. >> howard wong, architect. i am standing here to support jason bley, the public for this issue. i first learned of jason because of his staunch advocacy for chinatown's architectural heritage and his unwavering protection of chinese-american heritage, something that is very lacking, unfortunately, it in our city. as an architect, working on many products for the city, i was always painfully aware of the need to maintain good progress and good standing in a timely manner, approvals and a timely manner. as far as i know, there were very unforgiving deadlines that often even my clients called me and a rush and said it isn't that permit expiring? i would say, yes, you are right, i will jump on it and make sure we get our proper paperwork and applications into the process. the application of laws should not be -- should not differ from one person to another. it should be applied evenly to all people. in this case, jason bley informed me a year-and-a-half ago that he was concerned about the project early on because of the approval process, but because the project was not a hearing to

howard wong speaking for the board of san francisco tomorrow. we trust that a deliberate and expeditious process will craft amendments to arls 10 and 11 -- articles 10 and 11 to

howard wong speaking for the board of san francisco tomorrow. we trust that a deliberate and expeditious process will craft amendments to arls 10 and 11 -- articles 10 and 11 to fulfill proposition j's establishment at the historic preservation commission. with 2,000 such commissions in the united states, many with decades of history, hopefully we can evaluate and adopt that best practices and lessons learned. a strong historic preservation commission will maintain healthy balance in protecting san francisco's historic and cultural resources. a major economic resource that attracts 16 million visitors who spend $8 billion annualy. a strong historic preservation commission may well avoid the mistakes of the past, the loss of the fox movie palace, for instance, which would have been a key element of the maintaining the revitalization of the mid market area. the building on union square, one of the finest buildings i've seen in pictures, in vegas memories also, which had a very fine preservation option that could have included a department store wh