Transcripts For SFGTV 20120124 : vimarsana.com

supervisor mar: the meeting will come to order. at the chinese new year, year of the dragon, everyone. welcome to the land use committee meeting, i am the chair of the committee of today is monday, january 23, 2012. to my left this supervisor wiener and to my right supervisor chiu replacing supervisor cohen. be sure to turn off cellular phones and electronic devices. items acted upon will appear on the supervisor agenda unless otherwise stated. supervisor mar: i announced earlier that the overflow room is to 30, if somebody sign the card, will be let back into the room. i wanted to first announced that the second item for the india base and industrial park, that item will be continued into the next meeting. listen to public comment, but only after we have heard the first item. the sponsor is supervisor wiener. supervisor wiener: i want to thank everyone, whatever your view is, you support, oppose, or otherwise, for coming today. and the the people that expressed interest in this legislation, i think it shows the importance of this public space in the castro neighborhood. today, we are considering the basic and common-sense legislation to put some limited in needed rules in place in the two most important spaces. the castro has very little public space, and while there are great parks, the castro lacks a significant public space. it is largely closed to the adult public because it is a baseball field. as a result, the plaza s live very significant role in the community. there where we go to hang out, meet people, enjoy music, have a cup of coffee, to protest injustice is, and to assemble as the neighborhood. they are not large, they are rather small, particularly given the population and number of visitors to the neighborhood. it is critical that everyone be able to use the elisas, that they be available to the entire neighborhood and that no activity monopolizes the plaza at to make it difficult for others to use them. most public spaces are freely available and also have rules. we have an entire pirko the governing the parks system. there are many rules in place for sidewalks. of them under my and freedoms of the community for results in over the top flames about what will happen if the current legislation is adopted. through a quirk in the law, they are not covered by many of the rules that we typically applied to public spaces. of the it is has created a significant number of new public spaces throughout our terrific program. we have taken parking spaces, and this program has been expanding. we will have dozens of new spaces in the coming months in years. it is time to make sure that these new spaces have basic rules in place. the legislation is very basic and quite limited. contrary to some of the dramatic claims of some of the opponents, the legislation is not draconian, it does not exclude anyone, and it doesn t even remotely affect the right to assemble. that is what the legislation has received such broad support. it has been endorsed by the valley neighborhood association, the triangle never association, the castro upper market community benefit district, the castro committee on patrol, her head of the merchants of death for castro. it provides specifically that the plazas will be open 24 hours a day. it prohibits camping and sleeping because those activities are inconsistent with the vibrant public space usable by everyone. it requires the people selling merchandise obtain a permit, which is the rule and other public spaces. printed material is excluded and by expanding the exemption in response to concerns from the aclu. the legislation limits performance of work, particularly around landscaping. it does of an enormous amount of work in both houses to keep them clean and usable. the legislation prohibits smoking similar to other public spaces. it for him with large conveyances like shopping carts that take up significant space in and undermine others use of the plaza. it removes the removable tables and chairs that night. it is not a change. it reflects the reality that they need to bring them in at night so that they are not stolen. here is what the legislation does not do. i am talking about the unfortunate misinformation campaign. the legislation does not close the plaza. the will continue to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. the legislation does not prohibit sitting on the benches, the benches will continue to be available for sitting. the legislation does not impose a requirement. the police department asked me to include such a provision that the decline because of leave it would be inconsistent with the purpose of the parks program. i am surprised to see a letter from the harvey milk organization saying that cooper had been sitting is not just ironic, in this respect of the community s legacy. that is north of the fund and the legislation. of the one to briefly address the the information sheet of leave the coalition on the homeless this is unwilling asserts that this legislation is already covered by other laws. that is not the case. in the penal code already prohibits sleeping encamping. he read that section, it is a stretch at best and how that applies. it is a stretch at best and that it applies. the police code section 869 relating been getting a permit does not apply to plazas, it has a list of locations and does not state plazas. in addition, relating to a prohibition on smoking, it also does not apply to plazas. finally, the business and professions code, it has been suggested that it pre-empts that legislation, this is untrue. in addition, it is important to note that in the enforcement provisions of this legislation, it gives a much more effective way to enforce an administrative issue. i will go over them briefly. we tightened the language of the agreement, it titans language of love of the uses of the plaza for a major committee events, had how dtw can restrict access. it titans requirements and language around permits for merchandise to address concerns. we already have an exemption in the legislation and we are expanding that exemption to other goods. it also expands the exemption to include not just wheelchairs but any device to include the children s toys. i have distributed those to my colleagues, there are a number of copies i would give to my clerk if anyone likes to see them. before we move to public comment, mr. chairman, i would ask if my colleagues have any comments to make. supervisor mar: i wanted to say thank you for everyone turning out, i hope that people are civil at listen to different perspectives. if people cannot speak out from the audience if others are speaking and also when the supervisor is speaking. we have a city attorney who is here that i have a number of legal questions to ask and i am appreciative that he already started to discuss some of the different issues brought up in the literature. and the amendments of that the supervisor has laid out, we have many copies if people want them. if anybody has any questions, they should see the clerk of here. let me give it back to his supervisor leader to supervisor wiener. we need to limit the time to 2 minutes a person today. supervisor wiener: if you have not filled out a speaker card, please do so. when you have 30 seconds left, you will hear a soft about, and when the time is up, you will hear a loud bell. if someone ahead of you has said something that you agree with, you can save you agree with that. i will call names of people can live up so we can move through public comment efficiently. [reading names] i apologize to anyone whose name by butcher. i will do my best. [reading names] will the first speaker please approach? go ahead. and the executive director have of the project. over 100 people at a sleek on the pews and in the church during the day. i am opposed to this measure, mostly because i don t think san francisco needs more cynical and mean-spirited that gun laws. i think as well, we need to protect open spaces.