lower pac heights in district 5. i'm here in defense of the eight washington project on behalf of my friends, my peers, my generation, not quite seen here today, but a generation busy working, in favor of progress, of development and have not seen it still. i've sat here and listened to some people speak. some accounts i've heard is that this project is not -- neighbors, it steps down the embarcadero building, then there's a series of staggered buildings. i've heard people talk about a good project, the same people talk about a good project have stated they're against all the projects that have been here. so propose to me this good project. what are you waiting for. another one here is replacing a parking lot and a chain-link 20 foot tall chain-link fence. it's not anything to look at now. maintain the status quo is not making the am bark dare any

better looking. also for many people here trying to get elected on this cause, this is a lot more than getting elected. this is a job for many of us and our careers. also, affordable housing, we're a capitalistic site. this isn't the prime spot for -- housing. i'm not saying -- i can't afford to live here, in my lifetime but at the same time, be reasonable. finally, this whole process has been disheartening. to see -- urban redevelopment pass us by in destinations for my generation not born here but one to call home forever. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker. >> afternoon. my name is andrew divine, i'm a cornman carpenter local 22 and i also live in the sunset. we've heard a lot about numbers

today and i'm reminded of a quote i heard once. it's statistics are like bikinis, what they reveal is suggestive, what they reveal is vital. we heard 31,000. let's say the population of san francisco is 800,000. that puts that number at 4%. and let's talk about that 4%. if you're soliciting signatures at dolores park on a weekend and you have the most detailed accurate, description of what your petition is, you're going to be hard-pressed to have a coherent conversation among the confectionaries and the choice liebations that are overly present at that destination. also, i heard .05% is the amount of the population's going to benefit. i believe that lady was alluding to the future residents. well, hey, i mean there's no way

i'm going to be in that demographic, doing what i do but i know that i will benefit from that project, as well as all my brothers and sisters. we make up a much larger percentage of the city than .05%. lastly, one gentleman alluded to this whole idea of, you know, i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine, i'll give you this if you sign this. and right after that, he alluded to a wife beater and some crazy rube goldberg thing. and it had no relevance. okay. so don't be distracted. you know, 31,000, think how they got that number. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name's thomas bunkly, i'm a

fourth generation san franciscan and a proud member of local 22. i've written some letters in april to some of you, and got a reply, which really made me feel good inside, and one of the reasons i'm here today, i urge you to move forward with the project. i was very, very pleased that we had -- the progress we had made. and i think there's a lot more to benefit just a few that have access to the area now. and the 31,000 votes will -- i thought there was like 800,000 -- 850,000 people in the city. and it should be shared by everybody, and not just a specific few. thank you for taking the time to listen to me and thanks. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. hope you enjoyed your recess. adrian seemy, field representative of carpenters

local 22. i hope that you would stick to your guns. a couple of months ago, we voted for this. the project hasn't changed. you've heard carpenters before me, and you're going to hear after me. what this job does is provide local 22 members with jobs, good jobs, union jobs, jobs to support their families, their children, and a way of the future. what we have now is blight. it's a parking lot. we don't want to keep that. this is a way to move forward. this is a good project. and i think it should be passed. and i thank you for voting for it before, and i would ask you to vote for it again. thank you. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name's rush sturgeus a member

of local 22 and a resident of the richmond district. i'd ask you to vote for this again. it's been very extensively reviewed over and over. it received far more review than many projects that i did as a member of the residential builders association. not only do we put our members back to work, who have been -- we've lost 25% of our members in the recession -- but we have jobs for our apprentices which include many at risk youth to go to. the training is not enough. the jobs have to be there. please vote this in. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. danny campbell, sheet metal workers union 104 here again to reiterate our support for this project. i don't know, i'm confused because i don't know why we have

a planning department, i don't know why we have a planning commission, and quite frankly i don't know why we have a board of supervisors, if this is going to happen every time you approve a project. i mean this project -- i mean i thought planning staff did a great job, you know, standing by the -- i mean backing up the the eir, certifying it. this project does revitalize the waterfront, as i said before. it beautifies it, brings open space. i ask you to stick to your guns, and i ask for your support again today, and so do our members. thank you very much. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> ♪ and if i can't find my way back home in this zone, it just wouldn't be fair. ♪ and i hope you'll be there and

