them off right away. this driving income is necessary for a lot of these drivers to make ends meet, so they drive for both apps because if they get deactivated for one, they can still drive for the other one. i would say yes to your question about there has been concern about what they do coming to the city, abobut moro it's the health -- their mental health, physical health, and the fear of deactivation that came up. >> thank you so much for this report. you know, we had limited time. i think we would love to hear at length what your impressions were when you spoke with drivers and as the data was presented to you, and i think that's something, you know,

that maybe we could ask mr. goebel to follow up with you and get just impressions on how it felt to get this data, and what the personal impacts were to you in performing this type of labor study? as chair fewer mentioned, this is the tip of the iceberg. this is a wealth of information. i wanted to bring up one thing that, and i'm bringing it up from my phone, so my apologies there. you know, when you look at other cities that are trying to deal with the labor aspect of the uber drivers, new york had a -- recently had an interesting way of approaching it, so they were doing minimum wage utilization charges? so when they were doing was

basically implementing a minimum wage that also pays drivers more for companies that have low utilization rates. so if they're driving around, waiting for a fare, then they get bumped up from just waiting to minimum wage, and the companies have to pay that. and so what it means is that the more cars are without passengers, the more they have to pay, like, their employees. this also led to uber and lyft hiring less drivers because the overhiring is where you see their wages really drop. and so that's something -- it

takes two minutes to get a car, where it takes five to ten minutes to get a taxi, and you can see the taxi cabs being utilized in a different way. and that's where san francisco's hands are tied with the cpuc and how much they can regulate t.n.c.s. that's something that really needs to be overhauled at the state legislature, is to -- is to allow municipalities to really regulate this on their own because the cpuc has shown that they're incapable of regulating t.n.c.s. and then, the last thing i would add is that one piece that i would loved to have seen in the income and expenses part are the predatory car loans, is

that people are slaves to these indigenous apps. if they stop driving, they're stuck. they're just simply stuck, so i would say that would be one piece that i would add into it. and i don't know if you plan on working further with lafco as the labor study moves forward with jobs with justice and so forth, if your class will stay engaged. i know you move on to other classes, but i would just say that i would -- that i would ask that you say engaged with us anden -- stay engaged with us and engaged in the process, and we'd love to have you back. >> yeah, that definitely is something we should look more into. >> chair fewer: supervisor -- i mean, commissioner singh? >> commissioner singh: first of all, i just wanted to say thank

you to the entire team for this really impressive presentation. the breadth, the depth -- i feel like i'm drinking from the water hose trying to process all this information, but it was great. thank you very much. i had a question on my mind, especially with uber's i.p.o. being pretty recent, that one thing that folks were happening around the strike that happened in san francisco and other cities recently was in advance of the i.p.o., there were new inconsistencies, and i also heard this from uber passengers like there's been a lot of tinkering with compensation structures. they're doing -- they're making a lot of changes to their interface that is affecting the drivers, as well. someone told me that they signed up just for a single person ride, but then, you

know, their driver took that ride, but then, at one point, it got switched to a pool so that driver would not have necessarily been warned. there was some cash back incentives, like, if you pay this driver, you'll get uber cash back for food. there's all sort of incentives, innovations that are popping up that i think they're related to the i.p.o.? in general, i.p.o. aside but taking it into account, did you talk about different fees and comparabilities in the compensation structure that was determining that so you could get compensated was changed? >> so the app itself tells you the split, so the amount you take home and the amount uber or lyft gets. and drivers were aware for the

most part of their decreasing share of the fare. and like you were saying with the pool driver -- or pool section of the app, there's weird incentives in the app itself for drivers to take pool, but if they don't necessarily pick up people on that trip, they're not making that money, so pool will result in less of an income or less share. it was something that came up with most drivers. >> another thing we found -- another thing we found in our research is new york city's actually doing -- just started a report or an active investigation if lyft or uber or t.n.c.s in general are skimming off tips to pay driver's salaries which actually was a reason why they came up with the minimum wage?

