Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20180212

Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20180212

Surveys and going out there with some folks in the coming weeks to see exactly where folks are going when they park, how long are they parked for, and try to see if we can work with the mta on coming up with solutions on that. All right. Is that it, orkid . Okay. Kate, youre up. Thank you for your presentation. I must admit that i have not gun to the park frequently. Its a distance from my home. And, therefore, i dont know, as this may be in place. Do you have tactile maps available . I have to look into that. I know we have various information booths, but i dont know the materials they have. I can follow up. If your committee is ever interested, if you would like to contact us, we have that service to create tactile maps that would truly help any individual visiting the park that didnt have vision. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I would just like to follow up i wanted to ask you, i take from your presentation that you have some kind of a van service that is provided on saturdays and sundays. Can you talk to us more about that, how its provided . Sure. The shuttle, yes. So we have a shuttle. Its its scheduled to run every 15 minutes. That doesnt always happen. So after discussing with Mayors Office on disability, were working with our park rangers that oversee the program to tighten up that schedule quite a bit. There are 14 shuttle stops, makes its way back again. And so they are the shuttles have ramps and pick up wheelchairs and drop them off as well. A person like myself, i have a guide dog, a service animal. So i would need to bring her on board as well. Absolutely. All right. I think thats it for the councilmembers right now. I would leak to open it up to the staff. Hi, gary. Thank you for coming today. I really appreciate it. And i very much appreciate the conversations that weve had so far to talk about how to improve access to the park, especially on healthy saturdays. Whichever way the healthy saturdays end up going, some of the conversations that we end up having improve access for all times of the week, so im appreciative of that. Specific to the healthy saturdays idea, were still in outreach phase with this now. Can you speak a little bit to what the hopeful timeline is . Should it be approved or can you share what the general response to healthy saturdays has been . Maybe some of the positives and maybe some of the concerns that youve heard from different comment members . Well, again, there is no timeline for this. This would have to be done at the board of supervisors through an ordinance. We would also at some point, once weve finished outreach and gotten feedback and come back to you, of course, before we move forward, we would go to the board of supervisors as well as recreation and park commission. Im not sure if there is support at the board for that. Were doing outreach and trying to get as much feedback as possible. I havent heard a whole lot of negative feedback so far. Theres concern about congestion in the richmond and the sunset, which are legitimate concerns that may not necessarily directly relate to healthy saturdays. In general when theres large events in the park, it causes congestion to everyone around the park. Were looking into that and doing parking surveys, with the help of the mta. Weve had several discussions with the museums. They are not currently supportive, but were trying to figure out what works best for them. They have some concerns around logistics, with a loading dock that runs out to j. F. K. Where the closure is. Were working on that with them. And i believe they have other concerns in terms of parking and, with the 284 spots that are taken up during the healthy saturdays closure. So were working through that. Other than congestion and lack of parking to nearby neighborhoods, i havent heard any negative feedback. Weve got and good amount of support from the groups weve met with. They have expressed that as a concern as well, but overall, folks are pretty supportive of doing this. Its something thats been very successful for the last 10 years and its only a partial closer compared to sunday and leaves access to other attractions. All right. Any other staff people . Through the chair. Hi. Nice meeting you. I would like to actually echo the question around ways around the park for visually impaired or blind. We discussed in a meeting we had in the past, Community Ambassadors that would help with way finding and the shuttle spots being marked way better and more pronounced that they can be easily accessed for folks that are blind and folks like me that dont read maps very well. And the other question i had or clarification that i would like from you, what did you decide about vehicles folks that have difficulty with wayfinding rely on transit vehicles because of the door to door service. What did we decide about that . I did not tell you i followed up with our staff and because of safety concerns, its already weve already got the shuttle going through the closure and we dont allow other vehicles through that closure. And so i think its probably not going to be possible to allow para transit through the closure, but by adding an additional shuttle stop, i think it would be more effective than not having paratransit going through the closure. If someone is entering the park or the closure area, the transit vehicle, they would have to offboard and transfer to a shuttle . Yes. What about the individualized service, the doortodoor service that is provided, that has a limited time to make a number of stops . Have we thought about that . We can have further discussions, but i think its a concern of allowing so many vehicles in through the road closure. Okay. Thank you. And to your other point about ambassadors, i didnt speak on it because its we would be coordinating and weve discussed the idea of ambassadors to guide folks on healthy saturdays. Thank you. Any other comment from staff . As a blind person, yes, i think having the ambassadors would be great and tactile maps, im an avid user of tactile maps. So i think thats good feedback you