that isthat is coming, yes. >> i have a number of questions but i will hold on until i hear from the community. that may change my questions. >> i would like to thank you, captain, for putting together such a fine presentation. a very much looking forward to next year when it comes back, getting an update on the park district's youth council and volunteer policing programs. they sound very exciting and innovative. >> the volunteer policing program will be a reach. [laughter] i was not born yesterday. it is something that, i think, if we get the right people involved, and we get it to the point where it is part of the opportunity for the parks council to develop, with me as well, to get people out there that are able to do that.

others already volunteer in their communities, things like that -- >> understood. >> if it is a couple of hours a week we could add, it would be more than what we have currently. sometimes we are precluded from hanging out at the park with the kids because of calls for service. it is just a matter of -- sometimes there is time to spend in between court, other events. quite honestly, for us, i feel like a business owner. i feel like i've invested in park station. there are no hours on the clock now. it is a matter of putting the time in. we will all reap the rewards. i cannot go without thinking my

staff, who helped me put the power point together. thank you. >> anything further for the captain? ladies and gentlemen, it is time for public comment. >> public comment. the public is now welcome to address the commission regarding items that do not appear on tonight's agenda but are within the subject matter and jurisdiction of the commission. please them and your comments to three minutes. when you hear the tiber go off, you have 30 seconds left. >> any public comment? please line up at the microphone. >> to thank you for giving me an opportunity to make two points.

i like this never very much, i live in the neighborhood. suggestions for the new leader of our station. the intersection of 17th and cole, there is a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. i reminded the police years ago that that would be a great way to balance the budget. if they would periodically and in a non-predictable way have an officer a couple of cars back, they could ring up tickets like there is no tomorrow and increase our safety. the second issue, the idea of having a speed bump -- or in other areas as i see now, at a speed hump -- on 17th, right after we get flat. we see a lot of acceleration, a lot of fast cars. one of the great things about this community is an ever

growing baby and youth population here. there are many reasons for public safety to consider that. as things have changed around the city, the traffic flow on 17 has gone up and up. i just have my observation, so i cannot pull any numbers out of there. i would love to see those things considered and would be happy to participate, if that is what you need, as community volunteers. >> hello. my name is christian einfeld. i live in the western addition, work downtown. i wanted to thank sgt yamaguchi about addressing an issue of gambling on the muni. gamblers surrounding a victim. it is a shell game. he engages the victim and then

there are two enforcers who surround the victim on either side. i have seen them take hundreds of dollars from the victim. once they are engaged in the game, all the others continue to egg them on, and in some cases, intimidate them if they want to withdraw. it is difficult to catch them. in the past, i have called a dispatch when i see a game going on. i quietly call dispatch and oftentimes they say it is difficult for us to get an officer of there in time to interrupt the game. i came here tonight to talk about that. fortunately, in the hall, i met officer yamaguchi, and perhaps we can go forward from there. i just wanted to bring that to your attention. visitors to our city are losing

money. ice saw one woman blew $600 -- i saw one woman lose $600. i have seen this typically on the two buses i ride, the 38th and van ness. typically does not happen during commuting hours because they need a lot of space. that is the sum of my comments. >> thank you. next speaker. >> as always, a new wrinkle in san francisco. all of the park station officers here tonight, captain, thank you for bringing the commission meeting to park district. i am the chair of the steering committee of the blend of vista neighborhood committee. we serve 4500 households around

the area. we have about 400 paying members of the time. i'm also honored to serve on park station's community advisory board, and to be the representative on the city-wide cpab, part of the department of community relations you did. barry police captain feeney has been assigned to the park station. excited about the many fresh ideas that he is bringing. you saw a summary of them tonight. and that is just within a few -- a few weeks. especially his focus on the equal approach to enforcement of rules and behavior among vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles. what a novel concept. equal enforcement of all those

in the mix. also pleased with the reassignment which happened before captain feeney. the recipient -- reassignment of the honda unit to be based at park station. while they serve the whole city, the local presence coming and going from park station through our neighborhood where they happen to be assigned is really benefiting golden gate park -- my favorite come when of this the part -- buena vista park, and other areas. i have become acquainted with some of the raw officers that make a regular effort to cross through the park. the interest and ownership they have taken in the park is very much appreciated. we thank the officers at park station for serving and

protecting our neighborhood and for responding when necessary. we look forward to continuing our work with and support for captain feeney and everyone at park station and everyone at the san francisco police department. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. chief, sir, captain feeney, members of the public, i am the executive director at s.a.f.e. i would like to welcome captain feeney -- although i have not worked with him directly yet, members of my staff have. we are excited to share his philosophy, especially his community-engaged placing. that is a nice concept. mentioning the burglaries' and bicycle thefts, we have been

