Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Full Board Of Supervisors 20200205

supervisor preston present. supervisor ronen not present. supervisor safai present. supervisor stefani present. supervisor walton present. supervisor yee present. mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president yee: thank you. would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> president yee: on behalf of the board i would like to acknowledge sfgovtv. who record each of the meetings and make the transcripts available to the public online. madame clerk, any communications? >> none to report, mr. president. >> president yee: let's move to the consent agenda. >> items 1 through 18 are on consent. these items are considered to be routine. if a member objects, an item may be removed and considered separately. >> president yee: would anyone like to sever any items from the consent agenda? seeing none, on the roster, then please call the roll. >> on items 1 through 18, supervisor stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: okay. so, without objection, the ordinances finally passed unanimously. let's go to items, 19 and 20. >> 19 and 20 two ordinances that levy special taxes. pier 70 leased properties. >> colleagues, can we take these two items, same house, same call? without objection, these ordinances are finally passed. madame clerk, let's go 21. >> item 21 is ordinance to appropriate $2.7 million of general reserve upon condition of executed agreement to support class reinstatement at city college of san francisco. >> president yee: madame clerk, please call the roll. >> on item 21, stefani no. walton aye. yee no. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman no. mar aye. peskin no. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 7 ayes and 4 nos with supervisors stefani, yee and mandelman, and peskin in the consent. >> president yee: that ordinance is passed with 7-4 vote. next item. >> item 22. resolution to authorize public works to accept and expend $260,000 grant from the san francisco bay area rapid transit district for the pit stop public toilet program termed july 21, 2019 through june 30, 2020. >> president yee: colleagues, without objection, we'll bring up jeremie spitz. oh. and he's from the department of public works policy and government affairs. here to speak on this item, but before you speak, supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you. no, i'm happy to speak after, mr. spitz. >> president yee: did somebody want to speak? i'm sorry. i'm getting confused. go ahead. >> supervisor peskin: hold on, i rise to point of privilege, but i'm sitting down, supervisor preston's name is on the roster. >> president yee: i called on him. >> he deferred, supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: my bad. >> president yee: did you want to say something? supervisor preston? you want to wait, right? >> supervisor preston: mr. spitz is free to go on. >> i'll be brief. >> president yee: go ahead. >> thank you, president yee. briefly, supervisors, we would like to request an additional one week continuance on the item so our acting director has a chance to review the file? >> supervisor preston: thank you very much, appreciate the request for continuance. i think it is appropriate for the board to have additional information about acting on this item. and this was continued last week to underline contracts here -- underlying contracts were approved and signed. and particularly under the circumstances where the allegations in the federal criminal complaint relate directly to mr. neweru's involvement. i had a chance to speak to the acting director, welcome to the new role, and looking forward to this item being reviewed by new leadership before coming back before us. >> president yee: okay. is the motion by supervisor preston and seconded by supervisor peskin, to continue this item for a week to our february 11th meeting. then without objection, this resolution will be continued. to the meeting on tuesday, february 11, 2020. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 23 is ordinance to amend the planning code to allow authorization of limited restaurant use in the jackson square special use district under a circumstance to affirm the ceqa determination and make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: roll call, please. >> on item 23, supervisor stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: without objection, this ordinance is finally passed unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 24. >> item 24 is a resolution to establish the fiscal year 2019 through 2020, california constitution appropriations limit of san francisco to be approximately $5.5 billion. >> president yee: can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 25 is resolution to authorize and approve the lease of 1271 through 1275 mission street with mission 1277 and baskin investment group for office space for san francisco digital services, for six-year term, with two five-year options for renewal to commence february 2020, for total annual rent of $600,000, to figure in 3% annual adjustments thereafter and make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call item 26. >> item 26 is resolution to approve a grant agreement second amendment between the city and institute on aging for the community living fund to increase the amount of the grant for a new total amount of approximately $11.6 million july 21, 2019 through june 30, 2021. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this the resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call items 27 through 29 together. >> item 27 through 29, three resolutions that retroactively authorize the fire department to accept and expend grants from the following, performance terms and to waive indirect costs. item 27, $1 million grant from the california office of emergency services to purchase one hose tender. for item 28, approximately $340,000 grant from the federal emergency management agency to purchase marine equipment, september 1, 2019 through august 31, 2022. and for item 29, an approximate $612,000 for the federal emergency management agency to purchase rescue tools and equipment september 5, 2019 through september 4, 2020. >> president yee: colleagues, can we take these items same house, same call? without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 30 is resolution to authorize the san francisco office of cannabis to accept and expend an approximate $1.338 million grant from the california bureau of cannabis control for the local equity grant funding program for the term of february 21, 2020, through january 31, 2021. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted. please call the next item. >> item 31 is resolution to declare the intent of the city to reimburse certain expenditures from proceeds of future bonded indebtedenesindeb authorizing the mayor's director to submit documents to the debt allocation committee to permit the issuance of residential mortgage bonds in principal amount not to exceed $61.6 million for 55 mason street. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. madame clerk, the next item. >> item 32, resolution to approve and authorize the amendment and restatement of an existing long-term ground lease with turk and eddie associates on city owned land, in order to refinance 100 affordable 82-unit rental housing development for low-income persons. >> president yee: can we take this same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. >> ordinance to amend the plumbing code to delete the local amendment to the california plumbing code, rules and regulations in the section on cross connection control and to add local cross connection controls for beverage dispensers and testing and to affirm the ceqa determination. >> president yee: can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 34 is ordinance to amend the planning code and the administrative code to abolish the north of market affordable housing fund and have certain affordable housing fees collected in conjunction with the north of market residential special use district, deposited in a city-wide affordable housing fund and to make the appropriate findings. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 35 is ordinance to amend the health code to authorize the director of public health to allow existing cannabis permittee to operate under that permit at a new location and affirm the ceqa determination. >> president yee: supervisor pesk peskin. >> supervisor peskin: i'll defer to supervisor haney. >> supervisor haney: i think supervisor peskin, i were to say the same thing, we want to ask for this item to be continued. we're working on a non-substantive amendment and we want to have it completed by next week. was that what -- >> supervisor peskin: supervisor haney, through the president, i would suggest that the item be continued to the meeting of 25 february, 2020. please >> president yee: supervisor haney, are you okay with that? >> supervisor haney: yes. >> president yee: motion to continue this item to tuesday, february 25 and seconded. is there any objection? without objection, this ordinance is continued to the meeting of tuesday, february 25, 2020. madame clerk, please call items 36 and 37 together. >> items 36 and 37 are two resolutions that determine to the premise to premise transfer, liquor license to destination bar's inc., doing business as the lark bar, and for item 37, a transfer of type 21 offsale general beer, wine and distilled spirits and type 86 instructional tasting license to future beverages inc. doing business as cassk. that both items will serve the convenience of the city and requesting that the california department of beverage control impose conditions on the issuance of both items. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, these resolutions are adopted unanimously. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 38, ordinance to amend the administrative code to authorize the department of public health to become a member of any health care group purchasing organization and to enter into contracts with suppliers and distributors to purchase commodities and services without competitive bidding and without approval of the city purchaser. >> president yee: okay, can we take -- these items -- did we call 36 and 37? >> yes, we called those items. we're on 38. >> can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this is passed unanimously. call item 39. >> item 39 is ordinance to amend the administrative code to name the rotunda on the second floor of city hall in memory of former city attorney buck del veteran >> i want to thank the board of supervisors. when deputy city attorney passed away after 50 years of service to this city and county, this board of supervisors, the mayor's office, there was one member of the board not here, his name is on the roster, but i want to thank our city attorney, who i don't think has every signed an ordinance as to form until this particular ordinance, which is i want to salute the late great buck delventhal. >> >> supervisor preston: i'd like to be added as a cosponsor. >> supervisor peskin: that would make it unanimous. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, let's call the next item? item 40 is ordinance to repeal ordinance numbers 38-17 and 102-19 and to reenact certain provisions by updating the hotel ordinance and update the ceqa determination. >> president yee: supervisor preston, do you want to speak? >> supervisor preston: no. >> president yee: supervisor preston? wes >> supervisor peskin: i would like to request a continuance? that's a motion. >> president yee: a second? seconded by supervisor safai. without objection, we'll continue this item to our meeting on february 25. madame clerk, please call the next item. >> item 41 is motion to reappoint, miriam zouzokunis. >> this motion is approved unanimously. please call item 42. >> item 42 is motion to reappoint marc brandt to the bicycle advisory committee. >> colleagues, can we take this item same house, same call? without objection, this motion is approved unanimously. let's go to -- i'm sorry. >> committee reports? >> roll call, is it? >> committee reports, mr. president? >> yes, committee reports. >> items 47 and 48 were considered by the land use and transportation committee at a regular meeting on monday, february $3 and were forwarded as committee reports. it's to amend land disposition and acquisition agreement with 2000 marin property, for the transfer of property on bryant street. in exchange for real property at 2000 marin street and to adopt the appropriate findings. >> president yee: colleagues, same house, same call? without objection, this ordinance is passed on first reading unanimously. item 48, please. >> item 48 was with a new title. resolution to declare the intent of board of supervisors to order the vacation of the sidewalk portion of streets on the south side of mission street at the intersection of mission and freemont and on the east side at the same intersection to allow a structural up grade of the millennium tower and setting a hearing date for the board of supervisors to convene as a committee of the whole on march 3, 2020, here in the board's legislative chamber. >> president yee: same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is passed on first reading unanimously. madame clerk, let's go to roll call for a couple of minutes. >> supervisor self-ny -- stefani, you're first up. >> i'm introducing a resolution to support bill 281, which will finally ban the sale of firearms and ammunition at the cal palace. since that time, the bill has changed and the newest version has just passed the state senate. despite ongoing support to end gun shows, the cal palace board of directors faces tremendous pressure from gun lobbyists. it is a publicly owned facility to showcase entertainment and host events that reflect the community. as we all stated many times, public facilities should be used for the public good and the costs of gun sale far outweigh the benefits. sp281 mirrors a similar bill which bans firearms and ammunition sales at the delmar fair grounds. last year, we saw the lowest rate of violent crime since 1961 and while that is worth celebrating, there is not a day that goes by in this country where there is the tragic loss of life by an individual who should have never had access to a gun in the first place. on sunday, night, patrons at a local sports bar had to run for cover when a man returned with a gun and open fire. we were lucky no one died. just yesterday, passengers on a greyhound bus open fire on fellow passengers killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring five others. there is no way to win the fight against the gun violence epidemic in our country, but we've had no chance. we will have no chance until we continue to work together to advocate for commonsense gun policy that save lives. i want to thank senator scott wiener for sponsorship and david chiu and phil tinge for their support. >> supervisor walton: thank you, madame clerk. today, i have one in memoriam in honor of mother essie. mother essie mcgraw web jones, also known as mommy was born in 1917. she was the third child of four children. in 1923, mommy essie and her aunt nellie relocated to lovejoy, illinois. after the birth of her oldest child, george thomas earl, she attended the madame c.j. walker beauty school. in 1942, she married webb senior in missouri. to that union, three children were born, nathaniel, alphonso and patricia. in 1949, she along with aunt nellie joined fake john missionary church. mommy essie was an active member of the church, a member of the chorus, the naomi circle of the mission union and much later, mother of the ministry of the church. the father of two children, robert alicia and alicia jones. adopted three brothers sandy and norman and linden. later mommy essie took on raising samuel warren james when he came to live with her. mommy essie had a very active life. she worked in a child care center, worked at the fairmont hotel in san francisco, served on the joint housing committee as a recording secretary and that committee was instrumental in getting the war projects torn down and the construction of the new apartment buildings in hunters point along with the u.s. post office on evans street. the committee also made sure that the new streets that came along with the buildings were named after some of the people who were responsible for the changes. mommy essie also worked as an intake referral manager for the economic opportunity council for more than four decades. she was a commissioner on the relocation of board, appointed by the late mayor joseph al oto. she and others were developing consent degree, fighting the school district to prevent the busing of children from the bayview hunters point community to other places in the city. and not busing other children to bayview hunters point. they were successful. she was helpful in getting youth in the community their first job. she was a member of the board of directors of the bayview hunters college, the first off-campus college of city college to offer accredited courses from city college. she fought to get the name of the bayview elementary school changed to dr. charles r. drew. on top of it all, mommy essie managed to operate a kitchen beauty barber shop, wash, press and curl or cut for $2. that's when her family began to grow. everyone loved her and she loved them. and referred to them as her children. mommy essie loved to cook, travel and take trips to the casinos. she attended all of her family reunions and made it duty to teach future generations about their history, knowing she was fourth generation descendant of former slaves. one of her proudest moments was to attend the inauguration of barack obama in 2008. she bragged about walking five miles to the washington mall with her son-in-law oscar and nephews perry and tyree. as she told the story, she left all three of them in the dust to witness the inauguration. she departed this life on wednesday, january 22, 2020. she is survived by 12 children, two daughter-in-laws. 35 great grandchildren, and host of nieces, nephews and cousins. the rest i submit. >> president yee: submit. >> supervisor fewer: thank you. colleagues, today i am introducing a motion with cosponsorship from all members of the budget and appropriations committee laying out the budget process for the board in the name of transparency for all city partners and members of the public. my office has been working to design a budget process that builds upon past best practices, changes aspects that didn't work last year and tries to build our capacity to make informed choices with regard to the budget. the city's $12 million billion budget is on the backs of hard-working residents of san francisco and i feel responsible for ensuring we hold ourselves accountable for how the funds are spent. our goals for this year are, one, to develop an understanding of the landscape facing the city budget for fiscal years 2021 and 2021-22. to engage in public discussion about policy priorities for the budget while the mayor is determining her priorities. three, to create space for public input on budget priorities. four, to provide accountability for departmental spending and efficacy of services. five, to identify areas for cost savings or reallocation. we'll be holding budget hearings in the spring based on key policy areas that may reach across departments. we'll be holding budget hearings with analysis from the budget and legislative analysis to be determined and are proposing to hold a committee of the whole in may on the mayor's budget priorities. my office will be publishing a calendar by tomorrow with the details about the upcoming budget meetings. this will be updated with more details. i look forward to working with you, colleagues, as well as the mayor, city agencies, city employees and members of the public, for a smooth and equitable budget process that prioritizes our vulnerable residents and makes use of our public resources for the public good. >> president yee: i see that the time is 2:35 let's go back to recognition of commendations. >> i have two special when indications, one from supervisor mandelman and one from supervisor walton. >> president yee: supervisor mandelman, would you like to present yours? >> supervisor mandelman: we have a special treat today. i'd like to honor patrick and lola courtney and if they and their folks are here, they should come on up. or if they want to -- i can say nice things first and then they come up, is it easier to stay there? okay. okay. so today we're honoring patrick and lola. they first opened courtney's produce in 1969 as farmer's produce. the current location at caster street opened in 1971 where it's remained for 49 years. patrick was born in ireland and growing up, everything he and his family ate were grown on the farm. they immigrated to the united states in 1940s, arriving in new york. several years later, they headed west, landing in southern california where they continued to sell produce. eventually, patrick headed north to san francisco where he met and married lola, who was born in alaska, but moved to san francisco with her family when she was 5. they started a farmers produce. two years later, they moved to 101 castro street where they could live and operate their store in the same building. when they took over the tiny store, they made engaging with the neighborhood a priority. removing iron bars from the windows and doors, stringing white lights in the trees and filling the sidewalk with perfect stacks of fresh fruits and vegetables. they made the corner bright, safe, cozy and warm. today, as they have for nearly a half century, visitors to the shop local produce. they insist that everything is fresh, including fresh bread delivered to the store every day and fresh ingredients daily. some of the items come from patrick's irish roots. one of these is a true kerry sandwich. courtney's peanut and butter jelly sandwiches are legendary. two thick slices of hala, topped with three strawberry halves. and, colleagues, we have these peanut and butter jelly sandwiches for you today. they will be in the back, so as not to upset our clerk, although, i hope our clerk will enjoy one as well. >> absolutely. >> thank you tom for going over to courtney's to get these. today, at 92, patrick still buys the produce and lola at 80 still takes care of the bookkeeping. it was an honor to nominate them the business registry and at their january 13 meeting, the small business commission approved the nomination unanimously. the commissioner spoke about taking his two sons to courtney's every day to get sandwiches for lunch. they remembered visiting a friend at the hospital and having a courtney's employee run a bouquet to him as he was stopped at the red light. commissioner adams said that during his years of involvement, they were always active in the neighborhood, quick to donate sandwiches for community events. i'm so happy to have patrick and lola here with us in the chamber, and i think their daughter robin as well. it's my honor to offer this commendation to them and invite them up. [applause] robin? >> yes, thank you for this special commendation of courtney's produce and my parents patrick and lola. for 50 years they've devoted their lives to producing fresh home to san francisco at affordable prices. my father at 92 still goes to the produce market. he still negotiates pricing so he can deliver quality products at affordable prices. the organic produce is purchased daily and sandwiches, juices and salads are made fresh on site. the business has stayed in business 50 years because of the community that has supported it. this is peter from the community. >> thank you. i wanted to say something because as you know, it's not easy to raise kids in san francisco. well, it makes it easier having a store like courtneys on the corner. we were in the middle of making something and go to the kids, run up to courtneys and get -- and they're already out the door. i want to leave with a story. it's on the way to school, the kids are walking up with the fifth grade classmate and the classmate sees something she wants and doesn't have any money. she says, give me a quarter. i don't have it. lola watches the whole thing and says, don't you pester my friend lorraine. lorraine says, it's okay lola, it's my friend, too. this is what they did, looked out for the kids. knowing that the eyes on the street were the heart at the courtney store and lola and patrick expanding that network of friends. the peanut butter sandwiches help, but i'm here because i've been so happy to live in the neighborhood with them as my neighbors and friends for so many years. >> thank you, peter. >> president yee: okay. next up would be supervisor walton. >> supervisor walton: thank you, president yee. colleagues, today i rise to honor a pillar of the bayview and black community, ms. eloise petten. [applause] as san francisco native, eloise is a highly motivated leader who is deeply passionate and committed to working with disengaged and disadvantaged communities. she has led, fa -- oversight of the coalitions, served on the task force to end exploitation of girls, the mayor's task for emancipated youth, facilitated programs in the southeast sector and achieved community benefits agreement as well as developed several sector-specific training programs benefitting both youth and adults in the southeast sector of san francisco. she is currently employed by arty j. enterprises as a project manager continuing her work ensuring social justice and a vision for future generations for ensuring access and participation in capital projects benefitting bayview and southeast residents. eloise's volunteer activities reflect her commitment to social equity. she currently serves as the chair of the bayview citizens advisory committee, serves on the legacy committee for the shipyard, the community-based transportation plan steering committee for bayview, india basin leadership committee and the bayview merchants association. as you can see, she is very, very busy. for over 30 years, eloise has demonstrated her commitment to racial equity and social justice through her continued advocacy focusing on creating opportunities for economically and socially disadvantaged populations to participate fully and equitably in society. by being a vehicle of expression for those who cannot speak for themselves. she spends her spare time with family, and her hobbies are reading, jewelry-making, yoga and cooking. she's beloved for her work and commitment in community. today, at this board of supervisors meeting, we honor you ms. eloise patton. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much, supervisor walton. and all of the supervisors. i absolutely appreciate it. i waved at supervisor peskin over there. we go way back to the redevelopment days. back when both of our hair was brown. yours is national, mine is bought now, so that's a lot of years ago. so i want to thank everyone for taking the time out to honor me, but -- and i appreciate it, but there is a long line of energy and vibration that goes with this. i walk lock step with some of the most amazing women in bayview. i walk lock step with gina, with linda richardson, former supervisor sophie maxwell, dr. veronica honey cut. and a host of other women. we look forward and we can see all of the women that have gone before us. the thing that i hope is that as we march, we see a line behind us. a line behind us, because there is still much work do. many of you sitting around these tables i've worked with over the years at one time or another, in one capacity or another, in one way or another, but as you can see, our work is not done. i would like to honor all of those organizations that i work with now because they're all committed. they work very hard and i not be standing here if it weren't for the work they do and the work they do for the residents of the bayview hunters point community. we still have a lot of work to do. you'll still be seeing me in many different venues. i want that thank you supervisor walton for all of your work. if it were not for you opening the window for us to be some of the most aggressive work we've been able to do in a long time, i don't know if we'd be gaining the traction we do now. to you, i say thank you and i appreciate you. [applause] >> president yee: thank you. that concludes our special commendations. so, madame clerk, let's go back to roll call. >> thank you. supervisor haney, did you need to be re-referred? okay. thank you. supervisor mandelman, not in the chamber, we'll re-refer him as well. supervisor mar. >> supervisor mar: today i'm introducing an ordinance to reauthorize fee waivers for the building department. as we grapple with addressing the affordability crisis, we must ensure that the housing we build and preserve is safe. it was established in 2014 to encourage homeowners with unauthorized dwelling units or in-laws, to bring them out of the shadows. this voluntary program requires homeowners to meet the safety conditions -- life safety conditions making a habitable unit a legal part of the housing supply. my constituents in the sunset, include many single-family homeowners with unauthorized dwelling units and tenants living in the units. this is undesirable position for everybody involved. this ordinance will incentivize the establishment of safe and affordable housing to stabilize housing for the entire community. as i continue to implement all options for affordable housing in my district and city-wide, including my adu extension program, this is one additional tool to work toward our greater housing goal. the rest i submit. >> thank you. supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, madame clerk. colleagues, i know this is on a number of our minds. and on the minds of the people of the city and county of san francisco. and today, i'm introducing a couple of items in furtherance of our collective work to enact reforms, probably long overdue at the department of public works and agency which clearly needs transparent oversight. let me start by saying, this should not belong to any one supervisor, it should belong to the entire legislative branch. to supervisor haney, to supervisor safai, who have both shared thoughts, to supervisor preston and i who are working on some legislation together. and i want to start by applauding the controller of the city and county of san francisco who has stepped out of these chambers, and the city attorney for pursuing independent investigation and the city attorney is an independently elected official who clearly made his beliefs with regard to the director of public works. i want to correct a statement that was made earlier. that is not the former director of public works. that is the director of public works who has been charged by the united states of america with two different crimes who has been suspended with pay, who for the record, is still the director of public works at this moment in time as long as this moment lasts. i want to say, as to the controller, the controller is a quasi independent official who is nominated by a mayor and confirmed by a board of supervisors, who i personally, having been on the board for a generation count that, that is 20 years, i have profound confidence in. i know he is diverting much of his staff resource and ms. rosenfield is committed to making this as transparent a process as possible. this board has the unlimited power of inquiry pursuant to the charter of the city and county of san francisco. we should use that, use it appropriately, but we should not get in the way of ongoing criminal investigations. and to that end, together with supervisor preston, we're introducing an ongoing set of hearings to have a spot at the government audit and oversight committee to receive regular reports and ask questions from the city attorney, from the controller's office. i think that is the correct way of proceeding. we are in the midst of charter season. and we'll hear from our colleagues as to charter reforms that are long overdue as it relates to the commission system of government. and i welcome those conversations, be they term limits, be they very, very clear instructions to commissioners about their roles as quasi judicial members, about what is expected from them, and about how to contact them. and thinks kind of interesting -- this is kind of interesting, in the universe of commissioners, unlike us who all have e-mail addresses, all have phone numbers, many of those individuals cannot be contacted directly or indirectly. and that, too, should change. whether it's taking department functions and putting it elsewhere, legislating more stringent protocols for contracting, clearly this board at the request of a mayor and i think this came to us in good faith around trying to loosen up certain contracting procedures around our shelter crisis, around our mental health crisis, clearly has been abused. and he is not here, he cannot tell us about the contracts, but there are a number of them and we need to get to the bottom of that. we're seeing it on tv, reading it in the newspapers, this board of supervisors has been obligation to shine light on that. i want to thank supervisor preston for joining me in creating an ongoing set of transparent open public hearings to get to the bottom of that. an additional legislation i'm also introducing a joint hearing request with this body and the public utilities commission, not the state public utilities commission, but our public utilities commission as it relates to acquisition of pg&e assets and distribution systems within the study and county of san francisco. and would like to acknowledge the efforts of senator wiener and governor newsom, amazing i'm invoking both of those names here in trying to municipalize gas and electric in the northern california territory and, finally, i am introducing a piece of legislation to amend the code in the north beach special use district to allow an expansion of the central police station. and the rest i will submit. >> thank you, supervisor peskin. preston submits. >> supervisor ronen: today, i'm offeri offering in memoriam for jackie jones. i just wanted to share a couple of minutes of a video with you on her life. i think it's more interesting than me speaking about her life. and, amy, is going to queue it up. -- cue it up. >> on old lady, if you don't have something interesting, you'll be left all alone. [laughter] [ ♪ ] >> thank you, amy for indulging. me. for 25 years, she was present at the farmers market with jazz tunes on a wash board guitar and surrounded my children. jackie, a self-taught musician played a wide variety of instruments. jackie was twice honored on the bay guardian best of the bay list. in 2003 for free act with strings attached. we salute jackie as a true san francisco treasure and love and clean condolences to her community of musicians. thank you for sharing the story of her life. the rest i submit. >> thank you, supervisor. supervisor safai. >> supervisor safai: in the spirit of similar to what supervisor peskin and supervisor preston were talking about, myself and supervisor haney are introducing and calling on the city attorney to draft a charter amendment. a lot of things came to light last week. one of which was the conversation about the amount of time that a citizen serves on boards and commissions. and when i became chair of the rules committee, one of the first things i tried to institute informally was a process where we limit the amount of time individuals serve on a particular board and commission. we received a lot of pushback to say the least. we believe in light of the things that came to light last week, we think in the spirit of good governance, in the spirit of promoting new and fresh ideas to have on new commissions, that we should set term limits. members of the board, in this chamber are bound by term limits. two consecutive terms. [please stand by] >> supervisor haney: i know that he and the controller will do their party to make sure that corruption as it relates to this case is investigated. as but as the city charter gives the power of investigation to not just the city attorney and the controller, the charter defines that there are, by design and very intentionally, four separate city appointments to investigate. the controller, who is appointed by the mayor and has the power to audit. the city attorney and the district attorney who are both elected by the people, and this body, the board of supervisors who is given the power to hold hearings, conduct audits, and hire special investigators and auditors when deemed appropriate. and i think in a situation like this, when the people of san francisco are losing faith in the department to conduct its business fairly and appropriately, we need to investigate these charges of corruption but how we got up to this point in the first place. how has one of the most progressive cities in the world been repeatedly rocked by these corruption scandals? i believe that this body needs to concurrently go beyond the investigations and look at the corruption scandals. there are certain questions we need to measure. are the current corruption measures strong enough? what do we need to do to ensure their transparency? these are questions that we've all been asking over the last few days, and it has reaffirmed my belief fully that we need a full investigation into the systems and processes that continue to fail our city. i have been contacted personally in my office by numerous people over the last week in regards of abuses of power, fearing retribution from supervisors and others who are involved in these schemes. even now, there are people afraid to come forward because they are afraid the city will be unable to protect them. what we have heard from whistle blowers has led us to propose a resolution to do the following. it is one thing to look at contracts and how they were corrected. it's another thing to look at the departments and make sure they're operating how they should. to conduct an analysis of and provide recommendations on the whistleblower program to create effective and independent oversight and value how the program has made improvements, and any retaliatory actions towards individuals. i believe that if the city of san francisco is truly committed to holding itself accountable and earning back the public's trust, then an independent investigation in -- along with the -- the investigations of the city attorney and the controller, an investigation which the board of supervisors needs is critical to ensure that's the case. i want to thank supervisors mar, preston, and ronen for your cosponsorship, and i know we are going to continue this sponsorship at the g.a.o. committee and further refine the scope of this investigation to ensure that the board of supervisors fulfills our responsibility to the residents that we represent. i also want to comment on supervisor safai and the charter amendment that we've put forward to be drafted. it seems clear that not only do we know the critical role that commissions play in providing over sight for our city departments. i know that some people have been outspoken about the fact that some departments don't have commissions, but when we have commissions, the fact that those commissioners are accountable, that they're regularly evaluated, that they have the independence required to perform those essential duties, i think is critical. so looking at how we can ensure that through some term limits so we don't have individuals who have been serving on these commissions for decades and decades is one of the ways that we can restore public trust. lastly and completely unrelatedly, i am supporting the dismissal of several individuals making allegations of cruelty at some of our animal farms. a similar resolution was passed at the san francisco democratic committee, and the city of berkeley recently passed a similar issue. last year, 148 residents were arrested in sonoma county while trying to document the condition of animal operations. this urges the sonoma county to dismiss the charges as these individuals were acting under california penal code 597. animal rights are important to the people of san francisco and california as evidenced by among other things, by 62.6% where voters established new resolutions for the confinement of farm animals. i want to thank everyone who brought this forward and worked with the animal welfare commission and my office. that concludes my statement. >> clerk: supervisor mandelman? >> thank you, madam clerk. >> humming bird place is a 24 hours behavioral health respite center with 29 beds serving people with mental health and substance use disorders. it other allows people to come in with partners companion -- partners, companion pets, and belongings. but unlike traditional centers, humming bird's services are tailored to meet the needs of people whose challenges won't allow them to be housed in a traditional shelter. we can see every day in san francisco what happens when we do not have appropriate places to take unsheltered people with behavioral health needs. too many end up in psychiatric emergency services or other emergency rooms or jail. i think everyone on this board is familiar with the stats. more than half of all patients seen at p.e.s. are homeless, and between october and january, p.e.s. was on diversion roughly 20% of the time. we know that people released from p.e.s. are back on the streets or back in another stay days or even hours later. i believe folks would have a much better chance of stablizing and recovering if we had more facilities like humming bird place. that's why i've been working to identify potential sites for more humming bird place since my first days in office. as a neighbor down valencia street, i'm eager to welcome the city's first neighborhood based humming bird. the lease will be for a three-year term with options to renew up to two additional years. it's my hope that the valencia street location will help make a difference in homelessness citywide and this model will be duplicated across the city. it is a step in the right direction. i look forward to working with the neighborhood to ensure the success of the valencia street community humming bird and look forward to working with mayor breed and others to bring this facility on-line. i want to thank salvation army for being able to entertain the important use for this property. lineally, i want to thank erin mundy for all her important work on this project. colleagues, i hope you'll support my resolution, and the rest i submit. >> clerk: mr. president, that concludes that order of business. >> president yee: okay. why don't we go to items 43 through 49. [agenda item read] [agenda item read]. >> clerk: item 44 is the motion to affirm the determination that the page street bikeway improvements pilot program is categorically exempt from further categorically review. item 45 is to reverse the determination subject further findings by the board, and item 46 is the motion directing the board to make the findings of exemption determination. >> president yee: okay. colleagues, we are now convening as a committee of the whole. colleagues, we have before us a determination of exemption for environmental review for the proposed sfmta page street bikeway improvement pilot project. for this hearing, we will be considering adopting -- i mean considering the adequacy, the accuracy, sufficiency, and completeness of the planning department's environmental review determination for the project on page street. without objection, we will proceed as follows: the appellant or appellant's representatives will have up to ten minutes for presentation, then up to two minutes per speaker in support of the appeal. then up to ten minutes for the presentation from the project sponsor, which is represented by sfmta and up to ten minutes for the planning department. then two minutes per speaker in opposition to appeal and in support of the project. and finally, a total of four minutes for appellant or appellant's representative to present a rebuttal. colleagues, are there any objections to proceeding this way? seeing knox, then, the public hearing is now open. -- seeing no objection, then, the public hearing is now open. supervisor preston, do you have any remarks that you would like to give us? not right now? no remarks. seeing no remarks from my colleagues, i will now ask the appellants or their representatives to present their case. you have a total of ten minutes. >> thank you. i'm mary miles for coalition for adequate review, appellant, and we are here today on the appeal of the page street bikeway improvement pilot project. we are here because this project is not exempt from the california environmental quality act, which is also called ceqa. under either the so-called data collection exemption that has been asserted by m.t.a., that would be 14 cal code regulations 15306, which is the ceqa guidelines, and it is also called a class 6 exempt. what is that exemption? it is for data collection in this case. the exemption plainly does not qualify for any other part of the class 6 exemption because it has been approved by m.t.a. on november 19, 2019 and because it has been publicly funded. those would disqualify it for any other reason than data collection, so all we're here today for is to understand whether this project is for data collection or to close a public street to public travel. we would alert that the latter is the reason for this so-called pilot project. we've written briefs. we hope that the supervisors have had a chance to read them. if they haven't and have any questions to put forward, i'd appreciate it if they'd let me know and not let me know on my ten minutes. i'd also appreciate it if the supervisors could refrain from yawning in my face or making physical gestures that are contemptuous of the public speakers. let's look at ceqa very briefly. what does it do? it is the premier environmental law in this country. it protects the environment, not just a small faction of 1%, but everyone, the entire public. it does so by two requirements. one, the project proponent, in this case, m.t.a., must show that the significant -- and it requires a showing of the identification of the significant impacts of the project, and it requires mitigation of those impacts. those requirements must be fulfilled before the project is approved. not after, not as a retroactive categorical exemption as happened in this case. the so-called data collection exemption under class 6 does not apply. as we've stated and as the city has stated in its papers for three reasons. one, it's been proposed, two, it's been funded, and it's a significant project. there are 5,400 travelers on page street, including about 3800, according to city's data, that are headed in the morning to the octavia boulevard freeway ingress, and they do it on page. all the other parallel streets have been totally congested, and so what will be accomplished here by collecting data? well, the city already has the data of how many cars are on these streets? there are 5,400 cars on page street. that's the existing condition. how many will there be after they block page street? let me save you the $350,000 that the m.t.a. proposed to count those cars. there will be zero if you block page street. the question isn't how many cars there'll be on page street after you block access to page street. the question is where are the cars going to go and how is it going to impact everything else? okay. let's look at oak street after they pledge making a circuituous route 18 times. that street is over capacity, already carrying 30,000 vehicles per day. let's stop the crock. here's the reason. two of the supervisors haven't been here through this presentation, and you are required by law to have a full complement of the board present. so should i start over so that those two that weren't here? >> supervisor safai: ma'am, we have a t.v. in the back before the chair? >> so they're going to watch it before they vote today? >> clerk: miss miles, you have four minutes left in your presentation. i suggest you proceed. >> well, i think this is totally biased just like it always is. you needed a full complement of the board to hear this thing. you didn't have it, but i've already said why this doesn't qualify. let's see why the city says it doesn't qualify. if we go to -- let's try page 2077 of your packet, it says here that the city's going to do this pilot because even though there won't be any significant accumulative impacts on all these other streets, it needs to determine whether there'll be cumulative impacts on these streets -- that, and the data counting of the cars after there aren't any cars on the street. like i said, i'll take $3.50 for that. you'll save yourself that $350,000. this isn't a categorically exempt project, this is a permanent project as we've shown in our briefs by the city's own statements. the city has said we intend this to be a permanent project. we're just covering our backsides with this pilot thing so we can pretend nothing's wrong here. when you close a public street to the public, something's very wrong, first of all, to send constitutional on its face, but we can't go there today because this is a ceqa hearing. second, the impacts on the other streets are obvious. you can't divert 5,400 cars to oak street. it's already beyond capacity. you can't put them on haight street. that's already over capacity. it's got 5,000 cars, so why are you really doing this? only the bicycle coalition m.t.a. can tell you that. they want page street for a -- their private use, their private use. again, unconstitutional. if you're going to close a street, you have to close it to everybody after making a final determination that it's not needed for anybody for any purpose. you can't do that. you are also making it, for some reason -- i don't mean you, the supervisors, i mean if -- in a hypothetical fashion, if you divert 5,400 cars to another street, you're making it difficult for people trying to get to work. why? page street isn't categorically exempt. this project is not categorically exempt through ceqa. you have to do an initial-type process where you first analyze whether there may be significant impacts, and you have to show there won't be any with substantial impacts. this hasn't been done. you have to do this preliminary study before you improve it, before you declare it categorically exempt, so we would urge the board to reject the proposed categorical exemption of this project. >> president yee: okay. thank you. supervisor peskin? >> supervisor peskin: thank you, president yee. so ms. miles? ms. miles? >> yeah. >> supervisor peskin: i've been paying attention. >> you're one of the only ones. >> supervisor peskin: so your position is the data obtaining exemption is not correct by virtue of the fact that the department that is undertaking this is going to do more research? that your fundamental argument? >> no, my fundamental argument is that the research that -- that the department claims it needs to do has already been done, first of all. they've already counted vehicles on all the neighborhood streets many times over. there have been many studies already. they don't need to do it -- they certainly don't need to close the street to do it, but it's also that it's not for data collection as shown by the city's own statements, both planning's and -- >> supervisor peskin: it is clear that you are contending this is a data collection posing as a permanent closure, and i just want to focus the issue so that when we have the sfmta up here, we can focus those issues after the planning department and the sfmta give their official statements. i just wanted to focus the issues. but thank you for your comment. >> yes, that's exactly what i'm saying. