for the opportunity fund it to exist -- to assist us. therefore, i am asking for you to make sure that the community opportunity fund does not go below $12 million. that is kind of a magic number, in terms of how much we can possibly be able to make use of it. obviously, this would all come back to you for decision making. we are also asking that the current prohibition against the use of bond fund this for planning and design is removed, because that is holding us up, in terms of what it is we want to get done. we cannot use the funds that would be, shall we say, designated under the community opportunity fund under the current language. we are also asking that community opportunity fund's been made available during the first year after the bond is

passed, so that we can proceed with our plan. we want to cooperate with the city in terms of funding this. we are working on getting private funds to match. by the way, i want to say i am supporting the bond, whether we get a mention in it or not. it is very important that these bits of language that change in order to assist us, or we are going to lose the building. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is rose mary cameron, and i am privileged to be the president of the board of the san francisco parts alliance. i want to thank all of you for your ongoing support of san francisco's parks and waterfront. i believe we all know a debt of gratitude to earlier generations for their vision and willingness to make investments necessary to really build the

park system that we have, which is worthy of the recent recognition by the trust for public land. notwithstanding that, we all know that our system of parks desperately needs a capital bond to infuse major funding into it for the needs so well highlighted by don a few minutes ago. the board of directors recently voted overwhelmingly and enthusiastically to support the parks bond measure. in fact, i would like to share with you that we went one step forward. we also voted unanimously to provide a very significant contribution a campaign that hopefully will be set up at such time as the board of supervisors hopefully votes to place this

bond measure on the ballot. we believe this bill was well crafted, and that it includes major investments throughout the city. to speak about the specific project, i would like to introduce matt o'grady, the san francisco parts alliance executive director. >> thank you, rose mary. supervisors, the park's alliance has been intimately involved in the planning, molding, and crafting of the bond measure before you. in fact, the park's alliance was involved in all three previous bond measures, all of which passed. we have improved citywide parks, all across the city. there are highlights. the first is playgrounds.

the park's alliance has introduced a playground report card, which scores every playground in the city for its safety. it has identified those in greatest need of repairs. the latest edition will identify 16 playgrounds that are failing, that you would not want to take your kids to. this would address all 16 of those failing playgrounds. then comes the waterfront. you have heard about the blue- green way. this would include strategic investments that would realize the vision that the parks alliance has for a long-term collaboration with the port of san francisco and many other agencies to completely transform the waterfront that supervisor tells bird was referring to.

we are pleased to see -- that supervisor elsbernd was referring to. we are pleased to see this will reduce maintenance costs and help update the parts for users, and again, will reduce maintenance costs, which is important, given the operating cost cuts. we strongly endorse this bond measure, as proposed. >> my name is glen gauge. i live in diamond heights area, close to glen canyon, where i like to walk almost every day. at the moment, i cannot support the bond, due to nap and policies like nap. one of the things i love about

the city is our natural areas. i would love to keep the natural. i do not want to pull up bushes that are growing and try to replant them, and how to use pesticides to keep the bushes from coming back. i love the wildlife. if we take the trees down, we are going to lose everything. it is something you will not be able to turn back the clock on. i am absolutely opposed to nap and its policies. under any name, i am against it. until i can feel comfortable the bond money is not going to support these policies, i cannot support the bond. thank you very much. >> after mr. -- chairperson farrell: after mr. paulson, we have further speakers. >> good afternoon, supervisors.

i am not convinced the bond funds will not be used for now. we have read tailed hawks, woodpeckers, and over 40 species of birds who visit our features, including the non native, but much-beloved wild parrots, as they are called. we have also seen skunks, possums, squirrels, and other clear favorites. look at mount davidson. it is like a wound. nap seems to think plants cut -- trump animals. poison has been used all over glen canyon. nap is a misguided plan that diverts our tax dollars to a

wasteful agenda. >> ♪ city country roads take me home with a song for those bonds make it safe make it pretty make it better, won't you? you make a blue-green city. make it better in the city night city was ous -- ours and i still can see blue-green city in my dreams wo-wo-won't you

president chiu love the parks, do some park to love someone like you the trees and plants oh, how they grew love, won't you do we need a better better from you love you do ♪ thank you, mr. paulson. next speaker? >> honorable supervisors. supervisor chiu:. your district, our district? district three. i support the bond majors as -- measures as written. i'm a volunteer in the natural

areas program. and i'm a forest-loving person and i would like to commend the city and county of san francisco and in familiar the board of supervisors over the last 20, 30 years for having pulled off what at one time looked to be impossible, a broad agreement by various sectors of the community on how to manage parks and public lands and i think this present bond measure which has to do with capital investment is a very good way to do that and you'll have me out there supporting it. forests must be managed at great suspense. dogs must be walked, at great suspense. games should be played, lawns must be weeded and mowed. playing fields must be surfaced and graded. there's been a lot of misleading and inflammatory rhetoric.

