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tv   [untitled]    January 23, 2015 1:00am-1:31am PST

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there was the recommendation of the capital committee to do more outreach and we have done that. the project sponsor reached out to supervisor kim's office and neighborhood groups including friends of the park, senior disability action network and others. there is a series of really productive meetings and out of those meetings came the major change to the project, which is to include affordable housing unit. some of the action group did refuse to come to the table though. we can give you the timeline, but as it has turned out a number of these activist groups are actually opposing this project because of unrelated issues that the owner of the property has experienced on other sites. no evictions involved in this site. but you will see some of these groups are sworn opponents of
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anything involving the ellis act >> please continue your conversation. >> you will notice there are a number of supporters here, as well as opponents. the opponents are wearing stickers that say "don't evict the sunlight from the park." we believe the opposition is really about unrelated eviction issues and we ask that you focus, please, on the issue before the commission today, which is a negligible shading impact on the park. this project is about creating housing, including affordable housing. the project sponsor should not be penalized because of his unpopularity. to the extent that some of the people that we were instructed to negotiate with, actually showed up and held a protest and eviction-related protest in the project sponsor's shoe store.
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we are excited about this project and we're disappointed there is opposition completely unrelated to the issue here. we're confident and hope that the commission will take that into account. thank you very much for your consideration. >> thank you. >> paul and then asher, please. >> good morning commissioners and congratulations. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> the last time i was here, you asked me to go out and do more outreach, which i did. and i did it to the extent that i sat down with supervisor kim, and i felt that we had negotiated something good for the neighborhood, and the district. in excess of $140,000-$150,000, which 47% will go to the park, i offered a gift to the park
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for $25,000 plus adding the bmr unit in the enclosed envelope of two bedrooms. i feel like i have done my outreach, and i feel like i have been pinned against a wall unfairly for actions that i personally have not done. i went and spoke with the committees, and the next day they came into my shoe store and brought a barrage of people and basically attacked me in a sense -- it's online. and it was unfortunate that that had to happen. i don't think i should have to pay for things that really don't have to do with this project, especially here. i ask you, commissioners, to please see the merit of the
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shadow and thank you. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> asher. >> good morning commissioner. my make it is asher mcnerney and i'm excited about the project and the bmr housing that the developer willfully included. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor kim. >> thank you, commissioners and good morning, still. it's actually great to see so much of our d-6 park issues before the commission today and i want to acknowledge the mothers here who have been
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waiting quite patiently since 10:00 a.m. to honor the incredible work that they are doing to activate one of our two playgrounds in the tenderloin and make it a safe place for our families. i do want to also recognize the commission for acknowledging this park and including it your tier 1 funds for family playgrounds. we're so excited about this work. so i also want to thank you for providing the community and our office additional time both to evaluate the project, speak to the project sponsor, and perform some additional outreach around the shadow impact that is this project will cast on the park. i just want to summarize my opposition to the 190 russ project and why i feel that the shadow impact, while just under the threshold of recommended acceptable new shadow on a park of this size which is over two acres, it's substantive in its quality and therefore, should earn the disapproval of this commission and guidance to the
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planning commission. so first, victoria manalo draves is the only multi-use park in the south of market neighborhood, a neighborhood that is absorbing the vast majority of office and residential growth. john rahm our planning director has said 80% of development in our city is happening in 20% of our city and i think it's fair to say that district 6 boundary lines encompasses much of that 20%. second, district 6 as you have heard over and over again from myself, and our constituents has the fewest parks and the fewest parks and the smallest parks of any district in the city. on average our residents have access to.17 acres of open space, and we're not pointing out district 2, but it's just we want to point out the
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discrepancy in our city. i want to take the opportunity to thank phil ginsburg and the commission and the department for the recognizing the importance of open space and working closely with our office with the acquisition task force and working with to us acquire new open space. third, i represent the poorest residents of san francisco. district 6 has the lowest average household income and double the citywide average of residents living under the poverty line at close to 20%. 4, this community prior to me coming into office fought tooth and nail to get this park built. in conjunction with bessy carmichael elementary school and was the result of a land
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swap between sfusd and rec and park. finally this park sat heart of south of market youth and family special use district -- a plan that our residents advocated for to ensure that families would have central consideration in this part of the south of market as we develop the entire neighborhood from the water front to the forecast this part of south of market was selected due to the clustering of youth and family related organizations, including the only public school in the neighborhood, bessy carmichael k-8, eugene friend rec center and affordable housing developments ranging from the dela cruz and studio apartment, and upcoming hugo hotel with the furniture hanging out of it, which you have seen is finally coming down for demolishment and will
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soon be affordable housing. because it used to be an industrial and commercial neighborhood, abag has projected population growth of 2.1 million people in the region and san francisco needs to build in order to meet the demand. as san francisco continues to grow as a major job center for the region, infill development in the urban core has a potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately infill is better for workers making a range of income. the soma has absolutely been meeting in need and absorbing much of this development and growth. this community has been accepting of this additional density and growth, a point which should not be taken for granted in the city of san francisco. it is our ultimate responsibility to ensure that we are committed to making this neighborhood healthy, safe, strong and complete.
