process, as chair of the city design committee and a member there of the 11 years as the arts commission for civic design. i consulted to the city planning department on the city's original design plan and served on a board of directors for eight years and currently on their advisory and project review committees. i also served on the northeast waterfront citizens advisory committee at the time of the preparation and the hearings or the north east waterfront. for the rebuilding of the embarcadero roadway and its adjacent often port properties, that process of about five or six years was long argued, agreed upon, codify, and is in the record. the project before you express's the city and port goals. i have a good deal more i can go into, but i think my time will

run out. my parochial northeast credentials are being president twice, and i strongly disagree with their current position before you on the matter. as an affordable housing advocates, i have tried for a number of years to find colleague investors for the program and was unable to do so. chair mar: thank you very much for comments. next speaker? >> supervisors, i am president of the jackson square association, and i represent the residence, the merchants, and others in jackson square. we very much support this project. we especially liked the fact

that there is a trade-off. this is what the whole communities will benefit from. this is especially for the merchants in the area. we think that overall it is a win/win situation, for the city and for the arts community. we hope you support the project. chair mar: thank you. it looks like this is the last speaker. >> party. i am charles. i am speaking on a narrow issue, which i think everyone agrees with, actually. the there are always trade-offs in medicine. obviously, the public will lose if the project goes ahead with certain things.

the private sector will gain many things. we would have a replacement pool. there is no guarantee that anything will be built, for what is set aside for the pool area. they would not be restricted to recreational use. there is nothing there. this is really a quite lovely design. this is to gain some support. i do not think at this juncture having both the eir and common sense, and the people who swim at the pool, all of us are agreeing that we should have a replacement recreation facility, that you should pass on this to

condition any approval you might make with regard to the design modifications, condition that on a restriction so that the remaining area, where millions on resale, so there is quite a bit to it. that this be restricted to mitigate the losses that the public will suffer. chair mar: thank you. if there is any other speakers, come forward. ms. hester? >> sue hester. you have references to a number of things today. the waterfront design and access plan. both of these had environmental review. if it has any reference that has gone through environmental review that says this should be,

they should provide it for you today. there have been a lot to the embarcadero study, and they did not want to have a study that was not tested. by eliminating the median, that study is taken as gospel, even though it never went through environmental review. when did go through the environmental review is the downzoning of the golden gateway. 1972 to 1976. the city changed the height limit for the golden gate way because they had the unfortunate experience of the buildings that had already been built.

this downplays everything that had not been built them 84 feet. there were two eir's for that, and you have no reference to that, in the northeast embarcadero steady or in this case report, nor by staff. this went under the rug, because that study found that those over 84 feet have an adverse impact because they violate the urban design plan. that is in the record on this case. the planning department wants to adopt that issue. ask them about that. >> thank you. -- chair mar: thank you, ms. hester. >> as lee radiner spare you, eight hours at the last testimony, they have decided to focus their efforts.

but a number of you did say in the first round that you're going to increase the affordable housing. we will like to see how you will make that happen. but a couple of things quickly, we have heard about the great design. i have to say the developer has done some fabulous renderings. the video in the eir, you look along the edge, and this is what supervisor chiu was talking about earlier. and you put a 70-foot wall next to it, that is what it looks like. this is a very little common narrow sidewalk. you could not move that 5 feet. all it would do is to decrease the interior by 5 feet, but it would make for the kind of elegant prominent we all deserve -- elegant promenade we

all deserve. the developer increase to this, but since then, it has shifted. this has gone for the first sale to the second sale. this is the fate -- same thing you talked about. this is over two years, meaning that the city will never seen as these. chair mar: thank you. is there anything else that -- anyone else who like to speak?

>> it is whether or not we are going to lose a view of a giant, tall, a defense and gain more for san franciscans. thank you. chair mar: thank you. seeing no other public comment, we will close public comment. [gavel] we will begin with president cjiu -- chiu. president chiu: this is the democratic process and how we consider various land use

decisions, and i want to thank everyone for caring so much, as you do, about the future of our waterfront and the future of our neighborhoods. i want to stay at the outset, and this is something that our constituents know. i have not opposed any or all development at this site. what i have had some debate concerns about is about the height increase. the bulk increase. and if we as a body are going to be providing with these extraordinary land use bonuses, there ought to be some good reasons for this. it is no surprise at this moment that we do not necessarily see that, but i do hope that in coming days, at the finance committee or at the financial terms and next tuesday that we

will be able to talk more about what is specifically appropriate here. that being said, i do understand a desire to move this forward and to call into question. colleagues, what i'd like to ask for this committee to do is to move this forward without recommendation, for several reasons. we have a committee on wednesday. we have just started to learn about changes to financial terms. i am still waiting for information from the developer and waiting for information from the court here to see exactly what this entails. of course, during that time, i think it is inappropriate for deciding to move forward. i do know that there will be ongoing discussions about the various parties to see if there are better ways to resolve what we have here, if there are any changes that we need to be made. so with that, colleagues, i would like to ask for you to do that. chair mar: thank you.

