want to make sure we're going to invest considerable amount of money and a lot of different resources that we have these parks for as long as possible so i would like that addressed in the future efforts, and to continue planning with these quote unquote "failing parks". >> commissioner i think it's a great question and in march we can come back with more detail but there are two questions embedded in your question. one is what is the current replacement cycle for assets and then what should it be? because we're certainly squeezing every month of life out of the play structures that is possible. when you saw the play structure at bo decker -- for example at

lily wong right now they have been around for over a decade in some places -- closer to two and merced heights and no one has been here in a super long time and so some of those are functional still. you can still play on them, but the trends and in design and whennure compare the quality of those play structures to mission playground on valencia street it's a dramatic before and after so we can certainly talk about what i think a replacement cycle should look like. i think the department has learned a lot over the past decade about how to improve the durablity of the playgrounds that we build and also the ease of maintenance. we made a number of policy decisions over the past 10 years. for example a decade ago we were ordering playgrounds from germany and fancy things

from other places and we discovered the replacement time when you break it there is a lag time to order a replacement part from a high end designer in germany when the yard is here in san francisco and it broke last week and all the parents are understandably aren't you going to get it fixed in the next month or so and seeing six to eight months to replace playground equipment so now we moved away from that where we have custom work done but done overwhelmingly in the united states and think through with the friends groups how we're going to deal with that and helen dillard playground there is annual maintenance set aside and they have a donor fund for dealing with the replacement of the custom parts and working towards the overall deferred maintenance and we're pursuing something similar at the civic

center playground as well so we learned real lessons. sand -- we don't put sand in new play structures in the way it was once used and creates eroding and maintenance for the staff so we have lessons learned that we are incorporating with more renovations that i think will overall lengthen the durablity of the asset and for the staff to provide maintenance. it's a great question and i can develop a more detailed answer. >> yeah, if you could do that and a certain when we were looking at first tiers and squeezing in 13 of them i am thinking would we be squeezing so many parks in are we doing the job that we need to do to

really ensure more permanentacy in terms of the parks. >> it's good feedback. >> yeah, i would be -- i would error more -- i would error on the side of caution here instead of squeezing too much in and really doing the best job possible even if unfortunately it involves fewer -- that we do fewer parks but at least we know they will last -- i mean that we will have them for a lot longer, and they will have a longer useful life. >> great. thank you for that feedback. >> thank you very much dawn. let's go to public comment. >> okay. wilma gardner and if anyone else would like to speak and sign up by the table that would be great. wilma. no,

no, no. you come on up. thank you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> president buell, and members of the commission for rec and park and also general ginsburg. dorothy strictland and i i are part of the 800 block club and have been stewards and advocates for the merced heights playground for more than 21 years. we have followed the failing playgrounds task force closely for about eight months. we were impressed by the facilitator, task force

members, the recreation and parks staff and the parks alliance and say job well done. also we appreciated the opportunity for active participation of the public throughout the process. we wholeheartedly support the report given by dawn and ask that you adopt the recommendations of the failing playgrounds task force. thank you. >> thank you. >> dorothy did you want to speak? >> good morning everyone and i just want to really express my very, very much appreciation for our task force. the task force was so inclusive of the community at every point of their analysis of everything they did and we learned an awful

lot and it's much appreciated. they have done a tremendous job. >> thank you. >> it was a wonderful experience. >> thank you both. >> next speaker. >> good morning commissioners. matt o'grady, the ceo of the san francisco parks alliance. you may know that we were created by a merger over three years ago. in three years -- can you believe that? but at the time we attempted to combine stewardship and fill land pee work with policy work and made us unique across organizations across the country and many asked how we were going to combine the approaches? we have no further to look than this

