Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20171204

That commissioner safai has expressed. Our office funds and oversees compliance of a number of programs that serve households at 60 of ami and above that sara mentioned before. This includes funding new construction, Affordable Housing rental projects, preserving existing rentcontrolled housing through our smallsites program and Home Ownership loan assistance to middleincome households and we oversee the citys inclusionary program. So before i go into the specifics of these programs, i want to give you an overview of what Funding Sources our office has in serving middle income household and constraints for expanding what we can do. So the primary forces of funding we rely on to serve households 60 above ami, Housing Trust fund and 2015 housing bond. The Housing Trust fund allows us to serve households up to 120 of ami for production and rehab of Affordable Housing. We do set aside 10 of those funds for small site preservation. We also fund downpayment home assistance for firsttime homebuyers and a fund for First Responders and educators. For First Responders, the ami level goes up to 200 of ami. For the 2015 housing bond, this was a source that allowed us to focus on middleincome househ d househol households. Were serving 120 to 175 ami. 80 million was set aside for middleincome production and Home Ownership. The Downpayment Assistance Program has a setaside for educators. Were expecting some state funds to assist us in our local funds, but they wont be coming until 2019. Through this years historic package legislation that was passed at the state level, we have a new recording fee that can be used for rental and Home Ownership opportunities serving middle income and work force househol households. And through the 2018 housing bond, there is also funds that are allowable to be used allowed to be used for home purchase assistance and a veterans Home Ownership assistance. So what does this mean in terms of creating more middleIncome Housing . We, the city, were carrying most of this funding obligation without any existing state or federal funds to help us in creating middle or low income rental university ichlts units. It onliy allows us to serve households at 60 of ami. Our city dollars cannot leverage federal tax credits for middleincome households. Or 2015 bond, estimating that it will be extending the funds from that by 2020. So we have limited city funds and without state or federal assistance and without the use of federal tax credits, our gap for producing middle incommune its are about 100,000 higher than what we provide for lowincommune its. So these are the Funding Sources that we have and its the funding constraints were operating under. So what exactly are we doing with our sources of funds . There are two Affordable Housing rental projects that will serve middleincome households that are in our pipeline. 88 broadway and educator housing. For 88 broadway, well have 15 of the units set aside to serve up to 100 to 120 median income. The middleincommune its are funded with 9 million of prop a funds. And construction for this project is estimated to start next year. 60 of the units, or up to 80 units will serve up to 80 of ami. And funding that with prop a funds in the amount of 500,000. Construction is estimated to start in 2019. We have a smallsite Preservation Program that allows us to fund the aquisition and rehab of rentcontrolled units at risk of losing their affordability when owners are talking the units outside of rent control. And this Program Allows us to serve at an average of 80 ami up to 120 of ami. Its been a successful program. Weve been able to preserve 25 buildings with 146 residential units and 9 commercial units. We have 11 additional small sites that are in our pipeline to bring us um to a total of 245 units and 19 commercial spaces. Our Home Ownership assistance programs also allow us to provide a Downpayment Assistance Program to firsttime homebuyers. This is a Deferred Loan Program that were providing to households up to 170 of ami. In the last fiscal year, weve closed on 35 loans for households between 80 to 120 ami levels. And loans between the 120 and 175 . We have a Forgivable Loan Program specifically for educators. And thats called the Teacher Next Door Program and weve been able to close on six tnd loans for educators last fiscal year serving households at 200 of ami. Last year we closed on 185 bmr ownership units for initial sale and resales serving between 80 and 120 ami. In this fiscal year, we estimate we should be administering belobelow market rates and closing on another 26 downpaymentassisted loans. And other efforts to serve middleIncome Housing households thanks to the leadership of this board of supervisors now with inclusionary legislation passed at the rental units and ownership units, well see new projects that will have units that are serving households up to 110 ami average for the rental units and up to 130 for the ownership units. And other city efforts, again, thanks to the leadership of this board, to serve middleincome households through the private market is incentivizing belowmarket units, as well as creating and legalizing dwelling units to serve our working households. As i mentioned, we do have limited resources, though we have notable achievements in terms of what weve been able to accomplish in terms of providing Home Ownership assistance, moving forward with the legislated project and continuing to serve households, retaining their housing through the small sites program. Some of the next steps, what we need to focus on, expanding our sources of funding to serve the households, and two legislative proposals in terms of getting additional funding include allowing the state and lowincome tax credits to serve above the ami and to go up to 80 ami. This will allow us to get the first tax credits and state tax credits to