time is up. thank you. >> public speaker: good evening. my name is willis. i'm in full support of the spark opening behind the excelsior. the reason being the fact of the current existing spark on mission street. it really does create a better neighborhood in that area. i'm sure you are all familiar with mission street in that area. spark has created a bubble of safety. i think opening excelsior will raise the bar for other existing dispensaries and set a standard that the community can look to as an example of what this model should be. brings spark to excelsior and they will do the great job they are doing on the mission

and show residents what they can do properly by a model agency. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good evening, my name is trisha. i'm a neighbor and my family have lived here for more than 20 years. we care deeply about our community. although i'm not a member of sparks, i'm here to support it. i believe the members of this community deserve a quality and reliable source. thank you. next speaker. >> public speaker: hello every, my name is jessica and i'm a proposed spark user.

i graduated from san francisco state university. i'm here to support spark in their effort to open a new location in my neighborhood. i'm not a patient nor a member but i did want to come and speak out for this non-profit organization. on behalf of myself and my family i ask you to support this project. spark has demonstrated to the community that others haven't. that is why they are different and that's why i want and welcome spark into my community. thank you. >> next speaker. >> public speaker: good evening commissioners. on tuesday of this week the board of managers unanimously voted against an additional medical marijuana dispensary due out the cluster and high percentage of families in that neighborhood. additionally i would like to point out that

supervisor avalos came out and said that 95 percent of the people are against the district. i would also like to point out that spark has mentioned over again that they have provided union jobs and on the other hand i heard that spark is not providing union jobs. i was hoping someone could speak to that later this evening. in opposition. >> public speaker: excuse me. i hope you can hear me. my name is margaret norman. i have lived in the excelsior for 30 years and i'm a homeowner. they are protesting another medical cannabis club opening. we are not against marijuana in general nor sparks specifically. however the current limits

imposed by the green zone have resulted in the excelsior. this is not fair or just. our concerns have been minimized or dismissed by supervisor avalos by saying i have two friends who have been beneficiaries of medical cannabis. it has been suggested that we have other contacts to learn how they are handling others in the neighborhood. that's comparing apples to oranges. the excelsior did does not have a cannabis district. >> public speaker: hello, my name is allen mills, a 30-year resident of the excelsior, i

live on prague. i can only reiterate a lot of the things that have been said. captain mcfadden talked so eloquently about the problems involved that it's a nightmare for police. supervisor avalos said that 95 percent of the residents are against it. i don't know what else there is to know. there is too many already in the excelsior. we do not need one more. thank you. >> hi. i'm kelsey, the human resources. we employed many people.

if this application were approved we would create 40 plus more jobs and that's just the beginning and we've recently engaged the mission hiring hall to ensure we reach local job seekers to join great benefits and pay. they all makeover $15. we provide medical benefits and 100 percent of monthly premium and vision and lifelong disability. i urge you to approve this so we can bring a compassionate community friendly employer to the excelsior neighborhood. >> as the next speaker comes up, i will call more names.

>> hello, my name is jays on. i live at 166 dellville avenue near the proposed location of spark. my husband and i have been a member of sparks for 2 years. anecdotally speaking. i want to speak about my first impression of spark. where they were first greeted me, the policemen walked up and interrupted us. that nearly sent me flying because i thought there was something wrong here. they were trying to achieve some surveillance from spark. there was some thefts in the neighborhood. so police were going to spark s for help. they ensure the neighbors and staff and everyone is completely safe and no illegal behavior is tolerated. i hope you vote in favor of

this motion, thank you. >> next speaker. >> public speaker: commissioners my name is david hooper, a neighbor to the west of mission street. i'm here to draw your attention to the question of clustering. this is a question of what is going to be the business model for mission street in the excelsior and geneva avenue. i ask you whether or not the community that has tried to be here so many times over the last several years that has not the interest of making a dollar out of it, not the interest of moving product would like to hear from you that you have just had your

fill of it and will stop. this does not stop sparks from being compassionate or providing that service from their present location. thank you. >> public speaker: hello, my name is henry. i think it's rude for others to vote on areas that the not theirs. the planning commission needs to take into consideration the residents, we are the ones who live in this neighborhood. please stop the clustering. don't ruin our community. thanks for your time.

