that being said, and never really understood the allure of the rave scene, and doctrines, and even a majority of the music does not mean a lot to me. although i have found a community that has given me a whole lot. i have found numerous relationships with family members that i can point out in this room. there are others like myself who actually feel beloved also that this community has given to me. there is also a lot of benefit. when events happen in california, people actually flock to california to go to them. they fill up hotel rooms, and they pour money into the local economy. it is actually estimated that a rave in one area brought in about $40 million for the county. there was also aid money for

japan. a regulated party can be shut down, and unregulated one can be happening. it is my note important thought -- it is important that they are not shut down. thank you. note president newlin: next speaker, please. >> thank you. i am honored and humbled to be here. my name is -- and i was introduced to music and dance when i was a child. including hip hop in the 1980's. i went to the school of the arts

in san francisco. music that made me feel, touched my soul, and let me see what could be created. this is electronic music, and it has never left my heart. this is a part of my role that i share with people. the music i chose. it was the whole experience, and we fell more in love with it together. i became part of the scene over one decade ago. the moment i walked in, i knew it was made for me. peace, love, unity, respect, and responsibility is our mantra. i have witnessed a lot, the good, bad, and the ugly. this is our culture and way of life. we come together in peace. we share our love.

we enjoy our differences, and we take care of each other. i have had the honor of being part of this. our culture should never be a crime. it should be celebrated. we rejoice by having these events. rather than vanishing or illegal practices. let us help each other strengthen the community. for us to take part with our neighbors around us. this solidifies our safety and quality. president newlin: 80. sorry to cut you off. next speaker, please. >> oh i am robert, and i am a 50-year-old republican raver,

and my sons' moms went to see the beatles at candlestick park, and asking the parents, can we really have a dance. it is kind of silly, but we are doing this late in the history of the world, especially when we see freedoms are being fought for in egypt. risk. there is a perception that these are unusually risky. in 1990, i kept selling health insurance, and the question was, why are the premiums going up? and one of the dances was malpractice, with all of the deaths per year of the malpractice. i do not see them shutting down

hospitals. tragedies from 13 year-olds, they are really isolated. this is big business. i have been all of the world to raves. i deal with multimillion-dollar contracts at work every day, and people are not making rational decisions. also, my god has been -- my child has been getting perfect grades, don -- grades, in this is the best way to meet people. they are so adorable. they are so cute. oh, my god, i have been to so many raves, and they are so well behaved and cute. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you, president newlin and members. my name is mckinsey. as an incoming freshman at ucla and avid political science and intellectual list, and also a ravwer, -- raver, i am frustrated and disappointed by this. this is about self expression, freedom, and the communication between one another that goes much deeper than our spoken language. music has the ability to heal, tonight, and change one's life. america as the land of opportunity is this is shut down. this does not seem but much of a democracy to me. not only a huge loss of revenue

for the entire state of california, which is far from what we note -- needs, and drug overdoses, -you're going to experiment without the benefit of electronic music. this is a reaction to what is unfortunately a very political and public issue. it is very difficult to bring myself to oppose saving the lives of 15-year-old girls, but it needs to be done regardless. raves are not dangerous. drugs are. at some point, people that did responsibility for their actions. shedding these down is not the answer. making sure that they are safer for the attendees. the government has to realize that you can regulate everything, and in the process, you cannot take away a genre of music that clearly society cares about. i hope you take what i see into consideration. electronic dancing informs my

life and a positive way, and i hope it will continue to four generations, as well. president newlin: next speaker, please. >> hi, thank you for the opportunity, president and commissioners. my name is christina. i am 30 years old. i am an athletics coach at san francisco state university. my degree is in chemical engineering. i have been attending raves for about 10 years, and i enjoy the inspiring music. not all are drug users. the city's recent actions against the safe and permanent dance parties are unjustified and are going to backfire. i attended a wonderful new year's eve party that was perfectly permited, peace will come and save, but officers shut

it down before midnight seemingly on the basis that electronic music was being played -- permited, peaceful, and safe. instead, i moved into a fund but less a house party. -- i moved into a fun but less safe house party. i want the city to recognize that people from all walks of life and enjoy the music scene and to provide opportunities for us to meet with our friends at large outdoor public venues or a small private parties to enjoy the music we like. thank you. president newlin: thank you. >> hello. thank you to the city and to the sf commission for having us

