chinatown, and with high unemployment rate and the low message -- low rates inchinese y providing low-income patients health care through the health plan and by serving as a large portion of the community. >> thank you. is there any additional public comment? seing none, public comment is closed. commissioner fong. commissioner fong: of want to thank everybody for coming out. this is an informational item. there is no vote today. my family has been a longtime supporter and follower of the hospital on this project. one thing that was not

mentioned, the hospital for the community represents security and safety. from an informational point of view, chinese hospital really is that for chinatown. i want to emphasize the security of the hospital. god forbid something happened in chinatown. they are going to go towards the hospital. i had the ability to take a tour of the hospital not so long ago. it is amazing how much activity happens in such a confined area. one last thing a wanted to point out and i am sure it runs thick throughout many communities, but the longevity and commitment of

doctors in the medical buildings is huge. people come back to work and serve and protect their community in chinatown. it is not just patients, it is not just the staff, they are giving to the staff and the lyal oyal doctors. i am supportive of this. i hope that by other commissioners can go down there and give this their support. commissioner antonini: this is very encouraging, and not just the increase in square footage, but they are going to allow the concentration of care in an area and have more types of care that are available for the citizens. that is extremely important. i am encouraged by the number of hospitals we have completed. one rebuild is complete.

another is under construction. this hospital along with another are completely rebuilt hospitals. they are going to completely increase the quality of care we are able to render in san francisco. this is extremely important. we have already read the statistics that many of us are reaching in age. they are becoming a bigger and bigger portion of the population. they are going to require more care. all of the beds will be single beds. that is very important for patient care. i know it looks pretty good so far. staff will work with architects to make sure that designe

interests are met. the immediate outpatient care comes from outside a san francisco. that is another feature that is often not noted. i am very encouraged by moving towards updating are hospitals in san francisco. commissioner moore: -- vice- president miguel: i am in full support of this. it is important that it be rebuilt and rebuilt in the location that it is that it serves its community. there was a time in san francisco shortly after the gold rush, ethnic and national hospitals. the french hospital where my wife and i were members is now owned by kaiser. sherman hospital, which became

davies, now part of the sbc. it used to be a jewish hospital. chinese hospital is one of the last handful of ethnic hospitals that rose in san francisco. i was pleased to see the recommendations of the san francisco health commissioned an even more please to see the chief executive officer. my son was in town over the weekend. it is the second of the

resolutions. the developed cultural competencies within this. there is an expressed need for greater cultural competency in high-quality primary-care services for the lbgt community. it is unrealistic for a hospital to become the leading provider for lbgt chinese, it is not unrealistic that these members would rely on chinese hospitals, especially for services where chinese hospital has establish significant expertise. when i read this to my son, he said thank goodness. it is about time. commissioner moore: i echo everything my fellow commissioners have said.

i am in full support of the office in the hospital. i have lived three blocks away from the hospital for many years. i know the central role this hospital place. much in contrast to the discussions we had recently. this is the one place which has 150% support of the community because it is an expression of the community. it is also contrary to what we're hearing about some other impacts in other locations. they will come to the hospital walking, assisted by a family member or community assistance. it is remarkable to see the traffic impact is almost zero. that is the same thing with the

hospital on k street. you see people aided by other people walking by moving to the community. i am really happy to see that is always as far along. most significantly favor when they come in front of us. they are mostly hard to understand. you have a concrete plan. i am in full support of what you are trying to do. commissioner sugaya: i am also in favor of the imp. i would like to head something off, because it will be likely coming down the line. this is my personal opinion. my background and professional career -- career has been involved in this. i do not want this to turn into

a preservation fight. i don't know the schedule for the rest of the plan with respect to the actual physical building. i assume there will be an environmental impact report. i can pretty much are sure you that the present building is going to found to be a historic resource. from that standpoint, i think you should grab the best analysis that you can get for the hospital and have the environmental report acknowledged that it is going to be demolished and have a very will drafted overriding consideration statement. you should work with the city to develop what i would consider to be a reasonable preservation

alternative. there will be one in the environmental report. a lot of times, those alternatives get passed by. the alternatives are not very well developed. you get into a bunch of fights about whether the existing building could be saved. if you are careful about the way the environmental report is drafted, we can head off any kind of environmental appeals to the board of supervisors and that kind of thing. among a lot of people who have been involved in historic preservation, there is a lot of discussion about a different kind of term, which is cultural preservation. this is the first example of cultural preservation at work. chinese hospital is really a cultural institution within the chinese community. that is going to continue.

that is the kind of thing in japantown i have been working with. i would encourage treatment of that aspect also in the informant to report. although it is not what you would call an environmental impact or anything like that. to put that into historic proportions would be great. thank you. >> i just wanted to also give my full support ot this -- to this document. i note it is just a draft imp hearing. it lays out all the issues that are critical here. i have been working with a sr. organization for the last couple of years and studying the census figures as commissioner antonin mentioned. san francisco faces an aging

population. as far as major cities are concerned, we will have one of the largest aging populations in california. a couple of years ago, a chinatown community development center presented at the planning department something on chinatown where i remember it being mentioned at the time that one of the -- it is not the majority, but a large mature -- majority of residents in chinatown will be mono lingual seniors that are living on a limited income. i remember that figure being communicated to us. we will have a large aging

population in chinatown that are living on a limited income. one of the population institution served our people that are 87% under the care of medicare and medical. i think that we need more institutions like this in more neighborhoods. it is impossible not to support an institution like this. during one of the conversations regarding another institution, the issue of beds have been raised. more seigneury reduction so that you will be adding 22. that is something that is critical.

it is important to have an institution that is culturally and linguistically competent. i have worked on this project of distributing questionnaires for seniors who live in hotels. the need is great for many people that live regardless of the circumstances, what is important to air lot of these aging seniors, many of which are monolingual, that they remain within their community. it is important that we have the facilities in place to care for this population. it is going to serve more than just seniors. it is an issue that is more critical than we realize. i want to thank you all for coming out and showing your support for this. i think that is it.

>> thank you, commissioners. >> we are going to call a 10- minute recess just so that we can transition. >> a 10-minute recess, thank you.