so yeah, there is -- it's on people's minds? in new york city, it's on new york's mind, so there are people looking into it right at this second, so it is an issue that exists. >> commissioner pollock: thanks. >> chair fewer: so i just want to say thanks for all the work that you've done on this. i feel like i have so, so many questions that maybe you can answer. but i think one of the questions, i think the fact that the -- the deactivation is such a huge threat and is such -- so ripe for exploitation around -- it seems as though it's around the lack of any kind of labor rights at all, and i wanted to know, did you -- are there any labor rights that actually governor have authority over this sector? did you find any labor rights in any labor law that these contractors are in any way

protected at all? just -- >> so far as we found, no. one idea that we had that we cut given our constraint time today was that the city either create or partner with another company to create a labor rights app, a know your rights app, and to pair into that potentially other features so that the city could collect transportation data because that's been an obstacle, as well. but thus far -- so long as they're classified as independent contractors they're in a totally different status. >> chair fewer: i just think with the lack of labor rights around this emerging labor force is it is so ripe for exploitation, and safety issues and pay issues, and how people are billed, and they don't have an organized say. i also wanted to ask if you

were able at all to get from these drivers what they feel their average hourly salary is, that minus the toll, minus the gas, minus wear and tear on vehicles, all that kind of stuff, what is actually the net amount of money per hour that they think they make? were you able to ascertain that at all? >> i don't think so. i've seen just anecdotally what drivers have put on-line, but it can vary? i think that's one of the core issues for drivers is it's really difficult to determine especially factoring in taxes however take-home pay someone will have. there's a question that maybe somebody thinks they're making a lot of money at first, and then when it comes to tax season, they're making far less. so that structure in and of itself, as one driver said, can

feel like a trap. >> chair fewer: yeah. i think what's sort of interesting is -- what i think i heard mentioned is a lot of drivers don't keep track of their expenses, and when you're an independent contractor, that is sort of one of the things as an independent contractors is you can write off these expenses. >> yes, and there are a few different apps that drivers use? one's called grid wise where you can punch in your expenses and calculate your taxes and there's other information that lets you know when large numbers of flights are coming at the airport and things like that. but it's very different than being classified as an employee where you might have your taxes taken out in advance, and things like that. >> chair fewer: if you don't keep good beitrack of it and receipts, it's really hard to write that off on your taxes.

i think congestion pricing, we've discussed that at the board. there's some caution on the board about congestion pricing. one is that how does it affect small businesses that are in the chinatown area of san francisco, but also that we understand that this is an industry where the drivers are subject to exploitation quite frankly and low wage workers. i think that we are concerned that the price -- i mean, the congestion pricing would actually go on to the drivers. >> chair fewer: and we're trying to get at a company, a multibillion company to pay its fair share. and so this is why we've been grappling with the congestion pricing in one of your recommendations. i think another thing that was interesting well, that i really want to dig deeper into is the fact that, you know, they

aren't able to actually explain about safety issues because they're at the mercy of people rating them arbitrarily. this puts a crazy system that you would drive someone in your own vehicle while you're driving and so vulnerable -- we know that taxi drivers have put in a lot of protection such as cameras and everything else because they have -- it has been ripe for them to be actually assaulted, right? and even though the drivers in these cases aren't really carrying cash and money as a lot of taxi drivers did in the past, it is still the fact that you have your back to somebody, and you are busy driving, and it could be in a very serious situation because you don't have any idea about the people

that you're picking up. but i wanted to know when you were talking to folks about this if people have been assaulted or have had physical harm done to them, have they actually filed police reports? >> i'll let sergio speak to this and i'll have some other thoughts, as well. >> of the driver that brought it up, like i said, they called me up after the interview and said this is embarrassing, but i want to tell you this because i think it's important. so after that -- he didn't report it to uber or lyft because in other instances, he's seen what the investigation process looks like. he's been reported for supposed intoxication. he was not, and so lyft deactivat deactivated him, and he was like, this didn't happen. what they were like was, okay. it was, like, 24-hour suspension, and they were like okay, this is fine.

