees. we want to put the hiatus on fees. item four, let's talk about how to improve tap. there was one rpive selected from tennis and pickle ball. we need to have the issues fully developed and debated and increased transparency with the communities. keeping the team too small makes information less efficient. we report that the planned scope is to heat the demand growth needs over the next two to five years. that's reasonable. >> next, brandon. >> thank you guys. >> good morning. i'm kit i'm a tennis and hand ball player. following off here, we suggest
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all these be put on the table, otherwise the planning will be ineffective. we want a healthy debate between the tennis and pickle ball communities with fair and equal treatment such as supply and demand. ideally this will create a pension to get fairly compromises and efficient use of resources such as money, land and access. regarding rules, the website says it's supporting the process with pickle call and tennis. additionally the selected facilitator has ties to both communities including commercial ties to one which could lead to bias and unfair decisions. we suggest a replacement with an individual that has no possibility of being biased. we're not suggesting who should
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lead the process, but we suggest the importance and practical to be clear about rules and carry them out. many theresome no task or milestones or timelines or assignments exist. i work plan is needed immediately so stakeholders can provide work and hold officials accountable. this needs to happen yesterday. >> you still have 30 seconds. >> what time are we asking from you commissioners? we're asking you to consider tap as a master plan for both tennis and pickle ball without the the constraints we mentioned in order to have a robust process. such a process might include one, goals and purpose, two, current situation, three, public
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input, four recommended future state. many five [indiscernible] >> next speaker. >> hi, i'm peter mueller and a tennis and pickle ball player. such a process might include basic goals and purpose, current situation, public input, road map about future state and funding options. other cities have done this and so should san francisco. check out lincoln, nebraska. it's a good example. we suggest renaming tap as at plaster plan for tennis and pickle ball which would give account initiative a serious title and stature it deserves. to help put the above into action, we recommend that you select one commissioner with planning experience to serve as
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an active executive sponsor with the key word being i active." because rpd may not have the experience or skills to do this type of planning. they're good operators but we're not sure about the planning. one engaged commissioner to oversee this would be biffle in getting us off to a strong start and increasingal probability of delivering a superior plan. with that, we're done. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. is there anyone else here that would like to comment on item 4? general public comment? okay. seeing none and no hands raised on webex, we can move to item 5. commissioners, usually we go to public comments first. does that work for you? does anyone want to remove anything from the consent calendar as it stands? okay. great.
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do of a a few cards here. if you are here to comment on item 5 and didn't fill out a blue card, you're he more than welcome to fill one out. ful you don't, i'll he still call for additional speakers. for those of you joining us via on line, you can suppress *3 now to raise your hand if you're here to speak on item 5 and we'll remove to the remote speakers after i get through. when i call your name, please just stand up and come line up so that we can move through the speakers. so i'm starting with nina and chris. >> good morning. good morning commissioner.
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i'm nina kim. i'm one of the co-chairs of the tennis coalition of san francisco. you might have heard of us with our partnership with rec and parks and the parks alliance. our passionate continueis community brut together $27 million of private funds to realize the project. tennis in san francisco is booming. right now there are 28 u.s. teams. serving a variety of teams from 18 and over to 65 and over. it serves children from four elementary and two middle schools that otherwise would not have access to homework and activities. youth tennis advantage, yta utilizes three court facilities for youth. thanks to partnerships with the
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non-profits, 24 public courts have been resurfaced. including the beautiful courts that were just cut from hunters point. as a mom of two young children who love tennis and want to play it, the children continue to play on the reports. they have played for the junior warriors basket balm teams, baseball leak out of sunset and soccer teams all over the city. we pay for them to make the reservations on all the public fields. i support the 5-dollar fee for tennis reservations. the new reservation system as allow people who work and kids to reserve specific times and have skin in the p game.
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>> i have chris and lucas and then suzy. >> good morning. thank you commissioner. we are a small teem here to express opposition to the 5-dollar fee for reservations for tennis and pickle ball courts in san francisco. who would have thought tennis and pickle ball come together. five days ago 800 signed the petition. 95% are against the fee. it's unjustifiable. the proposal has flawed justification. rpd has been unable to track the no-shows. the operations committee unanimously passed this proposal on may 2nd without essential
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information. the no-show reports are an he ae and there is a scen for tennis courts. the director misrepresented the community. the accurate count was 105 against, and only if i have in support. not the 30 from support and 40 against as claimed. again, misrepresentation may have neacted the vote and constituting a breech of the new process. we know that may 2nd meeting [indiscernible] e-mails came in. 53 opposed. six in favor. this is data driven. if we can't track the players, we can't track the coacherses. that 1% fee is important. but that was a leading example that was used last time.
