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tv   LIVE BOS Rules Committee  SFGTV  March 10, 2016 11:00am-2:31pm PST

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>> good monering, welcome to rule committee meeting of march 10, 2016. i'm katy tang and to the right is malia cohen and the right is eric mar. we would like to thank sf gov tv [inaudible] herb and [inaudible] josh alexander. any announcements? >> please silence all cell phones and
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electronic devices [inaudible] submit today the clerk. items will appear on the march 22, march [inaudible] >> thank you very much. will you please call item one, hearing appoint one mb tern to childcare planning and advisory council . there is one seat. >> thank you, if we can have mrs. candice wong. >> good morning, my name is candice wong. i'm currently the applying for reappointment to districtly advisory council . i have experience on [inaudible] business side and [inaudible] working at the low income investment fund of california director child development program. i have been there for 10 years so continue to serve the city in the capacity of
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early childhood education and proud the work we have done over the last 2 decades and love to continue to serve the city in that capacity. i brink both the perspective of running programs but business perspectives and how we support the minority owned businesses. i'm also a proud resident of district 4 and happy to answer questions you may have. >> sure can you tell a little about the things childcare planning advisory council has worked on in the past year and also what do you anticipate for the year coming up ahead? >> one the major things we are working on and supporting office of [inaudible] developing the 5 year plan for early education in the city. that is in process. i also sit on that council. the process with hopefully should be done in the next month or two,
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approved by the board of supervisors, within that planning we do a variety of things look from 0 to 5 and look on the [inaudible] of the programs and quality of the policeman and access ability for families. [inaudible] the next phase is how to look at the 0-5 continuum and how do we do that to make sure our kids are ready for kindergarten and continue to 0-24. i also sit on the council with the mayor and superintendent around the city wide planning for 0-24 in that plan and that is also a 5 year plan. [inaudible] office of ece on the advisory committee, so i think the few areas around quality and how we coordinate with the state and make sure the state is accessing all the federal and state resources we can,
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how do we use the local dollars to leverage. planning for the infrastructure so there is the business side of education and facility size as the city grows, how do we make sure we have adequate facilities to serve the kids in the growing population so we worked on a variety of issues, infant and toddler and pre-school. [inaudible] >> i know there is also a lot of talk in terms of salaries and really how it is we are supporting the providers in a lot of the childcare setting and making sure they are able to attract and recruit quality people and retain them as well and that is a challenge here in san francisco. is that something that-- [inaudible] or through childcare planning advisory council that you will be tackling that issue?
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>> that is a major issue for our city. just like finding k-12 teachers we have a big issue around [inaudible] teachers so that will be a major issue. the wages and benefit issue is a whole package. i know supervisor you are away y aware of that how we attract the quality teachers we need in the city and especially in the area of early education so that is actually one of the highest priority issues we will tackle in the next few years. >> thank you. supervisor mar. >> i just wanted to thank candice, mrs. wong for years at work really helping to stabilize community based childcare and working on wages issues with sf cares to many other programs and with supervisor yee developing into a
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amazing organization that helps build capacity throughout the city. i want to say that think her involvement on the commission is critical given the budgetary experience how to support the capacity of smaller community based businesses and organizations as she stated. knowing directly how the low income investment fund helps smaller family run childcare centers and other places, stabilizing them whether in the sun set or richmond is critical work. : i want to ask at the city level and having adequate funding stream frz pre-school for all is a great example of your leadership over the years >> thank you supervisor. early education for all. >> thank you, it looks like that is all the questions and comment we have so at
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this time i'll open up itm 1 to public comment? anyone who wishes to speak on item one, please come up. >> good morning rules committee and supervisor tang and supervisor cohen and mar. [singing]. these dreams go on in the first five, every second you're alive, they're a good guide. >> thank you very much. alright, any other members of the public who wish to speak on item 1? seeing none public comment is closed. i think mrs. wong is a wonderful incredible represent on the counsel and glad district 3 ipointsed her and glad supervisor paskin is glad he would like her to continue the role so happy to support
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her. we vamotion and second by supervisor cohen and without objection congratulations mrs. wong is appointed to sheet 3 of of childcare advisory council. item 2 >> conforming the [inaudible] oversight board termseneding january 24, 2020 >> i see we have mrs. sesay and mr. lee so if you would like to come up and make a presentation. >> [inaudible] nadia sesay [inaudible] public finance and delighted and honored to be honored to the oversight board. i work frd the city over 17 years, kind of scary. i'm in my role as public finance director and manage the cities [inaudible] debt
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obligation is over 3 billion dollars in outstanding debt and work closely with capital planning and special projects directed by the mayor and board of supervisors. i have bij on the committee since tent 12 after the disillusion of the redevelopment agency and [inaudible] get all the successor agencies and [inaudible] we were also able to all the [inaudible] completed and [inaudible] all the funds back and got a state finding of completion. we are also successful receiving final and [inaudible] of 3 project areas, the ship yard and transbay and mission day. we also have been able to achieve [inaudible] on the long range property management plan. we moved from semi-annual approval and issues
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[inaudible] we also continue to maintain a oversight role as well as new obligation and the oversight board is also charged with reviewing and approving issuances as well as properties that are under the successor agencies jurisdiction. my expertise i bring to the table is debt issuance and [inaudible] so there is a huge level of debt issuance required to issue debt not to just deliver on the infrastructure but affordable housing. the housing isn't under the oversight board [inaudible] i am thrilled
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and honored and love to stay on the committee. >> great, thank you very much. maybe if you can tell us a little about-i understand a lot of the work is probably very much ongoing because they are long term projects but what do you anticipate to be some of the major issues or challenges for the upcoming year? >> i should acknowledge that we have been able to overcome a lot of the issues when disillusion came about we had a challenge of issuance of bonds for housing and we didn't have clarity on transbay for issuance of bonds in transbay. most preently recently the state approved legislation that allowed to issue that so in terms of going forward the challenge will be on [inaudible] with development or cost increases with infrastructure, the
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[inaudible] already executed so have the ability to issue that on their behalf. it could be [inaudible] we have a recession or not, but in terms of the project and develops we have partnerships with we don't anticipate there to be a issue. what could potentially be something we will have to observe in the long run is the timing of when development comes on line so there is enough [inaudible] with housing as needed. most importantly it is probably timing of when development comes on line but the [inaudible] is already pledged to the development and center a agreement from department of finances that have those allowable contracts. >> great, thank you. colleagues any questions, comments? okay, seeing none we'll move on to mr. olson lee.
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>> good morning supervisors. my name is olson lee and a current member of the oversight board and director of office of housing and commune tee development and work between the mayors office and redevelopment agency for dwix 26 years. prior to my position at the mayors office i was the depsty director at the redevelopment agency and assisted in many redevelopment plans that are implemented now through the office of community investment and infrasfruckture. i ran the affordable housing plan through the redevelopment agency. [inaudible] we received the completed housing projects of ocii so my role on the oversight board is to insure that process goes smoothly, that ocii is implementing the
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enforceable obligations appropriately and as one of the questions of the work for the futures, there is still a lot of work to be done. still a lot of affordable housing to be done. with the passage of sb 107, with the assistance of the state delegation, affordable housing received additional funds from prior redevelopment project areas to help complete many enforceable obligations in transbay and mission day and candle stick point and look forward to the opportunity to provide guidance on the implementation of the work of ocii. >> thank you and then just the same question but from your perspective, what do you see as the major challenges or issues you will work on the next year? >> i think the major issuers
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are figuring how to implement sb 107. [inaudible] i think the other major question will be some of the transfers of the former ocii property, one being yerba buena gardens and the governing structure for that in the future. >> thank you. seeing no questions or comments thank you very much and we'll open up item 2 to public comment. >> [single] [inaudible] i hope you have good oversight. maybe i'm a open book because i make the items right, but i sure hope that you pake a good board member this time. for your
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good look with the [inaudible] >> thank you very much. i didn't think you could come up with a song for that. colleagues i'll close public comment, there is no one else for item 2. supervisor mar. >> i like to move we reappoint two incredibly experienced people for our city to seats 1 nadia susay and seat 2 olson lee. >> thank you. second by supervisor cohen and we are lucky to have you in our city and family. with that, without objection that is confirmed. if we can call item 3. >> item number 3 is hearing to consider 22 members terms ending [inaudible] assessment appeal board 3. there are two applicants >> we have two applicants for
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seat 2 and seat 5. i believe mrs. nelson said she could not appear today. is mrs. bryant here? great, please come on up. >> good morning supervisors mar, tang and cohen. i have been in san francisco for 52 years [inaudible] and i have diversifyed experience in the [inaudible] for 15 years i was in the trust division with [inaudible] doing trust accounting and also real estate. [inaudible] for the individual
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banks. as a tax accountant i was doing the taxes foremost -in the tax department before [inaudible] for doing the trust division. [inaudible] i was doing the actual [inaudible] beginning from the application until the conveyance of the property. i also have experience [inaudible] taking classes with city college working [inaudible] i did an appraisal on a single family residents in mountain spring and
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[inaudible] which i had from the [inaudible] and i also have done the private trust with other conservativeship and also a conservative for the city listed here in san francisco but i didn't do the [inaudible] i would be happy to join this group and based on [inaudible] and based on the facts and do the research for it and hopefully this is [inaudible] and i hope to be with this board
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[inaudible] and thank you very much for your time. >> thank you for your presentation and think you answered the question i was going ask you which is how you would approach the role and i was looking for someone for this role and body on facts, making sure everything is done fairly, transparently in concert with all the other members with the assessment appeals board so glad you brought that up on your own. supervisor mar >> i want to thank you for meeting with my office and your long time neighborhood work in potrero hill and bruno heights. your volunteer with various neighborhood association. it says something about your professional work as a appraising which you meet the minimum qualifications but
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[inaudible] pg & e energy audits to open space work with open space committee and involvement with lots of different community organizations, i really find that tremendously commendable besides you meeting the minimum qualification. your expertise and work as a appraising makes you well qualified for this seat so i'm proud to support you. >> supervisor cohen. >> i'll be supporting mrs. bryant as well. >> just a question so you are able to make all the meetings for the assessment appeals board? >> [inaudible] i would like to be able to [inaudible] be able to work with people and i'm pretty good with that. i'm very good with the public and communicate and don't have no issue for [inaudible]
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>> i mean my question is, are you going to be able to atened all the meetings? are you going to be able to attend all the meetings? >> yes >> i know there are quorum issues so want to make sure-- >> i did have a question because i'm also involved with the commissioner [inaudible] also [inaudible] but that is one hour once a week. >> alright. okay, thank you very much for your presentation and interest in serving. at this time we'll open up item 3 to public comment. any members who wish to speak on item 3? >> [singing] [inaudible] hope you do good good with all your dealing
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[inaudible] in the sky keep on [inaudible] good luck and [inaudible] >> thank you very much. any other members of the public on item 3? seeing none public comment is closed. at this time we have a nomination? >> i would like it nake a nomination to move kristine nielsen to seat 2 and mrs. bryant to seat 5. >> second by supervisor mar, take that without objection. congratulations. can we resend that and send forward as a committee >> we take that without objection as a committee report. now item 4. >> item 4 is hearing to consider appointing to the food security task force, there is one seat and
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one applicant >> thank you, if we can-i apologize if i mispronounce your name [inaudible] >> good morning board of supervisors. i'm honored to be nominated for the food security task force. my name is [inaudible] and i'm the nutrition services director with the mu turnl child and adolescent helths program with department of public health. i have-as sth nutrition service director i oversee the supplemental nutrition program for women and children known as wic and oversee the work for snap ed program known as [inaudible] here in san francisco that provides nutrition education to cal fresh [inaudible] also in my career i have worked with
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vulnerable populations, specifically women infrant and children at most risk for nutrition issues and being a part of the task force i have attended several meetings so far. i think i bring a voice for our most [inaudible] folks within the community and really bring up not only food issues but also issues as they relate to nutrition and health, so you know, that is something that i passionately believe in and really have worked for my career. if you have any questions- >> you mentioned the focus you would like to bring to the task force if
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appointed particularly regarding nutrition and health, can you expand on that a bit? >> yes, currently there are a lot of projects involving nutrition, providing meals whether it is through cal fresh or delivered meals and there isn't a big focus on women infant and children. [inaudible] i do a lot of work related to breast feeding and there is a different dimension to food security piece because you really dont see it as a food security issue when it come tooz infants but it is a critical piece that first year and it is something i really feel that needs to be brought to the table and that is something i plan to work on. >> thank you. glad you mentioned that. i think that is incredibly important. supervisor mar. >> i want to say mrs. rein is
