Mention about director yekusiel. I said it right. I cant say i ever really met director yekusiel, but i wish very well. I really do. And maybe, maybe, perhaps, maybe i will meet up in new york city subway. True. Your time is up next. Speaker. Herbert weiner, director tumlin pointed out the importance of Small Businesses to the economy and thriving of San Francisco. Now it should be noted with the institute of corridors on mission street, taraval street and now gary street, Small Businesses have folded. And what is going to be done about the restitution of these Small Businesses . The projects resulted in diminishing revenue and too many businesses, Small Businesses had to give up shop. So my concern is the restitution of Small Businesses and the advocacy of it in the light of mta projects which were actually detrimental to them. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello good afternoon. This is barry toronto. I want to wish director yekutiel hallelujah to him after what he witnessed in the last week or so. I would blame him for changing his priorities and for stepping down. But i want to thank him for his help with working with Small Businesses, including taxis. The problem is we cant get enforcement at taxi stands and we are Small Businesses providing a service for people to go and frequent Small Businesses in different areas as well. But but we cant get enforcement at the cab stands in these in these Small Business areas, such as 24th and mission, which brings about the bill about harassment of female pcos while theyre giving tickets over there. So itd be great if they were protected while theyre giving tickets at the cab stand at 24th and mission. But we cant get any help. We cant get any enforcement. So and the next thing about getting congratulations on. Ab 645 the only problem is what do we do about the errant scooter riders who run red lights and speed through crosswalks and also pedestrians who take risks and walk while the light is green in the opposing direction at intersections, the for the word is no longer a good word of jaywalking. But you taking your life in your own hands when you are crossing the street, when you have the red light at the pedestrian. So i think at the same time, while promoting this speed camera program, youre also promoting that pedestrians also observe the walk signals. Thank you very much for your time. And im surprised you didnt mention anything about jaime parks and tom maguire. Thank you. Callers. Okay that will close Public Comment. Please call the next item lisa is you on item number eight, the Citizens Advisory Council report. Good afternoon, directors. Its a pleasure to address you today. Director yukkuri will allow me to, on behalf of the cac, thank you for your service. Were sorry youre leaving the board, but weve always appreciated your passion for Small Businesses, us, and especially for the riders of San Francisco and especially district eight. So thank you. We had three presentations at our last meeting. It was a long one. The first one was on the 2024 legislative program and our motion was as follows. The sf mta cac recommends that the sfmta board adopt the 2024 legislative Program Priorities as presented. Im assuming they are coming to you soon and so youll see the same presentation. We saw something similar next. We had a very long presentation on the valencia bikeway pilot, which has been rather i know youve received a lot of feedback about it. Weve received a lot of feedback about it. Not much of if any of it positive. And our recommendation is as follows the sfmta cac recommends abandoning the current unintuitive and dangerous Center Running bicycle lane pilot on valencia and refocusing the street toward its core needs commercial deliveries. Bicyclists outdoor diners and pedestrians by pursuing a road geometry that disincentivizes nonresidential traffic. And finally, we also heard a very interesting presenter session on Autonomous Vehicles, which everyone is very interested in as of late. And our recommendation is as follows the sfmta cac endorses the sfmta sfcta and sf planning commissions request for a rehearing of the California Public Utilities Commission august 10th, 2023. Approval of unlimited numbers of cruise and waymo vehicles charging for passenger rides 24 over seven in all neighborhoods of the city without doubt, an Environmental Impact report. Again, we i think like staff, we think there should be a greater level of transparency on Autonomous Vehicles and how theyre working or not working in San Francisco streets for to the benefit of everyone. Thank you all for your time. Colleagues, do you have questions for chair lee for. I did, if you wouldnt mind. Please go ahead. Director hinsey yeah. Um, i. Jennifer, thank you for your engagement. For those of us who missed the meeting, we know about your recommendation for valencia, but if you could provide a little bit more color as to maybe some of the reasons why your members might, might have landed on the recommendation that you did, that would be id be interested in know just a little bit about tenor, that discussion. Sure, sure. For the motion was not unanimously passed. And i think some people on the council were very concerned and we heard feedback from Small Businesses that are very concerned about having access to being able to park and for their employees. As we heard from a local bar owner who is in danger of losing her business that shes had for many, many years. I think some of us were swayed by that. And also, again, weve heard consistent feedback from cyclists that the middle bikeway is unsafe. They dont like it, they dont want to use it, and they either want to move to a geometry that has a protected bike lane on the outside of the street rather than in the center of the street, which would require i mean, its valencia is not a big street. Its small. And somethings going to have to give. And i think the thing that people think might have to give would be through traffic, which could probably be routed onto guerrero, which has a lot of traffic on it or mission, which has traffic on it as well. Um thank you for the thank you for that additional information. Very helpful. Sure. My pleasure. Ucucha. What do you mean . Get rid of through traffic . Im sorry. What traffic does . What does that mean . Exactly . What traffic i didnt getting rid of through traffic. Like cars that are just driving down valencia like a non resident because there are residences on valencia. So residents would want to have access to the street but not like people just driving down valencia. So the idea would be to have it be restricted to like folks that live on valencia would be the only ones that could drive on it. Hypothetically. Yes i think thats kind of what they were what we were leaning towards. Okay, thanks. Sure thank you. I also had sort of some follow up questions specifically on this last phrase, which is by pursuing a road geometry that disincentivizes non residential traffic. Just wondering if you could bring us in on your thinking. Were there are certain like scenarios you had talked about or what led the commission to make this decision . Again, i think those who supported the motion were really wanting something more where valencia is more pedestrianized and i think thats kind of where they were. I think thats where they were trending. And it was it was compromised language that we worked out to try and get them to get the motion passed because i think some folks wanted pretty much no cars at all. Other folks wanted cars. So we could have so it would be much more aggressive to say for businesses and things like that. But i think this was sort of the compromise that was reached. I dont know if that fully answers your question. No, its helpful. Thats helpful. Dr. Tumlin, can you remind us when the update is coming on valencia street . We talked about, i think december when we adopted it. I see sitting in the back livable streets lead. Jamie parks as well as soon to be acting livable streets lead. Kimberly leong, whos the currently the project manager for valencia yeah. Sorry hop on in. Hi kimberly liang, the project manager for the valencia bikeway project. We plan to return as soon as january 2024. Were in the process of collecting data right now for the project, and weve asked her to come back so we can give you a recommendation on on the pilot extension, because i think youre looking whether or not to extend the pilot in january. Right so in january. When we return, well have information from our three month evaluation mark. And as a part of that, well have any recommendations for where we should head next with this pilot, whether it be improvements or adjustments that need to be made. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Its our intention to give you a recommendation as well. Once we hear the data. Okay thank you for your report and for your service. Oh, sorry. I didnt see you. Yes, director. So go ahead. Oh, sorry. Sorry im always a little today. Im a little bit lag of my, my response was delayed, so i apologize. Thank you, chair. Thank you for sharing. All your input is very, very insightful and really liked it. And i keep thinking i actually live in the mission and ive seen the evolution of whats happening in valencia and yeah, we need to continue to refine this. And i like most part of your recommendations and i just keep thinking your last sentences, which our chair had brought up, if you can elaborate. And i thought of this morning, i spent my whole morning Holding Hands with one of my really Senior Mentor just to walk ten steps up to the alamo square park. And i know that i have a lot of my mentors that are actually we enjoy time to go to nice restaurant. And so spend like a morning and lunch or dinner. So if we can you explain to me your recommendation. So how am i going to get my mentor to actually enjoy these restaurants on valencia if she can actually walk really just just five steps or ten steps . Im just looking at people who actually cant bike, can row. Right. And they are relying on paratransit or their loved ones if theyre lucky and fortunate enough to have the resource, to have their loved ones actually drive them, to get them to where they can go to, to have their normal social life or sometimes simply some efficacy of community work. So i just wanted to see if you your, your