Transcript from Report Out and Q & A from July 8, 2025 Community Meeting

Okay. So we're going to do a report out, so I can have your attention for a second.

Um, I just wanted to make a couple points. So one, I know it's already 7:00. If you know me, I'm always running late, so I apologize. I do have business cards up in front. Uh, feel free to email me if you have a question and you need to head out. Uh, but like I mentioned, we're going to do a report out real quick of the stations. Um, I'm going to have somebody come up from each station, come back and give us kind of the big, overarching themes. Um, and then after that we're going to open it up to Q&A.

All right, so Brian, putting you on the spot. Station One. What'd you hear?

[00:00:43] Brian: Thank you. Hey, big shout out to Station One. You know, we're not playing favorites, but you guys brought it. Thank you so much for your feedback.

[00:00:50] Brian: Um, okay, couple of things. We talked a good amount about skateboarding. I had an interesting mix of park board, um, uh, passionate folks, um, skaters and residents. And so I thought that was a really healthy conversation as well as dog advocates, as well as children's play area. Some of these things are inherently, they might feel like they're in conflict, but we found a ton of common ground. For example, we heard from members of the skate community that if there aren't places that skaters are going to gravitate towards, they're probably going to be in more of this geographic area because of the current community at Harry Bridges Park and Plaza, as well as here, as well as over towards the pier, um, further to the north. And so, the even the residents themselves who at first voiced uh, noise concerns about skating said, "Well, if they're skating in the park, it probably makes the most sense here." And so too did skaters.

[00:01:38] Brian: The other thing that was discussed was, you know, children and dogs on the surface, you know, the two might not mix, but then a lot of the family members, you know, talked about just what a Saturday looks like. Got some kids in tow, um, you got a fitness area, you might have the dog and how if we do collocate those uses together in this area, they actually make for a nice afternoon and kind of completes an entire experience, whereas otherwise families might be split up, having to sort of divide and conquer if those uses weren't together.

[00:02:04] Brian: I could go on. Those are some of the hallmarks of us finding common ground between uses and users that don't inherently maybe feel complimentary, but actually can find a home on this great park because of its scale. That was really inspiring for me. Thank you.

[00:02:18] Speaker 1: Thank you.

[00:02:20] Speaker 1: All right. Station Two. Jen?

[00:02:25] Speaker 1: Do you have the mic?

[00:02:31] Speaker 1: Thank you, Eoanna.

[00:02:37] Jen: Um, so my station was um, seating and gathering areas and fitness, um, elements. Um, so first of all, there's a lot of green on here, so it was really great to see all of your feedback. Um, and then the reds were really interesting to hear from as well. So starting at the top one, seating and gathering. Um, so it was a range of uh from discreet, kind of interactive, movable, singular seating elements to continuous or sculptural features. Um, and you can see a lot of the, the greens are towards the continuous element. Um, and those are really cool to see. Um, there's a lot of red in the movable and the reasons for that were really interesting and it actually made me really happy to hear that people were concerned about theft, uh, maintenance, that, um, I really appreciated the mindset that people were already thinking about this park, wanted to make sure that the amenities are preserved for future users to use. Um, and then for the fitness, also interesting in that um, greens are kind of in the middle of the, of the gradient and then more reds on the other end. And so the gradient here was something that was more imaginative, um, um, environmental, almost like a play towards something that's more uh prescriptive or standardized kind of um uh fitness equipment that you see around the city. Um, and people seem to like something that was in between. Um, something that wasn't too kind of cold or corporate looking, but something that also didn't feel like it was too out of place in an urban setting where you um have an actual kind of uh natural kind of uh workout area. So, um, thank you for all your input.

[00:04:07] [applause]

[00:04:27] Presenter 1: Okay, so for the color for programming character gradients, um, we had dining and picnic and garden. Um, I really appreciate these boards because these green dots and red dots can, can really tell a story here where, um, folks are kind of landing more for the garden spaces more towards natural, naturalistic. Um, less folks for highly structured. Um, we had some folks write in, you know, that um these highly structured ones might need too much maintenance, whereas with the naturalistic ones, um, less maintenance. Um, some notes here about um, local native plants for birds and butterflies. So some great ideas layered into this. Um, even some ideas on wetlands with native plants. Um, for dining and picnic areas, you know, less folks into the natural loose picnic and dining and more into um, splendid, maybe a little bit of both with natural ordered. Um, and folks really like civic. This is a picture of Bryant Park. Um, so that was great feedback to here as well.