>> public speaker: good evening, my name is nancy. i have lived in the excelsior for many years. we need things for families to do and to live a happy life in the excelsior. we have enough is enough. we have taken the burden, we've taken one for the team and has the 3 mcd's. put them elsewhere in the city. we need hardware shops, starbucks. we have nothing to do. there is nothing for families and we have a lot of families in the excelsior. please, we are strongly opposed to this.

thank you. >> next speaker. >> public speaker: good evening, my name is claudia. i live in excelsior and i'm against this. i walk and there is solicitation and drugs use going on. i would also like to state that i have never seen any of these people that are claiming to be with sparks and in our neighborhood and i just like to say that nothing good can come out of this. please, please, i'm begging you. don't do this. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, my name is claire, a member of spark. i would like to say that as a woman i'm very impressed with sparks able to create such a safe environment to procure

my medicine. i can only imagine that it would only bring similar safety and that feeling of well being to the members of this neighborhood. i would urge you to allow them to have that. thank you. >> public speaker: my name is simms and i live on howard. i don't have children, but i do commute at night and i think sparks brings as much safety as you can in the city. they keep really bright lights. >> thank you. >> again, i would like to invite those people who may still be in the overflow rooms to room 400. we have space in the chamber. >> public speaker: good

evening, my name is paul hansen bury. as i said last time that i was raised to know the difference between right and wrong and these days it doesn't seem to matter so much just as if it's legal ands it's what you can get away with. a few months ago this board here granted a permit to a known bad player simply because of the way they filled out their paperwork you can find nothing illegal about it. i think the general consensus people who are opposed to this is that this is a good player. it gets the opportunity to do the right thing and get the right player into a bad community. i didn't mean a bad community. with other bad players on the street. >> public speaker: my name is andrea and a small business

owner with also the merchants society. this is not a pot issue, not a spark issue. it's a neighborhood issue. it's a neighborhood in need of help. while we have a diverse and vibrant community the corridor is lacking the amenities to serve the neighborhood. they are offering nothing to those who live and work there. i have concentrations of families, why is there a large boars -- portions of our area mcd's. is it because lower income and minority don't have the means to object or is it simply due to proximity to a county to san mateo that doesn't allow it's own mcd's. enough is

enough and three is enough. thank you. >> public speaker: hello, my name is sarah schraeder and an advocate and a member of sparks and i live 4 blocks from mission street. i'm here to support sparks and the community it serves and the services it offers and gives back to the community. the concerns i hear today are against any dispensary or marijuana. no matter what their track record or compliancy to regulations. please support sparks in the second location we should not punish those who are trying to play by the rules. >> at this point in the night i would ask the remaining speakers to lineup on this side of the room.

>> public speaker: hello, my name is raquel alvarez. i have a business here. my business is right in the block where the other two 0200cd's are in. i have nothing against spark. it's very bad in that neighborhood right now. i have been fighting this for 2 years and nobody listens. clustering is too much. it's nothing against sparks. we don't need anymore. >> next speaker. >> public speaker: hi, my

name is stephanie casilla. i have the manager of the group. i live on 46th wall street which is 530 feet from clustering of mcd's. this was addressed 2 years ago to address the issues of blight along the corridor. it's impacting our business attraction work and affecting our vacancy rate. having this service increases safety concerns at our community and affects merchants directly works against our work to foster a family friend commercial corridor. the issue is one of land use. they are working to promote a more healthier robust corridor. >> your time is up.

>> thank you for hearing us today. my in name is leila baker. i'm a chiropractor and i have seen many patients of my own and others benefit from the use of medicine marijuana. however, there are too many clubs in our neighborhood. we don't need another one. would sparks be better than two of the three that we have now, absolutely. however, there are already three in our neighborhood and two within the the block of the proposed location. we don't need another one. the bottom line is there are too many and we don't need another one. thank you very much.

