>> (roll call). . >> commissioner harrison. >> commissioner arata. >> here. >> commissioner low. >> here. >> commissioner martin. >> and commissioner levitan has an excuse, absent. >> we'll start -- i have a couple of announcements as part of my report and then we'll move on with the regular agenda. >> this is the recreation and park commission meeting of september 20, we welcome everyone here today and we ask that you turn off electronic devices that may sound off during these procedure, please

take any secondary conversations outside. if you would like to speak on an item today, please complete a blue card. we will call your name for the item you've requested to speak on. unless otherwise announced by the president, each person will have three minutes for public comment on each item. please address your comments on the item being heard if you would like to speak under general public comment, those are items 4 and 8 on the agenda, and please address your questions to the commission in order to allow equal time and the staff will respond to any questions during public comment, the commission may ask questions of staff after public comment is closed. >> we are on the president's report. >> ie teem 5b, the union square market street central subway station has been removed by the consent calendar and will be heard under the general

calendar following the consent calendar. let me make a couple of brief comments as part of my report, one, the park alliance is having their party for the parks on friday night at anglar's large and this is their annual fundraising effort, they support the parks in many ways, i encourage everybody to attend. the alliance issued their playground report card last week and i'm happy to say that the last report card we had showed 30 playgrounds in the system that were sub par, this year, it's down to 16, and if we can get the bond passed in november, i think we'll have 0 sub par playgrounds in the future, but i want to congratulate the staff and the general manager on the management of the system to

bring with limited resources 15 or 14 more parks in the line under those circumstances. i also want to congratulate the staff because the first phase of the america's cup, the smaller boats had their first event and i think it went off in a grand manner in no small due to the recreation park department's preparation down at the marina green, so congratulations to all on that, and i think that concludes my report. thank you very much. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing no public comment, it is closed. we are on item 3, the general manager's report. >> good morning, commissioners, some news and announcements in a summary of some upcoming events, this past saturday, we were joined by supervisor scott wiener, the city field's

foundation, supervisor compost for the reopening of the mission playgrounds, this is a 7 and a half million dollar renovation funded by the 2008 clean and neighborhood safe bond, it includes new play equipment, i think a first of its kind in our own system water play feature, i think it is the only water play -- we have something -- it is the only sort of major water play feature in a playground, artist designed fence panels, repaved tennis and basketball courts with fencing, energy efficient sports lighting, new planting irrigation and a clubhouse renovation that is going to be utilized as our inclusion ne'er and adaptive recreation center, so all of our children who have special needs and need some

form of adaptive recreation assistance will be assessed at this new site citywide, it is a beautiful and joyous space, mission playground is q>on 19t and valencia, and it was formerly a strangely designed broken up space that felt unwelcoming and frankly unsafe, and to be out there on saturday morning watching kids play soccer all morning long, watching people on two different playgrounds on the basketball courts, tennis courts and what is now just a really gorgeous wide open community hub that will hopefully we leave some space from delores park, i want to commend our capital and [inaudible] staff, meagan was the project manager on this and

the construction manager, and frankly my entire team for what was a great opening and is a very special new asset in the community. speaking of good things happening in our neighbors, bow decker playground is set to undergo a major renovation with the trust from parkland, and i want to recognize betty trainer who's been a tireless [inaudible] she has been selected as a finalist for 2002 cox conserves heroes awards, for over a decade, betty has arranged cleanup, her work brings diverse community members together through arts and activities, it is from cox enterprises and the [inaudible] for public land, it is to

preserve and enhance the outdoor shared space in our communities. i know it's election system and we're not supposed to talk about voting but a vote for betty is a vote for bow decker park, vote for betty trainer, our hero today. this and the past couple of week, we've been out and about and i wanted to let you know that i made a presentation at the southeast community facilities commission last week about -- with an overview of our department and all of our volunteer events and summer programming and scholarship opportunities and park maintenance opportunities from the southeast sector which i think was well received, a healthy and positive die -- dialog, and two nights ago, i had the pleasure of serving on a panel of the america institute of architecture, san francisco chapter who is hosting a conference called

landscape in the city and they had a panel on temporary interventions and urban design which was about park lets but also our own efforts attempt rare programming opportunities such as our waller street skate board park and olympic events at civic center, and the panel was hosted by erin brit who is the editor of the magazine. they've done incredible things in our neighborhood and on our streets to create temporary or not so temporary park spaces, it was great to be a part of it and we got great feedback about our efforts to activate our plots and our streets. last week, the swim club began

at our last commission meeting, you approved a generous gift to provide a program to teach kids in our most underserved neighborhoods to swim, that began at gar field pool, it was their after school program and is the program's off to a great start. this past weekend, we also had some incredible volunteer events at our park. it was the national coastal cleanup day and we had several hundred people gather for a coastal area cleanup in golden gate park that resulted in about 6 different volunteer projects within the park and then on monday in combination with cells forces convention here in town, we had about 150 volunteers in mcklairn park doing park cleanup events and i think it's a good moment to point out that in fiscal year

