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tv   [untitled]    August 17, 2010 5:30am-6:00am PST

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gets rented out for weddings and retirement. the croquet clubs and horse shoes. 2 play grounds, tennis courts. we have from 25 to a hundred dogs here. it's like bisons going across the mid west. there are so many dogs they are covering the ground cht it's a get together. all the dog walkers know each other. if you go to pine lake day camp now, you will see 50 kids there. the r directors are wonder. >> the pine lake is natural. they take of the area around the
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lake. they plant natives that are drought tolerant. one that stands the dry summers here. the whole park is under going quite a bit of reconstruction. they will renovate the trails around the lake. and the big project is the capital project for pine lake meadow. they are going to returf the dog run and the meadow by the day camp. we are looking for a very busy fall. by the spring of next year should have major renovations to the mark thal make it an outstanding park. i don't ever refer to it as my park. all the parks belong to all the people. this park belongs just as much to the families in the bay view sdrishth as it does to the gentlemen that lives across the street. i'm happy and proud to be the
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caretaker for them. i wake up every day and thank that i havee >> good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. today is a very special day in san francisco. it marks our celebration of the bicycle injunction we have been suffering under for about four years now. today, we are able to begin in earnest and aggressive bike plan implementation. divide plan implementation will increase the amount of bike lanes by 64% here in the city. we currently have 48 miles of land making us one of the most likable cities, and i think everyone recognizes that this is just another step in our establishing ourselves as a world-class white city. with that, i would like to turn it over to our mayor, who has
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been a champion as we went through the legal battle we had to go through. -- establishing ourselves as a world-class bicycle city. gavin newsom thank you to the members of the -- mayor newsom: thank you to the members of the board that are here, to all the activism and intensity and passion that represents the people of the city that stepped up, step in since 2006. congratulations, and welcome to a new era of bicycling in san francisco. i think it is incredibly important and suggested that we sort of set the tone of bicycling in the city in this context, that since the injunction in 2006, remarkably, that basically shut us down in terms of being able to put up new bike racks for these boxes or enhancing our bike lanes, we saw a 54% increase in bicycling.
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since the injunction was established, which is rather remarkable. meaning with no new enhancements, we saw a huge increase in the desire of pent- up demand to bicycle. what makes this so significant is that now, with this injunction lifted and the ability is now referencing the increase of 35 miles, another 45 projects to get us up to 75 miles of our network, to be able to move forward as we are today, to be able to do all of these things we have been wanting to do means that the growth is going to be exponential. you have seen this on valencia st. not a modest increase in the use and utilization of bicycles once the bike lane has been put in, but a huge increase. talking anywhere from 200% to
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300% increase in the use of bicycles once these bike lanes are established. we can conservatively estimate, and these are the numbers that the agency uses, that we would see a 50% increase in the utilization of bicycles when we paid -- as we stripe these bike lanes. you see that with the ability to enhance, and now, you see the enhancements, and that ability is going to follow and i think exceeded everyone's expectations. world-class city is a city that tries to democratize its streets, sidewalks, plazas, playgrounds, public realms. world-class cities now are competing for the best and brightest, and they understand the quality of life is that one differentiated that establishes those that will be the leaders 5, 10, 15, 25 years from now. san francisco does not want to
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see its world-class status. -- does not want to cede its world-class status. means we have to be a city that is friendly to bicyclist. it means we have to restate that recognizes that we cohabitate. this is not the old days where it is about bicycles versus cars. this is about bicycles and cars. this is about, again, quality of life. i want to congratulate everyone who worked so hard to get us here. this took a lot of time, a lot of money, and at the end of the day, what did we prove? that you can delay things, but you cannot and things, so it is in the spirit of that recognition that there was a delay, but there is now a real progress that we are going to see things really take off. i'm really proud of all our team behind me and those that were in the city attorney's office, the planning department, and other agencies. final point, what i think it's
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also important to note, when we had that partial injunction lifted a number of months back, you saw how quickly you part of public works went to work, the department of traffic went to work. mark my words -- you have seen nothing yet. they are ready to go, full-time commitment, a real energetic effort over the next few years. this is not going to be a big fish start -- fit/start. this is not something we're going to announce and and see people move away to complete other work. we will be doing along the lines of what portland -- i love portland, but i hate that they are ahead of us on this. by the way, anyone in a sustained rain, we're always second in the country in terms
