with our members. several business owners on our board offered support and consultation are around the various challenges they have overcome as small business owners. i would like to present a letter of support from our board for the pharmacy. mr. forte recognizes the need for an independent pharmacy in the tenderloin. there are many seniors and disabled people who need medication for cancer, diabetes, heart conditions, and compromised immune systems. these types of medications are not sold illegally. there is no market for them. it would be unfair to prevent access to these medications because of a few persons who abuse the system. selling prescription pills is a major problem in the tenderloin. however, it is not his single responsibility to address this problem. that is a community problem and our entire community should

collaborate with law enforcement and community stakeholders. mr. forte has made every attempt to accommodate neighborhood concerns. he has agreed to post security guards, lighting, a security system. there are many agencies and businesses in the neighborhood that refuse to take responsibility. we feel you should support him. vice president goh: you mentioned there was a meeting with the community. what was the date of that meeting? >> i can look it up on my calendar. i know it was in september. i believe it was september 22. vice president goh: thank you. president peterson: next speaker, please. >> my name is david villalobos. i am a member of the community alliance which serves the central city. originally, i spoke on behalf of

our organization in support of jurisdiction. there was a lot of misinformation regarding the business plan for 281 turk. there have been e-mails going around that indicated this would be a drug dispensary for those with substance abuse problems. our organization has had several meetings with the appellant and several meetings with project sponsors in the same room together. we have had meetings with the tenderloin police captain, who indicated he had no opposition to the pharmacy. the only thing he wanted to recommend was security features such as cameras, lighting, security guards, and to lower the trees up side by putting them down. our organization is in support of this pharmacy. it will be a great benefit to the seniors and disabled folks in the tenderloin. most folks have to go to market street to walgreen's.

i am one of those people. this would0q0 real full-service pharmacy in the tenderloin. there have been studies done which indicated desired businesses. a post office, a pharmacy, and a full-service crews restore were among the three high priorities for the tenderloin. i urge you to -- and a full- service grocery stowere among the three high priorities for the tenderloin. i urge you to support this. commissioner fung: where are you located? >> we were at 201 turk. we moved last month to taylor st., two blocks away. >> vice president goh, the speaker before mr. villalobos

told me the community meeting was september 8, not september 2. vice president goh: thank you. >> my name is mark blackwood. i have been a resident of the neighborhood for over 17 years. regardless to what everyone's feelings are, my primary concern is the effect on the neighborhood. when the mom's pharmacy opened up i noticed a major increase in drug trafficking. while i am sure it was not their intention, it is an effect of the pharmacy going in. that is a wide corner around leavenworth. the corner across from the pharmacy is where they all congregate. i cannot see how putting another pharmacy in, regardless of intentions or what they say they are going to try to control is going to do but bring the neighborhood down further. there is no way they can control

it. i have seen the effect that a pharmacy of any kind of nature has. i have lived there and watched the changes. again, i am sure they did not intend to have a dramatic -- to have a detrimental effect, but they did. there is no way around it. the more pills are available, the more people are going to come looking for them. the fact that there are expensive medications does not necessarily mean everyone is going to use them. if people want money for their own use medications, they are going to hit the street. they are not going to voluntarily turn them over to a pharmacy, regardless of their reputation. it makes no difference. president peterson: thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is kelly strickland. i currently live at 235 turk.

i noticed that a lot of people were saying that we want to have small businesses instead of walgreen's, but there is a bigger problem than the crime the security guards are hoping to solve. that is the problem of addiction. it is running rampant in this society. there is a pharmacy right down the street at mcalester and leavenworth. there are so many. there were some in the community members speaking out, saying they do not need a pharmacy, one of them being an elderly woman. security guards would not serve to make this beneficial to the community. i do not see in any way how this could benefit a community so riddled with addiction. we have so many societal problems. it is a wide reaching problem this is causing. the last thing we need as a community is another pharmacy, regardless of how many trees we tramp.

