for seniors and other folks using the program. so it's kind of balancing that street presence and folks knowing what's inside and also making the users feel safe when they're using the facility. this slide shows the layout of the first floor. you can see we have a large kitchen. the multi-purpose room is large right underneath the text here. we have a lounge so people can play ping-pong and games, not right in the main entry, and two basketball courts. the second floor as a divisible multi-purpose room and this large, open terrace. this is really meant to be an asset where folks can go out and do programming. there can be classes and conflict resolution among youth. it's really an outdoor space. finally the roof plan. not very exciting. i'll just take an opportunity to mention here that of course

we're required to go for lead goal on this project and meet as many features as possible in the budget. this is an emergency staging site right now. that combined with the fact that we are serving youth is driving us to go for a more robust, seismic performance standard. this shows the landscape. we worked with the trust for public land along side the studio. playground here. it's anticipated that the ground floor multi-purpose room would be largely youth serving. so there's visibility between the multi-purpose room as well as the basketball court out to the playground. the idea was that the outdoor basketball court could also serve as a platform for festivals. there are a lot of festivals at this site currently. there could be movie nights and other things in the future. here are some precedent images. there are some concrete steps above the court, again allowing

for viewing and an informal hanging out space for the older youth. some benches and we anticipate a mix of some playground structures that are out of a catalog and some that are really custom to go with the beautiful architecture in the building. we're still in development of materials of the building. these show two elevations. the top is looking from 6th street into the building, and this one is looking from fulsome west into the building. the bird's-eye view show it much better, so i'll move on to those. we're also including at this point an accessory structure for garbage enclosure that will make it easier for that surface to happen in and out, without interfering with programming.

this is a bird's-eye view looking from 6th street to fulsome. this is the multi-purpose room, the outdoor lounge and a court with the lawn in the back. this street view zooms in to show the openness here. the text is a little bit over, but you can see the light coming from the building. you might be wondering why it's taken almost five years. while it's taken a while for us to get here. i feel good that we've been given some additional funding from the friend family to include the possibility of a pool at this facility. this was a request that came up, and it took a little bit of extra work, but we looked with the architect and a pool designer and the stakeholders to see would this be feasible. in the end the pool -- because of the structure -- where the site is and whatnot, the pool

would dramatically increase the cost of the project. as luck would have it, we're looking at a pool being added to the rec and park portfolio just down the street. so we're really excited about the way that worked out. while it took some extra time, it's great that we closed that loop early on in the process. this slide shows the basketball court, openness, transparency. this aerial is looking from harriet street towards fulsome and 6th. i wanted to give a shout out to all the community members who have worked above and beyond to support this project friends of gene friend and many others.

as i mentioned before, in addition to the publicly noticed meetings and focus groups at bessie carmichael school, they met with us and our recreation and permit staff. we made some modifications to this just before a community meeting that we had last september. these are folks who are serving our communities most in need, and they've taken time to come to the capital committee and this hearing today, but also to the arts commission. i want to mention that our supervisor for therapeutic, recreation and inclusion services is here today. he's been a valuable member of our team. tim figaris who has now retired, but worked -- was an original facility director of the facility that opened in 1989 has been a key director of our team. it's been such a fortunate opportunity to have that kind of

institutional knowledge informing our design. >> thank you. >> clerk: i have one blue card, cynthia. >> my name is michelle liva. i am a resident and i facilitate the collaborative which is a collaborative of about 20 organizations and private businesses that support bessie carmichael. we're so happy to be here in support of this design. we're appreciative of the rec park department, t.p.l., for including us so much in this design process. like was said, up until the last moment, they were listening to our feedback and taking our suggestions into account. and i think that has resulted in a really, really great design. two things that i really want to point out.