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commissioner halsly. hallisy. through is lack of due diligence and transparency. >> lucas, suzy and then mary. >> i'm lucas, i'm a fickle ball player. the process has a lack of due diligence. there is no proper outreach to the pickle ball community. the pickle ball working group is excluded leading to significant misinformation. proper consultation would have revealed substantial opposition. this violates the rules. more over the lack of community meetings and outreach signifies the inclusive decision-making process. three, the proapsal is unjust. first the fee is inequitable
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affecting low income individuals who are [indiscernible] disproportionately impacting low income residents and seniors and children by limiting their access to public sports facilities where they live. that's why we have neighborhood parks to provide easy access for all and eliminates costs for money. second, pickle ball players have contributed to court maintenance because they're not adequately applied to the rpd. most reservable pickle ball and tennis courts are maintained and provide pickle ball players to provide their own nets. the fee does not effect the issue of no-shows. this suggests that the fee is more about revenue generation rather than solving any operational issue, raising
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concerns on transparency and consent. the commissioner stated on the record that he was most interested in the 20% coaching fee to generate funds for the city. since we don't have a system of track players not showing up -- thank you. >> thank you lucas. >> suzy, mary and lois. >> many to track players not showing up, how will the city track coaches -- suzy, bring your mic down a little bit. >> the track players not showing up, how will the city track coaches not using revenue sharing portion of the website. its implementation is premature. it lacks strategic vision.
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lacking -- testimony is shortsighted. it is essential to first develop a strategic plan that includes long term goals, equipment provisioning and operating hours within the context. the proposed reservation is one, flawed in justification, lacking in due diligence and transparency, three unjust and inequitable particularly for low income residents and four, premier tour implementation. i rnlg you to vote no. on this proposal. instead consider alternatives such as court reservations for private instructors and/or the private schools that currently
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use courts extensively for free. for six months out of the year. these options will be fair and more transparent. we're ending with two quotes from connie chan's letter to you. first, to ensure equity from our park systems including tennis and pickle ball courts, we need to make sure everyone play and reak rate. the department has received $6 million over the existing funding baselines, i respectfully urge not to recommend to section 12.41 of the park code. vote no. >> i have mary and lois. >> i'm representing the seniors. the group has been together for 40 yarys. a lot have passed on and a lot
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of new seniors have joined. we're opposed to this. it's to difficult to pay, to track and pay the money and collect the money. a lot of men don't know how to make a reservation. this is our community. this is the only way some of them can either get out of house and be with people their own age and get exercise. we love our park. we have four tennis courts in this county and we use them tuesdays, thursday saturday and sunday. we welcome the pickle balm people. pickle ball people. but so many people don't show up and we wait, the senior tennis people wait for them not to show up. they get 15 minutes and we can take the courts. we have 15 and 20 people.
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it would be impossible to collect money. i'm speaking for the seniors in our community and we want this vote to be no. thanks for your time. >> melissa. >> good morning. i'm lewis, i'm a member of the tennis coalition. as a member of the coalition i support the five dollar fee. the new reservation system allows people who work and those with kids to reserve specific times and have skin in the game. i know firsthand how much work park and rec has put in not just for the new system, but for working with players of both pickle ball and tennis who have abused the previous system and support the fee to help support their staff, the new reservation
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system and put moneys into the court maintenance. just like when you look for a place to park in the city, sometimes you have to pay, and sometimes you get it free. there are many, many wack-up courts in san francisco. i think at least a third of them are walk-up and no fee. the reservation system is a system for reserving, not for playing, but to have the convenience of reserving courts. and i think that's a good thing so that you're not set sitting at courts waiting for people to finish their set and have conflict over who gets to play and who doesn't. i think the 5-dollar fee is fairly low. we'll start dividing it between two or four or eight people whether you're playing rawnd
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robin or praying singles, it is low. i think we all have to put something in to make this work for all of us. i do have one question. i really would like to know where the 5-dollar reservation is to go to go. will it go back to park and rec or the general funds? >> thank you lois. >> is there anyone else in the room currently who would like to speak on item 5 before i move over to the webex? okay. please go ahead and come up to the mic if you haven't spoken on item 5. thanks. pd good morning commissioner. i'm alenea and i'm a pickle ball player and i strongly oppose the 5-dollar reservation fee. i'm going to read you the supervisor chan's letter becauser had views represent mine.
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dear recreation and general manager of the field. i'm writing to share my concern regarding the department's proaps to recommend a 5-dollar fee to reserve locations. to ensure equity in our park system, we need to make sure everyone play no matter their economic status. pickle ball and tennis courts are important places to gather. many constituents represent their display the fee would pose preventing residents from being able to play the sport in our public parks. establishing and charging reservation fees would also propose a disproportionate hardship for all the adults and those on fixed income who do not have the luxury of setting aside
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expenses in order to participate in the activities. this proposal won't take us away from the park system the park system has received $6 million over the baseline, this proapsal is particularly perplexing and i urge the commission not to recommend a pay-to-play amendment. sign sealer connie chan. please vote no! thank you. >> please refrain from clapping. next speaker. is there anyone else who would like to speak? okay. i'm going to move over to the webex now. i think we have two raised hand. i'm going to put on a two-minute timer and you'll hear a chime when you still have 30 seconds left.
