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Richard, welcome. Thank you, commissioners. On here, on another item, i wanted to talk about some other mural projects that i am working on. First, the alamein he Health Centre building, which the commissioners approved as a city landmark. That building is in process of being renovated. The city found a vendor or an occupant, and they are very appreciative of the murals inside the building, we will get to see what is on the bottom of the painted mural, which nobody has seen probably in a long time and the other building i want to talk about is the mothers building and that is not going too well. We got the funds from the Historic Preservation fund for them to do this study, and then also supervisor tang gave money to do the shortterm and immediate repairs, and they are all taken care of, but since that time, almost a year, nothing is happening. Something needs to be done to get this process moving. I was hoping maybe the commission could ask recreation and park and the Zoological Society president to come and ask them what they are planning to do to open the building to the public, and also im concerned on having discussions with the zoo staff of how will the building be open to the public so that they may enjoy seeing these murals. When i started on the project, i just thought about how, i just realized how beautiful the murals are, but since working on the project, ive come to discover that the two women artists, helen and dorothy, and the Three Sisters who did the mosaics, were really pioneers in the womens movement. This was the first time that women started to work outside of the house, and this is one of the largest collections of solo women artwork around the bay area. Donna graves, whenever you get the concept report, she wrote a report about it. I hope you will have a hearing and shed some light on this so we can get moving on this project. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other member of the public who wishes to address the commission . Close Public Comment. Theyll place us under department matters, directors announcements. Afternoon, commissioners. No report from the director, welcome to the sauna, apologies to the room. We are used to metaphorical heat in this room, but not quite as literal as it is today. I do want to introduce amory rogers who wants to speak about the organizational changes related to historic renovation. Good afternoon, commissioners im the director of city wide policy, which is the longrange to pit division. I know you are aware, but i wanted to take an opportunity to share probably with the folks in the audience that we have been integrating the preservation history staff with policy staff throughout the department. Within citywide, we already did have specialists on topics such as housing, transportation, equity and sustainability, and now we are very pleased to have a Historic Preservation staff at our disposal. So what i also like to take an opportunity to encourage you to consider all of our staff as staff of this commission, and utilize them when you have preservation topics that may cross over and interact with some of those other topics under the Planning Departments purview. With that, were very excited to be working more visibly before the commission, and i will be introducing the second item on your regular agenda. Thank you. Are there any questions that commissioners have . Welcome, we look forward to working with you. Item two, review of past events and announcements. Is there an update on the Planning Commission . Apologies, it is august, it is quite. No reports. That will place us under commission matters, item three, president s report and announcements. No report. Item four, consideration of adoption dropped minutes of june 19th, 2019, in the regular hearing for august 7th, 2019. We will open this up for Public Comment. Would any member of the public like to comment on the draft minutes from the Architectural Review Committee or the Historic Preservation Commission Hearings seeing none, close Public Comment. Move to approve. Second. Thank you. On that motion to adopt the minutes for june 19th, 2019, and august 7th, 2019. [roll call] so moved. That motion passes unanimously 5 0. Item five is commission comments and questions. Okay. Seeing none, we can move onto your consent calendar. The matter listed here under constitutes a consent calendar and considered to be retained by the Historic Preservation commission and maybe acted upon bicycle roll call vote. There will be no separate discussion of this item unless a member of the commissioner public or staff should request it to be removed. Item six, 1,000 market street, this is a permit to alter. I have no speaker cards. I need to ask for a refusal. Arg was a consultant that did the assessment on the cornice, so if someone could motion. Is that a motion or a removal i so moved. Second. Thank you, on the recusal of Commission President hyland. [roll call] so moved, commissioners. You are hereby recused. You probably dont have to leave unless the item comes off the consent calendar. We will take Public Comment at this time. Is anyone interested in removing this from a consent calendar . From the consent calendar . I move that we keep it on the consent calendar. Second. Is that a motion to approve . Yes. Thank you. On that motion to approve item six under the consent calendar. [roll call] so moved. That motion passes unanimously 4 0. That will places under your regular calendar for item seven, the George Washington high school murals, this is for your review and comment. Good afternoon, commissioners shannon