>> public speaker: i have been in the neighborhood for 14 years and part of the neighborhood watch. i have always been a patient of medicinal marijuana and i'm glad that my city and neighborhood makes it available. i'm in favor of good planning. we have enough dispensaries in our diverse hardworking family oriented neighborhood yet many neighbors in san francisco somehow have none. i would ask you to look at this. if you look at our map where other mcd's. i would be a shamed to say that this is where san francisco has chosen to put

medical marijuana dispensaries. i'm here to ask you no -- not to approve this. >> public speaker: hello commissioners, thank you for hearing us, my name is tom murphy. a family native for 44 years. i'm with the council and current member of the neighborhoods association. as you heard tonight t community at large is against this and supervisor avalos says that 95 percent are against this. we do not have huge monies for lawyers, campaign donors and organizers and who knows what else is being spent on this project. we know what we are talking about here. we have a high percentage of kids and families in this area. it does not happen in other districts like the marina and

knob hill. 95 percent are against this. please do something. enough is enough. >> public speaker: hello, my name is ron. specifically i was surprised it came out. there has been a real uptake to police activity. some is double parking is action for double parking will they do action with the two places where kids go to school you can smell the marijuana daily. nobody has not been hit i don't know.

i hope it doesn't happen. there is a real dangerous thing happening with people running across the street in the middle of the night to get their stuff, especially in the middle of the night. >> good evening. my name is illiana. i have lived in the district for 35 years. i'm against the cluster of the pot clubs in my neighborhood. in the last 35 years that i have lived there, everything before me said that double parking has increased. everything has increased as far as the medical marijuana smells. i had to stop a few people in front of my house telling me

to please go smoke their pot somewhere else. i have never done that in the last 35 years until lately. so i know it has to affect my neighborhood. thank you. >> good evening. my name is al. i live in the excelsior. i want to say what i heard tonight was that people want marijuana and there is a lot of kids in my neighborhood. we have more marijuana clubs than grocery stores in a 10-block radius. i ask you to be reasonable, do we need another one. we don't need another one. we need after school programs, we need parks for kids. so please, be reasonable. we don't need another one.

thank you. >> public speaker: my name is dina. i have lived in excelsior for 55 years. excelsior is a wonderful place with lots of shops and stores. now it's going downhill. we have three medical cannabis clubs. that's enough. we don't need another one. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> public speaker: my name is zach newman. i have lived here my whole life. my children live here. i know they are responsible. there is a lot of concerns about things that are happening and are caused by the dispensaries you heard about that are being looked at for their non-compliance. it's not the way sparks operates.

i urge you to support sparks proposal. thank you. >> public speaker: my name is robert. i support sparks. i urge you to approve this project. having sparks in the excelsior location will get people out of the street and causing any issues because they do allow outside consumption. any of the issues can go away. thank you. >> public speaker: i'm here on behalf of bruce and neighbors of the dog patch. bruce couldn't be here but he wanted to convey a message. they have been more than a

wonderful neighbor and community partner. the dog patch has worked alongside bruce and donating literally thousands of dollars and we'll try to do the same in the excelsior neighborhood. thank you. >> public speaker: good evening. the united commercial workers. you have seen me here over the last few years. it's not about access or jobs in the excelsior, the fact is we have the democratically mayor of sebastopol acting

like walmart. they are afraid of losing their jobs. how come tonight we haven't seen the axis of love, the direct neighbor to sparks. not one neighbor. why. there is an lgbt location next to sparks. we urge you to open the green zone. thank you very much. have a very good holidays. >> public speaker: thank you. my name is raffial i live on athens street. i think you have heard a lot of opposition. i think our neighborhood has

enough and a real issue of clustering. it's unfortunate that the supervisor of our district pulled back on his original commitment that he was going to make a thousand foot radius to a 500-foot radius. i want to remind you, commissioner antonini knows this, there is precedent to these clubs. north beach, sunset, communities that are a little bit more organized have defeated them. i know a lot of you probably voted on that or knew that, but there is precedent to reject this. i implore you to do so this evening. thank you. >> public speaker: hi. thank you for your time and service here. my name is brian webster,

chief of staff for united social worker and national cannabis campaign and organize cannabis workers at cannabis retail shops. i can tell you that i have seen many professional well run cannabis places in the country. cannabis workers are generally happy with their jobs, but we've gotten a dozen calls from sparks workers that are unhappy. we have asked sparks to sign a neutral agreement to speak to them and we have been denied. i'm here to say that spark is non-union and not even union friendly. the employees are not allowed to speak for themselves. >> thank you, sir, your time

is up. >> public speaker: hello commissioners, my name is joel a. thank you for listening to us. the bottom line is enough is enough. i was here 3 years ago when you approved the other one. here we are again this is my fourth mcd speak ing in front of you. we would not be on the night of storm to talk to you. i know you can make the right decision. please, no more. we need a break. we need other businesses in our neighborhood. someone said there is more pot clubs and this groceries stores in this area.