so his disillusionment with what the process looks like, he just believed that uber and lyft was not going to do anything about it. and no, they did not file a police report, either. >> chair fewer: okay. commissioner mar -- >> could i add an additional thought? >> chair fewer: yeah. >> yeah. in combination with a number of driver leaders with gig work rising, this issue came up. and one story or one concern that was shared is if someone wants to file a police report per se, it can be difficult to get from uber or lyft the actual identity of their passenger. so uber and lyft might turnaround and say oh, you're going to need a warrant for that, so that makes a structural barrier for someone getting useful information into that police report. >> chair fewer: yeah. good point. commissioner mar, do you have any questions or comments? >> supervisor mar: thank you so much, guys, for doing this really important initial study,

and i really look forward to the follow up study that's going to happen through lafco. i did have a question just whether you found that drivers were aware, you know, of the -- you know, the issue of independent contractor status versus, you know, permanent employee status and the dynamics, decision, and the state bill, and now there's the recent nlrb ruling on this issue, too. so i was, like, wondering where the drivers were and whether you have any -- what kind of perspectives or -- that you got from the drivers on this question about independent contractor status. >> oh, yeah. we actually, a few days ago, had a follow up phone call with another driver leader with bgi workers rising, and they

specifically said half of drivers don't care, aren't interested in knowing what their status or rights are and another half are passionate about it. the reason being that they explained that they're just focused on driving and earning their income. and part of the inherent nature of driving for a transportation network company is you're often very isolated from other drivers, so it's harder, except on an on-line platform with real intention to go about sharing your stories and share your intention, and sergio's got something else to add. >> yeah. so i just, like, want to add in the slide that we had on work-life balance, it shows that two thirds of drivers appreciate the flexibility that they have with their schedule. how flexible is really is might be up for discussion, but when we were speaking with someone from uber and lyft -- well, one of the drivers, they were saying that if it means losing that flexibility that we become employees, we don't want to become employees.

so that part is really important for them, and that's why the drivers are really split between do we want to stay independent contractors or become employees. >> chair fewer: did you also get an idea of how many drivers are driving full-time and how many part-time? >> so from the survey itself, it seemed like -- from what -- the number that i remember, it seemed like half of drivers were driving full-time for uber and then a quarter were driving full-time for lyft. >> chair fewer: okay. >> the other thing that i mid might add in response to your question, commissioner mar is in the united kingdom, there's litigation over the subject that we're talking about, and that's some of what drivers are seeking is to be classified in the middle.

but as we said, the independent contractor status is being abused here and it seems on a pretty large scale. so the question is do we categorize people as employees now and create a third category later and that's something we should consider on this subject. >> chair fewer: okay. thank you very much. now when is your class -- is your semester over? >> yes. >> chair fewer: okay. i want to thank you, and i think on behalf of the whole lafco, thank you so much for this. this is as i said the tip of the iceberg but really gives us food for thought on our next steps and this information to be added also to the further studies that we're doing. thank you so much. we totally appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you for your time and consideration. thank you very much. >> chair fewer: so let's hear some public comment on this item. are there any members of the public that would like to speak?

you have two minutes. >> all right. first of all, these situations where the drivers are considered contractors, it's a trick and device that's used by the management of the taxi drivers. you've got a different preferential treatment of different drivers, like the medallions. i'd like to ask the students to study and ask the opinions of the medallions. they're being charged $250,000 to drive a taxi where other drivers are not being charged. it's differential treatment and it's discrimination based on race. i come to another hearing to speak on economically disadvantaged people, and before i know it i'm surrounded by 15 indian and arabic drivers that want me to speak out on behalf of them. as a result, when i get up and

speak, i say it's a violation of their protective rights in the civil rights act of 1964 and equal rights pertaining to due process under the law. you've got a situation that some taxi drivers are not paying $250,000 for a medallion and other drivers that's paying that much money in order to drive a vehicle. as far as employment discrimination law, can't be applied because the contractor, it's a loophole. you're using the wrong type of law. the true and correct law to use on that is corporate law, contract law because you signed a contract with the owners of that company. you violated the contract because you're not dealing in good faith and never had any intentions on reaching a legal agreement on this matter because you're undermining the drivers and they're paying all this money and you're red lining the areas where they can drive their taxis. you need to ask them about

