applications we have received to date. and the theme of the panel is community involvement and outreach and from the inception of this program, it's through the submittal of an application that's available on our website, livablestreets.org. and residents complete an application and let us know of the worse locations and we need time and signatures and to verify support and we take the applications and review it and take data and work with the residents and get in line with the projects we have funding for. and one is local streets and one is arterials. and because there are certain measures you can do on arterials, or measures you want to use on resident streets that

you don't for arterials. and i get the question, how come it takes so long to get the traffic measures solved in the city. and there is a rigorous community involvement and hearing process that's involved for everything that we put in. and it works both ways, it's good to involve people. so that when the measures go in and everyone knows that the measure was approved by a consensus of people rather than being surprised when the measure goes in. i will be happy to answer questions at the end of the discussion also. [applause] >> i hate these things. but anyway, as you know, this panel is supposed to be

education and community activism and the role that advocates make. and first, advocates might be a nice word and some call us trouble makers and some pay subcontractor was city that we are actually advocating. but i want to start on how to explain the role of an advocate by simply stretching your minds. what would it be like without us? how many remember hitchhiker's guide and the opening scene when arthur and ford prefix and swooped off of earth just before it's destroyed because they didn't get a notice that the freeway was going through the solar system, without advocates that's how i see it.

to explain more, i would like to use a terma famous -- well, everyone knows this particular republican and has divided the country and known for his war, no, i am not talking about william kinly, but i am talking about a -- abraham lincoln, he said, it's a country by the people and for the people. and i want to emphasize the part, by the people and for the people. this is very important, because a lot of the pedestrian design and safety is really heavy on by the people. which is great. only if it doesn't incorporate enough of "for the people. ".

because if it's by the people, the way it's set up is by the planners and the people with the authority to say yes or no. and budget analysts and a few groupies that like to hanout with this group of people that have time on their hand. i am being faceasious, because i am one of them. and it doesn't work if we don't have enough people, for the people. because that means you and i and people with disabilities and seniors and children, and residents and people who do want have time to go up everyday to see a supervisor, to see a budget analyst or to go to a designer, and say what is actually going on. because i love planners, they are great. but they are in their own little world. because there is only so much

of them and only because a few, they have a particular view of seeing things. what is the role of an advocate? to make it simple, we are there to bring the rest of the people to the table, so we can expand what is the experience out there. and expand what actual need is out there. instead of just going to some study, or did it this way and do this way again. it doesn't mean we have the answers, but it means that we have the people out there in the discussion. and what we do with that discussion is another thing. and we will get into during this panel or another time. but that's the main purpose of an advocate. i would like to bring everyone to the table and have ta discussion. and some things that come out

of that, and when the advocates get a say, and a classy one and sue berman and the fight against the freeway, and if not for sue and hank, we would have a freeway going down the panhandle and from east to west and down the great highway and would have so many freeways we might pack up. and another example which is more modern, and san jose project. and julian jewelet and coalition first approached the city, and no, this is a main thoroughway, and because of this group, now look at it. we have bike lane there, not because for safety, but narrowed the lanes so traffic goes through slower.

and we have a traffic line at duncan and gurle. and we have fantastic plants so people can smell the roses as they walk, i don't think the cars are. but it's a beautiful site. and another example is mixed masonic, those people are addressing the issues that are going on for years, and finally because of that, of the community and bicyclists and pedestrians, we are now looking at ways to fix that situation. and one more example, under walk san francisco, we happen to saw a few other cities do pedestrian stings, actually they are cross walk stings, and

a plain clothed policemen walks across and controlled only by stop signs and if the car doesn't yield the right-of-way, the six motorcycles are waiting to give them a ticket. and we have walk san francisco and convince the police this is the thing to do here in san francisco. and now that they are doing it, we are seeing great results. and too bad sergeant bob isn't here, it gave them a whole, it gave them another way of education towards pedestrian safety with the police. and again, advocateser -- are here to bring the people up to the deciders, the ones that say yes or no. and that's why we are here. and if any questions about it,

you can ask afterwards, thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon, i am jason patton with the city of oakland and thanks for having me. and i want to talk about community involvement and make a few key points and based on my experiences with city wide planning policies. and in the city of oakland and with our pedestrian master plan and bicycle master plan and in san francisco and with the better streets plan underway, and it's a bit of a talk from the staff perspective and thinking about our work in relationship with social change. and what we are doing is about social change and that doesn't