i fully support this concept design. i fully support this renovation. we're super excited about it. but we are really apprehensive where the community will have to go somewhere else. we would really like to come up with a solution to that problem so that people have somewhere indoor that they can recreate. until permits are pulled and ground is broken, we really, really hope that all future shadow impacts on this park would include both scenarios, because the park economists as it is now. it may exist in this beautiful design later, but until ground is broken we don't know that. so we really want to make sure that any developments around the park that would impact the park are taking into account both scenarios until that day that happens that we're able to celebrate a ground breaking.

thank you so much. >> thank you. >> good morning, commissioners. i am a district 6 resident. i am excited to be here and to see these renovations before you. i just want to express my gratitude to the team at the department as well as the trust for public plan and w.r. studios. the amount of work that has gone into this plan is huge. a lot of folks will come through, host a couple of community meetings and move on. the team has really gone back to the drawing board again and board to make sure that this is right, that it accommodates the needs of users and the expanded use and our changing community and what new users can enjoy in the space. i am grateful for the thought and details in this plan and the

opportunity to have this beautiful facility come to the south of market. i echo misha's concerns for the potential shadows that can come from projects in the neighborhood and just want to make sure that you all have a real qualitative understanding looking at this new design as well as what is existing now, as we consider multiple developments that are coming up in the neighborhood. again, probably our number one concern is what will happen to the existing users in the meantime. a two- or three-year construction period is not unfeasible for a project of this size. so really making sure there's a place for folks to go in the interim, and also making sure that they feel welcome back into the new space, that this space is really renovated for them, as opposed to moving them on and

this is a new space where new folks have moved into the neighborhood. i know that's your priorities as well. so we just appreciate all of your support on this project. thank you. >> thank you. >> good morning, commissioners. my name is [ indiscernible ] -- the hotel workerers' union. a number of our workers live in soma and use gene friend as their recreation spot. i wanted to comment on a potential peril to this lovely new design. it's got this fantastic light box and solar panels and there is a proposed hotel that would cast a shadow on both. it would defeat the purpose of all the time and effort that went into this very forward-thinking design of having solar panels and a lovely light box in a recreation-centred neighborhood and then having a hotel casting a shadow. next month there is a scheduled

meeting at which a joint commission -- a joint group of this commission and the planning commission will be asked to consider the potential shadow impact on gene friend and the proposed hotel. we're asking that you take into serious consideration the impacts on the proposed new design of this hotel, of the proposed hotel, and in particular consider the fact that as far as we know gene friend still has a zero shadow budget. it's not clear how it's going to get the development of that proposed hotel when zero is still zero. that's currently scheduled for a month from now, although it would be preferable if that joint hearing were moved so as to allow more time for consideration of these potential impacts. i also want to echo the concerns of our friends and allies in all the neighborhood organizations in terms of the need to consider both scenarios, the new proposed

gene friend design and the existing gene friend design when doing the shadow analysis. our members use these parks too, and it is a concern where they will go and what they will have for their outlet during the time gene friend is being designed. >> i just want to make an announcement that 1025 howard is off calendar. so it's not being heard next month. next speaker. >> good morning, park and rec commissioners. my name is carla lorrell. as i said before, we're an organization that has been serving the existing soma community for the past 51 years. all of our residents, most of our staff live in the neighborhood, and the rec is their back yard. so we're really excited that we've gotten to this point now where our voices have been heard and we want to thank everyone at park and rec for really taking

into consideration the existing community and what's important to them in this rec center. whether or not the rec center gets the renovation or not sooner than later, this is where they go every day, period. so to have a renovation that's happening that's really focusing on quality and a place that's safe, that's clean, that's exciting for them is something that we're really looking forward to. just to echo what some of our other community partners were saying too, just really taking that into consideration, that while it's being renovated, it is going to displace a lot of them from their outdoor space and their back yards. how can we figure out a plan in the interim? and also recognize that when we come out here for stuff that's exciting like this, it's also the reason why we come out and object shadows so passionately because we know the impact of these spaces for our residents, for our kids, for our seniors. so we want to make sure that as