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, ms. miles. >> president yee: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: yeah, please. so you made the statement both in your brief and in your presentation that this would close a public street to the public, and i just want to clarify that because my understanding of this project is it limits the vehicular traffic on the three blocks and some of the turns onto the streets, but i don't -- i'd like to know what part of this closes a public street to the public. >> it's going to close access to page street at the intersection of webster. you won't be able to get on page street past webster, so you -- at that point, the traffic will be diverted. car traffic -- yes, that's what it's going to do. it's going to close it right there at webster and make all these 5,400 cars go somewhere else, and if you want me to find that in your papers -- >> supervisor preston: no, i just want to clarify. no portion of the street will be closed by the public. your argument is by limiting the vehicular traffic -- >> it'll be closed to the portion of the public that isn't riding bicycles or walking. part of the public -- they're part of the public. >> president yee: anything else, supervisor preston? okay. seeing no other names on the roster, i will open it up for public comment specifically for those who would like to speak in support of the appeal. is there anybody? come on up, lineup to your right. you have two minutes. >> my name is w.o. duffy. i'm a tender lane neighborhood activist. i don't mind destroying my political career. just a couple of points. i think she made a good presentation. it's very hard on these presentations. you've got an entire wall of city officials waiting here. i'd also point out that the cost of this public hearing -- i know that public comment costs about $50 a minute, and this is going to cost about $2,000 for this hearing, so it's not trivial. another point is ancillary, and it's where i'm coming from personally. when you talk about bicycle transit, what is the fuel consumption per mile, miles per gallon of a bicyclist? it turns out it's about 30 miles per hour. it's not much better than an economy car. what do you do when you ride a bicycle? you consume calories, and it goes to the amount of petroleum that it takes to produce the food that we eat. it's not really addressing global climate change in a very direct way, and that's where a lot of my commentary goes to. thank you. >> president yee: seeing no other public comment for this, then public comment is closed. [gavel]. >> president yee: okay. now we will have up to ten minutes for the san francisco municipal transit agency as a project sponsor to do their presentation. so is this matt trager? >> clerk: would you like some assistance? >> i would, actually, thank you. >> thank you for your patience. my name is mark trager, and i'd just like to give some brief remarks today to describe the pilot project so we're all on the same page and also why we decided as an agency to pursue this pilot project. so page street, we see as an important part of the modal hierarchy of moving people. together with haight street, which is the principal transit street in the neighborhood and oak and fell, which are the arterial couplets, page street is the proposed bicycle plan. a variety of improvements will be made next year, but nonetheless, issues still remain, and we've heard from folks in the neighborhood that have lived there many, many years about the cueing of vehicles who are waiting to get from page street onto the freeway. as our system continues to prosper economically, more people are on the streets and uber and lyft don't help with this. we thought this is something that's a little bit less common, something that we don't deal with every single -- in every single neighborhood in all of our streets. we wanted to peel it off into a separate pilot effort that we developed starting in summer of last year, so that's the page street bicycle improvement project separate and distinct from the improvements we had made prior. we think in this case the pilot is an example of good planning. it's taking a complex transportation issue, working with the neighborhood to resolve issues, putting our best foot forward and devising a robust plan. so yes, we know how many cars are on all of these streets in the neighborhood but what we don't know is how people are going to react to neighborhood changes such as restricting access to the freeway on page street. it's triple divergence, people responding to the mode that they take when traffic situations happen, and the times of day that they travel. we think that will very much show themselves with neighborhood-level traffic circulation changes such as these people we hope will shift over and stay on the arterial routes. we hope that it'll be time shifts, as well. we think that there's a huge benefit to putting these out there in a time limited fashion, again, putting our best foot forward in terms of what we think will solve these complex issues and then seeing what the public's reactions are. don't want to go into too many details here because there are a variety of term restrictions imposed. i can drill more on them if you have questions, but suffice to say these restrictions would limit access to the friday. these are term restrictions, so the street is still open to any mode of travel for anybody who would like to use page street, there are just turn restrictions at certain areas. but you would still be able to drive on these streets, residents would still be able to access their driveways, and people walking and bicycling would of course still be able to use these streets. we are planning a robust evaluation for this project, so it's not just looking at where these vehicles move to, but also looking at transit impacts on haight street, violations of the muni red lane and transit travel times in particular. we're also concerned with traffic safety issues, so blocking of intersections, blocking of crosswalks, which we see today. does this get better? worse? does it happen at different intersections than it does today? but also, we want to combine this hard data with people who live and travel and work in these neighborhoods, how it affects that on a daily basis. it's really the hard data with people's experiences, combining those two pieces together. since last summer, we had a very robust evaluation and public engagement process, such as traditional techniques of open houses and meeting with established neighborhood associations, but we also used essential techniques as a pack back mailer, translated into -- backpack mailer, translated into numerous languages. it's new for this agency, having coffee chats, so going to coffee shops, and having conversations with folks, and i intend to use that in future projects, as well. we look at it as outreach, so collecting these data, and using those techniques and others, and responding to people and being prepared to make adjustments and tweaks. so if we want to move -- if we were going to move forward with the project, we'd want to implement, evaluate soon after, and then again in the fall. we're planning to be nimble here, as well, so if we're seeing things on the street in a few months that we think deserve adjustment, we plan to bring those to our board in the summer. the pilot project is a 12-month limited pilot project, so it expires 12 months after implementation, so we would need to come back to our board in 2021 with a recommendation to either continue to make adjustments or to return the streets to the way they are today. so this is a true pilot. but the topics at hand today are related to ceqa, and the environmental determination, so i want to hand it off to my colleagues at the planning department, but of course i'm available if you have any questions. thank you. >> president yee: okay. >> mr. president? >> president yee: yes, supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: to supervisor yee through to the individual whose name i don't know or have since forgotten, after the one-year period, what subsequent environmental review would be required? >> it would have to undergo an entirely separate environmental process, not under the class 6 exemption. >> and it would be formed by the data that's formed under the class 6 exemption? >> yes. >> supervisor peskin: thank you. >> president yee: supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, through the president. my understanding is that the length of the project was -- was reduced. can you explain the circumstance of why -- of why it was reduced, how that came about? >> sure. so as presented to our board in november, it was an 18-month pilot project. given certain concerns in particular from folks who live on haight street, and other individuals, as well, our board was asked to think about reducing the period of the pilot project to 12 months, and there was a little bit of back and forth between the balance of wanting to study this in an expeditious fashion and also having a significant amount of data, so we decided on 12 months so we could have a school year, summer break, and we could have data over the course of an entire year, and then, we could come to conclusions. >> supervisor preston: and then, at the conclusion, there's a possibility that the pilot could be extended further, or it could go to what supervisor peskin -- >> i think right now, it's not possible, but i think we'll have a better sense by the summer check-in. >> supervisor preston: okay. >> president yee: okay. seeing no other names on the roster, then i guess we'll go to the presentation from the planning department. >> good afternoon, president yee, members of the board. i'm laura lynch, senior environmental planner with the planning department. today, i am joined by wade wickrip. on october 31, 2019, the department determined that the project was categorically exempt under ceqa. the california environmental quality act under class 6 which applies to temporary projects whose intent is to collect data and information. as described in detail in our appeal responses submitted to the board on january 21 and 31, the pilot project clearly falls into a class 6 categorical exempt. the appellant argues that the pilot project is permanent and does not meet the definition of a class 6 exemption, however, there is nothing in the record to support those arguments. there's also nothing usual about the project that would prevent this pilot from being exempt under class 6. as supervisor peskin alluded to, the streets must be returned to the prepilot status. an exemption to this is if the m.t.a. board proposed a permanent project. at that point, the board would conduct an environmental review, and it would have to go through the sfmta board for final approval. the decision before the board today is whether to uphold the board's decision to uphold the categorical decision, deny the review, or return the street to previous status. we welcome any questions that you have for the ceqa analysis and can also expand on any topics as you wish. thank you. >> president yee: okay. that was one of the best presentations by a department ever in two minutes. supervisor preston? can you speak into your mic, please? >> supervisor preston: thank you. regarding the length of a pilot project, there's no actual cap on the length of a pilot project, there's no legal barrier to a one-year pilot, is that correct? >> president yee: deputy city attorney or whoever's going to answer? >> there's nothing in ceqa that sets forth limits to the time a pilot can be established. the applicable section under the guidelines is 16307. it may be strictly for information gathering purposes or as part of a study leading to an action which the body has not approved, staffed, or funded, so there's no limits here. >> supervisor preston: thank you. and also, is the class 6 exemption limited only to data collection purposes as represented by the appellant? [inaudible] >> -- section says information or data collection. >> supervisor preston: and then just one more question. so in terms of the standard review for us where the department has represented consistently throughout this, both m.t.a., well, i guess, m.t.a., the objectives of data collection quite clearly throughout, appellant claims the purpose is not data collection. what is the standard that the appellant has to meet to overcome what is being represented by m.t.a.? approval basis m.t.a. was only for a 12-month period, and after every 12-month review, you have to renew for approval, at which time, the sfmta would be taking another discretionary action, where they would be taking another ceqa evaluation again. >> supervisor preston: i think maybe if i can just clarify my question, what i'm saying is m.t.a.s made clear the purpose of data collection from this project in order to be in the class 6 exemption. the appellant says that's not the case, and the purpose of this -- of this pilot is not data collection. i'm asking how we as a decision making body review that and what is the burden on appellant to -- to disprove what appears to be quite a clear record to me of a data collection purpose for this project? >> through the president, laura lynch. we required in our project description to really understand what data is being collected as part of the project. other m.t.a. or city projects where we get a class 6 exemption on the project, we make sure we understand what the goal on this is and the timeline for what -- when they expire. so i don't know if that answers your question, but we did make the determination and the analysis to make sure this does qualify as a class 6 exemption. >> president yee: are you finished, supervisor? >> supervisor preston: thank you. >> president yee: you are finished? >> supervisor preston: yes. >> president yee: okay. seeing no other names on the roster, i would invite members of the public who wish to speak in opposition to to please come on up. go ahead. >> good afternoon, president yee, board of supervisors. my name is david moore. i live in the area, so i'm your prime witness. the appellant mentions the fact of 5,000 vehicles moving down that street, which to me, as a resident, i would question to anyone supporting the appeal, would they enjoy living on an on ramp that has 5,000 vehicles acrossing in front of their front door daily. secondly is the congestion that happens at the corner of octavia and page where two lanes merge to head southbound to approach the freeway, which becomes a very dangerous loud intersection with the horn honking, the yelling from the drivers to pedestrians and back and forth. it happens day and night, and i live there, and i witness it. it -- to me, it's -- you should have received a letter from the hayes valley neighborhood association which summed it up beautifully and clearly. i couldn't say it any better than was stated in that letter. page street was a one-lane eastbound -- it's one lane either way, so it would still have the westbound traffic, and we're not cutting off, and it becomes an on ramp, as i said, to the freeway. thank you for your time and consideration. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is kristin leckey, and i'm an organizer on staff with the san francisco bicycle coalition. the sfmta voted unanimously to approve the page street pilot project. page street has 1.5 times more people on bikes than in cars during commute hours. it brings much needed safety improvements to its thousands of people who walk and bike the corridor daily. the project is one that neighbors, elected officials, and advocates have continuously asked for more than the past five-plus years of planning and public outreach for improvements to page street. the safety can't wait on this corridor. both the page and octavia boulevard and page street and goff street intersections are located on the city's vision zero high injury network. between 2014 and 2019 alone, there were 16 reported collisions, including a child struck while walking to school. the safety of our most vulnerable populations are in danger every day this project is delayed. we have the resources to implement this by the end of the month. let's do it. with all that said, i want to acknowledge that this is a true pilot with paint and posts that can easily be moved. we know there will be design tweaks, given the difficult traffic circulation issues we're deelg with. i'll be there and will continue to show up to partner with the sfmta to better understand the traffic impacts but more importantli importantly the safety benefits. thank you for your time. >> president yee: okay. next speaker. >> good afternoon, chair yee and supervisors. my name is brian hogsman, and i'm walk san francisco's vision organizer. i'm here to support the pilot project and reject the appeal today. it was through these years of community meetings and multiple rounds of feedback, including page street neighbors and community members who walk page every day that these projects were approved and designed. walk sf is ready to see new bulb outs, rain gardens, in the city's first new raised intersection because we know these will slow drivers, especially at intersections and protect people of all ages walking and biking at page, whether on their way to john muir, on the way to the park, or just on their way home. each year on average, traffic crashes injure five people walking, biking, and driving on just the three blocks of this project and people often walking off face a maze of freeway drivers stopped at crosswalks or in the middle of intersections. the people who use page street deserve this to be moved forward especially with traffic deaths and injuries still on the rise. please move forward with the project and reject this appeal today. thank you. >> president yee: okay. next speaker. >> can i use the overhead projector? [inaudibl [inaudible] >> okay. this is a video from this morning of page street. it's me commuting with my kid to taking him to drop him off at school then commute to work. here, you can already see the first block crosswalks that's right next to -- the first blocked crosswalk right next to john muir school. it's blocked constantly every morning while kids are trying to get to school. every intersection is blocked by freeway on ramp traffic. it's pretty much the most dangerous part of our commute at this point going page street to market street to polk street, except for maybe parts of polk street. so i've been involved in giving feedback on page street for five years at least, and then, i know the project finally went in high gear for this past year, and i pretty much support the project. you can see it's just going down -- it's a row of parks traffic. it's a few cars getting through the on ramp. it's not a very efficient aromp if it's supposed to be an on ramp, and it's mostly a dangerous for people using it to bike and walk. it's super dangerous for us. i'm sure it'll change traffic in the neighborhood in interesting ways. as somebody who lives on haight street, i think there will be a lot to evaluate how it affects the bus traffic on haight street, but the status quo is really untenable and unsafe for the hundreds of us who use it to bike every day, so please support the project and reject the appeal. thank you. >> president yee: okay. thank you. next speaker. >> hi. i'm robin lovett, a 25-plus year resident of market and octavia. first, i want to thank the m.t.a. for all the outreach they did to the neighborhood. i'm very supportive of the page street improvements. it's an important step of fulfilling the promise of the market octavia plan to make sure this is a walkable, bikable corridor that's not transit dependent. this is a local residential neighborhood street that most times serves as the de facto on ramp to a freeway. i -- i'm glad to see that video of laguna and page she just showed because that intersection is particularly chaotic. the honking that happens there is endemnic. you just saw it. there are blocked crosswalks, road rage. irresponsible driving, people driving the wrong way. i'm going to share a couple of experiences that i've had at the laguna page street intersection. usually, i walk my dog through there every day because the crosswalks are always blocked. one time, i let him walk, and i had to jump on the hood of one car to keep him from running over my dog. another time, i woke up from being unconscious in the hospital because i was run over at laguna and page. also, i've never had asthma in my life, but the air quality in this neighborhood is among the worst in the city. i now have to carry an inhaler. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is burt hill. i am the chair of the bicycle advisory committee. i have chaired the committee since 2005, and i -- and i was also the chair during the time of the bike injunction. how many of you remember that? five years on the injunction with it, and the -- the arguments were similar as what i heard today. we're going over this again. i hope we're not at the start of a new term on this, but this time is different. we spent millions over that five years paying for lawyers, paying for redesigns -- if you saw the booklet and all the work with it, i hope we don't do that. secondly, we have a time when we're -- we have a physicalality of climate change. as you know, you've signed an emergency declaration. we need to be aware that active transportation is not discouraged. [please stand by] >>... will address the issues i've seen on page for years. since 2015, i've been involved in the planning process about the future of page street. and i've attended events organized by the sfmta and the hayes valley organization. i've appreciated the sfmta community outreach. they're trying new efforts, mailers and outreach to people who english may not be their primary language. not just in hayes valley, but throughout the city, i hope you follow through on the need of safety improvements for all residents. i ask that you reject the appeal and allow the project to proceed as planned. thank you. >> president yee: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i live at page and fillmore so i'm a block or two away from the project. i'm very much in support of the paved street neighbor way. every day when i leave my flat, i see cyclists on the street, and i also see cars. and i would like to see a lot more cyclists, because they're more pleasant than the cars i see driving every day. sometimes i'm in fear of when i walk uphill from fillmore of being run over by a car that is zooming towards the stop sign. and then stops at the very last second, as if annoyed that i'm in their way. i hate to live in fear like that. i don't think there is anyone who really thinks about cars as i really want to live near a freeway. i really want to live near lots and lots and lots of cars going as fast as they possibly can all day every day. i don't think anyone in history has ever said that. i will also add that i looked up a page called energy efficiency in transport on wikipedia and it says that a lightweight moderate speed bicycle has the same energy efficiency of 732 miles per gallon. i have no idea how anyone could think a bicycle which consumes no gasoline, consumes the same gasoline as a car that holds 12 gallons and needs to be refuelled. we're in a climate emergency. so, please, reject the appeal. thank you. >> president yee: okay. any other members of the public who would like to speak? seeing none, public comment is now closed. so lastly, i'd like to invite the appellant or their representatives to present a rebuttal argument. you have up to four minutes. >> i would just like to rebut a couple of things that were said here that were egregiously false. one, that are more bicycles than cars on page street. that's negated by the city's own data which is attached to our brief. second, another member of bicycle coalition, 20 or so people there, claimed that this was in the vision zero city zone data. can i point to your packet at page 2197, does state this stretch is not on the vision zero high injury network. mr. preston asked what the burden is on the appellant. there is no burden on the appellant. the burden is on the city to show that this project fits within the asserted categorical exemption which is for data collection. this project is not for data collection as we've shown. and we've shown why. i would refer to pages 2130 through 2132 of our brief. in your packet, we've given several quotes from the city's own data, the city's own documents that say this is not about data collection, this is about a permanent project. city strategy isn't new. done it many times. they're in fact -- indeed, there isn't a single pilot project i know about. i've been doing this a long time, that hasn't been made permanent by the automatic yes-vote for the mta board. we're looking at a permanent project here. whether it's convenient for bicyclists or not, it is about air pollution, energy consumption -- which by the way under ceqa energy consumption has to do with added miles traveled by vehicles, which those add up. especially if you've got more than 5,000 vehicles being diverted in a wide circle or sitting there in traffic on oak street. and you know, will that be the next alamo for the bicycle coalition? only time will tell. the bicycle coalition has already captured market street, putting a number of small businesses out of business. and it's got a dedicated bicycle path there that are only two blocks away. what is wrong with riding your bicycle there to get where you're going? and why do you have to close another street? to cars? and it is closing the street to cars. when you close it to some vehicles and not others, when you close it to some people and not others, when you partially close one block, that is closing the street under the law. so it is unconstitutional. but that's the big elephant in the room we can't talk about today in this ceqa hearing. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. so, at this time, public hearing, item 43 has been held. it is now filed. we will now reconvene as the board of supervisors. we have now items 44, 45 and 46 before us. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: thank you, president yee. i want to thank mta and planning for their work on this pilot project and recognize we heard from many residents, not only the district impacted here, but from across the city who reached out in support of the project and against this appeal and no communications in support of the appeal. but, turning to what is before us, you know, this area as is made clear from the presentations from the public comment and the record, particularly the intersection at page and octavia really is a traffic and safety nightmare. and has been for some time and has been getting worse. i want to recognize all the important efforts that have gone into planning and gaining approval for this project. there really has emerged a broad community consensus that has come from extensive outreach, it was part of the mta presentation today. i think a model of engaging the community and developing consensus around improvements that get us to vision zero. this area, particularly the page-octavia intersection, the laguna-page intersections as well, have been bearing the brunt of the failure of the city to control our streets and advance a truly transit-first agenda. and the congestion has been on the rise. the threats to the pedestrians and cyclists there have been allowed to get worse and worse over time. add to that, the rise of tmcs, the advent of the apps that have rerouted drivers onto residential streets like page and the rising population and we have a situation with serious threats to the well-being of pedestrians and cyclists. this pilot is in response to that and i think the record is clear, it's intended to and will gather the essential data for the long-term planning. i don't think the fact that a pilot project often becomes permanent is in itself proof that a pilot project is not a pilot project and is a permanent project. i think that is flawed reasoning by the appellant. the record fully supports the city determination that the page street bike project is exempt from environmental review under ceqa. and i want to note that the city and mta held the public meetings and publications required by law, and in fact, the process resulted in changes to the project that actually shortened the length of the pilot project as we heard from mta staff from 18 months to 12 months, again, defeating any argument i think this is a de facto permanent project. so i fully support the right of appellants to file ceqa appeals when projects are improperly deemed exempt from full environmental review. i think there are times when that is a real issue. the exception to full ceqa review for pilot projects needs to be carefully invoked so it doesn't become a back-doorway to avoid complete environmental review, but in this case, the project falls squarely in the pilot project exception and i find no merit to the appeal. and for those reasons, would like this make the motion to affirm the categorical exemption determination. >> president yee: supervisor peskin. >> supervisor peskin: thank you, mr. president. i had a lot of things to say, but i think supervisor preston said most of them, so i will second the motion. >> president yee: okay. we have a motion to approve item 44, affirming that planning department's determination and table 45 and 46. motion made by supervisor preston and seconded by supervisor peskin. same house, same call? okay, without objection then, item 44 is approved and items 45 and 46 are tabled. madame clerk, i think that will bring us to our public comment. >> just for the record, there was an item, item 49, which under committee reports it was not forwarded to the board as a committee report and is, therefore, mooted. just for the record. >> president yee: okay. >> so onto public comment. at this time the public may address the entire board of supervisors for two minutes on items within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board to include items 52 and 53 on the adoption without reference to committee calendar items. please direct your remarks to the board as a whole and not to individual members of the board. speakers using interpretation assistance will be allowed twice the amount of time to testify. and if you would like to display a document on the overhead projector, just clearly state such to sfgovtv and then remove the document when the screen should return to live coverage of the meeting. >> hi, i'm marissa noel. i'm an -- >> president yee: excuse me. supervisor -- yeah. i'm sorry, were you first in line or was there somebody else? the lady behind you was lined up before you? >> i'm so sorry. >> president yee: okay. come on up. >> linda chapman. actually, i was trying to find out about the item about the residential hotels. and you know, the sponsor will know that i was one of the two people who wrote the original legislation. i had a lot of interest in this and i saw it friday coming up on the agenda. i wasn't able to get any information from the sponsor's office or the clerk who referred me back to the sponsor office. and between now and second reading would there be a possibility of conferring at least? obviously there are good things being done here. i finally got a copy of this yesterday. but i'm very concerned about having heard somebody from the mayor's office of housing saying we lost residential hotel rooms. i tried to get in touch with brad paul. the last i heard, we had safshed all -- saved all of them. i know some were lost in my neighborhood. one of them came back. but not entirely because i talked with one of the women who lived there. they said they caught the man. so some of the rooms were returned, but there were others that were not. and then colin beanie. you heard about that. i objected when i saw posting up on one of his buildings on hyde street it was going to convert. i was informed it was okay because he was going to give rooms that would be residential on bush street. but i think you've heard a little about that. what are they? they're a dormitory for his music students to run around naked, 15-year-olds and 35-year-olds. and when i go by there, there is a huge construction site. so whether there are hotel rooms there or not, i don't know. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i want congratulate supervisor preston and welcome him to the meetings and hope you're on our side. i'm a cab driver in san francisco. we've been coming here too long. the promises are not happening. we're tired. when we were sent letters from the sfmta in bold letters it said this will be your last chance to own a medallion, what do we do? drink the kool-aid, right? automatically do it. trust you guys. i forgot my glasses. we were unjustly backed up against the wall and both the sfmta and the board of supervisors that approved such an unlawful and cruel wrongdoing should be further investigated because the malfeasancmalfeasan. the city of san francisco generated millions of our dollars. not only should we be given our principles back and the medallion, but we should be given interest on the money that we lent to san francisco to bail us out of the recession. compound interest. i also want to add the continuing delay tactics that are currently being exhibited are almost even worse. you're causing many of us to stress level that we can no longer put up with. we now are in major state of depression that is only climaxed by suicide. some day maybe one of you will be the mayor of san francisco and i want to know, who is it? who is going to step up for us -- [bell ringing] >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm speaking on the medallion holders. thoughtful, sfmta scamsteres have defrauded us. due to that, our families have been devastated. do not be misconception we will be repaying these payments. we will be bankrupted. our money should be refunded. sfmta developed their employment, we develop our taxi business. transportation supervisor to destroy taxi with uber and lyft. nothing is left for us. we expressed our deep anguish on the situation. you stole our money. hypocritely to delay our funds is to deny it. you put our life at risk. we're dealing with catastrophic situation. depression. we do not want to die in deficit. we do not want this bad karma, because bad karma suck blood. wake up, give us our money back and buy back our medallions, thank you. >> president yee: next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm joe kelly, a resident of san francisco for my lifetime. i'm here today as a concerned citizen. many times i've attempted to make it down here and i haven't. i feel for these guys who just spoke. i really do. the mta, just general observations, i appreciate your service all of you, but my observations are not going to be kind today. compassion is a driving emotion in my life. i have deep, deep compassion for all human beings. but i'm completely frustrated with how this board operates. i wrote some things down. one of the things i wanted to decide, you know, the idea of these bike lanes. i came down here last time when we put the masonic bike lane in. i encourage you to go spend a sunday there. no one uses it. it was a complete waste of taxpayer fund. there is another bike lane two blocks over, for 25 years. i rode my bike 25 years ago on that bike path. please, please, please, stop wasting our money. i've taken time out of my work day because i've reached my boiling point with this body. you were elected to serve the citizens. i wanted you to know how disappointed i am with this body's performance. if i was a high school civics teacher, you would be held back a year. that being said, i understand the citizens need to accept responsibility for incompetency in the city's government, because we do not vote. but please, i encourage you to raise your level of discourse in this body. i come down here and you guys are talking about bike lanes. [bell ringing] we have a budget of billions of dollars -- >> president yee: thank you. thank you very much. >> hi, my name is jess. i'm a student at city college. today i was crying because of the vote as it just gutted me. as a student organizer we've been working so hard -- >> president yee: excuse me. stop the clock. just to remind the speakers -- >> i'm not going to talk about it, just my reaction to the vote, i'm sorry. when we heard today that supervisors had the obligation to shine light and we're asking to shine light on the situation at city college. students should not be punished by the corrupt and controversial chancellor or the incompetence of our board of trustees two of which work in city hall. last week they stated the same concerns that students share. and we'll tell you what we told our board of trustees this saturday. it's not what did you know and when did you know, it's what did you do? students don't have the political platform or clout to fix city college and we need our elected politicians and trustees to help. because students of color and marginalized communities are suffering. we cannot turn our backs to their narrative and suffering. that is privilege and inhumane. this is part of a long difficult dialogue, but it requires true partners who will listen, who truly listen to those who are suffering. our city did not win the super bowl, but our city deserves a win. labor council, harvey milk, glide and others support the emergency bridge fund. students have passed a resolution to do so, too. we are city college residents, voters and constituents. we should not be the hallmark of the trustees and asking for accountability. it's not fair for students. i used to work, so i know about fraud and i want you guys to listen. >> president yee: next speaker. >> my name is roger scott. i have been with aft2121. i taught at city college for that same length of time. i've been a teacher in other countries as well. i think all together, 48 years. and i believe in the value of education. i think the economic democracy and true equality have no greater allies than formal education, than accessible and affordable higher education. i believe that -- i'm skeptical of certainty to not be certain that the board should continue to support the bridge funding for city college. >> mr. president -- >> however -- >> sir, pardon me. mr. president, i'm pausing the speaker's time. this is an appropriate moment to say that you may not comment about the bridge funding for city college. that item has been continued to february 25th i believe? or february 11th? >> president yee: no. it was not continued. it was passed. >> so it is no longer before the board. my apologies. the other item, there is no speaking about the page street project as well. >> thank you, have a good evening. >> sir, you have a minute left, you are able to speak. >> i don't need it, thank you. >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a disabled vet. i want to speak on the unethical practices compounding the homeless plaguing this town. superficial agencies that offer limited and inadequate services to tenants threatened with housing loss. they failed to act on tenant grievances and with no oversight, tenderloin development corporation violates federal housing codes, rat provisions. and in retaliation, tenants have been wrongfully evicted with unfounded stay-away orders by housing court judges haynes and lamb in collusion with a landlord attorney daniel bornstein. all this in violation of judicial codes. lawfully protected tenant defenses against retaliation on clean hands. and suppressing tenant evidence. if you wish to review incriminating material and more, i have it. at your request, i left my name, number and address. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm marissa noel, a tenant and artist at the dovetail community at 2021 11th street. i'm here today as our landlord is trying to evict us despite knowledge of us living in this space for over five years and despite us working in good faith with her to legalize our space. we are one of the last live-work artist communities in soma offering housing and work space at below market rate. we are also an activist collective and we host voting parties, we host spaces to meet candidates and talk about the issues. i've spoken at city planning twice. and they appointed me in the direction of the board of supervisors. so i'm here imploring your help to help us save our space and keep our home safe and sustainable. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is edwin. i'm a codirector with legal services as well as a member of the bring omar home committee. this is in reference to item 52. and so i ask you to please vote in favor of this resolution to bring omar home and also to join the 31,000 online signatures that this committee has obtained over the last several weeks. this is an opportunity as a city to collectively stand up and not just in solidarity, but in action, to support black lgbtq muslim asylum-seekers and to proudly say that the department of homeland security and president trump are not above the law. and that we must urge d.h.s. to comply with a federal order that has already been issued. omar is a vital part of the social fabric of san francisco. he has touched so many lives, not just in the mission district where he resided for 10 years, but all over san francisco and the bay area. i'm here and joined with the bring omar home committee, which is the black alliance for just immigration, the black lgbtq ia+, community divided, omar's chosen family and legal services. so not only are we making a collective stance, but we're also as a city and county collectively standing up and saying that d.h.s. and the president are not above the law. they must comply with the order to bring omar home. thank you. >> hi. good afternoon. my name is hailey kay. i'm here to comment on item 52 as well, a resolution to have the board of supervisors urge the department of homeland security to comply with the federal order issued by u.s. district judge charles brier to return omar back to the united states. it is currently not being complied with and is incredibly urgent. please consider voting in favor of this resolution. your support means the world to us and it means omar's safety. thank you. >> good afternoon, i'm here to read a statement on behalf of scott wiener. i want to express my support for omar, an lgbt asylum-seekers. our president is now ignoring a court order directing his return. this is shameful. it's a matter of life and death. i urge federal officials to joinmy call and step up to demand he be allowed back in the u.s. i support the resolution to let omar return to san francisco. thank you. >> supervisors, i'm the director of the network. and i'm here to support, to ask you to support the resolution, because omar is in a very precarious situation. before this situation, no one knew that in chad omar has this sexual orientation. and now everybody knows it, so he's really, really at risk. to summarize his situation, what it is like to be immigrant, black, sexual orientation and muslim. when they decided they're muslim ban to go after more african countries. so leaving omar there is a death sentence. there has been justice decision. so why? can't we just all of us help immigrants who are fleeing in justice to believe that you're in america, justice is real for everybody. so, please, support this resolution and let's save omar's life. thank you. >> hello. i'm sandy. and i'm a bay area organizer and have been organizing in san francisco and i just want to express my support for the resolution on items 52. and i also just really want to challenge san francisco to think about even going a step further and looking at pursuing litigation and legal action against the department of homeland security. i really want to stress how important it is, not just this year, but going into next administration or even the continuance of this administration, that we really, really severely need oversight of local cities and local counties, because the federal government is not holding itself accountable. and we see that, which is why we're here. i just want to challenge you all to think about ways that you can take this a step further. and actually defend san francisco residents and prevent this from happening in the future, where challenging the federal government to do what a judge has already ordered them to do. so thank you so much to the leadership of hillary for taking this on. and hope that the board can support that. and look into what they can do even further. thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm a cofound over the black lgbtq project. i'm here also to comment on 52. organizing in san francisco, oakland and berkeley, there is a lot of fear in the central american, caribbean and african migrant community, particularly because omar was a beloved member. and they are constantly stressed out that what happened to omar is going to happen to them. this is a public health issue. it's not just about one person. it's about letting everyone know in san francisco that they are represented regardless if they're undocumented or underdocumented. i was undocumented for 17 years. i am now legal permanent resident, but i can still be deported at any moment. i am queer, black, transspectrum and i am black. if i am in fear, i can't imagine how undocumented are living. so i'm here to urge you to vote yes because it is a public health issue and not just about one individual. thank you. >> hello. i'm a community advocate for asian americans. thank you so much, for introducing this resolution. it is much needed. i'm also part of the bring home omar committee. excited to be here, because omar like many immigrants and refugees, because myself, as a daughter of a refugee, we know what it feels like having to flee from war. but where he's at, every minute these there, his life is at risk. i have protection. i can't be deported to cambodia, because a domestic abuse survivor. so i was grateful for an immigration judge who stepped in and offered that protection. if you want to encourage you to do that, because collective power is the movement in the making. and we do work around immigrants that are like omar and many that will face similar situations. and it's really for the pass to say that we stand with omar and san francisco and that california remains strong together and do what we can to bring omar home. and be that leading role for other cities, communities. >> president yee: thank you. >> hi, good afternoon. i'm sarah lee. i'm with asian law caucus. i join everyone else here to support the resolution to bring omar home. one thing i wanted to note, last year, supervisor walton introduced a resolution similar, condemning the deportation of southeast asian and lifting up. and the city of oakland passed their own resume loose and right now -- resolution, and right now the state. what happens here has impact, not only for omar, but others in his situation. >> thank you. tom gilbert. nightmares, the impeachment complete with mitch mcconnell's new standard of sworn oath. alternative facts, new version of the sworn oath, alan dershowitz, the president can do anything to get himself re-elected. nightmares. no republican senator standing up, no evidence, no testimony, lock stepped with a party that accepts jerry man derring. we call it a kangaroo court. that what i heard about the soviet union trials. now here we are. nightmares. kobe bryant. nightmares. collusion, hacking. who knows? the democratic party, new rules allowing bloomberg to enter. the s.f. scandal. trump's state-of-the-union address. nightmares. kangaroo courts continue. kavanaugh investigation. and this independence -- impeachment. turning a page. private lands. financially purchased for oil-drillers with their financial bankers making a strike, selling that oil for profit to -- pipelines. so refiners can make money. san francisco, private ownership of land sold to financers to make a profit on private property. [bell ringing] >> president yee: thank you. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors. i was looking last week at the minutes of the board of supervisors meeting of january 28. 36 votes were taken on ordinances, resolutions and other items. 35 out of the 36 passed with zero opposition. okay. this says one thing to me. that the real meeting has already taken place and this is just a show. this is a show meeting, much like the show trial on tv which we recently suffered. everybody knows the outcome. it has already been decided. which brings me to the january 7th resolution. 191301, supporting the resettlement of refugees within the city. now this is a federal program and not run by the city. but ironically, we fail to see the refugee population created by conditions in our city. the streets full of excrement, the lack of law enforcement, the corruption, most recently illustrated by our crooked d.p.w. chief. there is high cost of housing. low quality of life. and high taxes. refugees are created every day here. and they depart to escape the intolerable conditions i mentioned. it's hypocrisy so show humanity to strangers. residents are last. >> hi, good afternoon. my name is dana. i'm here to talk about corruption. i'm really happy to see my supervisor haney talking about corruption as a systemic issue related to the dysfunction in planning and d.b.i. i'm here to say, yes, keep pulling on the thread there. there is a lot of there-there. we have decided like our premium process is designed to be dysfunctional and that creates an environment where, of course, you have corruption because that's the only way to get anything done. we have a lot of discretion without accountability or transparency. and like all you need is a person to come through, like they always do, and take advantage of that. we need big structural change to clean up this mess. we need to replace discretion with clear, transparent rules wherever possible. we need to end the culture of anyone can appeal anything. looking at the planning code, a lot of it is designed to not have things happen. last year, a 10-unit apartment building was approved in bernal heights. it took 40 years. that is not a functional city. we need to fix this, because thinks at the core of -- this is at the core of all of the corruption we're seeing. >> i support oumar. i've probably made a mistake at street closure thing. just want to say that. but i want to go back to the point how heavily embedded petroleum and fossil fuels are in the way that we live. there is about a gallon or so of fossil fuels consumed just by the products we eat every day and if we have a higher expense diet than that, it can be 2-3 gallons. that thousand to one calories to the actually calories we consume. it's embeded as transportation. it's embedded as bringing water to distant parts, thousands of miles where the land is. it's embedded very much in the fertilizer that consume massive amounts of petroleum like ammonia. there is only two acres of productive farmland for every human in america. how do you make the magic of the food we get is heavily underpinned by petroleum at this point and speaks how difficult it is to address global climate change. it's going to be a challenge. and i've looked at it and i've come to believe the consensus of the evidence is that when you build a city with a population density over 10,000 people per square mile, certainly over 20,000, you don't get a net environmental benefit from that. it's too difficult. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hello. my name is harry. i'm instructor at city college. i'm concerned with the manner that two public comments were reported from your january 28 meeting. the speakers were mayorly hearn, she's from the group equity for older students and advocating for older adults and the other speaker was myself. the description of the comments was generic. referring to the impact of the class cuts at city college, but that does not do justice to what you actually heard that day. so i was speaking basically about the -- not only the history of city college, how it was formed, but the education policy, so the official education policy of the state of california, the statement that all adults in california are entitled to quality publicly supported continuing education opportunity. so how does san francisco bring that about? is it by ignoring a city college that is cancelling its programs for adult education? it also goes on to say participation in other courses designed to meet the particular needs of the local community. so that's what we're about. as far as ms. hearn's comment, she brought to your attention that governor newsom's executive order n1419 from last june announced a plan to establish a master plan on aging to be written, coming effective this year. the executive order is inspired by the subgrowstantive growth i senior population, referring to dignity and how to enhance their quality of life. please consider that. >> any other public comments at this point? >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm peter warfield. speaking for equity for older students and we can be reached at equity 4 older students at proton mail.com. late last week -- well let me start out, i'm asking the supervisors do not let city college die as a community college. and that's what is happening. you might say in what way it is dying? there are ways to describe it, but it looks like the board of trustees and the chancellor only have a plan to chop, chop, chop, cut, cut, cut, and not go for other potential solutions which i think you could help city college with. the city college needs a lot of help and when one of the things that joint committee heard supposedly from the chancellor, the trustees and the administration, the chancellor didn't know at the joint committee. and they basically ripped the chancellor and the folks that were there for not having any kind of plans or figures about what is going on and how they're supposedly taking care that city college is going to be on a solid financial basis. supervisors, the school board, and those members of that committee were very unhappy with the -- [bell ringing] -- almost no information that was related to the topic that they actually brought. the previous meeting of the joint committee, nobody showed up from city college whatsoever and even the two trustee members of the committee didn't show up. what is going on was asked? and we ask, too, what is going on? i hope the supervisors will seriously look into what is going on really. thank you. >> president yee: thank you. any other public comments? seeing none, public comment is now closed. madame clerk, let's call the adoption without committee reference items 52 and 53. >> items 52 and 53 were introduced for adoption without reference to committee. a unanimous vote is required for resolutions. alternatively, any member may require a resolution to go to committee. >> president yee: anyone like to sever any items? >> supervisor ronen: yes, please, 52. >> president yee: madame clerk, call 53. >> on item 53, supervisor stefani. stefani aye. walton aye. yee aye. fewer aye. haney aye. mandelman aye. mar aye. peskin aye. preston aye. ronen aye. safai aye. there are 11 ayes. >> president yee: so this resolution is adopted unanimously. let's see, madame clerk, call item 52. >> item 52 is resolution to urge the united states department of homeland security, u.s. senators dianne feinstein and kamala harris to ensure oumar's return to san francisco. >> supervisor ronen: thank you. i just wanted to thank all of the community members and organizations and friends and family of oumar for coming out, supporting him, having his back, fighting for him in the courts and in the halls of power. you're an inspiration to all of us. i want to pass this unanimously today and ask all my colleagues to support the resolution, because we need the help of our federal representatives, senators harris and feinstein to demand that d.h.s. bring back our community member to his home so they can fight his -- he can fight his case for asylum. i want to thank my colleagues who have cosponsored this item with me. supervisors mandelman, haney, fewer, mar, and stefani. thank you so much. and may he come home as soon as possible per the federal district court order of justice charles brier. thank you. >> president yee: okay. supervisor preston? >> supervisor preston: i would like to be added as a cosponsor. >> president yee: all right. same house, same call? without objection, this resolution is adopted unanimously. colleagues -- [applause] madame clerk, please read the in memoriam. >> today's meeting is adjourned in memory of the following. on behalf of supervisor ronen, for the late ms. jackie jones. on behalf of supervisor peskin, for the late mr. robert. and on behalf of supervisor walton for the late mother essie webb jones. >> president yee: that brings us to the end of the agenda. madame clerk, any other further business before us today. >> that concludes our business for today. >> president yee: thank you very much. we are adjourned. >> the bicycle coalition was giving away 33 bicycles so i applied. i was happy to receive one of them. >> the community bike build program is the san francisco coalition's way of spreading the joy of biking and freedom of biking to residents who may not have access to affordable transportation. the city has an ordinance that we worked with them on back in 2014 that requires city agency goes to give organizations like the san francisco bicycle organization a chance to take bicycles abandoned and put them to good use or find new homes for them. the partnerships with organizations generally with organizations that are working with low income individuals or families or people who are transportation dependent. we ask them to identify individuals who would greatly benefit from a bicycle. we make a list of people and their heights to match them to a bicycle that would suit their lifestyle and age and height. >> bicycle i received has impacted my life so greatly. it is not only a form of recreation. it is also a means of getting connected with the community through bike rides and it is also just a feeling of freedom. i really appreciate it. i am very thankful. >> we teach a class. they have to attend a one hour class. things like how to change lanes, how to make a left turn, right turn, how to ride around cars. after that class, then we would give everyone a test chance -- chance to test ride. >> we are giving them as a way to get around the city. >> just the joy of like seeing people test drive the bicycles in the small area, there is no real word. i guess enjoyable is a word i could use. that doesn't describe the kind of warm feelings you feel in your heart giving someone that sense of freedom and maybe they haven't ridden a bike in years. these folks are older than the normal crowd of people we give bicycles away to. take my picture on my bike. that was a great experience. there were smiles all around. the recipients, myself, supervisor, everyone was happy to be a part of this joyous occasion. at the end we normally do a group ride to see people ride off with these huge smiles on their faces is a great experience. >> if someone is interested in volunteering, we have a special section on the website sf bike.org/volunteer you can sign up for both events. we have given away 855 bicycles, 376 last year. we are growing each and every year. i hope to top that 376 this year. we frequently do events in bayview. the spaces are for people to come and work on their own bikes or learn skills and give them access to something that they may not have had access to. >> for me this is a fun way to get outside and be active. most of the time the kids will be in the house. this is a fun way to do something. >> you get fresh air and you don't just stay in the house all day. iit is a good way to exercise. >> the bicycle coalition has a bicycle program for every community in san francisco. it is connecting the young, older community. it is a wonderful outlet for the community to come together to have some good clean fun. it has opened to many doors to the young people that will usually might not have a bicycle. i have seen them and they are thankful and i am thankful