i would just like to thank everyone for coming to speak, including the ports and all of the people from the neighborhoods around the development that has come to speak, as well. i also wanted to say that i have been in close conversation with supervisors olague and kim, the very much care, like i do, about working with the port and about affordable housing as a priority for us, but also, i think the parking spaces, the public parking spaces are another issue that we want to work to reduce the number of parking spaces perhaps by 20%, but we will continue to work with you. this open space is something that is a tremendous benefit to neighborhoods, in addition to the other benefits, but i wanted to make sure that we are addressing a number of issues that were brought up from around

the area, and the last couple of items, i did mention that i am familiar with the swimming area currently in the golden gateway swim and tennis club, and i have been here with my daughter, and i do know that that is the space. that should be opened up for more public access, so i look forward to more communication so that the public can have access to that, the aquatics, as well. and then there is much more money going to the public general fund. it is appreciated. i look forward to continuing to look at whether it is the budget analyst's report coming up, to look also at ways that the general fund is supported in the project. the last thing i want to say is that this is an upzoning, and i

am looking at the foot print of what is being upzoned. this does seem to be in one corner of the lot, which scope'' downward, as well, which i appreciate the planning department with the excellent presentation that looks at the sloping down from the higher heights of the golden gateway and the alcoa building. i look at where is the equity and where is the equitable approach. i look forward to making sure that we maximize this. so i will be supportive of the president's motion to move this forward with that recommendation. colleagues, if you have other comments? supervisor wiener? supervisor wiener: thank you, and thank you to everyone who came out today. i would be supportive of moving

it with or without a recommendation. what matters is where the boats are going to be at the board. it is not so much whether or not the committee put a label about with or without a recommendation. i will be willing to support putting it out without recommendation. chair mar: supervisor cohen? thank you. cell, colleagues, can we move this forward with that recommendation? thank you. thank you, everyone. ms. miller, is there any other business before us? clerk miller: no, there are no other matters. chair mar: thank you. the meeting is adjourned. [gavel] captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

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>> when the new california academy of sciences opened in 2008, it quickly became one of the top tourist magnets in the city. part of the cal academies' astronomical success is the weekly nightlife party. >> i am joined by helen, who is here to school me on all the nocturnal activities that are getting ready to take place here. tell us a little about what we can expect to see at nightlife. >> we open up the doors every thursday night at the california academy of sciences. there are certain things you can see every week you can go to the museum, visit the planetarium, and we bring in bars and a deejay or band. it is a different feel from during the day, something different every week. tonight , we have beer and music.

-- tonight we have great beer and music. it is beer week. we have a dozen local brewers in african hall. we have a deejays to set up throughout the museum and a live performance at 9:00 p.m. tonight. >> what has been your favorite part as a participant or as an observer? >> my favorite part is to walk around the aquarium in to see people with a drink in their hands, getting to know maybe somebody new, may be looking for a day, or chatting with friends. there jellyfish. i mean, they are beautiful. >> the culmination of the animals. >> it is very impressive. we do not have this at home. >> tell us a little about some of the spider's we see here on display. >> at the california academy of sciences, there is a very large collection of preserved and live

specimens, which are the evidence about evolution. we have the assassin spiders, which are spiders that exclusively kill and eat other spiders. they are under the microscope here. research done and the california academy's i rhinology lab suggests that the assassin spiders have been doing this for over 150 million years. this glassed in room is a real scientific laboratory, and the people in that room are preparing specimens of vertebrate, that is mammals and birds. the way they do this is to remove the skin, sew it together in a relatively lifelike pose, and ensure that it does not decompose. >> i am a really big class

actress fan, so i am here to see them, and beer week. >> i wanted to learn something and have fun. >> i always enjoy it. i am not all is well -- always working as i am tonight. sometimes i come to enjoy the music and to dance. ♪ >> culturewire covers the arts in san francisco, and one of my favorite culture artists is here tonight. jason, thank you for being on culturewire. tell us about some of your posters that we have here today. >> most of the posters here are four specific shows or tours. i am hired by the bands or the venue. >> what is the inspiration behind these posters? >> no, disease of the related to the bay and, of course. music -- it is related to the band, of course the musical content or isn't related to the

bed. album covers can come from anywhere. ♪ ♪ >> class actress was great. we have been having so much fun. i did not realize how beautiful the cal academy looks than that. what other events take place here? >> we do corporate events that night on a regular basis. but nightlife is your best bet to come in as a regular person pharmacy the academy at night, and visit with friends.

calacademy.org/nightlife. we have details for the next few weeks. you can get tickets online in advance or at the door. >> thank you so much. thank you for watching culturewire on sf gov tv. culturewire on sf gov tv.

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