ferguson, Planning Department staff. Im here to present an update regarding the George Washington high School Landmark designation as you will recall, Washington High School is significant for association as it was built largely using Public Works Administration funds. Is also architecturally significant as it embodies the characteristics of the modern style and represents the work of a master architect and exhibits higher i artistic values with its murals by some artists which were all part of the federal art project. As a reminder, the landmark designation report was prepared by the Historic Preservation consulting and donna graves with coordination provided by San Francisco heritage, and funded by the Preservation Fund committee. Could you slow down a little bit . They added George Washington high school to the landmark designation work program on august 17th, 2016. They initiated designation on august 8th, and october 18th , 2017 and recommended landmark designation on december 6th, 2018. The legislation is currently with the board of supervisors. As part of our staff work, we made three presentations to the school board about landmark designation. Those presentations took place on september 28th, 2015, october 23rd, 2017, and march 6th, 2018. The final staff presentation was on alterations to the building, and generally the city does not regulate the School District. I did reach out to the school board about this hearing and they were unable to attend. If you have any questions about the landmark designation, i would be happy to answer them. Thank you. As part of our staff presentation, they there will be another presentation. There will be another presentation. I have some slides here of the murals. Let me just bring it up. So victor on a toff did 13 separate murals and an additional three banners that are also done in fresco. Two very large murals on either side of the entry stairs and two large murals in the upper hall, and six murals in out cloves that open off the main hall. This is the largest one on the righthand side of the stairs that picks the french and indian war and George Washington early life as a surveyor. This is opposite it showing the coming of the american revolution, including riots, the boston tea party, the boston massacre, port working class men raising the flag of the new republic, and washington taking communion of the army. The next two show events of the revolution beginning with the battle of trenton, ending this one, iltv did not show Washington Crossing the delaware , that famous a very unrealistic painting, and instead showed two enlisting men taking surrender of a mercenary. Opposite it is his version of the valley forge. Did not show washington praying in the snow, instead he showed washington in his office and his officers dressed in spotless winter clothing, talking to enlisted men dressed in rags. On the ceiling above those two murals is a moon, what you said at the time was his depiction of war. In the alcove on the opposite side of the upper hall we have peace, we have washington eating his officers farewell, including lafayette, indicate indicating the importance of foreign assistance during the revolution. Opposite this one we have washington as president , mediating between hamilton and jefferson over how to implement the new constitution, which is on the table in front of them. The ceiling of this alcove presents the sun and rainbow, which iltv said was his depiction of peace. So these two opposite alcoves show war and peace. This is the banner that introduces the alcove showing peace, and if you can read it, i cant read it from here myself, but i will let you read it. The third alcove Shows Washington bidding farewell to his mother, who was dying of cancer, he was reluctant to leave her, but she said it was important he accept the responsibilities of the presidency, and that is what is depicted in this mural. On the opposite wall, we have washington agitating for creation of a national university, something he referred to in one of his final addresses to congress, and that he also provided for in his will , but it never happened. The upper hall this is the ceiling over those last two, showing liberty placing new flags in the firmament, just as we have new stars in the flag on a blueblack blue background. The upper hall includes the two murals that have been the subject of the greatest controversy, depicting slavery and the deaths and dispossession of native americans. This is iltvs depiction of washington at his mount vernon plantation, and here he put enslaved africanamericans in the center, reminding everyone that washington was dependent upon slave labour, even though he subscribed to the notion that all men are created equal. The opposite mural was based on iltvs discovery arnautoffs discovery. This is my shameless selfpromotion. I might add that the newspapers have said repeatedly that he was a communist, but he actually didnt join the party until 19308, so at the time he painted these murals, his politics were clearly on the left, but he was not yet a formal communist. Im happy to take any questions you may have. Very informative. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Are there any questions for staff before we go to Public Comment . If i could ask miss ferguson, i just wanted to ask you one question. Can you just clarify for the Commission One more time, it is my understanding that the school board initially voted to remove the murals, and now, can you give me the status of what is happening now . I have a copy of the resolution if you would like me to read it. They voted to cover them up. They voted to cover them up, and now . Originally it was to destroy them by painting them. This is as of august 13th, okay. Thank you. Why dont you go ahead and open this up to Public Comments. We have three speaker cards. Thank you so much, commissioners. My name is woody and i am the new Vice President of advocacy and programs at San Francisco heritage. Thank you for having me today. For heritage today, on this matter, what we really want to bring forward, mike mueller, our president and c. E. O. , he was part of the original Reflection Group that made the initial recommendation to the school board, so we have been part of this project from pretty early on. What we really dont want is the destruction of the murals, and we would like to offer some, which i sent earlier to the commission, some different Technical Solutions that consensus, perhaps a remediated process might bring about in opposition to painting over the murals, so we provided this p. D. F. Of Different Solutions that were used with different public artworks around the world , and the most important thing is recently the school board came up with a resolution to obscure or screen or hide parts of the murals. The most important thing about any kind of acted like that, for us, is the reversibility of that action. We dont want any kind of permanent, damaging, solution here. Everybody might want these screened at some point, but we want to make sure people in the future have a say in what they see. That is about as far as we want to present today on this matter, but if you have any questions, i can try to answer them, although it is my first week, so i may not have the answers. Thank you. Thank you. Richard . Very much involved in this process. I went to George Washington, and to be honest with you, i dont even remember the murals, although i went in that entrance every day, i have other memories of going to high school there, but the principles let me give tours there for the last year and they are just really great, you know, they should be interpreted heritage did a lot of work in presenting alternatives and using them as a teaching tool, one proposal is to use technology, 3d animation to put glass over the murals, and theres a lot of alternatives. This is in the first time. We had this same controversy in the late sixties and early seventies, and the response was that there was a response mural painted in the hall next door which are in storage now because they are doing major renovations at George Washington , but they promised they are not going to touch the murals. Theres other artwork in the building there, there are some murals up in the library, and theres a freeze in the football field, so George Washington is really fortunate that timothy fluker had all these architects and all these artists to paint all these murals, and it was just the right time. Abraham Lincoln School was painted. It was a year later, and they have no murals. So this is a fine example of w. P. A. Artwork and it really needs to be shown off and explained, so i hope that everybody can come to a solution where we respect everybodys values and people get to see them. If they have to be covered up some time, they did this in washington, d. C. There were some offensive urals in the g. S. A. They put a shower curtain and covered it up. It is and then when they give tours, they can open it up for the people, and i think we could do this with the two most offensive murals because they are sort of separate. There are, you know, alternatives for heritage. I hope you will have a chance to read this. Thank you for having the hearing thank you. Good afternoon. I am the Vice President of the George Washington High School Alumni association. First, i want to say i am in big favor of making George Washington landmark status building. I also want to bring to your attention that our efforts to preserve the murals as they are is our position. This controversy is now being observed nationally and internationally. I have been interviewed in europe, russia, i have been quoted in numerous foreign papers, all the major newspapers in the country, particularly art critics, the new york editorial board, they are really going to shame San Francisco if they continue with this nonsense about covering these murals. Locally, from former mayor willie brown, and others, reverend brown, matt gonzalez, alice walker, when chan, i can only tell you theres others. They will eventually come out to tell this city or the board that anything less then leaving them alone will be something not acceptable. We would consider some other things, but they need to go back to square zero. A second vote that they did on august 13th was a response from their unanimous vote to whitewash. That tsunami started an incredible set of energy from the National Coalition against censorship, and numerous other organizations that have come out to support this. The former n. E. A. Executive director for barack obama was appalled that this even happened , and when the short notice to have an open house on august 1st, i sent an email because the School District supposedly told people there was going to be a two hour window to see these murals because there was an outcry, and real briefly, it turns out that thats how important he feels and supporting our cause. Im sorry, i dont want to take any more time. If you have anymore questions, i would be more than happy. