at a time of per. , i would like to move except in of the resolution before you pac. commissioner bonilla: it is late and i will try to keep my comments very, very brief. i'm conflicted with this project. there is no question about it. i have always been in support of natural grasses, and have always asked at every opportunity that could be afforded that we would have natural grass fields. that has always been my position. i'm very much in support of natural areas, native plants, and the fact that -- to this

point, i have been very supportive of the city fields projects. all over the city. then, when this project came up in terms of doing synthetic turf at golden gate park, it just hit me. i have always envisioned golden gate park as our city treasurer that would always look one way, that it would always -- certainly we have all of these different venues, but first activities -- the first activities with the museums and what have you, but i never envisioned tthat we would have anything unnatural at golden

gate park. so that is a difficult one for me. because of my preference for natural grass. in fact, i was very pleased when the san francisco giants community fund came up and put some money is up and some partners -- and some gardeners to do some natural parks, especially in the excelsior, to renovate the park and the excelsior, where it was needed. i think was very innovative. it was a very strong commitment that they developed, renovated that part, and committed a gardener to maintain it, which is great for us. so, to me, this is a little trouble some. the other, as commissioner moore has so clearly stated,

there is so much we do not know about the potentially incurious toxic nature of the fields. in fact, i have many family members who are associated with this to have a lot to say about this subject. they deal with lead, asbestos, and a lot of these elements that are harmful to people, and they are very concerned that i would be voting about -- the fact that i would be voting to support something -- i mean, to support a synthetic turf field. i mean, i have been under a lot

of pressure, needless to say, from my family to really think long and hard about this. the other thing is that not much has been said that -- and i really don't have as much information as i would like to have -- about what the cost ultimately is when we resurface, when we need to resurface the beach chalet and all of the other city fields, all of the other turf fields. i mean, but what the cost is going to be and whether at the end of the day the rec and park department and the city, for that matter, is going to be

saddled with a hardship financially of replacing or resurfacing these fields. and then the other thing is how difficult it is going to be. is it going to be a slam dunk that we can resurface them and the cost are not on to be that prohibitive? that might be the case, but i don't know. i feel i really don't have all of the information at hand as to how that will play out in the future. so that has ben -- that is very troublesome to me. but that being said, in the latin community, particularly in the mission district and now everywhere in the city, soccer

is a wildly popular. i mean, everyone wants to play this sport. and i feel conflicted about the idea, the concerns i just mentioned, that i would vote against a project to limit the accessibility to youth and to adults to play soccer, to have that opportunity to play soccer and to be able to find an outlet other than just texting or playing computer games and

not being active. i mean, i think i have mentioned before, at other times, i have a concern about the inactivity of youth and the fact that there may be too much -- that they may be too much into technology and not as much into sports and other activities. and so as difficult as it is for me to vote on this, to support this project, i think that i would not want to vote against giving youth and adults the opportunity to have access to soccer fields and have more playing time here in the city. so those are my comments.

>> thank you. other comments from the commissioners? let me make a few. then i think commissioner low, you had a resolution that you wanted to make. i come from a background where we are heavily supporting trying to deal with the issue on the global basis of global warming. and we know that if we don't stops brawl and go into higher density living in the cities, we are simply not acting on a local basis responsibly, but it is one of the toughest issues to deal with. the planning commission has to deal with all the time. we also know from a population standpoint that california, to those living here today, as a static population. there are about 2.2 people per couple that are reproducing. that keeps you at an even keel,

but the growth in california is coming from immigrants. trust me, the sport of preference for immigrants is soccer. today, it was demonstrated in a very clear way, both the park and wrecked apartment, if i had to characterize 95% of the testimony, the testimony would come from those who see it as a park. 90% of the testimony for those of both support the field are advocating from the recreation side. our responsibility is to try to balance those views, look at the big picture, and served a total population of the city. this project is not a new use, it is the upgrade of an existing use. it creates better safety at the west end of the park and uses less water, provides more play, less injury. and above and beyond all, although people would like to say it is all about money, it is not about money. we have a very generous,

