we call the richmond district the new chinatown in the 1980's at that time. just being around the tremendous unique neighborhood, and discovering san francisco in the 1980's as i grew up, but i also have been very active as a community organizer. i worked in chinatown, and some first jobs also at the mental health center in the richmond area multi services in the 1980's, and i was also a staff are at the chinatown youth center -- i was also a staffer. a lot of my work has been supporting community empowerment, especially in an immigrant and people of color communities. most recently, i have been teaching at san francisco state. i ran the immigrant rights coalition in the city in the 1990's for several years. i'm also an immigration attorney, and a lot of my passion is supporting in power met for immigrant communities in the city as well. >> why did you choose to live in san francisco? supervisor mar: a lot of people bring this up, but is one of the most exciting, culturally diverse places in the world. learning about new cultures and people from different par

in relating to chinatown, this will impact chinatown greatly, could delete the small business community. chinatown has the highest density of commercial areas in the city. this legislation calls for the beginning of housing in the chinatown area, the requirement of providing recaps screenings. i have no idea why rooftop screening is a priority. and the article basically talks about people getting blindsided by the legislation. also, the impact. there are lots of plastic awnings. i think when legislators are pushing for legislation, we teen -- we need to know what are the impact in the community. i am talking about the first time we heard about this was in may, over half a year. people got to know about it through the newspaper. so i think we need to

to my knowledge, and i am quite close to many of the port tenants, along with chinatown, basically, people do not know about this yet. i am hopeful that people can understand this. i am still perplexed at the process of lumping so many unrelated things together, and you have one or two great things, but you would let minor awnings get in the way and kill a large aspect of it. i am in favor -- this commission spend a lot of time carefully looking at small and large items, and i would be in favor of breaking this up into pieces that are more manageable. i have read the several different times, and i am confused. i care -- dare to ask the question who truly understand all this? i will not do that. i hope there is more out -- and people get the opportunity to chime in a bit. some of the items seem to be written by folks who do not live in the area or have not spent too much time but do not like the way that chinatown looks with vinyl awnings. that might be the case, but that is part of the character, whether you like it or not. all the different districts make the city unique. i am hoping, whe

we want to continue discussing some of tho chinatown. the overall goal of the legislation was to clarify, simplify, and amendment planning code, as it applies, not only to district 3, but in ways that further underline principles such as affordable housing, alternative transportation, the livability of our community, in ways that we all agree on. on the average, to make clear for the record, we introduced this legislation in may. i have had a number of formal meetings in the summer. as recently as last friday, president chiu and i met with bcdc. we have also worked with stakeholders, and we hope those conversations continue, but we will formally set down peter cohen later in the year to continue those discussions. we do not believe that is the end of stickle broader reach. we see this as the midpoint where we are. after we are past the commission level, we will have a robust conversation with supervisors at the land use committee and full board potentially. we will consider pulling out particular pieces of the legislation. i will report

finally, the awnings and screens, concern about working with members of the community in chinatown regarding this. certainly, not reached on the purposes of these sign changes, screen changes, making sure it is appropriate wherever it is called for. i think the legislation has a lot of promise, but i would agree with -- peter cohen brought up the idea that it is a large piece of legislation that is very complicated. i think we're getting closer to understanding the different parts of it. thank you. commissioner olague: commissioner miguel? commissioner miguel: an unusual piece of omnibus legislation. i do not thing there is any other term for it. i appreciate what aaron, and marie, and justin, and tom has put into it. in general, i am in full agreement with the department's recommendations. i think -- i know they are thoughtful, and i think they have met many of the concerns. i will go over three or four items that i have concerns on. i am working from the executive summary that was produced for the commission. in the section on streetscape improvements, there is a comment of removing baseme

i grew up in chinatown at a time when the city was not as welcoming to chinese as it is today.rew up remembering stories of how two drunken sailors beat up my great-grandfather and left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life and other stories even more terrifying of an era not that long ago when chinatown was a ghetto. when i returned to chinatown to do community work, i brought with me some of those memories and perspectives, until i met warren hellman. he opened my eyes to the rest of san francisco. at the same time, he respected where i came from. that is something about warren -- from whatever perspective you come from, he respects where you came from and tries to understand where you are. he broadened my horizons. he taught me how to care about this great city. that is something that is really special about warren. he teaches you how to care and how to do for the city. that is something that has to be taught to the next generation. a chinese proverb says belief does not fall far from the tree. warren has been a tree of life for the city. hellman hallow will continue

in chinatown, they get reused as blindness. a lot of those will go out and buy plastic garbage bags.