care ♪ ♪ and we need a view, we need a big bayview, and we need it from you, and not just for one, but for you, and for more than you ♪ and we need a view, and i hope that you fix it up too ♪ ♪ waterfront town, water front town, where all the streets are bright ♪ ♪ waterfront town, it's waiting for you tonight ♪ ♪ waterfront town, and we're going to make it a a bayview safe and sound ♪ and no more of this... ♪ smoke on the waterfront water, and make it better too ♪ ♪ no more smoke on the water,

make it better too, because i left my home in georgia, and i headed for the city bay ♪ i wanted to live there too now ♪ ♪ looks like it's all going to go away ♪ ♪ and i'm sitting on the dock of the bay, watching washington street go away, making time, make it better shine, making it better, make it shine ♪ ♪ and waiting on the dock of the bay, making the buildings all go away ♪ ♪ and we need a view, what a city... >> president chiu: thank you, otis. next speaker please. >> i hope you'll forgive me if i don't sing. i'm a leaser with equity

builders, small urban developer here in san francisco, on behalf of john clawson and others. i want to lend our support. ecb for nearly 20 years has been doing very responsible real estate development. we understand the process of involving the public, the collaboration that needs to occur for a good project to come about. pacific waterfront partners has done an exemplary job of refining the project to create the most maximum benefit for the city. we think it's a great project that will be very beneficial to the waterfront. the fact that you have all already voted on this and now are reopening this is an anathema to us. it's lends uncertainty to projects going forward and slow down responsible development in

the city. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker. >> my name is -- and i'm from district 2, pacific heights. i am a proud member of golden gateway tennis club. i feel like i'm at the national republican convention with all the lies being thrown out about the project. golden gateway is not just a parking lot. we are a community. we vote. we work. we pay taxes. we raise money for national -- natural disasters. we are a real community. and this is the kind of community that should need a civil servants, and politicians. we need to multiply and replicate our community and not destroy it. again, this is the kind of healthy and vibrant community that is unique only in san francisco. thank you. >> president chiu: let me ask if there are any members of the

public that wish to speak in this public comment, if you could please line up because we're getting to the end of public comment. next speaker. >> hi. good afternoon, supervisor, my name is carla fernández. i'm here in support for local hiring. i'm a single mother who lives here in the mission, and will love to support local hiring. i have it here that the local 22 representative say what they're going to do with local hiring, they're going to support it. i also haven't seen no females come up, up here, and say that they have benefits from this project. i, myself, have been out of work for more than five years, trying to find a -- job in construction. i was an apprentice who wasn't able to find work and due to the -- due to not being able to find work i got kicked out of the union based on no hours. so i don't know what they're saying that the apprentices in the community will benefit from it if i'm only seeing men who

eventually have been getting work. i haven't been getting work. i've been actively looking for work. i haven't. he referred to the brothers and sisters who will benefit. i haven't benefit. i don't know what he's talking about. so i will really like for you guys to support local hire, regardless if you guys push the project forward or not. but i feel like the union representatives are not being honest and which means to them putting people to work. so i really appreciate if you guys push for the local hire, make sure the females get on this project too. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon again. my name is ernestine weiss, activist in the city, producer of ferry park, most beautiful and valuable space on the waterfront under discussion right now. don't believe this garbage about jobs. i have been prolabor all my long

democrat life and i want to see jobs as well as anyone else. there are six huge towers going up near the transbay terminal, plus the transbay terminal, plus the giant's parking lot, plus the warriors possibly. so there are plenty of jobs in the offing. that's a lot of nonsense, that there are no jobs. number two, there's no setback on this project. the garage location is dangerous. retail is overloaded with embarcadero one through four which incidentally have many empties. there are so many things -- mission bay has been a disaster in design. the water mark has been a disaster. the fontana -- after the freeway came down, which was 84 feet at the time, we should have lowered the height, not raised it. 132 feet, and 92 feet, too much.

