I was involved 11 years ago when this thing came up the first time and it was very controversial, contentious, and its a shame it has to be brought up again. Right now, j. F. K. Is closed basically yearround sunday, half year on saturday. 75 of the time. Why is that not fair . And i think healthy saturdays, healthy San Francisco, that should apply to everyone and it should apply fairly to everyone. I think that and i realize the Disability Community is not of one mind on this issue, but we will be the ones that pay the price. So i would strongly advocate that you not go along with this expansion. Its just not necessary and i think it will put all of us in a hardship. Is access by the Disability Community in San Francisco so good that we can make it less so . I dont think so. All right. Thank you. Any more okay. One more speakers card. Sasha bitner. Sasha . I have lived in San Francisco for 35 years. I its difficult enough to get to Golden Gate Park and get around it. The proposed seems to make it more difficult. I have very serious concerns about moving forward. I have a disability where its difficult for me to read and i have the to go into the park, i feel like you need a you dont need to talk with the biking people. Thats all i have to say. I was not prepared to talk. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, do you have any comments to make to that . All right. Thank you. Just to clarify. Para transit is still allowed in the park and its currently not allowed in the closure during saturdays and we wouldnt be allowing it if we expanded it as well. There is still access through tea garden and other areas of Golden Gate Park. Theres never been access for para transit through the closure on saturdays. The majority of the stake holders that weve spoken with are not necessarily speaking to the choir. They include district supervisors as well as the museums and the majority of neighborhood associations and groups that are around and were still continuing to do outreach. If weve havent reached out to someone yet, we will be. Thank you so much. This is to clarify. This is a Public Comment period and the speakers are not obliged to make responses at this time, but we want to hear and note all of the Public Comment that we have so we can do appropriate followup. We have two more speaker cards. Leah vandermy. Is that correct . Hi. Good afternoon. Pardon me. Im the director of guest operations at the academy of sciences and serve as the academys ada coordinator. The two key areas are process and access. As public institution, we believe its important that we have a fair and open process. Its also critical that stake holders are well informed with the needs of the community. We sent a survey of our email recipients, in which we received 10,000 responses. We are compiling them now and will share them with anyone who is interested. Were committed to equitable access. Including for those not able to walk or bike through the park. We have encouraged environmentally friendly transit like bart and muni, but many of our guests need to travel by car out of necessity and we have strong concerns about what would limit this group, particularly the weekend, when parking is already limited. So i wanted to thank the council and staff for starting this discussion. Its a good first step, but a lot more process and discussion needs to happen with all the groups. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. And i think we have one more speakers card. Is this on the same issue . Oh, the j. F. K. Lets wait until the end, then. Okay. So i think that this concludes the item we heard. I want to thank the speaker for coming. Weve had lively discussion and its a great first step and we look forward it having more interaction and discussions with you going forward. All right. So i think were at the break. And my watch says about 2 27. We have a great ceremonial item coming up. I hope all of you will stay. Stick around. Lets come back at 2 4 were moving to item 9, which is a ceremonial item of the late mayor edwin lee. And i want to say that any councilmembers or staff and people from the public are welcome to share your thoughts and stories and memories of the late mayor ed lee. I would like to just get it started if i might for a few minutes or so. I just want to say that i remember the late mayor lee rather well. Im a long time resident of San Francisco and what i remember him for is the economic boon that took place when he came into office. He came in in january, 2011, when the former mayor, gavin newsom, went to sacramento and became the state lieutenant governor. And at that point, there was a projected 380 million deficit. And the city budget was over 7 billion. And in his six years in office, the budget is up to 10 billion, which is more than many states. Considering to his staff, 140,000 jobs have been created as a result of him being here in the job. And i distinctly recall that he didnt really want to be mayor. He didnt like the political spats and being in the limelight. But yet he took the job because he felt it was the right thing for him and the city to do. So from my perspective, what he provided was an ability for Tech Companies and Real Estate Developers and agents to really thrive in this town. And that, i will always be appreciative for. That was his first term. His second term, i really remember his contributions in terms of humanitarian. He said on the second term, well, now that weve economically started to come back, lets focus on Affordable Housing and doing something about the homeless problem we have here in San Francisco. And a number of steps have been taken from my view to help make that a much better situation. So from a humanitarian standpoint, he really made a number of great contributions to this city. In addition to that, i think that mayor lee was very sensitive to the needs and concerns people with disability. A year