it is unanimous. >> item 12 >> good afternoon commissioners. i am a project manager with the capital division. you have these in your pocket. i wanted to point it out. well, i am here to present and request the award of the contract -- there is a typo on the number. please refer to the last bids. it is $999,018.

the recreation center and playground between 22nd and 23rd street the renovation of the children's play area at the lower part of the park, which is located, i am pointing it out with my finger right here, close to the tennis courts and also to the basketball courts and the play area was completed in 2007. the scope of this project includes the renovation of the play area located adjaceant to the center and the reconfiguration of the entrance on arkansas street to be able to achieve compliance.

landscape, irrigation and site furnishing. you don't have this in the package but i brought the newest layout of the site plan. basically what we are doing at the entrance on arkansas street we are creating pedestrian separate entrance and vehicles for dropping visitors and handicap access. and then we have new asphalt around the recreation center. we are removing the old street. we are relocating one of the palms to be able to be out of the perimeter of the rec

center, just planning for the future renovation of the recreation center and the playground area. actually it is within the back of the recreation center. it will have a new structure and area. we are also doing the implementation of the improvements to the soft ball field which is located on the east area -- southeast area of the recreation center. we received five bids. two bids were rejected. and we got two lower bidders and one that is won over the construction contract. we will implement the

construction contract by the end of september or early october with the duration of eight months and completion in may 2011. our objective review was being done and i am recommending award of the construction contract. >> i came to the original presentation and overall the people i have spoken to in my neighborhood on arkansas street are very happy about this whole thing.

i do have a couple of questions. adjaceant to the bridge project, now in the bridge plans of having their gardens coming up to the rim of the baseball field, which is overall a big nice, green place. i am curious to know how the plans work with the bridge plans, which seem to have a couple of paths going on to the big field. and what the veap. that is an overall question that several of us would like to feel comfortable with. we are happy with what is going on. the only thing that i have any considerable questions about is the soft ball field. is that going to remain natural

or is it going to have artificial turf. they finally said -- somebody listened to me about my tirades will lead poisoning and tire wheels. in a future date have some sort of a presentation to the neighborhood about the plans of the project in concert with the bridge so that we could get an overall sense of what the grand plan is actually going to be when it is implemented. thank you very much. >> seeing no other public comment, public comment is closed. >> we can give the neighbors

the presentation. >> yes basically i just want to say that i have been actually had some calls from the housing authority that it is trying to do some work on the housing projects and i think what she is referring to probably is this. there is a path right here, is that right? that is the path that you are referring to, this one over here? >> whatever it is there will be plenty of chance to present the whole thing to the neighbors. >> we will have a presentation. >> thank you very much. do we have a motion. are are before we make a motion i need you to repeat the amount that this award is for. >> let me just confirm just to make sure. total amount is $999,018.

>> commissioners, when you make the motion -- >> so you want me to actually write that number down? >> i have got it. >> you got it? >> i got it. >> all right. do we have a motion with the corrected amount. >> so moved. >> seconded. all in favor. >> aye. >> opposed? hearing none it is unanimous. >> item 13 is off calendar. before we go to item 14 we will do the general managers report. >> general manager. >> thank you commissioners. very quickly. quick announcements. summer camp season ended last friday. it was probably the strongest this department had in recent history. we had over 15,000 program registration, which is double

that we had the season before. children could choose from 50 different camps from all over the city. my personal favorite a boating camp where kids were able to see sharks on the bay. one of the highlights that i was going to show you but i am not in the interest of time is a music video created by our campers at the harvey hilk center. -- harvey milk center. >> i think next meeting you should bring that and we will have the general manager's report at the right time. we will have a full house and you can entertain the crowd. >> great video. fair enough. >> it is worth noting the day camp offerings we earned an additional $500,000 for a total of $1.1 million. >> we were planning on that, right? >> i want to recognize enterprise high school students for their summer gardening program.