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extremely qualified and love the passion toened hunger and your work within the department of public health for food stamp education to maximize people qualifying for food assistance and the work with wic. you didn't mention [inaudible] >> that is how i connect with the folks that i have worked with. you know, i have a 8 year old son and he definitely inspires me and through that i can really see how difficult it can be. i mean, i have been blessed with [inaudible] in my life and the participants we are serving may not be there and still taking care of these children so yeah, the passion
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goes to a different level when the mother [inaudible] >> i know that with tarry oly and food task force members focused on seniors and people with disabilities, the children and families issue is really critical as well and know the school districts and [inaudible] are working but i think you bring a lot of valuable expertise. your work with immigrant communities and food and hunger is another great area, but i'm happy you will be joining the task force. >> thank you very much. so, i dont see any other questions or comments so at this time i'll open up item 4 to public comment. >> [singing] [inaudible] security food task. they are taking away your ham burger and i hope [inaudible]
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security, food, task, security, food, task, supervisor mar we are going to fix that big mac. >> thank you very much. any other members of the public, we are closing public comment for item 4. we have a motion and with a nob nub >> i move we epoint [inaudible] to seat 10 on the food security task force >> second by supervisor cohen. >> [inaudible] >> yes. >> alright, thank you. without objection, congratulations. item 5 >> item 5 hearing to consider the quarterly reports of the shelter monitoring committee. >> alright, thank you. i think that we have some representatives to present on this item today. >> good morning, my name is jonathan bunoto and chair the shelter
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monitoring committee appointed last year by the local homeless coordinating board and just became chair a couple mointh uzago so bear with me, not completely familiar with the quarterly report and this is my first time here. so, with regards to the quarterly report, and the-we did 20 site visits this first quarter of the year and what were looking for are issues such as the facilities cleaned, bathrooms stocked recollect adequate bedding, storage, adequate meals, signage and ada accommodation and reasonability information. there are 43 total complaints during the quarter and that is consistent with previous year where
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we were averaging around 40 complaints per quarter and a break down of the types of complaints, 81 percent were staff related issues, fallowed by facility and access issues, 9 percent. health and hygiene, 8 percent. ada, 1.8 percent. so that is a summary of the quarterly report. do you have any questions regarding the quarterly report? >> um, thank you. i just wanted to-i had a chance to read through it before hand so you mentioned the number of complaints for the quarter was consistent. it looked like a very high percentage in terms of complaints that are staff related, is that also across the board across the various reporting periods? >> i'll let howard answer because he
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has been doing the quarterly reports. >> good morning, supervisor, howard chen, policy analyst on the staff. what we have seen is typically there is a pattern of complaint about staff being the biggest issue with client complaint. >> and can you elberate a bit on what that entails? >> sure, the staff category is one of the broadest categories of complaints we take and that can range from staff not having id badges to potentially using disrespectful language while speaking to clients and it can be something as serious as non maintaining a safe environment. the staff category is very broad so as a result you receive a lot of complaint in that category. >> have there been anything done to address that issue then, especially such a overwhelming percentage
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of complaints are based on that category? >> when clients come in and file complaints with our office, what we do is we track the names of the staff being named and the complaint and if the new trend with specific staff receiving a unusual amounts of complaints, what we do is send that information over to the contract monitor, but from what we have seen so far, there haven't been that many individual staff that continuously we see complaint. it is different staff receiving complaints from different clients. >> okay. thank you. >> i had a question, mr. chin, it looks like next door is the site of 25 complaints and i'm wondering and looking at the narrative of-could you just explain-it seems like that is where some of the concentrated complaints are and how that was resolved? >> so, next door is one the
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largest shelters in the city system and so as a result we do see they typically receive a more complaints than some of the smaller sites. that would also be true for [inaudible] south and providence as those are some very large sites and typically they do receive more client complaints. >> one was no smoking sign not posted in spanish, how-are smoking complaints a common type of complaint at a number of the shelter? >> there isn't a complaint we receive a lot of. for that particular instance i can't recall the exact details of that complaint but that isn't something that typically comes up very often >> thank you. >> maybe that was from a site visit where we observed there want a no smoking sign in spanish because they are required to have all the signs in spanish and english.
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>> alright. thank you. any other questions from committee members? seeing none i just look forward to continue working with the shelter monering committee, human services agency and of course providers as well in term thofz policy regarding people involved in domestic violence incidence so thank hsa helping work on that in the past wreer changing that policy so hope we can continue making improvements on that. >> i also thank hsa for their support and assistance as well as you, supervisor tang and the board of supervisors for passing the resolution back in december. there is a additional item which i wanted to bring to your attention and that is the shelter monitoring committee has some legislation recommendations and
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one of them has to do with the standser of care number 12 which is there should be two clean sheets and some [inaudible] they don't have laundry facilities, so the recommendation that we are making is that they be aloud to substitute a clean blanket for a clean sheet and not get written up at violating a standard of care item. and the second recommendation we are making has to do with the board of supervisors seat 1. currently this seat has to be sfiled by someone who is homeless person or homeless 3 years prior to appointment living a homeless child or the recommendation is living a homeless child under the age of 18. it is issue for the committee to find
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candidates who are currently homeless with their homeless child, not to find but to keep them because if you a homeless and trying to care for a child it is very difficult to be going on all the shelter inspections we do each month and it is difficult to attend the committee meeting and any subcommittee meetings, so we would like to recommend that this be changed to somebody who has lived with a homeless child under the age of 18 at some point within the candidates life time. we believe it will make it easier to keep someone in this position. it is currently unfilled on the committee. and the third recommendation is that the terms of each committee officer, they are two years, but we ask that they be
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staggered so half rupointed on a even year and half are appointed on a odd year so we can have consistency in the committee with experience. thank you, if you have any questions- >> thank you. and so just in terms of the 3 recommendations sound good to me. i just wonder does department staff want to weigh in on this and let us know their thoughts? >> did you mean the staff from dph or hsa? >> either one >> we [inaudible] shelter monitoring officers quarterly so we work through these changes and agreement with all of them. >> great. just for the record [inaudible] >> sorry. >> great. [inaudible]
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>> howard chin, policy analyst. [inaudible] assistant to dweckter of health will coordinate with dpa and hsa. he is out of town but can forward questions or concerns over to him. >> thank you. colleagues any questions or comment? that thank you so much for your work and department staff. we'll open up item 5 to public comment. i think mr. walter left. no members of the public for item 5. this was a hearing so if we have a motion to file this hearing. >> so moved >> thank you. >> second by supervisor cohen. the hearing is filed mptd mr. clerk do we have any other items before us? >> no more items, madam chair. >> okay thank you. meeting is adjourned.
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[meeting adjourned]
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(clapping.) >> govern everyone if i could have everyone take a seat i'm so excited to have you welcome to city hall the haul of champions my name is a hydra mendosa a school board member and service
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with mayor ed lee and education and youth and share the sport love and for the point of sport sport related events i take it job seriously we're delighted on the overview of super bowl so honor our accomplishments during the if you believe season about you know that both of our teams o won the championships the mayor's neither here nor there in office and we did action in 2014 so congratulations on that. >> we're also excited to be joined by the host committee that did an amazing job to make sure our shined and windshield the two kwaushdz for the game we are also thrilled to be joined
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by san francisco 49 did you know that they hold the record for the most points the sport were the 55 to 10 over the denver broncos we like that. >> so speaking of records i'm honored to now introduce our champion that has participated in more city and bay area champions than any other anywhemayor our mayor ed lee. >> ladies and gentlemen, mostly gentlemen woo woeflz e welcome to the people's palace a wonderful and special weekend i can't think of a better way to kickoff this weekend to be with champions right in the city and county of san francisco are mission high school bears the house?
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all right. (clapping.) are our state and national community college rams the house yeah now we're talking (clapping.) well as you may know it is a special weekend it is called super bowl 50 weekend and so a weekend that for quite some years i've been working with a great group group of people to host for the whole wholehearted not just the the super bowl 50 for the whole world people all over the world are coming in i stack extreme personal pleasure to welcome you who you are the local complains it is how we kind of a complaining weekend today, i want to let you know i've got my own special guests i like
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working with other mayors because we're not about kickoff the career politicians mayors have to get things done and inspire students, college students they have to inspire retained for part of great cities and we also have to deal with the potholes when i see another mayor thank you. i, what we do through so, please let me floor jennifer brown the mirror mayor of the california panthers right here (laughter (clapping.) o oh. >> wow. >> (laughter). >> she's great she's good. >> and another mayor who i'm kind of we've come a long way him into a kind of newer mayor
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but someone who is a mayor of a very important city and that's the city who will next host the next super bowl 51 the in thema hosting and non-hosting textiho texti text. >> i also want to welcome a good friend someone, of course, i've been working with very closely and this is our superintendent richard carranza a great partner in education superintendent thank you for being here today all right. richard carranza and i want to welcome yet another great partner in addition to superintendent on the mayor's education leadership council
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that's charter schoncellor i want to thank to our state senator by way of there is football being played there is games games on the field but another field sometimes you have to play serious games someone who has been made tackles in sacramento who is game manship made us proud because senator leno has been making don't plays up that to mr. chaprotect the accreditation senator leno thank you. >> (clapping.) i told you, i like mayors i also like restortired mayors mayors know what i am going introduce
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because they went through the same thing and good advice but a great mayor as a matter of fact, one of the greatest mayor a mayor, i had explained to other newer mayors walking through your beautiful city hall who knew who did that with the gold trimming the mayor i yet to know other mayors with a bridge named after them former mayor willie brown thank you. >> (clapping.) supervisor scott wiener the board of supervisors he's here today to join us been a great supporter of the education and the open space for the youth to be more to be successful i've got two great 3 great city
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college treasure troves 4 oh, my gosh all 4 of them and the president of the our city college treasure troves thank you for being here he's on the field with us making good tackles and he's making sure that our city college is lead properly making sure that we got our accreditation and restored by many years thank you treasure trove interpreter and selby thank you treaty simulating but for being here interpret trustee randolph and recessing do uo is hereby they're very presence 31 they understand what a championship team is and a championship city college is as well i have the privilege of also
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recognizing that the 49s are here to join us and i think that this gentleman who is part of 4 49ers marcus coming e on in and down we have to have shouome ren the house here (clapping.) and later on i'm going to hand over the baton to marcus he knows how to handsome a ball he's 66 center of our great 3 49ers i know that this is a great weekend as i said earlier it is a great weekend in great part because we ca as a city have been preparing for over 3
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and a half 4 years trying to most of the best super bowl ever we want that standard because this is what but u you all strove for to be part of best team and part of best education institution and in san francisco government that's what we strive for to be the best in san francisco a person that is contributed to this world-class event we've lost that load the effort for a philanthropic and exciting for all the free concerts in super bowl city by the nfl experience and complimented by so many thousands of volunteers from all over the country's to help make that an exciting super bowl it is our ceo and wanting of our
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super bowl host committee keati keith bruce come on up. >> first of all, welcome to super bowl 50 and it is my hounl a custom max or a 2 1/2 year journey we were awarded super bowl thanks for the hundred and 49ers and this was our gun control to make this the most celebrated super bowl and one city agency whoevover t years and thanks to the be of mayor ed lee and, of course, mayor brown and so many others that worked tireless ore the last 2 and a half years i i'd like to take this opportunity thank the desientire city and cy of san francisco and the other mayors like mayor ma card and
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mayors matthew and mayor schaaf out of the oakland to make that the bay area super bowl. >> sustainabper bowl city it g and nfl is strooifl enjoying a beautiful bit of weather we'll happily take thank you for ord that mayor ed lee we're benefiting from that and on the word stage starting today take great pride in hosting the super bowl 50 and congratulations to the two teams here do your champions and another champion on sunday but until then congratulations on our accomplishments and again, it is such an honor and privilege meeting the super bowl on behalf of the region we have two days to go delivering a world-class super bowl for a world-class city and thank you.