your group had thought about the equity component of that was that yeah, we did get a comment. A Public Comment like that. And personally i think thats a very insightful comment and something that needs to be considered as we again try to figure out all of the competing priorities for that very slim street. But yeah, some people, a car is the only option really, especially if were not running transit down valencia anymore, which we arent. Its and its not really fair to say, well its only a block away and, well, a block can be a mile for some people. Exactly i think thats a very good point. Okay. Would you would is a good point. Would you would you refine your recommendation or maybe bring it back into to us to see what you. I think thats something well need to consider once we get the data and we come back with a recommendation in january. That would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Director hensley has a question for you as well. Sure i do. Sorry, charlie, for to put you on the hot seat today. But you did you did mention that you intend to come back to us with a recommendation. So im trying to figure out what your recommend for us today is or should we be should we be holding off basically until you come back with your. I think the recommendation in january. Yeah, thats a good no, thats a good point. I think the thrust of the councils recommendation today is moving away from the center bike lane. I think thats the real thats the meat of it. And then but youre still going to wait until the project is evaluated to come and write another recommendation. Yes i think we felt that since staff was going to issue a recommendation to you in january , we thought we would chime in as well. Okay got it. Okay. Thank you for your service. You bet. Lets open Public Comment on the cac report items, please, for those in the room. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Board members. Luke bornheimer, i urge you to take the cac unprecedented recommendation and direct staff to immediately replace this valencia Street Center bikeway with either curbside protected bike lanes or pedestrianization of the street, which can include access for commercial deliveries. Local residents and people with disabilities. As more people are crashing or being hit, killed or injured on valencia with the Center Bikeway and significantly more than the portion of valencia where curbside protected bike lanes were installed in 2019 and multiple evaluation by sfmta staff showed that cars parked in the bike lane decrease their 99. Close calls decreased to 100, and the number of people biking increased 49. Curbside protected bike lanes work phenomenally well. Improved safety for all people, including drivers, and increase revenue for local businesses and they can be installed on valencia using quick build materials in months, if not weeks in an email, sfmta staff told me they didnt create a design for curbside protected bike lanes because the design wouldnt allow for car parking on both sides of the street. Only 56 days after the Center Bikeway pilot was officially started, an 80 year old man was killed on valencia. Countless other people have crashed or been injured as a result of the Center Bikeway and even more have had close calls which could have resulted in them being killed or seriously injured, including a mom with a kid on her bike. About a week ago, the people of San Francisco and our planet need you to take immediate action to make valencia safer for people, better for business and effective for fighting Climate Change. I urge you to take the unprecedented recommendation in and direct staff to immediately replace the valencia Street Center, bikeway with either curbside protected bike lanes or pedestrianization of the street, which can include access for commercial deliveries, local residents and people with disabilities. As you are the only people who can help us and we need you to take immediate action to protect us, our local businesses and the planet. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, stacy randecker. I could talk all day about valencia, but i did want to say to director so, so i agree with everything that luke said, although im all for pedestrianization for as much of the corridor that it makes sense at this time. I think at the lower end and the protected bike lanes are working fine and it doesnt have quite the vibe that the center of, of valencia does. As for your mentor and friend, i totally understand my dad who recently passed, he was he couldnt walk either. It would have been an issue for him. But what i would say is what do you do when you take them to the airport . What do you do when you take them to the mall . Thats the same thing that we would ask to be done for valencia. We do not want to limit accessibility to anyone when were talking about pedestrianization, but we have to change our mind about what accessibility really means. As i was out on valencia, ive been out there the last three saturday nights all night that its closed and the things that ive seen the people in the mobility scooters, the dad with the teen daughter with a like a glider sort of apparatus, theres its so wide. Theres nowhere else you can go. You could never do that on a sidewalk. You could only do that on like jfk. Great highway when its closed or a place like valencia, i dont know where they live. I was too know i didnt want to go bother them, but it just was like where does she have to go . Like this to see the little kids out on their strider bikes and stuff . We dont have that on our side of town. We need spaces like this. It does so much for the merchants. And if its not working, then we have to figure out how to make it work. Our city and our planet, the people who live here, we need it to be more livable. We need it to be a place where people can go and want to go. And there its full of life. Not just cars. We can do this. We need as an agency, as the city. We need to start saying how can we do it differently . Not like what is the problem . What is the one off case . How do we solve for as much as possible . Thats what we need to move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers in the room for item eight . Seeing none, please open the phone at this time well move to remote Public Comment, not to exceed a total time of ten minutes. Members of the public wishing to comment on item number eight should dial star three to enter the queue. Each speaker will have two minutes. Moderator for speaker. Hello. Good afternoon again and sorry toronto. As you know, valencia street already is traffic calming because you you have to stop in every every light down valencia street unless youre going really slow. So its already not lights are not timed. The only problem is you cant get off of valencia street because you cant make any left turns in that area. So the center. So i applaud the for wanting to abandon in this failed experiment of the Center Running bike lane. I also want to applaud the cac for endorsing the rehearing request by the City Attorney and the city departments just the other night at bill graham civic auditorium, there was a rave like event going on at and one of the Autonomous Vehicles ran into the barrier blocking grove street between larkin and paul. It does not recognize these items that close streets off temporarily. So there has it has to go back to the drawing board to deal with these. Unlike unlikely situations that their Autonomous Vehicles cant figure out. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Next speaker. Afternoon, directors. This is cyrus hall. Im calling as a bike rider who rides in valencia sometimes im frustrated to hear that agency will not be bringing an update until january on the valencia bike lane. The number of issues that have been reported. Weve had a death. Weve had a number of injuries. Is calls for more urgency on this issue than waiting until january. I want to give a couple examples. When youre writing down the center bike lane and sfpd decides that they dont decide they have an emergency and theyre using the center lane to get to where theyre going as quickly as possible. You as a writer have nowhere to go. You do. You have to bet that other traffic is going to behave perfectly and cautiously as you try to escape the oncoming vehicle while in the lane. I dont know how this wasnt thought about when this was when this was designed. The bike turn boxes are death traps. No one wants to use them. No one wants to be in those boxes because it requires drivers to behave perfectly and drivers dont behave perfect. I urge a faster sped up analysis of the incidents the agency is aware of and quicker action on this issue. Thank you very much. Thank you. No additional speakers. Ill close Public Comment. I see director hemminger has a comment. Thank you, madam chair. And i apologize for not raising this earlier. You know, i fear that were headed toward another show on valencia in january. If all were going to be talking about is the results of the pilot with the Center Running lane. I believe i made the point when we originally considered this item that we really only had one option in front of us and that it was worthwhile doing being a pilot and doing an evaluation session. But it sort of compared to what an and one thing thats clearly been mentioned is a more traditional protected bike lane on the outside, which obviously is going to interfere with parking given the geometry of the road. And the other one is what weve done on market, which is to eliminate private vehicles , which comes with its own set of trouble, but it strikes me that if we only have one option in front of us again, were liable to get the same result, which is a room full of unhappy people on each side, determined that theyve got the point of view. I mean, some of the testimony now is getting a little bit ideological and i thought one of our purposes was to try to turn down the temperature a little bit. So, jeff, maybe you could just give us a sense of your expectation of how much work we can do to by january or if its a month or so later, whatever, in having 2 or 3 legitimate options on the table instead of just one with a bunch of people shooting yes and no at it. So excuse me, chair, may i interrupt . Deputy City Attorney susan clevelandknowles i did just want to remind the board that the item that