i'm a long-time resident of japantown. i'm one of the few that's been there for over 30 years and raised my family there. my husband also has a church on bush and laguna. so our family and myself have been very active in the japanese community. the peace plaza is, as you heard, a very big part of our community. it's the hub of our community. when i say that, festivals are enjoyed there. we have a lot of children that come after school, before school, and we have a huge community of seniors. i go there daily in that area and i observe and i also participate in a lot of events. and i see seniors that are tripping on the cracked tiles. i see children who have to play on railings, because there is no playground, no safe area. we have skateboarders that are on the peace pagoda trying to go up and down the stairs because there is just nothing for them to access. i implore all of you to think about japantown and put it near the top of the list for this bond. thank you so much. >> president buell: thank you. >> clerk: next speaker

this statement is please do not forget japantown and our 110-year history in this beautiful city. thank you very much. >> supervisor fewer: thank you very much, commissioner. are there any members of the public that would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [ gavel ]. >> supervisor fewer: commission -- i mean, supervisor tang, i believe you have some amendments. >> supervisor tang: yes. so first of all, thank you to everyone who came out to public comment but also for your ongoing participation and really fighting for arts funding and cultural district funding, as well, throughout the years. not just recently an association with this initiative ordinance. and yes, when someone else said if supervisor peskin and i are teaming up together to put an initiative ordinance on and dedicate hotel tax funds, i think there's probably something to it. we generally do not support set asides or baselines, but we see this as reinstituting something that existed before and renewing that. so with that said, the amendments i have today really just clarify the spending levels,

next we have japantown peace plaza. this is crumbling water surface with a walter feature that's inoperable and it has water intrusion to the garage below. it's the only public gathering space for the japantown community. this is a community that has been disadvantaged over the years and has been pressured to move into a smaller and smaller area. this space is the only public gathering space. it's important that we treat it with respect and we improve the really -- a space that's been failing the past few years. the community has been asking us to do so for many years. and they started in 2009 -- they started before, but in 2009 authored one of three studies that they've produced over the last couple of years on informing these improvements. we've recently started -- we did a conditions assessment two years ago to help us identify how to solve the problem and if a full renovation is needed or if we're able toll fix it before it turns out a full renovation is needed and the visions plan is currently under way right now w

and our japantown in san francisco is the oldest japantown in the country and is only three others remaining in the nation down from as many as 40 at one time from the turn of the century. so these cultural centers are the last of the major japanese communities to survive the forced evacuation and incarceration of japanese americans during world war ii, and later, the urban renewal of the 50's and 60's. cultur cultural strategies have the potential to bring neighborhoods together, so i just want to thank everybody that worked on this. this is really good legislation. >> president cohen: thank you. supervisor yee? >> supervisor yee: i was just wondering what impact this legislation would have with existing set asides. i know that prop s had an impact that i was concerned about. i don't know. this was different, but could you explain? >> sure. through the chair, to supervisor -- to supervisor yee, so yes, that is why i had to thank the controller's office and the mayor's budget office because they did figure out a way, they presented the arts coalition different options, and they all had diffe

, it is almost time for one of my favorite events, the nihonmachi street fair in san francisco's japantownand not just because it's such an important cultural happening for the bay area's asian-american and pacific islander communities. it's a fun time that mixes the traditional influences with the new. joining me now from the nihonmachi street fair is board president richard jue, and a long-time member of the planning committee, the very colorful wayne yoshida. richard jue: yes, oh, i can remember when it first started. robert: well, tell us a little bit about when it first started for people to kinda catch them up in terms of how it started and how it evolved to what it is now. richard: well, it started in 1973 in may, and actually, it was originated from steve nakajo, a well-known person in japantown, and primarily, when they developed it, they wanted to have a different festival outside of the cherry blossom, and mainly to focus more on the nonprofit organizations and promote more nonprofits and their services, and they can send out their information, but also to display more of the lo