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please unmute the first caller. caller, are you is there? are you there? let's move to the next caller, please. okay. >> can you hear me? >> yes. >> i'm speaking as a tennis player who enjoys the parks in san francisco. i'm here today to respectfully hope that you will vote know on the 5-dollar fee added. first of all, i would like to express my gratitude to what the
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commissions have been doing. it's uncertain to have them. it gives residents time to spend time with family and friends and loved ones. pickle balls and tennis court will not damage equal access to the park because it's public resources. the current reservation system as many of the speakers mentioned, they already add a limitation on many folk whros don't have stable internet ak excess or an adjustment schedule at work. so please do not make this even harder for all the residents who have been living and contributing to the development of the city. i personally would not play ten physical there is no precourt available in san francisco. and it's a way for me to start playing with my friends and get to know more people and get involved with the community.
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the five dollar pawment will reduce a lot of possibilities for the people, for the court being used and i think it comes up to the opposite result that compared to what it says, it's a limitation on the no-shows. i strongly urge the commissioners to consider voting no to this proposal. thank you for your time. >> next speaker. are you there, caller? one more and then i think thrall be the last caller. >> hello, can you hear me? 37 yes. >> good morning. so, a couple of things. considering all the comments that have been made for pickle ball and tennis.
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this is worthy of further discussion, i would like to move to take this off the consent agenda so that further conversation can happen. there seems to be a lot of momentum and concern on both sides. second of all, the challenge here is that this -- the information around these hearings has been limited. as a tennis player, the rec and park system has my e-mail and i received no notification of the first meeting. secondly, no notification of this meeting. there was one moment, a post on the pickle ball reservation -- pickle ball and tennis reservation page for the may 2nd meeting but only arrived a week before the meeting.
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this seems look a hot topic. once again, i would like to move this out of the consent agenda and move it to further conversation as opposed to just being rolled into everything else that's voted on today. it seems like the supervisor, connie chan has some fantastic points. for myself personally, i would not be in favor of supporting a 5-dollar fee, i'm totally opposed to this. there is plenty of data still to be gathered. seems like that should be the first agenda is how are we going collect all this anecdotal information around no-shows to actually prove out whether or not this is a valid fee that could be proposed. thank you. >> thank you. okay. that was our last speaker. so seeing no further public
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comments, public comment is closed. commissioner. >> commissioner, any comments? a reminder that this is an action item. the chair will entertain a motion that we approve the consent calendar as-is. >> so moved. >> second. >> all those in favor. aye. all opposed. it's unanimous. >> thank you. we are now item 6, san francisco zoo report. do you have any visuals? >> good morning. my name is chris korns. i head up special projects at the zoo. here is my report for may. rescued tortoises to the
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conservation center. the zoo recently accepted a rescue animal, a three-legged tortoise. desert tortoises are listed as an endangers species in california. although they can live up to 8 o years, they're vulnerable to drought, wildfires and encounters with vehicles. ther tois given to us is 25 years old. they do better when they lose a limb because their sturdy shells help them. she'll stay at the center to teach visitors. rescued and critically endangered axilotus are now on
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exhibit. another rescued and he endangered species is now at the zoo are uniquely looking sal mannedders. these were confiscated by the u.s. fish and wildlife and smuggled into the country. they're trying to find a safe haven for these animals and we're happy to highlight this endangered species. the 2024 campaign continues as part much our conservation messaging. we show an endangered animal each week at the zoo. the mad gasky spider is also endangered. the species habitat has been
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declining at 1.2% a year. major threats to the species include forest burning and clearing for agriculture, highway development and mining and petroleum exploration. the species is nate toi madagascar. they also can live long up to 07 years. conservation groups are working on breeding programs, working with education of local communities as well as protection and refres taition. reforestation. we had frog tables and turtle tales from a decade of head starting at the zoo. rochelle gave a deep look into the work her team does on a
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daily basis. guests included bef ranches and hors d'oeuvres. a especially group of graduation. our masters volunteers undergo a rigorous training program before they teach about zoo animals. this year 22 students participated in 10 weeks ever training. they all passed their final examples and are official docents. the zoo thanks everyone who made the training a is success by sharing knowledge and expertise in their fields. the littman phase 2. the littman family mad madagascar center start with an educational amphitheater. this addition will allow our interpretive ambassadors, conservation specialists and
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dosens the opportunity to teach. thank you. >> we have one speaker card for item 6. richard. >> welcome, richard. >> good morning. the good news, the economic study will be ready for prime viewing in two weeks and hopefully we can have a hearing at this commission meeting in july. but i wanted to talk about the joint video committee meetings. i've he been going to them for about 11 years. i became concerned when two of
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you former commissioners asked tanya to meet with us and she never did. she stopped coming to the joint zoo committee meetings and we can't ask her questions. commissioner mo swroala want to talk about the stories in the newspaper. you should review the contract by the m.ou. this was written by the 1990s and there were items out of date there. i think half-hour meetings of the joint zoo committee is not enough time. i think they should have special meetings and they should be on zoom.
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this commission and staff need to get more involved in what is going on at the zoo since the city owns the animals and should be part of the conversations in making sure an analysis are protected. people tell me that the animals are not in a safe environment. >> thank you, richard. is thereknow other comment on i? seeing none, public comment is closed. we're now on item 7, stonestown development agreement and playground concept and design.