was agendized today was a report from the cac and that the broader topic of valencia is not on the agenda today. So think if jeff wants to give a brief response, i think thats fine. But we should probably in their report was this item, right . Yeah right. But this is youve asked questions and sought clarification from the cac about their resolution on which was the identified object. Not a full not a full discussion of valencia. And so i would just urge some caution. I mean, i think we can respond to director hemingss question, but but its just really about what the cac reported to you, what i am hearing is direction from director hemminger that when we come back to you in january, that we evaluate an array of options. Yeah. In short, thats it. So if youre going to do that, im happy and i hope our council is happy to. Yeah, im no issues. Sorry, i didnt know how long the discussion was going to go on. Thank you. Okay thank you. Lets please call the next item. Next item. Very good. Item number nine. General Public Comment. Members of the public may address the board of directors on matters that are within the boards jurisdiction, but not on todays calendar hour. I do have a speaker card for stacy randecker. Okay go ahead. Hi, my name is rex ridgeway. Im the president of the ptsa at lincoln high school. And im here to talk about a situation with the number 48 bus. This is a condensed timeline of correspondence from our assistant principal to a person who works at the here. I wont name the name, but ill just give you the date. September 20th, 26. The 40. The number 48. Number 8657 stopped by this school, did not open the doors and drove off without picking up anybody. September 27th. Thank you for your time with us. The 48 number 8847 was listed as not in service and just drove by by october second 48. Number three, 48 busses on friday after school drove by our kids and did not pick them up. The bus numbers were eight, eight, 98812 and 8888. October 3rd two weeks ago. Our assistant principal emailed this individual and said, i know that you are investigating. Do you have any follow up . Our community is wondering if theres any improvement since you notified us. And to my knowledge as of this morning, two weeks have passed and we dont know whats going on. So im here because i have time and i would like to. And the assistant principal called me and said, rex, can you do something . I said, ill make a Public Comment. Thank you. So, sir, the board cant address your item, but al ramos, whos in the audience, can direct you to the right folks in our transit division. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Hi. Board members. Luke bornheimer. I urge you to immediately approve a citywide no turn on red policy and direct staff to create a plan for implementing that policy as soon as possible to make it safer, easier and more comfortable for people to cross our streets and increase safety for all people, especially for children, seniors and people with disabilities, as well as people who walk, bike and even drivers during your meeting two weeks ago, the board of supervisors unanimously approved supervisor prestons resolution urging you to approve a citywide no turn on red policy on the resolutions First Reading of a remarkable event for the board of supervisors and a historic moment for our city. Since the board of supervisors unanimous approval urging you to approve a citywide policy. More than 15 news outlets have covered the Public Campaign i started thats support voters have sent you and other policy makers more than 5000 emails in the San Francisco chronicle and Los Angeles Times covered the approval. And this morning, the guardian covered it as well. This is an amazing opportunity for you and our city to lead on a proven Street Safety improvement that will make our streets instantly safer, especially for children, seniors and people with disabilities. As well as people who walk, bike and drive. I urge you to immediately approve a citywide no turn on red policy and direct staff to create a plan for implementing that policy as soon as possible to make it safer, easier and more comfortable for people to cross our streets and increase safety for all people, especially for children, seniors and people with disabilities, as well as people who walk, bike and even drivers. For anyone who supports a no turn on red, please go to or rssf. Com. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi stacy randecker again. So you all probably know that we are in a Global Climate emergency and even though we hear do rarely suffer the ill effects of severe weather, it is not the case with the rest of the world. Transportation is the number one single contributor to Climate Change for San Francisco, california and the united states. We need to change absolute absolutely everything about how people and goods move at the same time, our streets have been particularly dangerous for those outside of car. Instead of reaching vision zero, were at zero vision making effectively no impact in the near decade since our supervisors initially resolved that we would eliminate deaths from transportation trans base where sfmta gets its traffic injury data has not been updated since march 31st. It has been without an owner since july 1st, so sfmta, or at least the public is flying blind. With regard to the state of our streets, i realize that eliminating transportation and Greenhouse Gas emissions and traffic deaths seems like an impossibility. But we must. And they are absolutely intertwined. And i am echoing what i have heard many of you say that this agency needs to get creative about making change, change that our city and our planet require year. Could we reinstitute the innovation position that sfmta once had someone that is thinking about how to solve these very large issues and bring forth a variety of solutions every time . Could we have someone that is responsible for vision zero, someone that will ensure that the data is up to date available to the public completely comprehensive and reports out changes to be or a thorough analysis for keeping the status quo of our streets. Too often i hear that. Oh, its fine, no changes need to be made. Thats your time. Thank you. We need to make change. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Ill make this quick. My issue today in and quite frequently is parking tickets in the city. The number one thing that says i think that we should make some changes is if you google what city has the most expensive parking tickets . Theres articles that come out. Its always San Francisco at the top. And were a city that that prides herself on on on on change. And focusing on low income people. And i think its shameful that we have that and yeah its very frustrating and i and i understand you were talking earlier about the administrative process for dismissing citations. I think that the reasons that you can give or the reasons that that citation will be dismissed administratively are kind of kept secret. And its somewhat of a convoluted process. And then you have to go to the second level through the kangaroo court. And the third one, you have to pay everything and then pay more to go before a real judge. And ive done that and i won. Yay but its a struggle and it lasts months to get to get a refund. I just think its an issue that should be addressed. And i know youre following the law, but i think the city can can go beyond that and make it more more focused on on the residents. Thank you. Thank you. No other speakers in the room. Please open the remote Public Comment at this time. Well move to remote Public Comment not to exceed a total time of ten minutes. Members of the public wishing to comment should dial star three to enter the queue. Each speaker will have two minutes. Moderator first speaker, thank you. Chair amanda alito. Dupree for the record, she and her speak generally, im just an ordinary user of muni. Maybe im one of a very rare few, but i am. I hope you hear me all right. And how do we build the best muni . We can . I often learn things in other places. I read about a program in new jersey on nj transit called ride kinds and saying hate has no place, hate has no seat on our system. Um, i would like to see us have that kind of work here at muni because i want to feel fully included on muni and i feel very fortunate that your senior staff has fully included me and welcomed me in the things that muni. But the leadership really comes from you. So ive been away from you for a little while, but i did go to new york city and i did ride on their legendary system called a subway. And every time i wrote it while wearing a skirt, nobody tried to stop me from using the system in new york. I dont think anybody would do it on muni, but i ask that you not entertain any kind of hate on muni because i want to be able to use the system fully and hopefully ill use the Autonomous Vehicles which will offer me a safe skirt friendly way for me to traverse the city. Im just waiting for my 30s code. Um. Some of you have not met me, but i hope to be meet you at a meeting in person soon along with the senior staff that has always welcomed me fully on this system. Senior staff can can only do so much because they work for you. Muni needs. The tone for muni needs to be set by you and i ask that you build the most welcoming system we can. We can learn from new jersey and new york. Thank you. Next speaker. Is herbert weiner. I wish to speak on the extension of parking hours. Now youve pointed out that, you know, you need extended parking hours for more revenue, but this could be greatly offset by the need to employ additional staff to enforce the parking hours. So in essence, the overhead cancels out the benefits of the revenue. So i think this is really a self destructive measure. Its going to alienate the public. Its going to hurt businesses, and its basically a loser all the way around. And when you want to extend those parking hours, you better think three times before you do it. This is a very destructive measure. And it really will not improve Service Delivery from mta. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Good afternoon. This is barry toronto again. Um, i first want to applaud you have another great employee in the Taxi Division in addition to peter woods is scott leone. Scott leone helps arrange for temporary taxi stands for special events. And i appreciate what he did to help us while the lesbians who are occupying the complete block of castro street. So thank you, scott, for working on that project. I want to say, though, is that because your mobility investigators are spending more time on scooters, were still having the legal solicitations going on in the cab staging area, particularly at chase center. And were having a problem with not having an investigator after concerts and basketball games there. Now that basketball season is starting. Please, please, please have investigators work the basketball games. But know you refuse to do it. You refuse to do it. Why why . Why . Ask director tomlin, why am and i want to applaud director so for bringing up about the patrons issue. People get to go to events at night because of using the paratransit debit card at and the subsidized rides so they can afford and go even though theyre seniors and disabled to go to a special events and i hope that you will be able to allow this allow them to have access to the events because were because if you make it tough for vehicles like ramp taxis to get to certain places, then its a problem. So again, i applaud scott leon for making arrangements so we can have access during the Market Street closure so that lighthouse for the blind and the Mayors Office of disability. Thank you your time is up next. Speaker. Good afternoon, directors. My name is alex landsberg, research and advocacy director for the San Francisco Electrical Construction industry. I want to say a couple of things. First of all, i tuned in late, so maybe i missed it. But in case you are or in case other viewers and listeners havent heard, San Francisco is going to be hosting the International Public transportation associations north american Trolley Committee next week. Trolley Bus Committee hearing next week in San Francisco. And i think we should be proud of and following on that, i wanted to invite you directors of staff and other members of the public to you, to a question and answer session with Andres Restrepo and Jose Valentin restrepo from the Universidad Pontificia boulevard. Diana i worked with them to show how San Francisco can quickly electrify more than 200 miles of diesel powered muni routes at a lower cost and with fewer Environmental Impacts and lower operational costs than currently envisioned by through the battery electric bus program. Our report shows how we and were bringing andre san Jose Valentin up from medellin to answer questions, have a little reception ahead of the uitp people can rsvp at eventbrite. You can find it in eventbrite or at l, igad dot me. So with periods in there, its a kind of lead me slash emcee trolleys. Next tuesday, 6 00 at the ibew hall at 55 fillmore thanks. Thank you. Next speaker. Can you hear me now . Yes. Go ahead. Great. David pilpel two points, i think. Barry toronto earlier made referee to two people, leaving the mta staff. I understand that one of them is tom maguire, who will be leaving mta soon. I wish him well, although he is not perfect. None of us are. Hes a human being, but he, in my opinion, hes been a very decent and honest person at mta and mta could certainly use more decent and honest people. And i think its a big loss for mta management and for the city. So i wish him well. And if anyone can straighten out bart to san jose, good luck to him on that. On a separate topic , the board of supervisors just voted to limit remote Public Comment at its meetings. I think that was a bad policy choice and i hope mta will not follow suit and do so. Thanks for listening. Thank you. No additional speakers. Okay, lets close Public Comment and move to the next item. Directors that places you on item ten consent calendar. These items are considered to be routine and will be acted upon by a single vote unless a member of the board or public wishes to consider an item separately for all speakers. Providing Public Comment, please identify which item number you are speaking to and i will announce that item 10. 2 a to establish a shared spaces shared spaces road closure on hay street between gough and octavia streets has been severed from the consent calendar and will be heard separately. Item 10. 1. Go ahead and im going to read off requesting the controller to allocate funds and to draw warrants against such Funds Available or will be available in payment of the following claims against the sfmta. Thats items a and b in the agenda item 10. 2 approving various routine parking and traffic modifications and making Environmental Review findings. Items b and c and the agenda and item 10. 3 amending transportation Code Division two, section 801 for permit parking on hyde street between mcallister and grove streets, leavenworth street, between golden gate avenue and mcallister street and larkin street between mcallister and grove streets to support transit improvements along hyde street and the relocation of the heart of the city Farmers Market to fulton street. That concludes your consent calendar. Thank you. Secretary silva. I will open now Public Comment for anyone in the room on our consent calendar minus item 10. 2. A seeing none. Please open remote at this time. Well move to remote Public Comment not to exceed a total time of ten minutes. Members of the public wishing to comment should dial star three to enter the queue. Each speaker will have two minutes. Moderator first speaker great david paypal again, i assume i can be heard. I just had a brief comment on item 10. 3. I dont think it needs to be pulled. I note that page two of the staff report has a section on Stakeholder Engagement, but really only discusses what Stakeholder Engagement occurred and does not really summarize the input gleaned from that Stakeholder Engagement that is not the same as some of the other items that have some different and in some cases more discussion on Stakeholder Engagement. I think its important to have that section in Staff Reports and i think its important not just to document what Stakeholder Engagement events occurred and what mta staff broadcast to the stakeholders, but what input was received from stakeholders and much more importantly, what changes were made to the proposals as a result of that Stakeholder Engagement. And this applies not just to item 10. 3, but throughout to all items today and in the future. Thanks for listening. Thank you. No additional speakers. Okay, well close Public Comment on consent, 10. 2 a may i have a motion for my colleagues, please . So moved. Thank you. Please call the roll on the motion to approve the consent calendar. Item 10. 2. A severed director. Heminger heminger. Director henderson. Henderson and i director hinsey. I director. So i so i director ukotoa ukotoa i director gina i coquina regan. Hi egon. I thank you. The consent calendar is approved. Okay. Please call item 10. 2. A item 10. 2 a to establish a shared spaces road closure on hay street between gough and octavia streets from saturday, october 21st, 2023 through saturday, october 19, 2024. 1 p. M. To 10 p. M. Each saturday. We have staff here. Thank you. Good afternoon, chair egan directors. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon. My name is monica minich. Im the Program Manager of shared spaces and happy to be presenting to you all today on the application weve received and have been working closely with the community on to close the 400 block of hay street and hayes valley as part of the shared spaces postPandemic Program. Um, i prepared a brief presentation on the background of the application and program and what led us to the recommendation, the staff recommendation here in front of you today. So shared spaces is was established over the pandemic. It was intended to make a place outside possible for the neighborhood and Business Districts and restaurants and businesses to be outside when it wasnt safe to operate indoors through in the form of parklets roadway closures, sidewalk tables and chairs when it really was such a desperate time to be outdoors, it brought people together. It brought communities together. It really was a delight and has continued to be a delight throughout our city. In the summer of 2021, the mayor signed legislation to make shared spaces permanent and here to stay to allow our economy and Business Districts and Small Businesses to continue to leverage this and activate our public spaces, shared spaces for street closures are typically approved by the interdepartmental Staff Committee of traffic and transportation. This is chaired by sfmta with representation from Public Works Fire Department fire. Fire department. Police entertainment commission. Public health. But this application is brought to you today as the board to take action because of the 21 muni route that serves this street and the reroute needed to accommodate this closure, which requires a necessitates the board share shared spaces versus slow streets two programs that started during the pandemic, each very different and i just want to highlight so were sort of this is covered and intentionally sort of discuss the differences between both programs. Shared spaces are intended to be destinations. These are intended to be on commercial corridors. They have sponsors that are responsible for activating the space and setting it up, and they are recurring, recurring in nature. These are different than blocks that may be closed for a special event shared spaces are recurring slow streets, as were well aware, are on residential corridors. These are traffic on streets that are slow and accommodate all modes of transportation. Its a really a new sort of framework and typology for people to get from point a to point b, this is a form of mobility. Shared spaces. Some things we look at, although not required, but most shared spaces throughout the city and from the postpandemic permanent program. I think weve permitted about over 30 of them are typically on streets without public transit, bike lanes on low volume streets without fire or emergency c or medical facilities and likely few driveways. So theres not a lot of Public Access needed to be maintained. So not not possible, but additional analysis like hayes street may be required to confirm feasible city. So now to get into a little bit more of the specifics on hay street, when on the 21 hayes bus line was not