And why is that . Because its actually not so much about an insignificant shade around 7 30 in the morning, but its about public safety. We could go there now and find numerous empty cans of alcohol and walk the grounds of the eastern half and find syringes. Its just horrible. 20 years i have livered there. I love that park. I love puc for donating money to improve that park. So my passion is about that park. What this eastern half lacks is housing. 1090 and 1080 eddy with more northeastern park and we overlook the park. We have an obligation for park safety. But next to us is sacred heart and there is nobody there and then 950 goth, which is empty, been empty for two decades and the two other Church Buildings heading towards goth, and turk. Then there is the park view terrace, our third residential building and we have Margaret Hayward field. Huge gaps that just allows people to con stantly shootup and do drugs and we intervened with the Mayors Office. We actually got the Mayors Office with the chief of staff to act and he helped to get the sheriff shto do two walkthroughs and the police to do night patrols. Obviously thankfully the recreation and park increased their cleanup. That is great. I want you to realize as you keep pushing off the 950 housing, its going to take longer and longer for you to approve for the San FranciscoPlanning Commission to approve and developer to build and the park to get more eyes and ears for public safety. That is all i wanted to saying and thank you very much for keeping us safe. Thank you. Richard, come on up. Good morning, commissioners. How are you all doing . And of course, mr. Ginsburg esq. This morning i want to talk about what they are spraying its kind of like everything that has to do with the blue nile mosquito. So they are spraying the golf course and spraying the area around there. I just want to make sure that its like the killer cocktail. That stuff is going to have another flyover with the helicopter recently there was a lawsuit. I believe that we have to keep it more or less preserved the way it is for the garter snake, the redtail, amphibians and so forth. While they are still doing the methyl preen, is it going to extend to the parks in San Francisco . So if we do have that, this stuff is not all that great. And its got a terrible halflife to it. It lasts for a while. If you use this kind of stuff in your own home, i dont think you would really want it. You probably would be more cautious of using antimosquito spray. I wanted the department to be aware that shard park is one of three locations undergoing such type of preventative measures. So myself, i rather not make any personal comment. I would think this has already gone through the departments operations and so forth. But its very important that there are conservation groups looking after things such as the frogs when they breed around there, they lay eggs not in the pond, but they lay them around the grass and they got mixed up already. So that kind of stuff is going to be causing some problems possibly. I dont know what studies that the state of california has done to look into this type of issue. Thank you very much. Thank you. Is there any other general Public Comment . Being none, this item is closed. Were off and on item 5 the consent calendar. Would anyone like to make Public Comment on the consent calendar . Being none, Public Comment is closed richard. Sorry, richard, come on up. Thank you. On the Public Comment, i wanted to be able to say some of the comments that i had spoken of, specifically balboa park. There in the committee, i looked at the concept plan and it looked very congested, very crowded. And i wanted to try to make more Space Available there. Such as making use of a rock garden, which can be then in the summer months such as now, made into a nice little wading pond for kids to walk around. So it wouldnt be just the big guys swimming there. The little guys can also have strollers around there and can wade around. Its a rock garden to the configuration in front of the pool area. So it wont be simply a place where you could have a couple of cars to park at. So that is one comment i had to say about balboa park. Another one i wanted to make a little comment has to do with the statue la rose de vent. Mr. Highway hammond did the financing for the garage and so forth. I looked at what he sponsors with the natural humanities type of work to do. So if you had a statue there, i was trying to stretch my imagination a little bit and try to bring in what if you had a statue . That one looks like a burningman type of stuff. So i immediately said, hey, lets cool it on them that. It looks like burning man that will be up for a short time and come down. So if you ever had a statue come up there, i think im a little too ambitious. I like the italian fellow, michelangelo. Its also about 17footer. So like you say, if its going to be [speaker not understood] i like something more permanent. Thank you, richard. Is there anyone else who would like to make Public Comment on the consent calendar . Being none, Public Comment is closed. Now we need a motion. Entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Moved and seconded, all those in favor . Aye. So moved. We forget to announce at the beginning of the meeting that item 6 is offcalendar. So were going straight to item 7. Buchanan street mall activation project. Good morning commissioners. General manager, ginsburg, my name is alex wolk from the capital and Planning Division and im really pleased to present this item before you today. Were also joined by valley brown from supervisor breeds office, who would like to make a brief statement following the presentation. Im here today to present the discussion and possible action to one approve the Concept Design for the buchanan street mall activation project and recommend that the board of supervisors accept a grant valued up to 187,600 from the trust for public land for the design and construction of the communitysupported park activation project and approve the Grant Agreement between the recreation and Park Department and trust for public land. I wanted to show a film that we showed to the Capital Committee a couple of weeks ago. Their cutoff street would be turk here and the reason being is its been so much going on, that they are high a hottarget. You wouldnt want to be caught in a hottarget and these guys are pretty much there. Mine is like this. This whole zone, this big square here of red, that is open is my danger zone. You get what im saying . You have to keep your head basically on a swivel. Ever since i have been about 14, i have been experiencing gang violence. I cant come out of the house without looking left to right first. Being aware of my surroundings, especially at nighttime. It just comes from living in the neighborhood where you know that there are territory issues, turf wars, any funny figures is a problem, its like who is that . Who is