and this has happened in japantown. it happens in other places. i'm also part of an organization called apia-hip, asian pacific islanders, historic preservation. we'll have our national forum here in san francisco in november. this is our fifth forum. it's really significant to us. and throughout the time that we have held these events, the california historical society has been a key partner. they've helped us grow. they helped us bring our programs together. they would do the kind of work that would make the old mint a very important structure for not just the city, not just the nation, but for our comments. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is paul wermer. and i realize i can't add a lot to what people have already said about the importance of the old mint. the one thing i would like to re-emphasize is that when you have a place azmathest -- as majestic as the old mint, it helps people to focus and tell the stories about the fact that help to inform where we are today and perhaps help us better understand the problems we're fac

the san jose japantown event is july 14 and 15.he san francisco j-town festivities will be july 21 and 22. and mountain view's will also be on july 21 and 22. see a list of all the obon festivals in the bay area at nbcbayarea.com. and don't miss the redwood city music on the square every friday through august 31 at 6 p.m. in the courthouse square in downtown redwood city. the free music features top quality local and national performers from rock, blues, pop, latin, and more. and how about some reggae? we've got it here when sammielz takes our studio stage next. reggae festival here. we talked earlier about the upcoming seventh annual island reggae festival being held at the santa clara county fairgrounds. and with us right now is--back with us is sammielz as well as samu, who has been a guest on our show before. thank you for coming back to do this. what's the song we're going to hear? sammielz: this song is called "let us be." it's basically the song that kind of started my career off as a solo artist. basically the song that kin

we had a conversation with the community a number of months ago and, and then at that time the japantown task force said they would like to postpone the designation pending any improvements to the plaza. being that we still have a pending designation, our next step was to reach out to supervisor breed's office to have a meeting between the supervisor's office and the community to talk about next steps with the election, that was naturally postponed, so hopefully by the time either somebody is we appointed to district 5 we can reengage japantown on hopefully bringing that to the full board. >> add to that? so, on saturday, i met the new staff person from reckon park, assuming is going to be assigned to do envisioning of what they want to see for the plaza, and i strongly encouraged him to make contact with the planning department staff so that there could be information, clear and concise information that can be shared so i'll forward you that contact information. >> that would be great. ok, thanks. >> thank you. i can we can move on. >> very good, that will place us under item 3. preside

we'll have important information on the upcoming obon season in the bay area japantowns, the northernornia soy and tofu festival, as well as redwood city's music on the square. and then we return to the island reggae festival with a live performance from one of the show's featured stars, all on our show today.

. >>> an isaacic bridge in japantown getting a fresh paint. and you can help pick the color.ities officials decided on two colors that best represent japanese culture for the walking bridge overs webster and geary street. there is grown representing new grwth and purple representing royalty. can you cast your vote and we put a link on the website. abc7news.com. >> i vote for green. >> we are coincidentally wearing the color. >> yes. >> kate larson talked one-on-one with london breed about the housing crisis plan. >> and the the port of oakland is seeing all-time h >> announcer: good morning, north bay. let's get up and get going. >> this is abc 7 mornings. >>> and we are starting off with a live look at doppler 7. >> your eyes do not deceive there is green on the radar and chance of drizzle during the drive to work this morning. >>> haven't heard that in a long time. it's friday july 13th. we make it lucky though. >> not a freaky friday. a lucky friday. you are never more than 7 maintenance -- you're never more than 7 minutes away from the accuweather forecast and meteorologi

neighborhoods in district 5 include the fillmore, hate ash berry, japantown and the inner sunset. >>> a crackdown on plastic straws in the name of cleaning up the ocean. why the plan is getting some pushback. >>> also struck by lightning while hiking the pacific coast trail. these three brothers from northern california live to tell about it. >>> i'm chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. we have fog at the coast, but will it be good enough to keep away 105 to 110-degree heat? i'll have the answer to that coming up in my forecast in nine minutes. story in hawaii. a flying lava chunk hit a tour boat packed with passengers. >>> we are tracking a developing story out of hawaii. flying lava, a chunk of it, hit a tour boat packed with passengers. passengers are watching the erupting kilauea volcano off the coast of the big island when the lava crashed through the roof of the boat. you can see that big, gaping hole. the captain didn't see any warning signs. passengers say everyone came together to help each other but 23 people suffered burns and scrapes. the volcano has destroyed 700 homes. >>>

