enjoy your life after retirement. dill aylan works with our offic knows about the muni tracker, because we have so many complaints that arise about muni that we often have to send it to dylan and we have to help us triage and figure out answers to a lot of questions. so i know you deal with us when we're in frustrated situations. i know that you can work to get back to get muni running. and thank you for your years of service. and i wish you all the best. >> president cohen: we have one more. supervisor peskin likes to come around twice.

>> supervisor peskin: once you get back from your trip and you want something to do, we can send you to clean up the finances of the housing authority. >> oh, boy. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you, supervisor peskin, take it away. >> i'm so humbled by the accolades. i don't have a speech like dylan prepared. i feel sad to leave the m.t.a. it's an agency that i know you get frustrated with the agency, but i have to tell you, there are some great people there that care about the system and really want to make a difference. i'm leaving you with your work and working to make sure that i can find muni when i need to and it's not crowded and i can find a seat. we don't appreciate what we have in this city and having lived

across the world, i can tell you, it's one of the best systems. so please be kind to the folks at muni and m.t.a. and i want it send a shoutout to my family. a lot of staff are working a lot of hours with little praise. i consider many of you my family. i will still text you on things that i don't think you are doing correctly. i'm not losing your phone numbers. it's not goodbye. i will make sure you doing the right thing for the system. thank you, all. [applause]

>> president cohen: sonali and dylan, come into the well. we can take a picture and let's stand behind the honorees.

[applause] >> supervisor peskin: this is out of order, but i want to

acknowledge that today is supervisor stefani's birthday. happy birthday. [applause] >> supervisor stefani: thank you. >> supervisor brown: thank you. i can't believe i have to do this with my first legislation an 11-0 vote but i have to rescind the vote because i forgot these amendments. >> president cohen: we have a

motion and a second. >> supervisor brown: so i think i have to do another vote. >> clerk: yes. you will offer your amendments. >> supervisor brown: thank you. >> president cohen: do we take a roll call vote? >> clerk: vote was rescinded on item 43 and now you will make your amendments and read them into the record? >> supervisor brown: yes. there's some housekeeping amendments. one was taking offer the fillmore. but then also, some words that needed to be amended like an s taken off of sections and things like that, so it was housekeeping pretty much, right, john? >> city attorney, pure clean-up amendments to fix some errors. >> like 10% and putting in 10

percent. >> supervisor brown: something like that. >> clerk: can we get a motion to accept the amendments? do we need a roll call vote? >> supervisor peskin: we can take it without objection. >> clerk: we need a roll call since the house is different. >> roll call vote. >> clerk: on item 43 as amended -- [roll call vote]

>> clerk: there are 10 ayes. >> motion is adopted. >> clerk: for clarity, madam chair, the ordinance was passed on first reading as amended. >> can we continue with item 44? >> clerk: order nantz to amend the planning code and zoning map to establish the 430 29th avenue special use district to make the appropriate findings.

>> same house, same call? >> clerk: supervisor fewer is on the -- >> supervisor fewer: thank you. i introduced this legislation to create the special use district at the request of saint peter's to allow them to renovate their buildings and lease the space for community service nonprofits. i agreed to the proposal on the condition that they would do outreach and help to mitigate any concerns they might have. i've been sensitive to concerns that it could have parking and traffic impacts on the residential neighborhood, which is why i ensure that this will be exclusively for administrative office use with no direct services. will only prevent the influx of traffic that could result from receiving the service. i'm happy that it can be revitalized and used to serve the community rather than an

eyesore. i want to thank supervisors tang, kim and safai for passing this out of land use with a positive recommendation. i hope to have all of-co my colleagues' support. thank you. >> same house, same call? this ordinance is adopted on first reading. madam clerk, item 45. >> clerk: an ordinance to amend the planning code to create a new use allowing flexible multiuse retail, permitting pop-up retail in commercial spaces, flexible retail in certain districts, arts activities to affirm the ceqa. >> supervisor tang: i'm excited to create a new category under

the planning code. i want to thank all the districts, who have also joined on to this legislation, as we're trying to create more flexibility for small businesses in san francisco. it's not a problem unique to san francisco, but really nationwide, where we're struggling with empty storefronts and the negative impact that it has on communities as a result. with e-commerce and everything you can buy on-line, there is less and less. so we will interchange without having to go to planning department each and every time. it includes things like arts activities or limited restaurants, to retail personal services.

