and hurricane season for new orleans and louisiana come once a year. we know. june first-november one. we know that earthquake season is everyday. you never know. i don't want you to have blinders on to think this is not a part of reality right now. because it can happen. so, begin to organize today. this is just an example of a meeting flyer that we had in broadmoore post katrina, galvanizing our residents having festivals to get our people engaged and involved. some of the other things that you can do today is start developing repopulation strategies. in a disaster how will you find your people and determine what

their needs and bear yers are? these are things you can have in place right now. but for broadmoore we had to do this in the aftermath. i can't stress to you enough to make sure that you incorporate your vision and your strategies. block captains aided us in our recovery. block captains are people living on blocks who stepped up to say, i will be the eyes and ears of my area. i will walk and see who's back and who's not and their intensions. our block captain program is still alive now. we restructured it we are moving from who's back and who's not to dealing with the quality of life issues that arrive on a daily basis. whether it's you know crime,

whether it's blight, whether it's zoning issues. people rebuilding and not adhering to the new zoning laws it's constant. i would also take you through marketing your neighborhoods now. starting to, we were digtus media inc. who was a corporation in san francisco provide us with light post banners with no cost and we were able to put them through the neighborhoods. it afforded the opportunity to have banners and what do you call them -- i can't think of the name, billboards throughout the neighborhoods to claim that broadmoored. it had an impact on people buying in the momentum and getting involved in the community and feeling that my neighborhood is coming back

better than it was before. >> communication. these are things you can do now. websites. i'm pretty sure in listening to many of the leaders in the briefing sessions a lot of you have the communications going now. website and we were able to do on line forums with our residents who were not back in the city who were displaced to find out what the barriers are and what they continue to be. we were able to reach out and link them to a service that could aid them into coming home and help them do so. you can look at housing issues. how are you going to address the infrastructure as soon as the disaster strikes?

one thing why i'm telling you this regardless of how much government helps you prepare you will have to depend on one another when a disaster come. it's your neighbors who will be the first responders in your community. the police officers and fire fighters, it takes time for them to get to everyone. you have to look out for yourself and your neighbors. come up with the housing strategies now. a plan ready inc., one of san francisco's emergency preparedness companies, provided us with the opportunity to do a survey of our community. we went down and took pictures of every property in the neighborhood. 2400 properties and they have up loaded those properties on their data base so we can see in real time and first responders can

see where the special needs reside. where are the gas meters? where are our senior citizens living? where are our pets in the event of the disaster. this has helped us and there in your backyard so you can lean on them to help you as well. of course, you never can forget to listen to our people. this is one of our residents and he wants to be heard. we have to make sure that we listen to our people and aid them. education. was identified as a top barrier for people returning home to broadmoore. as you know in just post disaster we have to figure out how we will restore public education in our communities. it's not just a broadmoore issue tell be an issue for all of us if another disaster strikes.

education is important and the young people in our community, the children are important. of course, the public structures. this is a picture of our library after it had been gutted after katrina. folks in the corner we had a neighborhood clean up cleaning up the library ground. it sits in the center of our neighborhood. the community determined that the restoration of our public library was vital to our recovery process. because it's a place where you share information, you get information and build community in the process. it's definitely one of our top priorities today. since then and through the will that will recovery that strategy i showed you earlier was forming partnerships. i'm happy to say today that the broadmoore community has been able to raise 2.3 million

dollars privately, on our own to restore or library. it's now a top priority in the city. and we will hopefully see it renovated within the start the renovation in the next couple of months. again, the people raised that money. we wrote grants to bring our library back. [applause]. these are some of the things you can do should a disaster happen. we cannot depend on government we have to depend on ourselves. that's a part of the message here this afternoon. and security, just making sure that we are safe. and those quality of life issues i talked about earlier, we can do a lot of this planning today. so just learn from broadmoore we really want to ensure that not only broadmoore and new orleans

come back. there will be a time where new orleans has to step up and aid san francisco. you know who knows. but in that event, we want to be there for you. and so we are showing you just by me being here today that that level of commitment is there. because i'm here with you now. [applause] >> as we move forward and we talking about engaging our residents to help us prepare for how we can help ourselves and one of the briefing work shops was talking about getting prepared for an earthquake. what are the materials we need? what are the supplies that we need? we learned broadmoore we learned that we can no longer not be prepared. we have established workshops and expos throughout the

neighborhood to get people focused on hurricane season. provide them with go kits and for hurricanes you get a warning. they may be last minute with katrina that was the first mandatory evacuation every listed in the staef new orleans. now we want people to know you here the volunteer evacuation. make your move now. map out your route now. these are things we can do today. we have to prepare before the unexpected. the loss of communications and the power outages and even fires that happen after earthquakes and the supply shortages and the food and the water that you have to store. and for broadmoore and new orleans we don't need to go to the grocery store store and

