Good morning. It is thursday, february 15th. This is the regular meeting of the San Francisco recreation and Parks Commission will the secretary call the roll. roll call commissioner buell and mcdonnell have excused absences. Please turnoff your devices. Also, if you would like to have a secondary conversation we request that goes outside. If you would like to speak on an item we request but do not require a blue card. Unless otherwise announced by the president each person will have two minutes for Public Comment on each item. If there is an item of interest not on the agenda under the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission, you may speak on general Public Comment, item 4. That is continued on item 9. When you make Public Comment, please address your comments to the commission in order to allow equal time for all. Neither the commission nor staff will respond to questions during Public Comment. The commission may ask questions of staff after Public Comment is closed. Last, and if the fire alarms activate you must evacuate the building. Please note elevators will immediately rush to the first floor and are not available for use. If you need assistance please make your way to the closest area across the hall in the mens restroom. There is a speaker box. Security will as test you. We are on item 2, president s report. Before the president s report, can the secretary check the mics of the commissioners to make sure everybody is working. I would like to make this the Vice President s report. You will hear shortly from the general manager of the many great park openings that we had. I wanted to really recognize that a lot o of the park openins and the grand ope openings is do the great work of the general manager and staff as well as the beneficiary of generous contributors and supporters particularly the trust for public land and Helen Diller Foundation and ja jackie and dae were blessed to have them in our lives. You had hear more from the general manager on the park openings. Second, i want to recognize tomorrow is the start of chinese new year. To the entire city of San Francisco and the department. That is my first great cantonese. Meaning happy new year, good health, may all your wishes come true. That is the conclusion of my Vice President s report. Is there anyone who would like to make Public Comment under that item . Being none it is closed. We are on the general managers report. Thank you. Happy new year. It is a time of many blessings, and commissioner lowe you articulated it. We are very grateful for a lot of wonderful things that have happened in the parks since we have been last together and over the last several years. I am going to try to run through them and offer a few other announcements. With apologies to those who celebrated valentines day with boring flowers and chocolates. Yesterday we celebrated the new helen diller playgrounds which we hope you saw as you were working in. They were made possible by a generous 10 Million Foundation from the foundation and with the Ongoing Partnership with the trust for public land. This is the third city play grounds renovated through the helen diller family foundation. The two were predecessors to this one. It is one of several projects we partnered on with hays valley, balboa park and hill tom and the relake ship goes back farther with the partnership projects. Buchanan mall is another one we are working on with gpl. We were in district 6 yesterday and we were joined by three amazing kids who spent a lot of time at bodecker and are involved in the boys and girls club. The city invested more than 30 million in the Park Improvement this is the last several years including not just civic center, south park and we have upcoming work at the Sergeant Mccoy playground and the mini park. They were opened in honor of may your lee. I was mayor lee. I was with them when we showed him the design. He was so excited but he said when he looked at it, he said this looks amazing. What if there were some lights. That embarked a very ambitious lighting element to these playgrounds which you saw part of last night. The big piece of it went on about 10 minutes after we cut the ribbon. That is show business, as they say. The lighting elements are extraordinary and unique. That was his vision. That is pretty special. We are not done. There is some construction fencing up around the civic center because this week we break ground on the second phase which is for the street cafe which will open this summer and serve coffee which i was looking for around civic center this morning and soft ice cream and sand witches. It will open this summer. Your staff is amazing on this. Great partnership and we couldnt have done it without the philanthropy. Jackie who is on Maternity Leave is the lead project manner. Leadership was fantastic. The guarding suppression staff, custodial staff, park rangers, the permits and reservations. Last nights opening planned by Public Affairs division was extraordinary. What would the Commission Meeting be like if they didnt say victory has many parents. There were a lot of reasons for the success of the project. As commissioner lowe noted and i had the great pleasure of being joined by commissioners anderson and bonilla. We reopened the randall museum. Two years, 9. 