A Look Back Before Progressing Forward

Last Monday, the Community Meeting Room at City Hall was looking more packed than usual. That was due to the special City Council informational workshop with leading Bay Area professionals regarding the planning, implementation, and maintenance of large scale public spaces. Facilitated by Pete Dangermond of The Dangermond Group, Michael Tymoff (City of San Francisco), Dave Gould (California State Parks), and Michael Boland (The Presidio Trust), the group made individual presentations on their own projects and that which they felt was important when considering public space and recreational uses at the Baylands.

Specifically, Tymoff and Boland showed Powerpoint presentations on the planned development for Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island and the Presidio, whereas Gould took a more philosophical approach, citing the importance of defining the vision you want to achieve. That includes asking the question, What type of experience do you want kids or senior citizens to have when they visit the site? In addition, Gould said that a common mistake that's made in parks planning is not involving the people who will be maintaining the parks. Rather than just "handing over the key", more forethought needs to happen so that those people are involved at the onset. Dangermond rounded out the night's presentations, stating the group is gathering information about the site area through reviewing background and technical materials, previous City Council, commission/committee, and public input, and of course, making visits to the site. As you can see, each speaker brought a wealth of insight to the community that night, and one in which is hoped to continue in being the case as more public workshops take place over the next two weeks:

• Weds. 2/4 @ 6:00pm with the Parks, Beaches & Recreation Commission


• Thurs. 2/5 @ 7:30pm with the Planning Commission


• Weds. 2/11 @ 7:00pm with the Open Space & Ecology Committee

All meetings will provide time for public input and will be taking place at the Community Meeting Room at City Hall - 50 Park Place. Choose a time that works for you and come out...it's never too late to get involved!

And if Weds. 2/4 is too long of a ways to wait, you can come down to City Hall this coming Monday (2/2) for the City Council meeting, scheduled to start at 7:30pm. To view the evening's agenda, you can click here...and if you want them delivered straight to your inbox in the future, you can send an e-mail request to cityhall@ci.brisbane.ca.us. A few items to note on this agenda are the proposed tree replacement plan for San Mateo Ln and the Brisbane Fire Station (click here for the staff report) and Council providing direction to staff after they have considered the revised geotechnical and geological review for a 30-unit residential project which they conditionally approved in August of 2005 (click here to view the staff report for this item). Sound interesting to you? Then come on down to City Hall and see what actions your City Council takes!

Another noteworthy item from the agenda concerns the Skateboard Park. Council will be adopting an ordinance which calls for every person riding a skateboard to have on a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads to comply with state law. Offenders will be fined $5 for the first offense, $10 for the second, and $20 for the third and any additional offense committed within a 12-month period...so skate safe! Signs will also be posted to remind users.

If you haven't heard yet, the 7th Annual Arts Evening of Sharing will be taking place this Saturday, 1/31 at 7:30pm at Mission Blue...and you're invited!! This showcase of Brisbane artists will feature music, theater, literary reading, singing, images of visual artwork, photography and film. Please join us to meet and honor these talented artists living and working in town. This year’s Arts Advocate Award will also be announced and presented at this event. The Arts Advocate Award honors a committed Brisbane citizen who takes leadership in organizing, promoting, supporting and developing arts programming in our community. Admission is free. Reception and refreshments will be served during the intermission.

And lastly...the City's quarterly newsletter publication, the STAR, will be looking a little different when you get it in your mailbox this week. The City did a cost-benefit analysis and saw that approximately $25,000 could be saved through printing the STAR in-house (and that's in full color, too). It was then realized $1,540 could be saved by combining the monthly City News publication with the STAR (each mailing of the City News or STAR costs the City $385). So, be sure to look for your STAR this week to read up on all the news and happenings going on in your community!