personal injuries, too, because a lot of them are paying a lot of money to drive the taxis. >> chair fewer: thank you, mr. wright. >> good afternoon. eric brooks with the local grassroots group our city. thanks to the students for this excellent research and presentation. i want to add another crucial deeper layer to the iceberg, and that is the potential for a city -- a city issued cryptocurrency to solve this problem. all the problems that were raised in the presentation and all of the solutions can be programmed into a new type of cryptocurrency with something that uses a smart contract. if that was issued by the city and was required to be used by anyone that's working as a driver or anyone that's calling a ride, has a rider, you could program into that -- that sets

up an automatic relationship directly between the driver and the rider. there's an automatic exchange. that eliminates the need for uber and lyft. it would just make those companies go away if it's spread all over the planet. there are already private companies that are working on creating cryptocurrencies like this. but if it was a city-issued cryptocurrency, all the current rules that you put in the currency that are mandated in the exchange would be mandated by the city. by the way, this currency does not have to have the high energy use of bitcoin. this is a different type of currency. so the city could issue this, and i would actually urge some urgency on this because as i said, private companies are working on these type of cryptocurrencies to disrupt

uber and lyft and airbnb, and if a private company does it first, then we have to deal with them skimming money off the top of the process. so i would urge you folks that are -- >> chair fewer: thank you, mr. brooks. seeing no further comment, public comment is now closed. [gavel]. >> chair fewer: so madam clerk, can you please call item seven. >> clerk: yes, and for the record, there was no action tick taken on item four. item seven is director's report. >> chair fewer: mr. goebel, would it be okay if we continued this to the next meeting? okay. let's take public comment on item number seven.

>> i want to talk about current events. i spoke up and demonstrated that 144 unit apartment building complex can be built in the embarcadero for $66 million, and a 66 unit apartment complex can be built for $57 million. i demonstrated that 9 times 3 is 27 and each of these building is 27 stories tall. you get more bang for your buck building a 27 story apartment complex side by side with each of these two buildings which is already being built in mountain view and san mateo. you take a chunk of about 1,900 homeless people off the street

by using this technique. and by using that technique, the homeless rate would decrease, and if you apply it to each and every location you want to build a navigation center, you'd have a less amount of people on the streets. sf viewer, please. will you freeze my time?

>> chair fewer: mr. wright, would you mind if we continued your public comment -- >> i'll tell you what? i'll just demonstrate the document myself. >> chair fewer: thank you, mr. wright. i appreciate it. >> that's okay. current events. in 2019, at the present time, there was a homeless census count. at the present, we've got 8,011 homeless people in the city and county of san francisco, okay? as you can see from the year of 2007 all the way up to the present, the numbers of homeless people population has

been increasing. we have gotten statements from the mayor's office on housing, the mayor's office on homelessness that they're closing the gap on homelessness in san francisco. it's not true, and these figures clearly stipulate that. >> chair fewer: thank you, mr. wright. so we are doing public comment on the executive officer's report, item number seven. public comment is next. >> yeah. eric brooks, san francisco green party, our city san francisco, and san francisco energy choice. so on the issue of renewable energy specialist and contractor, it would be good just to get a sense from the executive officer and maybe the commissioners that are in the loop on this as to the reason for the postponement. and i also wanted to say that when you hire or whatever firm

you hire for this, it is very important that the first thing on the list for that contractor to work on is -- is the citywide local buildout plan, so i'm hoping that -- i've already spoken privately with executive officer goebel about that, and that's what the advocates would like to see is for that to be -- as soon as we hire that person, then, the next thing they should be working on is the local r.f.p. for the planning. >> chair fewer: thank you very much, mr. brooks. seeing no more public comment, public comment is closed. next item, please. >> clerk: item 8 is public comment. there was no objectiaction tak item 7. >> i take it there was no action taken on item 6?

