salada. that means saltwater lake. it will be salt water lagoon as it was before and the frogs will be dead. [applause] supervisor avalos: for both sides, if we could refrain from clapping. thank you. >> thank you for affording me this opportunity. my name is clarence bryant. i am a longtime resident of san francisco and a product of its environment. as such, i find this as an affront to me as a citizen. i represent a group of golfers, the bay area golf club of the

western golf association. i would like to read into the record for you some excerpts and statements, letters were sent to the congressman, the mayor, the board of supervisors, and the san mateo supervisors. we said that we were the host club for the western state inaugural championship held at sharp park in 1954. sharp park is a part of san francisco tradition in providing great, classical architecture in public places. our members and all of those who play golf at sharp park know that is an alistair mckinsey heritage. the tradition of the african american golf community continues at sharp park. it has for over 20 years hosted

a home for an annual senior swingers tournament. [tone!] the organizer is in the audience today. the bay area golf club think you should take this ordinance under advisement before you make a vote on it. we respectfully ask you to look at the possibilities of keeping people of color from utilizing all the facilities in the city. thank you. supervisor avalos: next speaker, please. >> i am a native san franciscan in the bernal heights area.

alastair mckinsey was a scottish doctor and architect. he said that the goal is to imitate the beauties of nature and presumably also the hazards so as to make a work in distinguishable from nature itself. sharp park golf course reflects this principle. it is a special place. he went on to design many courses in the united states and many countries. , most notably the portland course in scotland, the rosemont golf course in perth, the west course at royal melbourne in australia, and sharp park holds a special place.

he designed many other golf courses. one is ranked one of the best collegiate golf courses in the united states. the number two rated course in the united states according to golf digest. most notably, the augusta national golf course in the augusta, ga., raided the greatest course in america in 2001. [tone!] sharp park is the second most important landmark in pacifica next to the pacific ocean. it is unaffordable, beautiful place to play golf. you do not have to travel an hour. we have harding park, lincoln park. this is the only course that is

affordable to a lot of golfers. it is a treasure. we implore you to keep it. thank you. supervisor avalos: next speaker. more cards. >> think you for giving me the opportunity to address your special meeting. i am a pacifica resident and a sequoia a member, a sequoia audubon member. i am also a volunteer with the clover program. let's not forget the overall

reasons to safeguard the policy of protecting endangered plants and animals. assuming long-term management for biodiversity those in sooner, the sooner we can give it needed petition. i urge you to let them manage and maintain sharp park as a natural area for all citizens. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you, next speaker, please. >> my name is still in smith. kinesics generation san franciscan -- my name is still in smith region dyland-- my name is dillon smith. i am a sixth generation san

franciscan. i grew up playing golf in sharp park. everybody there wants to support kids and help them in their lives and have a place to go. i saw this happen for the last five is six years of my life. i saw kids being touched by the people at sharp park. because of that, their lives and injuries for ever. because of the people at sharp park, they have a chance and go confident about themselves to do well in the future. >> think you for being here. may i ask you a question? do you go to lincoln park or glen eagles? why not? >> i do not know, honestly. it is up to the people who deal with money. it is not my decision where we

go. >> a linkedin and glen eagle are very short courses. -- li annoln and glen eagle are very short courses. supervisor avalos: next speaker, please. >> i am a graduate of high- school in pacifica. i was awarded the 2009last nighe 2011 junior golf leaguer. the young german the just spoke is one of my students for six years. i am proud of him to be up here. it's pretty grim reflection of what we do and what we try to accomplish as far as golf professionals in our coaching and teaching. i graduated in 1986. i was a golf coach for 10

years, 10 season. during that time, i started the 501c3 nonprofit company that was the junior golf foundation. it tried to further an advance of golf to the junior masses. in trying to communicate with more people in the city, they tried to chase us out of lincoln and harding. this is where we created jr. access for kids. i stand here today representing dnc pga section itself. and we had an annual meeting today. all of our annual members were there today. i am basically there, representing that. this golf course gave me my access to do what i do and follow my passions to teach,

coach, and advanced it to kids. i hear people saying that we want public access for kids. this is a safe environment for kids to be in. i appreciate the chance to say the words. it is important for people to understand, there is nothing more that i would rather do than be involved in golf and share my passion for golf with kids in this area. i have been at the presidio for 15 years. it is really important to me. thank you. >> thank you for your services. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is mike. i am a resident of san francisco. i have been for 25 years. i am here in opposition to the ordinance here. my take on this is that the park -- i have been following this story, following this process