initiative. we engage volunteers to do the report card and engage them to do clean up days on a regular basis across playgrounds across the city and most importantly it's the volunteers that do fundraising for playground renovations and construction. philanthropy -- if those partners that raised millions of dollars in recent years for renovation and expansion and building new playgrounds across the city. we know them in delores park, lafayette park and [inaudible] and dog patch neighborhood and there is more on the way. last year party in the parks helped fund some of the renovations. policy. you know our report card. it's one example that we bring data to the decision making processes. we are proud to co-chair thursday task force that bring this is recommendation to you today. it has members from every district in the city. represents

various neighborhoods and interest groups. it brings to the table expertise in education parenting and childhood development. this task force went through a thorough and objective consideration of the data to help prioritize the playgrounds with the greatest need and dawn has outlined all of that for you. this task force came to a unanimous recommendation after five months of analysis and discussion. this task force has demonstrated a solid process that we can rely on this decision before you today and also a process to rely on future projects. i want to ask you to pause for a moment and reflect. what would it have been like if there was no task force? what would your decision making process be like without that guidance and spend $15 million? now i am happy to jerk you back to reality because we have had a task force. you don't have to deal with that kind of environment. we have

had this guidance so we do all owe a debt of gratitude to the task force for their hours of volunteer time and especially for their unanimous recommendation they bring to us today. i also want to thank julie and sonya, the parks alliance staff who did the heavy lifting in support of the task force so i am delighted to ask julie to come up and provide some specifics to you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good morning commissioners. >> good morning. >> julie from the san francisco parks alliance and i manage our playground initiative program at the alliance which includes data collection for the playground report card, and i served on the steering committee of the task force and also was a task force member, so i won't repeat what has been said but i again want to thank the rec and park staff, dawn and stacy and

tokes and everyone that did an amazing job. they provided solid data and information for analysis. it was a very thorough process. extensive community engagement and very robust public participation that has been mentioned. the groups did a very hard thing with starting with this universe of over 55 playgrounds that could be considered, and whittled it down to a list of 13 and i feel like it truly does represent the most needy of playgrounds and again a balance of considering the conditions on site and then also the neighborhoods in the most need with the low household median income and high youth density and low report card

grades. also when all 13 of those playgrounds are renovated there will be no playgrounds in the city with the hazardous cca wood, so i am very proud if we get there and this will be a major milestone for the city, something to be celebrated, and just wanted to thank all the people that served, commissioner mcdonnell. i also wanted to call out lee an weldon from the san francisco parks alliance council who is here and all of the members of the public that came and in conclusion going forward parks alliance will continue to partner with the department both for leveraging funds for the playgrounds in tier two and as dawn mentioned will also host a civic forum on playground design to get input

from community members on what elements and experiences they would like all of our playgrounds to have going forward so we look forward working with the department to continue our work. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. >> good morning. thank you for the opportunity to comment. my name is trudy garber and a project manager at the trust for public land. i work with alhand ja who served as a member on the failing playgrounds task force. we are a national nonprofit and conserves land for people and parks. our goal is to make sure every child has safe access to play be a garden, park or playground within 10 minutes walk of their home. we're a proud and close partner with san francisco recreation and park department and with rec and park and community groups we recently completed the san francisco

parks initiative or san francisco initiative to renovate three different parks in san francisco and working on hill top park and bay view and civic center. we're especially supportive of the process that the failing playgrounds task force under took. the comprehensive research of the anatomy of a playground, mapping of existing conditions, and consideration for other park initiatives makes the process comprehensive and realistic. the playground selection criteria that the task force used to select two tiers of playgrounds is very similar to the trust for public lands playground selection criteria and parks selection criteria. we consider high use density. we look at seniors. housing, income, demographics and quality of parks as captured in parks alliance report cards and while there are many playgrounds in san francisco worthy of improvements we believe that the

task force recommendations show a the sites that will have a transformative impact on the residents in san francisco and in fact many of the sites chosen have been on our potential project list for many years and we're excited to see funding allocated to these sites so we look forward to supporting and working with rec park as an implementation partner for these sites. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker please. come on up. >> hello commissioners. my name is linda lighthiser and here to represent the mclaren park collaborative. we are proud that a playground within mclaren park was considered for the failing playgrounds task force and one of the challenges with that playground that it did have cca wood. however t was removed because it was dangerous several years ago. there is no rem nance of this park left so

