reminder, every speak has two minutes and there will be a soft bell, indicating 30 seconds before your time is up. [ reading speakers' names ] >> thank you, supervisors. cm louis, hotel and restaurant workers union 2. i appreciate and you are quite right to ask the tough questions about a sole-source. you are going to hear in public comment the reasons that this project is quite exceptional. i just want to put this from our perspective: what is most critical here? as you know for almost two decades, the city has required to developers on their lands to protect the fiduciary interest of the city through labor piece agreements.

this project goes way above and beyond this. the developer approached our union with the intent and idea of negotiating an agreement that guaranteed good quality jobss and not just this project, but every project that they develop nationwide going forward. and from our perspective, that really drives home the level of commitment that they have to making this project exactly the kind of project that the port needs more of. the kind of project that brings not just jobs, but good-quality, living-wage jobs, to portlands, which have traditionally been the center of good quality living wage jobs in san francisco. and yet, have seen those jobs eroded. much like the warriors' project a few months ago or a couple of years ago. this is a truly exceptional project that is going to go a long way to leading to the kind of jobs that keeps san francisco affordable for

working-class people. thank you. >> thank you, mr. louis. next speaker, please, just come on up. >> yes, thank you. my name is christen clayton and i have been a resident of san francisco and professional opera singer for 22 years. i am so proud to have been influenced by some of the greatest comediennes, singers and songwriters in the world include mg others. i represent performers from the bay area and top artists including most of europe, canada, united kingdom and china to name a few. zinzanni has issued contracts to artists over the years -- the city has always shown a

deep appreciation for music and high-standard entertainment. there is an appetite here for this modern theater. within the industry of the spiegel-tent, when i was playing the character of the diva, audiences are able to hear the sound and where else can you feel the wind of trapeze artists on your face as you are eating dinner? it was amazing as people realized they weren't just observing the show, but part of it and being part of the north beach italian community on the embarcadero is important. the rich, artistic nature of san francisco is very important and as employeers they have embraced a sense of family from the beginning. my children feel welcomed with the staff and administration and as a mother, that makes my job coming to work truly less stress, juggling career and family. i love san francisco and all

the wonderful performing opportunities i have had, but it's zinzanni that allow ed me to grow as an artist. [ inaudible ] >> thank you very much, next speaker, jim >> good afternoon, i'm jim cunningham and i'm here wearing two hats actually first i'm a board member of barbary coast neighborhood association and we met with teatro zinzanni and kenwood several times. a recent meeting that was authorized to come here and say that we support their project and give our endorsement to what they are proposing today, and we support the resolution. we think that they would be a fine addition in return to san francisco. i'm also wearing the personal hat in that i live on davis

street and i overlook broadway between davis street and the embarcadero, when means i look out every morning at the parking lot across the street. i think teatro zinzanni and this hotel would be a fine addition to that and support their project. we look forward to seeing what their actual project turns out to be, the details of it, at which time we would try, the barbary coast neighborhood association and golden gate commons area, we would try to work with them for public meetings to let people take a look at what their plans are and hear when they have to say. so as my personal recommendation and that of barbary coast neighborhood association. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker is erica, followed by carolyn. >> hi. my name is erica gillfeather and i was an aerialist for

zinzanni for tour years and my partner worked for them for 20 years and we now live in berkeley. zinzanni oftened offered everyone a chance to consider the best possible version of themselves. for the three hours you could imagine a version ofing your that was stronger, witier and wiser than what you knew yourself to be before. i hung above the audience every night and watched their faces do exactly that. they imagined themselves differently and we do it along with them. i am originally from the midwest and there is no better way to see the bay area, there is a place for you at zinzanni. a few years later, i am here, getting a masters in the early childhood and now the executive director of

child-care. i have had two children that are the actual better versions myself since then, and i feel like our children might be aerialists, they might be scientists or musicians or educators, but it makes us so proud to be part of this community, that will reflect so much possibility back at them. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker will be carolyn, followed by stephanie greenberg, followed by beaver bauer, et cetera. >> >> good afternoon, any name is carolyn guatier and here to speak in support of the teatro zinzanni from the point of view of charitable organizations of which teatro has been a great supporter. we serve children,

adults and elderly in homeless shelters, hospitals, convalescent homes, zool for special needs children, on and on. we produce 600 shows per year, throughout the bay area, for people who need entertainment. teatro zinzanni aloud to us use their beautiful tent and outstanding staff for benefit events in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. through the generosity of teatro zinzanni we were able to raise funds for our neighborhoods most in need. teatro zinzanni has helped a variety of local charities raise over $2 million to support their work in the community. they include the san francisco

