for example, the 2 million that's ear marked for like merced, that can only get spent on like merced. the exact way that that money will be spent will be determined tlau a rigorous public community engagement process that is also required by the bond legislation that residents will be invited to participate in to determine what the best way to make improvements in like merced using that money. >> okay, and george? >> if all of this were true, as you know he could not state what he's going to be doing with the 2 million dollars. as far as the rigorous inviting of neighborhoods, yes, they will get some neighborhood groups, they will get some people from the neighborhoods, but this is an rpd situation where the rpd finally decides how they're going to spend this money. these groups are great for show. it's a great dog and pony show but in terms of real actionable things, the rec and park system does not listen to the neighborhoods. they will go ahead and do whatever they want to do and i would simply ask you what are you going to do with the $2 million dollars you are spending at like me

improvements to john mcklairpb park for $10 million dollars, golden gate park for 9 million dollars and like merced park. (inaudible) 12 million dollars. improvements that can serve water and parks for 5 million. trail reconstruction this gold again gate park and john mechanic claire park for 4 million and park forestry plans for 4 million. it would permit land lords to pass through 50 percent of any resulting property tax increase to their tenants. i'm here with matthew ogrady, we're joined by george wooding, vice president of the coalition for san francisco neighborhoods and an opponent of the measure. i'd like it start off with matthew and why you believe this proposition is so important. >> certainly. thank you, richard. first off i have some good news and bad news and some more good news for san francisco. the good news is that in a study recently published by the trust for public land that looked at city park systems in the 40 biggest cities in the country, it rated san francisco as no. 1 in the country. we have the best park system anywhere in the country. that's because of the big investmen

in my own district, out at like merced, we're taking that amount of money and building a water recycling plant. mike wants us to take that money and waste it on a report. why would we want to spend money to redo what's already been done? >> i upd. that does bring up an interesting point as well with the infrastructure that was voted on and is almost complete. can you address that investment that's already been made. >> absolutely. >> and also with the state of california's report suggesting that 8 million wouldn't be enough to get a plan done. so if you could just address those two points that have come up. >> sure, let me start -- again, go to the report it says again 7 million is what's needed for san francisco to engage in the planning process. the larger amount is if we bring in the park service and the state of california, which at this point we don't need to do, we just need the san francisco public utilities commission to get off their butts and start to think about the future more effectively. this really boils down it a 21st century versus the 20th century view of water. sean sa

transportation is so important when talking about projects like park merced or others. if you talk about building a project anywhere and look at the eir process or elements that have to do with transportation and just rely on muni and near a station or track. we just can't put it off like that and we have one element -- excuse me, probably going to work. no. so it means doing it right in conjunction with all of the existing infrastructure including muni. >> all right. mr. crowley. >> thank you cheryl. we are blessed. we are land locked but i believe in this case we need to have balance. we have a housing trust before us this november they believe needs to be replacing the redevelopment agency which has indexes for salaries of folks that can benefit from an affordable housing policy. i would also say that most homes and apartments and condo conversions need to be near transportation and retail wraps. we have things up in hunter's point and treasure island coming on point and with that i hope park merced gets built but not without tenant protections and that's what i sugg

a place like park merced where you have 17,000 people would be moving in there. 6,000 parking stalls,

currently major developers have their sights set on manhattanizing our district like the new park merced project. these kind of projects need to be opposed because they contribute to the displacement of our citizens, gentrification of our district's neighborhoods, the upsurge in traffic congestion to our streets and highways, and the deadly increase in water and air carcinogenic contaminants to our district's environment. i am also concerned about the economic health of our city and the seemingly recollectless spending that gets approved annually by the board of supervisors all at the expense of you, the taxpayers. currently we are exceeding $7 billion being passed routinely without an objection from the board. the city civil grand jury reported if rising pension costs are not addressed quickly the city's financial health will be jeopardized and leveraged out to generations to come. if elected i will make sure our future budgets remain balanced without cutting public services or benefits, privatizing our parks and other public resources, replacing additional burdens on the taxpayers. par

