Next speaker, please. Thank you. We discourage barking. Hello again. I want to just comment on mr. Ginsburgs comment about how weve become a great area for dog parks and that we lead, you know, in that area. So as a member of the friends of upper douglass dog park, we want to make compromise. We understand our neighbors, and we really think to allow people, not dog walkers, nothing against you, but for people who live in the city, they need to be able to walk their dogs before they go to work and after they get home. So i think that the 7 00 a. M. Is really a good time that cat anderson suggested. Im concerned about the ending hour, because people typically dont get home till 6 00, 6 30, to be able to go and get to the park and exercise, so we are not in favor of the current hours being proposed. Wed like to have them extended a bit more. I thank you all. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is linda blondis, and as an amateur paleoanthropologist, homo sapiens would not be homo sapiens had he not domesticated the dog. Dog is critical to our being human, and if you read the books, youll find im reading Donald Joe Hanson now. So we owe them. They owe us. And we need to have them have a place where they could play, be dogs, make friends, and upper douglass dog park has been wonderful. It has enabled my dog to make friends, me to make friends. It feels like home. And i am blissfully retired these days, but when i was working, i often did not leave work until 8 00 at night, and my dog still had to go do his doggy things. So i dont know what the neighbors are complaining about, but, you know, when you move next to an airport, you dont complain about the planes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Bruce. And then im going to call off some more names. I have michael and robert and gene and gregory. Go ahead. Hi, im bruce. I live just off port cola drive. I used to live directly across the street from the park and use the park with my dog betty sue. First, im deeply disturbed that the proper rec and park rules for implementing a procedure like this were not followed in the first place. The District Supervisor is supposed to get his buyoff on it. I spoke to the supervisor, that did not happen. Secondly, they are supposed to give Public Notice and have a Community Meeting where both sides can come in and make their case. No Public Meeting took place. The proponents of this proposal gave a reason that they feared for their safety and they were afraid they would be attacked by the park users. You know, if thats really the reason, then the solution to that is you have a park ranger or Police Officer represent at e meeting. You dont try to create public scrutiny and slip this under the radar. At the last meeting, the current proposed closing time is 7 30, and that was kind of picked out in the air arbitrarily and was no real basis for that 7 30 time. I, for one, have to work late often, and i dont even get off work until 7 30, so that doesnt work for me. I spent the last few days at the park in the evenings chatting with some of the other park users to see why they came to the park so late and i found out a whole lot of people have jobs down the peninsula. They dont even get home till 7 30. I spoke with one person who works in a hospital, her shift doesnt end until then and others work in retail. To me, what would be a good time, 7 00 to 9 00, would work for everyone. Next speaker, please. Greetings, commissioners, thank you. So first off, i moved to San Francisco in 1999. I purchased my home in 2007. Im also the Vice President of the Victorian AllianceSan Francisco, where we have actually pulled together 400,000 in preservation grants. As many of you guys may know, a large amount of that money has gone directly to recs and park. Upper Douglass Park is a rare and valuable asset. Its large and fenced in, and it provides a place for new dog owners and existing dog owners to train their dogs. Its also a safe place for people to walk their dogs late at night, as weve seen the homeless issues growing in dolores park, my wife doesnt feel safe walking there. She does feel safe walking her dog after work in upper douglass. Id like to reframe this conversation for everyone here. In 1871 the Parks Commission was set up to preserve and create public use land and some interesting statistics have come out. Per the San Francisco animal care and control, theres 120,000 dogs in San Francisco. Per the u. S. Census bureau, the latest one, theres 113,000 children. So the takeaway here is theres now more dogs than kids. If this conversation was happening around reducing childrens access to parks, i think it wouldnt even have gotten to this point with the commission, which is what were kind of discussing here. So i hope that helps you guys in making your decision. One other thing id like to throw out, because were a city of compromises, heres a couple compromises to consider. San Francisco Police code section 2909 of the noise ordinance says thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Commissioners, general manager, im greg holland, San Francisco resident. I never thought i would be in front of you today speaking about this matter, but im a fan of upper douglass dog park, and i take issue with the process thats undertaken or not undertaken to make this proposal to reduce the hours. You know, the optics are important, and if you reduce the hours, we face the optics that current home owners are dictating how and when the rest of us use their parks. Those are bad optics. Also, if you approve this on the face of it, dont we run the risk of saying not in my backyard . If this wins, it joins all the other negativisms. Classism, racism. I realize when i go to the park its filled with people from all neighborhoods and they are diverse and beautiful and so are their animals, but thats what makes the park so special, so i encourage you to reject the reduced hours for the upper douglass dog park and i encourage everyone here to understand in all of our neighborhoods here, we hear dogs bark. We hear car horns honk, but in every neighborhood, there are people and there are families and people with families and dogs who deserve access to hour public parks at times that fit their job schedules and times that fit their schools and times that fit every family. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good morning. Im robert brust. Many of you know me. I am the district state representative on prozac and ive spoken with many of you. I tried to get a handle around this issue early on, but i was thwarted by by, i think, a lack of communication from the department. I appreciate what you have done and tried to come up with a compromise. I appreciate what sarah had said about the process, but i disagree. There was not an open process on this. I was not informed of this. The local friends of upper douglass dog park, i had a long conversation last night with george, whos the new president. He does not remember being advised this was going until, like, a week before it went to your commission, the committee, and its just that is the, i think, the crux of it. The whole process was appalling. I would accept and support a 7 00 to 9 00 p. M. Hours, but i think its just insane that this group of neighbors, advocates for upper douglass, refuse to meet with the dog people. And and here we are. It was not ready to go before you. It really was not. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Commissioners, general manager, my name is michael. Im an, i suppose, welloff resident of noe valley. I treasure this park. My family treasures this park. My three furry children treasure this park. When my day starts, when i leave for my office, about 7 00 a. M. In the morning, so those that are willing to compromise for later in the evening, i appreciate that, i understand that side of the equation. Im on the other side of the equation in terms of the day. I enjoyed the woofing from the encouraging director or manager, but when we look at statistics that were cited about how we are such a wonderful city by comparing our 10,000 population residents to the statistical average of dog parks, i dont think that statistic captures availability, and this park is not available 24 7. Its not available during a substantial part of the year. Its not available during Morning Hours on wednesday or thursday. Theres an odd closure on wednesday for maintenance. When i go, i never see maintenance there on wednesday. If there is maintenance there on wednesday, it occurs during very narrow hours during the course of the day, and yet the park is not unlocked again until 9 00 a. M. Or later on thursday. So for me, wednesdays out, thursdays out. Theres a long winter closure. We still dont understand why. My dog can get muddy feet. It really doesnt mind it. We support keeping the hours you have in place and not changing them. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, as jane is coming up, im going to go ahead and call some more names. I have david, heather, b. J. , richard, and megan. Thank you for entertaining this today. My names gene falk. I, too, use the park at all sorts of hours and cant imagine having those hours limited, but id like to address directly the process, and i agree with those who have spoken before me, and i disagree with the way this was presented by and im sorry, i didnt get your name. First of all, she cites meetings that were held in 2018. When this issue was raised again in 2019, the parks own process, the sorry, the Parks Commission process was disregarded. You look at the memo you received from mr. Bishop, and it goes point by point what the process is to bring these to you and sorry, supervisor mandelman does not feel like he was consulted. Two, Community Meeting, no. Why . Because they were they, home owners, felt, quote, uncomfortable and unsafe. Well, have a policeman in the room and have an impartial moderator and that takes care of that. But whats even worse is what the rpd agreed to do instead of that meeting, and the answer is it agreed to an Online Survey conducted by the home owners. Thats right in mr. Bishops statement. Now, i have a whole list of other things that proceeded from that, including why that surveys a piece of junk, and i could go on. Notice, however way you look at it, feels like theres a thumb on the scale and the optics are already are uncomfortable. Next speaker, please. Next speaker, please. Overhead, please. Go ahead. Hi. My names dave olson. Ive lived in San Francisco for 30 years, resident of district 8 for 20 years, and ive owned dogs for two years. And i go to this upper douglass dog park all the time. Im often there in the tail end of the evening. I work traditional work hours. I dont have a horrible commute, so im there between 7 30 and 9 00 p. M. I even bought a lightup ball for my dog so we can play in the winter when the sun sets after 7 00 p. M. So closing the park and you can see these videos, youll see that these are taken at 8 40 p. M. On friday, sunday, monday, and tuesday. Youll see that theres plenty of parking on the street. When you show the videos of the park, youll see that there are plenty of people using this park between 10 and 20 every night at 8 40 p. M. I have a thumb drive, im happy to submit this to the city, if you can have this as evidence, but theres lots of constituents that need this park that late, as other people have mentioned. And the process. I mean, seriously, in terms of there being a fair process here, having a biased survey online that is run by somebody who has a particular outcome, 9 00 to 6 00 p. M. , really . So you guys are all pretty smart people. You wouldnt be here, right . Im a pretty smart guy. I wouldnt be able to live in San Francisco. Just take a look at this on face value of it. This is just this is just underhanded and tricky. And i have paid attention to these things, and i only learned about this about beginning of june. So there was no fair Public Comment