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>> (clapping.) >> you know i take this opportunity keith you and the host committee the reason why it is so special we actually decided to make it special because with keith has done when you host those events like super bowl we decided to raise the money in which it will be more trophy 25 percent of every dollar raised for the super bowl 50 goes to nonprofit charities in the bay area never been done before brown this is what distinguishes super bowl 50 from any other 49 super bowls the history nfl we're going to change the game and rules i offer heard the nfl commission saying the rules will change from what we did in san francisco those dollars are
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going to youth programs and organizations like boys and girls club and the bayview and the areas where we got some additional work to do to help kids become for successful so i wanted you to know that it is special and thank you keith before us and the host committee and as i said earlier we have 9ers the house and march mark come into the 49ers a couple of years ago i know that he's part of rebuild of the 9ers he'll get there and help the team get there and the center of our 9ers number 66 please welcome mark smart (clapping.) >> first and foremost i'd like to thank everyone for having me here emigrations congratulations
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to the two teams first mission high school i want to crenshaw and had high own city complaining with the black folks and winning a high school complaini championship is an experience you'll not forget no business involved no academics i mean academics but no pressure like you get to have fun with our friends that's should go something you'll remember for the rest of your lives congratulations the college the ballers i mean state, national, you all doing big things man, i want to graduating graduacongratulate ys keep up the good work and work hard you'll be remembered and having that legacy is something that is what we descriptive for a legacy your doing great things congratulations to you guys as
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well (clapping.) >> so ear here to honor all of you and i got to hear some stories from you so sacrifice stories about what you had to do to be champions because bears turkey day one point you one-on-one won by one point this time didn't that scary and be exciting at the same time you can't when a victory get won by a small margin would you agree that is more precious because everything that everyone did had to contribute for margin of victory and you know you're not i think that game is the option how the warriors won 20
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points a game but one point it means a lot to friends and people watching to our parents and brothers and sisters it has to mean that more on turkey day i want to get out there but so many events to go to you thought no, no we'll do something special get you on super bowl weekend and celebrate with that, i want to have the coach come up and on behalf of our city we want to give you the give the team through you the recognition that it deserves this is to recognize mission high school for its trillion a championship football team for this past year and because it is super bowl week we have something for the
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entire team because we have a great super bowl host what do you think of this for the entire team? is a gold football (clapping.) for for the mission high school bears as i way of recognizing each of you, you deserve this is yours forever super bowl 50 it is meant for you to be complains for two years in a row we want to recognize you at city hall congratulations mission high school bears. >> thank you. >> want to say a few words. >> on behalf of the principle eric and our athletic director arrest in addition, and the entire mission communities high school community we would like to thank mayor ed lee for
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honoring us and in addition thank hydra mendosa and her staff for organizing that i'd like to congratulate coach collins and his coaches and players under tremendous assault weapon this year acceespecially formal anton 0 porter clean sf. >> my one question to coach did you get a moment to wait you didn't wait at mission high scho school. (laughter) it has been 85 years since mission high school won back to back city championships i look forward to up and running we'll be the first team in school history to win back to back to back championships thank you very much >> (clapping). >> okay we'll had had photo later okay.
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>> we're going to get everybody into a great picture be patient here as i said earlier someone that makes good tackles in sacramento he loves our city college he's been working with me to make sure everything is done so that you city college county of college is successful and solvent and invites the future generations of the people that will be really successful not only in their own lives but help our city be successful sxhooienator leno come on up senator leno. >> (clapping). >> thank you, mr. mayor for the warm welcome and gracious words since we've already provided the appropriate recognize to the
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gentleman allow me to add my inspiration force 40 for those out of town this is a school that is as opposed to be a challenged school and continuing you break all the records and achieve not only athletic but skillly and you're the little engine that could and does and repeated does it you lead the way congratulations to you, you all and i know that many of you will be sitting on this side of the room in successive years a changed institution with a rogue commissions throwing blocks and running trenches trying to really intentionally cause as much trouble to this esteemed institution as possible and one
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out of 7 san franciscans has been attending continental this is a major institution for us and so again both state and national county jails this is a remark xhoiscommunity. >> this is a college that will continue to strive and continue to set up higher standards as i learned years ago whether our non-retiring willie l. brown, jr. appointed me at the board of supervisors an important part of life winning is better than losing i want to offer my congratulations i've brought prajsdz from the state senate from san francisco football team coach collins if i may present to you on behalf of the city
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college family a little love the california state senate recognizing our ongoing opportunity and years ahead we'll be gathered back to here to present more awards i will say that clearly we're backing the sunlight of our super bowl 50 here mission high school and city college you are the main troifksz with or without the assembly we wouldn't have assembled because you're our private joy thank you. >> a photo op (clapping.) coach thank you senator leno, coach i'd like to add our certificate honoring your entire team and the supporters
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everybody that deserves the recognition and, of course, let me hand t this off to you the gold football (laughter) (clapping). >> >> what a special gift i'd like to thank everyone involved special hydra mendosa and mayor ed lee and everybody that helped out this is a special day not just receiving the recognition but all of us to participate with the opening of super bowl 50 is a experience we'll never ever forget thank you and coach to touch open anton hope we'll have better luck with anthony when we comes next week both teams have brothers and captain we expect a lot of you to be sitting with us
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as we try to didn't find defend the complaining the life lessons you learn and one of the things you learn is many there is no accomplishment with worthwhile that can be achieved without help and support of others and senator leno for our entire county college to we could thank you enough on behalf of the entire college thank you to chancellor and the administrators especially overseeing who support us nursing us to be who way are and we're grateful and proud to stand here as of 2015 national complains thank you verhomplai .
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>> shop and dine the 49 promotes loophole businesses and changes residents to do thirds shopping and diane within the 49 square miles of san francisco by supporting local services we help san francisco remain unique and successful where will you
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shop and dine shop and dine the 49. >> my name is neil the general manager for the book shop here on west portal avenue if san francisco this is a neighborhood bookstore and it is a wonderful neighborhood but it is an interesting community because the residents the neighborhood muni loves the neighborhood it is community and we as a book sincerely we see the same people here the shop all the time and you know to a certain degree this is part of their this is created the neighborhood a place where people come and subcontract it is in recent years we see a drop off of a lot of bookstores both national chains and neighborhoods by the neighborhood stores where coming you don't want to - one of the
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great things of san francisco it is neighborhood neighborhood have dentist corrosive are coffeehouses but 2, 3, 4 coffeehouses in month neighborhoods that are on their own- that's march 9, 2016
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>>[gavel] >> welcome to the march 9, 2016 of the san francisco board of appeals. presiding officer is board president darrell honda and joined tonight by vp frank fung as well as commissioner and the lazarus brick suite swig and bobby wilson get to my left is debbie city attorney tom hollander will provide with the board with any legal advice tonight. at the controls was carried and i'm cindy goldstein the board's executive director. were also joined tonight by the city dept. who have before the board this evening.. he's with the san francisco dept. of pub. works bureau of mapping and were also joined by christoph urban forrester with san francisco purpose urban
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forrester and the board request to turn off or sounds all phones or other electronic devices so they will not disturb the proceedings could please carry on conversations in the hallway. the boards presentation are as follows. each respondents are given 7 min. and 3 min. for rebuttal. people affiliated with these parties must conclude their comments within the 7 or 3 min. period. members of the public not affiliated with the parties of up to 3 min. each to address the board with no rebuttal. please speak into the end of the microphone. to assist the board in the accurate preparation of minutes you're asked but not required to cement a speaker card or business card to boards that when you come up to speed. speaker cards are available on the left side of the podium. the board welcomes your comments and suggestions. their customer satisfaction surveys on the podium for your convenience. do you have any questions about hearing request, the board schools were hearing schedule, fees speak to board staff during a break or after the meeting or call or visit the board office. we are located at 615 mission st. suite 304 between devoe st. and
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south venice attitude this meeting is broadcast live on sfgtv and rebroadcast on fridays at 4:00 pm on channel 26 good dvds of this meaning are available for purchase from sfgtv. now we will swear in order for all those who intend to testify. please note, any member of the public may speak without taking an oath pursuant to the right under the sunshine ordinance. if you intend to testify at tonight's hearing in which of the board give your testimony evidentiary weight we stand and raise your right hand and say, i do, after you've been sworn in or from. the standout if you plan to testify tonight. raise your right hand. do solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? thank you very much. item number one is general public comments. this is an
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opportunity for people to speak to the board on matters within the board subject matter jurisdiction but that are not on tonight's calendar. is anyone here would like to speak on general public comment? seeing none,, then commissioners, item 2 is commissioner comments and questions. >> i would like to send my sincere condolences to some friends of mine. the nasa and admin. they lost their daughter lost her life yesterday at age 10 to cancer. as well as another friend hamid who lost their doctor yesterday also to cancer. it was a rough day. i just want to say, cancer really really sucks. thank you. >> thank you pres. honda could any public comment on this item ? seeing none,, item 3 commissioners your consideration of the minutes for the separate 2624 2016 meeting.
