it's covered with murals so it's a real skill to be able to do the large scale murals and that's one thing that he learned. he won a contest and the contest was that one of the prizes, to travel to mexico to restored churches he went with two other artists went to mexico instead in mexico for about seven years and he was in mexico city and worked on one of the buildings there in mexico city. they brought him north of town in northern mexico and it was there that he met my grandmother. >>> that eventually up in the southern california. >>> he had to flee mexico during the mexican revolution because at the time pancho villa had ordered all foreigners out of northern mexico off so he had to leave with his wife and his baby daughter who also later became an artist. and he came up to san francisco to work on the pan pacific exploration exploration of and any found a home and send info so they worked at the pan pacific exposition for over a year and its many beautiful paintings for the california building at the exposition. >>> were going to see some of those and a bit after the break but

some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding

some of the murals suffered wear damage. we really began to organize getting funding through the arts commission and various other sources to restore the murals. they don't have that connection or thread or maintain that connection to your history and your past, what do you have? that's one of the major elements of what makes quality of life in san francisco so incredible. when people ask me, and they ask me all the time, how do you get to coit tower, i say you walk. that's the best way to experience the gradual elevation coming up above the hustle and bustle of the city and finding this sort of oasis, if you will, at the top of the hill. when i walk through this park, i look at these brick walls and this lawn, i look at the railings around the murals. i look at the restoration and i think, yeah, i had something to do with that. learning the lessons, thank you, landmarks meet landmarks. the current situation at pioneer park and coit tower is really based in public and private partnership. it was the citizens who came togethe

it's covered with murals. it's a real skill to be able to do large scale murals. that's one thing he learned. >> how did he get to the states? >> he won a contest. actually, the contest, well, one of the prizes was to travel to mexico to restore churches. >> i thought you were going to say, he went to disneyland! >> well, eventually. he stayed in mexico for seven years. he was in mexico city and he worked in mexico city. >> that's where he met your grandmother? >> no, they brought him north to a town called chihuahua and he met her there. >> and eventually into southern california. >> well, he had to flee during the mexican revolution. he had to leave because he was a foreigner and he had to leave with his wife and baby daughter and who also became an artist. >> he came to los angeles? >> no, to san francisco to work on the pan pacific exhibit in 1915. he worked at the pan pacific exhibition for a year and he did many beautiful paintings for the california building at the exposition. >> we're going to see some of the paintings in a bit here after the break. >> bas

it's an integral part of the city, and if it's not being treated and the murals are falling apart.hink that's something people are going to be upset about. >> it should be city policy to strictly limit commercial activity. >> reporter: golinger and a group of residents have begun collected enough signatures to place a meare on the city ballot to call attention to the plight of the tower and the murals, and to insure that most money generated at the tower-- $900,000 last year-- be used to preserve it. much of that money comes from a $7 fee to ride the elevator to the top of the tower, collected at the concession stand on the main floor. golinger is skeptical of city plans to raise more funds by renting out the top room, with its beautiful views of the bay area, for occasional small parties. >> it shouldn't be just another corporate party venue, that could be used you know for years to come without the public being allowed to enjoy it the same way as those who are willing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to do so. >> reporter: limited rentals won't harm to tower, says phil

now we are rewarding them. $10,000 for a mural is insane. i go back to the brochure. right here. inspiration comes out of -- it goes through this -- every empty wall. you are taking them literally and they are attacking our buildings. this is the masonry district, as i said before. it is brick. you cannot clean graffiti off of brick. it means to be blasted to do it properly, and when you do when you remove a layer of brick and it damages the mortar. brett does not mean to be maintained, but once it is -- bricks do not need to be maintained, but once it is painted it needs to be repainted every seven years. this is a serious problem, what is happening here. you know, this is what people come to see. our historic district. what do they see? this nonsense with a graffiti everywhere. the mayor put out a directive that the city did not have the money to help private property owners clean graffiti. they used to do it at least three times per year, sometimes more as needed. but he said they did not have enough money to keep public property clean. who pays the taxes for those buildings t

