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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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. >> 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 lines that will be built over the next few months. this topic only.

government television. >> good afternoon. everyone hear me all right? ok. i will try to talk loud, but sounds like the mikes are working. thanks for coming, everybody. welcome to the new great valencia street. i'm the director of public works in san francisco. it is a great honor to be here with you and all of the great folks we have around us. it is great to be here on a great day for the mission district, a great day for the ci city. the san francisco department of public works at the mayor's direction was able to secure $6.1 million, $5.3 million of

which was federal funds, to make this project happen. i do want to acknowledge the u.s. department of transportation, the metropolitan transportation commission and county transportation authority for helping funnel that money from washington, d.c. right here to the streets of san francisco. as big and great as this new street is for san francisco -- and it is great -- it just yet another chapter in an ongoing narrative about our open space and the public realm in in san francisco from street fairs to outside festivals to extensions of the sidewalks to sunday streets, and any of you here this past sunday just a few blocks down for sunday streets in the mission knows what i'm talking about. but from sunday streets to the new pavement to parks, to the major street reconstructions like this, there is a narrative

that has a theme of opening up our public realm for a much broad are use. rethinking our public realm and making it accessible to all modes of transportation, to all people and more enjoyable for people to be in as opposed to just pass through. we are about to take a big step in terms of institutionalizing some of the thinking behind the transformation of our open space and you are going to hear about that today. but none of this from the pavement to parks to sunday streets to this project and rest of the great streets program that we manage would have been possible and we wouldn't be here today were it not for the vision, leadership and drive and tenacity of our mayor, who i would like to bring up, mayor gavin newsom. >> thank you for coming out. we have done a number of these.

san bruno avenue. and this is now competing for that title as good as it gets. to portions of polk street. we have been doing a lot of this lately and we are really proud of it. a lot of folks have been wondering why we get so caught up in this and why this is so important and not all the other things you are supposed to focus on such as much. we are focused on other things just as much, but the reason we highlight this is it is tangible. it is a manifestation of an ideal and vision to connect the dots and connect communities in a different way and connect different functions of government and in a more streamlined manner. to also connect funding to allow us to avail ourselves to federal pots of money that we were not in the past availing ourselves to. to utilize the speaker of the house as a vocal reserve in a

constructive, thoughtful and strategic way to take advantage of former mayor dianne feinstein and senior center in a thoughtful way. to leverage the work being done at the m.t.a. and san francisco transportation authority and with community leaders, and to package these things with a narrative that can anchor our future where these are not one-off projects and this becomes the norm. there is actually a story line in terms of how we approach our public realm. in the past none of that really existed. we had communities that said enough is enough, we need to focus on our streets and somebody with a louder voice camino to the supervisors a -- came to the supervisor or mayor and said focus on our streets. now we have a deliberative plan and we are codifying this vision. it started in 2005, but then it started to take shape formally in 2007 when we asked the

m.t.a., d.p.w., department of health, department of environment, public utilities commission and other departments to come together in a way they never had and say what are you planning to do? what are you thinking of doing? what are you asking for in terms of federal and state appropriations? what are we looking for in terms of general fund support? and put it on paper and we said here is the priority, here is the cost, let's do big projects. not the just little projects no one ever notices and let's reimagine our streets and connect the arts community to what we are trying to do. let's get the bicycle community, the pedestrian advocates and senior advocates together to be part of this vision and get the merchants to be part of this. so, here is a testament to all of that collective wisdom and hard work that has been advanced the last number of years. $6.1 million as ed said has been invested into this effort. brand-new trees, brand-new

lighting. new artistic components that connect our past with the present and future. we have new trash receptacles. trust me, it is a big deal. we have the disability community part of this with more curb cuts. we looked at the sidewalks and said let's extend them. let's widen them. you will remember not long ago and a reminder of it you had this awkward wide street with narrow sidewalks and you had this weird median strip that really wasn't a median strip. it was just a mark with yellow lines and wouldn't necessarily marked with raised concrete which is in and of itself not so wonderful but it was awkward. now you have the ability for a merchant like there to say with the microclimate that is the mission where it is always 55 degrees even when it 20 in the marina, we can bring tables and chairs out because we have a wider sidewalk and folks in the mayor's office said we will be

happy to support that because there is plenty of room for seniors to walk by and we can add more bike racks to encourage people to get on the road with alternative transportation. to allow somebody to walk through a street and see a butterfly because there are beautiful trees and there is something else happening in terms of urban environment. we put all of that in this plan, which finally got down called the better streets plan and this will anchor the future of this effort for decades and decades to come. s caesar chavez is. leyland avenue is next and though the next mayor will take the credit 19th avenue is next and that is long overview. this is what this represents.