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>> do we have any changes, additions or corrections? may i have a motion? >> a motion to adopt the minutes. any public comment on the minutes? seeing none, on a motion, vice president fung >> aye lazarus aye, wilson, spike the commission carries 5-0. appeal number 4 appeal number 16 007. jesse is the appellant here for that item, item number 4? mr. prudhomme, yes, great. this is daniel google vs. the san francisco pub. works bureau street and mapping. the properties at 536 mission st. doing with the denial on 20 to summer 29th 2015 doing with ritchie truck denial of permit application
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because the proposed location is rounded by restaurants and additional food trucks in that vicinity will create more traffic. this is permit number 15 0023 and will start with the appellant. you have 7 min. to present your case. >> good evening. i am the proud owner of preachy food truck. the name of my wife who is a peruvian chinese descent. this is a family operation and it's the collective energy of a 20 year dream of 2 parents, my 2 in-laws. also, the collective life savings of all of us. we set out on this journey last september it together, we create delicious food could this is the product of passion and dedication. i am here tonight to ask you to
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grant us discretion in our favor to give us an equal opportunity to market our product in an area of the city that will give us sustainable business. there are currently permitted, in san francisco, exclusively off the grid, all this food truck broker offers an opportunity to showcase a new trucks trust a product that is not a sustainable business for new trucks. we realize that soon after opening in last september and we also realized this from all the seasonal trucks that warned against relying on them as a sole means of income. all the successful trucks, these gourmet trucks, if you will, without exception of key permits within the financial district. many of
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these trucks have a whole week of uninterrupted business. these permits are now grandfathered in and when they expired these owners have the first right of refusal for these permits. essentially, everybody is locked out. any of the off the grid markets are simply additional revenue, but they are not primary. to that end, we require this permits to remain sustainably in business in the city. this is not discretionary. we have lawfully abided by all the health codes and we consistently received high scores on the inspectors. we operate with integrity. we operate with honesty. we honor all of the dpw codes and we are honoring all those codes with this permits in question
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tonight. route will will undoubtedly provide the list of findings that ultimately led to the denial of this permits. i want you to point out that these findings were not at issue throughout the permitting process. also, there were no objections from the surrounding businesses during the objection period. this permit went right to the system. almost 3 months later i get the denial. i also want to point out that the location in question is perfectly permitted by another food truck running the opposite days, but also as one of the widest sidewalks in the city and that was no mistake on my behalf. i really went far and wide to find a spot there wouldn't interrupt traffic flow because i know that is a major issue with these operations.
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the legislation it should be noted is to provide equal opportunity, and i'm asking again for that opportunity here tonight. the summary of findings are indeed discretionary, as this permit does not violate any of the guidelines set forth in ordinance 119 13. i would like to go through these and in summary, because i know though, in more detail so i don't think we need to go through them too many times over the course of the night i'm a but in general, the first finding is essentially reminding us of the one we hear all the time. the ordinance is to encourage opportunities to diverse locations that are underserved. i need to point out that this is a liberty that an est. operation can take an exercise.
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as a new talk, i can afford to do an area where might get 20 customers a day. this is something i can afford to do that multiple trucks, and there are, indeed opportunities for those who are est. to take this measure. for me to be in business i need to be in a part of the city that actually is getting to me the business to pay the bills to keep this thing running. finding-the 2nd finding is that there are several trucks permitted in this area. i have to point out that some of these are grasping at finding the relevance. one of them is there at 6:20 am in the morning and these at 6:40 am in the morning. my permit i am requesting starts at 11 am in the morning so, there are things i got. there's also another truck that is there for an hour from 11 am-2 new budget it's a little dessert truck.
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it's in and out of there before the real hit comes the bulk of the business is going to be noon-1 pm. it's interesting there's another truck here, lobster truck. this was on your docket in november. they were here because of a-someone was concerned about the fire hydrant. this truck seemed to not have a problem getting through the system, and another finding that is following this is all about the restaurant. this truck did not seem to have an issue with the surrounding restaurants nor did it have an issue with all the other proposed or apparent food trucks that are cluttering this area. so, i think there's a discretionary call on the part of the number of trucks and if there is too many. if we counted all the relevant during the overlap it is too.2 period the first finding or i should say the 3rd finding, is again all these restaurants. i'm
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having a hard time seeing the competition when one of them is a high-end fine dining seafood restaurant and the other one is a little bar that serves really nice food. these are places where people are sitting down. anyway, i'm going to end at that no good i think i made my my point. if you have questions i can adjust the amounts. i have one now. how many trucks do you have, sir? >> this is the one truck speed are there any plans to increase to another truck? >> not unless we have the markets. we need the markets for the business >> then, in the breeze you apply for multiple locations and one of those locations has been approved, correct? >> it has been approved. that will give us monday wednesday friday. that's in a less populated area. it's hard to say how sustainable that will be but it is at least an area. >> thank you very much.
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>> mr. shaw. >> good evening commissioners. public works. i'm just going to go into a brief history and then i'm just going to give an overview of the findings and our rebuttal to the appeal that was filed. so just to briefly start off the applicant filed an application with public works in march of 2015. at 2 location. both locations were general compliance with article 5.0 in terms of location and their quest operation terms in hours. therefore public works decided to move forward with the application and move forward with a notification. within that 30 day notification 1p's issue was received and therefore public hearing was scheduled on october 7, 2015. subsequently, i believe that objection was ultimately-withdrawn but that hearing was still took place.
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after that hearing the hearing officer mentioned the determination, made the recommendation, to upper management. your manager to the city engineer, deputy director and the deputy director the recommendation was to prove this based on the findings that did meet the general location requirements set forth in article 5.8. however, after review by the city engineer, it was determined that i quote, the proposal patient on mission street is surrounded by restaurants. in addition to trucks enough is in a will trade or traffic and congestion. therefore the ordinance 119 13 was utilized in this discretionary decision. to provide, under the statement, stating that the intent of the ordinance is to provide and expand the range of convenient and interesting food consumption opportunities for mobile food facilities and underserved and less congested
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areas of the city at different times of the day and evening. so, though this proposal does attempt to schedule and work around other permit hours that statement of the ordinance needs to be taken into consideration. as this does not appear to be an underserved area and it does have a large amount of foot traffic and the hiccup or traffic compared to other areas of the city. making this work congested area. if you take a look at exhibit c one which is taken from google maps, you can see a least 20 restaurants with approximately a 2 block radius radius with it in the-this is not a underserved area. there's also currently 5 permitted mobile food facilities on the 500 block of mission street and if you take a look at item 2 of the public works brief elvis
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all their times of operation. the one permit that the appellant referred to which is in the same location, though does not overlap with the days and times of the proposed location for the truck it would mean this spot is taken by a food truck i got a 7 days of the week and cannot be utilized during those hours for any of their parking. in addition to this, creating more than 5 food trucks on this block will allow-will not allow parking to be utilized in the manner that was intended. i sfmta. this kind of creates-this block would have very large amount of days being taken in very a lot of spaces taken by mobile food facilities throughout the week. so, this was taken into consideration by the deputy
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director and the director and bureau manager. section 18.88 of the public works code states that the director has the discretion to make a decision based on the facts that there more than 3 permitted food trucks at the location. one other thing that should be noted is that the light foods is not taken into consideration when reviewing an application in making a decision. claims by the appellant they do not compete by the other trucks appeared to be taken in the context of similar foods and not in the context of competing businesses, and to the point of restaurants have filed any objections, i want to keep in mind that in order for this to even go through to a hearing, the mobile food truck has to be at least 75 feet away from any restaurants in the notification is required by code is 75 feet radius. regardless of public
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comment, the basis of this denial was based on the ordinance 119 13, and not any objections that were filed with public works. so, just to kind of reiterates, it was brought up that this was more of a discretionary permits and all the code requirements were followed. that is true in terms of the proposal location and the hours. however, it should be noted the codes specifically says it can-the decisions are made at the judges discretion. this was a discretionary call while following the ordinance. that's it, public works request to uphold the decision that public works has made. i'm available for any questions >> i have a question. i spent a lot of time in downtown san francisco. areas around pine bush, which are the worst from
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a topic standpoint, cross streets, battery and sansone, montgomery, the worst. everybody's been caught in traffic. every day between the same hours that there is a food truck on several of these blocks. by comparison, the block in question has liked traffic, and what bothers me is the inconsistency and the discussion of where indiscretion that is sometimes made with these food trucks whereas, in high-traffic areas i'm using your words- significant the hiccup or traffic, small sidewalks, from 10-2 pm or whenever the time is monday through friday, there seems to be trucks, yet what concerns me on this one is the indiscretion or in discretion not to give this one even
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though 2 blocks away 5 days a week it happens the same way. so, how are those discretionary calls made? >> that call is not made at our staff level. actually made after the hearing officer's recommendation. if after the hearing of his or has reviewed all material and also after the city engineer as well as the director of public works and bureau street use and mapping manager has all the material. so the statement came directly from the city engineer. but if i don't speak directly for him, but i would assume that much of this was because the existing permit booted trucks in this area that have to be a limit set at a certain point. >> but if we see, my point is-and one of the things i like about this commission, and how their behavior is, we try to be consistent and consistency is
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important for all departments. you try because, why is that guy getting it and i'm not in him following the same rules. so, in the same area in a much tighter, much tighter area, in the middle of downtown with much higher traffic levels, i see what is being practiced there is completely in conflict with what you are offering to this commission tonight, which is, something can be there 5/7 days a week to serve an area. probably a less dense area. so i'm just time to find out how discussion is created? because some reason about monday? off with her head. or where are the metrics? >> to be honest, this was done at a higher level than staff level so this was the statement the deputy director provided us
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the city engineer >> i don't mean to pick on you. it happens to be some of these livelihood could as well as the public good. >> yes. >> thanks for answering that. >> mr. shaw, the standard of existing restaurants was not applied evenly. these restaurants i'm sure there was these other food trucks were permitted good if that's the criteria, why did it not apply to them? canady again, it could've been the fact that previous ones that went through cannot go to a hearing and therefore that was not taken into consideration. once they met the general requirement that no objections were filed with the afford within approval. so some of these are the ones most likely to not go to hearing and keep in mind a lot of these food trucks on this block, delete at least 3 of them, were approved prior to the new legislation. prior to the 2013 legislation, which set the limits on the restaurant, which set the limits on the restaurants locations and proximity to existing
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restaurants. >> okay. >> although, mr. shaw, we've heard for appeals on this block. food trucks, one handcart. admittedly, the first couple was under a different criteria of light foods was the predominant argument. it's interesting this block is has had that but you have confirmed that there are in an existing 5 permits for this block on that side? >> yes. on both sides of the block >> both sides? >> yes >> parlor with our standard on this? de novo? >> i have a question. what to policy, so, since the standard now for new food trucks is off new legislation, my question goes to was it required that
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the previous permit be grandfathered in to be able to hold a spot 5 days a week? >> yes. the way the new legislation was they did grandfather the older permits to remain as is >> to me, before trying to introduce new-again not picking on you but if we are trying to introduce new different and new foods would say not underserved but to these areas, given to the same trucks i mean were creating another where the value of the permit is going to exceed the cost of the business. that, as the potential permit holder explain, it's not going to love new people to be introduced. i see, it must be a very profitable business because i see a lot of the food trucks that was not brick-and-mortar. so what they complained about initially in the beginning
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several years that i've heard, now they are the other side trying to stop this. maybe we should request the department to give an expiration of how that policy works or how that came about because like you said, consistency and we allowed several the thing could i get on the board since many of these have come before us and basically to buy but yet as my commissioner swig . this is much underserved than the other locations but yet they are the ones being denied. >> sorry, that was not a question. i apologize. if i could just that it's a little important to understand the way the code is written, it does allow for discretion and it is written in gray area terms.