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public who wish to speak . I would just like to mention that i spoke to the board twice and used my one minute of Public Comment both times most recently to remind them of their obligations under ceqa. I have given them written comments reminding them of their obligations under ceqa, and all the board discussions, i dont remember a single board member saying the word ceqa, and at least two of them have denied that the murals are Historic Resources, but clearly under ceqa they are. So if any of you have contact with members of that board, you need to inform them of their legal obligations under ceqa. Thank you. Any other member of the public wish to speak on this item . Commissioners, pardon me, im not actually here for the subject, im here for the next one. My wife was vice Vice President of the student body in washington and 52, including my generation there are now six generations of Family Living in San Francisco. I have had the pleasure of seeing paintings in france, i have seen public art carved murals, if you will in cambodia, and all around the world, and there isnt one that isnt controversial, that isnt, by some, a contra version of history. The initial presentation from the staff mentioned to you that theres no depiction of Washington Crossing the delaware or kneeling in the snow, and yet we have renowned art that shows that. This, to me, these murals are a teaching tool. It is an Educational Institution where else do you put a teaching tool if you dont put it there . And who else do you teach to other than students in this grade level . To even cover them up with a screen, to me is a travesty. Thank you. Thank you. Any other member of the public who wishes to speak . Thank you. My name is drake davis and i am a sixth generation californian and a native san franciscan. Thank you for letting me speak. Im here over the 1,000 market east and i live there and i just graduated from state, but it is nice to be able to address this. I agree with most of what we have heard today with the sentiment that i think when we censor history and the past, you know, i hate to be contrite or for those who dont know history are doomed to repeat it, but seems to me that the artists intent was showing the wrongdoing of the native indians and that they were just stepped over hastily in our expansion to the west, so i dont see any reason why i think it could be covered up if nothing else, and yes, absolutely nothing should be done that would damage it permanently for future generations, and i think that it should remain there, and if we have to do anything, perhaps there should be a curtain over it. I can have some empathy for the students were native american or otherwise offended. That is pretty much my take on it. Thank you very much. I would have dressed more appropriately if i knew i was addressing the board today. [laughter]. Thank you so much. Any other comments from the public . Close Public Comments. I would like to just have a couple introductory comments to the commission and then i will open it up. I have some other questions and comments, but we brought this agenda back because of the ongoing conversations that the school board has had. We obviously want to the building and the murals landmarked, that was obvious in our past actions. We put this on the agenda prior to the School Boards recent change, but we have reached out to the school board, the president , and the staff. We wrote them a letter. The purpose of us continuing the dialogue is that we feel that we can add some value to their process. They havent responded, im sure they are very, very busy, but from this meeting, what id like to do is have us write another letter. So if theres some items that each of you want to include in the letter, lets do that so that staff can capture that. Commissioner pearlman . Thank you. Thank you to everyone who is here today. I had asked that we discussed this at our last meeting because i think its critical that because of the structure of the government of San Francisco, you know, our Planning Department, our commission, has no, theres no connection through the school board, as we have discovered with the landmark process for the buildings. I think there were three School Buildings that we had voted to landmark, and it seems like the school board is just not interested and they have kind of table to that. So we dont really have any connection, but given the International Nature of the controversy, i thought it was critical that we at least get on record as the Historic Preservation commission of the city of San Francisco about these particular actions, and while i know there was a vote to reverse the first boat, you should notice that it was 43. It wasnt a unanimous decision. So clearly we theres still a significant portion of the school board who believes that these should be destroyed. I have a few points. I wrote them out, so i will read them. Some of it is quoting from some articles in the chronicle, but particular things i thought were important. I wrote that the recent vote of the school board feels halfbaked and tepid, only sponsored International Ridicule and a way to quell public uproar this is from the chronicle editorial board. This compromises this compromises the best we can expect from this group, the school board. And his disregard for history, public art, and the ability of San Francisco students to think critically. That i think its a is a most important piece. The good news is that they save the facesaving decision to preserve the meals will be preserved for the day when the School Board Members are succeeded by elected officials with a greater position for appreciation of art and history. Again, that is what is happening here is that it seems very common today that people dont like something, they feel bad, they dont have to take the course, they dont have to