have seen several different phases of what is going on with the city and unfortunately this period right now is the saddest and breaks my heart. this issue touches me because i have two young sons, actually in their 20s now and i have a 10-year-old. i have been part of the process of the new park coming up on 17th and folsom. unfortunately you say you have bilingual meetings and i don't think there was any and unfortunately the spanish-speaking parents, the people busy working and raising kids can't come to these meetings. what i witness in the meetings is that the majority of the people who went to the meetings were single people or people with small children. so i was trying to advocate for that park to have a basketball court, because i didn't really real it, but my son said mom i have no way to play basketball outdoors at least.

the closest was mission playground and dolores park and what i heard was we don't want a bunch of teenagers hanging out and -- i'm not sure about lighting, but they didn't want a lot of young people to hang out. what i'm trying to say is how can we keep kids from doing other things? things that are always complained about that they are just hanging out doing the negative stuff we hear on tv, if we don't have anything for them to do? i'm using 17th and folsom because i was directly involved and if you look at the plan there really isn't anything for young teenagers to do there. the lawn i guess is for the young adults for the city to lay around and get suntans or whatever they do, but there is nothing for young kids so please look into this. maybe it's not to late to add a

basketball court will for these young kids. >> thank you. >> [ applause ] >> hello, my name is lauren tom, and i am retired attorney. i'm a two-generation -- i'm a second-generation san francisco native. i'm a parent. my husband here is a fourth-generation san franciscan and we have seen the city go through a lot of changes over the years. i want to applaud the young people who spoke today, and i want to lend support to everything that was said today. i would also like the record to reflect that the video that has gone viral was taken by dimitry barton who is now in college back east, but i don't think he has any idea this is going on right now. i just want you to know that

there are people watching, and the steamroller of privatization has got to stop. the city is a place that used to be family-friendly, and i remember when museums were free and we should bring that back, you know? our tax dollars should work for us and for everybody in the city. thank you. >> thank you, [ reading speakers' names ] >> i have raised my son in the mission and he is grown-up now, but there were even less places to play then and it's always been a problem. the way that we actually met people before he got too old to

go with me, we would go to the playground and meet our community there. we would play with them. there would be issues, we would work them out. and we were not like kind of segmented in this way that people are segmented by this policy. i have lived for a long time and it infuriates me that a city that can afford to give away such huge tax breaks needs to have people pay to use the parks. the parks are for the people. rec and park used to be a very different organization, and we used to feel like it served the community. it does not feel like that anymore. so i just really want to appeal to you to serve the community. have people play together. that this is how we can meet each other on our parks. i grew up in new york city and it was always like wide open

then and it is democracy. this is the way that our civilization works that our city can work, rather than segmenting it. so no more private play. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> good morning and thank you for allowing me to be here today. my name is martha straya and i'm a newly retired teacher. i was a teacher to some of the students here and i'm extremely proud of because they practice restorative justice. [ applause ] >> i'm also anative san franciscan. i was a poor child, a single mom, lived in a small place, but i didn't know and i thought because of san francisco i was

the richest, because everything was free. the museums. they had free times to go to the opera, to go to many events in san francisco. as you know at golden gate park. now as a teacher, i am a witness that our students, our youth are suffering. they are being deprived and i'm asking all of you for whatever comes up in these rooms, that you keep in mind that these children are your future. i am successful because i lived in san francisco and was enriched by it. do not privatize. also, this have and have nots division is getting wider and wider and wider. you need to erase that divide. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you.