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you have a presentation, right? >> i do. >> good morning, commissioners, today i'll be bringing stonestown development improvements. we have provided a detailed overview of this exhibit and the stonestown benefit agreement as an informational item to the capital committee and some of you heard the shadow item. you got a good overview of the development. we'll keep this presentation to a high level and if you have any questions, let me know.
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i'm joined by patrick grace and he'll give background information. today we'll be requesting that the commission take the following actions on specified items. one consent to and recommend that the board of supervisors approve the stonetown development agreement. the two, consent the associated improvements exhibit for the improvement to roth nickel playground part of development agreement. three, approve a concept design for these improvements and four, authorize the general manager to approve future permits to enter and a license agreement. and now i'll turn it over to patrick grace from the planning department. >> good morning commissioner.
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brookfield properties is proposing to enter into a development agreement with the city to develop 30 acres of surface parking excluding the existing gallery into a primarily residential neighborhood with parks and plaza, community amenity space and office and structure parking which will create a new town center where the community will which have and shop and play. this is ray goo opportunity to convert these parking lots into residential units. the project will also bring realignment of 20th avenue to provide neighborhood commercial services. the project will implement nearly six acres of privately
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maintained parks and open spaces and construct above ground parking and provide bikeway and pedestrian improvements. the community played a huge role in shaping the design of the project. the neighbors have generally been supportive with primary concerns centered around the impacts of increased density and impacts to traffic. to address the concerns, the project has evolved. enhancing connection with recreational aspects. site circulation, better accommodating parking and loading and mitigation measures raised by the community around traffic. the development agreement will provide a suite of community benefits negotiated by the oawd
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and the planning department. the project transformation begins with parking lots, private streets into a knew street network. the existing streets will be redesigned to provide additional space for pedestrians and people on bikes with two-way separated bikes and access to meuny muni. it will provide six acres of new open spaces including parks and plazas. it will have improvements to the nickals playground and more pathways to link the park to the eucalyptus.
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two key benefits are the new spaces for kids and seniors and it will provide a new child care facility for a capacity up to 100 kiz. and replacing the annex facility with an on-site senior center. the project includes the workforce agreement between the city and developer that will include first source hiring commitments. local hiring for work in public streets and local business enterprise plan. the agreement will last up to 25 years with an option for two extensions. the investment will create hundreds of jobs during construction and on-going basis after completion of the project. kristen mentioned some of the other times that we've been before you all.
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the development agreement ordinance was sponsored by the mayor and supervisor melgar and introduced april 23rd to the supervisors. we've been before you both on may 1st to the capital planning committee and also for shadow on may 9th. certified the final environmental report including the development agreement. the project will be before of board of supervisors extending into the summer. with that, i'll turn it back to crist and then i'm happy to answer in he questions. questions -- i'm happy to answer any questions. >> so as patrick mentioned, the developer will be creating a whole new neighborhood and about six acres of new open spaces
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within the development. as you can see on this image, most of the open spaces along the western side off the development starting at the large area on the west side is the town square that flows into the greenway parks. the developer will make improvements to ross nickals to promote the park and neighborhood. to give an idea of existing conditions at ross niks lts playground. it's on the northwestern corner, it's a three acre park. it has two main entrances on eucalyptus drive. there is a nature exploration area on the eastern side and the essential areas open grass. this park provide an important
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[indiscernible] for high school students that go to the parking to access the mall. the next two slides will show you renderings on what is expected from the open spaces. this a view looking southeast from the border of ross nickel junior on to the greenway parks west and east and into the town square park. this view is looking back from the town square park to the greenway parks to ross nickel. you can see the trees in the back which is ross nickals playground. the improvements that are going to be made are lumped into two general categories. one, there will be vertical
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constructed and maintained improvements. and two, there will be developer constructed and rpd maintained improvements. we'll go into msh detail here. developer constructed and maintained improvements. i'm going to orient you a little bit here to what you're seeing. these are the geenway parks east and west. this is street c that is going to be constructed. there will be a small portion of sidewalk of street c that will go to ross nickel junior. the southern eastern corner offer park, there will be a retaining wall built to support that side of the park. in this yellow line, there will
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be some grading happening in order to accommodate these improvements as ross nickel slopes down to the project site and the area needs to be flattened out to install the entrance plaza. there will be drainage improvements, there will be a drainage pupa and many, many many a catch water into the public system. there will be two new ada accessible pathways that will go into the park. and provide an access point to eucalyptus drive. there will be a tree screen that will be planted along the southern border of the park to promote a park-like atmosphere and this is a 9 o foot building. in the graded area, there will
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likely be trees that will need to be removed due to the grading and any trees removed will be replated at a 2-is replacement ratio and those will be maintained by us. all future schematic designs and construction documents will be reviewed by staff. any substantial changes made not concept designs will be brought back to commission for approval. there will be the permits to enter and the license agreements that the developer will need to obtain prior to construction. both use permits will lay out the terms and conditions to use a portion of ross nickel during construction. and the maintenance that is required during construction as well as allowing the ben by the
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to use the developer-maintained improvements over the longer term. the developer will be required to undertake an 18-month establishment period of all new plantings prior to apd inspecting and taking over the maintenance. additionally there will be capital contribution of $1 million for future improvements to ross nickel playground to be used at rpd's discretion. one thing we may want to improve is irrigation. during or prior to construction, we may partner with the developer to install irrigation. the cash contribution will be paid out during phase 3. delivery of 91,750 pt dwelling
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unit -- 1,700 foo delg units. 1,700 dwelling units. if you have any questions, please let me know. >> thank you. do we have any public comment on item 7 in the room right now? seeing none, and we have no hands raised on the webex. >> kristen and patrick, this is the third time i've seen this presentation and it only gets better. it resonates with me more so i congratulate both of you on your work. i noticed that stacy bradley is in the room as well. please, on behalf of the commission, congratulate all of your staff on how much work
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they've done on this. commissioners, any comments or questions? the chair will entertain a motion that we move all phases of this project forward and recommend that the board of supervisors approves them as well. >> o moved. >> second. >> all those in favor. it's unanimous. >> we are fow on item 8 donor recognition program heroes indian basin.