go to that lecture, but, you know, how do we learn as a society . It seems the school board is unwilling to educate about the content of the murals, that are just as relevant now as when they are they were painted pick. And his is hyper partisan, racially charged environment, these murals are still relevant to discuss history and current events. What better way to talk about our current president and his particular actions than to refer to things that happened hundreds of years ago and the response from this particular artist in the 1930s . This was a comments from someone who had gone to George Washington. I was a student there more than 60 years ago. The murals were an essential part of my education. By examining examining them closely, i learned about justice , truth, oppression, prejudice and about how American History was being depicted in our textbooks and classes by the victors and not the victims. We had many discussions with in and out of class about the murals. During my years there, we were the most ethnically and racially Diverse High School in San Francisco. Those murals, i believe, contributed to my lifelong career and pursuit to help others speak their truth. What better testimony from someone who was there 60 years ago. I think most of the other things have been said by the other speakers. One thing i thought was interesting, one little factoid that i found out was that maya angelou had gone to gw and had graduated from there. The hypocrisy and irony that the same School Board Head entertains the idea to name the school after maya angelou has not been lost to the public. It seems very odd that this is the same school board that would honor someone like maya angelou and then choose to destroy this particular piece of art. So instead of spending money, tax money for sequel studies and others, how about for the education about these topics and censorship. So i just wanted to echo what mr. Magill said, even covering them with a screen is a travesty and i agree with that. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner black . I think i can understand how Young Students of color, who are at a certain stage in their lives, theyre trying to figure out who they are, their developing their identities, and i can understand how they might be offended, having to pass every day a visual reminder of our one of the deplorable aspects of our countrys history over the past few weeks, i have had a number of people share opinions. I suspect my fellow commissioners have, as well. Obviously now the planet is aware of this. [laughter] unfortunately, i think there are a number of people who are missing how sensitive these may be two people, but it is very important that we all have an opportunity to give our opinions on it, and as an artist and architectural historian and a planner, and a preservationist, i spent a lot of time thinking about this and i prepared some notes. I just want to review them. Throughout our history, we have employed deeply offensive practices, and we continue to do so now. Parenthetically, i am unaware of any other country that is free of this. I appreciate the opportunity to provide my comments to the school board, and i hope they take everyones comments, not just this commissions but all of the member of the public, as well. I think there is a really significant difference in how we treat history, represent it, and learn from it. To me, there is a huge difference between a monument, say a robert e. Lee sculpture with him charging on his horse, waving the Confederate Flag placed prominently in a town square, and the murals at George Washington high school. Monuments are intended to inspire and celebrate the exploits of a person, typically a man, almost always a man, and how he vanquished an enemy or conquered a new land that turned out not to be uninhabited, and monuments, that is their goal, that is their purpose. By contrast, murals like this provide a narrative, a much more complete story that often contains the good and the bad of a particular period to remind and critically inform us of this period, or in this case, the imperfect life of our first president. So while i can understand how aspects of murals are really offensive to some people, on a whole, they provide context to the people and times shown, and serve as a reminder of our greatly flawed history in a different way than a celebratory monument does. I also want to quickly address the federal art project and the administration aspect of this discussion. Both were phenomenally successful programs in our history, and it boosted the nations economy when we needed it, and it provided employment for many builders and artisans across the country. We have bridges and buildings and artwork, and some of them have preserved uncomfortable aspects of our history, such as dorothy langes new deal to form the security administration, photos of poverty. Nobody looking at them will misunderstand how difficult it was to be a sharecropper in the twenties. Without that, without those photos, i dont think we would have that level of understanding i also want to mention that this School Campus exists as an intact collaboration between an extraordinary San Francisco architect and a notable artist of the period, which is really rare, and very worth preserving. Architects and artisans dont get to Work Together and collaborate together to this extent very often. Finally, i want to mention that i would love deweys crumpler dewey crumplers response. It is like a poetry smacked down where both sides get to put their best visual forward. I would like to challenge the school board and the students to collaborate on