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there is a lot of gray area in the code and i believe this is something that requires gray area. because of the amount of trucks that will like and will eventually apply. so, there has to be some sort of discretion allowed on the permit inside in order to determine the feasibility of the amount of trucks and what the public right-of-way is being used for throughout the different days of the week. >> thank you. >> thank you. is there public comment on this item? if anyone wants to put speak the support. seeing none, we have rebuttal starting with the appellant again. >> you have 3 min. for rebuttal. >> beyond the letters that were submitted from fellow customers among the basic point of, we will miss you if you do not serve in the city, the point of these letters and my customers are trying to make is that this is a benefit. it's a
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win-win for the city. it's a win-win for the customers. it's a win-win for my in-laws to have an opportunity to share their passion. i believe it's a win-win for the legislation because the single phrase that keeps coming up about this underserved area, etc. etc. if you look at the very next line that actually says that by limiting a single facilities days to use a particular location during the course of the week will encourage and provide for greater opportunities for diverse food facilities. on a rotating basis. so, how do you get that rotating basis if a truck is allowed to be there monday, wednesday, friday but not on a tuesday and thursday? i'm asking for the tuesday-thursday
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slot. anyway, again, this is discretion. apparently there 5 permitted trucks. i count 2 that are truly there. you can count 5 depending on how you look at this. the restaurants, i mean, what am i dennis a? i don't think i'm going to compete with the restaurants to be honest. i think they're doing just fine. if there is a bigger problem, that's mine if i don't get the business. but i do ask for your discretion and the opportunity to have a chance on a fair chance of this. thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. shaw, any rebuttal ? >> just to reiterate, this is a discretionary finding and i wonder reiterate the code and
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the ordinance allows for discussion in these types of cases. >> thank you. because commissioners the matter is submitted. >> i'm inclined to be flip about this and exercise my discretion. i find this discriminatory. i don't find any really solid basis for denying this permit. >> i agree. >> i may be a little bit of a different opinion in the following way. it's hard to find a nexus between what numbers should be there or should not be there. i think what we're seeing is this, a little bit of a turn in terms of how these permits. in the early days these permits were
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issued constantly. the nature of them am a sometimes created appeals could of course, there were different criteria there in terms of what was the basis for those appeals. however, the process of one we are probably seeing is a turn of the cycle a little bit. you know, at this point i don't see how the arguments made for their own business needs as addressed the nexus of how many should or should not be here, which was determined by the department. >> i would take-i'll go back to the consistency view. i have
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a real-as i expressed i think last week, when we had 2 meetings ago when we had a food truck issue with her was a food truck that was really positioned in a high-volume situation where there is traffic. from 6 a until 6 pm and they were occupying the very narrow street and this was a real traffic problem. in this case, and in that case also, that truck was paving, or pioneering new territory putting a truck in place. there were no other trucks. in this case, this is from 10 am-2 pm. the street in question is a much wider street. also, there is a a truck which is occupying
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the same space on the other days, which are-on other days. and, the times of the operation are not during prime traffic times, which i would mature initiall put immature immature early whatever rush hours. so this inconsistency by virtue of the fact there isn't a truck that's doing business without problem on other days and this is doing anti-gaps. i don't like the discretion. i find this discretion in in this case. a mistake in this case. >> i'm leaning toward board vice president i've been on the board nearly 4 years. i've been consistent in the fact that being from hawaii the food truck capital of the united states, i think there's a definite need for them. i
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always felt that it should be for underserved areas and should not be in competition with brick-and-mortar, who support people and have employees and pay workman's comp and the whole 9 yards. i think the reason why the legislation-my question to be department was more on the fact of, why these est. food trucks have been grandfathered in and now they have a gold card, but there's a line here, evidently that's been drawn in the sand in regards to the amount of food trucks in a certain amount of neighborhood and when does the straw break the camel's back. the next time, next person that comes up to us on a smaller street,, but exceed the amount of food trucks, what do we say? i'm very sympathetic with the permit holder, but i can't support an additional food truck. i think that's a
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reasonable. that's why the legislation was created and though it's a less serve neighborhood and what we tell the next guy that comes through >> commissioner wilson, you are in the hot seat. >> reminded commissioners reviewed and overturned the department you do need a vote.. >>, commotion and then i moved to grant the appeal and uphold the appeal and grant the permit on the basis of that it could have been issued and meets the criteria of the legislation. >> so we have a motion by commissioner lazarus to grant the appeal and issue the permit. on the basis that it meets the criteria of the code. on a motion, ice president fung
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>> you want me to pass on you? >> unprepared to vote. aye >> thank you. president honda nay, wilson nay, swig aye, >> that motion fails with a vote of 3-2. without any other motion made then the departmental denial will be upheld by a default. seeing no other motion than that department decision is upheld and the permit is denied. we will move on to item number 5 appeal number 16 008. made sunset neighborhood association vs. san francisco public works bureau of urban forestry. this
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at multiple locations along irving street appealing the issuance of made sunset neighborhood association vs. san francisco public works bureau of urban forestry. this at multiple locations along irving street appealing the issuance of december 31, 2015 of a tree removal permit to move 33 street trees the placement of 7 when oil palm trees as part of the irving streetscape project. we will start with the appellants on that case. >> you have 7 min. to present your case to the board. >> good evening and thank you for hearing our appeal. my name is-and this is my husband. we where residents, homeowners and tenants in the central sunset at 26 avenue and irving. we are here representing the mid-sunset neighborhood association is priced at 70 households in the central sunset. [inaudible] like to read her personal message. here it is. as an officer of the mid-sunset association and involve neighborhood of the area for the south were years i'm very grateful for the time involvement and allocated funding for this project. i was
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at the initial irving streetscape meeting those that follow. when the project began the neighbors and merchants were told our neighborhood was vital because the city wanted the project to reflect our unique neighborhood and are concerned. these were our concerns in terms of the choice of trees for irving street. one was creating a commercial area that was softer, greener trees were provided a canopy and a luscious in contrast to the cement and quasi-. we look forward to the embrace of trees arching over the commercial corridor to this was and is important to us. another issue of concern is being environmentally sensitive. making trees that absorbed urban dioxide. finally, we all want the choices that reflect the character and the-the mid-sunset. this avails none of our hopes. we are specifically reviewing the planting of the windmill palm trees. along the
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irving streetscape at 3 19th ave. and 27th ave. we are against the window countries as a tree species that will be planted in place of existing trees once they are removed. we would like the current trees to be one or more types of conventional street trees provide canopy shade, better absorb carbon dioxide and other air pollutants and preserve local identity of our neighborhood. here are our arguments. the mid-sunset neighborhood association feels that during the community mailings the community was never given-was always given very limited choice. the options were limited to bushes and grasses and palm trees. we were-the committee was never given a choice of a shade giving street tree. most of the other similar projects in the city, for example we learn avenue project, have had conventional street trees approved and planted. for example, we learn avenue project is urban of adult baskets several shops and overhead wires and it has 63 new conventional canopy trees
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planted. our community feels unable it deserves no less. we understand the weather conditions might divert but however, community members consulted with certified arborists and conducted online research using dpw and friends of urban force online resources and we know that there are conventional tree species that are suitable for the stretch of ripping that would satisfy all the requirements. there is an argument that the windmill palms are acceptable because i'm not score shop signs but there are number of conventional trees with similar height and similar qualities as well as similar characteristics for wind drought has an maintenance requirement. therefore we consider this argument in valid. on trees require more frequent maintenance, every 2-3 years as opposed to 5-7 years for conventional trees and considering that the maintenance has to be paid for by the business owners there is a concern that this will result in a the auto. on tries on
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trees absorb less carbon dioxide than regular trees get there from the group of trees that's closer to grasses than a regular tree. considering our cities aiming to be the leader in environmental sustainability police we can do is plant trees and most efficient at carbon absorbing and absorbing greenhouse gases and other pollutants. imagine how much more environmental benefits 6 date canopy trees will bring to our neighborhood and the city as opposed to 60 countries. palms pose a potential safety hazard as well good they may not be able to handle the strong winds along the irving street corridor. we believe also windmill palms were not fit the look and feel of our neighborhood that's loose cloak. located slope closely to the golden gate park. on trees
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comprise only 3% of the city trees and only 3.84% and the whole outer sunset. that is less than 4%. the majority of the trees in our neighborhood are medium and small broadleaf evergreen trees that are currently no palm trees along this irving corridor subject to this project. therefore, we believe 15 palm trees will significantly change the character of our neighborhood. our additional argument for planting conventional shade trees instead of palm trees are the following: shade providing street trees prolonged payment life and reduce repair cost of to 60%. she providing street trees make local businesses more attractive and conventional canopy trees contrast, traffic and make neighborhoods safer. in conclusion to everything listed above, we would like to note the planning department of san francisco its most recent urban forest plan that was put together in collaboration with the dpw and friends of the urban forest cites insufficient
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and shrinking tree canopy and the fact that san francisco has one of we the smallest tree canopies of any major city. it also states its number one recommendation is to maximize the benefits of street trees. we do not believe that windmill palm trees are such trees. there are far better conventional trees that will achieve the goal of maximizing the benefits. vote for neighborhood and visit. we are asking the board to support us rather than the mid-sunset and put conditions on this order that dpw should once again meet with community organizations members and come up with a different replacing tree species. for the irving streetscape project that would be a conventional tree remix of trees. we are okay with palm trees being in the mix as well. there will also be desirable if friends of the urban forest rate or other independent third-party arbor selected by the community advise on the tree selection in this process. thank you very much >> either any questions we pick
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>> you had a couple specific trees you would like to see their? >> we do. there's a black [inaudible] that was in dpw's that was presented. but up for a vote. there is a-that's already present in the neighborhood and there's in our grief we included a whole list good i don't know if this is working but we have a and exhibit here with a whole list of trees that are suitable, have-do not cover the signs and that are suitable for the conditions of our neighborhood. >> that was a matrix that was given to about 11 options? >> correct. not that many of them were canopy trees. >> so that is a problem we have with this process. >> do you feel a mix is preferable to having a single? >> of course, the mixes deftly referable. because it's such a long stretch in 60s 62 duo mix would definitely be much
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better. a lot of merchants want it to be said they want uniform book. also maybe perhaps there can be a compromise. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> we can hear from the permit holder, now. which is [inaudible] representing the department of public works and then we'll hear from urban forestry after. >> thank you. i do want to thank the appellants for providing a thorough documentation to us regarding their argument. i do want to just put on the overhead >> do you want to identify yourself? >> yes, i will. my name is
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mike agreed to get on the project manager for the irving streetscape improvement project with the san francisco department of public works. just to give a little bit of background about the project, the irving streetscape implement project is part of the voter approved 2011 street safety bonds. it was allocated $3 million by the bond could the project runs from on irving street from 19th-27th ave. originally we just spoke to 26 based on community request we extended it to 27. the scope includes new sidewalks on both north and south side, pedestrian buildout at 22nd and 20 fifth avenue, decorative crosswalks, upgraded led streetlights from 19th-22nd ave. the repaving and her improvements and of course street skeet. the committee process was fairly extensive of