[00:05:31] [applause]

[00:05:43] Presenter 2: Hello everyone. Um, I was in station four, um, and what I heard for historic recognition. Um, there were a lot of uh opinion on like reuse of the fountain. Um, the fountain itself is a different topic, but like in terms of the historic recognition, a lot of features that that it would be nice to recognize the fountain in different ways. There are great ideas in the sticky notes that we are noting down for our design. Um, and I think overall I felt that people were really integrated towards the reuse of the fountain. Um, and for the plaza space, um, I think the main comment that I heard from a lot of people was, uh, the street artists didn't feel uh, represented in the gradients. So, um, there was, um, like they had their comment in here. So we are noting down that. Um, and then, uh, there were mixed reaction on the integrated, uh, option where, uh, people liked skateboarding, some people didn't like it. So, um, there was some mixed reaction on that. Um, the layered was something that a lot of people liked, like integrating, um, landscape and hardscape together and making that space more green. Um, that was another, um, huge comment that I saw a lot of people were putting big thoughts on. Um, yeah, I think that's it. And I have more comments that I've jotted down which we will consider.

[00:07:11] [applause]

[00:07:18] Speaker 1: All right, the moment many of you are waiting for. Q&A. Um, so here just to answer questions, make sure we're all leaving on the same page. I can't answer everything, but I'm going to answer things to the best of my ability. Um, and I'll bring in some, um, experts up if I need to. So, um, anyone in order up here. Yes.

[00:07:42] Oshiana: Hi, my name is Oshiana. Oshiana Ballencourt, and I am a daughter of Armand Vaillancourt, who designed the fountain. Um, and his son, that was, uh, talked about today. Um, in 96 years, I don't think my dad has ever asked me to help him. He, um, he's going to be devastated by this news and I'm hoping that today all of you can help, help us with this decision. Um, I think the fountain is a big part of our history. My mother was a street artist. I love the comments about where are the street artists. My mom was a street artist in the 70s. She worked at the fountain. She met my dad at the fountain and without the fountain, I would not exist. I live, I I work in San Francisco. I'm two blocks away. I go by the fountain every day. Obviously, it's a big part of my history, part of my family's history. And I just can't imagine the fountain not being there. So, I know the skateboarding community has really been, you know, back us up in regards to the fountain because um a lot of the skateboarders come to the fountain to skateboard. It was a big part of, you know, Tony Hawk's video back in the day. And I just hope that we can gather the community and hopefully change the decision of removing the fountain. Um, again, please help me. Please help us.

[00:09:12] [applause and cheers]

[00:09:21] Oshiana: And I, I'm going to get to my question, but what was the cost of of removing the fountain? There's going to be a very high cost of removing the fountain. Also, why has the fountain not been kept up kept? It is, you know, I don't think it's 29 million, but you're saying it's 29 million. This should have been something that the city upkept every single year and we would not be in this predicament of removing the fountain.

[00:09:46] [applause]

[00:09:49] Oshiana: Thank you so much.

[00:09:50] Speaker 1: Thanks, Oshiana. Um, yeah, so we did meet with the Vaillancourt family. Not Oshiana, but we did meet with Alexi. Um, we did meet with Armand Vaillancourt, Jean Vaillancourt, and we heard what they wanted to say as well. Um, their, um, we did ask them. We heard from the first community meeting, people wanted the fountain to be removed, people wanted to keep the fountain. Is there something in between? Um, their answer to us was a hard no. They wanted to be restored in its full glory. Um, if you've been up to it, it's, it's, it's an iconic piece. It is huge. There was running water, it was participatory, there was steam coming through it. Um, nothing like this could be built now. Like it's, it's quite an impressive piece and I'm not arguing that.

