golden gate park is one of the top city parks in the country. we're a city that is hungry for green space and not fake green. we want a natural look by working with nature. we want something that is free to the public. it is our park. when i was unemployed, the park was my refuge. when i was ill with cancer, it was a restored of space. i am close to being an elder and the park will be my delight as long as i am welcome. i want it to be a delight and not a blight. for all. keep out the astroturf and keep the stadium lights out please. thank you. president olague: sir? those in the second row? these are the people that requested and i am trying to pull the cards. >> good evening. i think one thing is interesting and we should make note of. it was the implementation of scotch of brass that enable the creation of golden gate park. prior to that there was a problem with keeping the sand out of the park. it would be ironic if -- for us to take something and replace it with a synthetic alternatives. john mclaren cared as much about ecosystems as he did

the outset. this is a neighborhood park. we will engage in our best efforts to make it what you want it to be. >> i wish i had the mayor's ability to speak so beautifully. i am going to lead. my comments are getting in thankfulness. this is testimony to the fact that collaboration among all stakeholders is possible and of the greatest value to the community. i am thankful that demi share his philosophy of life with the community. he transformed our failing part into a beautiful sanctuary full of amazing art. he has renewed our committee and created a beautiful community in our park is treasured by the residents of the neighborhood. it is recognized throughout the world as a uniquely sacred site. his powerful design and philosophy are validated by the fact that there are many stakeholders that come to the park seeking peace, renewal, fun, exercise. it cannot be categorized. as a volunteer, i have witnessed the community to flourish. i am thankful for marvin yee's leadership. he embodies the best qualities of a civil servant. h

to the national park service. essentially what it does is allows the rec and park department to offer to the national park service the opportunity to go into negotiations to create a joint agreement between the rec and park department and the national park service. the land would be under the ownership of the city and county of san francisco. it is part of that discussion at -- part of that discussion would be an alternative, which would be the potential closure of the golf course and the reprogramming for other uses. >> when you say one alternative, should we take from that the implicit argument that there is an alternative, some scenario where they would take the land and keep the golf course open? supervisor avalos: offering from the city is multifaceted in terms of what different outcomes that could come out of it. one outcome that this ordinance would provide for would be the offering of joint management agreement that would not include golf, but does not preclude the other possibility as well. the national pa

going to ocean beach, to the beach, to the park, to the window and to the golden gate park golf course and the archery fields all located right there. and people just wanting to visit the western end of the park. the increase in traffic that will occur if the four fields are in use will result in noise pollution, air pollution, and congestion beyond the parks ability to absorb it. i live within a quarter mile. as it is, there is not enough parking and people part at ocean beach or in the park. there is not enough parking at the golf course to meet the demand on a summer weekend, and the parking overflows into the park. the archery fields are very popular all year round. in the park just opposite the entrance to the soccer fields is often part data. if this proposal goes through, there will be a massive traffic jam every weekend right in front of the tulip garden. what about the wedding is that take place there? people pay to reserve the garden for their ceremony, but there will be no parking for the guests. the draft report does not properly address these concerns, but glosses over the

here you can see the opening day of the park. the size of the trees are carefully chosen so that they are a reasonable beginning size. this has to do both with their cultivation as plant species, as well as the cost and density of the park. at year 2025, those years -- at your 25, they create a large open space but still very conducive to weigh-finding. from first street, this is day one. this is your 25. as the part develops in the future, you can see that the park becomes more and more will come. we are also quite fortunate to be working with a number of good artists in the transit center. julie chang, a local san francisco artist in doing this multicolored floor for the grand palazzo. she has been so good, we are still finding places in the building for her to work. her work tells a story of san francisco, both its cultural and ecological environment. her carpet in the grand hall is also creating a relationship with the park above. here you can see her work depicted. another important artist, jenny holzer is doing an electronic