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this but it started in june 2013. we held 5 publicly noticed community meetings to gather public input on the design. at the 5th public meeting we provided the choices for plants or the community to vote on so they can provide input. we wanted community input but we also utilize our staff netscape architects and arborists to provide selections based on the climatic conditions out on the site as well as existing documents a commercial corridor. that's obviously a big factor in the decision. after the public meetings i personally attended, 5 different meetings with different neighborhood groups, mostly with the outer sunset merchant professional association that will provide updates. since the final public meeting of february 20 14th and our team was working on design documentation construction documents and that's why the
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one congressional public meanings but i try to console data by meeting with merchants and also a couple of those meetings the mid-sunset neighborhood association was present along with the sunset residents association. did you request from the sunset residents association, i met separately with them in the mid-sunset neighborhood association, to review some concerns they had including the palms. one of the ways we felt we could meet them halfway is to provide-trees which is a polar canopy tree on side streets off of reading. so, we located 15 of those along the project corridor just to try to meet some of the needs they were discussing. then, one of the things i want to note that the first public meeting we asked for what people wanted to
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see as improvements on this project, and cleaning was one of the number one requests. currently, the trees on site are in very poor condition. most of them were a lot of them are dead. a lot of them have been t. you can't specifically say why this has occurred. there's some thought that maybe merchants might've cut the top of the tree, so that it did not plot their awnings but however they're in very poor condition. it is also very difficult environment to grow a big canopy tree due to the high winds, the salt air, and also just been a very busy urban environment. we also look at what the potential for a larger canopy tree would be in terms of elevation, how that would look good we found that the palm tree satisfied the request from a lot of the merchants that this is not blocked but
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also provide cleaning in the area. also, the overhead power lines, while the palm does have the ability to reach the height of the power lines, as a much smaller canopy so it will create much less conflict with those lines should it reach that could also, with a growing environment it probably would be potentially 10-20 years before it ever reach that height. so, the windmill palm met a lot of the criteria that i said it it out console required a lot less water after its establishment as i urban survivability, wind and salt tolerant minimal maintenance, really i think the expectancy would be trimming on fronds that die over the years just from the bottom. suitable for many soils. ideal in a constrained space. canopy is less conflict with power lines during a much lesser canopy tree. keeps businesses visible
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as was a request and about a 6 foot average canopy diameter. so, again this logic shows the trees we offered to the plants on the side streets the 15 additional canopy trees. were able to do that on a side street going north-south and they do not receive that high winds that irving street does being east west so they are protected. so you can grow a larger canopy tree fairly easily on fairly easily on the n. south st. this shows the matrix of those 11 trees. this order landscape architects developed looking at all the conditions on site. we broke into various categories and found the best species that would have the highest survivability in this corridor. the windmill palm met all of the categories that we had divided it up into. this slide
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shows the comment card those provided at the 5th community meeting to the meeting attendees for them to vote. about 54% chose the windmill palm as their first choice. the next choice was the purple pussy bush which received about 13% of the vote. the last thing i like to note, just in terms of maintenance the otto currently includes one year of contractor on term plan to establish and to the contractor who builds the streetscape will maintain those streets for a year after installation survey can establish from there after he goes to the funding property owner and not the merchant. >> mr. reader, you mentioned in a number of community meetings but during the course of your
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presentation you brought forth that attendees or people you presented to were among the merchants associations and these 2 neighborhood associations. get other residents attend? >> well, to be honest i was not a project manager during the public outreach process. the project manager the public works subsequently left the apartment and i attended the 5th community meeting taken over the project. so, i was able to gather input on those first 4 meetings via project notes files that were left and also other staff that attended. i would say that the attendance was not what we would have liked completely but that's why i think they have 5 meetings total. usually we do about 3 for streetscape project. we try to cover as much as we could in terms of getting people attendance and getting input. >> at the meeting where you took a vote it was attended by
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2? >> it was a mix of residence. there were certain merchants there. there were residents. i think one of the things we asked was, and certainly the majority lived in this neighborhood. >> my question is somewhat of a follow-up question. i actually just had a committee meeting are to coming to be hearing this evening. do you guys to sign in sheets? >> we do speak roughly how many of the public-evidently you the assignment sheet. how many of the public attended this past meetings? >> i would have to verify the number but for the streetscape it was not hot. >> 1-2?. i would estimate average of 15-20 per meeting. >> that's not that good at those meetings, did you notice evidently were not there but with the same people at the
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meeting? >> when i reviewed the sun in sheets there were some of the same folks. but obviously given the fact there were 5 depending on who should could show up. >> thank you. >> is there is there a sense of urgency to complete this permit? >> yes, there is. the project is under construction. construction operations of not begun currently because the contractor is just getting their traffic control plan approved.. if we did change the tree there could be potential cost implications. i believe this conduct includes a contract grow agreements and so if the contractor is oriented she did that contact grow with the nursery, there could be a potential cost to change that. >> i would be counted. it becomes so they move on the contractor's part to get the permits is under appeal but that would be [inaudible]
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>> once we receive the appeal notification we told the contractor not to commence with the operations related to the tree >> what concerns me here what i'm hearing from the brief from the appellants is something that is not really as aggressive as we often hear, which is off with your head, yes or no, black or white. this is an outreach for saying, we don't mind the palms, but we don't feel we were heard and we don't feel there's a level of compromise. where i'm going with this is that if there is the opportunity to continue the conversation for a regulated period of time to reach a better compromise. i see mr. buck is in the audience and he
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is obviously an expert here and i to ask him a question are you going to be up as part of this are you available for questions? >> he'll be speaking next. >> soap i will be asking a question but that's why i asked the sins of urgency questioned it in case there is the opportunity for continuance with a regulated period of time for the purpose of reaching a compromise, which just seems it's not really mean-spirited but they want a little bit more and a compromise. which i don't see a occurring when it's like all palms. >> the points i'd like to just respond to that are that there are obviously, people participate in the community process that are not here tonight and i think we would take issue with going against what others collectively decided on in the past. i also feel that he did have some good
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faith efforts in reaching out to the sunset resident association to the mid-sunset neighborhood association to provide additional canopy trees where they would be best suited to grow. we have very limited choices on irving street given the conditions. there was a very large request for cohesiveness and whole corridor. that's why we chose a single species and with the small rubber trees that would survive out there, that is how we came to our decision, but also including the public in that we felt we did do that. >> what i was with you until you said that you had a predecessor and you have no idea what went on at those meetings, and that's what threw me into a 10 area of gray. if you would've been at all 5 meetings in handle this from point a to point whatever, that would be more comfortable
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but unfortunately that's the level of doubt that's on my mind. >> so, the maintenance of the trees only for one year by the-and then acted out be the responsibility of whom? >> the property owner. >> that's fine. that's fine neighborhood. i'm there a lot. those trees are really sad. no, they are really sad. i mean there's a couple trees between 25th and 26 on the north side that if you, on the south side, unlike 22nd, they are just gone. they are just stops. i believe-this of their sponsor ability of the i guess what mr. buck spohn >> i would say the palms we had proposed to be installed would be installed at a 10-12 foot brown trunk height. they would look mature in silly on insulation which i think would limit the amount of abuse they
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would receive and they're very well make low maintenance. from what i attended up into many of the merchants meetings since the project finished the public outreach and they obviously have a preference to this tree as well. >> thank you. >> thank you. mr. buck. >> good evening, commissioners. chris up urban for street of public works. i try to keep this under 5 instead of some general observations come a food for thought just to put out there. i would say to start off, the consistent thing here is public works. public works is been at the home the whole time. project made managers may change hands but public works in our outreach and a level of professionalism remains the
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same. if there's a consensus does establishing and building momentum prior to my brother mike taken on the project that information was critical information within a pass on as a project manager. in terms of the character of the sunset, i would say it's a challenge character when it comes to greenery. i think the most controversial thing that happened at the sunset in the last few decades is when under mayor newsom 10 years ago we initiated the trees for tomorrow program and said will maintain trees in perpetuity and route their marking the sites and people are out there scrubbing off the markets. so when we went back to see the utility markets, those are there better tree site markings were gone. the challenge here is that a lot of merchants don't want trees anywhere near their signage. we don't have the funding to maintain these trees beyond one year and i prefer large trees. i will with
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the education coordinator for 5 years for [inaudible] and i are asking why doing a plan larger trees and he looked to me like you've got a lot to learn, some. he said, well, beasties are to be planted voluntarily by property owners who are going to maintain them for a long time and they're concerned about the ongoing maintenance. so i would love to get more trees in the sunset this could be a catalyst for folks in the neighborhood to organize the way that friends of the urban forest avenue since 1981. organize the community plans. given force plan does call for more treeplanting across the city. there could even be about the initiative this november that allows public works to take on the maintenance of all street trees in the future. that's where we hope the city is going politically. but i think my main feedback is, it is very difficult to build consensus and i'm concerned that we are not going to get there regardless of how many
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additional meetings are held. the palms, they provide-there is going to be storm water diversion in the cutouts when the palms are placed in the ground. they are going to be new permeable surfaces created. citywide, were not treeplanting ponds all over the place. but when we have a commercial district where a lot of the property owners and merchants are same, we want green but we wanted to be in control in a way that we can maintain it, i understand why the windmill palm was selected. i think it's going to be difficult to convince a lot of the property owners along irving to take on larger trees. what we would call or conventional canopy trees good if we had 10 merchants out here saying we
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really want that the-has a bigger canopy. could we pepper some of these throughout. i think we would be willing to do that. if the appellant was a property owner along this corridor we could say i'm a workable arche sticking points? maybe we could put a couple in here. so, just in general feedback. i think it's very challenging to build consensus and i worried that continuing the dialogue about the species is not going to actually help us achieve any more of a consensus that has already been created. those are just my general feedback items. i do think the windmill palm is probably the one that is one of the lower my least maintenance required species we have. so, it's a real low maintenance tree. there is a must zero public safety concern regarding
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the pruning of the fronds. from that, and feel very comfortable about the recommendation. but a public safety issue. very low maintenance. and again, right now all we can pledge is to maintain the trees for the first year and we're still working out how to get the water to them for 2 additional years after that. so those my general comments. >> mr. buck, i have several questions. were you around when the discussion was heard on the embarcadero? >> i work for davy tree. davy tree removed all the trees along the embarcadero. so, we removed the trees >> was it an appropriate replanting and debate that occurred in that period? >> i wasn't within the city at that time. i know that palm trees are-can really get people's ire up. it sort of love them or not >> let's go back to-they will
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are windmill palms on-you have a list of what is appropriate street trees. urban forestry is >> yes >> is the windmill palm on our list we picked >> it is. we have about 5 palm trees that we generally approve. that is one of the palm trees. >> last point is, usually, from an urban design point of view,, when one sees in a lady of trees, it's usually reflective of either a processional movement or an urban design, or some type of consistency of character architecturally or otherwise. there's nothing consistent on irving street. >> the consistency there is portrayed maintenance. it's really very inconsistent.