[00:10:35] Speaker 1: The thing that they asked us to do was to get a cost of restoring it and a cost to demolish it, which is what you're asking, right? Um, the cost to restore the fountain was 29 million for construction alone. So that's not including permits, it's not including soft costs or anything else. The cost to remove the fountain is about 2.5 million, um, has map included. And so we're looking at this with a lens of this is our project budget of 32.5 for the project. The cost to restore the fountain is over our project budget when you're including all the soft costs as well. Um, in terms of why is it in the condition it is, what the heck? Um, the piece itself is part of the Civic Arts Collection. Um, so it's on Rec and Park Park property, but it is part of the Arts collection. What that means is that for their, um, charter, they're responsible for upkeep and maintaining it, so on and so forth. Through the years, Rec and Park has been maintaining a lot of the underground systems, um, just because we don't have a contract to do so. We just have been. Um, when, when kind of finding out why that has been is when the fountain was created in 1971, um, Arts Commission didn't have the means or the ability to bring on engineers or plumbers to continue maintaining the fountain. So Rec and Park just has been over the years. When the last fountain or when the last pump stopped working last year, we started to do internal cost estimates just getting that pump going again is 3 million.

[00:12:13] Speaker 1: Now that we're looking at this whole thing as a whole piece of restoring it and bringing it back to life, taking in the structural considerations that it's not a seismically safe piece, um, we have to kind of go into it. So right now as the fountain sits without water and with a fence around it is the way that it is. And to bring it back to life and to all its glory is 29 million. So the next kind of parts and steps is from here, we're gathering community input. We are then it goes to the um, Visual Arts Commission and there's another opportunity for community input at that stage.

[00:12:57] Oshiana: I just wanted to add, like I'm all for the redevelopment of the plaza. I work with developers. I'm actually here in the city. I've been part of our development of the city. I've built, I think, over seven buildings here in the city. So, I am all about redevelopment. I understand innovation. I understand that there's change needed. But I think we could do that with keeping the rich history that the fountain has with San Francisco.

[00:13:25] Speaker 1: Thank you. Um, I'm going to go these guys and then you. Um, do you have a second mic? No. Okay.

[00:13:38] Speaker 1: She's on her way for you, Vanna White for a second. So, if you don't mind coming up, because unfortunately the cord's not long enough. Thank you. I'll hold the mic for you. No problem.

[00:13:46] Audience Member 1: What a thrill. Uh, I didn't know your parents, but I did work in the plaza in the 70s. And so I enjoyed the fountain a lot. I used to climb on it a lot. In fact, just before the fence was put up, I uh, went and took another look and uh, it brought back a lot of good memories. I think now, because they didn't uh restore it and keep it, because many times it wasn't working and it turned into a big toilet, unfortunately. But I think it should be memorialized in some way or another.

[00:14:14] Audience Member 1: But what I'm here really to speak for is the street artists. You see all these photos up here? Street artists have been there since 1972. There's no photo of street artists. None. And your parents were street artists. We love to see street artists out there as well. And somehow when you see pictures of the Ferry building in downtown, the Embarcadero makeup, no street artists. They always take a picture on a Monday when nobody's working.

[00:14:36] Audience Member 1: But we've been there in the beginning, 150 artists working in the lower plaza. The numbers dwindled when the program opened up and people could sell all over the street. But in 2003 when the Ferry building opened, the number of street artists uh went up to 125, 150 sometimes. So we are there. We keep the place safe. Okay? We keep the place safe. And so I want to make sure that we have a place there. Now I see there's a great little thing there that says "Art," okay? I see the color of "Art." Don't forget the street artists. The other thing is skateboarders. I love you guys. I think it's a great exercise, but skateboarding and an art booth, an arts and crafts booth, do not mix. And sometimes you guys go down walls and stairs and stuff like that and the boards go crashing into us. And there's no apology and they just give me my goddamn skateboard, let me go. So I want you guys to have a place, but when I see it's right next to where the artists are set up, that's ridiculous because people make stained glass and jewelry and everything else. So don't forget the street artists. I'll be glad to give you guys some good photos. And uh, let's make this beautiful. I think what you've got so far is fantastic. It's really good. Thanks a lot.

[00:15:47] Speaker 1: Thank you.