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and a key part of that is of course our open space. not only do we need to acquire more open space for this district, we also need to ensure the quality and usability of our existing parks. whether its bode boeddeker park and thank you for coming to the grand opening and if you come today, it's a complete transformation. $3 million in bond to renovate our parks, thank you again. we are also excited about the upcoming item later in the commission regarding tpl and gene friend rec center in terms of examining how create more density on smaller places to serve greater parts of our community. some may laugh about the importance of sunlight and the relevance of shadow on land
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processes, but let's face this is a somewhat cold city and san franciscans are impacted by sunlight. you can see this at dolores parks, one of our sunier and warmest parks and you can see people move down the park as the late shadowed move down. i'm one of those. when evaluating criteria to analyze a building shadow on the park, we not only evaluate the quantity of the shadow impact, we evaluate the quality as well. the new shadow primarily impacts the northern part of the park facing folsom street. this is different from the more industrial harrison street, which borders sunshine edge of the park that faces the freeway. folsom street the face of the park for our residents, our families and our seniors and it's also the corridor
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envisioned by the western soma plan, a plan guided through a 7-year process in our community that would be the boulevard that would eventually connect the entire south of market avenue from rincon bay to south of market to mission. we're looking at plans that not only include bike lanes, but may even include the two-waying of folsom street to make it more of a neighborhood boulevard. can you also see the potential of the beautiful park with not only somas a only k-8 school and those businesses from 00 to brainwash to citizen band. the northern entrance also leads to the most utilized part of the park the grassy knoll where residents sit or walk their dogs or use the basketball court. maximum shadow by the proposed project would last as along as
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42 minutes, the time that our residents are most excited to use the park as they get home. not a short winter day when the park closes early. 42 minutes in the summer is significant in you are a dog owner or a youth wanting to enjoy moments in the sun. i can't tell you how many residents call us in the winter to ask that we keep the park open later, so they can get home in time to utilize the park. the additional shadow as was mentioned by miss pearson amounts to estimated .7% is just under what is recommended as additional allowable shadow of 1% in the 1989 memo for large parks. it also says that we examine the impact impact and if the shadow impact suggests
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otherwise we can reject the project. we argue that the qualitative factors do suggest otherwise. the usage of park and lack of open space that already exists in the south of market, despite the density of youth, families and seniors in the neighborhood, as well as vulnerable and low-income residents. this park is bordered by our school, as well as columbia square, 50 units of affordable housing family housing and at the heart of the south of market youth and family special use district. finally, it was mentioned that there was additional time for there to be conversation and negotiation between the community and our office and the developer. the developer did not reach out to our office prior to this item coming before the commission and i do want to thank the commission for alerting us to this project. and there has been some difficulty over the last month in the discussions that have been made. the community did evaluate the impact fees that would already come from this project a little
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over $100000 and the offer the bmr and the $25,000. however, the project sponsor would like to state that the shadow impact is de minimis or minor. regardless, this is not about the money. it's not about asking for more. the community really felt like this park was important; that it deserved our utmost protection as our only multi-use park. i do want to point out that it's unfortunate that the project sponsor confuses so many of our different residents. they are not just activists, but live in our neighborhoods and maybe a group of activists on a separate issue came to his store, but i think it would be hard for him to say that the folks behind me today were the ones were at his store and should not confuse different members of our city community. commission, thank you so much for your time. [ applause ]
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>> i do want to recognize that we have a lot of members of our community that are here to speak today, which just showcases how important this issue is. but i do want to thank you for your consideration. i know that you are taking this issue very seriously, and it shows through your commitment to this process. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor. [ applause ] >> >> i'm going to start calling names. you may come up in any order once you hear your name and i'm going to apologize upfront if i mispronounce it. [ reading speakers' names ]
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>> i urge you to vote no on passing the 190 russ street project. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. great. thank you. >> hi. good morning commissioners. thank you for your time. congratulations, president buell. >> thank you very much. >> my name is allen manalo and i am currently the development director at hospitality house. i am a former managing director of bindles studio on 6th street in the south of market area also. i sit on the soma stabilization fund cac and i'm here today also to urge you to vote no on this particular project. the reason why, because i think the project sponsor doesn't really have an understanding of the history of of the south of
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market and the community and families that live there. there is a long history of us wanting this park in the south of market area and in particular, the youth and family zone, which is defined and sits right in the center of the heart of this area. so this is something that is very important to many of the residents who live in the south of market area. i, myself, regularly go to vmd park and my last name is manalo and i would like to think that vicky manalo was related to me somehow through the blood line -- i tell everybody that. [laughter ] >> i see my nephew plays baseball there every time and i know through looking through all of the different arguments of -- looking at it as its a very minimal impact, this shadow, that is going to be cast on the park.
