you're going to have problems. at the top of the hill we have a sanctuary for children and it would be an intrusion for a trail to come into that area and the sairchtity of those children would be interrupted. thank you. >> thank you. >> sandra. >> my name is sandra larew. my husband and i have lived on beacon street for over 40 years. we bought our lot from the redevelopment agency. we purchased permits before building our home. this is about permit or soils engineer. what concerns us is that the hill side -- what concerns us is the hill side is that the hill side is very steep and we are

afraid that any removal of trees and sclushes will result in land slides on beacon street. our hope is that the city replace these by trespassers and people that don't live on beacon street. on monday i noticed there is the start of another illegal in progress. these s must stop. the hill side needs trees to keep it stabilized. bringing back the beauty of our peaceful neighborhood. the way it is now it's bringing in endesirable activity on beacon street which will only get worse. thank you. >> thank you. >> raymond. >> raymond l arew.

beacon street is a very short street and no crossing. the only place to cross is billy goat park, an undevelopmented park at the close of the end of the beacon street and this illegal that crosses there. should want be there. >> thank you. >> we have jack and jane, and i think that is going to be it for this item once you two are done. >> good morning. i would like to talk about the money, the money the department doesn't seem to have. money to launch unneeded uncalled for projects like a trail that no one needs on beacon street that goes up to the play ground. it should be

clear from all of the people here the overwhelming opinion on this trail is rather negative. i should point out that as the play ground was built provides adequate entrances accessible to the public. clearly never designed with the potential cliff side entrance down to beacon street. there is no need to spend money on a study or planning or developing such an access. further there should be no need for public meetings, consensus gathering from a few hikers lost and wandering up the trail or anyone not related or vested interest in the neighborhood. the matter has taken way too much of our time and now it's taking your time. i want you to encourage to do the right thing and spend a little money and get rit of the trail and we're done. >> thank you. >> jane.

>> my name is jane linz and i anchor the property on one side of this elicit trail, and i do not live there yet. we brought the house last year. i lived in glen park for 33 years but i haven't moved in yet. i am planning on moving in. the safety issue is the one i want to address first. i have three issues i want to address and i know i have three minutes, so there is a fire hazard there for sure especially obviously in the summertime. elicit activity is already going on at this hill side. i only live a mile away so i'm there all the time picking up litter, seeing what is going on. there are drug deals clearly and alcohol use clearly from the litter.

homelessness -- i did go on this . i am actually curious. how many of you have seen where the is going to be? >> as a reminder no questions. >> i'm sorry. okay. anyway wild animals are attracted to the litter. they're already obviously wild animals of the human and animal sort on this hill side but the human animals are causing a lot of problems. if this trail goes through it will facilitate more of this elicit activity because there is such a dense forest on this hill side. if the trail goes through and you wreck the trees and take out those trees we've lost gorgeous land on this hill side. there's three different landscapes that we're talking about. one is a manicured

park. the other one right next to it is the very steep forest hill side and then there is the street and the safety issue of crossing the street, and then there is billy goat hill which is wide open. now, with this illicit activity people can see the police on beacon street so it's ripe for bad things to happen. okay. litter is sort of underneath the safety thing. i am really glad that people are having safe sex but i am disgusted with the use of used condoms in the street. this is not safe for anybody. i pick up cigarette butts all the time et cetera. maintenance by the city is a real question because i

have called 311 and gotten response for the graffiti, the rocks thrown, all sorts of things. i guess my time is up. sorry. >> we get the picture. >> we are time for this item. >> are there any other people that want to talk on it? >> i have three more cards. >> why don't we do three more. >> i'm going to call your names. >> [inaudible] >> that's okay. we have leonard, allen and joshua. those are the cards that i have at this point. >> good morning commissioners. i will be very brief. i am opposed to the trail also. i have been a resident of beacon street same house for 35 years. i was originally -- i was involved in the original planting of it and i remember at that time we residents were

concerned about putting tall bushy or wooded trees on billy goat point for fear there is lack of visualization and places for clandestine activity to occur. it was expressed directly to me and over the years i have been walking my dogs -- six successive dogs now on beacon street at dawn, middle of the day and at dusk, and i am concerned for my own safety regarding this trail. i cannot see clandestine activity if it occurs on the trail. i don't have visualization and i am worried about safety issues for myself when i use billy goat point or walk on beacon street. the second issue i would like to address briefly is more of an inflammatory issue and i don't

mean to be accuse tory. i think park and rec does a wonderful job and i am proud of the city and the work at billy goat point and if you follow the email conversations and what we neighbors had with park and rec there is a lack of transparency and conclusions have been reached without a due process, and i almost feel betrayed by this and there is a lack of trust and for us residents to proceed effectively with involvement we need to clear that area of mistrust and a sense of betrayal. >> thank you. >> allen. >> thanks for the opportunity to speak. i am allen gibbens. my wife is here. we live on beacon. it's a few doors down from this area under

