. >> good afternoon, i'm chris bigelow, i've been a resident of north beach and russian hill for over 30 years. our city, the older densely packed neighborhoods suffer from a toxic wave of development proposals attempting to insert additional square footage at the expense of the character that makes these neighborhoods so appealing. what is stimulating this push for more and more and more? the automatic inclusion of garages in such proposals may serve the needs of present owners, but it is often a calculated component of property development strategies and the anticipated profits resulting from a future resale. and now in addition to the criteria of planning code section 249.49, i'd like to call our attention to the planning department's city wide action plan, including the better neighborhoods program, which has this to say about parking. it degrades the quality of urban places. generates traffic, takes up valuable space and makes housing less affordable. today, we are designing places as much for parking as for people and funneling more and more traffic onto our streets. the result