much as possible we protect them. we know that this rec center has been something that's been a long time in the making. just echoing what misha was saying, until we break ground taking into consideration how shadow impacts will affect our rec and our park. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you as well. i'm tim figaris. i was the ex-facility coordinator at gene friend rec center. i also served as a basketball, volleyball, baseball coach. so one of my biggest concerns is i'm supporting this solely because it expands it. at one time there were 200 to 300 kids that went to it daily and still getting that much. we used to have so many teams. as a matter of fact, there's a couple of kids in the audience

who i coached, one in basketball and one in girls basketball. i want to make sure that becomes activated again. i want to make sure the parks and rec gets coaches out there. there's a lot of kids there that love playing ball and it keeps them off the streets. that's important. when the center goes up hopefully there will be inadequate staffing to handle that. as i said, the staff that was there before, we used to coach ten basketball teams and ten baseball teams and i want that to continue. a lot of those kids i run into. i'm retired now. we broke the link. they have their kids playing ball now in their communities. at one time when i got there, nobody played anything and they just hung around in the streets. thanks to united players. we have many of those people who

have helped over the years here. there are a lot of kids who really want to play. it's almost like when they get to high school they'll be able to play. if you don't get that athletic stuff that somebody mentioned earlier, how do i want to say this, in the public school system they don't start sports until sixth grade. imagine if you had a child who didn't have math until sixth grade, it's kind of unfair and the equity isn't there. when they go out to play these people on these club teams, they don't have a chance. sometimes those are the things that keep kids in school. i want to stress the importance of that and the importance of making sure that there is a facility for them while the construction goes up. thank you very much for your patience. >> thank you. >> i work out of the binding

community center almost daily. i would just like to support the sentiments of my neighbors. i definitely would like to remain mindful of shadow impacts on the gene friend rec center space, regardless of whether or not it is renovated. i also want to be mindful of the fact that the south of market has minimal green space. thinking about where these kids are going to be able to play and recreate while the renovations are going on i think is of paramount importance. i am a user of the rec center. we use it to work out, stretch and stuff. now i'm thinking about where we're going to go. that's just from a very personal standpoint. i would like to keep that top of mind. yeah, i think that's really it. just to make sure that every child as we talked about earlier has access to nature. it's really important. thank you. >> thank you.

>> good morning. i'm phillip vitali with the trust for public land. we are an organization that strives to have a park or outdoor space within a ten-minute walk of every child. within a 15-minute walk of gene friend rec center there's more than 1500 children and many of them are low income. as you've heard from our partners here, they're very much using the space and it's a resource for them. i wanted to take an opportunity to thank our partners. first of all, the friend family foundation for their generous gift to allow us to do the feasibility study and this concept design and to really dive deep with the community. to thank rec and parks, they've been an amazing partner here. and the countless community groups you've heard from. they've been dedicated coming to meetings and focus groups, bringing out friends and family

and making sure that the space will represent their needs and serve their needs now as well as the growing community. we're really excited by this design. it's really been informed by the community. it's really going to serve the existing community and really handle the growth that's going to take place here. we hope you support this concept design and we look forward to seeing this concept come to life. thank you to everybody who has been involved and our community members. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. >> just a quick thanks. this has been a really long planning process and it's a really robust one and as you've heard today, a really important one for this community. we are where we are today because of partnership and philanthropy. so i wanted to start by again acknowledging the friend family. this goes back well over ten

years when we visited gene friend rec center with bob friend and donnie friend. bob friend joked and gene friend was a long-time member of this commission. he joked and said let me give you a piece of advice, never put a name on a building because when it breaks, it's your job to fix it. they've taken that responsibility very, very seriously. it started with some smaller interim improvements. we resurfaced the outdoor sports court, we did the weight room. then they funded this very lengthy planning process to really address the intense use and the increased density and equity in this community. and then -- and it was really a great partnership. so my next thanks is to the trust for public land for their support. when we worked on projects together, they're always better. third, to all of the community, but particularly u.p. for their