happen alone. and my work is largely with facilities and try to plan and develop things and social change is caught up in that and community involvement. the three levels, and community involvement and the first is role of the advisory committee, whether for the better street plans or pedestrian, and this is an opportunity for the city through staff and key individuals to work together on these issues. it's an opportunity for two way education. and keeps the city grounded in local issues and priorities, and an opportunity for staff to educate advocates. and an educated advocate is an important thing because they can think strategically where to push and not. and the other key thing is to

have advocates engaged with staff and then they can do more than on their own. and the second is with community groups and this is the crucial involvement and getting beyond the suspects and those are crucial and they come to the meetings. and by taking the plan and project to the community, and you miss a whole level of people that otherwise you don't encounter. and provides neighborhood specific to issues and respect for the neighbors time and city and staff going to their meetings to present the city's project on the neighborhood's term and turf, and that makes a significant difference. and the third piece is what make its accumulative and how to capture that work through the presentations and community

groups and that's the tool known as the contact list and newsletter. and i think for this city wide effort and with this neighborhood livability that's critical to this and this is key. what it does is continue to focus people and bring them in. it's kind of a social movement organizing technique. and helps cope with a paradox of government projects and that any single project can take a long time to develop and implement. and you have people sitting in their neighborhood silos waiting for their project. and the paradox for the city government, there is an overwhelming amount of stuff moving forward, and to convey that sense of direction, in a way to keep the neighbors excited and engaged and they

can be involved in some other part of town and see that they fit in this plan or process that's unfolding. and i encourage you to think of this community involvement through this change model and how advisory committee and contact lists and newsletters can engage people at different levels and pull people in, in an accumulative way and you focus the vision and get more work done. thanks. [applause] >> thank you for that presentation. and i would like to especially thank anna that provided the lunch that we enjoyed through the department of public health, thanks for that. and at this time, i would like to open up to questions. >> hi, i have a question about

san francisco as a focus point of the bay area. and i have been looking at other economic reports and it struck me that there are about 450,000 cars registered to san franciscoians that are night time cars and during the day, 900,000 cars, and in terms of a movement toward social change, how do we address the issue that, you know, as aware as san franciscoians may be about issues and walkability, the city during the day, basically belongs to the bay area, and how do we think of regional government ideas or spread the message out, particularly given the things, and some suburban stagszs charge for parking and glenn parks doesn't. and we are part of a chain and i would like to know your

thoughts of spreading that change network. >> i can actually speak to that briefly, but, part of education aspect is sort of what the metropolitan transportation commission does and reach across county lines and engaging our partners in that. and it's a difficult thing to do, but you know, with all the different transit agencies and jurisdictions in the bay area, it really speaks to education as a major kind of key point. jason? >> yeah, just briefly, i think in general it's a main street phenomena and that the city of san francisco is a cross roads for the bay area, but you can think of it as a small state main street on the state highway and part of that is recognizing what the local priorities are and then determining how much you want

to penalize folks that are not necessarily local. and for a city like san francisco, it's tricky because it's tied to economic issues. and there are things that can be done, and discussion about freeway ramps and those road ways and come here and work but spend a couple extra minutes to get here safely. >> i had a question and wanted to get more clarity on reference to the term, arterials. and i know that arterials and versus local streets is used in the highway code and as a domestic perspective, and there is no difference between annar terial street and you have oakdale and we have residential and what we feel are burdened

by a traffic sewer, and why you feel that between these perspectives that you need to make the difference between arterial streets and residential streets, because our arterial streets are our residential. >> yeah, some measures are applicable to local streets and one issue of parking and could do speed bumps and couldn't do that on other streets. and our arterial streets are our residential streets, but those streets are streets with muni and streets that carry traffic between innernieshd -- innerneighborhood and they carry the commercial traffic, and that's the difference, i am not saying that arterial

streets have a difference emphasis, but those are important streets. >> [inaudible]. >> it wasn't just in reference to traffic, but it seems when we deal with safety, and the mta seems to discount the streets and on arterials and i feel it's a dangerous trend and acknowledge as a trend. >> i agree, and these streets fulfill many functions and they are residential and commercial routes, and we're asking a lot for the streets and it's a challenge to come up with a balance to address all of these modes. >> i think that, you know it's a not a challenge, it's a

problem and to have a solution, and you need to be more active to seek that solution and than saying why it can't be done and it ain't happening. and i represent the seniors and all in disabilitied and those in wheelchairs and elderlies and seniors. and muni has a bad record and a driver gets 50 points for each pedestrian they run after. -- over. it's almost a game. i am telling you, and now there is a poster down and has there will be a public hearing, that hotels that are currently residential, and they will be reduced in number and the tourist hotels will increase. and it's all about the money in

