mr. ginsburg. we're partners with park and rec for the past 20 years but with the budget cut i'm afraid we may have to stop paying rent. i'm here to ask mr. ginsburg to keep our partnership in tact. because as a city, the department of aging tried to cut back services for the seniors. any rent increase for south sunset center, any cut back of the nutritious meals will send a lot of our seniors out on the streets again with nowhere to go. so, mayor, thanks for your budget principle of safety, providing essential services is one of those safety principles and we ask you to please protect our population. thank you. >> i get the great pleasure of responding to that one. i want to thank you and south health for the elderly, a perfect example of how rec and park is doing business directly -- differently. we reach out to some of our most successful and vibrant nonprofit partners to help us provide services and you're now currently providing senior wellness programming, not just at south sunset clubhouse b

mr. ginsburg. much appreciate it. if i can also just remind those who have not been here before that our board rules do not permit hissing, booing, applauding, cheering or anything like that so i would just ask people to respect that policy. there are a lot of strong opinions in this room going in different directions and that's actually terrific but i would just encourage people to really respect that rule. we're now going to hear from adam gutzer from the munitional transportation agency. >> good afternoon, supervisors, chairman and supervisor cohen and wiener. the m.t.a. sinetted on a different level than the previous agencys, is interested in being part of the dialogue to find the balance between the type of projects we review and/or work with in terms of dealing with the h.p.c. our goal is find an appropriate balance between historic preservation and delivery of agency service, whether it's multimodal or access to transit or pedestrian safety, finding a balance to make sure we're able to deliver the key important

mr. ginsburg for that. since we are having today's hearing on recreation and park, i would like to pull the contrasting idea. i was wondering whether there was ever a similar budget update for the department of public health during the last fiscal review. i am not sure whether it happened. since recreation and park is important enough for this budget update, since department of public health is the greatest general fund user, i would think this committee would support a budget update for the department of public health. it is so important especially to the needy and immigrant population in the city. it deserves a very similar, if not identical, hearing like the one we are doing now. so if we can justify the time and expense for recreation and park and learn a lot from mr. ginsberg, we ought to have the department of public health up here giving a similar presentation, and hopefully some good results. i suspect results will not be as good as recreation and park. thank you. chairperson chu: thank you very muc

mr. ginsburg said the process was broken and i don't agree with that at all. process is working as it should. i think it's very inconvenient for the planning department and i want to thank supervisor cohen for talking about group that's may need to be a little disenfranchised. native san franciscoans like myself and we remember the past. i think this city, people are representing their jobs basically and the preservationists like myself, we're representing the character of san francisco. and thraze good -- there's a good reason san francisco is one of the most popular destinations in the world. we basically stayed the same and that's what we like about it. i want to you think about that. thank you. >> thank you. although i would disagree about city staff, i think they're all incredibly committed to the city and a lot of them can be making a lot more money in the private sector and they're doing it because they love san francisco. i respectfully disagree with that comment. >> several or newcomers to san francisco also. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon supervi

mr. ginsburg of the recreation and parks department. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm going to jump in where my colleagues left off and suggest that, that the launching point for the conversation really, truly is about balance. the san francisco recreation and park department oversees 220 parks and playgrounds in the city, including two properties outside the city, park sharp and pacifica and camp up in the see auras. we oversee several iconic park destinations such as the palace of fine arts and golden gate park. we imagine smaller neighborhoods parks and plazas in the city including portsmouth square, herman plaza, lincoln park, and upper douglas ca dog park. overall we have over 4,000 acres of recreation and open space we manage. we have an arena. i mentioned our 220 specific neighborhood parks but they include 179 playgrounds and play areas, 150 tennis courts and 82 recreation centers and clubhouses. soccer fields, ball fields, 35 community gardens, 27 off-leash dog areas, nine swimming pools, civil golf courses and three

mr. ginsburg of the recreation and parks department. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm going to jump in where my colleagues left off and suggest that, that the launching point for the conversation really, truly is about balance. the san francisco recreation and park department oversees 220 parks and playgrounds in the city, including two properties outside the