underlying zoning will apply. we don't anticipate it will get around zoning issues. we are looking at six categories of uses and want to make an amendment to page 5, 18-20, to say that flexible retail is two of the following and i'm adding distinct that may be operated by one or more business operators. i want to thank my colleagues and thank you for helping us with this. it's a little challenging for enforcement, but we hope that this is one of many tools that can help more small businesses survive in san francisco.

with that, i make that motion. >> president cohen: motion has been made by tang and second by safai. we're going to go to supervisor brown. >> supervisor brown: thank you, supervisor tang, for crafting this legislation. lower haight, haight ashbury, fillmore has been struggling. it's just that retail is changing and the changes are presented, presenting challenges for brick and mortar small businesses and corridors that they make possible. we need it support our merchants as they adopt with these times. our small business people will adopt and thrive, but it's important that we as a city don't get in the way of the

changes. i know we're all looking at these issues and i accept that we are as how to help. i also plant to bring forward some legislation in the coming weeks, focusing on street lining some aspects with the goal of helping our merchants. i want to make a plug to highlight one of the aspects of the legislation. it cleans up what, in my mind, is a hole in the evolution of our code that prohibited arts activities, as a use of virtually all of our citicorp do-- city corridors. a lot of people are using these but didn't realize it was not in the code. i'm just so happy that we're sele

rectifying this. i just want to thank my staff for working on this >> president cohen: supervisor safai? >> supervisor safai: i appreciate what we began this as talking about a startup for the small businesses. we were able to streamline that process and businesses were permitted and planning department said they were principally permitted are able to move that in an aggressive manner. this is the second phase of that. my district suffers from a significant number of storefronts and vacancies. what this allows for is the ability for businesses to pool their resources together to many

cases as startup costs are difficult, tenant improvements are difficult. it allows for businesses to work together to share the costs and share space. as supervisor brown said, we moved as part of last year's process on notification to amend our neighborhood commercial district to allow for arts uses. we've been able to activate a few of the spaces with activities and one of them in particular, sharing space with two organizations doing arts work, and training for after school youth. we're excited about this. in many ways, some of this happens already. it's not necessarily permitted. and now this allows for the planning department to work with our staff. and we appreciate the flexibility of the planning department working with us, no pun intended, on the word flexibility. but it's truly a joint effort

and i want to thank supervisor tang for taking this and allowing us to be a part of it. and i know my district is benefiting from it. thank you. >> president cohen: thank you. a motion has been made. if we could take this and accept amendments, we can take this without objection? thank you. thank you. as amended, without objection, item 45? as amended. and without objection. madam clerk, i believe it is -- it's 3:21. let's move to our 3:00 p.m. special order. >> clerk: 57-60 washington square water conservation project appeal. public hearing of purposes in

environmental review under the environmental quality act -- >> president cohen: would you call 61-68 first? we're going to take them out of order. >> clerk: these items comprise of persons hearing of an environmental impact report at 450-474 o'farrell street and 532 jones street. items 62, 63 and 64 are associated with that portion. the environmental impact report certification and items 65-68 comprise the appeal of conditional use authorizization for the proposed project at 450-474 o'farrell street and 532

jones street. >> president cohen: colleagues, what we have today. we've received notices that the appeal for the environmental impact report for the proposed project at 450-474 o'farrell street and 532 jones street has been withdrawal. i want to recognize supervisor kim. i wanted to see if you had any remarks to indicate that you have reached an agreement on this project. >> supervisor kim: thank you. a resolution was reached on the appea appeals.

