we have a brief presentation regarding the library and joe dimaggio master plan project. we're very happy to answer any questions you have as well. the north beach library is one of 24 branch libraries to be renovated or built new through the improvement program. the branch built in 1959 is no longer effective in meeting the needs of the dense and diverse neighborhood that it serves. the library needed to expand, become updated and meet current accessibility and seismic safety standards. the north beach library is on the joe dimaggio playgrounds, a heavily utilized park in a densely populated area of the city. the park is currently constricted by the numerous park elements, by buildings on the site, by sensing throughout a grade change and the streets bordering it. this slide shows the park before the library was installed on what appeared to be one of the tennis courts. recognizing that both sets of amenities are essential to the north beach neighborhood, the department entered into a master planning process in 2008 to achieve goals that would improve the site. our goals

and he dimaggio, he was -- i seep dimaggio every spring and now yououldn't say enough about him. >> obviously people that grow up in new york, a certain age, they show dimaggio and mantle play and they might have encountered em. say that about any great ayer that sent a certain amount of time in a certain city but a huge portion of the population of st. louis has had some personal contact with stan musial. they will run into him at a restaurant or a kids ballgame because he was doting father and a doting grandfather. or they met for their first day at the musial statue and that statue was not a good likeness ofim. they suequely corrected it with a smaller one that looked more like him. but at this point more than a million said, where do you want to meet, meet you at the stadium. and before the game there are dozens of people waiting foyer their date. >> a young lady in a cubs outfit, i was there and a young lady in a cubs outfit said i'm supposed to meet my boyfriend by the musial statue. there are two of them. how many ball players have two statues at the same ballpark. >> and was it or not

dimaggio was a highball hitter. stan musial may have been the ya stan mial and you call and somebody says i wonder when you were going to call me because people need a book. >> there was that. there were a lot of older ball players that raved about him. then there was also oral history with matter marion and harry walker and some of the old people before the time talking about him. and they all had things to say about him. he was not available to me as an older man. he recently passed but his words jump out at this oral history. and he dimaggio, he was -- i seep dimaggio every spring and now yououldn't say enough about him. >> obviously people that grow up in new york, a certain age, they show dimaggio and mantle play and they might have encountered em. say that about any great ayer that sent a certain amount of time in a certain city but a huge portion of the population of st. louis has had some personal contact with stan musial. they will run into him at a restaurant or a kids ballgame because he was doting father

and he dimaggio, he was -- i seep dimaggio every spring and now yououldn't say enough about him. >> obviously people that grow up in new york, a certain age, they show dimaggio and mantle play and they might have encountered em. say that about any great ayer that sent a certain amount of time in a certain city but a hugeortion of the population of st. louis has had some personal contact with stan musial. they will run into him at a restaurant or a kids ballgame because he was doting father and a doting grandfather. or they met for their first day at the musial statue and that statue was not a good likeness ofim. they suequely corrected it with a smaller one that looked more like him. but at this point more than a million said, where do you want to meet, meet you at the stadium. and before the game there are dozens of people waiting foyer their date. >> a young lady in a cubs outfit, i was there and a young lady in a cubs outfit said i'm supposed to meet my boyfriend by the musial statue. there are two of them. how many ball players have two statues at the same ballpark. >> and was it or not i

i am a member of the friends of joe dimaggio playground. thank you for your patience in this very complicated issue. our board does not just recommend this, but enthusiastically supports it. why should you care? it is an interesting case study. joe dimaggio playground was one of the first playgrounds in the city of san francisco we had the first publicly financed pool in the city. when they put it on par koran, it was because of the strong system. george christopher was only in office two weeks when he found out that this was a way of too much, and he was tired of them dickering round. when the neighborhood boggess, it ended up on joe dimaggio playground. we have been working to try to make this better since 1999. that was willie brown's term, thye -- the dot com boom, and we started and to try to figure out what to do. it was in 1999 when kids today in high school were just toddlers when their parents formed this, we started working on that. when i hear people say that we should look at this along, i really want to go ballistic, because i

