crisis for families are struggling, the least we can do is irrespective of income that they have access to public space. thank you very much. >> thank you, supervisor. [ applause ] >> [ reading speakers' names ] >> the new york city parks department and school system no longer install the material --

soccer and football players alike are very familiar with them. the black dots called firm rubber are actually shredded car and truck tires, contain all of the same chemicals found in most tires. the international agency for cancer research labels four carcinogens jordan started playing goalie on turf when she was 12 years old and in high school practicing as many as 20 hours on rubber and she was diagnosised with lymphoma. >> i would have it everywhere and have them in the tissue. >> last year theysis with

diagnosised with non-hodgkin land use and economic lymphoma. fox four college football player now battling leukemia. i feel sick to my stomach that the artificial turf can have so many chemicals. >> the biology of cancer varies between different cancers. our own genetics vary and both of those have a big impact. >> the doctor said in all of my years of medical practice this is the worst x-ray i have seen. >> hodgkin lymphoma, stage iv. >> you ingest it and it's unavoidable former reality star ethan has been keeping his own list. >> at four times a week i was

on it for hours, sweating, bleeding, everything. >> she says i think it's something with the field turf. >> the [tpo-efbg/] husky goalkeeper was diagnosised with non-hodgkin lymphoma in college when doctors discover a larger deadly tumor. >> it was about the size -- a little bigger than a softball in the center of my chest. >> the pain is fresh for june, her daughter a star goalkeeper died a year and a half ago. in 2008 we told you about a terrorisming stadium high goal keeper's battle with hodgkin lymphoma. back then luke and his family wondered if this had played a part in his cancer. >> it will stop the ball, but the pellets will go in my face and eyes and mouth. >> in 2008, the u.s. consumer products safety commission say thed exposure assessment did not include chemical or other toxic metals beyond lead.

tires do contain metals and chemicals that had been ruled too toxic to burn in washington state. the average athletic field uses 27,000 tires. >> nbc news repeat lid requested an interview, but after several email and two phone calls, the epa refused. >> when we asked the cpsc for an interview, the agency declined our request. >> we have posted more information on our website. tell you your story. >> i think we went well over the two minutes op that and what is really important that we keep everybody to two minutes so everybody gets a chance to speak. so thank you very much. next speaker. >> thank you for the opportunity.

>> commissioners, president, general manager, thank you so much for having us. this has turned into something much bigger than i think anyone anticipated. on saturday, we saw the video. it's thursday, there is about 200 to 300 people standing outside of city hall demanding that policies made by parks and rec be changed. i want to thank general manager phil ginsburg for meeting with us yesterday. the kids wanted to hear why -- what occurred happened and why it happened to them? and they were brave; these kids were leaders in their community without even knowing it. and they asked for things, asked for demands that they not only came up with themselves, but with the community. and one of them was no permitting in the evenings at mission playground. i want to thank both parks and rec and the general manager for saying let's do that.

let's do that, respecting the kids' wishes and understanding this is a park that is not conducive to that policy. but it's much bigger than mission playground as mentioned by supervisor campos and we get bigger with the additional demands and councils created representing districts in the parks and rec, so that communitis and neighborhoods and people who live there and use the parks can identify the programming for each of those parks. the next one is equity. we want to ensure that the money spent on parks is equitable throughout the city and equitable in the neighborhoods most dense like the mission. we want to ensure there is a dedicated staff at mission play ground because that could have prevented quite a lot. we want to ensure sensitive to the communities and there is a language access ordinance that this commission and this department must be in accordance with and it's not. it's a charter ordinance that requires bilingual signs and staff available to speak to our

community members, if needed, if their native language and that is not occurring. i thank you for the time and i hope you listen to the community and one last demand after this is done that we have a meeting and we follow-up and we get the solutions for this issue. because again, it's much bigger than mission playground [speaker not understood] >> cynthia cruz and tom temprano. hello commissions, tom temprano one of the presidents of the harvey milk democratic club and i want to start by thanking the brave youth who we saw in the video, who are here today, for doing what i want all of you to do.