conditional use and environmental appeal. we're glad that we can move forward with this project. so, colleagues, we do have to open up for general public comment on this item, but i will make a motion to table the appeal and move forward with the environmental determination. >> president cohen: we will need to take public comment on these items, but before proceeding to public comment, if the appellants are here, are they here? all right. would you like to say a few words before we appreciate? >> mike buehler, on behalf of san francisco heritage. we are pleased to we've reached an agreement allowing it to

proceed and uptown district. heritage no longer objects to the certification of e.i.r. and rejecting the conditional use appeal. >> president cohen: seeing there are no other names on the roster. let's open up for public comment. you will have an opportunity to come forward now. you will speak for 2 minutes. thank you for your comments. welcome, sir. we'll begin with you. >> thank you, madam president. this is massive and overly dense project is indicative of something larger and overreliance of the term "housing crisis." we get so much built that has two elements to look at. a rectangle with windows. there are no sills or arches,

nothing recessed. there is no cornice or moldings or -- there are no bay windows. if we look at 1075 market, set with six older buildings. land buildings don't have the features. we need some bland buildings now and then for variety. but it's unnecessary for new buildings to be built in this manner. if we look at something simple like 246, it's better than the stuff we have an the 1100 block of market or 1200 block of market. all the buildings at geary and van ness, the west side of clay and larkin. these buildings have no soul. nothing to look at.

the developers and architects have decision regarded their duty to have an exterior that adds to the beauty of the city instead of crushing it. ceqa doesn't consider the dimension, but most of us know better. the planning commission has not appreciated my comments, but the public -- >> president cohen: thank you. next speaker. >> all these projects that we're displacing the original

nationality is not gentrification, it's discrimination based on geographical location. this is supposed to be 170 h-un apartment complex, same technique that you use in your system. one demonstration that was made by the president, you came out with an a.p.i. scale of the incomes. and made it a bulletin poster sized and turned it to your colleagues. and then you have one of your co-workers, aides, pointing to 55% of the income of the people that would be able to afford to live in the apartment building complex. i believe that came to $44,400. and then you deliberately lied and said that this is the starting range and people can apply whose income is below. that's a bold-faced,

pathological low. if your income is below the target range of a.p.i., the mayor's office on housing won't even accept your application and another lie was told where you said your aide was making $57,000 a year as an instructor at the malcolm x school. teachers start off at about $30,000 a year and work their way up. i object to that treatment. the only way to bust you is to get you in the federal building in front of a federal district court judge because you are doing price-fixing and price-gouging. and about the shipyard, the federal government is now joining in on the lawsuit pertaining to fraud and you still denied the fact that that land is contaminated and you want to give recognition to one of the ladies that's dying.

i'm talking about racism. i'm talking about pay to play. corruption. there's a new thing, y'all, it's

called pay and turn the other way. did you hear what i say? it's a new thing. i'm going to introduce you to the city by the way. it's called pay and then they turn the other way. reason why they do that. let's talk about the city inspections. let's talk about building going down to the rock bottom down there where the building is leaning. someone got paid and turned the other way. let's talk about in the filmore. our black businesses are gone. supervisor, our black businesses are own. the only one there is african americans. they're not black americans. pay and turn the other way. then out there in bay view, where you have the super fen. billions. the federal. someone paid and turned the other way. it's a new system here. not pay to play. but pay and turn the other way.

>> next speaker. >> good evening. our afternoon. my name is amos gregory. i'm the founder of the san francisco veteran's mural project. some of the supervisors may know of our project. it's a mural project that resides in the tenderloin. we created this project seven years ago on the walls of shannon street which run adjacent to the project that the church is attempting to build. we've attended every single planning meeting with the exception of the last one, which i was sick. we've always advocated for the community. we've never talked about veteran's alley's needs. we've advocated for the community to have more affordable housing percentage. we've advocated for the community to have this thing, not be a huge dark tower, 13-storeys standing above

six-storey apartment complexes that are already there. today we have to talk about veteran's alley and our needs as a project. with our project, we essentially started off because we had no other space in this city. it used to be called crack alley. we can't have arts organization and non profits supported us so we went out there and did this project ourselves. over the years we've grown and we've included within this project so many other people in our community. we have a school program and we work with community members within the s.r.o.s that around there that are non veterans. we've created a landmark. what we see today, is with this agreement and that they're pushing forward we look at all the non privilege its that have

sat behind this project and have have had agreements negotiated and all of these different non profits are not anywhere near veteran's alley. all of these different non profits are never in veteran's alley when we're actually doing work. >> thank you, sir. your time is up. yoyou have to ra link wish the c and let someone else speak. your time is up. next speaker. >> you had your two minutes to speak and that's it. deputy. >> president cohen: next speaker. >> my name is michael nolte and one of the many titles that i