leadership and involvement. about three-quarters of the way through the process, we felt like we just -- we were missing something and we were missing the pool. we actually had the guts to take a step back. i had the guts to ask the friends for a little bit more money to look at the pool. they were incredibly responsive and philanthropic and invested more money to investigate whether a pool was feasible. and through that research and process and understanding the need resulted in -- when the san francisco tennis project emerged, we had been in discussing with them from very early on about adding a pool there and creating this annex-type concept, allowing more community space on the footprint of gene friend. so this is a process that's work

worked. we've heard loud and clear the angst of what happens after construction. we'll start working together and thinking through how we might mitigate some of the impacts of the construction process, but this is one i'm super excited about. >> commissioner. >> i'd like to hear a little bit more from staff on the parking around the area and how deliveries will be made to the facility in terms of supplies, equipment, food, people engaged in the daily activity of the facility. that's my first question. >> thank you, commissioner.

so you can see at the top of this slide the red arrow here is the main entrance. so that is the entrance that will be open to staff and the public. there's also vehicular access planned here into the court area from 6th street. and then as i mentioned that accessory structure here, that trash enclosure. so we worked with staff to make sure that outdoor lighting and things like that could be accessed through vehicle, and this all will be paved, a portion of vehicular loading. there will be an emergency access in from harriet street. we worked with planning department on the categorical exemption and the environmental review to look at loading zone here. in terms of parking, this request has come up from staff and community members not as much as you might think, but as a transit we're not

incorporating parking onto the site. but we're going -- >> around the facility? >> yes. >> i know there historically has been parking. >> right. and we're working on increasing a loading zone because i believe right now the loading zone is a little bit challenging because it's used only for portions of the day because that lane on 6th street opens for other parts of the day. we're working with the improvement project and the fulsome streetscape to try to optimize looking at the different construction timelines and figuring out how we can minimum mooes them doing something and us coming in and redoing it and vice versa. >> so the plan will be as smooth as possible or will create a level of efficiency in terms of people having access within the facility? >> that is the intent, yes. >> okay. good. and i just wanted to say, as we

have done with many projects historically, i trust that the staff will put forward some resources, staffing resources, to work with the community to develop a plan in terms of how we continue to operate during the construction and that that plan will be brought forward to the commission. >> commissioners, i'm not sure where to go with that. we're renovating the facility. we're going to sit down with the community. we can't have a building show up out of midair, but we will sit down and talk to real estate and see what other partnerships with ymca. that's probably not standard practice with us. >> i think we have done it -- >> or an interim renovation. >> -- with some other projects. >> not super typical for us.

i guess what i would suggest is we understand and hear loud and clear and know because we're there. we understand how used this facility is. it's always an inconvenience when we're renovating a facility and have to close it and we're going to need -- i mean, you can't eat in your kitchen when you're renovating it. so we will definitely do some thinking about how we can identify or mitigate impacts of the construction and happy to report back. i don't have the tools in the toolbox to come up with a plan to bring back approval. so we'll do some good thinking. we have a little bit time still, and we'll figure out a way to report back and keep you

informed. >> we will put some energy and resources towards trying to at least -- >> i mean, of course, right. this is not the only rec center we've renovated. so we -- when we renovated others -- and some of it is having some programs in potentially nearby clubhouses. it might mean some transportation is required to move some of our programs and maybe there is some transportation mitigations depending on what the options are. i would try to manage expectations a little bit. >> i just think that some effort would be better than none, and whatever effort -- >> 100%, we pledge to take a hard look at it. >> we're also looking at the contract delivery mechanism. so as i think heather mentioned, it could be a couple years in construction, but we're trying to get creative with public works and look at various