[00:15:50] Speaker 1: And then the woman you were just pointed to?

[00:15:58] Audience Member 2: Hi, uh Andrew Sullivan, I'm a landscape architect and um, I just wanted to say, uh first thanks to the uh all the work and thinking that's been done. I mean, I know it's a really complex uh process and project and that similarly, I'm like understand the need for redevelopment and all of that. That said, I just, I don't buy the idea that like the presumption is that the fountain has to go. I think there's a um, uh, there should be a more reasoned and kind of thoughtful process that includes both the historic and the cultural implications of the fountain, the plaza, their context where they are, and then also within the whole redevelopment of Market Street and the, the Embarcadero Holiday UN, etc. And that whole, that the contextual importance of those. You know, the fountain, I think it's crazy and like in both a good way and sometimes a bad way, but it's iconic and it's iconic in that location because of the location. And I think it's important to understand and respect that and that we develop a design that um, that is not a kind of design by committee, uh, bits and pieces to make everybody happy. There's a reason why it was like bombastic and I think there's a part of that that needs to be uh kept and even if that's reincorporating it as components of a stage or parts of other elements within a design, there's there's a huge opportunity that I think we shouldn't let go of.

[00:17:25] [applause]

[00:17:32] Audience Member 3: I just have a question for all the boards. How much square footage would you gain by taking the fountain out? There's lots of great ideas. And so much of something that, I mean I love the fountain. I've lived for 20 years. I thought it was going to stay on forever. But that's, that's beside the point. But it doesn't mean you can't have a great space. The art, and uh, it's a park that's been a long time coming for one. It shows a name. But, um, my question is how much square footage would you gain for something, something else?

[00:18:18] Speaker 1: The fountain itself is about 8 to 10,000 square feet around it, um, and the plaza itself is about 40,000 square feet.

[00:18:26] Audience Member 3: So it's it's almost 25% of the plaza. That's a lot of space that can be utilized for replication and because something that was mentioned before, amenities don't work. It's still a part of the problem. It is a unique piece for sure. It's just seems to have done a number on the fountain. Talking 25, 20, 25% of the square footage of the whole location for other things.

[00:19:06] Speaker 1: Thank you.

[00:19:14] Audience Member 4: Well, there seemed to be an amazing amount of applause for keeping the fountain. Um, and so with the time left in the development of the park, and it's all very good, uh, and and it is a unique fountain. Has there been any discussion of a GoFundMe? It's not in your budget, but there's other parameters that could be thought of to raise the funding for the fountain itself aside which would also be private. Has any consideration been given? And in terms of the cost, you mentioned it was 100,000, 100,000 dollars a year to maintain it. I think we have 800,000 residents in San Francisco, that's 25 cents apiece per year. So $100,000 to me doesn't sound like a lot of money compared to the amount of people that live here. And um, again, the 28,000 sounds like a large figure to someone who doesn't have 28,000, but the city budget even with all the cuts is still larger than the state of like New Jersey. So, I I think there was a scare tactic of throwing out those numbers, but those numbers to me don't sound so scary when you consider the total San Francisco. But the fundraiser aspect of of of gathering funds to restore the fountain and put it back in condition, has that, uh, has any consideration been given to that?

[00:20:44] Speaker 1: Um, yeah, so two parts of the puzzle there. It's $100,000 to maintain it a year, but there's also the time consideration, right? So our staff that's maintaining this also can't maintain other parks and other areas because they're spending time on this, right? That's one part. I'm just saying whole picture. Uh, 29 million to completely restore the fountain. Um, and that cost, that would be something that we would need to talk with the Arts Commission about because it's their piece. The funds that we have right now for downtown revitalization aren't to, um, fix an art piece. It's to revitalize the downtown area and to revitalize the parks. And so that's a conversation that we'd need to have with the Arts Commission on how to bring those funds to restore the fountain.

[00:21:39] Audience Member 5: What should I write one?

[00:21:42] Speaker 1: Whatever you would like.

