the example of creating living spaces and jobs in the city and should be commended for their vision of creating a better san francisco. please approve this project. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good morning. i am at the collatiocoalition. this demolition is also a demolition that has never been seen before in san francisco since the redevelopment in the 1960's and 1970's. the african-american community and the japanese town was demolished and it never recovered from that. during that instance, it was homeowners and renters. there was a terrible situation. now with parkmerced, the excuse

for development is -- it is 50 years old. my house is 98 years old and i had to do maintenance. i had to change the sewer. at a small cost for keeping a house, keeping your home. in parkmerced, they should do the same. 50 years old is not all for a house. someone lives there. that's their home. that is not being considered. in some sense, the renters are treated like second-class citizens. they are being treated like sharecroppers. [applause] a landlord is the big boss. he is the man. the renters are just renters. they're not people. it does not matter. we all know what the real reason for this is. money. big money. developers are going to make a big profit.

the city thinks they're going to make a profit. there is infrastructure that will cost. these things will not offset the cost. more importantly, there is a human cost. these are people that live there. they are not just numbers. please send it back. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i live in the sunset. since the previous two speakers mentioned the housing stock, i happen to have the housing characteristics start from the housing elements from the old housing element. to have a house in san francisco which was built after

1939 is 54% of the housing stock. that's nothing unusual. the houses in parkmerced are among our newer housing stocks. i wanted to comment on something totally different. i'm a member. we had a meeting last night on disaster preparedness. formally the differdeputy direcr of dbi was the speaker. he expects the big one to be close. the most of the damage will occur on old concrete buildings. parkmerced has 11 hours with load bearing walls of concrete.

they are very vulnerable for earthquake. i think the whole project is done from the wrong end. if they need to demolish something, demolish from the earthquake safety point of the. -- point of view. the towers, not the garden apartments, provide a wonderful quality of life. the project and the eir denies there are problems with the existing tower. a second project is that -- supervisor mar: thank you very much. thank you. next speaker, please. >> i have lived in parkmerced for 38 years with my husband. we happen to like it very much there.

i will make this very short. we have a lot of respect for the management. we find that they have been very honest with us. they are really trying hard. they have really put in a lot of effort into keeping our place clean. i know not everybody agrees with this, but i walk the property every day and i see a lot. i want to thank them. thank you,, supervisors. supervisor mar: thank you. >> my name is mike smith, nine- year resident of parkmerced. my home is neither blighted or sound. i've had a lot of problems with it. i can only imagine that a good percentage of people in parkmerced have also had

problems tear i. i like living in parkmerced. i do. for the amount of rent taipei, i expect a little bang for the buck. i'm in favor of the project. i believe the quality of life will increase. we will not have to leave the property practically. everything will be there for us. i have to apologize. i've kind of forgotten the other issue. i'm also in favor -- i'm a retired union man and i'm in favor of 1300 jobs being created for this project. i'm in favor. thank you. supervisor mar: mr. turner? >> good afternoon, supervisors. brooke turner. i understand the concerns of the tenants in place at parkmerced.

i applaud president chiu and all of your efforts to try to address the concerns but i'm here today as an environmental minded person, who has worked for many years to sustainable development and this is what this proposal is. as president chiu pointed out, this is an exceptional proposal, the likes of which have not been seen in san francisco before. i'm not aware of any other developments in the nation of more sustainable or environmentally considerate. many of you have had the opportunity to meet my sons. some of you have suffered their visits to your office. for that, i apologize. despite their bad behavior, it's for their futures i became involved and interested in the environmental movement. i believe that my children, your children, and all the kids in san francisco who grew up here will benefit from the project by

showing all of us that sustainable and socially responsible development can be achieved. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i speak today in support of this project. the population of san francisco is growing and the land mass is not. that is a reality. we have but one option left and that's to increase the density of housing in this great city. occupancy in the city right now is approximating what it was in the dot com era, but without a bubble to sustain us. we need additional housing. any vacant units distrust with multiple applications and increased market pricing.

the competition is stiff. this project as a number of units to address the main concerns in san francisco. there seem to be very many adequate, if not overreaching projectionprotection street as y manager, any property manager will abide by them. we need this housing. it is beautiful design. it addresses many needs of san francisco. it's done ain a sustainable way. i really insist that you keep your mind open. supervisor mar: thank you very much. >> good morning. i'm a business representative with the international union of elevator constructors, local eight. thank you for allowing me to

speak. i've been a resident of west would park for the last 20 years. i've worked in the downtown area for probably the last 30 years. it's with great pride that i watched the renewal and revitalization of the south of market area and areas around downtown. it was a project on the west side of the city which has not experienced any such renewal. this project is -- has enough provisions in it to protect the tenants in light of supervisor chiu's proposed amendments. i would strongly urge, in light of that, that you allow this important project to move forward. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> i am peter andersson. i'm a business owner, architect, and faculty member of california college of the arts. i strongly support this project and believe it should now be