>> chair fewer: mr. wright, we did take action on it. we approved it. >> i would like you to -- to see you get into public housing since you've got million to -- millions to spend. the way you're taking care of business by spending money only in shelters instead of permanent housing, you're only wasting money. it's been projected that you would have an additional negative cash flow again if you keep spending money like you're doing. $643.9 million has been forecast within five years if you keep taking care of business the way you're doing, okay? by housing the homeless people and giving them permanent housing, you'll cut down on the expenses as far as treatments and the medical services, going to san francisco general hospital, services by the

sheriff's department, by the direct housing program, mental health services, and ageing services for the people of san francisco. i want to call it to your attention that he hyou had an 8 -- that you had an $88.2 million cash flow last year. you had an $88.2 million cash flow problem when the current administration took over. the $9 billion in that account that came because of tax cuts and tax cuts regulations and multimillion dollar companies located overseas who were avoiding taxes came back to the united states is the reason why every state overall in the united states of america has millions of dollars in their account. if you don't start spending moneywisely, you're going to end up with that kind of negative cash flow again.

>> chair fewer: thank you very much, mr. wright. seeing no further public comment, public comment is closed. madam clerk, can you read the next item. >> clerk: item nine, future agenda items. >> chair fewer: any items? seeing none, let's open it up to public comment. mr. brooks? >> eric brooks, our city san francisco, and clean energy san francisco. it's up to san francisco to do this, and so it's crucial that we get the public -- we can be the first in public to get a public bank. if we did, it would be amazing. the cryptocurrency thing, the best way to issue that would be through a public bank, so i just want to bring that up and make sure that's on the table and hopefully we get that on a

near term agenda because it looks like it's going to be up to san francisco and not los angeles to get this done. thanks. >> chair fewer: thank you, mr. brooks. >> i'd like to see interest be put into the juvenile hall, as well. there's only 30 people that's in the juvenile detention center, and i object to minors who have a behavior problem when they're coming from a dysfunctional home. that that's not the correct way to treat people when they have an unfortunate situation in their family. places being shutdown, and on further review, i found out that place has the amount of square footage that's on or about the size of mission rock. i move to incorporate the fact

that you could build on or about 1,000 to 2,000 apartment building complexes there, you can make a john o'connell-style vocational program for people, adolescent kids who come from a dysfunctional family. and instead of them being in a situation like they're being a criminal, you can put them in a training program. it's made headline news about how the places being shutdown, and the amount of square footage that is located in that area and not being utilized with the type of homeless population that we've got of on or about 8,011 is no excuse for a city with the type of resources, land, and leadership that you claim that you want to help. it's counter productive. it's counter productive, so i

had -- i'd like to have that included in a public agenda, and included in that, the response that i provided, you build the two towers and instead of having developers in the process for profit. i did a demonstration with walton about that that saves -- >> chair fewer: okay. thank you mr. wright. thank you very much. seeing no further public comment, public comment is closed. madam clerk, do we have any other business today? >> clerk: we have no further questions today. >> chair fewer: on behalf of all the commissioners, i'd like to thank all the students. there's a small celebration in room 208. commissioners, i'd ask you -- you are invited to attend.

i have another meeting that i have to get to, but i'd ask that you attend. thank you, colleagues. this meeting is adjourned.

sustainability mission, even though the bikes are very minimal energy use. it still matters where the energy comes from and also part of the mission in sustainability is how we run everything, run our business. so having the lights come on with clean energy is important to us as well. we heard about cleanpowersf and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. it was super easy to sign up. our bookkeeper signed up online,

it was like 15 minutes. nothing has changed, except now we have cleaner energy. it's an easy way to align your environmental proclivities and goals around climate change and it's so easy that it's hard to not want to do it, and it doesn't really add anything to the bill. >> we're here today because the let's play s.f. initiative is committed to building new opportunities for childhood creativity and play. let's play s.f. is a public-private partnership between recreation and park and the san francisco parks alliance give them a big round of applause. [applause]. >> which led to a citizen task force that unanimously recommended 13 playgrounds to be renovated all across the city as the first step in inspiring community creativity and