ago, there were only two of us on this council. Now weve all come on board. I have to commend him for doing that. I understand he had quite a sense of humor, told some corny dad jokes, had a mustache, and he was a pretty good ping pong player, too. Maybe some of you will talk to that. Ive been a resident of San Francisco since 2002. And i go back a ways. I appreciate being a part of his legacy that he left here in this city. With that, id like to open it up for anyone on the council. If you want to speak or from the public. Lets see who would like to do that. I will. This is denise. All right. Kate williams. Mayor lee and i werent buddies, i have to say. I spoke with him only twice in the 21 years ive been a resident in the city and i will always treasure that letter i received from his office appointing me to this committee. Im very proud of that letter. I will probably frame it one of these days. [laughter] however, in my life here in the city as a disabled person, i know in the background, i will always see mayor lee. Specifically, one of the experiences that has benefited all of us on this council is his even though he didnt show up every time, he was very much behind something that i personally participated in thats been very gratifying. Rule 115 was imposed several years ago and languished in the city regarding employment. It just wasnt used. We had an advisory panel, which i sat on with some of the people in this room. Although he did not show up at our meetings, he always made certain that someone from his staff attended and reported back to him regarding our process. So after many weeks of input from the disabled community and projects spearheaded by jonathan lions, we were able to meet with the board of supervisors oneonone and we had something phenomenal happen. After the budget was passed, we were able to add on to begin the a. C. E. Program, rule 115 at that time, and had a recruiter come on to staff to hunker down and increase employment within our community. Im grateful that that took place and its making a profound difference in our community. Thank you. All right, thanks, kate. Go ahead, sally. My recollection is something more personally. I didnt know mayor lee personally. But all of us on the commission owe our position on the commission owe that to him. Doesnt mean we know him personally. He showed me a small kindness. This was at the opening of ucf Childrens Hospital and i was asked to speak as a representative of the families, like the voice of the families, who use that facility. And my daughter, who had significant physical and Developmental Disabilities as well as medical issues what what we call a frequent flier at ucf. She was there all the time. She passed away in 2014 shortly before the new hospital opened, this was a press conference to celebrate the new hospital and i was asked to come meet with the mayor. This doesnt happen to me often, so i said, sure. Away from the press, away from the cameras, extended his condolences to me on the loss of my daughter. And it wasnt sorry. It wasnt something he had to do. It wasnt none of the other dignitaries there did that, but i will never forget that, because it was heartfelt and personal and i felt like he was worried about me as a resident of San Francisco and i really appreciated that. Thank you for sharing. Any other members on the council . Yes, alex. I didnt know mayor lee, but there was a lot of disability and homeless work. I just want to commend him on that and its pretty shocking and sad and what happened to him. Denise, yes . I acknowledge. I know that you wanted to say something. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, jim. I would like to piggyback on what some of my fellow colleagues have brought up with regards to mayor lees legacy. He loved his community, but he never forgot the most vulnerable population. Can i speak up a little bit . Yes, sorry. Excuse me. He never forgot about the most vulnerable populations, which is people with disabilities. He was there as a champion since he took over in 2011 and hes been involved in several initiatives ranging from transportation issues and i will just name a few. He was very concerned about access on demand transportation needs, not just with the Transportation Network companies. People with disabilities having access to Ridesharing Services he was very concerned over the decline of cabs that had that were accessible for people that had mobilibility issues. He was very interested in accessible voting machines, that people with disabilities have access, because their vote was just as important. He always recognized the needs for housing issues and heard the concerns of the Disability Community. I believe back in 2016, if i remember correctly, he gave an example directive, i believe, to increase the Housing Population in San Francisco. I believe to 150 , which included 5,000 new Housing Units a year and he wanted to help the process and the development in making it easier for permits and going through the process of approval for housing. I know our director, Nicole Vaughn, had ongoing and she can speak about this discussions that he was planning and wanted to continue to engage with the council. I remember one of the things that he did back in 2014, was the transfer of the ownership of all the 29 Public Housing sites. And i believe there was over 3,500 units from the San FranciscoPublic Housing authority. And the ownership went to communitybased, Affordable Housing teams. And this was part of his Public Housing plan with housing and urban government and it was the rental assistance demonstration program. What this did with transferring the ownership, the buildings were given the necessary funding for crucial repairs for the most vulnerable population and to make areas safe for them and their families. And they could begin to address the deplorable conditions in Public Housing for people with disabilities. And