brought forward to the board of supervisors for review and approval. i sympathize with current rent whose individual households will be impacted in the short term. i would like to call attention to the larger values and the positive impact that this project will have for its immediate community and the greater community that is the city of san francisco. i believe the value of the city is that it allows for collective benefits distributed broadly to all the residents of the city. it's the job of the elected officials to look out for the larger good, which sometimes balances the interests of the individuals with the interest of the city. i'm from a area two blocks from the new trans bay construction project. speaking of quiet enjoyment, some days it is noisy and destructive, but i'm excited about what the new development will bring to the city as a whole. it would be more convenient for me, of course, for the neighborhood to not have that area in construction right now. it would not the right to hinder the benefits that will come to the city from the terminal

project for the narrow and short-term interests of immediate neighbors. in the same way parkmerced -- benefits of the development will bring positive things to all of the city. the development plans are progressive based on forward thinking concepts about sustainable approach to urban design and living. i encourage you to support this project. supervisor mar: thank you. we are joined by the former supervisor. >> good morning. we have a housing crisis in san francisco. a housing crisis that was created by your predecessors. your predecessors failed to recognize that housing in the city is the most affordable housing -- not the new housing. the demolition of the most affordable housing is something

that even the housing element in the past has recognized is a policy that should be opposed by the board as a policy for our city. however, that has been ignored by your predecessors in the redevelopment areas in the western addition, iand as a result of freeways, we have demolish housing. as a result, we demolish the most affordable part of our housing stock. the result of that, we had a housing crisis for the corporations fled and took hundreds of thousands of jobs to the suburbs. we now have the economy in a straitjacket. you do not now go to parkmerced and most 1500 units of housing. [applause] this is nothing more than the continuation of the failed policies of your predecessors.

if you want to do your job correctly for the city and county of san francisco, you preserve the existing housing and tell the developers to build new housing in vacant lots. supervisor mar: thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. fifth generation san francisc an. got involved in this project 3 and a half years ago. about 600 families came together in an area near the project to try to form a group that would be sort of a liaison to the developers and all the concern interests. i think one of the primary things that allowed us to back the project from the beginning was that the developer was willing to preserve rent control. they had never had a problem with preserving rent control.

supervisor mar: just keep speaking, polease. >> we have to look at what will happen when we do not approve this project. i know what happened when san francisco state came through and wanted to do some improvements and some growth. they took their border regions in sacramento. that was a primary eir agency and we had nothing to do with that. we talked to our state senator, the mayor, a number of different people. we are kidding ourselves if we think that if we do not approve this project at this developer will stand around and try to find something else to do. we will watch $300 billion of funding go away. we will watch a lot of benefits we could derive and we will slowly be gobbled up by san francisco state, who has a mandate for housing, who has a mandate to increase student

housing. guess what? it's not rent controls. we're like to be the ones that suffer out there in san francisco. all of these rent-controlled units we're talking about preserving right now -- bye bye. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good morning, board members. my name is kevin. carpenter, local 22. i've been here since 9:00 a.m. and i'm tired. i know you must be tired, too. if there are a lot of unhappy people here. i know it is a hard thing to do for growth. we all sacrifice.

we're all in this together. if we are all in this together, there are people that are hurting right now and there are jobs that are available out there for us. i'm thinking these supervisors -- you guys have a hard job to do. i understand you try to make everybody happy. times are hard right now. if we could accumulate some drops to get this economy going again, that would be a good thing for us all. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> my name is john thomas and i was lucky enough to be sent here in 1955 by the united states air force. once i got here, i did not want to leave and i'm very happy i'm still here. i'm also a resident of parkmerced. i have been there for 38 years. i would say without a doubt that the stellar management has really followed through on every project they made to us. the biggest improvement was the

new elevators in all the high rises. that caused a lot of problems at the beginning. these are the things that happened. i think the best thing you can do is go with a stellar management and hope that everything comes out great. 20 years is a long time. thank you very much. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i represent carpenters' local 22. i would like to say that yes, parking is bad. you bet. traffic along 19th avenue is terrible. is there a need for housing? yes, there is. we can stand around and not do anything. if this were to happen -- a lot of people say this is a bad project 3 we could have another 100 meetings. where would that get us? if we did this on april 19,

