to accommodate to ada, americans with disabilities act. i have been a project manager and have worked at the presidio with qualified certification is in every department. that is fine. but please do not bring our children here and form them. that is not right. when it comes to our institutions and the library, we need a meaningful dialogue where we speak about the building itself, the architect, the history, and so on and so forth. i was not supposed to speak on this subject, but it has triggered a raw nerve that they pawned our children to speak in

favor of the project. i wish this project well, but i do not like the process. thank you very much. chairperson mar: thank you. i have a number of yellow speaker cards. if you could line up on the left side of this room -- jim lazarus, jamie windlow, peter nassir, and howard chabner. >> good afternoon, supervisors. jim lazarus. i will wear my former recreation and park have to, because this project came up while i was on the commission. the commission unanimously approved by in the triangle lot under eminent domain. there was some controversy over the acquisition of this project. because of the law, we really could not develop a vision at that time for how this piece of property was used for recreation

purposes and how it was tied into park planning. but you see it here today. i think this is what the commission had in mind when we acted on this five or six years ago. it allows you to consolidate park uses and create a new library, making it up to a situation for the uses of both facilities. i think the street closure mimics what we have done throughout san francisco when we have had the opportunity to expand park property with these unusual street grids. market street during the rebuild -- during the bart metro development in the late 1960's -- we closed a number of these trials including public holiday plaza down at busch market to create larger public spaces. that hat -- that is being done at this site with little impact on traffic patterns.

i urge you to improve the street vacation plan. >> aimee alden. i am here as a resident of north beach. my husband and i are raising our sons in the neighborhood. one of the things that amazed us is how many families with children there are in north beach. we see families everywhere in the neighborhood, particularly at joe dimaggio playground, which is used by a lot of family day cares. frequently, it either drop my son off or dropped him off at joe dimaggio. one of the facilities we do not use very much is our neighborhood library, because it is not warm and welcoming to families. it is dark. there are not a lot of places to sit. one program that used to bring

us in was a great childhood literacy program. every thursday morning, the librarians read and sing songs. you can see dozens of children with parents, grandparents, nannies -- until a year ago, when the library was told that because the building was so decrepit it did not meet ada standards and the program had to leave the library. fortunately, recreation and park give them a facility down the street. when an early childhood literacy program is forced to abandon the library because the building does not fit -- is not safe and does not meet requirements, you know your library is not serving the community. children like mine are so excited to get a new library in the playground. i would like to see that street

vacated so that children can cross the street safely. i urge you very much to support the street vacation and support a new library and park for all of the families like mine that are raising kids in north beach. thank you. >> i am jane winslow. i have been a resident in the neighborhood for over 40 years. i was a pregnant young mother when i first started using the branch library. now seem to find myself a disabled senior, although i do not think of myself in that category. our library has changed. our neighborhood has changed. technology has changed. it is time for a new beach.

thank you. >> i would like to speak to you as an architect and a former member of the library commission. the solution has been arrived at is an exceptional resolution of all of the parameters and constraints of that site. the identity of the library is particularly resonant for its response to the necessary demands upon the library system, certainly for the acquisition of borrowing materials, but also for the programs and services the library makes available to the community. it will be the centerpiece of architecture. to that end, it is an important evidence.

i had the distinct pleasure of being involved with the inception of the branch library group of programs. i can tell you important things. one is that this project has received the most consideration of all the branch library project. i think it is demonstrative, the library commitment to the worthiness of every product it develops in each of the neighborhoods. it is also important to underscore what the city librarian mentioned earlier. the one of the goals was parity, equity among all communities. it has been a long time coming, but i sense it a close to achieving that. i urge you to make possible the ultimate vision you have seen

here, described by others, to create or we imagine, or revitalize -- or reimagine, or revitalize north beach park. >> good afternoon. thank you for this opportunity to speak. i represent no organization. i am a citizen of san francisco. i have been following this issue pretty closely. one of my concerns that i am hearing -- what i am hearing is a lot of excitement. i see a lot of pretty models. i believe the north beach library should be redesigned. the wholesale removal destruction of it -- i see the

libraries in the presidio branch and the richmond district that have not been knocked down. these are beautiful buildings that have been augmented and redesigned. also, i see tax dollars wasted. i have seen lots of different types of proposals that actually improve the original design of the building and augmented. those seem to be disregarded. what about the views of alcatraz? that would be blocked. i also work in the hotel business. granted, people are here for only five days or a week, but that iconic view will be lost forever. it looked like tennis courts for