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of our environmental network because of the bike network. portland is finished. with all respect to the mayor, you are going down. this is the last piece of the puzzle that was missing. now, we are able to unveil this, and you ain't seen nothing. >> thank you, mayor newsom. we have a host of folks that were part of the effort to get us to where we are today. i see our director of sustainable streets is here. bridget smith, who heads up our sustainable streets effort, and she is doing a fine job. she has a great team of people working with her. another individual i need to bring up to speak to you today is our chairman of the mta, chairman tom nolan. [applause] >> good afternoon. i'm very proud to be here on behalf of the board of directors, joined with our
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distinguished vice chair. tomorrow, if the board of supervisors votes correctly, we will have a new chair, so we are very proud to report of the -- part of this. our board has had to do some very difficult things, had to make some really tough decisions in terms of budgeting, in terms of service, all kinds of things, but we are proud of what we have been able to achieve. i want to tell you that this was not hard for any member of our board. our board was unanimously supported every step of the way through, working with others in the city to make this great day happen. on behalf of all of our board, very proud to be part of this, and we look forward to the events coming shortly to make this plan a reality for all of us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next, we have renee rivera from the san francisco by a coalition. >> thank you. this is a great day for
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bicycling here in san francisco. we are beginning, as the mayor was just saying, a new era for bicycling and for san francisco. as the mayor said, we are not going to be number two anymore. we are well on our way to being the most bike-friendly city in the country and -- a real green city. nothing is holding us back. the mayor still most of my numbers that i was going to share with you. he is just a little too sharp these days. but i wanted to share a survey we did recently. we learned that one in two people in san francisco said they would like more if there were more bike lanes. as the mayor mentioned, we have seen a big increase in people biking, even with the very few improvements we have had over the last few years. we also know that seven out of 10 people rode a bike last year, seven out of 10 san franciscans.
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all of that adds up to a huge demand for the improvements that the city is going to be rolling out this year and next. these 35 bike lane projects are all planned. they are funded. they are ready to go thanks to the amazing work of the mta. i want to particularly thank bridget smith and her team for all their amazing work in making sure that we are ready to go when this day comes, and they are ready. after a decision that just came at 5:00 on friday afternoon. i applaud them for being ready. you are going to see amazing things on the streets here in san francisco. we really learned a lot, even in the last few months, we saw the improvements on market street. people have just loved the green
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separated by planes on market street, and now that the injunction has been lifted, we are ready to move forward and have those separated green by plans on market street go the whole length. they are all projects in the by plan, but you are going to see more than that. san francisco is to be going to be transformed, and the streets are going to be just a wonderful place for everyone to travel. i wanted to also thank the city attorney's -- attorneys, dennis herrera and his staff who did a really great job on getting us past the injunction. and i swear that is the last time you are ever going to hear me say that word. thank you all for being out here. we are ready for this new era to begin, and you are going to see the city become, as the mayor said, the number one most by a friendly city -- bike-friendly
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city in the country [applause] >> supervisor mirkarimi, do you want to say few words? strong champion of our bike program. >> thank you. we just jam from the budget committee to get over here. i would not miss this for the world. i just heard someone echo mayor newsom's comments about how san francisco aims to be and is serious about being extremely bike-friendly, and this is a challenge to the rest of the united states that this is an urban pledge and one that we will see no retreat to. i'm absolutely delighted to be here today to see us moving forward. the only time of the three-year paralysis due to the bike in junction where we were able to successfully see some injunctive relief was in my district, the fifth district, where the city
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benefited from the first installation of a dedicated bike light. we're all very appreciative of that innovation as well as when we put in a new bike lane. they are what is called the we go, a great bike route that goes in throughout district 5. today, this is about making it city-wide and making sure that we double the amount of our bike lanes within the city, and that we keep to what the vehicle counts are, and that is that each year, we are seeing an exponential increase of san franciscans and commuters who want to use their bikes in this city. great to be here. great for san francisco. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next, we would like to hear from the chairman of the bicycle advisory committee, burt hill.
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>> one of the important things about this network is that it is truly a network. it not only covers the downtown city of san francisco, but it also applies to the west side where everybody lives and a lot of people drive. from my house, from there to park for free in this facility was 20 minutes. cheaply with the bike lanes, safely, healthy, at very low cost. all the economics and time and efficiency support that, and that is what this network is all about, offering multiple forms of transportation to get where we want to get easily, quickly, and healthy. thank you very much. [applause] >> that was a good question period that ends our speakers. we would like to take any questions you may have, and then we're going to quickly go across the street, and the mayor will be striping the first of many
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lines that will be built over the next few months. this topic only.
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