. >> if there is safety in numbers, washington's chinatown neighborhood aught to be one of the safest places in town. >> that idea is in serious doubt to tonight as police are looking for the man who carjacked and sexually assaulted a woman and sadly, it all happened while her toddler was in the backseat of that car. ken joins us now live from downtown. ken. >> yeah, you know it really is disturbing. it all happened last night at 7:30 down here in chinatown in front of the verison center along the 700 block of f street. it's an area that is usually packed with people. the female victim had just left a parking garage when according to police, a man forced his way inside her car. he held her at gunpoint and forced her to drive away to an unidentified spot before raping her. he did it in front of her 15 month old son. >> that's a random occurrence. >> here's what is so shocking about the allegations. a woman was taken from this area at this same time last night. take a look and see how packed it is right now. these folks are here for a hockey game, but told yesterday the streets were jus

out it is good news for business owners in chinatown. >> i am so excited. >> many thought this night >> i did not think it was going to happen. >> the wizards have finally tipped off. >> really exciting. >> this is a family of and for many. >> i have my family with me. >> the wizards returned with new players and a new uniform. what do you think? >> is going to be different. i do not know how it is going to work. >> thanks to a lockout, the nba is fitting a lot of games into a short amount of time. the wizards have to play 66 games in 33 games. >> we are big fans. >> this woman plans to take her son and her friends to a lot of games. between the wizards, the capitals, and other events, the verizon center is going to be busy. usually bustling chinatown will be more bustling than normal thanks to the added car and foot traffic. businesses are not complaining. so far neither are the fans. >> i want to see some basketball games. >> you will want to listen to this beginning january 1 employees will receive unlimited vacation time. unlamented vacation time. the director of sales and says t

usually chinatown will be even more bustling than normal. businesses here are not complaining and so far, neither are the fans. >> i want to see some basketball games. >> the wizards go on the road. their next home game is going to be sunday night against the boston celtics. for highlights come up we will have that coming up in sports. we are live in northwest. >>> someone in maryland is $125 million richer tonight. a family run business sold this weekend's winning power ball ticket. the winner has not come forward but the store will get a $25,000 commission for selling the tickets. a celebration of african- american life on this first night of bonds that in southeast washington. -- bonds that -- one that in southeast washington. this is the a here for this particular event. coming up, a deadly helicopter crashed in the sunshine state. find out the special mission for the crew on board that ended in disaster. the past may be coming back to haunt newt gingrich. we have new details on his first divorce and the new debate it may be bringing up.

the richmond, chinatown, the bayview, and a lot of different communities, to ensure that we started out reached on this new propone it in this extension of the law. some of the organizations we have reached out to include the asian-as the american ocean harmony alliance, at the san francisco chinatown merchants association, saw help for the elderly, sunset merchants association, the small business network, small-business advocates. the list goes on and on. what we have been doing is distributing the information about the legislation, as well as the fact sheet that was created by the department of the environment in english, spanish, and chinese. before the legislation is passed, the role of the the parties to clarify information in the community. as supervisor mirkarimi mentioned, there has been someone and an organization actively working to put out some of the information in the community about what this is, so that has caused confusion. that is what we have been working to clarify what our fact sheet and outrage. from our perspective, as soon as this legislation is passed, that is wh

a number of people in chinatown come to me about an idea to build a stage. maybe the general manager has heard about this. at the portsmouth square mezzanine area. they often have events there, and each time, organizers have to actually read a stage to be put in. the idea would be perhaps to build a stage akin to what the japanese tea garden has done. where it would be a permanent structure, fixture in the plaza, and that when events happen, they can use that stage, as opposed to constructing it every single time. anyway, i would offer that up for future consideration. commissioner buell: thank you. >> is there any public comment on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. we are on item 14, new business agenda setting. is there any public comment? public comment is closed. item 15, communication. is there any public comment? public comment is closed. item 16 is adjournment. commissioner buell: all those in favor? >> aye. commissioner buell: happy holidays, everybody. >> good morning, everyone. i'm the executive director of the san francisco traditi

we'll keep you posted. >>> now, to the brutal attack in the middle of chinatown.ppened about 8:30 last night in front of the verizon center. police say a man got into the woman's car, forced her to drive, then sexually assaulted her. this happened as she pulled out of a parking garage. that is where news 4s derrick ward joins us live with the latest. >> reporter: as you said, this is particularly troubling on a lot of levels. the kind of crime that happened. the woman had her child in the car. third, because it happened in what i

we had a number of chinatown citizens to join in on this. in fact, we even had a workshop for them in mandarin so that they would get their input as to what we were planning. this is a small piece of property. it is for the whole northeast neighborhood, and it provides exactly what the report and the planning department and the neighborhood really want. it came through through a number of very good service and workshops. in addition, i would say, there was a recent article that john king wrote in "the chronicle," and he seemed to take some exception to the height, but he said that the high sections of this great washington development were on the ground level. i think as you go through this booklet, this plan, you will see that we agree with that. we are in total agreement with them, and it would provide the substance and the and come and a variety of income throughout the northeast corridor. raising heights on the waterfront, i do not care what anybody says, there is not a developer, him or her in this town, who would not wait for a 146-foo