they also painted a mural in san francisco. finally, it's on the outside of the berkeley community theater. all people brought together through the arts. unfortunately, it was not the last. the war came along. and anton refurgie. there were controversial. there were tried in washington in 1953. he had a panel showing the arts and sciences. there is luther burbank and jack london. there was a thing on the side. it says federal art project and has beginning and ending date. that is a wall which becomes a tomb stone. the artists themselves are becoming ghosts. that's what he's doing there. joseph danish. head of the projects, it is it was a wonderful time that he woke up every morning wondering how long it would last. they were being paid to produce public art. well, what happened of course is the war. the war came along. and roosevelt could see it coming. so, very few people understand the new deal segways into war. they beefed up the military bases like fort mason. my 1943, they are all killed. the war did what the new deal coul

the last portion i have to say is in terms of the mural. i have muralists presently repairing minerals -- the murals that are there. the owners tried to run them off. there was sexual harassment as well. at a later date, if this were to be continued, i could share that information. >> my name is gordon mar. i worked at an office 2 b will blocks away from the site. i happen to work at a labor union, which is not a coincidence. that reflects some of the progressive values of the mission district. for those reasons as well as many others, i am speaking in opposition to the project, and would like to explain my point about why i feel it is not needed and not appropriate for that site for the mission district. it is mainly because of who tesco, their parent company, really is. they are a global walmart. this is not a target for the mission district. the idea that has been put forward by the planning department that this site would be continuing as a formula retail use does not have the straight test. and 11-outlet local grocery does technically

library users association tried to figure out what was going on with this process, we asked for the mural lyle, and these are examples of what we got. tons and tons of redaction. redaction, redaction, redaction. here is a page where the mayor of bernal heights, informally known, the home office and cellphone redacted. he died a year prior to our getting this document. yet here it is, redacted. we were told this was to protect the privacy of the people involved. that is not open government. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. but the episodes are coming up on the dance party. that is on kofy. also metv. coming up soon, sundays at 8:00, cable 13. welcome to year of the dragon. i found this at the flea market. i do not know if it is meeting right yet -- meteorite yet. but it is a dinosaur. and i found this great book. that brings me to my public comment. the bells of san francisco. i did not know what was sunshine week. what should we say? ♪ let the sunshine let the city sunshine and the sunshine in ♪ and with this book -- ♪ you can ring my city bell ring m

this mural is a mural that was made in 1952.n the occasion of the opening of what we would describe as one of the two significant transformational projects of chinatown. it was commissioned for the opening of the public housing in 1952. it depicts 100 years of chinese american history. it reads from left to right. the original is donated to the historical society. it was restored by the historical society. it hangs in our wells fargo learning center. members of the public are welcome to visit the actual mural. what i said about transformation is so important. we are standing in chinatown which was rebuilt after the earthquake and fire. virtually every building in chinatown except for old st. mary's church was rebuilt after the fire and earthquake. there have been few sites that have been we developed since that time. one exception is this building right here. it was truly transformational in that it constructed decent affordable housing for china totwon's overcrowded citizens. the advocacy for that housing took 20 years. advocac

. >> let's look at the beautiful mural. have never seen a mural created on asphalt. >> the heat of the asphalt, a new layer of asphalt. then, these wire rope templates that were fabricated for the line work get laid down and literally stamped into the asphalt, and then everything was hand-painted. >> maybe you could talk about some of the symbolism, maybe starting in the middle and working out. >> [inaudible] the flower of industry. >> it is like a compass. there's an arrow pointing north. >> within the great bear consolation, there are two pointed stars here. they typically lead one to the northstar, otherwise known as polaris. so i thought it has a layer of theme. >> let's talk about some of the other elements in the peace. we are walking along, and there is a weather vane. there's a sweet little bird hanging on the side. what kind of bird is that? >> [inaudible] the smallest of the gulf species, and it lives around the bay area. >> you want to talk about the types of flour patterns that you send? >> [inaudible] around 19