contract delivery mechanisms that might involve a slightly shorter construction duration. so sometimes even a matter of a few months can make a difference. we're already looking at that. >> thank you. >> i just wanted to add that it's great -- while there's questions ahead of us, challenges ahead of us, we have smart people who can figure this out. i trust the staff and general manager will be able to address those issues as the concept plan moves forward. i also want to complement staff and the trust for public lands, but particularly the community groups, united players, west bay, soma philippineas, it's great to see everyone come together and stay together and persevere through this process. i want to say thank you and stay together as we go through and try to address some of these

challenges. moved and seconded. all in favour? >> aye. >> motion carries. >> clerk: as a reminder we're taking today's calendar out of order, we are now on number 10, julius kahn playground renaming. >> good morning, commissioners. i wanted to acknowledge that we have some v.i.p.s in the room and don't know if you wanted to have them come before me. >> why don't you do the staff report, and then we'll call our v.i.p.s. >> good morning. i'm beverly with the rec and park public affairs. last year the --

[ indiscernible ] led a broad-based coalition of community and religious organizations throughout san francisco to rename this playground. through these efforts, the board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution on june 15, 2018, urging the recreation and park commission to remove the name from the playground. to provide a little bit more context on julius kahn, i have someone from per kins and kang l.l. p. >> our law firm represents as pro bono counsel the two organizations chinese for affirmative action and chinese historical society of american in their renaming of the julius kahn playground. who was he? he represented in the house of representatives in the late 19th century. he was known as making the

chinese exclusion act permanent. this was the first time the united states barred people based on their ethnicity from entering a country. san francisco does not stand for these kind of exclusionary policies. in 2018 a broad-based coalition of over 30 organizations and notable city officials came together to right a historical wrong, to move and rename this treasured playground. as a result the san francisco board of supervisors adopted a resolution directing the recreation and park commission to remove the name and rename this playground after a community naming process. this bill was co-sponsored by supervisor fewer, supervisor peskin, supervisor ronen, and stephanie. we are proud of this community of driven process that has led us here today to make our parks

more inclusive and reflect the diversity of san francisco. thank you. >> to condition. we had community members come together to form a renaming committee for the julius kahn renaming. the members included people from many organizations and societies in the area. we also did extend an invitation out to the community council, but they refused to participate. the renaming committee held three meetings to vote on potential names for consideration. overwhelmingly the geographical location were the most popular and most supported names from the community and the neighborhood as well. the community voted on june 11, 2019, with the top two names,

the first one being presidio wall playground and the second west wall playground. before you today for discussion and possible action is removing the name of julius kahn from the playground and renaming it. and the authorize the wording and location of the plague to explain the renaming. we would have the commission hope to approve it. >> thank you. before calling from the cards, i would want to recognize supervisor fewer to speak first. i'm sorry and also representatives from supervisor yee's office and supervisor stephanie. thank you. >> thank you very much, commissioners. good morning, i'm commissioner

fewer, supervisor for district 1. i am here to speak in strong support of the removal of the name julius kahn from the playground. in support of the renaming of either of the two options before you today. on june 5, 2018, the board of supervisors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the renaming authored by president norman yee and co-sponsored by five of my colleagues, including myself. i wanted to thank commissioner low for your support in bringing this issue forward for consideration. i speak to you today as an elected official, but also as a fourth-generation san franciscan american, whose grandparenteds and great-grandparents lived through the exclusion act which fuelled anti-chinese sentiment in the united states. it has been well-documented that former congressman julius kahn was committed to upholding

racist and exclusionary acts. he was publicly speaking in racist terms about many minors. our parks are and should be places that are safe, inclusive, and celebratory in san francisco and our world. the current name of this park tarnishes the reputation of the parks and rec department and the city as a whole and it's time to make the change today. i appreciate your consideration. thank you. >> thank you. supervisor yee's office. >> thank you, commissioners. on behalf of supervisor yee, we are just thankful to have this issue before you today. thank you for hearing it. i want to thank the staff and director ginsburg, as well as the community members that actually brought this to our

