count on volunteers a tremendous amount. >> these parks are so critical in our city and to see the change happening and the maintaining going on is just exciting for us and couldn't be happier. >> at the project you're involved in today not only are you clearing the lines but making the park more welcoming and accessible and make it safer but making it healthier and we're going to be creating an

exercise or walking track around the perimeter of the park. this is a really important park for the community for health, recreation. the hours of sweat that you have contributed today have been really meaningful and i don't know if it's [inaudible] working on and you definitely look like you're working. congrats to the warriors. >> i planted that tree. >> [inaudible] >> happy earth day

and that concludes my report. >> any public comment? okay. we are on to public comment and members of the public may address the commission that are in the jurisdiction of the commission and do not appear on the agenda. with respect to agenda items your opportunity to address the commission will be afforded when the item is reached. i have two cards. lena emory, kelly watt and paul you have item 11 but it's public comment and if you want to do it now so if we could lena. thank you. >> i told you i will be back and here i am. i am chair of the keeser citizen advisory and i

am here to remind you of the track at the stadium that is in dire need of attention. it's a facility widely used by the school children of san francisco and needs to be maintained and i would like to see a resolution from the commission to chrz the repair work and to push the mayor. it's implausible we build this world class facility and don't maintain it. it's getting to the point it's a hazard to use. that's unfair to the children of the city and others so please. i will be back. you will be tired of seeing me and hope to get your support on this. >> thank you very much. >> kelly. >> hi. what i have learned over five years of presenting to this commission dozens of studies and reports on the

toxicity [inaudible] and used in golden gate park and clearly must be the worse public advocate in the world. i thought i had the easiest task and how hard can it be? and against all of these items and chemicals and wood and plastic in the midst of sky rates of childhood aws ma and autism and every report we have been reported with including the beach [inaudible] and found on the list of cancer causing materials. two more fields are currently planned to be built. here in san francisco it's currently being challenged in

court. last month two reports supported the material are being challenged in washington. it's still not late to do a courageous act and spare the citizens of san francisco from exposure to this. when we recognize the toxicity we will try to remove the fields. what can't be done is extract the chemicals and things that are exposed children everyday in these fields. when a parent asks who knew this would give my child cancer? and everyone here would say we did. i want like to introduce terms into the

field and -- -- fisher construction, carbon black, [inaudible] lighting. [inaudible]. gavin new son, [inaudible] plastic, private public partnership, [inaudible] zinc toxicity and childhood cancer. just today i got an email from a friend who met with barbara boxer and dianne feinstein this week in washington and went over these things and had a productive meeting about it. we will see what comes from that. thank you. >> thank you. >> paul manning. eddy foot and bruce stone. >> good morning commissioners. i stand before you as the vice

president of the arbor association and the issue i want to talk about is the premature of the fees as a result of the ordinance passed by the board of supervisors. it clearly states that the marina increase in rent will not go up until the project is declared complete and i have a copy of the ordinance if the commission would like to see it. the language is clear and states "the west harbor in the year 2012 [inaudible] completion of the renovation as certified by the general manager whichever occurs later." now, when i asked certification in writing the best that the plark -- or that they could produce is a statement march 13 which it is declaring substantial

completion. anybody familiar with construction knows that is not complete. the anticipated completion date is march 31. however, this one document and i am happy to provide this as evidence as well doesn't certify as complete by the general manager. it's a premature application of the rates and for my berkt it is $500 more and under the ordinance. i would like to bring your attention to that and request some action. it seems to be not an isolated issue. i stood before you in december and wrote an email to you mark buell in september and implementing the cost of living increase then they were relying on a section in the code which has two deadlines of reports that need to be filed if they're

going to exercise that. they did not comply with either. the report they put forward was dated in july and yet in your own park code it specifically requires that is filed by april 15 and another filing subsequently. it's clear to a grade school child in school if you miss a deadline there are consequences and park and rec and having challenges and getting money that is not in compliance by their own rules and i ask as the park commission review this, rescind the rent increase and i am here on behalf of large number of boat owners that recognize the harbor project is not complete. there is dredging that needs to be done and concerns with security. it's easier to get in than the past and i appreciate taking

action on this. >> thank you. eddy foot and bruce stone. >> commissioner butte -- >> speak into the mic. >> mr. ginsburg it's good to see you and i am here and a lot of headache for the harbor master finding position and i have been coming here for 10 years and i have a lot of files on seniority from my sister of owning the boat in our family and i want to say i think the harbor master is doing a phenomenal job given the challenges he has but i want to know if the seniority thing for me is a bit in question because of a technicality. i went through divorce and the assignment -- although i took control of the boat and owned