operating during the pandemic, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and hayes valley Merchant Council applied for a street closure on the three, four and 500 block for fridays, saturdays and sundays. And they operated in that configuration for, i believe, well over a year. There were some iterations of the permit during that time, notably the end of 2021. It was scaled to be its current form of 400 block only for friday, saturday and sundays due to Community Opposition and traffic circulation issues. Then fast forward. To summer 2022, the 21 hayes came back and we were able to find a way to work with the community to continue to reroute muni to serve and allow the closure to happen every friday, saturday and sunday. And thats whats been in place since the Pandemic Program ended in march 2023. So weve been in this transition and Hayes Valley Merchants Council submit an application to continue the closure friday, saturday and sundays, fridays for 210 saturdays, sundays, 10 a. M. To 10 p. M. In the postPandemic Program. And just a high level to orient the three 400 block that weve been speaking and well be speaking most about today is that block between gough and octavia, 300 between franklin and gough, and the 500 block is between octavia and laguna. Hayes street has been a beloved Community Space during the pandemic. Residents report it loving to walk and gather and be in this space. And some businesses have noted additional foot traffic, foot traffic that has supported their business during the pandemic time over the course of the permit. The closure has also experiences some challenges. Many merchants weve worked with and spoken to would like to see more regular activation of the space sponsors have a lot of responsibility when they close the street. They have to set up the barricades, take them down, activate the space and in inspecting the closure during the period that it was activated ad the applicant was not able to do this reliably. The barricades, for example, were not always set up at the same location, and we were really committed to working closely with them and came up actually with a revised barricade set up within the last year that reduced the ability or the need to have staffing at the intersection. The staffing was needed to move barricades in the event of an emergency, and we worked together as a city team revise the barricades set up to eliminate the staff need that there really having a challenge to do consistently and reliably. Unfortunately i think with inspections, we still were seeing inconsistency in setting up the barricades during that time. Other notable things that weve observed and have been reported and many merchants talk about the Traffic Congestion affecting their businesses, particularly on the 300 block is illustrated here for and the impacts just to general circulation having on their customers and on the business deliveries and pickups needed to support their businesses. Lastly weve had a lot of reports on double parking at the intersection as particularly at gough and also on octavia blocking the barricades and really becoming a Traffic Safety and emergency access issue. Weve also received reports from muni about the reroute over the course of the pandemic, about passengers impacted from the new bus stops friday, saturdays and sundays every week. Two operators sort of trying to navigate the closure. I understand. And the friday service operates out of the presidio yard. Our trolley bus overhead wires, which are uniquely a little bit less nimble and how they come off wire and have to reroute that is presented just on fridays compared to the service on saturday and sundays. So some of the observations have been reported and identified over the last couple of years. This summer, staff convened stakeholders upon receiving the application to continue in the post Pandemic Program and met with merchant and neighborhood groups and really tried to all come together. Those that oppose and support all in one space to provide a space and a seat at the table to hear concerns and identify sustainable solutions. So while im here presenting this today, the recommendations that we bring in front of you are really a representation of our work with the neighborhood and the merchants advocates, the office of Small Business, the Fire Department, the Mayors Office, and our recommendations really are a direct result of all of that feedback, like. So to get into now more specifics on what the proposal that was brought forward to the to the group of stakeholders we met with as a result of those conversations, theres a common theme the community loves this space and they want to see it continue in some form. They want it to be activated and well managed, monitored for safety and consistent and reflect the diverse needs of the corridor. So ill briefly list out all of these and i have some follow up slides to go into them in more detail. But one of the main recommendations was scaling back to a one day only closure, having it be more intentional so we could focus the resources and set it up for success so they can see and build upon that success and that stability and the sponsor being able to activate the space. We were open to the day and try to sort of feedback. If it was one day with friday feel better saturdays and sundays and ultimately at present suggested a saturday because of the level of activity on that day compared to a sunday, for example. Well wed like to see more regular activation. There are resources for this. The shared Spaces Program in and of itself has an arts and culture grant that they could apply for to get things like music and art and really enliven the space. And then we also have a host of signage and wayfinding requirements and ideas to bring forth that will hopefully manage the space better, that include includes this new barricade setup that we developed with working with Fire Department and our engineers that places the barricades out side of the crosswalk instead of inside of the crosswalk. This hopefully eliminates the Additional Space and sort of invites the double parking, the illegal parking that we were seeing at the intersection. So we propose this at octavia and at sorry, at gough and octavia with that sort of art shape with a similar thread of thinking, sort of reducing that extra space that was there with the barricade setup during the pandemic. And then the additional wayfinding and loading and signage just to walk through that here on southbound gough, we like to put a no right turn ahead sign up so that its clear to drivers coming down southbound on gough that hay street is closed and they can circulate through the neighborhood hopefully easier. Weve legislated new commercial and passenger loading zones on hayes just south im sorry on gough just south of hayes as well as new passenger loading zone in the works on octavia just north of hayes. Wed like to put additional no parking signage on the barricades themselves so that its clear that shouldnt be happening there and also suggested that businesses put out specific wayfinding signage at the loading zone for their businesses to support that visibility. Again mta provides these barricades and signage to the sponsor at no cost. And they have to store it, maintain it, set it up. But we provide this to all of our permits. So i want to acknowledge that the permit holder, upon receiving the feedback and the supervisor office, felt strongly that the event time should remain the same. We recognize the event is loved by many and some things were not working well and wed want to see this succeed. And we want to really have this be a reset. So i share this because theres sort of six after that time, there was additional feedback done after the recommendation was shared with the stakeholders. Hayes valley did their own Membership Survey and heard from neighbors who overwhelmingly want to see the street closure continue. We also partnered with the office of Small Business, who went door to door on the three, four and 500 block. And i believe spoke to 59 of the 64 merchants. So over 90. And have a really good idea of their needs in addition to the neighbors and while a minority we heard from dont want it at all and some wanted the same the majority 66 wanted a one day or were neutral about a one day. So to show that a little bit more visually see this graph shows again those door to door small office, Small Business surveys and you can see on the third bar, thats the group, the ten responses that we heard that 16 that wanted to keep friday, saturday and sunday, most of them are on the 400 block. Some of them came from the 400 block. So its clear those right on the block are really are activating and enjoying that space. We also heard that a lot of businesses did not feel comfortable publicly voicing their concerns. So weve kept their responses anonymous as. In conclusion, this is not about a one day or a three day closure. This is about reset ing and rebuilding that trust in the community and making a process so its possible that the block can work well and get to 24 over seven. And it wasnt working for some merchants. And thats not a reason to cancel it entirely. We really want an opportunity to grow and expand. On the success in hayes valley and see it thrive. So with that, that concludes my presentation and happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you. Colleagues, do you have questions before we go to Public Comment at dr. Ikuko . Just one. I have i have feelings about this, but my clarifying question to you is there have been some talk of asking us to do some kind of study on what it would take to make this permanent and whats your thoughts on on doing that kind of study . Yeah, its would be amazing to pedestrian personally the space i think that we should leverage upon a pilot type program that shared spaces provides so often we go in with a blank slate go forward with a pilot and then evaluate results. Weve had three years to kind of build off of. So i think that that would be a great process that i would love to be part of. And i think to move that forward, we really need to kind of have merchants brought along iron out some of the issues we have been experiencing over the last couple of years to see if it really is a long term viable solution for all the merchants in the corridor. And you said that this is kind of like it feels a little bit like a timeout where youre like, go back to your room and think about what youve done. Kind of vibes. How long is this timeout in your mind . Like how long do you want to see that the merchants are able to run this block before they can . Its a good question. I mean, we whats in front of you is a one year permit and thats consists joint with the other shared spaces we brought forward and thats in to provide stability for the community. But we very well could talk about a three month or a six month period. I dont know if that means the permits 3 or 6 months or we just commit to an evaluation time that we are resourcing, are transparent about what the metrics we want to see. I think anything less than that, i think theres a theres a lot of work that goes behind, as you know, to get these going. I probably wouldnt suggest less than three months, but. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Director henderson. Thank you, chair. I have a couple questions. Just i appreciate the amount of what sounds like a lot of staff work that went into to working with the community to identify a path forward. And i have a question about the timing for this. Its a one year permit. So then what happens . What should we expect in a years time . Um, would it have to . Would it . Yeah. What should we expect in a years time . Yeah. All sponsors have to reapply, so theyre kind of like parklets as well. Theyre sort of still temporary activations of the street. So these are, for all intents and purposes, temporary permits. So a sponsor gets permitted for a year, and after that point they can reapply. Okay. And then do you have any in terms of considering a permanent programing of the space in this way . Is there a process or some sort of way that the community and the staff can commune, skate during that during that year to be able to consider something more permanent or like im just curious, how do do we have to wait a year to have that conversation about expanding it potentially . No, thank you for asking so i can provide clarification. No by all means. At a minimum, it can be a year, but we can entertain at any time. A permit scope can change and we can bring it back to the board and permit if we see after three months, we want to grow or revoke. Its not has to wait for a year. But thanks for asking. Got it. Thank you. Of course. Thank you, director. So thank you, monica. Really nice presentation. I like all the graphics. It really paints really clear. Picture for me to understand what has been going on and also what are the proposed traffic cone layout. I like to what you mentioned about some some of the incident or concern from our Fire Department. I like to know if can you enlighten us a little bit about about what are the situations that are concerning for Public Safety . I mean, im really aware of that whole area. I live nearby by all that area and golf street. Its like a major thoroughfare to, you know, everyone just racing down that street and i just want to hear when you mention some of these situation options where, when, when, when folks double park and congested that intersection and what are the concerns about when this street is i just want to hear historically what we have learned. What are the concerns . Of course. Yes. Thank you so 400 block has a is dense with restaurants and businesses that get a lot of activity. If someone is traveling in a vehicle down southbound golf, which as you know, is a big thoroughfare, they get to haze. They cant turn right because the block is closed. So naturally, were seeing them just get illegally double parked at the barricades. So basically in the middle of the intersection, not blocking the lane of traffic per se, but theres enough space there that theyll just do the quickest thing possible. And then they go out and get to the restaurant or business on the block and get back to their car. The businesses have told us they dont like that. They they the setup is detrimental to their business. And weve heard from folks like San Francisco Fire Department, what if theres an emergency and theres a blocked car in the way they cant get there, their truck down. So hopefully a new barricade set up and creating additional loading zone just south of hayes will and better signage will kind of alleviate that. But i dont know if you had specific questions broader than that specific activity. Me but that is my question is any incident or collectively we had alerts at our agency to flag this is a pretty dangerous kind of way to arrange the street the way we are. Like if anyone had been injured by this or i mean, yeah, no, im not aware of an a crash per se, but we do have the fire marshal here in the room and id love to invite him up to kind of respond directly to at least from their perspective, what theyre seeing for Emergency Response time. I dont if thats pertinent to your question, but that would be id love to have them come up. Thank you. And also, i know mary thompson, who i know has to leave at 330, and hes here with the office of Small Business. She wanted to speak as well at at some point when thats relevant and important. Thank you. Good afternoon, chair egan. Directors ken coughlin, your fire marshal. I want to answer your question. I see where youre going with that. Not physical instance, but the problem is that hay street and that block is a route for our battalion chiefs and sometimes our engines that cross town. So we have webster, webster and almost here we have a firehouse and we have another one at oak and franklin, and we have battalion chiefs who run a section of town. And every time you have a fire in building smoke, call, building alarm, they have to respond one way or another. And unfortunately, the their response area is not nice little blocks. Its kind of its interesting. Its been that way for a long time. Anyway, as we this closure, which monica didnt mention, actually has a 20 foot access lane down the center. Okay. Because there are still buildings. There are there are still restaurants there. We still have to respond, whether it be a medical or a fire, more likely a medical call. So the rearrangement of the cones was to allow the Fire Department to get through there without actually having a monitor to move the cones, because we noticed that was a problem. Specifically, it would be those cars that were double parked for food pickup deliveries that the chief the engines, the trucks tried to get through. And all of a sudden theres a car there and they just couldnt get through. So thats the thats more of the type of incidents we ran into and thats why we worked together with sfmta to reconfigure the cones, to bring them out. So we dont have that legal parking at the intersection and blocking the crosswalk. So what you said, not specific, harmed anybody more of a delay. The harm would be have to be analyzed afterwards. If somebody didnt get there on time. Thank you. I really appreciate your your expertise and what is the traffic cone look like now . What does it look like now . Yes the way the cones are, they will they type to barricade . Is that the type three barricades at the end . Thats what the larger ones with the slats. And then they have just simple cones in there. What weve asked and worked with is to still use the type three barricades. But space the cones a little bit larger so we can still get through without running them over. If you run them over the wrong way, then they get stuck on the wheel well. Now you got more of a bigger problem. Youre going to ruin a Million Dollar fire engine. So the thing is, the idea is to have quick access directly through the lane without and then also some cooperation with the operator side of the merchants. Right. Well the permit says you cannot put anything permanent in that space. Were not worried about people walking in the street. They tend to move out of the way when you have a big red fire engine making lots of noise and coming down at you. So thats not the problem. Its the its keeping the physical items out of the street tables and barricades and things like that. I believe the permit actually even calls for cones to mark down the street to say this is how far you can come out, you know, put tables and chairs in the parking place and even a little bit wider. But leave this area clear. So you may have heard of instances where weve driven down the street. Thats what its for. We are we do use it as a response route. We have used it to get from one side of town to the other. As you know, oak street fell street. Theyve gotten quite busier over the years as some type of reconfiguration. So hayes is an important cross town pathway for us. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Colleagues, id like to ask Marianne Thompson from office of Small Business to address the board so she has to leave at 330. Thank you. Board members. Thank you, monica. Thank you. So in the last few months, the office of Small Business has engaged very strongly with sfmta. Its important for us that the voice of Small Businesses be heard, and this has really been a great process in many ways. What sfmta did was they enabled us to bring many voices to the table. Those who were unheard, unseen in Merchants Association actions that sfmta did not know existed. I want to applaud sfmta and the Mayors Office for bringing everyone together in a really, really safe space and having these great conversations. For those of you who dont know me and my work, i have actually been with the office of economic and Workforce Development for over ten years. Open space activations is at the heart and soul of what i do every day. Besides engaging Small Businesses, many of you have been to a lot of my activate sessions and didnt even know it. Hayes valley. Thats when your work is good. Hayes valley is at the heart of this is deep to me because when i go to hayes valley and when i get there, by the way, i am a muni person. I dont have a car. So when im there and i see that space, i want to see it activated. And i want to see it be brilliant and i want it to be the shining star of the city. We have work to do to get it there. And i think its really, really important that we say that out loud. We have work to do to get it to be a shining star. And i and i really, again, want to thank monica and her team for listening to people. I also want to