>> in so doing, you need to report on any action taken during the closed session and consider a motion on whether or not to disclose the discussion during the closed session. i move not to disclose what happened during closed session. >> second. >> [calling roll]

unanimous not to disclose any part of the discussion during close session. will there be any report of any action taken during a closed session? >> know. with that, the special meeting is concluded. -- no. >> we are adjourned, and the regular hearing will start at 1:00.

>> kids with special needs have access to a venture on may 5. over 25 businesses and nonprofit organizations build the music concourse with free refreshments, games, and bluegrass. access to a venture is part of sf rec and park's year-round activities in partnership with activities in partnership with families.

>> when the new california academy of sciences opened in 2008, it quickly became one of

the top tourist magnets in the city. part of the cal academies' astronomical success is the weekly nightlife party. >> i am joined by helen, who is here to school me on all the nocturnal activities that are getting ready to take place here. tell us a little about what we can expect to see at nightlife. >> we open up the doors every thursday night at the california academy of sciences. there are certain things you can see every week you can go to the museum, visit the planetarium, and we bring in bars and a deejay or band. it is a different feel from during the day, something different every week. tonight , we have beer and music. -- tonight we have great beer and music. it is beer week. we have a dozen local brewers in african hall. we have a deejays to set up throughout the museum and a live

performance at 9:00 p.m. tonight. >> what has been your favorite part as a participant or as an observer? >> my favorite part is to walk around the aquarium in to see people with a drink in their hands, getting to know maybe somebody new, may be looking for a day, or chatting with friends. there jellyfish. i mean, they are beautiful. >> the culmination of the animals. >> it is very impressive. we do not have this at home. >> tell us a little about some of the spider's we see here on display. >> at the california academy of sciences, there is a very large collection of preserved and live specimens, which are the evidence about evolution. we have the assassin spiders, which are spiders that exclusively kill and eat other spiders. they are under the microscope here. research done and the california

academy's i rhinology lab suggests that the assassin spiders have been doing this for over 150 million years. this glassed in room is a real scientific laboratory, and the people in that room are preparing specimens of vertebrate, that is mammals and birds. the way they do this is to remove the skin, sew it together in a relatively lifelike pose, and ensure that it does not decompose. >> i am a really big class actress fan, so i am here to see them, and beer week. >> i wanted to learn something and have fun. >> i always enjoy it. i am not all is well -- always working as i am tonight. sometimes i come to enjoy the music and to dance.

♪ >> culturewire covers the arts in san francisco, and one of my favorite culture artists is here tonight. jason, thank you for being on culturewire. tell us about some of your posters that we have here today. >> most of the posters here are four specific shows or tours. i am hired by the bands or the venue. >> what is the inspiration behind these posters? >> no, disease of the related to the bay and, of course. music -- it is related to the band, of course the musical content or isn't related to the bed. album covers can come from anywhere. ♪

♪ >> class actress was great. we have been having so much fun. i did not realize how beautiful the cal academy looks than that. what other events take place here? >> we do corporate events that night on a regular basis. but nightlife is your best bet to come in as a regular person pharmacy the academy at night, and visit with friends. calacademy.org/nightlife. we have details for the next few weeks. you can get tickets online in advance or at the door. >> thank you so much. thank you for watching culturewire on sf gov tv.

good evening and welcome to tonight's meeting of the commonwealth club in formed division, connect your intellect. that is our tagline. i am the president of the inform board. tonight, we have larry hardy. the founder of burning man and he is here to talk about the amazing place and phenomenon known as black rock city. he is one of the original

planners and architects. we are going to talk about the path of burning man, the future as well. before we jump into the question that had to do with what is going on, tell us about your new headquarters and how that came to be, why the move into the heart of san francisco? >> well, we were on third street, in what is left of san francisco's industrial district , and we got lonely, really. [laughter]

we saw real estate values dropping precipitously. as far as we were concerned, that was a good thing because it enabled us to move into market street. the city had encouraged us to do so, too, as they were very much interested in revitalizing market, 6th and market, which is essentially part of the tenderloin. we thought there were a lot of opportunities there. we know something about making urban environments vital.

given the present political move, people are open to new ideas. that is true across the country. our burners are being asked to come into centers of various cities for aetna. -- right now. whehowever, as soon as things gt better, they are escorted out. but we might begin to break that cycle. it is just wonderful to walk out on the street and see the world walking by. >> are you giving the twitter deal? >> yes, we are. we just founded a new nonprofit.

black rock arts foundation, which is dedicated to spreading interactive, a collaborative art throughout the world. now we have founded but we call the burning and project. -- what we call the burning man project. it eventually leads to the event itself. this is a wonderful opportunity. the thing about burning man, when you look at the variety of people that go there, when you look at this environment, where all the normal boundaries are down in every department of human knowledge and endeavor.