it according to our settlement and i have given that to the harbor master is in question and i am bumped down and i am losing my berkt that i have been fighting for and anyway to check the seenity with the sunshine ordinance or getting understanding if it's needed and if it's needed is this a sunshinable thing to know how it's falling out with legality to the assignments? because i want to fight for mine if i can, so that's a question i pose. you can think and talk about and just don't forget me because i am hanging in here. thank you. >> thank you. >> bruce. >> i am bruce stump president of the harbor's association. i

agree with the comments about the fact you're 1/4 raising the rates prematurity and it exposed the fact that the rates doesn't make sense. when you go to a 25 to 35-foot there is a linear scale per foot so it jumps up 30% and if you have a certain size boat you pay a certain rate and then if you have a bigger boat you go to a bigger berkt and 4% to the 90-footers which are using up a massive amount of real estate so like the knee jerk increases of a few% a year and then 35% shows the schedule make no sense and i ask you to go back to the drawing boards.

there is revenue that the harbor needs to produce but it's not spread evenly among the users. suddenly we have four berkts and narrow and wide ones and it's not reflected in the schedule, so somebody in a 40-foot wide berkt and getting the benefit than someone else is not getting and president harbor wasn't dredged properly so the 40-foot ones are shallow and the areas properly dredge read 12 feet. now when it comes to my time i am going to look for a 12-footer. it turns out there is only a few in my size so if i am in a swallow one should i pay the same rate for someone stuck in the mud and you need to straighten out the schedule and

despite the fact to delay it for three months and it's unfair to certain people and there is no equity in the way it's set up now and encourage you to take a fresh look at it. >> thank you. >> is there anyone else that would like to make general -- please come forward. >> good morning commissioners. i am jim hernandez gill. i am the community organizer at the san francisco bicycle coalition and i want to express our enthusiasm with the [inaudible] improvements and we participated in the process and excited with what has been presented so far and happy that a lot of outreach is being done to the communities that do not speak english in this neighborhood can tan easy,. >> >> and spanish and excited to see how it improves.

>> thank you. >> anyone else that would like to make general public comment? seeing none this item is closed. commissioners we're on to the consent calendar. any public comment on the consent calendar? seeing no public comment this item is closed. we need a motion. >>i would entertain a motion. >> so moved. >> second. >> moved and seconded. all those in favor? >> aye. >> commissioner low did you have a question? >> no. i was just going to vote. >> we on item six now the san francisco zoo. >> good morning. tanya peterson director of the san francisco zoo. i want to report on march attendance. we had a great month. in fact it may of the best month of the fiscal year

and a combination of the weather and a new tiger cub coming out. we had a big difference of 28,000 visitors. as of april attendance as of tax day -- people still came on text day. we were shocked. we know the exploritorium opened yesterday and i thought i would give the year to date numbers so it's easier to see them so if i could put the powerpoint on. there we go. so far remember our fiscal year is like yours and ends in june.

here are the numbers and last year we were at 563. again march was really significant. that got us to matching last year's and beating those numbers and seeing the break down on the screen. paid visitors are listed here. we actually had more free -- people coming in free than we anticipated and all good. these are students and community access and our free days. we had this amount coming in free and our membership exceeded numbers at 162,000 visits versus the budget of 150,000. i wanted to talk about free day. we offer 12 days a calendar year so that is the next slide. this is

for san francisco resident focus they show a piece of. >> >> mail or id they can come in once a month for free and 19,000 residents took advantage of it. we budgeted for 15,000. again all good. the next free days are may 1 and june 5 for june. we sometimes move these free days due to capacity constraints so i suggest visitors look at our website and then we will look at next fiscal year's free days soon. just a update why we're having such a great year. there she is our cub yet to be named. she is 14 pounds now and just went outside on exhibit and viewable in our box but mother has taken her out. the cub has been hesitant but the mother is bold taking her on the stairs

outside and their relationship as a twosome is remarkable. as you know most single births by these tigers are rejected. this is unique the mother has stayed and we didn't have to hand rare her so bravo. we have a earth day on sunday and open with a bike a thon and bird walk and ask the seniors to come out for free to that and do the conservation walk and our fundraiser is may 11. we will auction off the name of the tiger cub and i want to thank president buell for working that night. do well, do good and with that i finish my report. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> is there any public comment