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>> good morning commissioners, i'm lisa the director of the expark i'm here to scl to approve the heroes and donors to the initiative. as you know, the indian basin initiative is a 200 million-dollar private public partnership to build a transformative park. in addition to the community, the partnership with the park as lines, trust for public land, a national non-profit and also as the fiscal steward of the
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project, the san francisco foundation. so, the initiative is guided by a community created equitable development plan or edp that guides the partners to focus on six priorities that ensure that the economic benefits of this park and the park's development for the existing community. important for the heroes' program is that the community arts and culture and identity is celebrated. as i mentioned, this is a $200 million initiative in which we've committed about $125 million of public dollars from city regional, state, and federal forces. and are working hard to secure
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75 million from private funders. we're thrilled that the partners have raised nearly awful the expected -- all of the expected public funds. importantly at least $15 million of the $200 million budget is dedicated to edp programs and projects. before i get to the symbols of the heroes program, i wanted to talk about the creation. it came from a research project that my team conducted a couple of years ago uninclusive fund raising. we knew it would be important for this project and wanted to understand how to do that best. that work led to the creation of an inclusive campaign cabinet where most campaign committees consist of wealthy donors who guide campaign strategy and
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bring their networks into the project. the india basin partners created a domain is about a third philanthropist, a third park experts, and a third community members. i want to pause and say that these meetings are extraordinary. some of our commissioners have attended them. but they have -- we're in a room with billionaires and bayview advocates and theght toe provide comments on equal footing. it was from that cabinet that the heroes program emerged. the donor recognition programs are important tools for fund raising campaigns. they help donors be involved in the project and they inspire team to give and move people to give at higher levels than they originally thought.
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it was clear that for india basin we couldn't implement a standard donor recognition program and name things at the park after people who didn't represent the community so we wanted to honor people who are heroes to the community in this historically back neighborhood and recognize donors in a supporting role. like everything in india basin, it involved a lot of community outreach. the program was developed over about two years. this included four presentations at different sorts of community meetings and events. it included an on-line survey. three presentations at the cabinet meetings, and about 10 meetings with content matter
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experts including -- excitalling for me -- a meeting with some of the development staff from the obama foundation. it's one of the closest things that is happening that we're sort of trying to emulate. and all of that work was to the development of a set of criteria for the program. these are some of the criteria that we looked at. because we're intentionally creating a black-centered space there is a deference for heroes that are black. heroes who have a direct connection to san francisco, there is a focus on gender parity to honor people with stories overlooked and remembrance for those with fully
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vetted developed stories. from that criteria, we developed a rubric for ranking the heroes that mass against awful the many names we got from the community. these scores helped determine if the names would be on the list and also whether the sorts of elements that they would be selected this is the plan. so these are the elements and the donations to support those elements. i wanted to get to what it's going to look like. the idea of the program is there will be plaques of different sizes on site that will name a park feature after a hero.