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if you look at it in a whole, i think it's setting precedence and there are other projects that i understand are in the pipeline and if we approve this project there start an avalanche and the park will have more shadows. i want to make a point about separating the reputation of the project sponsor and this particular issue right now. i think it's just a disservice to put the community in a whole as this one big activist -- i think it's very insulting and i think that people should understand that people it's only nature for people in south of market to fight for their community and their open space and i don't think these residents should be cast on as these kind of lunatic friends, if you want. so please, again,
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i urge you to look at this issue and do the right thing and vote no for this project. thank you. >> thank you. >> we need to ask that you go down for the north light court, if i haven't called your name to speak. if i have called your name, please remain where you are. we cannot have the doors blocked. >> madame secretary, without knowing the amount of people that would come, we will limit
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the time to speak to 2 minutes. >> if your name was called, please come up. if your name was called, get ready to come up. thank you. >> thank you. well, good morning commissioners. my name is vivian and i'm the new executive director at west bay filipino and serve the youth and center that use victoria manalo draves. i am speaking on behalf of 400 million filipinos [speaker not understood] take great pride in the achievements of filipino brothers and sisters in the united states. we will be offended and insulted if the park named after a filipino-american hero who brought honor to the united states and the philippines in the olympics becomes a joke.
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the victoria manalo draves will be somewhat of a joke if the intended purpose to give this community to enjoy sunshine and open air is diminished by becoming a park overcast with shadows and that is what will begin to happen with the development at 190 russ street is allowed to proceed as currently planned. it will send a message to the filipino community that it is okay to devalue our contributions to the city and to this country. it will send the message to future developers it's okay to just build around this park in disregard of its impact on this one small open space in this underserved community, which is a traditionally filipino neighborhood. commissioners, it's not okay. filipinos are proud and grateful for the honor that was given us when this park was named after one of our own. so please don't allow victoria manalo draves park to be overshadowed and please don't
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overshadow the filipino's community dignity by devaluing victoria manalo draves memory and our community. thank you. >> thank you. >> go ahead, sir. >> by the way, i'm going to have to translate. >> so we'll double the time. >> translator: mr. abad, who is from west bay spoke in
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opposition and just said that he is asking that the development at 190 russ not proceed as planned. they are the friends and family who go to the park, and if the park is overshadowed because of the planned or proposed development that is going up around it, they are injoyment of the park and its value will be reduced. they don't have any other park in the community, except this one and they are asking that you please don't allow that this park be overshadowed. thank you. >> thank you. so linda corey, juliette and briana, christina, tan chow, herbert, angelica. if i called your name and you are in the northern light
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court, please come up and we'll give you plenty of time. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> could you please speak into the mic. >> i'm linda jimenez, good morning. two days ago i had an accident, but i didn't want to just stay at home and not speaker for the senior and kids of this park. i haven't been really been out around, but i have been reading the necessary information and it would be very, very nice for you all to think about it and not to do any construction. again, because the park is almost no more sun. the seniors can't have any more recreation. the kids, we're all thinking about the kids and the seniors as of right now. so please, we beg you, stop the construction. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> next speaker.
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>> good morning. my name is briana and i'm the vice president of the university of san francisco's filipino-american student organization. >> my name is juliette and i'm one of the public relations and policy affairs directors of usf with over 200 members. on behalf of our organization, we're here to ask to you say no to the proposeded development at 190 russ street. the purpose of our group is to promote unity and solidarity of the filipino-american of the many cultural experiences of members. and by actively involving education that aid the group in the assessment and development
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and actualization of each member's human talent. we also triumph to increase participation and others of the filipino culture and welcome everyone to be part of the family. >> as young filipino-americans we strive to kept a connection between our history and culture and filipino community here in san francisco. victoria manalo draves park is a community space that the south of market filipino community fully enjoys in peace and sunshine and the park is also a symbol of a filipino-american's achievement and therefore reflecting thechievement our community. we believe in these developments are allowed to typic, pieces of our culture and filipino-american community hold dear will begin to disappear. >> as usf students we're encouraged to strive for social justice, be in the classroom or in the community. being part of our group and having these values makes it an issue that we feel very
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strongly about. so we're here today to just ask to you consider the effects that this development would have on the surrounding community. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> next speaker, please. >> good morning, commissioners. my name is angie and i'm a senior and i live near the park at 7th and natoma street. we don't want the one park we have to be shadowed from the building. we need shadow from the trees to emit oxygen and not carbon dioxide. it will be bad for the air and it will be bad for the environment. we need the sunshine. we can get vitamin d from the sunshine. and it's unhealthy, too; if we have no vitamin d.
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because the calcium absorbed in our body vitamin d from the sun. we need the space. that is the first park we used to dance and used to be a member -- there was a senior center there, and we danced there in the victoria manalo draves park. if there were any activities in south of market, we always hold them in victoria manalo draves park because it's a big space. so if there are buildings there, more people, more pollution, more traffic and they emit carbon dioxide, which is bad for our health. so we oppose the tall building there, where people that live there and we don't want that. so please vote no, no and no. >> thank you. >> i will be translating. thank you. >> good