for the last few years. my take on it is that park and iraq has done a great job coming up with common-sense solutions to address a lot of the issues. it permits the habitat to be enhanced. making sure that dangerous species are protected, it provides protection for the historic landmark golf course, where we continue to have golfers existing in harmony, with the environment, as they have for the last eight years. i want to make one point from some of the things i referred. i have heard repeatedly the the golf course is losing money. one of the people said it was $160,000 per year. i want people to understand the that only happens when you ignore the fact that $250,000 per year is taken out of the fund, overhead charges that are legitimate, applied to the golf course, and the golfers and fees are paying for overhead charges

that go to the city to subsidize rec and park in city services. and -- and city services. if you close the course, it is a net loss for the city. those funds have to be made up somewhere else. step back, there is a broader point here. sharp park is a gift to the people of san francisco. it represents a historic legacy that belongs to the people of san francisco. you have the greatest architect who designed it. you have john mclaren, the godfather of san francisco parks, representing the area. it is a historic landmark by any means. it does not belong to the board of supervisors. it belongs to the people of san francisco. as a practical matter, there are 400 acres of coastal property not in the interest of san francisco. supervisor avalos: thank you

very much. next speaker, please. >> hello. thank you for listening to me. i do not have a prepared speech. i might be stuttering a little bit. supervisor avalos: could you please identify yourself? >> can you hear me? >> can you please identify yourself? >> i cannot hear where he is saying. >> [inaudible] >> my name is janet braver. sharp park, no one said where the money's coming from for what you are getting out of this if all you are trying to do is save the frogs and snakes. this is being done -- there are ponds there. there are at least three where there are growing frogs. there's lots of room. also, the golf course takes a very small amount of space.

i walked there. it is very small. it is not a big place where you go hiking. there is hiking up in the hills. it is surrounded with hills. you are not going to save the frogs that are already there. you have hills where you can hike. if you convert it to something else, are you going to have people walking through it, trampling on habitat? or is it going to be closed off and fenced off? which it is. it is fenced off. but what is the plan? no one has talked about the plan. all the talk about is saving endangered species, but they are already being saved. these young people cannot go to expensive golf courses. people think about golfers as people with a lot of money. that is true. there are these big golf clubs that cost a lot of money. sharp park does not, relatively

speaking. it is affordable. is that it? well, thank you for listening. [applause] >> thank you. my name is tony, resident of district 1. i am an organic gardener and a member of the san francisco beekeepers association. i have done restoration projects at christie field and san pedro park, as well as with the friends of golden gate park. i want to thank the parks and wrecked apartment for not endorsing the center for biological diversity restoration plan, which included bulldozing 200 acres, excavating the lagoon, and blogging 13,000 trees, which was part of the environmental restoration project originally proposed. i want to thank parking and

wrecked or running a golf course in the best environment -- i want to thank parks and iraq -- parking and rack -- park and rec for running a golf course in the best environment possible. i guarantee you, if you look at what is in the greenskeepers shacks at sharp park, you will find that they probably have the best greenskeeper shack in the bay area. i am disappointed that the city of san francisco does not try to work with environmental organizations to make sharp park the model of environmental conservatorship in the golfing world when we have every opportunity to make this a great golf course that it is. finally, i heard people outside talking about gulf being export

for the 1%. and the rates right there -- the rates there right now or $28 per weekend. harding park is more than double. hundreds of thousands of dollars to join the olympic club. god knows how many millions to join the san francisco golf club. sharp park is called the poor man's pebble beach for a reason. that is to place their. please keep this golf course resource open. and [applause] >> afternoon. my name is karen. i am a resident of san francisco. it appears to me that the ordinance, which i oppose, is misguided for several reasons. it purports to play lit service -- pay lip service to environmental resources. i assert that sharp park is a historical resources.

it is a valuable park that cannot be replicated. it is also, of course, valuable to the poo -- as the poor man's pebble beach. there is nowhere for a person to go for under $30 to get the kind of experience that you can at sharp park. it looks like we are conflating funding issues with environmental issues. the environmental issue, i believe, is being dealt with in litigation in the federal district court of northern california. that should be treated as separate and distinct from the funding issue, which i also believe we are not released wearing that in a sensible way. $1 for a golf course does not necessarily mean $1 taken away from an at risk youth program.