philanthropic community that is willing to fund a very substantial portion of this. in my opinion, we would not be doing our duty, we would be derelict of duty not to support this. i know this is painful for some of the broader picture, but on that note, i would like to ask commissioner low to introduce his recommended amendment to this resolution. commissioner low: i guess as the newest commissioner, i don't even show up on the screen. >> but you will. commissioner low: i have an amendment to the proposed resolution. let me read how i would revise it. whereas the plainfield renovation is consistent with the golden gate park master plan for the following reason, one, under the golden gate park master plan objectives and policies of policyc, major

recreation areas, the beach chalet field is a major recreational area and the plan feel the renovation will achieve a specific structure and program recreational use as identified therein. two, as identified in the golden gate master plan recreational facilities, balancing the demand for recreation with the purpose of the parked as a pastoral retreat, the play fields renovation will reduce the need of having new sports fields at: gate park and will improve and maintain the existing recreational facilities. three, under the golden gate master plan special area plants in richmond and sunshine treatment plant site, the plainfield renovation will eliminate the need for an additional soccer field in the richmond the sunshine treatment plant site and create the opportunity to create the richmond sunshine treatment

plant site for other park uses consistent with the golden gate master plan special area plan, richmond-sunset plan site. four, as identified in the golden gate athletic fields, the beach chalet field suffer from high demand, over u.s., poor field conditions, what conditions, and porterage, and the plainfield renovation will mitigate these conditions and significantly improve the area for recreational use, reduce maintenance expenses for these fields. five, it will bring this program space and compliance with americans with disabilities act. and six, as called for in the golden gate master plan, the west and plan, it will draw people to the use of the western edge of golden gate park and increased legitimate activities and transformed as part of the park. >> thank you, commissioner. commissioner, would you accept that amendment to your motion?

commissioner levitan: i will accept that, and i will read the title. the motion is to approve the beach chalet athletic field renovation conceptual plan and making findings, including findings of consistency with the golden gate master park plan and findings under the ceqa. >> as amended by commission low, we have a second? >> said. >> moved and seconded. all of those in favor? >> aye. all those opposed? none. it is unanimous. ok, i'm sorry, do we have public, or anything? all right, the meeting is adjourned. thank you very much.

>> good evening, everyone. thank you for joining us here in little saigon. my name is naomi kelly, city administrator for this city and county of san francisco. about three months ago, i had the honor of being on a san bruno avenue with mayor lee when he announced invest in neighborhoods initiative, a program to strategically deployed city resources in our neighborhood commercial corridors more effectively. since then, mayor lee, jennifer from the director of the mayor's office of economic and workforce

development, and myself launched the invest in a neighborhood working group, and part of that working group is a committee of representatives of key city departments to my community and business leaders, and technical experts to provide feedback and recommendations that have guided the development of the invest in a neighborhood program model. as you know, in san francisco, we have many programs, many departments, many neighborhood nonprofits that all such our neighborhood commercial corridors. in the past, that we may not have all been on the same page. the invest in a neighborhood initiative was created to corral all the programs departments in neighborhood nonprofits together so as to better leverage our resources, provide focused customized assistance that meet the specific needs of san francisco's neighborhood commercial corridors. invest in neighborhoods will ensure the strategic deployment of our existing city programs

such as the revolving loan front -- funds the dpw cleaning program, community investor program, arts in storefronts, community challenge grants, grants for the arts, and so much more. the program will also offset some of the neighborhood resources that we lost due to the dissolution of the redevelopment agency. so far, the invest in a neighborhood working group has met twice already to discuss the program model, and the group has developed and invest in the neighborhoods tool kit, a list of city and non-profit services that will be strategically deployed as part of the initiatives, and we are assessing the neighborhood commercial corridors through feedback with the goal of providing attention to 25 commercial neighborhood corridors. with that, it is my great pleasure to introduce mayor ed lee who is always been committed to vibrant community commercial corridors from his day as director of the department of