so it's not like there was a resource of joe dimaggio baseball that is being lost. the programming was well vetted in the public process early on to see what the public wanted in that programming for that space and that has been maintained in addition to enhanced with the new children's playground. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is evelyn, i'm a longtime san francisco resident, a park user, park supporter and library user and library supporter, although as you can tell from the book i'm reading, i refer reading e.i.r. i very much support this master plan and i urge you to certify, approve, whatever the wording is these three things inside a, b, and c so the master plan can be implemented. thank you. >> howard long, friends of the library. i submitted a letter earlier, the last paragraph should be read into the record. the ordinance for changing the zoning should not specify use for the new north beach library that is not compatible with such zoning as inappropriate to specify in the zoning ordinance. also the construction on the c

for the library and joe dimaggio playground master plan. chairperson mar: this item is sponsored by the mayor and president chiu. >> item 2 is a resolution of intention to vacate a portion of mason street to improve the area. presidend ct chiu: i want to thank the members of the public who are here. the north beach library has historically been one of the most overused libraries -- library branches in the entire city. it is one of the three top libraries used in the city. in many dimensions, the library has not been adequate to meet the needs of the community. it has not been accessible to a lot of folks, including our disabled communities. it has simply been an inefficient branch library. for almost a decade now, there have been planning meetings and community meetings to move forward with a new design. i think the design we have in front of us, which was approved by the planning commission last week by a vote of 7-0, is a wonderful design we need to move forward with as quickly as possible. north beach library is the last library to be re

i would call them the ebbmies of joe dimaggio. any of the three neighborhood meetings, the public has never been told that the park did not have any money for phase two. all of this has all been done with smoke and mirrors. the library has millions of dollars and a large staff for public relations to keep pushing for a 500-foot development, and as you can see, it's effective. but the truth is you can build a 20,000 square foot building and they can only use 6,000 square foot of that building. if we were to build the building on the present site that goes all the way to lombard street, we would have a much larger library all on one floor and that would go from 8,500 square feet to 12 thousand square feet. president olague: thank you. peter warfield, bradley, lizzie hirsch. so i guess we should have mr. herrera, and mr. ginsburg wanted to speak. should it follow this portion of the hearing? i believe so. this is public commentary, so it would be when we hear the item, when the item is called, and it hasn't been called yet. >> this i

i am a member of the friends of joe dimaggio playground. thank you for your patience in this very complicated issue. our board does not just recommend this, but en

for the development and maintenance of the space is consistent with the uses contemplated in the joe dimaggio playground. we have the revenue it position of the park, and an expanded library within the same larger spark -- larger part. and this would ensure the adequate notice was required. as far as the hearing will go today, we have a representative from parks and recreation as well as from our library will make short introductory remarks. the city attorney is also available if you have any questions before or after hearing this item. we would hear from the former property owners -- and they will have 10 minutes to address the board with this item. mr. flynn has requested the right to speak. let me ask if they are present. if you could step up. here is how the hearing will go again. we'll start with introductory remarks, and in the former owner will have 10 minutes to address the board. if both of you are present, you can use this time as you see fit. after the presentation the public will have two minutes to address the board on any prospective that you have on this matter, and it will be

of public space, reconfiguring the elements -- elements of the park, and the boundaries of the joe dimaggio playground include the lombard site and the portion of the street that has been vacated. residents of the northeast will get 12,000 square feet of new open space. this is an area identified in the open space plan. the parks open space is increased by 20%, for an expanded children's play area, which adds new features like games and technique tables, and provides additional landscaping and seating. there is not a lot of landscaping, currently. the new park layout strengthens activity functionally, with the tennis courts and the children's play area. and the entire park is unified with the circulation and accessibility. the project will improve and expand the library that has long coexisted with the park facilities. these projects were designed to gather to optimize the experience of park users and library users. this will be used to develop open space and we are very excited about this important project with a library and we hope that we will have your support today. >> we will hear fro