working with park station officers to address those issues. i would like to encourage captain feeney for organizing neighborhood watch. when you talk about the aspects of it, nothing speaks bottom than having neighbors look out for each other, in terms of suspicious activities, calling the police to respond. with regard to traffic safety, i do not know what a wiggle is. we, too, are excited to work with park station and are excited they are approaching traffic safety as a whole. we know there are tons of residents and businesses that share the same concerns about being safer when they are driving, walking, on their bicycle, etc. we are excited to continue our strong relationship with park station and look forward to the new ideas that captain feeney has. we are excited to be here as

well. thank you. >> chief, commissioners. my reason for speaking this evening is that i am someone that has all the budgetary problems in the city of san francisco for the past 30 years. in the last two to three years, particularly in the last 12 months, part of the campaign was to get the police commission to get here and understand the city has a problem. it is not just in the school district. it is in places like city college, which may be going bankrupt next year based on their lack of funds. also coming back to captain feeney's speech -- i have two

daughters born and raised in san francisco. one was an equestrian rider who spoke years ago to save the stables. captain feeney did not talk about the stables or the mounted police. 17 saddles were bought for $10,000 apiece. brand new saddles. i looked in catalogs, particularly for saddles for writing, there were none over $3,000. we have a budgetary problem here. does not just applied to the county out large. it is the teachers in the schools, school supplies, police officers and their salaries, and pensions. it all comes into one bundle.

i would like to see things in the paper, like today -- [inaudible] prime must go down. the city college district is going bankrupt, and it is due to salaries. -- crime must go down. i think the commission here, in the next six, 12 months, with community support, should pay more attention to finances, less attention to rhetoric and patronizing certain police officers and talk about the real problem we have. we may go bankrupt in five years. we cannot print money like the federal government. i will leave you that to ponder as i leave you commissioner is a copy of the latest cuts coming at city college.

thank you for your time. >> good evening. i have lived on ellis street in the western addition since 1974. almost every day i walked her kimball park. a couple of weeks ago, i walked through noon time and i saw there were kids from various schools eating their lunches. there are people playing on the playground, the playing field we have, which is wonderful. there were kids going to the day care centers. right in the middle of it all, steps away from the school's most --was a group of vagrants rampaging, fighting, throwing shopping carts that each other,

swearing. i got half a block away and i called on my cell phone. when i turned around, when they asked me how many people were involved, i turned around to count, and that is when they saw me and somebody screamed, she is calling 911. they came rampaging towards me and punched me. i am 65 years old, i do not need that. the police officers were there immediately. they tried to find this person named paul who punched me, of course did not. they came back and their attitude was, this is the way it is. the people are here and we just have to be careful to go around them. the other thing that bothered me, i got punched and i was screaming try to get someone's attention. everyone playing on the playground or feel that did not look around because the sort of activity is so common in our

parks. why look around? so i am asking for a change in attitude. the police need to know this is not ok in our neighborhood. i do not even see it going on in pacific heights. it is not ok in our neighborhood. in the future, i will be gathering with neighbors and representatives from all of the schools are run the park and we are going to try to get rid of them methadone clinic. it is one of the worst a magnet for the worst kind of people. we should not be victims of them. i appreciate the capt. paying more attention, which she has done in the past few days, but we are asking that the police department's add to be changed. this is not ok. thank you. >> thank you.

captain feeney will be speaking to you. that is not what the commission supports. >> good evening. my name is peggy royster. i also live on a list street. i have been living there for over 35 years. i raised my son there, put him through san francisco state. he came out of san francisco state in 1999. i will get right to the point. i walk down through campbell park -- campbell park -- kimbell park. the homeless, the druggies, there were taking over the park to the point that i walked all the way down to the police station on fillmore to complain.

by the time i got back from safeway, the police did a clean sweep of the park. just in january, a teacher had to call the police department, fire department, because there was a druggie that was od'ing. we have a school here, day care center here, and a druggie methadone clinic down the street around all of this. not only is it drugs, fighting, also, sexual activity. this is what we want our youths, the future generation to see?