attention, chinese historical society, the asian-american bar association who led this effort on the ground. for us, this is part of a national and global movement to really recognize that things of the past may not uphold the values of our present and our future. for us, we think it's just beyond the name. it's about the dark and horrific history of had a that name holds. for a large part of our history and those in san francisco, those in power like julius kahn used that power to enforce institutions and laws that discriminated and oppressed people of color through things like the chinese exclusion act. i think the story behind it is really what we need to be addressing. i can't help but draw parallels to what's happening now in our nation today, with the level of xenophobia and fear-mongering and those among us today who are

living constantly in fear. we are grateful to the commission and everyone who has been working through this process. in some ways this exercise to rename is a symbol of what our spaces should be. we can all share, celebrate, and steward for our current residents and future generations. on behalf of president yee, we enthusiastically urge your support for the renaming of julius kahn playground today. >> thank you. sam bennet from supervisor stephanie's office. >> i am a legislative aid to supervisor stephanie. over the past year we've heard from so many neighbors and community neighbors about how much this park means to them and their families. today i'll keep it short and sweet. on behalf of our office, we are really happy to keep this robust

community process taking place and we're so excited to continue the process, to hear from more community members today, and really for more generations of kids and families to enjoy the park for decades to come. thank you again, and we'll look forward to continuing in this process. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: i'll now call the names on the blue cards -- >> excuse me, i'm sorry, may i speak, commissioner, for a moment. i have a question to pose. >> okay. >> the reason why i want to pose this question is there may be people waiting to speak who might be able to weigh in on this. i'm putting the cart before the horse a little bit, but let's say we get to the part where we're renaming it. was there any conversation with fan and others about the possibility of calling it presidio west playground? that's the question i want to pose. if anyone can respond to it, i would appreciate it. >> so from my knowledge of what the process was, the two names

that were provided were due to the geographic location, the presidio wall and pacific west. the merging of the two is a different conversation because that was not voted on or put before the general public for consideration. we're happy to entertain and hear from the commissioners if there's other suggestions. for today's purposes there were two names provided. >> okay. thank you. >> clerk: gordon, charles, doug and/or jane. >> we're about to see recreation and park commission hall of fame commissioner gordon chen. >> i need not put my last name on the card. >> that's because you're so

famous here. >> thank you, vice president low. i'm here obvious to support the renaming of julius kahn playground. i don't take any position on what it should be called. but clearly we need to remove a very painful and pervasive reminder of the chinese exclusion act, probably the most damaging federal policy to have ever been passed affecting chinese americans, not only in san francisco, but throughout the country. for many of us, in fact, for most chinese american families, it is a very personal issue. i put in my letter to you the fact that my grandmother and my mother of 10 years old was incarcerated on angel island in 1928 because of the chinese exclusion act. i did not mention in the letter that it's affected by father's

side, my paternal side as well. next week i'm going to chicago for a long-awaited family reunion. that's a reunion not of the chen family but of the yung family. i was called chen because of the chinese exclusion act. it's very personal. it affects all of us, our identity, our sense of being an american. so i urge your approval of the renaming of the julius kahn playground. and i say that with all due respect to the wonderful contributions of the kahn family to san francisco over all these years. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: charles. >> thank you. my name is charles ferguson and i am president of the presidio heights association of neighbors, otherwise known as f.a.n. in my professional life i am a

judge across the street at the california public utilities commission. i hold hearings all through the state for the public to express their opinion. so i know how important public input is and how valuable it is to decision-makers like yourselves. i thank you for the opportunity to address you. f.a.n. is in support of naming -- renaming the playground, either presidio wall playground, which by the way got the largest number of votes, and west pacific playground was the second runner-up. but really the rubber hit the road in the discussions and process that we went through to get to these two names. what we did is we advertised on our website and through letters that i sent to the neighbors to send in suggestions. we have about 2800 residents in our neighborhood. everybody who was an adult resident of presidio heights is