32 high school students participated in this long-standing programs working with staff. students worked on a variety of projects including clearly ivy and replanting areas. this is a summer partnership that dates back to 1978 and enterprise is in the process of applying a grant to expand the program year round on saturdays. i wanted to say thank you to enterprise and the kids that volunteered in our parks this tomorrow. talk of summer brings us into our fall season. this marks the beginning of our fall season under our new recreation model. staff and managers have been working nonstop over the last several weeks to get the new model off of the ground. wonderful training sessions i have attended over the last week. i want to thank and commend them for their efforts so far. as you know our new model moved from an outdated mod toll one more flexible. we have city wide programming.

and we are actually optimistic that even with fewer staff we will offer more programming than we have in the past and will have more community input on what the programming needs are at our various recreation centers. we have the fall season broken up into segments as we build our new model. phase one just started with after school enrichment programs, early childhood development programs. phase two begins the first week in september after labor day going into the first week of october. the green machine, you might have seen yesterday we had a

demonstration held for staff and supervisors thanks to a partnership our first of its kind green steam machine. it is the first one in the united states. it is an alternative for weed control. it further reduces the use. tell provide cost savings over time. >> seems to me we ought to get publicity on that. >> we did have publicity about it and we will keep pushing it. our park scores are at a 19 average. the highest that they have ever been. it is also a testament to our

very successful effort and partnership through the job now program. we had over 100 individuals participate in our jobs now program who have been instrumental in our park maintenance. outside land. i wanted to take a quick opportunity to update you. another plan estimates 80,000 people over the course of the two days. it was a terrific event. i think those that were out there felt very good. this was our smoothest year ever. how the event went during it is weekend. had year we had a great partnership with the san francisco pld. i want to commend martha and the department of park and

traffic. >> i always used to be able to hear it from my house and i couldn't hear it this time. >> this weekend marked a special day for swimmers and non-swimmers alike. he was sorely missed. i was in berkeley at a craigs list foundation boot camp.

upcoming events. there is optional camping and all meals are provided for volunteers. on saturday from 9:00 a.m. to noon we will host a meet and greet event. an opportunity to meet staff and each other to learn about the plans and enjoy light refreshments. golden gate park the second annual horse shoe tournament. our annual show in the county

fair buildings with our great partners. it is there, please join. sunday is sunday streets in golden gate park. we have a very busy weekend. last thing i want to remind you all around the corner on september 15th is the party for the parks. it will be held at the japanese teagarden in golden gate park. the very last announcement is i am very pleased and proud to report that our concourse fountain project is coming to an end. if you have been out there, they are testing the fountains now. you can actually see them on. while we may do a soft opening

sooner, we will have our official turn on the fountains celebration on september 10th at 9:30 in the morning. and that concludes the general managers report. >> is there any public comment? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> thank you for arranging a tour of the outside lands. i got a chance to see the set occupy saturday. and then i came back on sunday evening and the one thing that i noticed was the size of the crowds. the size of the crowd on sunday was significantly larger than the size of the crowd on saturday. and i was wondering, given the

headliners on saturday and sunday why did they not have their bigger day on saturday and have the headliners on saturday and the lighter night on sunday since it ends earlier and the next day is the first day of school. have a lighter turnout? that is maybe something that we should think about as you are moving into next year. the other thing that i saw was the overall the event was well run. the interesting thing i saw on monday was in the chronicle, the video of the fence jumpers. every year we see almost in the same spot. they tend to attack the fence. you can see the kids running in. i was wondering if this is something we can address next year since it happens every year since the festival started. they kind of hit the same spot. maybe that is something.

>> thank you for both comments commissioner. somebody who was tired and bleary on monday morning. i appreciate your comments about sunday night headliner, which was terrific. kings of leon. i am not in the music business. we leave the booking of talent to the event producer as i am sure you appreciate there are a myriad logistical challenges. but i will pass along the sggeds that we try to have a bigger name entertainers on saturday night. and i think this year with respect to security they had two lines of fencing this year. my report although you might have seen incidents of febs jumping. that will likely happen at any event or concert. i am told by the san francisco police department that this year the crowd was well behaved

and security was thoughtful as it has ever been. >> my comment regarding sunday is the sunday night it did not move as freely as saturday. there were many more people. the cut off was earlier. that is a direction. and finally i saw on the report there were two homicides on park property in the last month or so? is that correct?>> in july we ht involving two homeless individuals. we had an incident in boy in a

visa, but that was on the street in front of the park. >> was that typical? >> these were very unfortunate incidents, but i feel confident our parks are safe. we do not have anything resembling the level of violent crimes. our officers are doing a terrific job. we have people travel all of and down the coast, so we are extra diligent. >> that concludes the general managers' report.