there is no plan to do away with the joe dimaggio playground, from what i can see in the plans. it's going to be altered and reconfigured. i think it's a better configuration to serve the children in the neighborhood. i also walk past that site at least three times every day, because i don't drive a car, and i never saw a traffic problem during the two month-long test when they closed off mason street. so i would urge you to certify. e.i.r. president olague: thank you. any additional comment on the e.i.r.? >> i submitted a card, but my name -- president olague: not sure where the cards went. >> my name is andrew sullivan. i'm a landscape architect. i live and work in the city. i've been involved in various components of this project dating back years, and i just wanted to urge the commission to support and approve the e.i.r. from a professional point of view i wanted to say that i've been continually impressed by the architects that the team has assembled and the impressive depth of knowledge that they've brought, and i think they've really shown that they've looked at every asp

christenson said, -- joe dimaggio park. i appreciate all of the different community-based groups in sherman elementary, and all of their efforts to plan very carefully in this beautiful park and library. i also know that the lighting, i appreciate the architectural perspective when how this has been designed, and a note as this has been width to demolish an old building, as supervisor wiener said, there was significant discussion, so i disagree with that point of view. this hearing is not about that. we heard about that last year. but the design, lighting, the specific space for the teenage room, this is even a much better space for the young. but i will say for the young and old that are here today, so i am really pleased with the community efforts and by the leadership of david chu on this, as well. supervisor chu? supervisor chiu: i really want to thank those of you who have expressed concerns about this project. i think this project is better because of it. because of the issue of race, you have forced the city and othe

but even with my reluctance to be enthusiastic about baseball, i would not destroy the joe dimaggio field. people who are designers i find really hard to believe, anyone sensitive to the environment would do this to our urban landscape. now, the designer said the e.i.r. had discovered the new crookedest street in the world is mason. it goes four feet over to the west and then it swings way to the right, to the east on the block just north of brenridge. and you can see it in the model, too. why is this done? to minimize the visual impact of how deep this proposed building is penetrating into the view corridor. now, our public plans say that the presence of the historic city fabric is not to be interrupted if possible. new york, the library there is celebrating the bicentennial of the city plan. here are libraries participating in destroying the plan. what's with that? here's a line that shows how the crooked street -- how do they deal with -- there's nothing about the corridor. talk about orwell, goodness, here he is. here's a going, going, gone. on the sidewalk, the view of angel island w

of public space, reconfiguring the elements -- elements of the park, and the boundaries of the joe dimaggio playground include the lombard site and the portion of the street that has been vacated. residents of the northeast will get 12,000 square feet of new open space. this is an area identified in the open space plan. the parks open space is increased by 20%, for an expanded children's play area, which adds new features like games and technique tables, and provides additional landscaping and seating. there is not a lot of landscaping, currently. the new park layout strengthens activity functionally, with the tennis courts and the children's play area. and the entire park is unified with the circulation and accessibility. the project will improve and expand the library that has long coexisted with the park facilities. these projects were designed to gather to optimize the experience of park users and library users. this will be used to develop

you know, so your grandmother said hey did joe dimaggio get a hit today there is a stopping about him on the radio. so a very special baseball event, certainly but also very special time in this country, and the more you looked into it, the richer it became in many ways to the layers of the story and seeing a man of 26 years old having a transforming event. >> did it matter he was a new york yankee? >> i think certainly. i mean i think if -- i think they were -- when we are talking about times before joe came, the yankees had of course the great ruth and they won one world series in 32, but then they had, for them, a lame period, joe comes in 1936 and they just start winning world series, they missed in 1940, they were the premiere, premiere team. so there is no question that it was important in that way. i think that the -- i think who he was and that he captured people's imagination, it is hard to say what would have happened if he played somewhere else. he was also connected to san francisco, where he grew up, and there was no major league baseball there at that time, so it increas