enough. come on, folks, let's have some sense here. don't be corrupted by these few people who are trying to spoil the waterfront, that we worked so hard to maintain. it's congested enough. district 3 has not got enough open space. so leave it alone, for god's saying. we need it more than we need a luxury condo. please, use your good sense and repeal this for once and for all. the reason that we lost two -- that the other two developers lost was it wasn't viable. near as this one is even worse than the two previous ones, which is not viable. so, please, repeal it. thank you. >> president chiu: next speaker. >> good afternoon. my name is allen mark, president of the mark company. and i ask that you maintain your support. i think everything's been said

that -- before, but just to highlight some things that have changed. this town only has about 300 new condos available to date for sale. absorption is moving quickly. by late this year, we probably will be down to about 100 new condos. there are about 300 new ones being built today, compare it to about five years ago, and that five years ago there were about two to 3,000 available. and i am excluding the number of condos that are in candlestick area because that is a different part of the city. the other thing i'd like to point out this is only 134 units but in addition, 11 million dollars will go to affordable housing, and according to john stuart who spoke here before, that can be leveraged into offer 100 units. there is no redevelopment agency to build affordable housing. in addition, the 100 million will be going to the port and to the city, port doesn't have much

money. it's going to greatly improve the embarcadero. i also want to point out that we are talking about a private club. this club as someone pointed out is $145 per month. the four seasons sports club l.a. is approximately that for month. this club will not be closed down permanently but closed down to build a new one. so i do support this project. it is small compared to what's nearby. it's half the size in terms of the height of the golden gate apartments and that's half the height of the embarcadero buildings. so this is in keeping with the context of the embarcadero and as we've seen it's kind of the missing front tooth of a beautiful stretch of land. so i ask that you maintain your support. thank you. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> hello. i'm charles stetkin i want to

speak on two things i heard in support of the project and that is jobs, and the lengthy and analytical process we've been in -- involved in over six and seven years. and i find both of those arguments specious in this case. i was in it vietnam. we had 500,000 people rotating in and out of vietnam every year. it is important what people's jobs -- what they're doing in their jobs, not to just have jobs. have jobs that destroys the waterfront, in terms of the existing code, which is -- which would be -- where the height would be increased by 60%, those are not the types of jobs any more than the 500,000 people a year who went over and worked in vietnam. so the quality of jobs and what is resulting from that work is your primary consideration as stewards in the city. second thing is the the process

in which we were involved in. we had a lot of misrepresentations made, i have to say. i'm sorry about that word, but slides were shown of other cities waterfronts which distorted what they were in the case of hamburg, which has a wide open view on officer lake which i was there, and others must have been. and other places, they showed little narrow merck teal old alley ways and so forth to show that we needed a hard edge. the the port came to the planning commission and said that the -- that the piers were in such poor shape that they needed more money and then they sold bonds to the public immediately thereafter, going on to only one rating agency and getting an a rating on bonds and selling those very same bonds, secured by the very same real

estate, to... >> president chiu: thank you very much. thank you very much. >> bobbie coleman. the world used to say look west. it's a legendary san francisco, where there be a hill, and you could see it, as you headed westward. there was another hill to the south. that's gone. this is the one that's left. the view of coi tower from the ferry building will be destroyed if the project's built. would paris do that to the eiffel tower? discussion involves some compensatory offset.

i haven't heard a single supporter of the project make a convincing argument that those offsets that are being discussed even sweetened, compensate for the loss of that treasure. the law gives you the vote in order to protect the public from crass opportunism. the law gave you another vote to protect us. your legacy, all of us, depends on democracy doing its job. i believe that this is the democratic process, and good business. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm jim chapel, representing spur, the san francisco planning and research association, and our almost 6,000 member families. a super majority of you voted your conscience and approved eight washington when it first came before you. i salute you for that. and to the three of you who voted against it, while i may disagree with your reasoning, i respect your decision and presume you too voted your conscience. frankly, that should have been the end of it, at least as far as this body is concerned. not only has eight washington been seven years in the making, but it reflects several decades worth of planning on the northern waterfront. it went through a rigorous public review process, including a special neighborhood planning study. it was approved unanimously by the port commission. it was approved by the planning commission 4-2. it was approved by the board