a mural of their own about their own lives in 2019 where they can show the things they think are good about their lives, whether it is a good class, first love, whatever it is that they want to show, but also the stuff that is bad about their lives. Maybe its bullying, maybe its discrimination, whatever they think is important. It is important that we allow people expression of what they feel in a time and place. After thinking long and hard about this, it is my opinion that these murals should not be literally whitewashed, which would instead be preserved and shown, supported by a student mural or at least additional commentary from the students, singh what they want to say about the murals. And a minimum, the murals should be protected in situ. I also want to say, i appreciate the information provided by heritage. He gives us a lot of tools for the school board to follow. Some of them not at all expensive, and i encourage them to take all of this information in and i appreciate the opportunity to provide the comments. Thank you. Thank you. Initially i did have a question i wanted to ask mr. Miguel. I understand there was a poll taken recently. I think it was referred to in the sunday chronicle. Are you familiar with that pole . It was a poll of students. Excuse me, i do know about it a little bit. Out of the 17, i believe 11 said to leave them. Of the six, i believe there were two africanAmerican Students who had some issues with it, and i believe there was two or three asian students who said, i dont care. I forget the 17th person. But there has been a lot of commentary about what the students feel. Theres been essays written, class instruction last spring, and i believe one of the teachers had 305 or 40 students, and three quarters of them said to leave them alone. Everyone is skittish about this. I am not. They talk about the oppressed people that go to this school, theres four native American Students that go to a 2200 person school, 65 or 67 of the student body is asian, and i believe it is under 11 that are africanamerican. Theres been a lot of commentary about people speaking on behalf of first nation people entirely, or the africanamerican community, and i can tell you real quickly that is not the case. Come out soon. These things even about reverend brown, he said a week ago, not one person can talk about the african community, and he was speaking on behalf of the naacp. Okay. See it is interesting to me because theres a lot thats a law that has been made that these murals must be hidden, if not completely destroyed. And the interest of the feelings of the students. Normally, i dont think the feelings of the students are necessarily the end of the question. I do think that was very interesting to me. It was also interesting when i reread our statement that we prepared in connection with the land marking. And that noted that in october of 1968, there was a student protest about the scenes, and the question there returned when nearly half the student body reportedly showed that less than 20 of the students voted to have the murals removed, well 61 centigrade that supplementing them with additional depictions of africanAmerican History was the preferred while 60 1 well 61 was supplementing them with additional depictions of africanAmerican History was the preferred way. They do not feel they need to be protected from this. The 1968 response really was that there should be more discussion. I personally have always felt, when it comes to issues of free speech, that there is hateful speech, if there is hateful speech, the remedy for that is there should be more speech from people who were involved, not less speech. If there is less speech, then there will eventually be no speech, and we wont recognize that there was a part of a hit our history that is not what we today think that it ought to have been, or perhaps wish that it had been, so im very sympathetic to the idea that these murals do provide teaching techniques. Now i have read that there is, that these murals arent used as a teaching technique. In my opinion, this represents a second failure of our school board. The first failure is that they are not interested in education or a Free Exchange of ideas, but they are interested in doing what i think they feel, for people of their generation, is the convenient way to handle controversy, which is to make it a political issue, and then decide based upon politics. I dont think thats a good idea for the school board. It happens a lot, but i rather wish that it wouldnt. But the other failure is that with a magnificent textbook, and magnificent starting place, or a discussion, of what were the values of the 18th and 19th century america, the school board has simply done nothing. They ought to take advantage, in my opinion, of this wonderful asset right at their feet or above their heads. Now this commission spent a lot of time and effort on the question of land marking the schools. That time and effort was spent in days when the murals were not controversial. The controversy of the sixties had settled down. We were interested in looking at several schools, buildings, for other reasons. We found that, in our statement of significance, which page is 87, we listed why we thought washington was significant, and the ultimate paragraph says, finally, George Washington high school is significant as a property characterized by high artistic values, as home to four new murals and one outdoor freeze. All were sponsored by the w. T. A. Federal art project. The artist who executed these murals the artists who executed these murals may George Washington High School One of the most