>> we're on item 14 which is general public comment. would anyone like to make general public comment? this item is closed. seeing none, public comment is closed. we will move to closed session. >> we might as well do it here unless it is >> we will elect whether to make it disclosed what was discussed. >> i would like to make a motion not to disclose what was discussed. >> second. >> item 19 is commissioners matters. >> i want end of day -- an update on the garage.

>> they you want to put it on for next meeting for a report on it? >> are there any other commissioners matters? any public comment? item is closed. 20 is new business. is there any public comment? item 20 is closed. communication, is there any public comment? public comment is closed, and item 22 is adjournment. >> unanimous, thank you.

>> welcome to "culture wire." today we are visiting southern exposure in san francisco alison prepares to launch a fantastic new project called beautiful possibilities. we will send them on a two-year adventure crisscrossing the united states to investigate american history and contemporary culture. it is using a traveling road show as inspiration. she will sit down and talk with residents in search of stories and experiences that reveals exactly what makes us americans. >> beautiful possibility is a traveling research project that i will take on a five-month journey across the united states and lower canada.

i document this tore on a map that i painted for the project and also from previous projects called the road map to lost america. on the map i have taken all of the contemporary borders off the map and replaced them with native territories, and then overlaid it with contemporary highways. i have scheduled venue stops at different areas along the tour, from california to south dakota, that will serve as headquarters for my local research. when i was researching the traveling medicine show, i came across this. they had put out an elixir, and it referred to the elements that came out because of the high stress, high-pressure life, mostly because of the industrial revolution. anyway, i was fascinated by the term american-itis, and i thought it did a lot about the

stress-related illnesses, and i was impressed that they picked up on that and the 1800's. i did a survey to see if it was irrelevant element today. i have a series of eight painted banners that are retellings of american history. i am particularly interested in transition history between native and european histories and retelling them as if they were a popular myth. there is a mix of eras and characters and times drat these banners. -- and times throughout these banners. i use the olympics and the melting pot, or things reduced down, and come out of this reduction. and something else transforms out of it. they had this strict code of who we should be as americans, and then i had andrew jackson

fanning the flames. this first contact, down to george bush in 2008. all of the characters that appear are real characters that are taken from my research. we are an interesting mix and i want to provoke wonder about who we are. every one of the characters are taken from actual photographs or documents that i found in my research on american history. in a lot of my banners, you conceal -- uc the melting pot, the imagery and myth that we use in our culture. talking about these reductions of all these different mixes of people, how you distill the experience. that is something i want to think about, collecting the ideas and ingredients, and i wanted to do the san francisco de lexie.

-- elixir. we found a spring water underneath a church in cow hollow. we put rosebuds in the water to attract peace, and it made a meade. it was sitting in the gallery. we distill that through local herbs. it was really surprising how delicious it was, because we were mixing a lot of seemingly in congruent ingredients, and it was delicious and different from anything you have ever tasted. i would have been happy if it was medicinal. the idea was more important to me. but it was very good. it is something i think a lot about, especially transition history, native americans, how they have this combination of dress, from the clothing from trade companies, mixed with traditional dress. i love how reflective it is of

who they are, and also the merging history's coming together. what would we look like if we carry our history with us? all of the merging of cultures, reflected in our address? i am thinking of my own history with early europeans coming in and intermixing with native cultures. the one thing i would like people to take away from after seeing my work is a sense of wonder and who we are as americans. that we are really these beautiful mixes of people and we should really be looking backwards at who we are. i think we are all kind of historians in our own life, and there are great presidents behind us -- president behind us that could give us insight into who we are. >> oliver road trip on her website. check at often. new experiences will be added after every stop.