>> commissioners, i would like to thank you just for being able to hear what we are saying. i think what we are experiencing right now is how to live on a community 101, if you could do a college class on that and often people are telling others, this is like definitely a teaching moment, but it's definitely a learning curve for some of our new-comer techy population. so i'm very hopeful that we're going to find a way to negotiate that. i thank the youth for having voiced their concerns and i support their demands. i also apologize to them on behalf of san francisco for their having had to experience what they did. hearing today that one of them was kicked in the back by another adult at one of these incidents was for me -- it is a major violation and should never happen and for him, i

personally would apologize on behalf of this city for him having to had to even experience that. for me that was really a very troubling moment. also, i feel that as you have already heard, after-school is a very important time when youth need to have a place to go. it's not just a recreation situation that they are asking for. this is a safety situation. and so the whole notion that privatization would usurp, i think, their need as children to be able to have that, since they are all tax paying citizens and people that are involved in our city to be taken into account. lastly, i would like to say very quickly this very commission asked for support from it the latino community for bonds. you received that support on the condition -- and with the promise that there would be forthcoming contracts and those were not forthcoming. so i want to add that to the fact that if you are going to ask for our support from latinos,

you need to be cognizant of the fact you can't walkway from the fact we're part of this important city and the population -- san francisco has the name for a reason. the mission is not for sale. [ applause ]. >> thank you. >> hello everyone. thank you for this opportunity to speak. my name is elizabeth deyoung and live in the mission and have lived there a long way and witnessed -- all of my friends have been evicted, forced out of the city and i have witnessed the change in the population and i will tell you that i don't want to share. i'm tired. these people have run over the neighborhood. not just the parks. we used to live in a calm neighborhood and now it's overrun with traffic all the time and i would say to our friend colin welch, who has been famous because of this

video who works for air b&b, i'm absolutely disgusted by his behavior and what is really a disaster and what is really weird is that air b&b got out without having to pay $25 million in back taxes which could be used for the city and could be used for the parks and could be used for the future of the youth of this town. and it's about time that mayor lee and parks and recreation and all the other organizations that are trying to sell the city to the highest bidder should stop and get on the side of the people who built there place and made it a beautiful place to live, who put in the bike lanes and the trees and fought for their parks. it's time for the city representatives to represent the people. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you.

>> my name is antonio medina and [speaker not understood] i have been doing it since 2003 and some of the students in the video started off in my club in some kind of form. we have been pushed out from a lot of fields. i'm here to speak on the way that we have been pushed out for years. this isn't just something that happened today and it's just being seen. we have been struggling through everything of we went around and took pictures and this is the manager of my soccer club that has been taking video. the chemicals that they are talking about on the ground, there are people peeing because we have no bathrooms -- [ inaudible ] when all of this is sunk in, all of these kids have to dive into all of this -- sorry about that. i am here as a concerned parent of two kids that are playing soccer. i have a son who is 8 years old, who has been playing since he was 4 and i have another one

who is 15. i am a product of parks and recreation, working for the youth. the fields that are cemented on 21 and folsom, that is now turfed up, we would play there when our knee would hurt and scrapes. i'm a product of that. we're getting pushed out and now our kids get to come in and as the man said, they are looked at like we are doing all of this, but this is all by the adults. every monday we have to call the cops at practice, because there are people smoking marijuana and guys throwing beer out on the field while i have 8 years old out there and trying to coach them and tell them what is right and wrong. there is no supervision on the fields. all of these kids, this isn't within drop-in, but in our community day in and day out, these guys come and a half start kicking the ball and don't care if it hits the kid in the back of the head and gets a concussion. if their permit is at 7:00,

they are there at 6:58 kicking the ball and there is no support system -- they are not being seen. >> thank you very much. >> i wanted everyone to know that we need help [ applause ]. >> good morning my name is roberta pena and a parent of four kids playing soccer in san francisco. three of them playing in the mission, garfield park -- [speaker not understood] they are all been killed less than 200 yards away from that park. as you can see from the pictures what the conditions our kids are being made to play is not just mission playground. we get kicked out every tuesday and thursdays at garfield park. you rent out parks for teams from 4-7, from 7-9 you rent them to adults and on weekend they are league play and they

are not community park because our communities do not have access to themment we're asking for you guys to please change your policy of please not renting any any park in the mission that is single-unit park. those parks are keeping kids safe. i buried over 80 kids in the last ten years that we worked with. these kids that are here, every single one of the kids i have worked at either everett, mission or others in the community. i have emailed various people at parks and recreation and received little to no support until they video came out and we started being heard. i'm asking to you please come out and check our parks. do an assessment of the parks in the mission and it's embarrassing that we are saying that we have the best parks in the world when we don't. i ask you to come and see where you are putting our kids to play in. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you.