have is on the board of that alley. i just got here so i'm not sure all the things that have been said. i do have concerns about how a development that is going to be market rate coming into to our neighborhood is going to gentrify our neighborhood. we have concerns about that. i'm also the alliance for district 6. i'm the executive director. our organization deals with preservation of historical assets. that's one of our main issues that is going to be discussed here today. i think that's also very important concerning when preserving the past. i happen to be a fifth generation san francisco an and it's very important that the past is still preserved in some manner. if it's not, you are tearing down several buildings or lots that are going to have

historical issues in our community, and when they're gone, how are they going to be remembered. i'm not clear how they're being remembered. there's no mitigation for that. if you are tearing down what was there. i would expect that our decision makers make some concessions here for what is on the agenda and listen to the issues that need to be discussed. thank you. >> thank you. are there any other members of the public that would like to comment on item 61? seeing none. public comment is closed. just want to note that now that the hearing is closed, item 61 and 62 have been filed -- excuse me item 61 and 65 have been filed. 62, 63, 64, 67, 66, 68 are now in the hands of the board. supervisor kim, i want to pivot

to you to see if you will make any motion. i would imagine in your opening remarks, you said you would approve 62 and 66 and tabling 63, 64, 67 and 68, is that still correct if. >> that is correct. so, i would like to make that motion to ask the board to affirm the final environmental impact report certification and approve the conditional use authorization and table as madam president stated, item 63, 64, 667 and 68. i did want to note this project is come to the place that it is today under months of negotiations with neighborhood leaders, central city s.r.o. ole ab ra tive and tenderloin housing clinic as well as the historic heritage society. i do want to thank all the parties for being involved. i do wish all the of the community members did let our office know that there are other requests. i did not field any other

requests prior to today. and so, at this time. i do ask colleagues to support this project. we have been under negotiation for this project for years and it did take us quite a bit of time to get to this point that our office could support this project. so colleagues, i do ask for your support and i want to thank our stakeholders for working with our office to come to a place where they can support the project that is before us today. >> president cohen: thank you, very much. madam clerk, let's do a roll call. the clerk is just reminded me i need a second for supervisor kim's motion. seconded by supervisor fewer. thank you, madam clerk. call the roll now. >> clerk: [ roll call ]

>> clerk: there are 11 ayes. >> president cohen: all right. the final environmental impact report is affirmed and the c.u. is approved. thank you. madam clerk, please call items 57-60. the first special order. >> clerk: these items comprise the washington square water conservation project appeal. item 57 is the public hearing for persons interested in the determination of exemption from environmental review under the california environmental quality actor ceqa issued as a exemption by the planning department on may 17th, 2018 for the proposed washington square water conservation project to reduce the parks' existing irrigation water by two-thirds and improve sad rated soils condition on the

main lawn. to affirm the determination that the project is categorically exempt from further review. item 59 reverses the department's determination subject to the adoption of rent and findings and item 60 is the motion to direct the preparation of findings. >> president cohen: thank you, very much. colleagues, what we have before us today is one appeal for the categoric exemption located in district 3. similar to the board meeting october 30th, 2018, before considering this appeal, we must release our colleague supervisor peskin. he has indicated he has property close to this project and he would like to be excused. may i have a motion to excuse supervisor. made by supervisor fewer seconded by supervisor yee. >> thank you, madam president. as i indicated at the last time this came before the board, i own real property within 500 feet and have been advised by the city attorney that i must recuse myself in this matter so thank you for that motion.

>> president cohen: thank you, very much. all right. supervisor peskin is excused. this appeal involves analysis of adequacy, sack r accuracy and sufficiency of a categorical exemption. we have so minutes for the appellant, who is mr. mark bruno and save north beach. are you here today? great. and sir, you will have 10 minutes to describe the grounds of the appeal. there are two minutes for public comment to speak in support of the appeal. then, there is up to 10 minutes from the planning department to present its analysis foray firming the cat x up to 10 minutes for real property in interest to present their project and that is the rec and park. rec and park, where are you? i don't see you. thank you. up to two minutes for public commenters to speak when they are in support of the

affirmation. the appellant will have three minutes for rebuttle in their argument and colleagues without objection, this hearing is open. mr. bruno -- i'd like to call up the appellant, mark bruno and save north beach to describe to us the grounds of their appeal. >> my name is mark bruno and i am the appellant in this matter. as many of you have seen before, i will place it here but you will see more details about this notice of public hearing. we see them all the time in our world, especially yours because it's how we rely on telling our