discussion. my main point is the lack of coordination of planning and initiating further development of open spaces in the city, and this case is a really good example of it. across the street, the lower portion of billy goat hill which is open had a trail put in about a year ago. it was incomplete. there is erosion going on. it's not complete at all. there was no provision for maintaining the trail, none whatsoever. the maintenance has to be done by us in the neighborhood. by the way less than half of the people that are opposed are here. the rest have day jobs and have to take care of their children. you wouldn't see people like us here unless there was an issue. where is the planning? where is the coordination? in order to develop the upper trail you have to deal with the issues of building on a steep rocky hill

side and brought up and the other is street crossing. are we bringing in the traffic department and have a stot sign so children don't get whacked goes across the street. what about maintaining it? we pay the taxes. you're supposed to do the cleaning so i think you can tell from the emotion in my voice and the fact that we're here there is a problem here. you cannot have a few people that work for the city and maybe idealistic and want more trails. i hike all the time. you can't put in logs and gravel and say we're done. there needs to be comprehensive budgetary planning to consider what this is really going to cost whether it's worth it. maybe you should put toilets into the park at the top of the hill. there are no

toilets. hundreds of people use bernal heights hill and no toilets. no toilets at glen canyon park. there are other priorities rather than making a trail down a steep piece of land that connects a child's play ground for an area used for dog walking. thank you. >> thank you. >> joshua. >> good morning commissioners. joshua [inaudible] with bright line defense. we're a nonprofit community organization that works to promote sustainability in low incomes of color. i want to speak about a particular issue -- i -- >> is this about the ? >> no. >> well, we're going to have public comments afterwards. i was having them finish up. >> i'm sorry. >> there will be public comment. >> sure. i will take one letter if you want to distribute it.

>> anyone else that wants to speak on the ? i suggest that we take public comment closed and we will take new public comment at the end of the meeting. >> okay. item four is closed and we will take general public comment again on item 10. we are now on item five which is the consent calendar. anyone that would like to speak under public comment for the consent calendar? seeing none this item is closed. commissioners. >> entertain a motion. >> so moved. >> seconded. >> moved and seconded. all those in favor? >> aye. >> so moved. >> we are now on item six, the san francisco zoo. >> good morning tanya peterson director of the san francisco zoo. as you read in the report our february attendance wildly

exceeded budget. we finished the budget at over 63,000 visitors. we budgeted 40,000 based on attendance in prior years. of course good weather had a lot to do with it and we will take it. as we are preparing for next year's budget i would give you a snapshot of our current metrics and i will put them up on the powerpoint please. so just where we are as we come around to the end the fiscal year. we are at 217 employees. i wanted to compare that to 2009 and we are slowly growing. and he we took a census of the animals

and the growth of 500 animals. thanks to our chief vet dr. crawford. he has reducing the active cases at a thousand. and he is doing a great job there. our membership sales are exceeding or at budget, very close there as well and due to generous gifts our donation budget is above budget. something that is really just stunned us this year the number of weddings occurring at the zoo. we have contracted with an outside concessionaire. they're are over the budget by $800,000. now the zoo doesn't get all of that, just a percentage. 40 weddings for the next month. it's a surprise to see the bride

next to the giraffe but it's a trend. we are slightly above expenses. 11. 2 million expenses and across the board and with health care expenses and the wellness fixes that we are making, so with attendance -- oops, is that me? if i go to my next page we are now at 513,000. we are predicted we would be at 450,000. where we were last year was 517,000 so we're neck and neck to last year and a terrific year and we had a bump because of the monkey and we would visit this year at 800,000 visitors. as we talk about financial health we like

to have free people at the zoo but we see how many paid and 56% are paid. what is it? what is that number? nearly 16% is free. as you know we have one day a month that is free for san francisco residents and all san francisco students come in free with groups as well and our membership 27% of visitors are coming from our members and on average 29, 30% so tracking again where we were and visually for those that like visual graphs you can see where we are. let me see now. if you look at february the blue and the white are this year and whites last year and the red and the budget and the numbers but the good news is we're above the red color which is the budgeted number so as we get close to june i am very confident we

will meet or exceed budgets this year, and if you haven't noticed around town one thing that is has been successful this year and last year something new for us that we copied from the museums or temporary exhibits and we had south american mazes and we put up dinosaur exhibits and mazes and zip line for kids and a dinosaur dig and i think around town you may see on buses -- let me see if i have the next picture, are dinosaurs and flags and lastly i had to end on one cute picture. we just had a new tiger born and there she is at 8 pounds and i am happy to announce it's a girl. not that i favor female but it means she can stay at the san francisco zoo longer. she can be housed

with her mother. they're less likely to battle it out. unfortunatelily the sons have to move more quickly. she will be out for a few hours a day to get used to crowds and you will see the cub with her mother inside. mother and cub are doing really well so great moment for the zoo and i thank you again for all your support. >> thank you very much. >> is there anyone that would like to make public comment on item six? seeing none public comment is closed. this was discussion only. commissioners item seven. >> item seven. >> item seven is grattan park herz play ground and youngblood coleman basketball courts open space contingency reserve fund. >> good morning commissioners.