for this program. >> directe[roll call] >> chairwoman: item three, announcement of prohibition, please silence your cell phones and all electronic equipment. they are prohibited at the meeting. the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person responsible for the ringing of or use of one of these devices. item for approval of minutes from the january 21st and january 28th m. >> board members, we have minutes from our last regular meeting, is there any public comment on this item? >> no, mr. chair. nobody has turned in a speaker card. >> seeing none, we'll close public comment. is there a motion to approve these items >> a motion. >> second. >> item five, communications, i have none for you today. item six. >> board members, new or unfinished business. wow, a remarkably silent group. >> i'll volunteer one thing. >> i put myself out there on that one. >> i first of all want to direct director tomlin and all of the staff on the excellent workshop last tuesday. it was really rich and substantive. and you came to a lot of new conclusions. and i wanted to share i've had several colleagues reach out to me to share stories of their commute. i've had them express faster traveling times, and remark about the aspect they did not anticipate, which is how quiet it is on market street, and they could even hear birds churping on their walks. i just wanted to share that. i'm sure all of you are hearing positive feedback as well. but i think it is a great success, and it is clearly have an immediate impact. >> wonderful, thank you, director ecan. i want to thank you for the workshop, and particularly for the market street opening. i was limited how much time i had at the microphone, so i didn't thank staff adequately, but i want to reiterate thanks to director reskin, to director mcguire, and director tomlin for all they did to make it happen. victoria weiss, and all of the people on the staff. there were so many people who briefed me throughout the entire process, and who worked hard to make it happen, and they had appropriately big grins on that beautiful wednesday afternoon. i have certainly heard, anecdotally, from our operators, how much better things are going on the street. i think it would be useful if we were able to quantify that or get some sort of survey response simply so we can address that and let the public know that the effect that we promised is real. and the second thing, i don't see director toran. cabs are allowed on market street. i have seen them moving efficiently up and down market street. so with that, we will move on to item number seven. >> item seven is the directors' report. >> director tomlin, this is er your second meeting, third meeting if you count the workshop. so i know you're in the swing of thing. the floor is yours. >> first up, i would like to direct our chief financial officer, leo levinson, who can present the staff awards. >> leo, welcome. >> i have staff present to be recognized. so today we're going to recognize the custodial staff in our system that responded to the december 7th subway flooding. we heard last board meeting about the engineering staff, and this is the other half of the picture to make those stations clean and usable for the public. they responded on a saturday. they do their workday in, day out, on incredibly dlt difficult circumstances, and this is one particular time when they went above the call of duty that clean this flooding event up and made the system available. i would like to bring them up. along with -- so we have the managers here to join with me. kirstin, or director of facilities and real property management, lisa chow and lisa ising. >> would you speak to the microphone? >> yes. come on up closer. and so on behalf, really, of all of the custodial staff in the system, we would like to recognize this particular group who responded on that day. and they include the swing-shift supervisor, shen, lee shen, rick tong, shing jong, william quang, jean hi quang, jerry leyong, joseph freeman, lolita carrino, and cho yong shen. [applause] >> thank you all on behalf of the board of directors and on behalf of the entire city for your quick work that day and your constant and vigilant work every day. is there anyone among you who would like to address us, not a command performance, but certainly welcome if you'd like. >> welcome, sir. >> thank you. thank you, board of supervisors. >> i appreciate that. thank you very much. >> all right, we're handing out the rest of the awards. while you guys get your awards, again, thank you so much. thank you for your words, sir. and thank you, leo, and i think director tomlin, we can move on to the next award. >> i would like to call to the podium tom mcguire to begin our visions error report. and i think for our award recipients, i think there is a photo that we would like to take over there. you're already on it. you're a good man. all right. all right. mr. mcguire, welcome. >> good afternoon, directors, tom mcguire, director of sustainable streets. if we could have the laptop screen, please. so i'm here to talk to you a little bit about why speed matters, and why it is so central to our vision zero efforts, and to give you a timely update on the taskforce that just released its recommendations yesterday morning. you'll hear us talk, in almost all of our talks in vision zero,wets whether i, whether it isenforcement are, the importance of reducing vehicle speeds. we know from the day we've been working with the public health and police department over five years collecting 62% of the fatalities that take place in san francisco, the primary cause of that fatality is excessive speeding. it makes sense when you think about the nature of our streets and the fragilelity of our human body. it is really striking when you see -- if you're hit by a car, you have a 90% chance of surviving that crash with just an injury. if you're hit by a car traveling 20 miles per hour, you have a 20% chineschance of surviving crash. the results have been proven to be empirically true, when we look at states that have implemented our top legislative priority, automated speed enforcement. the 142 cities and communities around the country who have that, they're seeing consistently their collisions go down. anywhere from 13% to 53%, and they're seeing their fatality going down because they're consistently seeing their top-end speeds go down as a result of that enforcement technique. so the link that we see in the data is very clear: speed is what causes fatalities and serious injuries on our streets. so automated speed enforcement, or really any speed reduction tool, is only as good at the legal speed limit we're able to set on the streets. it is interesting, when you look at the ways in which we set speed limits in california, they don't seem particularly consistent with the values that i hear this board expressing or with our vision zero transit first policies. this is a diagram from the california state transportation agencies speed-limit-setting manual. and you'll see things that appear to be protecting drivers from speed traps, preparing your radar gun, making sure you've calculated the 85th percentile, and lots and lots of data about how traffic is moving on streets we know to be unsafe today. and then there is this one little section called "consider other factors," which you only do after you prepare your speed gun and collected all of your data. so what are the other factors? you dig into it and you realize that the other factors include things like accident records -- they say accident records, not crash -- business, residential density -- everything that makes a san francisco street is kind of buried away in this "other factors" box. and we and the other big cities in california don't think that's right. that is why assembly woman laura friedman from los angeles county passed assembly bill 2363 two years ago, and it created a taskforce to identify findings and recommendations to reduce fatalities to zero. it came out of her attempts to use state law to change the way in which we calculate speed limits, and to raise up those data-driven factors around, with the crash records of the streets. the effort to change state law -- to change the speed limit methodology did not pass in 2017. instead, the taskforce was formed. it just released its findings yesterday. and i'm cautiously optimistic about the results for two reasons. the first is, there is the statement in bold on the screen here. i think this is the first and one of the clearest statements we've seen from the state of california about what we already know here in san francisco: the relationship between speed and injury severity is consistent and direct. the state is saying, if we're going to get to zero deaths and get serious about controlling the rate of injuries on our streets, we have to control our speeds. and there are three encouraging take-aways, and none of these can happen tomorrow. all will require further legislation, but the report does provide a technical basis for future legislation. the first is a recommendation that prioritizes lower speed and speed limits on a high-injury network. we drew out our high-injury network in 2015, and lots of other big cities in california follow our lead. secondly, lower speed limits near vulnerable populations, senior facilities, shelters, playgrounds, and health care facilities. while we showed the dying graham odiagram of the 80% -- it looks much worse for the elderly and people who are very young. we have vulnerable streets here in san francisco, and the state is saying we need to protect them. and finally, while it doesn't give us the right to use law enforcement -- i think this is the strongest statement we have seen from the state today. it is not permission, but we cleell clearly have a roadmap to move two of the policies in our vision zero strategy, to move those forward. i want to acknowledge kate green, who served on this taskforce, and is working closely with our legislative affairs, folks in city hall, and with assembly members, who is continuing to try to keep the fight for o.s.e. going in san francisco. thank you. >> thanks, tom. so that was a very timely report. we are hopeful that the state of california will learn from the abundant data and case study analysis available from other communities throughout the world to legalize some of the most affective tools for managing safety on our streets. meanwhile, our vision zero efforts continue, and last week we did have one fatality, a motorcyclist collided with a motor vehicle, resulting in a fatality. at this point, the rapid response team has no recommendations. moving on to culture change, which has been a big topic these last couple of weeks. this week is also the one-year anniversary of ombudsman person delores brandings' report, doing a detailed analysis of conditions at the f.m f.m.t.a., and offering a thorough set of recommendations. one of the things i've asked my staff to do is take a look at all of those recommendations and be tracking progress against each of them. in quick summary, our human resources director, kimberly acreman, has been leading that effort, along with donte king, and virginia harmon. they have been busy creating some standards that did not exist, about treating all employees fairly. it includes written recruitment policies that make the process more transparent. integrating diversity into all of our h.r. initiatives. providing better training opportunities to managers and supervisors, as well as frontline employees, in partnership with the department of human resources. reviving the e.o. process to make it more easily understandable, and improving communication and transparency throughout. we are -- also, as you saw last week in our budget exercise, we have a significant ask around creating a new division for race and equity within the department, as well as a significant ask of increasing staffing at the department of resources in order to meet all of these goals. i believi think we're making god progress, and the pace of that progress should step up as h.r. becomes more fully staffed. so we'll be continuing to update you at board meetings throwlt throughout the year. in the meantime, we're also working on cultural change work, including doing a better job of tracking specific outcomes around discipline, employer pathway progress, by race and gender. i have been meeting personally with our black and african-american affinity group, as well as the change fmta group that was organized around women's issues and masogony in the department, from previous administrations. and engaging all of those groups in really productive conversations. as you know, we're creating a new office on race, equity, and inclusion. and donte king has been leading the development and implementation of classes throughout the organization at all levels and all divisions, around understanding and addressing the ins institutional and systemic issues. if you could bring up the slides, moving on to the next topic, we're very excited about this as well, which is bus acceptance. this picture on a very truly foggy, wonderful day from last week, is the last of the rubber tire fleet replacement program, enabling us to retire our least reliable vehicles, and offer new vehicles that have a huge number of benefits, including extending the miles driven between failure from 3,000 miles per failure to over 10,000 miles per failure, and this is resulting in significant reliability improvements on the bus side. that is being complemented by, as you know, increasing the number of operators who are actually available to drive the service. we're finally starting to see some significant improvements in reliability on the bus side. and these electric trolley buses are equipped with an electric battery, and they can go off wire for significant distances in order to detour around a special veep event or an incident. and they provide a better ride ergonomically. and it means we have the greenest transit fleet in all of north america. the next photos are from our market street. a quick build launch of a better market street. our crews have been working so hard to deliver this. they have been out there at all hours, and despite the rainy weather that slowed things down, it has been a tremendous success. this includes so many different divisions that have been working on this both within our agency, at the police department, at p.u.c., at public works. and we're starting to get the data now on performance. we knew that there was a lot of excitement last week, and so we didn't want to count what was happening last week in our performance data. and it's a little too soon, i think, to reveal some of the numbers because we want to make sure things settle out. but what we're seeing is at least a 20% increase in bike ridership on some very cold late january and early february days. we're seeing measurable improvement in transit travel in speed and reliability. one thing that is am moving tamusing to me is the rider savings greater than the actual savings because of the ways in which we perceive time. but our riders' persceptions drive it. so we care about the data, as well as the quanti fiablquantifiable data. welcome to the year of the rats. one of the biggest events in franchise is the chinese new year's parade, which this year is february 8th. the sfmta has been a part of these parades for a very long time. our staff and their families will be riding a dedecorated motorized car. and this is my first time being a judge, and i'm very, very excited. and i'm going to need some help practicing my tones in cantonese. obviously, a huge amount of effort around making the parade successful, routing our buses around it, keeping everyone safe and figuring out how the whole city works. this is a hugely important parade, both for us, as well as for the city as a whole. and finally, i'd like to close by recognizing two very important african-american san franciscans. marial pleasant and shor charlotte brown sued and won the right for all californians to have equal ra righright to public transportation. as san franciscans and as americans, we should know and celebrate their names. my staff has developed a video on their story. if you go to youtube and search "transportation is for all." that will come up. and we're also partnering with the san francisco public library to make sure their biographies are available for anyone interested in their remarkable stories. that's all i have for you today. >> chairman: excellent report. do we have public comment cards? >> robert shasana and he herbert riner wish to address you. >> good afternoon. happy new year, whatever. i just want to talk briefly about vision zero. i think you are missing completely the point of vision zero. the point is to keep pedestrians separated from the street. and the problem is, you don't enforce any of your own regulations. the amount of cars -- i'm sorrsorry -- the amount of bicycles, skateboards, one-wheel whatever they are, electric vehicles going the wrong way, up, down, on the sidewalk. i also have an objection to wheelchairs. and the only way that i can think of making both of us happy is i think all electric wheelchairs should have a noise-maker on them because they silently approach you at twice or three times the speed of pedestrians on narrow pageants, and you pavemeu have to jump out of the way. if you have this idea that electric vehicles are going to have noise-makers, i honestly believe you should have them on electric wheelchairs. [buzzer] >> the other thing is, all these scooters, they have laws on them about helmets, about not using the sidewalk. and you don't have anybody out there enforcing your own rules. and i would suggest hiring a couple of retired police officers, with the ability to issue fines and summons, and equip them with electric bicycles. >> chairman: thank you very much. mr. riner? >> herbert riner. i have some concerns about the culture of m.t.a. is anything being done to stop bullying at the work sites. women, ethnic minorities are identified, but there should be protections against being bullied by supervisors, and sometimes by peers. you have to address this because this is a real problem in any city agency, including m.t.a. secondly, on the whole question of vision zero and safe market street, something has to be done about bicyclists who continually go through the red lights we have to be protected against automobiles, but bicyclists have to be monitored too. people -- all pedestrians have to be protected. three, about accessibility, that means accessability for everybody. that means that people shouldn't have to walk a quarter of a mile to the bus stop. and that bus stops should be convenient. when you have these muni projects and you eliminate bus stops without any increase of the buses on the run, that's basically a zero minus solution. [buzzer] >> so these are the things that really have to be addressed by this organization. thank you. >> mr. chair, those are the only two people who turned in a speaker card. >> chairman: seeing no further public comment, public comment is closed. >> i know director brinkman knows about this study from the m.t.c. as well, with respect to bicycle usage in san francisco. and what this study showed me was that it was very interesting, that most people that ride bikes are very wealthy, with respect to $100,000 or more in terms of salary. but only 14% of these bike riders are asian...(indescernable ). asian...(indescernable... (indescernable). are we doing more to encourage those women and latinos and asians to use bicycles more -- are we doing educational programs towards those communities? >> yes, absolutely. social equity is a key point not only for the values of the sfmta, but also in the world of providing protective facilities for people who want to ride bikes or scooters or other forms of mobility. one of the key things we learned is if we want more than just fit, young, white, wealthy men to ride bikes and scooters, the first thing that we need to do is to to provide protected facilities. particularly the bike lanes, like in the middle stretch of valencia, those are just uber and lyft pickups and dropoffs. there are protected facilities where we're seeing an increased diversity of riders. that's one of the reasons why th they are committed to having -- the goal is actually for 2021, and we're wanting to accelerate that. and that includes completing the protective lanes on howard and fulsom, 7th, 8th, 5th, and portions of the embarcadero, and, more importantly, implementing the community-based transportation plans, like our remarkable bay view transportation plan, which started not with infrastructure, but started with deep community engagement in the bay view, asking local community members what are their priority transportation investments in order to meet their specific needs and priorities. so we're definitely looking at more culturally appropriate and community-based design approaches, particularly for the neighborhoods that represent san francisco's diversity. >> chairman: all right. a very helpful question and answer. directors, anything else for director tomlin? wonderful. that woo an excellent report. thank you. you're merging right into your job very well. thank you for that excellent report. let's move on. >> the citizens' advisory council's report, i do not see any of the officers present, so no report today. item nine, public comment, it is an piewntopportunity for the members to address the board. we'll start with jane natoli, followed by robert chasana. >> chairman: all right. welcome. >> hello. let me just pull up my comment here. good afternoon, directors, my name is gene natoli. on my behalf and several other folks who could not make it here today, i want to start by thanking director tulman. i know you're stepping down, and i wanted to express our thank you for everything you have done for the city. [inaudible] >> unfortunately, i couldn't ride because i have a broken hand. i suffered this broken hand a few weeks back because i was hit by someone driving while biking in san francisco again. this is the third time i've been hit in four years. this time it was on north point, in the paint-only bike lane, it was in the middle of the day, and it was bright and clear. it was someone looking to park his car that didn't see me. we continue to see situations like this all over our city. there are victories that we should celebrate that are worthy, our streets are still too unsafe. i implore you not to lose sight of how much work remains. these are people's lives we're talking about. that number needs to start going down for obvious reasons. even one death is too many. i've been lucky enough to walk away from my crashes. we still have a lot of work to do. i look forward to continuing to support the city's efforts to make the street safer for our most vulnerable users. [buzzer] >> but i keep coming back to the same questions: who isn't here to speak up. who will speak up for me the nec next time oom i'm not so lucky? we need to truly make our streets more safe. there are a lot of exciting opportunities for safe streets, and i'm hoping you'll rise to the moment and be the leader i know you can be. >> chairman: thank you for your articulate comments, and good luck on that hand. mr. chasana, the floor is yours. wonderful, we'll consider you taking yourself out of the cue. >> okay. rowan getta. >> good afternoon. i would like to echo what was said earlier about director brinkman. it is very sad to hear you'll be leaving us, and i thank you for your long-time service here at the board. i'm sure --ime i'l -- i'll be speaking about bike lanes later. but right now i want to talk about something completely different, and that is the san francisco/oakland bay bridge, which has had bus lanes on it for about two years of its almost century-long existence. you may have heard there is an effort going on to bring back bus lanes on the bay bridge, and there is a few organizations, the east bay, working with assembly member bonta, on an effort there, that has been supported by the bart board and the alameda county transportation commission because their governance doesn't make any sense, either. as well as by the city councils in berkeley and oakland, and maybe emeryville, if i remember correctly. a.c. transit, obviously, operates transit bus service on the bay bridge. i would like to remind you all that the muni 25 line also operates on the bay bridge, and its unreliability is very much caused by traffic on the bridge in both directions. [buzzer] >> it can start from the terminal, but it can't start its loop on the island at a predictable time. i would strongly e encourage this board and the m.t.a. to work with these people. thank you. >> chairman: anyone else? public comment? seeing none, we'll move on to item 10. >> your consent calendar. all items are considered to be routine unless a member of the board wants to have it considered separately. mr. chair, no member of the board or the public have indicated an interest in severing any item,, >> chairman: wow, this meeting is as efficient as market street these days. with that, i'll entertain a motion on the consent calendar. >> motion to approve. >> chairman: very well, item 11. >> it is a presentation and discussion regarding embarcadero traffic safety. >> good afternoon, chair heiheinke, my name is casey hilldrith. i'm mere t here to give you an update of planning along the embarcadero corridor. working with our partners, the port of san francisco, who are the jurisdictional owners -- which is why you haven't seen some of the work i'll show you, but we've been working since 2014 on trying to reenvision or understand the challenges along the corridor, as well as reenvision how we can design and program and manage the embarcadero for the next 100 years. i think it is important to point out that it is just -- the embarcadero, talking about better market street, it is one of our key, specific corridors. so before we sort of dive into the problems and challenges and talk about solutions, i did add a couple of slides in this deck to pay respect to the distinctive d.n.a. of the embarcadero, as well as point out some of the wonderful work our partners, the port, are actually working on, and some of the larger challenges that they're facing as the owner of the embarcadero. >> chairman: it is hard to believe that someone once thought that would be a great place for a freeway, isn't it? >> you're stealing my thunder a little bit. >> chairman: sorry. >> first and foremost, this is an active maritime environment. the embarcadero did not existent. it was water and title flats a couple hundred years ago. so a fun slide that you can see at a museum up in the north end where some of the ships were just -- they came, they unloaded, and they just didn't go anywhere. they wanted to stay. it has always been a very dynamic waterfront and has been competition for space. but only in the turn of the 20th century did we really start to see the outline of the waterfront that we sort of recognize today. right? so the sea wall was built over several years. land was brought in to fill in those title flats. and we have, you know -- we expanded our downtown and sort of begin to have the waterfront that we can recognize today. certainly the embarcadero itself was still wildwest, did not look like what we have. but you did see ferries, and the real key aspects of the d.n.a. of the embarcadero and how people get around. those only strengthened over the years. but we also saw the introduction of the automobile, so this is a slide from the late '20s, really showing the changes over the years that took place right in front of our sort of front door to the bay. within a couple of decades, yes, we had really manifested a different set of values along the waterfront, choosing mobility and through foot over our civic identity, and certainly any sort of sustainability. but this freeway still lives in the d.n.a. of the embarcadero, so we have to understand what it did serve and how we can pay respect or mitigate