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it will note in smaller type that the feature and the hero are proudly supported by the donor. thus the joe smith ship write's cottage would be supported by the xyz foundation. community members and their heros are featured and are the name of the park element while donors play a somewhat supporting role. these sites will carry the names for a minimum of 25 years to allow future generations of leaders to remember the park as it is refreshed. while we are committed to this list, we also recognize that lists are never final. to bring flexibility into the program, we've developed the
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form that you see here that would allow a community member or don'ter to nominate another hero. in this case, again, like government will try and step back and let the community speak so that that hero would be looked at against the criteria and vetted by the edp leadership, by the community members of the cabinet and then approved by the initiative executive team. lastly, i did want to note the hero's program is one way that the community and history of the site will be represented. in addition to the remow's signage, there is an ininterpretive signage program to speak to the history and ecology and long term stewardship of the site by different communities. and then there is -- we're planning to have with we call a
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story plaque that will speak to the origins of the park and celebrate the neighborhood, political and other advocates who led to the -- pushed the department to develop this park. and then we are also planning to have it built, there will be a ship inside the shipwright's cottage of community members that will be able to tell their stories and talk about their lives in the community and all the things that every single regular person does to contribute to the fabric of a community. i want too close with some special thank yous. staff and our campaign consultant ccs fund raising helped to put together the
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structure of the program. we tried to step back and let the community lead. i want to particularly thank darrell who was hired and led much of the outreach on this project. i want to thank our campaign co-chairs, sissy swig and chuck mcdonald. eric is a bayview resident and former rec chair. he led meetings towards sensitive topics to get the program to this point. thank you very much and i'm happy to take any questions. >> before we get to public
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comment on this, i would like to invite former recreation and park commission vice president eric mcdonald to say a few words. just a little background on commissioner mcdonald, he was the vice president of the commission when i came on board. i've had a great relationship with all the commissioners i've served with, but when i was a rookie, he was my mentor. and as vice president now when things come up, i very often think what would former vice president eric mcdonald do. welcome back to room 416. >> it's a pleasure to be here. it's a pleasure to be here. here.i was always be a supported
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fan. the india basin waterfront project rises above of many them for me as a bayview resident. it represents as it is named, a fulfillment and promise. the southeast sector of the city has long been neglected and has been the recipient of unfulfilled promises. to have this level of significant commitment, investment and transformational effort is really tremendous and worthy of note. one of the things that heesea represent, i just want to underscore that from the beginning, one of the reasons i said yes to being a co-chair, not because phil and lisa are not persuasive, it is because it
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does fulfill a promise to this community that ensures that generations to come of black san franciscans who happen to be residents, many of them for generations in the bayview will have this legacy park that represents them, not just one plopped within their community ask taken over by others. the donor recognition program continues that commitment. we centered the importance of black voices. community voices representing the ways in which individuals could be recognized from community, luminaries to local heroes like oscar james and ensuring that these names and faces and stories would be represented in the hopes that one, the community would feel
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like this was their park. this is our park. and two, that young people coming to this park would see these i lust truss individuals being recognized and be inspired to be their -- inspired by their own doing community heroes that canning celebrated in similar fashions. lisa referenced the inclusive cabinet. the cabinet meetings themselves as a process and another thank you to commissioner wintroub who shortly after joining the commission raised her hand and said she joined. we appreciate her contributions to this poddy of work. we have this unique space that is balancing and including can the voices of community. lastly, i want to thank lisa who i have really been grateful to have as a martner in this and
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appreciated quite frankly her heart and passion towards this in ensuring that it really does remain true to the commitment to community, the community voices, and their inspiration for this project. and so, certainly i want to encourage your support and approval of this effort. i think we have done a good job in balancing all of the nuances. there is no shortage of heros that could be recognized and i think we did a good job, we, the community did a good job of balancing all of those interests and i commend it to you for your approval. >> and eric, you are a true hero in that community as well. >> thank you. >> ashley, do we need to take any public comment before we get to phil and the commissioner? >> yes, if there is anyone in room 416 to comment on item 8, now would be the time to come on up.
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>> good morning everyone. commissioners, ashley, general manager phil, thank you so much for having me. we have a fight over mentor, eric long time mentor of mine for so long. i'm a nait of san francisco, born and raised here. spent a lot of time in bayview. been doing a lot of work in the community for 20 muss years. and i currently focus on the community. community is always at the heart of what do. i serve at the university of san francisco. it's interesting when lease' reached out to tell me about this opportunity, and to talk about project, she went on to give me this spiel. and i thought you got me, i love
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this opportunity and vision and love this opportunity where we can honor our heros with the connection to san francisco. and be able to make this space something that is welcoming. a lot of times here and different places where you go, you're not necessarily welcome. but one of the things that i appreciated about this project is it's so meepgful and so intentional. you have lisa and the team working closely with community partners and folks like myself to look at ways that we can come together and continue to support the amazing work that rec and park is doing. i know my time is over, but i want to say thank you so much for following through on this opportunity. consider me a huge fan and i'll be on standby if you need anyone al at all. i'm derrick brown.
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>> derrick is also a huge supporter of u.s. mens and women's basketball ases as well. >> it's awesome. >> many good afternoon. i'm cheeka mosey and program manager and a long-time resident of bayview hunters point. i've seen this from the time we had no paint on the ground from the ground up. i want make sure that the commission knows this project is worth the time to keep community involved. i'm a proud person to be a part of the project because i'm part of the campaign committee. they took the time to include us and being a young person, i'm only 25, i've been doing community work for a while.
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but this is a great opportunity to continue that mission of inclues ift and equity. this park project is literally a catalyst for he canable development plan in san francisco. i hope that you guys continue to support this project and thank you. >> thank you chika. >> anyone ems? come on up. >> i'm here to show support for this donor recognition program and i'm a long-time resident of san francisco and i'm proud of the support for this type of project. the project is a long time coming. it wouldn't be possible without support from public and private funders and recognizing these funders is an important aspect of this work.