that you have done. >> wow. >> so we present to you the ed lee mural. [applause] >> well, thank you, ms. what occurred -- whitacre. i read your bio, so i understand you have other skills i might need like hypno- >> of the community clean team gathered in district 11. after the rally, the mayor and the supervisor at 20 teams went to work at a new mold around young trees. school children worked with adults while the youngest volunteers were entertained. the bill planters and learned about waste reduction. led by the department of public works, the main focus was on a tree maintenance. the city is looking at the health of the new trees, making sure they are able to stand on their own. this year's arbor day was dedicated to the memory of an environmental activist they used the planting as a community building activity in kenya. san francisco's leaders plan to the new tree in the playground. the remembered her during the opening kiof

the murals at bonampak provide a graphic and vivid depiction of the maya-- their cruelty, vanity, love of music, and humor. they were left unfinished when the people of bonampak abandoned their city around the year 800. palenque and scores of oth maya cities also suffered from a rising tide of disintegration and social collapse. plenque, with its proud tower surveying the fertile plain that fueled its greatness, was abandoned to the rainforest in the ninth century. the world of the ancient maya, draid by warfare, environmental degradation, and drou slipped into history. at palenque and elsewhere, the discoveries continue to unfold as archaeologists painstakingly rebuild the remnants of this ancient culture. in the 1990s, they found nearly 100 incense burners, revealing another layer of knowledge about the ancient maya culture. we know that the censers were used for a ritual to communicate with ancestors using blood. the blood was collected later in paper or cloth and mixed with aromatic resins. later this was all mixed and was burned. the idea was that the smoke from this resulted in t

they made this merrill as well as a mural at john bearden high school. -- this mural as well as a mural at john burton posco. there will work with an attorney to get a job so they can continue to beautify san francisco. you ask, more than youth -- who are the youth who come? the majority are kids of color which is true for the criminal justice system, period. we have 34% african-american, 30% latino, 19% asian american, 10% multiracial. the kids' ages range from 11-13, 18%. 16-17, 40%. most of our kids are 14-15. we see 65% of the kids we see have misdemeanors. 35% have been charged with low- to mid-level felonies. the important thing about young people when they come is the majority of them have been exposed to violence. violence is huge. that is part of the reason they have such an adversarial response to officers. police officers, when they see police officers, that is the first thing that comes to their mind. most of our young people have been exposed to violence. when you are exposed to violence, you have a tendency to kind of repeat the behavior that you have been exposed to. so r

some people wanted to preserve the mural. others wanted to get rid of the mural.e believe in a dialogue. so we brought together in mediation everyone so we could come to an understanding of what our common ground was and to see if we could agree on certain basic things, and we were able to come up with a solution that makes sense for the entire community. in a sense, it reflected larger issues that are impacting the city as a whole. so, there are issues like that that would require a knowledge of the neighborhood, and knowledge of what is happening on the ground, and knowing the difference is of how all bernal heights may look at an issue vis a vis the mission or portola. as a supervisor, i do have to be able to balance managing citywide issues, which is very important, but at the same time, focusing on the specific needs of your neighborhood. that is really important to us. one of the things we need to prioritize is that making sure we focus on the nuts and bolts of government. a lot of the calls we get involved fixing alights, replacing a pothole. i think it is

library users association tried to figure out what was going on with this process, we asked for the mural lyle, and these are examples of what we got. tons and tons of redaction. redaction, redaction, redaction. here is a page where the mayor of bernal heights, informally known, the home office and cellphone redacted. he died a year prior to our getting this document. yet here it is, redacted. we were told this was to protect the privacy of the people involved. that is not open government. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon.

we want to have additional murals. we felt that would help with the overall revitalization of the neighborhood. not only were the other interested parties not union grocers, but given the financial resources that would only be able to undertake minor interior renovations and an exterior coat of paint. in addition, one of the interested parties would adversely affect all of the latin markets selling goods on 24th street in in our immediate neighborhood. during this vacancy, we have made a commitment to the neighborhood to keep the property clean, graffiti and crime free. we have security patrols, security cameras, and have worked with sfpd code enforcement to ensure a clean and safe site during this vacancy. we want to prevent any potential blight or crime, and so the neighborhood community will be well served by a grocery store offering fresh and affordable products. to that end, we respectfully request a conditional use authorization. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you very much, commissioners. i am rev. ca