on this item? seeing none public comment is closed. this was discussion only. we are now on item seven the san francisco parks bond. first issuance. >> commissioners i am here today to re-cap on the item that we brought to committee. i believe at this point you have the detail for the first bond issuance. this is the first sale for the 2012 clean and safe neighborhood parks bond and we are requesting about 71.$9 million for the first issuance. these funds will

allow us to conduct design and construction of the first batch of neighborhood park projects funded through the bond as well as start and design processes for many of the city wide programs. our expectation that we are able to move to the board of supervisors very shortly after the commission approves this first sale with the idea of having cash in hand by june 21 so that will allow us to pay many of our vendors and contractors to get started on work. we expect we will begin community processes for many of the projects in june so i encourage and we will will keep you apprizes of those and go into full swing and this will fund the reimbursement of the open space loan which you approved earlier this summer

giving us $600,000 to do testing and surveys and other pre-planning that allow us to be a strong position right now to start work, so that first bond sale will reimburse those costs and with that i am happy to take any questions. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing none public comment is closed. >> commissioners. >> i would like to make a motion to recommend to the board of supervisors to approve this first issuance of the bond. >> seconds. >> moved and second. all those in favor? >> aye. >> so moved. >> we are item -- >> let's take item nine out of order. i see commissioner wiener here -- supervisor, excuse me. >> okay. let's make his time efficient. >> we are now on item nine noe valley town square property

acquisition. >> commissioners i am very happy to be here today to talk about our proposed acquisition of the noe valley town square. the noe valley town square is located at 3861 24th street and owned by the church adjacent to this parking lot and home to the noe valley farmers market and attended every week and happens in the current parking lot. the friends of noe valley town square and the parks alliance have worked together over the past three years to build

consensus about the acquisition for the neighborhood and permanently establish this space of parking lot as open space in the heart of the neighborhood in perpetuity once it's under our direction and that has included 200 participants and meetings as well as the friends of noe valley town square had a weekly table at the farmers market during this time and i want to commend the community for building consensus with the neighbors and ideas for the park. the park is a quarter acre and currently a parking lot and our intention is develop the ideas that the community has developed and transform this space into a nice neighborhood park that would include a play structure and other amenities.

these are just a few pictures of the site condition. as you can see a glam lows parking lot and its location is central and has again contributed i think in part of the popularity of the farmers market. this property has been evaluated under the acquisition policy which was adopted by the commissions and that policy sets forward three specific goals making sure as we acquire properties are meeting open space deficiencies in the denser parts of the city and have acquisitions and leverage funding sources and whether acquisitions for this area or funded the development or development or maintenance. in this case the friends of noe

valley have fund raised close to $500,000 in pledges towards the development of the open space and what is motivating the current time line and speed and have the property in hand by july 1 so we're eligible for a grant that can contribute up to $720,000 towards the development of the park and that is a substantive amount to be contributing to the development. i want to remind commissioners we have been successful receiving grants for 17th and folsom for the randall museum and other parks and all multi-million dollar grants and that is motivating us and we have another strong competitor here and we also want to pursue properties that have a range of

uses and flexible to respond to the community's needs and demographics. the purchase price for this parcel has been identified as about $4.2 million but there is going to be a price reduction of $350,000 associated with remediation costs so we can use the acquisition funds to address those costs upon renovation of the park so that is great because that reduces again the cost of developing the park or burden on other funding sources so we're very happy to report that. the community has a concept plan. that plan needs to be vetted by staff. it does include a play structure as well as other park amenities and our goal is have the noe valley farmers market operate at the

site with no interruption in service and we will work with them on the schedule, et cetera. maintenance of the site has been an important discussion not only for this acquisition but for other three acquisitions we're talking about at 900 enis, trying to find a park to develop in district 6 and the francisco street reservoir and it's rare in this commission's history to have that many conversations going on at the same time around acquisition and it positions us to have a good conversation with the rest of the city about the funds that need to be committed to this department to ensure that we can maintain properties that we acquire. i think we're all familiar with the context of san francisco real estate and its intensity and competitiveness and as a department we're in a

difficult position you don't want to wait 20 years to have the monies for the properties and guaranteed and you need to act now and then the properties will be gone and too expensive but we need the city as a whole to own the decisions and support us in that endeavor so to that extent i think we are working with the board of supervisors and we made that need very well don't that we would like to work with the board to identify maintenance resources for this and the other acquisitions that we are considering. lastly the time line for this acquisition again with the goal of having the property under recreation and park department jurisdiction by july 1. we have already submitted a letter of intent for the property for grant proposal and a pre-application and they decide whether or not they ul