here today. my name is roxanna, in the eye and an active member of the dance community nights and weekends and a productive member of the san francisco financial district during the day -- and an avid and active member of the dance community. deejays, singers, artists, graphic designers, even volunteers, and other vital people make up the vital nightlife economy that contributes greatly to the city's bottom-line. the new york times calls it techno tourism. we came here today because we care about our rights. for someone like me, at one of the nation's top three banks, even i cannot get ahead on my

career on some things alone. these are helping to dance, promote, plan, regulate, note and repeat, that i have been able to secure additional career networking. without this community, it might not have been activated or advance. i continue to be compressed by the dedication i see with in this particular community. its members and never settle for standards. constantly improving on things for our urban fabric. to these people, i applaud you for these abilities to look up and beyond to give a model of excellence to follow. we have worked so hard. i will be proud to continue the

journey with you in the city. thank you for your time. >> idle hands are the devil's playground. and i would love to be able to attend all of the balls and the orchestras and the giants games and everything in san francisco, but the money does not exist. in the pockets of y0ou -- youth, so taking this away would take away one of the few things we have. vice chair joseph: could i ask a

question? why do you believe that we are taking it away? would you be willing to go to talk about it? do you think everyone around you would want to? >> i hope so. [cheers and applause] >> hi, i am a recent graduate from uc berkley. i just want to thank the commission for allowing me to be here. i am in support of electronic dance music. i have met some of the most beautiful accepting people and have met some of my closest best friends at these events, and i believe that if we drive it underground, then it would just be more dangerous for people.

we should treat it like a public health issue and make sure there is adequate ventilation, adequate water, emt staff on hand, just in case anything happens, it is better to have these events in an open- regulated way. rather than when no one can know what is going on. thank you. secretary: before we have the next speaker, i would like to call some names. [reading names] sorry. [rename -- reading name] >> good evening, president,

inspector, commission, staff. i have to say, this is probably one of the most responsible presentations i have ever heard on this topic, and i think it is very refreshing. i am not sure how it ties into what we're doing specifically in san francisco, but i appreciate the fact that these individuals have -- i went to thank the youth for being here. on a biweekly basis, you can see we were very hard to manage adult venues, so do not think this is strictly a u.s. problem. we have problems with the older, more mature individuals in our society, so this is a problem that is ongoing.

we appreciate the youth commission for bringing us on board tonight, and we will continue to listen and learn. thank you. secretary: next speaker, please. >> this is music and live performance. i use up-tempo music to set a cave-ins while running. while listening to this for years, i remember what it would be like to see the person who had written it and perform did. music has always been a part of my life. i am a classically trained musician. i saw some people of the cow palace while in high school. i not seen a live music performance with the exception of crosby stills and nash -- since crosby stills and nash. they do not need the musicians themselves to reform it.

they bring a laptop. with the uplifting nature of the music, i came upon a few thousand people dancing, talking about the music, why we like it. dance and until 3:00 a.m., and seven years later, we are still in touch. with music, it has to be performed live. with an orchestra, it is a studio hall. for a music that is electronic, they call a party a wave now. six hours until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, that is its best way. my parents' generation of the way to make rock concert say for us without changing the nature of the concert. they looked after our safety. we have all lagrone culturally for it. you are essentially changing the nature of the performance. only california seems to find this budget creativity worth crooning.

find a way to allow the performance to exist as it is, at its best, subject to additional safety or shirty bonds. look. we are a loving and includes a group of people. no matter how this goes, you will still be invited. secretary: you cannot do it. you can submit written. you can submit it to staff. thank you very much. ok. we will make sure it gets there. thank you. president newlin: we appreciate it. >> hello. my name is courtney, and i am a resident of san francisco. there is no easy way to say this, but right before i turned