wellness for 20,000 children. we are breaking ground today on not one, not two, not three, but five playgrounds. i skipped number 4, but 5 playgrounds. [applause]. >> we are breaking ground right here at panhandle, we are breaking ground at alice chalmers, at mclaren, in merced heights and in sergeant mccauley in the tenderloin. we are here today in the panhandle because these types of partnerships, in this kind of investment in parks takes leadership. we are joined today by not one, but two elected officials from this community, from this neighborhood. both of whom have served on the board of supervisors. one of whom has graduated to a different office. so it is my incredible pleasure to introduce our mayor, london breed, and we want to thank her

for keeping equity. [cheers and applause]. >> we want to really thank her for keeping equity at the center of what we do here in parks, and what we do in our city. from playgrounds, to access to more open space, these are all incredibly vital to the health and welfare of all san franciscans, and we are so grateful for mayor breed charge at leadership. it is your turn at the microphone. >> thank you. thank you. welcome to the panhandle. you know, i am so excited to be here because this project specifically, and in this particular playgrounds right behind me, it has been a long time coming. this community has fought to really improve playgrounds throughout this district, and we are doing it one playground at a time. i grew up not too far from here in the western edition. i spent my whole childhood at

margaret hayward playground, and i'm so excited because we just broke ground a few months ago, and that place is going to be transformed to something that's absolutely unbelievable, and will serve young people for generations to come. the work that recreation and parks department continues to do to invest in our recreational assets all over san francisco is critical to ensure that we have a healthy san francisco so that our kids grow up and stay have the opportunities to enjoy themselves in these incredible play structures. now we've spent a lot of time playing, but we also spent a lot of time messing around in the parks. you know what i mean, hanging out, talking, swimming on the swings, when the swing would break, we would figure out creative ways to put the swing back together again. we were resilient in our parks back then and we will continue to be resilient in our parks now

this is an incredible opportunity made possible not just by the support of the parks department, but because the voters, time and time again, continue to support initiatives that allow for us to invest in these parks and playgrounds is why we are able to really transform parks all over san francisco in such an amazing way we do it also because of our private partners, and we are so grateful that the parks alliance and the work that they continue to do to fund raise more parks in san francisco is critical to our ability to do projects like this. i know that the family foundation is here today. thank you so much for your investment and so many incredible opportunities, as well as jeff here from the foundation who continues to really make these incredible investments. it means a lot, it is so great

to have an incredible leader and phil ginsberg and the members of the commission who time and time again bridge those gaps with those partnerships, so that we can do everything we can in this city to make sure our recreation and parks space, our facilities, are the best anywhere, because we love our parks, whether it is running through them, whether it is playing basketball at them, whether it is swinging in the swing set, whether it is playing checkers like i used to do, i don't know if anyone still plays checkers, but i played checkers and chess in the recreation centers and monopoly. whatever it is, to ensure that these safe, great spaces are available to young people is so critical, and that is why san francisco is such an amazing place, and i am just so happy to be here. it is a long time coming." congratulations on this part here in the panhandle, and so

many other recreational spaces that we know are going to be transformed so that these young folks can visit parks all over san francisco and have an amazing time. thank you all so much for being here. [cheers and applause]. >> our other district five champion has been an advocate and commute -- and community member in this neighborhood for 25 years. she is the heartbeat of district five and is continuously fighting for what's best for residents, families, and children. supervisor brown has worked hard to ensure that playground play is accessible for all ages and abilities. she has become one heck of a park champion. it is my privilege to introduce supervisor vallie brown. [cheers and applause]. >> thank you, thank you everyone for being here today. thank you to the donors, all the children that are here, because this is going to be -- you will be here in the next couple of years having a good time, but i

also want to thank the neighborhood groups because i remember, as a legislative age going out and starting to talk to the neighbors about doing this. i remember some neighbors said you are going to take away our park? our playground? this is -- we use this all the time, but what was really amazing is how the haight-ashbury community, north of the panhandle community, we have lilo gail and charles here from north of the panhandle community, and others who said yes, let's do this. how can we help? and that is how we create these amazing parks. i've been around a long time. i've been a legislative aide and it has been so much fun to watch these different parks and recreation centers open up, like hamilton. hayes valley playgrounds. now the panhandle park. we are actually standing in one of the oldest parks in the city.

