welcome to union square. one of my favorite places. you may know this, but two- thirds of our annual visitors make their way down here to union square. that is why 10% of our annual sales tax revenue comes from right here. people love coming here, and why not? why not link the historic cable car stop on market street, and make the experience of making up here -- making it up here and the rest of the city and experience. one of the things that i love is we get to collaborate between our planning department, mta, department of public works, working with the private sector. working with some fantastic designers, like walter, and his fantastic design studio. and gaining the confidence of the people who protect this gem of the city, the business improvement district in union square. i want to thank everyone for coming together and blessing, with the contribution from audi of america, coming together to make these couple of blocks even better, to modernize it, make it even more welcoming, and to make sure that it is people-friendly in every

confidence of the people who protect this gem of the city, the business improvement district in union square. i want to thank everyone for coming together and blessing, with the contribution from audi of america, coming together to make these couple of blocks even better, to modernize it, make it even more welcoming, and to make sure that it is people-friendly in every respect. i want to give a shout out to all of these departments because we are seldom recognized. collaboration is often behind the scenes, but this is out in front for everybody. i want people to get excited about the friendliness of this street, but you are doing to try to change the feeling here, make sure that the experience invites even more people to enjoy union square, powell street, the cable car experience. i also want to recognize the police department. as we transition this landscape, they are going to keep everyone safe, make sure we all have the opportunity to enjoy it. i want to thank everyone for this collaboration. so happy to be part of this. and also to make sure that we are investing and renewing every part

union square. the replacement of the failed light fixtures in the pavement has been planned out. the department has, at the request of commissioner harrison, identified an alternative funding source. the downtown park fund can fund this work, rather than having it come up for a meet its budget. work will proceed from the downtown park fund, so that money will fall to the available balance as well. terderloin recreation center is open to the public. that is the update on the projects you had authorized for us in the past year. we are close to completion on all of those, with the two editions of the new square project and the park. the available contingency budget is about $213,000. if you add the drop in vero funding to that, union square funding, that will bring -- assuming there are no other draws on the contingency for the remaining projects, between $600,000 and $700,000. now to the matter before you today. 11-12, the total allocation of the open space contingency reserve currently is $1 million. half of that per your action is $500,000 for this year's deferred maintenance all

and president of the union square association. let's hear it for all those judges, ladies and gentlemen. now, these judges have a very, very difficult job. they have to rate the competitors. each bell ringer will be judged on rhythm, originality, and style. today we're going to find out who has the it factor and before the amateur competition stuff starts, i'd like to bring up a former bell-ringing champion, mr. carl payne, ladies and gentlemen. not one, not two, not three, 10-time bell-ringing champion. the only bell-ringing champion who is even close to this would be mr. byron cobb, who has five wins. and buddy, my second husband, what's the secret to winning? >> stay on god's good side. >> ah, that sounds good. now what we're going to do is ask you to go up and gib these fine people a sample of the championship bell-ringing that you have done since, oh, gosh, i can't even -- when cable car was in black and white. it's been a long time. mr. carl payne, the winningest cable car bell ringer ever. [ringing bell] [applause] >> carl

funding to that, union square funding, that will bring -- assuming there are no other draws on the contingency for the remaining projects, between $600,000 and $700,000. now to the matter before you today. 11-12, the total allocation of the open space contingency reserve currently is $1 million. half of that per your action is $500,000 for this year's deferred maintenance allocation. the difference between this fiscal year amount and last year's was that last year's was a multiple year some, which was presented as a onetime opportunity for us to do a large expenditure. this year's amount, the $1 million balance, the $500,000.50% of that, is more in line with the ongoing contingency fund balance. given the reduced availability of deferred maintenance funding this year, as opposed to last year, the department plans to devote the totality of the $500,000 to replace the entire civilian gym floor and fixing the water intrusion problem tha has caused repeated buckling of this floor and is negatively impacting the gymnasium's use. our capital division presented a report on the over all conditions of

wes tyler of union square. wes? big mystery.by the process of elimination, it's koit! >> koit. mr. scotty bastopol for the third year in a row. love this city. thank you. >> runners up. the 47th not -- annual cable car bell ringing competition, no particular order, mr. trini whitaker. sullivan philips. ken lunardi. and joseph hsu. come up and get your trophies. thank the judges. [laughter] now it's time for what you've been waiting for, third place, ladies and gentlemen, mr. howard woo. howard woo. again, they're not booing you. all right. mr. ken mcdonald. chief of muni operations officer, please come forward to help me present the second place trophy. second place, ladies and gentlemen. mr. frank ware. and before we announce the winner i'm going to drag this out even longer. i'm going to take a moment to thank the kind people who made the 47th annual cable car bell ringing contest possible the the vice chair of the sfmt board of directors. and friends of the cable car music, union square association, trophy masters shanghai re