why are we trimming trees to put in another pharmacy? president peterson: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is bobby lopez. we are part of tenderloin housing clinic. i would like to bring you a petition of tenants on that block, about 80 people, within the last two days. we only found out about this promise you last week. we are an incredibly diverse community in the tenderloin. we love that. we have folks with hiv, seniors, everything. the pharmacy could be the best possible pharmacy, but one of the things i am going to introduce is an article by the new york times. even some of the providers in the neighborhood say they have no control. is somebody grabs legal medication and sells it in the street, they have no control. it could be the best possible

pharmacy. the issue is the location. the particular location -- i put -- i looked at an encyclopedia of the tenderloin that names the area. it is a reality of what our families have to put up with, the situation of drug dealing. legal and prescription drugs and illegal drugs. there is tension in the community. we are diverse, but there is an unspoken tension between families and some of the service positions. there is not a community planning project that brings it forward. you have this explosion. that block has a lot of families. 275 turk is mostly families. 201 turk is mostly families. 281 turk is mostly families. around one corner is a family center. it is not just a corner. a lot of families walk to and

from school and after-school programs. we have a serious concern about the ability of yet another pharmacy. you have an opportunity to have another vision, making it safer. when you ask tenants what they want, they want safety. here is the petition. thank you. commissioner fung: miss lopez? >> yes, sir. commissioner fung: has your organization done anything related to either a moratorium or -- to this effect? >> we worked on campaigns that pushed for foot patrols. we do a lot of safety. we did work around one of the liquor stores that was at the corner of turk and taylor. we have worked on individual campaigns for different issues. the bigger issue of community planning is something we want to take on, but we are still

getting there. we do with immigration, education, and safety. those are the issues of our families bring to us to carry. commissioner fung: thank you. president peterson: next speaker? i would ask the folks standing on the right side of the room to please take a seat and clear the doorway. thank you. >> [speaking spanish]

>> good afternoon, commissioners. i am here as a concerned mom. we are very concerned about this project. i live on the block. there is so much drug dealing. i feel like the folks who are coming in to build this pharmacy are not people who live in the tenderloin. they would know, walking through the tenderloin, it is a very difficult thing to do. >> [speaking spanish] >> truly, what we are asking you is to consider our petition to not put this pharmacy there. consider other locations where there is not such a concentration of families, schools sites, and projects for children. president peterson: does the speaker care to say her name?

next speaker, please. >> [speaking spanish]

>> good evening. my name is magdalena. i am the mother of three girls. i am incredibly concerned about the opening of this pharmacy. walking through the tenderloin, you find a lot of folks consuming and using drugs. it is impossible to walk through. it is hard to explain to your children my people are thrown on the ground and why they are dried up. it is difficult for me to answer to them. >> [speaking spanish] >> more than anything, we are concerned because we live there.

i live on the 200 block of turk. i am worried the impact of this pharmacy opening will result in the increase of people consuming drugs on the street. >> [speaking spanish] >> so i want you to please speak of the tenderloin and the things we face every day and how the opening of this pharmacy will increase that. please think of our children. president peterson: please step forward, next speaker. >> [speaking spanish]

>> my name is norman. i am also from the 200 block of turk. i want to share some of the concerns i have as a mother. i am going to try to speak from my heart even though i wrote everything down. some of the things i want to share with you is that it hits my heart when i hear folks have long-term illness and cancer. i understand the need of folks who have that. but i think we have to balance needs. why can't we also push for open space for children, libraries, or a senior center? >> i want to speak a little bit of english. it is so so, but i want to try. i do not understand why the people think about the people who are over 40 or 50. why don't we think about the future? why don't we think about the children?

you concede there are a lot of babies. what will happen with their future? i have one in the university and i have one in the middle school. they walk around the block. they go to the army. what happened to the security of the children? we worked so hard for help the passengers. what happens when we call to the police? they have a lot to do. [unintelligible] what are they doing? why do they do like this? we need to ask them. they need it. but it is a little bit tricky. we need to think about the security. this is the most important. we walk around and we walk in

front. sometimes they are very, very, very angry. i worry a little bit about the security. i live at 201 turk. i want to say please think about the children. thank you. president peterson: thank you. next speaker, please. sir, please step forward. >> my name is michael nulty. can i have the overhead? this shows the commercial use of the tenderloin. this is the block that is being referenced. it shows that we have a lot of commercial space on this end. this is why it is killed hill.