this area of the park is 100 years old. isn't that amazing? and to think that it is beautiful, when i ride my bike through here on my way to work back and forth, i love seeing this park active. i love hearing the kids yell and scream and laugh. it actually brings me up, especially when i've had a hard day, and to have this park, into have the kind of playground that we will have is so amazing, and to be able to have kids get out, and we all know that when kids go out and they play, they are actually, they are smarter. they actually solve problems easier, they get their vitamin d , all the great things that you need to become an amazing adult, and we are going to see that from these kids who come and play. i want to thank everyone for coming today. it is atypical haight-ashbury

day. we all have our jackets on, and thank you, and let's play. [cheers and applause]. >> the let's play initiative would not be possible without the incredible partnership with the san francisco parks alliance they help provide opportunities for all children to have safe, imaginative, welcoming places to play. through our partnership, and through their work, generous donors have contributed nearly $10 million towards our collective 14.5 million-dollar philanthropic goal. the recreation and park department simply could not have a better partner than all of the hard-working staff and board members in the san francisco parks alliance speaking on behalf of the san francisco parks alliance today is the chair of the board of directors, liz farrell. [applause]. >> thank you all for being here.

on behalf of the parks alliance, i would like to thank me or breed for your support, and for being such a champion of parks and public spaces, and for continuing to make that a priority. thank you. thank you to our supervisors for your support, intercourse thank you to recreation and park, you without your partnership, let's play s.f. would not be possible. playgrounds are one of the most equitable things we have in our city. these playgrounds will help transform the lives of over 20,000 kids, and some of our most high need neighborhoods. playgrounds are a wonderful place for kids to create, play, and explorer, and as a mom of three kids myself, i know how important playgrounds are for both physical and mental health. i look forward to these playgrounds and all playgrounds in our city being a wonderful place for people of all ages and

backgrounds to connect and celebrate what truly makes our city so great together. thank you. [applause]. >> all right, now you get the pleasure of hearing from two neighbors and community members. they are involved in organizations whose kids use this space every day. first up, i want to welcome rodney chin to the microphone. rodney has been a key panhandle community leader. he is involved in the ymca afterschool program at new elementary schools and the ymca has been a great partner in our system. together we worked to work to make sure our kids have healthy and safe places to play. rodney? [cheers and applause]. >> thank you. >> thank you, everybody. it is a great honor to be here today as a resident of the ymca, we let you know that we do run

two afterschool programs in the panhandle area. new tradition school has over 200 kids in that school, and also the chinese immersion school which is here. so this panhandle playground falls right in the middle of both sections that we operate our programs in. it is so important for our kids and their families to have a place to come together and recreate together. growing up in san francisco, as a native san franciscan, and no current resident in d5, there are not very many places where kids can just come on their own and play it like i used to be able to do growing up. so this is a great place to bring family together, families feel safe, and just part of the community. we are so thankful that the parks alliance and the park and recreation departments have come up with this great plan for the panhandle. thank you very much. [applause]. >> and now you get to hear from

a long time panhandle resident, father of new traditions and an elementary school student, and in his spare time, not only is either involved in the san francisco parks alliance, but he was actively involved in the community process to redesign this playground. welcome tim sieber. [cheers and applause]. >> longtime residents. i'm starting to feel like an o.g. here in the panhandle, i guess. it is really great to have all of you here today surrounded by friends and community members and folks i know from school and longtime neighbors. we have lilo gail and london breed and vallie brown, this is exciting. i'm really happy to see it, and drinking is incredible. if you haven't seen the plans, you really have to take a look at this, but it is already starting to come into shape here i have no doubts that the next generation is going to enjoy this park is not as we have. we have had events from pacific