i'm not sure really what the motivations are but it's interesting that many of the speakers who speak against the natural areas program start out by confessing their ignorance and truly that's a genuine problem. i think the coalition of cooperation, the community spirit that was developed a couple of decades ago is always in danger of being lost and stigmatizing natural areas is easy for some aggressive individuals who have no part to play in the community other than trying to gain a position for themselves. i don't know when -- what their motivation is but i would ask this committee to recommend the bond at written. >> thank you very much. next speaker? >> i am a disenfranchised individual who didn't know about the natural areas except for complaining about

herbicides and saying it's necessary for native plants. all we learn about is plan for cutting trees in january and definitely grateful for san francisco.org. i would never vote yes on any bond. unless there is a law -- there should be a law in the books forbidding the use of herbicides plain and simple and for bidding the cutting of healthy trees which don't pose any danger. there is no signs thunder program. nothing. there was a book "invasive biology." there is a great letter written for t.i.r., which is by -- scientists i don't know if you

read those things -- people assume that native is good. then invasive quote-unquote is bad. it's not necessarily so as a matter of fact, they find that invasive species were high for adolf hitler. it's not necessarily only good people who do that. there is no mandate and no science behind that. >> thank you very much, next speaker. >> my name islessly and i live in the tree tops with the squirrels and birds. i'm in charge of an organic garden overlooking the canyon. we have a large growing area build that come from the toddlers that come from the preschool that's located in the canyon and during the summertime that preschool turns

into a summer camp that's existed for 70 years here in san francisco and has thousands of kids from the age of 7 to 12. so all these people are quite short in stature other than the 1-year-olds. and so most of the spring that's done in the canyons is literally on the level of the small children and the dogs that come through the canyon. and it's a very popular area to take pets because it's a beautiful walking area. so my ongoing concern has to do with the use of herbicides in the canyon, and when families send their children to a preschool in the canyon or they send their children to a camp there or you even think about going to the park, you think you're going to a healthy place and i think that's becoming less of a truth. believe it or not there's actually a sign posted below

the community garden on the trails that there is a spring of herbicides between the 13th and 18th of june and there's winds in the canyon and it's an organic garden and we're all growing fooled so what stops the wind from blowing the herbicides up into our community gardens which, is only feet away? i'd really like to focus on the herbicides going forward and the use of them in the bond issue. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> my name is jerry risk and i was a teacher in san francisco for many years and i live in miraloma park and spend a lot of time in mount davidson with our children. with my wife, friends, when somebody comes to visit, we always go up there. very proud of that forest. when you think of mount

davidson, on one side it's scrub and things are dry. you look on the other side of it, it's wet, it's moist, with all this aroma, wonderful trees, a good variety of trees. birds. berries, and it's getting -- it's starting to change. some of these trees, they're getting cut down. wonder who's doing it? and then i find out about two and a half months ago that there's this organization, n.a.p. that has a sort of a mission to change things back the way they were say 150 years ago, 140 years ago. and this whole idea about pesticides -- i had an experience with that in the schools where they zeeds --

decided to go ahead and splash it around the corners of the room and it was coming from the district and they told us not to use that around kids. 72 hours and they were using it. i don't trust anybody who's walking around with chemicals on their back. and my last comment that i want to make is if you have five trees and you take them down it might be because you're interested in their he'll. if it's 10, maybe you're still interested in their health. but when you take down 1,600, you're interested in clear cutting. >> thank you very much. the last three speaker cards. jane risk, anita bowman and chelsea parrish. >> hello, supervisors. how are y'all doing today? apparently we're going to continue this over to next week so i'll make this short. i'll try to come back next week. really the bond is good. through the con semmings i've been around it. it's been something i've

personally taken that needs to get done because our park system needs us to move forward. this is about access to our parks and getting our parks fixed where they need to be done. it's something very important. if anything, the board needs to pass this just to get it on the ballot and let the voters have their choice to decide, which hope lifully the voters will decide for it. it just needs to be there. that's all i can say to you guys. i can't say anything more than that. >> thank you. next speaker. >> my name is jane risk and my family -- family has lived on moublet davidson since 1972. we walk on the trails through the forest all the time. even though we've been living on mount davidson, our community has never been informed until very recently

about the natural areas program and their plans. i gave each of you a copy of the natural areas program map. on which we lined in red the areas that are designated for cutting so you can see that the entire heart of the mountain is supposed to be cut and the trees will not be replaced with other trees. if you look at the very small print you can see those trees are going to be replaced with native grasses and shrubs and we strongly object to that. we also are sierra club national outings leaders and we've been working with ken hoger, who is the hiking leader for all sierra club local hikes or has been and we have the support of many sierra club

members who agree with us that the trees on mount davidson should not be cut in order to replace them with grass and scrub. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker? and there are two speaker cards. anyone else who hasn't spoken and wants to speak, please feel free and line up. jim thinker stop and carolyn johnston. >> good afternoon. i'd like to start by thanking the supervisors today for their leadership and vision as well as recon park for their community outreach. my name is cell chicago -- chelsea parrish. i'm with the trust republic land. it works to con serve land for people and create parks across america. i support the parks bond because it is necessary to maintain san francisco parks in order to fulfill open space needs for the residents. the state of disrare that many