11-12, we had 147 thousand hours of volunteer time in our park system which was a new record for us, it was a 7 thousand hour increase from our volunteer efforts from the previous year, so we're grateful to san francisco's tireless champions for all the work they do in our parks. upcoming events, commissioner, you already spoke about party for the parks, i will be there wearing i guess what has been described as lodge sheik clothing, i have no idea what that is, the benefits from this supports the recreation and parks alliance. this saturday september 29 from noon to 5, please join us at the city's knew skaip park at

balboa park, it will feature skate exhibitions, live bands, the new skate park is part of our partnership for the trust for public land which has renovated their land in balboa park. also on september 29, a very busy day is national public lands day, so get your kicks out at our national lands day event and community kick ball tournament on saturday the 29th from noon to 2 p.m. it's at young blood coleman playground, the mayor's office and neighborhood services and other community organization, then please join me in our community kick ball tournament that weekend, and just a reminder that as we head into fall, scare groves are just around

the corner, our annual scare grove is coming up featuring carnal rides, haunted houses, food for sale, presale tickets will be available on monday october 15th, it can be boukt at the mcklairn lodge up until the day of the event and we encourage everybody to log on the website for more information i believe the commissioner was out there, it allows more people to attend the event more comfortable and we hope to get more families and kids at the event and into the evening for the older cost -- costume set. >> we look forward to that event, lots of fun. >> thank you, we look forward to seeing you out there, and now after our video of the

month by our incredible jamie hopper, and if i could make a little bit of plug for sf plug tv, visit our website, we probably have an inventory now, maybe 75 videos, three minute videos of what are happening to our parks every day, from skate boarding to kayaking, the most recent video of the week is a tour of the most romantic picnic and wedding sites in our park system and i want to commend jamie and thank sf gov tv for their partnership tell the story of all of the wonderful things happening in our parks and with that introduction, here is your video of the month. (showing video).

>> and with that introduction, here is your video of the month. (showing video). (music). [applause]. >> our institutions, our parks is something that we share in, it's a great resource that everyone across san francisco shares in but it's a great resource for families who stay in this city and to have fun in this city, recreation in this city. (music).

>> they work real hard but they can't do it alone and we need

volunteers and we have people in the community, all over the city, every single day, every weekend who are out weeding, collecting bar -- garbage and keeping parks up, so it is so important what you do today, helping us with this park. >> this is part of the 2008 clean and safe neighborhood parks fund which is on the ballot four years ago and look how that public investment has transformed our neighborhood, and you look at the kids playing on the water, you look at the soccer game behind me, you look at the playground behind you, you look at the tennis court and is the basketball courts and you look at the clubhouse, this park is awesome. (music). >> thank you, that concludes

the general manager's report. >> thank you. >> is there any public comment on this item? >> no. >> good afternoon, commissioners, phil, manager of recreation and park department. beautiful little multimedia video display of events so forth going on in san francisco's multitude of parks and recreation areas, and great to hear john avalos talk about how important a resource our recreation and parks are, but at the same time, we should be aware that the state of

california really doesn't care about parks and its citizens, in fact, they routine any rip us off and say there's funds that aren't there when they are there, and this is the motus operendi for the state of california to act regardless for what san francisco feels and then they act like communists and they say we're going to tell you what you need in your park, we're going to tell you how to run your parks, well, that isn't consistent with democracy and american culture, but you don't seem to care about, do you, you just have your agenda and keep playing your little games with

people and ripping them off, and you really don't seem to care about the consequences or the results of your actions. collateral damage, do you know the meaning of that word? what is the collateral damage when you have a very equestrian area as the bay area is in san francisco and you close one of their important recreational sites and you say you're going to modernize it, reopen it in the quickest most efficient possible, and then 12 years later, it's still closed and the people aren't using those facilities, and you're playing hxj

your little meetings and smiling at everybody [laughter], right, yeah, there's hardly anybody that was interested in golden gate park or any of the recreation facilities that come to these meetings anymore. i used to come to all of them, i used to have quite a community that used to come here, no more. >> thank you. >> thank you. . er is there any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are on item 4, general public comment, at this time, members of the public may add rez the commission on items of interest to the public that are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and that do not appear on the agenda. with respect to the agenda items, your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached in the meeting. i would like to call chris borden.

>> hello, everybody. i am not a speaker, i am a roller skater in golden gate park and i enjoy that very much plus i'm an expert skater, i've done a lot of research and studied skating and urban recreational sports activities. my philosophy behind it is it's difficult for people to succeed professionally and their self-confidence takes a big hit on that but you can go do sports and build your self-confidence and feel really good about yourself. i think that roller skater is one of the few sports that's done by men and women equally, old and young and it's a really good sport and golden gate is an awesome place to have it there, there are safety concerns i do have though and i learned over the time, i have learned to respect the people i