andth the deyoung i convinced to stay in the park, and they think the other whites. t tolerate everyone's wishes. it is not golden gate park. that is why i put a no bill clause in there. it is pretty clear. if you are going to open up the flood klebs -- floodgates to everyone -- you cannot do this to everybody. there is a a group of people i chased out there. it will come back and say what about us? rightly so. you have to be fair about this. i am sorry i did not bring the picture of the landscape. 202 is surrounded by trees and dumber roc rocks that take up s it is not 5000 square feet of space available. that is altogether misleading. let's get real. there is really the place. reaching -- there is really. -- there is really no space. we need to protect the open space. and the plaza south is still my preferred location, and it is not unsafe due to the railway. i travel there every day when i come back from lunch. we have to not give in to political interests. that has to stop, because it is ruining the city. political stuff has to go. we have to listen to the people

-- dedicated to strengthening america's future through education; the national park foundation the official charity of america's national parks; the peter jay sharp foundation; the pew charitable trusts; the corporation for public broadcasting; and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

endangered species in the park. sequoya audubon urges you to support the ordinance. it is one of the most important restoration projects in our area. it can proceed and move quickly forward. thank you. supervisor avalos: next speaker, please. to those of you disagree with the legislation, please be patient. eventually, you will get your turn to speak. we have some gamesmanship right now with the speaking. you will get your chance to speak. please hold on. [applause] [laughter] supervisor elsber-- >> characterizing this as gamesmanship when we have people speaking on both sides is unnecessary. thank you, supervisor elsbernd . i am sure we will get more characterization's of the hearing as we proceed. i hope not. i will call some more cards. i have gone through the whole list of speakers. this includes people who will be of the opposite position that i have. i welcome them to speak. janet braeger,. >> i live in pacifica and have for 34 years. i support restoration of the wetlands and beach under national park managemen

this is an ordinance amending the park code to require the recreation and park department to have a long-term agreement for the national park service. >> thank you, president chiu. >> i am a father raising two kids in an area of great environmental challenge. i have a son who is very inquisitive. they would ask me about some kind of creature, whether it is extinct. he has asked me about dinosaurs. he has asked me about saber toothed tigers. last night, he asked me about by sen. i do know they exist but they don't exist how they used to exist. -- she asked me about bison. we have endangered species in the bay area. we have them on the bay. we have to ask how we will be able to a protect endangered species and make sure that we can offer the type of recreation that all this can enjoy in this city. we have great challenges about that. in fact, we have a budget deficit that is about $10 million, $11 million a year and at great risk to our ability to carry out programming. we have lowered a lot of programming in san francisco. we have cut staff and raised fees paid to we have made it difficult for

in partnership with the national parks service. this remedy is the flaw in the decisionmaking process for land use at the park for ensuring that the board has the complete picture to review the option. note the option, not the mandate, to pursue a partnership with the national park service. the ordinance ensures that before we commit to a long-term plan to invest hundreds of thousands or tens of millions of dollars into we know what options exist to best address the concerns of the residents, such as recreation supply and public access, and strategic financial investments. this ordinance does not mandate a particular land use outcome. in fact, rather than having a day -- than having a -- say we are going to end golfing, it offers us an opportunity to create a long-term agreement with the city for sharp park. it also determines it is not just going to be a single option that says we are going to close the park. there are a number of options that this ordinance does provide. whether it is partial closing of the park or no closing what

volunteer with san francisco parks trust, now the parks alliance and with the goldenpark concourse authority. these remarks will be redundant to what has already been set, but they are certainly heartfelt. there is no greater park hero in san francisco than warren hellman, and renaming speedway meadow in honor of him would be a well-deserved tribute. this honor is not just for his amazing generosity to parks. his gift of music, his civic veal, and his leadership for a number of part bond efforts, so there's no one i know of who has done more in this regard. but it is just as much for is actual level of parks and his incredible effort to make park work for everyone. just as he is an open and includes a person, so, too, as he helped golden gate park accessible to all. i am sure you remember the time in the mid-1990s and but the california academy of sciences and the museum are planning to leave the park. two camps of park lovers are facing off, those who wanted to preserve cultural traditions in the park and others. in the midst of a heated controversy in 1998, warren s