san francisco, and have been here for 53 years and i have never seen more, and that's the problem. and regarding transportation, and what consideration for time and in terms of the clock and how long it takes to get from point a to point b. and those are the things that you start out for the solution, your mouth, other than that, you are just chasing the wind. >> thank you and good ooven, -- afternoon, this is a 50 year observation, we are seeing more and more jay walking and double-parking and on locust

street and i stat -- sat on a bench and watched to see if cars would stop at stop sign and most didn't. and what we have is the people not obeying the laws we established and will we continue to see the speeders through golden gate park and can we reduce that and to get the people in and out of the park. and where are the san francisco police departments that enforce these laws that are broken continuously and no respect for the law and no respect to stop at the stop sign and people are shooting through the signs and it's dangerous and where are the san francisco law. and law enforcement that's established, i ask you this.

>> just a quick comment, i can tell you where they are now. they are dealing with olympics, this is one the problem, it's not the refusal of the police to do their job, we do not have enough. we have 50 motorcycle cops now and we are supposed to have 126 to adequately cover the city. and they are supposed to be doing traffic enforcement and that means sidewalk enforcement, if a bicycle runs on the sidewalk. and they do vip escorts and special events, we do not have enough traffic officers out there. period. that's it. if we had really prioritized our budget in such a way to actually cover the services that we actually need, this

would have been addressed years ago. so hence, i would like to end with something that mike likes to talk about, his survey on commuters into san francisco. and it was 100 or 200 and all asked if they drive differently in san francisco than they do at their home, like walnut creek and berkeley, and 100% said yes, we don't have enforcement. and if we want enforcement, we need to get together and show elected officials and prioritize it to get to the levels to cover the city, thanks. >> i am a resident of visiation valley and thank you for speaking on the needs of the underserved community. and pedestrians safety is really for everyone.

and that should include the non -english speaking population and that's sizeable in san francisco. and i have been a teacher and many times the students couldn't read on the citation and bring it to me. and how do you address the equal access ordinance? do include so that everyone knows what is going on? and my students couldn't read it or access city hall. and i hope that this summit is an opportunity to help everyone in san francisco and inclusive of that population as well. and the 311 is terrific and if it could be posted around the neighborhood and people don't have to fumble for the

department phone numbers and call that number to alert about traffic problems and pedestrian safety, and i think this is the overall best idea to help everyone and provide access. this poster, is it in different languages or only in english? if it isn't, where is the equal access ordinance for it to comply with, thank you. >> everyone time we do send a flyer or post public hearing notice, we do include the chinese and spanish translation, and this is an opportunity for the neighborhood to let us know what other forms of outreach we should try. than just those two languages, and that's what we do with the committee groups and there are some neighbors that require

special language translation and that's something that we work out regularly. >> [inaudible]. >> any more questions? >> we solved all of your questions? >> if i could address that last point briefly, i think that's really critical with my comment about presentations with community groups and meeting with them on their terms. you hold a meeting focused on a particular topic and you tend to get the people in the loop.

and that's a good thing to build that consistenty and nurture that and that's not only the work. and looking at the communities and whether the latino rights group or other groups, and focus on it and it's very effective and i take that it takes me out of the comfort zone and gets me in my neighborhood shoes and perspective. >> this session is about education, i guess, and one thought that i had, rail vehicles that are energy efficient and wonderful to have, have different braking characteristics than the busses. and the average motorist and pedestrian do not understand this and they put themselves and others at peril and maybe something we could do for

education would to be, for stopping distance, there was a rule, for every 10 miles per hours you leave that number of car lengths. and it's easy to remember, and if pedestrians and motorists were made aware when you deal with something on tracks, to allow two to three times as much time and distance as you would for a bus, and i think that would help. but i never heard public education on that and the statistics we heard this morning, bear out the need for that. >> i want to emphasize the need that we all come together and share these public rights. and i am discouraged that the

animosity between bicycles and pedestrians all the time. and we all have to work together and find a way to all share these roadways, and i think the education is one of the, there is just the signage of reminding people that there are bicycles and pedestrians on the streets of san francisco, and that our streets are near the exits off the freeway, or where it is, that new people come to town and it would be an ideal place, and basic signage would be helpful to remind people to share the road. >> thanks for that comment, i think we have time for one last comment, and then we will wrap it up. >> i am from sunset district, and as a means of discouraging drunk driving in each bar that it be posted prominently what the laws of drunk driving are