our largest challenges in creating this cultural district when we compare ourselves to chinatown, japantownlittle saigon, there's little communities there that act as place makers. when you enter into little philippines, you're like where are the businesses, and that's one of the challenges we're trying to solve. >> undercover love wouldn't be possible without the help of the mayor and all of our community partnerships out there. it costs approximately $60,000 for every event. undiscovered is a great tool for the cultural district to bring awareness by bringing the best parts of our culture which is food, music, the arts and being ativism all under one roof, and by seeing it all in this way, what it allows san franciscans to see is the dynamics of the filipino-american culture. i think in san francisco, we've kind of lost track of one of our values that makes san francisco unique with just empathy, love, of being acceptable of different people, the out liers, the crazy ones. we've become so focused onic maing money that we forgot about those that make our city and community unique. when peo

there's the eastern neighborhood plan, merced, shipyard two, japantown cultural heritage. the commission 2020 plan, 5m, the hub, central soma and the list goes on. there are many other projects large and small and all that have mattered to me. i remained anchored in my profession, shaped and challenged by circumstances inside and out side the city and by an ever increasing amount of planning in san francisco, including gentrification. today i find myself expand and shaped by my past 12 years on the commission and my professional skills remain one of my strengths, i find i've become more consistent and stronger voice for neighborhood concerns including ethnicity, race, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, types of disabilities and other relevant demographic qualities of the city at large. with an urgent awareness of the enormous, increasing imbalance in our affordability for housing, rising income gaps, i believe that a balance has to be balanced somewhere so we can be livable and our way of life sustainable for all that can regain an element sustainable for all. i'm a

where's japantown? i'm sorry. okay. a couple in five. three, five, five, six. 10. you know, there may be a couple of commissioners that want something to come here, but what our president said, we try really hard to be agnostic g d about the needs and not get into the politics. but that's all i have to say about that. >> commissioner ginsburg? >> commissioners, we always want to keep you in the loop. this is the beginning, not the end. i want to reiterate based on what you saw today, we have a lot of work, opportunity, and a lot of challenges. and so our goal is to think of a strategy of how we can kind of execute the next bond, and yes, it's obviously -- the mayor's -- going to be the mayor's and the board's and the commission's policy call as to what's going in the bond. we make policy recommendation, and there's several levels of approval. the issue of sort of getting in the cue a little bit, i want to remind you that we're in the queue. there's no leapfrogging. we are in the queue for 2019 and 2025, and the real -- the essence of the proposal would be to try to

first force is based in district 1, but we also work in japantown and chinatown. we have a cohort of artists who teach and perform, we have an annual home season, a quarterly artists series, but men ton artists, we do large scale community development projects. we've received money from grants for the arts. we service about 10,000 san franciscans a year. our budget is mal but our impact is strong because we move hearts and minds, by telling our stories, we contribute to the culture -- >> good afternoon. i'm with a.p.i. legal outreach. i'm here specifically to ask for the stop of a cut that's occurring this year with the help of supervisor fewer and the mayor's office, we were able to provide services to survivors of domestic violence and violence against women in the workforce development area and also in a separate area, those facing eviction, seniors and families in the south of market and tenderloin areas. again, those programs are being cut this year, and we ask you to restore that money at about 150,000 for both programs. on behalf of the a.p.i. council, and

we are here again, grandfather was a founder of japantown of the 1800s, my grandmother a leader of chinatown garment union and we are vested in san francisco. we know how important it is to support culturally specific performing artists, we strengthen our communities by telling our story and passing forward history. we are part of the a.p.i. council. asking for 77k and the funding is expiring. we know you have many pressing items on your plate, please, in the midst of crisis and chaos, a song still sooths the soul, moving hearts and minds galvanizes will. with will, we can do anything. thank you. >> good morning, dean taylor for the a.p.i. council, with the a.p.i. legal outreach also. i'm speaking toward the city-wide cuts of our a.p.i. programs. services to the majority now population of san francisco, voters that will remember the cuts in services we are losing eight programs being cut city-wide for almost $800,000 this year. we have only made some brief progress in services, and now we are being cut back. please reconsider these cuts. >> executive director development foundation, south of