going to cover part of the baseball diamond named after the great joe dimaggio. my concern is that this project seems to be more steamrolled and thought through, as far as i have been able to observe. i encourage this project to be put on hold, at least so it can be reviewed more thoroughly, to the point where the a original building can be kept instead of being knocked down. i think it is a waste of taxpayer money. i want to make sure that you understand that i believe this library does need to be redesigned. the removal of it just to build something else is, i think, not thought through very carefully. thank you very much.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. chairperson mar: could readjust the microphone so that everyone can hear you? >> howard fabner. i am in favor of the project. initially, i got interested in this project because i tore the physical access community -- the physical access group in the mayor's disability group. a lot of qualified experts have concluded that the old library cannot be made accessible. that is how i started to be interested in this project. i have been so interested in the energy and enthusiasm of the people involved, with the quality of the architecture, and with the process. it has taken three years. every aspect has been fought over.

i live near golden gate park. and everybody in the city should have the opportunity for open space. i love north beach, but it is clear there is not enough space. closing this short block is a small price to pay for expanding the park, including pedestrian safety by having a direct link between the library and park, and providing a view corridor. it will be safer and more pleasant for library and parks users. there are kids, pool users, and pedestrians. only a small number of people will be inconvenienced, and the inconvenience will be minimal. not to be -- beat a dead horse, because we have already decided not to landmark the building, but one of the foremost architectural experts of midcentury modernism happens to live in the bay area.

i heard him on a lecture series at the aia on the history of san francisco architecture. his view was that this building does not merit that standing. i urge you to support the entire project, particularly the vacation of mason street. chairperson mar: thank you. i have two more cards. if anyone else wishes to speak, please line up on the wall to your left. if we could get the overhead, please. >> good afternoon, commissioners. this is really about transferring control of a street. i am joan wood, speaking for the

coalition for a better north beach library and playground. the reason the library is tied into this is because in order to eccentric the master plan library you have to go 19.5 -- to accentuate the master plan library, you have to go 19.5 feet into mason street. supervisor chiu said there had been a lot of public hearings about this. there had not meant any hearings about the street. it did not have story polls indicating the purpose of this demonstration. that is a gross oversight, and it never happened with anything else i ever participated in, when people want to go over the height limit.

in the building always has story polls. i saw the director of the planning commission and directly asked him in public comment about them, and 10 years later there were put in, and 10 days after that the pot -- the project was demolished. there was no writing, no legend, no explanation to the public about these raw poles standing up on one side of this park. incidentally, it is not a park being talked about. it is a playground. the park is what people like me have been waiting for since 2003, when there was plenty of public testimony. ex-commissioner lazarists has reinterpreted what that testimony was. i was at that hearing. the purpose was open space.

that is why that glove was seized -- for open space. in regard to studies of what would happen with traffic if the street is partially or fully closed, there have been many studies. the writer of the eir picked and chose the streets he liked. one report showed 500 cars a day on mason street. that was a july 2009 study. staff did not use this study because they did not think it was accurate. chairperson mar: thank you. last speaker. >> howard wong, architect. the vacation of the street --

there are positive points and- points. but i think it is important that the neighbors addition to that property be clearly notified of the intent of the library. there have been very few drawings or models that clearly show property lines being approached. if you look at the presentation today, it is unclear to the average person with the property line or context of the construction is relative to the adjacent properties. from 1988 to august 2008, there has been a process that moved in a certain direction. that direction was open space on the triangle. open space is not a bad thing.

no one wants to have construction on the street. 19 feet 6 inches would take up a large percentage of the open space that would be achievable, if the street were closed for a park. in fact, the current master plan depends on the closure of the street for more open space. if you were to close the street and add open space on the street and the triangle today, you would have more recreational space and open space on that site than the proposed master plan. because the master plan has circulation paths intermingled with the adults and fencing and ramps, the current proposed master plan has a net decrease in recreational space because of the circulation, the elimination of part of the open space on mason st., and the elimination

of open space on the trend. the library can be renovated. the eir, at the planning commission on thursday, april 21 -- the city attorney's office discussed the use of the triangle as a separate finding. i would suggest the vacation of mason st. be clearly separated from the lumber issue, and clearly note that it requires rezoning -- from the library issue, and clearly note that it requires rezoning. we have to clearly understand the nature of the design. anyone in this audience would be upset if the neighbor built 19 feet over their property line.