public works to the city administrator and now as mayor. major league. >> thank you, naomi. thank you for your wonderful work as well. good morning. as they say in little saigon -- [speaking foreign language] did i say that right? ok, i did not screw that up. i want to welcome supervisor jane kim. actually, she is helping me -- welcoming me here. and supervisor carmen chu. this week in, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of our golden gate bridge. i got the comment on what it meant to me. i said to a number of you in the media that one of the reasons that it is not just a great engineering marvel for our country, but it has been a symbol for many people around the world to come to san francisco, and this is just one of those neighborhoods among

many where people establish themselves and created little saigon, and i have been very proud to work with all of these small businesses and residents of the tenderloin community and this area for years. mohammed nuru and i spent many years of walking up the street trying to figure out how to improve it. in between our noodles and our sandwiches, we were able to figure out a few things with the neighbors. by golly, if you look at this today and compare it to five years ago, it is reflected now so much private investment. people are taking their own risks as well as investing in their own neighborhoods. and we started -- a thing two years ago we put these pillars in that the bequest of the neighbors sang we rely to symbolically establish ourselves here, and that became the symbol of little saigon and has now become a post where people come

from all over the place. they look at this and see that gave way to a real revitalized commercial corridor of our city. so on the eve of our very large budget, as we are making advances on it, and lovely by the end of this week we are ready to present it to the rest of the board of supervisors and to the budget committee that carmen heads and jane is on is that we have not forgotten what really makes our city special, and that is all of our commercial neighborhood corridors. i did not want it lost in this almost $7 billion budget that we are about to do. there are some key investments, things that we talk about a lot. certainly i did. and the 17-point economic plan that we introduced last year, but we have consistently had discussions on as we could challenge with all of these cuts and the struggle in the

economy that we wanted to make appropriate investments in our neighborhoods. that has not been forgotten. it will certainly be reflected in this budget. we wanted to announce two of these initiatives today, and there will be a few more before the end of the week, where the emphasis is that we have not forgotten, but we have actually embraced the vibrancy of our commercial neighborhoods. that is why we are here on little saigon today. the invest in its neighborhood initiatives has been one would have been thinking about planning for for quite some months. and clearly through our office of economic development, workforce development, we were listening with the years and the help of the small business commission, and many of our neighborhood residents here and businesses that we listened very carefully to what they need. in addition to thinking of supervisors here today and all the departments here, dpw, fire

departments, a number of different departments, the biggest bang so whatever the people behind me that represent all these small neighborhood efforts from nonprofits to for- profit. they have been here. they have been very patient. they have been always trying to engage themselves more and more and talk about the needs of small businesses. when you come down here. whether the day or evening, you will see their great work. you will see their own personal investments and the partnerships that they have put all of our agencies. i think this will be another example of how successful these neighborhood commercial corridors can be if city hall just listens and pays attention, as we're doing more and more all over the rest of the city. we're announcing today an additional $1.50 million in grants and funding for all these commercial corridors throughout

the city. that is about double what we have invested in years past. so this will be for two years, $1.5 million. this will be in addition to the $4 million that we are putting into the small business loan program over the next two years that will have about 25 different neighborhood corridors in the city. and that is in addition to the board of supervisors and the mayor's office of already done with the replenishing of about $1 million that we decided on earlier this year. that all combined is a great amount of investment. this is reflective. it will be in the budget. we are excited about this, because we know that after listening to the small business commission, after listening to numerous small businesses along this corridor and a long at least 20 to 25 others, we have gotten there and put about what

