recreation and park commission meeting. (meeting will commence shortly).

>> the commission will not answer questions, they can ask questions of staff after public comment is closed. so, with that, we are on item number 2 which is the president's report. >> thank you, i'll be brief, happy holidays to all and i think looking back as this is the last meeting of the year that it's been a very good year, highlighted by the passage of the 195 million dollar general obligation bond by 72% vote which was larger

than the vote in 2008, and more people voted on the park bond issue than any other bond measure or proposition on the ballot which i think reflects what i've always said, that everybody in san francisco has an opinion about their parks, rarely do two people agree on that opinion and many people believe that those parks are theirs exclusively and they let us know that and we like that because i think everybody should -- they are the public open space, and so i encourage public comment and letting us know how you feel. as you can all appreciate, every decision we make pleases some people and by its nature doesn't please others, so we're trying through the committee structure to have meetings where we can try to iron out to the best degree possible those differences before they reach the commission, so i just want

to thank each commissioner for their involvement and participation this year. i think it's been very constructive and congratulate phil and all the staff on a job well done. thank you. >> is there any public comment under the president's report? seeing none, this item is closed. we're on item number 3, the general manager's report. >> thank you, commissioners. before i dive into a few substantive year-end issues that we want to cover in the gm report, i want to echo president buell's remarks, it's important to remind people that you are all volunteer and is for all the time and energy and perspective and guidance that you give to the department and more importantly, you give to, you know, the parks community and as you said, mr. president, everybody loves their parks a little differently and everybody has an opinion and it's not always easy to balance

all of the competing needs and values and opinions in our park system but i think collectively as a commission, as a department and as a parks community, we've done a wonderful job this past year and we have much, much to celebrate and be thankful for and i do want to wish everyone both up at the dias and watching the commission meeting a very, very happy holiday. already, turning attention to 2013, i wanted to announce and ask people to attend the neighborhood empowerment network awards on january 9th, here in city hall, you probably saw some signs for it on the way in and the reason i'm asking you all to attend is that on saturday december 15th, the department joined the community group help mcklairn park to break down at a new playground, it was a project the group spearhead and had

which is being funded by the community opportunity fund. help mcklairn park is going to accept an award as the outstanding park group from the neighborhood empowerment neighborhood for their advocacy at mcklairn park, at the top of my list of things to celebrate, it's been all the renewed attention and investment that we with as a city have made in this absolute jewel of a park, it is our second largest park in san francisco, it is beautiful, it reflects in so many ways the diversity of our neighborhoods, of our topography, of our land and of all of the ways that people like to enjoy their parks. it is a true jewel and there are so many good things that are happening which we'll talk more and more about in the coming year including nearly 12 million dollars of investment that will go towards mcklairn in the 2012 parks bond but a lot of that has happened because of grass roots

community advocacy and i want to celebrate the friends of mcklairn park that is help mcklairn park group that is getting this award. on january 12th t dias society of california for the recreation of parks department hosts its annual dig out which is just east of the conservatory of flowers, the dias society like mccomplainer park is another amazing park group that has done so much to beautify and steward our park lands, participants in the dug dig out will learn how to lift out flower clumps and this is the first saturday in april and they replant in the coming year, i have participate ined this event and it is a lot of fun and encourage families to attend. then on january 15th, i want to invite everyone to celebrate

the graduation of the first class of rec and parks green agers, it's saturday january 12th from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., it is a program that offers teens the chance to play an important role in helping our green spaces, they work with teens their own age and they lead workshop, public speaking, environmental education and community engagement. it's an amazing program and it is catered towards kids in underserved neighborhoods, there's primary focus on bayview residents and district 10 residents and it is a way of giving kids exposure to the way we can steward the land. i want to note a little bit of good news about our first weekend of winter registration

which took place last weekend. this is for our recreation programs. there were nearly 6 thousand 500 individual registrations just over the weekend. this is more than double, double the total of registrations for the same period last year and it is a true sign that because of the the great labor management partnership between the reck and park department and seiu that we have been able to develop a new model, we have doubled the registration over last year, the same time in just one weekend. and these registrations don't even include registration in our all city basketball league, which had added participants in our programs and also added revenues so i couldn't be more proud of our staff. last thursday, we were out at