constituents and our friends and our neighbors and fellow citizens of san francisco about something important happening in their lives. this was given to us here in north beach. >> it's upside down. >> i just got out of a medical hearing and i feel upside down. if yo you have to interrupt me, please feel free. i'm hoping not to take 10 minutes. our argument is simple. when da dan mackarini came to me following this hearing on may 16th, and he and i filed an appeal on june 15th, 30 days following this hearing on may 16th, the last day possible, that we did what was proper, what was called for and accord

with the administrative code of san francisco. for the planning of senior officer to deny us that right to appeal denies every citizen the right then and now and in the future to take ceqa seriously to allow us as citizens to question planning decisions or in this case a rec and park/planning decision. the expenditure in this case of $3.05 million. isn't it important that citizens do question that and don't we want citizens to be allowed to do that? under sook ceqa, it's hard to remember this stuff. i don't remember it, but it's an interesting call to action for all of us as citizens. it says, in the policy and objections section which mirrors the state code on ceqa, it says, what are the purposes? well the basic purposes are to provide decision makers and the public with meaningful

information. regarding the environmental consequences of an action. identify ways that environmental damage can be avoided or significantly reduced. provide for public input in the environmental review process. on all counts, our appeal filed on june 15th, in a timely fashion, meets these standards, these high ideals and we were trying to build a save our skin in the neighborhood because we thought it would damage all of us as business owners and as residents to have the park closed. so the issue here in wash ton square is that this project has a lot of good as many things in government have and a lot of negative effects. that's what we were opposing, not the good, not the safing of water, which we're all in favor of. we were opposed to the bad. the bad for us are three things. number one, it cost $3.05 million and to get the same effect, the same conservation of water two-thirds of the water in the park the

city itself decided back in 2015, that it could be done for $184,210. i question all of us, as citizens, do we care or not that 2.8 million extra is being spent to do what is a make-work project for contractors? now i know you will hear from the other side this project is good and wonderful and i agree with all those things. i agree that it's quote, quite good and renews the park. the issue you have as legislature is there enough good to justify the down sides? the expenditure $2.8 million more than what was originally allocated for this identical project. two the closing of the park. a statement to the neighborhood, especially to head of north beach business association and myself, that our appeal on

june 15th, can be arbitrarily ignored to convenience the city to allow the city to move forward with its committees, namely the rec and park, budget committee to allocate that 3.05 million, why? because the senior planning officer decided, subsequent to our appeal on june 15th, it was untimely. if you look at the record of untimely appeals, you will see that the vast majority are called untimely because they're not there on time. the man and woman on the street, you think untimely it's you are too late and you missed the college application deadline and the deadline for the application to appeal this extraordinary expenditure of 3.50 million. you just missed it. that wasn't what is said. what was said is that you are too early. you don't have a right to appeal because you got here too early. that brings us back to this notice, which i'll move over here and show you.

you will see right here, it says -- thank you. thank you very much. you are very kind. it says, right here where my finger is. it says a historic preservation, we'll all read it together and it's significant to our appeal. it's the heart of our appeal. a historic preservation approval at the public hearing is the public hearing described in this notice -- >> president cohen: you should use the microphone. >> i'm sorry. would constitute the approval action for the project for the purposes of ceqa pursuant to san francisco administrative code. i know that there are people here who are lawyers and someone out there in the world who will arthritis difference between the word would and will and shall. but that isn't the point. the point is the common person in the street and i'm not an attorney, and dan is not an attorney and neither are the other people who saw this notice attorneys, we would presume that

sentence says that this hearing that you are coming to, if you want to spend your time, your time that you could be spending with your kids or working or cleaning the park or doing a lot of good things, your time is being spent in part because to come to this hearing allows you to watch the initiation of a significant, legal process. the ceqa process. it's a ridged schedule. it has a very serious process because it stops people, in this case rec and park, from doing good things. buildings are good things. i'm often against buildings but let's face it, they provide housing. everything that can be good that is a construction. this park project can be looked at as good. this is the an invitation to say if you disagree with us, you msu can come to this hearing and afterwards, you can appeal. why do we know that? because that mirrored a text of the administrative code which is 31.04 definitions of the