5 million with a little assistance from the grammy awardwinning musician mr. G we opened the 9 million project made possible by a 6. 5 million state parks grant, some government money, add backs from senator and supervisor scott weiner and money from our capital plan and yet another example of great philanthropy. The friends of the randall are wonderful and helped us deliver the margin of excellence raised another Million Dollars for the garage which is a stem lab focusing on science, engineering, technology and staff. It incorporates new animal exhibits. Over 100 live abmans grouped by animals. In one exhibit you see different species. That is cool. All playing nicely together like here at city hall. Seismic upgrades. Ada accessibility. New food concessions and what makes the randall so special admission to the museum is free, and many of the weekend programs are very nominal they cost a nominal fee. If you are five, 15 or 150 there is something to do at the randall. It is really special. It is chinese new year. We also celebrate lack history month. Last week black history month. Two of our park employees were honored at the board of supervisors. Park ranger kar. After serving for 6 years in the marines. He has spent more than 50 years with the city. 28 with muni and 23 as a San FranciscoPolice Officer. He has been a park ranger for the last park years. While at muni he was a 10 time cable car ringing champion and has traveled all over the world and been on Late Night Television and maybe, you know, recreation and Parks Commissions prominent celebrity for his cable car bell ringing. Interesting story. While he was at muni and ringing the cable car bell and riding. People noticed he was good at spotting pickpockets. Somebody suggested he become a Police Officer. This was later in his life, and at the time this goes back to i think like the 1980s. He was denied the opportunity to become a Police Officer because of his age. He sued the city and county of San Francisco in a lawsuit that went to federal court, and it is one of the most important age discrimination cases in federal law. He won and went on to have a long and productive career as a Police Officer. In his glory years he is spending time with the ranger television and great public ambassador in the parks. He is very special. Robert muhammad is the acting Park Services manager for area 4 which includes stern grove. He is a San Francisco native who grew up playing what was then ocean view and sunset rec. He was a big reckid he manages the parked where he plays every day. The story is that robert and his wife have made rooms available in their home as kids have gotten older and they had space for homeless pregnant women. Pretty amazing. Both of these gentleman are a reminder of the great people who serve in our parks. It is special. About 10 days ago the San Francisco chamber of commerce released the results of the annual survey poll surveying on the top issues the city is faced with. Parks topped the list 70 approval rating. Eldon pond gets the assist more popular than steph curry, baseball and thanksgiving. While there still remains a lot of angsts over quality of life it is a direction of the staff that you provide us to do our part to keep San Francisco and its parks clean, safe and beautiful. Last month i offered a quick update on proposed changes to the soccer field. After distributing to the community we received feedback from over 20 groups and individuals to date. We have made modifications based on that feedback. Additional comments are due february 19th. We are aiming to finalize the policy in march. This was the product an extensive study to respond to the amazing growth in youth sports and the shift particularly in travel soccer which is a bigger business and we need to make sure that is consistent with our Public Benefit plan. The commission passed a policy years ago that is still very applicable dealing with Administrative Guidelines and regulations for making sure that people understand what is needed to be an approved Public Benefit. Thursday, february 22nd, we are going to be joined by the San FranciscoParks Alliance and city officials at the 11th annual crab fest at the cultural center. This year as it benefits the recreation and Parks CommissionScholarship Program in honor of mayor lee. We are going to bring to the commission in the months to follow an item in which we would name the Scholarship Program after mayor lee. This is something he cared about a great deal and very focused on equity and access. The program has grown considerably in the last seven or eight years. We now give away the Scholarship Program offers well all most a million andaquarter free and subsidized Youth Programs and summer camps. It is fun. A lot of crab. Live entertainment by macy black man. There are visits visit Parks Alliance. Org. On saturday february 24th from 10 00 a. M. To june we invite you to the Geneva Community garden opening. There will be raffles and a potluck lunch. Also on february 24 we invite everybody to join us for opening Day Festivities to mark the 2018 