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having their names plastered around the park feels inappropriate. thank you for the opportunity for me to share and i urge you to support this. thank you. >> thank you terence. >> i think we have more speaker -- maybe two on the call-in line. can you unmute the first caller. >> commissioners, my name is [indiscernible] i'm the director of advocacy. i know too much about this site. it was a site to add a lot of changes. it was a site that was contaminated. and a lot of money was spent to
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dot remediation. it's a site that is close to the bay. and another word about sea level rise. when we talk about population, at one time blacks were 7 o%, they're -- 70% and now down to 2%. the people that come and they talk, they talk in generalities. this site is laid to the chinese. this site is laid to the
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originals of san francisco. let's keep it real. keep it for recreation, but remember who was there and what was their history. thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> i'm a pros if he iser at the university. i'm a former chair of the department. i was recently a member of the community headed by eric mcdonald of the san francisco african-american representatives committee and have worked closely with derrick brown and a
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board member of the team. i'm glad to be here to lend my support to the donor recognition program. i've been a part of a couple of meetings already. when they were presented -- when the stipulation was presented to me, i was excited. given the work that we've been and the reparations, i saw this as a beautiful connection like it was inspired by my effort that we made on the committee and inspired all kinds of other reactions and different segments of the city and state could find ways to contribute. i think this is an important contribution to the region of the park. every place has a history. every place had different people make claims to it at different times.
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those that are indigenous to this land. as important as the kek is, and as the previous caller suggested, other histories. that's true of a on of parks in san francisco and california. we need to find ways to link it together because of the tremendous keks between the chinese community and black community in san francisco and la and dee troit. i could go on and on. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> seeing no further callers, public comment is closed. excisioners. >> commissioner louie. >> i just want to say thank you, lisa for this presentation. india basin is a project that all of us are very excited
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about. i was appreciating this donor recognition heroes program. and the fulfilling of promised campaign can. i was just wondering like the previous caller said, there are a lot of asian aapi heroes too that i know my family lives out there in the bayview hunters point and i was wondering if this list is a short list? and also, i want to say there are a lot of living heroes. we have eric and derrick. and so will there be a portion or somewhere at that we can highlight and recognize our living heroes? the lust that was shown, sadly, these people are not with us any more. i want to know how expensive the campaign is.
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first of all, we want this possible inclusive in many ways. there will be more opportunities for inclusion. we're looking at phase 3 constructioning and some sort of a wall that might include more names than just what was available. we didn't want to overwhelm the park with signage either. the list that i showed in my presentation was just a same sa. you have in your materials the full list. i will say i recognize that the history of that site is -- if i can say it in a meeting, it was horrible for the chinese community. we have one element that's named after the list of companies. we did a lot of research to find an individual from that community and candace lee the
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erasure was such that there weren't individual names. we'll recognize that community in the interpretive signage that is on site. >> commissioner wintroub. >> i want to add as america mentioned, i join the campaign cabinet earlier this year. i've had opportunity to learn in much more depth about this heroes india basin program. all of the community input that has gone into this is incredibly rigorous research and vetting process for all of the names on the list. and so, i have full confidence in recommending this program be approved by the board of supervisors and i also hope there is some way to capture this in the department for future naming of parks and open
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spaces and rec serpts and so forth and renaming because i think we've seen a few of these. sometimes we make a decision and wondering how much input has been provided and how, you know, thoughtful some of the names presented have been and so i really hope that we can make this program a best practices model in the future. >> general manager guinness brg. >> i did want to emphasize that one of our core strategies is identity. if you come into a space with a lot of generous donors but doesn't know who they are and don't recognize them and understand their story, that's where this idea kind of was
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rooted. but mostly i wanted to express gratitude. eric, thank you for being so engaged in this project and for just lending not only your knowledge, and your community connection, but your heart and soul to this. we appreciate it. derrick, thank you very much for yr involvement. chika, you know this project is about 10 years old. you were like a punky 15-year-old teen when this thing started. i knew you then which is pretty amazing. and watching you just sort of grow up before our eyes and watching you assume the
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leadership roles you've given to this project and lending your pragmatic grace to every decision that needs to happen here has been so inspiring. i just want to say thank you. and my last thanks is for the architect of this and the visionary of this particular feature which is lisa. we had some goals in mind and knew if we sprinkled a bunch of names of donors, it wasn't going to work, but lease' did the hard work and the research. spent a lot of time with the obama foundation which became our north star. we've had a couple of north stargs. we had the 11th street bridge folks and equitable development plan.
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i'm extremely proud of this. extremely proud of your work lisa, this is still hard stuff even if you have a good idea to share it, it bring people, make sure people feel like they are brought along. it's one thing to have a good idea. it's another thing to make sure other people have a chance to grab on to that good idea and to feel ownership for it. and so, commissioner wintroub, this is going to be best practice at least for public/private partnership and namings. we have to figure out how to take lessons learned and convert is into some of the other discussion about naming and renaming. but at the least for philanthropy, this is the best practice. while i'm there, i want to give a shout out, this comution has been a dhachion for this project.