-- playground structure rather so there was nothing to grade so for many years some of us kept the banner going to say even though you have a failing grade you have park playgrounds that were eliminated and removed and those need to be considered too, so we considered those and incomplete perhaps but nevertheless the task force kept it for consideration and on the list even though we couldn't get a grade year after year but happy that mclaren park will have another playground to replace those that we lost over the years. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> thank you. good morning. >> good morning. >> my name is edna james and i am president of omi community action organization which is a

tax exempt nonprofit organization taking a lead role in the rebuilding of mercy heights play ground. i would like to introduce you to barbara williams and karen lacoi which she has the merced heights playground family. okay. that's also been helping. we strongly endorse this project for the following reasons. the 2010 census reported there was an increase of over 10,000 in population in 941 three two causing a shift in the district and district 11 from ocean avenue all the way over to holloway and i am sure commissioner mcdonnell worked

on that project and how the community increased in its population. also the knowledge structure has been. >> >> also the building structure is in need of repair and brought up to ada standards and investing in the basic structure is a sound and good investment to the community. this is an under served community and welcome your support. the survey that we conducted under the leadership of karen mccoy gave support for tiny to thes, -- tots and seniors and adults. the courts and the athletic field and the play structure. recreation and park -- i have worked with recreation and park with [inaudible] playground.

when you first came out with the bond we were looking at rebuilding that project. also we have looking at support from the school district there, jose ortega, ymca and other community organizations in that area. on a personal note my children grew up around merced heights playground and we remember -- i remember the tiny tot s program which gave me two hours of mental health therapy just having my kids provided a safe fun and educational activity for my children, and so with that we support this and we adopt the task force report and we're just waiting for you to say yes, i worked on the [inaudible] and the library at ocean view under the leadership of mayor willie brown at that time and we're

looking at banks who are supporting us so we strongly want you to keep it going. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> is there anyone else who would like to make public comment on this item only? seeing no one public comment is now closed. >> commissioner mcdonnell. >> i'm not sure if we're ready for a motion, so i have one more comment but i would also lead into -- >> well, let me say before you do that i want to join the chorus of commissioners and others thank you for the service on the task force. it means a great deal and very much appreciated. mr. ginsburg. >> i wanted to thank you do mcdonnell for all the time you spent on this and from my friends at merced heights and edna they have been -- you can

be persistent and do that pleasantly and not pleasantly and thank you for your pleasant persistence and steadfastness on getting this playground done. >> commissioner mcdonnell. >> yes thank you. so one of the wonderful children that ms. james described getting therapy from i actually went to high school with at lowell high school so every time she walked into the room it felt like my market was walking into the. >> mother was walking into the room to get this right so with that endorsement i am thrilled to make a motion. >> second. >> there is a motion and a second. all in favor say aye. >> aye. >> unanimously approved. [applause] >> and we are now on item 9, general public comment continued. anyone who did not make comment under item four and

would like to make general public comment now? seeing none this is closed. item 10. commissioners matters? any commissioners matters? any public comment? seeing no one public comment is now closed. item 11 new agenda business setting. any public comment? this item is closed. item 12 communications. is there any public comment? seeing none this item is closed. item 13 is adjournment. >> is there a motion? >> so moved. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> we stand adjourned. >> happy holidays. >> happy holidays

>> i love teaching. it is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. >> this really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. this is very enriching as an

artist. a lot of folks take these classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. >> there are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. that is a really big draw. >> this is a signature piece. this is the bill largest darkroom in the u.s.. >> there are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. >> i think it is the heart of this place. you feel it when you come in. >> the people who just started taking pictures so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from

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