also serve a higher income level. And also currently, our welfare Tax Exemption only applies for units up to 80 of ami. If we were to be extending this property Tax Exemption up to 120 ami, this would allow our projects to leverage more debt and citys gap funding. And so both of these legislated proposals will help and we need more assistance in terms of expanding our income sources to serve middleincome households. Dont go away. I want to ask you a couple of of questions. Just so were clear, a couple of the proposals, so support income averaging for tax credits. Is that something that needs to happen at the state level . State and federal. If we wanted to apply both state and federal income tax credits to go beyond the 60 , we would need tax and federal legislation. And lastly in terms of property Tax Exemption, is that state and federal . Its at the state level. Thats a statelevel thing . Correct. Is that legislation drawn or something in discussion . This is something that were looking at and we are proposing. Okay. A couple of clarifying questions. How much of the prop fee goes to middleIncome Housing . I didnt see that in our presentation. The housing prop fund allows us to produce new housing and or rehabilitate existing housing for units up to 120 ami. So we apply that to both or lowincome production and for middleincome production, no more than 120 ami. The only specific allocation is were setting aside 10 of the funds for small sites preservation. Out of the Housing Trust fund right now, the only thing being done now is small site accusation about 10 . Yes. And how much is that annually . Um, i can get the numbers for you. Okay. And then the rest of it is going to rehabilitation . New production and rehabilitation. So 10 of the total number, which at some point will grow to about 100 million a year . Yes. And you set 80 million for prop a dedicated toward middle income. Correct. And you listed out about 37 million that was spoken for. Where is the other 43 million . So for the 80 million, it includes production for the rental side as well as Home Ownership assistance. So that includes the dolp and tntd program. So what about the project you mentioned the project out in the sunset, teacher housing. Is that the one for 28 million . Yes, correct. Okay. So the 43 million, the delta cannot be going just to downpayment loan assistance so, there are probably other projects in the pipeline. Weve done one issuance for the prop a funds. And weve allocated the funds for both the teacher Housing Project and 88 broadway and then on top of that, we have allocated funds for downpayment assistance and Teacher Next Door Program. Well have two other issuances for the bond. So we havent expended the 80 million. So more money could be issued . Yes. Were at about 30 million. Well take Public Comment in a minute, but i want to get planning back up. In the production slide, you said, whats going to be produced, but how many in that pipeline is actually for middle income . It doesnt really say, unless im missing it. You are not missing it, supervisor. Hard to tell . Its too early to tell. We know of the units that are currently under construction or subject to Development Agreements what that is, but we havent had a chance to break it down the entire pipeline of the whole 60,000. Some of those we dont know because many thousands of those are in the process and havent had to declare yet or havent determined if its onsite, offsite. What would be good as a followup to have any idea. I will forget names, but i will remember numbers. Once you have something, if you can give me a number, what were expecting over the next number of years in the pipeline, that would be helpful. We can do that for you. And then there was another slide on arena targets, but it is hard to pull from that. What is the number that would be an appropriate number to fill the need . I guess its a question for both you and ted in terms of that missing middle. What is a number that we should be projecting toward in terms of how far to meet some of the shortfall . Well, if you are going strictly according to arena targets, if you combine 50 to 80 and 80 to 120 4102 and 4971 9,000 units. So were 9,000 units. For the current cycle. And up to 2022 . Correct. I dont have any additional questions. If its okay with the chair, we can open up for Public Comment. The well open up item 5 to Public Comment. Anyone wish to speak on this item . Please come forward. San Francisco Building and trades council. In a way, im going to be unhelpful, because im going to reiterate the problem. For a generation now, weve remarked on the outflow of our members from San Francisco. We have a consistent pipeline and have had a consistent pipeline, now fairly formalized from city build from other communities into our trades and we watch those workers as they come to a certain point in their careers, complete apprenticeships, and look for Better Living situations for them and their families and not find them here. I think, if anything, its anecdota anecdotal, if anything, the fact that were hearing that same sort of concern from oth other occupations now shows that the problem is spreading. Apart from the fact that you want to be able to call a plumber or electrician if you need one, i will remind you that in situations such as San Francisco will inevitably face, it will be helpful to have folks here that know how to use a cutting torch and handle heavy rigging and it will be great to have them living near the situations. I ask for your help addressing the problem. Why have any solutions for you, but i reiterate the problem. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, peter cohen, council of Community Housing organizations. Amy covered everything. I could not think of anything else in the suite of middleincome programs we have. You must have stolen my notes, amy. Thats what weve done. And i think its pretty impressive, but the difficulty weve always had over the years is the limits of resources, to be able to spread thinner and thinner and also the limitations of leveraging sources for missing middle incomes and supervisor safai, i think you know that. We talk about missing middle. Its a good narrative and i think we all believe in it. But its a big difference wean it is 70 to 140 . And different programs work well for different parts of that range. I would impress upon you to show what programs work well. We have a lot of trial and error. For example, supervisors peskin and safai, we really nailed on the ownership side the right ami levels because, as our Home Ownership counseling organizations know, theres a great absorption of entry level Ownership Opportunities between 70 and 140 . It has not worked as well above and below that. Its not to disparage, just a reality of how the programs work best. And to be thoughtful about the both and versus either or. Its problematic and political. Resources should be additive. Weve been fighting for that for years, adding to the stack and not being tempted to take from one and give to the other. I think were all beyond that, but a friendly reminder. Happy to work with you on more Creative Solutions including legislatively. Thank you. Next speaker. Supervisors, corey smith, if i can get the overhead. This is how just for the record these numbers are reported. You can see the three different numbers there. And were talking about different ami levels here, historically, that 80 to 100 level there 8 to 18 and were at 5 . So just really puts hopefully a fire under our butts in figuring this out and trying to make sure that we are finding solutions, both in the short term and the long term. I completely agree with peters comments here. We need to find additional Funding Sources, because were drastically underproducing at all levels. I also want to say that while we do need to be aggressive in our shortterm solutions, thinking longterm is not the worst thing in the world either. In that same spirit, we want to do both at the same time. I want to take a couple of quotes from the california legislative Analyst Reports with helping lowincome californians. It states that housing is less desirable as it ages. Housing that was considered luxury when it was first built declined to the middle of the Housing Market within 25 years. I know a couple of you have kids, 25 years from few, they may want to live here. In the effort to have shortterm solutions, lets not forget to keep building. We know that new Housing Construction eases the pressure on low and middleincome San Franciscos. Also the federal g. O. P. Senate tax plan and Funding Sources for this stuff is under attack and highly encourage everybody to reach out through the California Housing Partnership and reach out to senate house members in the house of rep thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Laura clark. I want to add a little more context to the rhna numbers. Those were developed when our jobs projections were low because we were having our jobs recession. So its important to realize that we should not necessarily be pinning our goals to the rhna numbers. They should be four times that. We should think about, when is housing affordable, when people are spending 30 of their income on rent. Our goals should be tied to the housing balance and the regional goals, that the entire region has fallen down and maybe that means we should do even more. We should not be stubborn and say, other people havent done their part, so we wont either. We should double down and say, people are desperate. We should build as much housing as we can. Are we going to subsidize all the way up to 150 of ami as our only solution for middle income . That does not seem reasonable to me. I would love to reveal prop 13 and spend all that money on middle Income Housing, but thats unlikely. If we as a city are saying the only way that middleincome people will be able to hold on in the city is by us subsidizing middle income, were looking at a failure of public policy. We need to be building a lot of housing. We need to flood the market with housing. And we need to realize, where is the missing middle . Its missing in the outlying neighborhoods. Its missing where we have constrained what were allowed to do by creep eighting lowdensity neighborhoods. We used to convert singlefamily homes into apartments. And now we dont allow that to happen. The adu legislation is a great start, but we need to upzone our neighborhoods. Neighborhoods need to build apartments. Those are less expensive. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is georgia shootish. A couple of thoughts about how you could recapture housing. A vacancy tax. A luxury tax. That would give you money to produce more housing. A lot of people that own property dont like rent control, so they keep the property off the market. Its not right, but they do it. Is there a way to recapture some of that . Give a rebate for property tax, which everyone is downstairs paying now. How do you find if someone has left a unit or a house or several units vacant . You can look at the water bill to see what the how much water usage has been there. I think you would have access to that. Those are some ideas. There are 5,000 rental units out there sitting empty. Perhaps that would help the missing middle. Thats it. Any other members of the public wish to speak on item number 5 . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. Supervisor safai . Councillor safai thank you, mr. Chair. One of the things that i wanted to ask maybe the planning department, because i heard in a couple of different Public Comments an idea we have a certain amount of funds set aside for aquisition in smallsites program and land. It would be good to know based on census data where some of the households are that you can look at and map and im sure that you have already done that where the missing middle or middleIncome Housing is beguning to target. One of the slides showed where smallsite is being utilized and it was center to eastern part of the city. And i know that that is not necessarily where all of the its based on the design of the program. And we started conversations with the Mayors Office of housing on that. We started that the other day about how we can tailor the program. Some of it is based on money, but i know the programs sweet spot is three, four units and above. Thinking about knowing where the households are would be hopeful. The reason i asked about prop a and prop c were not to criticize those programs. They were hard fought, that said where the priorities were. But its clear about 10 of prop c funds are targeted towards middleincome households and 80 million of prop a is toward middleincome households. Based on the 9,000unit number that you produced, there needs to be strong consideration for additional sources of revenue to add to some of the public speakers points. Its in addition to, not taking away of. So were not going to refight any of those battles. Were talking about how can we expand the pie to do that. I just wanted to ask the economist to come back up and speak a little bit more and answer a couple of questions. Ted, if you can, mr. Egan. So one of the things that is talked about one of your slides says the need the one on, where we have an abundance of work force and shortage of work force based on your projections. But i guess one of the things that i wanted to ask you to comment on on that particular slide was, even if we do have an abundance in that particular arena, skill shortages, even if we do have an abundance and a shortage in some ways, speak a little bit more what it means in terms of the housing and the connection of the housing. Even if we do have an abundance and there is that demand one of the things im hearing from the industry thats represented in this in terms of the abundance of skills is that theyre starting to come across a housing shortage making it harder to recruit in those are s areas. Can you talk about that . I think thats true. Given how quickly housing prices have risen in the last five years, companies plans from recruiting to come to San Francisco have to change very dramatically. And there are some types of companies that will not be able to pay the salary sufficient to attract people to move here to pay our housing prices or attract the talent they need locally. I think the point about the Tech Industry today, though is, yeah, its growing slowly here and costs are a part of that, but its slowly down across the country. It seems to have reached the end of one of its entrepeneur cycles. And who knows what the future holds in that. Theres another piece of the economy. The particular challenge is that virtually none of the jobs on the righthand side of the slide pay the salaries that the ones do on the left. So they will have it much harder to recruit people to fill those jobs, if people are not here in middle Income Housing in San Francisco already. In other words, trying to grow the middle income people here is a challenge because of the affordability problem were talking about. Councillor safai i appreciate mike appreciate that. Michael terio, i worked with, those in the Service Sector and trades, have seen their traditional neighbors where neighborhoods where housing was available to them, if they didnt purchase a home or werent here 20 or 30 years ago, the commute or Housing Available to them as shrunk or lengthened. So the commute has lengthened and Housing Available has shrunk. So that says a lot, serving in industries that are vital to San Francisco. I think it absolutely does. For a long time one of the saving graces of being in San Francisco is the ability to draw in labor from all over the bay area. To the extent were seeing the same thing happening across the bay area. You are running out of neighborhoods around the bay where you are able to find, you know, housing that is vacant thats affordable for them in middleincome occupations. The phenomenon we started to see in San Francisco in the erarly 1990s, now were seeing more. Yes, its certainly true that one of the costs imposed on middleincome people is a long commute. Now going into the Central Valley for a lot of people. But i think the more fundamental change is that we stop to see the jobs in the bay area at all because the costs are prohibitive. In certain sectors, there will always be a need for. Hospitality, you have to have folks working in the hotels and the restaurants. So the idea is, where does that work force come from and where do they live . Those businesses have to make it as businesses. The hotel rates in San Francisco are quite high. People are willing to pay a lot of money to San Francisco. And so that to some extent allows those businesses to support their workers. But theres a difference between i think its important to keep in mind in this the people that have housing and the next generation. One of the reasons that the housing burden numbers that i show are not as high as people might think is those are people that have been living in their house for a long time. If you have owned your house for a long time or in a rentcontrolled house for a long time, your housing costs may be managable, particularly if your income is going up as well. Trying to get someone to move to San Francisco and pay 3,700 or if their family changes and they need a bigger home, will they be able to find a place in the city or even nearby . I think thats the real challenge. So to some extent, industries that are competitive in this city, and we have a strong to tourism, can pay the wages, but i would not minimize the challeng challenges for the next generation. Councillor safai so we still rank at the top in terms of 1, 2, 3, in terms of the price per rental unit or housing unit . Commute is factors in. When i think of this i brought up the point about San Francisco being the second most densely settled, i relate it to new york, even though were not on the scale of new york city, but one of the things that new york city did 30, 40, 50, 60 years ago, they made a tremendous amount and a significant investment in subsidisu subsidized housing and i agree that part of the solution is creating more, but there is that build builtin percentage of their Housing Stock that is governmentowned. And thats a difference between san franciscan new york city. One of the ideas is, if you can expand the volume of subsidized housing or acquired housing, it can begin to change the course of the overall Housing Market. I think if you can do that at scale, thats true. New york city did that in the postwar decades. They built a lot of housing and a lot of it was subsidized. They had the same debates we had now about, yes, there is a lot of new housing, how how much of it is affordable for our work force . The main thing is, they grew a lot. They built a lot of transportation and built a lot of housing. When you do things at scale and subsidize at scale, it has a big impact. New york city was a very comfortable, middle class city up until, say, 1970s to 1980s, before it gets the same inequality that we see now in San Francisco. Councillor safai right. Its not unique to San Francisco, by any means, theres been a massive reurbanization of the cities around the united states, at least on the two coastals theres a number of cities with a similar pattern. The thing about San Francisco is that our economy is so much hotter than other places its probably worse here than any other place. Councillor safai and our constraints. Thats why i brought up the 49, 47 square miles versus other places. So density and height has to be a part of this conversation. I agree with that and i would say its probably more than 49 square miles. Only 10 of the bay area lives in San Francisco. Theres no reason that 10 should see itself as 100 of the solution. Councillor safai right, but thats what we have control over. Mr. Chair, i appreciate you taking the time. I would close by saying that it seems very apparent to me based on the numbers is one of the strongest solutions is the and, in terms of adding funding for this source. To reiterate for the record, the lowIncome Housing tax credit goes up to the incomes up to 60 ami. Prop c Housing Trust fund, 90 allocated to lowincome households, as a way to fill the loss of redevelopment agencies that was a number of people in the room and others were involved in that campaign and that was a big push in this city. And then prop a, most recently, more was set aside for middleincome households and i know well have our first educator Housing Project, which is significant. So thats three or four different sources dedicated 80 to 90 for lowincome. So there seems to be a significant need and based on this information to push ahead on a conversation about how we can create new sources. I appreciate the presentation about some additional ideas in terms of property tax and averaging out state and federal help and happy to be involved in those conversations, particularly those that we have more control over, which is at the state level. Who knows. Maybe well be surprised at the federal level. It was Ronald Reagan that created the lowIncome Housing program, but tip oneal was in congress then and things were very different. Who knows if its a conversation to have. I know from being involved in a number of conversations, particularly one most recently, about the developer and the cost versus middleincome to lowincome. The tax credits and Tax Exemptions given to lowincome are allocated allow a private developer it gives them more of an incentive or ability to create those, versus this group were trying to target. The subsidy is not there. So its more expensive to build those units in many ways and with less return than marketrate unit. And thats what a lot of investors and investments are based on. Well continue this conversation. I appreciate the chair hosting this and moving this conversation forward, and well work with these departments and members of the public to further an idea on how we can created a ages a create additional revenue. Councillor tang i wanted to say, maybe even a year or two ago, it was difficult to have this conversation, so i do want to thank supervisor safai and city staff for working on this. Its a real issue. We have the data to show its an increasing problem and were not here to take away housing from other people. Were trying to broaden the pot, as supervisor safai said. So i look forward to being engaged on this issue with all of you. Thank you, supervisor. Echo those comments as well. With that, a motion to file item 5. Councillor tang so moved. Okay. We take that without objection. Madam clerk, do we have any other business . Clerk that concludes our business for today. Thank you, everybody. Were adjourned. Working for the city and county of San Francisco will immerse you in a vibrant and dynamic city thats on the forefront of economic growth, the arts, and social change. Our city has always been on the edge of progress and innovation. After all, were at the meeting of land and sea. Our city is famous for its iconic scenery, historic designs, and worldclass style. Its the birthplace of blue jeans, and where the rock holds court over the largest natural harbor on the west coast. Our 28,000 city and county employees play an Important Role in making San Francisco what it is today. We provide residents and visitors with a wide array of services, such as improving city streets and parks, keeping communities safe, and driving buses and cable cars. Our employees enjoy competitive salaries, as well as generous benefits programs. But most importantly, working for the city and county of San Francisco gives employees an