8-3. eight washington endured a long tough entitlement process and it won, fair and square. along the way it garnered the support of the chronicle, the examiner, spur, the chamber of commerce, the labor council, surrounding businesses, and many surrounding neighborhoods and neighborhood groups. why? because it's a great project. and let's be honest. nothing about the merits of this project has changed since then. eight washington will revitalize a horribly underutilized stretch of the waterfront currently cut off from the rest of the city. the only thing that's changed is a group of people have forced this onto the ballot. this is disturbing to have a referendum on a a planning and zoning matter. we know how difficult it is to have a residential project from this city and to let a group of people stop a project is very

serious, and this will have an effect not only on market rate... >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. and again let me ask if there are members of the public that wish to speak, please line up. >> i am not one of the well-healed people. i got signatures on the ballot, and i didn't pay for them, no one paid me for them. i went out and i got them. you all are being asked to uphold referendum causes. the referendum causes have been on the books for california for nearly 100 years. it is incredibly hard to use. with this referendum there has been no citizen referendum qualified for the ballot in at least 50 years, and that's all i can go back in the records. there was one that qualified by the real estate industry to

appeal a rent control. but other than that, no one has gone to the ballot. you have to get your signatures in 29 days. you have to get enormous amount of signatures. if it was so easy, there would have been multiple referendum. but a 250-page -- two-sided petition, was over -- was 540 pages. i carried them. it was a ream of paper per petition. these were hard signatures to gather. and you are being asked to let the people decide. we do not have a policy of having to have 800,000 people sign to say there should be a vote. we got the number of signatures that the law requires, and it was hard. and i didn't get a cent, and i didn't -- i paid money to get

signatures. i've paid into the campaign. and it's discouraging if the people's will is thwarted by the board. the board can do one thing. they can reverse your decision and go back through the process. thank you very much. it was -- do not -- on the referendum process. >> president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors, you have heard a number of people state to you very clearly about the process. this is a united states of america, and it's true that the supreme court declared corporations persons. and if you don't agree about that, they're going to turn it around. but this is a process. not mentioned in the deliberations are the first people of this land, the -- not

mentioned in this process are the people that really need to be helped. if you look at these condominiums going like 3 million to 10 million, i suppose you supervisors are -- eligible to go stay in this condominiums. so the first time around, when you voted the majority of you all voted, that was on you. just like when we came here and told you what was good for another area in the bayview, and you all favored the rogue developer called -- at that time we collected 33,000 signatures. and after getting the certification, we had our city attorney nullify them. this is a process. and like the first speaker said,

who has served our city well, she said let's do the right thing. now, let me mention about california pacific medical center. they had a group called -- or whatever. and just a couple of days ago, they stopped all action. and i'm saying this because promises are made about jobs, internship, this, that, and the other. promises are just made -- lives over there and not -- thank you very much. >> president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. >> -- on the left, david elliott lewis. welcome back from your well-earned break. you know, i have mixed feelings about this project, eight washington. but -- and i'm sure it would be wonderful for the representatives who live there, probably part time condo owners who use it as a second home but if you look at how the city benefits from this, the benefits

are less clear. the people who live there won't be there full time. it will be a huge structure, and will set a bad precedent for height on the waterfront. i really don't think it's a neighborhood-friendly project. and i also think there's class issues at stake here too. and clearly this is a project for the 1%. and are they entitled to housing? yes. but are they entitled to housing at the expense of the rest of us? that's the question at stake. i'm sure it caught you off guard to see this referendum come so fast, and 30,000 plus signatures gathered to put it on the ballot. and i can't imagine how you must feel. but, you know, i think we need to give the people a chance to vote on it, since we have so many signatures gathered. let the city decide and however it turns out, go with it. thank you for your time and consideration. >> president chiu: are there any other members of the public