stock up it's getting what you need to get on the road to get out of there. there is no last resort in the city of new orleans now. everyone will have to leave. and so we are trying to prepare ourselves and our residents for them to get out and we can't be afraid to talk to our residents and encourage them. this is an example, a neighborhood based evacuation planning guide that broadmoore has come up with. again, the partnerships i talked about, one of our interns ariana tipper took the lead to establishing this neighborhood evacuation guide. you can take from what we have done and tailor it to your natural disaster but this is something that we have to do. so we held a workshop and had

all of the agencies that would aid us in recovery there. we had even we provided residents with text messaging assistance for elderly who never texted before. one of the things we realized after the storm we could not use our cell phones even when we were evacuated. the cell phones were down. one thing you could do was text. it was interesting. you can send a text message. we are trying to get our residents give them the knowledge to do that should we need to evacuate again. and this is just an example of a flyer for our expo and you have to tailor it to the diversity of your community. making sure what other dialects or languages that are present in your neighborhood that you address that. and you make sure that you are inclusive to everyone.

just an example of our agenda for our expo. and the communications, this is a piece that we have come up with post katrina and that is a 1-800 evacuation check in number that our residents can call into in the event that we must evacuate. residents can call and let the improvement association know where they are. let us know their barriers. when i evacuate i'm responsible for taking the vontage router with me and plug it into a real phone or also receive these messages by internet. i don't have to have access to a phone. the voice mails come over the

internet. this is something that we have done today after katrina. it is something you can do now as well in the event a disaster does strike. again, i told you about other things, the ride share program we have created now. it's aiding residents to get out. as i mentioned there is no place of last resort. again, it's the neighbors who are responsible for one another. we have residents can sign up to take an elderly out. we can take kids out or whom ever needs a ride, pets, things like that. a lot of people in broadmoore and in the city of new orleans because of their pets. pets are our family. i had a beshon that went with me and i wouldn't leave him or plan

to in the future. tailor the information to the residents that live within your community and give them the information that they need to make sure they survive. and that we continue to help one another. it's all about what we can do not only for ourselves but for our communities. in closing, i want to leave you with some additional points that i have made throughout the presentation. just it's really -- we are our first responders. we have to take care of ourselves and take care of one another. that really is what the city of san francisco wanted you to take away from this empowerment network seminar today. look out for yourself. and one other thing that's very important, you know the disaster doesn't have to necessarily

affect your community. but it will affect someone else's. if you are okay that doesn't mean you are off the hook. it means you have a greater responsibility to neighbors that are living adjacent to you. whether it's 5 miles away or a hundred miles away, regardless of -- they are your neighbors. as you know, 80 percent of the city of new orleans was inundated with water there was 20 percent that was not affected but the 20 percent aided new orleans in it's recovery. people were able to come back sooner. they could live on land that was not inundated with water. regardless if the disaster hits you you still have the responsibility. much is given and much is required.

that's a part of the resiliency you will not only see in yourself or the neighbors that live adjacent from you or in a neighboring community not far from you. get involved and do your part in your recovery and do your part today to make it all worth it. and strengthen your neighborhood associations now. know your neighbors now. and understand that we are not just homes we are people. so thank you for your time and thank you for having me. and i really appreciate being here with you today. thank you. [applause] >> the mayor is engrossed in the remarks that latoya shared with us. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco and the mayor

wanted to present you with this. we want to thank you and we are honored to have you here today. >> thank you. this is -- they are telling me or you hear latoya this and that but it's the residents of broadmoore. we all have to depend on ourselves and one another. it's because of the residents of broadmoore that i'm here but because of the residents of broadmoore that broadmoore lives. put yourself and your community to live and susstain itself should a disaster strike. so, thank you so much. >> [applause] >> i would like to say that new orleans like san francisco is a tourist town. and the reality is while we had an incredible experience there and witnessed a level of

devastation that's incomp henceable. imagine driving down geary and everything looked the same before the disaster. you take a right or left turn and all the homes between geary and the presidio and geary and golden gate park are burned down, empty or filled with water. i wanted you to give you an impression the level of devastation that's there today, sadly, with leadership like with people like latoya it will change. the tourist part. the mardi gras is still open. take out your pact books and spend some time in new orleans

they need your investment and support. i'm going back if you want to go i will go with you. i want to do last minute thank yous there was one person not mentioned in the discussion today about our work in new orleans that's toni irons. toni irons is a member of the puc who single handedly restores the school in the middle of the broadmoore. he's an amazing person. [applause]. i do want to point out that i'm a little embarrassed about the attention i'm getting today. there are 25 people that everyday for the last 6 weeks have worked on this project. i want to ask all of the volunteers to stand up. >> we have shirtos like this. come on guys! you deserve it. tom, patty, everyone, thank you. >> amen. i also want to ask today's