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specifically acknowledge commissioner wintroub and ward for jumping in and investing a lot of time and helping us network and helping us raise money and make connections. and, you know, thank you. this is one where our old chair mark who say victory has many parents. >> thanks for yr leadership as well. phil. thank you, lisa for your presentation today. if there are no more comments or questions for lisa, the chair will entan a motion that we fully support the heroes of india basin program and move it forward. >> so moved. >> second. >> all those in favor. it's unanimous. >> we're now on item 9 mou
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extension and fiscal year 24-25 annual support can. support. >> officially good afternoon commissioners and general manager thank you for entertaining this second item which is very different but also equally sporn for the department. equally important for the department. i'm here today for discussion and possible action to authorize the recreation and park department to extend the mou with the park as lines for an
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additional year and spend $95,000 for annual support in furniturens of the department's strategic plan in fiscal year 24/25. i'll go quickly, but i wanted to give a little bit of history. since 1970, the park lands and president certifies organizations partnered with us to add the margin of explens that philanthropy brings to city programs. the two organizations partnered for decades from the renovation of the dutch windmill in the '80s to the celebration of golden gate park's 150th birthday and to india basin in the present day. in 2021, the two organizations entered into an mou that memorialized how they would work together and contained important
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record keeping and reporting provisions. it was always meant as a short-term agreement to test and improve the systems and responsibilities. but as happened with other projects, this testing of that was interrupted a couple of times. first of all the city adopted a new rules to the behefted payment system to pause us in our work. then the more recently in part and response to that, the san francisco park as lines has done a reorganization that is still in process. that's not complete. and it's also restructured the financial system. given these changes, i worked
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with the city attorney to craft an amendment that would be allowed by the existing amendment to just extend this for one more year. we do think we'll -- we know we'll be through all those changes that i addressed and it is fully our intention to have a longer term more row dust mou that will be for fiscal year 25-26. and then this is the proposed budget. you'll see that -- sorry -- we have several line items in the budget and they're all tied back to our strategic plan. all the spending from the parks alliance ties to our strategic plan. and then i'll give you quick examples of these line items of what they supported in the past or what we expect them to support.
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importantly, the bench program is run by rec and parks and it's a crazy popular program. you'll see that the line item for the bench program is high because we have to have these in-kind grants from the park as lines to keep the program running. when it stops, we hear it from the public. we have a strong interest in keeping it program going and we hope that $55,000 will get us through another year. and then community events funding from the parks alliance allows us to, as i said before, add the ar gin of excellence that allows us to hire dancers and entertainers and work with different vendors. it's important to have this money for events for everything from our seasonal events to we had a celebration of golden gate
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park's 1 a 4th birthday. that's -- 154th birthday. for recreation programs, there are certain things that our rec program can't do without the parks' alliance. one example is the annual safety inspection of our rock-climbing walls. we had to put the rock climbing wall away and not use it because we couldn't get it inspected without the grants. the now that we've figured that out, we're thrilled to have this back and we'll use the money for that. and then park partnerships. this bucket of funding will be used to create more tools to help community group whose want to partner with the department.
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do it more easily and efficiently. and then volunteer programs, this supports the materials and equipment for volunteer programs and youth programs like the green-agers which vice president hallisy talked about in the beginning of this meeting. and then staff development and appreciation gets about a thousand dollars to allow people to maybe take a considers or get some sort of award for good work and we know that spending in this category has been an important driver of the very high job satisfaction in the department. and so what i'm asking for today is approval of the mou extension.
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and authorization of the expenditure of $95,000 this coming fiscal year from the parks alliance and i'm happy to answer in he questions. >> is there any public comment in room 416 on item 9? >> hi, i'm amy from parksland speaking in support of this item. we truly value longs-standing partnership with the recreation department to improve parks for san francisco. we ask you to support the extension of this mou and allow for future projects and programs. we're proud to support the quork to serve san franciscans parks
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and public spaces. thank you. >> thank you amy. >> anyone ems want to comment on item 9? public comment is closed. >> any comments or questions for lisa? if not, the chair will entertain a motion that we extend the mou with the park alliance and approve the cash and grants to support the department's strategic plan. >> so moved. >> second. >> all those in favor. it's unanimous. thank you again, lisa. >> all right. i think we can move to the next few preempty quickly. we're now on item 150. general public comments. anyone who didn't get to comment? no. is there anyone -- that's pretty much all the same people. public comment is closed. anything for item 11,
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commissioners' matters? okay. any new business? or agenda setting? commissioners? okay. anything on communications? great. we're now on item 14, adjournment. >> the chair will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> so moved. >> second. >> all those in favor. we are adjourned at 12:09 p.m. and good luck ann lee alvarado.
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. >> golden gate parks largest body of water ska great labor for scrolling and picnicking and both miking which can both be rented at the boat house and the lakewood design for leisure boatings and carriages and a treasure trove passing hunting ton water falls two bridges connect the strawberry island and inclient to the hills the highest upon the in golden gate park and more than free hundred feet and you can catch glimpses will from the city at the top of a romantic look out and for
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>> commission meeting may 7, 2024 to order at 5:35. welcome to the tuesday may 7, 24 hybrid, in person meeting of the entertainment commission i'm laura thomas and president bleiman is absent. we will start with announcements. >> >> we would like to start with the land acknowledgment. [ramaytush ohlone land acknowledgment]
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