. >> i don't know if we are going to go back to the lake merced item, but i'd like to hear if it is going to be calendared or not. because i think the six-month -- as far as i can count, six months -- >> ends in november. >> and i know there was a public comment that rec and park should be disqualified from whatever it was. i think we did agree to a six-month time period which i think is coming up in november. and i guess i just want to hear, just through the chair, if that is going to be calendared. >> you were the commissioner reference in the remarks. >> i may have been. [laughter] >> go ahead. >> stephen gee, assistant manager for water. we did recommend that we continue that item for two weeks to november 27th [speaker not understood], for two weeks partly because people involved in putting the information together particularly on the rec and park side are busy responding to questions about the park bond which is on the november ballot here in san francisco. and so it is just a matter of time management. there is nothing in any way, shape or form, despite the suggestion there was any

i'd like to contrast to park merced where we had an historic open space of significant importance designed by a noted landscape architect by which the arguments of preserving open space relative to changes were never discussed. so, those two projects came in mind to me as the ultimate contradiction with how we look at open space we want to maintain or open space where we discretely insert an element, but still maintain more contemporary interpretation or enhancement of open space. and the way i see it, proposed by what's in front of us. i do believe that the quality of the open space, the larger experience, as one of the applicants described, meeting nature and experiencing wildlife coming through, is not diminished or eliminated by what's proposed here. the building as an architectural expression seems to my eyes what is in front of me here quite compatible, enhancing and respectful of what is there. it is not trying to take larger building massing, different types of stepping, excessive height or any of those things. it's basically matches or interprets it in a contemporary way. so, i my

as an example, i believe commissioner moore asked, and i would like to bring up again several others of park merced. if park merced had undergone this -- if this legislation had been in place when park merced was first a twinkle in the eye, everybody weighed in on it with approval because it was all two stories and it fit in the good earn apartments that are there now. however, at the end its was power buildings and now is undergoing litigation. * fit in with the garden apartments there is one instance, a very clear example what would change had this been in place or had it not been in place. i also find this ironic that this legislation is purported by its author to be open and extended in its notice when, as others have noted, its notice was buried at the end of november. it wasn't even noted that it was going to be c-e-q-a or had to do with any of the other kind of changes that are in it. so, we urge you again to strongly disapprove this proposal when you send your recommendation to the board of supervisors. thank you so much. >> let me call a couple more names. lynn gavin. matt reagan. joan woo

. >> i hope this doesn't seem like a continual drum beat but if they make the park merced project go forward there is going to be a lot more traffic on 19th avenue. with that said i know the cameras are slowing people from going across the yellow lights into the red lights and i think the more they put those up the more -- i think the people that drive will be careful, but really if you want to stop the traffic in park merced you just have to stop the park merced development. >> all right. thank you. >> i have a personal story about 19th avenue. i live right across the street. i know 19th avenue. i acrossed it in 65 years a million times. my father was killed nearby and i know what it's like. my father was 79 years old and he was hit so i do know. the problem is not the cars. it's just i believe if we got with the san francisco police department as well as the san francisco state police department enforce the laws that we do have you would alleviate a lot of the problems. enforce the jay walking rule. enforce the traffic light rules. enforce the laws that we already have in existence

has challenged similar circumstances with park merced and given the fact that you have experience with these violations it should not reoccur. >> i would like to remind all members of public the matter before the commission right now is the continuance of the items proposed, not the matter of the item itself, but just the continuance. >> eric brooks representing san francisco green party and the local grass-roots organization "our city". just a shout out in the room not familiar with planning department's process. this is the opportunity to speak on item 11 and i speak to the fact they am very glad to see for whatever reason you're continuing this, and the reason being that this legislation in a similar form was introduced in 2006 and struck down through public process, 2010 similarly rejected, and now in 2012, and in each case the outreach that the sponsor of the legislation has done to environmental groups, neighborhood groups, historic preservation, social justice, environmental justice folks, all the folks that have the most to lose by this process were not approached in any way, shape, or form to get their input on this legislation, an

my grandmother, merced, nina played the piano and read poems, while edward read the poems besides playing the fiddle and violin, behaved like an avant garde composer, moving around furniture. according to the journalist were a dynamic duo that rescued the famous hotel sevilla from dereliction in 1919. they also constructed the biltmore neighborhood where many irish american families have homes. when i said irish americans, i go back to the americas, irish-spanish americans and french-irish, et cetera, and my own family live there. other famous irish american personalities at the time were, for example, in the news world the e. f. obrian, the editor of the times of cuba and in the cuban roman catholic church, father moynihan, no relationship to my grandmother, loved for his kindness and great sense of humor. born in the 20's in havana were of irish descent. they were fran emilio. he was entirely blind by the age of 13 but learned gerschwin's rhapsody in blue by using braille scores. he was also one of the major instrumentalists of the feeling -- many of you recollected remember -- the thrilling sound of the 50's that blended