Remarks by Lydia So
112 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 4 of 5
- Play at 3:04:54
“I'm really appreciative in hearing stories, the passion of generations of living there and coming back and give back. I do remember last time when I saw this presentation, I coined this, like this is kind of like the candy land for mixed-use development for San Francisco. So I'm really appreciative and happy to see that today you came forward to us and actually have a lot more progress and a lot more detail. Something that we can actually see that you're really actually implementing your steps and I know it takes like a whole village together to do this work and it is a bit too late to make…”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 3:31:39
“I would like to just make sure that I understand what you had talked about here with your melancholia situation. So on-site 5% at 50% AMI, you still not pencil it.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 3:32:15
“Which is what we recently did, like, before summer recess. Correct. And it's still not penciled out.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 3:33:02
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I understand what you're saying. It's a little confusing. You were actually, because it's a for sale property, you actually is required to do the 5%, if you don't do the onsite 5%, you're required to provide... 80% AMI, but if you, because you want to keep the rare yard as your special request, then you voluntarily bump it to 50% AMI, but then still it doesn't pencil out.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 3:34:20
“Right. Got it. Okay. That kind of, no wonder, like, that our chief economist report was pretty illuminating, like, nothing get built. Okay. So I am in support of your proposal today to utilizing the Housing Choice San Francisco to enable this project to happen. It is remotely actually my adjacent neighborhood. I really wanted to see Market Street in that corridor activate and have more people live there instead of having empty storefronts. So I motion to approve with the conditions as staff recommended.”
Planning Commission · Sep 3, 2026
- Play at 2:00
“Commissioner Sell, motion to continue. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 11:36
“Derek served us his final meeting with us last week and I have to admit that it still feels really strange to look over and not see him sitting up here with us. I really appreciate working with you and I know you for many years even before I start serving on the Planning Commission. And for those who may not know, Derek brought a level of thoughtfulness and attention to detail to this work that has set a real standard. He reads every staff report closely. He asked the questions the rest of us hadn't thought of yet. And his depth of knowledge as a land use and economic professional caught…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 19:56
“I promise it will be really brief, but I can't have Lulu leave without me saying a proper thank you to Lulu. Lulu, , I'm here. I remember many years ago you greeted me and it's really nice and warm and you are setting a really good example of all the minority staff that is coming into work in the planning department for, I didn't realize it's like, you know, 40 something years. So I congratulate you being like a wonderful grandmother and you left a big shoe to fill. So I really personally deeply appreciate your influence and your support through all these generations of planners in our…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 39:02
“I think I genuinely agree with this legislation amendment for planning code. I have one question I would like maybe Madison or Veronica can clarify in terms of lighting of the signage. The question is, is these illuminations to be in direct lighting or is this going to be a glowing light box? Just wanted to clarify.”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 40:09
“It's like indirect illumination, basically back-lighting. Yes. Okay. That's great. Thank you. Well, with that regard, I support the motion of my colleagues.”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:18:29
“I have been reading this for quite some time, and I have to say this is a situation where no one wants to be in. So not us, not anyone out there trying to get anything built, but we are in this situation of economy had a lot of few things that layer over it. There's COVID, and then there was now we have war. So I really want to emphasize that when we decided to revoke or encourage other previous project sponsor to give up their previous office allocation. We wanted to do it more fairly and I think that's identifying them, each project has its own story and history and then you have put it…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:21:08
“So a slight amendment to Prop M will still require voter?”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:21:18
“I see. And how many years are you talking about here for the gradually drawn down our supply on allocation? Over like 10, 5, or a century later where all of us are not here?”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:22:02
“Okay, thank you. One last question. So what will come in front of us after the summer recess is the Tier 1 projects. As of right now, I know everything's going to be moving, right, like depending on... what happened in the next 30 days. But just right now, I really appreciate your team, by the way, Sarah, you, and Nick Foster somewhere watching us here, do all these work. And I know it's been hard. It's really difficult. These conversations that you guys had with many stakeholders that are invested in the economic for our city, and those are our big... like, supporter for the city, and they…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:25:35
“Well, thank you. Thank you for all the hard work, and we'll make it through. We definitely want to see more things to build, houses and also offices. So that concludes my comment.”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:58:43
“So this is a project that I've been seeing for these past years, and even back then when I was a Historic Preservation Commissioner. And I have to say, I'm absolutely delighted to speak in strong support for this 29 acres, just 29 acres of proposal today. Pretty tiny for San Francisco, isn't it? Hearing your project sponsor's clear commitment to an accelerated phasing plan is music to my ears. Quite frankly, in San Francisco, we need to hear more of this proactive, forward-thinking momentum, forward-moving momentum. So what impresses me most is that how a project of this scale creates a truly…”
Planning Commission · Jul 30, 2026
- Play at 1:21:21
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 2:30:42
“So I really appreciate that. I didn't time how long it took you to tell us everything about what you and your team had gone through since like a whole year gone by, right? And also especially since the mayor addressed the city, the state of the city earlier in the beginning of this year. Also need to thank Sarah Dennis-Phillips to allow the staff to have such a great collaborations across so many different agencies. I really personally thought it was just really try to get the building permit and the planning permit, but now we adopted so many friends from our city, including the SFIM permit.…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 2:33:14
“Yes, yes. And then how can we help our public to get a better understanding? Because knowing that this upcoming few years is going to be a lot of pivoting and learning, and we are definitely very nimble and agile. seeing your contract amount and now knowing what you're actually, your scope is like kind of when like this, like a fireworks exploded. I mean, like, so it's a two-part question. How do, what are we prioritizing and how do you inform the public moving forward?”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 2:37:07
“The second part was because things are ever, but things are evolving, right? You mentioned phase one. We took care of a lot of the low-hanging fruit, the basic plumbing permit things, right? And then you have that set of data. But then moving to phase two, you are going to expand to more complicated permit applications. Then your set of data will be different. But my second part of the question is, like, how can a general public keep up with understanding of where things are. If I have to answer an auntie asking me what to do about her coffee shop in the middle of Chinatown, I'm not sure.…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 2:39:20
“Okay, I do have my one last thing is I really agree with you, and we definitely need to do better. Already we're doing pretty good, but we can do better. Now we have other, we collaborate or group with three departments, so good customer service is very important. how many times I personally mortified just to get a permit from DBI. I can't count how many times I personally got mortified. I like really being treated not as professional as it could be. This is not when I was serving on this particular commission. But I just want to make sure that whatever we're doing, had a way to incentivize…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 2:43:47
“Great. Thank you. And then that ties into the QR code, right? That's just, like, give us your feedback. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Thank you, Liz. I'm done with my comments.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 3:45:58
“Well, I'm always supportive of this effort. I did mention early on, like, we really is, like, climate resiliency, we need to really adapt. And I'm grateful to see that we have a really good team of staff to create that continuity. And I would assume that we are doing the heavy lifting to kind of bring all the other city agencies together to do this effort with us. As I remember when I was serving on the board of directors on SFMTA, we quickly identified like there's this sea level rising and everybody needs to work together along the entire shoreline. So I'm just super happy we are continuing…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 4:15:33
“I really second all my fellow commissioners, a lot of your comments. And I actually really appreciate that this is the first one that your project applicant is utilizing our local program. which is like to see more of these. Again, I mentioned earlier we want more housing of all kinds. And I noticed that you have two units here are also below market rate units. So that's a really good commitment. I do, however, really wish that you do have a commitment to actually have it built so we can actually house families and people instead of being it as such as entitlement and then sell it. So I…”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026
- Play at 4:16:53
“You can come up and speak in the microphone, please.”
Planning Commission · Jul 23, 2026