Baseball League season. We are moving to spring. Pitchers and catchers have reported. Sfybl opens at kimble from 10 00 a. M. To 2 00 p. M. It includes a home run derby and team parade and more. Each spring we serve over 4,000 youth baseball players, girls and boys ages 4 to 14 from t ball to pony League Levels and numerous teams on our very, very successful girls baseball program. Lastly, mark your calendars for extravaganza on march 31st when we celebrate the spring family event at the newly named Robin Williams meadow in Golden Gate Park with games, food trucks and raffles. More to come. Before i conclude with our video this month on parks, one final announcement. I am honored and happy to announce our chief urban for rester Kelly Cornell will receive a 2018 Good Government award from spur next month. The Good Government awards recognize outstanding Job Performance and manager excellence. They have been doing it for 38 years. This is a unique opportunity to make a difference within City Government and the community atlarge. Kelly, who worked for our organization for a long time, is speaking for the trees, manages the 140,000 tree canopy and the management plan. Did remarkable work at the camp where the fires destroyed the urban canopy and almost forced us to close the camp last summer which we did not. He worked hard to preserve the red wood grove and created the greenway diversion program. He will be back in march. I couldnt pull him here this morning after he was given the award in march. Now for our video in parks we focus on our spring registration and day cam registration which begins in march. Thank you, bryan. All of that is your very special park system. That concludes the general managers report. Any Public Comment on this item . Seeing none the Public Comment is closed. We are now on item 4, which is general Public Comment. At this time, members of the public may address the commission on items of interest to the public within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission and do not appear on the agenda. With respect to agenda items you can address the commission when the item is reached. I have three cards. You get two minutes each. Steve, judy and sandy. Good morning, commissioners, Vice President lowe commissioners, director ginsburg. I am steve nicago, the Community Organizer for the japan Town Community benefit district. For 45 years i was executive director of the senior center. As the point of information i am the Vice President of the San Francisco fire commissioner. I am for inclusion of the japan town peace plaza in terms of the 2019 recreation and park bond. As you know it is one of three japan houses left in the United States. Los angeles and tokyo, san jose with San Francisco, we are 110 years old. Historically we were the gateway for japan in terms of the United States. Everything came through from the east, the far east through asia through San Francisco. We also experience, as you know, in 1942 executive order 9066 where 110,000 japanese americans were pit in concentration camps. With that for us in japan physical geographical area was total removal of the japanese community. We returned in 1942 at the 50th anniversary of the peace plaza we development by the then director and the city policy. What we want to do is celebrate the peace plaza in terms of making that open space and our part of the neighborhood of San Francisco into a beautiful location. It was one of the favor projects of the late may or ed lee in feelings of the peace plaza being part of this particular bond. Thank you very much, commissioners. Judy and sandy, please. Good morning commissioners, thank you so much for my minutes with you. I am judy, a board member of the japan town task force and the president of the San Francisco chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. More importantly, i am someone who was raised in japan town. My family arrived after world war ii. I was there watching as all of that was demolished and rebuilt. I come with that sort of message. This was a vision of japan town that was put on us and hundreds of residents and businesses went through what was considered the second relocation. The Community Since then has fought very hard, very diligently to maintain the neighborhood. I am talking about the importance of this to our future generations and the way we feel about our community. There are many, many event that happen there and over its 50 years the Cherry Blossom festival is 50 years old. The street fair is 40 years old and the Japanese American Citizens League has been in that neighborhood and worked there for 90 years. We are pretty embedded in this community. We would like to see that our efforts as a community to preserve japan town and the boundaries and areas is considered and remembered. Thank you so much. Sandy. Good morning, commissioners, director ginsburg. I am sandy morey. I am representing the board of directors. Our mission is to preserve and make sure we have a japan town four the future years of our community. I want to bring your attention to the issue of the peace plaza, one of your city parks. It is a very important part of your community. We have an ad hoc Community Wo