mr. ginsburg here, the general manager for recreation and parks. >> good afternoon. we are going to go a little low- tech today because our computer program -- [inaudible] our jump drive is not functioning. as i think you all know, last year was one of the more challenging years, but to years in our department's certainly recent and probably long term history -- budget years. i am proud to be here before you today to say that while our structural challenges are far from solved, and we still have very significant need, this year's budget begins to reflect a little bit of a rebound in which, despite a $6 million budget target, you will see and the city will see no layoffs, no service reduction, and no fee increases from the recreation and park department. i think it is useful to start with a quick overview about from where we have come. last year, we had to solve for a $12.4 million budget gap. our strategy was to prioritize revenue over service cuts to the greatest extent possible, so we increased our approach to earn revenue and actually increase our revenues to offs

mr. liu became deputy assistant for education. in 2000 he worked as contract attorney for a law firm, nixon peabody, l.l.p., where he -- quote -- "assisted with legal writings." he clerked for justice ruth bader ginsburg on the supreme court. after that clerkship, he became an associate at o'medical have en knee and my,where he remained for less than two years according this his question yairks he appeared in court only occasionally. he also reported that his other work as an attorney has not involved court appearances. he has not tried any cases to verdict, jurntle or final decision. since 2003, the nominee has been a full-time law professor at u.c. berkly school of law and in 2008 he became associate dean. after his nomination last year the a.b.a. standing committee of the federal judiciary gave mr. l hivment u the rating of "unanimous, we will-qualified." i am somewhat perplexed by this rating according to the standing committee's explanation of the standard for rating judicial nominees -- quote -- "a perspective nominee to the federal bench ordinarily should have at least 12 years experience in the practice of law." further, "the committee recognizes that substantial courtroom and trial experience

mr. liu did to me which was a bridge too far. when a conservative wins the white house, you expect people like roberts and alito and scalia. when a liberal wirntion wins, yt people like justice ginsburg and elena kagan and sotomayor. that's the way it works. and all of them are well qualified. they just have a different approach to the law. but there are a lot of 9-0 decisions. the one thing that would -- that drives my thinking here is that mr. liu chose not in a article that he wrote as a young man, not in some debate that got carried away but to appear before the judiciary committee and basically say that judge alito's philosophy would create an america where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse. that line probably comes from some case that judge alito was involved in where federal agents may point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid even after no sign of resistance, where the f.b.i. may install a camera where you sleep on the promise that they won't turn it on unless an informant is in the room, where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man absent a multiple regression analysis sh

mr. liu did to me which was a bridge too far. when a conservative wins the white house, you expect people like roberts and alito and scalia. when a liberal wirntion wins, yt people like justice ginsburg and elena kagan and sotomayor. that's the way it works. and all of them are well qualified. they just have a different approach to the law. but there are a lot of 9-0 decisions. the one thing that would -- that drives my thinking here is that mr. liu chose not in a article that he wrote as a young man, not in some debate that got carried away but to appear before the judiciary committee and basically say that judge alito's philosophy would create an america where police may shoot and kill an unarmed boy to stop him from running away with a stolen purse. that line probably comes from some case that judge alito was involved in where federal agents may point guns at ordinary citizens during a raid even after no sign of resistance, where the f.b.i. may install a camera where you sleep on the promise that they won't turn it on unless an informant is in the room, where a black man may be sentenced to death by an all-white jury for killing a white man absent a multiple regression analysis sh

mr. liu became deputy assistant for education. in 2000 he worked as contract attorney for a law firm, nixon peabody, l.l.p., where he -- quote -- "assisted with legal writings." he clerked for justice ruth bader ginsburg on the supreme court. after that clerkship, he became an associate at o'medical have en knee and my,where he remained for less than two years according this his question yairks he appeared in court only occasionally. he also reported that his other work as an attorney has not involved court appearances. he has not tried any cases to verdict, jurntle or final decision. since 2003, the nominee has been a full-time law professor at u.c. berkly school of law and in 2008 he became associate dean. after his nomination last year the a.b.a. standing committee of the federal judiciary gave mr. l hivment u the rating of "unanimous, we will-qualified." i am somewhat perplexed by this rating according to the standing committee's explanation of the standard for rating judicial nominees -- quote -- "a perspective nominee to the federal bench ordinarily should have at least 12 years experience in the practice of law." further, "the committee recognizes that substantial courtroom and trial experience