[ reading speakers' names ] >> i have been playing there for 14 years and when it was asphalt, nobody cared about that field. it was completely abandoned by everybody. until 2002 when it was renovated and now everybody wants it play there and everybody wants to rent it. i have been following the rule for 13 years, you show up and

you will have your time to play. and i started a petition in 2002, and i submitted that to scott wiener, nothing. he didn't reply i feel very attached to this play ground. i met my friends, good friends who have been in my wedding and know my child. that playground has been a hub for a lot of latino kids to play together and share and be part of the community. i ask you to keep the community rule for ten years and look at the example of 21st and folsom. right now nobody cares about that field, nobody. they don't rent it, they don't go over there. look into that and i bet you the day they fix it, that we're

going to have the same problem that we have right now with mission playground. just some advice, air b&b and all the big companies they maybe want to buy a lot and build their own field and maybe they can rent it you out. [ applause ] >> thank you. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good morning, thank you for your time. i really wasn't prepared to talk, but i have been inspired. so i'm going to wing it. i grew up in the mission. i was educated in the mission. and i was luckily was able to afford a house in the mission many years ago, because right now i'm sure i wouldn't be able to. as a property owner, and as a person who pays my taxes, i demand that you guys do represent us, the youth, and i'm here also as a mother.

i grew up in the mission using parks and recreation, and i raised three kids who played t-ball, basketball, soccer, baseball all through parks and rec, why? because it was affordable. right now there are many parents, many single moms who cannot afford it. i want to represent these mothers in the mission, because we -- you guys owe us a peace of mind. you owe us that we keep our kids safe. that when we go to work, they are not at home doing things that they should be doing, but worse, that they are not in the corner selling drugs, buying drugs or having drugs pushed on them. i am educated in the field of criminal justice and it's a huge concern and i'm passionate about. it as a criminologist, i know the determinings dangers out there. we prevent gang and we prevent violence and we prevent drug

use. we don't have to sell ourselves out. so please do us all a favor and work for us. i also use parks and rec, taking dance classs that are free and play raquetball. so please think about it and represent us. you guys work for us. thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you. >> there are copies here. my name is gio hastings a native san franciscan and i played soccer in junior high school, lincoln high school on real grass at beach l.a.. i coach the kids soccer team in millbrae and work at 14 years

plus as a city gardener for the rec and park department. i'm appalled that we'll put kids or anybody on plastic. when you hear nbc talking about cancer and new york city has gotten rid or going to get rid -- in their park department not going to put into these plastic garbage fields with toxins, the two largest cities in america, new york city and los angeles, about 4 million are saying no to it. that's wrong that they ever had the plastic stuff. i'm far to the right wing type of person, but as you can see this is wrong to put people on this kind of poison. i used to work at mission playground as a gardener at the mission complex and now these kids are told to get out.

that is wrong. it's basically veriong. wrong. i heard the old song and dance as 14 plus years as gardener and we seem to hire at the top and not the bottom. that is who does the work. we don't need big stadium lights and to mess up the wildlife. we need fields without the big ugly lights. yes on h, no on i and do the right things and maybe we can stop this nonsense. thank you very much. [ applause ]. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. josé muniz. >> good morning. my name is josé muniz and i have been a resident of san francisco since 1970 and i

have seen a lot of changes and one of the problems as i see it that more and more these parks are being given to the more wealthy people here in the city. i'm not sure it's intentional, but that is what is happening. we need to give credit to the youth who stood up for themselves and i wish there were many other parks in the city, who are probably encountering the same problems and there is no outreach to them. i think it behooves the manager and maybe the commission here to reach out to those communities to see what problems that they are really having? because one problem we have is we have no accountability and don't know if those people are facing the same issues that we're facing in the mission? so i encourage to you reach out to them and make sure that our youth here have a priority on those parks.