i am [inaudible] with the capital division. the item before you today is discussion and possible action to allocate $416,000 from the open space fund timplg tinge reserve. that's the commissioner's reserve for the renovation of the grattan park tennis courts, the youngblood coleman basketball courts and the herz play ground basketball courts also. just a quick background . over the past year a assessment was conducted by staff at the aforementioned sites. it confirmed cracks in the pavement in many cases. surfaces worn out and disappearing lines and so on. staff subsequently

processed permits in the amount of 416,000-dollar to address these deficiencies at the three parks. under the commissioner's policy governing the use of commissioners open space fund of the reserve the commissioners may propose projects to be funded from the reserve. i am happy to report that commissioner was funding the youngblood coleman tennis and basketball courts from the reserve. commissioner levitan is also proposing funding for the grattan park tennis courts also. commissioner low is proposing funding for the improvements of the herz play ground courts. over the last weeks the project team including the operations staff visited the sites. we visited the

youngblood coleman and herz sites and with community stakeholders are here today to talk about this. also the gm was there to see the conditions of the courts, and all can confirm that they're in need of immediate repairs. the project budget as i said is $416,000. the source of funding is from the commissioner's reserve itself of the open space. i will be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> we do have public comment. we have lena. is it liz? cacost? antoinette and vanessa. >> i am [inaudible] improvement association who thoroughly

endorses the improvements and this is a much used space. there are kids there all the time and it really needs to kept in condition so it's not a trip hazard for people and i urge approve this. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker. >> [inaudible] >> thank you. i am liz cacost and in support of the resurfacing of the courts at youngblood coleman. this is part of a larger initiative for the youngblood coleman initiative which is a collaboration between community based organizations b magic sf arts everywhere, butcher town association, recs and park and we have been involved in reinvesting and reactivating

coleman park in the last year or so and we want to see this move forward. we have having our back to school event at youngblood coleman in august. we expect over 4,000 people like the past and we give out backpacks so we really want to see really want to see this back in shape. thank you. >> thank you. >> good morning commissioners. i am happy to be here this morning and thank you for caring about our local park. we are very excited. we've got a couple of days of services coming up at the park and for the most part i want talk about the theme of get out and play. of course the bay view is a very challenging community; right? its perception on the larger

scale is it's a little scary there and parents hold on close to their children. they truly do and they don't let them come down to the park because there is no one to oversee their kids so they would rather have them in the housing developments and where i live there are children -- i mean families there and there is no play ground, not a single play ground and there is new development being built. new families have moved in. over 30 as i count now. there are still no play grounds. there might be one a mile away but what mom -- they don't necessarily take them, but there needs to be places close by and we have youngblood coleman and this community is growing. children are going into the middle school. hormones get to racing. they want to explore a little bit more and they really got to be in a safe

environment. the parking lot is not a place where they can play football and basketball and throw the frisbee and enjoy the out doors because it's unsafe there too. it's important to get this park activated and we are here as friends of youngblood coleman to help out and i want to thank you for your great leadership and kipberly for habitat for humanity and b magic and our residents. we're rocking and rolling you guys so let's do this together. >> thank you very much. >> here is a flier so if you want to come out on any of those days of service and just go on a tour of the park. okay. we welcome you. >> thank you. >> good morning i am vanessa banks and i have a different

approach on youngblood coleman. i am one of the leads on the friends of youngblood coleman park but i am also -- i grew up in youngblood coleman park. that was the park that sort of saved my life. i had somewhere to go. i had somebody to be. there were recreational leaders there to help me develop and transition and be athletic and learn sports and i just really wish that each of our commissioners would find space in their heart, in their budget, to give us back that park. we have children up there suffering. children sitting around. it's discouraging because i believe if the park was operating and functioning that we could get the park in there with the proper staff and really get our south side east side of that population really going and back motivated and i believe the park is a great

place especially if we get this backpack give away there and it's brand-new and make it more hopeful and joyful place to be. i would like to thank the commissioner that came out with us on march 1 and our gm that came and met with us. we're trying to roll and do this and if you guys can really find it. i know things are rough here in california but we can do this. we have done many more things and bring smiles back to the families in that area. thanks. >> thank you. >> would you like to comment? you're okay. thank you. >> my name is ed steveer. i'm a new resident. my home adjoins -- we're practically neighbors. i am right next door to the parks and rec and those unfamiliar with youngblood coleman. this park was founded by dianne feinstein on the

death of two young boys. wasn't gang related. it was an accident because they had no place to play and if no funding is received for the courts, to maintain the trees their deaths and efforts would have gone in vain. i also want to make note that this park is located in a buffer zone between the industrial area and bay view and the residents, and it's the only park to those residents on the hill that provides clean and fresh air, so maintaining the trees is also very important. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else that would like to make public comment on this item? seeing none public comment is closed. >> commissioner arata. >> i had the pleasure of going and touring youngblood coleman ecialier