[00:21:43] Audience Member 5: Um, I just want to ask that those of you in charge consider this question, which is why Justin Herman's name was removed on Justin Herman was as a lot of you probably know was the father of so-called urban renewal agenda. His approach was to rip everything out. When I was a kid, all the Victorians were being ripped out and start fresh. That's clearly what we're doing here and in a way, this is like the Justin Herman approach, which is to get rid of everything that means will here in order to have a clean slate where you can think about programming. And I think that those of you who are both removed Justin Herman's name from the plaza should really be thinking about this larger question.

[00:22:35] Speaker 1: So, I can help answer that one. So, then former Supervisor Aaron Peskin was the one who did the resolution before the Board of Supervisors to remove the name of Justin Herman Plaza because he felt a lot of the history of his work in redevelopment wasn't fitting. So he moved forward, the board approved his resolution to remove the name. He had a temporary placeholder, which is Embarcadero Plaza, which is what it is today.

[00:22:58] Audience Member 5: We all agree on removing the name. What I'm saying is that Justin Herman would have approved of this process, which is to get rid of the past to make way for for whatever.

[00:23:11] Speaker 1: Appreciate that comment. I'm just clarifying because you were asking when it got removed and how that's the answer to that one. Sorry. Yes, gentleman in the navy shirt.

[00:23:26] Audience Member 6: Thanks. I'm Dan Rabinowitz, um, and I wanted to make two observations. First, I think we owe a huge debt of thanks to the people who are putting this project together, to Rec and Parks and to the designers. This is conceptually a genuinely brilliant design. And it is a design which hinges on the ability of integrating both parts of this park as one greensward space. That's a huge benefit for the city, for all of the different individual and collective users of this park and for the future. And it is hard for me to see A, regardless of the extraordinary cost that would be clearly entailed in maintaining the fountain, it's hard for me to see how the core of this design would actually work unless we can recapture that space for green space for the future. So, I think these are, I think this is a core element of the design that all of us have been admiring this evening. And I think we have to recognize that. I do believe that memorializing the fountain in some fashion is an entirely feasible project and I think that's something that should be undertaken as part of this redevelopment. But we have an obligation to the future as well.

[00:25:01] Audience Member 7: [unintelligible] I just want to agree with what the gentleman just said. I moved here when the freeway was coming down and the fountain was flowing and the freeway was up, and it really identified the area. When the water was flowing and it's like it just, it really dignified what the fountain was supposed to be about, I think different, it was lively. And so I'm dead set against getting rid of the fountain. And I think most of the people that've been here since, you know, before 1989 option where you could save the fountain in under current circumstances, with the intention of renovating it later so that you can create the park around it, and then at some future time when maybe you can raise that money or you get a new generation of volunteers on a commission out there, that's what I want to see happen.

[00:25:52] [applause]

[00:26:02] Speaker 1: So, just to re-clarify because I think there's been questions in regards to the funding for this project is for downtown improvement and recovery and revitalization. What Joanna was talking about, the cost of our project budget would not be able to cover the cost of the art restoration of the fountain piece. So that's the reason why it puts us in a position where the funding needs to go to an actual project that we can deliver. It cannot be used for restoration purposes because that was not the intention of that fund.

[00:26:36] Speaker 1: Okay. I see the person with the hoodie in the back over there.

[00:26:40] Audience Member 8: You mentioned how much it would cost to to restore. You mentioned how much it would cost to tear it out. How much would it cost to spend 30 minutes of your time brainstorming other options, like in visual.

[00:26:54] Speaker 1: That is why we're here today.

[00:27:02] Audience Member 9: I appreciate the work is being to. So my question is, what can be had for use of space for the unhoused and our homeless population?

[00:27:23] Speaker 1: Thanks. Um, so the plans over here are talking about having a stage and increasing um, usability. A stage facing outward, so that way it's not towards the residents, but yeah, basically like having some kind of iconic stage. Hasn't been designed yet. Here's a placeholder of location based on our studies of sun and wind and sound. Um, and also being able to kind of have that flow go outwards. U2 concert happening at the Vaillancourt Fountain is facing this way and really limits the amount of people that are able to see and access it, unless you're on the freeway. Um, but yeah, thanks.