1906, we would be meeting in temporary trailers and brisbane right now. i guarantee you that. we got it done. we did it at city hall. we do it every day in san francisco. we get things done. this is a project that needs to get done. it will not just put people to work, which is my primary goal. this will provide people with direct control. this is something that we need. the whole west side of the city needs this project. we need this to go through. aror hands. we can continue it. that is not progress. we need to vote and get this passed through land use and we need to vote yes this afternoon. thank you, supervisor chiu,

for those amendments. let's hope this can go through. thank you. supervisor mar: thank you. >> working with the parkmerced action coalition. i cannot go without saying that the heart of this project is the demolition of 1538 homes. it's the demolition of a neighborhood. pretty much every time we've done that in this city, we regret it later. i also need to point out -- mr. sullivan makes a good argument that the density bonus exception is something slightly less than that based on the language. it is not a bad argument. the problem is there's an argument to the contrary based on the legislative history, which is equally strong, if not stronger.

one final point to those of you here today. it seems pretty clear that this board of supervisors, one way or another, is going to approve this development. i would just say that you really need to clean up the process at this point. twice, the development agreement in recent history has been amended by a web master at 5:00 p.m. on friday afternoon and we find ourselves in the position of not being able to give you the kind of input you have come to rely upon. to this this morning, i tried to get a copy of one of the exhibits and i did succeed in finally getting it finally from mr. yarne. i do not think it says what they think it says. i was in the position of talking to your aid, supervisor chiu, on a cell phone during the meeting, trying to figure out what it said.

i do not want to be disingenuous with you. we are not going to change our opposition to this project, i do not believe, based on anything out there. if this project is going to have any integrity, you need to continue this for a week or two weeks to give us a chance to look at the language and see what it says. supervisor mar: thank you. >> thank you very much. supervisor mar: mr. flores. >> good morning. carter's local 22. supervisors, madame clerk, i will say it again. tenants rights. i want to thank mr. chiu. it's in the right direction. i urge you to move forward. let's plant the seed. you are all leaders. let's leave the way for the city and county of san francisco. we know how to do things right. let's do it. let's move things forward. thank you very much, supervisors. supervisor mar: thank you.

maria, as well. >> good afternoon. i did not come down here to make friends. i came to talk about what i believe in. i also came down here to call some people out. he comes out here representing the union. you did not see him walking members of our organization -- crying while there were up. supervisor mar: what is your name? >> ben. i'm a resident of your district, supervisor mar, for eight years. supervisor mar: please speak to the measures before you and try not to attack people. >> i would like to pass this around, if you have not seen this. this is still being distributed by parkmerced. it's says "and urban place with a suburban space." nowhere does this say they want to tear it down. in the state "a place to call

home, a bright, a two-story town home." condominium called the fixtures. it goes on, "you will discover sweeping views of the lake and city that only parkmerced can offer. you always have easy access to the great lifestyle and amenities that make parkmerced a great place to live. stop by. tree shaded patio and want lawnt outside your door." we could go on. which are you to believe? what are you going to believe? these are the same people telling you two different things. is it beautiful? is it like it? many of the problems we have to

urban stock and it's important to do what we can to upgrade the city and provide good residential areas. i used to cover this body in a previous life when i was urban affairs person for the examiner. i used to write what the neighborhood was going to say before they did it. but anyway, i strongly think we need to move and move quickly. thank you. supervisor mar: supervisor chiu? >> so i've called all the cards. if there's anybody else at the last minute that would like to speak, please come forward. >> i am a parkmerced tenant since 1993. i opoem 100% the parkmerced project. the only acceptable alternative

for me is the no-project alternative option. both the merced project will cause irrersable damage to my health, to my family's health and to the health of the entire community but the enormous amount of toxic contaminants that will will released through the airplane by such a massive demolition and construction if this plan is approved. the c.d. is going to create a nightmare for years to come and environmental disaster that will last for three decades and will affect the physical and mental health of thousands of people by the level of decontamination tall be produced by the developer. not only on the site but in the

surrounding area. please help us save our community. vote know -- no to this project. thank you very much. >> thank you. supervisor? >> dean preston strongly opposed to this project and this mass demolition, this clear cutting of an entire neighborhood is unconscionable. i think you need to dig down deep and look at this not just on the technical issues that we have addressed and will address more, but on the fundamental choice, whether it is appropriate and a violation of city planning to give the go ahead on this. there's no way this happens on owned housing. it's only because we're talking about working class renters this is even on the table and it is absolutely outrageous.

obviously spmps need to continue to matter to sprrs these amendments. i don't know of any way you can give these the attention on the fly today. they have to be fully evaluated. two, the other problem is that the amendments don't address -- rent control enforceability is a problem. these don't address that. in other words, you can't require the developer to build new rent control housing, imposing a -- impose a $200 million control if they don't. look at the palmer case where the court threw out an inclusionary housing law. they also threw out not just the requirement for affordable housing to be built but also the in lieu fee that was built on that. the city attorney, think about the argument they're ki