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 over the last three years is unprecedented. i hope you vote to move this forward. thank you. >> thank you very much, flicka. >> good afternoon, teatro zinzanni was my neighbor all the time that they were in san francisco. and of course, we want them to come back. they should have come back a long time ago. they were promised to be able to come back. they were promised a spot and this situation has been dragging on and on and i admire

tz eatro zinzanni tz for sticking with it and making it work. all i can say is that red tape and bureaucracy are good friends of mine and it's a frustrating situation to get things done in the city. i think they should be fast-tracked because they offer a lot to san francisco and i think that san francisco government should respect that. thank you. >> leslie k.. >> hi, i'm leslie k.. i have lived in san francisco oh, about 38 years. i worked in north beach for 27. i think you have heard all the stories of teatro zinzanni. i went many times and i think if they had remained they would still be thriving similar to beach blanket babylon, their show creates a lot of excitement for everybody who visits and for the locals. i think the question is how to bring them back? and i think that if you do a permanent

situation for them, they would continue to thrive, the way they would have if they would have stayed. i think that would make it a better, permanent location for them to do it that way. and it really warms up the wharf, gives jobs to all the actors and performers and brings a lot to san francisco. we would continue to see a lot of business and keep the wharf lively and vital. thank you. >> thank you. the next speakers are charles higgins, paul pendergast. >> good afternoon. i'm charles higgins. i am born and raised in san francisco and used to kick around north beachs a child, so i'm familiar with the site. i have only been to teatro zinzanni once and believe i had food spilled on me, but i still

like them. i think it's truly an innovative concept. it's a creative and colorful use of very high visibility site. and i think in regard to the sole-source waiver, i think the comments about avoiding a forced marriage, and the need to avoid delay further is a really critical -- we're at a time when artists are just leaving the city or they have already gone. so doing a project that sooner rather than later, that brings them back, and supports the community, i think, is critical. thank you for your consideration. >> thank you. paul pendergast. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is paul pendergast. i wear a number of hats, but a board member of the golden gate business association, which is the lgbt chamber of commerce and a [kpao-eupbs/] of 14

different chamber of commerces. i'm here as a business owner because this ultimate business success story. those are actually businesses that are going to be uniquely qualified to the greatest enormous characteristic character of teatro zinzanni. teatro zinzanni has been a fantastic neighbor whether -- and they were our friends and neighbors before they needed our support. kenwood has been working with many long before they needed our support on this project. so i really want to underscore it's when the chips are down most people come running to us, but small business has been a real good stakeholder with the two entities. secondly, i want to underscore

it's been sustainable jobs in san francisco, from a micro business perspective is exactly the type of business that the board of supervisors wants to develop and sustain. so small business loves teatro zinzanni. thank you. >> thank you very much. tom mccarthy. >> tom mccarthy. i'm a resident of this part of town going back many years. i'm also a member and officer-holder in the carpenters' union for white a while. i would quickly like to say these folks have a nice history of supporting non-profit community groups that need support and recognition. they have made their space and performers available