[00:28:06] Audience Member 10: Hi. Um, thank you for hosting everything tonight. Um, I feel like there's, uh, I'm speaking on behalf of the document and the contractor and I think in perspective, um, and you know that there's a huge skateboard community in my family. Um, I think there's sort of a tension in what is being presented tonight and that it looks to show a demolition of the fountain and Embarcadero Plaza and then what is offered is the space, not a design, which is a space that is still in motion. Um, but there's these ideas about programming. And I think what is lacking or what feels like is lacking in this presentation is a conversation about preservation. Um, I would think that a park stage area would be very appropriate for, um, in front of a stage, we can have a concert or something like that, which would be more accessible maybe than what's on, um, what you're calling a plaza where there's currently a plaza and the actual plaza that made, um, will you be, I mean, are you thinking about demolishing the Embarcadero plaza? Um, how much does that like play into, um, what you're preserving? And then I'm also going to call this a park. Um, once you get any hot like a park and a plaza. So, I guess I'd be great if you could just touch on Embarcadero Plaza, its role for, um, mass gatherings. That's something that we need more than anything to see people downtown. That has been a huge, um, important part of our school and our community.

[00:29:49] Speaker 1: Yeah, so a couple points that I think we're looking at what the actual materials are being used here. And this is just initial concept. The idea of the project is that we're unifying this space into a park that will have hardscape, that will have softscape, that will be mixed use, that will have circulation paths throughout. And so we're looking at how we can have a well-integrated single park instead of having a split down the middle of this versus that, but instead having this kind of multi-use area be the connecting factor, um, to really be able to make this a dynamic, vibrant, accessible area. Um, in terms of the plaza, are you demolishing the plaza? Are you getting rid of this or that? I think we're here today to really hear about what parts and pieces of Embarcadero Plaza, Sue Bierman Park and their history are super important. And then go into a deeper dive of cost estimates and what it takes to preserve that or relook at pieces and parts as we're continuing on. So, yeah, there's parts of the brick paving that no longer meet ADA. Does it mean we're just going to like take them out and throw them in the garbage? Or does it mean those parts and pieces are really important? Can we integrate bricks into the, those exact bricks into the new design, right? And so we're looking for that kind of feedback of what's important to you right now and why. I think the why is what, the meat of the question, right? So hearing that people had these lovely memories of Embarcadero Plaza and I got so many emails and people talking about, you know, I I ran through it as a kid and I was splashing water and maybe I drank some or, you know, whatever. But that's the reason that this makes this really difficult to consider it is like what people love is that it was a working fountain. What people love is that they could play and they could interact with it. And that's where, that's where that struggle is. So again, typically on our projects, we're offering multiple options with the fountain, without the fountain. That's kind of where we were starting at after community one is we're hearing these wants and needs from, from the mama, from SF Heritage, from the Vaillancourt family. So yeah, we absolutely are considering this. But then once we got that cost estimate, which is something that's from the stakeholders requested, this can't fit within our project budget, but also there are safety concerns and there's hazardous materials, there's seismic concerns, so on and so forth. So we're here to hear you out with this announcement. I know it's a lot and we just want to take that feedback and so we can continue the project.

[00:32:30] Audience Member 11: I was the person from the development college.

[00:32:37] Speaker 1: Okay. Because it's 7:30 and we're way over time, but I'm going to take three more questions from folks, the woman with the mask in blue.

[00:32:48] Audience Member 12: Hi, I'm one of the street artists in the Street Artists Program and I just heard the gentleman this explain that this area might be for skateboards. This is where we are, we have two rows of booths right here. This is Market Street sidewalk, so this is where the foot traffic goes right now. And that's very important for our, um, you know, how we make our living. And most of us, all of us are, this is our business, this is our livelihood. And so, and it's program's been around since 1972. Um, basically, it's very important for us to have foot traffic. This, I hope would continue to be a, you know, sidewalk. Skateboarders right now are over here. This is a crosswalk basically. So, I've seen the skateboarders like wait for pedestrians to have to go by. And I understand that they deserve their own space. I think it'd be great um for somewhere over here where it's completely safe for everyone because those skateboards go flying. They have to, I mean, I've seen people crash into pedestrians or whatever and so it's, I, I'm not against them at all, but I'm just saying that they deserve their own safe space and somewhere where they can just go for it, you know? And I hope that's not where we are. Because we are, we've been there for a long time. And anyway, that's all.