i do not feel sorry for these people. why should i? i raised my son to be a better person, and each generation should be better than the last generation. they spent millions of dollars to redo this park, but the homeless have taken over the park. if you feed a cat, it will keep coming, be it good or bad. they are feeding them that the down and they go in the park, and they still shoot up heroin. it is a vicious circle. it needs to stop. i came to san francisco from the east coast in 1974, and i have never seen a park in the condition that is in doubt. and it is a new part, and we

have people coming in from all over. -- that it is in now. this has to stop. i might not speak properly, but i just say it as it is. >> thank you. you spoke strongly. >> that is a hard act to follow. commissioners, good evening. chief, sir, captain feeney. my name is karen, i am the president of the coal valley improvement association. i want to thank captain feeney for his presentation tonight, but particularly for his list of problems. his list is my list. he has only been here a few weeks but has already gotten the message. the first week he was in the station, i saw him at three meetings in one week. i am sure he went to many more

than that. i want to say something about the park station. it has an excellent record, as far as i know, and call- generated responses. in other words, they come quickly. two, three minutes. i saw one of our convenience store officers shoot a customer. i saw the customer come out bleeding. there happen to be a couple of police there. in 1 minutes they have apprehended the shooter, had him in a car. three other cars came up almost immediately. i think that is wonderful. what we have as the problem, as captain feeney said, we have albert like, the civil side box,

which have to be reinforced all the time. the streets were clean but they are now coming back. i spoke to deputy about that. he has been responsive. the reason we have these problems is because we have so much transient use. young people, and they have their problems. they bring them with them. they have needs for community, which is why they all connor did by the lake, at the end of stanyan street. the other thing we have is mentally ill people in our neighborhood who are wondering around the street. i do not know if they are homeless or if they are in care, but they are on the streets in the morning and stay all day. it is just criminal that we fight to have them have the right to die on the streets. it is the cause of so many things in this city. for instance, in the muni

escalators, what are the always broken? because people p in them. why do they do that? either because they are inebriated -- i think the idea about the what shelters would be good. the two points i want to make, we have these problems because we have so much transient use in the neighborhood, and the other city-wide problem of dealing with the mentally ill. i know that is not the police's fault, but somehow the police and of having to take them in. that is not fair for the police. thank you. >> hello, commissioners. welcome to the park station. my name is brandon mckenna.

i have been a resident of the haight/ashbury. that seems to be a good year for the arrival of some good neighbors. i am a member of the volunteer bargaining group that works with -- bargaining group that works with san francisco parks -- gardening group that works with san francisco parks to cleanup and keep albert lake in beautiful, as it was envisioned as many years ago. when we started, the lake was overrun by transients. we made some progress. it is always one step or, one step back. the gardeneres and other people are extremely upset by the damage that is done by people

encamped in the park. i and several of other volunteers have cleaned out camps, shopping carts, sleeping bags, fecal material, food, the job they leave behind. we planted an entire hillside that is just to the left as you enter the park by the east had entrance of the park. within a couple of months, the transit population had completely destroyed hundreds of plants. i believe we have something like 25 volunteers that day and that put in hours of work. about 100 man hours put in by caring citizens of san francisco. to allow it to be destroyed is a crime. i brought some pictures of last saturday's the group.

we met and did our weekly cleaning, weeding, working with the park staff, and we were literally surrounded by homeless. mccann that camp at that end of the lake, but everywhere else, we were surrounded by in canada of homeless people, shopping carts, tents. several people were sleeping in their sleeping bags. this was an 11:00. i could not get any closer to take the pictures, and i dare not approached any closer. as soon as they saw was taking pictures, they tore into verbal abuse, came to me. i district may move on. -- discreetly moved on. every time people enter the park, they have to pass a parade of people sitting, hanging out,

sleeping. everyone knows that they are either selling or using drugs, and they are increasing. i just wanted to give these pictures to the commissioners and make you aware that albert blake needs attention. there is a community group that has been supporting the parks and police at albert like, for years, and we need to continue the partnership, but something has to be done about the shopping carts, intense, the people who are clearly living in the park and selling and using drugs and engaging in all sorts of other criminal activity. thank you. our group meets on the last saturday of every month at 9:00. everyone is welcome to come. even if you can only put in one hour of gardening, that is one

hour that our cash-poor city can desperately use. thank you. >> evening, commissioners. i am the president of the haight/ashbury improvement association. we are delighted that we have had a change in leadership at park station. it does keeping a vital and moving and allows new perspectives to constantly be injected into the discussion so that we keep ideas fresh. that said, the situation in albert lake is a disaster. in the past, we had three homicides coming out of this transient population that hangs around haight street. we have been working for years

to restructure haight street so that it is more friendly to the neighbors and not as welcoming to the transients that populate the street. the civil side was ordinance was part of that, getting wholefoods established at the end of the street has been helpful in that regard. the calls for service at mcdonald has continued to rise recently. it will be a matter of time before these people start attacking each other again and end up with another homicide in park district. as the captain pointed out, this problem has been festering for a long time. the last significant change came under frank jordan's administration when albert lake area was shut down and rehab. that is to be done again the. working with rec and park, the police need developed --