this is the park property. you have the ability to stop it by doing created developments. >> thank you. and ronnie and meredith warner. >> good morning, commissioners here again i represent friends of the waterfront playground, as well as i am a board member and also speaking today on behalf of the president of the neighborhood association. bill is also a founding in managing member of friends of the waterfront playground. there is in fact tremendous widespread community support for a playground. we have letters support from over 15 organizations representing hundreds of families come of thousands of residents, grandparents, seniors, homeowners associations, tenants, businesses such as the ferry building, the ymca, the golden gate tennis and swim club. all in support of a playground. as the commissioner noted, there were dozens of families that up appeared before the operations committee on november 3 that can passionately testify for the strong need for a playground along the waterfront of these communities. th

and the manager of the rec and park commission. oing to put an order of the termination from the sunshine or dance task force, and i am going to speak to you about a resolution that was pants -- past 10 years ago, around the middle of september 2001. before i do that, i would like the public to take note of the people in front of them today, the quality of the people that are representing the san francisco and san francisco values. i would like everybody to specifically take notice of a david lee, president of the chinese political group here in san francisco, and noted that ed lee is now the mayor. so here i am go -- here i go. this resolution was passed in 2001, and it specifically says the golden gate park stables working group shall evaluate possible funding opportunities for capital improvement needs at the golden gate park stables in the most efficient and effective manner to repair and improve those stables. that was 10 years ago. my question to you and to every citizen of the public is, what is the probability of the worst t

grant signed the bill creating yellowstone park. unlike yosemite, which was being administered by the state of california, this would be a national park, the first national park in the history of the world. you wish that they had you know, gone out and rang bells to say, "this is something new on earth," because it was. a federal government was saying, "we're setting this aside as a national park." no government had ever done that before, and you'd like them to make note of it in that way just the way with the declaration of independence they read it and bells were rung. that didn't happen with this. it looks like they took it maybe a little more seriously than the decision of whether or not to repaint the cloak room. it wasn't that big a deal to most of them. it was just business as usual that day. it's only hindsight that allows us to see what they started. you know, they were kicking the rock off the cliff and most of them turned and walked away. there's no evidence that any of them thought this was the first of a type or that "we

the people hate the sign that there, sue bierman park. you do it against our will, and you're not doing good public relations. please get rid of the illegal name of sue bierman park, which did not test the board of supervisors due to its illegal contents in the ordinance. get with it. start action. i read more and more articles about rec and park not responding to the people. get with it. thank you. >> next. >> good morning, commissioners. as someone who lives near sue bierman park, i am sure you all remember when peter pan came to sue bierman park, and the department made some thousands of dollars. i doubt you are ever informed that in order to make room for the tenths of peter pan, 20 mature cherry trees were cut down and destroyed. it is a great thing for our park commission to do. it destroyed the cherry trees. bring in the back doors. and now what do we have left? a few ginkgos saplings. the place has been landscaped over again. and it looks it. cherry trees take at least 20 years to mature. so i am not surprised they have been replac

it will make the parks in san francisco better-funded. here are many signatures from people all over the peninsula and other parts of the world also in support of that. thank you for the time. [tone!] supervisor avalos: next speaker, please. >> i am a resident of san francisco all my life. i am here to express support for the ordinance. last year from january to june and was the director of the youth program. every year, we get budget cuts because there is no money to fund the program for high-risk youths in our communities. in 2005, we were at $400,000. they cut $100,000 the next year. they cut it each year to make it easier. at the end of the day, you are not giving this money reinstated. every year they cut you to the bone and marrow until there is only a corpse left. 2005 to 2009, the park lost over $800,000. that is money that could have gone to youth programs and groups in the city of san francisco. government talks about wasteful spending and thinks of community programs as being wasteful spending, but this is clearly a government w