[00:34:22] [applause]

[00:34:25] Speaker 1: All right, I'll take two more questions, the guy in the back in glasses, blue t-shirt.

[00:34:39] Audience Member 13: Uh, thanks. I appreciate the thought that's been going into the presentation and uh the design process. I think maybe a question since the city is facing over an $800 million budget deficit, uh federal funding is obviously being cut off at the knees for the arts. We're facing a lot of uh economic turmoil. And we've thought about doing a version of this that costs less and then actually maintaining it? Because that seems to be where things fell apart. We failed to do the maintenance. Can we consider an option that may cost $5 million, $10 million, that doesn't rip everything up? Instead promotes the idea of maintaining what we have and figuring out a plan that will last the next 30 years? Because I just worry, you heard about the Sue Bierman Plaza, had to fix it, what is it, 10 years later? I worry that will happen here. Is there an option where the capital cost is lower and then we spend that money more thoughtfully over time that doesn't require just a one-time thing and then we're going to defer that maintenance all over again?

[00:35:38] [applause]

[00:35:45] Speaker 1: Thanks. Um, yeah, so I think we're here to kind of consider what all the options can be. And I think part of it is that the issues with the fountain are from literally the soil on up. And so it's not just putting a band-aid fix or just making it so we can kind of continue it on for a few years, um, but part of that is—

[00:36:04] Audience Member 13: The plaza overall, not the fountain.

[00:36:05] Speaker 1: Oh, thank you. Plaza. I understand spending $35 million on the plaza and then have no plan of maintaining it.

[00:36:10] Speaker 1: Yes, thanks. Got it. Understood. Um, so yeah, plaza overall, that was one of the shared goals that people wanted was a place that is easily maintainable, a place that is accessible, a place that does feel safe. So yeah.

[00:36:26] Speaker 1: All right, one last question. The guy in the black t-shirt.

[00:36:37] Audience Member 14: Thank you. Uh, my name is Andrew. I'm one of the skater guys. I was here at the last meeting as well. Um, I just want to say I appreciate everyone voicing their opinions. I also appreciate hearing about all the concerns with the skate space, um, and especially, um, we definitely hear you about the potential clash with like the artists. Like that's the last thing we want to do is have any clash. I can hear a story that absolutely broke my heart about people feeling that they were forced out by the skate community. That's the last thing that we want to do and I want to just make that clear, like representing us skaters over here, that's the last thing we want to do is force anyone out. We just want a space where we still feel that we're included, as was mentioned. Um, you know, we're here, we're over at Pier 7, like we're already in the space. Um, we just want to feel represented as well. And if that means like a separated space, that means a separated space. And I know that was a bit of a controversial thing, but um, I just want to voice to the folks here that, um, we just want a place to practice our craft and we're in favor of multiple options.

[00:37:41] Speaker 1: Thank you so much. So we have been talking with the skateboard community, Ted Barrow, Ashley Rayfield. One of the questions we had was how do we design a space for the skateboarders and how do we not design the skate space for the skateboarders in some areas, right? And the response to that was through design. How do I say no skateboarding here without being a jerk and without just adding, adding skateboard deterrents as an afterthought? And so part of that will be how we're designing this space and hearing your voices on precedents that work really well and you see it and you're like, okay, yep, can't skate in this area. Okay, this is my zone. So our preference is to not have to put signage up and have skateboard deterrents, but to make it obvious. And I think hearing these voices from the art vendors, hearing the voices from the skateboard community, I think the overarching idea that everyone wants to be heard and respected and that's what we're trying to do here.

[00:38:35] Speaker 1: Um, we're way past time. I thank you so much and my ask is that everybody be sure to turn in your surveys so that way your comments are heard, right? And there are multiple ways to engage with us. There's the surveys here. We're going to do we have a digital survey out as well. There's a QR code on there. If you're following our email updates, we'll send you the link, pass it around. Um, and thank you everyone for your time.

This transcript was automatically created through the use of generative AI. Some minor corrections were made to speaker names, but no other adjustments were made.