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tv   [untitled]    June 16, 2013 7:30pm-8:01pm PDT

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have different departments and finance committee, it's open to the public. you are welcome to attend the the mayor and the staff will present the budget to the board of supervisors in early june. and we will review for a month. and we will hold hearings in city hall, again open to the public. and we aim to present to the board of supervisors and have it signed by middle of the year. please come and let your voices be heard. and thank you again for all of your comments tonight. thank you. >> and now we will hear from supervisor cohen and supervisor avalos and mayor lee. >> all right, i know there are some people in the audience that still want an opportunity to speak. i want to let you know, i will
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speak on behalf for you mr. avalos. but it's an opportunity that we welcome everyone that wants to meet with us, can come and talk to us about the budget. i want to appreciate everyone that came out. everyone that came out, it's important to be a part of this conversation. that's about it. there you go. >> thank you for being here, i will stay longer, we have to get home kids have homework. but i will stay longer. our process as a city needs to reflect the great needs we have here in district 10 and 11. and one thing we have is lots of senior and young people. and we have higher levels of poverty in this district. that our city needs to respond to. something that i am committed to work on and hear from more you
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on how i can be supportive. thank you. >> rather than listen to me, i will yield my time to you. please go up there now and give us your two minutes, okay. i got these two in front of me. let them finish. go ahead. >> my name is robert woods. i have been working in this community since 1972. working with avallo when he was mayor of san francisco. when i worked in the community, i saw the community working and making money. and not on their knees like they are now. and for anybody to be less than human, and you don't recognize that. the community is crippled and they need help. they need help. they don't need no promises,
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they need help. and i say to you that i didn't just get off the tomato truck today. this is something that we have been dealing with for a long time. and for you to come here and to deny us a chance to speak to this group. i am sorry that -- i do not like being ignored. especially when the community need help. and i say to you, whatever this community needs, give it to them. because number one i come out here every day and i teach a ged math class for adu. i ain't making no money. but i tell you what, it's something that i know that the community needs. we got six people who passed the
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ged test and no one really expected us to have that many people. so i come here every day to put in my time. because i look for the community that need my help. i am an architect by education. i spent time in the neighborhood. i director of housing for the city of atlanta empowerment agency. i been around. i been around. so i do not like what i see when i drive down third street. it don't make me feel good. if any of y'all drive third street and feel good? i say this is not the place for you. thank you. >> i want to thank you mayor.
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you know this is my community. espinola jackson, dr. espinola jackson's community. and when i raise my hand for them to pick up if one wants to have something to say. i had my hand in the air first, i don't know how i got behind. i ran behind for the speakers, they don't know the services we have in this building here in this community college. we have second language here, and no one should be ignored. everything was talked about except aids prevalent here in bayview hunter's point. we want to see a change in that and also in education, transportation. we have turk out in this
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community. our young people cannot go to school unless they are jumped upon. this needs to be stopped. and only you can stop this, and help our young people get an education each across town. someone spoke about the transportation. i want to say this, when that third street rail was built. they didn't finish it. they started it. it was supposed to go all the way to city college, but it didn't go there. mr. mayor, i want to say this to you, and i be finished because i can talk to you later ----okay, i will take you with me. i want you to stop using the te term war-time housing, there is no war-time housing in san francisco. they were all torn down in 1954
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when the integration law was passed where we blacks can live next door to white folks. the public housing, san francisco redevelopment agency, they became public housing after 1954 for black folks. thank you very much, you need to know, and i want to give you the history of my community. because i have been here 70 years. thank you. >> all right, first of all those who spoke and sat through this and all the departments and elected officials. i want to thank everyone. it's been an intense night. we got a lot of feedback and a lot of viewpoints. we have to continue working hard. we will be doing our best. and please again feel welcome to give us your input and keep working with us. that's the most important thing of these town hall meetings, we need your input and we will do our best. and keep working with us.
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thank you very much. good night. all right. how is everybody doing? who wants -- walked to work today? happy walk to workday, everybody. i'm excited to be here for san francisco to lead the nation for the very first official walk to workday in the us right here in san francisco.
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[ applause ] >> i'm elizabeth. i want to welcome everybody who walked near and far. i want all of you to post online and tweet about it because that's how you win prizes. i want to introduce the mayor who has an exciting announcement to make this city safer and better for walking not just today but everyday. mayor ed lee. >> thank you four your walk and advocacy and leadership as well. we do a lot of things in the city for the first time and i'm really glad to see this walk to work program get kick started in our city. we are one of the most walkable cities in the world. i just completed a
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walk down market street to update myself on what all the things that are going on on market street and tenderloin and all the investments going on and you don't see that on the ground unless you are walking the beautiful streets. i want to thank paramount group for being a sponsor on the first effort to make sure that we set the standard for many states across the country. you can learn a lot of what's going on. i'm glad to see all the members of the board of supervisors here. if i can remember who is here today that made it all the way here so far. board president chiu, president breed, cohen, chang.