opportunity to contribute their ideas, energy, and commitment to shape the citys future. Thank you for considering a career with the city and county of San Francisco. Go well start the meeting tuesday november 21 for the transportation authority. Please call the roll. [calling roll] director rubke. You have a quorum. Director hineki will not be here. And please be advised the ringing of sound producing electr Electronic Devices are prohibited and anyone responsible for one going off may be asked to leave and the board respectfully requests they be turned off and approval of the minutes. Do you have Public Comments in no, chair. Do i have a motion. All in favor say aye. Approved. Item six, introduction of new or unfinished business. Do i have new or unfinished business. Well move on. On the directors report. Mr. Mcguire. Directors, staff and im pinch hitting today. I want to start on our efforts we created a Rapid Response team that can go after the sites of traffic fatalities and identify immediate improvements. When a fatality occurs the public can expect a rapid review and response on site. It will include an analysis of what we already know about the circumstances surrounding the crash, the crash history of the location and existing conditions and recommendations for any immediate engineering changes that can be made quickly sim to the changes and were the topic of a discussion a few board meetings ago. A key element in improving the rapid review will be to increase our information and coordination sharing with the San Francisco Police Department and key part nor partner who investigates every fatality and the protocol is focussed on making sure the city coordinates the services it provides to survivors and families and victims of traffic crashes. That protocol is a collaboration between the medical Examiners Office and Police Department, Fire Department and direct Attorneys Office and building the protocol on top of a robust existing protocol and already helping to build and strengthen partnerships with these key [aud [audio difficulties] the next thing i want do address is the pilot project. There was an open letter to city agencies about the concern on safety and traffic implications of how tncs and ridehailing vehicles block lanes. In his letter the mayor called on mta and the Companies Like uber and lyft to Work Together on a pilot project. Under the mayors direction we had the meeting to determine how such a pilot could be developed and importantly how it could be implemented and evaluated. No decisions have been made about a Pilot Program yet. We have made progress on goals and how data can be shared. The goal is to eliminate stopping in transit lanes and bike lanes and eliminate double parking and impacts on bus lanes and crosswalks and areas of high pick up and dropoff. Our initial hypothesis on the mta side was by promoting and enforcing the safe and reliable curb space we can increase Public Safety for all modes on the street. The city has not determined when, where or how many locations such a pilot might take place. We do know that consistent with instruction weve gotten clearly from this board it must be in an area where theres community support. Were conducting Robust Community engagement and outreach process before we make any commitments to work forward and we also know and had made it clear its imperative to commit to not double parking and making sure operators operate safely in an area. Thats the current status of that effort. Another thing you may have read about is the audit of the Cypress Security conduct and there was an audit of an agreement with Cypress Security services to determine if cypress and the mta complied with the contract and evaluate how well were monitoring the compliance and there were findings in the audit. There were invoiced hours that could not be matched to timekeeping records. The audit found cypress and the subcontractors could not demonstrate full compliance with the requirements on the Security Guard and some could not demonstrate compliance with liability, insurance, minimum compensation or Health Benefits requirements. We take it seriously. They affect not just the quality of the service we give the public but that we provide and support immunity but get to the way the public funds this board appropriated to pay the contractor are getting to employees and compliance is very important to us. Were already addressing most the areas and have been able to provide most the documentation that appeared to be missing during the audit but well continue to upon for the accountability practices and compliance more closely over the remaining life. The contract runs through march 31 of 2018 and theres provisions for extending it after that. I want to be clear that as you may know the Cypress Security Services Include armed and unarmed guards. None of the training lapse were found in the audit had anything to do with the armed guards not being trained properly. You may have also noticed new colorful compliant designs are being installed and tested on signs is at platforms that are showing the estimated time of arrival of trains. Theyre long awaited features. Making them work is not as simple as making the switch. Theres backend work to integrate new and old systems so for the next couple months well be testing rolling out it out on a stationbystation basis. Because theyre still in test mode we advise customers to use audio announcements but our goal is to have the signs displaying reliable information by next year. It will be a great step forward in the quality of information we give subway passengers. Some other good news, the Northern California chapter of the officials named the Public Agency of the year. Its an award received at the holiday dinner and Scholarship Award dinner in oakland. It brings together individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in transportation and further the goal of