in san francisco chinatown and playing at the chinese recreation center very clearly. the playground was a very important part of our childhood. we got great direction and participated in a lot of activities there. i really do feel that renaming the recreation center not only honors betty, but also the citizens who live in the chinatown community, and also for the san francisco community, as well as our nation, since betty is a national hero. thank you for considering the renaming. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> gloria, did you want to speak? >> once again, my name is gloria. i am the middle child to the ong

family. i wanted to thank everybody. and to thank all the supporters that are here and have petitioned to the renaming of the rec center. as my sister and brother have mentioned, we all spend a lot of time during our childhood playing at the rec center. i think this would be a really significant symbol and a great honor and tribute to the ong family and to my sister. i just hope that you will consider renaming the center in

honor and a tribute to my sister, betty. thank you, all, for attending this meeting and taking time off from your busy schedule. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> we will now go to public comments. we have kylie wong, sue lee, and richard fong, in that order, please. >> good morning, commissioners. i am a native san franciscan. i grew up across the street from the chinese rec center. i would like to remind you that it is right across the street from the cable car barn, where the cable car museum is. the added attraction -- hi

storical site for the city. i went to day camp. i am a longtime loyal customer of rec and park. i was in the cub scouts. i learned a lot of things about government, leadership, anti- wd team work. i think this all fits in the character of betty ann ong. we would like to urge you to vote yes on renaming the chinese recreation center as the betty ann ong chinese recreation center. thank you very much. president buell: thank you. >> sue? >> good morning, commissioners. i am the executive director of

the chinese historical society of america. it is my honor to be here today. while chinese have been in san francisco since the gold rush, we have of arrived seeking fortune and a better life, like many people. like many immigrant groups, we were not always welcomed. for many years, chinese have been confined to what we called chinatown. the chinese wreck center -- the chinese rec center has been a touchstone for many chinese. it is where you played, but also where you learn to be american and where he picked up the values of being an american citizen. many of our community institutions are named for the geographic location of the facility. we have the chinese hospital. we have the chinatown library.

we have the chinatown ymca. our personal and individual stories are not reflected in our community institutions. our personal, individual stories have been overlooked. we feel very strongly that we need to begin to claim our history, claim our story, and claim our heroes. betty ann ong, a native daughter, is a hero, and should be honored with the naming of the chinese rec center in her honor. we further urged that in the future, a broader recognition of her heroism be reflected. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> richard?

>> good morning, commissioners. i came in today to try to talk about this subject matter. i am not necessarily in favor of this project. we have already listened to this issue many times before this commission. just last monday, i went to the council. there was a consensus -- i asked the consensus be brought before the members of chinatown. it was not in favor of the name change. a few things that would have been brought in had to do with -- are we going by the right procedure? one of them had to do that it was never brought before the chinatown council. as i am looking at it, i asked specifically about the name change at the location. there is the betty ann ong

community room. now there is all this interest in the rebuilding of the chinatown -- the chinese rec center -- i think that bringing more of the interest. i hope i can convince some of you who have already come in today with a predetermined vote. perhaps, is there a question over procedure? when you start looking at here grooes, i cannot help but think about the u.s. navy seal team 6, who currently are heroes and they are dead and they serve in the line of duty. are we going to rename the chinese rec center? most of the people who i have

asked -- they like it the way it is. they do not want any changes. i'm not going to say the names of the people of the council. i'm not going to tell you the names, so i can keep the confidentiality. personally, i have listened to everything that has come before this commission involving betty ann ong. i, myself, would think, yes, she is possibly a national hero, but it comes from the top down, and then it goes to mark buell, the chair of this commission. maybe we should be looking at the grass-roots approach. thank you. >> bob and then reverend norman fong. if anyone else would like to speak, please be prepared to speak after that. >> i did not know this issue when i came today, but when i

saw it on the calendar, i thought it was important to comment. this is not just a chinese community issue or san francisco. it is also a national issue. i am glad she characterized betty ann ong as a hero. i knew people at each of the four crash sites. brings back painful memories, but it is memories -- this is worthwhile. it is for all of us in san francisco. thank you. president buell: thank you. >> reverend fong? >> after 10 years, talking about process, working to restore honor to betty ann ong has been going on for 10 years. sometimes there's petty politics in the neighborhood or the city. i thought the family and all of

us did a good job of getting buy-in from everybody. i get to hand to you today the 3700 signatures. the family did it on line -- did it online. rich is one voice in the community. we grew up in chinatown to show that we are old-timers in the community. about 1000 of the signatures are from residents. those who live in the community have supported this. i disagree with the previous, enter, -- i disagree with the previous commenter. i must love all people. we all know that. we took it to the national level. nancy pelosi, feinstein,