are receiving from us. Is there anyone on the bridge line that would like to ask a question . Just a moment. I feel like i need to make the comment. I apologize if it sounds snarky. I would suggest having the outreach done by the Bicycle Coalition who is most interested in having this accomplished defeats the purpose of getting all points of view. There is probably a reason you havent had a lot of opposition to it because theyre only asking the choir, so to speak. We do have two people on the two speaker cards here. Right. We have two speaker cards. Who would like to go first . Charlie doris. Okay. Charlie. Im charlie doris. Were a volunteer group. Most of us are disabled or work within the Disability Community and we help the museums become more accessible. Were not one of the people that rec and park has reached out to and i would certainly second what the comment a few seconds ago was. Theyve been apparently just preaching to the choir. We oppose the extension for a number of reasons. First of all, it will eliminate some very close blue spaces. Also, there are disabled people that work and a saturday is the best time for them to come to the museum. Third, were closing were going to be closing all of this parking and access during the rainiest part of the season. Its fine to have a shuttle service, but as i recall, those shuttle stops are not covered. And as another person said, the underground parking garage costs 6 an hour on weekends. There are some people that have respiratory issues that find underground parking garages not the way to go. So there are any number of reasons for this not being a really suitable idea. I was involved 11 years ago when this thing came up the first time and it was very controversial, contentious, and its a shame it has to be brought up again. Right now, j. F. K. Is closed basically yearround sunday, half year on saturday. 75 of the time. Why is that not fair . And i think healthy saturdays, healthy San Francisco, that should apply to everyone and it should apply fairly to everyone. I think that and i realize the Disability Community is not of one mind on this issue, but we will be the ones that pay the price. So i would strongly advocate that you not go along with this expansion. Its just not necessary and i think it will put all of us in a hardship. Is access by the Disability Community in San Francisco so good that we can make it less so . I dont think so. All right. Thank you. Any more okay. One more speakers card. Sasha bitner. Sasha . I have lived in San Francisco for 35 years. I its difficult enough to get to Golden Gate Park and get around it. The proposed seems to make it more difficult. I have very serious concerns about moving forward. I have a disability where its difficult for me to read and i have the to go into the park, i feel like you need a you dont need to talk with the biking people. Thats all i have to say. I was not prepared to talk. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, do you have any comments to make to that . All right. Thank you. Just to clarify. Para transit is still allowed in the park and its currently not allowed in the closure during saturdays and we wouldnt be allowing it if we expanded it as well. There is still access through tea garden and other areas of Golden Gate Park. Theres never been access for para transit through the closure on saturdays. The majority of the stake holders that weve spoken with are not necessarily speaking to the choir. They include district supervisors as well as the museums and the majority of neighborhood associations and groups that are around and were still continuing to do outreach. If weve havent reached out to someone yet, we will be. Thank you so much. This is to clarify. This is a Public Comment period and the speakers are not obliged to make responses at this time, but we want to hear and note all of the Public Comment that we have so we can do appropriate followup. We have two more speaker cards. Leah vandermy. Is that correct . Hi. Good afternoon. Pardon me. Im the director of guest operations at the academy of sciences and serve as the academys ada coordinator. The two key areas are process and access. As public institution, we believe its important that we have a fair and open process. Its also critical that stake holders are well informed with the needs of the community. We sent a survey of our email recipients, in which we received 10,000 responses. We are compiling them now and will share them with anyone who is interested. Were committed to equitable access. Including for those not able to walk or bike through the park. We have encouraged environmentally friendly transit like bart and muni, but many of our guests need to travel by car out of necessity and we have strong concerns about what would limit this group, particularly the weekend, when parking is already limited. So i wanted to thank the council and staff for starting this discussion. Its a good first step, but a lot more process and discussion needs to happen with all the groups. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. And i think we have one more speakers card. Is this on the same issue . Oh, the j. F. K. Lets wait until the end, then. Okay. So i think that this concludes the item we heard. I want to thank the speaker for coming. Weve had lively discussion and its a great first step and we look forward it having more interaction and discussions with you going forward. All right. So i think were at the break. And my watch says about 2 27. We have a great ceremonial item coming up. I hope all of you will stay. Stick around. Lets come back at 2 4 were moving to item 9, which is a ceremonial item of the late mayor edwin lee. And i want to say that any councilmembers or staff and people from the public are welcome to share your thoughts and stories and memories of the late mayor ed lee. I would like to just get it started if i might for a few minutes or so. I just want to say that i remember the late mayor lee rather well. Im a long time resident of San Francisco and what i remember him for is the economic boon that took place when he came into office. He came in in january, 2011, when the former mayor, gavin newsom, went to