on behalf of the union square business improvement district, property owners, and the businesses, i would like to thank mayor lee, supervisor david chiu, the city departments, the san francisco municipal transportation agency, and audi of america, and a special thank you to those who supported this trend for this project. when we embark on this new project, it reminded us of where we have been and where we are going in union square. 164 years ago, jasper overall, who has a street named after him one week away, was commissioned by the city to lay out a design for its streets and parks, including union square. the park's design was designed to be infighting, accessible, beautiful, and memorable. today, architect walter put has applied those same qualities beautifully to the powell street promenade with a contemporary landscape design with features and heard of, like solar technology and wi-fi. o'farrell may not have imagined at the time that 100,000 people would use this street every weekend, making it the busiest city corridor. now with this promenade, it will be one of the best places to

the next project is the union square right away accessibility improvements project. these improvements stem from a lawsuit against the lawsuit against the say that we must provide accessible sidewalks surrounding the park and also access to transit stops. the scope of work for the first phase of the project the size and phase of work which the baby needs to receive funding for. the intersection of stockton and gary will be completed in the future as part of the central support project. all of the improvement the to be completed by june 2012 with the exception of the stockton and every street intersection. the general fund for the mayor's office prop k funds for the construction of phase one. there is an associated 5ypp amendment to the curb ramp allocation for the allocation of 2008 to make money available to this project. the third project is for street cleaning and equipment to replace assets that have reached the end of their useful life. i am here to answer any questions. commissioner campos: colleagues, any questions for staff? just a question on the improvement

just one block north of union square. these are hyatt workers and their supporters who are demonstrating against their employer. they say the hyatt has eliminated jobs, replaced long time workers with lower paid temporary workers and they say the hyatt is putting a dangerous workers on some employees there. we have not been able to get in touch with the hyatt to see how they respond to these allegations. what you need to know now is there's a major protest going on just a block from the square. the protesters are back on the sidewalk. and traffic appears to be flowing there on the other side in the street. you can see cars on the street there. it appears that protesters are now on the sidewalk. police are standing by, we're going to keep monitoring this. we will bring you more information about 15 minutes as soon as we get it here coming up at 5:30. >>> there is deep concern in the bay area neighborhood following news of an fbi investigation into an alleged kidnapping case involving an elderly woman and her son. the fbi i

>>reporter: the tour bus employees working the crowds at union square have proliferated. ago, before we started the crackdown, they had 5-6-7 people out here, each company. >>reporter: until recently, the the code that prohibited sidewalk sales was loosely and forrest -- selling tickets for their toys. >> is that there is no solicitation >>reporter: a have a savvy, streetwise sales for. >> i will make sure you get on it. >> when i leave they fight among themselves. it is like walking by a used car lot. everyone wants to make a deal >>reporter: with ticket sales now being dumb and passengers onboard -- met clogging traffic. >> his mother is coming around the corner now. >> this space is not big enough to accommodate every bus that comes in here. >> as the number of buses increase, police are increasingly concerned about public safety. >> it is only a matter of time when someone will get hit. >> tour buses are a significant contribution to the a billion- dollar tourist industry and those with streetsmart sale town will find a way. >> as long as you have agreed -- have greed

they have replaced parking spots with powell street and union square with sidewalk extensions. it gives more walking space, and take in the sights without blocking the sidewalk. >> they have done landscaping. there is places where people can stop and have some coffee. >> and more. an estimated 100,000 people converged on powell street most weekends and there will be free wi-fi available in union square. >> all right. will there is big developments in the bryan stow beating case. new arrest may give them a boost in their investigation. >> and bart general manager will speak out for the first time regarding an officer-involved shooting that results in the death of a 45-year-old transient. i'm amy hollyfield, i'll have an update next. >> and the quest for got for the u.s. women's soccer team. where you can watch the match for free. tttttttttttt empty nest, new kitchen, new us? who are we? chic, modern, daring dinner-party hosts. that sounds dangerous, maybe we're more the tradiotional sunday brunch set? i'll expect slippers and a cocktail to be ready when i get home fro

they can go in and around union square. we have space is now up in the castro, in fact. >> how many are there? >> we have about 420. >> are they here all year round? >> out of the 420, i know 150 to sell all year round. i mean like five-seven days a week. >> are they making their living of of this? >> this is their sole source of income for many. >> how long have you been with this program. how much has it changed? >> i have been with the program since it began 37 and a half years ago but i have seen changes in the trend. fashion comes and goes. >> i think that you can still find plenty of titis perhaps. >> this is because the 60's is retro for a lot of people. i have seen that come back, yes. >> people still think of this city as the birth of that movement. great, thank you for talking about the background of the program. i'm excited to go shopping. >> i would like you to meet two street artists. this is linda and jeremy. >> night said to me to print them -- nice to meet you. >> can you talk to me about a variety of produc

welcome to union square. one of my favorite places. you may know this, but two- thirds of our annual visitors make their way down here to union square. that is why 10% of our annual sales tax revenue comes from right here. people love coming here, and why not? why not link the historic cable car stop on market street, and make the experience of making up here -- making it up here and the rest of the city and experience. one of the things that i love is we get to collaborate between