there is no security going on -- this is why it is pill hill. there is no security here. that is where it tends to happen. it comes into the rest of the neighborhood. i am the president of central city democrats. this organization is in favor of them getting their permit today. i am also a founding member of north of market business association. they are also in favor of the permit today. i am also the executive director of alliance for a better district 6, which deals with the land use issues of the tenderloin in particular. half of our members are residents of the tenderloin. we are neutral on this. we would be one of the organizations that would deal with the issue of land use. this kind of permit does not have any kind of notice. since we are membership-based,

we did not get any notice. we walked by and saw a posting. we only saw the posting -- we found out later about the hearing. i also chaired the meeting of tenderloin futures collaborative, where there were two outreach meetings in september and october. we heard one side in september and in august we heard the other side. you are asking about community outreach. we did that. at the tender land pitchers collective meeting, we had the service providers attend, the merchants attend, as well as the residence. this has been ongoing since 1991. president peterson: thank you, sir. >> i wanted to give you a better outlook. president peterson: next speaker, please.

>> if they have already spoken, maybe they could sit down. it is a little distracting. >> [speaking spanish]

>> my name is maria. i am here supporting my colleagues. i am against the pharmacy. there are a lot of families in that area. the business has the right to open and be a business, but why on our block, when there are so many children and families? >> [speaking spanish] >> first and foremost, we are all human beings here. i think we all deserve to be treated with the same dignity and equality.

i hope you give equality to all the folks in the neighborhood. president peterson: thank you. next speaker, please. >> [speaking spanish] >> my name is rosie. i have 2 below children. i walk every day on that block.

people are often flooding on that block because of drug sales. my question is what assurances do we have that this pharmacy is not going to create additional problems? the situation now is already out of control. >> [speaking spanish] >> i also want to share with you. as i was coming into this hearing, i saw a woman walked at me and tell me -- she saw a wais latina and said, "immigration is going to come here." why would she say that? we all have a right to participate in this discussion,

don't we? >> [speaking spanish] >> i hope you hear me as a mother but also somebody who loves this country because we have our ability to express our opinions. thank you. president peterson: is there anybody else who cares to speak under public comment? i do not believe there is anybody else. we will move into rubato, starting with ms. more than -- we will move into rebuttal, starting with ms. morgan. you will have three minutes of a bottle. -- of rebuttal. >> pretty impressive showing. construction was almost completed by the time the permit was applied for.

you have dated e-mails in my jurisdiction request submission and also in the appeals submission. i believe there is one on may 25 saying they already had the wall for the pharmacy with the windows already up. it is a bit disingenuous to say they did not start construction until may 24. the very thing that generated the jurisdiction request was the construction. another thing is that i seriously doubt that captain garrity came out and support to the pharmacy. he and had several meetings where he said he was completely neutral and had to be neutral. i think it is unfortunate that the police officers who deal with these people are not allowed to give you their opinion. i think it would be extremely important, but they cannot speak because they are city employees.

also, you have a letter from supervisor daly. we have already spoken about him submitting legislation to the board of supervisors to change the permit process. there has been a lot of discussion between the people who are here about how we proceed from here to put an end to this problem. i think it is extremely important that we be able to send a message to the people who are out there buying and selling drugs that it is not going to be tolerated, that the city is behind us. also, the mom's pharmacy as far as i know is a full-scale independent pharmacy. they do specialize in a chevy, but they have prescriptions for everything else. it seems to me that if bay drugs were concerned about somebody having to walk to a pharmacy they might have found a location

that was several blocks away so that the clients would have an option of going either way and being better served. to have them on the same block does not make sense. it is a real safety issue. please. president peterson: thank you. mr. horsfield, you have three minutes of rebuttal. commissioner garcia: identify yourself first, if you would. >> i am a registered pharmacist in california and several other states. i own a pharmacy in seattle and am attempting to open this pharmacy in the tenderloin. i envisioned the tenderloin as being a tremendously underserved area. i think the residents are actually being cheated out of their right to a caring pharmacy

that will serve their needs. i see i could have a tremendous benefit in the area. i was always depicted as someone from a different place and i do not know the area. whatever. i live several years in the bay area. i am in the process of moving back here. i am not taking this as just a business venture. i plan to be the pharmacist in charge. i will be here all the time. if you look at the difference between mom's and myself, you will see that my pharmacy is an open pharmacy reverses -- versus being behind two inches of glass. i do not know if you could practice pharmacy and give the public there adequate due. they deserve better than