important composite tories of new deal artwork in San Francisco. Well, having said that this was one of the most significant, or one of the things that made George Washington high school significant, i dont think that we can now say to the contrary. And on page 90 of that same report, we listed the murals as a character defining feature of that high school. Every generation gets to make its mark, and certainly, the 19 th century historians made theres. In the thirties, it didnt matter if he was a formal or informal communist, this also shouldnt be the end of the discussion, particularly considering what has happened to communism in our lifetimes. They have run out of other peoples money, so the point is that each generation can have it say in interpreting can have its say in interpreting history. I think it is a bit arrogant of one generation to simply dismiss and want to paint over the plots the thoughts and feelings that drove an earlier generation it is fine to be critical of it, it is wonderful to analyse it, but to obliterate it, no, i dont think so. I would not be in favor of whitewashing murals, painting murals, putting them behind curtains so that we only let older people on tours see them and deprive younger people who could benefit from them, from that experience. Thank you. Thank you. And i would like you to put that in your record. [laughter]. I will. I just had another question form is ferguson. I was not able to attend this august 13th School Board Meeting when this decision was made, and i was just wondering, im assuming that they didnt define what coverup means at that meeting, they did not . I didnt attend the meeting either so i cant explain anything on that point. And then i was wondering, i think it is unanimous that the commission is definitely in favor of seeing how we could preserve the murals as is, and i was wondering if you could give us some Consul Council about how we as a commission can use our best efforts to make sure that we try whatever we can to make this happen, or at least, in some way, make our concerns very vocal and make it much more public to the general population about what we are feeling about this. We are the Historic Preservation commission and we believe in preserving history, and yes, i find it very offensive to look at these murals as a person of color, and i think alice walker, and i would recommend everyone go and listen to her interview that they did. It is on youtube right now. It is about making this a teaching moment. Dont cover it up. These kids are resilient enough to understand what is right and what is wrong, lets make this a teaching moment, so i want to know what we can, as a commission what we can do to make sure we do whatever we can to make this a teaching moment for the school board and for everyone else who may have some feelings against this to keep history alive. I dont need to put you on the spot, but im looking for some tools that we can use. It is good for us to talk, and it is good for us to be in consensus about this, but we really need to think about some serious and concrete steps to move forward. I think here theres been some terribly passionate and clear and well articulated discussion about the imperative itself. We do have a designation in process, which if the commission were to potentially attempt to influence the forwarding of that , it would provide yet another public forum to have further discussion and yet another slightly broader spotlight on the issue. Youve got your letter in the record and for the board, and certainly we will all keep an eye on any future related hearings, actions, or opportunities to intervene in that way. Can i ask something that might contribute to that question . One of the things that i think we should have in this letter is the question and how do we participate in the process of studying what to do now. [please stand by] clerk you could certainly have it agendaized. One thing i was curious about from the staff perspective, if we have an understanding what the School Boards action would require from our perspective if we were doing the ceqa review. That was one of my questions. If we were going to destroy the mural, from our perspective, we would be needing an e. I. R. In this case, covering it up, we could look at it in our jurisdiction. Its nonbinding, but we could give a question of what would be appropriate steps under ceqa. That would be my question. Miss vanderslice, whats your opinion . Allison vanderslice. You know, the Planning Department has determined that the high school is a Historic Resource and that the murals are character defining features, and so that regard, it would be our opinion that there would be a potential impact under ceqa. Its my understanding that the school board would therefore need to do ceqa review. So one further question. Where are we at in the actual process of the landmarking . Have we heard it twice and forwarded it on or in between . Thats my understanding but shannon can take the questions on the landmarking. Thank you. So it has been initiated and recommended to the board of supervisors . It has also been introduced at the board of supervisors. It has not been scheduled for committee hearing. Okay. So thats something we could ask for an update on. Commissioner johns . Commissioner johns well, in connection with our duties to advise the board of supervisors, maybe we could you know, supervisor fewer, in this district, was formerly on the school board. Remember that . Yeah. Commissioner johns so we might be able to ask solicit her opinion about how the school board works,

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