a member of the neighborhood association without having to pay any dues. and by june 5 of this year, we had about 18 different names. i cannot recollect every single one of the 18, but they fell into three categories. one was personal names, another was locational names, and the third we called a creative group, some of which cannot be repeated in public. [ laughter ]. >> so there were both names of prominent jewish individuals, rota goldman, who i call the mother teresa of san francisco was one of them and she came in third place. there were names, chinese names that were suggested, wong kim bark, which if i recall correctly is the plaintiff in the famous supreme court case that holds that if you are actually just -- your parents

are traveling through the united states and you have a baby, the baby becomes the citizen of the united states. that's the key supreme court decision. there were a lot of debates. on june 5 and the following week for the entire neighborhood meeting, at which there were a hundred residents -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- of the neighborhood. about chinese names and jewish names. but in the end, the voting on both occasions, june 5 by the board itself, june 11th by all the members of the neighborhood association that showed up to vote on this, it became quite clear that what we wanted was a name that was connected to the playground itself but avoided all the social debate -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- because this in the end is a playground for children. there will be time later in their lives to face social

debates, but we felt that this is not what we need to do with this particular playground. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm speaking on behalf of a friend of mine. this is a personal issue for many persons in our community. i will not add to the letter we previously submitted back in august, but on halloween in 1898 was born in chinatown.

there were legislative pronouncements as well as the remarks on the floor about the many minorities. you have the authority under your own resolutions, 12470 to change the names of your parks, in view of extraordinary circumstances of city or national interest. this is both a city and national interest. i believe that the plaque that has been suggested to you will provided needed context of why this name change reflects the highest expression of the values of san francisco that we hold dear. my grandmother eventually did

visit a park in the first dozen -- decade of her life. it was golden gate park in 1906, where her family was evacuated. but at that time the chinese were segregated, even though everybody was in the same situation in the aftermath of the great earthquake and fire. this is very much a coming around of full circle here. i would urge you to accept the recommendation of your operations committee. we have no objection to either the proposed locational alternatives that are before you and thank you very much for your consideration of this matter. >> my name is cynthia chen and i am the co-executive director of chinese for affirmative action. we were a part of this

community-based effort in the renaming of julius kahn playground. we are here to fully support the renaming of the playground and to support either of the names that have been put forth through what we believe has been a fair and transparent process. we'd like to take this moment to thank the rec and park department staff. this is not just about history but about what's happening in our country today. we represent community members who are under concerted attack, whether it's fighting issues around the border or racial profiling based on ethnicity or national origin. this will send a message not

just here but throughout the world. we urge you to support this moving forward. >> my name is sam luder. i'm a fifth-generation san franciscan native born. on my father's side they came in 1847. i'm sure my great-great-grandfather complained about how san francisco changed two years later during the gold rush. my mother's side is a relative newcomer as they came in 1898. i come from jewish national itselves both locally and nationally. i have served in some capacity

for many jewish organizations. i point all this out not to boast, but to give context to this next part. perhaps the most important thing about my background for today is i septic spent a significant portion of my childhood at j.k. every weekend and after school were spent wandering the forest with my cousin, playing baseball with friends, or lying around on the lawn. as a matter of fact, i could show you a scar in the middle of my hand from jumping over the wall, lost my balance, ended up with a sharp rock lodged in there. i pulled it out, wrapped it up, went back to the park. growing up in an active, proud san francisco family, i heard the names of many clans that i

admired. i have to admit, i can't recall ever hearing mention of julius kahn in that thing. he was not someone i knew to have contributed to our community. i can't stand here today and tell you i know of his contributions to the jewish community. even if he had, his record in congress would erase all that for me. the street i grew up on had a list of rules when it was first developed in the late 1800s, early 1900s. among those rules was chinese and blacks could only live there as servants and jews couldn't live there at all. this discrimination was not theoretical. how one of us could contribute to the discrimination of another is beyond me. i'm here today to give my full support for changing the name. kahn's active he testified earlier to discriminate against other humans is a mark on our

city. i thank you for reaching out to our community to understood why this is proposed. in conclusion, i don't really have a preference between the two names you're considering, although given my scar, i do have a particular fondness for that wall. >> thank you. [speaking chinese].