supporting minority youth who wish to enter transportation careers. In the last 13 years the groups awarded nearly 250,000 to students of color. Its an organization some have been instrumental in. Some former awardees are now employed in professional roles at bart and other transportation employers. Finally, the Fourth Annual winter walk on stockton street begins this saturday november 25 and will continue through monday january 1. This year to activate the plaza well be working in partnership with off the grid and will have two openaired beer and wine gardens and holidaythemed photo opportunities. Last year 750,000 people attended the winter walk. For more information about it visit the union square website visitunionsquaresf. Com and if youre interested in extending it it will be open to 11 30 every night through new years eve. That concludes my report. Thank you for the updates, much appreciated. The winter walk i know how popular that is every year. I go down a lot and its fun to see everybody enjoying the space. I know its been discussion what the street will look like once the construction is done on the subway. I wonder if we can get an update on how to use that space. There was talk of having a bus pedestrian only and having a convertible space to continue to do things like the winter walk. In light of the discussion we had around north beach it seems there is public appetite for space like that if we can simply find good spaces i think it would be a big benefit to the area. The compto award is fantastic. I went online and looked at the work they do. Its a great organization. Congratulations to the entire agency for getting that award. Directors, any questions or commence for mr. Mcguire. Thank you, lets move on. The clerk madame share chair, we have members of the public. Brian and jody mederos. Would you like to set a time. Two minutes. Im the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. After yet another fatality on San Francisco streets this one on slope boulevard on halloween, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition wrote to demand immediate action to halt the bloodshed and another who died in the middle of the day was 78 years old. Another killed halloween night was 47. The deaths follow of another who was hit and fell on baker streets. David was 90. Tragically, this list goes on. The response to the recent spate of fatal collisions asked to deliver the leadership needed to meet the goals. Having appointed the members of the board and having written the board last week requesting leadership on moving San Francisco towards mission zero the mayor is looking to you to set the tone. Not only the mayor but our 10,000 plus members and members of the public at large are looking to the board and demonstrate your unwavering commitment to achieve flag goal. Unfortunately ive noticed a troubling trend in recent discussions when Public Safety is at issue. Increasingly the board has entertained the argument that parking should be breaking newsed against the loss of lives. And when the Safety Improvement project requires this the city does a grave disservice inviting watered down Safety Improvements by worrying about the loss of an against the community. Well be watching closely how the board chooses to lead on the charge of eliminating serious injuries and fatalities and our work is to Work Together as partners to improve safety for everyone who uses the San Francisco streets. Thank you. Next speaker, please. The clerk jodie medderos. Good afternoon. My name is jodie medderos and the new executive director of walk San Francisco. We appreciate the board commitment to vision zero. We know this agency bears the front of vision zero. Its a very Serious Public Health and Transportation Safety crisis. The letter from the mayor the asks he makes from the board are a great start to accelerating a pace of vision zero. We realistically need concrete actions that is timely and measurable and need your leadership to make sure its visualized. Heres the steps we recommend to champion the mayors asks. Resolve bureaucratic obstacles and vital vision zero objects including 11th street, the embarcadero, townsend and the upper market Safety Improvement project. All unanimously approved by this board. We recommend this board ask the mta staff for regular reports on delayed vision zero projects. This will bring the reason for delays to the open so they can be addressed. The mayor also asked the mta to implement nearterm improvements on vision zero projects with a start date beyond one. We can ask the staff to develop a list of the projects by end of this year including a time line for the improvements to go in the ground. The mayor asked the mta and other agencies to develop a Rapid Response team. Again, you can ask us for regular updates and also deliver improvements to these locations within a specific time frame. Ideally one month from each death. Your renewed commission to vision zero and prioritize safety above all else is the only way well reach zero. Were counting on you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for bringing that up. I was remiss in not discussing the Rapid Response task force after he talked about it and were going to be anxiously awaiting what that will look like, how it will work and how we can all help speed up these projects because we do all agree with you that any loss of life on our streets is absolutely preventible and tragic and i think this board recently in the last few meetings has really shown itself to be fully commit to vision zero and recommitted ourselves to that goal. It has been a tough year in San Francisco especially recently. We all feel it and take it to heart. Once again, i will personally recommit myself to that vision zero goal and we will focus on safety over everything else. Thank you both. Next speaker, please. The clerk madame chair, thats the last speaker who turned in asp