>> i am proud to say i was the first one that initiated a business improvement district at union square downtown when willie brown took office. that was one of my food suggestions. it was a squalid area. it was terrible. all the department stores did not benefit from the conditions surrounding it. it was horrible. it became a wonderful, a clean area, exciting to tourists, and it lifted the area i cannot say how much, so i surly back every community district of this trying to be established. as far as i am concerned, everyone should have a community districts. the city is broke. we have been saying this for years. we need its downtown. we have the most population, the most density of tourists, and we do not have a community benefits district, but i am working on it with the mayor's office. hopefully, we can get it, but i wish everybody would get behind it, because if is a disgrace. we have skateboarders, by kurds, the homeless. the suggestions you have made to get -- we have skateboarders common bahamas, -- skateboarders, bikers, the homeless. the suggestions you have made to get rid of the homel

the project site is located in south of market neighborhood just south of union square in the downtown area on the north side of mission in the block bounded by market, fifth, mission, and sixth streets. it has access to mission and jesse streets with primary frontage on mission. the project would demolish a vacant building and construct the new hotel. the new hotel would have ground for commercial space and 172 new hotel rooms. the sponsor proposes a 50-foot long passenger unloading space on jessie street. the project requires the purchase of tdr to develop the proposed f.a.r. the project has been proposed by the group that recommends modifications that were included, and they are in the present design of the project. the department has not received any public comment on the requested entitlement. the department is requesting that the commission make two minor changes in the draft motion. first, the date of the plan should change from july 22, 2009, to december 7, 2010. and the second, the last condition on the list, the one related to emergency preparedness, should be deleted. >> can

union contactors? are you aware of any? >> yes. the over riding rule is downtown, union square, certain sections of south of market.the idea behind it is if you have00 i will speak freely here, if you -- well -- i dealt with labor relations for a long time. if you have a building where there is a lot of space for lease like upstairs, office space and using a nonunion contractor. that's not good for the landlord who's trying to lease the space upstairs. the landlords will make sure you use unions so they don't get picketed. if it's a low rise building and it's leased may be the landlord will not have issues and you can take your chances at that point. >> please. >> so, a majority of the time -- a majority of the time where you will see you know, where you will required to use union workers will be on like a crocker gallery or a strip mall, sometimes port property and any time that you apply for redevelopment money you will be required to use union. that probably doubles your cost. just be aware when you are outlooking for loans, know what you are actually getting into prior. you know something that wasn't mentioned

to get people from downtown out to golden gate park, out to union square, and hopefully marina green, and hopefully other locations where we can get people to our parks. some of the operational concerns, i don't want you to lose sight of a really exciting and youous amen -- joyous amenity this really is. with respect to those at union square, having listened to them, we understand the issues, but as commissioner levitan suggested, why don't we actually see what happens instead oftying about -- instead of thinking about what's the worst that could happen. along the lines of a nine-month trial, i think we could amend the lease. my staff has worked with park wide with some of the discussion going on. we could amend the lease to actually provide for the commission at its sole discretion to revoke it. so what i have suggested would be if after nine months of operating at union square, because after this step, it still does need to go to the board. i think park wide will need some time to get up and running. so after nine months of operating at union square, the commission determines at its

having the downtown park fund support union square again in the coming fiscal year. and then we hope to partner with some of our sister city agencies to offer wellness and recreation services to their staff and to be compensated for those services. we are also looking at a number of new revenue proposals. including continued expansion of recreation and aadequatics programming. -- aadequatics programming. we are looking at some recreation fees that are currently below market to see whether it would make sense to increase those fees somewhat. we are looking at adding additional concessions and park amenities. we are very likely to propose an r.f.p. next year for the golden gate park carousel and the birthday barn as well as looking to add a miniature golf course to the department's portfolio. and an additional special events. we will look to capture permit revenue for existing commercial activity in our parks. the palace of fine arts will once again be available for weddings. it's been offline for a number of years is the facility has been renovated. it's a fantastic p

features of the tenderloin was it held mainly couples or single individuals who worked downtown or in the union square area. that's obviously now changed. chris daly: the tenderloin has a bad rap you know in terms of, some people think it's dirty and it's intersection of a lot of social ills. but i see the tenderloin as one of the vibrant neighborhoods in san francisco. in terms of the activity in the tenderloin, the diversity in the tenderloin, the community initiatives and efforts that happen in the tenderloin. and a rich history the neighborhood and it's identity against a backdrop of an encroaching hospitality district and financial district. jerry jai: those stereotypes were in my mind when i first started, when my experience with the tenderloin started. there were other aspects that attracted me to the neighborhood and that over time i've grown to understand better and appreciate. those are the sort of more hidden aspects of the neighborhood that i think are really interesting and important that people don't hear about as much. jerry: the 2004 census found that there are 30,000 people in the ten

downtown san francisco may look more hectic than usual. that's when city transportation leaders begin a new reconstruction phase for the central subway project. crews will start relocating underground utilities for union square market street areas to underneath sidewalks along stockton street. that means that lots of construction will be out there but the city says it won't cut off access to any businesses. you can expect this phase of the project to continue through june 2012. >>> and donations for victims of the san brown oh pipeline blast are finally reaching the victims but, today, only about 6 people picked up their checks at city hall. in all, about 99 families are eligible to receive between 1 and $6,000. the city received nearly $400,000 in donations after the pipeline erupted back in september. >>> coming up, bakers beware. >> okay. i'm removed my dish, closed the oven, turned and started to walk towards the counter and, boom, it exploded. >> the investigation into exploding glass wear. when people don't follow the directions. >>> old fashioned water fountains getting washed out. we'll take a look at the new tap watery filling stations. >>> okay, go ahead and check in out. the areas you see highligh

downtown and the bus drivers and the safety for those who are renting these bicycles. that's my concern that comes out of this. and i would suspect that's the concern of the union squarechants because that's not something you want people to have to worry about when you are attracting them to your stores and hotels and restaurants. and so that's it. i have a couple questions about liability, because even though it's the bicycle company that is concerned about the liket as a business concern, it's our concern, too. it needs to be our concern. so nick or virginia -- go ahead, nick. a couple questions. i want to know -- i mean, i read the lease and frankly i didn't do very well in law school in contracts, so there's no way i can possibly know. but you want to know how much coverage is there so if something, god forbid, were to happen, i want to make sure that we are held harmless in a situation like that, and then also then, i want to know about the insurance that this bicycle provider has. i want to make sure that his coverage is sufficient, that we're ok. >> while i look for the exact answer -- commissioner levitan: don't read me the language, though. so my question is

downtown san francisco may look more hectic than usual because that's when city transportation leaders begin getting ready for the central subway project. crews will start relocating all the underground utilities for the union square underneath sidewalks along stockton street which means, lots and lots of construction. the city says though it's not going to cut off any access to any of the businesses there. you can expect this phase of the project to continue though through next june. >>> an airbus a-380 will soon be flying in and out of sfo on a regular basis. lufthansa will fly daily to frankfurt starting in may. the plane is owned by another carrier. but it has more than 500 seats. lufthansa says even the economy class cabin is a lot roomier than you would typically find. >>> well, water fountains at sfo are getting a face-lift. the city has several new tap water refilling station. the company global tap designed them so you can put your reusable bottle under the nozzle. other refilling stations are at golden gate park, the academy of sciences and several schools. >> i like that idea. >> how many times do you see people going through the security line and they have a nice brand-new bottle of water completely fo