involved in this whatsoever. So do me a favor, punt this, lets have a Community Meeting, and there are people that dont want it open until 7 00, there are people that need it open before 7 00. All this should be evaluated. Thank you. Next speaker e pleasplease. Hi, so im Second Generation sf. Couple things, estes park and jackson park need some love. Im here because of douglass. Im representing six dogs in three households within two blocks of the park, because they are all at work. Im their dog walker. I should be walking their dogs right now, but im not. I had coverage, because those dog walkers are also all working. Unless youre reading all those emails about how important this park is. We dont use it for almost a third of the year because of this winter closure thing, which i still dont fully understand, because its always muddy in Douglass Park, so i dont understand how much muddier it can possibly be in december as opposed to august. We need this park. I need you to know that the person and group of advocates who dont like this park are also the people who work who started a company that if you remember four years ago at Mission Soccer field kicked little kids off of it, because they reserved it, and it was more important for them to have a soccer game than small children who play at the soccer field every day. These are the same people. They dont care. And its incredibly frustrating to see them walk their dog with no leash and no collar around the neighborhood and say that they are scared of us, because they are not. They are in i see them every day at 7 00 a. M. , and i see them every evening. They are not scared of us, and they are not scared of their dog getting hit by a car either, so i think that this needs to have a Community Meeting, because they are not scared of us, because we see them all the time. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, commissioners. My name is richard, and ive lived in the city 43 years. Ive gone to this park with my dog. I have two dogs before that. Since 2000, both on leash and off leash. I have difficulty getting around. And this park gives me the opportunity to go there with my dog, let the dog play, and gives me an opportunity to meet new people. I could say something, but i have a lot of issues and people already talked about that. One thing i would say is, i would ask you to question the winter closure, because i look and they dont do very much during the winter. The park is actually pretty good now. Weve got involved many times, weeding, and raising monies for the landscaping, the resurfacing of the park. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. My name is b. J. Wilkinson. I live three blocks from Douglass Park, and i have lived there since 1980. Before that, i was in noe valley, but three blocks from this park. When it was available, i always had dogs since i got my dogs in 1980 and needed a place to walk them off leash and a place for them to play. Year 2000 i was forced to retire because of a diagnosis with a lifethreatening illness, and my dogs have gotten me through it since then. Its difficult for me to drive. Right now, i have to drive some place else on wednesdays, and in the winter, when its raining, i have to drive in the fog and the rain to another place so i can walk my dogs. Theres no good reason that ive ever heard why its close the in the winter, and certainly, theres no good reason now why its closed in the times of the best weather, when we have these late summer afternoons, the best time of the year in this city. When it was so hot last week, and my house was over 90 degrees, my dogs and i and everybody else that didnt have air conditioning were suffering. Only place we had to go late in the evening was to Douglass Park, along with other people in that same condition. Those people who have to go to work in the morning and those people who cant get home late in the afternoon, they cant with here. They are at work. And its important for you to take into consideration all those people who use it during those hours. And the complaints that have been made do not sit with those hours. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, and as shes coming up, im going to call off a few more names. I have william, laura, nancy, and rocket. Thats all i have. Hi. My name is megan smith. Im a 30year resident of noe valley. Ive been using this park since 1994. I like to use it early in the morning. Im asking you please dont change the hours. Im also as a resident of noe valley, one of the blind sided people. I found out about [ dogs barking ] i found out this may, may of 2019. We have a newspaper, the noe valley voice, next door noe valley, theres been no Community Meetings that ive been aware of can you hold up . Excuse me. Are we okay over there . All right. Go ahead. All right. See if we can control them all. Go ahead. All right. So im one of those residents that apparently this handful of people, once i heard about this, i really took a good look at 27th street. Theres, like, ten houses there. They all have garages. I dont even understand what the issue is. Thats how blind sided i am, but im asking you, please, dont change the hours, and if there is this process, id like to go through the proper procedure with supervisor mandelman and the Community Meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, william. Mr. President , commissioners, good morning or good afternoon. I became aware of this controversy over i dont use Douglass Park. But i became aware via social media. And i was hearing things similar to the testimony that these people have been giving you today, so i came here today to ask you to vote no on this proposal to change the hours of Douglass Park, but then i heard your rec and park representative talk about communitydriven policy, and robust dialogue, but that doesnt seem to jive from what im hearing from the people here, so im going to suggest perhaps rather than voting yea or nay, to table the project and let more informatio