point something out because ive been here since 1 00 and a lot of Small Businesses have been here since 1 00. And this is something for all of us to think about. The business that are here are sole proprietors. Some of them may have had to close their doors to come here today, having people go through Public Comment for an item that impacts Small Businesses. Lets rethink how we do this and lets really rethink how we treat our Small Businesses. And again, i really want to emphasize this because it did come up in our survey. People were afraid to come forward and speak about this closure because they felt at times they would be bullied or treated unfairly. And so i want to make sure at the conclusion of this, the voices from the Small Businesses that you hear today, they can walk away feeling safe and heard. And thats all we ask for. Thats it. Thank you. Thank you. Director henzi, i believe you had your hand up. I did this sort of. This is a question for monica, but it sort of builds on what miss thompson just touched on. Do we have typically, um, evaluate evaluation metrics and sort of reporting requirements for storm surge spaces, street closures. Um, and if we dont, um, have you thought of evaluation, evaluation metrics possibly for this one, like the number of activations they have, the number of, i dont know, people that you use it on comparing on what days, etcetera, and the such. Um so could you touch on evaluation of the closure as we consider this, as we before Public Comment. Yes thank you. Director henzi have thought about it. I think is a wonderful idea in the effort of transparency and decision making. It is not easy to develop metrics for Something Like this. How do you its such like a soulful art and sense of being sort of can you establish a number . Is the number of people a certain amount then that is a success . Is it the quality of the event and the activation . And so i dont say that as an excuse. I think it is definitely something i would like to explore. We have a lot of Evaluation Programs here at the sfmta and people that think a lot about this and i would love to consult them and people that work with Small Businesses so that we can establish that. But it is we would want to do it thoughtfully so that we are right. It is measurable. Yeah, it is a hard it is a hard thing to measure, but yeah. Okay thank you. Manager. That was it. Okay. Thank you. Director henzi colleagues, id like to open it to Public Comment. Unless theres anything else pressing right now. Okay. Please. Speakers in the room on the hayes street. Shared spaces. I do have some speaker cards. Andrew andrew singer. Jennifer laszlo barnett. Trzcinski stacy randecker. Afternoon board. Barnett brzezinski. District two frequent visitor of hayes valley. If i could recap a little bit of the presentation we just saw the closure and the area there in hayes valley on hayes street is so popular for people double parked to try to get into the area even more than they already can with with legal parking. So if there is a moment of peace and quiet on the street, aka it hasnt been activated, thats a permit violation because drivers are behaving badly and violating the barricade. Were going to remove the barricade and let them in more. As an example of whats going on around the city. And these are all incidents that happened in the last week and a half. A car drove off the road and onto a building at filbert and fillmore, causing a gas leak in building damage and making the Fire Department respond. A driver committed a hit and run in the bayview, hitting a car which then hit a muni vehicle, which im sure a lot of you are aware of. A car recently veered off the road on divisadero and smashed into a bus shelter between page and haight, a store in union square was ramrodded socalled by burglars who drive a car into the building in order to then steal from it. And there was a 100 mile an hour chase coming up the peninsula that ended right at the freeway exit where hayes valley begins. This is the type of thing that we are inviting onto our streets as a default when any other more higher purpose, pedestrian friendly closure, more business activity, more just neighbors getting to know their neighbors. This is considered the aberration. You have to apply for a permit for this. I strongly encourage you to please, please, please consider sending this back to the mta in encouraging them that any increase in vehicle lane mile access is a contravention of transit first policy and the climate goals the mta has and also ask a question why are we the only city going backwards on this nearly every city in the bay area and even around the world in the country is expanding Pedestrian Access be street in san mateo, castro street in mountain view. One of the speakers earlier mentioned san jose. So we need to do more of this within San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hi im jennifer laska, the president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association. And i pulled the original permit three years ago and have been worked working tirelessly with the merchants on this as youve heard over and over again, this closure is very beloved by the community. The immediate community. And i hear from people who say that they come from all over the city to come, come and enjoy this space on the weekends. So that brings more business to our our Small Businesses in hayes valley. I want to note that the merchants actually applied for a three day closure. What youre seeing in front of you is a one day closure that was recommended by sfmta staff. That is not what we applied for. We still have not heard a good reason why a three day closure cant continue. Weve heard issues about the barricades. Theres a solution for that. Thats something that we totally agree with should be done. And weve also heard difficult days about rerouting the bus for three days a week. But no ones been able to explain to me why that really is a difficulty. And weve seen it done successfully for over a year now. So i really need to understand why that would be a barrier to continue ing this three day closure. I guess we have now heard the concerns of the Fire Department, but it sounds like the barricade reconfiguration will help with those. And i think the additional signage will also improve some of the traffic issues. Wed love to work on this as a permanent solution because there is an easy way to have two lanes heading westbound on hayes turn left onto gough and really improve that traffic flow full time. So in summary, i really urge approving the three day closure not just the one day closure thats in front of you today. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, my name is andrew signer. Ive been living in the city for 20 years. Ive been in hayes valley for seven at the beginning of the pandemic, a large group of volunteers, myself included, spent every friday and saturday and sunday stationed at intersections along the merchant corridor to get the shared Spaces Program off the ground. Three years later, i believe its been a shining example of whats enabled our neighborhood not only to survive the pandemic, but but thrive. And that includes probably our busiest time friday night all the way through sunday. Recently, the program has been the future has been a little bit uncertain that was definitely a wake up call for myself and a lot of folks in the neighborhood. And i created a website free hayes. Org along with the petition asking not only to continue the three day program but to find a way to get to a permanent pedestrianized hayes street. Since september, 1200 people have signed it. Theres enormous enthusiasm around this in our community. I also think theres a lot of capacity to help the sponsor make this a successful program. So with that in mind, i have two requests for you all. One, please amend the agenda item to allow us to continue this three day program that weve had for three years. And two, please instruct mta staff to design a process to a what it looks like to get to a fully pedestrianized street. And finally, i just want to thank you for all your work, particularly mta staff and folks in the Mayors Office and folks in our supervisors office. Theres tons of work going into this, so thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is stephen breach and i urge you to not i urge you to not reduce the hayes valley shared Spaces Program from three days a week to just nine hours on saturdays. Furthermore i urge you to direct staff to help the hayes valley Merchant Council accommodate the owners requirements that are being placed on them by the Fire Department and the sfmta staff excuse me, to renew their permit and maintain the program. Hayes valley shared Spaces Program has been an economic lifeline for merchants on hayes for the past three years and has helped revitalize the entire neighborhood by expanding patricias green and connecting it to the local businesses on hayes street. Once again, the Fire Department is fighting the shared Spaces Program on the grounds that closing the street to vehicles with traffic cones impedes their Emergency Response times. While i analyze six years of vehicle crashes on hayes street and the Fire Departments response times to 355 emergency calls that have been there over the past six years. And i found this at least four of the vehicle crashes on hayes street on the 3405 hundred blocks could have been prevented if the program was not scaled back in 2021. An and if it actually had been extended to 2018 when we should have actually started doing this earlier. Furthermore, the shared Spaces Program has not had an impact on Emergency Response times by station 36, which is three blocks away, and which services all 911 calls to the area. The two minutes is not enough time to go into the specifics, but you should have received a deluge of emails yesterday that link to my data analysis, which hopefully youve had a chance to review and im happy to follow up with any answers or any questions you may have. So the takeaway here is that the hayes valley shared Spaces Program expands a critical, probusiness, safe, open space simply by restricting unnecessary cutthrough traffic and does not have a negative impact on the on the Fire Departments Emergency Response times. Furthermore reducing the program from three days to one flies in the face of our citys Climate Action plan, or vision zero. And our transit first goals. Please do not reduce the footprint of this program and direct staff to help the hayes valley Merchant Council administer and expand it. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hi, maggie. Crystal i own a hayes street facing business. Im also a resident in hayes valley, which means that i can actually walk to work. Ive been reflecting this last week on the terrible events that weve probably all been reflecting on, and its a bit ironic that were squabbling over a one block patch of asphalt. Im supporting. Im one of the 66 that supports the modifications proposed by sfmta, and im super hopeful that this reset any reset will reframe the conversation and allow for an opportunity for all of us to participate in a really dynamic and wonderful, active version of 400. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, stacy randecker. This all feels oddly familiar to the active communities program, the one where we are spending a year to go out and ask people how they feel or the valencia pilot where were doing this weird thing and checking it out to see how things go for a year. When are we going to have the thing that is like bold and like is where we should be going . Were asking people like, were going to scale back this thing thats awesome and were going to and we have to like, you know, activate it and do all this stuff and barriers up and barriers down. And it is too much. How about 24 over seven pedestrian ization of three blocks . Thats your pilot. Thats the thing. Thats what we all pour our efforts into. So all the energy thats going into, well, what do you think and how would this work . And blah, blah, blah. No actually do it. Go there and see what does the Fire Department need when we set it up this way, what do the merchants need to get access, etcetera . What do the residents feel and it shouldnt have to be this special, like, oh, weve got to jazz it up and whatever. Its just like the bike to roll work or school day for everybody. Its like it shouldnt be a special event. It should be every day that there are places you can go that is quiet or that you can get a bite to eat. You can gather with your friends. Theres extra space there is these islands should be throughout the city. We should make it so that everybody can get everywhere they need to go without relying on a car or more of this. Please expand this. Dont contract it. Expand this and multiply it. Lets go after i want clement and 24th street to thanks. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, director tomlin and board. Im lloyd silverstein. Im the founder of the Hayes Valley Merchants Council and we currently hold the permit for the shared streets program. I also want to mention im a Third Generation owner of the oldest optical store in San Francisco, which got its start just a few blocks from here in 1907. I hope youll indulge me if i go over my two minutes, but theres been a lot going on here and i really want to be able to address everything. Hayes valley was hit especially hard by the pandemic. Within six months, one out of every three businesses had closed for no other commercial corridor in the city was hit this hard. Yet weve come back faster and stronger than any of them. We are fully leased. Take a look at Chestnut Union fillmore. Youll see dozens of for lease signs. The reason that hayes valley is thriving is simple. For much of the pandemic. I and others that youve heard from today spent our weekends touring hayes valley with brokers and potential new tenants. What they saw here and what they saw. Nowhere else was activity. People out in the streets, in our public spaces, in other words, customers for our Small Businesses. This is just part of the value of shared streets. Our Merchants Council is democratic by nature. We advocate for the greater good of all merchants. We also espouse that our neighbors successes and important as our own and the speaking with one loud voice that represents the majority of our businesses is in the best interests of our community. In the case of shared streets, that voice is loud and clear. Keep our existing shared streets program. This is not anecdotal. This is based on our unbiased Online Survey sent to 175 businesses in our community. It was completely transparent and available for all respondents to view. I will say for a moment here that the one mta conducted was biased. It only asked, are you in favor of a saturday . Only it didnt say. Are you in favor of friday . Only sunday, only all days. So it was very biased and obviously the results were biased to even though we were told by mta that our survey was not necessary, we felt that it was a way to get accurate census on the issue. Our survey was reviewed by mta and the staff before sending in all data, both raw and summarized, was sent back to them. The survey showed overwhelming support for the existing schedule and some people wanted to extend it. When our shared streets renewal came before the escort in march, we were surprised to hear that there were concerns from sfpd mta, as well as stakeholders outside the sheriffs. Thank you for your comments. That is your time and we have to be equitable with all speakers. Thank you for being here. Next speaker, please can i put this in the record for anybody to see . Sure. Next speaker please go ahead and approach the podium. Hi. Hi. This is my first time. Mike gallagher im not going to speak as eloquently as everyone else, but id like it to remain the same as it was and hopefully close for good. You dont need to activate a park. We can look at a bunch of cities around the world that are way ahead of us and i guess we always talk about wanting to be a world class city, but it only takes trips elsewhere to see that it looks like were living 30 years in the past and people need to have more space outside to hang out and this is just its clear that somebody wants this close because as it was tried to be done behind closed doors, pretty sure we know who that is. The mayor doesnt seem to like this stuff. And its time that we do bold things and not just mess around and make the merchants do all this stuff. Just let just you know, do your job. Like build this stuff out like they do in dutch cities. I mean, this is a its a joke. Ive been here for over ten years and nothing changes. And its just do something bold. We saw in the pandemic what this city could be. I mean, when it was so quiet, when there was just so much less and we got all these great programs and now every single time i look, its getting scaled back and scaled back and scaled back. Were not growing anything. Were just scaling, scaling, scaling the slow streets, little chips here like you can have through traffic. All this little, Little Things just chip away at it, chip away at it so that it doesnt work so that it can be stopped. Its pretty clear that thats what people want to happen. Thats all i have to say. Okay. Thanks for your comments. Next speaker, please. I apologize. It couldnt be here at one because i was on a surgery table. Its very interesting to hear everything today. I ive owned a business on hayes street for 20 years. Ive lived on grove street for 15 years. I am the perfect person to represent the fact that all of these huge successes that theyre talking about arent successes in any way, shape or form. The information theyre based off, including lloyds survey, biased, manipulative in the tremendous victories that you guys are saying are nonexistent as far as i can see by pure stakeholder, as the people whove done the work, the heavy lifting on hayes street for the past several decades, i want to just say im sitting in here. I just realized the politicization of everything and theres a Necessary Evil called politics. And i see you guys working. I have a business on hayes street, not street, not a hayes shared street. My business is on a street where 81 of my customers drive their car to that street. Its gotten incredibly difficult. I understand. I can look at what the city has done to abide by the rules of the biking community. The manipulations thats going on. I get it. Id like to be a progressive city, too, but were also a city thats founded on streets that the fire trucks have to go down on. And all of the successes that ive been hearing about today, im going to tell you, please, they arent as great as you guys think they are. And if my business for 81 of the people im sorry, im going to leave with this with you guys, 70 of the people who come to my store visit other stores in hayes valley. The congestion in on laguna and octavio for the byproducts of all these things, a nightmare. I have traffic jams where ive never had traffic jams before. I have people honking their cars at all times when it never existed. So i dont even want the word i hate the word activation right now. I apologize. Maybe im old school. No activation. Im not with maggie. I dont agree with the one day. Thank you. Thats your time. Thank you very much. Does anybody want this like lloyd . I can leave that for you guys. This is a 140 customers who are real people. Ill go ahead and leave it. Thats fine. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good afternoon, directors. Zach lipton, first, ill just say im sad to hear the news from director uchitelle. Thanks for all your work here and i know this is far from the end of your efforts to help build the thriving and more livable city. One of those efforts is, of course, the side street shared space. And im disappointed with this proposal to reduce the successful and popular shared space program. I hope we can continue the friday through sunday shared spaces or at least just continue this item for a bit while these issues continue to be worked out. But i dont just want to focus on the number of days i hope the agency can work more to support the merchants in the neighborhood to make the shared space a success and work towards a future permanent, 24 7. Hayes plaza. Im honestly confused why were framing this as a compliance with permit terms issue and not a what do we need to do to help make hayes street the best place it can be . One hayes street has been a sewer of double parking for decades, so why only now are we punishing merchants by curtailing the shared space . Because we suly
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