and respond in new ways to challenges. so save for all of the bad things that happened, loma paraddo parado was a god-send. we have dedicated transit lanes, we have bike lanes, and we have a shared-use promenade on the water side. that is now a sidewalk, and people can ride their bike. as long as you do not have an electronic motor, you're welcomed on the promenade. this was the state of the practice 20, 30 years ago, but we now have many new challenges and demands on our street, and with the introduction of so many more pedestrians, this design, while wonderful, does have challenges and we need to think ahead to the future. but it still remains, you know, there are just moments of beauty and serenity on the embarcadero, despite its dinoism. we throw out one comment that the port likes to mention, they see about 24 million visitors a year, tourists, commuters, residents, it really is a waterfront for everybody. and that popularity translated, fortunately for the port, into a wonderful down payment, public funding, to support making sure that this waterfront is going to be resilient for the next 100 years and beyond. so the recent bond that was passed is really a down payment on how the port can begin to plan and implement safety upgrades so it is not exposed to high risks from an earthquake, as well as, you know, this is the frontline for climate change and sea level rise. they're actively working on this program. and they have a problematic-phased approach of strengthen, adapt, and envision. trying to focus on where we can make smart investments that improve safety now, while we build towards a larger vision and adapt to changing conditions along the waterfront. currently they're in what is called a multi-hazard risk assessment face, and they're available on the website, and it is a deep dive into understanding the nuance onuances of where they can make those investments and be as strategic as possible. as we think about our transportation assets and regional transportation assets, it becomes pretty apparent there are some serious risks with sea level rise. we have the portal into our market street tunnel, as well as the bart tunnel, and that picks up regional and really federal interests. so army corps of injuries, bart -- they're all involved in this conversation, in addition to the port and other city agencies. there is still work to be done today in terms of also strengthen their historic buildings along their waterfront. it is such a vibrant corridor today, although there are a number of those buildings that don't really have a maximized use. a lot of interim uses or they're just plain vacant. the port has actively issued several r.f.t.s for ideas believers and we're collaborating and coordinating as those development ideas come on line. and they're updating their waterfront use plan. and there is also active development. i want to point out, around broadway, you have them about to break ground very soon. not only is it a permanent home for local artists, but there is zero parking. there is a facility next door, 100 units, and there is zero parking. we need to address today's challenges and serve these new uses coming forward. bringing it back more to transportation, the waterfront is really ground zero for the growth we've seen in the city, and that means growth in congestion. you have soma neighborhoods growing, and this is their bad yard, where they recreate. and you have more commuters coming in then ever before. and uber and lyft came on line while we were in the middle of our planning for this project, particularly along the waterfront. there is a huge impact that uber and lyft have on congestion along the embarcadero. but going back to its iconic nature and the wonderful places that we know along the waterfront, we do want to be careful on how we frame congestion. there is bad congestion and possibly good congestion. so whether there is a farmers' market or a marathon or a cruise ship call, it is a very complicated corridor, and we need to understand it in a lot of detail. and sometimes congestion is just a sign of a wonderful place to be. so we really have to try to keep that in mind as we try to tackle mobility and access improving this corridor for safety. but we also know that we have congestion, and we have safety issues that look like this every day. it really doesn't take more than one bike ride, one walk along the embarcadero to see these types of conflicts, and it really represents the diversity of uses on the embarcadero. you're touch and go uber and lyft, and you have large trucks that are delivering goods to businesses, amidst this wonderful place where we all want to move and rec create and linger. some of the key aspects we've understood over the years in looking at the embarcadero, we're kind of in this negative feedback loop where the bike lanes are not sufficiently safe for a broad range of people. so, well, they move over to the promenade, where it feels much safer for them. but then we have bicycle/pedestrian conflicts, which then pedestrians feel like they don't belong on the shared-use promenade. and also we have this boulevard, which is quite long, so as we commit to timing our signals for the slower, more vulnerable pedestrians, it creates sort of a wait and race environment along the embarcadero, which translates into some of the safety issues that we see. this was brought up earlier, as wellday well today, people are trying to survive and thrive out there and trying to get ahead. we do have cyclists on the roadway, and this is an image of a red light and the number of bikes coming through the intersections. it is very inviting. you have a lot of these t-intersections, but if i'm an elderly pedestrian, and i have a walk sign, this can be quite threatening, and so we do need to account for that as we look at designs and build out our education and enforcement strategies. but we know at the end of the day, speed and the unpredicpredictability of people's behavior along the waterfront, particularly in vehicles, is what is contributing to our safety issue. it has come into stark vision, hit-and-runs, people who clearly know what they're doing cycling out in the roadway, and so we do have a design problem that we need to solve. that brings us back to sort of the core of the presentation, and why we're here to respond to vision zero. embarcadero is highlighted, pretty much the entirety of it, but then our high-injury network, the data, speaks to the vulnerability particularly of cyclists, as it relates to serious injuries and fatalities. and we know we have to address this and that it is unacceptable. how do we do that? so i'm going to try to really quickly tick through these, and give you a deep dive into the depth and breath of what we've debate doing working with our partners. a lot of the work has been couched under the embarcadero enhancement project, of strengthen, adapt, and envision. i think we're going to move towards of a problematic framework and branding for these efforts since it is well beyond one project. keeping in mind, again, safety is our number one priority, wanting to improve access for everyone, keep people and goods moving along the corridor, contribute to the economic vie tallitvitalityof the corridor, d respect the d.n.a. of this corridor, and, again, respond to the challenges of tomorrow as best we can today. we've gone through it iterations of this, but clearly safety is number one and we can walk and chew gum at the same time. we started our outreach in 2014, trying to not put our biases into the public dialogue. really trying to invite people to come and tell us what they want to see on the waterfront, tell us what their vision is for a safer, better, nore sustainable waterfront. we held a series of workshops, and had people envision their perfect corridor. we generated some of the themes and assumptions that we carried forward, this series of workshops was a wonderful start to kicking off a dialogue with the public. we did know that a key subgoal or objective of our project was, again, protecting each user. giving each user its dedicated space, protecting existing bike lanes. we went through a very thorough analysis if we should be beefing up the bike lanes we have, and looking at intersection designs with sort of what is out there today, or moving to a sort of new design, a new framework for the embarcadero corridor. clearly both, in both our analysis and in public comment, the two-way waterside bikeway rang out as likely the safest, easiest to desierntion design ad most popular, and so folks want to be by that water, by the dynamic uses. it took us a long way to get there, but this is now driving the project since 2016. but i really wanted to take a number of stakeholders with us on that analysis. it is a challenge, though. there is no typical cross section of the embarcadero. every block is different. you have the sinuous waterfront, but it is very technically challenging. as we try to find the space for this new dedicated bikeway, we have to employ a number of strategies and really go block to block to block. we'll point out what clearly came out of the workshops is storing your private vehicle on the waterfront, general parking is clearly not the priority. where we can widen the promenade, we certainly want to do that. and where we have the third travel lane along the embarcadero, we see that as an opportunity to transform the corridor for safety and provide space for the bikeway. we have strategies beyond that, where we have a number of pinch points, so this tool kit is really what brought us forward to the current state of the project. that has meant going out and talking to a number of people. and i have learned a tremendous amount, and i've met so many new people in my interactions along the embarcadero. i won't go through this list, but needless to say, there are a lot of folks who love the embarcadero, who really want to weigh in. there are a number of neighborhoods, in addition to these tourism-oriented groups and business-oriented groups. and we did hear early on from shakeholders that the pier nine area had a different set of challenges than the main corridor. it a lot had to do with how the embarcadero is designed. it is a very different set of issues over there. so i have spent a lot of time up in fisherman's wharf talking to them. and i went out this summer with a lot of their vendors to see what the challenges are that their food delivery people experience on a daily basis, and how can we anticipate those and accommodate those as we generate designs and strategies for the embarcadero. in 2018, we tried to round out our planning phase, and really present a vision, along with other ways we can complete the street and make it more safe and comfortable for everyone. we had a tremendous turnout. several hundred people showed up at the ferry building. and clearly some of the key themes that came out of people's feedback was this is a wonderful vision, but we need to move faster, we need to do more now. another key theme that came out was: this is great, but as a pedestrian, how am i going to be interacting with thie this new facility. so we need to hear more and learn more about that. i'll come back to those themes in a moment. but, you know, where we are now, this is the vision, separated two-way facility on the waterside, using that as an opportunity to enhance the character and sort of the predictability of the promenade so that it can accommodate multiple uses. you know, trying to squeeze and better utilize our existing dedicated transit-way. and trying to shorten our pedestrian crossings so our pedestrians are less vulnerable, and maybe we can save some of the green times on the sig false, an signals, and e sewer our goods are moving along the corridor. a lot of this corridor is not up to current standards with a.d.a., and so that would be a huge improvement if we came through and made accessibility improvements all long the corridor. this vision will take some time to get to. how do we start to chip away at this vision and create safety improvements today? well, we've been doing that work. we've really been trying to maximize -- before we shift to this new configuration, we've been making a number of safety improvements along the corridor, and we're using paint, posts, and signs as much as possible. whether it is reinforcing the message of a shared promenade, greening up the bike lanes to make them feel as safe as possible, protecting crosswalks, making them more visible, and introducing better connections back into the city-wide bike network, and adding a bike signal and turn at northward, as they go north into fisherman's wharf. >> again, speaking to a lot of the quick-build techniques we are now using paint posts, signs, signal timing, new pedestrian crossings, separating bicycles and pedestrians from the vehicles so there is that separation if not physical separation. this has worked well since it was installed earlier in 2019. here we are with the quick build and the challenges from you as well as the mayor's office. the last few months and year we have been trying to integrate the quick build concept into our project. an initial vision like this with a sidewalk level bike lane and a lot of heavy infrastructure chain changes. we may need to go there. we will be more achievable short term, leaving the curbs in place to provide physical protection and provide predictable behavior for everyone. in thinking where we could start -- going back to comments from earlier today. we are investing a tremendous amount of energy and capital into the protected bicycle network. later this year we will reach the embarcadero with that physical protection. we are falling a little short of a key transit facility, which is the ferry terminal which was recently expanded. it has led to an explosion of pedestrian scooter and bicycle traffic south of the ferry building where we don't normally have a lot of congestion. we want to be comprehensive. the proposal we are working with the port on and expect to implement this summer involves taking an extension of the howard and folsom corridor protected bike lane up to the front door of the ferry terminal. this should not be seen as a snippit of th embarcadero corri. it will provide safer pedestrian crossings and no right turn on red restrictions. just trying to make that connection work and really connect folks coming to the city from the ferry system, connectsem leslie to the -- seamlessly to the soma neighborhood and job centers. i won't go to the specifics of this slide. there are more details at mta.com embarcadero. it is light touches. taking parking, making this happen. i will introduce bike signals to begin to introduce more predictable behavior for people on the bicycle or scooter and getting that activity off the promenade and learning from it to apply to the remainder of the corridor where we can. just today and more recently there has been a lot of calls and suggestions. why can't you tackle the next block down with a problematic valet operator to block the bike lane. we are going to find a way to protect the existing northbound bike lane. we are working with the port on details. we expect to protect the bike lane and keep loading for the active businesses later this year, and then similar proposal up near pier 35 where we have the secondary cruise ship terminal. we have a wide parking lane. we don't need to talk about circulation changes. it is just reshoveling to provide better protection. we are working with the partner at the port. expect the three proposals to move forward in 2020. we also don't want to be just focused on just engineering. thinking through enforcement and education strategies that can be married with these changes to comb through 311. update collision analysis to be as recent as possible and diving deep. thinking about enforcement not just about pd but how can uber and lyft enlist better behavior to being nudged to a better loading spot. early indications we think we can make better load zones to achieve this, hopefully this year. they seem open to that. in terms of the larger embarcadero project, we are in approval phase trying to figure out what is that entire product description to move forward to the review? we are continuing to coordinate with all of the port programs and projects i mentioned. we are targeting an initial capital investment. we want to walk and chew gum. we have areas where quick builds are not achievable. investing in those corridors to chain together a complete facility along the two and a half-miles of the embarcadero. you have probably seen the 3-d animations. a new facility and when they it compared to the chaos out there today, we are hopeful we can bring more folks on board with this vision and do this as quickly as possible. i have a couple slides i am going to skip over. we can come back to them. it is tackling the details of circulation. there are places to modify circulation for the bikeway. other places have random left turns that slowdown transit and trying to simplify those intersections to be more efficient to work through the details of that. also, the tires on the planning phase assumptions. two travel lanes each direction has been a core part of the project to date. we want to make sure that still makes sense. trying to figure out what we need for quick build and what can perhaps wait for another day or separate area to tackle separately from the bike lane. another slide. just diving deep into. we recently have been breaking down the corridor. it is huge. we have to phase this in overtime. we knew that a long time ago. moving away from the northern segment of this corridor to get? to be surgical with where we make investments and come up with ideas. again, i want to speak quickly. there is a separate planning effort at pier 39 with money from the ta to think more broadly, not just in terms of embarcadero corridor but how circulation is working. we are anticipating completion of jefferson street phase two which is actively under construction, removing parking, creating a pedestrian-bicycle friendly condition. we are eager to respond to that to tie to the study and work with the core group of stakeholders at pier 39 to come up with that vision. so in closing, we have a number of projects on a number of timelines we are trying to integrate the quick build concepts to the work we are doing. we know we have opportunities, we have identified the first phase of those to complete in 2020. beyond that we do need to complete our environmental review before thinking about another wave of quick builds as early as 2021 while building towards the first initial investment in the larger capital project and also seeing what happens with our circulation study in fisherman's wharf in pier 39. a couple key steps will be going to the port commission next week to give a status update to be followed by a spur lunchtime forum talk. in particular, i want to call out the work of the mayor's office of disability contributing to getting to the curb to focus on the pedestrian experience within the protected bikeway design. going back to the comments. i want be to dive deep on that particular topic. how can we make a b bikeway facility safer for everyone? that will launch more details to come how we get back to engage with the community later this year and fold in the quick-build implementation,notification to the public. i hope this wasn't too much. i am done. >> hardly too much. very informative. do we have public comment. >> we do. >> we will start there. start with janice followed by bryan and then pete. >> thank you. all right. hello, directors. i am janice lee. this is special for me to speak today. i start working at the bike coalition over six years ago specifically to be the community organizer for the waterfront. for years this is what i have been saying and what the sf bicycle coalition is demanding. we deserve a world class biking experience. yes, we support the quick build projects. yes, we want to see more urgency between mission and broadway now rather than next year. more than anything, we don't want to wait. make all of the embarcadero safer biking now and not just three blocks. people biking here deserve it. make it a place to promenade. we support it now and in the future. we know the popularity of bike commuting can come in conflict. it took a decade for better market street to get approved. we now see how incredible car free market is. with the embarcadero. they have been working since the first presentation before this board in july 2014. casey walked through the entire history. in october 2018 you unveiled a two way protected bikeway as a result of the planning and outreach. let's not wait. we have waited too long. this is an informational item today, but if this is a chance to be on record, your strong remarks will provide urgency for the city to do more and faster. three blocks simply is not good enough i in in 2020. we know we can do better. >> thank you. good afternoon. i am bryan hashtags man, i am the walk sf. we are working with the city agencies to make improvements real and to get them in the ground now for the embarcadero. we get calls and e-mails regularly from seniors, parents and others not feeling safe using the current shared use path on the embarcadero. people are walking, biking and scooterring in the same small space. we don't have many other shared use paths in the city. this is not working the way it currently is. we saw from the vision zero data the street level isn't working either. it is dangerous for people biking in the street. it is unique in san francisco and should be welcoming to those who use it for those visiting or using it every day. if we take a critical eye towards the crossings and work with the senior disability work group we can make the waterfront safe for everyone includes most vulnerable. we look forward to workings with the city partners to make this happen. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, directors. pete, managing partner water barlow indicated 369 between folsom and harrison in business for 12 years. we are participating in the development of the southern waterfront with significant investment in the two restaurants. i want to read a response i wrote to the street blog article regarding water bar. it didn't get published. i want to go on record with it. water bar has never opposed the port's plans for a protected bicycle lane and never asked for special exemptions. the proposed plans have included the street treatment in front of restaurants. we have concerns about the design in terms of impact on deliveries. we have not been involved in the decision making at this point on the embarcadero project. our desire is to provide safe se and efficient access to the restaurants for guests and cyclists. water bar is deeply committed to balancing the needs of guests, cyclists and the community stakeholders. we value our unique location on the waterfront and we want to uphold our responsibility to share the beauty with everyone. our commitment includes sussporting sustainable nodes of -- sustainable modes of transportation. our responsibility at water bar and epic is to become sustainable businesses in a challenging restaurant environment. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. i am ron. i have been biking in san francisco and on the embarcadero for the past eight years. it is great to see something might happen on the embarcadero. i would like to echo what janice said. this has been in design and planning for six, seven years. you will probably end up in a place where the planning including the process which is not started and and the design s not complete. the plans is going to approach the great proportions with multiyear periods of lulls. it is good to see something proposed for quick build. i like it. this has to move faster or at least not take a double digit number of years to build bike lanes to save lives. i would call you on to extend the quick build faster than proposed. i want to express i like the quick build that is proposed, especially that concrete dividers are proposed for the quick build. that is refreshing to see because it is all posts and paint which only goes so far. concrete is good. i appreciate the last minute changes made to the presentation. i am very happy to see that addressed. it would be grat great if the ma could update the slides. it is different than what is on the slides. it would be nice to publish that. thank you very much. >> matthewlam bers. >> i am the vice president of the san francisco pedi cab association. i have been there eight years in july. when we talk about the fatalities that occurred on the embarcadero, i have witnessed the aftermath of both of those. one was my friend and co-worker kevin manning. i want to thank. casey and his team for being responsive and transparent in the work they have been doing and the quick build stuff. it has made a great improvement in our daily lives. i will extend this invitation if anybody wants to go on a ride i will point out the playerses we -- the places we face on the embarcadero. my friend is out of work for six months. he was reended by an uber and fractured his hand. his doctor said stay off work because of the injury. the sea wall project is not going to mean shit if we still have cars. excuse me language. >> no more speaker cards. i don't see anybody lining up. close public comment. directors. >> i have a question. when we did the eir for the bicycle plan, were the improvements in the plan? i would like to understand what needs to happen based on what we can use from the larger plan report that happened and what new needs to happen today? >> i can't recall what specifically is in the bike plan. we have been moving forward under the assumption this is an iconic corridor. the changes are consistent with other projects where we are exempt. i will say we are kicking the tires currently. we will be re-visiting the environmental assumption and look back to the bike plan eir to make sure we are not missing opportunities to be included in that. >> you mentioned the sequence. is it the typical exemption or supplemental eir? >> current assumption is that it would be a more traditional exception. we do have to do a historic resources evaluation to make sure the project description is specific where we might excavate so that the evaluations can occur. >> the problem is how much time that takes, right? >> we have quick build. when will we be in a place to do the state historical resource? >> we arwe are working to kick t off now. in terms of the review, we are re-visiting the assumptions in the planning phase to respond and be flexible responding to the quick build initiative. when we have a stable description we want to do outreach to make people aware what is moving forward. how soon we can do that is the million dollar question. >> you showed intersections with bicycles and pedestrians. are there by south carolina the. >> between folsom and mission, we are not changing the pedestrian crossing distances. it is utilizing what is out there. the plan is to modify the existing signals with new signal goes to speak directly to the bike lane, but having a bike signal at every intersection if you think about the two and a half-miles. we don't want to over design for safety and separation of modes then create more behavior as people don't want to wait. how can we best provide for safety for pedestrians at crossings and still providing convenience for the cyclist and scooter. >> there are awkward intersections that the street doesn't align with where people are crossing. i would think it would be those intersections. you have got the muny trains coming, cars turning, cyclists, walkers. people walk across with the train coming. i would think we prioritiz we -r ties those. >> those are multiple roads. we did tackle that with a bike signal and tightening up the geometry. one of the rationales is that you are avoiding a lot of the complicated intersections. we are not advocating getting rid of the bike lane. wherever there is room to create the