harding to mark the beginning of a recycle project, the harding park delivers water to irrigate 175 acres at the golf course. we are one of the city's largest irrigates, we are excited about the project and want to thank the puc in their partnership. this past monday, i joined commissioner buell, the new promenade extends 880 feet into the heart of fisherman's wharf, the historic pier and alcatraz

and it's perfect for watching the america's cup in 2013. it involved stabilizing the sea wall and some of the import infrastructure below the promenade, it was funded the 2008 clean and neighborhood parks bond, there are some additional dollars that tha* the port is lining to be allocated to continue that along the historic arch, it's a great site and i encourage everybody to visit it. i want to give you a quick update on the pool building, you've read a couple of stories this week, it was damaged by a fire on december 1 and very sadly on december 7, the leaders from variety of city department, fire department, department of building inspection, department of public works met with architectural experts and they determined the building was unsaved, it's a sad and many respects to a very amazing

chapter in city history, that site over the last -- although the building has really been closed and on the down side since the 70s, it had a very glorious period of time which welcomed olympic swimmers and it was the largest outdoor salt water pool in its time, but we worked with the preservation opportunity and a lot of community stakeholders to try to salvage a sad situation and i'm proud that we've come up with a plan which is going to preserve and conserve some significant elements from the building, one of the historic portals on the southern side of the -- it's the southeastern side of the building and we're saving some of the roof tiles and we're going to reincorporate them into a landscape design that will work with the community to cultivate, and will provide

some opportunities to enjoy the zoo area and the ocean bluffs, so although a sad moment, i think something happy will come from it and i really want to thank the fellow city agencies and the preservation community and a lot of the community leaders from the laplia area from their environment which was a sad and difficult decision. our community report for fiscal year 2011-2012 is here, we brought some additional copies for people who are in the public today to see, you'll find great overview, the report reflects what we've known for a long time, our staff members are the best city employees out there and works to keep our parks safe and beautiful, so again we have some copies and we try to distribute most of it electronically, so you can also go to our website and download it from the front page of our

highlight section. i want to very quickly bring up miriam serel who is a planner from the livable streets division from mta who is going to provide a brief update of some summary and key findings from our separated bikeway program, mta has recently completed a little bit of a survey and they have some preliminary findings on the project and miriam is going to present them and i have a handout for the commission and i think there's some extra copies here for the public. >> thank you. is this on? okay. good morning, commissioner, thanks for having me, my name is miriam and i'm with the transportation agency. as you know, in spring this year, we implemented a parking buffered bike kl track and we've been doing data collection for the past year or so, we have some to conduct but

we looked at vehicle speeds and bicycle seeds and perception of safety and perception of understanding and appreciation through an intercept survey and we still have some data to collect and we'll have our final report out in the spring of 2013 so we can be back with that final report then, but i just wanted to let you know of our findings so far, the goals of this project are to make golden gate park and jfk drive safe and accessible for all users which includes bicyclists of all about, it is a safe and comfortable space, if you are less comfortable or a new bicyclist and not interested in sharing the lane with vehicle traffic. >> we can't hear you. >> try and speak into the microphone, we can hear you but it's not -- >> yeah, okay. is this better? >> that's much better. . >> sorry about that.

so, the goals of the project were to make jfk more safe and successful, the bicycle track accomplishes some of that, we wanted to improve conditions for pedestrians and make bicycle and traffic slower, so from our preliminary evaluation, we have found that indeed, motor vehicle vehicle and bicycle speeds have decreased from roughly 1 to 2 miles per hour at different times per day for vehicle traffic, that makes things more comfortable for people. one of the concerns was about park, we removed a number of parking spaces and that was a concern for parking institutions and neighbors, in all the feedback we've received, there isn't an issue that was brought up and in our intercept survey, people have not found it particularly difficult to park based on

those results. public perception of bicycle safety has increased, based on our intercept survey, public perception of the walking space has decreased slightly so we'll be keeping our eye on that and then also driving, perception of driving has had an increase, the perception of safety has increased for driving on jfk as well partly due to the reduced speeds and after the cycle track installation, we found that 87% of all survey responders feel they understand the configuration, there was some concern because it's a new configuration, we have the bicycle lane and then a buffer space and then parking and then the vehicle travel lane, so it was confusing at first, we found after some time that it's been in the ground, people do understand it and we have a majority of respondents say they like the new