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>> we all agree on that. >> the proposals 33 tree removals with no protest because there's nothing to protest. the trees have been excessively. despite a lot of our reach on our part to ensure proper pruning. then, there is -that's wreaking havoc on a lot of trees in the sunset. supervisor in that district allocated money in our ad back to how hopeless removed those trees throughout the sunset. so that's our current challenge right now. were moving a lot of my offering trees so, it really could use some green and like mike stated, this can be almost 10 feet vertical sort of trunk wood of these poems that will really add a punch to it currently does not have a consistent look and feel to it. >> thank you. >> i have a question. i am
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concerned, one, the toefl community but i understand your issue related to reaching consensus. i kind of look to more reaching compromise instead of consensus could but also, when there is a neighborhood like irving which is consistent in its inconsistency, architecturally, etc. etc., then putting one type of tree all the way down block after block after block after block, weeks of urban mall. as opposed to-and also i'm concerned that the spirit of creating a canopy won't be there. can you shed some light on the creation of a consistency that yields urban mall and then also what we do about fulfilling the vision of having urban canopy? >> sure. i think one thing at the moment is that the project
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scope is about 19th ave.-26-27th ave. it's really not through the entirety of irving and that would be one comment i would say in response to that. a lot of the feedback i than two thirds of the street trees across the city are maintained by the fronting property owner and that's why we have such a diverse mix of species could on one block, no one got organized for say it's a mix of species good i personally find that to be perfectly acceptable. a lot of folks, whether organized replanting in a community is a great desire to great identity and a consistency. whether it's a row of kinko's in eureka valley or the palm trees. so, there really is a strong desire among the public to have, to create this section permits create a look and feel for it, but i agree that there is not a
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lot of consistency out there and if there's a way to find a compromise that challenge would be, i think for mike, how to approach that. would be too easy not to property owners to say, are you open to canopy more canopy trees like a-good i think it can be a little bit challenging. overall, we don't have a single monoculture of species in the city and people love the chinese own trees on fulsome street from 22nd right up until bernal heights. it really sticks out. people always ask, what are those trees. i think the palm trees were likely to get the same thing. roll call. what are those and will still provide that wow factor and give it some identity i understand what you're saying but ideally the compromise would be a wonderful
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way to go here and i don't think in this case he was the clear answer is. i wish the public works could state that we can maintain the streets in perpetuity after november we may be able to say that is true. but we are not there at this point >> about canopy? we feel overreaching trees vs. palms? >> i think palms have their place in the mid one city and i feel like this project does that. it's 19th-27th ave. that is not the entirety of irving. we preferred large stature trees that provide greater benefits, but we also, being san francisco would love the diversity and idiosyncrasy while the different neighborhoods. so, that species is not providing the full range of benefits that every tree has the potential to provide doesn't concern us on the
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small-scale. we understand that critical feedback from the appellants. we do. were not concerned about it spreading and taking over throughout every neighborhood in the city. >> given your views, which i celebrate and like, when you look at the matrix of offerings that were provided to the neighborhood, do you think that was enough of a diversified offering that provided the opportunity for diversity and an compromise between one tree or 2 trees were another? >> i do. the runner-up the purple hot seed i should take a closer look at what we are proposing for the public. it's really almost more of a bush could. friends of forestry is to plant a lot of them and then we were doing that tree care visits there were establishing
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a good group structure. to it to keep these states on th trees really really long. so even the runner-up in this case isn't informative to me. it wasn't the more conventional canopy tree. it was still really the sort of boutique tree. that was another thing that i noticed in the species voting that the runner-up was not one of the more conventional canopy trees. so, it seems like the options were there i personally think selecting a species is really difficult and stressful because everything is in play until you make a decision and then everything else is not in play. when people approach me and say, we have consensus here, it's a windmill palm, i may wrinkle my nose at sunday the community will speak out these
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large trees, but i also feel a little bit of relief. i'm glad there's consensus. the reason is the microclimates. the prevailing winds and fog and the salt sea spray really challenging. there's not a lot of great species that we can put out there. one of the ones i recommend highly as the most sidewalk damage and it's the one is the new zealand christmas tree. i feel like for whatever reason it's the most common species that comes back to you when we denied it for removal and people are just like, so tired of the sidewalk repairs. so, when i saw the results of this i felt like based on the microclimates and the reluctance of the community to embrace large stature trees, it kind of fits with what i would expect. >> thank you. >> we can take public comment nebular like to speak please step forward. because good evening my name is kathleen kelly. this is my husband
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thomas homered and we reside at 2020 per, in the sunset right on the corner of 26th ave. we happen to have actually 5 purple-we are the same east-west access. they are not without issue but it's much prettier tree and sort of indigenous in our humble opinion that was being proposed. we are design professionals and we have been designing environments for over 4 decades. tom is an architect and him and interior designer. so if some strong feelings and professional experience. as spokespersons for the sunset resident association were here to respond to specific read this tree issue. we feel that dpw don't reflect the entire communities desires.. for these reasons. the polling method used by dpw for tree selection will be created to we think was a false sense of choice and you
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can see exhibit their office here. >> overhead, please >> this is an example of the kinds of choices that were limited. as you can see, the voters on this voting form cross out the windmill palm and went to the purple hot seed. while this might be a minority point of view, it doesn't reflect the fact that there were equal choices to be made here. >> the meeting also number to the meetings were not publicized. i mean the fact there were 15-20 people there is, well which is a wasn't well-publicized. we feel the nature of the polling, the
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choice was a lesser 2 evils because the way they were put out to the public. >> for example, here they used [inaudible] selected the windmill palm, but the person also said, keeping the street clean is more important than changing the landscape. this was pervasive point of view that didn't get hurt. >> outside our verse disagree with dpw's position that there is no other choices. i think you have in your support e-mails and letter from master arbors james allen and some others. there many community members that feel this choice is turning irving street into sort of a los angeles kind of disney world look with the selection of the palm. and many recognize that an indigenous tree would
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be more appropriate. you can see exhibit c here, how really the canopy tree was discouraged in the way this thing is represented. the lines through the canopy. >> your time is up. do you want to have a finishing statement there? >> yes. so it's really our hope the board of appeals will amend the dpw order request the friends of the urban force may become arbiters with dpw and the community for selection of a good tree. >> the date of iphone question. of the 5 meetings, did you folks attend any of those?. yes. i was in attendance at meeting number 2 and also meeting number 4 and 5. >> then, what was your take of how the meeting went? >> my take was that it didn't go >> could you speak into the microphone. >> my take was that it didn't reflect the perspective of the
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entire community and the choices that were offered to us , there were no equals across the board. it was just one candidate that was superior than the rest, so is a very limiting choice that we were provided with. >> thank you. >> i've copies of our exhibit if you'd like to have it for the record >> if you have speaker cards it would be helpful if you submit them as well. >> next speaker, please. >> i plan on speaking at try to find mr. swig and also get on patricia-neighborhood margins and we also i also had a group called pads which is 22 neighborhood merchants associations. in the marina how
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we are a similar issue. they came in. they said we want to plant all palm trees in the whole neighborhood. the italians did not like that very well. but we did. we said let's take the choices. we put the pictures on bank windows, places all over down the street. the choice was the neighborhood of the merchants. contrary to the first speaker from the department of public works, it is east-west. they do grow. our big problem is that merchants do not want trees in front of their house regardless. it's a very interesting tree. even though it grows slowly, it has a small trunk and you can hide behind it. when it gets to 25 feet the canopy is almost 13 feet above the signs. it was grown to develop the to be on highways. it can take the
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stress of high winds, software, etc. it was our neighbors, our merchants, devoted on the pictures. over i think over i think 4000 voted this way. after was voted on, it was never appealed. all of a sudden, the dept. of pub. works and friends of the urban forester, which are not very pleased with, decided they wanted palm trees. all of a sudden palm trees started showing up here and there and we put a stop to it because the public had spoken. i'm really curious where this push for palm trees is coming from in the political connections, to tell you the truth. i want you to think about this very well. it's happening with mta. it's happening with dpw. and friends of the urban forestry come to one half and save what you
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want. they don't talk to the neighbors and refused to talk to talk to the neighbors, infected they just had this incident. so be very careful in what you do. i think in every neighborhood has the right to have their look. thank you. >> thank you. >> any other public comment? seeing none, we will have rebuttal from the appellants. you have 3 min. >> i just want to clarify that were not protesting the removal of the existing trees. which is protesting the window palms as a tree species that we planted in their place. yes, people voted on the green but palm trees are they provide any cleaning value due to the limited limited canopy. yes there were numerous community meetings the public hearing on this issue. however, not once was a committee given a choice
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in a natural canopy tree. as you can see on the same card, the options were blue arrow juniper, [calling names] and window palms. not one of them is a canopy tree. a lot of people voted on the window palms because it was the most best option on the menu so to speak. it should be the case that people voted on palm trees but also given a canopy tree, we probably not be here appealing this right now. the urban street matrix was also very limited. even so does have a canopy tree which was the black-but was never put up for a vote that. to reiterate, kim members have consulted with certified arborists and are canopy trees that are suitable for weather conditions of the urban street corridor that would satisfy dpw's and communities requirements. both
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the neighborhood association and the sunset residents association consistently objected to window palms at the committee meetings, ejected at the public hearing, and [inaudible] dpw and the voter appeals every object again to window palms are the reasons i mentioned in our brief. we believe that they're better tree species suitable for this area that will also provide a better environment and aesthetic value for neighborhood. you also provide preserve a local identity and there hardly any palm trees in the central sunset warren san francisco for that matter. yes, there's a concern of shop owners not maintaining the trees but it's the same concern for palm trees as well. because they require more frequent maintenance. because they're still clearly a lot of discontent with limited window palms from community residents we hope the board of appeals will rule in our favor and all we want is dpw and the committee to work out a knife turn of choice or mixer trees with third-party arborists. that would satisfy all the requirements. if we plan these
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50 window palms adobe therefore 50 years provided almost no environmental value against global warming. with such a great opportunity here to plants escape you vote canopy trees soaked defining our neighborhood and providing aesthetic environmental value for on this plus years to come. which means a small victory against global warming. thank you. >> thank you. any questions? mr. reader. >> thank you. so, just a few items i want to reiterate. we did have a public process and begin receive consensus on the contrary. i do feel that if we were to go back out to the community reopen the issue it would go against the decisioncollectively during the public outreach process. we also risk the potential of
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merchants potentially, if they feel a larger canopy tree that will block their business they may lose support of the project overall, which we currently have support. i do want to mention that-was offered at the 5th committee meeting as a choice which the very large canopy tree which the appellants mention. that was one of the choices for selection. so we did offer a large canopy tree. the other point i like to note is that friends of the urban forestry provider letter to the board of appeals and i think within their letter they noted there is no perfect choice for this corridor. however, i think the climatic conditions in urban environment conditions minutes of the choices were very small. that's always indicated by the matrix we put together. we do not offer plans that we knew would not work in the corridor. we offer plans we thought would have a high survivability.. we
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have the other thing i like to mention about the windmill palm, it actually contrary to what the appellants 2nd would have a very low maintenance requirements. they're extremely drought tolerance. then extremely extreme tolerance too bad soil conditions. overall, maintenance release just going to apply to trimming the fronds of the die off over the years. the last point i want to make is that while we'll would have loved to provide a large canopy tree that provides both benefits that the appellants mention, with carbon conversion, i think it should be noted this corridor is one block from golden gate park and there's obviously a very large growth of carbon converting trees just one block away. there are no free winds through this neighborhood. i believe that's it. >> question. at the very back of your brief is a i guess this
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streetscape map with existing business. are those the only businesses? >> no, no. that map was a diagram rebar landscape architects and they noted just a few of the businesses so people could orientate themselves >> thank you. >> my question is are there any other districts with large plantings planned in the near future besides earning from 19th-27? >> so are streetscape program at public works, we had 24 streetscapes as part of the 2011 over paving bond. we are nearing completion on most of those. in terms of multiblock streetscapes, most of those from the bonds are completed. we do have the potrero streetscape which is currently under construction. that's
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premature from 22nd-25th >> what percentage of palms being planted? >> i don't know that number offhand but we did plant palms on the streetscape completed last july that is from 46-48. really, i landscape architects proposed palms when they feel the climatic conditions will support them. also, these are many reasons behind the offering of the palm in this corridor. >> then, what is your response to comment from the public in regards to the marina district merchants corridor that dpw had recommended palms and that it got switched over to ever tree that was? >> i can't comment specifically. i wasn't involved in the process good i will say that in the marina there is protection from ocean wins that is not a street that union or
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chestnut in-those would not be receiving the high ocean wins and salt wins that irving would be >> are direct that question to mr. bob. thank you. >> thank you. mr. bob. >> good evening chris buck with san francisco public works. i should address that question >> it's your time so- >> really no general rebuttal. i did double check the list of trees provided on the matrix. this is one my favorite street trees. it is a large canopy tree , so i didn't verify just a few minutes ago that was on the list could integrate very large street tree. so that just confirming that was such a tree offered on the matrix. i don't
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know the history behind the marina commercial corridor. i would need to verify on chestnut union street. doesn't sound typical. what happened there? again, i was education chordata for fans of the urban forest for 5 years. so my introduction to civil servants in san francisco is really good tree otto a certified arborists of course. i am the examined administrator for cancer was to become certified harvested am heavily involved in the industry and we sure all the species information with friends of urban forest did you ever and forced to counsel and really a lot of colleagues as we do want to continue strike pushing new different species out there. so, i do really believe that we've got qualified arborists were evaluating this information with her landscape architects and to our own department at urban forestry. >> are you finished? >> yes.