separation on the city side we will continue to explore along with a two way facility on the water side. >> is there concern about the speed and what the cadence we are moving through things? it is not clear if it is a slowdown on our side or the portside. you have shown a lot of groups outreach to the first meetings in 2014. it is now 2020. what, if anything, can we do to make this faster? the restaurant doesn't want to block the bike lane but we are not fixing that any time soon. how do you make theirs happen quickly. for that particular case we were challenged to re-look at it and came back with a solution. we are looking to build the two way water side vision. how many projects are we doing at once? it is a challenges corridor technically, and the dna on the waterfront, there are folks who talk about the freeway with a sparkle in their eye. we want be to bring those folks along. a lot is technical in nature. we can't do one thing to solve the problem. it is surgery on every block. >> at the end of the curb bike lanes, through the bulbouts, that where we anticipate the bike lane coming across the bulb out or it won't work? >> for example in front of the ferry building, you have hundreds of pedestrians waiting. the bikeway will be in the configurations. pedestrians are outside. the bailout would have to be large. we have more opportunity for how they do it today where they are making eye contact, they are being respectful and pedestrians are able to wait close to the roadway. we think there are opportunities where they are crossing the bikeway and roadway in other locations they have to do that in one go. that is where we are on the details of every intersection. >> director eagan. >> excellent presentation. a pleasure to watch. the photos are amazing. they capture the conflicts so well. it made me wonder if there aren't good examples. the portland access and vancouver sea wall. i think there is a lot of pedestrian crossing so they took a travel lane maybe during the summer. >> i was just there. i was talking to their staff about conflicts with a great park but you have the speed which is an issue. they are providing a faster protected facility on the surface boulevard. >> i think they did as a quick build. >> it is a quick build and they are looking to extend it in phases. >> the third comment is i love your framework of strength, adaptnd vision and making the safety provisions. is there not a way to do the quick build for the full two and a half-miles? something more immediate. we have been given back the data re-enforcing the decision. the three blocks feels like a small step. i hear it is technical. is there not a way to do a billion dollars now as part of the mayor's challenge which he referred to in 20 miles in two years as we have the project down the road. >> i will come up with a stronger answer. i kicked the tires on the assumptions. we have a director that is wonderful at communicating value and i think those discussions are active and hot in terms of the next steps. do we want to take on that challenge now. the proposals were developed many months ago. by no means are we saying this is it. this is where we can come the agreement and get started. it would include taking one of the two northbound lanes between broadway and north point would have impacts to the ports partners. they are an enterprise organization. they support their needs through real estate runs. they also are the owner of the roadway. we are at the beginning stages having conversation. it would be changes that we could make to the transit system in order to not just build a bikeway bulletin crease the number of people that is embarcadero serves. keep the port key tenants whole while improving safety and public outcome. i think there is staff work and additional conversations necessary to answer those questions. we would certainly be happy to hear from all of you to what degree should we prioritize this corn door over the long list we are trying to build out in 2020. we have a long list of priorities with real staff constraints. >> . >> i enjoyed the presentation and i want to see these improvements. i appreciate the clear presentation in that regard. i go up and down to the ferry building every day. i think we should prioritize that stretch. i would love to get rid of the cars. i am interested in a few things. baseball season is going to start and the congestion increases dramatically. that is high priority because of the flow of so many different users. we have a lot of visitors who are not daily commuters, in addition to the huge amount of daily improvements that is bike lanes it is important to communicate. i know we also have special events like the giant's runs. it is often closed. i wonder if we can move these to get extra pace as we move for. we know how to close those roads to vehicles. i feel there are good possibilities. i support it with anything we can do understanding the staffing that we are dealing with. thank you for your good work. >> can you go back to the second to the last slide? so much of the conversation is how to make this go faster. i want to put a suggestion on the payable table. as you can see the three main elements of work, design in gold and construction in purple are consecutive, not concurrent. one thing we did at mtc is risk design. you may learn stuff in the environmental process and rip up design drawings. you know this corridor pretty well. i think that risk would be worth taking here. the specific suggestion is whether or not we could deploy that strategy to move the detailed design to the environmental process. it looks like eyeballing it saves quite a few months and gets the construction sooner. >> it is something we are trying to do if not necessarily presenting to the public. one thing about the corridor and we are talks about construction drawings. we inherited the corridor, typically you need a drawing with the trying up to dated. it was not good enough for construction purposes. we have had to build that from scratch. we does coordinate to split 50/550/50 the50/50. it is in the right coordinates. that was lacking for a number of years. we now have that and we are accelerating the more detailed survey is what you need to advance to detailed design. we are getting serious about doing something here if you have assets tell us now. we are doing that to provide the flax built to go faster. we didn't know where the funding was going to come down. i want to be careful not to over promise and not deliver. that is on our mind as we prioritize staff time and investments so that can happen sooner. >> are you doing this in house or by contract. >> we have technical consultants on board. now focusing on design and the public works are seedings the civil design. everyone is moving quickly right now on tasks. >> more general point if you want tosifen time you are going to to risks. we tried to take out ever reelement of public risk and it goes slowly. this sounds like it may be worth taking. respect. >> thank you for the presentati. shout out to epic and water bar. thank you to entrepreneurs, i am sorry i didn't realize how safe it is the for you. it is not okay. that biggs the question of acceleration for revenue producing. that provides a lot of revenue for the city and the county. lastly i i would like to echo the concern about consolidating that design issue. i think you can do that. it is not rocket science, you are not a stranger until we get to the issue. in terms of the embarcadero freeway, you can go to the pine and experience it there. >> director brinkman. >> i am so sorry for the loss of your friend and colleague mr. manning. he was killed by a hit-and-run driver who i don't think was ever apprehelped. think about the impact on friends and family and those of you who still work on the embarcadero with your cabs offering such a great way to get around there. it reminds me that we can not trust the car drivers to keep us safe. when we are on foot and on buyses we need to make a safe space. they know we have concerns about so many unfilled positions in the sfmta. if we are working on this and you did such a good job every minding us what we don't know. there is so much we don't know. i assume our meal row. it does take time and money. the best thing to do in this situation is say please do what you can, let us just be the voice of support do fixing that and making it safe. let's look at taking out the travel lane. we have seen what the roadway looks at when there are no cars on it. this is a little step back and keeps the traffic moving and keeps people safe. we need to jump in on this and embrace we are doing it now. let's quick filled changes. you come up with so great ideas. thank you so much for coming today to show that you are committed to make sure we make this a roadway. if we increase the person through it. they are going to boom more. the embarcadero is going to be a safer and more pleasant place for every where. >> if i may point out. one thing that they do to their credit is get deliveries at peer 26 and ferry over to the restaurants. if you think about building out the infrom structure it is easy to see that functioning trying to deliver and then use a mode to get to the last mile. they are doing great work. >> anything further? excellent presentation. this is not an action item. you have been given a lot of assignments. it probably feels like an action item to you. >> i will make sure the tenor of your comments will be delivered to the port commission next week. >> that concludes is business before you today. >> thank you very much. we are adjourned. [♪] >> i am the supervisor of district one. i am sandra lee fewer. [♪] >> i moved to the richmond district in 1950 mine. i was two years old. i moved from chinatown and we were one of the first asian families to move out here. [♪] >> when my mother decided to buy that house, nobody knew where it was. it seems so far away. for a long time, we were the only chinese family there but we started to see the areas of growth to serve a larger chinese population. the stress was storage of the birthplace of that. my father would have to go to chinatown for dim sum and i remember one day he came home and said, there is one here now. it just started to grow very organically. it is the same thing with the russian population, which is another very large ethnic group in the richmond district. as russia started to move in, we saw more russian stores. so parts of the richmond is very concentrated with the russian community and immigrant russian community, and also a chinese immigrant community. [♪] >> i think as living here in the richmond, we really appreciate the fact that we are surrounded three natural barriers. they are beautiful barriers. the presidio which gives us so many trails to walk through, ocean beach, for families to just go to the beach and be in the pacific ocean. we also also have a national park service. we boarded the golden gate national recreation area so there is a lot of activity to do in the summer time you see people with bonfires. but really families enjoying the beach and the pacific ocean during the rest of the time of year. [♪] >> and golden gate park where we have so many of our treasures here. we have the tea garden, the museum and the academy of sciences. not to mention the wonderful playgrounds that we have here in richmond. this is why i say the richmond is a great place for families. the theatre is a treasure in our neighborhood. it has been around for a very long time. is one of our two neighborhood theatres that we have here. i moved here when i was 1959 when i was two years old. we would always go here. i love these neighborhood theatres. it is one of the places that has not only a landmark in the richmond district, but also in san francisco. small theatres showing one or two films. a unique -- they are unique also to the neighborhood and san francisco. >> where we are today is the heart of the richmond district. with what is unique is that it is also small businesses. there is a different retail here it is mom and pop opening up businesses. and providing for the neighborhood. this is what we love about the streets. the cora door starts on clement street and goes all the way down to the end of clement where you will see small businesses even towards 32nd. at the core of it is right here between here and 20 -- tenth avenue. when we see this variety of stores offered here, it is very unique then of the -- any other part of san francisco. there is traditional irish music which you don't get hardly anywhere in san francisco. some places have this long legacy of serving ice cream and being a hangout for families to have a sunday afternoon ice cream. and then also, we see grocery stores. and also these restaurants that are just new here, but also thriving. [♪] >> we are seeing restaurants being switched over by hand, new owners, but what we are seeing is a vibrancy of clement street still being recaptured within new businesses that are coming in. that is a really great thing to see. i don't know when i started to shop here, but it was probably a very, very long time ago. i like to cook a lot but i like to cook chinese food. the market is the place i like to come to once a year. once i like about the market as it is very affordable. it has fresh produce and fresh meat. also, seafood. but they also offer a large selection of condiments and sauces and noodles. a variety of rice that they have is tremendous. i don't thank you can find a variety like that anywhere else. >> hi. i am kevin wong. i am the manager. in 1989 we move from chinatown to richmond district. we have opened for a bit, over 29 years. we carry products from thailand, japan, indonesia, vietnam, singapore and india. we try to keep everything fresh daily. so a customer can get the best out a bit. >> normally during crab season in november, this is the first place i hit. because they have really just really fresh crab. this is something my family really likes for me to make. also, from my traditional chinese food, i love to make a kale soup. they cut it to the size they really want. i am probably here once a week. i'm very familiar with the aisles and they know everyone who is a cashier -- cashier here i know when people come into a market such as this, it looks like an asian supermarkets, which it is and sometimes it can be intimidating. we don't speak the language and many of the labels are in chinese, you may not know what to buy or if it is the proper ingredients for the recipe are trying to make. i do see a lot of people here with a recipe card or sometimes with a magazine and they are looking for specific items. the staff here is very helpful. i speak very little chinese here myself. thinks that i'm not sure about, i asked the clerk his and i say is this what i need? is this what i should be making? and they actually really helped me. they will bring me to the aisle and say this is battery. they are very knowledgeable. very friendly. i think they are here to serve not only the asian community but to serve all communities in the richmond district and in san francisco. [♪] >> what is wonderful about living here is that even though our july is a very foggy and overcast, best neighborhood, the sleepy part outside on the west side is so rich with history, but also with all the amenities that are offered. [♪] >> good morning, everyone, to opening day of san francisco better market street. it is my great honor to introduce the mayor of san francisco, ms. london breed. mayor breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: well, well, well. this has been really a long time coming. there are so many people that made this possible. you know, we are really excited about what today means, and i know this will prove very challenging for a lot of people in the city, but our city is changing. when we think about the past and when market street was actually built over 150 years ago, the folks who had the vision for what market street could be stood right here at this very area and pointed west towards twin peaks with a vision to make market street possible to extend to the hills of san francisco in twin peaks, and look at where we are today. in that time, they made it 120 feet wide, which was large back then, just knowing that market street would be a significant street and a significant street for san francisco and its future. and at that time, of course, over 150 years ago, the population was over -- a little bit over 50,000 people. and today, we have more than 800,000 people in san francisco. our city, at a time when i was growing up, you didn't see a lot of bicycles. you didn't see a lot of folks who were walking along market street other than mostly the downtown area at 5th and market. and now when you look at how much san francisco has grown, when you look at how many more buses, you see how many more cars and scooters and different modes of transportation and people getting around, we know that there has to be something that changes in order to ensure not only the ability for people to get around more efficiently but to ensure safety. and, you know, sadly, we've had more than our fair share of collisions that have occurred along market street, and we know that there is a need to do something different, and we've already moved in that direction. the red bus lanes have been helpful, but it's not enough. we want to be able to get people to where they need to go in an efficient way, but this also is a way to support and protect our environment by increasing the ability to make muni more reliable, more people will use it, making trips 25 -- making trips 25% faster will change how people look at muni. and let's be clear. i know we have a lot to do to get to a better place with our public transportation system. it's not just more buses and trains, it's not just more drivers, it's changes to our infrastructure. and that's why this is so important, and that's why so many people advocated for a car-free market street because they knew that as the population increases, as the number increases with the number of job opportunities, we need to ensure that we have a reliable transportation system that get people around, and we make changes that may make people uncomfortable to the infrastructure to get people to rely on our system. that's why we do what we do. i want to thank someone who is no longer on the board of supervisors but was really an advocate and pusher for this project, and that is our current assembly member, david chiu. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: i remember when i first became a member of the board of supervisors, and i'll tell you, david chiu was president of the board. he came to talk to me about closing market street, and i want lik want -- and i was like, are you crazy? and it's so funny. just looking back over the years and the changes and what we need to do for the city, i basically agreed that this is something we needed to do. and i'm really proud to be here as mayor, and i want to thank david chiu for his advocacy. i also want to thank scott wiener for his advocacy for public transportation systems. i want to thank a number of people who have been at the forefront of closing market street to public vehicles. thank you to walk sf. thank you to the san francisco bicycle coalition, and thank you to market street railway, who actually has a great museum just right down there. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: and it does take people who are not only a part of the community to help make this happen, it takes a city village. and i want to thank the san francisco m.t.a. for their leadership and their guidance and the work that they're doing. really excited about jeff tomlin and the work that he's going to do to continue to lead this great organization. thank you to the p.u.c. department, the planning department, public works, the county transportation authority, and the office of economic and workforce development. so many great folks who really are going to be at the forefront of helping to make this possible, and i'd also like to give a shoutout to the san francisco police department because the work that they are going to do around enforcement to ensure that as we make limits on vehicles on market street that we have enforcement so that we can make sure that we're communicating and making people aware, but we also know that having a tool to enforce what we know needs to be a car-free market street is going to take some work, and the police department is going to be an important part of that work. [applause] >> so today, as we extend over two miles of car-free market street, i'm looking forward to seeing the results of what this does for san francisco. we talk about a goal of vision zero, and we've been talking about it for so many years, yet what's been happening with the number of fatalities on our streets, it just looks like we're never going to get there. and i think this is a step towards getting there, and helping us to realize those goals of keeping people safe and ensuring that no one, because they're traveling and trying to get around the city to and from work, is at risk, and this is just really an incredible step forward. this is so significant, so great. that's why we're here, and i just want to thank everyone for their support and their advocacy and their patience as we move through this process because you know if you do anything with the city, it does take patience. but we are here, and today, we celebrate, we ensure, and we look forward to really transforming san francisco and making market street one of the safest corridors in our city. th thank you all so much. [applause] >> good morning again. my name is jeffrey tomlin. i am the head of the san francisco municipal transportation agency, and i am pleased to be here this morning. may i have another round of applause, both for our mayor and her stalwart support, but also, gabe todd, bell ringer of the san francisco municipal transportation division. [applause] >> so as the mayor said, this has been a long time coming. we've been talking about this for over 60 years. our success would not be possible without our advocates who worked on this project and our board of supervisors who saw our vision zero goals, who saw a market street that was not just moving cars, but moving goals. may i please introduce supervisor matt haney. >> supervisor haney: it's been one month, and he's already got market street done. give a hand to jeff. no, i'm excited for what's going to come next with your leadership of m.t.a. i want to thank mayor breed and her championing this project. first of all, this is an exciting day. finally, we are putting people first on our most important thoroughfare here in san francisco. there are over 500,000 people that walk on market street every day. there are over 6,000 people that ride their bikes on market street every day, and there are thousands and thousands of people that ride muni. and finally, we are going to be designing this street for them. [applause] >> supervisor haney: we are going to celebrate the culmination of decades of planning to make market street a street for the people of san francisco. today marks the beginning of a historic transformation of the main corridor of our city into a safe place to walk, bike, and transit. market street is not only one of our city's most important corridors, it is one of the most dangerous. the only way we will achieve vision zero is by urgently bringing radical street safety improvements and being unapologetic to our commit to street safety. a car free market street will also pave the way for future car-free spaces across our city. i'm hopeful that we'll be looking at other places in district 6, including in the tenderloin, where we have dangerous and sometimes deadly collisions for school children, seniors, and others. the complete transformation of market street will redefine or downtown. it will bring new activation to a street that has long been overlooked. i'm excited to see what this will bring to the businesses and residents of district 6 not just for what it brings around here, but you will see a dynamic, revitalized area. again, i want to thank mayor breed, the bicycle coalition, and walk sf, and i want to thank the countless people who worked for years, the citizens advisory committee, who made this possible. thank you so much for being here. this is only the beginning. [applause] >> government agencies throughout california face difficult budget challenges, including structural budget deficits that are built into the system here. making projects like this happen would not be possible without an sfmta board of directors ready to make the really tough choices about how we allocate our budget, to what degree to we raise revenue or reduce revenue in order to achieve our service goals. i am honored to serve on a board that is practical and holds my agency accountable, and i'm pleased to introduce the head of that board, malcolm heinicke. >> well, thank you, and congratulations on this day. i want to thank mayor's newsom and lee for their leadership and the roles that i have now. i want to thank the leadership, and ed reiskin who came before them. i want to thank board members brinkman and eaken, who came before me. this is a magnificent market street. this is going to be -- yeah, let's cheer that adjective. it's a good one. it's going to be magnificent for transit, for pedestrian, for cyclists, for equity, for the environment, for visitors, for businesses, for everything that makes san francisco so special. it will not be long before broadway is referred to as the market street of manhattan. for transit, our buses and trains will move 15 to 25% faster on this corridor. bus riders will enjoy the same right-of-way preference that i enjoy on my subway ride in the morning. this will be the above-ground subway. for pedestrians and cyclists, we will address one of the most dangerous corridors in our city and not only solve the safety issues but make this a destination for walking and cycling. this is, indeed, an exciting time. now i do want to clarify one important policy thing, and i don't want to be the dusty baker who hands the ball to russ ortiz, so i'll keep this in vague terms. but this ban on cars on market streets will not aplply to parades. for example, a parade on behalf of a sports team who happens to be super -- super, and we're going to stop there. she has slapped me down before, but i think that was the first time in front of a bunch of cameras. any way, back to the topic at hand. this is a glorious day, and a magnificent project. it is sort of the culmination of my career as an sfmta board member. let's not wait another decade or 13 years to do this again. yesterday, i called on our staff to look at a project like this for valencia street. you heard -- [applause] >> you heard supervisor haney who's been such a leader on this issue doing some work like this in his district. folks, this is going to be magnificent. let's not wait. let's do it again. onward. [applause] >> doing this work has required deep engagement with the community, and some of you may not realize that some of the greatest concentration of families living with children in san francisco live adjacent to market street and the tenderloin and south of market, in the civic center area. this street of market street is also home to five of the top ten highest injury intersections in all of san francisco. we could not have done this project without the support of a broad array of community organizers who helped us along the way, and among those, i would like to introduce jodi maderos of walk san francisco. >> i am jodi maderos, director of walk san francisco. i walk this street every day, and for years, we have known that it's one of the most dangerous for people, and today is very exciting because that is about to change. i'm here to say thank you to the partners and particularly, the city's leaders that we have seen and heard today and all of the city departments and agencies who have made this vision of a car-free market street come true. thank you for adding san francisco to the list of leading cities around the world with car-free spaces. thank you for showing that san francisco is willing to take bold action for our city's future and for the planet. mo in 2019, oslo, norway, zero people were hit and killed in traffic crashes, zero. a huge reason for that is that they have taken bold strides to putting car-free spaces and reducing traffic in our downtown corridor, and that is exactly what market street is about to do. we invite our city's leaders to take more action, bold strides. valencia street, j.f.k., embarcadero. let's think bold where we can put more car-free spaces in our city, all the way to vision zero. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, jodi. as san francisco grows, our streets are not getting any wider, and the challenge becomes how to ensure our streets better move more people. i believe this morning from my own informal counts that market street has moved more people this morning than it has on any normal weekday since the middle of the 20th century. i'll need to verify that, but those were my counts this morning. morning importantly, as i was riding my bike up market street this morning, something struck me that was utterly extraordinary. not only was the ride more pleasant, but i struck up five conversations on the street, in the street, on my bike, with people i wouldn't have otherwise been able to interact with because i would have been afraid of being pushed out of the way by an uber driver. the changes to market street in san francisco i think will not only allow us to move more people but change the stability of san francisco. and this work also would not have been possible without another one of our key organizations, the san francisco bike coalition. >> thank you so much, director tomlin. it is a beautiful day to ride a bike in san francisco today. i want to extend a sincere thank you to mayor london breed. this decision is going to help save lives in our city. thank you. and thank you to supervisor matt haney for supporting the district where you live and i live, as well, and the many safety improvements in your district. director tomlin and the staff at the m.t.a., i know you are working hard to pull this off, the rally, and finally, i want to thank all members of the san francisco -- our members of the san francisco bicycle coalition who have been fighting for decades to see this day come to pass, yes. [applause] >> today marks a new era for san francisco as we celebrate san francisco's largest car-free space on market street. and by creating that right here on this thoroughfare, san francisco is sending a message that by improving travel for people bicycling and walking is at the heart of achieving vision zero as well as our climate goals, and from today forward, it will be at the heart of our city. now cities across the country and perhaps around the world will be looking to san francisco to see what's possible, and we will lead the way with the further physical transformation of market street, which we expect to break ground sometime this year. this leadership doesn't have to stop at market street, as you've heard. from the embarcadero to j.f.k. and golden gate park and streets around the tenderloin, we in the city can continue to make bold action when it comes to encouraging more people to walk and ride a bicycle. so i look forward to the day when every neighborhood in our beautiful city enjoys safe, accessible and liveable streets. for now, however, i'm excited to get on my bike and ride, and i invite you all to come pedal with me. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, brian. as i was out this morning, talking with our bus operators and traffic control officers, they were all excited to see this change, a change that will make it easier for all san franciscans to get around. it will also make it easier for our glorious street cars not only to achieve better mobility but for people from all over the world to see the mobility. i owe a debt of gratitude to the head of market street mobility, mr. rick lasher. [applause] >> madam mayor, director tomlin, supervisor haney, director mcguire, who had a lot to do with this, and all of the officials, thank you very much for your leadership and your persistence. as the mayor says, it takes patience in san francisco, but we're being rewarded today. more than 150 years ago, rail transit came to san francisco in the form of a steam train, and then it was a horse car and then cable cars, and then since 1906, electric street cars. i was born after 1906, but not by a whole lot, and i grew up on market street in my families delicatessen on market and grant. i can tell you in six decades and more of experience on market, this is going to be the best market street of my lifetime, and thank you all for making it happen. we are very proud to help keep the past present for the future of market street through our nonprofit, which is muni's nonprofit preservation partner. starting today, the street cars and buses will get riders to their destinations faster. they'll make it safer for bicyclists, pedestrians, and scooter users, too. we're proud to have been long time advocates for a better market street, and we congratulate everybody. thank you. [applause] >> please join me in one final round of applause for the staff people who made this work possible. most particularly, the director of sustainable streets, tom mcguire, who was interim director and was actually responsible for making much of this work happen, along with director of transit, julie kirschbaum, and all of the folks in the traffic sign and paint shop, and p.u.c., and the police department, all of whom came together incredibly rapidly to make this happen. thanks them. they're the ones who made this work. and meanwhile, i want to thank all of you for joining us to celebrate a truly better market street, and now, i get to cut a ribbon. i'm so excited about this. thank you. >> the hon. london breed: all right. here we go. five, four, three, two, one! [cheers and applause] >> hello. my name is thomas lee. i'm one of the cochairs of the asian american heritage month celebration. as you know, we celebrate that in may, but today, we're very excited to celebrate lunar new year with everyone. thank you so much. we'd like to recognize, of course, our elected officials in the room, mayor london breed, and our official elected family. do you mind coming up to the podium? so we're very excited to have a number of people on the panel from asian pacific countries. i'd like to introduce my cochair, al perez, to introduce some of them to you. >> hello, everyone. happy new year. [speaking native language] >> as you know, chinese new year is celebrated by many people in the chinese and asian community. so i would like to welcome the deputy consular general and consular general. we have consul general of indonesia, mr. simon socarno. consul general from the republic of korea, mr. lak sun young. consul general of the philippines, mr. henry bensuto. deputy consul general from china, mr. fa kung ren. consul from the chinese consul, wei jun chen. and finally, from the vietnamese consul, as well, dong tun lee. >> for the elected official family, would you like to come up on the stage, join me also, so we can recognize you guys? get in the photo, paul. so as you know, we hold our annual achievements in may. little do you know, we're a nonprofit that runs year-round to help organize this wonderful festivity. to lead us in this asian american celebration, we have claudine chang, and we'd like to invite her to say a few words [applause] >> thank you. thank you, everyone, for spending your afternoon with us here today. every year, we host this new year reception to bring together our community partners, our sponsors, and our community volunteers. bringing communities today is what the a.p.a. heritage foundation is about. asian americans makeup one-third of the city's demographics, but i'm sure after the 2020 census is taken, the number might be higher. i've heard that san francisco is the asian american capital in north american. yea, and why not? we have the largest asian american film festival in the country here in san francisco, and among the major pacific institutions, we have the best library with diverse programs in all the 27 branchs, headed by our chief, michael lambert, who's here today, the first asian american to be in that position. and guess what? to top that all and what makes this city special, i think it's about all of us within this diverse community. we appreciate each other, we support each other, we go to each other's cultural celebrations and traditions. and of course in the month of may, we celebrate a.p.a. heritage month. this year is no different. we will kick off this month's celebration on may 1 with mayor london breed, and we have whole month of programs because of all of our partners organizations. thank you to ashley chang and all the partnering organizations. we will be publishing a month long calendar so we know what we have every month. we would not be able to do this year to year without your support, your participation, but we definitely cannot make this happen without having a mayor who really embraces diversity, who really, really appreciates and cares about every single community in san francisco. we have celebrations throughout the year. this -- on this coming friday, we will be celebrating black history month here in city hall -- actually, that's tomorrow. so we really cannot be doing any better, and we really love our mayor, mayor london breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: thank you, claudine, so much. and to the a.p.a. heritage foundation and hosting this amazing reception every single year, but more importantly, the work that you do throughout the year to bring communities together, to celebrate not just during lunar new year but apa heritage month in san francisco in may is an absolute delight, and i do appreciate the foundation's willingness to meet with diverse communities in san francisco to make sure that those businesses, to make sure that folks that are part of the a.p.a. communities are included in so many of the festivities that occur so that we can support those businesses in our city, especially in places like supervisor mar's district, which are on the outskirts of the community, where we know there are so many mom-and-pop businesses, where you have the owners of that business that are the ones that are the employees, as well, and are not participating in so many of the amazing opportunities that we have in san francisco. a.p.a. heritage month is an opportunity to secelebrate the community and to bring all people together. today, as we celebrate the start of lunar new year, the year of the rat, we focus on of course resilience and prosperity, and the things that are really important to this real-time honored tradition of really celebrating a number of amazing symbols of hope and excitement of the future. and so as we not only launch into the lunar new year festivities in san francisco with this reception, with a parade on february 8 and all the other activities, i'm really looking forward to seeing what this new stamp looks like from the post office, which continues to partner with the a.p.a. heritage foundation on providing what i think is one of the most oftentimes beautiful stamps that they do sev every single year in honor of lunar new year. it's absolutely amazing. so as we celebrate this event as well as many other events that we'll be hosting, at the library, at castro, at chinatown, at sunset, at the richmond, let us take the time to reflect on how amazing this city is because of its diversity, because of its richness in history. you see that with the folks, our consul generals here from so many places throughout the world who continue to work with us to build cooperation to make sure that we have those great relationships despite what we know continue to be challenges with the folks who are in washington, d.c., but nevertheless, our sister city relationships with shanghai, we'll be celebrating that 40 years, and i think that is a real milestone in demonstrating that. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: demonstrating an incredible relationship that we will continue to build upon, along with so many of our other sister cities who ensure that folks who are a part of this city and folks who are a part of the rich history of the asian culture, are welcomed, our celebrated, and supported. and the census, as claudine mentioned, is a real opportunity to ensure that everyone is also counted. so let's get the word out. thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: got my new red folders for my certificate. how exciting is that. so here on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i want to present to claudine, the work that you continue to do to really strengthen this organization and bring people together is truly outstanding. so thank you for the work that the a.p.a. heritage foundation, the contributions that you make, the incredible food and in bringing people together for these festivities. thank you so much. [inaudible] [applause] >> i think -- [inaudible] >> thank you, claudine. she said 15 seconds, she means 15 minutes. [speaking native language] >> president yee: for those of you don't know what i just said, i said "happy new year." thank you, claudine and those for hosting this event. it's always exciting to know that this is the event that usually unvales our new staff, our lunar new year staff for the year. and i don't want to steal your thunder, claudine, because you had talked about it, but this is actually the third cycle where we have lunar new year staff. and i was mayor for there for cycle, in 1992 or '93, and i was here for another cycle about 12 years later. i'm he i'm honored to be here again, the year of the rat. thank you to u.p.s. for continuing this effort, and the effort of a.p.a. throughout san francisco and the united states. i want to say one thing. this is a great month. we're going to have celebrations up and down, all over the place, including chinatown, the parade, and every where else. what i was disappointed with mayor breed is she did not mention my lunar new year celebration in district 7. oh! where she was -- [inaudible] >> president yee: and we talked about sharing cultures. she was there last year. she said oh, my goodness, i can't believe this. a chinese new year celebration in the black church, and we're going to do it again because it's about sharing our heritage with everybody, and for them to share it with us. and this is what makes san francisco so great. thank you very much. [applause] >> anybody else? >> sonny i'm supervisor mar, supervisor in the sunset district. it's so great to be here at so many events that we're going to have around the city for lunar new year. thank you for being here for this event and promoting asian american heritage here at city hall and for so many years. i did want to plug the lunar new year celebration that's happening in my district, in the sunset district. it's going to be the first neighborhood wide lunar new year celebration in the sunset district on february 22 at 10:00 at jefferson elementary school, so i hope to see you all there. and at the chinese new year parade. thanks. [applause] >> good evening, everyone. i'm kathr i'm catherine stefani, supervisor for district 2. i just want to say happy new year, [speaking chinese language] >> supervisor stefani: and just a happy new year of the rat. thanks, everyone. >> hi. i'm dean preston, district 3 supervisor. i just want to echo what president yee said and all of the mayor's wonderful words. looking forward to the celebrations with you all and really looking forward to the unvailing of this, so thank you so much, and happy new year. >> commissioner lam: good evening, everyone. i serve on the san francisco board of education. and thank you, claudine, for your leadership and the asian american heritage association for your work. we are so excited to be able to launch the lunar new year. our students and teachers launched the new year. how amazing for the community to be able to celebrate with family, and we're really thrilled to be a part of the celebration, so thank you. [applause] [speaking native language] >> happy year of the rat. i don't think everyone needs to said other than that. please come to the district 7 lu lunar new year festival this saturday at 3:00 p.m. there's going to be a bouncy house, and a ton of food from district 7 residents and businesses, so there'll be a ton of food, and happy new year. [applause] >> hello. [speaking native language] >> i just wanted to say as we all go to our respective events, stay safe. i see darryl fung from the police department. [applause] >> and know that we'll be out there to make sure that everybody has a safe lunar new year. also, there's something else going on in the city on sunday i believe involving red and gold. know that any events throughout the city will be safe, and we'll make sure everyone stays safe. so have a good evening [applause] >> hello, everybody. alek randolph, and i serve on the school board. when i told my husband, who's serving in afghanistan, he made sure i told everyone -- [speaking native language] >> and he wanted me to make sure i told everybody, happy to open the stamp. >> so the moment we've all been waiting for. mr. post master, would you come forward? acting post master. >> good evening, everyone. thank you for the kind introduction, claudine. i'm honored to be here to represent the united states postal service as we celebrate the year of the rat stamp. i'd first like to thank mayor london breed, claudine, all of our customers and the many community leaders that are here tonight for joining us here to unvale the stamp. as one of the nation's oldest public institution, postal service regards it an honor to celebrate diversity through our annual stamp programs. we have celebrated cultures of people who have come from around the world reflecting the rich, multifaceted history of america. this launches our new lunar new year series which will feature all 12 signs associated with the chinese lunar new year calendar. beginning january 25, more than 25% of the world's population began to celebrate the lunar new year and ring in the year of the rat. of course, lunar new year is not only one of the most important holidays of the year, it's when many asian communities reconnect with friends, family. it's a time to celebrate with tradition traditional foods, umusic, and parades. a popular legend tells of the animals swimming across a lake in a race to determine the order in the zodiac. the rat rode across the lake on the back of an ox, but jumped ahead at the end to land ahead of the ox on the calendar. rats are considered to be diligent workers, cheerful, and very resourceful. i think we could all use a rat in our lives. let's talk about the feature stamp. the artwork is blue, because it's considered a lucky color for those born in the year of the rat. the circle on the rat's fore hand represents the new moon on which the lunar new year begins, while the crown like motif represents the animal's position as the first sign in the zodiac. and lastly, the lucky color red connects everything with the household elements. it's a remarkable item that will be treasured for years to come. it is our sincere hope that in the year of the rat, it brings you prosperity, peace, good luck, and much joy. now at this time, i'd like to invite our other guests up to join me in presenting the lunar new year stamp, mayor breed, our district manager, raj singair. claudine cheng. [applause] >> we think over 50 thousand permanent residents in san francisco eligible for citizenship by lack information and resources so really the project is not about citizenship but really academy our immigrant community. >> making sure they're a part of what we do in san francisco the san francisco pathway to citizenship initiative a unique part of just between the city and then our 5 local foundations and community safe organizations and it really is an effort to get as many of the legal permanent residents in the san francisco since 2013 we started reaching the san francisco bay area residents and 10 thousand people into through 22 working groups and actually completed 5 thousand applications for citizenship our cause the real low income to moderate income resident in san francisco and the bayview sometimes the workshops are said attend by poem if san mateo and from sacking. >> we think over restraining order thousand legal permanent residents in san francisco that are eligible for citizenship but totally lack information and they don't have trained professionals culturally appropriate with an audience you're working with one time of providing services with pro bono lawyers and trained professionals to find out whether your eligible the first station and go through a purview list of questions to see if they have met the 56 year residents arrangement or they're a u.s. citizenship they once they get through the screening they go to legal communication to see lawyers to check am i eligible to be a citizen we send them to station 3 that's when they sit down with experienced advertising to fill out the 4 hundred naturalization form and then to final review and at the end he helps them with the check out station and send them a packet to fill and wait a month to 6 weeks to be invited in for an oral examine and if they pass two or three a months maximum get sworn in and become a citizen every single working groups we have a learning how to vote i mean there are tons of community resources we go for citizenship prep classes and have agencies it stays on site and this is filing out forms for people that are eligible so not just about your 22 page form but other community services and benefits there's an economic and safety public benefit if we nationalize all people to be a citizen with the network no objection over $3 million in income for those but more importantly the city saves money $86 million by reducing the benefit costs. >> thank you. >> i've been here a loventh i already feel like an american citizen not felt it motorbike that needs to happen for good. >> one day - i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, for liberty and justice for all. >> you're welcome. >> (singing). >> (clapping.) >> introduce the san francisco field officer director ribbon that will mirror the oath raise your hand and repeat the oath i hereby declare on oath repeating. >> citizens cry when they become citizenship to study this difficult examine and after two trials they come back i'm an american now we're proud of that purpose of evasion so help me god please help me welcome seven hundred and 50 americans. >> (speaking foreign language.) >> she wants to be part of the country and vote so much puppy. >> you know excited and as i said it is a long process i think that needs to be finally recognized to be integrated that is basically, the type of that i see myself being part of. >> out of everybody on tv and the news he felt that is necessary to be part of community in that way i can do so many things but my voice wouldn't count as it counts now. >> it's everybody i hoped for a bunch of opportunities demographics and as you can see yourself there's a good life for everyone. >> that's why. >> you have people from all the walks that life and they're standing in water 8 hours to be an american citizen and contribute to the city and that's really what makes this worthwhile. >> ♪ ♪ i'm derek, i'm hyungry, and ready to eat. these vendors offer a variety of the streets near you. these mobile restaurants are serving up original, creative and unusual combinations. you can grab something simple like a grilled cheese sandwich or something unique like curry. we areher here in the average eight -- upper haight. you will be competing in the quick buy food challenge. an appetizer and if you are the winner you will get the title of the quitck bite "chompion." i am here with matt cohen, from off the grid. >> we assembled trucks and put them into a really unique heurban settings. >> what inspired you to start off the grid? >> i was helping people lodge mobile food trucks. the work asking for what can we get -- part together? we started our first location and then from there we expanded locations. >> why do think food trucks have grown? >> i have gotten popular because the high cost of starting a brick and mortar or strong, the rise of social media, trucks can be easily located, and food trucks to offer a unique outdoor experience that is not easily replaced by any of their setting any worlwhere else in san franc. san francisco eaters are interested in cuisine. there adventuress. the fact theyuse grea use great ingredients and make gourmet food makes unpopular. >> i have been dying to have these. >> i have had that roach coach experience. it is great they're making food they can trust. >> have you decided? >> we are in the thick of the competition? >> my game was thrown off because they pulled out of my first appetizer choice. >> how we going to crush clear? >> it will be easy. probably everyone has tried, something bacon tell us delicious. >> -- people tell us is delicious. >> hopefully you think the same thing. >> hopefully i am going to win. we're in the financial district. there is a food truck right there. every day changes. it is easy and fun to go down. these are going to be really good. >> how are you going to dominate? >> i think he does not know what he is doing. >> i was thinking of doing [unintelligible] we are underrepresented. >> i was singing of starting an irish pub. that was my idea. >> one our biggest is the corned beef and cabbage. we are asking people what they're thinking in getting some feedback. >> for a lot of people i am sure this combination looks very wrong. it might not sound right on paper but when you taste it to or have it in your mouth, it is a variety. this is one of the best ways in creating community. people gather around and talk about it and get to know different cultures. that brings people together and i hope more off the grid style and people can mingle and interact and remove all our differences and work on our similarities. this creates opportunity. >> the time has come and i am very hungry. what have you got? >> i got this from on the go, a sandwich, and a caramel cupcake. i went with home cooking. what de think? >> i will have another bite. >> sounds good. >> that was fantastic. let's start with you. >> i had the fried mac and cheese, and twinkies. i wanted to get something kind of classic with a twist on it. >> it was crispy. >> i will admit. >> want to try fieried mac and cheese? >> was that the best twinkie? >> would you say you had the winning male? >> definitely. >> no. >> you are the "chompion." clair has won. you are the first "chompion." >> they know it iwas me because i got a free meal. and check a map on -- check them out on facebook. take a peek at the stuff we have cut. to get our -- check out our blog. i will have >> the garden contains plants referred to by william shakespeare's plays and poems. located near the academy of sciences, shakespeare's garden was designed in 1928 by the california spring and wild flower association. here is a truly enchanting and tranquil little garden tucked behind the path of a charming rot iron gate with romantic magic. the overarching cherry trees, the gorgeous big walkway and brick wall, the benches, the rustic sun dial. the pack picnic, lovely bench, enjoy the sunshine and soft breeze and let the >> next item, please. >> item 1, call to order and roll call. [roll call] >> clerk: mr. president, you have a quorum. >> president adams: great. next item, please. >> clerk: general public comment. items allow public to comment on items not before the commission and to address future items. >> president adams: do we have any member of the public that would like to address the commission? seeing

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