san francisco state, the stone town shopping center, there are institutions including churches and a ymca, and on the west side of 19th avenue, we have large scale developments, or large- block development. they completely change the fabric of the grid of the city. further up the boulevard is where we start to have a series of open space. there are more regional open spaces, including lake merced itself and the golf courses. it is an interesting part of the city where we have three separate kinds of grain coming up once again -- coming up against one another. the question for us from the beginning was how to make this development and its neighborhood a part of the city. it feels very isolated. we spoke to a lot of the neighbors and residents. what is parkmerced? sometimes i go there. many people did not know it was there. it has this -- you cannot quite see it on the screen. hopefully you can see it on the printout in front of you. it has this street pattern that is a typical for san francisco. it is a nouvea arts plan. how do you connect this to the adjacent fabric? we addressed what we

you have the ymca, san francisco state. and i don't see this coming from the state. what we do see is a developer who was willing to hold the rental units and not turn them over. the basel agreement might be a little bit more enforceable than the last gentlemen intimated. our attorneys seem to believe that this is a document that can be enforced. the parker said group has done many meetings. they brought them in specifically for us. we really feel that if this project is not go forward, aside from missing a new and final neighborhood, we will not have safe streets. even with your five funding, this is a busy area. at least we have an opportunity to have safer streets. we will be bringing many more people at the meetings go on. we have about 400 people that like to talk. >> good evening, commissioners. i would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak before you and express my support for the new park merced and the long-range vision. i had been a resident since 1997. the reason i support the long- range plan is the fact that the owners have gone the extra mile t

jobs, to make sure that community facilities like child care centers and boys and girls clubs and ymca's and other neighborhood organizations could continue to thrive. we were able to provide federal funds in order to enhance programs, create new programs, and also to do the capital improvements that were necessary to the older buildings that were at risk of being shut down because of the physical needs. we were able, fortunately, then to be able to provide several funds to take care of those issues. i did that job for about eight years. maybe nine years. then i went over to the san francisco unified school district when i was asked by the superintendent to help bring a program to san francisco that was nationally called school to work. in california, we've renamed the program from school to work to school to career and college. i was fortunate to be able to work with the various departments and post-secondary institutions in san francisco to create learning opportunities that were project-based that

they persuaded the local ymca to let them use their commercial kitchen. with that in place, they then took a class on safety precautions for manufacturing acidfided foods, pickle school. >> we went to pickle school because your ph levels have to be correct, there could be bacteria growth. you know, i was terrified because, you know, we want to do it right. you either do it right or you don't do it at all, okay, so we did a lot of research. >> and it was a tough, four-day food science class, but jenny and i went through it together. >> and then came the selling. miss jenny says you can't be shy. >> well, no, i'm not going to be, you know, a pet. but i'm not going to go away because, you know, just because somebody tells you no, at that time, that timing wasn't right. you can circle back around in two weeks to a month. timing is right because they're probably looking for you at that point you about didn't know it. sometimes you have to show people, you really do need us, you know? so today i got an e-mail from dan deluca for a purchase order. >> really? >>

it's a muslim led project like a jcc or ymca.ters to the people living in the neighborhood. >> right. >> $100 million is a big number. when the media hysteria was going on, should you, the constitutional issues. put it aside. how much money do you have now to move forward? >> you are from a family of real estate developers. it's about putting together a capital stock. we are not putting in $100 million of cash to build the community center. there are different components to it whether debt or equity. the economic development corp. that sponsors the projects. >> we don't want to do that, how much -- >> thank god. >> it could be useful for a lot of folks. how much equity do you need? >> we need to raise between $20 million to $30 million. >> how much do you have in the bank now? >> we have expressions of interest from the most prominent people around the country who want to get involved in the project. we are putting together our board. it's going to be an essential component of the responsibility for how the money is coming in and

and the "y" formerly the ymca received 17% less in donations last year than the year before. 2010. but for the salvation army in particular, a lot depends on the next few weeks. it wouldn't be the holidays without salvation army bell ringer's standing by. kettles at malls and on street corners. joining me to talk about this year's campaign major george hood in our studios in washington. thanks for being with us. how is it looking so far? >> we're cranking up and getting ready to put the kettles on the streets. actually some kettles in many communities that have been hard hit already have those bell ringer's out. so we're looking forward to a very robust christmas season. >> what affects how much money people put into those kettles? >> there's lots of things. it's an emotional give. many people walk by and they can think of a neighbor or a relative who may be struggling and having a difficult time and they'll want to put money in there. in many cases it's a traditional give. people look for the red kettle and parents with small children want to teach their kids what it means t

mother died and his father, because he couldn't take care of him, left him in fort wayne, indiana, at a ymca when he was about 14 years old and he was left pretty much to fend for himself. and because of that experience that dave wrestled with as a boy, he ended up becoming one of the strongest advocates for adoption that i have ever known he worked very hard to get a postage stamp adopted which was adopted that spelled out the need for adoption for children who didn't have a home. he had on every one of his restaurant mats the ways to adopt a child and pictures of children that should have been adopted. and so from a bhorne had that personal experience, dave thomas, i learned that adoption was extremely important for the security and the future of these children. now these children we're talking about from haiti obviously the problems there are herculean. right now, they have a cholera epidemic noundown in haiti and it's probably going to get worse. they're talking about maybe thousands of people being infected with this deadly disease. can you imagine if these children or any of these chil

we have a boys club and girls club, after school programs, the ymca, college readiness programs, counselinginitiatives, and other nonprofits and community-based organizations. we made the school centers of the community where addless sents can participate after the school day was over, and i really believe in the field of dreams, if you build it, they will come. they are looking for structure and positive activities to engage in. if you work with the congress, take away a couple different messages. first, our department has a renewed commitment to enforcing the law including a civil rights law applying to racial, sexual, or disability harassment. we want to collect better data and formulate better solutions. finally, we'll provide more dollars and resources to places with the most challenging problems. outside of this room, i'm not sure many educators and parents realize that bullying can constitute racial, sexual, and disability harassment that is prohibited by civil rights laws enforced by our department of office of civil rights. ocr has relationships between bullying and discriminatory