that . Being shot the experience itself wasnt really that bad, but the aftermath right now, my nerves, the way my mind thinks. Sorry to say, before i got shot, the shootings it was becoming kind of normal. You know, go have a drink or something, it wasnt nothing too much, but now im just so scared and a nervous wreck. Its like not even real. In dealing with these guys, i realize we are all from the same neighborhood. We lack support and have never been around each other. It started to give me a different perspective and i think at that moment, we all took different steps towarding growing up. You feel trapped at times that it really controls your brain. I wasnt seeing justin as justin or darus or darus. And now they are my coworkers. The recreation and Park Department has partnered with the trust for public land to support a small and standalone Community Activation project for the buchanan mall and to do that tpl and rec and park have partnered with green streets and citizen film, as well as the exploratorium to launch a sustained Community Effort through a series of design interventions and to begin to activate the mall in the way that really reflects the values of the community. The buchanan street mall is locate in the western edition neighborhood and runs north and south between grove and eddy streets and includes five consecutgreen space, three playgrounds, halfcourt and various patches the lawn. A park activation is typically a capital park project that is smallscale, highimpact, completed in a short timeframe. It involves Community Design and construction. Over the last several months green streets, citizen film, the exploratorium, tpl and rec and park have worked very closely to develop the concept plan to design with the mobile and Modular Construction to be instraddle at various locations around the mall. The largest installation would be in a Central Location with smaller in stallations or entry markers scattered throughout the mall to unify the space with appropriatelysized components. Using the Modular Constructions a base, the project consists of one or more of the following concepts. Planters adorned with ports Artful Community images, a series of interpretative sign and playmaking space that presents an opportunity for experiential learning. While the concept and locations have been identified, each element will go through an iterative process of prototyping where exploratorium and green streets fabricate elements and solicit Community Feed [pwha bg ] and modify designs over a period of several weeks leading up to final construction. All installations would be nonpermanent and mobile and could be reconfigure or enhanced depending on future funding and phasion. However the current project must be implemented by the end of september due to the grantors requirements. Since april, the project team has worked to establish a collaborative and participatory planning process, culminating in a Design Task Force of members of the community, young and old, to engage and collaborate with and listen to the larger community. The Design Task Force has Weekly Community meetings that focus on the Design Elements to enhance and activate the mall. During the first design exercise, participants individually marked up existing maps of the mall with abutting Housing Developments utilized open spaces, territorial boundaries and areas where they felt safe or unsafe and even impressions and stories. The idea was to begin to capture the important details to pain a richer picture of the mall with the reality is that many residents face. The second meeting participants were given the opportunity to select from dozens of images that resonated with them and to put stickers on the images that conveyed goals. The design exercise no. 3, a design template was provided to the group to gain initial feedback to see what participants liked or didnt like . Design exercise no. 4 participants were given instructions to actually Start Building models with various materials like string, and wood. Just last week members of task force traveled to the exploratorium and got to bring the concepts to life using a fullscale model where participants adorned wooden structures with representational plants, photos and lights. Before design wraps up later this month, all concept will be presented to the Broader Community for vetting and feedback and once prototyping begins, the exploratorium and Design Task Force will continue to engage residents on the mall, showcasing prototypes of various Community Events and meetings throughout august, modifying designs as necessary and leading up to construction in september. We expect to complete the park activation by september 30th. Thank you and im happy to answer further questions as can our design team. Now i would like to also invite valley brown to speak from the supervisors office. Thanks. Good morning commissioners, and general manager phil ginsburg. I have to say i wanted to do cartwheels when i came in this morning because of the fact that this is so exciting for me as a personally because i have an aide for 8. 5 years and this has always been an area that i thought could be so much better for the community. But mainly for my boss, president breed. She actually grew up there. One of the dilapidated buildings that you saw at the very first frame of the film was right where she grew up, in plaza east. And she used to play in the buchanan mall. So she knows it very well. And when she came into office, this was a priority of hers. I know phil has sat through long meetings of her design process. If you let her, she would go design it itself. To actually have a group, like what we have like now, with green streets, all of the gentlemen here, the community actually taking the lead is amazing. And with the exploratorium, trust for public lands, citizen film involved and of course, recreation and park being their supportive as supportive as they are. And letting them do it organically as a neighborhood is just amazing. Just a little history that supervisor breed she would be here today, but she is down getting prepared for gao. As i was talking to her this morning, she was jumping upanddown excited and just to let you know im sure you know this, but she wanted to let you know this particular park is so rich. It has four community centers. We start at one end of hayes valley and go to the africanamerican arts and culture complex where she was executive director for ten years and to the hutch and the buchanan yak. Ywca and the Senior Center and Public Housing and hud housing. This is probably one of the only parks that you step down from your stairs and you are in rec and park. In city central. Its an amazing, amazing area. And were just really excited that a communitydriven effort is Going Forward and wanting to activate it. They are bringing in all of the neighbors and getting their opinions, getting their ideas. And were just really supportive. Supervisor breed also