through various, i believe, subsidies, they had the funding, along with working with communitybased organizations in identifying these funds to begin repairs and improvements that i believe at the time, and i could be wrong on the estimate, that was around, and so he understood the need for the community to have affordable, accessible housing. And as Kate Williams talked about, the a. C. Program, people with disabilities need improvement, need to make viable income, so they can live in the city. So we appreciated his champion and he did want to work on these initiatives to the end of his term. And were very saddened at the loss of his passing. And well support the administration and acting mayor london breed. Through the chair, i dont know if Nicole Vaughn would want to add on any more information to the initiatives 5 brought on. Nicole . Through the chair, thank you, denise, for that recap of mayor lees support and concerns. I would say a few things. One, denise mentioned that its true that he was interested in really in the exchanges that ive had with him, really wanting to find solutions to key issues like transportation, voting, access to support. And then, again, as denise mentioned, he was very instrumental in the r. A. D. Program, which is still moving along. Were in the next phase of development and theres more and more affordable, accessible housing is going up every day and its because of mayor lees efforts to sallys comment, i would echo that he definitely was interested in solving problems and getting things done in response to the community, but it was also true that hes a personalable person. He always took the time to say hello and ask how you are doing and that the experience that sally has had of him being a personalable person that genuinely cared about the people of San Francisco from my experience is also very true, also very true that he told some pretty corny jokes, as jim had mentioned, and i think that just really he is and will continue to be missed. I will say, though, from my personal with mayor lee that i truly believe that he would want us to continue to move forward with all of the issues that matter and that are important to us. I want to encourage the council for the issues that were brought to the mayors attention that maybe he didnt get a chance to followthrough. Please bring them, again, bring them to the Mayors Office again. Keep moving forward. Keep talking about those things that you want the mayor and administration to know about. I guess thats what i would add for now. Thanks, nicole. Thats great. And i really appreciated his sense of humor. I didnt know him personally, but had an opportunity to hear him speak and talked to others and he was really quite personal to say the least. And i can certainly understand from sallys perspective that he would have really shown his concern for her and no doubt he did that for others as well. So we will miss him. Are there other people on staff or in the audience in the public that would like to talk. I think we have two speakers cards. No. Thats for later. Good afternoon. Im hillary brown. Ive been a San Francisco resident virtually all my life, which is like 42 years. I met ed lee this past summer, 2017. He was doing he was involved with the grand opening of the willie b. Kennedy center. I believe the fact that im legally blind, there was like 1,000 people there at the opening of the center. He said hello to me. I felt special at that moment. I think he died four or five months later. I had a brief chuckle. Maybe he recognized me in the election commercials back in 2015. I think from other councilmembers, he was working on Affordable Housing the last four years ago. He inspired me to look for 1bedroom in the city thats all i want to say on that part. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. Who else may we have from who would like to have a word . Thats it. Going once. Twice. Okay. Were done. Well, as i said, well miss mayor lee and well be moving forward and always remember his legacy in this city. All right. So we dont have quite as many agenda items today we do have the you were going to the next one . We have one for Public Comment. I dont know if shes still here. Oh, yeah, yeah. Thats the next agenda item. Public comment. So we have one or two cards . We have two, unless i dont know, ms. Brown, is that the comment you wanted to make . Okay. Good. One second. There was one from ms. Ellen lee zoo. She left. Okay. So you are up again. Hillary brown. Hillary brown, go for it. My name is hillary brown, again. I was one of the original v. A. C. Members that was launched in 2014. I believe in accessibility. I can relation to that being visual impaired. I was legally blind since the 90s. And im glad theyre implementing vote by mail, like in san matao county. It helps people specifically like for my condition being vision impaired. And im glad that you are willing to accept my comments in regards to people who have sight issues like myself. I wish other people who were vision impaired to speak about how they want to get accessibility to vote and get advice from san matao county or even the secretary of state office. Thats the comment i wanted to make. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. So i take it theres no more speaker cards . Thats it. All right. So were moving on to item number 11. Its information. Is there any correspondence . There is not any correspondence. None today. All right. Thank you. Number 12, any councilmembers have any comments or announcements to make . No. Well, i have one. Orkid does not. I have one announcement to make. And im sure that some of you will appreciate it. I dont think i mentioned this in november, though i brought her with me, but i do have a new guide dog. Its my second. We were trained together, inhome training in early november. Its a work in progress. Shes a wonderful dog. And so she will be comin