sacramento and became the state lieutenant governor. And at that point, there was a projected 380 million deficit. And the city budget was over 7 billion. And in his six years in office, the budget is up to 10 billion, which is more than many states. Considering to his staff, 140,000 jobs have been created as a result of him being here in the job. And i distinctly recall that he didnt really want to be mayor. He didnt like the political spats and being in the limelight. But yet he took the job because he felt it was the right thing for him and the city to do. So from my perspective, what he provided was an ability for Tech Companies and Real Estate Developers and agents to really thrive in this town. And that, i will always be appreciative for. That was his first term. His second term, i really remember his contributions in terms of humanitarian. He said on the second term, well, now that weve economically started to come back, lets focus on Affordable Housing and doing something about the homeless problem we have here in San Francisco. And a number of steps have been taken from my view to help make that a much better situation. So from a humanitarian standpoint, he really made a number of great contributions to this city. In addition to that, i think that mayor lee was very sensitive to the needs and concerns people with disability. A year ago, there were only two of us on this council. Now weve all come on board. I have to commend him for doing that. I understand he had quite a sense of humor, told some corny dad jokes, had a mustache, and he was a pretty good ping pong player, too. Maybe some of you will talk to that. Ive been a resident of San Francisco since 2002. And i go back a ways. I appreciate being a part of his legacy that he left here in this city. With that, id like to open it up for anyone on the council. If you want to speak or from the public. Lets see who would like to do that. I will. This is denise. All right. Kate williams. Mayor lee and i werent buddies, i have to say. I spoke with him only twice in the 21 years ive been a resident in the city and i will always treasure that letter i received from his office appointing me to this committee. Im very proud of that letter. I will probably frame it one of these days. [laughter] however, in my life here in the city as a disabled person, i know in the background, i will always see mayor lee. Specifically, one of the experiences that has benefited all of us on this council is his even though he didnt show up every time, he was very much behind something that i personally participated in thats been very gratifying. Rule 115 was imposed several years ago and languished in the city regarding employment. It just wasnt used. We had an advisory panel, which i sat on with some of the people in this room. Although he did not show up at our meetings, he always made certain that someone from his staff attended and reported back to him regarding our process. So after many weeks of input from the disabled community and projects spearheaded by jonathan lions, we were able to meet with the board of supervisors oneonone and we had something phenomenal happen. After the budget was passed, we were able to add on to begin the a. C. E. Program, rule 115 at that time, and had a recruiter come on to staff to hunker down and increase employment within our community. Im grateful that that took place and its making a profound difference in our community. Thank you. All right, thanks, kate. Go ahead, sally. My recollection is something more personally. I didnt know mayor lee personally. But all of us on the commission owe our position on the commission owe that to him. Doesnt mean we know him personally. He showed me a small kindness. This was at the opening of ucf Childrens Hospital and i was asked to speak as a representative of the families, like the voice of the families, who use that facility. And my daughter, who had significant physical and Developmental Disabilities as well as medical issues what what we call a frequent flier at ucf. She was there all the time. She passed away in 2014 shortly before the new hospital opened, this was a press conference to celebrate the new hospital and i was asked to come meet with the mayor. This doesnt happen to me often, so i said, sure. Away from the press, away from the cameras, extended his condolences to me on the loss of my daughter. And it wasnt sorry. It wasnt something he had to do. It wasnt none of the other dignitaries there did that, but i will never forget that, because it was heartfelt and personal and i felt like he was worried about me as a resident of San Francisco and i really appreciated that. Thank you for sharing. Any other members on the council . Yes, alex. I didnt know mayor lee, but there was a lot of disability and homeless work. I just want to commend him on that and its pretty shocking and sad and what happened to him. Denise, yes . I acknowledge. I know that you wanted to say something. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you, jim. I would like to piggyback on what some of my fellow colleagues have brought up with regards to mayor lees legacy. He loved his community, but he never forgot the most vulnerable population. Can i speak up a little bit . Yes, sorry. Excuse me. He never forgot about the most vulnerable populations, which is people with disabilities. He was there as a champion since he took over in 2011 and hes been involved in several initiatives ranging from transportation issues and i will just name a few. He was very concerned about access on demand transportation needs, not just with the Transportation Network companies. People with disabilities having access to Ridesharing Services he was very concerned over the decline of cabs that had that were accessible for people that had mobilibility issues. He was very interested in accessible voting machines, that people with disabilities have access, because their vote was just as important. He always recognized the needs for housing issues and heard the concerns of the Disability Community. I believe back in 2016, if i remember correctly, he gave an example directive, i believe, to increa

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