had put money in the addback process to help this and sle definitely hope to support it financially in the funding process. So thank you everyone, and i will probably do a cartwheel out. Thank you very much. Do we have Public Comment on this item . If so, come on up. Good morning. Good morning. My name is raymond wade and thank you for having us here today about the buchanan mall. I would like to thank green street, citizen film and exploratorium and tpl to build something so well in an area that has been plagued by bad press. They have done so much beautiful upgrades to parks around the city and i feel this should be a priority for them, too. This is a beautiful, but underused area in the Western Addition. Children and seniors alike could benefit from the upgrades of the buchanan mall. Were trying to do, as much as we can as a community to do this ourselves, but we do need the help of the supervisors and rec and park and all of the others to get this done, to beautify this area and to take it away from an area that is an area where gangs, and drugs abound, where old people are afraid to walk down the streets or down the mall, or where children dont have a place to play. This will be a good, a very good thing. As ms. Brown said, supervisor breed this area is a huge area with so many people around it. It has seniors around it, children around it. Childrens elementary school. There is just so much there and its so exciting for us. I just want to thank you you for allowing us to come here. Thank you for green street, who those youngsters are just unbelievable; they really are. That is really all i have to say. I dont know if i said too much, but i hope i said enough. You did. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hi, my name is shannon watts, you just watched me on the movie. Excuse me, im a little excited and nervous right now. I just wanted to thank all of our partners. Thank you guys. Thank the people that are here showing interest. The buchanan mall really means a lot to me. It has went through a lot of transitions through my 28 years of living. Good, bad, ugly, its such a mixedpopulated area and i would like people to come together more because its so segregated, but its connected. Im just very excited right now and i just hope that we can pull this further than just the installation were going to do in september. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good morning my name is tyler mullins, cofounder of green streets. To piggyback off what everyone said, really excited to do something good in the buchanan mall. Born and raised here. Played in the mall in my early days and then was responsible in my later years for being some of the reasons why its not safe for people to walk through the mall and kids to play. Its been a wonderful opportunity to partner with so many people that have so much support behind the Community Effort and for us to go and do something as a community ultimate goal was to do something that ties in all five block because the segregation that shannon just spoke about can be broken down a little bit and some of the generational gap is being broken down as we speak with our meetings every thursday at the Cultural Center and getting all of these ideas from all of these different age groups. At the same time being able to hear the stories, to learn the rich history about the neighborhood that we come from. A lot of things that i didnt even know and im 30 years old and to get the feedback from some of the elders, ms. Henderson and other members who shared their storis with you. They understand what we are doing is really powerful and we can go up the street five, ten years to say to our kids and our community we were part of making that happen. That is a wonderful feeling and also to continue the mission that is green streets of bringing our communities together of. Not only our communities, but the different communitis, disadvantaged communities around the city of San Francisco. We have about 4 africanamerican and still finding a way to keep ourselves here and our culture and history and continue to grow in the city that has a lot of great wealth to it. Were trying to find our peace. Thank you. Thank you very much come on up . Good morning. Good morning. Actually i am the only youth here, so [ laughter ]so im just going to say what im going to say. The buchanan mall is actually a big, big, huge thing for me. I have been going to the park for 20 years it will be 21 next month. Whoo whoo. Its a huge change for me, because when i first heard about it, i kind of got excited myself. Like i just want to make a Better Change for my community. When i was a kid, i always used to want to make a Better Change for the community. Watching crime, and drugs, and just a lot of things positive negative negativity in the neighborhood, it wasnt right. So im just glad that i am here here today. People behind me, im glad that everybody else is here and hopefully we can make a change. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] next speaker. My make it is Roger Blalock and i work with green streets. I just want to say quickly that green streets is an organization that is built on trying to build our community. Were swamped in the Western Addition and we just expanded into the bay view area and were trying to grow the business of selfownership, several preservation several ownership for people in the community. We teach people how to recycle and love each other and care about the neighborhood as far as taking the trash out or simple things of keeping the sidewalks clean. That brings communities. I think green streets with the right backing and support of the city, we basically can get things done, so other communities and cities can see what we are doing in San Francisco, with the homelessness and Mental Health issues and stuff like that, and green street is just a product of our city. I just want to appreciate you have given us time to voice our opinion and let you know who green streets are and were here to stay. Thank you. Thank you. [ applause ] hi. My name is trudy garber and im a project manager with the trust for public land. I want to thank the commission phil ginsburg, london breeds office, alex, everyone here. So the trust for public land has been interested in the buchanan mall for over four years working with recreation and park for hayes valley and as you heard its a challenging and often dangerous place, but has the [tufpbt ] to be a community space, vibrant, healthy, green and just a hub for community. It wasnt until we met green streets that we felt like it was the right time to start this project. They are a group that has deep connections with the mall. They really understand about organizing and the importance of community space. And they have nothing, but passion for this space. So we had green streets on board and then we were so fortunate to partner with the exploratorium, too. This really innovated and committed to