primary preschool going back a few years to new traditions, as was mentioned, to all kinds of gatherings of friends and students and what have you. i'm very excited to see this here, and very excited to have you all here today. [applause]. >> thank you, tim. before we get to the business at hand, we don't do this alone, there are a number of acknowledgements we want to make i want to start by thanking some of our additional elected leadership you're here today because of their incredible support, supervisor safai from district 11 is here, you might notice that he is one heck of a park advocates. you might notice two of the five are in his district. thank you for all of your work. i also want to acknowledge the vice president of the recreation and parks commission who has helped guide the entire let's play process, and has made sure that our funding is in place, and that the process has been

transparent. it has had a significant amount of community input. thank you commissioner alan lowe [applause]. >> the mayor acknowledged a few special people who are here, but we could not have done this without our incredible, passionate donors who really care about kids and parks. so let me also acknowledge jeff farber, the chief executive director of the foundation. thank you, jeff. [applause]. >> jody pritzker. [applause] which one are we from? they have been incredibly generous neighbors and involved in not just this project, but also the tennis center project in golden gate park. thank you for all of your interest in parks. amy rubino, the director of the foundation family fund, thank you to amy. staff from san francisco for sports and recreation.

thank you for your entire grapefruit stepping up here. anna, you have been amazing, i also want to acknowledge a captain from park station. [applause] i want to acknowledge jim elling from kaiser, they have been an incredible partner with us and supporting the playground, also present today our energy and robert from the parks and recreation open space advisory committee, thank you to prozac for all of your support and involvement. we have our construction and design team here. i want to thank contracting and rha landscape architecture. thank you for this. i also want to thank the city staff that's been involved in the design process. i saw albert from public works here. thank you for your incredible partnership.

to my own team, to caribou prior to is not only involved in the panhandle project but hoping to drive the entire let's play initiative and our general of the let's play initiative who keeps his -- this whole thing moving, our director partnership , lisa branson. [applause] , and lastly, we have community representatives from all five of the sites here today, so again, let me run through and acknowledge the sights. thank you to steppingstones preschool and all of the kids for being here today. [cheers and applause] thank you, guys. here to break ground at merced heights, and i think we get to do a couple times, but edna james. one of the city charge of most enduring park advocates. aerial, the sports director of

jamestown community center who will help me break ground and supervisor safai at allis chalmers right now. we have representatives from north the panhandle neighborhood association in addition to tim, and rodney. we have charles and lilo. thank you for being here. north of panhandle neighborhood. and then i always referenced anna who is also here representing the central city s.r.o. collaborative and sergeant john mcauley, thank you to all of you for being here and caring about kids and our playgrounds and our parks. let's break down -- ground and get these construction projects started, so the mayor will lead us in a countdown and what i would love is for aerial to join me in front of allis chalmers and supervisor safai, you get to hit both spots, liz farrell and the kids from steppingstones and

captain bailey in front of the mclaren playground, edna and supervisor safai at merced heights, and then mayor breed, supervisor brown, kids from steppingstones, charles, tim, lilo here at panhandle, and commissioner lowe and anna g. at sergeant mcauley. >> everybody ready? let me just make sure. are you already? five, four, three, two, one. [cheers and applause]

>> 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. cut. >> we are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. a place that used to look a lot darker and today is sun is shining and it's beautiful and it's been completely redone and been a gathering place for this community. >> i have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. that is not a joke. i live in an apartment building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build this dirt. >> let me tell you handout you -- how to build a community

garden. you start with a really good idea and add community support from echo media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. this is great. it's about environment and stewardship. it's also for the -- we implemented several practices in our successes of the site. that is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. i don't know how they do it. >> there is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily

through golden community garden. we have it right in the middle of this is the san francisco recreation and park meeting. will the clerk please call the roll? just as a quick reminder, we request that you turn off sound-producing devices. and that you take any secondary conversations outside. if you would like to speak on an item today, we request, but do