administrative code tells us, so i'm leaving behind the policies and objectives and getting into the grassroots, which is a good analogy for a park problem. so the grassroots here are under definitions and another section of the administrative code. both of which confirm that our appeal was not untimely but in fact exceedingly timely. should have been accepted. at that point, as many of you know who have seen ceqa repeals before, this 3.05 million could not be allocate today. we would not be having this hearing today. the remedy in this situation is that 3.05 million was incorrectly allocated because some people in the world, your citizens, your constituents had a legal appeal which was denied without any cause whatsoever. and that appeal is defined here. it says, under definitions, 31.04, if it's not a private project, a public one, it says for all other projects determined to be exempt. so what happened at that appeal

at that landmark hearing the historic preservation commission was the planning department said it was exempt. this project rec and park project is exempt. it has see, for all other projects determined to be exempt, meaning a public project, the first approval of the project in reliance by a city decision-making body at a notice public hearing shall be the approval action and that's what we're stating here today. we had the right to move forward at that time because that was the approval action date. how else do we know that? we know it because afterwards, the landmark's commission now hauled the historic preservation commission, did in factory lion, so i know it's hard to remember those words, but part of it is not just that they put it on a notice and invited us to believe that it was the approval action date.

so the approval action is when you are permitted to begin the 30-day period to set fourth and appeal. which is what we did. so, it says also, that the first approval of the project and this project was approved at the historic preservation commission, in reliance on the exemption and that exemption we know is relied upon because on the very first page of the approval, by the historic preservation commission, motion number 0340, it says whereas the project was determined by the department of planning to be categorically exempt from environmental review, the historic preservation. if that isn't reliance i don't know what is. if you want to quibble about whereas clauses in a contract, you may -- is this 10 minutes? >> president cohen: you may finish if one sentence. >> it also finds these are the findings of the resolution that approve this project.

in two cases they confirm this. thank you. >> president cohen: all right -- next, we will take up public comment. two minutes. your public comment speak in support of the appeal. again, these are members of the public that support mark bruno and the save north beach grounds for appeal. >> it was clearly demonstrated by him. he is learning the hard way, even you go through the red tape and demonstrate rules and regulations before this board of supervisors and the oval administration, you put profit over safety. you put profit over safety because yo you are reckless. as long as your paycheck keep coming you go through with the project regardless if lives are

in danger and you demonstrated that. i've shown you the origination of radioactive material, how the battle ships were blown up in their sea with the atomic bomb explosion, the battleships which contaminated the hunters point shipyard and you still go through with providing housing next to pier 70 and the hunters point shipyard. the only way to punish you is to get you in the united states federal district court. now this is already been picked up by the justice department already because it's fraudulent information. i demonstrated you were using a scanner machine that's not qualified to detect cancer-causing materials and you still went along with it. so, for the gentlemen that spoke before me, he is learning the hard way no matter what rule and regulations is on the books, you

are not going to follow it. a good example of that is mission work. 4.10 says that 15% of the apartment unit complexes at mission rock is supposed to be for low income and very low income bracket people. all of you still carved out and don't include the most vulnerable people who are eligible to be tenants in that building. that means 225 of those apartments are supposed to be for low income bracket people. you don't include them in inclusionary rule. you are reckless. >> president cohen: next speaker. >> boy oh boy. this is such a treat. in the white house, washington d.c., it's a new blue wave. we have a black wave coming through here. ladies and gentlemen, i got my race card here. don't look at me like i'm a villain because i speak up here for black folks because if no one else speak for them, i'm going to speak for them. i have three generations under me. i have my kids, they got kids

and my grandson has got four kids so i'm a paw paw. right here at city hall, y'all know what they call me, ace on the case. let's get back to this here. i hope and pray when we have issues with the western edition that our supervisors can recuse herself because we're going to have issues that she's not going to be able to talk about. i would appreciate she leave the room so we can get down to business. my name is ace and i'm on the case and i'm not a politician, hold up. i'm not a prosecutor. i'm a truth recruiter. did y'all hear that. look it up in the dictionary. i'm not a prosecutor, i'm a truth recruiter. and i happen to be the c.a.o., the c.e.o. of the new thing i'm ruling out y'all is called community assistance service and we're going to make some money. enterprise. that's going to replace ace. so y'all think i just jumped here from space and i'm ace on