they needed. these grants and these loans will be targeted for things that they need. for example, i know turtle tower is one example here. they wanted to in zandt. they have so much business. they do not want their customers like me and mohammed nuru and others in the winter to stand aside in mind waiting for the delicious noodles that they have, so they are extending here. it is for that kind of expansion that these grants and loans are for. in addition, when there is the events that would help to celebrate and promote neighborhoods, whether there additional flags or lighting or foes saw improvements, that money will be there for them as well. and to repeat, it is not only for larkin. it is for release 20 neighborhoods throughout the city. to show the we're listening to their needs. make sure that people, not only local residents here, but everybody can go and visit those

other neighborhoods and spend money and support their neighbors as well. i also want to suggest to you that the partnership that this money will be there for is really a public-private partnership. we have done really well here working with all the nonprofits, whether they're the housing groups or arts groups. i know kara is here for grants for the arts. she and i have been working for many years making sure that the arts programs, the nonprofits, with their housing or job creation programs, that they work in concert with the job creators as well, which is all of our small business. that is part of the announcement, and that is the essence of the small business and invest in neighborhoods businesses. in an addition, we will have as part of this effort, a centralized vacancy data base. in other words, we do. i signalled this for quite some time now, and i know the

supervisors as well. we all do not want to see vacancies. we want those paid attention to. we're starting a centralized tracking system for this additional investment, but we can work with the neighborhoods and get expertise out, get some concentration on how we can fill these vacancies and how we can utilize the kinds of incentives that we have been using all along central market and some of the the more successful places. and in bayview as well, where we can bring that talent and focused to fill in these vacancies. it begins by making sure we have a data base of that and that we are tracking them and getting businesses to say that this is another place you can locate if you're starting out or if you are graduating from some of the city colleges for the food support programs, the culinary academy, the art academies.

anyone to start your own businesses. we can point them to vacancies that are in need in areas around the city. that would be agreed at a base to have. we used to struggle with that. to have that data base as part of it would be great. those are four basic assets and -- aspects of the program. the other announcement we are making is we're going to be adding two additional persons to a four-person unit under the mayor's office of economic and workforce development. precisely, we call it the job squads. basically, for years, and the supervisors have heard this. i have heard it when i have had copies out there to the cleanup programs we have had. small-business owners, when they need something, sometimes it is really difficult to figure it out.

when you are expanding in your kitchen area and you have got to go through the fire marshal -- right, chief? and then go through public health then dbi, and then someone will catch you on something you forgot about planning. everybody ends up having to find time to navigate that. i know that small business owners need to focus on running their businesses. that is what they have to do. they cannot be overnight expediters for their own permits. so we need people in our shop to not only be there. we need them to get out to all 25 commercial corridors, and that is why we are creating an additional two spots so we have people going out into the neighborhoods, bringing their expertise and how to coordinate with all these different agencies to make sure that the permits that they need in the permission or the reviews that have to be done are coordinated so that it is not honored their time. it is on our a dime. i think that is a great

investment. it helps our small businesses so that they do not have to suffer the time commitment or the frustration of not knowing. sometimes people are not at their desk when you like them to be. they cannot answer the phone. they are out and about doing their other work. so they will get that information or they will get delayed for days on end. we do not want that to happen. when that the results of it, it is job creation. as you know, i could talk all day long, and i will not today, but i will in the coming weeks. again, it is about jobs. it is about the job creators and small businesses that create some many jobs. i want our job creators, our small businesses to spend time expanding, improving their wonderful assets that they have in the public-private partnership, and they can do so if they get a little help. that help will be not only from the invest in neighborhoods program but also from our jobs squad and those that will be out here proactively seeking to help

them out. not just here but along central market. there will be out in taraval. there is some need in attention out there. there will be out in the excelsior. they will be in the bayview and visitation valley. they will be there at clement street where a couple of vacancies have shown up. all the areas. portola, approach for arrow, all areas that are of great concern. they all host wonderful restaurants, bakeries, small business-serving entities that are vital. as i said at the start, one of the beautiful things to san francisco, it is unique neighborhoods and all the different cultures it represents. all of them along martins -- market street and along the tenderloin, many are here today. they're proud to be here. i am proud to be with them making this announcement. we want to make sure they are never lost in is