if you ask what possible application that we have created that may be useful loud in the desert, -- what would it have an application to? education, urban planning, disaster relief. needless to say, we are ambitious than we think we can affect the course of things. we hope to in this century. >> i wanted to dig a bit more into that. i would love it if you could maybe help contrast the radical levels of participation and involvement that you see at burning man with the current

status of san francisco. for a city that has so many creative and imaginative folks, perhaps there could be more to be done on the civic involvement front here. >> we formed a relationship with mayor newsom a while back. i met him at his office and presented to him -- major artistic genre at black rock. and this is portable monumentality.

we told him there are great portable monument works of art all around the bay area. not so much in san francisco, but certainly in oakland. in the east bay. there are some facilities left in the city. being an acute politician, he soon realized what that meant. it was the answer to a political problem. if you put a piece of art in a neighborhood, community members will bicker about it endlessly. if it is only there to be there three months, that is something else coming in deed. i could see a light bulb above his head when we said that. -- something else, indeed.

one could just create art paths out of durable materials upon which you could amount to such works of art. then the entire city, given the supply of createive talent, the whole city could be a revolving work of art. that would be wonderful. that is what black rock city is. why not transpose that to san francisco? i think the city is now looking at doing art paths for that purpose. it would not be hard, given the abundance of -- after so many years in the desert, there is a

huge backlog of brilliant art. magnificent piece is done by armies of artists working together. so that is an obvious things that could be instituted. i also pulled him that we did not have any trash cans in our city. we did not really continue that dialogue. [laughter] >> the question that everyone in san francisco is asking now, i'm going to ask you as a formality. are you going this year? have you ever missed one? have you ever wanted to? >> no. [laughter] at one time, i was very much needed -- i am still needed,

from time to time. although, if i and my partners have done our job, we should not be needed that much. i am like anyone else out there. it is a big place. it is hyperactive. not only are there 100 things, but they are all happening at one time. thousands of things happening at one time. i feel dwarfed by it. it is humbling. i have an idea of what is coming up, but you have to realize, burning man is very much a spontaneous creation, and the emergent phenomenon. that means you do not really know what is going to be there. we fund art, but that is only a

fraction of the art that happens. we had a guy a few years ago show up unannounced with a 10- story modular skyscraper. i just want to see what is going to happen. [laughter] >> speaking of what is going to happen, looking at the activities going on around the monumental art, the people that are in this emancipated state of mind, how does it stack up to the average city, as far as number of injuries and such, in

that window of time? >> it is a remarkably safe place, actually. there is no pavement. [laughter] and you cannot drive your car. that eliminates most injuries right there. it may feel like the world is coming to an end when the dust rises and the colts the world, but it is not. it is true, your habitation could blow away if you do not secure it. but that is not the end of the world. [laughter] in terms of public safety, it is very -- and we have emergency response times that would be the envy of any city that size.

we are very well organized. you are more likely to fall in your bathtub and break your hip. there are some typical injuries, but mild. we have had a couple of deaths, but from natural causes, one from an accident at the event site. of course, what city hasn't? we used to scare people with that. in the old days, just to let people know, this required hardihood. we put down that people had died here. well, they have died everywhere.

and we still scare some people a bit. people are not used to this unmediated environment. as long as you drink water, you are probably going to be ok. there is not a lot of criminal activity. everyone is really over provided for. to meet the survival challenge, they oversupplied. superfluous goods that people end up giving away to one another. there is really not a lot of crime. there is too much to do. [laughter] >> could you talk more about

that factor, that there is an abundance of good, which is interesting, being in the desert. the economic system that is up there. we talked a long time ago for a "for a magazine" story. one of the things that you said is that commerce, in an of itself, is not the enemy. it is the backbone of civilization. >> to be against commerce is to be against your clothing. who would be against commerce? we just said we are living in a world that has been overly come modified. where everything has been turned into a commodity value. people do not have the identities. we are world full of brands and

no identity. you can read your entire life -- you can do your business and go about in the world using your credit card and never really look anyone in the eye. a world in which things have been comodified, things that should never have been. you cannot put a price on love. you cannot put a price on things that make life meaningful. but this isn't a consumer culture. even though we know we cannot keep it up. if the chinese adopt our lifestyle, we are all goners, we know that. it is not the third world anymore, it is the developing world.

well, they are developing and they want things, too. the 21st century will be about competing for resources. there are not enough in a consuming world when there is no limit of appetite. it is a philosophic position. it would be interesting for people to live in a world as people did at the beginning of the modern era and centuries before. people were not relentlessly comodified, the way they are now. people should live in an environment where nothing is bought and sold, just to see