we told these ideas from all across the country. portland was doing some of this. but we don't like being second place to portland. so, eat your heart out, portland. we took a little bit from bloomberg in new york and that was the idea of payment to park land but we don't like to be second place, we are now doing more on that and we took the ideas from chicago. and i will say if there is any father or mother of these ideas it is mayor daley in chicago who is on these things years and years ago. i went out there when i first became mayor, got so jealous going down michigan avenue i said we have to do something so we stole their greening director and brought her out here and tasked here with putting these plans together and i want to specifically acknowledge astrid and her hard work and collaborative effort with all of you as well. i'm excited about this. i'm proud of this.

this is a special day for me. thank you for all the hard works. this crease jobs, increases -- this creates jobs, increases values of property and increases the likelihood that people will come down and stay longer. it creates a sense of identity and place so we can marked our neighborhoods so it doesn't look like anyplace, u.s.a. so everything has its own unique character. that is why we are celebrating and why i'm honored that all of you took the time to be here and work so hard to get us here. i have nothing more to say, thank good from your perspective, except again to say thank you and particularly to the planning department for all of their work and to c.p.w. for their stewardship of this process and just get ready, caesar chavez is going to be exciting and leyland and you are going to see on 19th a similar

effort very soon. thank you very much for coming out. [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. speaking of businesses like this, being in the midst of a construction project for many months can be challenging for small businesses, and i think all of the businesses up and down this stretch of valencia can attest to the fact that it was challenging and we worked hard to make it as smooth and quick as possible so they could be the beneficiaries with the rest of the neighborhood. i want to again acknowledge mike gillotti the contractor who built all of this. they did a great job. given the conditions we had they got done faster than we thought they would. i pt want to acknowledge our buu of construction management and public affairs, alex mario who worked hand in hand with the folks up and down here to make

this as smooth as possible. so, you are not just hearing from us, interto ask our host here today -- i tonight ask our host here today and i can attest to the fact they make great margaritas. she will talk more about this project today.he fact they make margaritas. she will talk more about this project today.o the fact they m margaritas. she will talk more about this project today. >> hi, everyone. i'm not a regular public speaker i spend most of my team working so i have my notes. i represent my family here and i'm also part owner with other family members. i have been invited to speak for the merchants at the corridor. we have been here over 40 years. we are celebrating our 40th year this year, so, stay tuned, october some time. in those 40 you years we have s lots of changes. but this one was one long

awaited change and we are all excited and pleased to have valencia street scape come here and beautify our corridor with these beautiful trees and the lighting and the posts and just the safer bike lanes. so we are all pleased and excited about all of this. we have many shops. we have furniture stores. we have book stores. we have clothing stores. we have these great restaurants, one of them you are right in front of right here. valencia street has been a little secret and unless you have been here and heard from other people you wouldn't know that it existed. despite this, it has lots of

people around it. i will put this here so i two shake so much. there are lot of people here.wo shake so much. there are lot of people here.o shake so much. there are lot of people her shae so much. there are lot of people here.d shake so much. there are lot of people here.o shake so much. there are lot of people here.n shake so much. there are lot of people her' shake so much. there are lot of people here.t shake so much. there are lot of people here. we have seen people from all over the world, the wider bay area and our neighborhoods. actually, with everything that we have here, i think that what we will be able to do is be more inviting neighborhood. i think mostly we have been having their businesses inside. but now with the expansion of the streets and lighting and everything else i think we will be able to create more of a community and be able to expand outside and bring our community not only to our businesses but to our neighbors and to our homes. some of us live here. we are excited about these changes and feel that everyone, merchants, customers, neighbors and people who live in the area will greatly benefit. it is my pleasure to be one of

the many ministeerchants and i' excited about the new transition we are getting to see. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you very much. happy merchants is definitely one of the things we hope to get out of this project. in addition to happy pedestrians, cyclists and shall else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our cit else who uses this part of our cit who uses this part of our city.e who uses this part of our city. else who uses this part of our cite else who uses this part of our citr else who uses this part of our city.y else who uses this part of our city. everybo else who uses this part of our citd else who uses this t of our city else who uses this part of our city. it takes a lot of the city working together and it has been a hallmark of the mayor's administration to compel the parts who appear to have different interests to work together to achieve things like this project. i want to acknowledge some of those folks. one of our biggest partners was the san francisco municipal

transportation agency. the manager of the streets. thanks dan. anita watson. we heard kudos for the planning department. we are joined by john ram and david for their work. the mayor's office of disability. susan misner is here with us. our director of cultural affairs and there is a significant public art component of this. luis cancell is here. some of the funding was made possible through the county transportation authority and i want to thank jose luis most co-very much and their directaz.

>> a few different organizations, spur, the bicycle coalition and people for public spaces come together and formed the great streets project. and they did what the mayor did and imported talent from chicago and led that. i want to bring up the leader of the great streets program now. >> thank you. what a beautiful day. the great streets projects facilitates this and we this is a great place. the street is a wonderful wide place to be. you want to bring your friends and family repeatedly. congratulations to the many agencies who have participated in making this possible. many community members and businesses participated along the way and it couldn't have happened withoutve