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have i missed anybody? i didn't want to forget because i believe her birthday is coming up. former supervisor max well. thank you very much. i also want to thank the number of departments that are working together with walk sf and not only public works but sfmta which is taking a lead on pedestrian strategies and making sure our streets are safer with our police department and with our health department and so many others . they are coming together to form a strategy that not only encourages people to walk but we need to do more to ensure our streets and sidewalks are safe for our school kids, parents, seniors, everybody who we encourage to walk more and keep healthy and also need to work more on the safety of our streets. that's the announcement i wanted to make
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today in addition to walk to workday and that we now have presented online and paper form a pedestrian strategy program led by the sfmta and transit authority along with their partnership with public health, public works and with our police department. we have in the past back in 2010, set a goal that in 10 years by 2021 we should cut the number of pedestrian fatalities by 50 percent. we are going to measure our way there in the next eight years. we have identified through numerous meetings a strategy that is multipronged that will not only look at the physical things that we have to do, things like narrowing the streets and
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widening sidewalks and making sure we fund these projects that are identified both in terms of their capital but also pilot programs, things that we don't yet know will have how much of a degree of safety we can say, but we have to do enough experimenting in these areas along with proven programs to increase safety and i know the board of supervisors and each of them are advocating very strongly and we will have that reflection on our budget discussions along the way. we have to have not only a strategy that focuses on the physical improvements, we also have to have a strategy with our police department and our chief making sure we enforce these efforts that we are making because people won't listen and their behavior won't
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change unless we enforce the laws on there. it isn't enough to declare all 180 school cites to have the 15 miles per hour zone when everybody is violating it. we can't reduce the miles per hour unless we enforce it. we have to enforce drunken driver laws. these things really pain us to see accident by accident to know what the reason was and we can't just be satisfied by calling it an accident. we can do things to prevent accidents. we can do things to prevent drunken drivers. we can do things to make sure that pedestrians and drivers, whatever vehicle, public or private vehicles do better to increase safety. we are going to fix 5 miles of streets per year to make our city's safer. that's what this strategy has.
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we are going to retime 160 intersection to give pedestrians more time and 5 schools. we are going to reopen 20 closed crosswalks by 2021 and upgrade curb ramps in the next ten years. in addition to that, in addition to working with our police department and police chief to make sure the high risk behaviors like red lights and failure to yield to pedestrians get this enforcement. we have to do more about that. >> you can see strategy plan on sf mayor.org website. so review
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for yourself and i annoy -- know there are volunteers to ensure that plan not only is a plan, but we carry it out. in an about a week we are going to have a website where all the things we promise to do are going to be interactive on the website and you are going to hold us accountable to do that. without accountability, i want to make sure we do not have an empty plan. we are going to fun this thing. we have identified a third of the funding all right. we are going to make sure this thing is carried out. along with that, i can't emphasize more that we need increased education to all the people who use our streets. pedestrians as well as as drivers. the phenomenon that we've seen happen in the last two years where people are taking their technology gadgets
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and paying more attention to than walking with their kids or taking care of they are seniors cannot happen in this city. enjoy our streets. don't be doing the work where your safety and the safety of others are at risk. we have to have that education going on. we are going to do more of that education, commit ourselves at the school levels, ourselves at the business levels, ourselves at the street levels to make sure we have that conversation and that education to lift up everybody's responsibilities to use our streets properly. then we can say our city a much more walkable city. if it's safe, it's walk able, if we do all the things that make our streets safer and walkable, then we can enjoy it being the
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most walkable city. thank you very much. >> thank you so much, mayor. now i would like to introduce chief greg of the san francisco police department. >> [ applause ] >> thank you. i want to wish everybody a good morning with a perfect day to walk to work or actually walk anywhere in san francisco. this is so important and important that this month is driver awareness month because they go hand in hand. the mayor has come up with a great strategy to try to make this a safer city. very sadly 21 people lost their lives last year walking in san francisco and with that, with the board of supervisors there is a plan with the police department and one of the first units with full staff is the traffic company and those are the officers on motorcycles. the traffic company in those
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officers assigned to station will be focusing on those intersection and streets across san francisco that have had the most traffic collision and pedestrian injuries and fatalities. they will be focusing on the primary collision factors and everybody can imagine what they are, speeding, failure to yield, not stopping completely at a stop sign, running a red light. drivers need to be aware of this. but pedestrians too, you need to be aware of when you are crossing a street. you are vulnerable when someone is not paying attention. you need to pay attention yourself. make i contact with the driver before you cross. don't put yourself in any dangerous situation. do not walk and text. if you are going to text or talk on the