personally writing letters. i think we are well covered. what do you think, commissioners? i'm going to hand over to you. today, i'm feeling -- today is a blessed day of peace and justice. the family has been struggling for so long. their determination to keep on fighting -- to name an adequate and appropriate place of honor for betty ann ong. some of you commissioners might not know betty as a lot of us knew her, but she was a hero even locally. my co-band member -- yeah, i do motown on the side. she was hit by a vehicle on the 101. car flipped over. the first one by coincidence

there -- the angel who came to her rescue happened to be betty ann ong. she is a hero locally and nationally. time is up already. president buell: you get a little more. that's a warning sign. >> good. [laughter] these are old-timers. we all grew up in chinatown. i had come scouts there. we had our dances there. we got in trouble there. we all agree up in chinatown and we love the ong family. today, there should be no tears, except tears of joy. finally, san francisco and this nation is going to name something after balboa park thank you. [applause] president buell: thank you. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public

comments? please come forward? >> fourth generation chinese in america. what's the difference between paul revere and betty ann ong? the revolutionists knew the british were coming. betty ann ong completed her mission. you look at the record of the other the three airlines, they called somebody, but they did not call ground control. betty ann ong it her mission and she completed ait. thank you. >> is there anyone else would like to comment? ok, seeing none, public comment is closed. >> let me start off by saying, i'm completely ok with the process. we are good. i have a hard time articulating

this without being emotional except to say that i cannot imagine how this has been for the family. you have a sister, who was a hero, who is a hero, and you lost her in the most tragic and historic of ways. yet, she is a hero to the country. it is bittersweet. to the someone is unimaginable, but to have her as our hero is a great gift to all of us. thank you for all of that. i want to echo the mayor's contention -- mayor's intentions. we celebrate her heroic actions. we celebrate the sheet is a child of chinatown. she's a product of our schools, of our rec center. that's what i want to think

about when we represent her. she represented joy and laughter. i love all the material i was given to understand this woman. an ability to live in the moment. she loved children. she loved senior citizens. she was a good person. she valued her job. she was a professional. these are all values that we want our children to embrace and celebrate. one of the items i learned about betty, they said that she loved children so much, on flights, some time she would hold the babies who were fussy. having been on flights with my

fussy baby, i know that's a unique quality. that's a truly good human being. at the time appropriate, i would like to make the motion that we except the staff's recommendation to read with great pride and great honor, we name this wrecrec center after betty ann ong. president buell: commissioner lee? commissioner lee: well said. this is a privilege for me to be on the commission at this time to hear this. i think somebody said, you know, a community is defined by its heroes and who we choose as our heroes. i was part of renaming a chinese playground for a long time basketball coach at that

facility. with the renaming of the chinese recreation center, these are our two most important recreational sites for the young people, for seniors in chinatown, and it really sends a message to the next generation of the values that we in chinatown hold high. i think this is a tremendous opportunity to educate not only the chinatown community, but the entire country to the contributions of our community. i also went to dean parker and i grew up in chinatown, as well. i grew up playing at the chinese rec center. as chair of the capital committee, i can tell you that when we reopened, it will be on time next year. you will find the chinese

recreation center is going to be a fabulous, brand new facility, built for the next 50 years. it is only fitting to have betty ann ong's name on this building. i hope you all will be there at the opening period when people come to that facility, and they ask, especially the younger people, the kids, ask, "who was betty ann ong?" we will have a story to tell. thank you to you all for supporting this. president buell: thank you. commissioner martin? commissioner martin: this is great history to me. i've been in this town for a long time. great moments we did stop in chinatown and did stuff together. i love what she is doing. this is the greatest thing in the world that could happen. i'm with you.

president buell: thank you. we are honored to have in the audience betty ann ong's mother, as well. thank you for coming and being with us today. [applause] with that, commissioner 1110, i will entertain a motion. >> i move that we name the chinese recreation center to betty ann ong. >> second. >> second. president buell: it is unanimous. thank you. [applause] thank you. i'm going to recommend we take a three-minute recess to allow those that came for this to celebrate and moved out. thank you very much. commissioner lee: i just wanted to thank the commission's staff and supporters. we thank you for renaming the

san francisco chinatown recreation center to the betty ann ong chinese recreation center. there have been so many ups and downs and struggles during the last 10 years. we deeply honored this renaming from the bottom of our hearts. the legacy of betty and all the 9/11 heroes will be remembered forever. members of this commission, thank you very much. president buell: thank you. >> thanks, everyone. >> that may get a sense of how

many people would like to testify on it this -- ok, seeing the large numbers that would like to testify, we're going to go down from three minutes to two minutes on public testimony in consideration of everybody. i think we will clearly get the message of what you want to say in two minutes. >> terrific. good morning. commissioner buell: you get more than two minutes. >> i will try to keep it to two. good morning, commissioners. general manager, dan mauer with the capital division. i will be giving a brief introduction on the project, and i will basically turn it over to mta staff. i have the full confidence of the mta staff here today, most specifically salina and antonio will be giving the formal presentation. most of you have already seen this item. it has been before both the operations and capital committee. i believe you are familiar with the guts of this project.