>> i was present at the presentations and there was literally no objections to this project. everybody wants to bring teatro zinzanni back. you are balancing three things. one is the sole-sourcing of this project, which may result in perhaps not quite the best deal -- you can't guarantee that. but you are balancing that against a, the desire to bring zinzanni back and b, the promises that were made to them, that they would have first crack at a location nearby. so you have to balance those two things. what was mentioned by you earlier, it brings evening life to an area where there are only commercial offices. and that is a valuable thing in our neighborhood. thank you. >> thank you. so the next speaker is going to be roberto sanchez followed by bill

hansen, followed by ron campbell, trish herman and ben horn. >> i'm robert snachez. i was working with them for ten years and saw so many people laughing -- to make the parade on marketing street and they did all the costumes. what i really want to thank you that teatro zinzanni is my family now, a very big, strong family. they put us together on the show. they put the dishwashers on the show and make fun of it -- even if we bring a little tiny part of the show and people saw that reaction and said wow, my

cocktail waiter is doing the child can can. this has been an experience working there and thank you to teatro zinzanni for showing me how the american hospitality. because i am from mexico, and then when i come here, i saw these beautiful people and they feed me. they always give us a family bill, and then we have an opportunity to talk to each other with all the performers, all of the beautiful people, cosmopolitan people, thank you for the opportunity.

i wanted to come to support those guys, and to bring -- [ inaudible ] >> thank you. thank you very much. bill hanson. >> my name is bill hannah and live five blocks from the proposed construction site. i have attended several of the community outreach presentations. the outreach has been very good on this project. everything that i have heard about the size, the scale, the scope of the project is good. i am here to support the resolution. i look forward to seeing the plans when they are developed. i support the project. thank you. >> thank you very much. ron, followed by trish, followed by ben, followed by beverly. >> thank you supervisors. my name is ron campbell. i'm celebrating my 43rd years a professional actor. i am a lucky man.

i feel like lou gehrig without the disease. i was always thinking that i hope i can get back to center stage at teatro zinzanni. when i was center stage in greece, doing "oedipus." i was thinking boy, i hope i can get back to teatro zinzanni center stage. when i was a mime in the streets in rome, i was thinking maybe some day there will be a teatrodin zinzanni and i will be center stage there, why, because where else

teatro zinzanni where a performer like myself to time a laugh, so the patron does a spit-take on his wife -- where else can i throw the first hat to a juggler and not just any juggler, but the best juggler on the planet? where else can i also do a high-five playing a character with no hands to [stph-b/] without any hands and we're all laughing. you would see things like this -- i know this won't show up in the transcripts, but you will see -- [laughter ] and little kids going -- so i want that again. i want that for san francisco. >> thank you.

trish -- she isn't here? >> ben. >> i'm benjamin horn, the executive director of the board of directors that represents 40 properties. 100 plus businesses and hundreds of residents nearby. i am here to speak in favor and in supported the port's request to enter into exclusive negotiating agreement with teatro zinzanni and kenwood investments for proposed theater and hotel, providing new positive activation to the community and acts a gateway to the broadway and greater chinatown area. it will bring locals and visitors alike and utilize an area that has long been underutilized. we urge you to support the resolution before you. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. beverly shuper, joe radner, et

cetera. beverly, no? okay, we'll go to joe ratner. >> good afternoon i'm joe ratner. i have only been a resident of san francisco for four years, but my family goes back four generations. my grandfather and mother were born here. and i have a lot of very close ties and a lot of relatives in the city. and when i was visiting, before moving back here, i always -- going to teatro zinzanni was always a highlight of my visit. i think they really fit beautifully into the sort of bohemian history of san francisco, and i'm looking forward to the opportunity for my younger daughters to attend

their camp, which my teenager enjoyed very much right after we moved here. but as far as your comments about the sole-source negotiating, while it might be true that you won't know if you have the very best deal that you can get, you will have a fair-market deal and you will be supporting the return of zinzanni, which is something that they were told would happen when they left. and supporting the arts and the diversity of the city. i think sometimes we can lose sight of the fact that particularly today, if we are strictly looking at the bottom line and the very best price you can get for any of the resources of the city, that we can price out the more artistic