16, i tried to kill myself, and when i got out of the hospital, i did not want to die, but i did not want to live either, and then i went to my first rave, and that changed everything. i found a loving community, whose credo is peace, love, and respect, and i learned how to dance. the rave scene and the electronic scene in general, i can say that it has been nothing but positive for me. i am proud as a student at the university school of law. but i even met my life partner of seven years at a rave. it has made me a better person. san francisco is amazing partly because of the electronic community. the electronic community is in san francisco, which is not

anywhere else. please, do not let reactionary forces the other affecting so many places take root here in san francisco. please guard our rights for assembly. when i first became part of this, we had an organization called dance save, which worked hard to keep it safe, and the police department started targeting us. the promoters had to stop inviting people. i think that is a tragedy. thank you. .secretary of state you. -- secretary: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i go to some of the events which a been discussed before, the proposal by fiona. i am a veteran, a teacher, a

musician, a husband, and a proud father of a baby girl, alexa. one day, i would like to take my daughter to edm events, when we feel it is age appropriate, so i feel that we need to advocate for her now, and i do not want to be denied that time of my daughter in the future. dancing, i have been threw couples counseling, and i feel that when i partake in these electronic music events, there is an elegant of therapy there and allows us to be a better husband and a loving husband to my wife, and i also wanted to mention, a lot of times, i work with the u.s., and because i am used focused, i go to this event -- a lot of times a work with

youth. there have been sometimes were i have had to ups and young people who have maybe indulge to so much, and i feel the i am a one that does that. there are other people, too. at 40 something, i am like an elder in the community, wrote -- community, and i think the harm reduction idea is very good. i went into an electronic music festival in canada where they did drug testing their, and people knew what they were taking, and that is kind of like schickendantz -- kind of like dance save does. thank you. secretary: thank you. before i call the next ones, i just want to read these names. [reading names]

thank you. next speaker. >> i want to say a few things. it is a very big industry that we are facing. there is a lot going on. it has always been opposed, since the days of rock and roll and woodstock and everything that has been mentioned. the drug use, exists in a relative of what is going on, whether it is shady streets or market street. anything. heavy metal. it basically, i just want to say that fiona mas needs to look at giving the support and making this legal. as safe as possible.

and instead of cutting down the hours and making people leave a gathering at 2:00 tonight and going around the streets, that they can stay until they want to state and for these events to continue and go -- part. well, that is the main idea, i guess. there are a lot of festival going on in europe and in the united states. they have been positive. i am sure that the government needs to look into making those safer, because they will happen anyway. they moved into alternative areas. they need to be positively supported. thank you.

>> hi, my name is lee. i ran a dance chapter until 2007, so why it was with thousands of youth. taking a punitive approach just brings a casualty, and that is access, soared shows -- such as honest dialogue. so i went to make you aware of something that has been going on. the department of county health and took it upon themselves to produce ecstasy cards and pass them about to young people and hand out things, and they were to produce a psa.

you will have more people filling you in on their needs. byerly encourage you. commissioner: i have a question. in your estimation, how correlated art ecstasy and raves. >> it definitely is a huge part of the culture and has been from the beginning. a majority of people at raves on

ecstasy, yes, but i do not want to use that to shut down these events. that to be opportunity for more outreach. vice chair joseph: a couple of people have mentioned dance safe. let's test them. let me finish. let's make sure they do not of poison in them. and part of the reason that dance safe was shut down is because drugs are illegal, and you're asking people to show you their illegal drugs. the state comes down and thus you for having drugs, so that is why did save got shut down. -- why it got shut down. do you think that these psa's have made difference?

>> it has not been released yet. vice chair joseph: do you think it will make a difference? >> yes, and promoters are helping. vice chair joseph: kind of like rock the vote but something else. ok, thank you. >> hello, my name is -- thank you for having us. first, i wanted to say that i had no idea that this was happening. the fact that i am hearing so much drug use -- i got involved because of the music. it had nothing to do with the drugs. i have never done ecstasy in my entire life, and i'd have gone to plenty of raves. i go for the music and the music

alone. that is the reason i moved to san francisco, and i think that abolishing raves would be abolishing the reason i came here. thank you. >> good evening. .my name is audrey. i am a taxpayer in san francisco. i am originally from detroit. so when we want to talk about the dangers, we want to talk about the dangers at these events, and we want to talk about a dangerous ravees. -- raves. taking a walk down the street, do these events get shut down? no. this continues to exist as it has for 12 years,