with that, i will move forward more quickly here. the public process on this one, over a year ago, and he approached the department to see if we could implement this bike cycle track program on mlk. we worked for six months on both sides of the table and tried to articulate issues and concerns of the could revise their project. middle of last year, mta hosted two public meetings at the county fair building two they also did two out reach efforts of the city streets program. in addition to that, this item has been heard about capital and operations committee. it has also gone to the golden gate park concourse of 30 for their approval. prop j give jurisdiction over bicycle to performance and others as related to the garage project. this proposal went to them earlier this month, and their group voted in favor of moving

forward with this, with a 6-0 vote. at that meeting, a representative from a yearly's office came forward and supported the project, as well as supervisor mar. what came of that meeting, the concourse of 30 mission came up with three recommendations. one is to lead to mta do an educational component as part of the rollout process, that they continue and increase the enforcement component of the project, and also work with rec and park staff to continue to try to find additional parking spaces that will be lost as part of this program. general manager ginsberg, a year ago, started this, and we realize mta came forward and said there were 155 spaces. we took a couple steps back. at that phase, staff was instructed to go out and see if we could get some additional parking stalls as part of the project. through the last year, refining design concepts and talking with

different agencies, we were able to basically reduce -- will allow antonio to dictate that, but we basically cut that by about 155 to about 60. but i will let him articulate that number. i think that is a tremendous strides to get to a point where we have compromise. obviously, the parking losses are impacting these. mta staff met with the institutions early on in the process. as of earlier this week, we actually posted -- the academy hosted a meeting that we intended, and they gave the revised project to the epitasis that knows exactly where we are before today. i am sure i am missing something. commissioner buell, at previous meetings, the question was

raised about how many staff members from both institutions park there. i wanted to report briefly some numbers here. again, in context of their staff levels changing throughout the year. this is kind of a general worst- case scenario. they anticipate that the have a full staff of approximately 200 people during weekdays, monday through friday. of that, 61% actually drive their vehicles, which represents about 122 vehicles. of the 122, 30 of them have parking spaces in the garage. the delta on that is roughly about 90 staff members on an monday through friday would be parking on surface with in golden gate park. for the academy, they have about 100 additional employees during peak time.

they have about 300 and police monday through friday. they have made tremendous strides. 71% of their septic alternative modes of traffic. that is quite a figure. that was terrific to hear. with that and do the calculations, it was estimated, with the folks actually parking in the garage, that 90 folks actually drive to the job, and approximately 30 to 40 people part in the garage. that leaves about 50 people parking on the surface in and around the concourse. roughly with both institutions, we're looking at about 140 to 150 surface parker's from the employee side. commissioner buell: thank you for getting that. >> the other thing that i wanted to share, the commission chair for the concourse authority asked city park, who manages the parking garage, what the occupancy looks like overtime.

as about two ago, they changed their ticketing system. so we can report the information on the cars that go in and out of this morning, i got a report from last week's parking counts. again, to the one week within the whole frame, but the garage at any one time was occupied at a 60% level at the 800 stalls in the garage. that peaked at about 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. monday afternoon. that is a small snapshot of how the garage operates, but we now have the ability to track of the garage operates. commissioner buell: what is the capacity? >> we have 800 stalls in total. commissioner buell: so we're talking 500 stalls that are constantly occupied. >> yes, the 60's and figure -- actually, 62 with the remaining number of stalls around noontime, which was 300.

obviously when you get into pcs in and the institutions are running at full rpm, the place is full. with that, i would like to turn the presentation over to salina. >> good morning commissioners. we appreciate the opportunity to come before you this morning and present this project. my name is salita reynolds, a section leader for a livable streets at the mta. i spent my entire career, about 13 and a half years, planning and implementing bicycle and pedestrian improvements with the mta and throughout the u.s. peter i am on the pedestrian and bicycle committees of the national academy of sciences national transportation research board. hopefully i know what i am talking about. i am going to walk through the presentation here, and some of

you have seen it a couple of times. but i am going to go ahead and walk you through it. it is a powerpoint. ok. and we are off. so the project location is here on jfk drive. it is shown in the red. what is important is that it is the most direct connection to the heart of golden gate park and to all the institutions that people want to access and enjoy. so it is an important part of the spine that actually runs all the way from market street, which is one of the most popular bikeways in the city, through the panhandle, and directly into the park. right now, during the peak hour, we have about 150 cyclists