elements of the city. and trying to have zinzanni forceded to partner with somebody who is not a big supporter, but comes in because of a financial benefit, i think would be a detriment to their artistic advancement in the future. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker is javon monroe, bruce kelly, [ reading speakers' names ] >> hi, i'm jerry monroe, a native the south bay, born and raised in saratoga. i have been an actor for 44 years. i have had a lot of fun, but the most fun i ever had was with teatro zinzanni a couple of years ago. i am going shorten my speech, but to emphasize that the sole source has to do with trust and

mutual trust and to consider that in your deliberations. i would just say, bring it here, bring it back, bring it home. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker, bruce kelly. >> great speakers. i'm brew kelly, a bay area businessman. i live in danville, but i like to come to san francisco and spend my money. i was here for eight hours yesterday. i have clients all over the bay area and one of the pleasures that i had was to bring people to the show and to watch them experience something that i have not seen ever. when i talk about world-class performances, it's teatro zinzanni. i can't express how many people i run into every day, when i mentioned teatro zinzanni, they will say, when are they coming back? i will say soon, because

everybody who has been to the show comes back for a show that is priceless. i look forward to you gives them the thumb's up and bringing another world-class performer back to san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. [ reading speakers' names ] >> good afternoon. i just wanted to talk about the way that teatro zinzanni supports local artists, as well as artists from all over the world. people that went to school for art, went to school for music, just in this room, there are world-class opera singers and jugglers and world-class everything. there is a dying art community here in san francisco. with the rise of the tech movement boom, the bottom has dropped out of san francisco nature in the art community. i would urge you not to let san francisco let the art community die, because of the tech boom.

be responsibility for the raising back of the art community in spite of the tech boom. thank you. >> thank you. karen quest. >> thank you. >> well, my three favorite words in the world to hear a kid say "i did that." the educational arm of teatro zinzanni affords children an opportunity to learn skills of theater and circus in a safe, creative and fun environment. they may not choose theater as their life's work, but what an enormous contribution to a child's life. the benefits of of learning circus arts are detailed in the handout that i brought. hope you got it. social/emotion, social and

cognitive skills focusing on each child's development at their own pace. i have been teaching circus and theater in san francisco for over 30 years with san francisco cultural institutions as the pickle family circus, which is why i moved to san francisco, make a circus and teatro zinzanni. any opportunity to encourage, nurturure and embolden children is a sacred opportunity. it includes scholarships for children in need. just bring them back. thank you. >> joe. bobby evans, gail gilman, felicia mcsomething. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is joe orwac and was the lead act in teatro zinzanni

for seven years. there are so many reasons to bring tz back, but for me the most important thing is the community, the relationships. tz is a family. it's not just a job that you go to. norm and annie have created this amazing family and as a performer who performed all over the world, there has no other experience like teatro zinzanni. i was able to bring my family out here. my daughters went to school of the arts in san francisco. my other daughter want to san francisco state university, all because of tz. i got to come out here from new york city. i didn't think there was any life outside of new york city and here i am in san francisco and it's the most wonderful place and teatro zinzanni made that all possible for me. and the relationships and to leave this theater, people say that you know you have a good

show when the audience doesn't leave necessarily talking about you. but they leave talking about themselves. and night after night, the comments, the audiences from all over the world would come up and tell you, reminisce about stories that they could relate to in their lives. so i, along with many other people, agree that you must bring teatro zinzanni back. i am not working for tz now, but people come up to me and still ask me, when is tz coming back? so i urge you, really, to bring them back. thank you. >> thank you. bobby evans, gail gilman, flicka -- excuse me, leslie k.. >> good afternoon, supervisorss, my name is gail gilman and i have been a resident of north beach for 15 years and on the board of

directors for the cdg and i'm sure that you want to bring tz home. i think the issue facing you around is sole sourcing the contract. as someone whose day job is the executive director of the community housing partnership and deals with contracting with the city all the time. one thing to point out on the development deal, partnership is everything. i think it would be a detriment to the city for a process to pair tz with a developer that didn't share their goals, values and vision for the site. as one who has been in relationships they are particularly hard building -- i know it's unusual and may not be the best practice for the port to sole source this contract, i really urge you to allow this to move forward, the partnership between all parties makes the development deal possible and makes it happen in a way good for the community and the extensive outreach that kenwood investments has done