panelists to stand up. they works many hours before this to make this a success. come on! [applause] haight street beat patrol come on you guys were amazing. i want to thank the venders who came much the civic auditorium i loaned the stage to barack yesterday he owea me money. reason woo have this set up is because we are using and recycling. thank you to the bill gram team. they were helpful. lastly i want to thank sf safe they are our partner they have been in town for 30 years doing the work we are working on. they are our partner moving forward. lastly, again, sort of

embarrassing some of the things that have been said regarding me. i feel like i'm following the footsteps of a lot of amazing people that have held my seat and my office like mrs. dufty and turk. all of us who understands what it takes to run a great city. a big round of applause for ed lee. ed this would not have happened today if not for ed lee. ed lee, thank you very much. [applause]. the only change today that i want to --

>> cents and cisco's buses and trains serve many writers -- san

francisco buses and trains serve many riders. the need to be sure they can get off at their intended stop. the digital voice announcement system, which announces upcoming stops, can help these low vision riders know where they are, but only if set properly. >> it is a wonderful piece of technology, but in practice, it is a little bit more tricky. oftentimes, i find that the automatic announcement system is turned off or turned down so low that i'm unable to hear it, or it is turned up so high that the sound is distorted. >> most of the time, it does not ever seemed to be on. or is it is, it is a really quiet. occasionally, it is so loud that it is distorted. >> driver, may i have california

st., please? >> no problem. >> whenever the announcement system does not work properly and a driver does not call out the stops, and i'm totally lost as to where i am. the announcement system calls out the stops, but to help the customer, i caught the destination, transfer points, and requested stops. and it is the law. >> i use the p a system to make sure everyone on the bus here is my announcements. >> i have had both experiences with the loudness and the to stop for the announcements. you are never going to have it exactly balanced for every trip because your level of noise changes. the announcement system ranges from 1 to 10. 10 would be too loud, a little distorted. eight is a good number. not too loud, but loud enough for everyone to hear and understand what is going on. >> i think bus drivers might not be aware of the fact that if you

let a visually impaired person off at the wrong stop, number one, they may be absolutely unfamiliar with the area they are in. >> the driver overshot the stock that i wanted. i decided to get off and find my way back, but it was very disorienting, not exactly understanding how far i was. number 2, it might be a potentially dangerous situation if they do not know the area and are attempting to make crossings that they are unfamiliar with. >> they let me off somewhere else. i had no idea where i was. i missed the stop, and the bus was gone. then, i look around. i tried to find someone to help me, and i cannot find anybody. i would have no way of knowing where i am at. >> [inaudible] i asked why he did not stop when i asked.

we did not panic. we do not know where we are. we do not know what is going on. i get over there, and right away, i almost got killed. >> #3, it's the person in question is trying to get somewhere, it is going to make them late for whatever they are doing. >> i had to find my way to a corner and ask someone where i was going to and how to get there. i eventually made it to my appointment, which was with social security, but i was very late, and they almost did not see me. >> i was very late former doctor's appointment, and there was concern about whether or not i could be fit in. >> when i get off i stock that is unfamiliar to me, because i have no sight, i cannot just automatically orient myself off to a new environment. it takes a lot of training, a lot of work. there are a lot of skill sets

involved when i am first introduced to a new area. to get off at an unfamiliar bus stop for the first time and to do it unintentionally -- it can be a really disorienting experience. >> i think there is a sense that it is ok, that person is going to find their way, and did they do not know where they are, you are potentially putting them in a seriously dangerous situation. >> i always appreciate when the drivers are proactive in asking questions like, "where do you want to get off?" i appreciate when they help find a seat for me. i also appreciate when everything is working properly as far as the voice announcement system. they make sure that it is turned on, that it is loud enough for everyone to hear, not turned down so low that it helps no one.

>> excuse me, driver, what stocks are we at? can you remind me when we get to venice and broadway? thanks. >> what we're talking about here is full participation and inclusion. i want to be able to lead a full life. the only way that i'm able to get from place to place this by using a fully accessible public transit system like meany -- muni. >> the americans with disabilities act of 1990 is a wide-ranging federal civil- rights law that prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities. title two of the ada addresses access to public services, including public transportation for persons with disabilities. it requires transit operators to call out stops at transfer points, major intersections, and

major destinations, and to announce particular stocks requested by customers with disabilities. stop announcements are especially important for passengers who are blind or have low vision. these individuals cannot travel independently if they are not assured of getting off at their intended destination point.