not the adults. thank you. [ applause ]. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> commissioners we would like to introduce the kids and i would like all of them to speak consecutively. i know we have the two-minute time period. >> they will. >> the day of the incident, what happened -- >> speak into the mic, please. >> the day of the incident, when all of this occurred, we all felt like we were going to get kicked out of our home, because we always go there to play soccer with our friends. we go and make new friends with the community. so we didn't like the way that we were being

treated, and everyone here is saying like what they did was wrong, but at the same time, it's like we didn't know if it was a real permit or not? so we decided to stay on the field and we decided to not fight, but we decided to stay there as a team. we're always there as a group and we like to stand our ground there. so we felt a lot better about having the situation, having the talk about it. >> thank you. >> keep talking, guys. >> so that park is our to-go place and where we really have fun. so not every day, but almost every day after school we go and ever since the beginning of summer, you know

how they have the little league practice and everything? so we wait for the little kids to finish playing and then we're like all right, it's our fun time and we get to play now. but then they come to us with the paper, like, we have the field, you can't play. you have to leave. and it was like -- that is where we go to have fun after school. after a long day at school. so we feel like we had to do something about it, because it didn't happen once. it happened multiple times. >> thank you. who else? >> my name is nathan garcia. >> pull the microphone down so we can hear you. >> i'm nathan garcia and go to everett middle school and i'm in 8th grade. 13. i felt kind of like mad because i was -- we were at the park, and then people were going to come with the paper, and not

just one time, but a couple of times and they are going to tell me to leave. and they start cussing me out and disrespecting me. like, i don't know how to say it, but you guys are kicking out all mission because you kicked out mission beacon and now what is next? the park. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> hector gomez and go to linc kon high school. i'm 15-years-old. it was a second home and i grew up there and they kicked them out too. now that we came to this park and tried to shove the paper in our faces and it's not right. try to mistreat my friend

nathan and i don't think that is the right way to settle the problem, but to work together and work on a solution. we tried to work on it, but then they didn't understand. that is all i have to say. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> hi name is hugo vargas and i'm the victim of getting kicked in the back. it was just unfair and i didn't deserve that. i was just tryinging to be a good kid and having a big argument -- what the heck? i didn't deserve that. just me being stubborn, i didn't tell anyone, because nobody is going to listen to a 15-year-old? but now i know i have the city on my back and it was just unfair for those people to kick us off our home, our community. they have been there for what?

months. we have been here for years. this is my family right here. these guys are my family. if i need something, i can depend on them. i don't want to ever lose them. it's just not fair. and i go home thinking what if i lose the park? i lose my family, i lose my home. so please help and support. [ applause ]. >> thank you. >> hi. my name is greg garcia and go to mission high school and i'm a freshman. i have been going to the park since it first opened and i met a lot of my friends there. that is where i met these guys. i went there and i met people and i made friends. i feel safe there. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> is that it guys? thank you very much.

thanks for coming here today. [ applause ] who is next? >> george whiting and elizabeth mejas [ reading speakers' names ]. >> good afternoon commissioners. my name is george whiting. i represent the neighborhoods and i want to thank rec and park for meeting with the children in the mission regarding the privatization of public assets. this started in 2005, phil ginsburg had no experience with rec and park, but he was --

[speaker not understood] mark buell made a large donation to gavin newsom and became head of rec and park and suddenly rec and park's budget was cut dramatically and got rid of all of their rec and park employees. what they did, they started to hire 6-figure employees who they gave bonuses to, to find people who would donate to rec and park to help rec and park and all of a sudden rec and park stopped serving the people in the city and started serving people with money. and what you have seen over the last five years with privatization is there is more emphasis on people with money than there are with people in