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phone, please do that when you are stationery. it makes the world of difference. it keeps everybody safe and sets a good example for our young people so when they grow up, they learn not to do this. we are committed to this strategy and we think it's going to be successful and we hope to reduce injuries and fatalities. get out and enjoy this beautiful day. thank you. [ applause ] . >> thank you so much, chief. next we have the municipal transportation agency. >> [ applause ] >> thank you, mr. mayor, members of the board. i also want to acknowledge my boerpd of directors and the mta and
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our vice-chair. our board member lien a bridges. they are responsible for bringing the example of leadership when it comes to walking. every trip begins and ends on foot. some of our best trips is when we are on foot. that's because walking is free. walking is a zero admission strategy. you don't have to pay for parking. it makes the streets less congested. makes the streets more vital. and this is why san francisco is the great city that it is. walking is safe in san francisco. we shouldn't be losing 20 people a year. we shouldn't be losing anybody
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just walk ing in san francisco. the strategy the mayor has today to bringing people together and safety and to be smart and the goals that the mayor has for us in terms of i mproving safety and walking around the city. we are using our technology to target the resources we have in determining how to invest in our roadways and deploy resources and target our outreach as the chief and mayor eluded to are important to our equation. with those resources
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i think we can and will achieve the goals we set out to make san francisco the best walking city in the country. i want to thank all the folks behind me and all the folks who worked to get this strategy into place and all the people in the community to make this strategy a reality and realize the goals we set for ourselves. thank you so much and happy walk to workday. >> thank you, so much, ed. and thank you so much to mayor lee, and your leadership. already we have seen 7 people hit and killed by cars. of course that's too many. we are eager to see this plan implemented. the first streets are transformed because every time you first pave a street it's a time to calm traffic and it's time for san francisco to
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prioritize one of the characteristics to people all over the world that we are a walkable city. we need to make investment to keep our people safe and support our local neighborhood and businesses with foot traffic. thank you for all who attended this. first step i will invite supervisor mark ferrel from district 2. >> thank you so much. i just want to say really quickly thank you to all of those from district 2 who are gathering this morning. i see you here this morning. to my own and very proud mta commissioner, lean a bridges. thank you. we had a great time walking this morning. if we can order this
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weather everyday we can walk more often. thank you very much for joining us today to making san francisco the best city in the country. thank you everyone. >> thank you, supervisor ferrel. next we have supervisor david chiu from district 3. >> the sun is shining on walker's today and thank you for presenting the diversity. everyday someone walks or takes a bike to munis but everyone walks. i want to thank the mayor for the goals that we have for the pedestrian program. i think we have a generation today of board of supervisors who are making sure that we are moving forward a pro pedestrian agenda. we are walking in the footsteps of other supervisors including max
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well who also knew how to walk the walk. will is i want to say is the mayor talked about a goal about reducing pedestrian fatalities, i think we should go further. there is a zero tolerance when it comes to pedestrian fatalities. some day in our life times, we will have years where no one gets killed on our streets. thank you very much for being here. >> i support that goal. and supervisor katie tang from district 4. >> good morning, everybody. as i was talking to our group that walked in this morning as we enter into the work world we tend to forget to do walking as part of our daily activities. if you are going away from a meeting, try to use the stairs instead of the elevators. we
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need to incorporate that into our daily life styles. i know when i used to do so much more walking and now it's very difficult to do that. thank you for being. [ applause ] >> thank you, supervisor. i want to acknowledge we've had a lot of supervisors who also walked in today. malia cohen and his staff walked in 5 miles this morning. i think they might win the longest commute prize but that's still to be determined and supervisors mar, campos and scott wiener walked in this morning as well. thanks everybody for walking in and of course this wouldn't be possible without our sponsors so i wanted to thank especially presenting sponsors paramount group and invite the president
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mike sanchez. >> good morning. glad to be here today with you. we are very proud to be the prime sponsor or the first ever walk to workday. we are glad it's happening in san francisco. paramount group is an environmentally and socially forward real estate company. we own one market plaza downtown. we also own 75 howard which is an 8-story parking garage. we hope we will be able to demolish the 8 story parking garage and build walkable transit friendly housing. restaurants and open space along the embarcadero that all of san francisco can enjoy
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everyday. paramount group participation reflects our focus on being a healthy or part of a healthy walkable and safe city. that's why in our existing buildings like one market we've made extra rooms for bikes, we've created showers and changing rooms for those who want to bike to work and walk to work. so this is part of our mantra. we hope that you will agree that 75 howard should be housing that is walkable to work and walkable to all that san francisco has to offer. if you agree, we hope you go to our project on howard.com. >> i would like to acknowledge
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district 6 and london breed who cake -- came from hayes valley. please come and celebrate with us at happy hour. thanks so much. enjoy your walks today. [ applause ] [ applause ] [ applause ] [ applause ]