as people have mentioned, by the way, at risk youth could, in fact, benefit from affordable gulf, such as that offered at sharp park. the other issue that i think we need to pay attention to is how, in fact, the national parks service would be able to fund this program without support from the relative congressional representatives in charge of the appropriations. in closing, i also think it it is a little bit disingenuous for us to be discussing in the ordinance attention to modern recreation activities when subsection f has a place for archery purposes. i do not know why that is, or where it comes from, but archery predates gulf. thank you. -- golf. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you

very much. mr. speaker, please. >> ♪ sharp park how i love you how i love you might year-old sharp park in the the frogs and snakes will thank you some more when you restore that sharp park shore sharp park sharp park sharp park how i love you how i love you my dear old sharp park of north they will see you restored when they get to that sharp park shore sharp park sharp park sharp park how we love you how we love you might year-old sharp park and the

folks up north will see you restored when they get to that sharp park shore. that is what the budget money is for fix it up just like a frog and snake in the grass it is about time you fixed it up at last do not bring us down no no no no no no i tell you once more before he is the floor do not make us bring it down and fix it up at last help all of the snakes and frogs in the grass do not bring us down known known known known no no what happened to the sharp park i used to know why not give it some money

give it some dope do not bring us down no no no no no i tell you once more ♪ [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker. >> i certainly enjoyed that. my name is chris porter. i am the president of the pacific a chamber of commerce. we are here today to speak to keeping sharp park open. as all cities are experiencing a downturn in money's, -- monies, sharp park is an economic cornerstone of our output to the citizens of nearby communities. some people come in to golf,

stay in hotels, other things. i have heard a couple of times today that sharp park is losing money. sharp park is not losing money. sharp park is probably one of the golf courses that is making money. when you put all of the monies together, we are subsidizing harding and lincoln park, and a few other parts that have had extensive renovations. i also saw pictures of what sharp park looks like -- look like before the park. there are now hot -- homes 100 yards from where you want to take down the berm. the mosquitos that would nest in the marshes would be a real disadvantage to people that live in those films.

and we are asking you to think of things as a whole. work with the county. work with the city of pacific up. i think that we can find a mutual, satisfactory ending to this. thank you very much. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is courtney. i am the ceo of the pacifica chamber of commerce. i am a proud, native san franciscan. i have lived in pacific up for last 33 years. -- pacifica for the last 33 years. i am here to say a sharp bark. we are struggling economically. some people think that pacifica

's environment is our economy, but we currently have one of the lowest sales tax bases. pacifica is already one -- 51% open space. sharp park is the cornerstone of our economic development. the city and the chamber are doing everything that we can to promote local economy and increase our meager tax base. palmetto avenue is now designated as a historic mistake. in order to attract visitors and locals alike, this whole area is undergoing a complete metamorphosis. the underground utilities are set to begin in 2012. they are going to broaden the sidewalks and hopefully bring more retail. there's also a proposed plan for a new hotel and restaurant ride on the ocean, all next door to

the golf course. all of these future impending projects are two key pacifica vital and vibrant -- are to keep pacifica vital and vibrant. designed by alistair mackenzie, he also designed pebble beach. it has been a centerpiece in -- a centerpiece for local residents. it has the best hiking, biking, surfing, walking trails. this golf course is a jewel of pacifica. i urge you to please save sharp park golf course. it is a cost-effective thing and wonderful for all age groups. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. [reads names]

>> supervisors, my name is paul. sharp park has a more diverse clientele than any i have other scene. and players are diverse. men and women, young and old. many are of low or limited income. english is often a second language. they are united by their love of a demanding, rewarding game and the opportunity to play on a beautiful, historic seaside links course that alistair mackenzie designed to be challenging for the accomplished player and enjoyable for the duffer. that is an accomplishment in itself. over the last few years, my friends and i have asked the escalating coordinated --

watched a coordinated assault against sharp park with a sense of alarm. in our opinion, the extremists the close the course have waged a devious, misleading -- closed at the course have waged a devious, misleading campaign. they will do whatever it takes. unfortunately, they are well funded, well organized, and well versed in modern media technology. on the other hand, the men and women who play sharp park, and many others like them, are not the type to come to meetings like this, although i see a few of them today. to my knowledge they were not taken -- they were not -- their views were not solicited by the wild equity institute. they are, for the most part, low profile, hard-working, average citizens, not political activists.

and they expect their elected representatives to stand up for them. i would like to point out that modern recreational demands, as interpreted by ggra, means standing in a designated space and looking at a fraud through a wire fence. thank you. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. hello. my name is michael stewart. i am a san francisco residents. thank you for the opportunity to speak on this critical issue. the current state of affairs there is based on an old vision that had complete disregard for the existing, sustainable ecosystem hoofor what it can provide, if an attack. i am voting yes