>> i am peter were filled, executive director of the library users association -- i am peter warfield, executive director of the lumber users association. in the renovation is going to make improvements. any renovation is going to require legally necessary access. it is not a question between a deficient library versus a new one, but a renovated one versus one that demolishes the building. this will grease the skids for a bad idea -- demolishing the north beach branch library. the new building's estimated cost is going to be more than double the original renovation

plan and provides no funding for the promised improvements to the street and park once mrs. street is closed. for more than seven years, under the 2000 bond measure, the perfectly good plan was to renovate. when prop d passed, that suddenly provided millions of dollars of funding for library project. suddenly, the plan changed. public plans would provide expansion with renovation that could hurt this landmark-were the building and would also cause -- that could hurt this landmark-ready building and would also cost significantly less. the library has not been

forthcoming about the permanent historical and architectural demolition of a building city planners considered it -- city planners consider worthy, clear visibility of what is happening repeatedly unmentioned or obscured by insufficient markings of property lines. disabled access is apparently going to be provided on the mason street side only. we just learned that. that is the furthest point from the front and center entrance on columbus and would require going around the corner from either columbus or lombard street. then there is grossly inadequate treatment of the history of this library, relegating even mitigation measures to be placed within or near the proposed new library building. a donor would have more

visibility in that library under that plan the new library's own history. the city librarian would become -- i urge you not to approve these changes. thank you. >> good afternoon. espinoza jackson. i do not live in the area, but in bayview we are finally getting our new library. this is something for young people, not all folks. -- not old folks. you saw the babies in here today. this is going to benefit them and those coming behind them. i hope you approve this project, because we can't continue to wait on something which you might think happens. we need to be thinking about our youth today. those of us that our seniors --

that are seniors, we have somewhere to go. >> thank you very much, and thank you all for being here today. i am a little amazed that one thing has not been mentioned, and that is that the original library was also in violation and is on public land that it really should never have been. i wanted to vacate that particular issue. i understand we have 13,000 square feet of extra park space that we would not have been able to have had we been chopping everything up. coming from europe, i was amazed at the scarcity of pedestrian zones. i would like to see vallejo close, powell close. i would like to see more pedestrian zones for the

families of north beach. i am tired of hearing people thinking this is a great idea, but we need more time to think about this, as if the project had not been adequately considered, planned. look at all the effort that has gone into this. it is high time that this community finally got its park beach library. i applaud all the work that has gone into it and think everybody for making this a possibility for our community. and you very much. >> my name is julie christensen. i am a member of the friends of joe dimaggio playground. thank you for your patience in this very complicated issue. our board does not just recommend this, but enthusiastically supports it. why should you care? it is an interesting case study. joe dimaggio playground was one of the first playgrounds in the

city of san francisco we had the first publicly financed pool in the city. when they put it on par koran, it was because of the strong system. george christopher was only in office two weeks when he found out that this was a way of too much, and he was tired of them dickering round. when the neighborhood boggess, it ended up on joe dimaggio playground. we have been working to try to make this better since 1999. that was willie brown's term, thye -- the dot com boom, and we started and to try to figure out what to do.

it was in 1999 when kids today in high school were just toddlers when their parents formed this, we started working on that. when i hear people say that we should look at this along, i really want to go ballistic, because i think after 10 years, i think we have looked at over 60 different possibilities and configurations. we've gone through a three-year eir, and what do we have to show for it? we have the unanimous approval of the planning commission. we have the unanimous support of the park commission, rec and park. ms. neighborhood deserves a new park -- this neighborhood deserves a new park. i do not know what is going to happen to north beach or what will become of our neighborhood, but i think we have a lot better chance with this at the heart of it than if we have the concrete

joe delmon geo and currently decrepit library are allowed to remain. if you will help us do that, we will be very grateful for your support, and thank you, supervisor chu, for spearheading this today. supervisor chu: are there any other members of the public who would like to comment on this issue? mr. chair, it looks like it is over. supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor wiener? supervisor wiener: i want to thank those people who took the time to come out today, those taking the time and then going back to school, the incredible work done on the project. i think this is a stellar project, and in san francisco, so often, we have opposition, in

and it is easy to rally people to oppose anything that changes anything about any aspect of san francisco, no matter what it is, and anytime you have a project that rallies the amounts of positives, the support we have seen in connection with the library project, it is amazing. and my hat is off to the community for coming together in a positive way. we also need to recognize that a bracing gust is important.