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>> if we were to throw this back in your lap and say hey what's a more community input, can you give me a landscape picture what that would look like? good, bad, indifferent? >> sure. i probably will defer to do a brief reply and my one week to speak to that because that's wanted about in my mind well how would we were without look like and how would we move forward. to be a single meeting, all or nothing meeting where we put out the information have multiple meetings? do you give more credit to voting member who's going to be living along the frontage, whether it's a property owner or residents or attendance? it's going to be challenging. i do believe that in the end, i think oregon and back where we are. with a preferred species. san francisco is all about due process and the ability of the public to
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>> we know >> you can be a german tourist and professor tree removal in san francisco. we don't question it. i just worry about how far this would go in this love streetscape projects we are planning large stature trees . masonic, cesar chavez is completed but those are large stature trees. valencia, potrero, barlett, van ness, ravenna commit to very large stature trees bid is no pattern by public works on looking for the easy way out. >> thank you. >> the question that's a little bit tangential but i'm curious, how was it-we see this all the time. i caught dueling arborists. the 2 certified arborists will look at a tree and come to very different conclusions? >> reasonable minds will differ. that's just not what lawyers say but even arborists have learned to say that. as long as the basis for what you
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are playing your staking what you're advocating for the mets a reasonable statement. i do feel that public works as an independent third-party. no one here is going to benefit financially from a specific species, other than the phone calls were going to receive for years based on these decisions we make. so i think we are the most independent party out there and work on the answering these calls. people want to know every tree complaint to imagine were going to receive about any tree. >> we are aware of that. >> thank you. >> chris., would your organization consulted on this at all? >> we were. >> can an artist be somebody-was he part of your department or separate?
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>> i think more recently when the species issue is coming up our current inspector for the area, stephen keller, was brought into the mix it he's the one handling removal process and just generally speaking, we do meet with a landscape architecture on a regular basis to hear about what projects are coming up and understanding what's proposed and if we have any issues with it. we typically pipe up and say, can you do a large stature species here. we would-if there's a lack of a full-bodied conventional tree canopy we would say we love to see one on there. so, generally we were close. i would have to look specifically at who reviewed it but generally it some something that happens all the time. >> thank you. >> commissioners the matter is submitted. >> i guess i will start. i understand commissioner your concerns as a resident of
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central for a long time now. inner sunset. in a visitor of her street probably once a week, maybe twice. trees need help and a lot of my friends are merchants on that block. i can see-i was emergent in the sunset for 16+ years and had to maintain that for street trees on a regular, regular, regular basis. i could cd pw's dpw's challenges getting everyone to vote on a tree that would block . personally i think was a tree has matured those neighborhoods a much more attractive. you look at several districts in san francisco that a picture trees streetscapes and canopies
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. i don't think that it would be hard-pressed to get think i think of be very hard-pressed to get the merchants of irving to that same consensus, to be honest. they willing to wait 15-20 years that to happen. i don't think so. so, i am definitely leaning towards denying the appeal and upholding the permits. >> it does appear that the merchants drove a lot of this decision-making that wasn't quite stated that way, but testing some of the aside needs me to that conclusion. let's go to the nature of what is being designed, and yet what is being opposed. i think i'll approach it from the following way. that is, we had a case up in diamond heights where a small group felt they had a right to
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determine the visual nature of that street. the property owner, who didn't want that is, didn't get her way to the property owner lost at this port. i found that to be not acceptable. similarly, if one looks at the words that are being used, it's difficult for me to accept this is consensus when you are talking about the great club hourly of 54% with 15-20 people. to me that's not a consensus but that's not a plurality. however, i also understand the difficulties of getting consensus in our town. i understand we are where dpw is coming from in wanting to put in trees that have some
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ability to be able to last into the next generation. there is no doubt that palms resist droughts. they resist salt air much better than many trees. i would propose the following. i would propose to continue this for one week and i would ask urban forest tree, mr. bock emma and ms. short give me-give us, excuse me, 3 non--palm recommendations of what they would like to see that they think would be appropriate for that area. >> how about dpw? >> they party given those. >> but then what? >> i'm curious. i think-is not necessarily my trees. obviously, the board can vote enter. it was my choice i would take all 3
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and put them in there. i would prefer, as a citizen of the city, a diversity. it doesn't make sense to me to see the same tree over and over going over 12 blocks >> 8 blocks. >> 8-12, you know there's no correlation to the buildings there, to the activities there. >> i find in your direction.. i'm not sure i agree with the action step. but i'm with you on the position and strategy, but not so much on the action step. i would like to place the burden-i would like to recommend a continuance could we agree. i would like to recommend a
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continuance for a longer period of time. it might be 3 weeks or a month could i would like to place the burden on the residents association, the merchants association, in conjunction with dpw and urban forest tree for history reach out for greater consensus and what bothers me the most is that there really wasn't a broader variety presented on all of the ballots. as was stated in the 5th meeting, a canopy tree was presented. that means the other for meetings that diversity was not presented. so, i would like to ask the major parties, which are the neighborhood representation, associations, to meet with dpw and urban
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forest tree and month from now come back and with our findings and recommendation. it might be the same thing, but in consideration of a broader matrix of canopy trees. >> i'm a little more inclined to want to know what the residents and business owners want. i don't know if there is a mechanism to go back to the predominant occupant, where each of these trees is. and say, here's a couple choices, here are the pros and cons. what would you like? i don't know if that's feasible, but it seems to me that since barring something happening in november, there can be responsible. i inclination is
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that we allow the property owner to have some say about it. i don't know if what you're talking about gets us there or if we can get there. >> so, one week, 2 months indefinite. do you have input? >> a month. >> one week one month or indefinite? >> it can't be indefinite. >> i know. >> since we have to vote on this maybe we can get a consensus >> bill consensus. >> build a consensus >> prior to that i think we should talk about it a little bit more. commissioner fung >> i think i said too much. >> i am willing to stretch it out but not very long. at all. >> for what purpose we picked
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>> i see where you are coming from. >> lemaster project manager a question. this appeal is of the pre-demolition permits your other improvements, have you started construction on the buildout and the sidewalk replacement? >> no, that has not begun. >> that's not being appealed. i can continue. that could take quite a long time. i just want to make sure everybody understands. this does not impact the schedule, but i think it does impact the long-term visual aspect of the streets. >> that's why my first question was where is the sense of urgency and you are validating the sense of urgency may not be as dramatic as represented >> i've not heard any disagreements with the sidewalk.
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buildout for greater safety or any of those things. that can continue as far as we are concerned. >> some utterly on having entities contesting removal of the trees either. just want to go in and said >> d- i bring up the pounds again and asked her question. so, you are the quandary of stuff you're going on. if we were to give you more time will you do with it? >> i think we want to consult bring in the friends of the urban forest to advise us on the process and perhaps have another meeting, community merchants, everybody, dpw. friends of the urban forest to discuss it. come up with a turn of options and vote again where we have a broader range of options up for vote >> in a perfect world, time
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with it take for you to get a college? >> it's hard to say. friends of the urban forest, in standby mode they said they would advise us if this would be appealed. so, we can definitely get there--them, their advice, could i do know >> 30 days, 60 days, 90 days? >> probably-what with the sunset association think? 2 months. the person involved from the beginning >> you do live in the central sunset correct? >> yes. we walk on that stretch like 3-4 times a day. it's important to us >>. abusing a lot of your free time for this. >> is there a separate merchant association as well? because there's a merchants association and the neighborhood as well. they were involved in the process so we could advertise and bring them in. we could put notices on the
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merchants of doors if necessary to get as much engagement as possible for the meeting. because i think maximizing engagement-because the commissioners want to see involvement other than 15 of the same people on a regular base. thank you very much >> we should ask the discussed supervisor's office wants to be involved in this. >> is a represented from katie tang's office here? sorry i did not see you there. >> my question is, does your office want to get involved in this? >> i don't expect to speak today but if we have more community community meetings, believe we will be willing to participate and help out to facilitate the conversation >> this alternate may be better by your office then dpw. >> we will be happy to do that >> i wonder katie is watching?
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>> should identify myself >> these >> ray law from katie tang's office >> thank you. >> i would not support dragon is on. for too long of a time. i think the issue are well-known. i think the people all know it but just try to see one last step we can take to create something that is a bit more acceptable. i don't think were going-we would never get total acceptance >> what do you think? >> not more than one month >> i agree >> it forces the issue for the merchants association come in the residence are passionate about it to mobilize that is not interested in mobilizing the come back in a month and if it has some move forward we will take the next that >> we will know the answer,
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then. >> yes >> just to be practical looks like april 20 desire for a little extra time which is fine those old meeting the first 2 weeks in april. >> celebs over to april 20 >> is there a motion? >> i would move to continue this case to april 20 if it's acceptable to both sides as a date for perhaps not only the department and the residence and the association, but also the district supervisor's office to convene and see if we can get this closer to a decision point. >> so we have a motion for the vice president to continue the
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appeal to april 20, 2016 to out time for the department, community residents, neighborhood association and supervisors tang's office to convene a meeting to see if it should i say additional consensus can be reached?. yes >> on a motion, commissioner lazarus aye, the honda aye come he wasn't aye swig without objection that motion carried 5-0. this no further business >> thank you. >>[gavel] >>[adjournment]
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safety and neighborhood services committee occurring >>the city of san francisco sfgtv meeting of the book safety and neighborhood services committee