MDNA meeting, Feb 14, 2019

Meeting start

• motion to pass the minutes 
• 11 board members present

Peter talked about the historic district and its back story

• Supervisor Mandelman is strongly in favor of the Castro Cultural District, and is willing to compromise with community groups about the district boundaries. He will work to set up a historical district in Mission Dolores, which has been a primary goal of our neighborhood association. A small part of our district (up to Church St) would become part of the new Cultural District.
• He is going to get the city to approve a historical district with Tim Fry at the city. 
• Voted unanimously in favor of comprise outlined by Peter.

645-647 Valencia St — Previously the Elbo Room bar

• New owner/managers talked about why they bought the Elbo Room. They are renaming it to the Valencia Room since the Elbo Room name has moved to Oakland. 
• Jazz, rock, DJ music will be the norm at this venue. Different genres will be showcased, depending which are most popular.
• They need a new live entertainment license despite the venue use not changing its use much.
• Unrelated to the live entertainment license, they are planning to change their liquor license hours slightly. They hope to be able to open at noon on weekends and Fridays. They don’t expect to start live music at noon, but the live entertainment license doesn’t specify the hours of performance — that is limited by the liquor license.
• We voted to approve a letter in support of them obtaining a live music license, under current operating hours. 

Mission Dolores GBD

• Peter gave overview of GBD history and our votes of previous votes of opposition to it.
• Hans and Robert spoke in favor of the GBD. Hans asserts that the something needs to be done to help the area around Dolores Park, and the city won’t fix the issues.
• The board spoke out against the GBD, while recognizing the good intentions of the formation committee. Stated issues are:
  • the seemingly secretive process of its formation,
  • that the city is using its clout to bring these organizations into existence, possibly to shirk its own duties,
  • that the property owners will end up paying for what others decide,
  • the cost of the program in terms of taxation,
  • the inefficiency of paying a high percentage towards administration for its operation,
  • the governance structure of the proposed organization,
  • that this will be double taxation for duties that the city should already be performing, taking pressure off our existing government,
  • that the boundaries of the new organization will extend to a different geographical set of boundaries, encompassing a large part of our district and diluting control over local issues.
• Patricia spoke in support of a green organization, because the end product of more green space is such a benefit.
• We voted in support of posting a letter against formation of a new GBD on our website, and our opposition. The vote was 9-2.
• Roger said that the city votes in favor of the GBDs with their large land holdings. He said that there hasn’t been obvious improvement in Dog Patch with their GBD, above and beyond what the city was accomplishing over the years.