of the parks fall into is a testament to their heavy use. restoration is required for the continued quality for both san francisco residents and visitors. thank you. >> thank you. thanks for coming. next speaker. >> i have some slides. >> i'm a frequent user of the natural area, mcglarne, glenn canyon, sharp park, spring grove. and i just want to talk about why it's so important to address the national areas program as part of looking at the bond. the 2004 assessment showed that people used the walking trails and biking trails as the most used facility and the most important to them. as well as when you look at what the voters or the

residents have said is the most important thing for improving in the parks, that's the walking trails and being able to visit nature, which is just exactly the opposite of what the natural area program is doing. so if you actually -- so there's another slide. so if you actually go to the natural areas, basically we've taken 24% of our park land, which is basically everything other than golden gate park, the golf courses and like the soccer fields. almost everything else has been designated to the natural areas program, and basically those places where they talked about kids playing, instead of being that it's an important habitat that everyone has to stay on the trail. the trails are being closed. you're getting fences put up. it's executed from proposition c for the maintenance standard. turns you see the pesticide signs, which is not inviting

for visiting nature. then to add insult to injury, you have a 2008 bond which was supposed to be about restoring trails. when you look at the plans, almost all of the money that has been used nor that program, which, by the way, has to be used in the natural areas program, was for deconditioning the trails. i just think it's really important because these programs are important for people to put that language for the natural areas program. >> thank you. next speaker? >> i'm representing chinatown community development center and also representing the committee for better park and rec in chinatown. i urge you to move forward the bond ordinance. we are very excited in our district three. the jody imagineo playground and those are included in this bond. it is the most crowded area in

the city. i'd love to talk about trees but unfortunately ill be happy if we get a piece of open space. the playground in the heart of chinatown is often overused. but improving, renovating joe dimaggio and chinese playground will be of great benefit to the chinatown community and i also want to acknowledge the bond and recon park statue and are leading a very con ten shouse but interesting and productive bond process, both in the community and also throughout those meetings. it is not easy getting to where we're at at this point. we have something that should be a legacy project, if it will be before the voters in november and get passed. i think in five years' time, as we have seen now, looking back from the 2008 bond, we have a lot of legacy that we've

created because of the trails and bond. so thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi, my name is elisabeth my meek -- di meeko and i'm a resident of she wood forest, mount davidson and i think i speak for my fellow neighbors when i say the big attraction to us owning a home in that area is the forest. it's where we walk our dogs, children -- from where we sit, it seems to be a misguided initiative. i don't understand why money would be spent to remove trees when there are places like mcclaren park which desperately need those funds. i don't understand the native thing because there are palm trees lining market street which aren't native. the trees on mount davidson, they hold moisture, which

addresses the water conservation issue, it enriches the ground, provides wind protection. there hasn't been any research done demonstrating that any of those trees are dangerous or that there's any benefit to getting rid of them other than returning it to its native state. we're against it, all the people on robin hood drive. that's it. >> any other members wishing to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. colleagues? supervisor elsbernd:? >> i would like to say a few things. i think it's important to respond to some of the things we've heard in public comment. no pun intended but to the folks who are frankly threatening this bond over less than 2% of the total bond, i think you are losing sight of the forest through the trees. i absolutely hear the

disagreement, i hear the frustration. i hear the anger and disappointment about natural areas. natural areas has not been approved. there is an e.i.r. coming. there is a public process on approving that program. to put a gun to the head of this program over something that amounts to less than 2% of the total bond ask -- is -- that's one of the most significant threats i've seen in the 12 years i've worked here at city hall. and to the folks in glenn park who are here. glenn park is going to get $12 million for its rec center. i spent a lot of time in glenn park. that park needs it badly and i've heard from more people in that neighborhood who desperately want to see their park taken care of that are concerned about there. to the folks in miraloma park, you all know i've lived this.

-- there. born and raised there. both of those playgrounds where prime candidates for the $15 million pot for di lap at a time dad -- dilapidated playgrounds. to think we would deprive the tens of thousands of citizens from those redone playgrounds other something that amounts to 2% of this bond when you have so many opportunities to express your frustration and to make change to the program really blows my mind. that said, i'm happy to work with supervisor weiner to try to find language to amend this. there is a part of me that wants to call your bluff because i think this is so bogus, but this is the process and i'm more than happy to work with you on this, but to let less than 2% of a bond stop it from going forward is one of the boldest things i've ever

seen. >> ok. thank you, supervisor else bern. excuse me. public -- else bernlt. public comment is closed for right now. we were talking about holding a special meeting next thursday. so c0u8d i entertain a motion to continue this item to a special meeting to be held on the 21st? >> i'll make that motion. >> and we can take that motion without objection. so moved. madam clerk, are there any other items? >> no, there are no further matters. >> ok, thank you. meeting is adjourned.