for standing up and saying that our parks are not for sale. our parks are for people. our playgrounds should be for kids and should not be for-profit. that should not be responsibility of our youth to tell the recreation and park commission or the rec and park body, that should be the job of the commissioners to make sure your youth don't have to go through what they went thereto. this is a problem that does extend as edwin and supervisor campos said, what we're seeing in the mission to speak and on you to reverse what has been happen for the past five years in the city, where our kids are being shutout of our parks across san francisco. it's up to you who are here to serve the people of this city, not the bottom line profits of the other rec and park department to ensure our kids don't have to keep going through this. it is maddening.

i'm sorry i'm getting a little red in the face, but please don't let what these youth -- use the body that you have, use the authority that you have to ensure that kids across this city don't have to be forced out of our rec centers, forces out of our playing fields, forces out of our parks. open the parks for kids and stop the profit model. we're giving giant tax breaks and telling kids we can't afford to let them use the parks for free. this is not what san francisco is about and this is not what our parks are about and dedicate yourselves to ensuring that our parks are for our youth and our parks are for our people. thank you. [ applause ] >> let me make one observation before we continue and that is that there is no profit associated with the fees that are charged for permitting. it doesn't even cover the

administrative costs. so it's a way of trying to provide a service to the community, but i appreciate the comment. >> cynthia cruz -- [ reading speakers' names ] >> good morning, commissioners, reverend arnold townsend. here today vice president san francisco naacp and also president of the economic opportunity council, poverty agency serving youth along with other poor people in this city. let me say a couple of things real briefly. just want to remind you that having been involved in housing and youth activities for the last 50 years what i have

realized that we live in an amazing time in history in san francisco because we live in the first period where the wealthy covet the homes and neighborhoods of the poor. we have always -- we have always coveted their home and neighborhoods and i remember when we used to get visitors from out of town. my folks would up from l.a. and take the pacific heights seacliffs and see the beautiful home, but when people who have money want what you have, you are in trouble. that is what we have seen and if you don't believe me, look at old photos and drive through the filmore today. 50 years ago, this is what i want you all, and especially you young folks to be aware of, it's more than your parks. it starts somewhere and you have to be vigilant young folks and make sure this doesn't happen. let me say that the civil

rights movement, cesar chavez movement was successful because young folks got involved. you have to get involved, stay involved and make sure that you do not lose what you have. now we had one of our parks turfed, and we went round and round and i'm a baseball purist and don't like turf of any kind, but what i discovered is now that they are here and this is real important -- i'm sorry -- now that park is there, when the kids go to watch the adults who pay to play, our kids are profiled because they are afraid of their ipads and their purses. >> thank you, i have got to limit you to two minutes. [ applause ] >> cynthia cruz from the san francisco league of pissed off

voters. we fundamentally disagree with phil ginsburg vision of rec and park being an enterprise department. rec and park should be funded by our tax dollars not by nickle and diming our parks and recreation centers. mission playground incident is just one of many example how rec and park focus on making the parks pay for themselves. [speaker not understood] and now at victoria park we hear that the baseball league is being displaced for permitted soccer and kick ballgames and here is the league's plan to fix the mess at rec and park. rec and park needs to restore free play at every mission playground. the city needs to review and undo the past five years of

privatiziation and an independent auditor needs to review the changes for all of the city's parks and recreation centers since ginsburg took over in 2009. the city needs to create new parks for low-income neighborhoods unstead of allowing wealthy donors to pick the new park locations. rec and park's acquisition policy needs to be made consistent with the park code that emphasizes high-needs areas. and mayor lee needs to fire rec and park general manager phil ginsburg. this battle over privatization of the parks has been going on for years and instead of trying to work with his critics he tries to marginalize and dismiss us. he one is of the most divisive figures in the city and with new leadership that works with everyone.

[ applause ] >> good morning. my name is [speaker not understood] and i'm a parent. a life-long citizen of san francisco, i was born and raised here. so i 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