[speaking chinese] [no interpretation] [speaking chinese] [no interpretation].

>> good morning. my name is [ indiscernible ] -- president of community tenant's association. we have over 1800 members. in the past we have regular meetings and [ indiscernible ] in chinatown every wednesday at each meeting there were at least 200 members. we go to the playground a lot, so we understand how important a playground is to a community. the name of the playground is not just a name, but it represents the community's values and history. we support the renaming because julius kahn was a racist. he suggest to make the exclusion act permanent and campaign to block chinese from coming to american. this is not the legacy we should honor. we should stay together to welcome our immigrants and their contribution. we should rename to presidio wall playground.

>> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment on this item? >> good afternoon, commissioners. i am submitting a letter that i submitted also in august with i believe the rest of the community. i stand here fully in support of removing the name of julius kahn from this park and replacing it with one of the communities voted upon alternatives. i really just personally don't believe that when we remove these kind of things that we're forgetting history in any way. julius kahn's name will always be written down in history for the despicable things that he did. communities across the country are rejecting these monuments and i cannot imagine that san francisco would not be leading the charge on that. i want to point out, these are not things from the past. we have individuals in the room

with us who were personally impacted by us. it's easy to say that was history and it happened a long time ago. no, this is something that impacts people who are with us here today. no young person should have to play in the park under the sign of someone who did not want them here and was clear about that and said way worse things than that. let's move on and celebrate this community effort that has really brought these two alternatives to your table today. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: please come forward. thank you. >> hello. this is a very touchy issue. changing the name of the facility. i've been reading all the requirements and everything else and there's also a lot of people

at the committee who wants to have the name removed. the resolution is to remove of the name. i'm in agreement that. i also want to try to bring up something. currently we even have our president now, mr. donald trump. he talks about public charges. so when he talks about it and i read this review over again, what has happened since the days of julius kahn, i'm getting a little stirred up a little bit. but then again, i'm going to be cool about it. so i want to bring in something like what happens if we bring in positive contributions? there are a lot of information about immigrants that hasn't ever been brought in.

my brother who has his doctorate, he published in the british journal of clinical sociology of the assimilation of those in american [ indiscernible ] -- they grew up with fifth-generational american borns. that's kind of surprising. if you look at the data and everything else that would have been done on that particular issue, chinese have been assimilating here in american. myself, i also wrote a successful racial integration project [ indiscernible ] -- in the high school district. i'm a novice at it. i used a moral majority type of

basis, and that was before the moral majority oratory. so when i look at some of this stuff going on, is it going to be perpetuating to say -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- change the name back or another time they want the change to come across. so is there any way that you can say this particular change that we're opposing, that you take it and stabilize it so that it doesn't switch back and forth? that's all i wanted to say. i think it's good for a few of us americans to try to keep in mind that we have -- [ bell rings ]. >> -- a constitution. thank you. >> thank you. >> clerk: is there any other public comment? >> good morning, commissioners. i am lindsy clock.

i am a fourth generation san franciscan who is the proud descendant of chinese immigrants. i am here to support the renaming of julius kahn playground. i've done some research on -- in looking at julius kahn's history, and i noted that jewish historians saw that he had a particular animus against asians. and, in fact, there were jewish representatives on the east coast that looked at the west coast legislators and saw -- and were horrified, actually, by the comments that he was making on the record and feared that there would be similar animus against the jewish community and other immigrants. indeed, that did happen. on a personal note, i grew up in san francisco, born and raised, and grew up playing in julius kahn playground. my