configuration, among all groups we looked at, people generally like it, there is a difference in terms of how much and on page 5, there's some more information about that in your report so it's a little more polarizing among some residents, in our feedback, we received through phone calls and e-mails, there are people who are concerned about the park but overall, people find it to be more safe and more pleasant than before and as i mentioned, we will continue to follow this project and make some additional recommendations, we'd be happy to have any input from any of you in the report and if you want to see something in the final report, you can see me separately or right now and we will be back in the spring. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, marium.

[inaudible] is going to present a brief overview for the first time in a long time, without spilling her punch line are largely manageable. >> good morning, commissioners. i'm katie patricione, they did issue budget projections last week for the next two year fiscal period, 13-14 and 14-15. the mayor's office is currently projecting a 263 million dollar deficit for that two year period and that shortfall results from approximately 344 million dollars in known cost increases which is offset by 81 million dollars in estimated

revenue growth over the same period. as always, this gap will have to be closed by the time the mayor submits his report, general funding departments reduced our budget, our general fund support by 3% over the next two fiscal years and they've asked us to make a 1 and a half percent cut in 13-14 and a 1 and a half percent cost in 14-15, the budget reduction targets that we received from the mayor's budget office are 465 thousand dollar reduction next year and a 558 thousand dollar reduction the next year, so in the scope of the budget reduction that they have received over the last three or

four years, this is eminently manageable. two years ago, we were asked to make a 20% budget cut, so this is something that feels like we can accomplish hopefully with relatively little pain. we would hope to meet this 3% target as well as any cost increases in our budget through revenue, although as we start the budget process and move through it, certainly we will have additional clarity on that. in our -- our budget is due to the mayor's office on february 21 and starting in january, we will begin to meet with our staff, with the community, with department stakeholders to have a conversation about our two-year budget and i will be back in front of the commission three separate times with

budget presentations with final approval by the commission actually on february 21, the same day that the budget is due to the mayor's office. so, i'm feeling pretty good about this for once. we'll see how the process goes but i will absolutely be back in front of you with updates and certainly to solicit the commission's feedback. >> thank you, katie. >> thanks, katie. >> alright, from budget to a slightly more joyous part of the report which i promise you is coming to an end, i want to recognize a long-time rec and park employee and retiree, coach robert mcdaniel, robert was selected as a very, very prestigious finalist for the 2012 san francisco 49ers quarter back award which is

their most prestigious award that comes out of the 49ers community fund and it's a good time to celebrate robert who first started with the department in 89 and who recently retired in june. and this award goes to individuals who make a difference. coach rob worked at boeddeker playground which is one of the tougher neighborhoods in the city, he was a positive influence for 21 years, using the sport of track and steel to help teach them sportsmanship and hard work, as a retired city employee, coach rob continues to run his own

non-profit track and field. he is currently ranked third in the nation in his age for the 100 meter hurdles, and perhaps his biggest accomplishment was being selected to carry the olympic torch here in san francisco for the 2008 beijing olympic, it's an amazing award and thank you for being such a great teacher and leader and coach to young people in the tenderloin. [applause]. >> thank you very much for this award, my wife and i appreciate

it very much. what's really important right now is for us to keep the rec centers open because the rec centers is like a second home for the kids in the community. if they don't have a second home, they'll find a home somewhere else and it won't be rec centers. thank you very much. >> thank you, and congratulations. [applause]. >> and, coach, we agree with that, and i want to conclude the report and the year as we always do with a holiday edition of this month in parks. (music playing).

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>> happy holidays, happy new year, that concludes the general manager's report. >> thank you very much. >> do we have any public under the general manager's report, not under -- come on up. >> bruce stone, president of the san francisco harbor association, we were hoping as part of the general manager's report, he might mention that the harbor association had agreed to drop this lawsuit against you and against him and against the [inaudible]. >> i appreciate that. >> if we were able to sit down and talk, if we continue with our lawsuit, the courts will send it to adr anyway so why don't we have a mediation amongst ourselves. >> i can't hear you. >> okay. the harbor s