the case in your face, no, on filmore street i'm ace in the place. i'm going to have my own live tv show there because they have a new entity this you have people on here. san francisco housing development corporation. the original lady was -- what was her name? most people in this organization don't even know jodie johnson. never met her. but they're perpetrating they're for the black community. i'm here to tell you, my name is ace, i'm on the case and i would not tolerate race. the city right here is the most racist city in the united states. >> president cohen: thank you. thank you. any other speaksers that would like to speak at this time? all right. the next 10 minutes we will hear from -- my apologies. i didn't see you. >> can you hear me? my name is maria and i am

reading from a letter from a travel agent in north beach an and -- not a travel agent. she's a tour guide. she has her own business. she says, i have lived in north beach most of my life and i have a tour guide here. my job and joy as tour guide is to introduce visitors from all over the world to the food, art, culture and history of this beloved and fascinating neighborhood. in spite of high overhead and rent, small mom and pop businesses survive in north beach because of their hard work. businesses survive because of their hard work, love, dedication and pride in what they do. it is impossible for rec and park to lay claim that the same

love and dedication to our park, after allowing 10 trees to die without cause simply because rec and park didn't supervise their own work. if private businesses acted like this they would lose their own business. so often, i present -- even the most recent history of north beach to my guests through photos of places that used to be. cafe roma, the gold spike, cafe corner and they're now gone. if this project goes forward, instead of these eight businesses, i will have 18 more that we will lose. that is how fragile things are for mom and pop businesses in north beach. north beach today looks almost like a deserted war zone.

look at columbus avenue. between green -- >> president cohen: thank you. any other member of the public that would like to speak in support of the appeal? please come up, you have two minutes. >> yes. i am here tonight because the board of supervisors, you guys are spending about $2 million to replace and repair the sewage treatment plant and the company that got the bid is walsh, who has decided that he is not going to have any black employees. they are in the middle of evans avenue. they are 26 employees who say they were not hired blacks. and i hope that most of y'all on this board is white and i have been before you ones before. one of the problems i keep finding that white people are not sensitive to what is truly

happening to black people in particularly in san francisco. in san francisco, there's a 35% of black, young men unemployed. but nothing is done about it unless they are sleeping under the freeway. something needs to be happening in bay view-hunters point. it wasn't nobody that said anything about what the white companies were doing until ray white man went on nbc and said he had the toxic waste spreading in the middle of water black children live. now they stopped the construction but we had been complaining about that three years before and before. but i understand that most of all, why nothing is done when black people are having a problem because white people don't care what happened to us. because slavely is the product. i'm just saying that we're going

to have a strike at the sewage treatment plant where y'all are spending $2 billion and they will not hire black people. >> president cohen: any other members of the public that would like to peak o speak on the app? >> for the members of the inside audience, this is about support of the appeal. this is not general public comment. >> i own a restaurant right in front of washington park. i wrote an e-mail so i will read some parts of this e-mail. i just say we are never been contacted by phone, e-mail, letter or in-person by anyone from rec park to explain the projector to listen to our concerns despite the impart the proposed project would have on our businesses. given the size of the project, $3.05 million, this lack of

communication is unacceptable. i have also been told the school facing the square from the north was not contacted at all. the failure to contact us indicates a lack of concern by rec and park department. it's much more matter of fact. if rec and park cannot even do the outreach responsible way, why should we trust them to move forward with the removal of 165,000 cubic feet of soil and all of the parts. why we should be asking to do this is to trust rec and park when the reasonable alternative that would conserve the same amount of water but not require the closing of the park. the approach to water conservation also saves taxpayers $2.5 million. given that they will be in the new project promise to reduce

the carbon wall in the park by two-thirds, it makes sense to me as a business person to at least try the approach first. i think i may speak for my employees and for the diners and everybody who visits us and formally making the park as beautiful as possible. we also are in favor of saving water. of course. >> clerk: the speaker's time has concluded. >> president cohen: thank you. that's it. thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> president cohen: next speaker. any other speaker that would like to comment on the appeal? all right. next we'll hear from the planning department. are you coming to speak up, ma'am?